Chronicles of the Lotus - Pune :: 7-13 ::

Chapter VIII [ The devil's children ]

Set miles from the nearest town, in open forested and cultivated landscape, the Khajuraho's temples were once listed as a World Heritage Site. Built under late Chandela kings between 950 and 1050 AD, each temple was dedicated to a different deity.

The Chandelas were followers of the Tantric cult which believed that gratifications of earthly desires are a step towards attaining the ultimate liberation. That is why the guardians found the temples to be a safe haven for them some hundred years back, around the time their conflict with the civilians began. They hid the elders in the Khajuraho region and requested the protection of the king.

But now, the land became grounds for tourists and huntsman. As if all the spirituality of the place had been drained over night, hunters now owned the region, killing hundreds of white tigers every year.

Now only death looms these abandoned forests.

Able had walked a long way before he reached the temple grounds. Walking inside, he saw his distorted reflection in the clean marble.

The Demon proceeded hurriedly towards two large bronze statues of the gods Varuna and Ahriman, which stood right pass the worship grounds and in the end of the entrance hall.

Behind a large red curtain and right below the statues was the door to the priest’s chambers. Able then stopped before the door

'He will be mad at me'

His hand reached to open the door, and then stopped. Able turned to the white tiger who settled beside him on the floor.

‘I don’t want him to be mad at me’

The tiger gave him a warm growl as if he understood what troubled his master.
And his master's mind wandered…

Able's mind drifted back to the year 378 near Adrianople turkey. In a time when Gothic soldiers revolted against the Roman army, and the resulting war climaxed in a decisive battle in which the war lord Valens was killed.

He was just a young Visigoth warrior at the time.

Theodosius the first, who succeeded Valens as emperor in the East, made peace with the Goths and incorporated their army into the Roman forces.
That’s when Able first met Zacharias. He was a soldier fighting for the emperor, in a legion of mercenaries who called themselves the devil's children. And by his side, all horror was an illusion for young Able.

On the battle field Zacharias was fierce, ruthless, yet he was very passionate and caring when he spoke to his soldiers.

Upon the death of Theodosius in 395, the Visigoths renounced their allegiance to Rome and chose Alaric the first as their ruler. Alaric invaded Greece and then Italy, and in 410 he captured and pillaged the city of Rome. In that same year he was succeeded by Ataulf, who with the aid of the devil's children led the Visigoths and his legions across the Pyrenees mountain range into Spain.

By that time, he became the closest thing Able knew for a father. Able was promoted and joined the devil's children, fighting as a warrior and working as a spy when needed.

His love and respect for Zacharias grew day after day.

With the emergence of national standing armies, the use for mercenaries came to an end. And the high ranking officers in the devil's children were assigned as politicians with minimum influence around Europe. The warriors led by Zacharias joined the militias that spread in various cities like Paris, Rome, Alexandria, Bombay and many others around the world.

When they were dispatched to India and stationed in the Bombay coven, Able observed his change in mood. He was angry all the time, sad even.

Then one day he told him about his new orders. He said the orders came from the highest level of authority and it pains him that he has no choice.

Probably more out of love for him than anything else, Able agreed to help.

The tiger's moist tongue pulled the shape shifter back from his memories.

Slowly, Able pushed the door and walked in…


Chapter IX [ Hidden ]


Right after Able disappeared, Achiri told us of how she encountered the demon. She also told us about the writings on the wall he left behind. So we headed back with her to the Palitana temple to see for ourselves.

As we walked back through the forest, I could see clearly that the old Indian city had been for the most part burned a long time ago. The area now was a long string of ruins, scattered through the Palitana forest. Abandoned, as if no life had ever existed here before.

We walked slowly through the very narrow brick road. The trees completely covered what little moon light that made it past the thick clouds.

We passed whitewashed walls and great courtyard gates that revealed distant courtyard paradises. Each seemed to have held such sensual mystery in a not so distant past.

The church courts appeared in the distance. Great mango trees stroked the galleries of the inner patios, and masses of ferns and flowers crowded the mouth of the passage.

Above, in the dark and below the thick clouds, black birds sat on the balconies, their backs to the open doors. Their hushed squeals and the flapping of their wings was barely audible above the soft night breeze, nevertheless it was obvious that we were not welcome here.

Over the walls grew yards of woody climbing vines and passiflora so thick that we had to brush against it as we passed. Gabriel would stop occasionally at this place or that to pluck a luminescent rose or tendrils of honeysuckle.

'I hadn’t noticed this place was so creepy' Achiri whispered 'I must have been focused on the demon trail. The scenery is almost entirely different'

'About that,' I asked her 'did I see you punch a tiger in the face?'

Achiri laughed 'yes' she told me 'I did punch a very heavy cat in the face'

'Able said you fought like a human, why did he say that. How come you didn’t use your powers on him?'

When I asked her, Achiri's smile faded from her face. And I knew she had no intention of explaining. Therefore I didn’t press. I slowed down for her in hope for an answer and she walked pass me. Above us, the sky let out a gentle rumble. The smell of rain filled the air

'This way' she said and led us inside the church courts.

Inside the courtyard I saw the remains of the guardian temple. And the beauty of the Christian ruins all around it was captivating.
The most dominant form of splendor was the lotus blooms. Thousands of them scattered all around the guardian temple grounds.
It was a sign that Guardians were buried here. The lotus blooms were their tomb stones.

The subtle perfume emanating from the blooms mixed with the aroma of wet air added a lush of lingering spice to the thick mountain atmosphere. The closer we came to the church, the numbers of the lotus buds grew.

'There had been much death here,' Gabriel said 'reapers collected these souls, the demon was right'

Gabriel's words stated the somewhat obvious. A mystery was before us. And our encounter with Able just made us realize that it was bigger than we had anticipated.

I looked around me closely, and I could see traces of Achiri's fight with the demon. The corpse of the tiger lay in the near distance right below the window. Fresh blood splattered on the grass, and the broken window frame.

Finally, we walked inside the church

'These writings are magnificent' Gabriel whispered 'I don’t know about the color though. Is this blood?'

'No,' I answered 'if it was blood it would've turned black by now. It's too red to be any creature's blood'

'This is getting really weird'

Achiri remained silent. She only gave Gabriel a faint smile, and then told us that there were more writings upstairs.

On the second floor, I gazed at the walls from a distance. Far enough so I could read all three of them from where I stood.

When I first looked at it, the words in Arabic and Hindi did not make any sense. But the writing in Brahmi was somehow different

'What do you make of all this?' Achiri asked me 'do you think it has to do with this war the demon was babbling about?'

'This looks aimlessly convoluted' Gabriel said 'its simple but it makes no sense whatsoever'

'Out of intense complexities intense simplicities emerge'

'Churchill of all people Belial really?' Achiri said and leaned against the broken window. The same window she just jumped from less than an hour ago

'This is all made to seem like gibberish,' I told her smiling 'or for the more skeptical type a mystery, but its not. It's far more simple'

'So you think it's not gibberish?'

'It's written in four languages. English, Arabic, Hindu and Brahimi. Three modern language, and one relatively dead for hundreds of years'

'And?' Gabriel asked. Now both he and Achiri stood by me to look at the writing from where I stood. Both of them seemed very curious and intrigued.

'Everything that is written in the three modern languages is in fact gibberish, but it is words that are known to man. Familiar words, the eye catches them first therefore automatically discards the rest of the Brahmi text which is unfamiliar to most creatures in this day and age. This is the work of a true demon'

'The demon said they were human basic thoughts or something' Achiri told me

'It’s a smokescreen' I told her before I went on 'A veneer to hide the real text'

'I can't read brahmi so I wouldn’t know' she said, and Gabriel said the same.

'And I am certain Able knew this as well,' I answered her and walked towards the wall. I ran my hand over the symbols and began to explain

'Brahmi is symbolic, close to Hindi in shape, so it's camouflaged perfectly with the beautiful calligraphy. But again its meaning is completely different. The text is not words like the others, its sentences. Incomplete, but meaningful very simple sentences'

'What does it say?' Gabriel asked me. I paused for a moment while I took another look at the wall, then I shook my head

'I am not sure yet, like I said it's incomplete. But from the alignment and the choice of symbols it looks like a poem of some sort. The fact that a demon like Able would go this far to hide it from you, and even try to feed you this story about human thoughts, it scares me. This text whatever it is, is very dangerous'

'How can an ancient poem on a broken wall be dangerous?' Gabriel asked me.
I told him the one thought that loomed inside my head from the moment I saw the red paint on the wall

'If I had to guess, I'd say it’s a summons'

'A summons?'

'Able was trying to summon something big. And he wanted to do it while Achiri was here. That’s the only explanation to why he made you believe he was a rakshasa and have you follow him here. That’s why he chased you down when he could have tried to kill you then and there'

We stood in the silence for a few moments. Each of us thinking about the theory I just presented. Then reaching to her belt, Achiri pulled out a stack of hand painted tarot cards. She flipped through them quickly and handed me a card.

'Hold this'

Achiri then shuffled the cards a few times and placed the stack back in her belt.
I looked at the card in my hand and it was empty on one side. On the other was a golden frame like the ones you see on the back of ordinary playing cards.

'What is this? What are you doing?'

'Just wait'

Achiri then took the card from me and walked to the middle of the room. She placed it on the floor facing upwards. The edges of the card were almost in perfect symmetry with the four corners of the flat.

'What is she doing?' Gabriel asked me 'are those tarot cards?'

'I have no idea'

We watched the card elevate from the ground. Slowly it rose from the floor, and then it came to a halt when it reached the center of the flat. As it floated in mid air, the card began to rotate, gradually emitting a faint purple glow.
Achiri stood a few centimeters away from the card with her hand stretched out beneath it. Then the glow amplified until it filled the room completely for an instant. The glow was so harsh I had to close my eyes from it. And then the light shriveled back inside itself before the card stopped floating and fell right in Achiri's hand.

'Ok what was that?' I asked her

'I made an imprint of these writings incase we need them later. I just stored every last detail of this building in here' she said holding the card between her fingers 'I have a very strong feeling that this isn’t the last we saw of Able and his scribbles. Besides, if you think it's so dangerous, then we must try and figure what it is exactly. If it's indeed a summons, then we could find the rest of it somewhere and we will know who or what Able was trying to bring here'

'You can do that with those cards' Gabriel asked 'that is amazing. It's like a demonic Polaroid'

Just then I realized that Gabriel had no real life experience with demons before today. The only demon he knew maybe all his life was me, and for all those years. The look on his face was a mixture of fascination and curiosity. For a moment, he seemed as if he completely forgot about his scuffle with Mustafa. He seemed like a happy little child in an amusement park filled with unusual rides.

Like a pleased parent taking his child to the park for the first time, I couldn’t help but smile.

'Each card on my deck holds information about a place, a person, or an object. I collect information on anything or anyone I come across that is somehow related to demons' Achiri told us 'I also have a reasonable amount of blank cards to use when needed'

'Where did you get those cards?' I asked her 'last time we met you didn’t have them with you'

'A friend makes them for me' Achiri said. Her look changed for a second as she spoke 'He was a fierce hunter once, but now he is more of a lobbyist. He provides me with items that are a bit remote, if you know what I mean. They saved my life a few times actually, very useful little things. Besides, the last time we met was over a century ago Belial. A lot has changed since then'

'It really been that long, huh?'

