The shadows forming down from the midday sun bequeathed the path touched by the chariot of the Yadavs with a dappled hue. The hue that changed in the warm summer breeze together with the bright patches which made a pattern, worthy of grabbing Dhriti's intense attention towards itself.

"More than often, shadows are messengers for whom the sun shines upon." Kanha said quiet inaudibly, leaning more on his Queen's side.

"Well, reckoning my melancholy, the sun is definitely not shining upon me." Dhriti glanced up at shade covering their chariot and then quickly gazed back at her husband's soft lotus eyes only to share a nonchalant chuckle.

"That's the present. I can forsee the sun touching down the horizon to shine upon you. Although your semblance can outshine hundreds of suns, I know your heart and mind are tugging your soul at two different ends." He took her hand in his, to let in all the reassurance he knew she needed.

Dhriti knew what and whom Kanha was talking about and she very well knew she would always repeat the same pattern of chuckling it off with a smile as if that could mend everything. But this time, her silence had filled her mind like a fine tailor, weaving her scattered silken thought into a piece.

"I can sense this seemingly endless cycle of floating between moving on and holding back, coming to an end. I know Kanha, today is not a day to put up my grim stance towards my family, but today isn't the day to try and forget what happened right here, in their very presence, either!" Dhriti sharply exhaled, the mere mention of the event shaking her breath even further.

"I never asked you to forget what happened. The soul is eternal and some aspects are engraved on it in to stay by our side forever.
But there's a difference between recalling what happened and deciding how you will continue feeling about it. And when it comes to you, besides remembering the catastrophe, you more vividly retrospect how the people you loved the most, failed you." Kanha replied, side glancing at her changing countenance.

His lips softly upturned in a light fleer as Dhriti's now captivatingly restless eyes fully turned themselves towards him for an answer.

"Human beings are complex characters. In their introspection, forgiving someone or not depends on their very essential nature and circumstances.
But you Priya, you aren't a mere human. Your form is transcendental. You are the potency of the cosmic upholder." Kanha began, earnestly looking right into Dhriti's eyes as the latter gave in all her scrutiny to him.

"Your preeminent nature is extremely forgiving. You're compassionate, all-loving, merciful and humane. Your lotus feet are the cleanser of all kinds of sins and misdeeds for those who seek your refugee. All sinful karmas are exonerated by your presence." Kanha spoke further, directing his words to events that had occurred.

"I know Kanha, compassion is not just my nature but a very part of myself. But whatever happened in Indraprasth, seemed like the capper of my flaut for which I got chastised. In such a situation, the question of me forgiving anyone does not arise at all." Dhriti followed after a long pause, as she let herself get absorbed into what Kanha stated.

"Oh Priya, you're not just the Queen of Dwarka, you're the Samragyi of the Three Worlds, the eternal abodes and the mother of all cosmic beings.
From your perspective, the whole creation is your own expansion, extension of your maya. Every single creature is a part of you. Therefore, when you forgive someone, you are forgiving but an aspect of yourself. The duality of 'this wrong and that right' is in humans because of the illusion and their embodied nature, not in you, who is the source of all.
Forgiveness alone bears the results of ultimate peace. Knowledge alone is the supreme insight while Dharma alone is the benefactor of culmination of these divine virtues.
You are well aware and in complete realization of your Dharma. Your dharma isn't about never forgiving and never forgetting, it's about forgiving and encompassing every being into witnessing what a mere act of surrender can do and how what's wrongly considered weak by men can become the adornment of supreme power for women." Kanha solemnly asserted, lifting one of his hand out from Dhriti's grip to rest it on her shoulder in genuine solace.

A prompt sniffle quietly trembled through Dhriti's lips as a single stream of warm tears, welled up around her kohled lotus eyes, threatening to spill down.

"When a spark of fire falls on a place that has no straws, it gets extinguished automatically. And those who never forgive others, enmeshes themselves with those flaws." Her voice shortly followed with a slim smile, gaining a nod from Kanha.

