"What the-", they all looked at each other as the announcement chimed inside every walls of matsya, ringing in their ears like a death trumpet. Vaishnavi looked at Virat, who just nodded in a knowing way and started towards his court, while Keechak didn't fail to notice the pale expression of his supposed fiancé. Brushing it off for a while, he went towards the door.

Sudeshna followed grumping while vaishnavi was still in the after effects of her realisation, a dreadful one which she anticipated, but didn't expect to come this worse. Arjun, Draupadi and Yudhisthir looked at her with a conflicted expression already, but couldn't understand why she was flabbergasted.

She dragged them all to a secluded corner all tensed, while Arjun stopped her and asked, "Ishwari! What happened? I understand duryodhan is here, but... You look tensed for some other reason. What is it?". She looked at Arjun with a scared expression, "Arjun... Remember I used my curse for one day during disrobing...", she trailed off while Draupadi held her and motivated her to continue. Vaishnavi nodded and said, "Well, and i was supposed to be careful for just one day right? But now...", she trailed off. Arjun shook her, "but what?", he asked tensed.

Vaishnavi looked at them perplexed, "you are chandravanshis... The whole aryavart follows the thithi that starts with the moonlight, not the one with sunlight... Right?", she looked at Draupadi, hoping a negative answer, but to her dismay, Draupadi nodded her head in a yes.

Vaishnavi held her head in worried way, while Draupadi held her, "Ishwari! What happened tell us! We are tensed!". She looked at them all and said in a dreadful tone, "My era, my family where I'm born, follows the sunlight thithi... so I didn't realise it. We take it for 2 days... Eventhough I got married to Arjun, i got my curse way before i got married to him in an actual setting, which means i should still follow My maika's rule for this curse. My disrobing started at a different thithi, and it ended in a different thithi.". She breathed out.

Draupadi asked her confused, "Wait wait, what do you mean? Two days? I don't understand. You clearly used it saying it for one day only and one day alone! Right?", to which vaishnavi shook her head, "No! Even though it only took 24 hours for me to use that curse, it comes under 2 different thithis.. which makes it 2 days. I used two days of curse back then... Which means my curse ends not one... But two days prior"

Yudhisthir looked at her with widened eyes, "No way. This month ends with 2 thithis prolonging to 3 days vaishnavi!", which made her snap her head towards him, "Jyesth Bhrata what are you saying!"

Arjun shook his head and asked them both, "Guys guys. What are you guys trying to say!", and looked at Draupadi who mirrored his expression of confusion. Vaishnavi looked at them and breathed out, "If I'm not wrong... And my calculations are right according to Sahadev... I will get My powers back in the last 3 days, which starts today."

Arjun and Draupadi looked shocked as well, Arjun said in a trance, "If you get them this soon... there is no way we will survive the agyatvas and everyone will get to know who you are...", while Draupadi looked at her perplexed, "You mean..."

Vaishnavi looked at them dreaded, "My powers will come back... Anytime now."

***

"Welcome to Matsya, Prince Duryodhan. King of Gandhar, and king of Anga", Virat welcomed them with a warm smile, but got sidelined when Keechak came in between and folded his hands, "Welcome to my kingdom". Duryodhan smiled wickedly at Keechak and joined hands with him, "good to see you my friend".

Virat embraced him warmly and smiled before saying, "It's an honour to the one and only, the great, who even defeated the PANDAVAS! In the game of dice! Real victory huh?", he sneered loudly while others in the court hall stifled their chuckles at the obvious mockery of the prince.

Duryodhan clenched his fists and growled, "Be careful of what comes out of that mouth, Maharaj Virat. Words can be sharper than knife, and you never know when your own words will poke you to death!". Virat just shrugged his shoulders in nonchalance, while Keechak came into the conversation, "I'm so sorry for the uncivilized behaviour of my brother in law, and please accept my hospitality."

Duryodhan smirked and looked at Virat, "oh yeah. Looks like I can tell who is actually in power here. Huh!", making Virat glare at him. Keechak looked over his shoulder to get a glance of Virat, "Yeah, this kingdom doesn't differentiate between the king,.. and the commander who is obviously more powerful than the king himself".

Virat clenched his fists and was about to plunge on them, but controlled himself saying it's not the right time to himself. Duryodhan smirked and said, "Well, my dear friend. I'm here for a help from you guys. There is an Intel that the Pandavas and their wife Draupadi, along with my ex fiancé is here-", but got cut off by a sarcastic virat.

"Your ex fiancé? Huh? You mean... Maharana Arjun's wife?", Virat mocked to which duryodhan just clenched his teeth, and muttered through them, "Don't you dare-", but again cut off by Shakuni, "Yes Yes! Her! Haha! Her!", he managed by holding duryodhan's hand, calming him down.

