Flash Floods And Betrayal ( Part 5 )

In a way Vajra indulged her when he allowed her to take part in court. If he had to sit and think clearly for a moment, he knew perfectly well she had long stopped being useful when it came to her suggestions in how to run a country. Now she only wanted assert her wit and her dominance. To prove to others that she is not something to be taken lightly 'just because she's a woman'. But Vajra never sat down and cleared up his mind about her. It was because he loved her. If his sister says she is great, then she is great. There is no room for any doubt within him. However, just that much is not enough for him to be fooled into thinking she would one day march up to the throne of the entire drylands.

Seeing him silent like that, Varunapriya worried her brother might be thinking she will one day be coming for his throne. She gestured hastily. "What I mean is, one day, it is possible…It is certainly not easy taking over four major kingdoms! It's an effort for a lifetime, you know? I just want to have a have a goal. The prince of Pranaya just happens to share my goal," she raised her chin and said proudly.

"So it's not you sharing his goal," Vajra pointed out, but his voice was disinterested.

"No," Varuna said automatically, but she couldn't hear the conviction within herself. The raindrops around her pitter pattered down to the ground and disappeared. She lost the aura of the divine around her.

Her own mood was fluctuating, so she couldn't decipher what her brother was thinking about in that gloomy corner of the tent. In fact, Vajradandaka was not thinking about her situation at all.

He was thinking about the event three to five weeks ago when he was roughly dragged into a room by his future brother-in-law Hara when he came for a visit.

'You're the fucking bastard who advised the Prince of Manas on setting up those trade routes, aren't you?' he said while shoving the Martanda against a gilded platform.

His bodyguards rushed in and drew their swords, lusting for the prince's blood. But Vajra boldly sent them away. The prince of Abhaya was not divine awakened. But they say that all princes and heirs of the Abhaya mountain kingdom are born with the blood of the mountain in them. They are born awakened. When it comes to defending their territory, there can be none stronger than. It is hard to tell exactly what their power is, but they can each be imposing like a mountain when they want. They can be an obstacle one cannot simply demolish, but can only climb step by step with grit and determination. And Hara was the worst of those mountains. Cunning and sinister, he was like a cliff with jagged edges. Tall and imposing, obstinate and impossible to cross! Vajra did not doubt that this man can make him plunge into the depths of hell if he so wanted it. They say divine powers originate in Heaven, but the powers of the men of Abhaya originate from Earth. Only a single proof was needed of that statement. They even work on an Aditya.

'Brother-in-law is angry?' he smiled lightly. 'The prince of Manas is an ally of us both,' he reminded.

'Ally my foot!' Hara blasted. 'It takes over four months to travel to Manas on horse. It takes five months to do so from Rtadhara. Which other ally do you have that lives so far away?!' He added, 'And don't call me brother-in-law you little bastard! I feel like killing someone whenever you do so!'

'Hey don't blame me. Since we won the war five years ago, I never opposed the marriage!'

'Shut up! Let's not talk about that now. Let's talk about the issue at hand.'

'Man…growing up is such a pain. Everyone used to be nice to me when I was young. And now, everyone just swears at me all day. Even my good brother-in-law seemed to have forgotten I have given allowed to Saathi ethnic group to migrate to the mountains from Rtadhara. Little known fact about the Saathis,' Vajra put up an index finger and said, 'They are rare and ancient group of people who some say are the actual successors of the second Aditya, Mitra rather than the kings of Dhija. They can actually empower their horses with innate divine powers…so one can reach, let's say distant allies who live five months away, in only two. Really, what a wonderful gift, if I do say so myself.'

'I said shut up!'

'There you go.' Vajra settled on the steps of the platform with careless ease. He was supposed to be sitting on the throne placed above it though. "Nobody treats me nicely even if I give them everything I have…' he lamented in fake despair.

