Aariv looked at his baby brother, who he estimated to be weighing around 1500 grams(3.3 pounds). This was much less than an average healthy baby.
He needed to get closer to being able to use his powers on him, so he started making noise.
"OU..OU..OU..OU" he started repeating this and pointed towards his brother in his mother's arms.
Apparently Aariv wanted to say touch but only "OU" came out of his mouth. He was getting frustrated as the baldy was not taking him to his brother. His mother also looked at Aariv, she thought that he was tired and wanted to sleep in her embrace.
Aariv tilted his head and looked at Kautilya's face. Kautilya looked at his confident deep black eyes and thought about the words of that golden ball.
Kautilya looked at Durdhara(queen) with a helpless expression to which the queen nodded. He went ahead and handed little Aariv to the queen.
When Aariv came near his little brother he sensed a very weak energy coming from his heart and that energy was diminishing with every passing second. Aariv understood that his little brother was dying.
Durdhara put Aariv on her right side with her right arm wrapped around him. Aariv was going crazy by now because his brother was on the other side of his mother. He could only move his arms and legs a little and could not crawl. He started getting anxious because he was sensing his brother dying and didn't have much time left.
So he started crazily yelling and moving his tiny arms. His mother could not understand why he was doing all this.
But old fox Kautilya did, he came near the bed and said to Durdhara "Your majesty I think little Aariv wants to be near his brother"
Durdhara frowned "but he's very weak, what if Aariv unintentionally hurt him"
She said while trying to calm Aariv by caressing his head.
Kautilya once again tried to change her mind "Your majesty, please have some trust in little Aariv"
Durdhara looked at the firm eyes of Kautilya.
Meanwhile, Kautilya was thinking inside his mind ~elder prince, I hope you can show me some proof that all I saw was not just an illusion"
She picked up Aariv and put him beside his little brother. The moment Aariv saw his brother he stuck out his tiny hand and put it on his brother's head. Durdhara panicked seeing this and was about to pick up Aariv but Kautilya interjected: "Don't, your majesty".
Durdhara stopped her hands and looked at Kautilya for an explanation but before she could speak she saw Aariv's tiny body radiating golden light. His eyes were closed.
Air particles around Aariv had turned gold. He was currently infusing his minor healing power with energy manipulation and using surrounding nature energy(Nature energy is the energy that is produced naturally by the planet's core, every planet has natural energy but one with life has more natural energy). Aariv had no idea that using this power would create such an effect.
All the people in the rooms had their eyes popping out. Chandragupta was standing beside the bed with his jaw dropped. Kautilya was the only person smiling, he was expecting something like this to happen.
...
Aariv was currently fighting to keep himself awake. He had used too much soul energy. His powers all came from his soul in the form of soul energy. Infusing soul energy with natural energy would make the effect of his abilities stronger but doing this was very straining to the body and for 2 hours old Aariv this was too much.
Juno was cheering for Aariv "You can do this, just a little more"
...
Meanwhile, everyone was looking at the golden radiating Aariv but they also noticed the body of his little brother who was very tiny some minutes ago but now looked like a normal newborn baby.
After a few more seconds the golden light vanished and left behind the crying voice of the recovered baby. All the people in the room had tears in their eyes, they were chanting mantras, praying to gods and thanking them for showing them this miracle.
Durdhara had tears in her eyes once again but this time she was smiling too. She picked up both of her children and wrapped her arms around them but then she noticed that Aariv's eyes were still closed. She got scared and looked at the doctor with watery eyes.
The doctor understood her and came near to check Aariv but Kautilya was faster, he dashed to the side of the bed. He took the little body of Aariv from queen's embrace.
He placed Aariv on the bed and checked his pulse. The first time he tried he could not feel a pulse and got panicked but then he calmed himself down and checked again, this time he felt a very weak pulse.
He then went on to check his breath and put his finger near Aariv's nose, he felt a perfectly normal breath.
He took a sigh of relief and wiped the sweat off his forehead.
"Your majesties, he is fine, just tired and needs rest. I advise you to let him sleep for a while," Kautilya said with a relieved voice.
