'Bhanu!'- he warmly breathed, elevating her relief.

It had been a long time since she had faced her friend thus, in solitude.

The last time she had been standing, face-to-face with him was-

-Much before that baleful Game of Dice.

Such was the manner in which time had chosen to work.

-'Radheya!'- she repeated, as if assuring herself of his presence.

-'Yes, my queen.'- he spoke, with a beatific smile on his heavenly countenance. -'It is me. None else.'

Who else could it be?, she wondered.

Who else could bear that preternatural gait?

Who else had the privilege of carrying that superhuman radiance?

Who else could bear the Sun in his bearing?

She smiled at him, entreating yet another smile from him.

-'Couldn't sleep, could you?' he asked her, while gesturing her to take a seat on the bench beside him.

-'You're no less a nocturnal than I am.' replied she.

-'You never answer my questions in a straightforward manner, do you, Bhanu?'

-'The King of Anga is expected to possess enough intellect to decode the most cryptic of strategies,'- Bhanumati deliberately stretched the conversation further, in a manner of tergiversation from the murky premonitions that kept looming within her. -'my statements are of a much lesser degree.'

This time, Vasusena nodded his head, in a manner of finality, acknowledging his defeat. He was never possessed of a garrulous disposition, and that always made him have a much lesser advantage in a pointless conversation with Bhanumati.

'You're still the same.' he said, sounding amused.

She breathed another breath of relief.

-'Where have you been?' she asked him.

-'I went to my parents' place.'- Vasusena said, -'Sometimes, rags and thatched roofs provide greater comfort than padded silks and engraved ceilings.'

He kept his hands on his knees, while lowering his eyes from her face. Bhanumati noticed his eyebrows gather into a cloud.

'What bothers you?' she inquired, concerned.

Vasusena didn't seem to listen. Yet, his facial muscles seemed to clench, in a manner Bhanumati couldn't decipher.

The clouds on his face darkened further, as if shadowing the darkness of the night in his face that usually bore a very uncanny semblance to the sun.

His eyes still hadn't met hers.

She detected a ghost of a deep-seated grief in them.

-'Radheya!'- she called out once more, attempting to chase that ghost away.

Her voice seemed to bring him back to the environs he was in, momentarily eclipsing an acrid flashback, by bringing her concerned face in front of him.

-'Something bothers you deeply.' she stated.

But the nature of that 'something' stayed undisclosed.

'How have you been, Bhanu?' he absent-mindedly asked her, as if attempting to disguise his indecipherable countenance in the garb of a conversation. A confabulation, to be very precise.

But somehow, his masculine attempt seemed to have left the feminine instinct out of its consideration.

Bhanumati certainly knew better. She certainly had a greater estimation of the demeanour of her husband and their friend than they knew her to have.

-'I am as you wish to see me, Angaraj.' replied she, still persistent in her attempts to decipher the crypt of his face.

Vasusena allowed himself a smile.

'You've turned very diplomatic, haven't you?'

-'Your friend has taught me a lot of things, Radheya.'- she retorted, -'which includes a certain measure of telepathy, however implicit.'

Oh, this girl has grown much smarter, he smiled, he could have used her as a diplomat.

He had to keep it concealed. True, it was difficult. But, heaven alone knew what would follow in consequence, if he were to disclose the details of his parley with Krishna after the Sabha.

He had come to know of his descent, his clandestine parentage. For he was no Suta, he bore none of the characteristics of the clan he was famed to be a part of.

He was a Kaunteya. A Kaunteya renounced. A Kaunteya shunned, -

-Owing to the insecurities of his biological mother.-

A Kaunteya sired by Suryanarayana himself. Another one of the progeny of the Gods.-

-The outcome of an experiment gone wrong. Rather, a plaything of an experiment that yielded the result it were destined to yield.-

Vasusena felt as if another part of him had been sequestered. He felt strangely isolated. And he couldn't help but marvel at the timing.

Just a few months before the war, he thought.

