Chapter 116: Dream, Illusion, Or Another Past Life? Part 1

Breathing a sigh of relief, she languidly made her way to the steps. As she took them one at a time, everything seemed to slow down and she painfully closed her eyes. The soft evening breeze caressed her cheeks and silent tears rolled down her fair face.

Her heart was heavy.

At last, arriving at the last step, she paused to caress her pounding heart. Taking a deep breath, she calmly opened her tightly shut lids.

It was supposed to be her thirteenth birthday. She should be celebrating with her loved ones, but instead, Durga Krishna was surrounded by strangers. She felt like her whole world was turning upside down. Her brothers were nowhere to be seen and her father was occupied with foreign ambassadors. Of all her family members, he was the one she was most close to. 

When she gave her opinion and view on a topic, he did not think that she was crazy or insane, like everyone else did.

No. He once told her that he thought she had the exceptional skill to see beyond status, religion, and social norms. To think deeper and see broader than anyone had ever thought to do so. 

But right now? 

Right now, she did not feel like she was an exception, because she was going through the same cursed custom that every woman in every country had gone through for the past centuries and might continue to do so in the following centuries. 

Marriage. 

Shifting in her seat, she tried to keep her mind as far away from that topic as possible. But of course, since the whole reason for this event was exactly for that, it was impossible to do so.

"Are you nervous? Don't be. It is always that way at the beginning. The nervousness, I mean. I can understand how you must be feeling right now. I felt the same way when it was my marriage ceremony last year. But I found out that part of it was anticipation," Came from her left.

Anticipation? That was a word used to describe expectancy or hope. The only thing that she was expecting right now was her doom. For goodness' sake, she was being handed over as if she were no better than a sheep and had no will of her own. 

She had not even seen her intended yet. Surely, that could not be something that people felt excited about? But then again, people said that she was the insane one. Maybe they were right and that was probably why everything felt so wrong to her. Either way, there was no stopping this now.

"May I see your henna? I was not able to make it to your mehndi and Haldi ceremony." Came from her right. She was tempted to just ignore whoever that was and act like she had not heard, then admonished herself for her behavior. 

Whatever situation that she was in, it had nothing to do with whoever that was. Turning to the direction of the voice, Durga saw a slime girl around her age hovering on her right. She seemed to be standing on her toes, the excitement in her eyes barely concealed. A smile twitched on her lips at the sight.

"Hi. I don't think that I have seen you around before. What's your name?" she gently asked.

It took a moment girl for the girl to comprehend that the question was directed at her.

"I, uh, I am Asha. My dad is a councilman, but this is my first time coming to the palace. I heard that Rajkumars and Rajkumaris from other countries will be here and wanted to see them. I have never seen foreign people up close before." She rumbled then stopped.

Durga chuckled, the first since the announcement of her marriage. The girl, Asha, seemed to glow with curiosity. Her name fit her well, Asha, meaning hope. 

Suddenly, there was a change in the air. The crowd grew quieter, and murmurs rang throughout the hall. Asha looked over her shoulder and her eyes grew large as her mouth hung open. 

Turning to see what had captured everyone's attention, Durga came face to face with a boy.

No, a Rajkumar, to be exact. 

He seemed to loom over her even though he was a few good paces away. Dressed in a black suit, with a black robe held together in the middle by the largest pure-blue lotus flower gem she had ever seen, he held himself like he owned the world. 

He is not an ordinary Rajkumar, she concluded, as their gaze caught. His midnight hair shimmered as he shifted his weight and held his hand out to her. She stared at the outstretched hand, not comprehending what she was supposed to do with it. He chuckled causing her gaze to shift back to his face.

"May I have a dance with you, Rajkumari?" he asked pleasantly.

She did not know what to say as this was the first time that someone had asked her to dance since she entered the ballroom. After a moment of awkward silence, she replied,

"I am betrothed. It might not be in your best interest to dance with me, Rajkumar."

"Oh? Why not? I do not see your mangital around? And it's Yuvraj, Rajkumari. Yuvraj of Rajas." Her mouth dropped.

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"You are the Yuvraj of Rajas? But how can that be? I mean, you are, you are…"

"I know. I was surprised when I saw you too. I asked my friend at least five times if he was sure that you are the Rajkumari of Pradii. I thought that my eyes were deceiving me."

Durga Krishna just stared at the boy in front of her in a daze, words too small to express what she was feeling. The last time they had seen each other, she was ten and he thirteen. She wanted to perform a dance for her sister's sangeet ceremony but did not have a partner. 