'Yes it's been a while'

Again Achiri gave her faint smile. I pulled out the string of beads from my pocket and handed them to her. Outside, the rain had just begun to fall. And our silence was broken by the sound of heavy rain drops on the old church ceiling.

'This was Mustafa's' she finally asked me 'did he give this to you?'

'Yes,' I said 'he told me you will help us find the answers. And he told me to bring you back to his room before sunrise'

'Why didn’t you tell me about this sooner?'

'Because I just watched you fight off a three hundred pound tiger with your bare hands. And you had a shape shifter bait you here and almost…'

'Almost what Belial?'

'You acted like a human with a death wish Achiri' I told her 'Is there something you want to tell me before we go back to the city?'

She looked at me. Her eyes wide and angry and she had every right. But I was worried about her. I searched her face for an answer, I watched that perfect frown fade ever so slowly and I knew she was about to say something.
Then outside, we heard the sound of the birds squeal louder, like an alarm going off. Followed by the sound of tens of wings flapping into the distance.

'We have to burn this place down now' Achiri said and ran downstairs.


Chapter X [ Egypt ]


The room was covered in cruel gray dimness. It was almost entirely dark except, for one silver candleholder, with three red candles resting on top of a bedside Vironian stall. The candles immersed the corner in a calm yellow radiance, as the flames danced languidly, forcing the shadows of the scattered furniture to move along to a silent melody.

Somewhere in the room was an old record player. Mozart's Lacrimosa played, and the classical music was mixed with the sounds of the rain storm outside.

A glass table centered the chamber. And a woman sat in one of three large chairs around it. She had her eyes closed. Hidden in the dark, the woman smiled as she sensed her comrade who had just walked in through the curtains.

‘Able, Able, Able’

She said, tapping her long fingernails on the glass along with the sound of her voice. Listening to the metallic trickling noise, her smile widened and she opened her eyes. Beautifully dark, lined in black kohl...

‘I could smell you from a mile away’ she told him. And Able silently watched her for a moment before he walked further into the room.

A lightning blaze outside lit up the space before him in harsh white light for an instant. And Able saw the silhouette of the demon.

Her long black hair was lose and untidy down her back. The curls danced as she moved her head from one side to the other, still dancing her upper body to the metallic sound.

About her pale sweet throat she wore a necklace, the eye of Ra, so tiny it seemed a gilded gnat suspended from a weightless chain of minuscule links.

‘Egypt, always a sight for sore eyes’ Able said. His voice was deep, rough even in the large chamber. The tiger trotted in front of him, and like a trained pet, it rested beneath Egypt's legs.

‘You are the first to return’ she said 'the others are on their way'

‘Where is Zacharias?’ Able asked, scanning the empty room. ‘I thought he'd be waiting for us’

'He will be here soon' Egypt said. Her voice was staid and cold 'I see you've returned empty handed'

Able’s hand turned into a fist. He looked at the Devonian murals on the walls; the happy dancing figures with their laurels and their crowns of leaves, Bacchus and his nymphs, Varuna and his conquests. And here he stood, like Egypt said, empty handed…

‘Belial…’ he whispered. ‘He came out of nowhere’

Egypt's fingers stopped moving as soon as she heard the name. She stared crossly at Able. The scowl on the Demon’s face confirmed to Egypt that he was telling the truth.

‘Belial is alive?’

'Alive and kicking'

The voice came from behind the curtain. Able and Egypt both turned towards it. Soon came walking in a long haired man with a glass of whiskey in his hand.

'They are trying to figure out the secret message hidden in your artwork as we speak. You were careless Able'

'I…' Able muttered 'I am sorry…'

'It's alright child' Zacharias said, patting Able on his shoulder. He then sat on the chair facing Egypt and lifted both his legs on the glass table 'The Achiri will just have to wait'

'What can I do for you now?'

'You need to go with Daniel; Egypt will take care of the rest here in Pune. But I need you in Delhi by tomorrow night'

The demon said, thoughtfully, almost as if brooding upon his words, face very relaxed. He was staring at the glass in his hand, maybe liking the way the light collected in the crystal. Able didn't know. He had to wait for him to speak again

'That’s where the children are. Daniel will guide you to them. And there in the guardian temple, you will complete the summon'

'And the children?' Able asked 'Should I take care of them like I did Mustafa'

'Daniel will deal with the children. You just focus on the summon. Finish what you started'

Able didn’t say another word. Same as in the forest, he turned around and vanished as if he walked into an invisible fissure in the room. The tiger rose lazily behind his master, then took a few steps towards the door and disappeared as well.

'Now,' Zacharias told Egypt 'You are up'


Chapter XI [ The objective ]

While Able and Daniel Priest were on their way to Delhi, to complete the secret summon. Egypt stared at the spot where Able stood before he disappeared for a moment, then slowly turned to Zacharias.

'What are my objectives again?'

'Kidnap Gabriel'

The demon's voice was nonchalant. Egypt stared at him silently, her eyes wide.
For the last five years she stayed in the Khajuraho's temples with Able under Zacharias's orders.
Able's mission was to kill the remaining hidden guardians with the help of a garrison of reapers Zacharias provided. Her mission was to remain hidden until further instructions.
Now five years later, she was finally recruited. The war has begun, he told her. But the orders she was given were nothing like she had in mind.

'What?'

Her voice angry, Egypt asked.

'New instructions came in, following up on dear Able's failure. The orders are Gabriel to be kidnapped and sent to the general by yours truly in person. I need you to capture him alive'

'So what am I supposed to do exactly?' she asked 'Sneak in and kidnap Gabriel in his sleep? You know me Zacharias I do not do stealth'

'I will tell you the plan on the way to Palitana' Zacharias replied 'try to be patient, we move before sunrise'

`And why not kill him!' she said now, her voice rising, silvery and finally shrill. `You have no use for him. The general can get nothing from him! And he causes me pain. Zacharias he causes me pain which I will not abide!'

'Are we still talking about Gabriel?' Zacharias asked meaningfully

'Don’t play stupid with me. You knew all along didn’t you?' she said 'you knew Belial was alive'

'Not that I don’t trust you dear,' Zacharias replied 'I just had my reasons to hide it from you'

'What reasons?'

Zacharias laughed 'not exactly the patient type aren’t you Egypt'

Egypt was silent. Her thoughts streamed to Zacharias who let out a sigh. Her thoughts carried out decades of memories with the devil. The demon then took a sip of his whiskey before he placed his glass on the table.

'He is stronger than you. If you go after him now, he will kill you. Trust me'

'I killed him once'

'He was human, he was stupid…' Zacharias paused before he went on ' And he was unmotivated. He had no reason to fight you Egypt. Now Belial believes you are dead. But if you go at him, you expose yourself and destroy every chance you have to kill him'

Egypt looked at him with the most innocent astonishment. And he regarded her silently. Then Zacharias spoke very slowly

'Let me tell you Belial's story. Let me tell you all I know about the human who became the devil'

Chapter XII [ Vertigo ]

"Let us go back a thousand years. Somewhere on earth, a place unknown. All I know about that place is what I've seen in Belial's memories. Glimpses from a small country. A country torn by a series of long and violent civil wars.

And in that place, Belial was a mercenary, a fierce killer for hire most famous for his cruelty and cunning talent in taking life.
Kings and noblemen traveled to seek his assistance. Murder was his second nature.
In his time, Belial was the best assassin that ever lived.

When war had reached its pinnacle and began to tear apart his home village, Belial was drafted to join the army. The officers who recruited him asked him to carry out one task. A task they claimed that can end the war.
His mission was to infiltrate the rival village and assassinate the local priest.
His superiors told him that if the church falls, the entire city falls with it, thus ending the war.

It was natural for Belial to feel reluctant at first. For years he been used to an ad hoc lifestyle, improvised and unstable. Joining the army for a man with his way of life was a big commitment.

They say it was lady destiny that made Belial the mercenary take that mission, because his destiny was changed completely very soon after.

Belial traveled to the rival village and managed to break into the church. His plan was to stab the priest inside his chambers where he was least protected and most vulnerable.

He had seen it in his head over and over, and every time it was the perfect plan. All the elements fell into place.
The infiltration was successful. And Belial was minutes away from completing an easy job.
When the priest walked into the room, Belial hidden in the shadows clinched his knife and jumped out surprising him. But the priest wasn’t alone; he had a daughter who was sleep in the next room. And she walks in following her father's scream on a man holding a dagger to her father's throat. Only seconds before Belial was to take his life.

They say she was a virgin, a beautiful redhead with blue eyes and an hourglass figure.
She remained silent. Her gaze traveled between the assassin and her father. And a single tear ran down her rosy cheek.
She was the most beautiful thing Belial had ever laid his eyes on. They say it was then and there when the devil fell to his knees and confessed his sins to the priest, swearing that he was never to take life again if the priest could grant him forgiveness.

Shaken by the scene, the holy man sincerely thought that he just had witnessed a miracle. The priest promised Belial forgiveness, on the condition that the reformed mercenary remains in the priest's village and never returns to his sinful ways again"

As Zacharias went on with the story, Egypt remained silent. Her black hair fell forward in a curl against her cheek, her mind was open. And Zacharias followed her every thought with his eyes for a while. Finally he smiled

'I could go on with the story,' he said 'but the next part never made any sense, even to me'

'What do you mean?'

'I read Belial's memories more than once while we were back in hell, a very long time ago. And every time when I reach this point in the story it got incoherent.
Flashes of memories here and there, mixed with wails. Loud wails rise all around the memories when I read them. And I know that it was the most terrifying sound Belial had ever heard in his life. They were his own wails, his screams, echoing through the forest. I could feel it in me that he was screaming for blood, and screaming for forgiveness and release. Belial at that moment was longing, even for the fires of hell. But for hours he couldn’t stop screaming. He screamed until his wounds got the best of him and he fainted. The last I saw of that memory was him falling. A corpse lay before him, rotten and decayed. A woman, and from what I can gather, she was the priest's daughter'

'So a part of his memories was missing'

'And still missing. My bet is that even Belial does not remember exactly what happened to him back then'

'So why are you telling me this?'

'Because I can read minds Egypt' he said 'and I read yours the day you came to me asking to be a part of this war. And you did try, I will give you credit for that, but you could not hide your intentions. Hiding your thoughts from me is like screaming into a pillow. It helps, but you can only do it for so long before you are short of breath'

'I don’t know what you are talking about' Egypt's voice was shaken. She tried to stand up and walk farther from Zacharias. His hand was faster. He grabbed her and pulled her to him. His eyes locked on hers, Egypt could smell the whiskey in his breath. Then she felt a strange sensation run through her body. She felt the entire room twirl and move under her feet. Her vision blurred, and all she could hear was Zacharias telling her

'I found the missing memory portions from Belial, in your mind Egypt. And I will use them to kill him. Firstly I need you to kidnap Gabriel for the general. And if you try to hide anything else from me, I will kill you too'

Chapter XIII [ Vortex ] Part one


"We are who we protect"

Satan told me that once, but the part where it happened comes a little bit later in the story.
I mention it here because in retrospect I never understood the meaning of the words at the time. But now looking back at that night at the Palitana church, it makes complete sense.

