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Ballads Of Nirvana
Chapter 17
Part 2
Indriya did not know how to react when she saw the Queen of Bhadra, who was flanked by Mekhala and Lekha. She was in absolute awe to see how the Lady was dressed. She was lean, compact and most of all gracefully strong. She looked like a goddess and was wearing a beautiful parrot green and maroon saree that complimented her body type and carried a long gold hilted sword, the sword reached Indriya’s shoulder.
Indriya didn’t bow to the queen, she didn’t know if she had to or not but she was regarded as the heir to a kingdom and a soon-to-be queen, so she deemed it would not be right for her to bow to the queen.
Indriya joined her hands over her chest and gave a slightest nod with a graceful, polite smile, the queen returned the gesture and the smile with a slight bob of her head.
Indriya’s stomach churned like she was on a roller coaster ride for the past two hours, but all those years in dramatics, taught her how to act on a stage with thousands of eyes watching. So she kept on with her performance.
“I am very pleased to be in your presence, Heir of Nirvana, how is my son entertaining you?” The queen said, her voice was as calm as the sea before a tsunami.
‘My son?’
“Very Well, your Highness. He is… interesting. I hope your journey was a pleasant one.” Indriya lowered her voice into a very quiet one, but it was not like the Queen's; it was like water on simmering coals.
“Oh yes! It was a rather pleasant one, Princess. I am afraid I do not know your name, Child. My son didn’t have the time to write me proper messages.” She eyed Agni gravely, who slightly stiffened beside her.
“Yes, your Highness, Prince Tamas has been quite busy training me, these days. So I should be the one to apologise. I am Indriya Vardhi Vatsalya.” The Queen now looked at her with feline curiosity and leaned forward in her maroon cushioned arm chair.
“Oh! That is why I am here. How is your training going, Child?” The Queen drawled. “Do you have Dharmavadini’s powers or your father’s?”
Indriya did not like the way the queen took her mother’s name, she purred.
“Both I suppose. I am sorry, your highness but are you here only to know how my training is going?” Indriya asked a genuine question eyeing the queen and her two companions.
“Oh, no Princess, Achintya and I have come to celebrate Janmashtami with you, my son and his friends.” There was no hint of a challenge in there, but Indriya kept her act on.
“It is a pleasure, Your highness, to celebrate the festival in your presence.” Indriya looked at Mekhala and Lekha and then she met the Queen’s gaze. Her dark eyes were like that of storm clouds, but her lackadaisical posture made her look harmless, almost like any other woman. But then she looked at Indriya like a Queen would look at another Queen. Respect, challenge and pride, those were the words she was an incarnation of.
“Princess, tell me how it was living all your life between those low life mortals? Those on Earth are very interesting but all the more vulnerable.” Mekhala asked, suddenly with mocking politeness in her voice. Indriya smiled in a mocking way, not at Mekhala, but at the Queen who was making her ask the questions. She noticed how Agni had gone completely still beside her, Indriya almost felt Agni begging her to calm down.
“Oh! Definitely not as bad as your sorry life as a slave.” She replied, with a cool smile.
“Manners, Princess! I guess your underling parents couldn’t teach you…” Lekha was, but then a red patch of light was burning on her mouth like a duck tape.
Indriya was still smiling.
“Your Highness, your slaves are flinging a load of dung at a queen and it would only be fair that I say their manners are just as bad as my low life ones. It will not sound respectful if I am the one to punish them.” Indriya purred, in a quiet deep tone.
The Queen only smiled, and with a flick of her wrist Indriya let go of the woman. She had no control over her power; it had just appeared as though it were an incarnation of her rage. Burning and wild.
“Next time, Ms. Mekhala, don’t you dare speak, when two Queens are in a conversation. It is bad for your health.” Indriya advised, Lekha’s thin lips pressed together in rage and her nostrils flared, but she didn’t say anything.
“You will pay for this.” Mekhala’s eyes were like coals burning in a fireplace. The skin around her mouth had turned a bright shade of scarlet and so were her cheeks.