"You're never wrong Kanha. You should've acquainted me with your very potent words beforehand." She continued loosening her stiffened hands from her husband's, to sack out the unformed bead sof her tears.

"Uh-Oh! My bad we barely get any lone time to spend together, let alone enlighten your already realzied self with my sweet words." Kanha snarkyly twitched his brows, eventually swiveling his glimpse at Vaishnavi and Shatanik avidly waiting for their conversation to end.

"Pitashree, Bhrata Shatanik says we've reached Indraprasth but neither a Royal Palace nor any settlement is insight." Vaishnavi acknowledged, looking at her parents.

"You should open the eyes of your heart to see Indraprasth." Kanha jokingly remarked, watching the tint on Vaishnavi's face turn into pale perplexion.

"Really?" She asked with profound seriousness.

"Kanha! Don't tangle my poor child in your unraveling talks." Dhrti sputtered, lightly glaring at Kanha as he shortly shrugged.

"Vaishnavi," She begun, amiably smiling at her daughter. "You're visiting Indraprasth for the first time, that's why you're finding everything contrasting and diversing. But don't worry, you'll love the place." Dhriti assured, snapping Vaishnavi out of her perplexion.

"Exactly! I'm here after nearly a month but I can immediately feel the scorching swelter blazing my skin. Bua, the tilak you applied on my forehead is now vanished with the glorious amount of sweat." Shatanik quivered his lips in a lour.

"Don't worry Shatanik, we'll apply the tilak again. Anything else, Rajkumar?" Dhriti responded, cheering him up as she helped the two kids get down from the lofty chariot, standing under the flary sun.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

The same afternoon sun, scorching those who directly fondled its rays on themselves, now radiantly glazed the inside of the magnificently widespread walls and lush estate of the Palace of Indraprasth. As graced by its very name, the light of the day encompassed in itself, an atmosphere of jubilation, the Palace looked as if conjured from the imagination of a celestial soul, standing high in its glory.

Draupadi's heart instantly warmed, watching the subjects of the state having their souls painted in delight on the occasion of their Ruler's Raj Suya Yagya. Her eyes twinkled at the majestic dwelling whose picturesque came in like a breeze full of blessings every single day.

With a slight furrow forming below her temples, her glance slightly shifted across the bedizened corridors of the place, where the usual clattering seemed like a total absence.

"Dasi, usher Prativindhya, Sutasom, Shrutkarma, Shrutasen and Shatanik to my Chambers from wherever they are scampering." She briskly ordered, now notching the free end of her dupatta around her waist.

"Putri Draupadi, did you forget Shatanik is at Dwarka? Albeit you most obedient and docile son is arriving today so you need not long for his presence anymore." Kunti jovially gleamed at her daughter-in-law's vagued longing for her son, progressing through the decked up cloister.

"Indeed, so amenable and compliant that not seeing any bickering in the Palace immediately reminds me of his absence." An awestruck giggle immediately left Draupadi's lips.

"Dasi, also arrange for some fruits and warm milk. Mata Kunti has roamed the Palace more than enough to make sure nothing is off the cuff for today and hence she's obliged to rest now." Draupadi dismissed the rest of her maids while she warmly smiled at Kunti, escorting her to the chambers with her.

Just as Draupadi's head finally made a contact with those faintly pliable cushions around her bed, her ears tingled at the soft mutterings of the brawl falling out of her bower.

"Mata! Jyesth bhrata tied our angavastras together and now we cannot slacken it." Sutasom entered, dragging Shrutakarma alongside.

"Prativindhya —" Draupadi begun with a sigh.

"Mata, they were constantly squabbling about every single thing so I thought tying them together would hush their discreet disagreements.

"A very horrible proposition, I must say. Look at all our vastras getting bedraggled in the meanwhile." Shrutasen retorted.

