The lines were drawn. Two banks of the same river got parted into two opposing and warring sides, one pitted against the other. We briefly saw what had happened on the other side of the bank with Aparaajitha (Bhagiradhi) and Annapoorna (Shodasi Devi) during these thirteen years. Let us delve into the story of what happened on this side of the bank at Mahismati during these thirteen years.
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At Mahishmati,
A messenger hurriedly rushed to inform something very important to Subahu. Subahu signaled to the messenger to step up to him and secretly convey the message. The messenger whispered in his ear, "The Gauri Parvat is rumbling. Several mild tremors have been felt. Our captain has informed that this volcano could erupt any time."

Subahu's face which rarely revealed any particular emotion registered an expression of terrible joy, "Power.....uncontrolled......" He checked himself from revealing more about what he was thinking in the presence of the messenger. However, he took one of the golden chains he was wearing and gave it away to the harbinger of good tidings, "This is the best news I have heard in a long while. You may go now."

When he was alone, Subahu said to himself, "I must inform mother that the Gauri Parvat is going to erupt. She would be very pleased."

When Subahu left the chamber, two masked figures emerged out of the dark recesses of the same chamber. They continued discussing among themselves:

"He seemed very pleased with that news. But I wonder why?"

"Maybe he is pleased that this is going to enhance his military strength. It is an open secret that the unbreakable and famed weapons of Mahishmati receive their strength and edge from the volcanic stones known as Gauri Kanth found on the Gauri Parvat. Sometimes one's biggest strengths become one's biggest weaknesses. Land, money, power, ambition, strength, family honor, vengeagence.......sometimes the biggest wars fought in our history boil down to these simple things."

"Hush! We still do not know the full details. Let us secretly follow and find out more."

They too stealthily followed behind Subahu. These intruders seemed to be well-versed in the game of hide and seek. Moreover, it appeared that they were not strangers to the palace of Mahishmati. They seemed to be familiar with every nook and cranny of the palace, even the secret subterranean passages, perhaps even more and even better than Subahu and the Kalakeyas.
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Kamaroopi exclaimed after hearing this news, "Excellent! All our hardwork and efforts are bearing fruit now.....But Subahu.....one thing just did not sink in easily with me.....How did the kingdom of Kunthala agree to accede so easily with the Kalakeyan rule? I expected more resistance and vehement opposition from them....I would not trust them so easily if I were you.....The late king of Kunthala was Devasena's brother and the present king is also her nephew."

"Now that my coronation ceremony is over, I will maintain a strict watch over their activities. If I find them upto anything suspicious, I will instantly punish them" reassured Subahu.
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The intruders discussed among themselves:
" We have to do something fast. We are already under their scanner."

"Yes, we cannot continue staying indefinitely under the pretext of having come to attend the coronation ceremony. We have to go back to Kunthala. Today night is our only chance to do it, Brother."

"Are we doing the right thing? Trying to assassinate a person who is sleeping? To violate the Kshatriya code of honor in fighting.....To violate the dharma of hospitality and kill an unsuspecting host.....

"Have you forgotten what they did to Aunt Devasena and Cousin Mahendra and his family? Brother, you too know that we would have fought the straight-forward way if we had the military prowess to face Subahu and the Kalakeyas directly. Everything is fair in love and war. What matters is the end and not the means!"
"Yes, you are right. By the grace of the Goddess, we will succeed today night."
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Rani Eiravati was pondering over the happenings of the past few days. Her soft heart was unable to tolerate all the excesses she had witnessed around her in the past few days. Her infant son was asleep but what she saw around her kept her awake for whole nights together. Subahu's arms lovingly snaked up from behind her taking her in his loving embrace, "What is my beautiful queen thinking, apart from me? I think only about her the whole day."

"No....Nothing....." She hurriedly said brushing away her disturbing thoughts.

Subahu turned her towards him, "Nothing.......It means there is something that is really troubling you. What is it? Does my queen have secrets even from me?"

Her conscience reproached her inwardly, "Not one, but many. If only you knew....and I could tell...."