Our destiny and who we become in life is said to be linked to a moment. It is a special, memorable and defining moment that holds the power to forge your legacy, and your true way of life.
But to me, that entire day seems to have defined my life, and my legacy. No matter how hard I try to find one special moment in it. I find that they all were special. They all made me the devil that I am today.

It all began when Achiri told us to abandon the building. I knew she must have heard or seen something I did not. The sound of the crows above us was riotous. As I listened closely, I heard it fading away. The birds were flying from the roof of the church. I remembered the scene on our way here. Listening closely, I searched the sound for any threat. But I couldn’t sense peril in the cry of the birds.
I figured the birds made that noise out of panic. Crows shriek when attacked to scare their enemies. Something scared them off. Something in the near distance and Achiri must have sensed it.

'Belial we must leave this place or we will die'

Something started her. I couldn’t remember the last time I've seen Achiri so anxious. I knew this because she didn’t even take the time to explain it to me or Gabriel any further. She ran towards the stairs and down, shouting for us over and over to leave the place. Gabriel was right behind her, and I followed. Then at the church entrance, she halted her escape. Her eyes locked to the skies.

'What is it?'

Gabriel asked me. We stood outside the building searching the surrounding with a careful scan. We were soaking wet because of the rain. And the rain was heavy which made it all the more difficult for us to see anything. The sky above was black, except for the flashes of thunder that would light the vista but only for an instant, revealing the heavy clouds roaming above us. And the lotus tomb stones of the guardian graves before us.

The tree line of the forest ahead was visible from where we stood. The trees were black delineates to the vastness of the Palitana, against a gray background of more woodland to the fore. Still, I could not see nor sense anything out of the ordinary. The last crow was far away from this place by now.

'There'

Achiri stretched her arm, and pointed towards a spot in the sky. When the thunder flashed again, I saw a black mass approaching the Palitana grounds right above the tree line. Like a big sinister cloud. Slowly spreading larger and larger, and slithering through the rain, closer to us.
The closer the mass got to us, the more I could recognize it as a large flock of birds. But those were no crows, I thought. They were much bigger.

'Demon birds' Achiri whispered 'in that number they could tear us to shreds in seconds. How can we escape this?'

Achiri was thinking out loud, and the thought did not rest well with Gabriel who raised both his arms and held his head between them. His eyes locked on the massive cloud of birds closing on us. We all did. It was a very hard sight to look away from.
The closer the birds became to us, the more out of the ordinary their formation was to me.
They seemed to have grown in numbers rapidly. I could tell they were in the thousands and still growing. Appearing out of no where, flying faster than any bird I've ever seen.

A lingering flash of lighting solved the mystery for me. I looked closely, and I saw something mortifying.

'The rain' I said looking at Achiri 'they are coming out of the rain'

It was then when I realized that this was the work of a powerful demon. As I watched rain drops descend from the skies and transform into large black demon eagles only seconds later, I knew this demon was far more powerful than Able. This was black magic. Fulminato they called it in ancient times.

Suddenly I thought of something Able told me when I saw him in the forest earlier. He told me that in all probability, my lack of knowledge about this war was for the better. My first thought was now that I knew, he wanted to kill me. But no, at this level of power, there was much more to it.
Able was a mere puppet whose strings were pulled by someone else. And not only that, me and Gabriel summoned by a group of student guardians, the death of the elder guardians, the writings on the wall, Mustafa. It was all connected to something that is beyond my understanding. As if something was missing. A piece that is right before my eyes that would link it all together but I cannot see it.

'What on earth is going on here?' I said.

'Belial !' Achiri's voice pulled me back from my thoughts. I looked at her. Her thick hair was wet and clinging to her neck and shoulders. 'We have to make the rain stop. That is the only way we can hamper their growth. If we did that, we could buy some time until we find who is controlling them. He has to be near by, this is Fulminato'

'That is exactly what I was thinking' I told her. How I was impressed by her fast conclusion was evident in my voice. She saw it and I think it calmed her down a bit because she exhaled nervously. I paused for a second before I went on 'We will create a distraction. I and Gabriel will head towards the tree line. Most of the birds will follow us; we are not faster than you but we are easier to spot. You take care of the rain'

'Belial…I need to tell you…'

I cut her off before she could finish. I knew that whatever she wanted to tell me was about her powers and why she didn’t use them on the tigers earlier. I didn’t want to hear it, not at that time. All my years as a warrior I learned that hesitation could cost a man his life. One second is all it takes. I knew what she was capable of, and that was all I wanted to focus on. I didn’t want to give her that second of uncertainty.

'The only way we are getting out of here is to blow those clouds away. You can do this, I know you can do this'

'Belial this could be dangerous' Gabriel told me 'And it sounds impossible. How can she stop the rain'

'True power is seldom thought of as potential right before it shines' I told Achiri 'I've seen you do more than that. You control your powers, they never control you'

I had the eeriest feeling then as I could see the mist rising amongst the dark gray trees.
The air was cold and the rain seemed a bit lighter above us. The birds were here and had begun their attack. The sound of their heavy wings was near. Achiri looked at me for a long moment, and then she gave me a soft nod.
I then looked at Gabriel. He was the one I really would worry about in a situation like this. Gabriel wasn’t a fighter. If we were to make it to the tree line, I had to make sure that he was safe.

'This is a demon we are fighting Gabbi, a very strong one. It is hiding somewhere near, so we will head to the tree line and find it. But we must never stop until we reach that tree line, because I will need you there with me when I fight it. I need you near, so stopping in the open space is not an option, it will only make us easy prey for those birds do you understand'

'Yes'

'Go' Achiri told me. She smiled. I knew that smile very well. It was a "do not worry about me" smile 'we are running out of time'

And in moments, we were running through the mango trees. I knew if we made it pass the church courts and the guardian graves, then we would have a real chance at reaching the forest tree line and distracting the birds from Achiri. Gabriel ran just a few steps ahead of me where I could keep an eye on him. His wet coat gleaming against the now more rapid thunder flashes. We ran fast, so fast that he became a shifting shape traveling on the wind like a ghost sent scurrying along a passage, trying to gain the wind all the while and truly take flight.
Watching him run like he did, I felt relieved. He was stronger than I thought, surprisingly stronger. And I felt confident to run a little faster myself beside him.

Behind us now at the gate, Achiri watched the birds change their direction as they noticed the two figures running through the courtyard. As the birds changed formation, she saw a sliver of moon light cut through the thick black mass above and light the grounds. It was an opening and she had to take it.
Gathering up her cards, her small wet fingers struggled to make a neat pack of them and then to shuffle them. Achiri threw the shuffled cards in the air, and they floated around just like that one blank card did inside the church, and the cards aligned in a perfect circle around her and began to rotate.

'Here it goes'

She bent down so that one knee touched the damp grass, and then she jumped. A jump so great, that it lifted her body from the ground and took the demon soaring into the black sky and above the thick clouds. Her cards were still floating around her in a perfect circular motion. Achiri looked down and she could see the swarm of glistening wings below her now.

Chapter XIII [ Vortex ] Part Two
Arc Finale


It’s a very wide misconception that demons can bend the rules of earth and its physical realm, we cannot. In fact most demons are more similar to human beings than you can imagine, except for a few rare occasions of course.
But the difference that separates a demon's physical form from a human's is in our material built I can say. Demons are stronger than humans; they are built to endure hell, to live long and to have abilities they can use to create the illusion of what is known as the paranormal.

It's from that added strength that lore depicted us as gods. But in the end, as long as we are on earth, we abide by its rules.

That said, Achiri had less than a minute to come up with a perfectly natural way to create an ultimate illusion. She had to trick earth itself into changing its natural course of things. To stop the birds attacking, the rain had to stop somehow. Her first thought was to move the rain cloud away, or better yet demolish it from the skies above the Palitana. But how can she move the clouds and the birds away?

'A tornado' she thought 'I have to create a tornado'

A know fact about earth and its atmosphere that the fluid pressure in a vortex is lowest in the center where the speed is greatest, and rises progressively with distance from the center. With such speed at the center of the vortex, it can draw in its surrounding and trap it in circular motion until the center loses its speed.
A tornado with a powerful vortex as its engine can create a column of air strong enough to pull its immediate surrounding inside it, and maintain contact with the ground thus trapping the movement of anything it draws into violent circular motion.

One look at the thousands of black wings below her, Achiri knew that she had to create a whirlpool strong enough to vacuum the rain clouds and contain the hell birds.
With her arms to each side, the cards around her began to move away creating a wider circle with the demon as its core.

'Disperse'

She said and began to spin. Her body moved fast around it self, and the cards scattered further, rotating at a matching speed consequently widening the tornado's range. The velocity field created by Achiri and the Tarot cards initiated the false impression of a wind vortex above the clouds. A vast glow surge emancipated from the cards, and a massive sphere of light was now visible above the Palitana temples. With Achiri in its center, she could see the birds below inside the vortex losing balance. The flight pattern of the demon birds began to change into a wide swirl, and by then all she had to do was increase her speed until the cloud and the birds are completely sucked into her whirlpool. If successful, she would cease control over the rain from the demon, thus stopping it from creating more birds out of rain drops.

Achiri would have control over the cloud itself.
Secretly she hoped that Belial and Gabriel would have better luck finding the demon first. Her plan should work in theory, but Achiri didn’t know if she had the power or the stamina to control such a large cloud for long. In the end Earth and her rules were far more powerful than any demon. The minute Achiri stops spinning the tornado, gravity would take over and everything will literally spin out of control.

Below, Gabriel and I sprinted towards the tree line. Moon light illuminated the way for us now as most of the birds were trapped inside the tornado.
The rain was lighter. A mere drizzle compared to before. I must have slowed down when I noticed this, because when I looked back at Gabriel he had already passed the guardian graveyard to my right, and I was just entering it.

The smell of the lotus blooms filled my nostrils. And the thought of running over buried guardians troubled me. But I had no choice. At the speed I was in, taking a different route now could confuse Gabriel to a stop, or worse leave us both vulnerable to the demon attacking us.
So I ran through the lotus blooms as fast as I could. My eyes focused on the looming tree line. But then a massive force pulled me down and I fell face first inside the lotus graveyard. Something hard was clutched on my leg and forced me to lose balance. At first I thought I must have tripped over a branch hidden beneath the blossoms. But the thing seizing my leg was harder than a branch.
I tried to pull with all my strength and after a struggle I managed to drag out what was holding me. It was the remains of a human hand.
My pull was hard enough to detach it from its body. As I stood up, before my eyes was something horrible. I was surrounded by ten or more guardians. Their skin was thick, wrinkled, and so white that all the tiny veins showed through it. I gasped, but I could not take my eyes off the scene. Some of the bodies were decayed more than others. The shape of the bones began to show through portions of dry skin. The lips were drawn back from the teeth; the flesh of the nose had dried up to two gaping holes. But the eyes, they all remained the same, staring wildly at me.

