KRISHAVYAYAM

13. Menaced

She touched the ancient carvings to engrave them in her memory forever, tales of mortals and those who walked the heavenly realms. The begrimed argent fabrics of soothing cotton were pasted to her like second skin and Mohini reckoned if she could become the sirimiri to unite with the ocean once again, with the waters that called to her with inexplicable allure. The dusk was ravishing, perhaps she wasn't so much in her senses today as she should have been. For warriors could barely afford the luxury of dwelling in marvelous fantasies and life wasn't a strung passage of glittering fairy tales, instead lurking in spectrums that one must learn to revel in. Life was breathtaking in every way she could think of.

However, Dhrishtadyumna was not having any more of it. The heat and the fraught circumstances.

The golden crown prince swung an ax which came to rest on his brawn shoulders, flexing a muscle in his dusty biceps as his silver armor glinted majestically under the night sky. Agneya resembled his celestial father liberally, at times debated to be the very incarnation of him. He was the very expected child of the King too. Father's son, father's pride. A few steps behind him marched the woman who rose from the flames, doused in faint sweats and inebriating petrichors as the arsenal clamored somewhere behind them. Krisha nonchalantly whistled a tune to herself as her bronze eyes squinted at the blade playing between her scarred, muddy fingers.

"You know it won't do any good to keep your mouth shut with such gossip-mongering topics," the Prince mumbled tilting his head to the side, glancing at his sister who slipped past the moon-bathed aisles in near baltering strides. He had known the bearing of his sister, so genial and comforting, so compassionate- and yet she wasn't considering the possibilities this debacle would lead to, for a mighty state such as Panchala. Kamalnayani snorted in stifled disdain, but Dhrishtadyumna could see beyond her broodiness.

"I thought we were past the concerns of the notion of the breach of propriety?"

"We as rulers cannot avoid it wholly, Krisha. We cannot bifurcate between our personal and professional lives. The lifestyle we lead becomes a paragon for our subjects and you must know it," his voice softened as he stopped in his tracks. The Princess followed the suit with a sigh. "I believe you and Vaasudeva should be conversing and sorting out the differences. Yes, the news of your outburst hasn't crawled on the other side of the palace walls but that doesn't allude that it won't, in the future as well. This wayward stance won't be so polite or diplomatic for either of the clans; be it the Panchalas or the Vrishnis. Think of the whole picture, never from your own point of view alone."

Shame crept through her collars to the nape, leaving behind it a vivid shade of scarlett. Kamalnayani pinched the bridge of her nose. I cannot let my fear suffocate me so for the rest of my life. He's not at fault after all, but Kanha and I have been at an impasse regarding this decision.

Dhrishtadyumna kept a hand on her shoulder and she looked away to hide the exhaustion seeping in her mind. "Rest, whatever you deem fit. Choosing him or rejecting him should be your call, given that this isn't a démarche but a question of your life. Think this through, Kanishthae. You cannot await the third blood moon alone, nor should you intend to face it all by yourself if you don't wish to wrong any of us.
Regret leaves no liveliness behind it. You are not the price any of us are willing to pay to the damned constellations either, please."

He strolled away within a flash, with him gone the homely warmth of his aura. Panchalika would have wished he still lingered by to hear her side again, but he was staunch. He wasn't going to let her ruin herself. Not anymore.