She however said aloud, "I was just troubled by what I am seeing all around me. You are not like this with me or Narasimha. Why do you make yourself into this monster for the others? Can't you be good to them? People will love and respect you just as much."

Subahu shook his head, "That is because both of you are my family. Subahu loves and protects those who are his own to the last drop of his blood. But these people of Mahishmati are not my own. I have as much rightful claim to this throne as the son of Bhallaladeva as Mahendra. But they would not accept me. Why? Because my face resembles that Bhallaladeva's face. They would not see even an ounce of goodness in me. So I became what they believe I am. Evil."

Eiravati argued, "But is so much cruelty and bloodshed necessary?"

Subahu explained with a gentleness very unusual to him, a gentleness he let only his wife and newborn son perceive, "Eira, all this is inevitable. There is no victory or supremacy without blood. That is how kingdoms are made."

"But do we really need a kingdom to be happy and at peace? What did we really lack in the land of Kalakeyas? We had everything. Why should we snatch what belongs to others?" Eira asked.

His tone rising ominously, "All this is mine.....Do you get it, Eira? IT WAS ALL MINE."

Eira quivered for a moment looking at her husband. She beheld an all-consuming rage take over him. She instinctively knew that this man who stood before her, who loved her so passionately and insanely, could also kill. This was an epiphany enough to shake her to her core.

Witnessing her downcast look, Subahu cooled down instantly, "Eira.......Eira.....you know nothing of such matters or politics. Just leave them to me.....Personally, I want nothing except you and my son.....But, I am a scion of the Kalakeyas. The betterment of my race lies in possessing Mahishmati."

Eira's voice trailed off, "From the mother's side.....But aren't you a Mahishmatian from your father's side?"

Subahu hurriedly changed the topic they were speaking, "Okay....okay....let's not talk about such things now.....Maybe later......Hush....You will wake up our son.... There see he has started crying."

He rocked the crying baby in his arms. Subahu laid down on his bed with Narasimha resting against his broad chest patting him to sleep. This gave him a perfect excuse to escape from Eiravati's troublesome questions.
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Subahu's Flashback
A small boy of five was asking his mother, "Who is my father? Where is he?

"Son, he abandoned both you and me after your birth. I am all that you have. The Kalakeyas are your people."
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A boy of twelve was crying, "Mother, I will not go to the Gurukul. None of our Kalakeyas go. Why should I? I look different from the rest of the students there. Except our Guruji, all the rest of the students there hate me. They do not talk to me. They poke fun of me and my appearance. They make fun of the language we speak. Is being different a crime?"

"Subahu, stop crying. Boys don't cry. They make others cry. You have to go to the Gurukul. I can imagine what a terrible time you must have been facing there. But you have to for all of us. Knowledge and culture are the biggest weapons of all. We have been losing to the Mahishmatians since generations because we have not been able to outthink them.
My father, Inkoshi, the leader of our tribe attacked Mahishmati with an army of one lakh soldiers. Mahishmati had a strength of merely twenty-five thousand soldiers. Our entire tribe is physically stronger than the people of Mahishmati. So we should have won. But we didn't.
Why? Because we were unable to formulate vyuhas and war strategies like them. They executed the Trisula Vyuha on the battlefield while our men just ran amok without any planning or organization. My father was killed and our entire army got dispersed.
Again, my brother led our men to attack Mahishmati. But he too was killed. Then, you couldn't have forgotten what happened to me and the rest of our women who were captured in Mahishmati in the hands of Bhallaladeva. He might be your father but he is our culprit.
Even if I forgave Mahishmati for our successive defeats, I can never forgive what we women underwent as prisoners of war......How we were all paraded on the open streets......the town squares.....like cattle herded for sale......how we were all sold to the highest bidder.......how we  were passed on from hand to hand until we were unable to look into our own eyes. These people of Mahishmati were all equal participants and perpetrators in the crimes against us.
These feeble folk of Mahishmati are being kept and maintained in power because of the Gauri Kant which makes all their weapons stronger, sharper and unbreakable. To defeat somebody, you have to learn about them; their language, their ways, their strengths, their weaknesses and their methods. Remember all your insults.....all our insults.......one by one. When your time comes.....When our time comes, pay them back with interest."
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End of Subahu's Flashback

In Subahu's Royal Chamber,
It was midnight. The intruders had carefully made their way towards Subahu's chamber. One of them held a small and dim light for the other while the other raised his knife to drive into the breast of a sleeping Subahu when he beheld the infant resting against his chest.