'Belial' Gabriel shouted 'Belial get out of there'

'Don’t stop' I answered him 'You can still make it to the tree line. I will catch up with you'

But Gabriel couldn’t move. He watched as the guardians pulled out their swords and began to approach me. At that moment, I thought that they buried guardians in full uniform and with their swords as tradition. But later I learned that those guardians were massacred in their temple, and buried beneath it as it collapsed with everything they owned.
The robes were tattered and soaked with mud over the skeleton that remained. They still wore their bead strings. They must have died during prayer.
I tried to escape, but all around me were those walking dead with their weapons gleaming in the rain. They all were trying to speak, but their insides were too decayed for their vocal cords to still function. Instead of words all that came out were horrible gasping sounds; and they sounded all the more terrifying in the cold night's wind.

Then one with a great mass of wavy blond hair attacked me. I tried to dodge his attack, but more hard human bones shot out of the wet ground and grabbed my other leg. Soon, my arms and my jacket were restrained as well. And I fell to my knees, completely bound in human bone manacles.
Unable to move, the guardian with the blond hair stabbed my shoulder with his sword; then I felt another blade pierce my chest, and another and another.
I screamed. The pain was unbearable even for a demon. And I saw Gabriel running towards me calling my name. He pulled out his hour glass and I saw it transform in the moonlight into a magnificent glass scythe. Another flash of lighting lit the sky behind him. And I saw a large bird gliding slowly outside of the forest and towards the ground. This bird was different in size. So big that I could have sworn there was someone on its back. My vision was blurry because of all the stab wounds. I thought I was hallucinating, but I my eyes fell on a woman. She had beautiful black hair and eyes lined in kohl. .

Although Gabriel was fast, but the bird was faster behind him, rapidly gaining speed. He couldn’t see it nor hear it over the vortex and the twirling wind. I couldn’t warn him. My voice was weak and faint amidst the screams of the walking dead.
At that moment I knew I was dying. I was the devil in a human body. My body would regenerate faster than a human, but the steel was inside my organs preventing my wounds from closing up. The only thing keeping me conscious was the pain.

Before he could reach me, the bird fell over him and contained his movement with its claws. Gabriel was also trapped motionless, silent. The glass scythe fell in the mud beside him, and the woman climbed down off the bird and picked it up.

'You pathetic fool' She screamed at me 'I should kill you now while I have the chance'

'Who are you?' I asked. The guardians stood around me with their swords lodged in my flesh. I knew they didn’t want to kill me, they only meant to keep me from moving while the demon was in front of me 'Why are you doing this'
Egypt smiled and didn’t answer. She enjoyed the fact that I had no memory of her at all. She then brushed the bird's head with her free hand. Her hair blowing behind her in the night sky she seemed much more like a goddess than a demon; a vision of Isis and her son Horus. But from her aura I knew she was a demon, a powerful one.

'I am your devil Belial' I yelled at her ' What do you want with me?'

'Such arrogance,' she said carelessly 'To think that I am here for you'

I immediately looked at Gabriel. Then I looked up at the tornado. Achiri was successful to contain all the birds inside of it. The black mass was now shaped into a huge cyclone of feathers, water and rain clouds. So big that it began to consume it's surrounding. It was a strange scene. The clouds inside the vortex were still full of water and raining birds, and the vortex was growing in size because of it. The church that was right beneath the vortex began to crumble because of the effect. Large portions of rock from the walls and the ceiling flew upwards and inside the whirlpool.

'I am here for death'

Above the clouds, Achiri began to slow down her spin. She was exhausted, and at the verge of her strength. But she still had one task to do. She had to destroy all the demon birds while they were trapped inside the whirlpool.

She glided down to the center of the vortex. All around her were the birds, desperately trying to break lose of the spinning mass and attack her. The lumps of brick from the church walls tore their way up, destroying everything in their path. She had to maneuver her glide down and around the flying wreckage, barley missing a few lethal hits. She then spread the cards around her again, this time as a protection circle from the rocks and took in a deep breath. Achiri held her breath until she felt it burn inside her chest and then let it out at the center of the wind pool.
As a demon, she had the ability to produce flames. Dragon breath I used to call it. And the fire soon caught on the millions of feathers that circled around her.

The fire grew because of the blowing wind and evaporated the rain cloud and the birds. The tornado lost its speed, and Achiri felt gravity take control all around her. The vortex has ended, and she along with the debris has begun to fall towards the hard ground.
A large heavy rock with red writings on it shot past her with a loud screeching sound, and she managed to grab onto it. She felt the air pressure around her ears like a great weight pushing against her brain. She felt the unbearable heat of the rock under her palms. Her dragon breath has turned the debris into firestone. But the fire was the one thing she could endure. Ever since she was in hell, fire has never damaged her in any way.
Falling inside a smoke cloud, she saw the rocks all around her. The closer she got to the ground, the clearer was her surrounding. Through the smoke, she saw a blurred image of me with five long swords wedged in my flesh. She saw skeletons standing over me, and she saw a rain of firestones falling all over the place.

'Make no mistake I was ordered to spare your life' Egypt told me 'that is the only reason you are still breathing'

'I will find you,' I hissed 'and I will rip you apart if you touch one hair on his head'

In her hand was Gabriel's scythe. And behind her was Achiri's whirl of flames. Thousands of burnt birds were falling from the sky. The church was being crushed under the rain of blistering rocks. For a second, the Palitana temples to me were very similar to a place called hell.

In seconds the church blazed as it might have with the light of day, and the whole frame of it seemed to creak and groan as the fire roared up the walls.
The vortex threw the firestones all around us. And the bird seemed uneasy as the heat and the rocks fell more intensely around it. The bird then began to spread its wings and ready to take flight. Gabriel lay motionless, even as the bird began to elevate from the ground. Held from the waist inside the falcon's claw, his hands to his sides, his head buried in his chest.

'Time for us to leave devil'

I saw the falcon fly away, and I rallied against my capture's grip. I tried to pull on some reserve of strength. I tried to call Gabriel's name, but I couldn’t even breathe anymore. The more I moved, the more the guardians shove their blades inside my flesh.
Suddenly a loud sputtering sound filled my ears. And in the corner of my eye I could see a large firry rock falling right on top of me. The rock was big enough to crush me and the guardians if it landed. I closed my eyes, knowing that I was going to die here and now. But then a heap of red hair swooped in and pulled me out of the guardians grip. The rock had landed with a massive rumbling sound, and I fell only inches away from it. A great curtain of pain dropped where the swords were, and by my side was my Achiri. In her hand she held two out of the five guardian swords.

'Are you ok' she asked.

On her way down, Achiri had to jump from one flaming boulder to the next in an attempt to smoothen her fall. If a rock was large enough, she ran through it as it fell and then jumped to the nearest to it. If it was small, she used the Tarot cards as an air glider, and the air flow around her to steer it through. Then she saw the boulder falling on top of me. So she jumped off her glider and fell only a few meters from where I was. And she ran. Her cards flew in front of her and acted as a padding to slow down the rock just a second so she could reach beneath it and pull me out. And she did. She saved my life.

'You just saved my life didn't you?'

'Now we are even,' she said panting 'are you sure you are ok pretty boy?'

I looked at the stab wounds and they were already healing. I saw the skin on my shoulder close. Nothing but the blood on the surface remained

'I'll be fine'

'It was all a trick wasn’t' she said 'I saw the bird, they wanted Gabriel all along'

I looked at her for a long moment. And I kissed her on the cheek. The flames throwing red shadows into her exhausted face she never seemed more beautiful to me.
We were both out of breath, but we stood up and looked at the sky. Gabriel was gone. The entire forest was up in flames, and the sun was just on the horizon, declaring the start of a new day. Finally, that Valentines Day has come to an end.

'Its almost dawn' I whispered 'you have to go to Mustafa's place'

'But we have to find Gabriel'

'No Achiri,' I told her firmly 'It was a mistake to put you in such danger. This demon knew us, and she could have killed us both. I will not go after her until we know what exactly we are dealing with. The answers are with Mustafa. He asked for you on his death bed, and you must go see what he had to show you there. You can still make it to Pune city before dawn'

'And you' she asked me 'aren't you coming with me?'

'No' I whispered 'First I have to search the forest. There could be humans who got hurt during all this. Then I am going to the black castle'

'You are going to see Satan'

'The two of us alone won't stand a chance against that demon. We need some help of our own if we want to bring Gabriel back. I will go ask guidance from her. But I will be back soon; an hour in hell is only a minute here. I will be with you in Pune city before you know it'

She shook her head at first, and then she looked at me again with those pleading eyes.
She had so much to say to me, but she remained silent.

'You wanted to tell me something earlier' I said 'at the church gate before all this'

'It's not important anymore,' she whispered and threw her little arms around me. We hugged silently for a moment and then she said very softly
'Just be careful, and come back to me big brother'




End of Arc One

Chronicles of the Lotus - Pune :: 7 ::

Chapter VII [ Blindness ]

In my eye she was still that innocent young woman walking the scorching back allies of hell. All around her were humans, hung from the fiery chains, tortured, torn and burnt to a brittle.

Some of them would cry out to her for help. And she cries back endlessly in wonder. She was helpless, human, and in hell. a young woman, unable to reach the condemned or free them from their eternal chains. All she could do was try, fail and then watch them burn.

She was different, she knew that much. She wasn’t a demon like the rest of us there. Still she walked the blistering floors of hell and felt no pain. Even more, demons wouldn’t approach her at all.

The screams of the tortured souls had driven her half to madness when I found her.

'Help me' she said to me 'Please help me'

She walked for years until she reached the grounds of the black palace. The gates stood high between us. I was walking down the steps and towards the gates when I saw her dark outline against the burning sky. A silhouette she was, and the glint of light in her eyes caught my attention. Then she moved closer and I saw her more clearly on the other side of the gate. Her clothe had burnt off her body, yet her skin was perfect. Her face was stained with tears, tears that were tinted with blood. And it made her all the more beautiful to me.

It was the blood of the men and women she tried to free off their manacles. Her eyes brimmed, and the faint touch of dark red stained her tiny hands. She didn't seem to be conscious of this, to see it. She shook the gates and called out again and again. Then she saw me walk towards her, and she pushed her beautiful thick red hair back from her forehead. Her body quivered with a long, low, pleading sob. Then she said

'Please, help me'


Now here we are, centuries later from when we first met. Gabriel and I had traveled all the way from Pune city to find her in the grip of a demon.

'Achiri are you alright?' I asked her. I hadn’t seen her in years. In Abel's grip she looked at me and mumbled something incoherent. Gabriel wanted to charge and attack the demon, but I stopped him

'Wait'

'He is going to kill her' Gabriel said. His hand already inside his robe to draw his weapon 'She needs help'

'Have you ever killed a demon before' I asked him. My eyes locked on Able and the girl. Gabriel hesitated for an instant before he answered in a low voice, almost ashamed.

'No'

'Then wait' I said 'He is a lot faster than you are, he'd kill her before you reach them'

'Belial' Able shouted 'welcome to the party my old friend'

Achiri had stopped struggling almost completely. She was dying. Gabriel beside me grew restless. I knew that if he lost control and attacked Able, things would become far more dangerous. I knew Able well enough to understand what he was capable of. To rush into a fight with him was a very bad idea.

