Vajra An Elven Tale

Chapter 19 Part I

Chapter nineteen

The crack in his armour

Shobha was back in her cozy study. An ocher light playing over the smooth surface of her study table and Elvis Presley's deep notes cooing over the atmosphere; nothing much had changed. The lady had seen ages change, had lived in the most peculiar of times and learned to manage that impassiveness in her expression. She had finished her tour, as anyone would expect from her, and returned home. There was no one to question after the grandson she had seemingly left behind in mid tour, nor did any queries came after the girl who accompanied her for the journey. So was the elven practice; they would come and go as they please and their guardians in the human realms were not supposed to inquire after their comings and goings. Shobha sighed to herself. Only this once her inner voice choose to mutter in hushed whispers; something was wrong. It was not normal for Sanskar to vanish without a warning. He was a prince for heaven's sake, and one that was trained from infancy to keep an organized life.  

"What could have possibly gone wrong?" She wondered out loud, staring at the still blank sheet of paper pressed under her hand. Writing required inspiration, which her mind burdened with musings on possible incidents, could not conjure. "Yuvraj sa, is it your step mother at work once more?" 

*Wise men say, only fools rush in,

But I can't help falling in love with you...

Pausing to stare at the paper once more, Shobha began to write a fresh chapter.

It is one of the most trivial of beliefs. They tend to think their story is unique, that what they experience is limited to themselves and it shall never be repeated with another. They hold it dearly in their memories; share it proudly with their issues. They believe in immorality through their deeds, in form of legends. 

But in truth; no one can really declare their journey different from another they do not know of. Such is the entwined play of fates, the tricks in the flow of time. There are many, and many more, who tastes the same, bares the same, fears and flees the same. Sometimes they never meet, but sometimes they do. Then, there is a bigger purpose that requires their union. As at dawn the darkness meets the light and a new day sprouts to life, when the mirror reflections of fate cross paths, destiny turns a page. A new era begins.

*

Present time, Padmapeeta palace, Akashanagara.

**"Neither in the embrace of skies, nor in the arms of sea

Underneath the earth, nor among the hills

Would one find shelter from their burden to bear," Suvanna whispered an old elven saying, as she started to undress Lakshya's wound. 

Those bandages were bloody and the edges of the cut turning a nasty yellowish brown. For a high born lady the sight should have been repulsive to look at, but she would find it rather pleasant than watching the loathing in his gaze. Suvanna was aware of her reputation, the sense of fear mixed with reproach people held in their opinions for her. But earlier she did not care; she still did not care about the courtiers of her father's mad house of a court. Lakshya was a different case. He was not supposed to hate her; after all he did not look at Ragini that way. Her mind wondered back to the words she had muttered to herself earlier. Ragini's face would not shelter her from what she has to bear. 

"Was that advice for me or yourself?" Lakshya asked her, his tone aloof and his eyes travelling the premises instead of looking at her. "After all I'm not planning patricide,"

Suvanna winced, the words hitting harder when voiced.

"I'm not going to kill him, no," she said in a monotonous voice.