AISHA: The Cursed Name

Chapter -47 Album of Memories

Album of Memories

Aisha stood paralyzed at the centre of the stage. Maybe her poison affected the pillars too that they weren't awoken by her presence or maybe today they were all surrendered to her feet. Maybe today they had no power to raise their head in front of her. Maybe they were meant to be that way for her.

Vision~

The palace of Maya Lok was partially visible from underneath the water. Soon it was more clear as the waterbed kissed the fast-blowing winds. It was a race. A race between wind and water.
"Divyansh! Water is faster. You can't win."

"Don't challenge me, Aditya! I'm moving at your pace."
"Prove it then! You always lose."
Aditya screamed from his liquid form in the river leading to the palace. While Divyansh as the wind, swiftly sprinkle the water and then danced away quickly.

"I told you that I'm faster. Winds are faster than water current."
A tall boy with a good built-up physic was sitting at the shore. His legs were immersed in the water while he waited for his friend to flow down to him.
Aditya as a young lad of about seventeen, pulled out of the water, completely dry and sat next to his friend and smiled.
His smile faded away from their childhood and the grand hall at the palace was visible where the coronation of the new ruler of Maya Lok had just taken place and now he was asked to appoint his head of ministers. Head of ministers, Aditya.
With position comes power and work. But under the load of life, Divyansh and Aditya still used to find time for one another. Time flew away like dry sand, and through the sand came in sight of the moment when Divyansh was standing next to his father.
"It's time for me to be set free. I've lived my whole life and I've been happy in it. But now, I'd like to immerse myself in the everlasting peace of the Almighty. And... Maybe I'll meet her now. It's been way too long since I've lived without your mother. But, not anymore."
The riverside of Ganga. Somewhere in the hills, somewhere away from all the noise of his world, he came to bid farewell to his father. The old man smiled and dissolved in the water while he stood there silently, bearing the loss of his father.
That was the first time he saw her. That's when he heard the melodious hum of a young girl, coming along the river, jingling her anklets and bangles, coming closer to the water, to sit on a rock and dip her feet in the cold current of the water.
"How often do I tell you to not sneak around? You can't be loitering in this jungle, you're a princess."

That first look at one another became their whole destiny when a knot they tied in front of the fire as the witness of their love, and another day they both showed up at Soorya Lok as a married couple.
"How can I let my daughter go into some unknown world where I know no one will accept her? I can't! And I can't let your husband stay here!"

The Sooryavanshi King was a father before a King. And as the heart of the father, he had to stop his daughter, but then, he had to let her go. Daughters are born to their parents but are always someone else's liability. After marriage, he had no right to stop his daughter from moving away. He handed her over a ring, with a reddish-brown coloured diamond embedded in it and said,
"This is the last thing we have been left by the Mayavi before they went away. We've kept it safe for all these years maybe for a day like this, but it wasn't for you. However, this will never let them know that you are an outsider. This will help you be one like them. Now... Go!"

And they went. They went away to live the life they had dreamt of. No one ever found out about Karishma except Aditya, and the Sooryavanshi never discovered the status of the man they had given their daughter to. They only knew Divyansh was a Mayavi who married their Princess, for love.
Little did they know!
The gates of Maya Lok opened with lightning and thunder. The ground burst open to allow the intruder. He never opened the doors, he summoned Maya Lok to show itself to him, and so it did. And thus walked in an old ascetic. Someone asleep for more than thousands of years. His worn-out frame, long beard and deadly red eyes.