The intruder shook his head trying to convey to his companion that he couldn't execute what they had come to do. In trying to kill Subahu, they would inevitably end up hurting the infant resting on his chest. He couldn't descend to such depths. He whispered, "He is just the same age as my Bhavani. I cannot do it."

His companion tried to egg him on but he just couldn't bring himself to do it. The very thought of the deed reproached him. In this confusion, the man dropped the knife he was holding.

This sound was enough to rouse Subahu from his sleep. He instantly realized what was happening. He did not waste even a single minute. He drove the knife he always kept near him for self-protection into his assasin's neck so that his cries would not wake up his sleeping son.

The assasin's companion screamed while escaping from there, "Today....you escaped from sure death because of this child. This child was your shield.....But how long will he continue being your shield....."

The alarm was raised. The Kalakeyan soldiers went pursuing the other intruder. Kamaroopi hastily inquired, "Are you alright Subahu? You aren't hurt, are you?"

"No, mother. Nothing can happen to me while my son is with me. My son protected me. HE IS MY SHIELD....."

"But who was it?"she asked.

Subahu said, "As you thought! It was the king of Kunthala, Surya Varma and his brother, Aditya Varma. They weren't on our side. They were just looking for an opportunity to finish me off."

Kamaroopi looked at the dead body of Surya Varma that lay near her feet, "Good that he is dead. He deserves it. But Aditya? He has escaped. He is an inveterate foe."

Subahu ordered, "He will pay for it....... TRACK HIM DOWN......DESTROY KUNTHALA....."

Subahu turned towards Eiravati who had a pale and frozen look on her face. He reassured her, "I am alright....Don't be afraid...."

The shock of what she had witnessed just now refused to go away. Her son and husband had been at the tip of a knife. She shuddered to think what could have happened if the assasin had not hesitated for that split second. Disgusted with everything that was happening around her, Eira replied, "I am scared......but not of them....OF YOU, MY LORD!"

Subahu called behind her retreating figure, "Eira...come....listen..."

An uneasy and looming silence pervaded the night air of that room. Things would never be the same between him and Eira. Subahu instinctively clutched his son even closer to his bosom, " Son, from today you are the only one for me!"
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Near the moat surrounding the fortress,
Aditya and his men fought their way out. They had managed to evade their pursuers temporarily. They had just finished swimming the moat of the fortress. Now they were traversing the muddy and slushy stretch of land. One of the men exclaimed, "We are sure to be caught. They will track us down using our footprints. We do not have so much time to spend effacing our footprints after we walk."

Aditya stopped for a moment hit by a brainwave, "We cannot erase our footprints....but we could do something else to mislead and put them off track."

"Mee paadarakshalu tirageyandi. Kudi paadaraksha yedama kaaluki, yedama paadaraksha kudi kaaluki veiyandi! Ippudu chudam yelaga manani pattukontaaro!" (Wear your shoes upside down. Wear your right shoe on your left foot, and left shoe on your right foot! Let's see how they catch us now!)
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A few days later,
"They all escaped, my Lord. But we have ravaged and destroyed the entire palace of Kunthala" informed the messenger to Subahu.

A savage gleam ignited Subahu's face as he said, "Now even the kingdom of Kunthala belongs to me. Earlier, it was a vassal state. Now it is completely mine. One day, the whole of this world will belong to me and my people. We will conquer and rule the whole world. I will build the new golden future of the Kalakeyas on the ashes of the past. Jai Kalakeya!"
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At Kunthala,
Aditya and his men finally managed to reach the palace of Kunthala. But what greeted them there was such a heart-rending scene. Rivers of blood were flowing and a huge human carnage had taken place. Except the whispers of walking spirits, there was no human left alive in the palace.

