Ephemera

Her Leash

Before she became fire,
she was water
Quenching the thirst of every dying creature
She gave and gave

until she turned from sea to desert but,
instead of dying of the heart, the sadness,
the heartache she took all the pain and
from her own ashes she became fire. 

~~~~~~~

"Draupadi is ours!"

Three words. A huge implication. A turn in history forever.

Duryodhan's yell resonated the once hallowed halls of kuru Sabha as jumped and yelped with joy for the most beautiful woman, the wife of his cousins was his, and his alone. His inappropriate thoughts ran wild as his fantasies were finally forming some rhythm, some shape. 

He scanned the sabha before sending his charioteer to summon the once queen of the aaryavart. 

 The elderly Sarathy departed the court and moved slowly through the Kuru palace's corridors in the direction of the women's day quarters. He cautiously rapped on Draupadi's flat door. Never before had he been asked to deliver a message of the kind he did today. The door was opened by a maid, who ran to Draupadi. 

Soon, Draupadi stood before him, so regal the poor sarathy grew dumb just to look at her. He shivered under her piercing gaze and finally understood why  she was called intense.

Pratikami stared down at his feet and, then, somehow whispered, "My lord Duryodhana sent me, Devi. Your husband Yudhishtira has lost everything at a game of dice."

Draupadi merely raised an eyebrow, as years of wisdom gleaned behind her eyes, she knew this was not all.

"Yudhishtira lost his brothers at the gambling, he lost himself and..." the next words would not come.

"And?" her pupils dilated with shock.

"Finally, he lost you as well!" cried Pratikami, with the last shred of courage he owned. "Duryodhana is your master now and he commands you to come to the sabha."

Draupadi gasped, never in her life had she imagined such an imprudent thing. She fell back on her chair as if she would collapse without it. She ran a hand through her long thick hair and shivered. How could she, an empress be reduced to a maid?

Tell me, messenger, whom did my husband lose first, himself or me?"

"He first lost all his possessions, his wealth, his army, his granary, his kingdom. Then he lost his brothers, one by one, beginning with the youngest; and then he lost himself. Only after that did he lose you, last of all. You were more precious to him than everything else, than himself."

A stab of light in her lovely eyes: a flicker of hope. She said, "Go back to the sabha and say to my husband his wife wants to know if he lost her first, or himself. Ask Yudhishtira only that and bring his answer to me. Also, ask him what should I do."

Pratikami bowed and went back to the crowded court where Duryodhana and his brothers waited impatiently. The old sarathy said, "The queen Draupadi asks if Yudhishtira lost himself first, or her. She also said, she would not take orders from anyone but her husbands, in there feet lie her duty for evermore. She asked them what to do."

Duryodhan growled as he glared at pratikami before turning to dushansan. A desire for vengeance rises in him. Once, she laughed at his humiliation. Now he could gloat before hers.

This is what power feels like, pure unfettered power. It's great.

"Dusasana, you fetch our woman." Duryodhana said clear as the pandavas gasped but duryodhana was not done. "Drag her here by her hair if required!"