'Why are you doing this?' I asked him 'You are an artist Able, killing your own kind isn’t like you at all'

I kept my voice as calm and nonchalant as I could. I shut my mind completely. My hands rested on my sides where he could see them, and I focused all my perception on Achiri. She was still breathing, barley.

'We all feared this would happen sooner or later Belial. We'd turn like them, killing our own'

Behind him, I saw a flock of ten large tigers walk towards us. Ten more came from every direction. We were surrounded by a small army of animals. Gabriel was shaken, but I knew exactly what Able was trying to do.

'He is trying to scare us, do not let him read your thoughts' I whispered to Gabriel and he nodded.

'But I know better than that. We are at war, and I only came here to recruit your little red head friend,' Able went on 'sadly, not only did she refuse my offer, but it turned out she is much weaker than what I've been told. She fights like a human'

'Recruit her?' Gabriel asked 'what on earth are you talking about?'

'You know exactly what I am talking about,' Able hissed 'you met the last guardian have you not? I am sure he blabbed on and on about Atoka and his "diary"'

'How did you know about our meeting with the guardian' I asked the demon. And he smiled

'A summon was used with your names written all over it,' he said 'only a man like Mustafa was able to pull something like that. And you know word travels fast in my circles Belial. I even bet that his torn up old soul was the one who told you to come find the red head. That she has all the answers. In one way or another, we are both here for the very same reason'


'You killed him?' Gabriel said 'a demon killed the last guardian?'

'You thought it was the civilians?' Able said 'no, this is far beyond that my friend. We want that book destroyed more than they ever did. We been working on this forever now, and finally the chain is broken. Now all we need is to find the book. And a little bird told me that Achiri here knows where the book is'

'Why' I asked 'why destroy the book?'

'Let's just say the survival of the demon race depends on it'

'The survival of the demon race depends on humanity's good not our evil. The destruction of the book is not the answer'

'Seems like it to the higher ups'

'What are you talking about?' I said. Able didn’t need to read my mind to know that I had no idea whatsoever about this war he was talking about. From what Mustafa told us, we assumed that it was the civilians who were killing the guardians. He smiled. It was a sinister demonic smile and to my surprise he let go of Achiri. She fell beside him on the floor coughing and gasping violently and the tigers growled softly. As if they knew this was the creature that killed their brother

'You really don’t know what this is about?' he said and broke into a hysterical laugh. His voice amidst the animal growls was terrifying 'heavens this is precious. The devil doesn't know'

'What the hell is going on' Gabriel whispered. I couldn’t answer him. I waited for Able to speak

'Demons are on the verge of extension Belial. And not like the good lord intended, no. Jesus isn’t coming down wearing his bloody robes just yet. We are dying ahead of schedule because of humans and what they have become. On your watch, and you are playing bunk buddies with population control here'

'You little…' Gabriel hissed under his breath

'Do you know why the guardians summoned you dumbass' Able directed his words to Gabriel now 'it's because all the guardian's deaths were carried out by reapers. A garrison was deployed especially for collecting guardian souls. Someone very powerful worked very hard to hide the continuous and odd murders of spiritual men from death itself. You never wondered how all those men and women were dying right under your nose and you didn’t know about it? Didn’t it strike you as odd when Mustafa told you the story?'

'That’s not possible' I said 'who would do something like that'

'Someone who knows that reapers have limited powers,' Able said 'someone who knows that reapers can elevate souls but they cannot grant special requests. They cannot create Watsura, therefore, no guardian souls wandering around talking about how they were shredded to pieces by a demon. As long as death didn’t know about it, it remains on earth. The deaths are recorded as natural horrific man on man slaughter. Look, it already started. This realm and its "dominant inhabitants" are out of order and are no longer your problem. It’s a job, nothing personal. We were instructed to kill the guardians, and destroy the book. Just stay out of our way and you wont get hurt Belial. I would really hate it if we had to fight'

'I can't promise you that' I said 'I will stand in your way until I know what exactly is going on here'

'Like I said,' Able said 'it's just a job. The fact that you didn’t know about it in all probability was for the best'

Then in the blink of an eye, Able was gone…

Blog Update - March 18th 09

People hate it when I do this; take a long break and half way through it I say that I will be taking a long break. Thing is, I keep telling myself that I will find some time to write soon and I never do. So an announcement was in order and here we are…

I will be taking a little break, call it a hiatus, but I will be back very soon with loads of movie reviews.
The lotus will go on; I will post the weekly chapter every Friday. The hiatus will only affect the reviews and other random crap I pull

Much love

Badri

Chronicles of the Lotus - Pune :: 6 ::

Chapter VI [ True strength ]

Thirteen years ago, a younger Mustafa sat in his temple quarters in Hyderabad. He had an open book in his right hand, and a cup of steaming tea beside him on a small knee-high stall. In front of him sat Achiri. Her beautiful blue eyes stared at the guardian's face full of anticipation. Mustafa picked up his tea, and took a sip.
He looked at the creature before him and smiled.
He smiled at the fine symmetry of her almost masklike face. She wore a guardian's robe, a flowing gown of green wool with a high neck and full sleeves. A lovely garment really. It made her face seem all the more radiant and detached from everything around it, a perfect mask with the light behind it, glowing in a frame of beautiful curly red hair.
But there was a great deal more to marvel at than these simple attributes. Attributes which the beautiful demon might have possessed in one form or another six hundred years ago, back to the era when she was human. Mustaf smiled at just how much human she still was. The woman's vigor in her that survived astonished him the most. Through her eyes, he could see a passion to serve humans with all her might. In more than a few ways, Mustafa always considered it to be the reason she came to him. Or even better, the reason the universe intended for them to meet.

'Tell me more about the guardians' she asked 'I wan to know everything'

Mustafa slowly put down his tea and picked up the book again.

'What do you want to know about the guardians?' he asked her 'for the last week I have been telling you almost everything. I told you all about the book of Atoka, I told you all about the brethren'

Achiri reached her hand and touched a string of beads that was on the stall next to his tea. The beads had a symbol consisting of three perfect intertwined circles engraved on it.

'These symbols' she said 'every single bead has one carved on it. What does it mean?'

'It is a symbol of the unity of body, mind and spirit,' Mustafa went on to explain 'the symbol is of universal significance - it is found throughout history and all over the world. It was popularized early in this century by the Russian-born artist, philosopher and scientist Nicholas Roerich. It can be interpreted in many different senses: spirit/mind/body in a circle of synthesis; past/present/future enclosed in the ring of eternity; art/science/religion bound in a circle of culture. It was the perfect symbol for the guardians to adopt and make their own. It's even on the robe I gave you, hidden on the inside'

Achiri pulled her robe and looked at the three circles inside. Unnoticeable, they had the same color as the robe itself, but if you look hard enough you could see that the symbol was the same as on the beads.

'We later discovered that the oldest of Indian symbols, Chintamani, the sign of happiness, is composed of this symbol and it can be found in the Temple of Heaven in Beijing. It appears in the Three Treasures of Tibet; on the breast of the Christ in Memling’s famous painting; on the Madonna of Strasbourg; on the shields of the Crusaders and coat of arms of the Templars. It can be seen on the blades of the famous Caucasian swords called "Gurda" and on the swords of Japanese nobility.
It appears as a symbol in several philosophical systems. It can be discovered on the images of Gessar Khan and Rigden Djapo; on the "Tamga" of Timurlane and on the coat of arms of the Popes. It can be seen in the works of ancient Spanish painters and of Titian, and on the ancient ikon of St. Nicholas in Bari and that of St. Sergius and the Holy Trinity. It appears on the coat of arms of the city of Samarkand, on Ethiopian and Coptic antiquities, on the rocks of Mongolia, on Tibetan rings, on Buddhist banners, on the breast ornaments of all the Himalayan countries, and on the pottery of the Neolithic age.
The symbol of the triad or trinity has existed over immeasurable time and throughout the world. It can be understood as a key to the integrity and interdependence of all existence. As you might have noticed, what the symbol had incommon with all these concepts was the number three. Furthermore, Atoka's journey was for thirty years. The guardians have two students each, that’s three guardians in total '

'That is amazing'

'Not just yet,' Mustafa's eyes lit up as he continued 'The angelic beings, or celestial intelligences, are divided into three triads, containing the nine orders, and whose names represent the divine attributes that they manifest to all below them. These divine attributes also have an inner relation with every human soul, for through their ministrations the aspiring soul becomes liberated from the bondage of material things, receives knowledge of that soul's purpose, and is enabled to witness what is beyond this world'

'By this world you mean earth'

Mustafa paused for a long interval. His eyes searched Achiri's face. He seemed as if he was trying to find the right words

'Life Achiri, this realm we call earth,' he started 'is much like a woman. Mysterious, complex and imperfect, always'

'Imperfect?' Achiri said with a slight snarl

'Yes, but her imperfection comes for a very important reason. Her imperfection invites only those whom are not limited by the obvious. It invites those whom search for the beauty within, until it overwhelms everything else that is on the surface. Only when her inner beauty is all that is important, she opens up her true potential, her real splendor. And she envelops you in it, the seeker for true beauty that is. And it is what truly defines humanity my child, this ability to search for good in all the bad places'

Achiri looks away, distant and thoughtful

'Men like Atoka were an example of the level of goodness humanity can achieve. Atoka searched the earth for her true beauty and he found it. Not only that, this realm embraced his longing for truth and enveloped him in knowledge. Her most precious gift'

The young demon stood up and took off her robe.

'I must go now'

'Will you be back tomorrow?' Mustafa asked smiling 'I can't enjoy my tea anymore unless you keep me company'

'I am closing in on a siren. I've located her somewhere in Pune city. I will come see you when I am finished with her'

'You don’t have to kill every last one of them Achiri' Mustafa told the demon, his voice gentle and concerned

'Humans out of curiously maybe, try all these demon summoning spells' Achiri said and put on her belt ' and sometimes they work, but not the way humans want them to.
Humans always wish to summon the devil. Thinking that the devil will give them power, money, or whatever worldly stupid thing they have in mind. But all a spell does is open the gates of hell just a little. What they don’t know is to successfully summon a particular demon, it doesn't really matter how long you call for him. He hears you. Demons hear and see humans all the time Mustafa, but he will never pass to this realm unless two crucial conditions are fulfilled'

'Conditions'

Achiri nodded

'You must have something the demon wants, that’s one. And most importantly the demon's passage must be approved by the higher ups. A human body must be secured for that demon to possess when he arrives on earth. It’s a very long process, made by hell interestingly enough for the protection of humans. So what happens when low life humans cast summon spells, is they just open the gates a little bit and Rakshasas like the little rug rats they are, run out of it and into earth. Small savage and unintelligent demons, who know nothing better than to kill and shred humans to pieces, fill this world everyday because of stupid humans. The first thing they do is they kill the human who cast the spell, and then they move on to other humans. The Achiri's job is to kill those little hellions. That’s what I been doing for a very long time Mustafa and it never stops. It's terrible enough as it is, so no I do have to kill every last one I can find'


It was thirteen years ago when she left the temple and headed towards Pune.

