If love had prevailed (Ponniyin Selvan AU)

Kadidhamum Porkalamum

Translation: Letters and Battleground

The news came through a bird. 

Kundavi did not know or care for what type of bird it was. Only for the tiny scroll at its feet. 

The words in it, written in a familiar handwriting, one she had seen almost everyday.

I'll be battling by dawn

And seeing the dark night sky before her, the princess let the fear she had been holding at bay consume her. 

Tomorrow. By tomorrow, her anna would be fighting. 

It still felt unreal. 

She didn't know when the tears had started, only that they had been falling and falling and falling. 

So lost in her worry, she didn't hear her younger brother enter or acknowledge his presence until he sat beside her and pulled her into a hug. 

"He'll be back, Akka", the younger prince whispered, as though convincing himself, "I know it"

But the dead tone and lightless eyes said otherwise. 

Neither of the siblings pointed it out, simply to retain all the hope they could. 

They stayed the same way, until Arulmozhi stood up, some point in the depths of the dark crescent-moon night and said, "Akka, we shouldn't be moping like this. Anna would be mad at us and you know it"

The princess sighed, "I know, I shouldn't be like this. I should be proud of him, for achieving this, but it all happened so fast and he left before I could even acknowledge the war and- and I'm so worried and I just miss him"

And I just feel like I betrayed him by telling the love of his life to never talk to him again

Arulmozhi just smiled, content that his sister had finally expressed the worries plaguing her mind, even though he didn't know the complete truth, "Akka, it'll be like this. But then we'll start getting stories about all the crazy things he's doing at camp, and the victories he lead"

"And we'll be exasperated, like usual", Kundavi finished, with a small smile of her own.

The younger prince's grin widened at the sight of his Akka's smile, "And then he'll be back himself with tales of his own, and we'll all go back to normal"

As normal as he'll be after he finds out I- 

No. Stop. It was for the empire. 

It was the only thought stopping her from going back to the Archagar's house and taking back everything she said. 

But the more she thought about it, she realised there was no significant way a commoner queen would affect the empire except a bunch of angry chieftains. 

She didn't acknowledge these radical ideas, though, cause obsessing over them would lead her to spilling it to someone in power, along with her brother's love. 

That was something she should keep to herself. She didn't disrespect it to that extent, so far as to tell on them like a gossip monger. 

But she did want to ask a few questions, that had been burning within her since she had talked to Nandini. 

Questions that could potentially get her in serious trouble.

Why not a commoner queen?

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Ashwin decided being awoken by the sound of a bird pecking wood, right beside his ear, was quite aggravating. 

But the scroll at the bird's feet with a tiger seal washed any traces of irritation.