ENCHANTED - BY INNOCENCE (ongoing)

40

*** Yashoda ***

"It's getting late at night, and they are yet to be here," said Padma aunty, who is Chitappa's wife, interrupting the silence that had settled in the room as we gathered to discuss the suddenly changed behavior of the cuttlefish army.

"To be honest, aunty," Shanthi replied, "I'd rather he only shows up once I got back to sleep. I've seen him angry before, but the level of anger I saw in his eyes today was..." She paused, searching for the right word. "...Traumatizing!"

"For the first time in my life, I saw anger in Pritham's eyes," another lady added.

"Did it make him look good?" we heard a sudden voice in the crowd, and all our heads turned to Mayil, Chitappa's daughter.

"I mean..." she hesitantly corrected, "It wouldn't have made him look good, would it? It would've reflected poorly on his character, given how much he's associated with being the most patient man in uniform."

"The boy is right from his perspective," Padma aunty said, and the conversation moved on, though not before Shanthi and I exchanged looks.

Shanthi had been trying to persuade me for a long time that Mayil has an interest in Pritham, and I always dismissed it as gossip. But it looks like it might be true.

"When was the last time the King was attacked?" Mayil asked, attempting to change the subject. "I don't remember ever hearing about it."

"Twenty years ago, maybe," another older woman replied. "Before you were even born, the old King was attacked once."

"And..." the rest of us asked, curious.

"For an entire week, hell broke loose," the lady replied. "The soldiers and intellectuals barely went home. They spent days and nights trying to find the attackers. No one was allowed to leave the crown's home; everyone was questioned, including women. The tension in the air was so thick that the King himself had to gather everyone to calm them down. Yet they didn't listen."

"Not even to the King?" I asked, surprised.

"Not even to the King," the lady confirmed. "For a King to be attacked is for the nation to be attacked. It's a matter of honor and national safety, and when that's at stake, not even the King is above it. He could only request, never command."

"But..." Shanthi asked, "Once the culprits were found, things went back to normal, right?"

"Oh, that's when the unleashed hell truly began to burn its fires," the lady replied. "The shackles of the Northern soldiers were broken, as they famously say. The soldiers wanted to send a message about what happens when someone touches their nation. What better way to ensure that than by giving full freedom to the Northern men, the beasts who had been restrained for years in the name of human rights?"

We all looked at her in fear, and the lady continued.

"The corridors of the homes of the Northern soldiers always had blood stains, for they never returned without blood on their shoes and blood always dripped from their clothes. When their women washed their clothes in the pond, the water used to turn red. The intellectuals had to propose moving their ruthless activities elsewhere just to spare those within the crown's home from hearing the desperate cries of the attackers. These men wanted to send a message, and they very much did—by writing history in blood."

There was absolute silence in the room once the lady finished her story.

"And that was with the old general, who had a reputation for being nice and gentle," Padma aunty continued after a while. "General Randheera," she paused and whispered, "Oh god, he already has a reputation for being ruthless. One can only imagine the hell that will be unleashed this time. He is going to spare no one. Every single one involved in this will be punished."