Now, the tigers sat lazily at their master's feet, growling with their mouths half open. Their golden green eyes locked on Achiri who stood frozen, staring at the face before her. A face she hadn’t seen in some time now. He was a lot younger than she remembered, but it was his face. It was Mustafa the guardian.

A thousand different emotions ran through her like small needles. Achiri fought an urge to dash towards the creature and rip him to shreds. Whatever logic she sensed in what this Able told her was now gone. The demon before her killed Mustafa, and he had to die for it.

'This body caught your attention?' Able sneered 'Yes it's your old friend Mustafa. He opposed us Achiri. I offered him a deal and he turned me down. He did what all those guardians did. He refused to listen to reason. So they had to die in order for us to stop this endless cycle of madness' the demon paused 'And he told me so much about you right before I cleaved him to pieces.'

'No,' Achiri went on in a low voice 'that’s not it you got me all wrong here'

'What?'

'What really caught me attention is that you are a lot uglier than I imagined. I can see your true form behind that body. You look exactly like you smell right now. Foul'

'Bring her to me, alive' the creature shouted to the tigers and they moved instantly.

The moment she saw the animals move, and with incredible strength, Achiri pulled out a large sharp lump of wood from the window frame and plunged it deep into the nearest of the two large cats.
The cat fell on her, and with her back against the window frame she struggled to move from underneath the animal as quick as she could so she won't lose balance. Behind her now, the tiger lay dead on the window with half its body outside. Achiri pulled out the wooden lump from the animal's throat, and then fell back inside the room. Her face and body were covered in the animal's blood.
She expected another attack, but to her surprise the other tiger, as if stricken by an invisible power, retreated wailing to his master.

‘You killed my tiger’ Able screamed in a rounder, deeper voice. ‘Don’t let her escape. I don’t care if he wants you alive, I will kill you for this’

'Ok now we are talking'

Fighting inside the church was futile, Achiri knew that much. She also knew if she was going to escape, she had to kill the other cat. Either way she had to make that jump. Her chances looked a lot better in the open grounds outside.

Without delay Achiri turned towards the window. She pushed the dead tiger out the rail and jumped behind it using its corpse to soften her fall.
Landing on the grass outside, she rolled once on her side and then stood up covered in sweat and blood. The young girl quickly glanced over her shoulder and she saw the second tiger streaking straight towards her. Looking the other way, Achiri saw three more giant white tigers coming on in a line with the demon walking slowly behind them.

‘There is no escaping this,' Able shouted 'stop wasting my time’.

Achiri broke into a run for the nearest structure she could see. It seemed she would make it easily before the animals reached her, but the fall made her movement harder, and the tigers were extremely fast on the thick grass. On her belt was nothing but a deck of Tarot cards and some dice. The knife was the only weapon she had.

Achiri ran hard for the next building. The building was another ruin much like the abandoned church. Her feet began to ache, her chest was burning.
She could hear the large animals closing behind her. She knew if she was ever going to survive this, she will need her knife. But the demon had her knife and there were five grown predators between them.

The young demon ran harder, and her feet slipped on the wet grass. Falling back down as the large cats closed in she scrambled on her feet and faced the animals. Looking the closest of the tigers straight in the eye, she spread her legs in the thick grass to anchor herself and made her hand into a fist. A strange rush ran over her body.

'Come on' she screamed

The nearest animal leaped towards her and buried his claws in her flesh. Achiri sent her fist against his face as powerfully as she could. With its nose broken, the tiger staggered for a second, and before the animal could turn again, she picked up a large rock. Bashing it into his face, a fount of blood gushed from between his eyes.

The pain of the claws on her flesh was unbearable, but Achiri knew that she had to kill one before she could focus on the other and carry on.
In the corner of her eye, she could see another two approaching her with the demon behind them. The wounded animal struggled under her press, and with another bash Achiri finally heard the bones shatter. Dark blood seeped out beneath his white fur, soaking into the grass.

The remaining three beasts growled mad and closed on her rapidly, and for a moment the great tower of the church behind them in the distance seemed to tilt, but then it righted itself. Achiri was fast losing consciousness.

'Stay focused'

The young Achiri stood up. With the rock in her hand she stared at the demon.

‘I just wanted to talk to you’ Able said in a low soft voice. The animals stopped and he walked pass them towards her. Achiri's grip tightened further on the stone.
The demon's mouth was drawn up in a wide smile. The distance between them was wide, but in the blink of an eye Able disappeared and Achiri felt its hands close on her wounded shoulders like things forged of metal. The stone fell beside her on the floor and she felt her body rise from the ground with excruciating pain
The tigers watched narrowly, sitting like trained dogs, structured by their master to not interfere unless he asks.
Achiri frantically tried to break loose and felt nothing but that soft white skin sliding under her fingers and maybe once or twice the demon's fine black hair. The smell was so overwhelming Achiri couldn’t breathe.
Mustafa's face was gone now, replaced by the Able's true form. Its eyes were magnificent, wide and dark with a strange mystical quality in them. And the lips were closed yet still smiling.

'Now will you listen to me?' Able hissed. Achiri was gradually giving in. she hadn’t the strength to struggle anymore. Her body began to relax unwillingly, her eyes were closing. It all began to fade to black…

'Let go of the girl Able'

The voice came from far behind the demon. Achiri barley heard it. Able turned and saw that all of his tigers were now dead. The animals lay on the grass drenched in two pools of blood. There between the dead tigers stood the two young men responsible for their deaths. One of them Able recognized at once. He was a young slender man with a short haircut and red sunglasses.

'Belial'

Chronicles of the Lotus - Pune :: 5 ::

Chapter V [ Achiri ]

The walls of that ancient church near the Palitana temples were full of mold and water leaks. A few broken wooden benches lay here and there, scattered across the wide area. The floor was so old weeds grew on it, completely covering it in a dark shade of green.
A shrine stood on the end of the hall, and a large statue of Christ lay face down on the floor before the shrine, broken in half from the waist.

'That is just sad' Achiri whispered

But the broken Jesus was not the amazing part. The writings on the walls of that church were beyond belief. They were strange senseless words in large letters, strung together making even more senseless sentences. All written in the most beautiful calligraphy Achiri had ever seen in her life.

"Demon, Devil, Human, Death, Reaper, God, Make, Take, Kill, Life, Shadow, Sex, Woman, Man, Love, Hate, Consciousness, Immortality, Hell"

More amazingly, the writing was all in red, blood red, with the closest resemblance in color to the actual fluid. As if someone killed something then took a large brush and painted the walls with its blood.

The scene was beautiful, yet horrifying.

This must have been a Christian church that hid a guardian temple near it at some point, Achiri thought.
And it was evident that no one had prayed in that place for a very long time.
Nonetheless, someone was here doing all that art work long after the church was abandoned. From the look of it, the writings were recent.

These writings are the work of someone who either has no fear of death he chose to stay behind and face the unknown. This person chose to stay and paint these walls after the death of this city and everyone abandoning it. Or on the other side, it could be the work of something that has to be feared in itself. It could be the work of someone who lurked in this place before the killings of the guardians ensued and long after. Unshaken or stirred by the event.

Achiri smiled at the idea. She though if Belial was here, he would have probably told her that it’s the same thing in concept. A human with no fear is something to be feared as well. A fearless human is no human after all, that is the most fundamental truth to Belial.

Just behind the shrine, she saw the remains of a semicircular aisle. It was a polygonal apse that curved around the northern wall of the building. Emerging from it were two Vironian sets of steps that led to the second floor of the church.

Curious about the peculiar gothic design, Achiri started towards the aisle.
She only had taken a few steps when she heard a faint shuffling sound. Like the sound of cloth dragging on the floor. She looked behind her.


At a distance, the moon light that slinked through the broken roof seemed to move upwards, etching the edges of a human like figure clearly, and then dying out before it reached the shoulders. The man's head was full of enormous hair, and it always remained hidden in the shadows. But she knew to some extent who he was, or what it was.

‘There you are' she called out to the creature. She then pulled out a small blade from her belt. The knife had a bone handle with a moon and a star on each side engraved on it. Achiri held it firmly and kept her eyes on the shadow 'I've been looking for you everywhere Mr.'

The shadow made a sound. It was a gentle and serene laugh, almost a hiss. Then it drew nearer and out of the shadows until Achiri saw clearly that it had a hood over its face. A massive clot of hair came out of a torn piece on the hood. And his upper body was naked inside a dirty robe. The robe was smeared in the same shade of red as the writings on the wall. And it wore a pair of ragged cloth pants, also drenched in red.

'Well you found me' he said 'now what? You are going to kill me?'

'That’s the general idea yes'

The creature laughed more audibly this time. He had white skin and some appalling smell coming from it, like the smell of moldering clothes in a damp room. The arms and the neck were also covered in writings, but in a lighter shade. They looked more like burns than paint.

'It has taken me a lifetime to learn how to draw like a child,' he whispered 'before you kill me as you promoted, I must know. Do you like my work'

'You did this'

'Ah, so you do like the art' he said 'I call it the house of silent screams. The thoughts that run through everyone's minds in their utmost basic form'

'You read minds'

'Oh yes,' Achiri could imagine him smiling under his hood as he spoke to her. In his voice was a tone of pleasure 'in some cases I can control them too. Works a lot better on humans though. Stupid, lifeless, and ungrateful, they are like open books. Their thoughts seep out of their bodies like poison and defile the atmosphere. And all it takes is a hint of prompting. You would be surprised what humans are capable of'

Achiri was stunned. She killed a few demons in her life and none was so articulate. Most of the minions she hunts barley spoke a few words. They are always savage creatures, who sprung from hell and just kill and possess random humans.
The man before her was most certainly the demon she sensed earlier and followed his trace here. All traces indicated that this was a Rakshasa that made these tracks. But the creature before her was nothing like a Rakshasa. Achiri couldn’t say a word. In her experience, when faced by the unfamiliar, just stay back and observe. She couldn’t help but think of Belial again. She strained to keep her thoughts to herself.

'You are Achiri aren’t you? I heard about you. You are the one who lurks in the shadows and hunts us down one by one. The infamous demon hunter. You are far more beautiful than what I imagined'

‘My reputation precedes me ' Achiri said smiling

'Oh don’t flatter yourself,' the demon said. Slowly walking towards Achiri now 'you are just a demon who kills her own kind. Even for a demon that is sick. You should be ashamed of yourself'

With her eyes fixed on the creature, Achiri tightened her grip on her knife. She wanted to wait. But if it got any closer, she will be forced to charge in and kill it. It drew closer, and the young woman mentally calculated the distance between them.

'Stay back' she told the demon. But it kept on walking towards her.

In seconds it will be close enough for a stab. A good clean wound in the middle of the heart should do the job, or at the least slow it down. But before she could make a move, something else stirred inside the church. She heard the wooden benches clutter. Achiri turned her gaze from the hooded figure to see two large white tigers emerge out of the ruins on both her sides, growling softly.

'Shit' she said and turned around 'you are a shape shifter'

‘Boys,' the creature spoke to the tigers 'I think our friend is about to run.’

