By the time the three cousins reached the old observatory, Ron had complained about hunger eleven times.
Aryaan had counted.
He had started counting at complaint number four because keeping track had become considerably less irritating than answering them.
“You know,” Ron said as they climbed the final ramp, “there are entire civilisations that considered food an important part of spiritual development.”
“Those civilisations also considered silence important,” Lane said.
Ron stopped halfway up the ramp and looked at him.
“Was that a joke?”
“No.”
“It sounded like one.”
“Your standards are low.”
Aryaan almost laughed.
The old observatory rose above the surrounding structures like a forgotten monument.
It had been constructed nearly two centuries earlier, when Mokshabhumi’s astronomers still depended heavily on physical observation arrays.
Modern sensor systems had made most of its original equipment obsolete, and the facility had been replaced by orbital observatories capable of monitoring entire star systems simultaneously.
Yet the building had never been demolished.
Partly because of historical significance.
Partly because its architects had built the observatory into a section of the asteroid that was unusually dense and stable.
And partly because nobody had ever quite figured out what to do with a building that refused to stop working.
The observatory’s enormous dome was visible even from the lower transit lanes.
Its outer shell was covered in overlapping plates of black alloy, each one etched with faded Huaxian characters and modern astronomical markings.
Aryaan stopped at the entrance.
He looked at Ron.
“You said you came here when you were younger.”
Ron nodded.
“Yeah.”
“Why?”
“I told you. I got lost.”
“People don’t usually get lost in restricted observatories.”
“I did.”
“Why?”
Ron frowned.
“You’re asking a lot of questions about something I already told you I don’t remember properly.”
Aryaan stared at him.
Lane examined the entrance.
“How did you get inside?”
Ron shrugged.
“There was a door.”
Aryaan closed his eyes.
“Of course there was.”
The entrance was sealed.
A holographic warning hovered above the door.
FACILITY CLOSED TO PUBLIC ACCESS.
Below it, a second notice appeared.
ARCHAEOLOGICAL PRESERVATION ZONE.
And below that:
UNAUTHORISED ENTRY WILL RESULT IN DISCIPLINARY ACTION.
Ron read all three.
“Okay.”
Aryaan looked at him.
“What?”
“I have a suggestion.”
“Go on.”
“We leave.”
Lane looked at him.
“You said you saw Aryaan’s parents here.”
Ron sighed.
“Fine.”
Aryaan stepped towards the access panel.
The security system was ancient by Academy standards, but the architecture was familiar.
He scanned his Academy identification.
The system rejected it.
He tried again.
Rejected.
Lane examined the panel.
“It’s disconnected from the current grid.”
“Like my parents’ laboratory,” Aryaan said.
Lane nodded.
Ron crouched beside the panel.
“What if we just—”
“No,” Aryaan said.
Ron looked up.
“I haven’t done anything.”
“You were about to.”
“I was thinking.”
“That’s what worries me.”
Ron ignored him.
His fingers moved beneath the panel, searching for something.
He found a small mechanical latch.
Lane leaned closer.
“What is that?”
Ron smiled.
“A door.”
Aryaan stared.
“It’s a latch.”
“Door latch.”
“Ron.”
“I’m opening it.”
“Don’t.”
Ron pulled it.
The wall beside them clicked.
All three froze.
Aryaan slowly turned.
A section of the observatory’s exterior wall moved backwards.
A narrow passage appeared.
Ron stared at it.
Aryaan stared at Ron.
Lane stared at the passage.
Ron raised both hands.
“Okay.”
Aryaan’s voice became dangerously calm.
“Ron.”
“I know.”
“Why did that work?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did you know that was there?”
“No.”
“Then why did you touch it?”
Ron looked genuinely offended.
“Because it was there.”
Lane closed his eyes.
Aryaan rubbed his forehead.
“Please tell me you didn’t touch anything else when you were here as a child.”
Ron thought about it.
Aryaan’s expression became alarmed.
“Ron.”
“I don’t remember.”
“That is not reassuring.”
“I know.”
The passage remained open.
A faint blue light appeared within it.
Aryaan looked at Lane.
Lane looked back.
Then both looked at Ron.
Ron sighed.
“Fine. I’ll go first.”
Aryaan grabbed his shoulder.
“No.”
Ron frowned.
“Why?”
“Because you have the survival instincts of a loose shopping trolley.”
“That is unfair.”
“Move.”
Aryaan stepped inside.
Lane followed.
Ron muttered something about discrimination and came after them.
The passage closed behind them.
The interior of the observatory was colder than the outside.
Not physically.
Energetically.
Aryaan noticed it immediately.
The air smelled faintly metallic, with an underlying scent of dust and something older that reminded him of the stone corridors beneath the Academy.
Their footsteps echoed.
The passage descended.
At first, the walls were modern.
Then the architecture changed.
Metal became stone.
Electronic panels gave way to engraved surfaces.
The Huaxian characters became older.
Some were written in forms Aryaan recognised from his Academy studies.
Others were unfamiliar.
Lane touched one.
“Do you know what this says?”
Aryaan leaned closer.
“Something about the heavens.”
Ron looked over his shoulder.
“That’s incredibly specific.”
