Zahra and Aaric


Zahra

























Aaric


















Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Mezquita, Córdoba

He didn’t mean to be there. Córdoba wasn’t on his list — it was a detour, the kind you don’t plan but justify later. The train had been delayed. The sun was too harsh in Granada. The city called, softly but insistently, like a dream you barely remember but still follow. He found himself walking toward the Mezquita, not out of faith—he didn’t think of it that way— but out of something quieter. A pull, like gravity but older. Inside, the silence was alive. Arches arched inside arches, shadows inside light. Columns stood like silent witnesses. The echo of centuries hummed low under his feet. He wandered deeper until he saw her. She stood alone beneath one of the ancient domes, head tilted back, eyes half-closed. As if listening. Not to the tour guides, not to the tourists' shuffle, but to something beneath the stone. She looked like she belonged there — not as a visitor, but as someone summoned. He didn’t know why, but something inside him paused. Stilled. Re...
Read more

✧ Scene: In the Echo Chamber

Zahra She traced a finger along the margin of her notebook, the quiet of her Cordoban room wrapping around her like a veil. The memory of him lingered — not even his face, but the stillness she felt when their eyes met. A recognition that didn’t need language. But as the moment faded, another voice pushed forward. “You are not serious enough,” her mother’s voice echoed from some hidden corridor of memory. “You always chase feelings. You can’t live life on instincts.” It wasn’t spoken aloud, but it landed in her chest with the weight of years. Her mother had never raised her voice — she hadn’t needed to. Her words were clipped, proper, British. And Zahra, in the name of being reasonable, had internalized every syllable. You’ll humiliate yourself. He’ll think you’re just another romantic idealist. You always take things too far. The voice wasn’t hers. But it sounded like truth, because it had been fed to her as love . And so she turned away from the knowing in her ches...
Read more

✧ Scene: The Space Between

Zahra didn’t look for him after the session. She stayed for the next panel. She even took notes — methodically, almost too methodically. But her mind spun like a prayer wheel. She had felt his presence before she saw him. The way someone feels the shift of gravity when another soul steps into the same field. But she told herself: You don’t know him. You’ve made him a symbol. You’ve projected a longing onto a man whose name you still don’t even know. And anyway — how often have women been punished for reaching first? How often had she been told her intuition was mistaken, dramatic, “too much”? So she chose dignity over desire. Stillness over speculation. If he sees what I see, he’ll return. And if he doesn’t… that’s still a kind of answer. Aaric had wanted to speak to her. His body even turned slightly in her direction. But years of discipline stilled him. He’d been raised not to act on impulse — Raised to believe restraint was a virtue, that depth required d...
Read more