12. Chhaya's Fall

Chhaya flew towards the sun but her heart was disdainful. She felt like she as the queen of darkness and the goddess of shadow should never give this much respect to him, The god of light.

"He might be very arrogant and overbearing like his heart."

Chhaya thought with contempt. She looked in the sky at the sun, She felt the overbearing nature of his heat, Giving a poor life in the world a very hard time. She then looked proudly as she saw those tortured by the heat taking shelter in her shadows. Suddenly an unexpected surge of pride filled her. She felt that those beings will worship her more than Surya as she sheltered them while he was the one who was raining down hellfire.

She stopped and looked at their relished faces, thanking the shadows for their shelters and then leaving for their homes. She felt their genuine gratitude and worship in it. This is the first time she felt something like this, So she who is lost in new-found feelings completely forgets the passage of time.

"Oh no, I am late."

Finally, after some time, she remembers, Why she was here. She looked at the sun at the horizon, Who should have long been set by now. With little guilt, She flies towards him at full speed. Anyway no matter what she thought of him, He was still the husband of her new sister.

'He will be going to blame me for it now.'

Chhaya thought to herself, As she imagined that Surya might have an arrogant personality, So her letting him wait for this long will surely annoy him. She was ready to take responsibility as she was practically at a fault here, She is not that willful to ignore her own mistakes.

'What a shame, I have to bow down in front of my enemy.'

With this thought in her mind, She reached in front of Surya. Her head was hung down, She didn't look at the man in front of her from the beginning, She was ready to receive her punishment from the arrogant man in her mind but the punishment nor the angry words in her imagination came to her. On the contrary very gentle, self-blame, and teasing words fell on her ears.

"What I did now, That makes you mad Priye (Dear)? Anyway, I apologise for the crime that I don't know I committed, Please forgive my ignorance, So can you take me to our home now? Haha.'"

Surya spoke these words, Which look like genuine apologies but anyone who hears them can tell they were in a hidden teasing tone, This transaction looks more like the banter between couples.

Chhaya froze upon hearing this soft gentle voice. Her heart misses its beat, Her hung-down head lifted up on its own. Then her black void-like eyes meet his golden radiance-filled eyes.

*Boom*

Just as their eyes met, She felt something deep inside her open up, Like as if some floodgate opened, and a surge of unknown emotions filled her mostly empty heart. She was in a trance. Maybe she was captivated by his beauty, Maybe she was blinded by his brilliance, Maybe she was tempted by his charm, Maybe his words tied her.

Maybe...Maybe...Maybe. There were too many maybe to which she didn't know the answer of but she knew one thing for sure, She was utterly and completely defeated by the man in front of her. She was subdued by her enemy in their first meeting without him making a move.

She didn't even know when Surya held her hand and led her back to her supposed home. She only comes back to her senses when Surya takes all the way back to her now-shared bedroom with Surya.

When she realised it, She started to panic. She was afraid of how to handle the situation.

'I should outright deny his advances...But if I do that it will make him suspicious and I can't afford that if I want to keep acting as a Sandhya...But if I don't then I will be going to break my oath. What am I going to do?'

An internal struggle breaks out in her mind. One part wanted her to continue to pretend as Sandhya and let things go with the flow, While the other reminded her of the oath she had taken. But in her struggle, she didn't realise that there was not an ounce of initial hate or disgust for the thing she might have to do with him.

"Priye (Dear), Can you tell me now, What's bothering you?"

But Surya said an unexpected thing. For others, Chhaya might be able to fool them but Surya instantly realised something off about his wife today.

Normally she was always babbling on their way back to home, Retelling every minute details of her day, What she did today, What new shenanigans their kids were upto, How much trouble they caused her, etc. But mostly she used to tell him how much she missed him, Her telling him how each second she was away from him felt like years and when he did not respond like the way she wanted to, Her loving tantrum. Then the rest of the journey will be spent in his attempts to please her. This was the couple's each-day routine, They do this with so much love and faith that this can even be considered a ritual, But today she was too silent, Which was bothering him.

"Huh? What do you mean?"

Chhaya was startled by his question, Thinking he might have found out about her secret.

"No, it's just that, One question was bothering me, Sa-Savmi. Can you answer that?"

But Chhaya was quick on her wits and changed the subject skillfully.

"Oh, So that's why, Go ahead and ask. I will do my best to answer it."

Surya thought he found the reason for her today's behaviour, So he was also ready to answer a question to solve her worry and get his usual wife back.

"So my question is, Who is greater? You a god of Sun and light or a Shadows and Darkness?"

Chhaya hit two birds with this question, Not only with this she throws off any suspicion against her but also gets an answer to her first-ever question.

"Hahaha, This question is bothering you so much? The answer to this question is very simple, Both of us are equally important to the mortals, We serve."

Surya answers without batting an eye as if the answer to this question was already made by him long ago.

"But-"

Chhaya wanted to say something more but was cut off by an explanation from Surya.

"People worship me and love me because of the existence of the Shadows, Which give them salvation from my heat. People know the importance of my light because darkness exists. Without darkness no one will ever care about my light, They might as well hate me for my continuous presence."

Surya said with overflowing gratitude in his voice.

When Chhaya heard his answer she felt ashamed, She who considered him a foe turned out that for him she was an important friend. She felt guilty for her initial hate for him, But his answer generated one more question in her heart.

"But doesn't that mean people think you are greater than a Shadow and Darkness?"

Chhaya was bothered by this question, Though she did not have initial hate for Surya but her competitive heart was still there. Plus somehow she didn't want to be inferior to Surya.

"Yes, People do indeed think of me greater than Shadow and Darkness, but don't forget in this world there is not only people. There are Yaksha (Spirits), Raksha (Demons), Naga (Lamia), etc. They love and worship Darkness. At night time they became ten times stronger than their base day form, So I and Darkness work together to create an an equivalence of a force to maintain the power level between two factions and prevent one party from gaining an advantage over the other.

It's just a pity that there is no god yet to be appointed for these forces. If there was, We should have been best friends."

Surya said these words in a casual manner and went into his personal chamber leaving his wife alone with her thoughts, So she can digest and figure it out all these things on her own.

'So we can be friends.'

Unknown to Surya, His "Wife" focused on a wrong point. The information he tells her intending to wipe her worry, Might be hold a philosophical value for the others but for Chhaya, A party involved in it, It's not important.

At this moment, She needed an answer about Why her heart was throbbing so fast and what that weird bittersweet feeling she was experiencing right now.

The one who was able to tell her is not present here and she didn't know anyone else she can trust here, Who she can tell about this. So in annoyance she headed towards the kitchen to cook dinner for her family. They are gods who don't need to eat anything but it's a gesture that lets them connect and stay close to the mortal realm.

This is hiw her first day ended. She stayed all night in the personal garden of Sandhya as an excuse to think of the problem, Until new day arrived and Sun again started his journey in the vast sky.

(A/N : Guys bear with me for a little while, This arc will end soon. I am focusing on Surya families this much because to let you guys know their personalities and get to let them know each other and they will be playing an important part in a story.

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Also Happy Diwali ✨✨✨

Like always thanks for reading and have a good day 😁.)