Aryaan ignored him.
He traced the symbol.
“Actually…”
His temporal perception flickered.
The wall changed.
For half a second, the stone was new.
Workers moved around them.
Machines floated through the corridor.
People in old Huaxian robes stood beside engineers wearing early space-era suits.
Aryaan blinked.
The vision disappeared.
He steadied himself against the wall.
Lane caught his arm.
“What did you see?”
“The observatory being built.”
Ron looked around.
“By ghosts?”
“No.”
“Disappointing.”
Aryaan ignored him.
“There were Huaxian cultivators here.”
Lane studied the walls.
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
Aryaan looked at the inscriptions again.
Then something clicked.
“The observatory wasn’t built by modern scientists.”
Lane looked at him.
“Partially.”
Aryaan nodded.
“Someone incorporated an older structure into it.”
Ron pointed down the corridor.
“There’s more.”
They followed him.
Aryaan frowned.
“You’re strangely good at finding hidden passages.”
Ron grinned.
“Natural talent.”
“Your natural talent is getting lost.”
“Which is basically finding places nobody else can.”
Lane looked at Aryaan.
“Technically, he’s right.”
Aryaan sighed.
“I hate this group.”
“You love us,” Ron said.
Aryaan didn’t answer.
That was answer enough.
The corridor ended at a circular chamber.
A massive star map covered the floor.
Unlike modern astronomical maps, this one did not show conventional coordinates.
It showed lines.
Thousands of them.
They crossed one another in elaborate patterns, connecting stars, planetary systems, galaxies and symbols that Aryaan could not immediately identify.
At the centre was a symbol he recognised.
Mokshabhumi.
Ron stepped onto the map.
The entire room lit up.
Aryaan’s heart stopped.
“Get off.”
Ron froze.
“Why?”
“Because things light up when you touch them.”
Ron looked down.
“That’s generally how switches work.”
“Get off the switch.”
Ron stepped backward.
Nothing happened.
Aryaan waited.
Nothing.
Lane crouched.
“Look.”
The map was still glowing.
A single line extended from Mokshabhumi.
It travelled across the floor, then climbed the wall.
The line ended at a symbol.
Aryaan recognised it.
Svargnagari.
Ron looked at him.
“Earth?”
Aryaan nodded.
The line continued.
Then something happened that made Aryaan forget how to breathe.
The line did not continue to another nearby planet.
Instead, it disappeared.
Not faded.
Not broken.
It disappeared as though the map itself had crossed an invisible boundary.
A series of numbers appeared.
8.6 LIGHT-YEARS.
Ron stared.
“That’s… not close.”
“No,” Aryaan said.
A second designation appeared.
LOCAL GALACTIC REFERENCE: MILKY WAY.
Then another.
LOKA CLASSIFICATION: BHUR LOKA.
Lane’s expression changed.
“Bhur Loka?”
Aryaan looked at him.
“You’ve heard of it?”
“Only from old philosophical texts.”
Ron glanced between them.
“Are we seriously doing philosophy right now?”
Aryaan didn’t answer.
The map shifted.
The Milky Way appeared as a three-dimensional projection.
Svargnagari’s location was marked.
Mokshabhumi appeared nearby.
Then the display pulled away.
Farther.
And farther.
The Milky Way became a luminous disc.
Then a speck.
Another galaxy appeared.
It was enormous compared with the representation of their own galaxy, surrounded by a web of faint energy signatures.
A new designation appeared.
EXTRAGALACTIC DOMAIN.
Then:
LOKA TRANSITION DETECTED.
Aryaan’s heartbeat quickened.
Lane stepped closer.
The map began displaying a series of concentric structures.
Not planets.
Not galaxies.
Something much larger.
Layered domains.
Each one existed in a different vibrational state, yet each seemed to overlap the others.
Aryaan had seen the symbols before.
In old Huaxian manuscripts.
In fragments of Taoist cosmology.
And in the Indian philosophical records that his Academy had classified under comparative ancient cosmology.
The fourteen Lokas.
The map began naming them.
Bhur.
Bhuvar.
Svar.
Mahar.
Jana.
Tapa.
Satya.
Then their corresponding lower planes began appearing beneath them.
Atala.
Vitala.
Sutala.
Talatala.
Mahatala.
Rasatala.
Patala.
Ron stared.
“So…”
He pointed at the display.
“Those are real?”
Aryaan looked at him.
“That depends on what you mean by real.”
Ron frowned.
“I hate answers like that.”
Lane was studying the map.
“The ancient texts called them Lokas.”
“Yes.”
“Different planes of existence.”
“Apparently.”
Ron pointed again.
“Then why did everyone spend centuries arguing whether they existed?”
Aryaan looked at him.
“Because nobody had a map.”
Ron considered that.
“Fair.”
The map changed again.
Most of the Lokas dimmed.
One remained illuminated.
A galaxy appeared within it.
The map zoomed in.
A planetary system appeared.
Then a world.
Blue.
Green.
Cloud-covered.
Beautiful.
Aryaan stared.
The designation appeared:
GAIA.
Below it:
LOKA: PARALLEL BHUVAR DOMAIN.
