“Now I request the lady of the house of Whites to grace us with the presence of your daughter.”

The announcement was made. Everyone inside the banquet hall was eager to see the young maiden. A few minutes passed by, but nobody came out, neither The Maiden nor her daughter came out. The mood in the room was slowly shifting from excitement to suspicion. The crowd started gossiping. Suddenly, a maid came out and rushed towards the Duke. As soon as she told him the bad news, his face went blank. He couldn’t think of anything. He immediately rushed inside and swiftly reached his daughter’s room. The room had no one inside but one, the Duchess. She was crying as she couldn’t muster the strength to look at his husband. A surprising relief shown on Michael’s face. He entered inside and closed the gates, “Have they left?” Emilia’s was shocked to hear his words, ‘They’. 

“Don’t worry, I knew about it way before you ever knew.”, Michael brushed his hand on her head.

“You used it again, didn’t you?”, Emilia asked with an angry look on her face.

“Yes, I did because Shilpi had lost her smile, and you wouldn’t tell me anything.”

“But the Supreme One-”

“The Supreme One doesn’t have a daughter. I have and these are my powers, I will use them anyhow I see fit.” Michael’s interrupted Shilpi with an aggressive tone.

The room went quiet for a few minutes. “Then why did you let it happen, why did you let me send her away, if I had known that you knew I wouldn’t have gone to such lengths to keep that secret.”, Shilpi asked as she broke down in tears, “Why didn’t you stop me from sending her away. Why Michael, tell me why?” Shilpi cried so loudly that her cries echoed through the hallway.

“Because I didn’t want her to suffer the same fate that I did. If today I let her in front of the world, they would immediately recognize how powerful she is. The demons have started to show up again, Emi. She would have got all eyes on her just because she is the child of Michael, the Telepath and Emilia, the eternal Maiden.” Both the Duke and the Duchess cried on each other's shoulders because of the pain of losing their only child, “I just didn’t want to lose my sweet innocent child to them.”

Michael knew where his daughter went. After all, he was the one who suggested the place to Caelus. Michael was the master strategist. Top make it even worse, he was capable of telepathy, therefore nobody could keep a secret from him. This was one of the biggest factors which made him the King’s most trusted subordinate. He knew that things won’t work out properly if he got involved, so he secretly conveyed his message to Caelus and told him to propose Aruna Kingdom to the duchess.

They both cried until their tears dried up.

“Let’s go, we need to show our faces, or they will be suspicious of our intentions.”, Michael got up.

The pair cleaned the tear marks on their faces and went out with a serious look on their face.

As soon as the audience left the Duke’s manor in disappointment, Titan and Emilia got mixed with them and exited the gates. Titan rode the carriage as fast as he could so that he could exit the kingdom as soon as he can. It took them ten days and nine nights to reach the kingdom of Aruna. The pair made stops whenever necessary to buy food, water, and also to relax the horses, but they never made a stop for more than an hour. Titan continuously rode the carriage without sleeping, even at night. He had to do so, because he risked getting caught if he camped anywhere.

The carriage arrived at Seemapur in the morning of the tenth day. Titan asked the villagers around about his relatives. After receiving the guidance from the villagers, they reached their kin’s houses. With their help, Titan was able to secure a decent place to live. The house wasn’t very large, but it was comfortable enough for a couple to live in. Both of them were satisfied with the living conditions. Titan and Shilpi weren’t married yet, so, they went and got the ritual done inside a small temple with the help of a priest. Now they were officially each other’s partners in crime. Both of them were happy as they settled down in the village and started living life as commoners. Titan changed his name to Shashi so that he could better fit in with the Kingdom’s natives. He also joined the village traders’ guild so that he could make use of his skills and earn a living. With time, they both learned to converse in the local dialect, so it became almost impossible to separate from the locals. Things were working out good for them. Two years passed, finally celebrations knocked at their door.

“We are going to become parents soon, Honey.”, Shilpi whispered in Titan’s ears. Titan got goosebumps as soon as he heard the news. He lifted Shilpi in joy and swung her around, “You can’t even begin to guess how happy I am right now. Thank you, thank you, thank you very much. I am so grateful to you for this news. I am so happy right now, it feels like my blood is going to burst out of my veins.”

“I know, I got to know about it when I went to the doctor for the health checkup yesterday. He told me. He said, it should be out in approximately eight months.”, Shilpi informed Titan as he put her down. Titan enclosed Shilpi in his arms with love.

Months passed, Titan started helping Shilpi out in house chores before he went to work, just so that she doesn’t stress her body. At times, they would tear up just by remembering how happy their parents would be having known that they were going to be grandparents. But they consoled themselves by the fact that they will eventually have to send it to them, so that would probably suffice it.

The wait was over, Shilpi gave birth to a baby girl. “Heena, my baby girl, would be known to the world as Heena.”, were Titan’s first words as he lifted her for the first time. “I never said this to you, love. But my little one, I promise Daddy will kill for you and die for you.” He never knew this much joy. He didn’t go to work for more than a month so that he could cater the mother and child.

As soon as Shilpi was capable of taking care of the child, she forced him to go to work. He didn’t want to, but he couldn’t say no to her persuasion. They started spending their life just like any other happy couple. They went out on holidays, played with their daughter, made love and enjoy as much as possible.

Eight months passed in a flash.

One winter evening, the new moon had caused the sky to go dark. Titan was hastening towards his house from work. He didn’t notice anything unusual with the surroundings, but something was fallowing him in the dark. He reached his home and entered casually. Heena came out crawling on her knees to welcome her father. She had recently started crawling and could barely speak any words. The only thing she could get out of her tender little mouth was ‘Maa’.

Titan happily picked her up and called out, “I am home.” As soon as he closed the door and walked inside, a sudden quake shook the house.