Brinda

Rejection

Two days had passed since Ambika Devi called the King Adigun a beast and labeled him everything that was wrong in a King and in a man. It had been two harrowing fays with nothing but constant headache and wishful thinking that she would come back out and speak with him. It had been two days of hell for the newly enthroned King and while time slowly trickled past, the misery only seemed like it had just begun.

Dragging his feet for the sixth time or possibly the tenth time within the past two days along the same corridor and towards the same brightly decorated private room with golden bar handles, King Adigun paused momentarily.

Folding his fist, he rammed his knuckle into the wood and called out, "Ambika! Can you please open the door so we can at least talk about this?"

He looked to the ground and spotted trays of food, still not touched and obviously not being accepted by the Queen. Some had begun to waste away while one still looked fresh; it had been brought over by the maids that morning.

"Can we at least talk about everything that has happened?" he asked again. "There is no resolving anything if you wouldn't even try to speak with me".

Staunch silence came back in response and he could feel his ears ringing with unsaid words from the queen. Her bold and rather strong character and persona threatened to break his will, but he still clung onto hope that she would come out and that they could simply speak about things.

"You could at least eat something and not waste away in there", he called out again.

Shaking his head and conceding at how badly he had gone about things, King Adigun wondered how his parents made things work so smoothly between themselves. His mother wasn't originally from Chiroma and instead, had come from a Kingdom which was now defunct because his father, King Akogun, raided them and laid waste to everything they had.

In fact, his father had sent his mother's father on exile and taken over every single thing they had going on. The land became part of Chiroma's until it slowly died out. Yet, he never heard his mother rage about being taken away from her home or having her father exiled. It was honor to battle and it was a prestigious one for men of Chiroma to die at war or bring home spoils of war.

It was an unwritten rule that men who went to war had to come back with totems to indicate their exploits and it was why they would often plunder, ransack and clear out war sites before heading back home. It made them prosperous and it sent a message of doom to their enemies both far and near. It made it clear that all Chiroma men knew was to go to war.

"What was she expecting of me?" he asked while he dragged his attention back to Ambika Devi. "What exactly do you expect of me!? You realize if I didn't invade your kingdom or go to war with it, someone else would do it along the line and they might not even be generous with your people as I have!"

He could figure out ten more ways to make life hellish for her people and he had done none of it.

"Ambika!" he screamed, feeling his patience slowly begin tow wane. "As your King and the ruler of Brinda, I command you to open this door or the gods help me when I call on guards to break it down!"

"You will never be my King!" her voice finally answered, before he heard the door lock get yanked out of place.

Ambika Devi stood before him with nothing but absolute hurt in her eyes. He could see himself burning within them and the longer he stared at her, the harder it felt for him to make sense of what she truly wanted.

"What do you want?" he asked. "Is it gold? Is it something fancy you want? Do you need me to build something just for you?"

Nothing but blank stare was directed right back at him in that very moment. Her lips twitched but brought no words, and her eyes continued to look into his soul in consuming manner.