Today was Holi, the day Anwesha once loved as a child and started dreading since her teenage.

She loved colours, bright or dark as she loved the joy it brought along but what she never liked was the forceful inclusion of people into the celebration.

She shivered as she remembered how Daksh and Akruti would pry their way into her flat, one way or the other, usually with the assistance of her own birth mother and would drag her out, forcing her to indulge in the festive of colours.

The week that would follow with be one filled with sneezes and cough and cold along with breakouts at different parts of her body. Daksh and Akruti with tsk and rant about her lack of self control and immunity despite being the ones to drag her out, and this circle would be repeated every year except for this one, thankfully.

This year, she had been assigned to monitor the sweets and drinks of the two young princes, saving them from any possible adulteration , by the queen herself. The princes being sweethearts had applied little amounts of pink floral powder in her face, before they had gone to the play Holi with their family members, as she sat and watched from afar. She had covered the food, with heavy dish of brass and not sat idly watching the palace guards flirt drunkenly with the maids, who would giggle shrilly and shriek like hyenas whenever someone to approach to colour them.

Oh to be young again, she signed.
As she sat quietly observing people play, Mitra and Vinda, two palace maids who were close to her approached her closely with cautioned steps.

Mitra and Vinda worked in the palace kitchens, and being close to her age had started associating more with her, enjoying her presence as she enjoyed theirs.

Today as they approached her, their hands behind their back, she could read the mischief in their eyes.

Anwesha gulped with anticipation.

“Don’t you look a bit too dry ?”, one of the asked as the other grabbed her hand.
“Well I can’t  play, I have been assigned to watch the food.”, Anwesha tried to excuse herself away but  Mitra didn’t let her.

“Oh no, you can’t  get away, you must accompany us and play. It’s  the King’s command for everyone to take part in the celebrations. You are a part of everyone, dear.”, they said dragging her off to the grounds.

“Let me do the honour.”, Vinda said taking yellow gulaal and rubbing it in her face, as Mitra followed. Her veil fell from her face freely, but Anwesha didn’t  care.

Her initial reluctance gone as she collected colours in her hands, chasing after the giggling girls.

Anwesha chased after Mitra and Vinda, throwing colours in the air. The two mischievous women, however, split into two different directions, causing Anwesha to come to a halt.

“Can’t follow both of us, can you?” they goaded her, giggling. Anwesha giggled along, deciding which one of them to follow. She chose to follow Mitra, who went to her right, running behind her, screaming for her to stop, barefoot on the grass. She passed by many, her yellow sari now covered with multiple colours. Crowds of people played Holi in the royal courtyard, nobility and commoners alike. Though the royals were nowhere in sight, she could not care to find her why. She was busy playing with colours when a hand from the crowd grabbed her out of nowhere, twirling her around before dragging her closer.

Caught off guard, Anwesha did not know what to do. Hands full of red powder rubbed on her chubby cheeks, colouring her entire face red. She was frozen in place. The touch felt sensual. A man, half of his face covered with dark colours and the other half with a scarf, stood in front of her. His tall build and golden-brown eyes reminded her of someone, but she could not pinpoint who. She tried to get away, but he held her hand tightly, refusing to let her go.

“What are you doing? Let go of me!” she said, struggling to get away as hard as possible. But the man shook his head, denying her any escape. His right hand wrapped around her waist tightly, dragging her closer to his body. His other hand travelled from her face to her neck. Marring her perfect white skin with the colours of sin. His hand then moved up to her head, grabbing her hair and massaging her scalp lightly. His hand supported her head and delicate waist as he bent down, kissing her rose petal-like lips.

Anwesha tried to push him away, but he continued to kiss her, enjoying the proximity and the warmth of her body. When he finally let her go, she was near tears. She even tried to scratch his face, yet he did not relent. He rubbed her nostrils and lips as she tried to blink away her tears, before she pushed him back hard and fled toward the back of the palace.

The man sighed, but he could not deny it. He felt ashamed, but the reason behind his supposed embarrassment was not from the fact that he had just kissed a woman without her consent but rather by force. his embarrassment stemmed from the fact that he, despite knowing it was wrong and immoral, wanted to pursue her. His body and heart both desired the forbidden apple.

