String of Pearls

Blue-Violet

"You can see me when I'm not there

You can feel me, Oh! but you dare?

Nobody can possess me - he or she

But I thrum and thrive in every thee.

Depth of the sea or dome of the Sun?

Tell me where you want me to run. 

Think twice and whisper once,

for there won't be another chance.

I can take you high 

and make you fly

but also bring you down 

and let you drown

for I have wings that sometimes... jinx!"

A burst of unearthly laughter bounced off the roof and multiplied manyfold.

Sharp blue-violet sparks spurted out from the walls and I jolted my fingers away from its surface catching my breath that I never felt possessing a few moments ago. The laughter slowly ceased to a whisper of the breeze.

I am in the new sprawling city of Indraprastha, trying to stand without shaking in the palace of my host. No, not a palace but a place which speaks like a swish of air and cackle like hellfire in the guise of a palace...the palace of Pandavas and...Draupadi! 

I was furiously reminding myself and promising that I'm not going mad of unplaceable fear and frustration that is gnawing my skin as if someone pulled me inside out. 

I whip my head reflexively towards a figure to make sure I'm not alone and shake away another wave of shudder. Breathing loudly through my nose I willed myself to catch Draupadi's attention and beseech her to laugh on my face and tell me that all these are some kind of hilarious joke to scare me off, her just another weird kind of entertainment.

But I was only left to stifle a gasp realizing that all my wordless pleadings hang in the air above Draupadi, her shocked eyes coloring her face pale and hands clutching a gleaming rod that spilled the pearls so tight that it's sharp jutting unpolished surface pricking her soft palm drawing an unending thread of blood.

-------

After driving the screaming and prophesizing amber-eyed Maayai away from the hall filled with jumping pearls, I confronted Draupdi for an explanation for which she stood like a statue that gulped air thirstily. I suddenly felt exhausted to probe her more and sat on the only enormous furniture in the room. As if that's a cue the bouncing pearls fell on the floor, all at once!

When she took her time to respond, I collected all the pearls that were scattered on the floor in trance. The pearls stuck with one another like magnets and after seconds I was holding a string of pearls without anything to hold them together but themselves!

While the nameless panic and pitless peace were fighting for dominance in my mind, I saw Draupadi's red-rimmed eyes piercing at me through the oval of that pearl string. 

"I swore never to do this but we have no option!" blabbering, she grabbed my free arm and ran towards somewhere that felt like going to the heart of everything. The pearls acknowledged me, warming up in my hands.

-------

We were standing in front of a massive...wall? But with intricate carvings cut into such perfection that I instinctively know no human could have designed them. What from the distance looked like just another ornate patterns were actually two entwined serpents carved on the surface, their eyes wide set with huge glinting rubies. The two metallic stone snakes raised from the surface facing opposite to each other in either direction with only their crowns joining to form what seemed like a handle. 

I impulsively lifted my hand to touch the wall marveling at its out-of-the-world grandness. But when I did, the pearls in my hand glowed like thousand tiny moons and beamed. At my touch, the wall detached itself into doors that fly opened gracefully.

The towering pillars were the first to catch my attention for again I was deceived for assuming they were plain pillars but they are actually carved slithering snakes rising above to support the roof lost in the unnerving darkness. 

As if hearing me, dozens of blue-violet torches sputter to life with a chorus whoosh. The chamber walls reflected the flames like water filled with violet lilies reflect the sunlight, transforming the entire place to a soft amethyst purple. The raw scents of river and rain fill my nostrils wrapping my whole being with a soothing layer of innocence(or is it ignorance?).

The pearls warmed in my palm and something tugged me to touch the walls. When I did, I didn't know if it's my sanity's revenge for subjecting it to a grueling ordeal, the wall comes alive with hazy images. I yank my fingers back and the incomprehensible images fade. Gingerly, I touch it again. As seconds passed, the picture became clear, filled with colors, movements, and...life!

Animals play. Yellow leaves dance in the wind. Fallen flowers made a rainbow path for the cascading sunlight to guide the way. A faint tinge of purple hue paints the air. The tree hallows move like they giggle and can't help it while the children with bright blue eyes climb and fail but try amidst the fall. The images deepen as if they are shifting course, taking me somewhere. 

Curtains sewn through thick brown leaves and ornated with fresh tendrils flutter open to show people wearing odd combinations of outfits - silk and feather, pearl and shell, sitting in groups surrounding fresh embers, talking, laughing, and singing all at once. 

Suddenly a strong wind blows carrying the thundering sound of neighing horses and hooting owls. The furiously blowing wind picks speed fanning the embers and bringing the fire to life. In seconds, a raging inferno devours everything in sight, engulfing the agonizing screams of every being, merging all of them into one sound - the blazing fire. 

For a moment I forget I'm just witnessing a series of life-like images, I try to go in and save the bawling child which is crawling precariously beneath a falling branch. After hearing the bark's sickening thud and the eery silence that followed, I try to come out of the scene notwithstanding the grotesque in front of me - without knowing there is no way for in or out!

Out of nowhere, the rain unleashed its wrath upon the blinding blaze. A cloak of smog and mist hesitantly shifts only to show the smoking ash stretching ahead until the end of the horizon. 

The chamber rumbles sending ripples on the walls. A soft purple glow in the chamber exploded into blinding deep blue-violet sending sparks all across the void. The string of pearls in my hands pulsed with life and I dropped them for they became too hot for me to hold. 

The little sparks took the shape of a giant thunderbolt and... the voice echoed!

"You can see me when I'm not there

You can feel me, Oh! but you dare?

...."

-------

Draupadi's trembling lips managed to mumble four words in the deafening silence.

"It's Magic. Maayan's Magic!"