"Sword's wounds will always be uncompared to the word's wound."

♤

Baraq's gaze wandered around the room where he sat with Nazreena and Hafsa. His eyes searching for the only one person who was missing from the dinner table. Spicy aroma filled his surroundings, but he ignored them all and set his eyes hard on the ground where they all set with various kinds of food varieties along with fruits and Nabidh.

They were having their dinner, Nazreena made all the food for their special guests, Baraq and Layla. Layla was in her room, and they all were waiting for her. Baraq played with the wooden spoons and waited for her.

Faint foot steps echoed in the room as she entered the room. His head jerked up on the movement as she she beside Nazreena and they all began eating. For the first time ever Baraq ignored the food kept infront of him. Whenever he saw food, he was used to have it finished by minutes. But now, the plate food stayed untouched by him.

One thing he wasn't able to understand was, why? Why would Layla's words hurt him, when nobody’s did? Why didbshe have this affect on him.

Moreover why did he let her words have affect on him this way?

"Won't you eat?" Nazreena asked making him come out ofnhis reverie as he nodded and made small morsels to eat. All the while thinking about how he would confront Layla.

Barq didn't felt any rightness in his form. More of it he felt dejection making a home in him and it kind of made him feel as if it was the right thing. His throat tightened as he brought the morsel near his mouth. For the sake of sanity, he was a villain, and should act like one. Why was this happening?

"Tomorrow we will be divided into two teams. Baraq, Layla and Za'al. And me and Hafsa. We will begin searching for the person who knows more about the Djinn and where is it now." Nazreena informed and served herself water.

"But, how will we find that person?" Layla questions as she slightly pushes away her veil from her face and eats.

"Za'al will help us. But the truth is we don't know if we really find that person or not. But I just know something, that if we don't find that person, than something grave would happen." Nazreena sighs and washes her hand while Za'al helps her and pours water on her hand after keeping a bowl beneath her hands.

Fullmoon shone in the night as they discussed about how to survive this situation.

"It is better that we sleep now. Tomorrow morning we have to go to hunt that person. It is better that we go to bed now." Nazreena announces as maid enters the room and clears the dishes and empty plates from the royal table cloth.

"But, there must be something about that person which will help us to find him." Layla stressed out, her stress lines pinching together clearly giving away how stressed she was about this situation.

"Yes, there is something, which separates his identity among the normal people and that is nothing, but his magic." Nazreena's words made her sigh with relax.

"And there only two with people with who can sense that magic, first is Za'al and second is Baraq. They both can sense that." Nazreena draws the conclusion and stands up with Hafsa.

"We will do the remaining talk in morning." Her words were final it made Baraq and Layla stand up and exit the room.

A relived breath escaped from Nazreena's mouth as they all exited the room.

"What are we going to now?" Hafsa asked nibbling on her lips knowing that something grave would happen if they didn't stop this all. Dread gnawed in her gits as she looked upto Nazreena, the one girl who was superhero in her life but villain in her own. Mist covered her vision seeing a dark shadow cross Nazreena's face.

"Naaz," she called making her come out of reverie.

"Don't stress your brain, Hafsa all will be fine." Nazreena muttered under her breath dismissing her with a wave of her hand.

"Will you be fine, alone in the room?" Hafsa queried with hesitation lingering in her tone seeing her only friend suffer through something so vile.

"Don't be sentimental, Hafsa." Nazreen said in her usual tone and blew out the ancient candle lanterns on the wall. Her steps measured and squared shoulders rigid as she walked out of the room living Hafsa alone.

♤

The sun peeked out from the dark clouds making people arise early in the morning. Nazreena, Hafsa and Layla were ready to begin their hunt in black claded burqa, which showed their modest. No curve of their body was outlined from the piece of cloth, the only visible part of body was their eyes. Baraq entered the room in his thobe and his face masked with keffiyeh. Black, huge shadow loomed behind him.

Layla didn't shift nor raised her eyes to meet his, no matter how hard he bored his stare into his skull. Her eyes stayed fixed on the ground. All the while Layla ignored him, he felt his heart thumping aloud. He didn't like it. Her ignorance shouldn't hurt him, but it did. Too much.

Exhaling heavily, he moved near the group but stayed three feet away from them.

"Kaif," Nazreena called in her loud voice making the said person rush to her in one call.

"Yes, Malika." He greeted making her nod her head and announce their departure.

"We are going out, will be back in few hours. Look after the castle, till then." Her clear and loud voice rang in the air as she matched out towards the wide stairs which lead them to ground full of sand. Sand surrounded them, there was no tree or anything which would confirm that there are living people here.

"Where are we going?" Baraq walked quietly behind Layla making her aware of his hard stare on her head.

"To the souq." She announced as they walked in the land of sand with hot sun glaring down at them. Wind blew by every now and then making them thank their Merciful God.