As Sahdev's sword pierced Shakuni's flesh, he could see deep in the eyes of his killer. The dark bluish eyes and a weird combination of certainty and rage baffled the old man.
At this he could only remember a single visual.
So long ago that he couldn't count.
A young boy, clad in bark with a milky white complexion, sitting with his prisms and scrolls, chanting couplets from samajshastr (political science).
The magnetic pull of the visual was so strong that the King of Gandhar couldn't fathom his next move. Puzzled with the commonalities with his own small self and this child he asked 'Your name?'
'Sahdev!' The boy flashed a smile.
Pandu's son. No.
Sahdev. Just Sahdev.
'You like studying all this, don't you?' Shakuni asked. The same way he would love to sneak and study the oddest strategies his father could never execute.
'hmm..' The boy nodded still looking at his paper. The mystic calmness of his voice made Shakuni shiver. His reputation as a diplomat might be at stake, he thought.
yeah, the same way.
—————
Shakuni looked at him, the certainty- that had bewildered him that day, and now when he is ready to breathe his last, still makes him think of the way he had slowly poisoned himself all these years.