Then another line:
GALACTIC DISTANCE FROM SVARGNAGARI: 2.7 MILLION LIGHT-YEARS.
Nobody spoke.
Ron finally whispered:
“That’s not exactly next door.”
Aryaan barely heard him.
Gaia.
The planet his parents had mentioned.
The world that stood against the Orions.
It wasn’t merely outside the Solar System.
It wasn’t even in the Milky Way.
It existed in another galaxy, separated from Svargnagari by millions of light-years and, more importantly, by the boundary between loka states.
Yet the ancient map knew exactly where it was.
Lane looked at Aryaan.
“How could the Huaxians have mapped something that far away?”
Aryaan shook his head.
“They couldn’t have done it with ordinary astronomy.”
“Then how?”
Aryaan looked at the layers of the map.
He remembered the ancient Taoist texts.
The descriptions of consciousness travelling beyond physical boundaries.
The yogic traditions describing astral travel.
The stories of sages perceiving distant realms while seated in meditation.
For the first time, those stories didn’t sound metaphorical.
“They may not have travelled there physically.”
Lane understood.
“Astral projection.”
“Or something beyond it.”
Ron looked at both of them.
“So the old people basically had cosmic Wi-Fi?”
Aryaan stared at him.
Ron shrugged.
“I’m trying to process.”
A line appeared between Svargnagari and Gaia.
But it wasn’t a normal line.
It twisted through the loka layers.
It crossed impossible distances without travelling through the intervening galaxies.
Then it disappeared into another layer of reality.
Aryaan stepped closer.
“This isn’t a route.”
Lane looked at him.
“What is it?”
“A resonance bridge.”
The term felt strangely familiar.
His father’s voice seemed to echo from memory.
The network isn’t transmitting energy.
It is transmitting information.
Aryaan stared at the lines.
“The planetary resonance network doesn’t connect planets physically.”
He pointed towards the layers.
“It connects their codes.”
Lane’s expression hardened.
“And that means the distance doesn’t matter.”
“Not once you understand the resonance.”
Ron looked at the map.
“Then the Orions could reach Gaia?”
Aryaan’s face tightened.
“Maybe.”
“From another galaxy?”
“Maybe.”
“Through another loka?”
Aryaan didn’t answer.
Ron looked at Lane.
Lane’s expression told him enough.
“Right,” Ron said quietly.
“That’s bad.”
The map pulsed.
A second branch appeared.
This one did not lead towards Gaia.
It led deeper into the network.
The display showed several distant planetary systems.
Some were in the Milky Way.
Others were in galaxies Aryaan could not identify.
Some belonged to the same loka.
Others crossed loka boundaries.
Then the paths began converging.
Not on Gaia.
Not on Svargnagari.
On a symbol that Aryaan recognised immediately.
A circle containing three intersecting lines.
The same mark he had seen in his temporal imprint of the intruder.
His blood ran cold.
“That’s the mark.”
Lane looked at him.
“Orion?”
“I don’t know.”
Ron stared at it.
“Could be their symbol.”
Aryaan nodded.
The symbol pulsed.
A holographic image appeared above it.
A man.
Not human.
Not Orion.
The figure was tall and slender, with pale skin and elongated eyes.
His body was covered in layered garments that looked partly technological and partly ceremonial.
Aryaan stared.
The recording continued.
“Resonance node seven remains dormant.”
Ron whispered:
“That’s not creepy at all.”
Aryaan motioned for silence.
The recording continued.
“The planetary code has been mapped, but extraction remains unstable.”
A second figure appeared.
This one was human.
Aryaan recognised the clothing.
Ancient Huaxian.
The two figures stood together.
The recording was old.
Very old.
Long before the Orions had appeared in any recognised human historical record.
The non-human figure spoke.
“Your species continues to insist that resonance should be cultivated internally.”
The Huaxian man replied:
“Because taking from the world is not strength.”
The other figure smiled.
“Strength is strength.”
Aryaan’s stomach tightened.
The recording continued.
The Huaxian man placed his palm against a crystalline structure.
A planetary image appeared.
He began circulating Qi.
The planet responded.
Not extracted.
Resonated.
His body glowed.
The non-human figure watched.
“Your technique could increase individual capacity by orders of magnitude.”
“Yes.”
“Then why not use planetary extraction?”
The Huaxian man’s expression hardened.
“Because the world is not fuel.”
The recording ended.
The chamber became silent.
Ron looked at Aryaan.
“That was… surprisingly straightforward.”
Aryaan nodded slowly.
“We just learned something important.”
Lane looked at him.
“The Orion method wasn’t originally Huaxian.”
“No.”
“Nor did the Huaxians invent planetary extraction.”
“No.”
Aryaan looked towards the symbol.
“Someone else taught them.”
Ron raised a finger.
“And apparently some ancient Huaxian guy told them not to be jerks.”
Aryaan almost laughed.
“That’s not exactly what he said.”
“It’s the general vibe.”
Lane looked at the holographic display.
“Who was the other person?”
Aryaan shook his head.
“I don’t know.”
The system responded.
A new panel opened.
IDENTIFICATION: GAIA ARCHIVE
Aryaan stared.
“Gaia.”
Ron frowned.
“The planet?”
“Yes.”