“Really? How is that Mekhala? Will you woo my dear friend and future ally, Prince Agni? Or will you seize my throne? Not that it is already taken.” Indriya’s hands trembled with rage but she gave her a sly smile and she hid them under the table. She could feel Agni’s stare on her but she paid no heed to him.
“You have gone too far, Princess, insulting me and my sister like that.” Mekhala attacked Indriya with a knife in her hand but Agni was even faster, he disarmed Mekhala in a blink of Indriya’s eye and locked her hands behind her and pinned her head on the table between the two queens. It was all of a heartbeat that had taken him to pin a warrior down. One heartbeat or less.
Indriya did not flinch, she was careful not to flinch. She realised this was a diplomatic test, a test for her patience and wit. An open challenge by the Queen of Bhadra who sat in her chair, unmoved and unflinched.
Indriya now begged for her power to act on Mekhala’s neck just to show what she could do, she begged it, reaching out into an endless abyss, and to her surprise the power did appear, a thin red line around Mekhala’s neck.
Mekhala choked and was trying to free herself from Agni’s reach but Agni looked at Indriya, ‘One nod of the head and I will leave her. One more nod I will kill her.’ Agni’s eyes danced with rage. She thought she was hallucinating but there was sheer ferocity and anger in his eyes.
‘Don’t, she’s mine.’ Indriya nodded once and both her shield and Agni let go of Mekhala. Indriya looked to the Queen who sat there watching the entire episode like it was a Netflix series with sheer
“Your Highness, I cannot punish the Lady of your esteemed court, but she tried to murder me in your presence. What will Bhadra say?” Indriya’s voice was calm, but not without a threat. She was threatening the Queen who was smiling at her proudly.
“You are every inch of your mother, she was also like this...feisty and daring. You would make a good Queen, Princess.” She stood up from her chair with a dancer’s grace, everyone got up except Indriya. ‘What is it with this Tamas family and grace? I bet they were taught to dance in their mother’s womb. And what is it with them that all of them look so beautiful and are so strong.’ Her inferiority complex shot up like mercury in a laboratory thermometer in a boiling test tube.
“I look forward to finding out just that, Your Highness.” Indriya smiled back, but now it was a polite one. It was out of respect.
© YDR
Part 2
Indriya did not know how to react when she saw the Queen of Bhadra, who was flanked by Mekhala and Lekha. She was in absolute awe to see how the Lady was dressed. She was lean, compact and most of all gracefully strong. She looked like a goddess and was wearing a beautiful parrot green and maroon saree that complimented her body type and carried a long gold hilted sword, the sword reached Indriya’s shoulder.
Indriya didn’t bow to the queen, she didn’t know if she had to or not but she was regarded as the heir to a kingdom and a soon-to-be queen, so she deemed it would not be right for her to bow to the queen.
Indriya joined her hands over her chest and gave a slightest nod with a graceful, polite smile, the queen returned the gesture and the smile with a slight bob of her head.
Indriya’s stomach churned like she was on a roller coaster ride for the past two hours, but all those years in dramatics, taught her how to act on a stage with thousands of eyes watching. So she kept on with her performance.
“I am very pleased to be in your presence, Heir of Nirvana, how is my son entertaining you?” The queen said, her voice was as calm as the sea before a tsunami.
‘My son?’
“Very Well, your Highness. He is… interesting. I hope your journey was a pleasant one.” Indriya lowered her voice into a very quiet one, but it was not like the Queen's; it was like water on simmering coals.
“Oh yes! It was a rather pleasant one, Princess. I am afraid I do not know your name, Child. My son didn’t have the time to write me proper messages.” She eyed Agni gravely, who slightly stiffened beside her.
“Yes, your Highness, Prince Tamas has been quite busy training me, these days. So I should be the one to apologise. I am Indriya Vardhi Vatsalya.” The Queen now looked at her with feline curiosity and leaned forward in her maroon cushioned arm chair.
“Oh! That is why I am here. How is your training going, Child?” The Queen drawled. “Do you have Dharmavadini’s powers or your father’s?”
Indriya did not like the way the queen took her mother’s name, she purred.
“Both I suppose. I am sorry, your highness but are you here only to know how my training is going?” Indriya asked a genuine question eyeing the queen and her two companions.
