Dhruva Nakshathra - The Game of Alliance ✔

FORTY-EIGHT

Mahina, Durja

Everything around her went perfectly still. The drizzle had seized. The wind had stopped. Above her, on the bridge, movements stilled. Not a soul spoke, not a rumble from the sky. It was as if the time had drawn to a halt to allow her to digest the fact, she actually know the man standing as still as rock before her. And that he wasn't the man he had said he was when they first met each other.

"Dhruva?" His name came out as a whisper.

He looked as shocked as she was

Her brain tried to unsee what she had seen but the truth stood tall, he was him. There can be no other reason for Dhruva, the traveller from Haridra to be at a place where the crown prince of Durja should have been. He was him. The clouds broke into a heavy shower and before she had a chance to be drenched completely, she was pulled to take shelter under the bridge.

It happened too quick; it took a while for Nakshathra to come into sense on how close she was with him. His hand wrapped around her wrist, hers on his chest, each were too dumbstruck to break their eye contact however, the thunder resolved it for them. Nakshathra immediately pulled away and turned her back to him, the lantern she had brought laid on the wet ground, long forgotten. Like the fire in the lantern fizzed out, her thought too tried to vanish but she caught hold onto them. It pained her to know that the man she had been told to consider in marriage in order to reconcile the two kingdoms was someone she knew and the one who had even stayed in Kavish.

Should I be angry on him for deceiving me? But it was also him who brought the fugitives back to Kavish... The anger in her dissipated and she froze as she mindlessly watched the rain. Moments long pass but Nakshathra made no sound nor movement. Her mind began to find a bearing for her shaken heart.

She tried to understand because that was all she could do. Behind her stood Dhruva. So, why did he disguise himself as a traveller?

He was the crown prince and of course, he can't just walk through their gate without being question for the reason of his visit. Likewise, she too did the same to get into Durja. Nakshathra tried to understand not for him but for herself. She needed his help more than anything especially after she had received the note from Alli. She can't turn away from the reality now, not anymore.

"You wanted to see me?" Dhruva finally broke the tensed silence.

Nakshathra stiffened with his presence behind her, she clasped her hand tight. Unsure if it was a positive or a negative reaction. Was she partially happy to see him after a long while, because she felt her heart's rapid beating against her chest.

"Yes," she mustered a reply as she turned to face him.

"But before that, I have something to say."

Her brows snapped together.

"I'm sorry. I... should have not kept my identity a secret it—"

"No wait." She stopped him, formulating her own phrase in her mind. "You didn't do it on purpose, you had a reason and I think I now know why. I don't blame you either. We could have considered you planting spies instead of bringing our stranded people back. I could have thought much worst about you back then." She averted her gaze and bit her lip, the thought to imprison him surfaced as she thought of what she would have done if she had known.

"I could have told you. I had the chance..."

"It's fine." Nakshathra zoned out for a bit, back to Koshilkoot before bringing her focus to the present. She had more pressing matters to discuss. "I... I wanted to meet you, the crown prince for a reason."