The panel displayed a symbol.
A living tree enclosed within a circle.
Aryaan recognised the symbol from several fragments of ancient cosmological records.
The Gaian observer.
The image changed.
A woman appeared.
She looked human.
But something about her eyes was different.
Her pupils contained faint rings of light.
She spoke:
“If this archive has been opened, the relay has recognised a compatible consciousness.”
Aryaan stopped.
Compatible consciousness.
The woman continued.
“We failed to prevent the first transfer.”
A second image appeared.
A planetary core.
Then another.
The core began to fracture.
“The knowledge that was meant to help worlds resonate with their planetary code became a method of consumption.”
Aryaan’s expression tightened.
The woman looked directly into the recording device.
“We call this failure the First Mistake.”
The image changed.
A symbol appeared.
Three lines.
The same mark.
Aryaan whispered:
“The Gaians.”
The woman continued:
“Our mistake gave the Orion civilisation access to a process they were never meant to possess.”
The recording paused.
Then:
“They learned to consume planetary cores.”
Ron stopped joking.
Lane’s jaw tightened.
The woman continued.
“But the Orions did not stop with their own universe.”
The image changed.
Multiple galaxies appeared.
Then multiple universes.
The fourteen loka layers appeared around them like vast translucent shells.
Then the structures began colliding.
Aryaan’s breath caught.
“Temporal fracture.”
The woman nodded within the recording.
“They damaged the law that kept their reality moving in sequence.”
The image became a tangled structure.
Lines bent back upon themselves.
Some disappeared.
Others crossed into entirely different realities.
“Your scientists may eventually call this a temporal loop.”
Aryaan stared.
His mother’s explanation returned to him.
Nomological force.
A law maintaining the appearance of linear time.
The Gaia recording continued.
“The loop was never a prison.”
A pause.
“It was a stabilising structure.”
Aryaan felt a chill.
The woman looked directly into the recording.
“When the Orions broke it, realities that should have remained separate began to overlap.”
The image showed worlds merging.
Stars occupying the same space.
Planets appearing twice.
Different versions of the same civilisation existing simultaneously.
Different Lokas overlapping.
The recording continued.
“Your universe is not entirely your own anymore.”
The recording ended.
Nobody spoke.
Ron finally said:
“So…”
Aryaan looked at him.
Ron gestured vaguely.
“That’s bad.”
Aryaan nodded.
“Very.”
The chamber suddenly shook.
Dust fell from the ceiling.
Lane immediately drew his weapon.
“What was that?”
A second tremor hit.
The star map flickered.
Aryaan looked towards the corridor.
“Someone’s here.”
Lane frowned.
“Academy?”
“I don’t know.”
Ron looked towards the exit.
“Then perhaps we should leave.”
Aryaan nodded.
For once, Ron had offered a sensible idea without being asked.
They ran.
The corridor behind them shook again.
A metallic impact echoed through the passage.
Lane moved first.
He was faster than he had been only weeks earlier.
Not dramatically.
But enough for Aryaan to notice.
His spatial perception allowed him to anticipate turns, shortening the apparent distance between points by instinctive movement rather than actual manipulation.
He reached the passage first.
Aryaan followed.
Ron was behind them.
“WAIT!”
Aryaan turned.
Ron was running towards them.
Something moved behind him.
A drone.
Small.
Black.
Its body unfolded into four mechanical limbs.
Ron looked over his shoulder.
His expression changed.
“Oh.”
The drone fired.
Ron jumped.
The shot struck the wall.
Ron stumbled.
Aryaan’s hand moved instinctively.
Time slowed.
Not completely.
Just enough.
The projectile’s trajectory became visible.
Aryaan saw its path.
He shifted.
Lane simultaneously moved.
His body crossed the space between Aryaan and Ron faster than the geometry of the corridor should have allowed.
Lane struck the drone.
It slammed against the wall.
Ron stared.
“Nice.”
Lane didn’t respond.
The drone recovered.
A second weapon unfolded.
Ron stepped forward.
Something flashed through his hands.
Orange.
Not fire.
Not exactly.
A burst of heat erupted from his palms.
The drone’s weapon melted.
Ron stared at his own hands.
Aryaan stared.
Lane stared.
Ron looked up.
“Okay.”
The drone exploded.
Ron blinked.
“Did I do that?”
Aryaan’s mouth opened.
Nothing came out.
Ron grinned.
“I did that.”
Lane grabbed his arm.
“Move.”
“Oh, right.”
They ran.
They reached the hidden passage.
Aryaan grabbed the latch.
Nothing.
His heart dropped.
“It’s locked.”
Ron looked at him.
“Try the other one.”
“What other one?”
Ron pointed.
A second latch.
Aryaan stared.
“You knew that existed?”
“No.”
“Then why—”
“RON!”
Ron pulled it.
The wall opened.
Aryaan stopped asking questions.
They ran through.
The passage closed behind them.
A metallic impact struck the other side.
The three cousins continued until they reached the upper observatory.
They burst into the main chamber.
The enormous telescope remained in the centre, its lens pointed towards Mokshabhumi’s artificial sky.
Ron collapsed against a console.
“I hate exercise.”
Lane leaned against the wall.
