"Greetings Savyasachi Arjun, conqueror of Panchal! Defeater of the great super warrior, Drupad! How fare you little archer?"

Karna's teasing words tapered off into silence as instead of the embarrassment mixed scowl that he had expected of the third Kaunteya, there only remained a strange disquiet. 

The son of Radha, much to the discontent and perineal annoyance of the son of Kunti had taken to adding 'little' in front of every word to address his not-friend. 

"I am only three inches shorter than you! That does not make me short!", Arjun had been infuriated. 

"And twenty years younger", Karna had declared in a sing song voice from where he had been reading a parchment with great interest.

"And did I call you short? I only said little", he had added much to the Pandava's annoyance. 

"Same thing. I am not little!"

"Whatever floats your boat, little prince"

Karna had responded smiling and then had expertly dodged the dagger thrown at his head with deadly precision, only a second later. 

Yet now the chambers felt eerily soundless. Devoid of the acerbic banter that the gold clad man was expecting. 

Arjun who would have leapt at the chance of a word game, parrying with the prince of Anga with equal speed and a matching wit to boot, only kept staring at the moonless night sky like it held the answers to all the mysteries of the universe. 

"What did Lord Parashurama ask of you as guru dakshina?"

Karna felt his hackles rise immediately. He would rather forget that shameful experience altogether. 

He should have known.

All this pretence of camaraderie was a depraved plan to lure him into comfort only to strike when he would be eased enough to let down his guard. 

"What does that have to do with anything?", he snarled like a kicked wild animal.

Arjun looked back startled as if realising his presence just then. All the fury which had congealed beneath Karna's skin drained off immediately noticing the subtle and hastily wiped stains on the young prince's face. 

"You do not have to answer, if you don't want. I was just... asking..", Arjun stammered nervously and Karna sighed and came near and stood beside him, leaning against the golden railing. 

"What happened to you? You won. The entire city is celebrating. I just met your brothers. Bheem was being insufferable. Duryodhan looked like he has sucked a lemon. Maham mahim is waxing lyrical about his 'not-favourite' grand nephew to everyone who bothers to listen and I have never seen Drona smile so wide before. I swear the man is allergic to cheer in general."

Arjun smiled shyly but it didn't reach his prussian eyes like it usually does. 

Where was that stone melting smile?

Instead, he looked... upset. 

Karna realised then that he did not much like this depressed look on the typically overbearingly enthusiastic prince. It felt wrong. Like sometimes when his armour would itch constantly. 

"Why are you making a sour face?", he asked gently even if his words weren't much. 

"I remember it clear as day, when Acharya asked Ekalavya, his thumb. I had only gone to Gurudev because I thought he was deceiving me and teaching another student in secret."

Karna looked at the younger man. He was inanimate but the grip he had on the railing seemed strong enough to break it. He had heard the rumours and it had only flamed his fire of hatred for the so called entitled prince even more.

But as it seemed, there was more to the story.

By the despondency on his face, it was evident that this was a sore spot for Arjun. 

"I had always worked extra. Stayed up long past everyone and practised till the flesh of my fingers had pealed off. Followed every instruction of my Guru without question, without doubt and without hesitation. I had promised him a guru dakshina even before I knew what it could be."

The wind had picked up pace and the clouds conspired to hide the stars twinkling above head. 

"Contrary to popular believe, the Acharya did not just drop everything in my lap. In fact, I have had to work the most for it. He used to... teach Ashwatthama and I would trail behind him and hanker him up to no end, till he taught me too. I would complete every task he would give me and then some more..."

Karna was afraid that the railing would truly break now. It had started creaking. 

"But when time came, I discovered that he had been hiding another star pupil as well. It... angered me. I wanted an explanation."

And suddenly like that, the grip slackened and Arjun seemed to deflate. 

"I only wanted an explanation. Not a sacrifice. Then Acharya made the boy cut off his thumb. Sacrificed his talent at the altar of my success. It turned my stomach. I wanted to rip off my skin. One moment of weakness and my entire legacy is stained."

Arjun's voice wobbled for a moment before he swallowed his distress back with a practised move and buried it beneath ice. 

"They will not blame Drona. It is me who will be condemned by the upcoming generations. Even if I was better... we would never know. They will always remember me as a weak willed prince who had people take out his contemporaries to achieve greatness."

The aftermath of this diatribe reigned in an uncomfortable silence as Arjun seemed to draw in breathless air. 

"And, you came to this spectacular conclusion from fighting against Panchal?", Karna asked quietly. 

"Haven't you heard?", Arjun asked equally quietly. 

"What?"

"King Drupad has agreed to a plea deal. Half of Panchal for sovereignty. Ashwatthama is to be crowned King of Ahichhatra tomorrow."

Karna stared astounded at Arjun whose eyes remained stuck to some indistinct point in the darkness in front. 

The clouds had completely covered the stars by then. 

"I killed people today Vasu. Hundreds. For the first time, my targets were living, breathing creatures who have equal right to live on this planet as I. Who only fell to my arrows because the Acharya wanted revenge. Only because I never miss. I can't."

A breath. 

"Only because I made a promise to my Guru without knowing what it would be."

Arjun's tone was scarily humorous. 

Karna didn't think he liked this version of the Pandava very much. 

"Ekalavya is Hiranyadhanush's son. His heir.", Arjun continued abruptly. 

"The Nishada King? Isn't he.. one of Magadha's lieutenants?", Karna asked, racking his brain for the list of the foes to the Kuru empire, which he had memorised as part of his learnings back in Anga. 

"Rumoured to be extremely close to Jarasandha. We had the Vrishnis studying with us in the ashrama. The Acharya possibly couldn't teach, Ekalavya. It would have been considered tantamount to treason", Arjun finished miserably. 

Of course. 

The preceptor to the Kurus and Yadavas teaching the son of a commander of Jarasandha's army.

The politics left a cloying distaste in Karna's mouth even if he did understand Drona's dilemma somewhat. 

"But that didn't stop Ekalavya. He spied on us and learnt it on his own. He used to practise in front of Acharya's statue, which he had made with his own hands. The... dedication and devotion to our teacher---"

Arjun stopped abruptly, as his mind went back to that day when he and his brothers had seen that poor mongrel with his mouth stuffed with arrows. 

'Such cruelty.. why would one do this to a poor defenceless creature?'

Nakul had asked his older brother, behoved and clearly disheartened. Arjun had felt his skin break into goosebumps. 

Such talent yet that, not so subtly hidden, penchant for bloodlust. 

"Knowledge earned under the guise of deception is never going to be fruitful. It will only spell doom in the future. Trust me... I know."

Karna's words broke Arjun's dank musings and he glanced at the older man. His face was twisted in a strange expression, dark luminous eyes lost in the fog of a distant past yet the foreboding in the air only added to the general uneasiness which had struck both the warriors. 

The gold clad archer looked askance at his younger companion. The ivory clad prince looked pensive yet oddly calm as well. 

Karna couldn't decide whether Arjun's innate inquisitiveness or rather, desire to question every motive behind everyone's actions, including his own, was a good thing or not. 

Kunti's youngest was too keen to unearth the mysteries of truth.

Only he didn't know that the truth has a capricious quality of making people crumble under its weight. 

His next words and the slowly appearing light of realisation on the Pandava's youthful face, only cemented the older man's belief. 

Arjun turned towards Karna and gave him the saddest smile that could ever be. 

"It looks like I paid my guru dakshina in blood too."