The Yuvraj must have been watching her looking around aimlessly for someone to assist her. When she had failed to find anyone, he had walked up to her and offered to be her partner.

Before she could form a reply, he had pulled her in the center. She could see through her peripheral vision that the crowd around them was thickening, pulling herself out of the daze, she looked around and caught her father's gaze. 

He was smiling from ear to ear like he had just won a war. She smiled slowly as she realized the reason why he had not bothered to ask her for her opinion about this. He knew, like he always did, about what was in her heart. Perhaps more so than she herself.

She stood up and walked across the room to give him a tight hug that caught him by surprise. "Thank you. You are not only my father, but my best friend as well. The one person that I can share everything that is on my mind with and can read what is in my heart. I love you." She whispered to him.

"I love you too, Rajkumari. You are my pride." He choked back.

The clearing of a throat broke from behind her broke them apart. There, standing with her head raised, two kids in each hand, stood her older sister. She looked different, as if she had matured within the past three years. Her eyes glistened before she ran to her sister and buried her head in her chest.

"We have a lot of work to do on you this evening. Look at you, it's almost time for your wedding and you do not even look like a bride." Berated her sister as she pulled her along towards the east palace, her bedchambers.

Three hours later, Durga Krishna was fully prepared for her wedding ceremony. Duked in the heavy red and yellow wedding sari of her mother, jewels in her hair to keep both her head cover and hair in place, nose piercing, traditional heirloom bangles, she radiated the blazing glow of the warm setting sun. 

Her sister led her to the Mandeep to stand her in front of the Yuvraj. There was a curtain placed between her and him that would only be removed at the auspicious time. With a few minutes to go before the ceremony began, the rest of the guests looked for their family members. 

Kids ran around with food in their hands, the royal guards keeping stationed at the door keeping eye on them. The pandit announced the auspicious time was here, immediately getting everyone's attention.

The Maharaja and Maharani of Pradii sat on their thrones, with their respected guests on either side. The people of the country gathered in the center, more of them present for this Rajkumari's wedding than the last.

This was in part due to the prophecy foretold by a high sage and pandit proclaiming that the Rajkumari would be a mother, daughter, sister, and friend to her people when they needed her most. Also, it was not lost to anyone in the kingdom that the Maharaja favored her the most of all his children, even more so than his oldest son.

As the people settled in to witness the wedding rituals, Durga was watching the faces of her parents, the happiness and pride clearly reflected in their eyes, her little brothers as they tried to appear demure, her older sister with her two little kids on either side of her, a glow in her face, and her older brother as he looked back at her with grief and happiness. 

She knew that both were for her. Grief at parting and happiness for her happiness. And lastly, she looked at all the subjects that came to wish her for her future happiness and knew, deeply, that they all loved her in their own way. 

Storing the image in her mind, she vowed to herself that she would never forget this day, nor would she ever abandon them. The curtain lifted and Durga Krishna was looking into the dark eyes of the Yuvraj of Rajas.

The marriage rituals took place soon after, the Yuvraj and Rajkumari exchanging the seven sacred vows that must be upheld, honored, respected, and fulfilled for the rest of their lives. As Durga and Yuvraj completed their last ritual, flower petals of red and yellow were thrown at them for blessings and blissful marriage. 

The pandit declared them husband and wife and advised them to seek their elders' blessing to warp the ritual up. They walked up to their parents and took their blessings.

"May you live long, long lives, and may you have many children," was her mother's blessing.

"May you live together in happiness and harmony," said her father.

At last, she bent down to touch the feet of an elder of another kingdom.

"Visit the Tanka before you go on your journey," he told her. As she rose and looked into his eyes, her heartbeat rose. Something was not right about this man's eyes. But what, she could not put a hand to it. 

Just as she opened her mouth to question him, there was a tap on her shoulder. Durga turned, telling the Yuvraj to give her a second, and when she turned back, the man had disappeared.

It has been more than a month since her marriage. The cold water of the Tanka enveloped her as she sank into its depth. After finding out about her faith in Shiv, Yuvraj had built her a personal temple in the kingdom of Rajas. 

It was not only breathtaking but was completely out of the world.. It was surrounded by a crystalline lake filled with floating flowers of different colors and forms on one side and flowering trees and groves on the other, with the sun's rays warded off by umbrellas of lotus leaf clusters behind her during her aartis'. 

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