“You’re alive.”
“Barely.”
Aryaan looked at his hands.
His temporal perception was still flickering.
Lane noticed.
“Your head.”
Aryaan touched his nose.
Blood.
Again.
He wiped it away.
Ron saw.
“You’re doing the bleeding thing.”
“I’m fine.”
“No.”
Aryaan looked at him.
Ron was serious.
“Every time you use that thing, you bleed.”
Aryaan glanced at Lane.
Lane nodded.
Aryaan looked away.
“I can handle it.”
Ron stepped closer.
“That’s what people say immediately before they become a cautionary tale.”
Aryaan almost smiled.
Then the floor shook.
The three cousins froze.
The observatory’s outer dome began opening.
A security alarm activated.
A voice announced:
UNAUTHORISED ENERGY EVENT DETECTED.
Aryaan looked towards the ceiling.
“That’s us.”
Ron shook his head.
“No.”
The voice continued.
SECONDARY ENERGY EVENT DETECTED.
Aryaan’s expression changed.
“Not us.”
Lane turned.
“Then who?”
A figure appeared at the edge of the observatory.
A woman.
Dark coat.
The same woman who had watched them leave the house.
Aryaan recognised her immediately.
“You.”
The woman stopped.
She looked at him.
Then at Lane.
Then Ron.
Her eyes settled on Ron.
“Interesting.”
Ron pointed at himself.
“Me?”
She nodded.
“You weren’t supposed to remember.”
Ron frowned.
“Remember what?”
The woman looked towards Aryaan.
“Your cousin doesn’t know.”
Aryaan’s expression hardened.
“What are you talking about?”
The woman took a step forward.
Lane moved between her and the others.
She stopped.
“Relax.”
Lane’s eyes narrowed.
“You followed us.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because you are investigating something that killed people.”
Aryaan stepped forward.
“My parents?”
The woman hesitated.
That hesitation was enough.
Aryaan’s voice became sharper.
“Did you know them?”
“Yes.”
“Where are they?”
The woman didn’t answer.
Aryaan stepped closer.
“Where are they?”
“I don’t know.”
“Liar.”
The woman’s expression hardened.
“I watched them disappear.”
Aryaan stopped.
The words hit harder than he expected.
“Disappear where?”
The woman looked towards the floor.
“Into the relay.”
Silence.
Aryaan stared.
“What does that mean?”
“It means your parents didn’t simply leave Mokshabhumi.”
The woman’s eyes moved towards him.
“They entered the network.”
Aryaan’s mind raced.
The relay.
The network.
The astral system.
The temporal structure.
Everything connected.
“Are they alive?”
The woman hesitated.
“I don’t know.”
Aryaan’s fists tightened.
Ron stepped beside him.
“What do you mean, you don’t know?”
The woman looked at him.
“You are the one I am worried about.”
Ron frowned.
“Why?”
The woman didn’t answer.
Instead, she reached into her coat and removed a small object.
A crystal.
Black.
It pulsed faintly.
Aryaan recognised the resonance.
The same energy as the relay.
The same energy as the temporal door.
The woman placed it on the floor.
A hologram appeared.
A planet.
Blue.
Green.
Beautiful.
Earth.
Aryaan stopped breathing.
Ron whispered:
“Svargnagari.”
The woman shook her head.
“Not your Earth.”
The image shifted.
Another Earth appeared.
Then another.
Then another.
Different continents.
Different atmospheres.
Different histories.
Aryaan stared.
“Parallel worlds.”
“Yes.”
The woman looked at him.
“Your parents discovered that the Orions aren’t simply moving between universes.”
The hologram showed lines connecting the worlds.
“They are searching them.”
“For what?”
The woman looked directly at Aryaan.
“For worlds that still possess intact planetary codes.”
Aryaan’s blood went cold.
“Svargnagari.”
“Yes.”
“Gaia?”
The woman nodded.
“But not because Gaia is near you.”
The hologram expanded.
Svargnagari remained a tiny point in the Milky Way.
Then the map pulled outward.
Far beyond the galaxy.
Millions of light-years away, another galaxy appeared.
The Gaia system glowed inside it.
A second set of coordinates appeared.
GAIA — PARALLEL LOKA.
Aryaan stared.
The woman continued.
“Gaia is beyond your galaxy. Beyond the ordinary physical routes your species understands.”
She touched the projection.
The loka layers appeared.
“The distance between your worlds cannot be measured only in light-years.”
Aryaan understood.
“Because you’re crossing loka boundaries.”
“Yes.”
Ron looked at the projection.
“So the Orions can cross galaxies and Lokas?”
“Not freely.”
“That’s good.”
The woman looked at him.
“They are learning.”
Ron immediately withdrew his optimism.
“Right. That’s bad again.”
Aryaan watched the lines connecting the different realities.
“How do they travel?”
The woman looked at him.
“Sometimes physically.”
A pause.
“Sometimes through resonance.”
Another.
“And sometimes through consciousness.”
Aryaan remembered the astral traditions.
The ancient practices.
The warnings.
The stories of sages who had crossed realms without moving their bodies.
His parents had not merely been researching mythology.
They had been investigating a system that modern science had forgotten how to describe.
