Vajra An Elven Tale

Chapter 9

The Price

Kolkata, 14th March  2015

It was a widely known and undoubtedly accepted fact that Parvati Gadodia was not fond of her elder granddaughter. But some benefits that came with the girl could not be neglected even by her. One of them had always been her immense flexibility, which effortlessly led her to lend a helping hand in the cafe Parvati ran, in a much unnoticed side of a crooked street in Kolkata.

Swara recalled distinctly, how she was initially horrified with the idea and her discussion with Mohan that followed.

Just imagine! Me, the one who is supposed to be hiding, handing out coffee cups at a roadside inn?'

Mohan frowned for a moment.

Your grandmother's there and it's not a bad place.'

Yet...' she huffed.

Sometimes things out in open, where everyone can see them are hardly spotted and very well hidden.' He smiled slightly. Think of it this way...who on earth would think the Vajra's eye, handing out coffee cups in a roadside inn?'

With the memory crossing her mind, a pleasant sunset found Swara at the threshold of Coffee Delights, fixing the display board with utmost concentration. Daadi had wanted some new items on the menu and Swara wanted to escape a certain messy haired forgotten elf prince inside. She had her hair pulled in to tight pony - tail and a large white apron flung over her tee - shirt. The sun had vanished behind the buildings that edged her view a long ago; the air drizzled with a sense of foreboding. It had nothing to do with her ability, but more with the uneasiness of her mind in recent days. A danger was looming closer, but still managing to retain itself in to the shadows, making it unable for her to guess who or what it was.

Something, a similar sense of instinct jerked her out of her thoughts. Jerking her head, Swara turned around and looked at the opposite end of the street. Much away from her, in relative darkness of the shadow offered by much taller buildings, someone stood watching her. From this distance she could not be certain if the figure indeed had its eyes on her or not, but there was that feeling, which felt like having someone's eyes on her.

What's the matter?' Someone asked closer to her ear, making her jump a foot backwards. It was Lakshya, his eyebrows knotted together as he took in her troubled expression. Instantly he followed her gaze and turned to stare at the same spot; which was empty now, the on looker gone.

Janki?' He called her again. Not managing to get a response to his earlier question.

Nothing,' Swara shook her head and caught a sight of Ragini who was sitting at the table by the window, her essay book propped open, but her eyes following their movements. She looked rather forlorn and sickly in the florescent lights inside the cafe. Let's go in, I'm done.' Swara added, digging her hands in her apron pocket and brushing past Lakshya to get inside. He watched her retreating back for a moment before skipping after her.

*

Kolkata, 16th March 2015

            Who would have guessed that the divine and the damned could be brothers of blood, that evil was the mirror reflection of the good, similar at the first glance but utterly different in the way it operated? At least the ancient ones did not, until their celestial king was betrayed by his kin, compelled to take on a fate far worse than death to save his subjects. Walking in to darkness had made Astra a devil; the same path was taken by Agni towards his divinity.'

Shobha Bose had a voice that could command silence even in whispered tones. It was the launch ceremony of her latest book, Immortal; Chronicles of Elves, and as she read out the above extract from the opening chapters, except for a keen silence nothing else dared to enter the auditorium.