Evesa, after scrutinizing the absence of Banshee, preferred talking further only after following them back to this one hall house.
So, here they were, sitting on the floor of their little cabin, looking from one to another.
"So, momi. Can you start by telling us what happened that day, how you never made it back home? And where is Dada? And what kind of dress is this?" Shivani asked looking at the red silk calf length skirt with slit on one side and turtleneck slant cut top, showing off her toned belly.
"Let's just.....I'm sorry Shivani, I know your questions are way more curiosity ridden and certainly very important but, easy questions first. You look good by the way Evesa." Ray winked, teasing Shivani.
"I don't think anyone can have easy answers regarding this place. Coming here had me realise, what a lie I was living out there and I knew you'd, one way or other find this place someday."
"I didn't find this place, we were abducted. I was having an amazing life with Dadi and my friends." Shivani said, losing the cool.
"I know and-"
"You knew and you let it happen to your daughter and this innocent man? Have you turned evil my mother?"
"Evil, bad, wrong. All these words have a definition worshiped by the masses here. I don't know if I'm evil but I'm no angel Shivani. And about your abduction, I didn't knew it till you entered Ratri."
"Can I just ask why you prefer coming here? Can't that demonic soul Banshee follow us here." Ray asked disrupting the conversation between mother and daughter.
"Spell guarding a larger area is difficult and inefficient but this place is small and secured easily." Evesa replied.
"You put a spell around our house? When?"
"When I entered."
"Momi you are creeping me out now. What happened and what is happening?"
"It's basic wizardry, you have to know, to survive among the-, well, those who I live with."
"I don't understand this, tell us everything, why did Banshee called you Elothere daughter, we deserve to know." Shivani demanded and her mother nodded in understanding.
"I'll answer as much as I've liberty to and you have every right to go berserk over me but, certain boundaries are must. What I'm about to tell you Shivani might rock your grounds but I'm sure you believe in impossible by now." Evesa said with an apologetic look as she tried to gause the mental battle going on in her daughter's mind.
"I have no to none trust in you momi. At this moment, your cool dress is only thing calming me down, I want one too, but here I'm to listen, please go ahead with how have you been holding up with the new family of yours." Anger and pain of betrayal evident in her eyes, still she tried to add a hint of humor to the situation by complimenting her mother.
Evesa sighed and bit her lower lip as if trying to hold back unwanted thoughts.
"We were coming back from Pune, me and your father." Evesa closed her eyes for a second before continuing.
"We stopped at a bridge and looked over the world below us, it was beautiful, lots of lights.
"Suddenly," Evesa paused.
"Suddenly?" Shivani urged her to continue.
"There was an attack."
"On the bridge? Who attacked you?"
"I didn't know then but now I do. It was the first block of army of Martha. Army of the Beetle guards, they are half human half Rhinoceros Beetles. They were more than 40 and we were two. That day, I knew about the real identity of your father. I saw the real face of Kaushal. They way he slaughtered all of them with his inhumane hands, scene is still raw in my head. And when he looked at me at the end, with his laser green eyes, I lost him right there. He wasn't him anymore, he wasn't your father, he wasn't my husband, he was a mon—"
"Don't say it mom please, please don't say it." Shivani choked on her tears.
"He was a monster Shivani, he was. I ran away, he ran after me, I kept running until exhausted and collapsed. I woke up in a den, Elothere's den. Staymen is the only Elothere left on this earth, he took me in, saved me from becoming one of the puppets of Martha. He adopted me."
"Wait I'm confused. Banshee is Martha's ally and she didn't seem like a rival of Elothere, or you. She let you go." Ray asked and Evesa nodded in encouragement as, for some reason, she didn't considered Ray to be much of a valid questioner.
"They aren't rivals. But Staymen has always been one of the many neutral residents as his point of thoughts never coincided with Martha's but neither did he ever stood up against her with the fear of agitating the war. Again. Martha has been invincible so far."
"So Elothere Staymen is neither a friend nor a foe. Can't expect any assistance from such people." Ray said, taking deep breath and plucking another grape from the bunch beside him. Shivani and Evesa just stared at him.
"Ray do you even know who we are talking about here?" Shivani asked, herself taking a grape from the bunch and then offered to Evesa, who, politely shook her head with a smile.
"About your mother's adoptive father, I guess?" Ray said raising an eyebrow in question.
"Ray, my mother's adoptive father is a giant boar, do you realise that?" This stunned Ray.
"I— no— I mean...what?"
"She said, he's one of his kind left, what did you make of that?"
"Well he could also be some kind of ancient wizard, one of his kind–"
"Are you playing this now? Huh! Shivani? Distracting yourself in middle of something more serious." Evesa said with an expression of annoyance and dejection, having offended with how, for granted Shivani was talking all this.
"I believe you momi, hope you have a better excuse for never coming back, next time we meet. I'm so full of this crap and certainly not in place to forgive you." Shivani rose abruptly and stormed towards the door.
"Where are you going? I'm not done, this isn't fair?"
"You being away from me without any news, any information wasn't fair, this is absolutely fair." With tears streaming off her eyes, Shivani exited the door as Ray and Evesa started at the spot where she stood seconds ago.
"Are you okay?" Ray asked, trying to break the awkward silence in the room.
"You know what? I'll have some grapes." Evesa turned to smile at Ray and he handed her the plastic bowl.
In the uncertainty of future, only certain aspect of life is, directionless directions, which itself is an uncertain path to walk by.