Keechak just turned towards his brother in law while sitting on his seat in an arrogant way, "King Virat. Maybe you should work on your vocabulary. You are very good at infuriating our guests. No wonder you got very less allies and recognition", he smirked while saying that.

Virat snapped back, "if people, or you, are having problems with my vocabulary, well it sounds more like you problem. I don't care what I speak Keechak. At the end of the day, I am the king of matsya. Just because the dog is protecting the house, it doesn't become the owner right?".

Keechak clenched his teeth and muttered, "only if you aren't my fiance's brother-", who got cut off by an eager dushasan, "Fiance? You have a fiancé? You too?", with an genuine expression. Because no matter how you look at him, he doesn't seem like the type to settle down with one woman for his entire life. So the confusion in the faces of the guests of honour are palpable.

Keechak smiled, probably for the first time in his entire conversation, said, "Yes. The most beautiful woman in the entire aryavart. The most- or...", he trailed off thinking about Sairandri. "One of the most?", he said thinking to himself, much to everyone's confusion. It's not an everyday sight for them to see the scary commander speechless.

Karn stood up and said, "Might be. But the most beautiful is Draupadi, the wife of Pandavas. If you manage to find her, then you have to find her with this sign alone. That woman is too cunning." Duryodhan let out a snort and said, "what? Most beautiful? Not more beautiful than my Vaishnavi!".

Keechak's mind was working miles per hour, Vaishnavi, a familiar yet distant name. He swore to all the women he slept with that he heard the name somewhere or somewhere in his life. Just couldn't pinpoint. "Vaishnavi you say huh?", he asked thinking to himself, "That beautiful? More beautiful than the daughter of Agni himself?".

Duryodhan smiled to himself dreamily and said, "the most beautiful sight, making any guy, ANY. GUY. want to settle down, no matter how much of a womanizer or a jerk he might be". Keechak felt like he was listening to his own life story, but something was off about it. Tara can't be vaishnavi right? She could never be.

"You must meet my fiancé, Tara! She is the most beautiful in the entire aryavart. She will rival that vaishnavi of yours." Keechak said proudly, while duryodhan let out a scoff, "No way.", but got stopped by Shakuni, who dragged him aside.

"What is it mamashree?", he hissed, to which Shakuni shook his head, "Dear Duryodhan. Think about it. That woman he is talking about, Tara, she made him what to settle down. What kind of beauty she should be! Atleast to the level of Some divine angel. And the only angel you know is...?", Shakuni asked knowingly, "Vaishnavi..!".

Shakuni nodded his head in knowing and patted his back, "why turn down this offer? Go ahead and see that beauty? Why don't you?". Duryodhan went back to his seat and said, "Yes Keechak. We would love to meet the lovely lady who has got you wrapped around your fingers. The beauty herself as you say. Because according to me, that is Vaishnavi!".

"Outer Beauty doesn't indice love, your highness!", a voice beamed through the halls of matsya, making everyone turn their head towards the source of the sound, revealing an eunuch, the official court dancer of matsya standing there with a shawl covering his face but his eyes, his expression determined, "The inner beauty speaks. The heart. And the soul. That's what makes you fall in love".

Virat stood up tensed as he saw Brihannala standing there without any fear and was also talking to the same person he was hiding from for an year, without any fear. "Brihannala.! Why are you here?", Uttar asked him while virat said calmly, "Brihannala, you shouldn't be here. Please leave".

Duryodhan and his gang scrutinized this weird transgender person, who looked oddly familiar, while he focused on the oh so arrogant commander, "Princess Tara wouldn't come here to the court. I came to say this. Only this. She doesn't want to come to court."

Duryodhan stood up fiercely, "Why not? Is she afraid that we will find out something that will blow her cover?", making Keechak turn his head towards him, "What? Cover? Prince Duryodhan?". Duryodhan looked at him and said, "I want to see how beautiful she is, If she even is as much as she is getting proclaimed by you", enraging Keechak.

"She is not a thing to exhibit Commander Keechak. Reminding you she is a respectful lady you are gonna marry." Arjun reminded him flaring in anger. There is no way his wife is going to get treated badly infront of him again.

Keechak seemed to get some sense into his head and turned towards Brihannala, "Then go, and ask her to cover her face with her pallu and fetch her". Arjun widened his eyes in anger and shouted, "Not happening!".

While duryodhan and the gang were watching the drama happening, Karn couldn't help but notice brihannala's eyes, he couldn't pinpoint where he saw them. Arjun looked at Karn momentarily but turned away from him hesitantly before leaving.

