Trouble in the domain of clouds

There was trouble brewing with the Imps, Lord Indra was told. They said it was unclear what the exact nature of the issue was, but the spies had detected slight changes in behavior among the corps, the first of its kind in eons and something was up. Good or bad, things had changed and no one was talking about it.

Indra's first instinct at any kind of brewing trouble, fomenting rebellion, etcetera was to crush it with impunity. There were powerful beings plotting against the Swarga and creating trouble all the time. He had no time or patience for those within that would add do that. If the court itself was divided, there would be no unity against the enemies, and his dominions could fall forever to the hands of the demons.

This one was a little different. The former rebellions had all involved demi-gods, so it was a quick solution to either banish them to the mortal realms. For those that were particularly powerful he would also challenge them to a battle, defeat them, and imprison them until they came to their senses. The Imps were a little different. They didn't fight, and banishing them to the earthly realms would invite more trouble than it would be worth. For they would still have their knowledge with them and it wouldn't be beyond the realm of imagination for the enemies of the Swarga to put those creatures to use against their former employer.

Besides, there was no clear visibility on what the issue was at all. The Imps were perhaps the best-treated creatures in all of Cosmos. They were shielded from wars and conflicts, mostly stayed away from palace politics, and no matter who was in power, always showed a deep and a little fearful reverence of them. Their lives were good, they lived happily with their families in their own realm, and there was nothing for them to complain about. Once a while, a realm would talk loud about some thing or other that was bothering it, and he would quickly dispatch a doot to fix the issue.

That was the strangest thing. Anything out of normal in their realm was brought up because they were so vocal about it. A spy suspecting something was itself a big sign. Lord Indra could believe that his spies themselves had failed, and things in the realm were fine. For what did they even have to complain or rebel against. If anything, it should have been the Gods who rebelled against the Imps and their lavish lifestyle -- he would do anything to become the chief Imp and get away from the wars, constant fight for preserving his dominion, all the internal palace issues that was taking place. Take the issue with the apsaras. They were angry at some thing or another, something so minor that shouldn't even have been brought to his notice. And now they were demanding that there be other opportunities for apsaras outside the entertainment. He couldn't comprehend at all where that was coming from. That was like him demanding he be given the key to Kailash and a comfortable pillow to go with it to sleep next to mother Parvati. Incomprehensible, these matters. He tensed up. He still had the apsara issue to fix, and he didn't know what to do about that either. Actually, his spies must have messed up, surely, this Imp issue would wait. He would attend to the matters closer to the throne first.