Satyaki's grinning face met her eyes, and Lilavati had to swallow a cry of shock as her friend pushed his sword back, immediately stabbing the man who was about to attack her.

"Satyaki?"

"In the flesh!" he winked at her as they stood back-to-back, scanning the room for the guards.

The fight resumed, and as Lilavati ducked under the whizz of a sword, and from the corner of her eyes she could spot the dark grey robes that Kritavarma too favoured.

They had come for her after all.

Her eyes misted even as she continued to fight, her throat tightening.

The deafening low hum of the Sudarshana whipped around her, rendering the lives of the guards cut short, and she stumbled, her gaze now filled with tears.

Soft hands caught her own, and looking upon him in that moment, Lilavati knew there would never be a moment so beautiful and precious as this in her life again.

Eyebrows arched like the clouds of heaven creasing in worry as lotus eyes that held the universe watched her watching him. His lips were pulled up in a half-smile, half-frown, relief evident on his beatific features. His curls were scattered, cascading down his upper back as her gaze shifted to their entwined hands.

It was all she could do in that moment not to weep.

He pulled her to her feet.

Lilavati leaned into his arms, a half-embrace that had her husband's arms coming to encircle her shoulders loosely, as her breath hitched.

His breathing was similarly lightly ragged, relief trembling through his entire frame.

"Krishna."

Her mind had sang his name for years uncounted, always resting in her mind as an idol, immovable and revered beyond breath. It was the only thing that had kept her going through the darkest of her days, those two holy syllables entwined with every molecule of her being.

It was the first time she had let it slip from her mouth in front of him, in a broken, haunted whisper.

A soft hand reached up to her unkempt hair, stroking it.

"Lila."

An iron grip enclosed itself around a few of her loose strands of hair, yanking her back.

Lilavati let out a cry of pain as her hand immediately flew to her head.

The leader of this circus of monkeys had come, and her eyes shut for what was only a moment but seemed forever as she lost her balance, nearly falling to the floor.

The man chuckled.

"I bet you would love to watch your dear murderer wife die in your arms, O Krishna! Welcome, welcome!"

She blinked her eyes open to feel something cool and metallic pressing against her neck. A dagger.

There was unbridled horror on Satyaki's face and barely-shown anger on Kritavarma's. Her husband stood, seemingly serene but his frame shook with tension.

"Let her go."

It was Kritavarma who spoke those words to her surprise.

Was she even surprised?

The light was blurry, even as she blinked to try and get rid of her double vision, but the ache that was thrumming in her head seemed to get louder by the second.

She distantly heard the man say something as his grip tightened on her, but she was too inattentive to catch his words.

Lilavati swallowed.

Something felt wrong.

She was not supposed to be this groggy.

Lila? Focus on me, okay?

She raised her head to see Krishna staring at her intently.

He gave her a soft, beautiful smile.

Don't you worry, he whispered into her mind, his touch a soothing balm to the pounding ache in her head. I'll take care of you.

She trusted him more than anyone in the universe.

She smiled back at him, and summoned her quickly dwindling strength to kick the man in his side.

The man gave out a choked yelp, and fell to the ground.

Lilavati would have fallen too, if Satyaki had not rushed forward and caught her in his arms. She smiled weakly up at him, a silent thank you.

She watched as the man rose to his feet, groaning.

Her lord was now burning with a righteous fury that threatened to engulf the man that dared to harm his devotee.

"Devakinandana?" Kritavarma took a step forward.

Krishna smiled, a little sharp.

"Let me have the honour, Kritavarma," he said softly.

The Sudarshana hummed with divine power, materialising on his finger in a moment. The chakra left his hand, and the soft humming seemed to drown out the man's screams as he scrambled away from the weapon that was Vishnu's favoured.

A head rolled across the floor.

The floor.

Lilavati sighed. She was so tired.

The floor seemed like a good place to sleep.

She sank from Satyaki's arms, and blackness claimed her, blissfully ignorant of the voices that called her name.

~

Bit by bit, she regained consciousness.

Wait—

Where was she?

Slowly, her mind came back into the world.

She felt safe.

