•••••
Rukhsat

I had just finished praying. Why does Allah always put my so many difficulties in my family's path? I am honestly very angry at this moment. Our Kingdom didn't even do anything wrong to the Surya Kingdom then why did they suddenly come to our gates announcing war with an army of thousands?

My father has never been a man to create enemies. He just wants his Riayat to be a happy place for it's people.

My elder sister, Hayat Baji, enters my room in a hurry I knew she had something important to tell me with the way she just barged into my room.

"Rukh, we need to leave right away for their tents. I know it is confusing for you but you need to trust me as your elder sister and let me make this decision for the better. They demanded that we go their by our own free will and marry the king and his brother and they leave our Kingdom alone", my sister said. It took me some moments to process what she was saying. After the realization, panic started rising within my heart.

"Baji, what kind of a condition is this? Why would we go there willingly? Our dynasty's honour would be at stake! Do we have no other choice? We can still go to war, wait for reinforcements from our friends! I dont even know how you are okay with this Baji!" I honestly had an outburst at this point. How could we even give up so easily? We should at least try to fight!

My sister's face fell. There was slight disappointment and annoyance visible on her face. " Salim, he sent a pigeon today. It would take him 3 days to get the reinforcements here and by then our palace would have collapsed" she told me something that took me by surprise. We were totally unprepared for this war. We couldn't possibly win this. Could we?

Salim is the Shehzada of Junagarh. Junagarh had always been a friendly kingdom for us even though they were very clever and ruthless against their enemies. They were known for their scheming ways. Salim was my sister's betrothed but I didn't like him very much. He looked at my sister the wrong way infact I think he looked at every woman the wrong way.

My sister looked so helpless right now that she had tears in her eyes. She held my hand and said," the choice is ours Rukh. We can either go with them without anybody getting killed or we can go to war, see our army losing, see this castle falling and then go with them."

"Baji, you are my elder sister and I would do what you say. We should leave soon", i paused and looked at her, " Is there a guarantee that they wouldn't harm our family if we go there?"

"Rukh, the world is not Black and White, there are a million of grey possibilities with this agreement but what we can do is hope that they would honour their words and treat us with respect. Rukhsat we need to do this for our home. We can save so many lives".

My sister was always very naive. Even though she was older than me, she had a very pure heart. 

With anger I started stating all the things that could go wrong even if we do agree with this proposal.
"At what cost Hayat Baji? We would have to sacrifice ourselves. We don't know what those animals will do to us! How can you trust their word that they would accept us in marriage and not just keep us around in their Harem to do as they please! Baji I will not go down without a fight!! No matter what!"

She looked at me like I was a child fighting for something impossible. Like my arguments didn't matter and she was just getting more of a headache because of me. I cant exactly blame my sister though.

"Rukh, the only person you can fight right now is me. I have already accepted their proposal and we will be leaving in the next 30 minutes. Please don't make this more difficult than it already is. Just change your clothes and grab whatever you think is an extreme necessity and Rukh don't even think of doing anything rash, anything which might end up hurting Abu and our Riayat", she said in a little cold and harsh manner and I understood that there is no point in me arguing with her anymore. Our fate was sealed.

I understood why Abu did what he did but I was really angry at him. How could he not come here and ask for my permission before even considering to send me away to get married to someone who didn't event follow our religion.

I looked up at the ceiling towards the sky, hoping that Allah would hear me and for the last time within my heart I wished for a miracle to happen but i knew that nothing could save me from what was to come.

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I had tears flowing freely from my eyes but my expression remained that of anger. I looked at Abu and did not even proceed to say goodbye to him. I was still angry at him.

Karim, my younger brother was crying really badly and I honestly felt really bad. He loved Hayat Baji and me very much and I know that I am going to miss him too much.

I got into the Palki that was standing at the entrance inside the palace and took my head out of the small gate of the Palki to look back at the Palace, I called home.

•••••
King Zaid
Watching my daughters being carried away in the Palki made me feel like a my heart was stabbed a thousand times.
My younger daughter  was visibly mad at me for not giving her much of a choice. It broke my heart when she didn't even say goodbye to me but I understood her anger.

If my Zubeda was here, she would have never let me do something like this but I had no other choice.

What mistake did I do ya allah to have suffered this pain?

I looked at Karim who was standing in the corner shaking while crying. He was my only son and he was just 13 years old. My wife, the late Queen Zubeda died giving birth to him. For him, Hayat was like the mother he never had and Rukshat, she was the closest thing he had to a friend and now both of them were just snatched away from him too.

Ya Allah please spare my family from more pain!