Vayuprastha
"I have good reason to believe that Himprayag has a mole planted amongst your trusted group of ministers. The deal which the Prince of Himprayag brought to you was already heavily skewed in his favour and you never stood a chance in getting away from it," she said it nonchalantly, as if discussing the weather.
The king stared at her with narrowed eyes, waiting for her to elaborate. It was quite an accusation that she, an outsider, was levying at his royal court!
She saw the scepticism on his face but also the curiosity.
"I am afraid that I was not efficient enough to know the name of the traitor but what I do know is that an ambush had been laid for you and you walked straight into it. Unfortunately, the details of the same are also unknown to me. But I am sure that my king is astute enough to unravel the rest of it on his own. I would urge you to investigate the same, thoroughly. My only, humble request is that if you were to find my information correct, then please give me an opportunity to present a proposal in front of you," her posture was extremely deferential as she spoke the last set of words.
Raja Shaligram cleared his throat and asked her, "So you are saying that if the conspiracy actually exists, then all you want in return is for me to hear your proposition. Correct?"
Kritika looked straight into his eyes and gave him an impish smile.
"Maybe, we could add dinner to that meet. I will personally cook for you on that day," she said coyly.
He was nonplussed by her behavior. Nonetheless, he didn't disagree and told her to wait for his missive.
As Kritika took her leave, he stopped her with his next set of words, "But if your words prove to be incorrect, you would have to stand a trial for falsely accusing a subject of the royal court."
Even though she was nervous at his words, she turned back to face him and bowed her head in acknowledgment of his command.
Gurukul, Chandragarh
"Are you coming down with a fever?" Ishani asked Mriga for the umpteenth time since morning.
Mriga had just finished her bath and was getting dressed hastily. At this rate, she would not have any time left for breakfast before her session with Chiranjeev.
The reason for her delay and Ishani's incessant enquiry was all due to that brat. She had wasted precious hours of her sleep in tossing and turning. A horse seemed to have entered her head and it kept galloping inside, through the wee hours, tossing wild thoughts from one end of her mind to another. At one point, she was so irritated that she wanted to give a blow to her skull to knock herself unconscious.
Damn that Abhirath and his proposal!
"What? Did you say something?" Ishani asked her in concern.
Since the time she had woken up, Mriga's cheeks were burning brightly, as if she had crushed rose petals and put them there. To top it, she kept muttering something to herself every few minutes. It seemed that the pressure of the QIT competition was finally getting to her.
Ishani was fretting that at this rate, she would fall sick.
Thinking about it quickly, she told Mriga, "You get ready and meet me outside the foodhall. I suddenly remembered that I need to drop something at the gate. I will be back quickly, so wait for me in the foyer outside the foodhall. Don't you dare go inside. I won't be able to find you in time, then," she ran out in the corridor with the last bit of admonishment.
Mriga was actually relieved that she had escaped the watchful gaze of her friend. She got ready and went to the dorm to pick up the big bag which contained her study material and her equipment which she would need during the day to practice with her team. She slung her bow on the other shoulder and walked out.
"Full concentration on the task ahead… Mriga, get a grip," with that mental note to herself, she climbed down the stairs.
But it seemed that fate wasn't ready to be kind to her, yet. Yash was lounging against the staircase as she descended. Her steps faltered for a second but then she walked past him. Without a word, Yash fell into step with her as well.
Turning to look at him, she asked finally, "What do you want?"
"Good morning, my name is Yashvardhan. I am a finance major student and my expertise is sword fighting and numbers. I have been assigned to be a part of your QIT preparation team," saying so, he extended a piece of parchment in front of her.
Mriga saw his grinning, boyish face and took it from his hand with misgivings growing inside her. The scroll had been signed by Prithvi and it indeed stated that Yash would be giving her lessons in finance and administrative management.
"Thanks, but I don't need your help. I never asked for it and to the best of my knowledge, a participant has the right to choose her team. Sorry to have wasted your time. If you will excuse me now," with that she made a move to go past him.
"It is your team which put in a request to the coordinator and he was the one who picked me personally for the task," Yash stopped her with a hand on her wrist and said it with a small smile.
Mriga was at a loss of words. She hadn't seen this coming.
"I need to check this with my team first. They would have never..." she began slowly.