"Thank you for bringing me here," I said softly to Karan. "I got to see a completely different kind of life-where people aren't rich in money, but in nature at its purest. Blessed by deities. Resources freely given."
"Why wouldn't I?" he smiled. "You are the queen."
"And you 'had' to bring me to meet the deity too," I interrupted.
"Exactly," Karan said as we sat down for dinner.
The islanders had prepared countless dishes. I had never seen food so vibrant-every color imaginable spread across the table. I wanted to taste everything at once.
"So," I asked between bites, "what did the deity say?"
Then, grinning, I added, "Did he say I'm not pretty enough?"
I flipped my hair to one side, blinked far too many times, and exaggerated my cuteness just to make him laugh. I knew that after this, the conversation would turn serious.
But the memory returned on its own.
The air had grown tense. Even the islanders seemed uneasy. The deity looked displeased-almost furious.
Karan laughed and flicked my forehead. The touch was so light it felt like a falling petal. Tall and broad-shouldered, with arms that looked strong enough to break bones, he was impossibly gentle.
"No," he said. "He said you're fat."
I gasped dramatically, slapped his arm, and shot him a glare. "I'm literally thin like a stick," I protested, my mouth still full of food.
"Yeah, you are," he replied, casually brushing his hand over my small belly pouch.
I frowned.
"Tell me," I pleaded in a childish voice, clinging to his arm and swaying it back and forth.
Later, we took a walk after dinner, the night calm around us.
"I introduced you to the deity like this," Karan said.
"This is the woman my brothers and I married.
I had forgotten-this island followed monogamy."
Everyone was shocked.
The deity said, "I can accept her as your wife, but not as the queen of this island. A queen exists to serve her king-not his brothers. Here, an elder brother's wife is regarded as a mother, not even a sister. How can a king rule with a wife who shares such relationships with his brothers?"
His voice had hardened.
"I cannot accept a compromised queen."
That sentence struck me hard. Everyone around me had normalized this polyandry system, but I knew how abnormal it would seem to those who didn't believe in it. And for the first time after my marriage, I heard the very words I had always feared the people of Delhpur would say.
Then I remembered the party-the one where the media had been present.
Had those videos reached Delhpur too?
Did the people there know whom I had married?
Or, more precisely, how many men I had married?
Karan was hurt more than I was. At least I had some idea of how people would react-he didn't. He was born and raised in this system. For him, the question was raised against his entire existence.
I could imagine how proudly he must have presented me, and then how instantly that pride must have turned into shame-right there, in front of the islanders.
Islanders who were equally shocked to learn that their king was not the only husband of his wife.
"Then what did you say?"
I asked Karan, who was now drinking the local alcohol like water.
"It isn't a tradition I created," Karan said, lifting the bamboo glass again. "It has always existed in the Khano tribe."
He drank slowly, like each sip was an apology he didn't owe.
I watched him-this man who had never even shared his girlfriend-now burdened by the weight of sharing his wife.
"That's enough," I said gently, taking the glass from his hand. "No more."
"I chose you first," he murmured, his voice low, almost embarrassed. "After seeing your picture. I didn't understand the monogamous world, but I knew... sharing you would hurt."
"Karan," I said softly, "you're drunk."
But these were the words I had once waited for Varun to say.
Karan carried guilt where Varun had carried comfort.
Karan felt loss where Varun had felt acceptance.
And somehow, that hurt more.
I gently pulled his arm toward me, wrapping it around my waist and drawing him into a hug.
"It wasn't my wish either-to be part of this system," I said softly. "But my parents... they couldn't understand."
Then the thought returned, sharp and sudden.
"Wait. If the deity wasn't happy with our arrangement, then why did he bless me with a boy? What was that about?"
Karan smiled faintly. "This... you might not want to hear," he said.
"The deity said that if I still wished to make you the queen of this island, he could bless you with a son-one who would rule this island someday. While you carried my child, you would be the queen."
He paused.
"But not after. Not once you resumed your relationship with Varun and Arun."
I blinked. "Wow."
Then I laughed softly. "And then I asked for a girl child. Is that why he got angry? Because I remember him walking to that huge stone and breaking it."
I chuckled. "He must have thought-I'm giving you a king, and you're asking for a daughter."
I had been raised in a male-dominated society. Somewhere deep inside, I had assumed the deity would think the same way-carry the same prejudices I had grown up with.
I forgot that every time I thought like that, something happened to shatter my belief system.
"Completely the opposite," Karan said quietly.
The deity announced that no one before me had ever prayed for a girl child.
Girls-who understand emotions more deeply than boys.
Girls-who bind communities together.
Girls-who bring peace.
They were never part of anyone's prayers.
"Everyone asks for a king," the deity said, "because they mistake power for greatness."
He paused, his gaze steady.
"If your marriage arrangement had been different, I would have proudly declared her the queen of this island."
Then his voice changed-calmer, heavier.
"You asked for a girl. I will bless you with a girl. I said your son would rule this island, but you asked for a daughter."
A faint smile followed.
"She will rule the world."
"People will know her by name. This island will be known by her name."
Then the deity turned toward the massive stone.
He struck it once.
The stone split, shaped, and fell into form.
"This," he said, "is where she will sit."
He had broken the stone into a chair.
"But don't people sit on the floor when they visit the deity?" I asked.
"Yes," Karan said.
"That's why this is different."
"Our daughter will sit on a chair."
A chair made by the deity-for her.
"She wasn't blessed to rule an island," he added softly.
"The island would be too small for her."
"She was blessed to rule the world."