Days have passed since the Kuru royals have left Panchal to go back to Hastinapur and things have been going good, so far. Draupadi has also gotten accustomed to the lifestyle of Pandavs and have been in tune with them. Apart from Arjun, she has particularly gotten along with Karn and the latter has also started treating her as his own sister.
The people in the Kingdom are also happy with how things have been going. It's been raining on time and the crops are harvested well, earning enough money and food for everyone. Even the ogres who have been troubling the people that were living by the border are no longer troubling ever since Karn and Arjun has put an end to it.
One fine morning, Karn was strolling in the palace grounds when he came across Shakuni, Duryodhan and Dussasan.
"Pranipat Mamashree" Karn greeted Shakuni and touched the latter's feet.
"Yasaswi bhava!" Shakuni blessed and hugged him.
After that, Dussasan greeted Karn and touched his feet and Karn blessed him. Duryodhan too touched Karn's feet and when he stood straight, Karn smiled at him and hugged him. Duryodhan smiled at Karn and then walked away from there and Shakuni and Dussasan followed him. Karn too went on his way.
*****
"Yeh assambhav hain, bhratha Duryodhan. Dussala cannot be married to Jayadrath, the King of Sindhu. How could you go forward with this proposal to the King of Sindhu, without permission?" asked a stern Karn while he glared at Duryodhan.
(This is impossible, brother Duryodhan.)
All of the men were in the royal court of Hastinapur when Duryodhan happily announced that he has put forward a marriage proposal to the King of Sindhu for his sister. That was when things started spiraling.
Before anything else could be said, Vidur stood and started speaking "Even when a Swayamvar is arranged for a princess, only the Kings and Princes of those kingdoms are invited with whom forming an allinace won't harm our Kingdom. How could you make such a decision when it is the responsibility of the council of ministers to see whom the Princess can get married to?!"
"Look at what happened in case of Princess Isha, the Princess of Panchal. The King himself has witnessed how the King of Panchal has turned down the proposal put forward by his own sister because they knew that forming another alliance with Anartira will not do them any good. When her Swayamvar is organized, they will only invite the Anartira royals out of formality, but not because they want to form an alliance with them," added Vidur.
"Let's not bring the Princess of Panchal into this matter, Chachashree. We're discussing about the future of my own sister her," said Karn and then looked back at Duryodhan.
To say that Karn looked royally pissed will be an understatement.
"What were you thinking while making such a decision, Duryodhan. Dussala is our sister!" admonished Karn.
"Jyesht, Dussala is our sister. Which is why I did not want to make her marriage a matter of politics" said Duryodhan, looking at Karn sadly.
That made Karn's anger go down a notch.
"Kumar Duryodhan, we shall forge no relationship with Magadh and Sindhu kingdoms. This has always been a policy of our Kingdom," said Bheeshma.
"The duty of carrying out the policies of the Kingdom is that of Jyesht Bhratha Karn. He is the Crown Prince of Kuru Kingdom. Not me. When he's already taking care of all those duties, I thought that I can take the responsibility of marrying my sister. To me, nothing else matters more than my sister's happiness."
"Water can be in the form of a river or just lay there in a pitcher, but only the river water is used when worshipping the god. Similarly, a Rajkanya's marriage should happen to a person whom she chooses in her Swayamvar," Bheeshma said.
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A Different Destiny - A Mahabharat/Karn Fanfic
FanfictionDestiny mourned the loss of not just great warriors, but also great people in the Kurukshetra war. One of them was Suryaputra Karn. Even the gods wept looking at the amount and pain and suffering their children had endured and in the end, Destiny ch...
