Kama: Liberation (Vol-I)

Chapter 30: Opening Up

The sweetest habits are which you have towards a person.

****

Today a grand celebration was to be held in Ishgar. People from faraway lands had come to take part in the happiness, even the Gandharian royals. Everybody was welcome, both friends and foes.

Rajan Rudra sat together with Indumala, listening to her talk about magic and her guild. They stole the little free time that they had before the initiation of the feast and spent talking about whatever felt good and sunny.

"Baba is one of the strongest ones of the guild. People say his real power is very scary." Indumala gesticulated with her hands. "Though he isn't scary to me. Yes, I have got my fair share of scolding and smacking, but he is my best Baba."

"He can be scary, yes. I have seen that side," Rudra whispered. "I am myself intimidated by that side."

"Really?"

"Mhm," he hummed. "He is like your god Shiva. Cool and calm, and then," he clicked his fingers, "a Master of Tandava."

Indumala pouted. "Why do you say as if he isn't your Shiva? Isn't there any God you believe in?"

"Will you be judgemental if I don't?"

"No. You are free to choose your path, but we don't easily find someone who doesn't believe in divinity."

"Maybe I do believe in someone," Rudra said, watching his ruby rings sparkle in the light. "Only one."

"Who is that deity?"

Rudra smiled, his husky voice toned down to a mellifluous hush. "Kalika," he spelled her name delicately, as if a small mistake could snatch her beatific perfection away, all because of his fault.

A smile tugged at Indumala's lips. "You... you love Kalika?"

"I do. I feel like she has been wronged." Rudra's pensive gaze heavily drooped under crooked brows. "I see her suffer everyday. I see her own kind malign her. I know, maybe I do not have the right to protect her, but I want to do it. She walks with ghosts and ghouls, skulls of demons hanging around her neck. Maybe I am one of them. I would gladly be."

"You may even be the hibiscus she loves, or the crown atop her head."

Rudra grinned. "Indu, I cannot see myself as that great. I know I boast about myself a lot. I have to do it. But honestly, Indu, I am no equal to her. I... I, uh, I love her," he said, blushing intensely. "It isn't wrong, is it?"

The chime of Indumala's merry laughter was a sweet stroke of golden and orange in his dull blue and black room. It was a spark of life, a blast of energies in his ethereal dark cosmos, like the first seed of creation sprouting courageously. She had not a care in the world. She let out her surprise in the most innocent way possible, so oblivious to the cruel stare of the world.

Rudra couldn't help but feel softened. His icy heart thawed, melting at the intangible caress of her voice. He had seen women giggle with their mouths covered, waving their hands and suppressing their joy. But Indumala, she indeed laughed like Kalika, open and free, trumpeting the satisfaction of the soul. Rudra saw stars in daylight. This sight was going to be painted in his mind, forever.

"Of course there's nothing wrong if you love Kalika. It's so adorable, Rajan. She loves you too, I know."

"Does she?"

"Yes!" Indumala chuckled. The copper earrings on her ears dangled as her head shook. Her open hair resembled a forest, so dense that one would lose the direction of his fingers if they allowed themselves to be lost in their glory. She wore that same blouse today, the one Rudra had found, paired with a white antariya that reached upto her knees.