Rajamata Kunti has been observing the Prince of Anga for some days now. Her wizened eyes refused to leave the frame of the tall golden skinned man who would usually be found in the company of the Pandavas nowadays. 

More specifically, the third Pandava. 

The two were almost always conversing with each other, exchanging such scathing words that people around were wont to get confused of the exact nature of their relationship. 

And they exchanged arrows even sharper. 

But there was always an underlying camaraderie which stopped them from totally allowing their warrior instincts to take over. Hours and hours of practise kept the duo busy and separate from the frankly deplorable schemes being concocted in the shadowed halls of the Hastinapur palace, for choosing the Kuru heir. 

Sometimes, even the other Pandavas and few of the much younger Kauravas would join the archers and they'll while away the somnambulant days battling each other in the friendly competition. 

Karna was a mystery to the royals of Hastinapur. 

And his rather weird friendship with Arjun was even more so. 

But if someone were to observe more closely it was the reaction of the dowager queen Kunti which should have been considered as the most suspicious. The beautiful widowed elder queen of Pandu had fallen into a dead faint on seeing the older man appear in the arena. 

Her sons remained unaware of her delicate condition as the queen refused to let anyone speak of that moment as such. 

She usually lingered in the corner of the corridors and watched Radheya converse with her other sons jovially. A slowly developing bond which seemed to hearten the queen mother and make her dread an inescapable conversation in the future, more so. 

The buried skeletons of the past had come unearthed and were staring at Shurasena's daughter as the mistake caused due to a childish curiosity had suddenly materialised in front of her like an unmovable fact. 

A truth she could deny no longer. 

The object of her nightmares and dreams alike, standing in flesh, resplendent in the divine gold melded by the Sun God in his abode as a form of protection. 

Her oldest born. 

Her son.

The one she abandoned, fearing the caustic remarks of society. 

Yet it seemed blood had found its way back to blood in a strange turn of destiny. 

Kunti's eyes brimmed over as she saw Karna burst into glorious laughter as the twins, her darling Nakul and Sahadev fell into a tangle of limbs while trying to defend themselves from her Parth's unstoppable arrows. 

"Mother? What are you doing, standing over there? Come on in!", Yudhishtir's words startled the white clad queen as she saw everyone turn their attention towards her. 

"Maa! Look at Bhrata Arjun! He is being so mean to us..", Sahadev whined theatrically from the ground.

Her child had grown up so much yet reminded her of the wee babe which Madri had put in her arms, all those years ago in Shatasringa, her sweaty face aglow in delight. 

"This is your Sahadev, sister. Look after him....", the youngest wife of Pandu had uttered fatigued yet ebullient and Kunti had fallen in love as the wrinkly faced infant had opened his big brown eyes at her. 

"Arjun! What is this? He is your brother. Why are you being so hard on him?", Kunti reprimanded her youngest and went and sat beside Yudhishtir who exchanged a knowing smile with Bheem.

The latter was busy rotating the club over his head, as a prep before the impending wrestling match where he would inevitably defeat them all. 

"No one will remember that in war mother. In the battlefield, only the blood that you can spill will matter", Arjun said levelling an indulgent smile at his grumbling younger siblings. 

But Kunti's mind had blanked. In a flash she had seen a dark future. A future filled with the blood of brothers. Spilled over the foul ground laden with lecherousness and avarice. 

And two archers standing on the opposite sides. 

Their only goal, to pulverise the other. 

Hatred brewing so deep in their veins that it had blackened the blood flowing facsimile. 

A sad smile of the living God. 

And a severed head on the ground. 

"...ata! Mataa.. what happened? Are you okay? You zoned out on us for a moment there?"

Kunti saw Arjun kneeling in front of her, his azure eyes tempered with concern and those hands which had once been tiny and curled, now calloused with the marks of an unforgiving bowstring and large enough to envelop her own trembling ones. 

"Here, Rajamata. Have some water."

Karna had come over from his seat and was bending a little with a tumbler of water in his hand, amber eyes swirling with the same concern as that of her five sons who stood huddled around her. 

"Thank you, child", Kunti whispered drily and accepted the water. 

Karna looked pleased with her addressal and Arjun stroked her other hand with his thumb in soothing circles, exactly like she used to do for him when he was still a toddler, eager for his mother's lap, all the time. 

"Take some rest Maa. You look so frail nowadays", Yudhishtir replied making everyone nod their heads in agreement. 

Even Karna. 

Kunti swallowed back the truth which had erupted like a scream in her throat. 

So what if they never knew her darkest secret.

It seemed like the bonds of the heart will override the ones of blood in this kalpa, even if they seem to be flowing in the same direction.