THE History of BETRAYAL

The Kingdom of Vajnapuri did not fall to an army. It fell to a whisper.

They called the other kingdom Arthavarta. It's Sun Palace had marble that were polished so finely that they held the light long after the sun had set.

The river Aaryaa had seen many wars, but it had never seen a heart stolen with such precision.

Years before the Sun Palace became a cage for Vivaan, it was a playground for three children. 

Kasyap, the golden Prince of Vajnapuri the son of king Pashad;
Vikram, his quiet, low-born cousin; and Indravati, the princess warrior girl who held the horizon in her eyes.

Prince Kasyap had loved Princess Indra since he first learned the meaning of the word LOVE.
He was the one who noticed the way she only smiled when the monsoon hit the marble floors.

He was the one who knew she preferred the scent of rain over the heavy perfumes of the court and because he trusted his blood, he told Vikram everything.
He gave Indra lilies and immediately whispered to Vikram in the stables  “Did you see, Vikram?”,his young face glowing with a hope that was too bright to last.

 “She tucked the blue lily I gave into her hair. She didn’t throw it away. She kept it." He chuckled in happiness.

Vikram had nodded, his face a mask of loyal silence, while the poison of jealousy took root in his chest.
He didn’t have a kingdom to offer.

He didn’t have a title to match hers.

All he had was the proximity of a shadow and the ear of a Princess who felt trapped.

So, Vikram began to weave his own tapestry. He began to poison Kasyap's love in the mind of Indravati.

“He talks about you like property, Indravati,” Vikram would whisper as they hid behind the carved pillars.
“Kasyap doesn’t see a woman. He sees a crown he can wear to make Pashad greater. He counts your smiles like coins in a vault.”

He turned her every gesture of Kasyap’s love into a threat.

He sharpened her fear until she couldn't see the Prince’s devotion to her but only the cage he supposedly represented.

Indravati was manipulated and taking advantage of her Vikram came deliberately closer to Indra.
One evening near the river bank of Aaryaa the night at the river Aaryaa was a thud to Kasyap.

He saw Vikram leaning in to Indra holding her hand while chuckling splashing water on her. 

Although Indravati was not so into him.

She still felt for Kashyap, her heart still longed for him but she couldn't believe in Poison love that was poured in her mind by Vikram.

It stopped her heart to go to Kasyap and accept Vikram.
After she accepted Vikram an engagement was proposed for Indravati and Vikram and they beautifully exchanged the charming rings to each other.
Unknowingly, Indravai got caught in a real world prison. That day even the sky wept for Indravati's fate.

The rain was a cold mist when they finally met at the banks. Kasyap stood there, not to conquer, but to claim the love he thought was mutual.

“Indra, please,” Kasyap said, reaching out a hand. “He does not love you, he is manipulating you. My lily We can leave this palace. We can build something real.”

Vikram stepped forward, his sword already drawn.

His eyes weren't filled with the duty of a protector instead they were burning with the fever of a man who had lied for years to get to this moment.

“Stay back, Prince,” Vikram spat.

“She knows what you are. She knows you only want her to silence her.”

“That’s a lie!” Kasyap roared, his heart shattering as he saw the suspicion in Indravati’s eyes.

“Vikram, why are you doing this? I told you everything! I trusted you!”
He looked at Indravati and knelt to her feet and with eyes of betrayal he spoke

“I don't know how he poisoned our love but my lily! believe me I lovee you! .
I can turn my everything upside down just if it gets me closer to you.

You are not a possession love you are my heart without you I am heartless.

Please don't do this to me.

He is lying my Indra.

Before calling you anything I say My , what does he say?

My love, believe me!”

He walked closer to Indravati, her eyes and his gaze softened. 

He came close to embrace her as a promise to win her love forever. 

She lunged, her teeth sinking into Kasyap’s lip as he tried to speak, a primal rejection fueled by the lies Vikram had fed her for years. 

