ROYAL HIGHNESS

37. Realisation

Mumbai – Midnight,

The city outside was a breathing, pulsing entity, a creature of lights and distant sounds. But here, within the walls of Amyardh’s apartment, there was only silence. A silence that stretched its fingers into the corners of the space, pressing into the air like an unseen weight. 

He had spent hours at the khandhar in Kolhapur, his usual retreat, where echoes of the past merged with the wind. It was where he found solace, where he let the weight of responsibilities slip from his shoulders, if only for a while. But even the embrace of solitude had not been enough to dull the storm in his head. 

Now, back in Mumbai, in the haven of his apartment, he stood at the edge of the swimming pool—an architectural marvel designed not with modern minimalism but with echoes of history. The pool was carved from pristine stone, its edges adorned with intricate engravings, giving off an air of quiet opulence. In the dim golden glow of the outdoor lamps, the water shimmered, dark and mysterious, like a portal to another world. 

Amyardh was clad only in loose silk pajama pants, his torso bare, the moonlight tracing the ridges of his muscles. He exhaled sharply before stepping into the water, the cool embrace spreading over his skin like an icy whisper. He submerged himself fully, letting the silence of the underwater world momentarily steal his thoughts, before rising to the surface with a deep, slow inhale. 

The water was calming, rippling in soft waves around him as he swam, each stroke measured, precise, an unspoken effort to cool the fire burning within him. He swam not just to soothe his temper, but to think, to dissect the emotions clawing at him from within. 

When you’re young, you believe that there will be many people with whom you’ll connect deeply. You imagine an endless sea of possibilities, where every interaction might lead to something profound. But later in life, you come to realize that such connections are rare. 

A few moments—frozen in genuine beauty—where you look at someone and just know from a place deep within yourself that they are going to mean something to you. That they are rare. 

You can try to ignore it. You can try to escape it. You can try to dismiss it, rationalize it, bury it beneath layers of logic and self-preservation. But energy cannot be created nor destroyed. 

If the depth is there, it cannot be denied. 

You can pretend you don’t care. You can act indifferent, keep your distance, protect yourself from the warmth of it. But the truth remains—it will always catch up to you. And if it’s meant to be yours, it will stay. No amount of pushing, no amount of bargaining with your heart, will make it slip through your fingers. 

And if it isn’t meant for you? No matter how tightly you cling, no matter how fiercely you fight—some things are not yours to hold. 

That is the beauty of discovering the things that stay, the things that fall into place effortlessly, as if they had always belonged there. 

In a world of billions, in a world where people seek connection yet avoid eye contact, there exist rare points of impact. Moments where you crash into someone who—against all odds—breaks through your exterior, who makes contact with your heart. Someone who plants roots deep within it, unshaken by distance, time, or logic. 

If you find someone like this, protect them. 

Risk your heart for what you feel.

Believe that you are worthy of something full, something real, something that doesn’t need to be chased or forced. 

Because certain people… certain connections… are like beautiful, rare drops of borrowed light that find their way to you when you least expect it.