"Vaidehi! Vaidehi! I need a hand here!" the Headmaid called out, still counting the gigantic baskets being hauled into the open hall near the back doors of the Northern Wing—now glowing with the fragrance of exotic flora and freshly swept sandstone.
Meher—no, Vaidehi, as they now called her—still flinched at the sound of the stranger's name. A name not hers, a name soaked in stories of a palace too old, too mythical to exist, a palace where ruins were remembered through the silted riverbeds, fossil-like rocks, and whispers of forest trails.
A place where choas shall unravel
'Read me the cracks'
... or as the blind queen words imply, the chaos might have already begun.
"ARE YOU WAITING FOR YAMARAJA'S BUFFALO TO ARRIVE?!" came a shrill cry.
The voice belonged to a young servant girl whose skin shone like brass bells from temple sanctums, the kind that echoed through stone corridors during holy dusk.
"I'm sorry," Meher mumbled as she struggled to lift an umbrella-sized basket brimming with fruits, its weight nearly folding her wrists inward, each fruit dense as a stone carved offering. She tried to take it from the servant girl with squinted eyes and a neck so slender it reminded her of a child's bow—bent from a sapling branch, trembling under tension, ready to snap at any moment.
"Fuc—I'll pick it—"
But the basket had already fallen, spilling its contents. The struggle had ended in a burst of pomegranate and a dense shame.
"Hurry! These are top-grade fruits meant for Devi's upcoming fast!" And the girls, all seemingly sixteen or so- a teenager in the midst of adolescence were dressed in sunburst yellow, as they scrambled to collect the fallen fruit faster than Meher could even crouch.
And now were snatching the fruits they were in a game of who collects the most of the top-grade like a war game. However...something else took over her mind as for to be shamed of her clumsiness has dissolved like sugar in a glass of water but what remains is a peculiar sweetness, or rather a residue of it when a few sour drops of lemon touched the water- it becomes lemonade, those drops- sour like citrus, was this thought which crossed her like a pathom of night.
They looked like ordinary fruits. Guava, jackfruit, custard apple. Bitter gourd wrapped in banana leaves just like those who ran madly to chase them, human or animal- a maximum amount of woman and man enter the palace on weekly basis, headmaid told her, similarly these fruits also came weekly for devi's majastic vrat. A quality top notch, she claim that they grow from a maneaur of gold and then is washed by holy water which rishi vayasa personally sends. But meher had a different point of view...a critics view...maybe it's not holy water rather, the top notch quality is achieved as a title as they came from the King's orchard and not the vendor's basket, they were now 'sacred'. High-grade. Untouched by 'common' hands. The upper class had mastered this—alchemy of language. Rename the same mango, and suddenly it becomes a king. Rename a girl as flower, and she shall belong to a Palace. A king can snatch as many flowers and ruin the garden as many time. If he wishes he can even wash the soil of toxins with blood of all the innocent people.
"You know..." the Headmaid muttered under her breath, her face slick with sweat, her expression wilting, startled meher who was deeply lost within a farfetched thought that she didn't even notice when the headmaid, chitra who was her first acquaintance according to system here had moved near her amid this choas like a sneaky cat from the corner where the baskets were being assigned to. "I should feel sorry for us both."
She crouched beside Meher, her rough hands steadying the younger girl. Hands like riverbed stones—weathered, solid, shaped by tides of hardship and her face was in a deep agony.
"I should have tested you myself before taking you to Devi's maid selection. I thought maybe you were hiding some talent up you sleeve...and if not talent, then at least dust of it, a basic sense would do it. I'm trained to polish diamonds, not scrub soot."
She cupped Meher's sunken cheek with one calloused hand—a gesture strangely tender despite its judgment.
"Is this how you tell someone they're a failure?" Meher thought, offering a crooked grin. The kind you give when scolding tastes more like salt-dipped concern than thunderous disappointment.
"Now I ought to kill you first," Chitra muttered with stone-faced drama, "and then poison myself for recommending such a girl who smiles while being scolded."
