Kush was familiar with the sweet yet commanding voice so he stopped his foot midway stomping Setu. He turned to look into the crowd and saw the beautiful saree draped medium height body make her way across the crowd to where he was. The crowd parted for and her entourage of three people, as if she was hot knife making her way through butter. Kush saw the tense expressions of people easing up on her arrival, as if her presence would make this problem go away. Setu too had widened eyes on seeing her, he had specifically planned everything when she was away and used such a brute force approach to evict Mukesh and his gang in a short duration. He tried to slip from under Kush’s foot but it was like rat pushing a mountain, Kush’s foot didn’t even budge.

Ramya, the chief medic of the port section on reaching Kush ordered him “Leave him now!!”

Kush was surprised by her and was going to reveal his identity to her when she said “Mr. savior; thank you for your rescue during the port incident and in today’s matter as well, but any further and it will jeopardize our trial against him. Please leave this matter to us”

Kush did not understand the situation; he could see the crowd surrounding him had respect in their eyes when they saw her. While he was in his reverie Ramya cleared her throat “Cough” and Kush lifted his foot of Setu, letting him scurry out of the way.

Setu “Heave… heave… heave…” heaved a few times before getting his breathing back to normal, one of his leg was shattered beyond repair, he would need a high level elixir to repair it which people at his level did not have access to, his days of rising up the food chain were now done for, nobody would follow a limping leader, the Tyrese would sooner abandon him for his lack of strength than give him the elixir. He grit his teeth in anger, he couldn’t do anything to the perpetrator of his condition but other people were still fair game for him.

Ramya then commanded a person from her entourage “shackle him and those foreigners to the storage room, a crime as big as this will be dealt with swiftly”

Elation spread through every resident of the settlement on hearing those words come out of her mouth.

The bodyguards were unconscious thanks to Kush, but Setu barked at Ramya shouting “Stay in your limits you bitch, who gave you the right to imprison me? Don’t forget I am your superior”

Ramya with a somber expression looked at the man as he stopped what he was about to say next. She was an uncrowned queen of the settlement, an unelected leader of the port workers, she had the ear of the president of the port and was the mouth for all port workers. She was the most influential lady in the port making her one of the most influential person in Thar. Though the port was old and one of the largest, they never had a docent level medic as their chief owing to the fact that healing karmic powers were rare reaching docent level powers, searching for one was like looking for a coin at the bottom of the seabed.

Ramya worked at a very nominal fee for a chief medic and treated everybody in the port fairly, a lot of people in the port owed her their life. The dignity with which she carried herself and the debt of gratitude from the people made her words the verdict when settling disputes, no body charged her for goods or services in the settlement, she was involved in all major port decision making process. Crossing her was a mistake nobody in the office dared to do. This newbie pipsqueak from Tyrese clan was just a rat she could squeeze under her foot and no one would bat an eye, but she still followed protocol and called for an external settlement from the port authority.

The person from her entourage was not with the police department of Thar and was an ordinary medical student but no one objected when he put shackles on Setu’s wrist and used it to carry Setu’s battered body to the storage room where he would wait for his verdict.

Ramya then turned towards Kush and ordered “Follow me” which Kush complied without objections. They entered her house, which was the same size as Arul’s showing she never took undue advantage of her position in the settlement.

“I am sorry for treating you like this Kush, but as you can see I have to maintain a certain persona when in the port” she said as they moved in her house, she seated him on the couch and proceeded to move the hoody of his cloak off of his face. She then removed his entire cloak till he was bare chested and sat next him on the couch, she used a wet cloth to clean blood and tissue from his skin, it seemed like he wasn’t injured in the process. Kush knew she was only nice to him cause he was the hero of Bhasmachal and he didn’t mind being taken care of by a beautiful woman.

Once she was done Kush inquired, “I am heading towards Kashi, can you point me the way?”

She replied “If you want I can arrange transport for you till there”

“Nah… I am ok, there’s a personal reason why I want to walk their” he said without talking about his training regimen. He started realizing people looked at him funny when he said about the odd things about his training.

Ramya too didn’t probe further and just said if you follow the route down exit 169 of the port and follow out straight, you will find the southern exit out of Thar and then you can ask for further directions. She then placed her hand on his bare shoulders and said “Is there anything you need from me; you need not hesitate, you don’t know how much gratitude we… I owe you”

Kush just smiled and said “Thank you for your kind gratitude, but I have a long road ahead of me and what I did, I did it for a friend of mine, who owes me nothing as well”

Saying so Kush got off from his seat and put on the still intact but bloodied cloak once again, as he stepped out of her house, she followed him outside unadorned and simple but beautiful to a fault. It had turned windy since he decided to leave the fight at the square earlier in the day, so much that it blew a paper pamphlet right to his face “crunch”. Kush grabbed the pamphlet he thought was litter and was about to throw it in the bin away when he saw a familiar photo… the photo of the person he was missing a lot… it was Tara. The pamphlet seemed a few weeks old, from before he had stepped foot on the beach of the Bhasmachal. Looking closely, he realized it was a public invitation to the wedding ceremony… the wedding of Tara…

Kush was speechless for a moment… he knew Tara for only a couple of weeks so this news shouldn’t have been a big deal for him… but… but……. It was… it was a big deal for him… he didn’t want this to happen…

His memory flashed back to her beautiful eyes when she looked at him, her lips when she kissed him passionately, the feel of her ass is his hands, the feel of her thighs straddling him, the wet ness of her pussy, the feeling of her supple skin against his body…

He couldn’t let go of her… not without a final word atleast. He didn’t consider himself to be important enough to break off her marriage, but he just wanted to see her once… once more…

Ramya noticed his reaction to the pamphlet and remembered his inquiry regarding the queen of the Marwaris. She said unprompted, “She is going to get married to the son of head of the Tyrese family, Jakob Tyrese. Some believe this to be a political marriage of sorts, which the queen took upon herself though details of the arrangement have not been made public”

Kush was not keen on knowing the reason behind the marriage nor who she was marrying, he just wanted to meet her so he said “Hey Ramya, can you tell me where the marriage will be and point me in that direction?”

Ramya was surprised by the question, “do you intend to walk there? The marriage is in a 11 days”

Kush nodded. She turned her head from side to side and let a sigh out. She told him the general direction to reach the nearest town and advised to just move city to city till he reached Udaipur. She even warned him of the perils to walking in the desert. The loose soil, the dangerous animals, the cold night and the bandits.

Kush thanked her for the warning and made his way out of the port settlement. Arun and Ramya saw him off as he left the settlement premises.

Arun said to Ramya “You think we will hear about him again?”

“I am pretty sure, he is going to create an upheaval again”