Right after the Sabha, when everyone lay in complete disarray, when he had been seeking a bit of comfort to orient himself back to his usual surroundings-

-That was when Krishna had deemed it propitious to divulge this secret of his, asking him to second his biological brothers.

-Brothers!, he internally snorted. His thoughts held a remarkable amount of disdain even when he spelt the word out to his own self.

-'You're evidently distracted.' he heard her voice interrupt the chain of his thoughts, trying to pry out the details.

-'No.'- he spoke with a jolt, -'I'm just a bit-'- he flustered, -'disoriented.'

-'So am I.' she concurred.

She was. It was useless denying it.

-'Haunted by ghosts?' he joked.

-'Why blame immaterial phantoms when there is bloodshed awaiting us?'

-'You won't understand, Bhanu.'- he spoke, with a distinctively amount of asperity. -'It is'-

-'Necessary.' she completed.

Vasusena stared blankly at her.

-'I've had this sermon on the necessity of war.' she said calmly, a slight bitterness lingering in her tone.

-'I don't understand,'- she spoke in resignation, -'why do you want a bloodshed to quench your thirst for vengeance? Wasn't the Dice Game enough?'-

-'Because that is the only avenue of escape!' - he said. -'That is the only way resolve the,'- he breathed, as if searching for the apt word to describe his contempt for them,-

-His elevated contempt.

-'the differences between us!' he acrimoniously spat.

-'Your differences certainly do not require the involvement of the entire land of Aryavarta. The innocent multitude needn't bear the brunt of their Princes' whims.' she said coldly.

-'Do you think acceptance of the peace proposal presented by Krishna would assuage any of the enmity we have with them?' he asked her.

It was her turn to lower her contemplative gaze.

-'It would certainly have saved the millions of lives that have been staked now.' she added quietly.

Vasusena snorted.

-'Believe me, Bhanu,'- he began, -'there's no other alternative.'-

Both of them heard the other breathe briefly, as if scrutinizing the inevitability of the consequence that faced them.

-'Acceptance would only have delayed this. And a delay would only increment the gravity of the prospective impact, that you're dreading.'

She turned her eyes to him.

-'You speak as if it is that simple.' she couldn't help being astonished at the eagerness with which they awaited the war.

-'It isn't. Especially this time.'

Especially for me, he felt a phantasm of a very conspicuous, yet indefinable grief twinge, at a corner of his heart.

He was expecting Kunti to come to him soon, offering profuse explanations for abandoning a baby, she had happily lost all remembrance of, while she gloriously enjoyed her regal status. Being a mother to those putatively, divinely sired princes must have been so easy, and privileging, as bards sang of her sacrifices and her difficulties that she faced.

'There is ample hatred to fuel this carnage.' he spoke, -'Enough complications in familial ties to dilute the sanguine of blood.'-

Vasusena stopped abruptly.

Bhanumati didn't realise the added gravity to the complications he was speaking of. She simply restricted its meaning to the indescribable convolutions she knew of.

-'Trust me not to betray him.' he spoke finally.

No amount of consolation, no reference to immaterial familial ties, no persuasions in the context of Dharma, could deter him from the loyalties he had pledged to the Kaurava scion. He could never be so ignominious to renounce Duryodhan for relationships that sprang up in such an opportunistic demeanour.

He held no sympathies for them. No part of his allegiance could divert itself to those who would seek him when they needed to avert a war.

This disclosure had only accelerated his willingness for the war.

-'I don't think of anything to the contrary.' she spoke.

There was no need to spell it out. It was a foregone conclusion. After all, he was the only one, who was on Duryodhan's side without any affection to his cousins impeding the intensity of his friendship or the fervour of the warrior that he was.

The others were merely on his side by way of a duty, she knew. She attributed it to their affection to the Pandavas. He was the only one who stood by him by virtue of pure friendship.

He smiled at her, warmly, in a manner of reciprocation.

She looked at him, approval fraught in her beautiful face, her eyes still minutely scrutinizing his empyrean frame, as if trying to excavate a secret that buried itself deep in those bright eyes that mirrored the aura of the Sun.

