LEGACY ||Indian Historical Fiction||

10|| REALISATION

"Starting today, you'll be living like a commoner. Adarsh will look to that it'll be followed. I find you in your normality again in a week and you'll be dismissed from classes." Hiranmayi said and stood up. She headed into her home.

Chavi looked at Adarsh with a very questioning look to which he just shrugged. She wasn't even ready to accept that she was masculine as of what Hiranmayi had said prior. But she shrugged it off. And anyway, living like a commoner won't be hard for her, would it?

•••

"We'll be living as commoners from tomorrow, huh?" Ishani asked.

"I suppose so." Darsh said as he put his arms behind his back and walked a couple feet away from Ishani, walking her to her room.

"Something tells me the reason you're going to live like a commoner is because Chavi's out there somewhere living the same."

"You're quick too."

"What's life without a little speed, Maharaj? Do you plan on telling me about her or no?" Ishani insisted.

"I would speak of her all day if possible..."

"I'm here all day as well."

Ishani simply stepped out to the gardens detouring from her room and Darsh simply followed. It wouldn't hurt to tell her about Chavi, would it? Ishani sat down on a bench and Darsh sat on the bench next to hers.

"I won't settle for usual things like how you two met. Tell me something that's very close to your heart."

Darsh sighed, "Everything about her is close not only to my heart but also to my soul. But if I had to say one..."

~~Chavi sat with her hair undone before the mirror. She closed her eyes as Darsh's finger raked her scalp. His fingertips drenched in castor oil, he gently massaged her head. There was calmness in the room...the pitch darkness of the night but the illumination by the diyas added an intimate aura to the space.

"I get you like me, but why are you doing all this? You're a prince..." Chavi asked with her eyes still closed.

"Can't call a man a lover when he isn't ready to do anything for his love. Atleast things as trivial as oiling her hair."

"Aren't a little overboard?"

"Overboard is for children."

"You are twenty!"

"You're dismissing my love based on my age? I'm hurt."

"Darsh! What if I leave you someday?"

His fingers faltered for a second in her hair. His breath hitched.

"I'll go with you. You take me to the end of ruins and I'll go with you, Chavi. Maybe at the void there, you'll see how much farther my love for you can go."

Darsh hair started simply braiding her matte black hair as Chavi sniffled as if emotional.

"What if you'd have to marry a princess of some-"

"You'll be the only one." Darsh turned her chair around making her face him, "I will have only one wife. That will be you."~~

"Wife?!" Ishani screamed. Darsh stopped his narration almost as if startled, "You both are married?!"

"Not then, but now yes. We married through Gandharv vidhi (method)"

Ishani squealed, "So the only problem was that she was adopted, not her Varna."