It was day one after the princesses birth, her name was decided to be Durgavati. The kingdom was in grief for their loss of the queen, even though the princess was born no one was happy, as they all thought it was a bad omen. The priests of the temple were studying astronomically about the princess, they were making assumptions about how she will drag down the kingdom, how she is a born disaster whose birth itself was unholy, unnatural. A few priests made their way to the Digvijay to warn him about the child.
Digvijay was in the inner garden of his palace, this garden was the proof of his love to queen Meghana, this garden was made when she once said she missed her hometown, so King Digvijay made this garden with her hometown's flowers and a neem tree in the middle where the king and queen used to rest and just chat. The king right now was lying under the tree with his back on the tree and the baby on his lap, with him were Adhiraj Raghuvanshi, his wife Vaishali, and their only son Vikramaditya who was one year old . When the priest saw this they were unhappy, or more like disappointed they said " your majesty, the princess born is not a good thing, she was born under the black moon night with all the bad omens in place, her the way the stars aligned to her birth, the things happening and the death of our queen.. The temple suggests that you drop the child. Any child born under those conditions are either tyrants, witches, curses or demons. Please heed my words and take the decision befitting the king your majesty, not the decision of befitting a father".
His words were heard loud and clear, the king spared them a glance and understood right away. These were the new priests assigned to the temple, none of them held any authority, if he had to guess these were probably sent by Dharmapala Bharatwaj to test his reaction, while being cautious. If Digvijay were to spare them and let them go, the temple would take it as a sign and attack him again with more big backlash suggesting to drop the baby, and he could look weak in front of the kingdom which would increase the temple's authority and power, but if he were to execute them then the message would be clear, to stay away from the royal matters and that king's authority was absolute. He did feel a bit pity for the priests as they were just pawns to be used. The baby, because of the commotion, woke up and started crying, Digvijay then handed the baby to Vaishali, she took her and started to walk her around to stop crying. Digvijay got up and said " Did you know that you are being used as pawns by the temple?" They were silent and confused, before anyone could say anything Digvijay said " When I was a prince, I had many siblings which naturally resulted in a big succession battle. Publicly we had to maintain an image about being the good ones but I, I never maintained an image I just did what I pleased."
What digvijay said after this made the priests flinch under pressure of his word he started to move towards the priests
"I openly claimed that the throne is mine, that anyone to come in between will be killed," his tone dropped very low after this point,
Adhiraj signalled Vaishali to go, she took Vikramaditya and Durgavati and went somewhere else.
"I even openly targeted other siblings. Now you might be wondering why I am saying this. This is to let you know that I have already rejected the temple, I move according to my own will, I do things I want , when I want and how I want. With this way of mine i became king, while carving a path of blood, everyone feared me so much, i wonder when that stopped, even when i got the throne i still killed my father, because of this i was known as the MAD KING"
The priests understood that they made a mistake, but there was no way of backing from this point. The priest who led them till here was sweating tons, and before he could realise his head was cut off by Adhiraj. The other priests tried to scream but Adhiraj's blade was faster, within one second all the heads flew, there was a spray of blood on the king, the garden was ruined, dead, so was his love.
The king then ordered for the bodies to be fed to the monsters, he also ordered for total silence on the bad omen thing regarding the princess. He then washed up, and got dressed up in all white, dhoti and white thin covering shawl for the upper body for the funeral of the queen. As he was in his bed chambers, he had princesses cradle to be shifted in his chamber to take care of her. The king saw his daughter silently sleeping. He thought how beautiful she was, how she might resemble Meghana. There then entered another woman dressed in all white saree, she was Chandni, his second wife. He saw her and asked " Are you here for what happened in the garden, if so then do know that's who I am" she then spoke " I never questioned your judgement but fear is not the way to lead, people are already afraid, they are in grief for their queen, they don't know who to trust and if you"
The king looked directly into her eyes, he had hostility a second which quickly disappeared the moment it came, but Chandni saw it. She said " I'm sorry, I know you will never look at me, I was sent by the temple, but I am knowledgeable enough to know how politics and the kingdom works, and so do you. Your majesty, you went too far, you could've only killed only one, and made the message clear. Your majesty please stop acting on your emotions, I know you are hurt but please think this through, you are the king." Digvijay thought for a moment, she was right and he knew it, he faced her again and said in a calm voice " You're right i went to far with them, they were just pawns to be used, and your high priest Dharmapala used them, I should've done something else. I Guess I'll be careful next time." Then silence took over, Chandni walked over to the cradle and saw Durgavati, " She is beautiful, her eyes are like the queen, and her face is like you", again silence. Digvijay said " You're not here just for this are you?" When she saw him , there was an unspoken question in her eyes and Digvijay answered " Don't worry, Vedhara is still the crown prince, her birth changes nothing about that. He is still my son, there will be no harm to you or him."
It was evening, the sun setting low in the distance, priests chanting mantras, the royal army and guards standing guard, at the river bank. Everyone was weeping even the guards who had no connections were sad, they were all in grief for the funeral, it was of their beloved queen Meghana. She never discriminated, made improvements, provided jobs, did her duty with utmost sincerity, she was the queen of the people. The king however had no tears, he saw her body lay on top of the woods ready to be turned into ash. He lit up the woods, the fire consumed her and winds blew, raising the flames . The king just stood there in silence, not saying a word, later he dismissed the guards, the army, the priests and everyone. As everyone left he found himself to be all alone with nothing but the burned ashes of what once was the only flower of his garden.