[date:-481|flashback,x]
The eleven-year-old Ekanamsha looked up at her mother with bubbly eyes. “Mother,” she asked, pausing her knitting for a half-minute. “How did you and Father marry?”
Her twin brother Vāsudeva let out an exaggerated yawn from behind the cotton-paper manuscripts that he was scouring over, earning a disapproving look from Mother Devaki.
“Your father won my hand in marriage at my svayaṃvara,” Devaki explained, reminiscing with a smile, “He had to defeat my many suitors, many of whom were princes and nobles – to prove to my father and I that he was most worthy of me, and that there was nothing more he desired in the world than me.”
“You can’t prove a falsehood,” remarked Vāsudeva with snarky amusement.
“VA̅SUDEVA!” his mother objected.
Vāsudeva put down his book. “Forgive me, mother, I did not mean to belittle the affection between you and Father. But there was NOTHING more he desired? REALLY? If there was NOTHING more he desired, why did he not just poison all your other suitors?”
“VA̅SUDEVA!” Devaki cried again, but Father (Vasudeva) was guffawing.
“What? There are many poisons that would go undetected in an autopsy.”
“But would it not be suspicious if all the other suitors mysteriously died the day before the svayaṃvara?” Ekanamsha asked innocently.
Devaki started: “Ekanamsha that is NOT the reason, that is NOT the point I am trying—”
“Then he could have just poisoned those suitors who were sufficiently skilful to have a decent chance of defeating him. And perhaps undersell his own abilities prior to the date so as to not make it seem that all those who were stronger than him were dead. By the way, Father, what is the meaning of this word?”
As Vasudeva peered into Vāsudeva’s book and explained the function of the mentioned surgical instrument, Devaki looked very cross at her son’s line of questioning.
“Vāsudeva … ” she said tiredly, “This is the sort of thing for which we are sending you to Sage Saṃkarṣaṇa’s gurukula.”
“YOU ARE SENDING ME AWAY? You will send your only child away?” (Ekanamsha glared at him)
“Sage Saṃkarṣaṇa is a foremost expert on ethics and virtue,” Vasudeva explained supportively. “For all your brilliance, my son, I believe that you are in necessity of an education on these matters.”
“No! I do not believe you SHOULD have poisoned your other suitors – I’m merely saying that the fact that you didn’t, shows that there are other values you hold more sacred than Mother, like non-killing! I am not denying morals, I am pointing out the immoral present in MOTHER’S words, I’m EXPLAINING ethics! Sage Saṃkarṣaṇa needn’t teach me, I MYSELF am an expert on ethics!”
“Vāsudeva, you are being far too arrogant–”
“I do not need instruction to understand why poisoning your competitors is wrong! You didn’t need instruction to understand that – everyone understands that! Well, I suppose a barbarian might not, but a barbarian will also not be knowledgeable about the different types of poisons that may be used.”
“An intelligent barbarian,” Ekanamsha mused. “Where have we ever seen one of those?”
“Are you referring to the wicked new King of Magadha?” Vāsudeva questioned.
“No, brother, I’m referring to YOU!”
