As Mero watched Nora's retreating figure, he could not help but feel a certain tightness in his heart. One of guilt, one of shame, and worst of all, the feeling of having lost a valued friend whom he did love to some degree, but not just to the degree she wanted.
He really did not want things to turn out like this, but he had surely learnt his lesson. Wura was absolutely right to demand that he end things with Nora as soon as possible, now he knew why.
Nora was their friend, and Wura was especially close to her, of course she did not want to see her suffer, and it was the same for him, he did not want her to suffer either and that was why he decided to be honest with her and simply tell her that his heart belonged to another.
He knew that it would hurt he, he knew it, but what hurt him the most was the fact that she still remained composed as if this did not harm her as much as it did. She even refused to cry, to scream, to accuse him of being a terrible person.
She just held her composure and remained strong before thanking him for his honesty and leaving.
Mero felt extremely terrible. He had not even been completely honest with her, he did not reveal who the woman was, and he was certainly worried about Nora. He was not worried that she would go searching for answers or resent him bitterly.
No, Nora was not like that at all, she was a gentle soul and he felt terrible that he had hurt that gentle soul. He honestly did not care if she hated him for the rest of her life, she had every right to, but all he wished for her was complete happiness that she did not let his betrayal change her into someone else, someone different.
Mero felt a lone tear slip from his eye, he truly felt like the worst person in existence. Breaking someone's heart was the worst thing someone could ever do, and he unfortunately did it.
He felt so awful right now, he needed someone to talk to, he needed Wura, he wanted to see her and tell her that he never meant to hurt Nora this way, he wanted to be embraced by her and tell her all his worries and how terrible he felt.
But he could not do that right now, or at all for that matter. They just currently had a very serious argument where he had left her with a choice, with an ultimatum on what she wanted for their relationship going forward, so running to her right now was unacceptable.
He just had to keep these strong sad emotions to himself and repress them like he always did. He could not share his feelings with Zuph or Luc, or Zechariah, much more less Elihu.
They would certainly ask valid questions as to why he would end things with Nora without any warning at all, and there were certainly questions that he did not want to answer for his sake and Wura's sake.
Mero sighed, he just hoped that Nora would be okay and that she would find the comfort that she needed soon.
...
Nora walked through the camp as she suddenly felt her chest tightened as she stopped and held a tree for support. Her chest felt stuffy and she felt suffocated, it was suddenly very hard to breathe, her vision started to get hazy as she struggled to find breath.
She had to leave now, she had to find somewhere to go now because if not, she was sure that she would breakdown completely.
Nora gathered all her strength as she continued on and her feet led her to a place she did not know why she had found herself there.
She entered into the tent as surprisingly Wura happened to be there.
"Oh Nora, I am so glad to see you, I am looking for something can you help me find it?" asked Wura with a smile as Nora who had her head bowed to the ground simply nodded.
Wura had been in her office a few moments ago, but then she suddenly realized that she needed a specific letter that happened to be in her tent, but she had been unable to find it, probably Nora knew where it was, so imagine her surprise when Nora suddenly showed up!
"It is a letter, have you seen any letters around lately?" asked Wura as Nora shook her head still with her head bowed to the ground.
"It must be here somewhere, I—" said Wura as she paused when she suddenly heard the sound of quiet sobbing.
"Nora are you alright? Are you crying?!" asked Wura in surprise as she rushed over to Nora whose sobs became louder.
"You are crying, why are you crying what happened?" asked Wura as she raised Nora's face to look at hers as Nora instantly collapsed in her arms and burst out crying very bitterly.
Wura held her in complete shock and worry as she was caught off guard, what could have happened to make Nora cry this much? It must have been something utterly terrible.
"Tell me what is wrong Nora, tell me, come on, let us sit down." said Wura as she guided Nora to the bed where they sat down together as Nora rested her head on Wura's shoulder as she continued to cry.
"Please Nora, tell me what is wrong, what made you so sad?" asked Wura in concern as Nora continued crying.
"Please tell me, I might be able to help." said Wura as Nora looked up and shook her head.
"No, no, no you cannot help me my Queen." said Nora as her voice came out hoarse from her crying.
"Mero just ended our relationship." said Nora as her voice quivered just uttering the words out loud causing her to end up crying again as she rested her head back on Wura's shoulder.
Wura on the other hand turned stiff as soon as she heard the reason why Nora was so sorrowful.
Wura could not even move, or breathe for that matter, it was not until she felt Nora's warm tears damp her dress that she snapped out of her daze.
"Oh Nora, I am so sorry, I am so, so sorry." said Wura as she instantly felt tears falling from her eye. She had already felt emotional before seeing Nora like this, but now that she knew that she was the cause of it, she felt even worse.
"I am so, so sorry." said Wura as she hugged Nora tightly as they cried together.
"I am so sorry Nora, you must feel horrible right now." said Wura as she hugged her.
"I feel terrible my Queen. I never saw this coming, I never did. I had a feeling that something was wrong but it never once occurred to me that things would end this way." said Nora as she cried making out her words in between sobs.
"I feel so stupid, I feel so dumb because I actually fell in love with him... I really did... and I still love him and yet he hurt me so much, so terribly much..." she said as she began to hiccup and Wura tried her best to calm her down.
"Oh no, no Nora, you do not need to say that about yourself, you have every right to feel the way that you feel right now... he broke your heart, he broke it and in the worst way possible." said Wura as she felt extremely guilty, just earlier today she and Mero had spoken about him ending things with Nora, but she had not expected him to do it so soon, it had barely been a few hours since they last spoke and he had already managed to cause all the betrayal and heartbreak that she so wanted to avoid.
"He is such an idiot, he is such a horrible man, how could he do this to me? How could he end things with him after I told him that I loved him??" asked Nora as she sobbed, her grief had completely taken over, she felt the urge to curse, to scream, to yell.
She did not care at all. All the strong emotions that she had suppressed had resurfaced and they were all pouring out.
"I hate him so much, I just hate him so much!" cried Nora as Wura held her even tighter.
"No, you do not hate him Nora, you do not, it is your anger talking, how can you hate someone you love so quickly? I know it is hard and you still love him, that it why it hurts so much." said Wura as she of all people knew how hard it was to not be able to be with someone you loved.
"No, I truly do hate him, I despise him my Queen, here I was thinking that we would be building a future together but that was just my wishful thinking, my stupid wishful thinking." said Nora as she did not care how she sounded at the moment, she could not take this at all.
She felt like hitting something like shouting, she was in so much pain. She had never been in so much pain in her entire life. This was the first time that she was feeling an emotion as strong as this.