The woman continued.
“Your parents believed Mokshabhumi was one of the control points of the original network.”
Aryaan stared.
“And you?”
“I believe it is something worse.”
“What?”
The woman looked towards the floor.
“The first relay.”
Aryaan’s heart stopped.
He looked at the map in his mind.
The first relay.
His father’s instruction.
Follow the first relay.
He had assumed it meant the observatory.
But the observatory was only a node.
The first relay was beneath Mokshabhumi.
The door.
The chamber.
The structure.
The woman continued:
“And someone has just activated it.”
Aryaan looked at the woman.
“When?”
She didn’t answer.
A distant rumble shook the observatory.
Then another.
The entire city seemed to tremble.
Every light outside Mokshabhumi flickered simultaneously.
The woman’s face changed.
“Now.”
Elsewhere
Devdutt felt the activation before the alarms began.
He was standing inside the Academy’s restricted sector.
Anahita stood beside him.
Ishaan was on the other side, his hands folded behind his back.
The three of them stared at the energy readings.
Anahita’s face had gone pale.
“It activated.”
Devdutt nodded.
Ishaan looked towards him.
“You said it couldn’t.” Visit g.com for the full chapter.
“I said I couldn’t activate it.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
Devdutt didn’t respond.
Ishaan looked at Anahita.
“Did Aryaan do it?”
She nodded.
Ishaan closed his eyes.
“Then we’re out of time.”
Devdutt’s expression hardened.
“No.”
Anahita looked at him.
“You said yourself—”
“I said we’re out of time to remain passive.”
Devdutt turned towards the sealed chamber.
“We have spent years waiting for the relay to respond.”
He touched the wall.
The ancient symbols began glowing.
“Now it has.”
Ishaan looked at him.
“And what exactly is your plan?”
Devdutt smiled faintly.
“Finally.”
Anahita frowned.
“Finally what?”
Devdutt looked towards the Academy.
“Finally, we stop protecting the children from the truth.”
The First Lesson
That night, the eight young friends were gathered inside the private training hall beneath Anahita and Ishaan’s residence.
Potter had been the first to arrive.
He had also been the first to discover that something was wrong.
He stood before the projection table with his arms folded.
“This is impossible.”
Mitchell leaned over his shoulder.
“You say that every time something is possible.”
“This is different.”
Bonita looked up from her tablet.
“What is different?”
Potter pointed towards the screen.
“The observatory’s security records show no entry.”
Saiyuki crossed her arms.
“Then how did they enter?”
“That’s what I’m trying to find out.”
Riyansh looked towards the doors.
“Where are Aryaan, Lane, and Ron?”
Potter glanced at the clock.
“Late.”
Mitchell smiled.
“Ron probably got hungry.”
Bonita shook her head.
“That’s not a theory. That’s an inevitability.”
The door opened.
Aryaan entered.
Lane followed.
Ron came last.
Potter immediately noticed Aryaan’s face.
“You’re bleeding.”
Aryaan wiped his nose.
“I’m fine.”
Potter stared.
“That’s what people say when they aren’t fine.”
Ron pointed.
“See?”
Aryaan glared at him.
Potter looked between them.
“What happened?”
“Observatory,” Aryaan said.
Potter’s eyes widened.
“You went to the observatory?”
“Yes.”
“Without me?”
Aryaan paused.
Potter looked genuinely hurt.
Aryaan sighed.
“We didn’t know if it was safe.”
Potter’s expression hardened.
“You thought I couldn’t handle it?”
“No.”
“Then why?”
Aryaan looked at him.
Potter’s frustration had clearly been building for some time.
It wasn’t merely about the observatory.
It was about the parents.
The secrets.
The investigations.
The fact that Aryaan, Lane and Ron were increasingly moving into situations that the others could not follow.
Aryaan softened.
“We didn’t know what we were walking into.”
Potter looked away.
“Neither do I.”
The words came out quieter than intended.
Aryaan stared at him.
Potter had spent years being the investigator of the group.
The one who noticed details.
The one who solved problems.
Now, for perhaps the first time, something had happened that he hadn’t been there to see.
Mitchell placed a hand on Potter’s shoulder.
“Don’t take it personally.”
Potter looked at her.
“Easy for you to say.”
Her expression changed.
Mitchell removed her hand.
The room became uncomfortable.
Aryaan noticed.
There were moments when friendship became complicated.
Potter wanted to help.
Mitchell wanted to protect him from getting hurt.
Neither had said what they actually meant.
And somehow that made everything worse.
Bonita broke the silence.
“Can we postpone the emotional catastrophe?”
Ron raised his hand.
“Seconded.”
Potter looked at him.
“Why?”
“Because I haven’t eaten.”
Everyone groaned.
Ron looked offended.
“What?”
Anahita entered.
The room immediately became quiet.
Behind her came Ishaan.
The two were older than the students but carried themselves with the relaxed authority of people who had trained for decades.
They were Devdutt’s sister and brother-in-law.
They had served as mentors to Potter and the others for years, particularly in investigative work, field survival and practical applications of cultivation.
Anahita looked at Aryaan.
“You activated the relay.”
Aryaan stiffened.
“You knew?”