"You both remind me of Bheem and Nakul in their childhood. Come here let me unfasten your tied up bond." Kunti laughed at her grandchildren's antics as Draupadi motioned her other two boys towards her, laying out new vastras to tidy them up.

"Well, thank goodness Shatanik isn't here. Otherwise I would've had to tie all three of them." Prativindhya cheeky giggled at his mother's sigh.

"Speaking of Shatanik, when is he going to grace his presence here at Indraprasth? Or he doesn't miss his brothers at all." Shrutakarma said, finally freeing himself from the clutches of the tangled angavastra.

"Honestly, he'll happily be there forever if he had to stay with Bua." Sutasom joined his brother.

"Wait for him to come and tell us twice a day that he's Bua's favourite." Shrutasen scoffed.

"Sure! But we all know who's her dearest." Prativindhya said pointing at himself as Kunti pursed her lips into an engaging smile for the banter.

"Delusional Jyesth! We all are he beloved sweethearts. She loves all of us we love all of her. Isn't it Mata?" The youngest one snickered, beadyly looking at his mother.

"Undoubtedly! But just wait for Vaishnavi to come." Draupadi flinched in for a quick response, enough to divert her sons' attention back into their wisecracks.

Draupadi's welled up eyes twinkled back at him through the honeyed sun rays illuminating her sorrow. Kunti was swift to notice Draupadi's willingness to cry and let out her pain as her hand reached out for a muslin silk sheet lying on the bed.

"Draupadi, Putri, come help gather and crease this long sheet." Kunti smiled, holding one end of the cloth while Draupadi dutifully picked on the other.

"No! No! You stay back on your side." Kunti directed, midway stopping Draupadi from moving forward to fold the sheet.

"Ah, then you proceed forward to fold it from your side." Draupadi resolved in a puzzled tone.

"No... We both shall stay on our respective sides and try to fold it thereon." Kunti shrugged with a knowing arch on her eyebrows.

"But Mata, either of us have to take an initiative otherwise how can we accomplish this task?" Draupadi once again pondered upon Kunti's strange bearing.

"Indeed! Likewise you and Dhriti are two ends of the same relation, similar kinship.
One of you have forge ahead,
Tabhi toh baat banegi na?" Kunti graciously beamed, now taking two steps forwards to fold the sheet trembling in their hands.

"You are right, Mata. All this time, I kept thinking of a way out to bring Dhriti and what we shared with each other back. But circumstances never reminded me that we are already like a nexus, there was just the need of a zeal." Draupadi blinked back her overwhelming tears with a glee.

"Then go Putri, seek forgiveness and let the prisoner like guilt be set free. Taking accountability of your actions may not change the past but it does enlarge the future." Kunti broke a teary smile, patting Draupadi's back as the Samragyi strode, exiting her chambers.

_________________________________________________

Hello Guys!
Life update - The chapter would've been published earlier but India lost the match to Pakistan and Barcelona lost the El Clasico ALL IN ONE DAY! Which just made a falooda of my mood!

I know the gap between the update was more than two months but funnily, it took me only last week to finalise what to write inside.

I was going to put up a different scene, but then I came across "What forgiveness is according to Bhagwad Gita" and after reading that I realzied forgiving is a nature of the Supreme and endowing Dhriti with that virtue would be beautiful so.... I changed the plot of the chapter overnight haha.

So, I hope you liked the part where Kunti and Kanha enlightened our Queens, beacuse honestly I wasn't the Forgive and Forget kinda person before this but I tried putting it up as much as I understood.

Alsoooooo, we're on 199K sooooooo,
Please tell me what we should do for celebrating 200K because we practically did nothing for 100K and that was sad. I really want to do something this time so please suggest because I suck at deciding such things.

That's it. That's the tea for now.

Anyways,

Hope you like the chapter.
If you do, don't forget to vote and comment.
Thanks.
xx.