The Last Rudra

"You shouldn't worry too much, Ishit. It's better this way. You don't have to recall those dark days of your life. " Drona said as he led Onish down an empty corridor.

Drona, Ishit's only cousin, was an apprentice spiritualist. The boy had flown from Taxila to Minaak after getting the news of his brother's miraculous recovery. Though the academy would punish him for his ungranted leave, he could care less. His brother, for whom he had left Minaak five years ago, had escaped the caressing hand of white-wives, and he couldn't wait till term end to see him.

This morning when a boy from the tower of whisper had knocked at his dormitory's door, he had braced himself for the worst news. The news he had heard so many times in his nightmares.

The boy had to repeat the message thrice to him.

"Your brother has regained his health. No need to worry."

He shook the boy so hard that he thought Drona was mad and fled without even taking his ducats.

Drona called out the poor boy, giggling. But he didn't stop.

He packed his necessities and slipped out of the academy the next moment, giving the annoying Jiva, the great keeper, a cock-bull story. There was no way Lady Adriana would allow him to leave the academy before the term-end.

His friend from Vihaan helped him out by landing him his pegasus.

The winged horse didn't slow down till it landed before the amazed eyes of the city guards.

He entrusted the tired horse to the ostler and rushed to the castle.

Old Amora, the house-anima, told him that Ishit and his lord uncle were having dinner in the great hall with the others.

Drona never imagined in his wildest dream that his brother, who had cried himself sick when Drona had left for Taxila, refused to recognize him one day.

He looked into the familiar black eyes staring at him as if Drona was some stranger. His Ishit was standing before him, but he felt so distant that for a moment, Drona thought he had mistaken someone else for Ishit. But the spirit ensured him that the cute dimpled boy was his brother. The aura, though more potent than before, was the same.

It took him a while to accept the news when Uncle Oman explained why the dimples hadn't deepened by his surprise visit. Though the malady had spared Ishit life, it had wiped out his memories, leaving his mind clean like an uninscribed bhoj-patra.

The news had saddened him more when he thought his brother couldn't join any spirit academy. As they all accepted apprentices of age below 15 with good grades in elementary school.

However, he couldn't ask more. His Ishit was well again; anything else could be resolved later.

********

Onish was glad that he finally going to learn something about this uncanny world. It had been almost three years since he had got here, yet he didn't even know what this world was called. Was this one of the many lokas mentioned in Puranas like Yaksha Loka, Gandharva Loka, Patal Loka, Naga Loka, etc.? It must be one of them, or he couldn't see any possible explanation for the siddhis, divine power of birds, trees, and children. Only children of devas or semi-divine beings could wield such powers. However, what puzzled him was that his body didn't have any such power. He had checked every pore of his body; besides unusually enlarged nadis, it was apparently a mortal body of a human.

He found nothing divine or flow of strange energy that he was sensing from Drona.

Drona, his cousin, had taken the daunting task of teaching him elementary knowledge that a boy of his age should have, and before he would go to the elementary spirit academy to learn the way of a spirit-wielder.

Oman, his father, wanted to start with the ancestors first; However, his mother rejected the idea, saying Ishit would be bored to death. Besides, the amnesic boy didn't even know about himself, so how he would be interested in the deads.

After a long argument, they decided to leave it to Ishit what he wanted to know first.

And to their surprise, the first thing their son asked was the name of this world.

'Mazia, ' Onish mumbled the strange name. So it was not a Loka mentioned in Puranas. Then where he was, there was no way he was in some human dimension.

He realized the three people were staring at him curiously. He quickly adjusted his puzzling expressions. Onish knew he had to tread carefully. These people who could wield such powers were not ignorant; any suspicion could lead him into trouble. So, the next thing he asked made his father chuckle.

"If I'm your son, then why don't I have any power. Like you summoned that royal scroll out of thin air and vanished it with a flick of your hand. I couldn't do anything with my hand flick.," Onish said as he jerked his hand.

"See! Nothing happened. I couldn't be your son. You have mistaken me for someone else. Please let me go my parents would be searching for me." He said, giving them a pleading look.

"Ah! Ishit how could you say this? You said earlier that you recognised me." His mother appeared on the verge of tears.

