अन्तः अस्ति प्रारंभः।
The end is the beginning.
A caterpillar dies, to birth a butterfly. Water evaporates to rain down. Dead carcasses fill the stomachs of vultures.Life gives way to death and death to life. In a vicious circle of different karmas...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
"Oleanders," Mihira panted uncharacteristically as she burst in the Law Maintenance office. Everyone seated there looked up at her, annoyed and surprised in equal parts. Rukmanetra seemed to be the most annoyed as he looked up from the papers strewn across a table. His crown was sitting beside him on the settee, hair tied in a low ponytail at his nape correlating with the warm flush at his neck.
She strode in the office, the exhilaration at her discovery undoing something profound in her that forced her to ignore even his disapproval of her. "Oleanders, your excellency, are highly poisonous."
"And, Devi?"
Everyone in the office, at their own respective desks, still seemed raptured by the way the conversation was proceeding. Even Eklavya, standing in a corner with his father and Hiranandini, didn't interrupt.
"And they're far less likely to be detected than Daturas." The clench in Rukmanetra's jaw confirmed that he was finally connecting what she was referring to. "Moonlight Daturas grow away from the capital and need to be imported. They cause swift death, but leave behind traces that are extremely obvious. Any accounts or import details can show off the names of importers."
Rukmanetra stood up, leaving his crown on the table as he began walking. "Oleanders grow in the capital in a large amount." Mihira followed him, burying her smug smirk in her mind when she saw him wave off anyone else who would follow them.
"Yes." Side stepping Eklavya, she picked off the stash of bound papers that had the details of the case. "Vaidhya shree Hiranandani has said that the people died from the toxicity of the plant before the side effects. That the toxicity seemed to be of the flowers instead of the seeds, which are more potent in poison.
"What if datura was only a cover up? A false lead to keep us away from the original murderer? Oleanders kill too, just not as harshly. A mix of the two would also explain why the after effects of the toxicity of the datura didn't show up as much as they should have."
Rukmanetra's sigh was more irate than exasperated and Mihira found it to be more amenable. She continued,"Not many people expect oleanders to be poisonous because they're often used as decorative plants and the knowledge of their poison is not wide spread. Hiding the buying of oleanders would be easier and plowing down a small amount of datura to hide in these seemingly decorative plants would be easier still."
Rukmanetra stopped in front of a door abruptly, pulling it open harshly. He walked in first and with a second of deliberation, Mihira followed him. The door opened to a wide balcony with two settees that looked half a step short of being sofas. He gestured widely towards one of the settees, telling her to sit down.
She didn't.
"Your excellency, this is an extremely smart ploy. This murderer led us to a whole different murder weapon which led us to a wild chase of something that was invisible."
