When Aastha met Veer, she knew they had a connection.
However, the connection would be from two centuries ago, she never could have imagined.
A love story that remained unfulfilled, broken by evil, and destroyed to ashes - whose reference hide...
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Chapter 9
~1815
"Naani sa!!" Radhika called, tears streaming out of her eyes as she watched the older woman burn, enveloped with fire.
All she wanted to do was jump in and rescue her grandmother. But the maids and sepoys didn't let it happen. All the attempts of rescuing Umadevi were in vain. Her body burned deeper and harder with each passing second. Finally, when it seemed that the elderly lady's life had left her body, Radhika fell down to the ground.
She glared at the mass of fire in front of her. Her naani sa was no more.
Radhika couldn't really register what was going on. They were outside, on the backside of the fort, that led to the jungle. The fort was surrounded by a man-made pond on all sides. It was Raja Ratan's idea, apparently having the fort surrounded by water gave them a strategic benefit in case of an invasion.
She glared at the sepoys who were bringing the water from the pond to douse the fire. Nothing worked. Her naani sa was slowly turning into a pile of ashes. From the corner of her eyes, she noticed her family approach the area with shock. Her mother's inconsolable sob filled her ears. But that didn't affect Radhika's glare. She continued her actions, hoping to find some answers or wake up from the nightmare. As the reality started to close in, her tears dried up.
"Please get up, Rajkumari." Paakhi tried too hard to help her. Radhika didn't move. She held her ground.
"What happened here?" Raja Ratan demanded to know. His family was a mess. Villagers had surrounded them, even with sepoys trying to maintain a distance between the incident and the onlookers, it was impossible to keep his family matters under wraps. His blood was boiling with both shock, rage, and pain of losing his mother-in-law, who was no less than his own mother.
A queen like her didn't deserve to die like this. She didn't deserve it at all.
"Rajkumari Radhika did it!!!" Someone from the crowd yelled. Raja Ratan felt as if he was hearing things. But one voice soon turned into many. A lot of villagers vouched for it, shocking everyone. "Bring that man here!" Ratan thundered, commanding his soldiers.
An elderly man was dragged brutally in front of the king, "How dare you! How dare you talk ill of my daughter? She is the princess of Malavar, I can give you a death sentence this instant for your audacity!" Ratan raged in anger.
The man stood relentlessly, even though he was scared of his king's wrath, he wasn't someone to back down from his words. He was going to tell everyone what he saw. It wasn't just him, his fellow villagers saw it too!
"Rana sa! You are our king, we adore you, we respect you and we all consider you as our God! Your family is equal to the family of God for all of us! I have no intention of bad-mouthing anyone. What I saw everyone else saw." He spoke. Raja Ratan pulled out his sword and held it against the man's neck. "I am warning you again. I will kill you this instant if you lie."
