Joining his hands together, Jishnu stammered in a trembling voice, "Ah, Snigdha! What is this? Why are you beating me like this? It hurt me very bad! Stop, I say... put the stick down! Please don't hit me anymore! It was my mistake, Father! I will never utter a single bad word about you or your lineage ever again in my life!"
Thumping the stick onto the floor, Snigdha snapped, "Exactly! It will be much healthier for you if you never speak a word about me!"
Then, Snigdha grabbed the sleeve of Jishnu's shirt and gave it a violent, forceful jerk! With a fiendish laugh, she said, "Come along! Let me take you to see that devilish, wretched Prabha's prisoner mother, Sushila, with your own eyes! Come, let's go to the dungeon!"
Seeing Snigdha's unexpected madness and her dragging Jishnu toward the dark dungeon of the royal palace, Queen Arohi, King Aditya, Prince Prafulla, and Prabhasa shuddered in absolute terror!
Aditya and Arohi rushed frantically after Snigdha, shouting, "Don't go there, Snigdha! Don't go down there! Why are you stirring up trouble all over again? Going down there will only spark another massive scandal and bloodshed! Stop right now!"
But Snigdha did not listen to anyone's desperate prohibitions! Dragging Jishnu along, she went straight down into the terrifying, silent, and damp dark dungeon beneath the royal palace. Left with no other choice, Prafulla, Prabhasa, Aditya, and Arohi hurried behind them and gathered inside the dungeon.
The dungeon was plunged into pitch-black darkness all around. Standing in a corner of that darkness, that evil tantrik was whispering softly with his guard.
Suddenly hearing the sound of many people descending the stairs together, the tantrik whispered from within the darkness in a strange, piercing, and melodious voice, "What is going on? Who are all these people coming down here? I can't see their faces in the dark! Why has such a crowd come down here?"
Hearing that strange, effeminate, and womanly voice of the tantrik, Jishnu grew terribly frightened in the dark!
Bringing his mouth close to Snigdha's ear, Jishnu whispered loudly, "Good lord! Snigdha... is there a woman or a man inside? Who is calling out in such a womanly voice?"
The moment Jishnu's loud words reached the tantrik's ears, the ferocious, fiendish nature within the tantrik awakened!
Roaring furiously, the tantrik screamed, "What did you say, you bastard? Who spoke those words? Who called me a 'woman'?"
Like a lunatic, the tantrik rushed forward and grabbed the strong iron bars of his cell, shaking them violently—"Clatter... smash!"
Banging his head furiously against the iron bars, he screamed, "Which insolent man called me a woman? I am a completely chaste, devout, and devoted woman! How dare you possess the audacity to call me a woman, you child of a devil?"
Seeing the tantrik's manic rampage, the former Queen Sushila also woke up from her sleep, peeking her face out through the gaps in the iron bars to see what was happening.
At that exact moment, King Aditya used his torch to ignite the flame in the wall sconce! The moment the torch flared, the entire dark dungeon instantly illuminated in a reddish glow!
The moment Sushila saw King Aditya and Queen Arohi standing nearby in the torchlight, she shrieked in fiendish delight!
Clutching the iron bars, Sushila screamed, "So you've come back? You devil of a woman, Arohi! How long it's been since I last saw you! Oh, Aditya... my love! For how many years have I been sitting here all alone in this dark dungeon for you, tell me? Have you finally come? Well, never mind... I have no attachment or love left for you! Go do whatever you please! Oh, Prabha... my sweet daughter Prabha! Have you come, child? How long it has been since I saw you with my own eyes, my child!"
Hearing such dramatic and incoherent rambling from Sushila inside the cell, the zamindar's son Jishnu could not figure out whether to laugh or cry! He stood there with his mouth agape, placing a hand on his forehead.
Jishnu muttered to himself, "Good lord, good lord! What kind of circus is going on here? The entire family has come down to the dungeon for a picnic! Anyway... so this woman is Prabha's actual birth mother, Sushila!"
Pinching Prabha's cheeks tightly with her curved nails, Snigdha sneered, "Yes, yes! This imprisoned witch is Prabha's birth mother! This devilish child Prabha's real mother is none other than Sushila!"
At that very moment, the torchlight fell upon the face of the tantrik in the cell next to Sushila's. The tantrik was adorned in a splendid silk ghaghra, vermilion on his forehead, and conch-shell bangles on his wrists!
