Amaan walked in to find his six-coffin lying in the gathering hall. Though the members died Amaan felt they were shivering. It was Monsoon, humid weather for everyone. Amaan saw a slightly different scene.
He saw, 'Golden deer laid on pasture red with blood pool dripping from their veins and their young ones licking and kissing the half warm bodies of their parents.
The kind wolves accompanying their mourning with tears, waiting for another hour to enjoy weak soft supper won't kill them.'
Amaan walked in slowly while the people gave him the way. They all were astonished to see the old grey man.
"Except that his hair and beard are all white, he is still the same as before."
"His walk…"
"His temperament…"
"His boldness and well-built tall body."
"I thought he would bend in ripe age." Said a man looking at the tearless old man in admiration.
Another man thwacked, "You have gone mad while looking for a suitor for your widow sister."
"Don't tell me you are eyeing on a man in his sixty's." both of them looked at each other in disgust for what they were thinking at a time like this.
The truth was the same admiration had affected people who knew him when he was young and unparalleled. Now that position was taken over by his son Junaid and Yaqoob.
But a person being showered day and night with sorrow won't notice the popping eyes under his footsteps.
He sat there like a stranger among his grandchildren, standing out from others. He knelt to the ground and prayed to God.
"Let them have a good life in paradise."
The deep disappointed and regretful voice pulled Sufiya's attention. She was the eldest among all and among her cousins and sibling only she could recognize him.
She crawled to him and kissed his hand and touched them with her dried and exhausted eyes. Her siblings looked at her strangely, she greeted him in sign language and expressed her sorrow.
Amaan hugged her and said, "we have to be strong in tough times."
"You are a third-rank princess and eldest of them." She nodded wiping Amaan's tears.
Rukaiya came to them as well and realized it was her grandfather. She paid her respect and sat on the other side of him leaning against her grandfather.
"We felt unsecured in absence of an elder."
"We were scared, Grandfather."
"I wished badly for father and you to be here." Amaan replied with a faint sorrowful smile, "Am I not here now?"
The other three girls followed and surrounded Amaan. While Eiman and Zayan were feeling extremely guilty. They didn't dare to meet their so-called Grandfather who returned after nineteen years. They had never met him before but they were scared.
A few hours later all the princes were present there except Tabeed. Amaan didn't know of this command of the emperor. He just stood up and said in a low weary voice, "Let's start the burial ceremony."
It was the prime minister again who stopped him, "We have to wait for Prince Tabeed."
This made the boiling lava erupt from Amaan, "I don't need the presence of a senseless royal member."
"Besides I don't want to make my family's burial impure with his attendance. And who is he to stop me."
Just then Tabeed walked in, unlike other Princes he was dressed in sober and light-coloured clothes. Everyone was surprised to see the extravagant Prince wearing dull clothes for the first time since his birth.
Prime Minister looked at him with questioning eyes. Tabeed was with a heavy heart himself.
He had received the letter a few days ago and ran here immediately, Leaving Alisha in Damini's care.
He had also angered Prince Kamran. Being present in such an event together with his brother shows his equal privileged to compete for the throne.
He had numerous thoughts, "Will he betray me?"
"Did he fool me?"
"Even if he did, I can get him in exile for fooling everyone by hiding his actual personality." Prince Kamran murmured.
Eldest Prince asked angrily, "Are you here to stand out and show everyone how we have mistreated you?"
But the blame he made was not true. All the prince had indulged him and spoiled him except Prince Kamran.
Tabeed still thinks that Prince Kamran has a heart and he can go with him, the princes might take his life away for an instance. No wonder none of the princes had an official ranking other than Prince Kamran though he did not deserve it.
Tabeed replied with a serious face, "According to the Rule book of our dynasty.
'Imperial bloodshed no tears in kin's loss, one shall express mourning with their status.'"
Which meant 'that a member of Imperial family cannot cry on his own family's death whether its father or son. Let alone cry for their subjects. But they should express their sentiments with their action and clothing by putting on light and dull coloured clothes and suspending all the luxuries for three days after burial. This type of mourning was granted to only the special subjects'–
Grand Master
Pillars of the Nation
Prime Minister
Great Generals
Grand Dukes
"Yaqoob and Amaan are still alive, it's their family who is no more," said Khalid, the Minister of war.
Tabeed ignored him. He ignored all the gazes telling him that he has embarrassed his brothers. He was trying to stand out.
All Tabeed thought that "I am already wearing it, you can snatch my clothes leaving me naked in front of your women."
He stood before Amaan who boiling with oil which was ready to splash out if Tabeed tried to offer his pretending sorrowful tears.
He was thinking only one thing, "Does he know that Alisha is my Granddaughter?"
"Did she tell him about the mine?"
"I trained her to bear tortures given to capital criminals."
"But she betrayed me."
"She must have been greedier to do such thing."
"When a person can be bought from money, why waste blood on her."
Tabeed interrupted his thought and hugged him respectfully and suddenly, he rubbed his back and said in a low voice, "It must have been tough on you Master."
"You must be already aware of these hungry wolves eyeing at your little cubs."
"Don't worry you can trust me. I won't let your family suffer in any way."
This left Amaan in a deep shock that he even forgot how much he hate Tabeed personally and that her Alisha was captured by him.
The burial ceremony started and Amaan looked muddled head with all sorts of thoughts. He chose to remain quiet and sort them out after burial.
While walking back from the graveyard, he understood few things, "Tabeed does not know that Alisha is my granddaughter and with his face, I can guess he has no clue about mine."
"None of the princes as well have the tiniest idea of mine."
"But the revenue minister, Arish does look suspicious. Means my mine is safe for now." He was so absorbed in his thought that he didn't realize he was home.
"What do I have to focus now is – "Alisha's death must be on its way."