“Oh, no Princess, Achintya and I have come to celebrate Janmashtami with you, my son and his friends.” There was no hint of a challenge in there, but Indriya kept her act on.
“It is a pleasure, Your highness, to celebrate the festival in your presence.” Indriya looked at Mekhala and Lekha and then she met the Queen’s gaze. Her dark eyes were like that of storm clouds, but her lackadaisical posture made her look harmless, almost like any other woman. But then she looked at Indriya like a Queen would look at another Queen. Respect, challenge and pride, those were the words she was an incarnation of.
“Princess, tell me how it was living all your life between those low life mortals? Those on Earth are very interesting but all the more vulnerable.” Mekhala asked, suddenly with mocking politeness in her voice. Indriya smiled in a mocking way, not at Mekhala, but at the Queen who was making her ask the questions. She noticed how Agni had gone completely still beside her, Indriya almost felt Agni begging her to calm down.
“Oh! Definitely not as bad as your sorry life as a slave.” She replied, with a cool smile.
“Manners, Princess! I guess your underling parents couldn’t teach you…” Lekha was, but then a red patch of light was burning on her mouth like a duck tape.
Indriya was still smiling.
“Your Highness, your slaves are flinging a load of dung at a queen and it would only be fair that I say their manners are just as bad as my low life ones. It will not sound respectful if I am the one to punish them.” Indriya purred, in a quiet deep tone.
The Queen only smiled, and with a flick of her wrist Indriya let go of the woman. She had no control over her power; it had just appeared as though it were an incarnation of her rage. Burning and wild.
“Next time, Ms. Mekhala, don’t you dare speak, when two Queens are in a conversation. It is bad for your health.” Indriya advised, Lekha’s thin lips pressed together in rage and her nostrils flared, but she didn’t say anything.
“You will pay for this.” Mekhala’s eyes were like coals burning in a fireplace. The skin around her mouth had turned a bright shade of scarlet and so were her cheeks.
“Really? How is that Mekhala? Will you woo my dear friend and future ally, Prince Agni? Or will you seize my throne? Not that it is already taken.” Indriya’s hands trembled with rage but she gave her a sly smile and she hid them under the table. She could feel Agni’s stare on her but she paid no heed to him.
“You have gone too far, Princess, insulting me and my sister like that.” Mekhala attacked Indriya with a knife in her hand but Agni was even faster, he disarmed Mekhala in a blink of Indriya’s eye and locked her hands behind her and pinned her head on the table between the two queens. It was all of a heartbeat that had taken him to pin a warrior down. One heartbeat or less.
Indriya did not flinch, she was careful not to flinch. She realised this was a diplomatic test, a test for her patience and wit. An open challenge by the Queen of Bhadra who sat in her chair, unmoved and unflinched.
Indriya now begged for her power to act on Mekhala’s neck just to show what she could do, she begged it, reaching out into an endless abyss, and to her surprise the power did appear, a thin red line around Mekhala’s neck.
Mekhala choked and was trying to free herself from Agni’s reach but Agni looked at Indriya, ‘One nod of the head and I will leave her. One more nod I will kill her.’ Agni’s eyes danced with rage. She thought she was hallucinating but there was sheer ferocity and anger in his eyes.
‘Don’t, she’s mine.’ Indriya nodded once and both her shield and Agni let go of Mekhala. Indriya looked to the Queen who sat there watching the entire episode like it was a Netflix series with sheer
“Your Highness, I cannot punish the Lady of your esteemed court, but she tried to murder me in your presence. What will Bhadra say?” Indriya’s voice was calm, but not without a threat. She was threatening the Queen who was smiling at her proudly.
“You are every inch of your mother, she was also like this...feisty and daring. You would make a good Queen, Princess.” She stood up from her chair with a dancer’s grace, everyone got up except Indriya. ‘What is it with this Tamas family and grace? I bet they were taught to dance in their mother’s womb. And what is it with them that all of them look so beautiful and are so strong.’ Her inferiority complex shot up like mercury in a laboratory thermometer in a boiling test tube.
“I look forward to finding out just that, Your Highness.” Indriya smiled back, but now it was a polite one. It was out of respect.
© YDR
