The Court of Lanka: Chapter 4

Chandrahāsa

Sanjaya uvaacha (speaks)

They woke up. But with the most unpleasant sound, Raj and Yami fighting. Raj was trying to wake up Yami and wanted her to workout. Which is not wrong given she is supposed to be in her prime while taking on an entire city of violent demons. Raj tried convincing her in a comforting way but, well with no luck. He now lifted her from one hand kept her on a shoulder and went up the stairs and landed her on the Butterfly machine, gave her a protein bar from the shelves and told her to eat them and take a minute and begin her workout circuit. She looked like she was going to protest but raj pointed silence with his finger. It was clear from his drenched tank top that he had finished an intense workout already. Meanwhile the rest of the crew went to take showers.
Just then, the bell rang. Raj came down stairs to the living room  and looked through the peep hole. He saw a man in 50s, stout and a good physique with a chef’s costume on pushing a cart that had plates concealed with a stainless steel cloche. Raj opened the door and stood away. He let the man push the cart inside and just few steps inside the room, Raj pointed a gun at his head and said “many have used this strategy against me way too many times, in fact have used this myself several times. But honestly, if you want to attack someone, don’t ring the bell.” The man was now startled he slowly turned towards Raj and with a mix of petrified and confused tone said, “attack?” Raj now, asked him not to move and lifted the steel cloches to reveal plates of food. He thoroughly checked the cart and then patted down the man all while pointing a gun at him. After the check he asked him to eat a spoon of food, which the man agreed to do without hesitation.  Just then everybody came to the living room and seeing raj with a gun, everyone took out their guns and pointed it at the man and later asked Raj what’s up with the man. The man was absolutely petrified. Giving out a chuckle, Raj said, “sorry, routine paranoia check. He is safe, he just got us food.”
The man now cleared his throat as if he was signaling the rest that he is about to say something and then after a small pause, he continued, ”I am your chef, Nala. Named after the legendary culinary expert, author of Nalapaka and king of the Nishadha Kingdom. I just thought since this is the first day I would come up here and introduce myself to you. Check if everything is to perfection and anything else is required. I am also your in-house doctor. In case of any issue regarding health and food feel free to come down to my work space, Nishadha at 2nd Floor ” Raj gave out a warm smile and said, “pleased to meet you, King of Nishadha. Pardon the episode, its a force of habit. If all is good shall we begin the breakfast?” ”absolutely,” Nala replied. They all sat down at the table and Nala took out item by item from the cart and began serving. The highlights being: a dozen boiled eggs and sprouts for Raj, traditional Pulav with Raita, a couple of uncut fruits in the basket at the center of the table, the classic bread and butter and to end a fresh squeezed Orange juice.

It was time for the tour of the rest of Lanka and Chanakya had taken the complete tour from Lankini the previous night. Chanakya pointed towards the foosball and pool table in the living room which obviously had Shotguns, Rifles, Pistols, grenades and knifes were strapped below for being used as cover and firepower during emergencies. They climbed the stairs that led to the second floor of Lanka which had a sophisticated gym which Raj and Yami had already checked out.  Nakula pointed a red button and asked, “what does this do?” and pressed the button. Well we all saw what it did. The gym equipment moved away and got folded to make way for an almost empty room. For two seconds nothing happened then Mechanical sounds began whirring few blocks came down that were chained to the roof. The roof was high was almost the height of two floors there was a pair of internal stairs that led to a higher ground of the gym room. Suddenly it wasn't a gym room anymore lights were red and dim. The setting was familiar but I couldn't recall. Nakula yelled, “Paintball!” On the wall there hung numerous weapons with red cartilages below each one of them. There were Snipers, pistols, rifles even grenades that spew red paint. Next to it there were nine paintball suits. Everybody was extremely excited except Chanakya who realised there were 5 members except him so he would have to be part of the teams.
He sighed and in an elevated voice said 'REVA clear the room'. The blocks that were chained to the roof moved up and the rest of the things in the hall cleared out. The entire time the action was getting performed, a projection of a large red eye appeared on the wall that was in front of us. Chanakya continued to explain “REVA i.e. Robust Enhanced Vigilant Assistant, an artificial intelligence that will help us out in our venture. REVA can be used to weaponize Lanka at emergencies, it can navigate us to safety and use protocols set by our employer to handle situations. It will also help us track down any individuals we are searching for using the surveillance systems built across the city and satellites. REVA is currently independently managing the entire company we setup to have a hidden venture. In and all REVA is one of our biggest allies.”
The gym had a lift that led only to the floor above. We all got on it. This Elevator was completely different than any other elevator I have been in. The elevator was completely  gold plated. There were jewels in place of buttons. There was only one option in the lift: to go to a floor indicated by a ruby. But the lift went up at least by three floors to reach the Ruby floor like there was a hidden floor without entry. All of us at the same time looked at the ceiling of the elevator which said RAVANA in a stylish red font. Just then the elevator opened with a ding and we all looked down.
The sight was too magnificent to believe. A mix of Glamour, Splendor and modern innovation was right in front of our eyes. When Chanakya said earlier that He had a feeling that my theatrics to depict this building as Lanka is not yet done, he wasn't sure it would be to this extent. Right in front of them was the most beautiful court. . The arrangement and the features of the room seemed mythological but at the same time it was immensely modern. Right outside the elevator were sculpture guards made of Wootz Steel. A huge carpeted path was set in the middle of the court. At either sides of the pathway made of cold reinforced steel, were elegant seats. They were covered in engravings related to who the seat belonged to. There were 10 seats 6 of them had names assigned and the four other seats had engraving on them too like it belonged to someone but we aren't supposed to know yet. The seats had touchpads at the side to adjust settings of the room and their chair. They also had interactive air projections at each seats which showed whatever the man in charge wanted to show them. An elevated region had a big beautiful throne made of bronze and leather with wordings on it: Rakta, Dhairya, Dharma. It had no name on it. Right next to the throne was crescent shaped sword which was almost four feet tall, six inches of which was penetrated into the floor. It had beautiful engravings, the hilt was also quite mesmerizing with ancient runes engraved on it. The sword was clearly extremely heavy. My guess, it was Ravana’s famous sword Chandrāhasa. At the wall behind the throne was again a large red eye. There were two automatic machine guns mounted on the wall that pointed at elevator they came from. Chanakya later told them as I had originally planned, the throne was just for theatrics and nobody would be seated there. All the discussions related to the venture would be discussed and planned here.
Coming to the most important part the seats had a hidden aspect in them. Each seats had an emerald jewel at the left. When pressed, the chair and the man seated would slide down to a seperate room for every member of the court which would contain personalised equipments and weapons. Which I am pretty sure would be the best in class. From henceforth, all of us will be Known as The Court of Lanka.