THE UNSUNG WARRIORS OF INDIA

Scene: Church of Blood – Goa

The bells of the Church of St. Augustine rang louder than usual. Inside, Portuguese officials stood in prayer—not to beg for forgiveness, but to consecrate vengeance.

Captain-General Dom Jorge Cabral sat slumped in the pew, swathed in bandages. His burned face was half-shadow, half scar, his fingers replaced by silver prosthetics.

In front of the altar stood a man draped in crimson priest robes, holding a gilded crucifix like a blade.

"Let me go to her," he said.

Cabral looked up. "You would kill your own wife?"

The priest's eyes gleamed with something ancient.

"She's no longer mine. She belongs to war."

Scene: The Ghost of a Marriage

Rani Abbakka stood alone in the secret shrine of Kali within the palace. She poured water over her bloodstained sword and whispered to the dark statue.

But something inside her trembled—not fear, but memory.

Twelve years ago, she'd married a powerful Jain prince—strategic, respected, and, at first, kind.

He later converted to Christianity.

When she rejected his allegiance to foreign priests and refused to let Ullal bow to the Portuguese, their marriage shattered like glass.

She exiled him.And the next time they met—would be across the battlefield.

Scene: The Converted General – Diego Lobo

He called himself Diego Lobo now.

But once, he was Kumara Varma—prince, husband, and Abbakka's first love.

Now, his body wore a rosary and his mind bore holy war.

Dom Jorge gave him command of a secret battalion: fifty Indian soldiers trained in Portuguese firearms and brainwashed with Christian zeal.

"No fire this time," Cabral whispered to him."This time we kill her spirit first. Then the body."

Lobo nodded.

But in his eyes… the fire never died.

Scene: The Vanishing of Asha

At midnight, Asha—Abbakka's most trusted general—vanished without a trace.

A search party found her horse tied by the mangroves, blood on the saddle.

No body.

Just a torn piece of crimson cloth shaped like a cross nailed to a palm tree.

Abbakka read the message instantly: "We have her. We know your weakness."

Her court urged caution.

But Abbakka rose with a terrible calm.

"Prepare the black banners. War without gods. War without mercy."

Scene: The Infiltration

That night, a group of masked Portuguese-trained soldiers slipped into Ullal through a salt merchant's cart.

Among them was Lobo—his old sword hidden under a Christian cloak, lips whispering scripture while his eyes scanned the city of his memories.

He walked past the mango tree where he and Abbakka once carved initials. Past the temple where they married. Past the room where she last kissed him.

But it wasn't nostalgia that stopped him.

It was the child he saw—barefoot, half-starved, sleeping under a statue of Durga, clutching a wooden dagger.

Ullal didn't just survive fire.It taught its children to hold the flame.

He looked away.

And led his men toward the palace.

Scene: Trap Within a Trap

Abbakka knew they were coming.

She let them come.

The traitor salt merchant? Already executed.

The cart? Switched with a decoy.

The infiltration route? Mapped and mirrored with ambush tunnels.

As Lobo and his men moved deeper into the city, they began hearing it—dripping water, echoing steel, footsteps not their own.

Suddenly, torches lit. Swords gleamed.

And surrounding them in the shadows were Abbakka's Night Guard—elite women warriors clad in oil-black armor, faces painted like skulls.

"Surrender or burn," one hissed.

But Lobo raised his sword.

"We came to die."

Scene: Steel and Salt

The clash that erupted in Ullal's underground was unlike anything the city had seen.

Flameless. Wordless. Brutal.

The invaders fought like machines—well-trained, unyielding, cold.

But Abbakka's warriors fought like a storm breaking from centuries of silence.

By the time it ended, every invader lay dead.

Except one.

Lobo—bleeding, breathless, cornered at the old shrine.

Abbakka stepped into the firelight. Their eyes met.

Twelve years of silence between them.

"You look older," she said flatly.

He laughed, coughing blood.

"You look eternal."

Scene: The Confrontation

She didn't draw her sword.

He didn't beg.

Only silence filled the shrine.

Then he spoke softly:

"You've become a goddess to these people. But gods can't bleed. I wanted to show them you could."

She looked at the crimson on her hand from Asha's discarded scarf.

"They don't follow me because I don't bleed," she said."They follow me because I don't kneel."

He stepped closer.

"You once knelt at my feet."

She replied without flinching:

"I was a queen in love. Now I am love in flames."

He closed his eyes.

"Then burn me."

Scene: Ashes of the Past

She raised her dagger.

But paused.

This man before her was not just a traitor. He was a mirror—of the choices she might have made, had she bent, bowed, broken.

Instead of killing him, she whispered to her guards:

"Tie him. Let him watch. Let him live long enough to see his masters fall."

Lobo didn't resist.

He simply whispered one final thing:

"They have more coming. Priests with poisons. Ships with plagues. They'll scorch your crops. Kill your gods. And say they did it for salvation."

Abbakka looked him dead in the eyes.

"Then we'll learn to kill saints."

Scene: The Phoenix Oath

Asha returned two days later—wounded, gaunt, but alive.

She had escaped her captors by slitting her own wrists and faking death.

Abbakka wept at her return—not in grief, but in rage reborn.

"They wanted to show us the cross," she said to her council."We will show them the fire."

A new order was given.

Build fire-balloons. Poison their opium. Dig trenches that fill with acid. Train crows to drop oil lanterns from above.

This would not be a battle.

It would be a ritual of annihilation.

Scene: Final Image

On the cliffs of Ullal, Abbakka stood with blood on her hands and the wind in her hair.

In the distance, Portuguese ships once again gathered—holy flags raised high, drums echoing through the sea mist.

But this time, the sky was not theirs.

It belonged to the crows.

The Queen raised her arm.

"Begin."

And the first crow lifted, flame in its beak.

✨ End of Chapter Four