“Your parents told us enough to recognise the signs.”
Ishaan looked towards Potter.
“And before you ask, no, they didn’t tell us everything.”
Potter’s expression changed.
“Why not?”
“Because your parents weren’t the only people keeping secrets.”
Potter’s jaw tightened.
Anahita noticed.
She softened.
“Potter, there is a difference between being excluded and being protected.”
“Sometimes they look exactly the same.”
Anahita paused.
Then nodded.
“That is fair.”
Potter seemed surprised by the admission.
Anahita continued.
“Which is why things are changing.”
She moved towards the centre of the room.
“You are no longer children who need every answer filtered through adults.”
Ron whispered:
“Finally.”
Anahita looked at him.
“Do not make me regret this.”
Ron immediately straightened.
“Yes, ma’am.”
Ishaan almost smiled.
Anahita activated the training chamber.
A circular platform emerged from the floor.
“Tonight, you are going to learn something your Academy curriculum would normally introduce much later.”
Aryaan looked at the platform.
“What?”
“Controlled astral projection.”
The room became silent.
Potter’s eyes widened.
Mitchell looked fascinated.
Riyansh immediately began studying the platform.
Saiyuki remained composed.
Bonita looked suspicious.
Ron raised his hand.
Anahita sighed.
“Yes?”
“Can I opt out?”
“Why?”
“Because I would prefer my soul remain attached to my body.”
Anahita stared.
Ishaan laughed.
Ron looked at him.
“What’s funny?”
“Nothing.”
“You’re laughing.”
“Continue.”
Ron lowered his hand.
Anahita looked at the group.
“Astral travel is not a parlor trick. It is a fundamental discipline in advanced Kundalini cultivation. The ancient yogic traditions understood that consciousness can be trained to operate beyond the ordinary limitations of the physical body.”
She activated another display.
A human body appeared.
Chakras illuminated along the central axis.
“Your physical body must be prepared to carry increasing levels of Kundalini. Astral practice helps develop consciousness, perception and control, but it does not replace physical cultivation.”
Riyansh nodded.
Anahita continued.
“Nor does astral travel automatically make you stronger.”
Bonita raised a hand.
“What does?”
“Integration.”
The word appeared on the display.
“Whatever you experience outside the physical state must be integrated when you return. Otherwise, the experience becomes useless or dangerous.”
Ishaan took over.
“And there is another rule.”
He looked directly at Aryaan.
“Never force Kundalini through a blocked channel.”
Aryaan felt his headache.
He nodded.
Ishaan noticed.
He didn’t comment.
“Tonight,” Anahita continued, “you will not attempt long-distance projection. You will not explore. You will not interact with anything outside this room.”
Ron raised his hand.
Anahita stared.
Ron lowered it.
“Good.”
They sat in a circle.
Aryaan closed his eyes.
Breathing slowed.
He felt the familiar pulse of Qi.
Then the chakra system began responding.
He sensed the energy at the base of his spine.
Warm.
Contained.
Controlled.
He followed Anahita’s instructions.
Breathe.
Observe.
Do not force.
His consciousness gradually became lighter.
His physical body seemed farther away.
For the first time, Aryaan understood why advanced practitioners described astral travel as neither sleep nor waking.
It was something between.
He felt his body beneath him.
But he also felt himself somewhere else.
He opened his astral eyes.
The training room appeared translucent.
The others were there.
Potter’s astral form was brighter than expected.
Mitchell’s had a strange shifting quality, almost as though two different energy patterns were overlapping.
Riyansh was dense and heavily anchored.
Saiyuki was remarkably controlled.
Bonita’s projection was narrow and focused.
Lane—
Aryaan looked towards Lane.
Lane was already looking at him.
Neither spoke.
Ron was missing.
Aryaan’s eyes widened.
He searched.
“Ron?”
No response.
Then a voice came from behind him.
“Guys?”
Aryaan turned.
Ron floated upside down above them.
Aryaan stared.
Ron looked at his own astral body.
Then down at the others.
Then back at himself.
“Why am I upside down?”
Potter’s astral form covered his face.
Anahita’s voice echoed through the chamber.
“Ron.”
“Yeah?”
“Stop moving.”
Ron tried.
He spun.
“I’m trying!”
Ishaan laughed.
Anahita pinched the bridge of her nose.
“Everyone remain calm.”
Ron continued spinning.
“I’m extremely calm!”
“You’re rotating.”
“I know!”
Aryaan laughed.
He couldn’t help it.
Lane looked away.
Potter shouted:
“Ron, stop fighting gravity!”
“I’m not fighting gravity! Gravity started it!”
The spinning finally slowed.
Then something changed.
Aryaan felt it.
The humour vanished.
A pulse moved through the astral space.
Not from any of them.
From below.
Deep beneath Mokshabhumi.
Aryaan looked down.
The training hall dissolved.
The city beneath them became transparent.
He saw the station.
The Academy.
The old stone.
The sealed chamber.
And beneath it—
Something enormous.
A network.
Not merely physical.
It stretched through the station’s surrounding energy field, connecting Mokshabhumi to distant worlds.
Aryaan stared.
Lane appeared beside him.
His astral form shifted.
He could see the network differently.
