Dhruva Nakshathra - The Game of Alliance ✔

THIRTY - FIVE

Kavish

In a matter of a day, Nakshathra became the talk of the town. People were singing praises for the courage she took to decline a marriage alliance despite the alliance was brought after the king had his word. That day was also the day the subjects learnt of the ever-existing law that had been disregarded and forgotten by everyone which eventually pushed the woman of their family in a marriage their never approved. But the women folks were determined to never let the mistake to repeat ever again, they held it close like another lifeline. With another reason to celebrate, the ladies of Kavish took up to celebrate the year's Festive of Rati in Nakshathra's honour.

Although the time in the palace wasn't a great one at the moment, the festive season made it bearable. The young princess sighed in contentment as she peeped through one of the windows. The city festive mode had begun to show up with vivid hues of canopies erected, variety of stalls buzzing with people and stages for performance built here and there. In contrast to the tensed atmosphere in the palace, the city looked very much lively.

The king was still upset with her, furious for embarrassing him and made him go back on his words. His pride had been bruised and Nakshathra had to remind him several times of his own state when he gave his promise to King Ayod. Bavaneswaran wasn't ready to admit, thus to show his anger, he admonished her from attending the court for all official events till he says she could.

The king's disappointment wasn't the only response she encountered that day, she had also bumped onto Ahalya who showed a mixture of emotions. Ahalya's crestfallen face forced Nakshathra to not groan loudly and rip up the drooping lips off her pretty face. For what Ahalya had planned, Nakshathra could have sent her back with Abhimanyu.

"Ahalya, I'm sorry I did not see you coming." Nakshathra took a step back creating wider space between them.

The lady's jaw dropped to the floor. "I think you missed to add Anni after my name but I'll excuse you this time."

The young princess stifled a laugh and seethed under gritted teeth, "I missed nothing, Ahalya. Definitely not your dirty plan, the plan you forced your brother to commit on me..." Nakshathra was calm yet she spat anger through her blazing eyes. "Know that, you lost my respect, it's only for Parthi that I'm still quiet." Nakshathra did not let her defend herself and added, "Spare me your explanations and take my advice, all you need to do forever is to take care of your marriage and don't meddle in my life." She stared hard at Ahalya before Nakshathra moved away from her presence.

The last thing Nakshathra wanted from her dramatic rejection of the Pareen alliance was breaking her brother's marriage. Parthiban had gone through a lot and she knew he was trying to make his marriage work, for that she had to give Ahalya the benefit of the doubt.

All of the current matters were to be look into later and for now, Nakshathra had only one thing to do for the next three days.

Practice!

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During his stay in Nachimuthu's house, Dhruva had the opportunity to extract few more information from the son whom was one among the thirteen men he had brought back. Although he had a different reason to return too Kavish, Dhruva was grateful to have spent some time personally with Nachimuthu's son, Manickavasan.

When Nachimuthu brought Dhruva to his house, Manickavasan was stupefied by the presence of the foreign crown prince whom had safely brought him back to his country. Dhruva had a hard time to maintain a casual façade in front of Nachimuthu in order for Manickavasan to not say a word. Much to his relief, the farmer's son remained quiet and only reacted after Dhruva was introduced as the man who helped his father plough his land.