Achiri was running in the opposite direction before the demon finished his sentence. She jumped over the shrine and sprinted the remaining distance until she reached the stairway.
Then she made her way up the stairs to the second floor. It was a decayed flat. A bed was on one corner, and a painting studio on the opposite side. Storerooms lay here and there. Empty and broken like the benches downstairs. Buckets filled and half filled with red paint were everywhere. This is where the pastors lived, she thought. The walls were painted with the same red writing. But on this floor, the writing was in Arabic and Brahmi, the script used during Emperor Ashoka's time around 300 BCE.
Achiri ran to the other side of the flat and looked out the window. Outside was nothing but a sheer drop of twenty some feet.

'Wonderful'

She turned back, panting. The stairs were the only way in and out of the place. She was trapped. And the large tigers appeared. Then the creature appeared behind them on the stairs entrance in cheerful steps. Its enormous hair moved with him as he bounced around. Achiri noticed that his feet were bare. His hands were behind his back.
The tigers let out a loud roar, then separated slowly to surround the young woman and hold her against the wall. Bearing their teeth, the growls were more hostile and intimidating now.

‘God I hate cats’

Achiri whispered and looked behind her. She had already half climbed the window edge. Anymore she would fall off into the grass.

'Wait you crazy little girl' the creature let out a low grating laugh just like the hiss before 'I just want to talk to you. I have a proposition for you. Climb down before you hurt yourself'

As escaping the demon became more and more unlikely, Achiri searched her belt for her knife but it wasn’t there.

‘Looking for this?' The demon asked and then pulled out Achiri's knife from behind his back 'Now, climb off that ledge and let's talk. Keep in mind that even for a demon like you that fall would hurt like hell Achiri. And without your precious knife it might even kill you. Personally I wouldn’t do that if I were you'

Evidently the demon knew more about her than she had imagined. Achiri didn’t give it much thought when it spoke her name; she was like he said known for her hunting demons. But he seemed to know that the larger part of her strength is literally stored inside her knife.

'I will take my chances' she told him, and then she took another glance at the drop outside the window.

The creature's laughter grew louder and louder. He sounded insane, but with that strong undercurrent of pleasure that was even more disturbing.
Achiri knew that attacking the creature now was pointless. And even if she tried, the tigers would attack her before she could lay one good blow on him. Even if she did, this was no ordinary Rakshasa like the ones she hunted. The demon was a shape shifter. She knew that much because he could summon animals. Aside from that ability, shape shifters were the most unpredictable type of demons. She had no idea what his abilities were. And he seemingly knew everything about her.
Without her knife, the wise choice would be to escape. She had to take that jump somehow.

'My name is Able,' the demon said 'And I was told by my superiors that we need your help'

'A demon asking for my help,' Achiri said mockingly 'now I heard everything'

‘A war is coming Achiri,' he went on 'and it's a war unlike any other we've witnessed. This battle could possibly wipe out the human race as we know it. I was asked to recruit you to help prevent this from happening'

'I am the one who found you "Able" I tracked your scent here to kill you. Stop trying to make it seem like it’s the other way around. You are a demon, and I kill demons. It is that simple. Don’t give me the end of days crap'

The demon smiled under its hood.

'Demons swindle other creatures to get them to do things. I know your target audience, so I used that to bring you to me. You thought I was a Rakshasa didn’t you. But I am not. I am a bit more evolved than those savages as you've noticed. I laid down the tracks and waited. I even painted the walls to welcome you when I knew you had a taste for the art. But regardless of how I arranged for this meeting, I am telling you the truth. I mean you no harm. We superior demons do play by the rules. We need you. Humans need you'

'What makes you think I care' Achiri said 'what makes you think I won't kill you and get on with my day? It is my job to kill demons, not to protect humans'

‘You have been protecting humans for a very long time now almost single handedly wither you intended it that way or not. You are humanity's godsend Achiri, the dark guardian angel of this retched realm. They call you the human demon. And we just want you to do what you were taught to do best. Protect your precious humans‘

'Humans mean nothing to me'

'You know I can read minds right?'

With her attention focused on escaping, Achiri's mind loosened just enough for the demon to peek inside it. The situation was completely out of hand now. She watched the creature pull back the hood and a mass of thick black hair fell down covering the shoulders and down to the creature's waist line. The smell emanating from it was far worse than it was earlier.
When Achiri saw the face hidden under the hood, she couldn’t stifle a violent gasp.

Chronicles of the Lotus - Pune :: 4 ::

Chapter IV [ Alliances and faith ]


'Daniel'

Daniel awoke to the voice. It was weak but familiar. It was Maya's voice. And it spoke his name. He jumped up on his feet and for an instant he didn't know where he was. He'd been dreaming, he thought.
The bed before him was now empty. The room itself was now empty except for the one candle that still burned. The boxes were gone, even the small chair.
'What the hell is going on?'
Daniel then turned and walked out of the room

'Kai' he called out. But no one answer him. He called out again and still no answer.
The light from the hall was now gone. He returned to the room again and looked around. Nothing was there but an empty bed. He turned again to walk out and across from him and out in the darkened lobby, barely illuminated by the sputtering light of the moon outside, there sat a tall fair-haired man with his back to the foyer. The man turned his head slowly, looked at Daniel and smiled. His face was serene and almost affectionate. And Daniel suddenly felt nervous.

'Kai is not here' the man said

Tense not so much by the way the man looked- though this was startling in itself - but by the realization that he had been there for some time, close to him, probably observing him, and he hadn't noticed. Daniel smelled the fire burning again.
'Where did everybody go' Daniel asked the man.
The stranger was drinking what curiously seemed to Daniel as a glass of whiskey with ice cubes in it. He held it in his right hand and close to his cheek, as one does when trying to cool off the heat.
'I told you Kai is,' the man said standing up 'no longer with us'
'Where is she?' Daniel asked 'she was here a minute ago'
'A minute ago she was,' the man said and raised his glass 'and now she is gone isn’t she? Care for a drink Danny?'
'How do you know my name?'
'Oh Kai talks about you all the time. Danny this and Danny that,' the man said cheerfully 'all she talks about is how much she misses you day and night. It can get a tad annoying if you know what I mean'
'She told you all this'
'Oh dear yes, daily' the man said 'she adores you. And I must say I can't help but feel a bit jealous'
'Are you and Kai together' Daniel asked
'Ha,' the man broke a short dry laugh 'now you are jealous. But no my brother have no fear, we couldn’t. She is what you can say, a little too …sober for me'
'Sober?'
The man put the glass to his lips and took a sip.
`Oh . . . yes . . .' he moaned.
Daniel watched him drink, patiently.
'You see in some religions, the men of god would get drunk before they go into meditation. Somewhat like the Rastafarians now'
Daniel gave the man a confused look
'Euphoria' he went on 'they go into a state of euphoria before they ask audience with god, you know meditate and whatnot. My point is this; humans believe that when they go into this state of euphoria…everything becomes more plausible. The universe becomes more feasible therefore it increases their chances to actually befall in the spiritual presence of the creator. Or any other supernatural force for that matter'

Daniel wasn’t sure if it was the light playing tricks on him, but the man's eyes seemed as if they had turned faint red for an instant. Just a flicker of red passed by the man's eyes and vanished.

'Who are you?'

'Well you are a bit slow aren’t you? I think that’s why Maya liked you so much. You were the "special" one'

'Excuse me?'

'The question here my dear boy is not who I am but what I am, and what I am is the solution to a problem. I am the answer to a prayer, let's leave it at that. And you son, can either be part of the solution or you can oppose like you priests always do and end up in parts on the floor of your own home. And I have to be honest; my favorable choice would be to cut you to shreds. It's nothing personal but I just can't waste anymore time here, and you are a guardian after all'

'You killed them' Daniel whispered. The realization hit him hard. And the thought found its way out of him unwillingly. He then took a step back with his eyes still focused on the man and went on

'You killed the guardians. You are the killer'

'That I did'

Daniel almost fell as he turned and fled to the door. But the demon was faster. He cut him off right before he reached the foyer. The demon grabbed Daniel by the collar and threw him back inside the temple with incredible force. He fell back against the wall, his eyes wide with fear and confusion. The demon was standing over him.

'That was rude'

'You killed Kai' Daniel muttered with a shaken voice. His back throbbing with pain

'Yes, they are all dead Daniel. Stop repeating yourself it's annoying. Kai's been dead for days now but I had to lure you here someway. It is what we imps do. We fool you humans into making all the stupid choices yourselves'

'None of it was real?' Daniel said and looked around him 'Maya…the body'

For a long moment, the demon stood there looking at Daniel. His lips parted as if he meant to speak. But then he only smiled and shook his head gently. He was mused that amidst his little panic attack, Daniel didn’t ask if the demon wanted to kill him. A little rough around the edges, but he is a true guardian after all…

'A war is coming Priest,' he said in a low voice 'you civilians ignored it long enough, and now its coming to your door step faster than you can ever imagine. And unlike the others, you've been privileged to make a choice. Armies are being gathered right now. Alliance are being made, and I need you by my side'

'What are you?' Daniel whispered 'and what does this have to do with me?'

'I am a demon but that much you already know. I am a soldier. And soldiers like me are dying out there to finish what the guardians started. Soldiers like your parents who died in the battlefield. It has everything to do with you Priest'

'My parents were guardians not demons; and they were killed in this temple'

They stared at each other for a moment before the demon spoke again

'I know you Danny,' he said 'I've known you since you were a little boy. And you have always been smarter than the others. Your parents were humans yes, but that’s what I meant by alliances. For a long time your faith in your parents stopped you from questioning what they were doing. And that was natural. But when they died, your faith in the brethren and the choices they made was shaken. Your parents' death proved you right. Yet, you closed your eyes from the truth and you just ran away'

'You are just a killer what do you know about faith'

The demon laughed and sat on the floor beside Daniel. His breath reeked of whiskey, but Daniel couldn’t get himself to move away.
'I know about faith because I have faith in you boy' he said 'just like I had faith in your parents. And it's only because of my faith in you that I am here. I am here to tell you who your parents were and how they really died'

'You lie'

'Well naturally,' the demon smiled 'I am a demon you know. But I also tempt and try. I am a man of many words, and this is an exchange of interest. Think of it as a chance for you to do things right. You could have saved lives but you chose not to Daniel. That’s a burden I am willing to take off your shoulders. How many young students were there in the temple when you left? All those children will now die because you remained silent, and you have the power to stop it. You had it all along'

'No'

'Yes, their blood will be in your hands very soon' the demon said 'You civilians tried to win an argument where you only let the other side talk'

'We opposed the guardians but they wouldn’t listen, we did what we could'

'You opposed the concept without justifying it. Needless to say the guardians won…'

'The civilians had no justification' Daniel interrupted the demon angrily. The demon let out a short dry laugh

'That’s what I adore about humans. Any formulation of events is valid only if we can find a rule to justify it' the demon went on 'But you knew didn’t you, and still you did nothing. That is worse than killing them yourself'

'You don’t know me' Daniel said 'you don’t know what I've been through'

'No boy you don’t know yourself. You needed your justification. So you asked and asked until Maya bless her soul entrusted you with the secret. The dark secret that deemed all those innocent souls to hell. The dark secret that got your parents killed trying to protect you from it. She gave you the justification you needed and it scared the guardian right out of you. So you became a silent civilian, how pathetic'

Daniel didn’t answer

'The supernatural is what it is only because there are no rules to govern it. That is why humans often relate concepts like religion to faith. Faith young Daniel, blind fellowship is what drives these concepts. It's what makes religion so beautiful and mystical. And it’s the same when it comes to almost everything else. The possibilities are always limitless when we don’t know. Strip something out of its mystery and you will get something real, mundane and dull'

'Or terrifying' Daniel muttered

'But it doesn't have to be that way you see. Your parents died for an empty cause Daniel. They believed the bullshit right to the very end. By the time they learned the truth it was already too late and it killed them' the demon said 'I can help you make their deaths count for something. With your knowledge, I can help you save their souls. But you must join us' then the demon paused for a second before he went on 'You must tell me where the young guardians are'

'So that’s what this is about' Daniel said 'you want to kill the rest of the students, is that it? Erase all traces of the brethren? Do what the civilians couldn’t do. Break the silence? Is that your justification to all this murder'

'Nobody likes a smartass'

'What makes you think I would do something like that?'