Not as lines.
As spaces.
Distances.
Paths.
Ron floated beside them.
His form flickered orange.
“What is that?”
Aryaan didn’t answer.
A fourth presence appeared.
Devdutt.
His astral form stood several metres away.
Aryaan looked at him.
Devdutt looked back.
For a moment neither spoke.
Then Devdutt said:
“Return.”
Aryaan frowned.
“Why?”
“Now.”
Something in Devdutt’s voice made him obey.
Aryaan pulled back.
Lane followed.
Ron— did not.
“Ron!”
Ron looked at him.
“What?”
“Come back.”
“I’m trying.”
Then Ron’s astral form suddenly vanished.
Aryaan’s heart stopped.
“RON!”
The connection snapped.
Aryaan returned to his body violently.
He gasped.
Around him, the others were waking.
Anahita was already standing.
“Where is Ron?”
Aryaan looked around.
Ron was unconscious.
His physical body remained seated.
But his consciousness was gone.
Lane sat upright.
“His connection broke.”
Ishaan moved to Ron.
He placed two fingers against Ron’s forehead.
“Pulse is stable.”
Aryaan’s relief lasted exactly one second.
Because Ron opened his eyes.
He stared at the ceiling.
Then said:
“I met someone.”
Anahita froze.
“Who?”
Ron frowned.
“I don’t know.”
“What did they look like?”
Ron thought.
“Couldn’t see.”
Aryaan’s stomach tightened.
“Where were you?”
Ron looked at him.
“Inside a forest.”
Silence.
“A forest?” Potter repeated.
Ron nodded.
“Yeah.”
Mokshabhumi had no forests large enough to produce the sensory imprint Ron was describing.
Ron continued.
“There was a river.”
Aryaan exchanged a glance with Lane.
Ron looked confused.
“And there was a woman.”
Anahita’s expression changed.
“What woman?”
Ron closed his eyes.
“I don’t know.”
“Ron.”
“I don’t know.”
He opened them again.
“She said something.”
Aryaan leaned closer.
“What?”
Ron frowned.
Then repeated the words.
“Tell the one who sees time…”
Aryaan’s blood went cold.
Ron continued:
“…that the road to Svargnagari is already open.”
Nobody moved.
Aryaan stared at Ron.
Anahita’s face had gone pale.
Ishaan looked towards Devdutt.
But Devdutt wasn’t there.
Aryaan suddenly realised something.
“Where is Devdutt?”
Anahita didn’t answer.
Potter looked around.
“He was here.”
Ishaan turned towards the door.
Then his communicator activated.
A message appeared.
UNAUTHORISED ACCESS — LOWER ACADEMY SECTOR.
Anahita’s expression hardened.
“Devdutt.”
Aryaan stood.
“What’s happening?”
Anahita looked at him.
For once, there was no attempt to hide anything.
“Your uncle has gone to the chamber.”
Aryaan’s heart tightened.
“Why?”
Ishaan answered.
“Because the first relay has activated.”
Aryaan looked at Lane.
Then Ron.
Then Potter and the others.
Something had changed.
The search for their parents had started as a question.
Then it became an investigation.
Now it was becoming something much larger.
Aryaan looked towards the sealed floor beneath the training hall.
His temporal perception flickered.
For a fraction of a second, he saw the chamber.
Devdutt stood before the ancient door.
The door was open.
And on the other side—
Aryaan saw a forest.
A river.
And a woman standing beneath an unfamiliar sky.
She looked directly at him.
Then smiled.
Aryaan’s vision snapped shut.
He stumbled.
Lane caught him.
“What did you see?”
Aryaan stared at the floor.
“Svargnagari.”
Ron sat upright.
“You saw it too?”
Aryaan looked at him.
Ron nodded slowly.
“The forest.”
Aryaan’s voice became quiet.
“I think that wasn’t a memory.”
Lane’s expression hardened.
“Then what was it?”
Aryaan looked towards the direction of the Academy’s underground chambers.
“A place.”
And somewhere far beneath them, something ancient began to wake.
Current Power & Skill Status
The first controlled astral session had not been a conventional power-up, but it had exposed an important difference between the eight.
Aryaan — Temporal Perception:
He can glimpse past and future possibilities, although prolonged use causes physical backlash, including headaches and bleeding.
His ability is beginning to interact with astral perception, allowing him to perceive structures that cannot be seen through ordinary senses.
Lane — Spatial Perception:
Lane’s spatial awareness is becoming increasingly precise.
He can instinctively read distances and movement, allowing him to move through combat situations more efficiently than his current physical cultivation level would normally permit.
Ron — Unstable Kundalini/Heat Manifestation:
Ron has demonstrated an instinctive ability to manifest intense heat through Kundalini, although he does not yet understand how he did it.
His astral projection is considerably less controlled than the others’, but he has unexpectedly crossed a boundary that the others could not.
The Group — Astral Awareness:
All eight have now experienced controlled astral projection.
They are still beginners, and none can safely travel between Lokas or galaxies.
Their first experience has nevertheless demonstrated that consciousness, Kundalini and the ancient planetary resonance network are connected.
And for the first time, the distinction between space, time and loka has begun to disappear.