After entering the huge vacant hall in the third layer of the NORMS CAFE with an overexcited Bhargav, Aayudh could not keep his voice down.

"Lady Shweta, please don't get angry with Amrita, she had no other options."

Hearing that Amrita and Shanath both looked at Aayudh with furrowed eyes and shaking their heads in unison indicated him not to trigger her. They looked back at the Lady of Knowledge, as they waited for her reactions on Amrita's solution for Bhargav's treatment.

Seeing the frightened look on Amrita's face and a pleading expression on Shanath's face, Bhargav immediately snapped "What option on Jag-Ath are you talking about?"

Demanding, he looked at all of them, Aayudh shook his head, completely denying any answer, Shanath gave him a nervous smile and turned back to Lady Shweta, and Amrita? She didn't even spare any glance to Bhargav and he kind of felt himself out of the place. Finally, it was Lady Shweta, who felt enough pity to explain that option to Bhargav.

Giving an audible sigh, she said "It would have been better if the option was on Jag-Ath."

Bhargav clearly became more confused with the totally unexpected to the point answer.

Lady Shweta did not stop, with her laid back voice, she continued "They are planning to visit the Martaksha Tribe."

Bhargav gasped in disbelief, he looked at Amrita who just indicated him to listen the rest.

"Amrita got a solution in a very ancient scroll from the very end corner of Naarook's Official Library and..."
Lady Shweta's eyebrows joined into a frown
"...that scroll has the Vision Lord's handwriting."

Bhargav's expression became astonished, almost whispering, he mumbled "That's impossible!"

With a look of disbelief, Lady Shweta retorted "Bhargav! Did you really think that he was not ready with any backup?"

Bhargav looked sad, he always used to think that his senior brother had never thought of releasing his divine soul, after all it was the Vision Lord who grounded his divine part within that stupid Fate Designing Tablet. Knowing that his brother did never intend to do that, he felt guilty for keeping that blame against the person who actually did never have the time to fix everything.

Tears gathered in his eyes, with a raspy tone, he said "I never thought that he was always prepared."
Then to himself, he whispered "Of course. Why did you even think of him being a heartless person, Bhargav?"

Lady Shweta's mouth opened and then shut again as if she wanted to say something to console him. Shanath gently wrapped his one hand around Bhargav's shoulders, giving a small squeeze, he assured him to be strong.

However, Amrita reacted differently, almost with a scolding she said "It's not unusual. He always used to ready the backups before doing anything. Then how can you think that when it comes to you, he will stay back? That's very unlikely of you, Bhargav! "

Bhargav's melancholic expression got worse, Shanath visibly glared at Amrita while she kept her smug look.

Aayudh seemed the only person to mind business as he shouted in frustration "Hey, all of you. Will you keep this blaming part aside? We have an appointment with the tribe head. If we reach there any second late, trust me, they won't give us a second chance!"

Lady Shweta argued back "No one is holding back anyone. You guys can go wherever you want, I don't care. But let me warn you, Bhargav. They are ready to help you because you helped them once. But I have complete doubt that they will agree to cooperate with the Karma Lord."

Shanath did not know what kind of crime he had committed to get banned from everywhere and that even offended the almost nonexistent Martaksha Tribe.

With a stern face, bowing politely, he assured "My Lady, I'll behave."

Lady Shweta's caramel brown eyes pierced through his light brown ones, with a concerned voice she said "please do so. Because if you fail, Bhargav will be the one suffering."

Shanath's eyes widened for an instant as the threat sank in, Lady Shweta indeed threatened him with the worst which Shanath would never dare to even think, speechless, he just nodded.

Huffing once, Lady Shweta announced "I guess, I'm off duty now. I'll take my leave then."

Then looking at Amrita, she added "sister, be careful."
In reply, Amrita nodded. Turning to Aayudh, Lady Shweta strictly warned him, "you better bring her home unharmed."

Giving a nervous smile, Aayudh replied "rest assured, my Lady."

Giving a pat on Bhargav's shoulder, she vanished into thin air and the others huffed a sigh of relief.

When the four were on the way to the gateway of the Martaksha Tribe's village, Amrita looked all excited, Shanath had a odd smile on his face, and Bhargav had a urge to run away yet he too kept grinning. As he tried to feel a bit tensed, he failed, immediately his eyes fell on Aayudh; only he had a nervous look.

