The woman gathered the frills of her salwar, before sitting on the stool before the mirror. The walls of the green room appeared smaller than it did before. She began to unwound the black scarf from her head, stretching her jaw as the fabric loosened. The day was not going according to her will. She pinched her mittens loose, when there was a commotion behind her. She looked up the mirror, to the door behind her, a man of average built entered the room. He was wearing casuals with an expensive jacket wrapped over to give himself an official look, was an irritating ally.

"So you failed." said the ally, once he found an open space to stand amongst the costume hangars and assorted stage props.

The woman let her hair fall loose and turned back. She locked eyes with her ally, who stood their holding onto his complacency. Minutes later he broke the eye contact, scratched his nose for a moment and then pulled out a piece of paper from inside his jacket.

The woman unfolded the paper to reveal a photocopy of a biodata. The woman quietly read the words and immediately lost interest and shifted her eyes to the passport photo above the page. The bright eyes looked back at her, as if the photo itself wanted to study her, she remained quiet.

"I understand that you kept yourself hidden, police have only heard whispers, few people have seen you," the ally spoke prompting the woman to look up, "and they all happen to be on the wrong side of law..."

The door to the green room rummaged again. The ally turned towards the door and the woman returned to the photo. Shefali Maryswan entered the room, elegantly donning a tea length dress.

"Ma'am, people will be looking for you in the village fair," the ally murmured. Shefali strode past him gracefully through the narrow floor space.

"You were saying something about Dr Roy...," said Shefali as she took a seat beside the woman. A seat covered with both rags and a baluchari saree, Shefali gathered them up to her lap. The woman put aside the paper, turned towards the mirror and started running a brush through her face. Shefali kept staring at the ally, waiting for him to speak.

"I was just saying not to get involved with him," said the ally, unclear about his words himself.

"The kid is a scientist from Kolkata," Shefali said in response, "I don't know what the Lalbazar headquarters had planned, but the police here are amusing themselves. There is no reason to be concerned about him!"

The woman noticed the ally squinting his eyes at her back through the mirror. She put down the brush, apparently paying no heed to the conversation, and continued applying mascara under her eyes. The ally shifted his full focus to Shefali.

"Concern?" mocked the ally, "you speak as if you had a strategy! That you know how the people inside the government machinery works. You people hurl bolts at every obstacle you meet." The ally turned to the woman again.

The woman put down the box of mascara on the dressing table, a little harder than she was supposed to. For the first time she held her palm in front of her eyes. She held her fingers apart, studying the grooves and ridges on her hand.

"May I remind you that she chose to spare Master da," Shefali said loudly to the ally pointing at the woman, "she could've easily picked them off but she chose to talk with him and he hasn't caused any attack for over two years...!"

"You know as well as I that Master da wasn't the only naxal faction leader out there. Hell he didn't even retaliate after the 1967 incident!" the ally cut off Shefali, the woman now took an interest, the ally continued, "Now look at him, it may be that he is stupid or it may be that Master da is exactly powerful enough to send only two lieutenants after a goddess. You did hurl a bolt towards Master da, didn't you?" the ally turned to the woman again.

"She gets her worth, long before Master da realised the magnificence of he brought into his home," whispered Shefali, "I know you feel powerfully reasonable with your self-interest, I suggest you examine that feeling. The hermit made a terrible mistake of trying to understand our work in context of his higher consciousness!" Shefali spoke through her teeth.

"She shouldn't have murdered the hermit." said the ally softly, "She killed her guru. Almost revealed herself to the police...penance gave you these powers. You shouldn't trifle with..."

The woman blinked all of a sudden, her open hand shivered with blue sparks. A horrendous crackle resounded in the sky outside, the sound reaching up to the throat of her ally, he retreated a few steps.

"Don't pretend to know something you fear," Shefali said to the ally, "be glad that God doesn't look you in the eye!"

"Just be careful with Vaibhav Roy, we don't know anything about him!" the ally requested again. The woman looked up to him again and then returned to her makeup.

"I see," said the ally, "if Saikat took the machines, what about my supplies?"

"You'll get them," Shefali assured the ally.

The woman suddenly stood up, making Shefali and the ally turn to her. Apparently her makeup was done. She walked over to Shefali, took the baluchari saree from her lap and disappeared behind a labyrinth of costume hangars.