1 Princess

Sweta huffed as she ran up the stairs.

Again late.

These days she was always failing her time schedule. And she loathed to fail at anything.

Adjusting to the present life didn't seem that challenging when she was sent to the capital city of India, Delhi.

But truth is harder than imaginations and thus, like the past two months today also she was late for the mundane human classes. She ran up the stairs at top speed. Not her top speed, but the humanly acceptable top speed.

As the final bell rang for the classes, Sweta dodged past her Class teacher to enter the Classroom at the last moment.

She was about to take her seat when the shrill voice of Suman Oberoi assaulted her hearing system....

"YOU, YOUNG MISS TIWARI, WHAT WERE YOU THINKING WHILE PUSHING PAST ME AND MAKING THAT DRAMATIC ENTRY TO MY CLASS ? DIDN'T YOUR PARENTS TEACH YOU THE BASIC DECORUM OF HUMAN INTERACTIONS OR YOU THINK HAVING ENOUGH SOCIAL INFLUENCE GIVES YOU THE RIGHT TO PUSH PAST YOUR CLASS TEACHER EARLY IN THE MORNING? "

Sweta could feel her agitation rising but as always she kept repeating her favourite mantra in her mind.....

"Low profile.... Low profile.... You can do this... You can do this... Here you are seventeen and stupid, so act like one.... just act like one...."

She produced one of her innocent smiles and lowered her head a little,

" I am so sorry Madam. I was so focused on making it to the class in time that my courtesies failed me. I really love your classes and I loathed standing outside for not making into your classes in time last week. It was an act of sincerity towards education that made me that rash. I will try not to repeat such stunts in future

"

Oberoi seemed convinced as she dismissed the girl and concentrated on the daily ritual of Attendance Marking.

As Sweta slipped into the seat, her beat neighbor Barun whispered from beside, "SMOOOOOOOOOOTH"

" Fuck Off ", she growled in a dangerous voice and opened her Notebook.

She was not here to make friends, the nosy humans irritated her.

Another day of torture begins, she thought, before getting busy with the worthless thing that people call Studying.

*************************************************

Swetambhari, the Gandhaarva Princess was not really a teenager. If counted in human way, her age would be no less than 350, but as per the calculations of her Realm, she was a young lady of 21, ready to contend for the throne. No doubt, after their kind of advanced educational experience and training for centuries, stupid classes and human education was bound to get to her nerves.

But what irked her most was not the teenage drama, but the proximity to the human beings. She would never have consented to leave Gandharvalok and descend on the Mortal Land to join this stupid IMMORTAL MANAGEMENT thing, if her father had not instructed her to do so. Apparently , being empathetic towards weaker species was a part of being a commandable Gandhaava, yet, her own past experience stopped her from accepting the fact that human beings were as good as the Gandharvas or the Kinnaras.

When she was a girl, her father had gone to a mission in the present day Srilanka where he met a mortal woman and fall in love with her. Swetambhari's mother was not too pleased when Ananthaswamy, her half brother, a demigod born from that union showed up in the doors of the Gandharvaalok some 250 human years back. But as the eternal rules dictate, anyone attributed with high level of creativity and having a good heart can find the way to the Gandharvalok. No doubt, Ananthaswamy, the Demigod with Gandharva blood in his veins smoothly found his way back to his original home after his mother's demise. But the story doesn't end here. He didn't submit to Swetambhari or her mother and even till this day he remains a contender to the throne that should have been Swetambhari's, by birth.

She was least possibly interested in her half brother. But for some unknown reasons, he gained more popularity than the crowned princess and a big lobby of the nobles wanted him to be the next ruler of the snow clad land of creativity. Ananthaswamy himself showed a fake reluctance to the proposal, but Swetambhari knew, deep down he wanted the throne as much as she did. She absolutely loathed that human imposed.... A-B-S-O-L-U-T-E-L-Y.

This mission was a chance to gain back her popularity, but at this juncture Sweta not only found it irritating but also blasphemous. Living amongst the dim witted species gave her headaches and so much word and noise made her nauseated.

Shwetambhari was raised as an ideal Gandhaarva, who preferred seclusion and found happiness in drowning herself in creativity. She was a top level musician , a skilled warrior and a living encyclopedia. She had graced a few mortals in the past, but, her interest in the affairs of the lowly beings was almost zero. Her preference for the homo sapiens had never gone past bestowing creative grace to a selected few, that too, if she found them extremely deserving. Her mother, the Queen, was a Lady of principals and she taught her one mantra, GRACE IS APPRECIATED ONLY IF GIVEN AFTER HARD WORK. SO USE YOUR POWERS JUSICOULY. And Swerambhari found the advise wise.

The Immortals had always crawled on the Earth alongside man and animals. Gandharva(elf), kinnara( fairy and angels), Narsimha( fox Gods), Yaksha(demons) and various other beings were the bridges between the human and the God.

And then there were demigods of various levels who would have a longer span of life than the human but not an immortal by birth either. Some demigods were graced with immortality due to their contribution towards the planet, but, most them just lived and died like human beings, only having a longer life span. Higher the species power, higher was their responsibility. And being a Gandharva was no kid's play, afterall, they were the divine messengers and torchbearers of creativity and music.

The snow clad mountains nurtures many mysteries. And the Gandharvalok is one of such mysterious lands in the Himalayas. Hidden amidst upper Sikkim and Nepal, the land is accessible only to those aligned with the natural vibrations of the Realm. Throughout the world there were other elvish , angelic and demonic realms that would otherwise remain invisible to the mortal eyes unless permitted otherwise.

Things had been such until the advent of the twentieth century. As the humans started developing deadly weapons and polluting the planet in massive proportion, it became inevitable for the higher beings to interfere and stop calamities from happening. Even after so much precautionary action the World Wars , nuclear calamities , terrorism and all kept on happening.... and the thus the IMMORTAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEM was created as a shadow bureau to stop the earthlings from foolishly destroying the good things of the planet.

Right now, Swetambhari was assigned a mission where she had to work in tandem with her likes from various corners of the planet.

But the flip point was the disguise as a human and for Sweta, life sucked at this pretention.

Ajay Tiwari was a Renowned musician, a disciple of her father who was a loyal human, aware of the higher secrets. Sweta was given a fake identity by the bureau, that stated that on accidental death of her parents, she was put under the guardianship of Ajay Tiwari to complete her studies....

And thus, began the most punishing phase of her life as a 17 year old Indian High School goer under the alias of Miss Sweta Tiwari.