Bhargav realised that he was controlling their mentality, and Bhargav was thankful that Aayudh was with them. After a few minutes of walk through the Garhforest, they reached on the north coast of the Martaksha Lake, exactly where Darshan saw the girl on the dawn of the Soul Purifying Day.

That girl was also there, in her usual deep gray denim and dark yellow top, she was no other than the night receptionist of the NORMS, Disha. Bowing to all of them, she tried to look as official as possible, but deep down she was feeling overjoyed to see Bhargav infront of her.

As if Bhargav felt the same, with a beaming face, he remarked "See, you are still short! So I'm back before you could grow up an inch."

Disha could not stop her tears, giving a tight embrace to Bhargav, she replied "How can I grow up when you're not here to take care of me?"

Her silent tears turned into sobs, giving an awkward small laugh, caressing Disha's back, he assured "Okay, okay, now stop crying, you little girl. Or are you planning to ruin my mood too?"

Breaking the hug, a sobered Disha said with a controlled voice, "the message was sent to the Water Lord, he'll be here any moment."

The look on Disha's face seemed unsettled, to assure her, Bhargav said "Com'on, I'm going to take myself back. You should cheer me up."

For a second Disha hesitated, then she said "I'm not talking about you. It's the..."

Before she could say more, with furrowed eyes, Bhargav shook his head and warned her, keeping her head low, Disha immediately went silent. The odd grin had vanished from Shanath's face, no matter how hard he tried to dig out his past, he miserably failed. Among all of them, he had the most advanced spy crews, still his life remained dark, mysterious and bothersome too.

He could never know the truth from the other Lords and Ladies; Lady Rashmi, Lady Prakriti were all indifferent to his millions of requests, Lady Shweta had an unending resentment towards him so she was out of league, in the present somehow she learned to tolerate him.

Even his senior sister never dared to open any history as she was always afraid of every single thing going wrong. As for Lady Amrita, she had helped him through a bit, where to search, whom to approach but that did not help much.

As for the Lords? His senior brother might be caring for him, but when it involved his past, he always came to the end that he had done something very horrible that caused a permanent crack in their relationship. Though his relationship with his junior brother was better, Aayudh could not help him in that matter as he was younger than the history.

And Bhargav always had done his level best to avoid the matter. Bhargav had warned him that if he ever comes to know the past, their life would not be peaceful, yet his conscience always had been chasing him to get rid of that annoying feeling of not remembering anything.

Shanath's face was blank, but his light brown eyes were giving away the pain within, Bhargav squeezed his shoulder lightly and a sad smile appeared on his face. As Aayudh surged a wave of relief through them, a tall slender man in a deep aqua robe appeared from the lake water, his sea green eyes looked like two gemstone in the dark.

Bowing to the others, with a gentle tone, he said "hope my Lady and my Lords are ready for the ride."

Disha was astonishingly looking at his behind, at the carriage, it looked like an iron made oval shaped small submarine which could carry only four people. The carriage was carried by two grey water horses, as they came out on the surface of water, they started to flap their large grey fins, they were excited to go on land, to which they were forbidden forever.

Following Disha's gaze, the Water Lord saw what was going on, as he warned the horses to behave, they became calm, but Disha could feel their saddened expressions as if she had been understanding them always.

Only when Lady Amrita declared their cue to leave, Disha came out of her trances and the four climbed into the carriage. As the carriage submerged underwater, Shanath stared outside through the thick glass windows, gaping on the underwater scenery.

First there were a various thick curtains of some kind of river weeds which violently trembled as the carriage passed through them, then came infront of them the deepest coast part of the Martaksha Lake. Shanath had never visited this place or he might have and he had no memory of that, as the scenes behind the weed curtain started to clear to his eyes, he couldn't be more astonished.

The underwater world looked clear as a landscape on a full moon's night, everywhere was sparkling with the faint bluish light; the little light, the lake water was collecting from outside world, was reflecting everywhere, making it clearly visible. The carriage seemed to follow a made up line as if there were constructed roads under the water, and this part got cleared when it stopped on its track for a while.

