Bali Mansion
Katyayani had experimented playing with the available information for the first time after she was duped by Ganak. She was able to manipulate that cheater into reaching the dire straits that he was in before he died. It was all due to her toying with the environment around him.
But in this face-off with the unknown enemy, the stakes were high and the opposition was not only powerful but also a lot more treacherous. She needed to be vigilant and fully prepared. After all, she couldn't let this matter waste the efforts and waiting which she had endured for the past many years.
"We have a month before the musical competition kicks off. It should be enough for us to find out something about the people hiding in the shadows," said Katyayani.
Trini nodded confidently and replied. "While I am not here, pay attention to your exercise regime. No slacking and no going to that brothel!"
Katyayani looked at Trini with startled, guilty eyes.
She had thought that her last few visits to the brothel, which she had seen with Trini on their first night back at Dima, went unnoticed. But now it seemed that Trini had known about it all along.
"I have a sense of measure. I won't do anything out of the ordinary to attract undue attention towards myself," Katyayani coughed and murmured.
"Sense of measure? Till now, three of the most malicious 'clients' of that particular brothel have gone missing. Forget the fact that they were all prominent figures in the capital city, the one thing common between them is that brothel. If I can figure that out so quickly, do you think others can't see it? Don't you know what's at stake if you get caught in this mess?" Trini chastised her with a heavy heart.
She knew that the people whom Katyayani had disposed of in the past two weeks were specifically those who preyed upon young children brutally. This is the reason why she had not stopped Katyayani from going after them.
She had in fact helped Katyayani muddy any traces which the latter may have left behind during the attacks.
But this vigilante act needed to stop before it could be traced back to her. There was no way that they could afford Katyayani to get exposed at this point in time.
Katyayani bowed her head in acquiesce but then took a deep breath and replied. "No matter what is at stake, it can't be more precious than a traumatised child. What is the point of the noble blood in my veins or my rigorous training if I can't even protect an innocent life? I know that you are saying it for my own good but the terrorised squeals of those children have haunted me for many nights since I first saw the evil debauchery with my own eyes."
Katyayani stared at the stone wall in front of her with unseeing eyes, hatred dripping out of her orbs. "I sincerely hope that those b*stards have realised the connection between the brothel and the deaths. It should instill some fear in those pigs to not go overboard while fulfilling their 'needs'."
Eka, who at some point had finished braiding Katyayani's hair, came in front of her and gathered the taut-limbed girl in her arms.
"It's ok. You did good. Your mother would have been really proud of you. She always believed in righteous justice even when she faced the biggest backstab from her closest people," she murmured, moving her hand soothingly on Katyayani's back.
Katyayani smiled absentmindedly and wrapped her arms around the soft-hearted woman. Eka had always given her a warm, motherly feeling.
Trini looked at the scene in front of her and felt her eyes tear up. She knew that all of them were hard on Katyayani, making tough demands on her. More than that, the little girl was harder on herself. But at times, everyone needed to breathe a little easy, lest one choked up under all that pressure.
"Alright, alright! If the two of you have finished hugging each other, can we get on with the accounts books? Originally, this was purely your headache Eka. Not only have you pulled me in to torture me, but now I am the only one doing all the work while the two of you are busy indulging each other in front of me," Trini said with a mock grumble.
Katyayani stuck her tongue out and retorted. "Psst, all excuses. Just admit it today that numbers don't talk to you, only weapons do!"
Unlike the normal way of using paper and quills to do calculations, Eka had taught Katyayani to do mental calculations using the techniques of Vedic Maths* as the basis.
Of course, a lot of merchants across the continent were slowly beginning to use a small counting board which had also been invented by that mathematician, Gangadhar, whom Trini and the mercenary team had smuggled out of Adra.
This counting board was made out of a piece of wood, stone or metal with carved grooves or painted lines between which beads, pebbles or metal discs were moved to calculate amounts.
But Eka was old school and only relied on her own brain muscle rather than an external device. She had insisted that Katyayani do the same.
As a result, both of them were quite fast when it came to balancing out the ledgers. Trini, on the other hand, could only struggle counting with her fingers or using tally marks.
Even Dvi and Chatvari were better than her in this aspect!
Before Trini could respond to Katyayani's teasing, Chatvari entered the room with a note.
After coming to Dima, Chatvari was usually busy doing stock-taking of the various herbs with the ten medicine shops spread across kingdoms.
To avoid someone tracing the origin of these medicine shops to her, Chatvari didn't visit these places ever and only communicated through coded messages or word of mouth.
*Vedic Maths - a collection of Techniques/Sutras to solve mathematical arithmetics in an easy and faster way, as mentioned in the Vedas.