285 It's finally happening...

Royal Palace, Chandragarh

Rani Samyukta stared at her friend and asked in a severe tone, "Who are you? What have you done to my Indrani? The last time that she was this polite to me, was on the day of my coronation as the queen, many years ago."

Listening to her words, Indrani burst into tears. She closed in the distance and hugged Rani Samyukta, bawling her eyes out.

"There… there. Just let it out. It's all going to be alright now. Don't worry so much. Why did you come back so early? Did you think that I and the palace can't function without you? Let me tell you, everything has been running smoothly. If you wish, you can take a few more days off," she offered magnanimously.

Indrani shook her head wordlessly and said, "I am sorry for breaking down like this. I will go and start preparing for the day while you take a bath."

A mini replica of the royal court had been assembled in the spacious royal gardens. The QIT contestants along with various foreign dignitaries and the royal ministers were going to be present here in some time. Even though, the result of the final round was going to be determined by the queen and her ministers, the zilla chiefs and even common people were invited to the palace for this event.

People had started milling outside the royal palace since wee hours in excitement. It wasn't every day that they could enter the enter the palace or see their favourite queen up, close and personal.

An hour later, Inside the palace

"The event will kick off in a couple of hours. Make sure that everyone is seated by then. Check if the contestants or their team mates require anything. There shouldn't be any mistake or a lapse on our part," Indrani was busy barking out instructions.

The long line of attendants bobbed their heads before dispersing from there. Pinching the area between her forehead, she pushed the nagging headache at the back of her mind. There was a lot to do today. She couldn't afford to falter at this moment.

Gurukul

Abhirath was waiting outside the Gurukul gate for the royal carriage along with the rest of them which would take them to the palace. Mriga was pale with nervousness but remained calm otherwise. She was wearing the school uniform instead of wasting time on looking for appropriate clothes befitting the event.

On the other side, Vaishali was dressed up in a military-like gear and looked majestic and impressive. With her height and built, it looked perfect on her. She seemed battle ready in the literal sense of the word.

And then there was Vindhya. Wearing a beautiful flowing dress, made out of the softest silk, she looked nothing short of a princess. She had not added any ornament or embellishments to her attire but that only enhanced the overall gracefulness.

The three of them had politely acknowledged each other few minutes ago!

Both Ishani and Ganga gave worried looks to Mriga but she seemed oblivious to the 'power dressing' of her opponents.

Yash and Chiranjeev were busy in a last-minute speculation about the kind of task which awaiting them this morning. They didn't even know if it would finish today or extend to another day.

Pretending to look at some obscure point in the distance, Vaishali stole a few glances at Abhirath but the latter remained unaware or deliberately indifferent, making her retract her eyes eventually.

Royal Palace

Indrani opened the door to the Queen's inner chamber. She held a steaming glass of milk in her hand but the queen was nowhere in sight. Closing the door, she turned and asked the serving staff stationed there about Rani Samyukta's whereabouts.

The servant looked confused and replied that the queen hadn't stepped out of the room in the past half hour. Indrani gave a perplexed look towards the door and strode away.

Marketplace, Capital, Chandragarh

An old woman was sitting in the birds' courier office. It was the only place in the capital which boasted of the biggest network of birds available in the country for correspondence. In the past one hour, she had sent multiple messages across the country and a couple of them even outside the country! The issue was that she insisted upon releasing a large batch of birds simultaneously, every time that she wanted to send one message. Even though she was paying for it, it was simply too wasteful to release twenty birds while only one of them had a message tied to it. The old woman had spent a small fortune on this already. It wasn't as if she was selling some national secrets, right? So wasteful!

She still had a bunch of messages left in her hand but the establishment had run out of fresh batches of pigeons and eagles, to be used this morning.

Getting up, she staggered a bit, probably due to her age before grumbling, "You simply don't have enough couriers with you. Stop putting out fake advertisements. I was fooled by it. Now I have to go and look for another agency for my remaining work."

The establishment's owner reminded himself of the fact that 'customer was supreme' and swallowed back whatever that he wanted to say in return.

Bela stepped out of the shop, and took in a few deep breaths. She was still in the disguise which Prithvi had provided her with. Thankfully, this look matched her current state of being unwell, helping her get away with the dizzying bouts and shaking limbs as symptoms of old age instead of after-effects of a strong poison! Prithvi had gone to meet the Queen while she had come to do the other chores.

Devyani's Brothel

Prithvi had just finished giving a summary of what he knew and had surmised till now. To her credit, Rani Samyukta only faltered for a few seconds before bringing herself back into control. He was impressed with her composure since he was still recovering from the letter which he had received an hour ago.

While the first part of the letter had filled him with relief, the last line on that page…