A Tale Of Great Circumstance

Part 3.

CHAPTER 16: Meet the Parents

“AISHA?”

“Hmmm?”

“How long has that rider been waiting outside the cottage?”

“What rider?”

“The one outside.” Mohan stood behind his wife and gently rotated her head so she was looking out the window. “That one.”

“Go and ask him what he wants!”

“Why do I have to go?”

“Because you noticed him first.”

Mohan widened his leafy eyes beseechingly.

Aisha sighed. “Why did I marry you?” she muttered under her breath. Wiping her hands of spilled ink, the woman opened the door and called out. “How may we be of service?”

The man dismounted stiffly from the horse. He looked ill at ease and didn’t seem to know what to do with his hands as he approached Aisha. “Are you”—the man reached into the pocket of his trousers and pulled out a scroll, frowning slightly as he read—“Eklavya’s parents?”

Aisha cocked her head. “I’m afraid they are back in Desh.”

“Legal guardians?”

“Sure?”

“That will do. Lord and Lady Godfrey have extended an invitation to the three of you to visit tomorrow evening. Will you be available then?”

Aisha bit her lip. “I’m sure we can make time although it is unusually short notice.”

The man leaned closer conspiratorially. “The young lady of the house is quite impetuous.”

Aisha arched an eyebrow. “Is that why she’s taking such a short time to choose a suitor?”

The sarcasm was lost on the man. “I think Lady Ansa is taking far too long,” he said, shrugging. “Alright, thank you for your time, Madam…?”

“Aisha.”

“Madam Aisha. A carriage will be sent for you tomorrow.” With that, the messenger hopped onto his horse and galloped away. 

CHAPTER 17: Love Me, Love Me Not

THE next evening, as promised, a carriage awaited Eklavya and his gurus. The trio was escorted into the luxuriant living room. The servant stopped them at the open door. Inside, they could see Ansa pacing the floor, a quill in her hand, her fingers dappled with ink. Lady and Lord Godfrey sat in their chairs stiffly with identical expressions of annoyance. The three seemed to be arguing fervently about something.

Taking in the splendor of the room, Eklavya felt shabby. His simple dhoti and vest were no match for the wealth of the Godfrey family. Ansa hid her wealthy roots well when it was just the two of them. Two hands pressed firmly against his back. Eklavya nodded at his gurus on either side of him. 

“It’s alright to be overwhelmed,” Mohan said.

“But never feel ashamed,” Aisha finished.

The servant cleared his throat. “Eklavya and his parents,” he announced.

“Gurus,” Aisha corrected.

“Er, gu...rus?” The servant said hastily before bowing, arm extended forward. 

Eklavya led the way in. Ansa brightened upon seeing him. Her parents, however, darkened. Their eyes narrowed as they took in the rag-tag boy.

Pleasantries were exchanged. Drinks were offered and accepted. And throughout this, Ansa and Eklavya sat opposite each other, her full of weariness, him full of exhaustion. Finally, after every possible topic of conversation that small talk could encompass had been exhausted, silence ensued. Eklavya felt he needed to make a good impression on the Godfreys. He opened his mouth to say something clever. Then he closed it almost immediately. Any words he said would probably be detrimental to his standing, he decided.

 The clock ticked loudly as if to mock the party. Eklavya looked anywhere but at the Lady and Lord Godfrey, both of whom were trying to catch his eye. He scratched his ear vigorously. At least that gave him something to do.

Ansa stood resolutely as if she had gone over this scene a thousand times in her head (which she had). “Eklavya,” she said, looking at the boy. “Do you love me?”

There was no hesitation. A reddening of the ears and slight cracking of the voice—yes—but no hesitation. “Yes.”

Ansa reached into the folds of her dress. When her hand emerged from the thick folds, it held a sharp pair of scissors. 

“Ansa,” Lord Godfrey hissed. “Put those away.”

Ansa ignored her father and held the scissors against her fiery hair. “What if I shorn my hair and had cuts all over my face? Would you still love me then?”

“Ansa, stop this nonsense!” Lady Godfrey hissed. She stood but Ansa held her arm out, palm facing the woman. Much to Ansa’s surprise, her mother didn’t make another move.

“Yes, I would,” Eklavya said, his voice less feeble. He could feel his gurus’ eyes piercing his skin but he didn’t care. All that mattered was Ansa and what she did next. 

Ansa kept her eyes on Eklavya’s. She took a deep breath and—snip.

There was a loud gasp from Lady Godfrey which everyone ignored.

Red clumps fell to the floor. Eklavya held Ansa’s gaze. 

“How about now?” Ansa asked. There was a subtle quaver in her voice. “Do you still love me?”