'Well for starters it’s a pretty sweet deal for you,' the demon said smiling 'I gave you a chance to kiss the woman you loved one last time, and to bid your beloved teacher goodbye. And I will tell you about your parents. I will tell you what they and Maya hid from you all these years. You are a lawyer; you know a good deal when you see one yes?'

Daniel remained silent. True he was a lawyer, a very good one at that. And something about what the demon said stirred him. He was young when his parents died. And Maya had always been very unclear about how exactly it happened.

'Besides I don’t want to kill the young ones Danny,' the demon went on 'In fact I am not even interested in the little buggers. I just need you to find someone for me. A special someone, much like you'

'Again,' Danny said 'why me? Why did you spare me? You killed everyone else. But you went through all this trouble to "lure" me here. Why am I so special'

'It's obvious. You are the only one left who knows where the youngsters are. Maya knew but she wouldn’t tell me. Like I said, it's an exchange of interest. And I told you I believe in you. I just know that you will make the right choice'

'Can I think about it' Daniel asked. The demon looked at him tentatively and smiled

'In three days this special someone will go to that precious hidden temple of yours where the youngsters are hidden, and he is going to kill them all. He is going to kill every last one of those children Daniel. We don’t have much time. I am already trying to find him before he reaches the temple. I want you to kill him if he does get there'

Chronicles of the Lotus - Pune :: 3 ::

Chapter III [The last priest]

Pune or Poona, is a town in Maharashtra, India. Pune is Maharashtra's second city. It lies on the edge of the Western Ghats and at the junction of two railways and the main road from Mumbai to Chennai. The Mula and Mutha Rivers merge in Pune. It is an industrial town and a cultural and educational centre, claiming to be the intellectual stronghold of India.
Pune also has a very rich history. It was the Bhonsle Maratha capital from the 17th century, having been the birthplace of the Emperor Shivaji, and later became the seat of the Peshwa kingdom…

‘Yeah right’

Daniel Priest whispered to himself as he switched off the radio. He sat in the silence for a few moments and then stepped out of his car. Exhausted after the long drive, he stretched his hands behind his back and yawned. His eyes scanned the surrounding as he took in a breath full of the mountain's fresh air. The sun was setting before him, and all around was the beautiful mountain plateau, surrounded by immense greenery. The fading sun reflecting on the tens of thousands of leaves gave the impression of the vast forest going up in dazzling orange flames. 120 km away from Pune city was a classical mythological inferno, he thought. A beautiful hell on earth.

Daniel opened the backseat door and pulled out a dark blue robe. After he put it on, he started his way down the hill, struggling with the humid slope. It’s been years since the last time he visited this place. And back then he was a student guardian.
On his way down he thought of his teacher. He thought of the first time he went with her downhill and towards the guardian temple of Mahabaleshwar.

It was nearly twenty years ago, and it was then when his teacher told him the story of the ancient temple. She told him that the temple was named after the Sanskrit God of Great Power, Shiva.
Daniel was nine at the time. He lay on the grass, with his head rested on his teacher's belly. He enjoyed hearing the sound vibrate through her body as she talked to him. Her hands in his hair, she told him all about the gods of the mountains. Her long white robes and scarf flew magnificently behind her and all around them in the cool mountain breeze. When she is not talking, Daniel would press his ear and feel her breath go up and down. Maya was the closest thing he had for a grandmother. And he loved her more than he loved his own parents.

‘This was the temple of Lord Shiva in ancient times,’ she told him 'and Shiva was known as the strongest or with the greatest of strengths and power’
‘and what power was that?’ Daniel asked, lifting his head slightly to see his teacher smile at him. She loved how his face lightens up when he asks a question, full of curiosity and eagerness.
'The power of knowledge young Danny' she told him 'the most important power of all'

The hill began to level under his feet. The entrance to the main temple was visible now behind the trees. Daniel slowed down his pace and steered away to a side route behind the thick bushes. He pulled his robe around him and exhaled anxiously.
Reaching into his pocket, he tensed his grip on the small rounded object. The ambience from the Lotus blooms planted around the temple was soothing, and the jungles about the ancient grounds stood still, unexplored, nonchalant.
He knew he was close now.
He walked for another ten minutes and the hidden guardian temple came into view in the near distance. The lotus blooms grew thicker the closer he got. It did a marvelous job hiding this place for centuries. Until recently, he reminded himself.
Daniel walked straight on, nostalgic and slightly amused by how much this place hasn’t changed in the past ten years.

The arched wooden door to the main entrance responded softly to his push. He walked the stone paved foyer towards the temple door and a young man in his early twenties came to meet him. The young man was wearing a similar robe.

Without saying a word, Daniel handed him the string of beads in his hand. The young man looked at the shimmering object and then his eyes moved to examine Daniel’s face carefully.
‘I am here to see your teacher’ Daniel spoke in English ‘I am here to see Kai’
‘No offence sir’ the man said politely ‘But who the hell are you’
Daniel smiled ‘I once studied under Maya. I have been summoned by Kai to pay my respects. I learned she passed away this morning’

The young student looked at Daniel for a long moment before he nodded his head and opened the way for him to pass. The large wooden door opened with a loud creek. And immediately Daniel could smell fires burning. The smell came from inside the temple grounds. He figured it must be the bodies of the guardians being burnt. The smell nauseated him.

'This way'

Daniel walked the familiar halls of the temple following the young man. The place was curiously empty and cold. Soon he was in the master’s room. Only one candle burned by the bed. Kai sat on her knees in the dark beside a dead woman. The corpse had been dead for sometime.
The room itself was cluttered with trunks and packages as though a number of people had been packing to leave. The dead woman lay half clothed; her robes neatly folded beside her. And from the sweet smell emanating from the corpse, Daniel knew it was ready to be sent into the fire. No one else but Kai was in the room.

Daniel took a deep breath. Moments passed before Kai noticed him in the room. Her face was stained with dirt and tears. He took a few more careful steps in the dark to be closer to her. In the thin darkness, Kai stood slowly. Her beautiful auburn wavy hair was pulled back from her smooth forehead. Her large steady eyes were swollen and filled with tears. Daniel cleared his throat and the sudden awareness of his presence startled Kai. But then she saw his face and ran into his arms.

‘Kai I am so sorry' he said and she began to sob faintly. Daniel held her close to him. Her hair smelled like the Lotus gardens outside. Her face against his was warm and moist.
‘It all happened too soon for us to prepare. We were leaving tonight right after we burn the others’ she looked up at his face 'and now we have to burn her too'
He took her face in both hands and kissed her. She kissed him back and then slowly released herself from his palms.
'It attacked this morning' she told him 'I was going to call you sooner. But it was chaotic'
'It's alright' Daniel said 'are you ok? Was anyone else hurt? You didn’t say much on the phone'
Kai was silent for a while. She sat beside the dead body on the bed. Daniel sat on a chair beside them.
'She missed you' she spoke softly 'she wanted to see you. She was torn after you left her'
'I missed her too'
'She entrusted you with everything' Kai's voice was angry, but low 'you were the next guardian after her term. Why did you leave us Danny? Why did you betray us?'

As he sat there, Daniel looked past Kai and Maya at the candle fire. He knew that Kai spoke of herself here and not their teacher. She blamed him for giving up on her. Daniel couldn’t look her in the eyes. He wanted to tell her a lot of things. But he was cautious. Kai had a way of cutting him off when he spoke to her about his feelings. Mingled with just how much he missed her was a powerful resentment of this place. Resentment so grand it kept his words down his throat. He didn’t know how to answer. So much had happened between him and the guardians. Most of which Kai did not know. And the parts she knew, Kai simply chose not to understand.
Her faith in the brethren blinded her from him completely. To Kai, Daniel had not only betrayed the brethren, but their teachings as well.

They have argued in the past about the decisions the brethren had taken. Kai always said that she found it very reasonable that the guardians favored to do something that could have been terribly wrong, than to stand aside and do nothing. Daniel thought that what they were doing was blindly guarding the book while innocent people died for it, and that was far worse than doing nothing.
When the killings began in the temples around them, he told her that he was thinking about leaving the brethren. She did not try to talk him out of it. Her loyalty was to the temple and the book of Atoka she said. But when his parents were killed on a mission for the temple, Daniel did not even bother to speak to Kai about it, he just left.

Daniel then became part of the opposing members of the brethren, whom the old members had named "the civilians".
The civilians were men and women, students or guardians whom renounced the book of Atoka and went back to their former lives.
To the brethren, the civilians were traitors and rejects. Maya was broken hearted when she heard that Daniel left. She wrote him for years and he wrote her back and explained his reasons. Kai on the other hand never spoke to him since.

When Daniel left the temple, he went back to London and finished law school. And some years later when he returned to India on business, he wanted to call Kai but he already knew what she was going to say. He continuously asked Maya about her, and from what Maya had written him he knew that Kai hadn't changed at all.

Now when she asked him, Daniel really didn’t know what to tell her. Was it a misplaced sense of pride that kept him from calling her, or was it simply because the temple and everything about it reminded him of his parent's death? Either way, Daniel did not answer

'Stay with her for a while' she told him 'she would have liked that'

Kai moved out of the room and the place was suddenly too silent. Even the young man who led Daniel in had vanished somewhere. Daniel sat against the light from the hall, blocking it with his back to the door. In the candle light, he looked at the woman on the bed. Her body was broken, but her face was calm. The woman who taught him all he knew about the brethren, the book of Atoka and the Sanskrit, Maya.
She aged so much since he last saw her. An urge to cry came over him. Daniel closed his eyes and looked away.

'I am sorry'

Those were his last words to Maya almost ten years ago when she asked him to return. He asked her to never write him again about the temple. And now in death, he can only repeat these three words again.
He knelt over her body and kissed her cold forehead. Daniel then rested his head on Maya's chest. He wept for sometime. His eyes closed and his ear pressed against her skin, Daniel felt the dampness of his tears on her icy broken body. He was a child again. And it was strange not to feel her breath go up and down like it used to.
But there was nothing but the silence, buzzing softly in his ears and the sound of his own breathing.
Then Daniel felt the body beneath him vibrate, and he heard the familiar voice come out of her lips. The silence was broken by his teacher's voice. And the voice whispered

'Danny'