Though there was also the Suicidal Shrap, a Shrap invoked with so much anger and vengeance that it burned through all your atmans, using up your age to fuel it. Even then there was no guarantee it would work. For all these reasons, Shraps were extremely rare. But Karna had managed to be cursed by a Shrap not once, not twice, but thrice, by three fine individuals, in three unique ways. Karna was, for all practical purposes, doomed.

On the other hand, having been shunned by every teacher of the weapon arts, he was fortunate to have apprenticed under Acharya Parshuram, the Immortal Teacher of Heroes from an Age the Namins called ‘Golden’. His closest companion was Hastina Heir Apparent, Prince Duryodhan. And last month, he had become the first Resht in history to be appointed Highmaster within the Union.

A loving praying mantis.

Why had he ever entered the Tournament of Heroes? Before that, he had only lived by the code of honour which Ksharjan warriors called Abhimaan. It meant Pride and Honour. That fed him. That cultivated him. That enflamed him Since the Tournament, he’d been pushed onto a confused highway without milestones. He could no longer control the momentum; he just kept going, banging his head against one tree and then another, without any sense of direction.

It was the same momentum that had brought him onto this ship. For some reason, Duryodhan trusted him to convince Lord Prakar-Mardin, former Highmaster of Anga, to give up his title to him, Karna, the newly appointed Highmaster of Anga. A fool’s errand. The Mardins had been Highmasters for so long, it was almost a hereditary title for them. He had learnt that the Mardins had raised the Tamralipta Port in the days they still wore the Swan Crown and practically ruled as kings. But now, Tamralipta was a Hastina seat, its window to the Golden Islands and the ivory trade of the Kalingan Sea. So, when Duryodhan installed Karna, a Resht, as the new Highmaster, the Mardins could be forgiven for resisting with riots and strikes. And that is why, to Karna, this errand of charming Mardin had sounded much like convincing a man to give up his wife. He knew it had been done before, but he had absolutely no idea what words to use to achieve this result.

It had not made his life easier that Shakuni, Spymaster of the Hastina Union, had asked him to travel on the ship under an alias – Aradh, to protect him from the attentions of right-wing fundamentalists in Anga, who also had reservations about his appointment as Highmaster. Truth be told, Karna had plenty of reservations himself. Though he had once fended off seven bandits with a hunting knife, when it came to using the daggers of politics, he was about as skilled as a toad frying an omelette.