Urvashi slowly opened her eyes.
Warm sunlight streamed through the large window, filling her room with a soft golden glow.
No student council.
No academy politics.
No responsibilities.
Just the quiet morning of her own home.
She remained lying on the bed for a few seconds, staring blankly at the ceiling.
But her mind wasn’t calm.
That alone felt strange to her.
Slowly, she closed her eyes again.
A quiet thought echoed through her mind.
“I’m not someone who oversleeps…
I always wake up before sunrise.”
Silence.
Then—
Her fingers tightened slightly around the blanket.
“But now…
I feel stressed.”
Then—
Buzz.
Her phone vibrated softly beside her pillow.
Urvashi’s half-open eyes slowly shifted toward the screen glowing in the quiet room.
She quietly picked it up and checked the screen.
And the moment she saw the notifications—
The screen was filled with unread messages, reports, missed calls.
All waiting for her.
She stared at them silently for a few seconds.
Then—
She let out a small, tired sigh.
A sigh that almost never escaped her.
The problem wasn’t the university.
Nor the pressure.
Nor the endless responsibilities.
It was something else.
For the first time in a long while, her mind simply refused to stay calm.
She slowly sat up on the bed.
Her long black hair fell loosely over her shoulders, slightly messy from sleep.
She stared at the phone again.
Hundreds of notifications waited on the screen.
Normally, she would have dealt with them without a second thought.
But today—
She didn’t feel like doing anything.
Urvashi lowered the phone.
Her gaze drifted toward the window.
The morning outside was peaceful.
Almost too peaceful.
She quietly whispered,
“ଏହି ସକାଳର ସୂର୍ଯ୍ୟକୁ ଖାଇଦେବାକୁ ଇଛାହେଉଛି।”
(I want to eat this morning sun.)
Then she sighed.
“ଛାଡ଼, ମୁଁ ପ୍ରଭୁ ହନୁମାନ ନୁହେଁ।”
(Forget it.
I’m not Lord Hanuman.)
*
*
*
Morning slowly descended over the city.
Not with silence—
But with life.
Street vendors were already opening their small shops along the roadside.
The smell of hot tea mingled with the cool morning air.
Some workers walked sleepily toward the factories, while students in uniforms hurried to school, some still holding pieces of bread in their mouths.
Normal.
Peaceful.
At least on the surface.
An old man quietly swept fallen leaves in front of a tiny temple.
Beside him, a little girl was trying to feed pieces of biscuit to a small stray dog.
Meanwhile—
A crowded vegetable market had already become noisy.
“Fresh tomatoes!”
“Move aside!”
“Give me one kilo!”
Voices overlapped endlessly.
A middle-aged woman carrying a grocery bag suddenly stopped walking in the middle of the crowded street.
Her eyes shifted upward toward the sky.
“Why did it feel like I saw something strange flying above the buildings?”
Not a bird.
Not even close to human.
Just a dark figure moving across the sky for a single moment.
Fast.
Unnatural.
Her brows furrowed slightly.
But when she blinked—
Nothing was there.
Only the clear morning sky remained.
“Must be my imagination,” she quietly muttered to herself.
Then she gently shook her head and continued walking as if nothing had happened.
Far away from the market, inside a narrow alley—
Two men stood smoking quietly beside a wall covered in posters.
“You heard the rumor?”
“About the black feather?”
“Yeah.
Rumors about it have started spreading among the university students.”
A short silence followed.
One of them laughed lightly.
“People make stories out of everything.”
But the other man’s expression didn’t change.
He slowly looked toward the distant skyline.
Tall buildings stood silently beneath the pale morning sky.
For a moment—
His eyes narrowed slightly, as if he were thinking about something.
Then, tossing the finished cigarette into a nearby dustbin, he casually spoke,
“Let’s get to work, bro!”
The other man nodded quietly.
Soon, both of them disappeared into the busy morning crowd.
Meanwhile—
Far above the city.
On the rooftop of a tall, unfinished building.
A figure stood motionless at the edge of the rooftop, his black coat shifting gently in the cold wind.
His gaze swept across the entire city below.
Cars moving, people walking.
Life continued normally.
His eyes weren’t focused on the people.
He was watching something else.
Something invisible to normal humans.
The air itself.
For a brief moment—
A faint distortion rippled across the distant skyline.
Like space slightly twisting.
The figure’s eyes narrowed.
“It’s getting worse.”
His voice disappeared into the wind.
Then—
His phone vibrated.
Without taking his eyes off the skyline, he answered the call.
A calm female voice echoed from the other side.
“Another sighting has been reported.”
Silence followed.
A thin, heavy silence.
Then the man spoke at last.
“Location?”
“The eastern district… near the university area.”
At those words—
For the first time, something changed in his expression.
Not surprise, but recognition.
A pause stretched between them.
Then the woman asked, slightly sharper now,
“Where are you right now?”
A brief hesitation.
