THE RULERS OF RISHABHAPRIYA

11

Surabhi's POV

Ratnagarbha needs you.

Ratnagarbha needs you.

Ratnagarbha needs you.

His words kept echoing in my ears as I walked to meet Guruji to talk about what I was thinking. I had asked Jija ji to not talk to Padmini regarding our meeting and simply just anything about me being here. In return, I had promised to talk to Guruji about this. His words were right. There were other ways I could survive. I did not have to be a guard to some guy who was learning how to be a royal. I was a royal myself and royalty flowed in my blood. I did not have to fear anyone. I could just go stand in front of Padmini Didi and she would take me back home. I was having second thoughts about my decision and I had to talk to Guruji to inform him about it.

I saw him sitting in the temple his students had told me he would be at and he was meditating. I walked to him and sat in a decent distance from him and waited for him to wake up. "Doubts", my head snapped towards him and I stood up. " You are doubting something". He slowly opened his eyes and joined hands looking at the sky. He lowered his head and looked at me with a smile and asked, "Speak, Rajkumari. Tell me why you are here". I bowed go him first and then told him everything that had happened that day and he just smiled knowingly while looking at me. He stood up and walked away from me and I quietly followed him. "Do you know why you are here, Surabhi? Do you know your purpose here?", I shook my head. I knew that I was here because I was kidnapped and my purpose here was to guard the king. But somehow, I knew those weren't the answers he was looking for.

"You are not a stranger to this land, Surabhi. Your soul isn't a stranger to this soil. You have ruled this land for years until you were snatched away your right as a queen and was reduced to nothing", my eyebrows knitted in confusion as I registered his words. He nodded and continued as we walked towards the palace," I thought keeping this a secret would help you. But I don't think that is an option now. So, listen to me. Many generations ago there was a king who fell in love with a beautiful princess and married her. Everything was perfect. They had seven lovely children. They loved each other very much and this island kingdom was considered to be the most powerful kingdom in the whole of Akhandadesh. If you think your Ratnagarbha is the strongest now, you should have seen Rishabhapriya in their reign".

We entered the palace and he kept walking a certain direction and I kept following him. "All the happiness came to an end when one day, a seductress, who was a Visha Kanya was sent as a gift to the king by one of the kings back then. As you already know, Visha Kanyas are known for their enchanting beauty and the king fell for it. He fell into the trap and threw the whole kingdom aside for her. The king's family who did not like the queen, thought she was not a perfect match for the king and were always plotting against her. When they saw that the king was at his most vulnerable stage, they made a plan to get rid of the kind queen. They made her look like a fraud who was secretly having an affair with the same king who had sent the Visha Kanya and pressured her own husband to banish her from the kingdom", we were going up the stairs leading to a destination only he knew about. 

"She accepted her fate after fighting a lot and decided to go away but then the king's married brother tried to force himself on her after the banishment as she wasn't considered the queen or the king's wife and that is when she cursed this land. She said that this land, which she worked day and night for for a long time, has betrayed her and when their king betrays his wife by cheating on her with a married woman, they'll start the first chapter of the end of Rishabhapriya. Their generation would end with them and all of their offspring would die because of illnesses".

He walked towards the door of a chamber in a corner of the palace I hadn't explored at all and opened the doors widely and walked in," That was the reason the previous king died. You know that. But do you know who this queen was?", he asked as he walked inside the chamber which looked like a huge hall filled with paintings and other stuff they did not need. It was dusty and dark. He put on a fire torch in front of a painting and looked back at me. "Why don't you see for yourself?", he pulled the red, dusty cloth on a huge frame making it fall down revealing a huge portrait of someone but nothing was visible as dust covered most of the painting. I strangely felt drawn towards it and walked closer to see the painting and swiped my trembling hands against the top of the painting to reveal the face of this queen he was talking about. 

My hands moved from one side to another a few times to reveal a woman but when I looked closer and brought the fire torch closer, I looked back at the painting of a woman who looked exactly like me. Same eyes, same nose, same lips. I stumbled away from the painting and placed a hand on my racing heart. I had started to sweat in an emotion I had no words to describe in. "You have reincarnated to take what was yours and still belongs to you. Your first target was to get revenge from this family and you got that with the help of Bhargav who killed the king and conquered this land. There is a different reason for him to do that. That is a story for another day. But, Rajkumari, just know that you being kidnapped during the war, the torture for two whole years, the death of the king and Bhargav being crowned as the new king and you being his guard, none of these are a coincidence. It was meant to happen like this and even after this everything will happened as planned by him", he said pointing upwards referring to the Almighty. 

"Now, after knowing all this if you still think you should leave, you can. But just think for tonight", he added. "How do I believe that you haven't made this story up to make me stay back here?", I asked in a low voice. He chuckled," If you don't trust me enough, then do your research. The royal library has records of all rulers of this kingdom. Go find out the truth and come to a decision. If you want to leave, leave without hesitation or anyone's permission. May God lead you to the right path", he blessed and left. I stood there looking at the dusty floor and then looked up at the painting. I slowly moved closer to it and touched the old canvas. I swiped the lower right corner of the painting, where the date when the painting was made was usually at and gasped when I saw that the painting was around 700 years old. 

I wondered how it had survived so many centuries and inspected the painting closely. It was coated with some liquid making it look glossy and I guessed that was the reason it survived the dust and lived so many years but some parts of it was torn and with just a small pressure it was tearing apart completely. So I moved away from it and turned around to leave. I walked back to my chamber and laid on the bed with my hands covering my face. I sighed out of frustration. When I thought the surprises were all over, Guruji dropped a huge bomb with this information, that I still doubted if it were true. I should have not let him speak at all, I thought. 

An attendee interrupted my self cussing session and informed me that Maharaj wanted to see me. I stood up and walked to his chamber. As I neared his chamber, I heard a some chaos in the chamber and immediately placed a hand on my sword tied to my waist and walked in quietly. "His muscles are nothing. You should see my father's. Oh and my Adi mama's. They are so huge. One day, I'm going to become like them", Sourabh said making Radhika shake her head furiously," My bhaiyya killed the evil king who was twice the size of your father and became the king of Rishabhapriya. He is the strongest in the whole world. Ok? Don't talk like you know everything. Stupid prince", I widened my eyes surprised at her choice words and then looked at Maharaj sitting in between them with a hand on his forehead regretting all his life decisions that lead to that moment. 

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