Another day had passed and Mrithika was told that they were nearing the end of their stay in Varnavrat. The supposedly good news made her more anxious than usual. It meant that their accommodation can go up in flames at anytime, but luckily the history written had clearly mentioned that it was at nightfall that the palace was lit, meaning she had to stay extra cautious after sunset.

The village and palace was bustling with festivities organised by the Pandavas and it seemed  that even Purochan and his family were having a great time getting intoxicated and dallying around the palace in a cheerful manner. Mrithika wasn't sure what to make of their behaviour, wether to be concerned or relieved.

And along with an another day came another messenger but this time it was from the Kingdom of Kosala. 

"Your father and brother had sent these for you along with a letter, Putri". Kunti announced as the servants carried two plates covered with silken cloth inside the Antāpura where the mother of the Pandavas and Mrithika temporarily resided.

"My brother"? She questioned with a puzzled expression. 

Kunti replied with a smile and nod as she handed her an envelope sealed with the royal insignia of Kosala. The letter was a yellowed parchment paper filled with an elegant handwriting of the Devanāgarī script .

Dear sister,

We may have not met when father and the kingdom first received you as their precious solar princess but I have heard about you from father and I regret not being there to acknowledge you as my Anujaa. 

As father might have already told you, I had been away to Kashi for an important visit as the region  is our vassal state. I had always been an only child to the Suryavanshi clan but I'm glad that it is not so anymore. As a compensation for my absence I have tried to make it up by sending you these gifts and I hope it is to your liking. I sincerely wish that you would accept the gifts of this elder brother of yours.

Father had mentioned the hue of your eyes to that of sapphires, I had personally brought in ornaments that had the maharatnani from the Kingdom of Lanka. When you return back to Ayodhya I hope you wear the garments I've sent you along with them.

I'm thrilled to meet you as soon as possible. I assure you that when you return I won't be out of the capital and we can go for an outing on the banks of Sarayu. 

Your Jyesth, 

Barhināman 

A genuine smile graced her lips as she closed the letter and turned towards the plates to unravel the presents the Kosala prince sent her. Her excitement knew no bounds as this was the first time in eight years that she has ever received a thoughtful present from someone who did not have any ulterior motives.

The jewellery sent by Barhināman were dazzling in the sunlight. The silver chains were covered with square - cut sapphires glinting a deep Prussian blue with rock-cut diamonds encrusted around the borders. A pair of silver earrings with the sapphire droplets were present along with a thin flower shaped mang tikka. 

The other platter held a deep blue skirt with faint sliver brocades and an uttariya of the same shade. The colour was pleasant to look at, it reminded her of the blue - painted streets of Jodhpur where she would escape off to play with the local children.

"That is very thoughtful of your Jyesth," Kunti commented with a small smile.

"Ah yes. Mata Kunti, do you know anything about the Kosala Kumar? I haven't really had the opportunity to ask father about him as we already were in a hurry".

"I suppose I do have heard certain things about him." Kunti mused and continued, "As it was the custom of the Raghuvanshis, he was trained in the vedas and warfare by the revered saint Vishwamitra, the teacher of Sri Rama and his brothers. Ever since the age of sixteen he has been through five wars already in a bid to extend the Kosala empire further. I'm sure you have already heard of the numerous vassal states under their influence such as the foremost kingdom Kashi as an example. I have never seen him in person though, Putri".

"Ah", Mrithika nodded her head slowly. It wasn't exactly going to be easy fitting in with that family despite sharing the same ancestry. The difference was between their point of views and personalities. 

"I shall take your leave then. I hope you get some rest before lunchtime and please take care of your belongings". And with that Kunti left the chamber leaving Mrithika all by herself. The latter sat on the bed for awhile contemplating before jumping on her feet, the anklets tinkling shrilly.

Grabbing a leather satchel from one of the trunks filled with her clothings, she stuffed it with the garments that came in from Kosala along with the sapphire encrusted jewels. If they were to escape she wasn't letting those gifts stay there only to be reduced to ashes. In any case it might prove useful in the future.

After carefully packing her prized possessions, she set them under her bed and covered it with the bedding material to hide it and patiently waited until sunset. All the while keeping herself awake.

