THE CITY WHERE THE TRAVELLERE DECEDIED TO SETTLE

28 November 1770

That's the thing about this city,it doesn't leave me.It stays with me ,no matter where I go and what I do .It will stay at the back of my mind .It never let's me go.It haunts me .I keep thinking about it even when I don't want to . I'm trying to have a good time ,relaxing talking to Anis and then all of a sudden I start getting flashbacks,I am reminded of the misery ,the pain ,the hurt .I remember how my heartbroke and I can feel it all over again ,the agony .The pain so unbearable that I can't take it anymore .It hurts me so bad that I can't imagine a pain worst than this.The pain is so crude and so intense .It feels like I have gone back in time ,gone back to that cursed city .The city I hate so much ,the city I wish I had never visited ,the city of death and ruin and hatred .The city that took my life and took away all my happiness .That changed me from a joyous young boy to a depressed man .I don't want to think about it, I don't want to talk about it .That city has given me nothing but pain and I hate it with all my heart .Ah ,my heart ,my heart that once used to thrive on love is now capable of nothing but hatred sheer hatred ,pure hatred ,hatred for that place ,for its people ,for the stupid customs that those people hold so dear .This hate is so strong that it has consumed me ,my whole body ,my soul,my whole being and I can't contain it any longer .It is destroying me ,ruining my life but I can't let it .I'll return the gift of sadness to the city that gave it to me.The citizens that gave me pain will now recieve it.Now its their turn to suffer and mourn and cry .I'll turn that beautiful city into ruins the way it turned my beautiful heart to ruins .I will make sure they feel the pain I felt.That city made a monster ,now it will witness the wrath of this monster .

30th November 1769

I don't feel I have seen in all my travels a city more beautiful than "Al-Zuhra" and a woman more beautiful then Iziah.I have been to so many places ,seen so many faces yet none of them comes close to what I'm seeing here .Should I talk about my beloved first, or the city of my beloved first?Both are beautiful and both have taken my heart .This journal was an account of my travels to foreign lands ,the people I met the things I experienced but now I feel like this is going to be about only one place Al Zahra and only one Woman Iziah ,my Iziah .Do I have words to describe her beauty ? I don't think so the least I can say is she is embodiment of beauty .Iziah is love and life and light.She is a gift from the heavens .The day I saw her for the first time ,it felt unreal .How can someone so beautiful be real .And then I when I talked to her I heard the softest,sweetest voice I have ever heard ,her voice is like music to ears so calming and soothing .I feel she can heal wounds with that voice or cast spells make you fall in love with her but that she can do without saying a word just looking at you with those large brown eyes that seem so expressive yet secretive like they are hiding something so precious .When I talked to Iziah ,I had felt like it was the highest level of happiness a human can feel ,the joy that made my heart flutter but I came to experience real happiness when Iziah confessed her love for me .I felt complete.Ever since that day ,smile hasn't left my face.I know for a fact that I'm the luckiest man to walk on Earth .Thank you Al Zuhra for giving me everything. I have fallen in love with you ,with your streets ,your beauty the splendor ,your people .A born traveller wants to settle now. In you I have found my roots,I have found home.

11 August 1770

Iziah please talk to me .Say something Iziah .Iziah please .Iziah !!Do not leave me ,please don't,She was infront of my eyes and then the scene changed ,I could see the worst day of my life in front of my eyes at this point I was aware that I'm dreaming I wanted to wake up I didn't want to see that again didn't want to feel it again but I had to no matter how hard I tried to I couldn't wake up. I had been having this dream since that day .Since the day Iziah left me .I was chained in heavy chains of iron or what ,why did these people chain what chance did I stand against them ,one man against a whole city .And the man who had never picked a sword ,I was no fighter .I was a traveller ,an artist ,a poet a lover .We were tied to poles .My Iziah in front of my eyes .I looked at her and as always she was smiling but I had never seen tears in her eyes .I wish I had never came to this place. I was responsible for this .I wish I had never fell in love with her .I wish I had stayed away .I wish. and then the stoning started .people were throwing stones at us .In front of my eyes ,they were hurting her ,the love of my life .I wanted to burn that city alive I wanted to protect her to shield her to stop a single stone from hitting her but I couldn't .I wanted to comfort her .To hold her .But I couldn't. I couldn't do anything for her .The last thing I remember seeing was her smile .She was still smiling admist all the chaos, the pain ,blood and wounds .Haven't I told you she was a fighter. My Iziah ,my brave Iziah and even before dying she made me feel like the luckiest man ,I was the only man she smiled at like that .In all that pain her smile was the only comfort I could hold on to but in my dreams Iziah doesn't smile at me .She looks at me with anger ,disappointment and sadness .As if she regrets falling in love with me .As if she is saying you are a coward ,you couldn't save me .These nightmares make me hate myself ,hate my life and hate Anis.I have had multiple fights with Anis over the past four months .Why did you save me?why did you find my wounded body ?why did you heal me and if you did why couldn't you heal my Iziah .Why and then I collapse in his arms crying .Every single time he is there ,trying to comfort me .I fight with him for saving me but deep down I know I can't blame him .He is a healer and that's what healers do .He is a lover like I once was .He can't do anything but heal .Love is in his veins ,he is incapable of hatred like every lover is until he is met with a fate like mine and then the only thing he is capable of is love .I pray Anis never has to go through what I went and he stays a lover forever .Love forever in his veins ,a healer forever .

