Royal Proposal

Gurukul, Chandragarh

Yash's mind reeled while taking in the implications. If he was not mistaken, the threatening voice belonged to his 'once deemed fiancée'. His first thought was of relief that he had managed to break off that alliance.

Yash understood that the world was not all black and white but someone using coercion so blatantly at this age made the person belong to another league of viciousness already!

But he decided to not take any hasty action since it wasn't affecting Mriga directly as of now. Anyways, it was always good to have the enemy's weakness in hand. He retraced his steps quietly and headed towards his original destination.

Vindhya was in a good mood that evening. A big load had been lifted off her shoulders. Not only had she managed to solve the problem, she had done it on her own, albeit with the help of that girl. She decided to go and visit her parents. Firstly, she was missing them and secondly, she wanted to remind her father about putting up her name for the nomination at the earliest.

As she descended from the carriage, she saw a familiar side profile. It seemed that Yash had come to visit his mother as well. Her heart gave a small, unexpected start.

Himprayag

Even though they had been expecting it, Bela was surprised to receive Gayatri in her quarters early the morning after Rudradev had bid them farewell.

"Since the king is unwell and unable to attend the court proceedings, a royal proposal has been issued through this sealed scroll. It contains the agreement stating alliance between Himprayag and Chandragarh under the leadership of Rani Samyukta and Princess Ahilya, the heir to Himprayag, for strategic, economic and military purposes. Once you bring back the scroll with the seal of your queen, this scroll will be presented to the king and it would be made into an official decree," Gayatri said without much inflection in her voice.

Bela took the scroll in her hand and acknowledged Gayatri's help with the process. She understood that the signing of this agreement was directly related to Ahilya becoming the next ruler of the country but she didn't let her expression show that.

The younger woman didn't respond to her words of gratitude and instead gave a cold look towards Shaurya who was lounging on the side, "Till the time the scroll comes back, the princess has 'requested' the presence of your son in Himprayag. She is very impressed with his abilities and wants him to collaborate with the intelligence gathering team in Himprayag, sharing some of his techniques as part of this goodwill project between the two countries."

Bela stiffened at the implied meaning between the words of Gayatri. They wanted Shaurya to stay on as a sort of 'guarantee' till the agreement was signed. It wasn't unheard of but she would have preferred that she was the one asked to stay back instead of him. She wasn't thinking only from the perspective of the maturity level to handle the politics of a foreign country but also because of the palpitating animosity and tension between the princess and her lover and its cause, Shauryaveer!

"Ah erm… would it not be better if," Bela started.

But Gayatri cut her off and said in an enigmatic tone, "The princess absolutely insists upon Veer's presence. He seems to have left a deep impression on her. You should be proud of your son!"

Both Bela and Shaurya's faces turned black after listening to this. Shaurya had dared not raise his hopes ever since he heard from Rudradev about the possibility of the deal coming through so quickly. But when he first heard Gayatri talk about it a little while ago, his heart had soared at the prospect of going back to his girl. In fact, he didn't even realise when she put the condition of him staying back, being so lost in his happiness.

It was her cold words now which burst his bubble. Keeping his face impassive, he offered a perfunctory bow and said, "Please convey my gratitude to her for giving me this opportunity to collaborate and learn from the intelligence team of Himprayag."

Bela could hear the heaviness in his voice but she also murmured similar words.

Gayatri scoffed at his insincere words and lack of enthusiasm. She had been ecstatic when she received the summons from the princess this morning to visit her early morning in her chambers. Ahilya had taken the initiative after really long to seek her out but when she reached there, the princess handed over this cruel task, almost as if she was rubbing her new-found fascination for the guy in Gayatri's face.

She would have been alright with the whole thing had it been someone else. After all, the princess wasn't expected to stay faithful to just one lover. But this guy had been so blatantly uninterested and insolent from the first day towards Ahilya. As her faithful follower and her lover, how could Gayatri tolerate it?

But she had no choice. Apparently, it was this indifferent arrogance of his which had caught the interest of the princess. Irrespective of her personal feelings, she needed to do her duty. She didn't want her relation with Ahilya to deteriorate further than what it already had.

Once she left from there, Shaurya turned his frustrated gaze towards Bela who consoled him and told him that it was a matter of a few more days.

"You need to be on your guard all the time and no provoking the princess under any circumstances, understood?" Bela reminded him.

He nodded and went on to say what was on the top of his mind.

"I… I want to send something, a few notes to, err… to the Gurukul. Can I hope that you will carry it back for me?" he asked.

Bela raised one of her eyebrows. Did this kind just dare to ask her to be the courier of his love letters to her daughter? Had she been too lenient on him these past few days?

"No!" with that she walked off.