Slowly, it all came back to her.

Was it all only a dream?

Am I still stuck in that room?

She felt something on her head, and some parts of her body felt wrapped in something—bandages, she supposed.

She gasped for breath, and there was movement in the room where there had previously only been silent breathing.

She let out a cry, trying to rise from the bed and began to panic even more when she felt a pair of hands trying to press her down.

"—la? Lila, calm down! Vaidyaa, take your hands off her, she's panicking!"

Wait.

That voice.

Lilavati paused in her struggles, glancing around.

A strange woman had had her hands raised, a few steps away from the bed she was resting on.

Another woman moved forward, worry etched on her golden countenance.

That ethereal beauty—and the aura that surrounded her—instantly calmed her down.

Nagnajiti Jiji.

"...Jiji?"

"Shhh, dear one."

Her elder sister's soft hand stroked her hair, as Lilavati tried to get her racing heartbeat under control.

"You're safe now, little sister. You're safe here."

Lilavati held onto her elder sister's arms as though she was a lifeline; as though Lilavati was drowning and Nagnajiti's presence was the only thing keeping her above water. She pressed her face into the soft silk of the queen's saari, her body trembling with sobs.

Nagnajiti continued to stroke her hair, a motherly touch soothing her more than anything.

"Please do try to live a domestic life like the rest of us, little sister, I'm not sure I can handle the worry."

This made her laugh amidst her sobs.

Once she had somewhat calmed down and drank some water from an earthen tumbler, she asked softly, "What happened, Jiji?"

Nagnajiti's tender smile slid away like water, and then she glanced at the door.

"It would be better if your friends told you," she said simply. "In fact, they should be on their way right now. I sent messengers to inform them that you were awake the moment you started to stir."

Looking at her shock, the daughter of Nagnajita laughed a little.

"They both took turns staying vigil at your bedside, waiting for you to wake up. It's been almost two days since we brought you from that hideout, and it took a lot of coaxing from various people to get them to leave your bedside to at least freshen up and rest."

Lilavati was sure she would have begun to cry again had she not been so drained by the weeping she had done only moments prior. She felt tired, but this was a good tired, she supposed, not battle-weariness.

The door burst open and she flinched.

Satyaki was beside her in seconds, his chest heaving with exertion as he took in the sight of her.

Without saying a word, he gathered her in his arms and hugged her tightly, causing her to gasp. After a few minutes, she let out a wheezed breath, patting her friend awkwardly on his arm.

She heard him sniffle.

"Satyaki, Lila's just woken up. It won't do for you to crush her moments after she's awakened, and after her body had been fighting so long." Nagnajiti's lilting voice carried a hint of admonishment in it.

Satyaki pulled away, a sheepish smile tugging at his lips and a murmured "Sorry," and Lilavati took a deep breath as she looked at him.

The corners of his eyes were rimmed faintly red, as though he had shed tears, but there was both joy and relief clearly evident on his expressive face, and Lilavati smiled.

"I'm okay. Thanks to you two."

Kritavarma came forward, and she could read the relief in his body language rather than his expression.

He nodded, his lips twitching as he fought to maintain an impassive expression but failed, as he eventually settled on beaming silently at her.

Nagnajiti had moved to the other side of the bed as her two friends sat down, letting Lilavati rest against her as a mother would let her child, or an elder sister her younger one.

Somewhere in the back of her mind where she wasn't exhausted, she was incredibly touched.

"What happened?"

Satyaki and Kritavarma shared a look.

The son of Satyaka spoke eventually, his voice low.

"We came to your room the morning after you were... taken, though we hadn't realised it yet. We couldn't find you anywhere though, and we asked Sakha where you had gone. He admitted he hadn't seen you around in the morning, but had expected to meet with you in the evening. We then began to search for you... we searched the whole city but we could not find you—and no one else, even with their far-sightedness could not find you. That's—that's when we realised you had been taken."

There was a faint tremor in his voice as he seemed to recall the panic that must have struck them when they understood where she had gone.

"You wouldn't have gone out anywhere without telling us, and if no one could find you... you had to be hidden. We scoured the palace, retracing your steps, and we found the chemical that must have knocked you out in the hallway."

