: A Broken Melody
The official reason was a discussion on "strengthening cross-border security protocols in the wake of the Mayapuri threat." The scroll, bearing the Suryapuri seal, was formal and precise. But everyone in the Chandrapuri court, from the Maharaja to the lowliest scribe, knew the truth. Prince Aaditya was there for one reason only: Devansh.
The diplomatic meeting was a hollow pantomime. Aaditya sat through it, his posture regal, his responses to the Chandrapuri ministers sharp and intelligent. But his fiery crimson eyes kept drifting towards the empty space beside the Moon Throne where the Melody Prince should have been. Devansh had not even bothered to attend.
"He is... indisposed," Maharaja Rohit had said, his voice laced with an apology he shouldn't have had to make. "The journey, the ordeal... it has taken a toll."
Aaditya merely nodded, the knot in his stomach tightening. Indisposed. The word felt like a betrayal. After the stilted meeting concluded, he didn't wait for an escort. He knew the palace of Chandrapuri almost as well as his own. His feet, driven by a desperate, aching need, carried him to the one place he was sure to find Devansh—the Music Garden.
It was a secluded sanctuary, a place where Devansh's soul had always felt most at home. Cascading jasmine flowers perfumed the air, and a gentle stream whispered secrets as it wound through beds of luminous night-blooming flowers. And there, in the heart of it all, on a marble bench under the ancient banyan tree, sat Devansh.
Vani was in his lap. His fingers were on the strings. But the sight brought Aaditya no relief.
Devansh was playing. But it wasn't music. It was a dissection. The notes that emerged were technically flawless, each pitch perfect, each transition precise. But they were sterile. Hollow. A beautiful corpse of a melody. The soul that used to pour from his fingertips, the emotion that could make the flowers bloom and the stream dance, was utterly absent. It was the sound of a master craftsman building a perfect, empty shell.
Aaditya's heart clenched. He stood hidden in the archway for a long moment, watching, his hope crumbling to dust. Then, taking a deep, steadying breath, he stepped forward. In his hand, he clutched the reason for his unofficial visit—the slender, beautifully crafted bamboo flute he had gifted Devansh at the Surya Mela, the "sun to accompany his moon."
"Dev?" he called softly, not wanting to startle him.
He did more than startle him.
Devansh's head snapped up. His fingers, which had been moving with cold precision, slipped violently.
TWAAAANG-N-N-G!
A sound erupted from Vani that was the absolute antithesis of music. It was a jarring, metallic shriek of pure dissonance, a sound that clawed at the ears and grated on the soul. The jasmine flowers seemed to recoil. The gentle whisper of the stream faltered.
And in that moment, as the discordant note faded, Aaditya saw it. A flicker, not of surprise or annoyance, but of something else in Devansh's eyes. A flash of raw, red energy, like lightning in a storm cloud, vivid and terrifying. It was there and gone, but it burned itself into Aaditya's memory.
The expression that followed was worse. All traces of the friend, the confidant, the other half of his soul, were gone. Replaced by a glare of pure, unadulterated irritation.
"You," Devansh spat, his voice low and venomous. "You distracted me."
The words were simple. But they were a dagger, plunged straight into Aaditya's heart. You distracted me. Not a greeting. Not a question of his well-being. An accusation. As if Aaditya's very presence was an inconvenience, a flaw in his sterile practice.
The unfairness of it stole Aaditya's breath. He had crossed kingdoms, his own heart heavy with the burdens of a nearly-lost father and a recovering kingdom, fueled only by the need to see if he was alright. And this was his welcome.
"I... I just wanted to see you," Aaditya managed, his voice thick with hurt he couldn't conceal. He took another step forward, his hand tightening around the flute. "I brought this. I thought... maybe we could..."
His words trailed off as Devansh's gaze dropped to the flute in Aaditya's hand. For a single, heart-stopping second, Aaditya saw it—a flicker of recognition. A struggle. Devansh's eyes widened slightly, the hard lines of his face softening for a fleeting moment as if trying to grasp a fading dream. He saw the memory—the festival, the firelights, the smile, the promise.
But then, it was crushed. The red energy Aaditya had glimpsed moments before seemed to surge from within, overwhelming the flicker of memory. Devansh's face contorted into a snarl of frustration.
"Take that away," he hissed, his voice trembling with a rage that seemed to suck the warmth from the garden. "I have no use for such trivialities."
And before Aaditya could react, Devansh's hand shot out and smacked the flute from his grasp.
The beautiful, dark bamboo flute, inlaid with a single piece of amber, clattered onto the marble pathway with a series of small, pathetic clicks. It rolled and came to a stop against the root of the banyan tree, lying there, abandoned and broken not in body, but in spirit.
Aaditya stared at the fallen flute, then back at Devansh's cold, unrecognizable face. The hairline fracture in their trust didn't just widen; it shattered into a thousand pieces. The love, the shared battles, the silent understandings—it all felt like a lie.
Without another word, his own eyes burning with a pain too profound for tears, Aaditya turned. He didn't pick up the flute. He left it there, a monument to their broken harmony. He walked away from the garden, from the hollow music, from the friend who was no longer there.
Devansh watched him go, his chest heaving. He looked down at his own hands, then at Vani, as if surprised by his own actions. But the moment of confusion passed, quickly buried under the cold, red haze that was steadily becoming his new normal. He placed his fingers back on the strings and resumed his sterile, soulless practice, the ghost of a forgotten melody the only thing haunting the garden.