Nora felt herself sink into the warm embrace and comfort of Zuph's words. She never thought that she would allow herself be seen so vulnerable by someone else other than Wura whom she trusted wholly with her life.
She just felt so ashamed right now, but her feelings of sorrow were more than her feelings of shame and in all honesty, she truly did need someone by her side right now.
...
After a few minutes Nora's sobs had finally died down as she was sitting on her bed with her head rested against Zuph's shoulder.
They had been sitting here in silence for the past few minutes and Nora felt like she had nothing to say and Zuph was worried that she was still very delicate so he remained silent while he had several raging thoughts going through his mind.
"Do you feel better now?" he asked once he was sure that she certainly did feel better.
"Yes... I do..." she said as she nodded, her voice coming out as a croak.
"Your voice is cracking you need some water." said Zuph as Nora shook her head.
"No, you do need some water. I will get some for you." he said with no room for refusal as Nora sighed and moved her head from his shoulder.
Zuph stood up and proceeded to pour her a glass of water from the glass pitcher that was on the table.
He handed the glass to her as she sighed and reluctantly drank the water.
"Does your voice feel better now?" asked Zuph as she cleared her throat and nodded.
"Yes, it does, thank you Zuph." she replied as he collected the glass from her and set it back on the table and he walked to sit beside her.
There was a heavy silence between them. Nora was contemplating whether or not to chase him away after she had literally broken down in front of him, but she knew that it would be hard to do since he would never leave her on her own, especially not after what she had just told him.
"*Ahem*... thank you for being here for me Zuph..." she said as she cleared her throat, her voice being barely a whisper.
"You do not need to thank me Nora..." he replied as he looked at her and she nodded in shame.
"Do you really feel fine?" he asked in worry.
"I am fine Zuph... really I am... you just met me at a really bad time..." she said as she sighed.
"I do not think that is true Nora... I have never seen you so sad ever..." he said as she looked away from him.
"Look, I am really sorry that Mero ended your relationship." said Zuph as he visibly saw Nora shake slightly at the mention of Mero's name.
"I would prefer that we do not talk about him..." she replied.
"Are you sure about that?" he asked as she shook her head, he caused her so much pain and yet she could not get him out of her mind.
"You see Nora, you need to talk about this, you need to talk about your feelings, you cannot keep them bottled up inside, it will only hurt you more. You know that you can trust me, you can talk to me." he said as Nora sighed and refused to look at him.
She knew that he was right, but she could not just bring herself to open up to him, it was not his fault but hers.
"Nora... you can trust that anything you confide in with me will remain between us. I promise you that." he said truthfully as he held her hands in his and she looked at him, seeing the sincerity in his eyes.
"You do?" she asked him helplessly as he nodded.
"I promise." he said as Nora nodded.
"I feel really terrible Zuph, I never... I never expected that Mero would end our relationship like this..." she said as she fought back tears and concluded that shedding any more tears would be unnecessary.
"I can only imagine Nora." replied Zuph with a sigh.
"Did he at least tell you the reason why?" he asked and Nora nodded.
"He said that he is in love with another woman." said Nora as she scoffed and Zuph was visibly shocked by the news.
"He is??" asked Zuph as Nora nodded.
"I had a feeling that was the reason for his sudden coldness towards me as of late and I was unfortunately right." she said with a mocking laugh.
"Tell me Zuph... did you know about this?" she asked as she pulled her hands out of his grip as Zuph looked at her shocked that she would think he would.
"No, no Nora, I knew nothing about this... I thought that Mero cared for you... I never thought that he had another woman in his heart." replied Zuph instantly.
"I do not know what to believe Zuph honestly, you all are very close and he is your leader... It would make sense for you to cover up for him." she said.
"Listen to me Nora I would never... and I repeat never, cover up for Mero especially when it entails lying to you and hurting you." he said as his eyes looked seriously into Nora's eyes as she had a feeling that he was not lying.
"Thank you..." she said with a sniff.
"You are welcome." he replied.
"I just feel so stupid right now and that is what angers me the most that I was putting my all into a one sided relationship. Why ask me to court you if you were never serious with me in the first place?" she asked in frustration.
"I do not know Nora... I do not know what to say to you. I never knew that Mero had someone in his heart, he never mentioned it and I agree, he did seem very serious about you... so I do not know what changed and where this mystery woman came from." said Zuph as Nora started to laugh in pain.
"You know what hurts me the most? I told him that I love him... I did, and still that did not stop him from breaking my heart." she said as Zuph instantly felt compelled to hug her and he did just that.
Nora froze in shock from the sudden hug that she had not been expecting.
"I am so sorry Nora... you deserve better, you really do." he said as she hugged him and stopped herself from crying.
"Did he at least tell you who the woman is?" he asked as soon as he broke the hug.
"No... I only asked him if I knew her and he said yes... I did not ask him who the woman was." she said.
"And why not?" asked Zuph.
"Because it is not important, it is irrelevant to me. I do not care who he is with, so as long as I never see him again." said Nora.
"No, Nora, you deserve to know who it is, you need to know, it is the least that he owes you. He has to tell you who he is now in love with and how long he has been with her, because if it is what I fear... he has been with that woman while your relationship was still ongoing." he said as Nora hissed hearing those bitter but true words.
"Are you not even the slightest bit curious as to who he claims that he loves now?" he asked as she shook her head.
"You are not telling the truth Nora, you are curious, and so am I, and you of all people deserve to know." said Zuph.
"Look Zuph, I would rather just move past this, I do not want to dig deeper into something that is bound to hurt me." she said.
"It is bound to hurt you yes, but the truth is the only thing that can make that hurt bearable. If you just say that you want to continue your life the way it is, you will always have that thought of if you had tried to find out the truth what would have happened?" said Zuph.
"Zuph, please let me be... I beg you please, stop talking about this." she pleaded with him as he sighed.
"Alright fine..." he said reluctantly.
"Thank you..." she said.
"Does the Queen know about this?" he asked as she nodded.
"She was the first person I told once it happened." she replied.
"And what did she say?" he asked.
"She did the same as you, she comforted me." she replied.
"Did she side with Mero? Forgive me for asking but he is her most trusted man... as much as she may care for her, he is the leader of all the troops and they are very close, it may be no surprise that she might have defended him a little bit." he said as Nora frowned.
"She only said that it was better I knew the truth now sooner than later and I agree with her." said Nora strongly.