Every speck is a dew and together they rule the mighty ocean.
~Yaris.
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"Oh my sailing empress, I'm obliged that your compass steered here."

Gritty groans of the last ounces of patience pecked her ears. With a heavy thud in her riddling heart, she turned.

"Samaran? You- huh?"

She could readily recognize the voice as her eyes strained to open through the tapestry of fired waters ebbing her nerves. The globe of white beams birthed as her slits widened.

"Oh my. Aah-"

Her feet shuffled as her thighs raced over the terrible sight in front of her. His dreamy blue eyes carried the void of his seized springs.

"See it's like I'm holding three tiers of balloons inside my shirt holes."

He shook his blue-tinged arms flaring the greenish veins beneath the snow burnt skin. Her lashes clasped as she remembered the shine of the sun on his pretty face as she grasped them in her pesty days. A drop of tear tore her heart as she gazed at the same arms which were swollen beyond the limits of their balloon ghost game.

"Can we talk?"

"You don't have to ask me that."

His gentle grin elevated his arched brows. His eyes glinted akin to the shimmer of blue in the arid skies between his curly tufts.

"How far have you ferried?"

His words quaked in her quiet lips, tapping them to her elegies of the ironic past.

"You shouldn't have left me alone."

Her burst of emotions quaked the luminous streaks streaming behind his just four-foot silhouette.

"I don't deny. But you never knew the flavour called fear."

His grin settled her qualms on its surface.

"But that doesn't conclude whatever you have done is right either."

Her troubled laments cramped her vision as she pushed them deeper, fighting them in her every breath.

"We know how terrible we were Samar. You can't deny it either."

He looked keen as if he would dive beneath her simple face to stir her soul.

"So. For you, nothing wheeled wrong, my empress?"

"In the play of fate, everything is grey."

She grounded her feet firmer amidst the vague simpers of the white vapors swirling at the back of her foot. A ringlet of silence swelled to burst her again.

"What did you expect from me? Some accomplished and evolved woman?"

His narrowed eyes spoke a million answers but his lips stayed subtle.

"Why not? You have the wit of a wasp. You could have been anything in its diamond grace."

"Only if I had my supportive compass with me. When you gave up, you flew with my dreams."

Her grunts rumbled in her burning heart.

"I wasn't courageous enough. But look at you. My sailing empress navigates with such mastery, the tides dare not even whisper fear. I wish I could appreciate but I'm a lot worried Radhi."

His hands loosened pacing with his demeanor as his shoulder flexed.

"Why? Because the morals greeted the crypt even before they saw evil and good in their separate lights?"

Her tickling breaks of ironic laughter creased his parched forehead in every bit.

"At least I chose my destiny."

"What do you mean?"

He shook his head to wane the curbs haunting between his unsaid words.

"Remember you promised to keep the right side till last. Didn't you?"

The depth in his voice rose a bit making her firm feet jittery in its base.

"You left me first. To rot in the dingy dungeon!"

"It cost my life, Radhi. I did escape the wormhole of lies and litter. But look at you. What have you become?"

He walked towards her making her step back.

"You let everything succumb in its filthy facade."

"No! I survived."

Ounces of pain began to burn her gut.

"Friends don't change color but here you stand Ms Slurppy Chameleon."

"Stop!"

Her hands closed her ears. She could not stand him. She wanted to run but she knew she was there but not on her own.

"I huh- can't do anything. Huh. Leave me- live please."

Her whispery pleads heavied in her tumbling lungs.

"You have sailed. But I wish you knew the difference between sailing and a voyage."

He held her arms, making her eyes swell in his gentle touch.

"Leave me! I'm not the empress. I- huh- I don't care-"

"Don't down your crown. This time you will not fight it alone."

Her ambiguous eyes wetted his dilating blues. The depth of his oceanic ripples calmed her voids.

"But promise me that you will waft right."

She knew not what was to come but his grip on her wrist was all she needed.

"I will if you show me the right destiny."

⚫⚪⚫⚪⚫

Crispy rustles of papers crinkled at his ears. His hasty eyes brushed past the bits of photographs and headlines on varying dates.

Gleaming exteriors often mask the hollowed interiors.

He kept repeating it as his hands tirelessly altered the threads from one wall-digged nail to the other. His weary lids hunted to catch the connection between the happenings.

"Why does every crime seem too perfectly seasoned?"

He spilled as he dodged to take a deep breath.

