Chapter 20 - The Silence After Her

The Silk of Fate

Chapter 20 – The Silence After Her

It wasn’t a word that lingered.
It was the pause after it.

“Princess.”

One word, spoken with care.

And then she had returned it.

“Prince.”

Nothing unusual. Nothing worth remembering, if taken alone.

But Idran could still feel the air that passed between them.
That quiet tension not of confrontation—but clarity.

As if for a moment, someone had looked directly into him—and hadn’t blinked.

He walked the gardens long after he should’ve returned to his quarters.

The moon hung low, gold and cautious, casting soft shadows between the stone lanterns. The night air carried hints of jasmine and warm earth.

Karim found him near the edge of the koi pond, arms crossed, face unreadable.

“You’re quieter than usual,” Karim said.

Idran exhaled through his nose. “Am I?”

Karim smiled, folding his arms. “There’s a woman, isn’t there?”

Idran turned. “There are many women here.”

“But only one you speak about without speaking at all.”

He didn’t answer.

Not immediately.

Then, slowly: “She sees too much.”

Karim tilted his head. “And that disturbs you?”

“No. It’s…” Idran paused, trying to find the right word.

“It’s disarming.”

Karim said nothing for a moment.

Then chuckled softly. “Truth often is.”

Later that night, Idran sat by the low window of his quarters, a small oil lamp beside him, and opened the scroll from that day’s reading. The line they had both marked was still there.

“To wait is not weakness, but discipline.”

His eyes lingered on her mark.

Delicate. Precise.

She hadn’t circled it out of sentiment.

She had chosen it.

The same way he had.

He stared at the ink until it blurred.

Then, for the first time in weeks, he reached for a clean page and wrote:

There is someone here who carries silence like I do.
Not as absence, but as armor.
Not as distance, but as protection.
I wonder what she guards.
And if, like me, she ever tires of being unseen.

He stopped.

Closed the scroll.

Blew out the lamp.

And for the first time since arriving in Dadu, Idran looked forward to the next day.

Not because of duty. Not even because of curiosity.

But because someone now shared his silence.

And maybe, just maybe…

She’d be the one to speak into it.