Shakra left early in the morning while Mayurakshi was still sleeping. He got ready and walked over to Raj Bhavan's study. It was a moment later that Amartya arrived there too.
"Your sudden request for me to show up from Kanakotika is surprising. I would have gotten close to our goal."
"I think we need to deal with Krishneri first."
Amartya sat down on a chair and watched his best friend curiously, his chin resting on his hand. "That girl seems to have great magic on you." Amartya teased him.
"You want me to marry Yuvika?"
Amartya made a face at that question. "That would actually be brilliant torture on you, though."
"Don't be too smart, Amartya."
Amartya laughed at that tone. Amartya had known him since childhood. He had watched Shakra descend into this madness for Mayurakshi. Amartya didn't know what he personally felt about it. "Is she so fed up with them already?" Amartya asked.
"I thought you were starting to be good friends with her. What happened suddenly? You haven't even spoken to her since she came here."
Amartya chuckled. "You are my best friend. You were blindly in love. I am not."
"Listen, Amartya..." Shakra sat in the chair before him. "She's a confused little sparrow. She just did what she thought was right."
Amartya chuckled. "Trust me, I know, Shakra. Her confusion was visible to me. I just can't believe that she let her silliness take over her feelings."
Shakra looked at Amartya dangerously. "You knew she was in love with me?"
"That was her confusion. She was in love with the idea that there was a man who loved her. It made up for the starvation she suffered at her own home. Why do you think she was so much around the Kalika Empire?"
"You didn't tell me?"
"It wasn't my confession to tell you, Shakrajit. It was hers. She herself never came to a conclusion. How could I have given you one? But one thing was true about the assassin hired to kill you in Pragvamsa: they were hired on her order. When she figured out that she couldn't kill you with her own hands, she leaned towards the back-handed method. That reaction of hers is something I cannot forgive her for."
"Oh, come on. She's a 23-year-old girl, Amartya. Did you expect her to have the same maturity as you and me? We're 28 and still make mistakes. Give her that 5-year slack."
"I'm not going to speak to her."
"Don't be an angry bird, Amartya. I feel like she likes talking to you. She used to talk to you."
"Then ask your wife to get off her high horse and come herself." Amartya finished that discussion in that tone. Shakra couldn't get angry at him for that. Especially because he knew Amartya would choose him before everyone else. He was the Agni to his Indra. The Chandra to his Surya. The Vinayaka to his Skanda. Varuna to his Naaga. The Shukra in his Rajayoga.
"My best friend hating my wife is a bit sad."
"Please don't try emotional blackmailing. You don't know how to do it, and I'm immune to it."
Amartya was in his beloved white dhoti. He wore rudrakshamala and bhasma. Tulsimala around his wrist. His long hair was tied up in a bun on top of his head.
"I thought that a brahmana shouldn't hold grudges."
Amartya chuckled. "If all of us were perfect in our jobs, then you should have followed the ideal of Yudhisthira."
Shakra rolled his eyes. Of course, it was useless to try and argue with the man infamous for his tongue.
"I'm still working towards it. I caught hold of my lust long ago. I caught control of my rage. I caught control of my greed. I control my jealousy. I caught control of attachments. Surely, my control over pride is slightly shaky, but it is there. I'm yet to capture control of grudges." Amartya confessed his own shortcomings and sighed.
"Well, I've heard that Anvesha Amma is talking about yours and Saahiti's possible marriage."
Amartya sighed at that. "She tried to talk to me about it, but I dodged it. Karma had already informed me about it."
"Saahiti is a sweet girl," Shakra teased.
"Saahiti is in love with Abhijit, and Abhijit loves her."
"Amma was telling me how she thought that you and Saahiti seemed similar to each other. Both of you are Vedantins and have a similar appreciation for intelligence. You're practically someone who will only stand in the company of a woman who can think at least as fast as you. It sounds right. Amma went to an astrologer and confirmed that both your horoscopes match perfectly. The astrologer says that all 36 qualities between you two match."
"I know you're trying to play around." Amartya chuckled, thinking about the horoscope. "Two people can match 36 qualities, but one quality stands out above them all. That is called love. If the graha nakshatras don't match, you can perform japa to make up for it. If ganas, vashyas, and varnas don't match, mutual cooperation will correct it. But if love isn't there, no amount of these matchings will work out. Ravana's horoscope matched perfectly with Mandodari's. Yet, it was nothing short of a tragic and horrific marriage."
