Faces in the sand...

I'd like to thank the following reviewers…

Lady Seiryuu: Thanks for the review and here is your update. Hope you like it.

A.N.: This is an alternate universe fiction. I have merely shifted Hotohori's age by three years. So…he was twenty two when he died as opposed to the original nineteen.

Magadha was indeed a real place in ancient India where the people were really advanced in everything they did and they did have a good connection with the Orient, since there was a lot of migration between the Buddhist/Hindu Magadha and China. The great king, Ashoka who spread Buddhism all over India, was a king of this country. Lively accounts of Pātaliputra (the famous capital city of the kingdom of Magadha) and Magadha are available in the Indica of Megasthenes (c. 300 BC) and in the travel diaries of the Chinese Buddhist pilgrims Fa-hsien and Hsüan-tsang (4th–5th and 7th centuries AD).

Disclaimer: I don't own Fushigi Yuugi. And Magadha belongs to the rich heritage of India.

Now on with the story...

Chapter I:

"Adithi, the princess demands your presence." I looked down at the floor as I meekly nodded my head. I was after all, only a hand-maid. I looked up at my uncle. The senior most of all servants in the palace, he enjoyed certain privileges.

"But…I do not know anything about this place. How shall I-" my uncle frowned at me and I stopped mid-sentence.

"This was a direct order from the princess. And we do not disobey such orders, Adithi. I thought you knew better." I fell silent.

"Yes, uncle. I understand." I looked up at my uncle to find him smiling at me. I looked at him surprised. Indeed! Here I was on the verge of tears and he was laughing at me!

At nineteen, I was one of the oldest hand-maids of the princess. And hence it was mandatory that I go wherever the royal one went. It was indeed strange that she was going some place as far as the Orient. It was to a country named Khonan. We would probably travel for weeks…months even…before we reach that place! Then…there was the country itself. I hardly knew what existed beyond the countries that neighbored our Magadha. I was a little scared at the idea of having to travel so far away!

"You shall be safe under the patronage of Sātviki." I smiled relieved as I thought of the elderly woman who was also a servant…but of the queen.

"Is the queen also coming?" I asked, my curiosity not withholding. My uncle smiled as he shook his head.

"She shall not come to Khonan but I believe she will travel some distance into the journey. But Sātviki shall travel with you, all the way and back." I could not keep the glee out of my voice as I bowed before my uncle.

"I shall get ready then." He smiled as he nodded his head. My mother had died when I was merely a child and it had been Sātviki who had reared me like her own child. She did have a son of her own…a boy a year older than me and a very handsome one at that! He worked in the stables of the king and I knew he liked me a lot. Vishaka was his name. I walked back to my room, eager to get ready. If I was with Sātviki, I could never be in danger.

I was about to walk into my room when I heard somebody call my name. I turned around to find a young man of twenty, stand there in the garbs of a stable hand. He was Vishaka, my friend. He smiled at me as he walked to me.

"I heard the news that you were going to Khonan. It surprised me!" I looked at him with a frown.

"And why would that be?" he smirked as he turned around, his face away from me.

"I thought you would never leave this place! But I reckoned wrong! You are adventurous." I glared at him. He found it funny to mock me so!

"And I am yet to find another person as rude as you!" I walked past him, intending to go away…when he caught my arm and twisted me around, to face him. I looked down, not looking up into his eyes.

"I am sorry I hurt you so, my dear." I smiled at his tone. It was soft and gentle. I looked up at him…he had the most beautiful eyes I had ever seen…the colour of the darkest wood…yet the sparkle they held were almost magical.

"Adithi! Where are you?" I started as I freed myself from his grasp and turned towards the end of the corridor where Sātviki stood; she held a heap of clothing that needed to be packed. I gave Vishaka a fleeting smile as I ran towards his mother.

"There you are! Here – these clothes are for you. You are to be the main maid of the princess. Isn't that wonderful?" I smiled. This meant that I would get really wonderful clothes to wear. I would accept that they would not be as good and wonderful as the ones the princess wears. Then again…I was merely a hand maid. I collected the clothing from her and walked back to my room, expecting to find Vishaka waiting for me. But the room was empty.

I sighed as I slowly started packing for the trip. I wouldn't be back for a long while.

I felt the sun shine down with no mercy. It had been a month into our journey already and we were almost there. We had crossed glades of beauty unsurpassed and deserts where the hottest and the coldest climes clashed one against another. I was happy…my uncle though had decided to stay back in Magadha; I was with Sātviki and Vishaka, both of whom cared for me endlessly.