Satyaki paused here, and indicated to Kritavarma to continue, who sighed and picked up the thread of the story. His words were careful and deliberate.

"Everyone was panicking once they'd realised you were gone, forcibly taken. I then raised the army to scout out possible hiding places for our enemies, while Satyaki sent out spy after spy. With you hidden from us, not even all the divinity in this city could have helped us find you—we had to do it the hard way."

He trailed off here, clearly lost in memory.

"It was... hard, I won't lie." The admission seemed difficult. "We were worn with worry and the knowledge that you might be out there, dying or being harmed... it didn't sit well with anyone, least of all Devakinandana. He could only go to sleep if any of our queens or the Rajamatas managed to coax him, and even then he slept very little and stayed out on the front lines, searching every moment. He took it the worst."

She could only imagine the worry and ache her lord must have gone through when he discovered she was gone.

"Ten days passed. We were tiring, but we had to continue. We were narrowing down on a spot, then... out of nowhere, there was a disturbance that seemed to surge throughout the entire city and possibly the mainland too... and when we looked again, we found you. The relief that pulsed through everyone, it sent me straight to my knees. We had found you, and nothing could stop us from coming for you."

Lilavati did not know when tears began to roll down her face again.

"Vaasudeva was out within moments, readying his chariot. He wouldn't take Daruka either, just looking at the both of us and we knew we had to come—you're our friend, and we weren't missing the chance to get you back. Before anyone could protest, we set out, and we arrived. We could hear fighting, and Vaasudeva only smiled, one of his private, gentle smiles; and we knew you were there. The rest... you know."

The room fell silent as she processed the story, and then the only thing out of her mouth was, "You cared?"

Satyaki scoffed.

"That's not even a question, Lilavati! Of course we cared! There, one day when we both friends were duelling out our anger as usual, lo, there comes this strange woman who walks unafraid and unbowed, introducing herself! That same woman, who at the market looked at all of the items as though a star-struck child might have, bright in innocence, how could we not have cared?"

Kritavarma held up a hand, forestalling her objections.

"You've killed people, we know. But your sins are not the only part of who you are. You tried to make amends, shed innumerable tears for the ghosts that haunt you. I know people who have done less than you even more egoistic and too proud to admit their mistakes. No one's perfect, my friend, and you can't deny the love we have for you. Hide from it if you wish, but our choice is to love you despite your mistakes."

That was the tipping point.

She began to sob again, this time the tears a mix of overwhelming love and wondering how lucky she was to get this chance.

Nagnajiti's comfort never left her or wavered, wiping her tears as they rolled down her face.

I truly am blessed.

~

Healing was a draining task, she found.

For another few days, she slept for most of the day, only wakening long enough to indulge a bath or eat and drift away.

Her husband came to her the night after Satyaki and Kritavarma left, sitting silently beside her until she was fully awake.

Lilavati saw him, and her breath wavered ever so slightly.

"Rest, Lila. I don't want you taxing your body just yet."

His melodious voice filled the air, as she tried to rise up to greet him.

She smiled gratefully at him, and he took her hand. His grasp was warm and she had never felt more at home than in that moment.

They sat in silence, no words needed. They had said all they had wanted to say in that first moment when she was in his arms again, and all she wanted was his presence; all he desired was to watch her breathe.

He was her home, and she was his assurance.

Her world was his entirely, and though she formed a small part of the inestimable universe that was his, she was a bright and important one nonetheless.

The moon god shone down on them, in the silence of the night and the air permeated with healing.

His hand tucked under her chin, bringing their gazes together, and once she might have desired the fire that burned within those lotus eyes; but now all she saw was peace and a promise for a home.

Their lips met.

Her eyes fluttered shut, lost in the moment.

The world did not explode to reorder itself behind her eyes as they kissed for the first time of their own choice.

Yet the peace of that moment seeped into her very skin, and she knew that no matter how far she went or long she lived, some of that peace would still live on in her soul.

I am home.

A/N: Happy Krishna Janmashtami! This is an early update for that very reason.

Love you, Kanha. ❤️