Adithan rushed to the Anthapuram almost tripping over multiple times on his way, it was Nandini, it really was her. He asked Kundavai multiple times to confirm it was really her standing there and was not one of his hallucinations. Kundavai just nodded and avoided his eyes, trying to hide something, but Karikalan was too excited to care, he just wanted to see her, talk to her, and ask for her forgiveness. But how could it be? He saw her hut burning in front of his very eyes. How is she alive?

Nandini's hands trembled as she picked up her dagger, she looked at it. She blinked away her tears and hid the dagger under her pallu. All her anger at him had resurfaced when she saw him. As did her love.

Karikalan's legs almost failed him when he saw Nandini again, adorned with red silk and golden ornaments, god, she look like a dancer who descended straight from Indra Devan's court. She really is alive, he took in a shaky breath and approached her. "N...Nandini?" He managed to breathe out.

"Here to see if I'm dead or alive, My lord?" She asked turning her face away from him.

"You're alive! You're really alive..." Adithan exclaimed happily, he hung back his head and sighed in relief.

"Are you disappointed that I am?" She said calmly, not allowing her voice to betray her. She moved toward the balcony in slow and careful steps.

Karikalan shook his head and followed her. "No, I--I thought you died in that hut, the fire and..."

"I did die," Nandini whispered.

"You don't know how happy I am right now to see you again," He said, trying to pull in Nandini for a hug, but she backed off. "Nandini?" He called out, arching his eyebrows in confusion.

"I cannot be seen with you alone, get out," She said, trying to sound indifferent. Karikalan furrowed his brows together in confusion.

Adithan stepped in closer. "Nandini, I love you--"

"I can't love you even if I wanted to now, My lord," She interrupted him and gently pulled out her thaali.

He froze in his steps, his smile fell flat as soon as he laid eyes on her thaali. "Wh...what is that?" He asked, he knew what it was but he didn't want to believe it. She's married? He shook his head and denied that thought. She was his. Only his.

"What does it look like?" She whispered, unable to bring herself to tell him. Her heart thumped against her chest as she waited for his reaction. He inhaled sharply and took a step back.

"No," Adithan shook his head and backed off, "No! please don't tell me you are..." He leaned onto a table for support, he was sure his limbs will fail him otherwise

Nandini's body jerked towards him when she saw that he might fall. She nodded her head slowly. "Indeed."

He held up his body and inhaled sharply, his chest felt like it was collapsing on itself. "How...You-- How could you just forget about me and marry someone?" He asked bitterly. His rage surfaced again, how could she? first, she betrayed him by falling in love with Veera Pandiyan, and now this. He fisted his hands and looked away, trying to hide his tears from her.

Nandini nodded and walked past him, the grip around her dagger tightened. "You may forget me now," She turned back to him, the look he gave terrified her, but she composed herself and broke the news to him. "I am the ninth and favored wife of Periya Pazhuvettarayar now." She announced, her heart trembling as she saw the murderous rage flashing through his eyes. Maybe in his rage, he would be kind enough to kill her before she had to kill him. Nandini could only hope.

He jolted his head toward her, and a look of terror washed over his face. "Periya Pazhuvettarayar?" He said venomously, arching his eyebrows. Did she marry an old man thrice her age Just to spite him!? he gritted his teeth and looked around, shaking his head in denial. "You married someone who is old enough to be your grandfather? just to spite me?" He laughed bitterly, hoping it would mask his sorrow.

"I love him." She forced out. "And he loves me. My world does not revolve around you, Ilavarase."

Unfortunately, His world did revolve around her. "Then me? What about me, didn't I love you?"

Nandini snickered. "If you truly had loved me, Would you have taken the head of the man I loved?"

He swallowed the painful lump in his throat. "How many people do you claim to love Nandini?" He took a step closer to her, his fingers yearned to touch her, to hug her, and cry on her shoulders. "First it was me, next it was Veera Pandiyan, now my Thatha,"

"What does it matter to you? I will love as many men as I wish." She taunted.

He looked straight into Nandini's sharp eyes, each and every word she uttered felt like someone pouring hot molten iron into his veins. He knew she loved her. But She was Periya Pazhuvettaraiyer's wife now. He pulled back his hair and screamed in frustration.

Nandini jerked back, but composed herself quickly.

