Due to some unknown reason the first part got deleted suddenly. Hence for my new readers, I incorporate Parts One and Two together here. Thank you!

Part One

Amarendra stood with a ear to ear smile. While Devasena stared at him with a frown, a disgust. She came forward, stood face to face and eye to eye and uttered distinctly,  " Are you a man even? " 

Amarendra's smile didn't lessen a penny. Instead it broadened. 

" I have the same question in mind. Are you a woman? "

Devasena glared. Her breathing fastened. 

" What exactly do you mean? " 

" Look at them. If every woman of Bhopal could knock down eve-teasers this way, India would soon grow unsafe for men." Amarendra chuckled. 

" But since, not a single man in real terms comes to a woman's rescue, India tops the chart of being the most unsafe for women. " 

Devasena decided to no longer waste her time. She turned to go. 

" I don't think a woman like you ever desired a man's help. " 

Devasena turned again towards him. 

" The truth is, people like you who look like men fill the universe." 

She pointed at those lying on the ground flattened by her punches. 

" They are better. At least they act like a man, in teasing a woman. " 

A hatred appeared in her eyes. That made her oblivious to the fact that a goon from the bunch had just regained consciousness, and was ready to attack from the back. 

" Watch out Devasena!"

Taken aback at how he knew her name, Devasena couldn't just judge what was happening when in a split second a big punch and a kick flew past her after a muscular hand almost threw her away from the field of action to his back. 

A current flashed through Devasena with the touch. So devastating a current that the world before her slowly grew blur. All she could see was the goon flying off and the man standing a guard, the man whose touch made her feel as if she was thunder struck!

Devasena fainted.

*******

Devasena regained consciousness in a majestic bedroom, on a velvet bed amongst the softest pillows she ever felt. She slowly sat up. The room was empty. 

And she immediately recollected how she fainted. 

A fear gripped her immediately. 

The man...where did he bring me? 

Devasena felt no pain in her body at all. But she definitely remebered the current that passed through her. She very well knew of static concepts of electricity. But this was definitely something different. 

Apart from that, she remembered how the goon flew almost ten feet above the ground to almost a hundred kilometres away. 

She herself was a black belt, but never in her life had she seen such a powerful knock out! 

Devasena slowly walked out of the immense bedroom. She knew this was more of a palace than any ordinary dwelling. The long empty corridors with exquisite light arrangements lining the walls voted for her thought. 

Devasena slowly uttered as she walked along the corridor, " Hello! Anyone there? "

The corridor was lined by doors, all closed. The end of the corridor marked the gateway to an extravagant hall. Empty. 

Devasena felt an uneasiness. A discomfort she had undergone quite a number of times in her life, and she had scientifically known it to be something called 'deja vu.' A feeling of having been there, having done that. 

The discomfort increased manifolds as she stepped into the hall. The hall looked more like a courtroom, a huge one. She couldn't see the roof, that high it was. 

Devasena gathered courage and shouted again, " Hello! Who's there? Who brought me here? " 

Although no one answered back, the carefully lit up hall marked the presence of life in this very castle. 

Devasena walked slowly down the hall. The walls were immeasurably tall. And had paintings of descendants in line.

' Queens' , read an embossing at beginning of the series. 

As she slowly walked on, letting the beauty of each woman sink in, her feet suddenly would move no longer. Her body went numb, her mind went empty, her eyes went blind... 

A lady stared back at her from a massive oil painting, draped in blue, comfortably sitted on a royal chair, ornamented with the jewels Devasena had never seen in life, with nature behind and swans surrounding her, but most importantly, having a face she had known for long, a face she saw everyday ... in the mirrors. 

An embossing below the painting read, 'Rajmataa Devasena' . 

Devasena lost balance as if the ground below her shook. Her throat felt dry. She grabbed something she herself didn't know and somehow balanced herself. 

The next moment the hall reverberated with her command, " Whoever brought me here, come out...!! Come face me instead of playing these bad games!! " 

Immediately, in moments, a baritone responded back, " Our fate brought you here Devasena. An incomplete story, brought you here... 

Welcome home ... Maharaani Devasena! "

+++++++

Part Two

" Get me out of this place right now! " , the walls shook with Devasena's command.

Amarendra stood still, his smile intact. He slowly took a few steps forward, which immediately drove Devasena a few steps backward.

" Don't, just don't come near me. How dare you bring me here? How dare you play pranks on me this way? "

Amarendra stopped. Devasena too. She noticed that his smile slowly got replaced by a curtain of despair and darkness. And his eyes... his eyes...portrayed something illegible, yet immensely captivating.

Another feat of vertigo struck her. She almost fainted again, but a chair lay nearby and she managed to sink on it.

