|| PaulomīPrāṇaNāyaka: Labyrinth Of Lightning ||

|| Pancha: From The Skies ||

"Shachi, I can't take my word back, neither can you go against the promise I'd given Anuhlada!" Puloma uttered firmly and harshly as his daughter stared at him in absolute disbelief.

"Pita, you can't tie the thread of my future with someone who threatened to use such derogatory tricks on me!"

"There's nothing wrong with whatever he said, Shachi. He warned you only because you spoke rubbish in front of him. He has the right to do any type of marriage with you anyway because he has taken word from me that you would his! Your Kanyadana has already happened through my word!"

Shachi was dumbfounded with her father's nonsensical logic of how the Daitya Prince Anuhlada was entitled to do whatever he wished, apparently because his father had transferred the rights on his daughter to Anuhlada as if she was a property. But it was Puloma's carelessness that hurt her the most.

"Pita, I'm your daughter. You may not care about my comfort when it comes to the marital alliance with the Daityas. But you know my disposition too well. You can ignore my feelings as you want to, Pita, can you accept the consequences that your daughter will face?" She questioned, hoping that he would understand her as a father ought to and feel her heart wrenching agony.

No father would want their child to live a constrained life and Puloma was her father. He wouldn't take away her right and her freedom to live the way she wanted to. He was never happy with her mentality but she was allowed to have her way as the Danava Princess. At least she wasn't forced to be a part of their conspiracies and conventions. It wouldn't be the same at the Daitya household. They would expect her to contribute to their schemes which she never would and it would bring ruin to either of them, her or the Daityas.

"If I become the daughter-in-law of the Daitya family, Paulomi may survive but Shachi would die!" She added, earnestly wishing that her words had an impact but she had never thought he would ever say what he had said in reply.

"Let her die!" Puloma was too normal in his tone and his expression. "Shachi is the name that Paulomi was given. She is not supposed to have a separate identity. And there's no benefit in having it either. There's nothing but loss and wastage if you continue to be as reckless as you were. It's time that you acknowledge your birth, your parents, your clan and your duty towards the Asura community. I haven't been able to change you, and it's fair. I'd brought you into this world, and my heart gets weak. But the Daityas and their sternness will also be fair as they will be your marital family. I want change in you and if not through me, it'll happen through these compulsions and obligations this marriage will bring upon you. Everything is fair!"

"What if I don't marry him, what if I do not come to the betrothal ceremony? What if I take Pitamaha Kashyapa's help to stop the ceremony?"

"He cannot interfere in our family matters, Shachi, it was his promise. But if you manage to persuade him with your tears and create an obstacle, the implications would be faced by the Devas because the Daityas won't spare them whom Pita Kashyapa favors. They will take ugly revenge by hurting his beloved family! The last time, Bhumi Devi was their target. Who knows, it might be Aditi Devi this time!"

"Pita, she's like a mother for both the Danavas and the Daityas!"

"That's the point. Like a mother, not our mother. If the Daityas didn't mind abducting Goddess Bhumi, why would they think twice about DevaMata?"

"And why do you think I care for the Devas and DevaMata, Pita?"

"I don't merely think, I know that you do. Because you follow Dharma, just like the Devas. You would never wish to be the reason of someone's anguish, especially of the Devas, for your selfish reasons. Would you?" Puloma's pitch raised on the note of triumph as he shook his head with a mirthless smile. "Your mother and your Sakhis will escort you to the hall. Do not delay anymore. All the doors are closed upon you. There's none who can help you or listen to you."

"Using my own Dharma to destroy my will to follow Dharma?" Shachi sighed, her exasperation evident in the sardonic curve of her lips. "I hope that you realize how wrong you are, one day!"

Shachi's cheeks were drenched in tears, her cheek pressed against the cold rock surface of the raised platform in the gardens attached to her chambers. She was lying on the bare floor which she had often used for her dance practice.

The betrothal ceremony that she had wanted to stop badly had taken place and she couldn't do anything that she had planned. Anuhlada's threats could not shake her will though she was perturbed initially. She wished she was equally strong-willed against her father's blackmailing too... she wished she hadn't trusted him enough to tell him everything and took some step to break the alliance on her own. Why did she resort to the foolishness of...

The blue sky thundered abruptly as she tilted her head a little and gazed at the effulgent flashes of lightning. There was something surreal about it that it usually was and she was quick to catch the detail as she was an enthusiastic observer of lightning since she was a child. She had seen many of her friends express wariness about it but she was probably the only one who actually admired the lightning. When there was even the slightest change in its form, she would easily recognize it.

She kept staring at the lightning flashes that appeared like the most fascinating art without blinking her eyes, the thunder seeming akin to a melody to her ears as it had always been. But what was different as her mind could perceive was that the vision was more real than it ever was. If it was even possible, she had felt as if all the force of the lightning that exists in the universe was manifest in the sky above Rasatala at that particular moment.

Force of lightning?

What is she thinking?

The loud rumbles of the thunder were tugging at her heart as if someone was calling out to her soul, addressing her by her name even when she couldn't hear any actual voice. Why is she feeling as if she is being called by someone by hearing the thunder? How is it possible?

Everything was distinct. Distinct and familiar. Distinctly familiar. What was happening? What was happening in the sky? What was happening to her? What was happening around her and within her? Or rather who...

"Who is there?" She managed to blurt out the question as she stood up from the ground but there was no response. The lightning and the thunder quietened down unnaturally.

Shachi was appalled with her own self at the understanding she had gained about the silent language of the entity who was conversing with her through the skies. "You have the permission to come before my sight!"

Another short spell of silence followed before she broke it once again. "I know that you do not pose any danger to me. Perhaps you are the answer to the prayers I made to Maheshvara to show me a path out of the vicious trap that's suppressing my existence. I do not have any doubt in my heart except faith."

As soon as she finished uttering the last sentence, a blinding light manifested itself in front of her as she reflexively shut her eyes, shielding her face with her hands. She had never seen such a level of brightness ever before.