Shocked by the tantrik's facial structure and mustache-beard stubble, Jishnu raised his hand and shouted, "Hey! This is a full-grown man! I was right all along! He is a full-grown adult male! Then why is he wearing a woman's saree and ghaghra and shouting like this, Snigdha?"
The moment Jishnu uttered those words, the tantrik fumed with rage! Shaking the iron bars like a lunatic, he roared, "I'll grab you by the hair and smash you to pieces, you wretch! What is your name, you ugly, black snake?"
Swelling his chest with pride, Jishnu said, "My name is Jishnu! Why... what's wrong? I only spoke the absolute truth! You are a man, so why are you wearing a woman's ghaghra-choli? And who is this guard fellow beside you?"
With arrogance, the tantrik replied, "Ha! Not a guard, you fool! He is my most revered husband! And I am his most loyal wife! Who are you, you insolent young boy Jishnu? What have you come here to do?"
Swishing his hand proudly, Jishnu said, "I am the son of the most powerful zamindar family in the Kingdom of Junagadh! And a few days from now, I am going to marry this princess, Snigdha! So I came to catch a glimpse of Prabha's mother, Sushila!"
Sticking her face out through the iron bars, Sushila said with utmost contempt, "Ha! What will you achieve by looking at me, young man? Do you have no work to do? You are getting married to this co-wife Arohi's daughter, while over there, there's no certainty of when my princess Prabha will find a good match!"
Like a maniac, Snigdha charged toward Sushila's cell and screamed, "Shut your mouth, you imprisoned witch and co-wife mother! You deserve to be whipped and kicked out! Why... why is your daughter so desperate? Don't you know she cast her hook and snatched away my ex-lover Rupanjan? Prabha, this stepmother's daughter, is going to marry that very Rupanjan! And do you know who Rupanjan is now? He is the absolute, supreme ruler—the 'King' of the distant, massive Rupnagar Empire! Your daughter is about to become his supreme Queen! Look... look at how your daughter was born just like you, an inauspicious, disgraced creature! Otherwise, where would she get the audacity to snatch away my groom?"
The moment Snigdha spoke those words, the tantrik burst into loud, uproarious laughter, clapping his hands from the darkness of the dungeon—"Ha ha ha! Ha ha ha! Good lord! What a splendid circus is playing out here! Hey Snigdha... how many times are you going to get married, you crazy girl? One moment Rupanjan is your groom, the next moment Jishnu is your groom! Won't you explain to me what game is being played here?"
Realizing the situation was slipping out of hand, Queen Arohi shouted in a stern and grave voice, "Everyone be quiet and shut your mouths right now! You've all seen each other, now everyone turn around and head back up to the royal palace!"—saying this, Arohi turned around to lead everyone away.
But from inside the cell, the former Queen Sushila screamed, "Why, co-wife Arohi? Wait a moment! You lived so joyfully with my husband all these years, ruling the kingdom! I feel like landing two slaps across your face and tying your legs up in chains! But what can I do... I am helplessly imprisoned in this dark dungeon today! I have no strength left!"
Standing beside her, the tantrik cursed, "Ha! You may not have physical strength, Sushila, but that fiendish and toxic brain of yours has remained completely intact!"
Spinning around toward the tantrik in anger, Sushila snapped, "Shut up, old tantrik! Didn't I tell you to stop blabbering?"
However, the moment she said that, Sushila was struck with immense terror in her heart! She thought to herself, "Disaster! If I talk too much, what if this evil tantrik turns me back into that cursed crane-bird like before? No, no, no need to chatter away! I'd better stay quiet!"
Meanwhile, approaching the tantrik's cell, Snigdha placed a hand on her forehead and said, "Look at my destiny, Tantrikji! My own sister is marrying my beloved lover by casting a love trap!"
Roaring from inside her cell, Sushila shouted, "Shut up, Snigdha! What's it to you if she's marrying Rupanjan? Rupanjan was your lover once, true, but now he is no one to you! Stop talking nonsense! Prabha did well! She did the exact right thing! You will spend your entire life as an ordinary housewife in a minor zamindar household, while my daughter will sit on a golden throne as the supreme, majestic 'Queen' of a vast empire! It serves you right... you've been taught the exact lesson you deserved!"
The moment those venomous barbs and arrogant words left Sushila's lips, the blood rushed to Queen Arohi's and Snigdha's heads simultaneously, and amidst the reddish glow of the dungeon, the prelude to a terrifying new conflict began to brew!