From the window, Shanath saw the Water Lord talking with two persons, though it looked more like a staring and silent expressions exchanging competition, but again how can one communicate under water without choking? Apparently they looked like human but they were very short, as he watched carefully their features became clear.

They were weirdly pale violet in complexion, in place of hands there were two short fins connected to the sides of their chest, down their waist, in place of two legs, they had a tail which ended with two divided thick muscular point. They were floating two feet higher from the lake basin, as they did not dived into depth yet.

The upper part of those person looked a bit humanely, as they had a chest, throat, face and a human head, their eyes were dim grey coloured, their blunt nose were so small that it almost seemed non-existent. Their dark grey hairs were waving with the water and in place of their ears, they had a pair of bumped tiny muscles which seemed to have some kind of layers of plates and they were well protected by a pair of very tiny, sharp fins.

The underwater people seemed to have some kind of ultrasound communication system, as in middle of their three head conversation, that two persons kept talking within themselves. The movements of their mouth were sending few waves of ripples through the water and a few squeaking sounds.

The Water Lord's expression kept turning into a grim one as he translated their languages. A few moments of argument later, the two underwater persons looked all smug, and the Water Lord turned to the horses with an annoyed, defeated look.

As the horses landed on the lake basin, the wheels of the carriage were released and it landed with a gentle thud. The passengers inside it realised that they were about to get in a troublesome situation.

With a serious yet annoyed look Lady Amrita commented "the Martaksha guards! What do they want now? Didn't we make it clear that we shouldn't be stopped on midway for a search?"

Eyebrows arched in thoughtfulness, Aayudh answered "they have very strict security system, I must admit. See, we are held back in the first checkpoint!"

As he said that the water surrounding the carriage suddenly went further, making a clearing, it looked like they were inside of a dome made of water walls.

Opening the sealed gate, the Water Lord said with a grumpy tone, "my Lady, my Lords, I beg mercy for this offence. They seemed to be inconvenienced about few things."
Then eying Bhargav, he stated, "More accurately they want permission for a search."

Bhargav could not hide his disturbed mind, with an irritated voice, he commented "they're going overboard! Why the search when we are totally unarmed?!"

Shanath confirmed "they want to search me, I guess."

His face still blank, his eyes fixed on nothing, yet seemed like he was connecting many facts together. Though he was not sure if he was right or not, his conscience was shouting within his mind the obvious fact. When he looked back at others, they all looked sympathetic.

Giving an awkward laugh, he said "isn't it obvious? Don't worry, I'll behave."

Saying so, he got down from the carriage, just infront of those guards who stood there on the thick divided ends of their tails that actually worked as feet, immediately the smug look on their faces vanished, fear took over. Shanath gave them a humble bow with an amused smile, he was glad for the effect his presence was causing.

Few more guards came swimming from another direction and joined them within the waterproof dome. They searched him throughly and did not get any success, how could they when his sword the 'Aparajit' had been confiscated already, except that spiritual weapon he never kept anything with him.

As the guards got satisfaction with their search in which they miserably failed, they had no choice but to let him go. As soon as he was back inside the carriage, the dome crumbled and the surrounding again filled with water, and their journey through water again started, on the way they were closely followed by two small troops of of those guards.

The carriage made its way through the Martaksha Tribe's colonies, there were more citizens like the guards, males, females, children of various age, it seemed like they all gathered on the roads to witness a rare event.

The water's colour kept deepening as they turned eastward, this part of the lake was the deepest, the colonies became thinnest as if that place was reserved.

Lady Amrita declared "we're near the Celestial Silver Cave, in few minutes we'll be there."

When they did not stop in the colonised areas, Bhargav had realised where they were going.

With narrowed eyes, he questioned "Lady Amrita, do we need the Celestial Silver in the process somehow?"

Eying a totally silent Shanath, Lady Amrita hesitantly answered, "Yes, the procession needs a soul's entire purification, be it the one who is giving or the one accepting. And you know what the metal is capable of."

A horrified Bhargav almost shrieked "are you guys have gone crazy? The Celestial Silver will not harm me, but it'll cause unmeasured pain to Shanath."

His tone faltered as he realised what the others were upto, looking at Shanath, shaking his head violently, he added "I'm not letting you do it, no matter what. Even if I have to stay in this human form forever. You better listen to me or I will file a case against all of you."