"Don't do it, Pradhana Sevika!" the squinty-eyed girl cried, throwing herself at Chitra's dust-streaked feet, her anklets chiming like a broken prayer. "I beg of you! Don't kill yourself!"
"I am a daughter of a Kshatriya," Chitra said, brushing her off with a smirk. "My blood won't allow me to die so easily."
"As for you" Chitra turned with a cold stone silhouette, "As the honored Maid of devi gandhari you must stay prepared to face every possible situation"
"Situations like?" Asked the squinty-eyed girl who had lifted herself from the feet of Chitra like sun rising to horizon, a curiosity laced question.
"Hm...those are imperial secrets which are only to be known by honored Maid servent, Dhani, kindly consider your place in the palace hierarchy before asking such rebellious questions or you might be taken as a spy of the enemy kingdom"
"I'm...sorry, pradhana sevika, I didn't calculated any consequence for expressing my stupid curiosity" "I'm not dushala that's why I am letting you off the hook for now but do reflect on your mistake while transferring all the 20 baskets to the inner chamber of eastern Wing" "all by myself?" "Not enough, huh? How about bringing water from the river for devi's bath?"
"...understood" the words doesn't correlated with the face of agony, a reluctance which leaked off like methane gas, a flicker of flame and it shall burn everything down.
The 'top-grad' fruits have been already gathered into the gigantic basket by now and all the co-servents were lined up like a bunch of criminals in a police identication line while the basket lie to the centre of the open hall, a feet away like an introvert from it's identical baskets that were set to a corner.
" if you may give me your permission" asked the beauty in sun cradled saree,
"Proceed and be done by the time when first diya (candle) is lit"
"As you say, headmaid" Walking away dhani and disappeared right to the corner without even turning or stopping as if to never return but her feet pressed to the ground with an echoing thud, a synonymous to concealed rage.
"I hate those people who knows how to rub sandalwood on your heels too well...they are always bargaining their life with Hell but they seem to forget that Hell is the safer corner for only demons and lower insects who crawl through burrows" whispered the bronze skinned woman who had much to continue in context of 'those people' "and these humans are just the flesh and blood which had been fed on, to quench the thirst which no eel can calm and the flame of hell is thus burnt with greatest warmth which shall one day burn this entire universe down"
"PradhanaSevika of Northern wing! Devi gandhari is expecting to be taken forth for evening ceremonial proceeding" Announced the soldier who was armed only with a pointing spear but his clothes were plain not with any armour of metal like meher expected them to be in the story.
Maybe it was true after all that expectations are to be shattered, meher thought while her fingers unconciously through the creased plates of her saree, who could know it better than her.
"Vaidehi, where are you going?"
"Uh...for evening proceedings, devi must be expecting her honour Maid" "That's true but honour Maid also comes under jurisdiction of Headmaid" her blood froze for a second within her veins as she saw how cold Chitra's words seem to be just like how she spoke to Dhani just now, "So as to say you can't even flinch your nerve without my command"
"I...I apologise for offending you, headmaid"
"All the maidservants of Northern Wing gather around the courtyard of devi and proceed with usual procession" "how about you, pradhana sevika?" "I will be there in moment, now if you wish to get us all slaughtered for making devi wait then please do wait for me until I'm done with my business here" "we are proceeding, proceeding"
And in a blinking moment the hall was empty now leaving only the headmaid and the kneeling freshly appointed maidservent of devi who was to an extend frightened, a feeling that she permanently recognize by only scent by only soul.
However she couldn't put her finger on what she was actually frightened of or about- was it the ruthless punishment that headmaid shall bestow over her just like Dhani or was it the identical feeling of this gushing anxiety, a scent of home that she despised, a home of pastlife where she committed heinous acts of passion and then...bled herself to death?
"How long are you going you stay in this position?" "Huh? As long as...headmaid wish for" she said with determination and feet which were paining yet it wasn't painful to say for the least.