"Do you think Amma will concede Abhi?"
"I don't know, but I feel like your father will find a way to make her accept. He's always been the kind to give his children what they love. He's always been great at finding ways to get people to do what he wants them to do."
Just as Amartya spoke about Shatrujit, the room's door opened, and the Emperor entered. Both of them stood up in respect for him.
"Sit. Sit..." Shatrujit signaled as he walked towards his chair, rubbing his temples.
"Did you all have a little too much of a drink?"
"Too much!!!" Shatrujit groaned. "Remind me not to let Ameyajit convince me to stay back for long. Anvesha is going to have a field day."
Amartya chuckled. "I hear that all of you men barely escaped a murder attempt."
"Murder attempt?" The two looked at Amartya.
"Did no one tell you yet?"
"Everyone is still asleep in the fort, Amartya. You're the only one who religiously wakes up before Brahma Muhurta. Everyone else wakes up past Brahma Muhurta." Shakra exclaimed.
"Both the daughters-in-law of the Kalika Empire and Saahiti, along with Kamal, managed to get you all to survive the night. A small part of the invaders' remaining army disguised themselves as soldiers from Deogarh and infiltrated here in Sri Kota. Rajkumari Veer seems to have noticed the dead bodies in the caravan where some soldiers from Deogarh were staying. She wanted to inform someone, but most of the fort seemed to be lost in drinking and partying. So, she found Mayurakshi. Both of them met with Saahiti. Three of them came up with a plan. Kamal, the only sober one among you all, had helped them. So, Kamal took the Emperor to Maharani Anvesha and Abhinav to Rajkumari Aparajita. Shakra was taken back to safety in Rang Bhavan by his wife. Obviously, Saahiti and Rajkumari Veer handled Abhi and Ameya. I don't know how drunk the whole place was that they couldn't sense the difference between a man and women dressed up as men. Three women seemed to fool the whole party into thinking they were the princes. It's still not clear how it wasn't obvious. But they got the invaders caught. Women from the invaders' side also seem to be involved. Though they caught some of them, a few of them are still out." Ameya explained.
"What the hell!!!" Shakra and Shatrujit exclaimed in shock.
"You can ask about further details from Kamaljit."
"We had a crazy argument, but Mayurakshi didn't say anything about this!!!" Shakra groaned.
"You had an argument with her?" Shatrujit questioned.
"That's why we are having this meeting with this urgency. We're going to start tackling Adhiman and Maharani Raashi." Amartya had already deduced.
"Okay. So, we have two things on the agenda for this meeting. One is the invaders who infiltrated here. Two, the issue with Krishneri." Shatrujit sighed and pressed his forehead. One night of drinking, and things have gone southward for him.
"If your lesson after this incident is to quit drinking, I wholeheartedly cheer it on." Amartya declared his unwavering support for them to quit drinking altogether. Not surprisingly, Amartya was a teetotaler.
"Shut up!!" Both of them exclaimed. Amartya just sighed in disappointment.
"We've just woken up, and our plate is full!!" Shatrujit sighed.
"The invader issue needs to be fixed. Either we should kill them all by hanging them all alike or fix the issue with the prison if we want to keep them and question them. Adrija escaping the prison is a problem we don't want people to start hearing about. Kanakotika is going to be troublesome if we don't work on them." Amartya explained. "If Adrija escaped, it wouldn't be difficult for those invaders to escape. The last thing we need in our lives is to let these invaders get information about our home and send it back. They have to be handled with urgency."
"I think I'll set Abhi up to handle these invader situations. The commander is already investigating the escape of Adrija." Shatrujit's mind was already strategizing the issues within the boxes.
"About Krishneri, I think it should be pretty easy. Adhiman's easy weakness is women. I have a few of them on my plate who can get things done."
"My question, Shakra, is: What is your end goal with Adhiman? Do you want to keep him alive, let him become the next ruler, or kill him? If your plan is to kill him, then our best bet is that Maukali will finish the job for us silently."
