I remember how her still , lifeless lips moved to retell the tales she held so dear. Ma had always loved books. I remember her twinkling eyes as my little self asked her to read to me too. How she made sure I would grow up to love books just like her. Stories, Tales , Myths- she knew it all. She would huddle up next to me in bed and recite all those mind boggling tales of pixies, feys, gods, divs and so much more.

"A myth" she slurred as the story came to an end."It's all a myth" she  repeated what she had always been told, but she never believed it to be so. For some reason, she never believed the tale of Ahiratha to be just a myth and just like her neither did I. Maybe in the beginning it was just to replicate Ma that i forced myself to believe it. But soon  I wanted her to be real . She held power, power to chaos , power to ruins and i wondered how she even acquired such horrifying power. She's been perceived as  a variety of sort. Some see her as a mere character knitted by fiction to scare children, some see her as a despicable history and some as a symbol of power. Ma had said power arises from wrath , from vengeance . How strong of a grudge did she have ? How strong her will to vengeance must've been to yield such great powers , as the story tells.

The stories described her as something to be appalled by , to be afraid of. Her huge twisted horns , thorns beading it's edges, Her dark eyes holding such grudge, such fury and a gruesome scarred back . I wanted to know what the stories didn't tell . I wanted to know her reason to be this revengeful, I wanted to know what made her who she is. I wanted to know how she acquired such power

The palace crawled with hidden tunnels, used by maids and helpers to travel through rooms. I used these often to sneak in and out of my small chamber, making sure neither father nor any of his subordinates could find me. Sometimes I would wander off into Ma's room. It was kept locked from the outside but the tunnel that led up to her room made it still accessible. No one entered that room , ever. I had heard rumours of father thinking of breaking down the room but that never actually happened. Her room was huge. The wooden shelves that held her books, now covered in filthy moss, filled up more than half of her room. In the middle was her bed, still covered in the golden plated , ivory coloured tapestry - her favorite one. Her pillow had a silver crest on its crimson coloured plane - the crest of father's army. I had heard she worked for the army before she rose to the position of a general and finally fell in love with father.
Sometimes I would amble up to the verandah, late at night so no one could spot me. I would spend hours just being alone with my thoughts- the only company i had for years.

There were planted pots all around the verandah and often i would bring in some water for them so there was still some greenery around. Ma had potted them along with father back when I was a kid. She had taught me the names of them as well as which needed special care. Her favorite was the small Lilium plant that sat timidly at the left corner.

I would return as soon as I sensed getting caught. I lived in what was my own home in the fear of getting revealed.

On my fifteenth birthday , I found out father had remarried and they even had a child. I didn't know what they looked like or what their names were, all I knew  were the vague descriptions from the gossiping maids.
This news of father angered me but at the same time I was almost numb to any emotions. Nothing surprised of saddened me anymore, I was just numb.
I wondered if such numbness was the cause of Ahiratha's rage,  i wondered if maybe even she was all alone in the dreary walls of her little chamber. But no, she wasn't. She wasn't weak. Unlike me , she was potent, she was regnant. Unlike me she held power, she held the key to almost every problems. She held dominance over every single being bold enough to question her. I despise her, I detest her, I am and always will be envious of her because she holds something so mighty , something I would kill to acquire.