In the Wake of the War

Chapter-33

Vishwakarma Puja in Anga had been celebrated as splendidly as possible with the lower post war budget. It was fine, it was good, but Vrishaketu still felt so empty thinking of his father and brothers.

Indeed the celebrations had managed to uplift his mood a little, but including his grandparents, his family of thirteen had been reduced to only four now and ... that void hurt despite the festive mood.

(At least they had for the most part succeeded in uplifting the Kingdom's spirits a little. Even though the people remained drowned in memories, they were good ones, full of love and laughter.

But now that the festival was over, hopefully Anga would not once again deteriorate to its previous state of gloom.)

He had thought for a while that having Uttara around would help since as much as he loved everyone else, they were well... kind of old so... and honestly, having a friend around helped.

But well.... that didn't happen because someone couldn't make up their mind.

Thinking of Rajkumar Arjun made all sorts of emotions bubble up in him. Emotions that were more complicated than they had any right to be. It was supposed to be simple. He was supposed to completely hate the man who had killed his fathers and brothers.

And he did! Right?

But the man had been so insistently nice and kind despite all his barbed comments that somehow, somehow  his burning hatred had been reduced to a simmering annoyance. 

In fact when his mother had suggested that Rajkumar Arjun might be coming along with Uttara, after the initial moment of outrage, once he had considered the benefits of having his friend come along, he had grudgingly accepted that Prince Arjun might as well come along.

Such a thing would have been impossible six months ago. Now he wondered if his father would be disappointed that Vrishaketu had accepted and would have even tolerated his greatest enemy's presence in his Kingdom.

No, he decided. Their--His, he corrected with a pang, Pitashree had been strict but he had rarely ever been disappointed in them, even if they had done things that were bad and had probably deserved to have their father disappointed in them. When they had done something wrong, he had scolded them, berated them with that whip sharp tongue of his so that they would never repeat it again(they used to get warm hugs later so those made up for the cutting words), but he had very rarely been truly disappointed. Those few times he would just go silent and those were always the worst. But Vrishaketu didn't think this was a severe enough infringement to warrant disappointment especially since Rajkumar Arjun hadn't actually ended up coming at all. But... if Uttara ever came, so would he... But no. His Baba had loved his best friend so much and hadn't really liked Gandhar Raj, so  he of all people would absolutely understand tolerating someone else for his best friend's sake.

And what the hell was wrong with Rajkumar Arjun anyway? Why on Earth had he suddenly so desperately pleaded to mother to come to Anga and then suddenly declined? He had said something about not planning things out but ughhh!

Of course Vrishaletu felt disappointed because this meant that Uttara didn't get to come and because despite everything he had accepted that Rajkumar Arjun was going to come and had not made any protests and had even gone to invite the older man himself by giving him the time of departure, the sudden change of mind felt like a slap to the face.

He should never have accepted, he thought angrily. Everything would have been fine then and not so very complicated.

What had happened to change his mind, he wondered. Had it truly been a matter of not planning things out properly and later realising or being made to realise that his presence at Anga instead of Indraprastha at the first festival after the War would be somewhat inappropriate?