"Ayya! Amma vandhirukanga."

"Amma? Oh, his wife."

He scratched his oil pitted wrinkles on his forehead, as he waved his arms. He drew the sleepy curtain on his board to quieten his quests for some time.

"Can I come in?"

A woman in her mid-thirties peeked from his ideal wooden half door.

"Yes, mam. Please be at ease. I'm Krishnacharya. The investigating officer."

He cleared the shuffled files messily decorating his stale table. As he shoved them into the too-much-stuffed drawers, he pushed out the regular smile.

"I'm Mrs Veena-".

Her imploring eyes boiled as her tears welled in their rims.

"I assure you they will get punished."

He offered a glass of water as he noticed her knuckles tighten.

"But to help us can you clear some of our doubts?"

She nodded even before he could complete it.

"Do you have any suspects?"

Her eyes downed to the floor as she traced her thoughts.

"He had more rivals than friends. I wish he was never an activist. He would have been alive if he heeded my words."

Her sobs wet her plum cheeks. She creased her purple shawl to muffle her grunts.

"Very sorry, Mam. I know the depth of pain you are in. I know these questions might probe to worsen it. But if you need some time, I understand."

"No! Without him, it's not a home. I should have never left his side."

She caressed the thickly braided gold chain around her neck, its significance unraveling like a forgotten melody fading into the distance with each passing minute.

"Alright. Shall we begin?"

She nodded again but this time she was surely ready.

"Did you observe any threat calls or worried changes in his behavior in the past days?"

A simple smirk seethed in her swollen lips.

"He was never calm. Only if his search was ever stopped."

"Search?"

She opened the zip of her bag as she pulled out a sheet of paper. She placed it on his desk upside down.

"Who is this?"

He asked as his eyes shifted between the black-and-white portrait of a curly-haired boy smiling through his light grey eyes in his hands.

"His brother. He went missing when he was eleven years old."

"What happened to him?"

"I don't know the exact details. All I have been told is he was missing after their father's death."

Her words grew stale than it was before.

"Their mother?"

"She passed away two years ago."

He wrote the details down in his memories.

"My husband used to regret a lot at every amavasai when he offered his shradh. Trust me, sir, it will be the worst night of the month. But see the fate, it was Amavasai yesterday."

She gulped down her anger as she pushed the lump down her throat.

"He used to blame himself for leaving him alone that day. When he came back he couldn't find him."

"Then?"

"Complain couldn't be filed because he was in the hold of some influential people. That's why he threaded his life to seek anything to bring him back."

The revelations widened his spectrum of thoughts.

"Was he kidnapped?"

"Maybe. But only my husband would have known it better."

Her lids wandered around conveying how clueless she was.

"By the way, he never returned?"

"Mhmm. But why are you questioning more about him?"

Her abrupt words realigned his memories as he straightened his limping muscles.

"Ah! I'm sorry it's to ensure no details are left down the drain."

He accidentally crushed the paper juice box that lay on the floor. She blinked thrice at the fruity odor that made her shift to the edge of her seat.

"My bad, apologies again."

He knew he looked too right to call himself a moron. But he can't play it that way.

"So if the questions are done for, can I leave sir?"

He looked at her hopeless eyes that shrunk as she stood.

"Yes, mam. We might call you again if we would need any further information."

She kept it clear with a nod.

"Also if you get to know anything that might help us in any way-"

"What are all these?"

She skimmed at the threads snaking to loop at every nail attached to a bit of information behind him.

Damn the winds!

He hurriedly shut the view as he got up to ring the bell.

"You have threaded his death as well."

"Veera."

"What are you hiding from me?"

She yelled as she held his collar in a gut moment.

"Veera!"

His voice broke as she demanded him with a firm hold. Two female constables terrified at the scene in front pulled away the enraged woman. Her angry groans resonated with the worn-out tan walls of the station. As she was moved, her hauls slipped out a rectangle thing down. Amidst the struggles, she cried.

"I trusted you!"

Terms:

Amma: A respectful Tamil word to indicate a female or woman.

Vandhirkanga: A Tamil word that translates to 'Have come.'

Amavasai: Every month, the moonless night is the Amāvāsyā day is considered auspicious for the worship of forefathers or lost souls.

Shradh: Refers to the ritual to pay homage to the lost souls.

Questions:

1. What do you think is the story of Samaran?

2. Do you trust Mr Acharya if you were Veena?

With riddles,
🧩..Yaris..🧩