As minutes passed by and soon turned into hours, she didn't realised that she had dozed off until sharp raps on the door leading to her chamber, resonated in her ears with the smell of burning wax entered her nostrils. 

Before realisation set upon her she witnessed the wall melting with wax dripping to the floor. 'Shit', she cursed internally as she discerned how much deep in trouble she actually was. The loud knocking did not cease to exist and she didn't pay much attention to it as most of her concern lay with her satchel hidden under her bed.

She got onto her knees and reached for the satchel when the door broke out with a loud thud. Whipping her head to the direction of the sound she saw the youngest Pandava standing there with a panic laden face, his fair face turning paler.

"What are you doing? Why weren't you answering the door? I have no time to explain, Mrithika but you need to come with me. We have to leave this place immediately", he urged frantically but to his surprise only a flicker of worry crossed her features before she resumed her actions and pulled out the satchel from under which was now stained a bit with the melted wax from the floor.

"Let's run", she reacted ignoring the questioning gaze of Sahadev as she flung the satchel over her right shoulder and headed towards the doorway. It was there that she assessed the damage, the inner right corner of the corridor leading to the women's quarters was covered with flames creeping its way in at an accelerated pace. 

The duo hurried towards the opposite direction with the fire chasing after them, as they exited the women's quarters the corridor adjacent to them had also started catching fire, Sahadev looked around helplessly and said, "We have no other choice but to cross this corridor".

Mrithika looked at him in disbelief, 'He wasn't being serious now was he'?

He understood her expression and clarified, "The flames aren't too intense. Just follow my lead and we'll be fine".

She thought paused for a moment with her face scrunched up in an unsure expression and gave in, "Alright, whatever you say". Sahadev nodded and stepped into the corridor, navigating slowly but steadily through the flames that licked up the walls. Mrithika followed him closely, the heat glaring onto her face as wax kept melting along with the straw and bamboo mixed into it burning.

A block of wax nearly fell on her as she was yanked aside by him, she bit her lip and clutched the satchel close to her as watched the corridor leading to her room behind gradually burning. The smoke coming from the burning palace eventually started entering her lungs leaving a distasteful taste in her throat.

"Cover your mouth and nose, don't inhale the smoke", he warned as they manoeuvred towards the next corridor. She instantly clasped a hand around her face. It was a whole labyrinth the entire time they were trying to escape. Purochan had truly made sure that their escape would be a hard time.

An hour later they had made it towards the backyard of the palace and over a distance away near the trees surrounding the little creek she had once had a conversation with the man accompanying her, stood the remaining Pandava brothers and their mother. In the ensuing chaos Mrithika had totally forgotten to ask Sahadev about his brothers and Kunti.

She looked behind her to see the entire palace burning furiously and lighting up the night in a jarring red. 'So this is the infamous Lakshagriha incident. Heh glad to be a part' she thought dryly as she turned to face the others.

Kunti stepped forward with a solemn expression and asked, "I hope you're not hurt anywhere?"

This was when she finally examined herself. The hem of her skirt was completely stained with the wax and she had suffered minor burns on her arms which were now covered in patches of black soot.

"It...isn't that bad but I can still go on".

Yudhishthir shook his head in dismay, "I truly apologise for the inconvenience caused today to you, Rajkumari Kausalya . This isn't how it should have went we're sorry for making things difficult for you".

"I apologise too, Mrithika. I'm ashamed and furious to admit this but this has been a conspiracy plotted by our cousins, the Kauravas, to murder us. I assure you that such a deed shall not go unpunished", Bheem gritted with an exasperated look on his face as if he was already contemplating on how to make Duryodhan suffer in the worst ways possible.

'Yikes, he's dead'.

She didn't know how to respond to this except asking away her curiosity that had been nagging her since the past two weeks, "So...what exactly happened? What are we going to do now"?

The Pandavas were albeit taken aback at her question. This wasn't the reaction they had from someone who had almost been burnt to death but this wasn't something that was new to her partly due to her past experience and partly because she knew something like this would happen.

Arjun seemed to understand her point as he spoke up after his elder brothers, "To elaborate, Kaka Vidur had already warned Jyesth about such an incident and the rice sack he had sent along with a mice had actually happened to be a warning about Lakshagriha. Again we apologise for not warning you beforehand about this but we had actually planned to escape tonight by burning the palace before Purochan got a chance to".