"You had better get into the caravan, Adithi. The sun shall get hotter." I looked at Vishaka who was the charioteer for the princess' caravan. Being the chief hand-maid of the royal one, I had a caravan to myself, which followed Vishaka. I was indeed bored to death and hence, had alighted from my caravan for a stroll. The caravans moved with a slow pace, so that the horses were never tired and so, I could very well keep up with the strides of my friend's four legged companions.

"You worry too much, Vishaka. I shall not faint away, you know!" he smiled as he shook his head. We walked side by side…both of us silent and the crowd around us passing around us…

"Adithi." I looked at him…his eyes were looking at nothing but me. I smiled automatically though I felt a weird feeling near my navel.

"I am so glad you came." I smiled as I nodded my head. We had always been the best of friends. The gods had definitely blessed him with looks worth swooning over and though he was a simple servant in the stables, he was one in the favor of the king for his unsurpassed skill with the horses he handled. He was so much into the confidence of the royal household that they trusted their princess' caravan with him. And I was another servant who held a position of respect with the royal ones. I was indeed a good friend of the princess. Shwetha was her name. It meant one who is fair and it did suit her very well! She held no airs that she was a princess and expected none from me on the account of me being a simple hand-maid.

"Adithi! Can you come in? I feel so bored! This journey seems to take forever!"

I turned around to find the round and beautiful face of our princess beaming down on us, from inside the caravan. I smiled as I turned around to get into the caravan. It had indeed been a month but I did not feel the boredom creep towards me as I, a traveler new to this road, found each and every small thing a thing of fascination. I stepped into the slow caravan and found myself staring into a palace on wheels. There was everything that would make journey a luxurious affair. I seated myself on one of the cushions on the caravan floor as my princess sat on the high end chair above me.

She was clothed in the attire of our kingdom…a skirt that looked like a sarong tied around her slim waist and her bosom hidden beneath another piece of attire that left her fair shoulders bare. I was clothed in the selfsame fashion, the only difference being that the single dress she wore would probably be more expensive than my entire wardrobe put together. Her raven black hair that swayed around her waist when unfurled now lay in intricate knots partially above her head and partially near her neck. The ornaments she wore shouted her position and status for all those who could see.

"Tell me Adithi, isn't this your first journey outside our kingdom?" she asked me as she looked out through the window to the endless dunes of sand and wilderness. I merely nodded my head. She turned back to look at me…her brown eyes mirroring my own.

"I would have been almost tempted to join you had the day not been so hot!" I smiled as I bowed my head.

"Do you know where we are going to?" I nodded my head again.

"Are we not traveling towards the land of Khonan that lies to the Far East, my lady?" she nodded her head as she turned back towards the window.

"My father hopes to forge an alliance with the emperor who rules Khonan. And that is why I am going there…to be a guest while the ministers talk. I wonder why I agreed to come in the first place." She smiled as she looked down into my eyes.

"Then again…traveling may help rejuvenate the soul." I smiled nodding. The princess was a very learned person. I could read but did not have the temperament to write like my princess. She was indeed wise beyond her age.

"When shall we cross the wilderness? I long to rest in one place."

"I understand." I said as I placed my hand over the soft one my princess had. She smiled as she turned to the window. Now the sun was slowly getting hotter and hotter.

"How I wish this journey to end!" I muttered, echoing my princess' opinions. Little did I know what lay ahead of this journey…events that would change my life… him.

"We welcome you to the land of Khonan." A wizened man bowed before the princess and our ministers. I stood meekly behind my princess, ready to attend to anything she might need.

"The emperor will meet you shortly." He bowed again and walked out of the corridor…leading us into a bigger room…one that looked like the court. There was a man who was seated on the throne atop a dais, but there was a veil that surrounded the throne like the veil my princess wore around her face. This man was probably very powerful! People weren't even allowed to see him directly! The princess and I had indeed indulged ourselves in imagining how the emperor would probably look like…an old man stooping into a hunch, perhaps! A man with no teeth probably! But when he spoke, it wasn't the voice of an old man! It sounded young and beautiful. I looked at the princess who was in turn standing there, staring at the form beyond the veil.

"We welcome you to our lands, Lady Shwetha." He pronounced her name as though it was child's play and it surprised me, for we had heard his ministers massacring our names when we first arrived. He then spoke to one of the ministers, for I saw the abstract form bend towards another man beside him. I looked down thinking this would seem too impudent from my part.

There was a flutter as the white gauzy veil was removed and we beheld Saihitei Seishuku – the emperor of Khonan.

The tale shall grow…

Author's Note:

Thus they meet…please review and tell me what you think of this story. I accept it is a little different, but this has been a thought that has been in my mind for a long time! I simply had to write it down!

And please review! A small review goes a long way…or so they say. J

- Anarya of Lorien.