अन्तः अस्ति प्रारंभः।
The end is the beginning.
A caterpillar dies, to birth a butterfly. Water evaporates to rain down. Dead carcasses fill the stomachs of vultures.Life gives way to death and death to life. In a vicious circle of different karmas...
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Four days before the Crown Prince's birthday, Rajkumar Rukmanetra found her.
Mihira was shivering, thinking about one of the only myths she knew, outside of the Sanatan ones. Orpheus and Eurydice. Really, what was death if she was so loved as was Eurydice? What was the price of violence if love was the one that induced it? What was the value of grief, if it was born out of love?
And, wasn't all grief born out of love that went unshown? Love that was caged in your heart like an animal inside the ribs, like carving in gold, like blood in your veins— wasn't it all the place where grief was born? Grief was born when love was abandoned, a twisted version, a lonely version.
Mihira wondered what would she do with such love, if someone loved her to the point of begging. If someone loved her to the point of blood. If someone even loved her to the point of praise.
(Was she even worth it?)
A voice called her name and she flinched.
Prince Rukmanetra, stood behind her, a booklet in one hand and his other hand resting on the hilt of his sword. "May I intrude, Devi?"
There was nothing to intrude on. Mihira was standing at the banks of the river Wardha, staring without seeing the waves slosh and dance in a way that was hypnotic in its own sense.
Mihira nodded nonetheless, if only to encourage his hesitancy to ruin her personal moments.
He stood beside her, though away from the railing enough that his body did not touch the stone and angled his body away from the river. Mihira tilted her head.
He was afraid of the river.
"I've been taught to behave in a gallant manner since the moments I could form thought," he said, voice heavy. She knew where this was going. Surprise uplifted her soul and Mihira kept quiet, not wanting to embarrass herself should she prove to be wrong.
He looked at her in the eyes and for the first time, Mihira did not gaze away. He was unsure, but determined. The Prince said,"I apologise for the way I have behaved with you, Devi Mihira. It was absolutely horrible of me and I am ashamed of such behaviour."
He did not justify his actions and for some reason, it made his apology all the more enticing. Mihira nodded hesitantly,"It is your jurisdiction to treat your subjects as you see fit, my Prince."
"No, it is not," he declined vehemently,"Treating you with disrespect when you have been nothing but sincere was a certain misdemeanour from my side. I shall endeavour to be better. I sincerely apologise. I hope you can find it in yourself to forgive me."
She shouldn't, Mihira knew she shouldn't, but curiosity had always been her vice.
"May I dare to ask the reason for your behaviour, my Prince?"
Rukmanetra licked his lips and stared at the river for a moment. "These murders put a question on myself and my integrity as the Minister of Law Maintenance. Such atrocities have never happened before my career, Devi. I take this as a personal slight."