He did not know whether to heed his heart or his mind, but he did know one thing: she belonged to him, and sooner or later, she would know and understand that as well, and give in to his advances. He walked towards the palace’s prigate stream, wiping his handsome face with a clean cloth. His brother was awaiting his arrival at the banks of the stream, away from all commotion and crowds. His brother was present there, sitting on a well-crafted volcanic basaltic seat located beside the artificially-created Yamuna stream.

“So, have you paid them off yet?” he asked him, as his brother noted, jiggling a pouch of gold nuggets in his right hand.

“I bought them off at a price lower than expected,” he smirked, proud of his bargain.

“I was ready to pay them each a bag of gold for their service and silence, but they eagerly accepted one bag, agreeing to split their newly-begotten wealth equally.”

“Well, without you, it would never have been possible,” he praised his twin, who nodded in agreement.

“You seemed a bit busy with her,” he said, a knowing smirk gracing his face, which was reciprocated with a bright, wide grin.

“I must admit, from what I saw of her from afar—your paintings do her no true justice.”

“But that does raise a doubt in my mind regarding her identity,” the younger man mused, doubt evident in his voice.

“Oh, please! Leave those thoughts for later. The more you speak, the more you sound like bhrata Bheem.” The eldest Madreya exclaimed, annoyed, dripping from his voice.

“But she could be from there, right? She might even be a part of them.”

“You’d be delusional if you think a pretty little thing like her would be a Naga. Please! She literally saved Vindhya and Soma from a snake. Why would she harm her own kind and kin when she could have turned a blind eye?” He defended Anwesha.

“But she did not look remorseful at all. I had seen her. This all could be a ploy to win our trust first.” Sahadev argued back, disappointed at his brother’s blind trust on a stranger.

“Well, maybe she was too shaken from the event to react. She could not even find my grip on herself. You think she is an accomplice of Takshak?” Nakul questioned Sahadev’s sense of reason.

“Maybe not Takshak, but she isn’t as innocent as she looks. She knows crime and the art of killing, and she has known blood. Be aware of the waters before trespassing them, Nakul.” Sahadev warned his elder twin brother, who seemed to pay no heed to his words at all, blinded by his selfish desires.
“And anyways, it’s not the Nagas I suspect.”

“Then who do you think she is, if not a Naga?” But Nakul was not ready for Sahadev’s answer as his eyes flew wide open in horror at the answer.

“They can’t be real, can they?” Nakul asked, his voice quivering with equal amounts of horror and curiosity. Sahadev seemed unfazed as he anticipated his brother’s reaction. He just shrugged.

“Whatever she might be, we are stronger and more powerful than her. Anyways, Arjun bhaiya would be back soon.” Sahadev assured Nakul, who let out a sigh of relief.

Anwesha fled to the backyard of the palace after escaping her perpetrator. The palace was a busy place, bustling with people. The backyard of the palace was a usually quiet and secure place, visited by few.

Anwesha sighed in relief at her escape as tears fell down from her eyes without constraint. She felt disgusted and violated. She tried rubbing her delicate skin, to get rid of the touch more than the colour. It reminded her of the first time she had killed someone as a secret agent—the drops of blood that had splattered on her face had felt like acid, and she had showered for an hour straight to get rid of the marks and the stench of blood. It was her way of trying to escape the reality, of wiping her hands of the invisible traces of blood. She had failed that day, as she had failed today, to get rid of this malice.

Her special abilities had refused to help her out, and could not be unlocked when she had needed them the most. She had been sobbing, immense in pain and self-pity—hiding both her hurt as well as the truth of her heart from the world.
She heard a heart-wrecking scream of pain, startling her to awareness. Someone else was in pain, in need. Anwesha could never, in her good conscience, leave another human in harm’s way. Even if she was in pain herself, or even half-dead, she would perform her duty as a good Samaritan and help the person in need within her capabilities and beyond.

She headed in the direction of the scream which seemed to be coming from the bushes. Behind the bushes were a hut, used to store hay for the horses.
‘What could a person possibly be doing here ?’, she wondered entering the hut as dread filled her heart at the sight before her.

The ever regel queen, lay on a bed of hay, screaming in pain as her daima held her hand, sobbing. The bed of hay below her appeared red, soaked with blood.

