*
"Noor, are you okay?" Sa'ima said, sitting beside her.
"What?" Noor shook her head, abandoning her train of thought. "I'm fine. What's wrong?"
"Nothing." she replied. "You just look disturbed, for some reason."
"Don't worry about me. I'm fine." Noor smiled. Sa'ima nodded, hurrying out of the room. Noor sighed, leaning back against the wall. She took the necklace off her neck, staring down at it in the palm of her hand. The blood-red jewel at the base of the necklace was wrapped securely by two identical serpents. She tried to pull the jewel out, to see whether it would feel anything like the Jewels Fareed had just shown her. It refused to budge however.
When she had seen the other necklace earlier, she hadn't gotten the opportunity to touch it. Now however, she noticed how the s