“Shunyagarbha.”
“…What?” Her voice cracked with urgency.
“Get out of there.
Right now.”
The man frowned slightly.
“Why?
Is something wrong with this city?”
A tense breath on the other side.
“That place is unsafe for you.
There are two reasons.
One—you are not supposed to be there alone.
And two…”
Her voice lowered.
“Urvashi exists there.
And if she notices you, it’s over.
She is not someone we can deal with.
Staying there is a death sentence.”
A faint silence returned.
Then she continued, more firmly,
“Don’t forget your mission.
You are not here to die.”
No response came.
Only static.
“Hello…?
Hello?
Are you still there…?”
Then—
A second voice entered the line.
Unfamiliar.
Cold.
Heavy.
“I don’t think he’ll answer you anymore.”
The woman froze.
“…Who the hell are you?”
“Look behind you.”
A quiet reply came from the other side.
No hesitation.
No emotion.
Only certainty, as if the outcome had already been decided.
The woman’s breath hitched.
For a moment, she didn’t move.
Then—
Slowly… her head turned.
The motion dragged like it was resisting something invisible, as if the air itself didn’t want her to look.
Her pupils trembled before her body fully obeyed.
Fear arrived first, understanding came second.
And the moment her eyes finally met what was behind her.
The world suddenly fell silent, as if every sound had disappeared.
Only the wind remained.
Urvashi stood behind her, calm as still water, yet carrying a pressure that crushed the air itself.
On the ground beside her left foot—
The man she had been speaking to, barely conscious.
Her eyes trembled as she stared at him.
“Ajay…”
The name escaped her lips without permission.
Then panic turned into rage.
She drew her sword in a single motion and lunged forward.
Steel cut through the air—
But it never reached its target.
In an instant, Urvashi’s hand snapped up.
She caught the attacker by the neck in mid-air.
Effortlessly, like stopping a falling leaf.
The woman’s breath caught in an instant.
Her body remained suspended in mid-air, as though gravity itself had stopped applying to her.
A thin trail of blood escaped the corner of her lips.
Urvashi tilted her head slightly to the left, watching her struggle.
“So weak.”
The words came out soft, almost disappointed.
Then, without warning—
She threw her straight toward Ajay’s fallen form.
Then—
A calm voice echoed from behind Urvashi.
Slow footsteps followed after it.
“Looks like everything is going well.”
A brief pause.
“I hadn’t expected that I would see you here.
Welcome to our Eastern District.”
The atmosphere shifted slightly.
Urvashi remained standing silently for a moment before slowly turning around.
Her eyes met the woman behind her.
Then, in a calm voice—
“Long time no see, Padmavati.”
“No, only Padmini.”
Padmavati corrected her with a small laugh.
Soft.
Carefree.
“How are you, Ice Queen?”
But Urvashi ignored the question completely.
Her cold eyes remained unchanged as she spoke directly.
“Black Feather?”
The playful atmosphere instantly became quieter.
Then—
Fast footsteps echoed from nearby.
Several students suddenly arrived at the scene almost at the same time.
Urvashi’s eyes shifted toward the crowd.
“Menaka?
What are you doing here?”
Before anyone could answer—
Meenakshi suddenly rushed forward and hugged Urvashi tightly.
“Urrr…
vaaa…
shiii…”
Her voice dragged lazily as if she were clinging to her favorite person in the world.
Then—
Something caught her attention.
Her eyes slowly moved toward Ajay and his girlfriend, both sprawled unconscious on the ground.
“Who are these two people?”
She blinked once.
Then again.
“They look like such a cute couple.”
A faint blush slowly appeared on her cheeks.
Her hands immediately rose to cover her face.
“Ahhh…
they’re so cute…
I want this kind of relationship too…”
Padmavati looked toward Meenakshi with amusement dancing in her eyes.
Then she spoke slowly—
“What do you think about Urvashi’s little brother?”
The moment those words landed—
Meenakshi froze.
Completely.
Her entire face instantly turned red like a ripe tomato.
“P-Padmavati!!”
Unable to endure the embarrassment any longer, she quickly turned around and started walking away.
“I-I’m going to the university!
I have some extraordinary work to do!”
Her voice became smaller and smaller as she escaped.
Padmavati watched her retreating figure before whispering softly to herself—
Slowly.
Almost quietly enough to disappear into the wind.
But still loud enough for everyone to hear.
“So…
she really is in love with someone younger than her.”
Then she looked toward Urvashi again.
A teasing smile appeared on her lips.
“Did you notice her red cheeks?”
Suddenly—
She realized what she had just implied.
“I mean, I mean…”
Her voice became awkward midway.
Meanwhile—
Urvashi was simply watching the entire scene silently.
Without interrupting.
Without reacting.
Coldly.
Expressionlessly.
She remained as calm as ever, completely unmoved by the chaos around her.
This chapter was difficult to write because I wanted the atmosphere to feel unsettling.