The men instantly understood what had happened in their absence and why. They tried to pull away Aditya Varma from there. But he refused to budge from his spot. He stood in a daze. His eyes were shimmering red hot coals of livid rage. Nothing they did seemed to rouse him from it.

"Come Aditya. Let's go from here. We will avenge this someday. The Kalakeyas might come back for us."

They forcibly led him away from the scene towards their horses when they heard the sounds of a baby echoing through the deathly stillness of the chambers. They all frantically searched for the source of the sound but remained clueless where the sounds were coming from.

They seemed to be coming from the chambers of their late Queen, Shivani. But where? It was obvious that the queen had hidden their princess Bhavani somewhere in the palace itself when the Kalakeyas attacked their palace. She had done it so carefully and cleverly that the princess had been undiscovered by any of the Kalakeyas who would have killed her instantly if they found her.

Aditya ran like a mad man towards the chambers. He upturned everything in the dead Queen's chamber, "God...God....where are you Bhavani? Your uncle is here. I will save you.....Just where are you?"

The sounds of the crying child stopped instantly on hearing a familiar and much loved voice. Aditya frantically exclaimed, "Just cry once more....Show me the place where you are!"

The soft and muffled babbling sounds of a child seemed to be emanating from near the enclosure where the sacred Tulsi (Basil) plant was kept. Aditya hastily dug out the mud on the surface. Princess Bhavani had been carefully kept in an engraved wooden container by her mother taking care to leave holes in the box for her to breathe and stay alive while camouflaging the rest with mud.

He cried in his happiness, "Bhavani...you are safe.....you are alive...."
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At Udayagiri,
Aditya, his men and Bhavani escaped to the mountain recesses of Udayagiri towards the eastern borders of Mahishmati. Aditya formed a rebel group there. They robbed the rich, greedy and those in power and helped the poor and needy.

Though Subahu conquered a number of neighboring kingdoms, he was unable to uproot these rebels from their mountain stronghold. They swooped down like lightening, attacked and then disappeared. He sent several military expeditions under his generals to these mountains but all of them failed. They continued to be a permanent and nagging thorn on his side.

Growing up exclusively with men, and that too rebel soldiers and warriors, Bhavani grew up less of a girl and more of a radical tomboy.
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At Mahishmati,
Narasimha was growing up. His father was his idol and ideal. "My father is the best. My father is my hero. He can do no wrong", used to be one of his common and frequent childish refrains. Such was his unshakable trust, confidence and faith in his father. There were many times when Subahu himself marvelled at this.

At such times, Eiravati practiced a heavy and studied silence. She knew the day Narasimha would learn the full truth about his father, his whole world would turn upside down and he would break from within. She would not do anything to say or disturb Narasimha's self-image about Subahu. But neither could she utter a falsehood or untruth. So, most often, she would divert the topic telling, "Narasimha...just go and play. We will talk later."

Subahu used to beam with fatherly pride on hearing this childish refrain. On one such occasion, he exclaimed to his wife, "Did you hear, Eira? I am my son's hero....."

"Poor child, I pity him...." she said sarcastically.

"Why do you always spoil my joy and happiness with such words. Am I not good to you?" Subahu asked poignantly.

"The day one's illusions break is the worst day of all. Mine broke....long ago! Some day, even your son's illusions about you will also break....What of that day when he finds that his father is not the hero he takes him to be? What of the day he finds his father is not Subahu but the deadly Kalanemi?"

Subahu extremely flustered by this very thought, "I will build bigger walls. He will see only what I show him. I will always be his hero."

"He is young now. So he will see what you show him. What of that day when he grows up? What of that day when he would want to see the whole wide world? These big, big walls you are building will no longer be able to contain him......That day he will see you for who you are. What will you do then? Please redeem yourself before that! You can become good" Eira pleaded.

"It's too late! I will live and die like this" he replied. Giving deep thought and consideration to what he had decided just now, Subahu said, "Make preparations for Narasimha's journey. I am sending him away from here."

Eira asked, "But where?"

"To the Gurukul!" said Subahu.
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