She didn't taste a lover’s blood; she tasted the blood of the man she believed was her jailer.

Kasyap fell back, clutching his face, his love turning into a cold, jagged shard of glass in his chest.

He looked at Vikram, his cousin, his brother and saw the truth in his smirk. 

Vikram pushed him aside from Indravati.

“Stay away from her.

You wanted to know why  I don't say mine in front of her name, my brother !

It's because she is not a mere possession to me.

She has her own identity rather than just being mine.

She is the queen of my heart and that’s enough.

Affection does not need words.” he shouted at him with fear filled in his voice.

This was the final blow to the rage in Indravati’s heart as she held Vikram’s hand.

“You poisoned her! You poisoned our Pure love ! Why Vikram, what did I do wrong to you ?  ,” Kasyap whispered through the blood. “Why did you take the only thing that was mine?”

Indravati stood over the bleeding Vikram, her hand on his shoulder.

She didn't know she was leaning on a lie. She thought she was leaning on her only truth.

“Go,” she told Kasyap, her voice colder than the river.

“Leave your love incomplete. It was never yours to begin with.”

The duel that followed was a massacre of brotherhood. Kasyap fought with the desperation of a man trying to save her future. 

He fought for the girl who used to laugh with him but Vikram fought with the feral, dark strength of a man who knew that if he lost, his lies would be exposed.

Vikram drove Kasyap into the mud, his blade slicing a jagged line across the Prince’s face.

“You think you love her?” Vikram hissed over the ring of steel.

“You only love the idea of owning her. I am the one who knows her soul.”

Kasyap looked up, blood blinding his left eye, and saw Indravati standing over them.

He reached for her, a broken plea on his lips.
He wanted to tell her about the lilies.

He wanted to tell her about the whispers in the stable.

But Indravati was already gone.

Kasyap retreated into the darkness of Vajrapuri, leaving behind his heart and taking with him a hatred that would eventually burn the world to dust.

Vikram stayed in her shadow. He had won the war, but he had lost his soul to the jealousy that started it.

And the river Aaryaa flowed on, carrying the weight of a betrayal that the new King would soon have to pay for in blood.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Tonight, the marble was stained.

Prince Kasyap was wounded and bleeding. He was more hurt by the betrayal of love in his heart than the physical wounds on his body.

He stood on the edge of the royal balcony, the wind whipping his golden silk robes.

In his hand, he gripped a single Blue Lily.

It was crushed, the petals weeping a sapphire ink onto his palm.

Just hours ago, he had watched Indravati the woman who was his heartbeat and his sword choose someone else over him.

He had smiled then. He had trusted the world.

"She never loved the crown, Kasyap," a voice drifted from the shadows behind him.

Kasyap didn't turn. He knew that voice. It was Vikram, his cousin.

The man who had shared his bread, his secrets, and his childhood wooden swords.

"She loved the escape," Vikram continued, his footsteps heavy and deliberate.

"And I was the only one who offered her a door out of your golden cage."

Kasyap finally turned, his eyes searching Vikram’s face for a trace of the brother he knew.

He found only a stranger with a dark, calculating smirk. "What have you done, Vikram?"

"I gave her a choice," Vikram whispered, leaning into the light. "And she chose the fire over your throne."

A scream tore through the night not from the palace, but from the river Aaryaa below.

It was the sound of a soul being severed from the earth.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Ten Years Later.

The man the world now calls the King of Shadows sits alone.

He no longer wears the golden silks of a Prince; he wears the heavy, dark velvet of a man who has outlived his heart.

"The story they tell is a lie," he whispers to the empty room.

"The history of Arthavarta isn't written in ink. It’s written by ash of betrayal that they did to me in the dark."

The King stands, his hand falling to the hilt of a blade that hasn't been drawn in a decade.

It will come a time the world learned the truth about the night the Love in me died.

Arthvarta I'll take what you snatched from me