“My queen, what has happened ? Who has hurt you ?”, Anwesha asked hurrying to the side of the woman, and looked at her face which was scrunched with pained expressionion, trying to make out what she was trying to say.

“What are you doing here girl ? You have no business here, be gone.”, the daima snapped at her as she glared at the younger woman.

“I had noticed the queen’s absence and tried to look for her out of worry, only to find her here in pain. I am not going anywhere, leaving the queen’s side.”, she said decisively as she lies through her teeth.

“Can’t you see the queen doesn’t  want you here, to watch her in her vulnerable state.”, daima retroted.

“You care about my presence more than the queen’s well being, it seems. There’s  no time to argue, the queen’s  life is on the line, I must call the princes for help.”, she said trying to get up and get help as the queen held her back, nodding negatively- pleading at her with her eyes.

“Please, I do not desire to dampen the mood of the festival. Please refrain from telling anyone as this must, stay within this room. No one apart from us can know, not now neither in the future.”, the queen commanded trying to sound strong beyond her broken self. Her voice tremoring and painfully slow as she struggled to say even a word, in between her screams.

As she bellowed with pain,  Anwesha checked the pulses of the queen and trying to rationalise the situation and identify the root cause of the problem.

“My queen, may I know what had happened ? I might be able to help you. I know a bit of medicine. I can assure you whatever you say would be confidential. No one apart from us would ever come to know.”, Anwesha tried to assure the strong willed queen, who started at her with glossy eyes but didn’t  utter a word.

Anwesha turned her gaze towards the Daima who signed before revealing the secret.

“The queen had been pregnant and was about to complete her first trimester soon. But when she was playing Holi with the people she felt a push and slipped in the floor of grass, falling with a thud. Her stomach had hit the corner of the corner of the long table of colours. It had made her miscarry the child she so longed for.”, the Daima revealed, wiping her tears with her scarf.

Anwesha felt shock spread through her body, but before she could ever recover from the initial revelation, the queen dropped another bombshell on her.

“It’s  okay, you need not worry. This isn’t  the first time it happened, am experienced with the pain. I will survive.”, the fire born tried to assure her maid whose jaw felt slacked, wife open in its own. If Anwesha’s head had been feeling from the initial observation then the newest one gave her an acute cardiac arrest.

“Are you being serious ? This makes the situation even more dangerous. You must tell someone or you may die. “, Anwesha nearly screamed while crying at the plight of queen.

“Please, no. Don't let my sorry state damoen the joyous mood of the festival. They must not know. No one must know. Please. They must not see this side of mine or else or else…”, before she could complete her words another contraction hit her, as she gripped Anwesha’s hand tightly letting out a heart wrenching scream similar to one that had forced Anwesha inside.

The scream broke all barriers of sanity as it established an unknown, unspoken bond between the two. Though Anwesha had not heard the words sprouting from her mouth, she did understand what she had tried to say. She just nodded, both cried freely as she hugged the broken woman close to her heart, trying to support her as must as she could.

Neither of them spoke a word, as they let the pain come and pass. Slowly the pain dimmed a bit, becoming more bearable as did the screams became less frequent turning with soft yet painful groans.

The words unspoken had been clear, understood by both – one’s weakness was their own to protect and preserve as was their vulnerabilities from gawking vultures. They were supposed to be hidden away behind sharp words and strong appears, fooling everyone in the world except their own selves.

‘ A woman is a leader, who can be the backbone as well as the wand of justice to the society but never weak. ‘ the queen and maid had both once heard in their respective life and adhered to it, refusing to bend for their fears.

Anwesha forgot her pain, upon witnessing the queen’s pitiful condition and strong resolve, undeterred by even the possibility of death and the queen had forgotten her grief momentarily witnessing someone’s selfless care for her, first time in years, apart from her daima.

Unknown to the world which was busy in thy pursuits, lost in the joy of the moment, merry making – two strong women, poles apart in status and personality bonded  beyond the boundaries of social stigma. The strings of their hearts tangled into a beautiful figure of cat’s cradle – complex yet cohesive.

The day the maid and mistress became ‘ Sakhis ' or soulmates for life and beyond, bonded over pain.

So, new chapter is here. Please leave your opinion and reviews. The updates will be once a week every Saturday.
Also check out the main character aesthetic.

( A/N) : Thinking of setting a vote target soon enough.