अन्तः अस्ति प्रारंभः।
The end is the beginning.
A caterpillar dies, to birth a butterfly. Water evaporates to rain down. Dead carcasses fill the stomachs of vultures.Life gives way to death and death to life. In a vicious circle of different karmas...
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Eklavya doesn't celebrate his birth anniversary. It's not something with a huge reason or with some sort of melancholy. He just doesn't.
And why should he? He knows that one day, he will die in some corner of the world and will be forgotten. Most likely, he will die whilst on a job, and no one present would even know his real name. His father, hopefully, would get the news. That's one regret Eklavya would have— leaving his father alone in the world. Eklavya's grandmother can only do so much at her age, and really, ever since Eklavya's mother died, his dadi had been overworking herself for them. She deserves a break too.
But, he knows his father. Hiranyaksh Nishad is a lot of things. He is a leader of tribals and a chief personnel in the security of Vidharbh. He can handle himself.
As for the Crown Prince, well. Rukmi was a tough man. He had his moments of weakness where his ego ruled him, but Eklavya is confident that he will always keep the State security above all. If Eklavya is found dead somewhere somehow, the only way that Vidharbh would claim him would be that he had temporary citizenship. Eklavya knows his friend would shed a few tears privately, but there will be no books that will mention the valour of a man who spied for the Yuvraj of Vidharbh.
These past months, Eklavya has started to wonder about more people too. Mihira, for one. That wild thing, Eklavya worries if she will stay alive for even one more year, with the way she sometimes antagonises the people with power, just for the sake of it. Eklavya has personally seen at least four incidents of her impertinent behaviour, three of them with the second prince himself.
Saini, for another. Before Mihira started working in the palace, Eklavya had no reason to interact with the damned finance department. Yes, he knew everyone casually, but he had made no efforts to be friends with anyone. He was always going from one mission to another, there was no need to give himself unnecessary grief. And yet, somehow, he has ended up befriending resident gossip. Saini has such scandalous gossip, sometimes Eklavya is impressed with her ability to blend in the background and change her behaviour in order to gain information. It is most certainly cunning, and he appreciates the simulating challenges she provides.
Oh, he knows she has this agenda to make him laugh or be shocked for an absurd amount of time. It is...amusing. Amusing and strangely warming. He endeavours to not laugh in her presence as much as possible— just so he can stretch this game of hers longer.
And today, as Mihira gifts him specially made gloves to wear and Saini gifts him a book on bee-keeping, he is stunned to be celebrated as such. The gloves fit him perfectly, as if stitched to his measurement. It is impossible, of course, because he would have known if Mihira had taken the measurements of his hands.
(Right?!)
The material of the gloves is smooth and yet strong. She must have specially ordered the gloves to be sturdy because of his archery.
The bee-keeping book makes him snort at once and Saini looks like she has won the throne of Hastinapur. He flips through the pages and sees little notes attached to each chapter, giving a name and a dirty secret.