He picked up Aariv and handed him back to the queen. She warmly hugged him and put him at her side so that he could sleep.
Chandragupta looked at his wife and 2 sons "Honey, you also need to rest and you must be feeling weak after all this. Bala, go and tell the kitchen head to send porridge.
This time without poison.."
(Bala is the name of Chandragupta's chief royal guard)
His last words made everyone in the room shudder in fear.
"Yes, Your Majesty" Bala slammed his right-hand fist to the left side of his chest(salute), bowed and then left.
Kautilya looked at Chandragupta and finally spoke in a calm voice "Your majesty, I need to talk to you in private"
Chandragupta saw the eagerness in his prime minister's eyes "okay, come with me."
They both went to the corridor, Chandragupta stood there and looked at Kautilya.
"Who was it? He asked loudly.
Kautilya couldn't bring himself to look at his king in the eyes, he bowed his head downwards and said "It was me, my king. I put poison in your food"
Chandragupta was utterly shocked, he thought his ears were deceiving him. "What!, why would you do something like this?"
Kautilya truthfully replied "The poison was meant for you, but her majesty ate it mistakenly. I have been putting poison in your food for the past 8 months to make you immune to poisons.
It has been just 1 year since you established the Mauryan empire and we still have many enemies who want you dead. My spies have intercepted and neutralized 29 assassination attempts till now...
I am ready to accept any punishment your majesty"
*Sigh*
Chandragupta made a long sigh, he looked at the old man in front of him whom he considered his father. He still remembers the day when he first met him in that small village. He didn't know about his birth parents as he was abandoned and was later found by a pastoral family in a stable. Later his adoptive father also died, leaving only him and his adoptive mother to fend for themselves. He lived a poor life until that blessed day.
A Brahman(person of a priest class. the highest caste in Hindu society) came into his village. The Brahman found him and told him that he would turn him into a king. Later the brahman gave his adoptive mother some gold coins and told her that he wants to adopt Chandragupta which she agreed to.
Everything else is history, Kautilya taught Chandragupta how to fight, how to plot and how to become a good king.
He took down Dhana Nanda, the cruel emperor of the Nanda Dynasty.
He looked at Kautilya. Who was still not looking at his face, he understood that the old man must be madly self-blaming himself. He came close and put both of his hands on either side of Kautilya's shoulders.
"It's not just your fault teacher, I am also to blame. After becoming the emperor I have ignored my duties. If I was alert enough then all this would have never happened.
Thanks to the gods, nothing ominous happened.
We can either drown ourselves in self-blame over what happened or we can try to improve ourselves for that is yet to happen.
Remember? This is what you used to tell me whenever anything went wrong and I got sad."
Finally Kautilya looked at Chandragupta and smiled "Looks like the student has become teacher"
"hahaha," Chandragupta laughed which made the air around them less tense.
"Teacher we need to talk about little Aariv, I feel like you know something that I don't know, what was that golden light?" He asked Kautilya.
When Kautilya heard Aariv's name his face relaxed a bit "He is truly not normal, All I can say is that when little Aariv touched my forehead back then, I received enlightenment. Aariv is going to become the greatest King in the whole world. He is truly blessed by the gods."
Chandragupta lifted his head and looked at the ceiling trying to digest what his teacher just said.
While still looking at the beautiful carved ceiling he said "Then I just have to keep the throne safe until he reaches the right age"
He looked at Kautilya's face after saying that seemingly waiting for an answer..
Kautilya also looked at Chandragupta's face: "Who knows what his ambitions will be, we should let him grow up first, maybe he will show us some even bigger miracles."
*Sigh*
"But we need to keep what happened in that room a secret, and Little Aariv's safety must be ensured," Chandragupta said while scratching his beard.
Kautilya understood what he meant "Every 3rd party present in that room will be under surveillance at all times. If any suspicious activity is recorded then they will be elimina..."
He stopped midway "let's hope it never gets to that."
Both of them then went back to the room to check up on the queen and the princes.