The Great Goddess

Sandhya is Avinya

As Sandhya came near the two farmers, they got scared and ran towards the village centre.

Sandhya smiled and again turned into a swan and flew in the direction of the royal palace.

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Srila went to Avinya's room. Avinya spoke with Srila as usual, she asked Srila what she thinks about she being the queen. From Srila's answer to this question Avinya understood Srila's desire for becoming queen. After sometime Srila left the queen's room.

After that she made the trip to the administrator's office.

When Srila arrived at the city administrator's office, his secretary took her to the administrator's residential quarters. They walked through a long corridor. He knocked on the very last door.

"Who?" Srila and the secretary heard the administrator's voice.

"Me Sir, The princess has arrived." the secretary replied.

The door swung open and the administrator welcomed her in.

"Welcome! Your Highness!" Apart from the administrator there were ten people in that room. As Srila walked in, the administrator closed and locked the door. All ten were seated around an oval table, five on each side. The two seats on the two small sides were vacant.

Srila walked towards them, when she reached the table, all of them stood up. The administrator asked her to take one of the vacant seats, and he took the other directly opposite hers.

All sat again after the princess. Srila recognized all of them. The four close to her on the left side were provincial governors and the fifth is the administrator of her birth city, which is also a capital city.

Kingdom of Nihariya has five capital cities, one for each royal house, the city of Nihariya is one of them. Each king has authority over the day to day administration of two or three near by provinces. They acted as a single person when dealing with matters of national importance.

On her right side the two seats close to her were occupied by two national ministers, while the other three were occupied by three provincial ministers.

"Why are you all willing to help me. I know you wouldn't help me without any gain." She asked them openly.

The city administrator spoke on behalf of the group. "The new king and queen cares a lot about the two lower classes. They have brought new laws in favour of the lower classes. Now we should pay them more, as well as provide them with many facilities. We should help educate their children. These laws affect our activities. When you come to power, you should give priority to us, the upper classes."

"How would you bring my husband to power" asked Srila.

"The codes doesn't speak anything about succession. The laws of succession could be changed if someone from the royal class brought out the problem. If you challenge your sister's rule, we would support you, many members of the military, scribe and merchant class are also willing to support you." replied the administrator.

The discussion continued, they surrounded Srila like bees around a flower. All of them wanted a large share of nectar. But there's one thing they don't know, all flowers aren't roses, some flowers stay open to consume the bees. Srila is one such flower.

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A few minutes after Srila left the room. Avinya heard the sound of flapping wings in her balcony. It was a swan, a beautiful swan, no, it was more than beautiful, it was perfect. Avinya thought it should be the dragon. After all it has told her that it will return to her in its true form. Maybe this is its true form. She quickly walked towards the balcony, when she reached halfway, Sandhya turned into her true form. This time she was in a golden yellow saree with metallic gold border. Avinya stopped walking, her emotions were beyond explanation. Both Avinya and Sandhya looked alike, same face, same height, same everything. Avinya looked at her costume. It was of the same material and colour as Sandhya's, except that she was wearing a lehenga instead of the saree.

"Who is she?"

Avinya turned back, the king was standing behind her. He was shocked, confused and some what afraid.

Avinya didn't expect him at this very crucial moment of her life. She had just seen the true form of someone who had been with her from birth. Someone who had consoled her during hard time, someone who had guided her through all her problems. Avinya never made any decision without consulting Sandhya. Today she is here as queen because Sandhya told her to accept the marriage proposal brought by the prince. Sandhya gave her permission by turning blue, blue is the colour of positivity in Nihariyan culture.

Avinya's experience with Sandhya is not complete yet. Her fingers wanted to touch Sandhya. Her arms wanted to hug Sandhya. Her legs pulled her towards Sandhya. But, she knew that before doing all that she must answer the king.

"She, She is.... " She tried to answer but she couldn't.

"I am Sandhya" Sandhya answered from behind. Avinya turned around. The king changed his focus from Avinya to Sandhya.

Sandhya continued "It's time to reveal everything." She explained everything to the king.

"From now on both of you should work together. Avinya is the one who is going to ensure the proper beginning of the fourth age"

"But how can I? I am just a queen." Avinya asked puzzled.

"Avinya, you are not just a queen, you are me and I am you. Avinya is Sandhya in human form and Sandhya is Avinya in cosmic form."

Avinya still couldn't believe it. She told herself "How can it be? but if Sandhya is telling so, it has to be true."

Sandhya continued her explanation. "When all the lords and ladies of nature appeared from me at the beginning of the first age, they had no duty to perform.

Then from my mind appeared two ladies, the lady of the rules and the lady of the key. The lady of the rules appeared with three objects, two parchments and a medal. She had to build the hall of cosmic rules and on its walls she should inscribe the duties of each lord and lady of nature. Once completed she must keep the medal in the place allocated to it in the centre of the hall, so that the rules get locked in place.

The measurements and structure of the hall was in the first parchment, while the rules were in the second.

Once completed the lady of the key should lock the hall's doors with the key that was already in her hand.

Everything happened as expected, except one thing, the lady of the rules desired to be the cosmic empress, she let the lady of the key to close and lock the hall without the medal in place. Without the medal, the rules will slowly change with time, once the rules get chaotic, she could influence the natural order of things and be the cosmic empress.

She threw the medal into the  volcano behind the cave. By melting and destroying the medal, the lord of the volcano helped the lady of the rules in achieving her evil desire. As a result of it he became evil, finally I had to break his spine to purify him."

"Where do I fit in this picture?" asked Avinya.

"You are the one, who must restore the medal."  Sandhya answered looking at Avinya.

"How?" asked Avinya.

"I'll explain later tonight, after dinner wait for me at the king's chamber." Sandhya replied and took the swan form again and flew out of the room.