"Oh so you were the ones who set fire to it, not the other way around"? She paraphrased in a bid to let the information sink into her head but inadvertently it sounded condescending to the others as they looked at each other in guilt.

"There's a tunnel here nearby that Kaka Vidur had built for such a situation. We escape from there and reach the banks of Yamuna, and...we'll leave you at the borders of Kosala," Nakul explained glumly.

She looked at Sahadev only to find him looking back at her dejected and thrown, "Yes I suppose that would be the best for you...and I hope you don't tell anyone about us surviving this ordeal. We just want to stay low for sometime before sorting everything out."

Mrithika furrowed her eyebrows and regarded them all in an uncertain manner, "Now you're all discarding me away like garbage?" For some reason in her entire selfish existence she felt a sense of remorse and gratitude towards the Pandavas. She couldn't point her finger on it but she could see that when the world had turned its back on her, they showed her a new light, gave her a new identity, a home and now a family that she can truly rely on.

Or maybe it was because of the time when Kunti had been motherly towards her something she had lacked all her life or perhaps, it was when she had developed the courage to open up herself to Arjun and let all her past pains flow through and still be accepted despite her flaws. She didn't accept it publicly but she couldn't deny that being in Hastinapur, despite a few...colourful people, was the safest she felt in a long time.

She couldn't truly explain it but she felt as if she owed them something even though a part of her told her to leave everything and run for safety. Regardless of knowing the kind of hardships that would follow if she went with them, she decided not to leave them alone not when they had saved her from being burnt alive due to her own carelessness of falling asleep in spite of knowing the danger that would come.

She was appalled at this side of her. Perhaps, this is due to the good karmā that the Pandavas had attracted from all their good deeds and intent. She was beginning to understand what Krishna had meant her earlier about learning how to achieve good karmā by observing the Pandavas. They did indeed brought in an inkling of change in her.

Yudhishthir drew in his eyebrows, "I beg your pardon"?

"I said I'm not going to leave you alone. If you want to lay low for awhile then I'll too. Do you honestly think people would believe me if I said I had made it out of the palace unscathed while you all couldn't? And I have a conscience too, I can't go back to a life of luxury knowing that all of you would be somewhere in hiding", Mrithika huffed and crossed her arms across her shoulder, glaring at them in disappointment.

"I suppose what you say is true about others not believing you but..." Nakul trailed off not knowing what exactly to say.

"Putri, are your sure about this? My sons and I have decided to reside in forests before taking a proper decision to return back," Kunti argued as she didn't want to burden the girl further but unfortunately Mrithika didn't seem to take a no for an answer.

"I am very certain about this Mata, trust me. If I return back and claim your death to be true, no one would believe me. Certainly not Mahamahim Bhishma. Some might even suspect that I might have a hand in Lakshagriha, and to divert attention from them Gandharraj and Duryodhan would try to frame me for their crimes ultimately leading to war between Kuru and Kosala. I'm telling you accompanying all of you is the best option than returning back to my kingdom all by myself."

"I agree with her, Mata", Bheem chimed in, "Mamashree Shakuni and the Kauravas would try to pin the blame on her to silence her from getting the truth out. We can't even trust them anymore not after all that happened with Lakshagriha and poisoning my kheer. I suggest that right now we shall all escape through the tunnels before the villagers arrive".

Kunti seemed hesitant with their responses but she couldn't deny on what her relatives might do if a survivor managed to run scot-free that could potentially run her mouth. At last she gave up and directed them to go through the tunnels. It was freshly dug on the orders of Vidur when he managed to get a whiff of the conspiracy. Mrithika turned to have a one last look at Varnavrat when she heard a gaggle of voices whom she presumed to be the villagers.

Clutching the satchel closer to her she was the last one to enter the tunnel, not knowing what lay beyond her but trusting her karmā to sail her safely through troubled waters.

A/N

So finally we got to the burning of Lakshagriha and I'm glad that I managed to get through with this sect. I'm really excited to get to the Hidimba and the Swayamwar arc as this is where the story will start taking a full turn. 

Please vote and comment if u liked the chapter. I would suggest that y'all add this story to your library as it would give you a notification each time it's updated so you won't miss out. And silent readers if u are enjoying the story then please at least do leave a vote, it would mean a lot.

Until next time.