"Did you ever truly love me then?" He asked furiously. "Or was I just another one of your scrape goats," He yelled.

"Was it I or you who had abandoned their love?" Nandini snapped back.

All these years he had searched for her tirelessly, drowning himself in alcohol, spending sleepless nights, crying over her, and begging to the shadows for forgiveness, All that effort just to see her again as his Grandfather's wife. He let out a strangled cry.

"I..." He looked down, unable to form coherent sentences. "I...I searched for you Nandini--"

"Enough." Nandini said, finally tired of the lies people throw around her. "I don't want to hear any of it. No one can change the past."

"But we can mold our future. Can we not?"

"Our future?" Nandini laughed bitterly. "I've already decided my future, My lord."

"That is? To live with my grandfather among his eight other wives?" Karikalan mocked. "A very bright future indeed, living with someone who might die today or tomorrow."

Nandini's blood boiled. "Talk with respect, that's my husband you speak off."

Karikalan felt a sting in his heart when she uttered the word 'husband'. "Nandini, please don't do this to yourself..." He gently picked up her hands and placed her palm on his chest. "W-we can run away...to a place where no one would bother us, you mean to me more than my own life."

Nandini for a second, wanted to run away with him, but how could she? Isn't she now married to the Periya Pazhuvettaraiyer?

"Are you deaf? I just told you I'm married." Nandini said.

"No." Karikalan shook his head. "No, I do not approve of this marriage,"

"Who are you to tell that?" Nandini taunted. "Periya Pazhuvettaraiyer married me and took me with him a grand procession, unlike you who had promised me and went back on it."

Karikalan's heart clenched at her words. "Touch your heart and tell me Nandini, do you really love him?"

Nandini looked away from him. "Yes. I love him. I married him out of love. Happy now?"

Karikalan stepped back, disgusted. Rage and anger clouded his mind again. "Right 'love', you married him out of your love for the royal life!" He snapped at her, without thinking about the words he was spitting out.

Nandini blinked back her tears. "Believe what you will.''

He saw tears slipping out of her eyes, his hands reached out to wipe them off of her beautiful face but he managed to stay put. "I should've listened to Kundavai," He said turning his back to her. "She warned me, she told me you loved me only for the throne, but this fool didn't listen to her," He said, his lips quivering in anger.

Nandini however remained unfazed, or rather pretended to be unfazed.

"Answer me!" Karikalan yelled. "Am I not in your heart anymore?" He asked, moving closer to her. "Do you not love me?" Karikalan whimpered, now centimeters away from her.

Nandini's dagger could've easily found a home in Karikalan's chest, but someone stopped her from lunging her dagger at him.

Nandini moved back, putting some distance between them. "No matter how many times you ask me the same question my lord, my answer will be the same, I cannot love you. I...do not...love you." She said, breathlessly.

Karikalan fisted his hands and looked down. Drops of tears escaped from his eyes as he quietly cried to himself. Nandini forced herself not to turn back and comfort him.

"Do not lie to me!" He cried out. He knew she was lying. She loved him for him, His heart refused to accept anything else.

"I'm telling the truth. Perhaps a compromise could be reached." Nandini's heart sped up thinking about the reaction he's going to have to her proposition.

"Yes!" He breathed out desperately. "I'll do anything.

"Anything?" She asked softly, stepping a little closer to him. Karikalan nodded in a daze. "Kill Pazhuvettaraiyer and his brother, imprison your siblings, Throw the Chakravarthy off his throne and take it for yourself. Then you may marry me and make me your empress," Nandini said, her eyes concentrated on Karikalan's expression, which went through ten stages of grief in five seconds.

A gripping fear strangled her heart. Will he do these horrendous acts as she commanded him to do? Or would he kill her for threatening the lives of his dear family? Nandini hoped for the latter.

He stumbled back, almost losing his balance in shock. Was it her who was talking? His pure swan which would not dare to think of any harm to even an ant.

He looked down at the ground and shook his head. I had a part in making this snake He thought.

"Will you do it, My Lord?" She challenged him, hoping he would lose his temper on her. Hoping for a quick and painful death in the hands of the man she had loved once.

**********

Special thanks to VibishaLakshman

I'm so sorry T_T will make up to you for this by giving you some VT-kun fluff in the coming chapters 👉👈