In the Wake of the War

Chapter-31

Vrishaketu felt uncomfortable. Highly uncomfortable.

First of all he could not believe that he had voluntarily asked to speak with Prince Arjun. What had gotten into him?!

Now he balked at his past self's actions but he had been so desperate to know why Prince Arjun would not stop trying to talk to him and desperation had overridden common sense.

Now that he knew.... well.

He felt awkward and self-conscious. 

Apparently he reminded Prince Arjun of his dead son. What on Earth had he been supposed to say to that?! So he had just awkwardly patted the man(he still could not believe he had done that) and got out of there as quickly as he could.

Vrishaketu didn't really like the idea of being compared to the dead Maharathi. Not only was he sure that he would never measure up to Abhimanyu, but if Uttara ever heard of it, things might get awkward and that was the last thing he wanted.

And he might surprisingly enough not loathe every pore of Prince Arjun anymore but he certainly didn't want the man to go around looking for the ghost of his son in Vrishaketu. That might lead to the build up of certain expectations and.... well..... Prince Arjun had assured him there was nothing of that sort but still....

And now Vrishaketu felt bad for the man!

He would have wondered if this was something that Prince Arjun might have said to gain his favour, but there was simply no reason for that. And he didn't think even the worst sort of person would do that if they had actually loved their son.

But now he didn't know how to act. This made him want to avoid Prince Arjun even more than before but doing so after the man had disclosed such a personal thing to him felt.... a bit not good.

Ugh everything was so exhausting!

He kind of really hated Uttara for locking him up with Prince Arjun. If not for that, he could have gone on completely despising the man in peace. Now he was stuck with all sorts of complications.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Vrishaketu had been all huffy and awkward for the past week. More so than usual. Something to do with Arjun again but this time he hadn't disclosed the details to Vrushali.

She wasn't sure why but she supposed it was truly serious he would tell her, so she wasn't very concerned.

They had to prepare to go back to Anga again anyway after one week instead of two this time to start the preparations of the Kingdom wide Vishwakarma Puja.

Part of her had doubts on whether a major festival should be celebrated less than six months since the war had ended and the other part of her said that as much as all of them grieved everyday, if they wanted to continue living they would have to attempt to at least carve out moments for themselves where they could feel something other than pain and when they could smile thinking of their lost loved ones.

And what better opportunity to do that than the upcoming Vishwakarma Puja? Every year since Vasusena had become King, Vishwakarma Puja and Chhatt Puja had been celebrated in Anga with great pomp and she was certain that every family had happy memories associated with those.

Vrushali knew that there was a chance of it backfiring, that instead of bringing forth the happy memories it could amplify the sense of loss for them all, but as Maharani she had to take a step, any step, to attempt to help her people heal. To...to attempt to help herself heal.