30th November 1770

Returning to the city I once loved with my heart and soul .A year ago I came her with love ,today I come her with hate .Then I was weak ,now I'm strong .The city hasn't changed. Al Zuhra is still beautiful with all its splendor and grandeur .But I have seen the true face of this place .I have seen how ugly it truly is .Its citizens are not humans they are cruel beasts ,they will welcome you with open arms,feed you and provide you with lodging and talk to you and make you feel comfortable but they won't let you stay ,they will kill you stone you to death if you ever fall in love with this city or its residents .They can't make you one of their own .These people act as if they are open hearted but in reality they are heartless.I hate you Al zuhra and I hate your people .You took away my Iziah I'll take away everything from you .You will be a ruin .No one will dwell in you and no travellers will walk in your direction.

I walked towards the well and I had with me the herb I had stolen from Anis .He had said ,"This is something special an antidote and a poison in itself it can heal the deadliest of diseases but it can also kill ,the most fatal poison I have ever come across "and for some reason his speech had reminded me of Al Zuhra the place that gave me life and then snatched it from me .And then came the brilliant idea .If I avenge her ,Iziah will smile at me in her dreams .She will be happy .Her soul will rest.I couldn't save her but I will prove my love for her by killing her murderers every single person who stoned my Iziah would die and Al Zuhra would become the city of dead ."I'm still working on it ,so far I have learnt that mixed with honey it is an antidote the healer ,and mixed with water it is the most venomous thing to exist ,one that gives slow and painful death ."Anis would often talk to me about things in hopes of bringing me back to a normal life and I used to listen absentmindedly but that day he gave me the most valuable information. Later that night I took the herb and the next morning I was here in the city I hated the most .

When I reached the well my heart was beating so fast .I felt happy for the first time in a long time I was opening my packet when I felt a tug at my cloak.I turned around to see a little girl ,hardly four or five.And for a moment I felt as if time had stopped she had Izziah's eyes ,huge brown eyes with the same softenss and sparkle of happiness ,"Can you give me some water please "she spoke and I was brought back to reality .I shuddered thinking what if I had poisoned the water already .I drew water for her and gave it to her ."Don't you have water at home little one?"and you are here alone ,don't you know its dangerous ?"I know but I was thirsty so I came here because there's no one at home ."Where is everyone and why did they leave you alone?"she looked four or five but spoke clearly and smartly ,way too smart for her age ."Everyone is at the Palace, gathered to pray for Ameer Hammad's health.He has gotten a deadly disease and is in so much pain "The name I hated the most ,the person who had issued orders "stone till death" for us .The person whom I hated the most .His ancesters had been ruling this city since decades and they had made this law that no woman is allowed to marry an outsider and if she does so her punishment is death.His ancestors had made all types of cruel laws and he implemented them. I had intense hate for him and his whole family.But at that moment I realised I couldn't answer hate with hate.This city was full of iziahs one was in fact standing in front of me and I couldn't kill them I had to infact save them. So I headed straight to the Palace with antidote in my hands .I saved Hammad's life although it was the hardest thing to do.Izziah's delicate body covered with blood,her beautiful face disfigured her enchanting eyes closed forever ,her untimely death ,all the pain that she went through ;everything was inftont of my eyes and so was the man responsible for all this ,in front of me were all the citizens whose hands had injured my beloved and the decision was mine ,I had to make the choice but the choice had already been made when a little angel had tugged on my cloak to ask for water.I haf chosen forgiveness ,I had chosen love ,I had chosen light ,a choice that Iziah would have wanted me to make.Ameer Hammad was healed,the law regarding marrying outsiders among many other brutal laws was changed and that night the city rejoiced .That night I too slept peacefully and finally Izziah smiled at me in my dream .She held my hand and said "All this time I was angry not because you didn't save me because at that time you had no choice I was angry because everyday you were chosing hatred over love, Alec and I wanted you to chose love because you were made for loving .And today you made the right choice.I'm proud of you .You saved my city Alec ,you healed my soul.It was worth it.Its time for us to be united "I smiled and drifted into deeper sleep.

These were some of my favourite entries from Alec's diary. Who am I?I'm the one Alec reffered to as the little angel in his journal.The one with soft brown eyes like his Iziah's.The one that made him realise that no matter what he was a lover and no matter how much he claimed to hate Al Zuhra and its people he still was capable of only one thing and that's love

Every year I go to his grave with my husband,an outsider, and we read these pages from Alecs travelog which later turned into a love log.Dozens of other couples come too,to offer thanks for it was only possible because of his efforts that women in Al Zuhra were given the right to marry travellers ,outsiders .Alec lost his Iziah but he made sure that no other Iziah would have to die and no other Alec would have to go through the pain. He was a lover and he chose love .He made Al Zuhra the city of light and love  Alec's grave is in Al zuhra the city where his Iziah had grown up, the city where he had met his Iziah ,the city that taught him the true meaning of love ,the city that hurt him and the city that healed him .Al Zuhra ,the city where the traveller decided to settle.