Shakra sighed. "If we decide to kill him, it cannot involve Maukali. Mayurakshi will instantly see through it as my involvement. She already doubts my involvement with him."
Shatrujit and Amartya gave him a questioning look. "Are you seriously getting that careless with her? I hold great affection for her, but until I'm sure about her loyalty, I'm not too fond of divulging all these secrets to her."
"Nanna lives in the same building as me. She's not a gullible little goat. The little sparrow can shapeshift into a clever snake."
"Aren't you the eagle in her territory? How come she's not getting under your radar when she's discovering things?" Amartya asked.
"I'll handle her." Shakra sighed.
"Coming back to Adhiman, my option would be to pluck him out. He's a loose cannon. There's no guarantee that he stays loyal. Especially not Maharani Raashi. That woman is a man-eating she-wolf. I don't trust her a bit." Shatrujit pointed out.
"If that were the case, how come you removed our only possible ally from there, Maharaj? Mayurakshi would have been the bright, open gate for us to catch Maharani Raashi. Their rivalry would have been useful to us." Amartya questioned.
"Marrying her to Shakra was what Gurudev suggested. I knew this would be an open wound if we didn't fix the problem with Mayurakshi, Shakra, and Yuvika. So, I went to him, trying to see his suggestion. He told me that Mayurakshi was completely off her rocker with the letter. He was the one who suggested that everyone from the Kalika Empire be told that the wedding has to happen between Mayurakshi and Shakra, but pretend in Krishneri that we're complying with their plan of marrying Shakra and Yuvika. The last-minute change was his plan to get things through with the least bloodshed. Your point was right, and I would have banked on it if Mayurakshi was not silly enough to send an official court letter to us. She didn't send it to me personally. She sent it to the court of the Kalika Empire."
Shakra sighed at the mess that was created.
"Your wife is one piece of work, my friend." Amartya shook his head.
"Hey!! Like I said, she's a 23-year-old girl who freaked out." Shakra defended his wife.
"But I presume your choice for this whole meeting is also to try and make the proposal seem unlikable from the point of view of the court. You're hoping to discredit the proposal by undermining Adhiman's position."
"But do you think it will discredit the proposal? You do realize that women who sit in our court will take offense at a woman being discredited just based on her brother being doubtful?" Shatrujit pointed it out.
"From a political point of view, it makes no sense to let Yuvika reach a space where Maharani Raashi can influence the court through her. None of the women in our court are that gullible. Amma's whole purpose with Yuvika is to contain Maharani Raashi. She assumed Yuvika's place in the Kalika Empire would give us a layaway with Krishneri. But now, when it seems that the complete opposite will happen, she will not let it happen. I don't know how many men in our court have the manliness to stand up to Amma." Shakra explained.
Shatrujit just grinned, remembering his absent lioness. "Hmmm..." Shatrujit thought about it. "It has lost ends, Shakra. You're basing the whole plan on the idea that it should seem to everyone clearly that Adhiman influences Yuvika. If that isn't how it seems, the plan will go down the drain. Another problem is that this might also end up discrediting Mayurakshi if you ever plan to make her your queen. She is also associated with Krishneri."
Amartya tapped his fingers on the table, thinking about how to turn things around.
"So, we need two endpoints for this plan to work out. One, distance Mayurakshi from Krishneri's political scenario. Two, assert Yuvika's presence in Krishneri's political scenario. But for that framing, Adhiman will not be enough. We need active work against her. Let the spies dig out her past and present. We need to see every single involvement of her to discredit her entry into our court." Amartya categorized areas they could work on.
"Digging up information about Yuvika would be relatively easier. But I also need to weaken Adhiman's claim to the throne. I want to set Jayant as the next ruler. He's young, but we can train him. So, I have to discredit Adhiman's claim too. Rumors can do that better than others. There are already enough rumors about his womanizing ways." Shakra insisted.
"In any case, we need to be careful about Mayurakshi's association with Krishneri. Maybe the portrayal of her as Amarkant Aranivasu should work in our favor. They have a better reputation than Krishneri."
"I expect so. This needs to be done carefully. I feel that soon enough the Krishneri trio will themselves give us a chance on a golden platter to discredit them."
While the three men were making plans, Shakra's mind went back to the issues last night. The invaders.