NOVEL NEXT Chapter 42: A Walk Under the Moonlit Sky
The rays of the moonlight illuminated the king’s chamber through the large balcony, the night was still young and the silk curtains gentled and swayed with the breeze. The King of Dayita paced across the length of his large and luxurious chamber. He had just received some disturbing news from the prime minister who acted as his chief of spies. Prince Aryaman was duly summoned and it was while waiting for the prince that the king started to pace about the chamber to calm his nerves.
After a short while, the prince had come to join him.
“Come in, Arya!” the king gestured with his hand beckoning him inside.
“Greetings father,” said Prince Aryaman paying his respects with a bow.
The king put his hand on the prince’s shoulder and sighed. Prince Aryaman immediately understood that something grave had taken place.
“What do you require me to do, father?” he asked without even knowing about the situation.
The king smiled at him feebly, internally swelling with pride and love at Aryaman’s devotion to him and Dayita.
“A border city towards the east of Dayita is reported to have been annihilated,” said the king collecting himself, putting his hands behind his back and walking towards the balcony.
“Annihilated?” asked Prince Aryaman, his eyes widening in surprise. “Is it an act of war?”
“It seems to be an isolated incident,” said the king. “The undead may be involved.”
“Ohh!” said the prince. “I shall at once go and investigate it, Father!”
“Take someone trustworthy with you,” said the king turning to look at him.
Prince Aryaman nodded. “I will,” he said.
“Let’s keep it under wraps for now,” said the king. “I don’t want to create panic unnecessarily. We shouldn’t also alert our neighbouring kingdoms lest they take advantage of this situation.”
“Understood Father,” said the prince. He bowed and took leave.
The king stared at the bright full moon in the sky for a while before he retired for the night.
Svetavastra felt herself caught in the arms of a strong man. Drained of her spiritual powers, she couldn’t see him using her mind’s eye. She felt his chest with one of her hands, it felt toned and solid. Her hand rose to touch his face, feeling his eyes, nose, and lips, the latter quivered under her touch. She withdrew her hand quickly as if it had caught fire. She loosened the blindfold to look at him.
She caught her breath as she saw his face, a beautiful face, illuminated like a pearl by the full moon. What a beautiful man, she thought to herself, fully transfixed by the sight.
It took her a few moments to catch herself.
It’s the chakra imbalance which is causing these stupid feelings, she flicked herself mentally. She gently pried herself out of his arms and put some distance between them. She turned to look around partly to avoid meeting his eyes again.
The man for his part stood frozen for a while.
She’s interested in me, he thought to himself in disbelief. He took some breaths to calm himself down.
“Thank you for saving me,” Svetavastra said bowing to him.
“Right time, right place,” said the man and raised his hands to brush the matter aside.
“You are…?” said Svetavastra.
“I am Manu,” said the man.
Ma..nu, Svetavastra mentally spoke his name to herself.
“I’m sent to you by the heavens to help you recover your cosmic weapons,” said Manu.
“Ohh,” said Svetavastra somewhat taken aback and trying to process this information.
My weapons! Svetavastra thought to herself. I have cosmic weapons?!
“You know me then?” She asked.
Manu opened his mouth to say something but stopped seeing Svetavastra’s hand gesture.
“No no, don’t tell me,” she said. “I don’t want to know, let me regain my memories and form my thoughts based on them. I don’t want external influence on my thoughts.”
“Fair enough,” said Manu with a smile.
Svetavastra gasped, her heart seemed to have become captive of his smile. It physically hurt her just looking at his pure unadulterated beauty.
This won’t work, Svetavastra turned around and slapped her face with her hands to get her act together.
She cleared her throat.
“I drained my spiritual powers due to an ordeal,” she said. “I need to go to the nearest ley line and cultivate to recuperate my powers.”
“I see,” said Manu. “Let’s head there, we can talk while walking.”
Svetavastra headed out of the razed city and into the forest with Manu by her side. He gave her enough space to navigate through the forest. He simply seemed content to be walking by her side, stealing occasionally glances at her. Svetavastra for her part, decided it was best if she didn’t look at him. She needed her wits to be about and well.
“So where are my weapons?” Svetavastra asked finally breaking the silence.
“Do you not remember anything?” Manu said trying to understand Svetavastra’s memory loss.
“Not much,” said Svetavastra. “I seem to be cavalier with my spiritual powers. The ones I drained right now were given to me by Irawati, a generous and kind blind avva. My original spiritual powers were drained again by my own actions but I don’t remember why, for what reason, or where.”
“I see,” said Manu.
“My chakras are imbalanced as a result,” continued Svetavastra. “I cannot regain my original spiritual powers until I balance my chakras properly. I need to cultivate unimpeded for that to happen, at least for several months. But that seems like a distant luxury given whatever is happening.”
“I can imagine,” said Manu nodding along.
“As a stopgap solution, I have switched to Irawati’s spiritual powers as my source,” said Svetavastra. “I can generate and use her powers properly as long as I comply with her physical infirmary. Hence, the blindfold.”
“I see,” said Manu.
Silence filled in for a while and they continued to walk through the forest.
“Your weapons,” said Manu breaking the silence. “They are spread across four corners of this world.”
“How many weapons do I have?” asked Svetavastra curious.
“You had four,” said Manu. “The divine sword, the divine bow, the divine mace and the divine chakra.”
“Ohh,” said Svetavastra. “How do I get them back?”
“You just have to go and retrieve each one from where they are stashed,” said Manu.
Svetavastra eyed him with doubt.
“Something tells me it’s not so straightforward,” she said.
“It is straightforward,” said Manu. “It may not be easy to retrieve them though.”
“Hmm,” said Svetavastra. “I don’t have a choice.”
“That’s true,” said Manu.
They walked in silence through the forest for the next few hours until they reached a stream. Svetavastra found the tree she had initially started to cultivate under before the whole incident with the Kapala Chief had occurred. She couldn’t see the preta deep in meditation protected by her invisible barrier as her own powers were drained. She turned to look for Manu but he was right behind her, so she collided into him. He caught her to keep her from falling and she looked at him, her eyes fixed on his, her cheeks flushed. They stood like that for a while, how long it was difficult to determine, Svetavastra felt she lost her senses and the sense of time.
“I…I need to cultivate,” Svetavastra drawled. Manu let go of her with grace.
“As you wish,” he said. “I’ll stand guard.”
Svetavastra sat down cross-legged under the tree and closed her eyes to meditate. Her breathing became even quickly and she went into a deep meditative state.