Eklavya stood and stopped in front of her. “Do I still love you? Damn it, if love was a drop of water, all the oceans in the world wouldn’t equate my love for you.”

Ansa arched an eyebrow and crossed her arms. “You haven’t said it.”

Eklavya’s face burnt with the passion only youths in love can summon. “Telling you I love you is a waste of time because I took up embroidery, wizarding studies and learned this nation’s language all for you. But I’ll say it anyway. I love, love, love you.”

“Eklavya, will you marry me?”

“That’s what I’ve wanted for a long time.”

CHAPTER 18: Wizard and (Al)Chemist

THE marriage didn’t happen for two years as Eklavya had decided. “I want to get my certificate from Saint Theodosius’ first,” he explained.

“And I want to do an alchemy course,” Ansa said. “I think I’m on the brink of something interesting.”

“I think you’re on the brink of greatness.”

“Shut up.”

And now we’re here, two years later, a little older and a little wiser. The twenty-two-year-old groom was a newly certified Warlock and the bride, a newly certified Alchemist. The wedding was a quiet affair, or as quiet an affair a Godfrey wedding could be.

“Remember when he was our indifferent boy?” Aisha said to Mohan. 

He wiped a tear from his eye. “And now he’s hers and she’s him and the indifference is lacking.”

Aisha smiled at Mohan as the young couple said their vows as was the custom in North Esterton, and then walked around a fire seven times as was the custom in Desh.

“Do you think it is time to tell him?” Mohan asked as the small crowd erupted in cheers.

“Yes,” Aisha said. “Let him have this day. We shall break the news tomorrow.” 

“I’m going to miss him,” Mohan said. 

Aisha squeezed his hand. “I’m glad I have you.”

“My true north.” Mohan grinned mischievously.

It was difficult for the gurus to break the news. Eklavya seemed to be surrounded by an aura of total awe and incredulity of his new wife. He couldn’t even think of her as his wife. She was just Ansa. She would always be his Ansa.

“Eklavya,” Aisha said gently for the fifth time.

“Hmmm?” Eklavya scratched his ear thinking of the best way to rearrange the room for Ansa’s comfort. 

“Eklavya, we are leaving for Desh in a week or two.”

The young man nearly dropped the lantern he was holding. “Desh?”

“We’re going back home, Eklavya.” Mohan smiled. “You and Ansa can come with us if that is what you want.”

Eklavya’s legs felt weak. “But what about this place?”

“We may come back in a year or two. Till then”—Aisha gave him a tight-lipped smile—“we will probably put it on rent.”

“Or something,” Mohan added.

“Or something,” Aisha affirmed.

“So, would you like to join us?”

Eklavya frowned. He would get to see his family again. He could show Ansa around his birthplace. He could go somewhere he truly belonged. “No,” Eklavya said, standing straighter in his decision. 

The Prana Dharaks smiled sadly. Eklavya realized they had known his decision before he had even made up his mind. If he chose to go with his gurus now, he would always be tied to them. He had to break free at some point. 

“I will continue this practice,” Eklavya said. “Ansa and I can run it together.”

Aisha nodded. “I am so proud of you.”

“We both are,” Mohan said. 

A week later, Ansa and Eklavya bade farewell to the Prana Dharaks. Aisha sealed the farewell with a kiss to the man’s forehead. “Be good to each other,” she told the young couple. “Come visit us in Desh, someday.”

Mohan stepped forward.

He shook the young man’s hand gravely before whispering, “Oh, skip the formalities,” and wrapped him in a tight embrace. Eklavya squeezed his eyes shut, a tear making its way down his cheek.

“What a passionate young man,” Mohan told Aisha as they started their journey home.

“With so much potential,” Aisha said. “Quieten your thoughts, will you?”

“Ah, so you’re thinking what I’m thinking.”

“A wonderful student.”

“Wouldn’t give him up for the world.”

“Yet we have done just that.”

“He will be alright,” Mohan said, taking Aisha’s hand. “He will make a fine Prana Dharak and healer.”

“Don’t forget warlock.”

“And warlock.”

The first few years were difficult but enjoyable filled with the first joys of sharing household chores and arguing over who would do the cooking that night. Ansa and Eklavya learned to adapt to and work with each other.

Ansa developed new and eccentric potions which either bubbled, smelled so strong you could taste it, were unappealing in color or all three. Eklavya’s control over his prana had improved tremendously. Putting their work together, Ansa and Eklavya’s cures seemed to heal every possible ailment. Word spread about the two throughout North Masterton. 

Ansa and Eklavya, Eklavya and Ansa.

CHAPTER 19: Country Roads

IT was two years into their marriage that Ansa brought up a pesky subject.

