Getting to her feet, Shivali greeted the lady and thanked her for her help that day. The old lady smiled warmly in response, and cupping the prasadam in her hands, she joined Shivali in her corner. 

'You look so much better now,' she said, smoothing her saree as she sat down, folding her legs.

Shivali thanked her.

'Do you live here too, then?' the lady asked, to which Shivali answered that she didn't.

'But what about your family?'

Wishing that the lady would leave soon, she only smiled again in response, not knowing what to say.

'But where are you from?' she pressed on, unaware of the discomfort she was causing Shivali.

Annoyed, Shivali replied dryly, 'I'm from the future.'

'Oh!' the woman exclaimed in excitement. Shivali had expected her to just laugh.

'This reminds me of this story!' the lady started. 'You see, my daughter has given birth to a son recently, and I've been wracking my brain for all the stories I know for his bedtime. Would you like to hear the story?' She had finished her prasadam, and Shivali had been hoping she'd get up and leave. However, she reluctantly agreed.

'We had a prince once, centuries ago.' The lady began. 

Fixing her eyes on a stone slab at her feet, her gratitude for the lady's previous generosity fading, Shivali listened.

'Most families, even those who have been living here for generations have never heard of him,' she continued. 'When he was very young, he is said to have hurt his head, and that he spent the next thirteen years without consciousness, before passing.'

Not a strong preface for a children's bedtime story.

'But,' the lady piped up, her tone suddenly suspenseful, ' the few who ever lay eyes on him swore that he looked the very picture of his grandfather, who happens to be Maharaj Kalivang.'

'Kalivang?' So that was whom the city was named after. 

'Yes, and how long did he rule the kingdom?'

When Shivali stared blankly at her, she continued, 'Thirteen years!'

Shivali almost laughed. 'What does that have to do this this?'

'Everything,' the lady argued, now completely immersed in her tale. 'Maharaj Kalivang was a mere farmer, remember? He single handedly imprisoned the Valli king and declared himself king, didn't he? He came out of nowhere.'

'So you're saying he travelled through time.'

The old lady shrugged. 'A very old story I heard from a woman I used to work with. Such strange tales we make up, huh?'

She had finished with her narration and now sat satisfied. Shivali felt shaken. She couldn't help but draw parallels between her and that farmer king. The whole deal seemed somehow premeditated. An old lady out of nowhere telling her a bedtime story? About travelling through time? It all seemed like one great joke with her at its butt end.

The lady poked her shoulder. 'Won't you listen to the notice?'

'Huh?' Shivali asked, then noticed the thumping of drums nearby, the ground trembling slightly at its fast approach. Everyone made their way out of the temple and towards the intersection, where a few men stood beating a large drum till most of the neighbourhood had gathered. 

'Orders from his majesty,' one of the men proclaimed at the top of his lungs. 'Orders from his majesty,' he repeated until everyone grew silent.

'A raid led by Sengad's crown prince Brijesh Sengupta is moving  towards Kalivangapuram,' he informed. Gasps rose through the crowd, but the man continued, and they fell silent once more.

'The raid shall reach the city in three days time. His majesty the Maharaj has ordered for every citizen to evacuate the city at the earliest, taking with them only the most essential valuables. The citizens will be guided at pitstops into the surrounding hills, where safe areas are being set up. The citizens have been ordered by his majesty the Maharaj to not leave the safe areas before further orders. The gates of the city will be closed by noonday tomorrow.'