War, Bloodshed, intrigue, treason, betrayal, sins have abounded and the gods are watching, kali warrior goddess has been unable to withstand the imploring of her devotees, her Commander, the yogini is weary of wars and pleads for fusion in to the co...
"The king Ugrasena of Raiyapura married a kuninda princess Aarusi and her handmaiden Raya according to their tradition. The handmaidens were bound with years of conditioning. The hand maidens were so loyal, that they wed the consort along with their mistress. The princess became queens and the hand maiden concubines; they were half sisters and close friends and often ran the country together; their daughters shared the same fate. The handmaiden's daughter was always paired with the queen's as team. They ate, danced, sang, learnt and slept together. As for the sons of the handmaiden and queen, they were too bound as blood brothers sharing the same wife or wives. There is no account of the handmaiden's children betraying their step siblings. An example for such devotion, was the relationship between sunanda and vishpala, their mothers were half- sisters so were their maternal grandmothers and so on for the last ten generations." - Shashanka "Lectures on different Cultures and practices of Bharata" – Nalanda university Tomes.
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124 BCE, 2nd Bhadrapada, Koteswara capital city of Audumbaras.
It took visha, two nazhigais to reach the fortress, as she came closer she could hear the clamour; she hit the summoning gong near the entrance with haste, the sight sentries atop the walls didn't spare her an extra glance; she a single rider, after intimation was not their concern.
But the mid guards were primed and ready. The huge gates remained closed, as did the smaller gate.
"Who goes there? State your business." The voice boomed out of a small pin hole from one of the thousands of identical motifs on the fortress walls.
"It's I vispala, the chief concubine of the warlord, sister to the queen." She replied.
There was a sound of turning gears and a small aperture opened on the seemingly solid wall, visha stepped in to clamor and acrid stench of burning.
They were waiting for her, the gramasevaks. And then she knew; that on this day when it counted the most, her sister, and her blood will have to walk their path alone, the urgency of the information she was carrying became redundant, for the sungas were here, and the people always came first.
"Where is my sister?"
"The queen isn't here my lady!" said Razmi danda.
"Then she is, where she is supposed to be, razmi"
"But, she asked us to wait for you here."
"What's the clamour for?"She asked.
"Mansu's palace is burning devi*" said Rukmin
"High time it did! Let it burn rukmin. Collect all the civilians who are involved in putting it off and send them on their way"
"What news, from the flyersSutaja?"
"There is an advance guard of a thousand soldiers, devi; they will reach the fort within six nazhigais. They are preceded by an envoy of 250 soldiers; the envoy is very close and will reach us from the northern gate even faster." replied sutaja
