Ephemera- Of Fire and Ash

Indelible recollections

Please vote and comment if you all want next chapter soon, it encourages me so much.

This one was particularly difficult to write but I am very satisfied with how it turned out. I hope you all enjoy it too!

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"It is under the glamour and affluence of royalty,
the rarest silks and jewels
that lie the most gruesome rugs and the dirtiest secrets."

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"Our dear cousin is being surprisingly warm" A man looked unnerved at his companion.

"I know him well, he is a snake, he will make us like him so much that we wrap him around our arm and then he shall attack." The other man said firmly. He knew his friend very well.

"What if he attacks before we even realise, what if we realise the damage he does too late?" Arjun said again frantically.

"That sounds like something he would do. I am ashamed of ever being his friend." Karn gripped the bed extremely hard causing shrivels of broken pieces to fall down. The few pieces that break first before the whole tower comes crumbling down, the calm before the storm, the one that goes unnoticed.

"It is not your fault, you were indebted-" Karna cut arjun off.

"Indebted! Indebted you say? It was my foolishness in all senses, I thought he was my friend, but I was just a vassal of his, only of use till I did what he wanted." He said pulling fistfuls of his hair.

"Do you know? When I found out I was your brother, I was shattered. The life I strived for, the goals I aimed for, the hopes I struggled to for, everything could have already been mine. It was already mine, if not for maa. Every time I was humiliated, every time I was undermined I reminded myself that my talents would carve an identity for me. After years of toiling day and night, giving my blood sweat and tears for archery, the only thing I got was ridicule and humiliation. Then, in m darkest days, Duryodhana stood for me, he faced those blank faces and inflated egos. He gave me an equal status to them. The only happy moments I had then were with him. I considered him my friend, my best friend. Then the truth came out, he dropped me like a dead fly. I still remember that day vividly. I ran to his room, in hope of finding something stable in my ricocheting life. But he, he, told me I was just dirt on his feet. He said that all I ever was, was because of him, that I had no identity of my own. He humiliated me, I stood and heard it. But then, he called mother a prostitute and humiliated his own father. That got to me. He hurled insults at me which I cannot repeat as I left from there after placing my crown at his feet." Karna broke off and looked at arjun who looked stunned.

He had never disclosed anything about his relationship with duryodhana, in hope and resect that he had not really become the monster everyone thought him to be. But alas! Karna was wrong.

"Bhaiya- You never told us all this. We would rampage Hastinapur and avenge-" arjun started but karna cut him off "In my web of indebt, I failed to see that to him all I was, was dust at his feet. Just don't tell any of this to anyone." Arjun gestured behind them where yudhishthira, bheem, nakul and Sahadev were standing behind there.

"This doesn't change how much we respect and love you Bhaiya, he trapped you like he trapped all of us." Nakul smiled wetly.

"We all have scars, don't we? Those who leave them don't matter but rather those who draw stars around them." Yudhishthira smiled faintly remembering when he disclosed the deepest of his to Draupadi. (chapter- Insecurities)

"It is under the glamour and affluence of royalty, the rarest silks and jewels that lie the most gruesome rugs and the dirtiest secrets." Sahadev whispered softly.