In all these years he had been blackmailed and extorted by this future brother-in-law, there were still a few tricks that he learnt. Prince Hara was absolutely weak to those who show vulnerability. Like a mountain compelled to shield the wilted greens from the sun, he just has to be protective of those who are weak.

'There there…I didn't mean to be mad,' he placated the youngster despite clearly hearing the fakeness in his lament. 'But what you did is wrong Little Cactus. You cannot keep advising a king who is not your friend.'

'But Grass is my friend.'

'Oh please! How many times hasn't that boy proclaimed to be your great rival during our time at the army camps? And even if you say you were just being children, and even if there is genuine friendship between you two…get this into your head. Manas is not Rtadhara's ally! Allies don't function this way that only one party gets all the benefits. In the end that boy didn't even acknowledge Rtadhara's help by sending you a tribute! He merely paid for the travelling expenses incurred by the families of the barbarians when they migrated. How in the world would you call this an alliance?!'

'But he was not meant to sit on the throne of Manas since the beginning…That just happened along the way, so he wasn't prepared to send us a tribute. He was living like a barbarian for three years, so how would he think about all that?'

'He should've sent it anyway when he became the successor of Manas. A Kshatriya always pays back a kindness and he always takes revenge for injustice. This is basic sense.'

'But Grass isn't born a Kshatriya. Perhaps he doesn't understand.'

'Enough!' Hara shouted again. 'Even if he isn't born a Kshatriya, his teacher, that invisible woman was the finest specimen if there ever was one! You are just being an idiot if you think Manas didn't acknowledge Rtadhara's help just because the boy is ignorant. Do you think you're the only advisor he's got in that huge and exorbitantly rich temple kingdom? Manas doesn't want to ally with Rtadhara, this remote kingdom that people in the plateau have long forgotten about, don't you understand? No one compared the two kingdoms because there was never an instance that needed it, but now someone would've done it. And they would have come to the same conclusion as I did that Manas and Rtadhara can never be allies! Manas is the faith capital of liberal spiritual though where the individual is granted freedom to explore the self by any means available. But Rtadhara stands for the opposite. It is the capital of orthodox faith in this world and is the center of all divine power that rules it. If Manas acknowledges this country, it would automatically become subservient to it. Rtadhara has both faith and power. Manas only has faith. It would never acknowledge you or your favor until it is equally powerful to contend with you. Do you get it now?'

Vajra never put Manas into his thoughts until then. He thought only like Hara. Manas was too far away to make any difference to him whether it was enemy or ally. But now that he thought about it, Manas may not think of Rtadhara the same way. It really did stand on a fundamentally opposite view with the country when it comes to faith. Despite being located at the edge of central plateau, Manas does not bow down to Indra (title of the current emperor of Amaravati). People over there do acknowledge Manas's right to develop its own faith, which originally revolved around Shakti. Her consort was only given importance after nearly a century. Even so, none of the Deva factions were threatened because Manas was fundamentally a place to hash philosophy and review spiritual discoveries. It was like the Northern University. Knowledge ruled in that university kingdom while philosophy, art and spirituality ruled in Manas. None of these things can kill. Manas does not have divine power. None of its people undergo divine awakening. Plus it allowed princes from the original four kingdoms to administer it on a rotation basis. It was not threatening. So the Devas allowed Manas to thrive. But the moment the chosen one arrived, everything changed. The gods of Manas came down the mountain and cast a shroud of supreme deterrence over it. None dared to approach it. No divine powers that powerful had ever been recorded in history! It was like apocalypse would come down on man if they dared to defy Shakti and her consort. Till now, the various factions and kingdoms of the plateau still did not know who that fearsome couple was. If they were just humans with divine powers, they can still be killed. But if they were really gods…They dared not think.

This deterrence allowed Kush to develop his rule. He was still a prince. He wouldn't ascend until he served for five years, just like all the other princes who administered the government of Manas. However, considering the true king and queen of the place were just blocks of stone, Kush was no different from a king there.