Soulmate [UNEDITED]

Past

The balcony was well decorated with a fusion of Indian and western designs, table, chair, candles on table, what shocked her the most were the rose petals. Harshat was no were to be found, she sat on the chair to wait for him.

She waited,

And waited, until.....

................................................................

"Sorry I'm late..." Harshat came speed walking, sitting down on the table "sorry, I'm the one who called you here but the court work delayed me a bit" He was a bit sweaty, the weather was warm, cool air blowing from time to time "Its alright, court work should be your priority anyway, why did you call me here?" He straightened his back "to come clear with you, I want you to know everything I know and feel, I want you to know the truth and past" Tara joined her legs together, a reflex she did after sensing seriousness is his voice "go ahead..." she clenched her hands without realising.

"Here goes nothing..." He mumbled to himself and started the talk " Tara, first of all I want to thank you and the others to kick that teacher out, I hated those forced seduction pressured on me all the time" What is he talking about? He is the king, if he really hated those things why did he tolerate it, he hated it, the girls hated it, then why was it done? Who can force such a thing on the king himself? "Let me start from the beginning, you remember the girl I met when I was young?" Tara nodded " I fell in love with that girl, I promised myself that if I marry, I will marry only her, but fate decided otherwise. When I was 14, my father decided it was time for me to get married, he called out every princesses pictures to let me decide my bride, but I refused, I only loved one girl, the girl in the painting, I refused all the girls. When even after a year I refused to marry anyone, he forced me to marry the first queen, rani Kashi. She was two years younger than me, I was 15 and she was 13 at that time. Sensing that I cannot stay away from her the whole life, we became friends, very good friends and partner in crime, everything was going quite smoothly, we lived happily, not as husband and wife, but as friends, I don't think we even knew what husband and wife relationship was. After 3 years, when we were 18 and 16, father demanded we produce a heir for the kingdom, at that age, I was mature enough to know that I loved Kashi, but only as a friend, I could never see her as a wife or rather a woman...." He paused and sighed.

All these new information bewildered Tara, this is not the story of King Harshat everyone knew, it was easy before,  assuming him as the bad guy and hating him, but after all this, her heart had a slight change.

"I tried to touch and look at Kashi but failed, I just cannot bring myself to think that I have to do this to her. I refused father to have a heir with Kashi,  maybe that was my biggest mistake. Within a timespan of 4 years, he forced me to marry the princesses of many states, all I could do was watch or throw tantrums, According to them. The more the brides increased, decreased their ages, for some reason he thought, the younger the girl, the better, but those are children, how could I do such a horrible thing to them" He clenched his hairs and continued " I was a 22 year old prince with no influence and power at that time. One time he even sat down near my bed with a chair all night, he used a white translucent curtain all around the bed. He sat there the whole night to ensure I do my first night with Bela properly. I acted out to do it while pinching Bela to make him and others believe. I acted but I still felt disgusted.

His tricks were not working, thats is why he assigned a teacher to teach the girls how to please me, how to seduce me, I tried to gain power, so that I can stop these, but maybe I'm a fool, I managed to gather none, even when I was crowned as the king at age 24, even after 3 years today, father had managed to maintain his power through the shadows. I don't know what to do Tara, please, I love you, I want to be with you, I want to able to make you happy, I know it's a lot of messed up work in the palace, but please, give me a chance, also help me to give the girls a better life, please" Harshat ended up holding Tara's hand in his to show his eagerness to end this mess, all these years, no one was able to go against what the father king wanted, but maybe this time, this time can change everything, everyone could live happily.

"I may not know my decision about giving you a chance in my life, but I do know I want those kids to have a happy life, they deserve it, I'll get going" Tara left in a hurry as soon as she completed her sentence. The room was spinning for her, she ran through the halls recreating every sentence in action she was told about just now, her life changed the moment she decided to take her sister's place in this marriage, but after hearing all these, her life changed for good. What was all this about, her oath she took as a child, she cannot break it, but if she did her conscience won't let her let those kids be forced to do lewd stuff. And the problem with the painting, Harshat loves Nayna, but he thinks the girl is her. All the world seemed so confusing, her head was throbing.

As she walked by a certain room, some sniffs caught her attention, she creaked the door open to find rani Kashi sitting on the edge of the bed, crying her eyes out "pratham rani Kashi, what happened?" She looked at Tara with her bloodshot eyes "pratham rani huh?" She sat down Tara by her shoulders "let's talk" Kashi said.