Desperate tears rolled down from his eyes.
With a serious blank face, Shanath completely ignored him, and Lady Amrita said "actually, you can't file an official case until you resume your post. And tell that to your Divine Soul, it stubbornly kept denying to surrender to any of us."

That was indeed a truth, from the day when it was stolen, it stayed clinged to Shanath's side and Shanath just kept it in his care until Lady Amrita tried to take it from him but she failed. Lady Amrita had clearly realised that the Soul Possession matter was not just a myth but a fact indeed. Hearing Lady Amrita, Bhargav had no more option left but to stay in silence through the rest of their journey.

As they reached the Martaksha lake's deepest point, the carriage slowed down and the surroundings were invisible as pitch darkness engulfed them. Just as Shanath thought that they were drowning into the bottomless pit, the carriage forwarded and burst into a utterly white clearing.

The horses galloped a few feet and the carriage finally stopped on its wheels, infront of a grand iron gate. As the door opened, they all came out of the carriage, Shanath was awestruck with the scenery, they were on land again, behind them was the Martaksha Lake with its unending vastness and dark blue water, calm waves were sparkling with the faint sunlight.

From the place where he stood, he could see only huge white caves with lines of small houses for the workers. Behind the caves there was a higher landscape with huge greenery, the sun was just above the forest, beaming faintly. Shanath was blinded with the overwhelming whiteness around him; it was white everywhere, the floor, the pillars, the walls even the iron gate was coated with it as if that place had been frozen for thousands of years like that.

The weather seemed a lot colder than outside world, but it was not unbearable, totally unfavourable for ice, so the whiteness was not caused by ice or frozen water, it was indeed something that could stay frozen in that temperature. At the gate, they were welcomed by two normal looking humans, apparently they looked like that, but Shanath had complete doubt on that.

Out of curiosity, he reached to touch the white thing on the gate, and Bhargav caught his hand in midway, as their eyes met, shaking his head, Bhargav warned "Don't."

After that Shanath kept his hands to himself, and Amrita explained "they aren't normal white dust. They are the dusts coming from the workshops of weaponry. In short, they are the remains of the Celestial Silver. Though these dust contains the lowest level, they still can affect you."

With an incredulous expression Shanath kept looking here and there, watching the workers doing their jobs, some were bundling new made swords, shields, arrows, bows and many more weapons, some were collecting the receipts of order, and some were checking the packings, it seemed like they were ready to be ported to somewhere.

They reached infront of a small cave, the guards indicated them to go in, as they went inside the cave, they were welcomed by the head of the Martaksha Tribe. He was a bulky man with an average height, his hair might have been kept long as it was bound in a tight bun, he had a round face with two yellowish bottom like eyes. There was a girl too whom Shanath recognised as the girl who suddenly turned into a lady, she looked elegant in her white-brown robe with her long dark brown hair.

As she saw them, bowing to all she paid her courtesy and Lady Amrita chided gladly "isn't it the youngest member of the family, Lady Divya? I'm so happy that you decided to help us in spite of being a trainee."

With a shy smile Lady Divya answered, "my Lady, please do not say that. I'm much obliged to be little help to you."

Nodding vigorously, Lady Amrita said to the tribe leader, "his majesty knows well how much grave danger we're going through."

Eying a tensed Bhargav and an utterly curious Shanath, he just nodded and Lady Amrita continued "Then I should request his majesty to give faith and permission to use the Celestial Silver for the procession."

The tribe leader pointed to a single table where a pair of shiny, silvery daggers were kept.

Before leaving, he said with a grumpy tone, "wish you good luck with your mission. I'll pray to the Celestials that nothing goes wrong."

Nodding once, Amrita said "we'll be careful."

As the leader left, Aayudh huffed in relief, "my Lords! He was fuming inside! What could've triggered him so badly?!"

Amrita stated with a distanced voice, "sometimes people like him needs to keep enough patience to tolerate something that his conscience doesn't allow."

Seeing Shanath's questioning gaze, she changed the topic "anyway, we must hurry up. Lady Divya, please guide us."

With a gentle tone, Lady Divya started explaining "the two persons involved in this should take one stab from their respective daggers, as the metal touches their bloods, it'll start going through their blood, veins, organs and then to their souls and the soul will go through the purification procession. ..." Seeing Bhargav's not so excited expression getting worse, she stopped.

