Epilogue

4 years ago

proteeti

@sambhavami

The doors of hell flew open. A scintillating glare of the normal world blinded us momentarily.

Fear struck first. The opening of this door had never boded well. Some of us instinctively shielded the new ones, who cowered behind us wishing perhaps to become one with the soot-stained walls that kept us in.

Then we were stunned. We saw a man who wasn’t our captor. The man smiled.

"Got 'em!" He exclaimed to someone standing outside (maybe?), and then rushed in.

He bent down beside each of us, wiping our tears and offering words of comfort. His body was streaked with blood. He looked like he had been injured in a recent battle. He also walked with some difficulty, but that didn't seem to stop him from consoling us.

We made him recount again and again how he and his divine wife had fought and killed our tormentor- Naraka. We did not believe him the first time he told the story. After all, the demon had many tricks up his sleeve- maybe this was another attempt at torturing us?!

Then the tears rolled down. Finally, after all these years we were free! No more were we slaves to a heinous demon. Some of us- we went and fell at his feet, cried in his arms. Some of us went to touch the feet of his wife, who stood at the gate- her long dark hair flowing in the wind, her sword unsheathed: a true goddess in human form. They spoke in hushed tones to all of us, reassuring us of our freedom.

Slowly, as we returned to our senses, reality struck. How could we ever show our faces to the world? Maligned by the cruel demon, we could no longer return to our homes. No one would accept us. We cried at his feet. Some of us even berated him for rescuing us, and not just burning us with this cursed prison!

Such was the cruelty of fate! We shook him and shrieked at him, begging for answers. Why did he have to free us only to condemn us to spend our lives as outcasts, rejected by our kith and kin?

He listened silently to all our admonitions. It didn't seem to offend him that we accused him unfairly, simply because he happened to be the one in front of us. Maybe he understood, and he calmly accepted all harsh words thrown his way.

He seemed to know since our tormentor was dead, we were now unable to confront him with our gripes in this life at least. So he allowed us one last chance to air our complaints freely before we faced our society shrouding the shrieks in our hearts in the pall of heroic suffering. Finally, he stood up in the middle of the dungeon, with his wife at his side. He declared, “If no other man accepts you, I will. You shall become my queens, equal in stature and alike in respect. You are all free to leave, walk out of this prison and find your own path. Or, you can follow me to my home. To Dwarika, the city of gold. It will have a place for each and every one of you. A life of happiness, peace and dignity, that is my promise to you! But let me make one thing very clear, ladies. Not another single soul dies here, in this battle, on my watch!”

We were afraid no longer, for the Lord of the universe himself had decided our worth.