“We should keep a pet.” Ansa flipped the page of her book while Eklavya dusted the bookshelf. “What do you think about plants?”

“Whatever you say,” Eklavya replied. He gathered the books strewn around the room and began setting them on the shelf. 

“What do you think about bringing a child into this world?”

The books slipped from Eklavya’s hands and landed with dull thuds, one after the other. Ansa was there, picking up the books before Eklavya even bent down. 

“Are we on the same page right now?”

“I’m on page fifty-seven. Which page are you on?”

Eklavya stared at the young woman in front of him, completely and utterly flabbergasted. Ansa took his hands into her own and smiled her warm smile, and just like that, everything was okay again. 

“I can read faster,” he said. 

And a year later, a beautiful baby girl was born to them though Eklavya would have called Jin, their newborn child, “beautiful” if she looked like a demon sent from the pits of hell. At times, Eklavya couldn’t help thinking that she had been sent from the pits of hell.

Her frequent screaming suggested so. But those thoughts would dissipate when her little, tiny fist wrapped around his finger and his heart melted just a little every single time. Jin looked a lot like Eklavya but had a sprinkling of freckles and obstinate eyes she could have only inherited from her feisty mother.

“That’s one, two, three freckles,” Eklavya would say poking each one in turn as Jin gurgled and laughed. “Four, five, six, seven—”

“Okay, Eklavya, I think she trusts you can count now,” Ansa replied.

The question of Desh wasn’t asked until several more years had passed. It had been ten years after their marriage when Eklavya felt it was time. “Ansa?”

She seemed to know what he was going to say before he said it. “When shall we leave?”

“You are okay with it?”

“I would follow you to the ends of the Earth, Eklavya.”

“In a fortnight?”

“Alright.”

Preparations were made. Word was sent ahead of time to Eklavya’s gurus. Farewells were bid to Ansa’s family. Her sisters had come from their respective homes to see Ansa before she left. 

“I miss spending time in the library,” Selkie, the second oldest, said.

“I still haven’t figured out how to wiggle my ears.” Evelina moved her ears with her delicate fingers.

“That table was always meant for three,” Ansa said wistfully. 

“Look how far we’ve come from then,” Evelina said with a sad smile.

The sisters hugged each other, not one without a dry eye. 

Eklavya and Ansa, with eight-year-old Jin in between them, returned to Desh. They stopped by Kolhagao first, where Eklavya was reunited with his parents.

“Oh my little, little boy,” his mother cooed.

“Good lad,” his father said gruffly.

“This is my wife, Ansa,” Eklavya said, “and my daughter, Jin.”

The two were showered with praises and love and every other positive possible thing imaginable. It was difficult to tear away from his doting parents but it had to be done for Eklavya and Ansa had ambitious plans.

They settled in the main city and opened their practice, combining Ansa’s knowledge of alchemy with Eklavya’s prana abilities. Business boomed. Word of the two spread, even more, when a shopkeeper spotted Eklavya and Ansa taking a morning stroll. The city had a lot of sick and injured beggars. The two took it upon themselves to help as many as possible, healing this scar, curing that fever.

Even the king who ruled over the city sought help from the two when he was ailing. 

None of this fame and fortune registered as very important for the couple. They were far more delighted when Jin showed herself to be a Prana Dharak herself, possessing the ability to feel what others were feeling by merely one touch and caressing those emotions. 

It made parenting quite difficult indeed especially for Eklavya who couldn’t help but be won over by his daughter’s obstinate eyes and the constellation of freckles.

CHAPTER 20: Take Me Home

EKLAVYA and Ansa spend a considerable amount of time in the city. Little Jin had grown and was of age to have adventures of her own, away from the adoring eyes of her parents. Thus, as Eklavya and Ansa retired to the village of Kolhagao in the mountains, Jin cried farewell to her parents and readied herself for the cruelties and wonders of the real world.

The couple, now quite old and weary, did everything together. One could see them every morning, watching the sunrise. Not on the roof anymore, but leaning against each other in the brilliant light. Or they could be found sitting together on the grass, the woman with grey streaks in her fiery hair holding up a book, the man scratching his ear, reading aloud.

And whenever Ansa asked him with a sly grin, as she was fond of doing, if he loved her, Eklavya always answered, “Telling you I love you is a waste of time because I took up embroidery, wizarding studies and learned your nation’s language all for you. But I’ll say it anyway. I love, love, love you.”

Life went on as life is bound to do. Day turned to night, months turned to years, change came and went, and there came a time when the two figures became one. 

But always, when others told their story, they started it like this: Once upon a time, a boy fell in love with a girl and her heart was an enigma he wanted to spend his whole life deciphering.

THE END.