As Lady Amrita assured her to go on, she continued "When the procession gets completed, their souls will be transported to the Celestial World and there they can decide whether to come back from that peaceful timeless place to this chaotic worldly life or not."

Averting her gaze from Lady Amrita, she looked at Shanath, with a concerned voice she said
"In your case, Lord Shanath, please do confirm that you return the Divine part of Lord Bhargav to his human part. And keep this in mind that if you take a long time, the weaker part of Lord Bhargav will be harmed, as, if a mortal soul stay there for a long time, it'll surely loose a part of its memory."

Shanath's eyes widened in fear, but before he could say anything, Lady Divya assured "My Lord, you don't need to panic as the whole process depends on the bond between the two involved persons, if your bond is a weak one, you may not meet at one place together which will seriously injure the weaker one. If I didn't see your bond power, I wouldn't have agreed in this procession."

Saying so she looked at a relieved, attentive Shanath and an unsettled Bhargav, and gave a proud smile.

Without waiting for their reaction, she continued "Since yours is a strong one, we should not worry about the place or time, but keep the memory part in your mind. And again, this procession is being tried for the first time ever in Naarook's history, and I had never visited the Celestial World myself, so the rest you'll experience is totally unknown to me, but I can assure that I'll be able to watch you through your consciences."

Hearing that, the four persons who were in a very attentive mode, carefully listening to her explanation, looked up to her in surprise.

With a shy smile, she confirmed "Yes, I can. With the consciences, I can relate one person to another and that's how I can see their bonds. That'll also help me to see what their consciences are feeling or experiencing."

A perplexed Lady Amrita, almost with a whisper, commented "That's obviously the traits of being a Vision Family member!"

With a gloating face, Lady Divya answered "My Lady, Lady Prakriti said the same thing to me. Though she did not reveal what she exactly meant."

Hearing that Lady Amrita and Bhargav exchanged a baffled look, of course, that day the Vision Lord himself was present there. Bhargav could not find words to express his feelings on the fact that he had got a younger sister, he had an odd amused look.

Lady Amrita realised Bhargav's expression, after all it had been eight thousand years, he had no one to call his family. She could've let them have their private time, but she did not know how would the Lady react? And moreover they had a more emergency matter in hand.

Patting Bhargav's shoulder to assure him to have strength for that moment, she asked Lady Divya "what will be the cost in the procession, my Lady?"

Coming out of her trances of some thoughts, she answered "no cost will be needed unless they delay in returning. But there is one thing, I must admit that the one with pure soul essence will feel light with freedom and refreshments while the one with even a tiny bit of dark soul essence will..."

Before she could explain further, returning to his previous tensed version, Bhargav once again tried to stop Shanath, "please don't do this to yourself."

His tone heavy, eyes almost teary, he was pleading desperately.

But Shanath with his usual cold face, replied "You're not deciding that for me, Bhargav."

As he looked at Bhargav, their eyes met and Bhargav saw pain, regret and a silent plea in his eyes, he completely went silent and seeing the situation, Lady Divya stopped and gave a sympathetic smile to him.

Looking at Lady Amrita, Lady Divya asked "My Lady, shall we start now? "

Lady Amrita nodded in agreement, she indicated Aayudh to get the daggers. With a helpless pleading expression, Aayudh indicated that he did not want to cause bloodshed, but Lady Amrita's glare was the only thing he received which he would never dare to even dream of.

Aayudh took the daggers in his both hands, Bhargav and Shanath took their seat on the ground, taking permissions from a determined Shanath and a silent Bhargav, he stabbed them both on their palms in the same time. So that they could reach their destination together, but little did he know what kind of experience Shanath was going to have.

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Hey, readers!
So I'm on time today! Yay!

The procession finally started and you know by the end what's gonna happen! ! Please do guess.😉

What are they going to face in the Celestial World? !😲

What is Shanath going to experience in the process? Is it something horrible or something painful? 😱

Comment on my name selections. .........😅😅😅😅

Stay tuned to know more. ....
Till then stay safe, stay healthy and enjoy reading. 😊 ✌

Please VOTE if you liked it and share your thoughts in the comments 👍✒👉

.............Anasuya Raj

17th January, 2021