'It is so difficult.' she sighed.

'It isn't as difficult as you think.'- he said. -'The more you thought to give it, the more complex it gets.'

She pressed her lips together, in a manner of resignation.

-'This animosity isn't unreciprocated, if you doubt that,'- he spoke further, -'they hate us, as much as we hate them, only we are a bit too obtuse in our expression.'

She couldn't deny that either. She never remembered any instance contrary to that statement. Bheem always cast a murderous glance at her husband, who was only too eager to return that. Arjun never acted differently either when he faced him. Only, they kept a civil tongue in front of everyone, her husband, and Vasusena didn't bother themselves with such false demonstrations. They didn't keep their hatred restrained to glances, instead they exhibited it to whatever extent they could.

-'So that's it, then.' she said.

-'Yes. The preparations for the war have to be accelerated.'

She nodded.

She had to make do with it. And-

She wasn't really expecting anything different from this. It was just a very bleak shred of a stubborn optimism that dissuaded her from time to time.

'It is late.' she stupidly said, looking at the sky.

'Then you must retire.' he smiled.

'It is not of any comfort.' she said.

'It is if you make the most of it.' he retorted. 'It is if you don't let this perturb you.'

'Doesn't it perturb you?' she asked curiously.

'The war?'- he asked her, -'No. I've had enough wars to contend with.'

He knew she wouldn't believe it. Yet this mendacity was needed. And there was no evidence to the contrary that she would start an argument to assert that this war, in particular, perturbed him to a significantly greater extent.

-'Get yourself some rest.' he said soothingly.

-'You should do the same.'

-'I shall, if you leave.'

She allowed her facial muscles to relax themselves into a slight laugh.

-'I'm leaving.' she said. -'But you're still here. Leaving a guest alone isn't really good manners, especially from the wife of the Crown Prince.'

-'You're very persistent.' he laughed genuinely.

-'An attribute I've acquired from your friend.'

-'Obviously. You're as stubborn as he is.'

-'Should it be any different?' she countered.

Both of them laughed, savouring the moment of the camaraderie they shared.

It were these flickering moments that she had to salvage from the fate they were headed to.

So be it, she resigned.

She would snatch whatever fate and Faith would send her way.

That was all she could do.

That was all they could do. 

***

Notes:

1. This is purely a work of fiction, written solely based on the author's perspective of mythological occurrences. I have tried to remain true to them, as much as I could, though there could be a fair amount of errors. Comments, criticism, rectifications and suggestions are all welcome, with:

WIDE, OPEN ARMS, CUPCAKES AND GLITTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! <333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333

2. Sugarcandy6 , my Darling Angel of a cover maker, and my lovely beam of sunshine!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOVE YOU TO THE MOON AND BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! For the celestial beauty of the cover that your beautiful fingers have created for me, once again!!!!!!!!!, and for this, beauty of a gift, that I've been proudly flaunting away in front of everyone!!!!!!! 

It makes me feel so warm, and fuzzy, and so FREAKISHLY EXCITED TO OWN SUCH AN ETHEREAL BEAUTY AS THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It has a spine, in my favourite font, and it even has a description!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LIKE A FULL-FLEDGED BOOK COVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I must have done some tiny-bit of good to have merited this!!!!!!!! 

LOVE YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! <3333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333

Not only is she such a marvellous artist, but also, a superbly talented authoress, do check out all her stuff here, especially her Till Trilogy of Stories, Till Life, Till Death, and Till Fate, the world that she builds in her words is sure to sweep you off your feet. 

AND FINALLY HERE IT IS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Another tiny update for your consideration! Do SCREAM, SHOUT, HOLLER, THROW YOUR GLITTER, CUPCAKES, MARSHMALLOWS, BRICKBATS, BOMBS, practically, anything you want here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And if we are even a tiny bit of good, do consider us for a tiny star, to warm us!!!!!!!!!!!!!

LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

AND HAVE A HAPPY WEEKEND AHEAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! <3333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333