Amarendra wouldn't move. Rather he kept watching her.

She felt nauseating, and a pain rose from the back.

Devasena was afraid suddenly. Terribly.

" Why...why do I feel so uneasy? I bet you made me drink something! Or injected into me some drug! "

Devasena got up struggling, her feet swayed.

" I know you'll find yourself. " , Amarendra didn't really answer her, nor did he help her anyway. He rather slowly left the room. And Devasena couldn't stop him because she wasn't in a position to. She held her head and sat back. Worlds swirled around her.

Devasena had been running down the corridors to rooms, locked or never opened, screaming out loud, for the last half an hour.

The palace was an unending maze. After she was done with her phase of vertigo and nausea, after she felt a bit better, she knew she was all alone again. She walked in the direction she had entered the hall from, and found the door shut as if... it had never opened for a hundred years now.

She cursed her direction senses, but to her surprise the only door that led her out of the hall,' wasn't to the corridors that were illuminated. Rather a blinding darkness welcomed her.

Devasena wasn't afraid of the dark. Most importantly she had to get out of the hall. The massive oil painting almost swallowed her now and then, and the devastating part was that, she herself being a painter knew extremely well at just a glance that the picture was at least five hundred years old.

And therefore, though he cursed the man in question for playing pranks on her, she had doubts of the best kind that he was not, at least the painting didn't vibe being painted any recent..

" Where are you? "

Devasena judged her way through the darkness, because she typically remembered the previous corridor.

A faint light illuminated the end. And the end seemed real far. Like real real far.

Devasena didn't know everyone exactly from her art college. But somehow somewhere she felt she had definitely seen the man in question. Maybe the man was a painter too, an expert who could make things appear real old. Maybe the man followed her, and ...and... just is playing pranks to frighten her up. What is he cooking? Last life stories? Long lost love stories? Meh!?

Devasena pursed her lips as she walked on...making the light at the end her guide. She remebered though, the courtroom didn't house pictures of the Kings!

She wasn't particularly aware of any dynasty in Bhopal, her history was real weak.

Devasena had reached the light source. It was a half closed door, and as she pushed it, it made such a screeching sound as if it hadn't been opened for centuries.

The room was pretty large. A table stood against a wall, on which flickered a lantern, the light that guided her.

Devasena slowly picked up the lantern. She was thankful because the corridors could only lead her to some exit, but they were dismally dark, and the man who wanted her to find herself was nowhere to be seen.

Just as she picked the lantern up, she knew the wall held another portrait. Her throat felt dry. Shaking, she slowly moved the lantern upto the face of the person painted.

She herself didn't know why a scream left her lung. The same man in question sat on a 'singhasana', just that he had long hairs and a thick beard and was dressed like a king. Apart from that... it was the same smile, the same eyes...

With the sudden jerk the lantern had fallen from her hands, and the room was pitch dark again.

Crap! She expected only this! But why did this portrait hit her harder than the last one? Why did she feel for a second, why did a vision strike her that she had really seen the person dressed like a king, alive, awake, and moving, in this very attire?

Devasena almost ran out of the room, only to be utterly devastated to find, the corridors carefully lit, just as she had seen earlier.

An eeriness ran down her spine for the first time.

Was the man who brought her here, REAL??

The chill numbed her for almost ten seconds, and then evoked a massive push. Devasena started running in a different direction, along a different corridor, but every corridor now seemed lit, guiding her steps as she ran for life, her eyes bursting and her heart pounding in a breathtaking fear.

Since then she had been running around a honeycomb maze, down corridors lit and dark, doors that never opened,shouting and screaming on top of her lungs... until, her tired mind and body, fell on the ground with a thud.

***

When Devasena regained consciousness, she found herself lying on an empty road. She got up, estranged as to how she had found her way out of the palace...

Or did the man in question put her on the road and leave?

Devasena couldn't think of anything. She didn't even know where she was, just when an autorickshaw happened to be approaching her. She showed hands.

" Bhaiyaa... what is this place? "

The driver stared strangely ...so did the passengers.

" Laalmaati road."

Extremely relieved, sh got up. Because she knew her way home from here.

Throughout the short journey, Devasena just couldn't find any possible explanation to whatever happened with her. She only knew she had left college at 7:30, faced the goons at around the same time, and then... was like in a trance of being at a palace for almost two hours.

9:20. Her watch showed.

She didn't know if she had to be dumbfounded, or frightened, or just forget the palace, and the man...

But...

Just as she got down and was about to pay for the ride, a chit fell from the purse.

Devasena picked it up.

" I KNOW YOU'LL FIND YOUR WAY BACK. I'LL WAIT TILL THEN. "