'The grandson of Haider Ali Ahmad's brother in law,…
Afsah Zayd Taahir'
…
Well, there could be many people with the name Afsah. Right. But what will explain his portrait? It was him. The man she travelled with. The man who was in the same mansion as her in that very moment. But didn't he say his last name was Ahmad? What was happening? Just as her eyes were widening, looking at the frame before her, a large, firm hand pressed down on her shoulders. She turns her head to find Augustin staring at the same portrait, his expression the same as Archie's.
~
"Pretend we didn't see this. Don't enquire about it."
"But, Augustin…"
"No. We need to know what his intentions are."
"… Ok."
Not completely satisfied with their decision, Archie heads down the stairs with Augustin. Afsah was a distant relative of her mother. What did that make them? Everything has turned wrong. So horribly wrong. She had a million questions to throw at him but not to her fortune, all she could do was wait. He clearly had a motive in following her here; to where he partially belonged.
They reached the entrance but were unaware of the direction of the dining area, where the old lady had asked them to meet. Just as they were about to make their way to the left, they hear,
"Over here. This is where the dining room is."
They turn around to see the hold lady smiling with a wooden spoon in her hands. The end of her saree was tucked in to the sides.
Following her into the dining room, she says,
"I'll introduce you to the rest of our home tomorrow morning."
"That sounds great."
The dining room was massive, just like the other rooms of the mansion. The very large and heavy looking table made of glass and carved with golden patterns was the main attraction. It was beautiful and exceptionally well maintained.
But the hall was empty.
"Where is Afsah? I mean the other guy who came with us?" Archie asks, wondering if he had left.
"Oh he is with me in the kitchen." The old lady says, continuing to walk.
"I'll come too." Archie says, leaving Augustin behind near the dining table.
Walking into the kitchen, the strong smell of dosha came running into her nostrils. It was undeniably mesmerising, making her mouth water.
There, she saw Afsah sitting on the counter near the stove and eating leftovers from the curry. He seemed very happy, gossiping with the old lady and occasionally helping her.
At his notice of Archie standing in the door way, he says,
"Well hello, why are you standing there?"
"Uhm…" No words came out of her mouth as all she could think about was the portrait in the corridor upstairs.
Afsah stands up from the counter and grabs her hand from the door side, bringing her into the kitchen.
Ah… the butterflies. So sweet.
With Archie still scanning his every move, he continues to converse with the old lady.
"So do you prefer a name or do we just call you 'the old lady'?"
"My name is Devi, but you children can call me Mother Devi. I like it that way." She says, giggling as a warm smile grew on her gentle face.
Archie watched as mother Devi stirred the curry. The aroma of Green peas and turmeric lingered around every corner of the kitchen and dining area, making Augustin's mouth water from where he had been sitting, beside the table.
The three chatted casually as mother Devi continued passionately making the dish, all while Archie was observing Afsah without missing a beat. She watched with amusement at the way he openly conversed with her and the way he childishly stole the ingredients, as if it were his own mother.
Finally, after half an hour, Afsah and Archie followed mother Devi back to the dining area where she gleefully served them food and sat and watched as they ate, smiling shyly every time Afsah complimented how delicious he found the curry and how crispy the dosha was.
~It was nearly 12:30 am by the time they had gone back upstairs the mansion to finally get some sleep. Climbing up slowly, Augustin couldn't hide the cold stare that he gave Afsah every time he would innocently ask him a question.
"The food was super good." Afsah says, inhaling and looking over at Augustin who stood to his left.
Instead of responding, Augustin stared blankly with disgust, furrowing his eyebrows making it obvious that he had an issue, but before the intensity broke into a confrontation, they were interrupted by Archie.
"Yeah, haha. Of course it was." She said nervously, looking left and right at Augustin who looked down at his foot and Afsah who was still staring at Augustin, seemingly confused.
There was a lot to be taken care of
~
It was the next morning. Archie had snoozed the alarm on Tanvi's phone for over 7 times and now she was starting to get quite irritated. She slowly managed to look at the numbers on the top of the screen and jumped up from her bed at noticing that it was already 1:15 pm. The sun was attempting to escape through the corners of the curtains but the room was still dark. She ran to the window and threw apart the draperies, almost instantly getting blinded by the sunlight as she was hidden inside the blankets in darkness for so long. Looking into the distance outside, she noticed that before her was a blanket of never ending snow, instead of sand unlike the day before but just as she was struggling to comprehend why that would be, her door opened and a gush of extremely cold, stinging wind made its way inside and in came a very happy mother Devi.
At noticing that she was pondering at the view outside, she sighs knowingly.
"Today is the beginning of Hadraniel's winter."
"Hadraniel's winter?"
"Yes. It becomes cold and snows; but just here, in Hadraniel's Land."
"That's quite strange." Archie says, turning back towards the window.
A few moments later, as she was still staring from her window outside, she felt a warm breath on top of her head. Shocked but calm, she slowly lifts her head to see Afsah's handsome face also looking outside the window blankly, standing inches away from her. The scent of manliness invaded her nostrils and made her heart sink comfortably. If she weren't brown, her red cheeks would have been evident but her thudding heartbeat couldn't hide.
"Looks like snow." Afsah replies finally, looking down at her as if she were a child; His eyes twinkling and a small smile appearing on his face, so attractively. It was then that she knew that there was much more between them than what she had assumed.