"Sigh...get up" commanded the Headmaid while holding her head between her fingers.
"Vaidehi, answer me, don't you wish to know what sort of situations does an honored Maid of devi must be prepared for?"
"I..." she wasn't even ever curious for that answer...to be honest that question didn't even crossed her mind even once not even when it was directly asked from her, but rather right now she was more embarrassed thinking this and to feel afraid of such a motherly affection. "Did wonder" she lied with a bent neck, but a chuckle or rather a sigh of relief escaped from Chitra,
"Silly" and she flick Meher's forehead right onto the red Tilak, with a force as if a needle had pinged through her skull like a drager.
"As you know the devi is bound to many duties of being the mother of not only her 100 children but also of the empire, she attend many banquets, palace meetings and so have many visitors to pay their homage, some to discuss politics, some even hold the guts to spy over the palace or even attempts to manipulate the devi into their spineless spirals, Though, she is a living Goddess but have gods never been deceived by their most faithful devotees?"
Shiv had been deceived by his most beloved devotee- ravana...and meher knew devi gandhari, as the epic goes, was being deceived by her beloved...her own sons and brother.
"Devi too breaths and so have tears, sorrow and embarrassment, and the maidservants duty is to comfort her and conceal those disgrace on that heavenly face like a heavy veil embedded with precious stones"
A duty? She questioned herself with her spine upright and her chest protruding, or is it a life scentence with pearls? Or with as Chitra says...'a veil decorated with jewellery and stones' or was it a thick blindfold the one that devi gandhari worn?
"Now...I shall take my leave or else those mindless maid servents might set devi's palace on fire!" "What about me?" Asked meher, putting a lazy arm to grasp the swinging and rigid arm of that Kshatriya woman. "About you...hm..."like a question About the meaning of life had been asked, headmaid hummed with a her thumb and index finger tucking under her round Knob like chin, as if dwindling into her heaven, earth and hell to search the most favourable answer. "I can't let you off the hook or... I will be accused of favoritism and probability be deemed 'incompetent' to manage the servants of Northern wing. My reputation as a sadist ruthless headmaid shall be ruined. No I can't let that happen! Or else..." Now her bear heals have finally stump and halted to the ground like the moment has been frozen like in a Polaroid photograph but no, she wasn't frozen into a heavenly photo but as if a wild realization has striked her like a claw of tiger riping through her skill "...or else dushala shall be promoted to headmaid's position and Northern wing shall be choas."
"Pradhana Sevika...Who's this dushala, you seem to mention this name alot with greater emphasis and horror?"
***
"PradhanaSevika?!...my foot!" And with a loud bang and a panting breath, Dhani slammed the brimming pot of water to the shore of the river, "And you! You are the honored Maid of devi gandhari! How can that powerhungry lady bully devi's personally elected maidservent?! Just rubbish!"
"I...am speechless" a short and cold answer like a silver fish, her neck was bend and her both arms which felt as fragile as the silk of a spider's web, were lifting the heavy pot to her hip while her saree was now soaked upto her knees and above as meher made her way carefully through the ruthlessly running water of the river and a rough river bed that her sole ached as if her sole was bleeding of walking over the broken glass bangles.
"Dushala is way better than that maniac, she could be called a perfectionist but for the people who are loyal to her she's no less that a sister"
"A stepsister, Who's dominating and rob you of your rights, wealth and power...she's a demon in hidding- gentle only when not in power to gain support, another person who loves to rub sandlewood over the feet of higher officials but once she gains the favor, she is sure to turn the court around like she's the maiden of the Northern wing- just second or might be the queen herself!" meher remember headmaid's words just before asking to send her to the banks of river to collect water for devi's bath. "If you do as I ask of, I will provide you with a exquisite present when you return"
'My acquaintance surely knows how to kill two birds with a rock- firstly getting me all jogged up for not listening to her thus, securing her pride among all the other maids and then, for a second view, to set a perfect pawn to spy over the backstabbers' sighed meher as she placed the enormous pot to the black shore where trees were high and dense and the sun was sitting right to the opposite side of the river as if looming to sank within the river, just like the person who were viewing it.
