Where the Wind Rises
In Asara, the wind has a memory.
It remembers where every grain of sand came from and where it is going. It remembers how deep each drop of blood seeped into the soil, and the sound of every bullet tearing through the air. It remembers the lullabies mothers sang atop the ruins, the final breath fathers drew before they died, and the sound of children running through the bombardment: light, scattered, blown away like grains of sand, only to gather again on another piece of land.
The elders say the spirits of their ancestors live in Asara’s wind. They use it to send messages and guide those who have lost their way back home. So when war broke out, when Hafk’s bulldozers flattened their villages, when incendiary bombs turned the sky red, the people of Asara never asked, “Why us?”
They only asked, “Which way is the wind blowing?”
Then they walked in the opposite direction.
Because the wind takes everything away. But the people of Asara endure.
A few words from the author: This is a self-indulgent Saeed romance, with no System. The protagonist is female and belongs to the Asara faction.
