The Destineds

TD - Cope up and Fit in

Both Arna and Karsh struggled to keep their real identities safe. Both had a purpose why they had to lie and maintain a secret.
Arna was challenged with the actual power-holders while Karsh was up against the ruckus his true self could cause.

Arna started isolating herself. She was homeschooled. She rarely went out and almost never mingled with her friends. Even her cousins became strangers to her. As the single child of Sahn and Futi, a lot was on her shoulders. She was to inherit the entire Lilag assets and businesses. She was the heiress of a huge court of subsidiary and ally clans. She spent most of her time in the mansion's library, where she read about Lilag clan's history and stories of the past. She went through many books to find an incident where someone in Deity society did not get their powers like her.
She, as expected, found none.

Karsh on the other hand was immature though he knew the consequences of revealing his powers. He challenged his friends that he could predict lightning. His friends wouldn't believe him and accept the challenge only to lose as Karsh would summon one in case it did not happen naturally. Once Jay even asked him if he summoned it, which threw Karsh off-guard for a moment. Jay later said that he was just kidding, and Karsh let out a sigh of relief. After that incident, Karsh became more mature about the secret he was harbouring in him. He became more curious about how an Infirma could get powers. He did not have any resources to do the research. The most books in the society was with Yiba and he had read all of it, twice, and some, thrice. His option was too go to Deity society to access bigger libraries and more information. He wanted to know why he had got such a power.

Two years passed by like a bullet. Arna and Karsh were now 15 years old. Old enough to start their real life survival training. It was time for them to learn to manage their responsibilities.
Arna was trained to be the owner of huge assets, while Karsh was now involved in his father's trade with the Deity clan.

Arna was taught the ways of ruling and managing properties. She was taught about how the wages for the workers were determined. She learnt about business, investment, capital, profit and loss, gain from subsidiaries, loaning and interest, trade with Infirma society, and much more...

But what caught Arna's peek interest was the fact that the trade with Infirmas was so unfair. The goods of the Infirmas were bought for half the value of the production took, and sometimes even less than that. She asked her teachers for the reason and the classic replies she got is, "They don't need more than that." or "It doesn't matter" or "They should be thankful that we are paying them at all" or "That's how it is and that's how it has been" or "Why do you care so much? They don't deserve more than that" or " Who's gonna complain? Those Powerless?"
This power transfer education exposed Arna to many cruel things the Deitys were doing to the Infirmas.
This made her contemplate about the righteousness of her society.
She, as a person without powers herself, knew how it felt to be Powerless.
Would they treat me the same way if they got to know I don't have powers?, thought Arna. She had to cope up with the society to end the mistreatment.

Karsh, on the other hand, was being taught how the trade between Deity and Infirma society worked. Karsh got so mad when he got to know that their produce was being bought by the Deitys at very
low price. The price wouldn't even cover the cost of the equipments used.
More over, the produce sent there was the high quality ones and the leftover low quality produce was used in the Infirma society.
Karsh was fuming with rage. He vowed to end the discrimination the Infirmas faced.

It wasn't easy for Karsh to hide his powers. His playful nature always made him lose his control and summon lightning. He had to be very careful about his emotions. He practiced his lightning powers whenever he wasn't with his friends.
It was also time for Karsh to go with his father in the trade endeavours.
He learnt how to enter the Deity society by showing their Volav family stamp, the trade permit, along with the details of the goods that was being traded. The gaurds at the gate between the two Societies checked the goods.
Once, Karsh and his father had taken 12 bags of wheat for trading. The guards went to the cart and started to check the wheat bags. Did they check the bags by opening the tied knot? No! They cut the side of the sack with a knife and a stream of wheat poured out of the sack onto the cart and ground. Those gaurds did the same for few more sacks and a lot of wheat was wasted.
This enraged Karsh. He said, "Why did you cut the sack?? You could have opened the knot and then tied it back!"
A punch landed on Karsh's stomach. One of the gaurds had punched him. Two more guards held him in place by his arms and a guard, who looked like was the captain of that guard squad, said,"Look boy, this is not how you speak to your superiors. We will do whatever we want and YOU DO NOT question it."
"You are wasting the wheat. Do you know how-", Karsh was cut off by a tight slap across his face by the Captain. The Captain held Karsh's jaw tightly and stared intensely at him and said, "Do not speak back to me."
Karsh was about to say something when his father loosened the guards grip on him and came running to Karsh's aid. "I apologise on his behalf. He hasn't been to trade before. This is his first time. I'm sorry.", said Thyan Volav.
They hit Karsh once more on his back and left him. Both father and son went on to the Deity market.
Karsh had a huge grudge on those guards now.
Even though Karsh's views were different and were actually right, he had to hide it and make sure to not cause anymore trouble. He had to fit in so that he could achieve his goal of freeing the Infirmas.

Within a few months, Karsh learnt everything about the trade with Deitys. He was now able to carry on the trade on his own without his father with him.
He knew how to make sure that the guards didn't cut open the sack. He himself went and opened the knots in the sacks for the guards to check, and later he himself tied it back. He spoke politely and never raised his voice with the guards. He learnt to not show his annoyance and anger.

Arna here, was handed a piece of land to administer for practice. It was totally under her control and no one else had any rights over it. It was a land near the border of Deity and Infirma Societies. A walk for a few minutes would take a person to the gate. She did a great job administering the land. All the workers working in that land were happy. She made sure that the irrigation was not disturbed by blockage or sabotage. She paid the workers fairly. She also allowed the workers to take one sack of the produce for themselves and their family.
She soon became the talk of the workers' group.
In a tavern, some day workers were chatting while drinking and the topic of Arna came up. "Young Lady Arna treats us so well unlike her parents Lord Sahn and Lady Futi.", said one of the workers who worked in Arna's land. "We haven't slept hungry even once after
the Young Lady took over the Land at the Border.", said another worker.