Herald stared across the low table at Erudite while the warmth from meditation still lingered beneath his skin. "Queen?" he repeated, looking down at his hands as though they belonged to someone else.
Erudite gave a small nod. "Queen," he confirmed, and the faint satisfaction in his face made Herald feel even less connected to the achievement.
The prana had come easily enough to prove that his body remembered more than his mind did. Hearing that he had once reached Queen rank still felt like being praised for another man’s work.
"And I remember none of it." Herald rubbed his thumb across his palm, searching for even the smallest spark of recognition.
Erudite’s mouth twitched. "Perhaps that’s for the best. You were becoming insufferable," he said, and Herald looked up at once.
"I don’t believe you." The answer came quickly enough to make Erudite smile.
"You shouldn’t. I was worse," Erudite admitted, leaning back slightly on the cushion while Herald decided that part was probably true.
Herald’s gaze drifted toward the ebony staff beside the bed. Afternoon light caught on the black jade skull at its head, and the sight pulled the river of Naraka close enough that his stomach tightened.
"What Pathway did I have?" he asked, keeping his eyes on the staff. Erudite’s expression settled before he answered.
"Dharmaraja." The name entered the room quietly, but Herald waited for some part of himself to react.
Nothing came. No image surfaced, no voice whispered beneath the shraap, and no pressure gathered behind his eyes.
Herald looked back at Erudite. "Fancy told me losing a Pathway isn’t unusual," he said, rubbing his thumb over his palm again.
"It isn’t." Erudite adjusted one fold of his robe while Herald watched him.
"But awakening a completely different one is." Herald let the question hang in his tone, and Erudite answered without hesitation.
"That is." Outside, wheels rolled over stone and a vendor called from the street, but the room itself felt quieter than it had a moment ago.
Herald leaned forward. "So what were you expecting today?" he asked, and Erudite’s eyes dropped toward the sleeve covering his wrist.
"Dharmaraja to return." Erudite paused long enough for Herald to catch the weight behind the second possibility. "Or nothing."
Herald’s fingers stopped moving. "You wanted nothing to choose me," he said, and the thought pushed Yamawadi aside for the first time since leaving Divyabhawan.
Erudite met his eyes instead of denying it. "I wanted you to have the choice," he said, resting his forearms against his knees.
Herald frowned, so Erudite continued. "Most people aren’t born with a Pathway already deciding their future. Some never become Siddhas, and others awaken one normally when they come of age."
Herald thought of the candidates he had seen that morning surrounded by parents and siblings. They had entered Divyabhawan carrying uncertainty, not a verdict written on their bodies before they could understand it.
"Whatever they become, there was still a life before that choice was made." Erudite’s gaze returned to Herald’s wrist. "Children cast into Vishishtarajya because of a mark they carried from birth never had that chance."
Herald’s fingers moved unconsciously toward the cloth covering the mark. The fabric felt warm beneath his thumb as Erudite’s voice lowered.
"Before they could speak, before they understood what a Pathway was, something had already chosen one for them." Erudite held his gaze. "That’s the shraap."
The word landed differently now. Until then, shraap had been another mystery tied to missing memories, but this reached back to a life Herald had never been allowed to choose. The source of this chapter is novelping.com.
"So if Dharmaraja disappeared..." Herald let the thought trail off, and Erudite picked it up before the silence stretched.
"Then nothing replacing it would have meant the shraap disappeared with it. No mark, no predetermined Pathway, nothing binding you to the life Vishishtarajya gives its cursed."
Herald sat back, the cushion shifting beneath him. "That’s why I’d be allowed to leave," he said, and Erudite nodded.
"Yes. You could live somewhere else, work where you wanted, become whatever you managed to make of yourself without someone pointing at your wrist and deciding your life had already been written."
Herald pictured the families in Divyabhawan again. Those children had gone inside to discover what they might become, while his own answer had been forced onto him before memory could even begin.
He studied Erudite across the table. "You really wanted that for me," he said, and Erudite did not hesitate.
"Very much." The simplicity of the answer tightened something beneath Herald’s ribs.
"When Dharmaraja disappeared, I thought all the misery you’d gone through had accidentally done you one kindness." Erudite rubbed his thumb along the edge of a scroll. "For once, nobody above us had an answer for what Herald was supposed to become."
