If there was one lesson Rhea had learned in Hastinapura, it was this—nothing truly disappears.

Secrets could be hidden. Names could be erased. But history had a way of lingering, whispering from the cracks, waiting to be found.

And Rhea had just found something she wasn't supposed to.

It had started as a mistake.

She hadn't been searching for anything dangerous. She hadn't meant to uncover a mystery. She had only wanted to pass through the archives unnoticed, as she always did.

But fate had a way of leading her where she didn't belong.

A misplaced scroll. An unfamiliar name. A record that should not have existed.

At first, it had meant nothing. Just a list of royal lineages, scribbled in ink that had faded with time.

But then she had seen it.

A name scratched out so violently that only faint traces of the ink remained.

Someone had erased it.

Someone had wanted it forgotten.

And in Hastinapura, that meant it was something worth remembering.

Rhea wasn't a fool.

She knew that curiosity in a palace like this was dangerous.

She knew that people who asked the wrong questions had a habit of disappearing.

So she had done the smart thing—she had closed the scroll, placed it back where she found it, and left.

She had told herself she wouldn't think about it again.

But the name—the one she couldn't quite make out—haunted her.

It lingered in the back of her mind, pressing against her thoughts, demanding to be understood.

She tried to ignore it.

She failed.

She spent the next few days pretending nothing had changed.

She went about her duties. She kept her head down. She acted as if she hadn't seen anything at all.

But someone must have noticed.

Because suddenly, people were watching her.

Not just the servants, who always whispered behind her back. Not just the guards, who had always looked at her with quiet suspicion.

No. It was the important ones.

Bhishma. Vidura. Shakuni.

They weren't obvious about it. They never were.

But she could feel it—their lingering gazes, the way conversations would stop when she entered a room, the quiet tension in the air whenever she was near.

Had they always watched her this closely?

Or had she drawn their attention the moment she laid eyes on that name?

The realization hit her late at night, when the palace was silent.

She wasn't the one searching anymore.

Now, she was the one being watched.

She sat in the dim glow of an oil lamp, staring at her reflection in the polished metal of a water bowl.

She had spent years perfecting invisibility.

And yet, somehow, she had failed.

Somehow, she had made someone very aware of her presence.

And that meant she had a choice.

Walk away from the truth. Forget what she had seen. Disappear back into the shadows.

Or—

Find out what had been erased from history.

Rhea exhaled slowly.

She already knew what she was going to do.

Author's Note:

Welp, Rhea. You had one job—stay unnoticed. 😏

But nooo, you just had to stumble into a secret that someone clearly didn't want found.

👀 Who was the erased heir? 👀 Why is Bhishma, Vidura, and Shakuni suddenly paying attention? 👀 And what happens to people who uncover things they shouldn't?

Next chapter: Rhea's first real mistake. 🔥