..............I lay back down on the bed, my body clean scented of the sweet aromatic waters in which i had bathed. Dressed in a fine white silk dress and well fed, breathing easily. Vilina was still asleep, the women had washed and dressed her as she lay. But how could she still sleep, surely her body was pained with hunger and thirst? He face was so pale in the yellow light it worried me that she would never wake. I shook her, calling her name but still she slept. I too was tired, and so comfortable that even in my worries my body softened into the bed, my eyelids fell, and i slipped deeply into sleep.
When i woke many hours later Vilina and i were alone in the comfortable room. The bath tub had been removed and fresh clothes where laid out on a table for me.Vilina was still sleeping, i tried again to wake her but to no effect. I dressed in the long purple silk dress, golden robe, and elegant white silk slippers that had been left for me. On the table was also a small brass bell. I rang it gently and one of the women in a red silk dress entered with wine and a plate of food. She waited with me as i ate and drank guiltily, would Vilina ever wake to eat? When i had finished i asked to see Prince Farhim. She whispered something in her strange wispy voice i did not understand, and another woman entered the room offering her hand to me. I took her hand, it was so soft like velvet and warm like the glow of a dieing fire. We left the lovely yellow room by the curtain and headed up another stair well to a huge golden gilded door way. The curtains on this room were thick and heavy with tiny golden bells sewn into ever inch of the fabric. From far away it would look like moving sunshine or brightly shifting sand, the sweet tinkle of the bells as we moved through the fabric would also warn the inhabitants of this room of guests. This room was almost twice the size of the yellow room. With the same wooden floor and beautiful drift wood furniture. Everything was gilded with gold, every piece of furniture, the heavy brass bowls burning more yellow light from the ceiling, even large sections of the floor. The whole place was draped with colored silks, they hing from the ceiling and covered the bed and chairs. A dense perfume of cardamon and star anise hung in the air. And a large window opened the roof up to the star light night sky. I suddenly wondered what time it was. Sitting amongst a pile of scrolls on the golden table was Prince Farhim. He rose to greet me, his beauty out shining that of the amazing room. He took me by the hand as the women left us. We sat on a soft couch where we could talk. I asked him about the time. He tolled me time had nor relevance where we were. He spoke of how he had seen me as a child playing in the palace gardens and had fallen in love with me. He had come to me every night for the past ten years to visit me in my dreams. He tolled of how he had seen half on my palace taken by the sea and had rushed across the desert in hope i was still alive. He had found Vilina and I unconscious slipping from some pieces of the wreckage into the sea and had bound us inside him and carried us as far as he could. He is sand, the desert, and the sand of Santinadi was all his kingdom. The gods had given him this place and the winds and dunes as subjects. The well he had led us to was the well of the gods. It held n elixir that would allow Vilina and i to live among him for a short time. We Spoke for many hours, food and wine was brought for us, while still he spoke. After some time he became silent, and we sat in the silence, my mind absorbing all he had said. I asked of Vilina, "Why wont she wake, we must have been here two days now, and still she sleeps?" His face drew in, a sadness glistened in his eyes. "that is a difficult question," he paused. "Do you love me?" I was shocked, after all i had not known him long. Wait yes i had known him almost all my life. looked at his face again, and my heart skipped madly. "Yes, yes i do, i have for so long, i didn't know you where real. Yes i love you." came my shaky reply. His smile beamed for a moment, and again my heart went wild. But then his face fell back into sadness. "Vilina id dieing, she would already be dead but i have put her to a deep restful sleep. If she had any chance of recovery she would have woken already, like you did. But her infection from the wound above her eye has taken over her body, if i stop her sleeping she will die." i gasped "No, not my Vilina!" we where born in the same year and had spent every living moment together. "She is already on deaths bed." Cam Farhim's whispered answer. "She must die. " Must?" why should anyone have to die. "you can not stay if she lives in this state, you are bound together by the waters from the well, if she stays sleeping soon you will both sleep and not wake. If i wake her so she can meet death, you can stay with me. Or i can return you back to the world, but there is nothing for you there, and she will still have to die." "NO it can not be, i must be with you and she must live." "No, she will die, it is for you to decide what happens to you." And with hat he released my hand from the warmth of his and left the room. Food and wine where brought for me and i settled to think. "There as to be away." My mind was racing.............
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