"We are no more in danger of civil war."
"Danish has been working honestly all this year and under him, the mine is yielding a lot of profit so I can finally take over the river port."
"Yaqoob is gone somehow, so I can return to the capital and live a lavish lifestyle."
"The girls those envoys bring are like angels. I will buy a few of them this year."
He changed his troubled mind from an old grandfather of eight orphans to an official retiring with never-ending wealth.
Just then he was interrupted with the presence of Eiman, Zayan and Rukaiya.
They greeted him, Eiman and Zayan confessed their guilt of leaving their family before the banquet. But none of them affected him.
Rukaiya started explaining what had happened which Eiman requested her to do so. She was weak and feeling hollow but managed herself somehow.
Eiman couldn't get through the cause of his family's death. It was a weird case. According to all the Pillar Families, his family was fine and had no suspicious gesture except that they denied the marriage proposal of other families made for the two young men without a second. No matter how good and wealthy the background the girls had.
Rukaiya told her grandfather what had happened in the banquet~~~~
All the families were sitting in the huge hall.
With ladies and gents having different tables and the ladies' side was covered with a translucent curtain.
A huge stage was decorated where talents from different cultures were giving out performances. It was glittering more than the emperor's court.
"Have you seen the two boys?"
Sufiya was being interrogated by her mother. She spoke in her sign language, "They left on the way and they didn't listen to me."
Junaid understood from his side, "I will hang them upside down for the whole night with no food and no water to drink."
"I will also cut their pocket money for a year."
"What else can I do to discipline them?"
Duchess of Nalan came and sat near Alisha's grandmother, "It's an honour to meet you, Madam."
"You don't know how much I longed to see you again."
But the old madam seemed to have no interest in her. "You have lost the bet."
"It's my husband who is Duke of Nalan."
"What about your husband? I heard he left your family just for status."
"Indeed, he was wronged as well."
"Even though your ungrateful sons brought more glory but the rare position of Grand Master is above all next to the Emperor and Empress."
"There are so many dukes but an empire has only one grandmaster." She laughed mocking her.
"I heard the current Grand Master was a pupil of your husband. He is being considered for the position of the duke of the new captured state."
"How ironic, the state was won by your son a few months ago." She seemed to be enjoying the silence of old madam.
Just then Alisha's fourth mother, Zoya came to her, "mother-in-law, Duchess of Tampa would like to meet you."
Old madam jolted on hearing this. Tampa is a strong dukedom. "Why is she looking for a mere pillar general family." Said duchess of Nalan.
Old madam avoided her and went to Duchess of Tampa. A translator was standing beside her. Their clothing and etiquette were very different.
"We are from the western region and it's our first time attending a party with the rest of the Kingdom's pillar."
"We are willing to mingle our culture with you." She said and was translated by a delicate lady in her thirty's name Rose.
Old madam smiled gently and agreed, "We are part of the same empire."
"We should initiate the matter immediately."
"It will only bring more trust to Emperor and less burden on him." Rose translated.
"…. but you should find ones with a more familiar cultural background like Duchess of Nalan."
"We are from a military background."
The duchess laughed in her eyes and replied, "you are underestimating yourself or avoiding us on purpose."
Old madam did not try to explain herself which was considered to be the case.
Old madam, Alisha's grandmother knew that creating a composite culture between two different states comes with the primary event of marriage.
She was biased against Tampa and did not want to bring or give a daughter.
She got up and went to where her daughters-in-law and granddaughters were sitting.
Alisha's fourth mother asked confused, "Mother-in-law, why did you not accept the proposal of making a composite culture?"
Old madam replied explaining to her, "what do you mean by creating a composite culture for bonding?"
"The first thing she would ask me to either give one daughter or take one."
"Maybe do both…."
"Then exchange translated books, craftsmen and artisans."
Shazia, Junaid's wife asked, "what is not good here?"
Old madam gave thump from her finger at her forehead. Shazia rubbed it resentful feeling wronged.
Old madam explained to them, "Tampa's daughter and our daughter would suffer in unfamiliar culture and weather."
"The artist will have conflicts over each other views and we each other possess text that may offend other."
"Even if the plan achieves success. Both of us will lose our origin and primary culture leaving us in the middle of the river with a wrecking ship…"
"Cause the generation will suffer identity crises and a lot of other things."
Rose heard her and went to tell the duchess of Tampa. Rose thought she would get furious and instead she smiled and praised Alisha's grandmother for being thoughtful.
She wanted to discuss more on the same topic but the banquet had started with a beautiful northern-east dance.
The elders of all the Pillar families were taken in a room for few discussions and the children were asked to enjoy a piece of classical music. They all were waiting and gossiping. They all dispersed a few hours later. While halfway to their home, old madam felt a bit uneasy and informed everyone to go slowly.
Before they could reach their home. Old madam vomited and all the family members felt pain in their entire body and all of sudden their body started turning cold they changed colours like a chameleon and finally their body turned white. All the coachmen felt the same thing, all the guards felt the same thing except one coachman and the younger members of the family.
So many people died mysteriously.
The next day of their death, the only coachman died and was blamed for everyone's death. A random man also reported that he found Grand Master body in the dried well near the coachman's house.
Maybe because everyone else present in the banquet was fine or maybe they had a person to push the blame. Nobody tried to make an investigation.
The case was closed with the coachman as the culprit. His entire family was executed and except his pregnant wife who had divorced him in her fifth week for some domestic reason.
The three children had tears in their eyes. Rukaiya dropped a tear and said, "How all of them died?" Amaan replied rolling his eyes, "It's an obvious conspiracy."
"I am wondering why would Grand Prince spare you, people?"
"He wants to be backfired?"
"He is very shrewd, there must be another thing.."