The night sleeps unperturbed between sheets of silence as hopes lie waiting. The wanting moon rolls overhead, and with a faceless visage, it watches over the fleeting days as king Tathya still continues his penance for the answers he seeks.
Malini meanwhile sends a reminder to Aadrika in the form of a singing bird. It lands on her quaint balcony among the rain hit flowers and screeches a song about her forgotten vows. There are tears in her eyes as she watches Tathya amidst the rain, she is torn between her duty and desire. Conflict burns through her veins tormenting her. She watches herself in the mirror as her eyes well up and the tears burn and sting. She curses her life and realises how she is trapped. Her life, entangled with the poison of the sacred cobra, a poison that kept her alive but consigned her to a daily ritual of peril and longing. Aadrika recalls how her life has been a precarious balance between survival and secrecy since the early age of experiencing the bite of the serpent. Her early years were shrouded in mystery, spent in a remote haven that was only accessible to the most knowledgeable healers and wisest elders. The rite that was certain to occur each dusk was the harsh sting of the cobra's fangs against her tender flesh as its venom then coursed her being searing her veins. It served as a reminder of her frail mortality and the tremendous weight she carried rather than an agony of anguish but rather of destiny realized. She was to avenge the dead, destroy the king, his lineage, his honour and his legacy. She was bound and it was a promise she had made to Malini, her birthmark a reminder of what had transpired and what was her purpose.
Changing into the finest of sheer silks and adorned with strings of delicate jasmine flowers, Aadrika stepped out with a heart that bore an ache deeper than the deadly venom that scoured through her veins. She had known love in whispers and stolen glances and through the accidental touches she had with the king, she knew how her body reacted to his touches and how she stirred as his warm breath rolled down her flesh. How would she ever consummate her love she wondered for a moment as she cloaked herself to step out of the palace, for that would be the end of her lover as her touch would have the venom's curse. She questioned Malini for the first time in her life, as she approached Tathya who was still seated in peace, his benevolent eyes shut out to her. As she uncloaked, her perfume wafted his senses open, his brows furrowed and his eyes strained but never opened. She swam across the river and dared to stand in front of him bearing her heart and in all brazenness she opens her lips but she is unable to speak but her anklets jingle as she steps towards him, he recognises their chime and his eyes flutter open and his penance is broken.
He is awakened to a sight that has snared his senses, as the impertinent rain has rendered her bare as they have turned her silks sheer and her chest taut. He watches her chest heave and lips part, he has an intensity that needs to translate immediately, he gets up and grabs her by the waist, pressing his lips against hers in a feverish kiss and she reciprocates with fervor. As the rain cascaded their forms in shimmering strings, covering Aadrika's lithe form in a glistening veil.
Every droplet was a reflection of her own ethereal charm. Tathya stood before her, the gentle fragility that only she could arouse softening his regal countenance. Their embrace went beyond the banal confines of courtly rites and political allegiances on that lonely rock in the middle of the unrelenting drumming of the rain. With a love that outshined the lightning racing across the sky, it was a mingling of yearning hearts. As Tathya touched her with tenderness, tracing her curves and leaving a trail of kisses down the curve of her neck, she gasped as her fingers bore into his skin as she pulled him closer and held him. She felt his kisses, they were like the rain that fell on the waiting petals of the mouth of a flower that roused from the dark wombs of the earth only to bloom to feel this feeling, fleeting but etched in its soul and translates as sweet fragrance, a reminder of its consummation. Tathya peels from his kiss to meet her gaze as he begins to undress her. The string of jasmine scatter like loose pearls as he tugs at the garment covering her breasts. He let her breathe into his senses as he watches the contours of her body and as he enclasped her soft swells, she moaned and desire burned through their bodies. They were eternal flames flickering in the rain. Nothing could douse their passion that defied the constraints of mortal existence. And for Tathya, Aadrika embodied the epitome of feminine grace and strength—a muse whose allure beckoned him to shed the weight of his crown and embrace the vulnerability of his own desires.
Aadrika begins to disrobe him overtaken by her yearning for him, her heart swells as she touches his manhood beneath his loin cloth. He groans, grabbing her. He removes the last piece of clothing on her body and his to hold her tight. She looks into his eyes that deep and brimming with feelings that she longed to see in someone's eyes for her. She wanted to love and made love to right now and now that she had seen what Tathya's eyes holds for her, she wanted to forget about her vow and the promise she had made to Malini and just be loved tonight but her toxicity would not allow this. She wanted to give herself completely, she wanted to let go but she couldn't. Tathya laid her down the rain hit rock to crawl on top of her, his curve was her cave that she wanted to escape into, but she arched and turning away from Tathya let a silent tear escape from her eyes. He couldn't see them leave her face as she lay there helpless, waiting and wanting. Tathya pinning her, nudges her open, exposing her.
"Tathya.." she moans.
He searches for her approval.
Just then a loud clap of thunder is heard and the oldest tree in the vicinity is torn down by a massive lightening. Tathya knew that this was a bad omen.