The ebony staff sat between their lines of sight. Yamawadi had answered anyway, and both of them seemed to understand what that had taken away.
Herald looked toward the staff, then back at Erudite. "So you’re disappointed," he said, and Erudite answered before the last word had fully settled.
"No." The speed of it made Herald blink.
Erudite leaned forward, irritation flashing briefly across his face before softening. "Confused? Absolutely. Worried enough that Facade is going to regret speaking to me tomorrow? Certainly."
A little warmth returned to his expression. "But disappointed that you’re still here? I don’t think I’m selfless enough for that."
Herald opened his mouth and found nothing useful. Erudite continued before he could force an answer.
"You get to stay with Fancy, Peril, Culpa and Croaker, who will continue pretending he’s emotionally above the rest of us." The line almost pulled a smile from Herald, but Erudite’s voice softened before it fully formed.
"And I get you back. I wanted you to be free, and I still do, but I also wanted my brother home."
Something tightened sharply in Herald’s chest. He remembered Erudite embracing him at the door, Fancy checking whether he was still behind her, Croaker calling him my boy, and handwriting in a room everyone insisted belonged to him.
They kept handing him pieces of a family he could not remember belonging to. Herald looked down at his hands and let out a quiet breath.
"Sounds selfish." His mouth moved faintly at one corner, and Erudite answered without apology.
"It is." Herald looked up again and nodded once.
"Good. I’m starting to think this family is full of selfish people," he said, and Erudite raised one eyebrow.
"You’ve barely met the full family." The warning in his tone made Herald study him more carefully.
"Should I be concerned?" Herald asked, and Erudite answered with immediate certainty. "Very."
Blue light bloomed between them before either could continue. Ancient Sanskrit letters gathered above the polished floor, each stroke forming from pale light that washed over the table, the scrolls and Erudite’s hands.
──────── ? ────────? DIVYABHAWAN ? Enjoying the story? Read on at g.com.
OFFICIAL EMERGENCY NOTICE? ???? ????? ?
Recent Asura outbreak activity has been confirmed.
All available Pathway holders are to report immediately to Divyabhawan.
Further instructions will be provided upon arrival.
? END TRANSMISSION ?
──────── ? ────────
Whatever warmth remained in Erudite’s expression vanished before the final line finished forming. He reached for the scrolls beside him, gathering them into one hand while Herald rose from the cushion.
"Why do you suddenly look like that?" Herald asked, and Erudite was already pulling his cloak over one shoulder.
"Because you don’t remember what an Asura outbreak means." His voice had lost every trace of humour.
"That doesn’t answer the question." Herald watched him fasten the cloak while the blue letters thinned at the edges.
Erudite looked toward him. "The scholars returning from Kshetrajya are taking the outer route. If the outbreak reaches their path before we do, they won’t make it back."
The words settled differently from everything else they had discussed that afternoon. This was not another mystery about who Herald had been; somewhere beyond the walls were people who might die while he sat here trying to understand himself.
The message dissolved completely, leaving only afternoon light across the floor. The first bell struck before Herald could answer, and the vibration passed faintly through the window frame.
A second followed almost immediately, then a third. These were nothing like the measured bells from the morning ritual, and movement began spreading through the street outside before the echoes died.
Sandals struck stone in sudden clusters, voices rose beneath the bells, and a nearby door slammed hard enough to echo between the houses. Erudite reached the doorway before noticing Herald had not followed.
He looked back. Herald’s attention had fallen on the ebony staff beside the bed, its black jade skull dark against the wall.
For most of the day, Herald had wanted nothing to do with it. Touching the staff meant remembering Naraka, Yamaraj and a version of himself arrogant enough to reach somewhere he had apparently been forbidden to reach.
His fingers hovered near the wood while the bells struck again. The woman kneeling before Vishnu with blood on her palms flashed through his mind, followed by the scholars somewhere outside Vishishtarajya who might not know how close the outbreak was.
Whatever Herald had done in Naraka belonged to a life he could not remember. Those people had nothing to do with it, and they could still die before he found any of his answers.
His fingers closed around the ebony staff. The familiar weight settled into his palm before his mind could question why it felt so natural.
Herald looked toward Erudite. "I’m coming," he said, and Erudite held his gaze for a beat before stepping aside from the doorway.
The bells kept hammering across Vishishtarajya as Herald followed him out. The staff stayed firm in his hand while the house disappeared behind them.