A String Of Pearls

Settling in

"That is faith in my Kavach and Kundals, not in my strength."

Duryodhan raised his hands in surrender. "Fine. I was wrong. I made a mistake. My judgement of your strength was incorrect."

Somehow, Bhanumati did not think that was something he said very often.

The King of Anga looked satisfied now. "You thought I couldn't defeat him, but I wiped the floor with him. And he gifted me a city and the promise to not terrorise the borders of Hastinapur and Anga in return for me sparing his life."

Wow, Bhanumati had not expected that. Clearly the King of Anga was even more powerful than she had been led to believe. And Jarasandh promising to stop terrorising the borders of its long time enemy Hastinapur? That was... truly something else. How had the King of Anga even almost killed him? Wasn't Jarasandh supposed to be impossible to kill?

"I genuinely did not know you were this strong, physically." Duryodhan said. "Now you cannot get out of practicing wrestling and mace fighting with me."

The King of Anga groaned. "Just because I'm strong doesn't mean I like wrestling. And why mace fighting? Why do I need to do that? Archery is far superior."

Duryodhan got all puffed up and clearly this would be the beginning of an argument so Bhanumati interrupted.

"Congratulations Angaraj! How did you defeat Jarasandha?"

The two of them turned to her, once again only just realising she was there. She however, now found it hilarious instead of offensive, especially since she had been told by Dussashan earlier that whenever Duryodhan and The King of Anga were in each other's orbit, they seemed to forget that anyone else existed half the time.

"Oh hello Princess!" The King of Anga greeted. "Well. He is called Jarasandh- 'joined by Jara'. We all know that he was born in two halves to his two mothers and then brought to life by the Rakshasi Jara, who joined him. So I supposed that the only way to kill him would be tearing him apart. Might as well have thrown his pieces in the opposite directions for extra precaution." He added the last part jokingly, as if tearing someone in two was remotely funny. For some reason, it did seem kind of funny. So she smiled.

"But, you said that he gifted you a city so he can't be dead, right?"

"No, no I didn't kill him. I told him exactly what I was going to do and then I was about to tear him apart and then he surrendered and begged me to spare his life. So I suppose I must have hit the nail on the head about how to kill him."

"Or maybe," Duryodhan said, "He simply did not want to be torn apart, like any normal person."

Karna stared at him. "That's what I said."

"No you didn't, you-- You know what. I don't even know anymore. Who is saying what." Her husband shook his head. "In any case its not important."

"What are you going to name the city?" Bhanumati asked the King of Anga.

"Hmmm." Angaraj frowned. "It's called Malinipuri. I could just keep it that."

"No." Duryodhan immediately protested. "It was Malinipuri when it was part of Magadh. Now it's your city. A city of Anga. You must rename it."

"Ah, I'm not good with names...." The King of Anga said. Duryodhan snorted for some reason.

"That's true." He agreed and the King of Anga grumbled under his breath.

"Why don't you give us a name, my dear?" Duryodhan asked her.

She raised her hands. "I'm not good with names either."