The Desert & the Dreamer.

The nights began to feel shorter now.

Or perhaps it was just that Layla never wanted them to end.

Each evening she slipped away into the quiet dunes, leaving behind the weight of the world and the questions no one in Qamar dared to ask her. Each evening the stars seemed to brighten just for her, guiding her into that impossible land of glass dunes and silver skies.

Tonight, she hurried.... barefoot across the sand, her heart already quickening as his whispers reached her.

"Dreamer…"

"Come to me…"

"The moon waits for you."

And then the world shifted.

The real dunes fell away, replaced by vast spirals of crystal sand that glittered faintly even in the shadows.

The sky was impossibly wide ... a deep indigo canvas streaked with faint silver clouds, and so full of stars it looked alive.

She took a shaky breath. No matter how many times she came here, it still stole her words.

And as always, he was waiting.

Malik stood at the edge of the tallest glass dune, his robes glowing faintly, his golden eyes locked on hers.

When she climbed up to him, he smiled softly and held out his hand.

"Welcome back, Dreamer," he murmured, his voice like the warm wind itself.

She laced her fingers with his, feeling that same strange sensation ..... warm and real, yet weightless, like holding starlight.

"You make it sound like I ever left," she teased lightly.

At that, his smile deepened, though his eyes darkened just a little .... as though her words touched a place inside him she didn't yet understand.

"This is yours, always," he said softly, his words falling into quiet poetry.

"The land… the wind… and me."

She tried to ignore the faint ache his tone left behind and instead turned her gaze outward.

The desert stretched endlessly before them but not like any desert she'd ever known.

Here, the sands shimmered like broken glass under the stars. Here, dunes rose into delicate arches and spirals, their edges glowing faintly as if carved by moonlight itself.

And above it all stretched the silver sky ... so wide, so bright, it felt like standing inside a dream.

"It's so beautiful," she whispered.

Malik's fingers tightened gently around hers.

"It is nothing," he murmured, "without you here to see it."

Her breath caught, and for a moment she just stared at him, his golden eyes reflecting the starlight.

He led her down the dune then, their feet sinking softly into the sparkling glass sand.

Around them the air was full of faint music .... or maybe it was just the whisper of wind through the dunes, carrying Malik's quiet verses:

"Even the wind waits for your voice…"

"Even the stars envy your light…"

"Even the sands shape themselves for your feet…"

Each word settled into her like a promise, and each made her wonder if he felt the same ache she did when the sun rose and this dream faded away.

At the foot of the dune, Malik gestured toward something she hadn't seen before ... a grove of trees unlike any in her world.

Their branches shimmered with silver leaves, and from each hung delicate crystal lanterns that swayed gently, casting soft light across the sand.

He brought her to the center of the grove and released her hand just long enough to pluck one of the glowing lanterns from a branch.

Then he turned to her, holding it out as though it were something precious.

"For you," he said simply.

Layla took it, cradling the faintly glowing glass in her palms.

"What is it?" she asked softly.

"A piece of my heart," he whispered. "So you never forget… even when you wake."

Her chest tightened at his words, but she managed a shaky smile and held it close.

"I could never forget," she said. "Not you. Not this."

He smiled faintly at that ... but his eyes, she noticed, seemed to grow a little sadder each time she said such things.

She wanted to ask him about it. She wanted to ask why his smile sometimes faltered when he thought she wasn't looking, or why his whispers always carried that faint edge of longing.

But instead she let him lead her deeper into the grove, where a soft pool of water reflected the sky like a perfect mirror.

They sat at its edge, shoulder to shoulder, her head resting lightly on his arm as she listened to him speak ... short, quiet verses carried on the wind:

"I was born in shadow…"

"But you taught me light."

"I was cursed to wander…"

"But you gave me home."

And then, lower:

"I would fight the stars themselves… just for another night with you."

Layla's heart twisted at that, and she blinked back tears she couldn't quite name.

Because she believed him.

Even here, in this perfect dreamland where the sands sparkled and the sky bent low for them, she could feel the battle inside him .... a quiet storm he kept hidden behind golden eyes and tender whispers.

One day, she thought, she would ask him about it.

But not tonight.

Tonight, she leaned into his warmth and let herself forget everything else .... the village, the silence, the daylight loneliness.

Because here, in this fragile place between sand and stars, she felt whole.

And for as long as she could, she would hold onto that.