Sultan Sharayar watched his wife glide out of his rooms to be escorted back to her own chambers. She was a puzzle and he found her more intriguing all the time. He had long since realized what she was doing with the storytelling. At first, he let her go on because he had been curious to see how long she could keep it up, how long she could draw out her inevitable fate. He never expected it to have been nearly this long, though. Over two and a half years from their wedding, he now marveled less that his wife was able to keep up this game every night as that there were so many stories in the world and somehow she seemed to know them all!

Servants came in to attend to the Sultan before leaving him to sleep for a few hours. They washed his hands and feet and changed his clothing. When he asked for no food or wine, they backed out of the room respectfully and left him to his thoughts.

Sharayar stretched out on his left side on the soft bed. He knew now that he would not put Shahrazade to death. He wasn't certain when he had decided to spare her, but it hardly mattered. He was hesitant to do anything that might put an end to the nightly storytelling sessions, though. He enjoyed the stories and he enjoyed even more watching his beautiful wife tell them.

He marvelled at how this woman had wormed her way past all of his defenses. He had sworn never to love a woman again, never to even consider trusting one after the betrayal of his first wife. Yet somehow this young woman, merely an innocent maiden when they had been wed, had managed to manipulate and defy him night after night. And most remarkable of all, he could only love and admire her more for it. He had never known a woman so clever and brave. He wasn't sure he knew any men who could have done it.

The only explanation was that she was a gift from God. There was no way such a woman could have achieved so much otherwise. And even a Sultan would be a fool to reject a gift from God.

With that thought putting his mind to rest on the matter of sparing his beautiful and clever wife, the Sultan Sharayar finally drifted off to sleep.