Loving You Through Lifetimes

A Mission born of Vengeance

"Go to sleep" my mother, softly, whispered. 

If only I was old enough to understand what was happening that day. Everything was a blur that day, I was a nine year old child. 

My mother gave me some warm milk, I drank that and lost consciousness. 

After I woke up, I realized that we were far away from our village. To my surprise, many people including father was missing. There were less than fifty people with us out of a village of at least five hundred. All of the survivors looked equal parts, haggard and terrified. 

"Mother!" I asked, anxiously, "Where is Father?"

"Gone..." whispered my mother, while tears slid down her cheeks, "He will never come back to us, little one"

"What, why?" I screamed, "Are you implying that Father abandoned us? I refuse to believe it!" 

"Little one" cut in a gruff voice of the village elder, "Your father was a hero who died protecting us alongside his troops. Despite his sacrifice, the tragedy is that so many lives were slaughtered by those wretched Suparnas"

The world seemed to spin around me, I wished I had never heard that awful truth. 

My mother said, "Remember, no matter where you are. You are a Naga, first and foremost! Remember this day and always remember to avenge your father. Never forget today, the day that you came to know that Nagas are being massacred by the Suparnas."

"This is a calculated genocide..." the village elder grunted. 

While I was processing the shocking news, our scout shouted "Run! They're here! Run for your lives!"

"Don't look back" my mother said, gently and kissed me on the forehead, "Transform!" she screamed at me. 

Sensing the urgency in her tone, I made the biggest mistake of my life which I regret to this day. I blindly obeyed her order. If only I had defied her that day, perhaps, she would still have been alive?

I transformed into a cobra and slithered away as fast as I can. I could hear swooping noises from flapping feathers growing closer. My blood turned to ice from the sheer horror. I remembered that when I was seven years old, I had heard the same noise overhead only to later see dying Nagas, their bodies mangled beyond recognition. 

I kept slithering away at lightning speed, praying for my fellow villagers to be safe. Suddenly, there was a shadow over me and before I could react, I was caught in sharp talons. I bit the legs of the legs of my attacker and with a piercing cry, he dropped me...

"WAKE UP!" 

The shout was enough to startle me out of my nightmare. I realized I was drenched in cold sweat. 

"Are you alright?" my Trainer asked, gruffly. 

"Yes, Sir" I lied. 

"I am here to inform you that our King Takshaka was pleased with your test results. He thinks you will be the best choice to assassinate the Crown Prince of the Suparnas!"

"It is my honour!" I said, bowing my head, my heart thumped in excitement. I had waited for years to get my revenge on those cruel Suparnas. 

The Trainer briefed me on the details of the top secret mission. I ingested the shapeshifting potion and transformed into a convincingly human appearance. Although the Nagas almost resembled humans, we were born with vertical pupils and forked tongues which gave us away. 

"Here" my Trainer said, passing me a diluted dose of Halahala poison. 

After I gulped it down, I could feel the effect of that horrendous poison. Since Naga's bodily poison can only harm but not kill the Suparnas, we are made to fill our bodies with Halahala.  

"Sir..." I asked, "How many days do I have left to live?"

"Is that a question that an assassin on a suicide mission should be asking?" my Trainer rebuked but grunted, "Sixty days" 

"Yes, Sir" I nodded, "I will kill the Suparna Crown Prince or die trying" 

"May the gods be with you" he blessed me. 

Three Days Later

I was carried by the palanquin into the Suparna palace. We kidnapped the daughter of the local human King and I impersonated her, fooling even her own father into believing that I was her. 

The human King was eager to strike an alliance with the powerful Suparnas. He offered to send his daughter as a concubine to the Crown Prince in hopes that she would soon bear a child.

As soon as I alighted at the gates, I was subjected to a security check and interrogation. Since I memorized everything about the woman I was impersonating, I passed with flying colours. 

It was late evening by the time I arrived at the inner courtyard of the pleasure palace quarters of the Crown Prince, the Rasa Bhavana. 

The moment I stepped out of the palanquin, the Suparna Matron arrived at the scene. "Hurry, girl!" she screeched, "Nightfall is almost here and His Highness will be visiting soon" 

Within a short while, I was decked in jewels like a sacrificial goat for slaughter. "I must say" the Matron remarked, "Out of all the concubines here, you have caught his eye! The Crown Prince insisted on visiting you tonight!" 

I received exhausting amount of information on how I am supposed to please the Crown Prince. I will please him so well that he will soon be enjoying the afterlife with Indra's apsaras. 

Night fell and I waited impatiently in my room, where is that wretched man?

I just wanted to kill him, then kill myself and fulfill my only purpose in life.

The Matron burst inside my room. Seeing her alarmed face, I prayed, I hope he died in some random accident. 

"The Crown Prince was detained by his wife, the Crown Princess. Her Highness had a fit of jealousy and wanted the Crown Prince to stay with her tonight" 

I cursed the Crown Princess, stupid woman! Did you have to choose today?! 

The Matron said, "Don't worry! His Highness is enamoured by your beauty, he will definitely visit tomorrow" 

He better or I will do everything I can to lure him, I vowed. 

Little did I know that the arms which would embrace me would not belong to the Crown Prince but to someone else.