"Wait. You!", Karn stopped him making arjun stop in his tracks. "Turn around", Karn ordered him, but arjun didn't turn back and looked at Virat. "This isn't your court to give out orders Angraj", Virat announced out loud making duryodhan hiss at him.

"Maharaj, you can't disrespect my friend like that!", he stepped forward, with Virat retorting back, "You don't get to disrespect my court either!", while Keechak interrupted, "Prince Duryodhan, don't worry. You want him to turn around right? I'll make him do that. Brihannala, turn and show your face".

Arjun didn't turn around yet, which made Keechak growl, "You bloody eunuch! Turn! Or I'll have you exterminated this moment!". Arjun closed his eyes, controlling his emotions and was about to turn around and show his face, but a hand stopped him from doing that, holding his shoulders.

"He won't turn around. He will not.", she looked at Arjun and nodded in affirmation, before sweetly smiling at Keechak, "It's a disrespect to the court to show the face of an eunuch. Isn't it darling?", her honey filled voice filled in the courtroom, making everyone go into her trance along with Keechak to lose his last restraints of common sense, and make a certain hard headed prince of Hastinapur's heart to skip a beat.

There stood the princess of Matsya, her short wavy hair flowing like the waves in the river, and her green eyes glowing like an emerald stone. And her aura dominating anyone that is standing in the way of hers. Anyone who looks at her would fall in love with the emanation of her presence, and duryodhan couldn't point what was wrong with him.

Vaishnavi was hoping that her powers didn't really come back, as duryodhan might find out who she is if she did. She looked at duryodhan who was looking at her a little shocked but shaking his head towards Shakuni, "It's not her mamashree! It's not my Vaishnavi."

She gulped a little and looked at Keechak. "Darling, what's the issue here?", she tentatively held out hand towards him, hoping not to blast him if the powers come back. Keechak smiled and pulled her towards him, sliding his hand around her waist. She closed her eyes in irritation but smiled through her gritted teeth, and at that moment of anger, she wished for nothing more than to get her powers back. Arjun huffed in suppressed anger, and swore to his mahadev that if Keechak didn't die that very day, he would face death by Arjun's hands.

"You just called me darling, Tara! You just called me-", he got cut off by an irritated Karn, "listen you guys, we only have three days, to find those cowardly idiots, and their wives! Just push away this creepy romance and get into work already?".

Keechak ignored him and continued looking at her, "they are uttering nonsense, Tara. They are telling me that you are that Vaishnavi girl or something! Absurd right?", while she just nodded with a sheepish smile. "Yes! If I was her, you can't even touch me right? She holds some immense power where no one can touch her or something?", she said scratching her head.

Karn interrupted her smirking, "Well princess, she must be using her curse then.", making duryodhan turn his head towards Karn, "Mitr?". Karn nodded and smiled before saying, "Yes Duryodhan, the woman you love is a clever woman, and we don't trust clever women. Her curse, which guru dron gave her, that she will be unrecognisable, she must be using it to hide her identity."

Duryodhan contemplated by looking at vaishnavi with a skeptical look. "Yes mitr, my heart is telling that it's vaishnavi, but, i can't seem to recognise this girl! How-", he turned towards Keechak, who was busy admiring his would be. Duryodhan cleared his throat in frustration and brought Keechak back to reality, "Yes?".

Duryodhan gritted his teeth, "Can you please move away from her? She might be my love!", he snarled. Keechak raised an eyebrow and pulled her closer, "My fiancé, my wish." There was basically a silent respectful verbal fight going on in the court but all vaishnavi could think about was not to get her powers at that moment, to not get caught, and at the same time to get the powers back immediately right then and there, to annihilate Keechak for the way he was gripping her.

Duryodhan ran out of patience and said, "Fine! Do one thing! Bring all those people who entered your kingdom only in the past one year. Present them in front of me. Everyone, i mean everyone, will pass my check. Then I'll agree that princess Tara is not my Vaishnavi.", Making everyone go wide eyed. Keechak agreed almost instantly, to prove his point.

Vaishnavi and virat shared a look, while duryodhan smirked looking at her and said sinisterly, "What happened, princess?", and chuckled lowly, much to the sweat mania for vaishnavi.

"You entered this kingdom too, last year, right?".

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Hola guys! How have you been doing? My life is going shit, but I've seen worse lol. Now it's going a little better much to my surprise haha. There has been a location change for me guys, making me ever more busy than ever, and the updates were kept on still. We are still settling down, as changing from one state to other is really stressful.

Anyways, how was the chapter guys? Please vote and comment.