Dhruva Nakshathra - The Game of Alliance ✔

T W E N T Y - F O U R

Sikva, capital city of Kavish

Darkness all around her. Absolute silent engulfed her. Eerie stillness surrounded her. Tiny little pin, thousands of tiny little pins prickled her body here and there, everywhere.

She moved forward; hands outstretched. There was nothing she could hold on to. She stayed in the realm of unknown darkness for hours, perhaps days, not knowing how long she had been stuck in there.

From a distance, murmur of chant waves rushed to her from all four sides. The voice so faint, she could not catch whose does it belong to, it kept coming, louder. She swatted something moving on her body, a kind of tingling sensation circulated throughout her body; from the tip of her head to her toes.

In the pitch-black room, like a ray of hope came a ray of light in violet. She minced towards it as the ray grew wider and brighter. The ray blast, blinding her for so long, she woke up in a jolt. Oblivious to her surrounding, she stared hard at nowhere in particular.

Her vision focused to a table in a distance. Vials, pots, baskets of herbs spread on it. The room was filled with nutty aroma—ghee, coconut oil, sandalwood along with smell of mixed herbs. Those smell reminded her of arogyalaya. She snapped her eyes open, indeed she was in the arogyalaya, surrounded with her close ones.

Her mother was the first react, pulled her close to her chest weeping as she murmured a silent prayer of gratitude, the maharaja as always remained stoic and nodded to her when their eyes met. While her brothers and their wives were all smiles with tear-streaked faces, the physicians and their juniors heaved a relieved sigh as they animatedly spoke among them. Everyone around her appeared exhausted and dishevelled.

"Your Majesty, I must say. For someone who had gone through a terrible fire accident..." The royal physician gestured Nakshathra. " . . . an absolute miracle. I have never seen one cured at this rate. It must be the intervention of the divine," the royal physician said. "For your knowledge, Your Majesty, Rajakumari did not show any improvement three days before. It's a wonder to my medical experience." Raja Vaithiyar Agathiyan gazed Nakshathra with amazement.

"It is no doubt, Rajakumari Nakshathra is a strong lady both mentally and physically. It's certainly have been her willpower and your relentless care that have quicken her recovery," the King said in his formal kingly demeanour. "Maharani, the princess has just woken up. Allow her to rest and all of you can see her later," the King suggested, turning to the physician for his agreement.

"Yes, His Majesty is right. We will do a basic check-up and send Rajakumari back to the palace for her to rest," concurred the physician. He then turned to give out instruction while the royal members cleared out the arogyalaya.

Nakshathra sat there somewhat unable to catch what were they trying to say. She could not put her finger on why she was in arogyalaya in the first place. "Anna," she called out Nakul who was about to exit the chamber with Nathan in tow. "Stay with me." Nakshathra gestured to both her brothers while the rest slowly made their way out.

"I thought she had forgotten us. She looked lost," whispered Nathan to Nakul and merrily greeted his sister as if she did not hear him. "Nakshathra, how you doing? Feeling better?"

"I heard you, Nathu." She gave him an annoyed stare.

Once they were left alone in the arogyalaya, Nakshathra began to question her brothers. "Can either of you tell me what happened? I simply can't remember how I ended up here."

"You don't remember anything?" Nakul's concern evidently visible.

"No. Maybe I need a little push or sleep over it. All I see is blank. I can't recall a single incident." Her hands caught her head and slid down to cover her face. Emptiness, every time she closed her eyes, empty memory greeted her.