'I have a hypothesis...but the problem was this hypothesis of mine can only be verified outside those palace walls.'
"If sister dushala was headmaid we shall be living a life of luxury no less that a princess's...hey, why don't you say anything?"
"I'm trying to evaluated if doing this gossip can become prosperous rather that only knitting a dream as soft as cloud" "You are so pessimistic, offcouse it's not mearly a gossip it's a flame of rebel that's passing throughout the Northern Wing- a revolution is underway where everyone has a part to play!"
"And what's my part?" "You...my sister... are an essential one" A hand-warm and soft unlike what might be expect of a Maid of higher palace was over hers, a warmth which was far familiar...like a bonfire which withers after burning for only a crucial second- a flare of selfishness, to use, to manipulate that's the fire for, a hope that's deem to extinguish leaving you with front bites.
A sardonic Chuckle almost escaped her lips that she concealed into her throat as if gulping it down.
"What if your plan doesn't work?"
"Rubbish, I'm placing my queen in their territory how can I play such a big gamble without planning before hand?" Smiled the cunning headmaid.
"Vaidehi...isn't that your name? You are the honored Maid of devi...if you know how to blow the right words into devi's ears it might be a matter of few moments before that cruel maiden shall fall" "certainly" lifting from her crouched position, meher's face glittered with the setting Sun's withering glow- the sky was anytime about to turn pink-orange, while her feet begin to thud forward towards the river as if she were enchanted by the song of the waves which were brushing against shore,
"Where are you going?" Asked the squinted eyed girl who had been sitting baffled by her side and now her side was suddenly cold and empty in silence. "We are left with one more empty pot" and lifted the empty
Pot which was thick and heavy unlike modern day plastic buckets, "Don't bother with it we have collected enough"
"Don't you wish to please devi? Then begin with doing everything beyond the limit of perfection...don't leave skiptraces cause devi may have blindfolded herself but she senses things far beyond the reach of a mortal"
a silence captured the shore, her feet were now being kissed by the waves while her hairs curdled through the wind which flooded to the shore as she examined the sky once more...isn't it beginning to turn pink?, she thought. 'System asked me to not let the fatal nail be hammered before sky turned pink...seems like it was a false alarm cause such an incompetent cat fights might never be of any importance to such a great epic that shall occur sooner or later.'
"Vaidehi, you are too deep into the water!" Cried dhani, whose voice were being overshadowed by the surging waves around meher which were touching her bosoms now and the pot had submerged completely within. ' even if war was suppose to happen who is going to witness it here, and why shall I witness when I Don't even belong to this yugh, this era of gods and be a witness of the notable descend of human race into its doom?'
"Vaidehi---" water engulfed her like an island standing in the way of a tsunami.
'Let's see how my hypothesis shall turn out to be' and a smile...so calm taken over her lips that the water couldn't agonize her for a second or so.
"NO, someone! Someone help! A girl is drowning! Some kind soul please help!"
The poor girls schreeching voice continued to echoed thought the barren shore where no living soul wandered to even it's edge.
However...there's always one person, a God's man who shall reply to those horrifying screams, maybe that's the law of gods that even the most dark places gives birth to the first flicker of life.
*nigh* the horse swing it's head of the abrupt pull over it's nose that it had halted already of it's swift movement which were glorified in an unmatched elegance.
"What's the commotion about?"
"my lord seems like...someone is drowning...a girl, I say!" Exclaimed the rider of the carriage, as he turn to an exceptional young man who were adore in jewells and clothes as bright red but yet his charm was enough of sun itself. As if he was sun and the universe was revolving around him but his face was like a silver of moon...a token of calmness tossed into the cold water of the pond to ask for a desire to be fullfilled, and... he was the fullfiller.
"A girl...why aren't you Hurrying, sarthi? Follow the screams to the shores!"
"Yes, my lord"
*gidya!*