The gem was warm in her hand now, as if it remembered the blood it had once drawn.
Princess Vaidehi stood at the edge of the marble court of Rajyagarh, her homeland. The final ruby of Vanshala—the Serpent’s Fang—glinted beneath her blood-stained veil. Her mission was complete. Her body was bruised, her soul exhausted, but she had done it.
She had stolen the soul of an empire.
And yet… no one smiled.
Her father, the king, sat on his throne like a stone god, eyes cold, mouth thin. Beside him, his ministers whispered like jackals. Vaidehi approached with pride stitched into every step. The ruby lay nestled in a silken pouch, placed before them like an offering to forgotten gods.
> “I did what no one else could,” she said softly. “The treasury is weakened. Vanshala will fall. I held his trust, and I bled him from the inside.”
The king (her father) did not move.
Then a slow clap echoed from the shadows behind the throne.
> “You did well, sister,” came a voice she hadn't heard in months.
Samrat. Her elder brother.
He stepped forward, draped in black robes, a smirk twisting his face. But there was no warmth in his eyes. Only calculation. Only hunger.
> “So well, in fact,” he said, “that we no longer need you.”
The world slowed. Her fingers curled at her side.
> “What do you mean?”
Samrat’s eyes glinted. “You served your purpose. You brought us the gem. But your... closeness to the prince? That was never part of the plan. Some say you went too far.”
> “No,” she whispered, stepping back. “You knew. You told me to get close to him.”
“Close enough to weaken him. Not close enough to look like a traitor.”
A soldier grabbed her from behind.
> “You dare touch a princess of Rajyagarh?” she hissed.
Samrat leaned close. “You’re not a princess anymore, Vaidehi. You’re a liability.”
In that moment, she realized—they had never planned to let her live.
They dragged her through the palace corridors like a dog, her silks torn, her braid unraveling, her dignity bleeding out of her eyes.
They threw her into the underground prison—a cell made of stone and silence. Her anklets clattered against the cold floor. The guards didn't speak. She didn't cry. She had wept all her tears the night she left Vanshala.
Hours passed. Or days. Time blurred like fever.
And just when she thought it would end in darkness—
The door exploded.
Dust and fire. Screaming metal. The guards dropped like leaves in a storm.
And through the smoke, he walked in.
Prince Aaryan of Vanshala.
Sword drawn. Blood on his knuckles. Fire in his eyes.
> “You stole from me,” he said, voice low, steady. “You lied to me. You poisoned my kingdom.”
She pushed herself up with shaking arms.
> “So what are you doing here?” she croaked.
He stepped closer, gaze fixed on her like she was both curse and cure.
> “Because you were never mine to lose... and yet I still came for you.”
She had seen him furious before. Had seen the quiet rage in his eyes when he learned of her betrayal.
But this? This was something else.
> “How did you find me?” she asked.
> “Because I watched the way you flinched every time someone mentioned your brother,” he said. “Because I memorized the sound of your voice when you lied to me. Because I couldn’t sleep after you left.”
Her throat tightened.
> “You should kill me,” she whispered.
He tilted her chin up with his blade—not roughly, but just enough to make her heart race.
> “I might,” he said. “But not tonight.”
He pulled her up into his arms like she weighed nothing.
> “You belong to a kingdom that betrayed you. But I’m still deciding what you’ll be to me.”
And in that moment, as her head rested against the shoulder of the man she had destroyed, Vaidehi realized the war had only just begun.
Not the one between kingdoms—
But the one inside their hearts.
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