Onish felt guilty for making the woman sad, who had wept all night for his son. Maybe he had taken his pretense too far.

"I'm sorry. You're right I did feel my heart throbbing, seeing you crying. So, you can't be other than my mother. But I'm not..." He hurriedly apologized and his father a suspicious look.

"Ha, ha... Lad, don't give me that look. I will spank your butt till you recognize me as your father. You have no idea how many nimohis or nimais I had begged to cure you." Oman chuckled.

"Oman! Don't dare to threaten my son, again." Padma retorted, seeing Onish fearful expression.

"It was not his fault that he couldn't recognise you. Child, you don't need to be afraid. I'll tell you everything." She said, stroking Onish hair that she combed neatly in the evening.

"Aunt, I can help him out as you will have to attend the guest."Drona cut in, looking expectantly at them.

So, it was decided Drona would tell him anything Onish would like to know. As the hall was too noisy to have such conversion. They left the hall to the library where Drona could show him some murals and scrolls if needed.

As for his question, why he didn't have any power or sense of the spirit, Drona explained to him on the way.

To sense the spirit, one must be awakened first. Usually, the awakening ceremony was performed at five when a child joined the elementary academy. However, he was diagnosed with a strange ailment at his birth, making it impossible for his thin nadis to bear the burden of the spirit. It was also the reason for his near-death experience.

After Drona left for Taxila, Ishit, who had been left alone in the castle, started learning the way of a spirit wielder secretly from a guard who had no knowledge of his young master's illness.

Ishit beguiled the young guard, accusing him that he didn't know the spirit's way. The poor guard performed everything he had learned in the elementary academy to prove his worthiness to his master. Thus unintentionally teaching his young master the way of the spirit, which was kept secret from him so far.

The curious boy, who wanted to follow his elder brother's step, tried to sense the spirit, which gushed through his feeble nadis like a torrent. The nadis, as warned by Nimohi, burst out with tremendous pressure.

A maid had found him unconscious, blood oozing out of his ears and nose.

Drona gave Onish a pitiful look. Onish didn't know how to he should react to this. The previous owner of this body was clearly a reckless fellow. But the thing puzzled him that if he had died with the burst of nadis. Then how come his nadis were so sturdy and wide. However, he didn't voice out it. Instead, he asked another question about the spirit, the peculiar energy, which was similar to pranic energy but was different in many ways.

The library was on the backside of the grand castle, so they had to take many maze-like corridors to get there. But the walk was nothing to Onish, whose mind had been blown the strangeness of the spirit.

The spirit, which he has thought another form of energy, was an entirely new thing.

According to Drona, the People of Mazia, too, were not sure of the true nature of the spirit. Myriads of theory had been proposed by the spiritualists, (a group of the spirit wielder who researched the spirit and its uses). However, most of them agreed that spirit was a form of energy with a sentience of its own. It could thing like a person. This also explained the working of spells. As the spells were just the commands spoken in the language of the spirit, using correct syllables and frequency. Only a sentient being could understand a language.

Besides spells, many other incidents supported this claim. Such as breaking a bow given to someone would lead to severe punishment from the spirit. The working of the tower of whispers was another mystery that could only be explained using the awareness theory. There were other things like Mitra's Eye or the so-called All-Knowing -Eye which advocated this hypothesis.

However, three years ago, someone from the falconry guild had challenged this worldwide accepted theory. The person was one of Oman's friends named Ronan of Minaak. Ronan claimed that the spirit was nothing but a sixth essential element. However, before he could submit his theory to the royal academy, he disappeared from the world.

Nonetheless, the conscious theory prevailed and seemed more logical to people than to the sixth element theory.

However, Drona, who was also a budding spiritualist, personally support Ronan's theory. Onish thought it must be because Ronan was from Minaak and Oman's friend. Thinking of Ronan, wasn't  the name of Guha's dad Ronan, too? Onish thought. The poor boy must be searching for his pretty parrot. Onish didn't know what happened to the dead bird after he left its body. Oman must have thrown it out.

Anyway, It was not his fault; he hadn't killed the bird. When he entered its body, it was already dead.

Onish cleared his thought as he looked ahead. Amidst the garden, a white building, bathing into pale moonlight, stood. Onish looked in the garden myriad flowers glowing with different light colors, dancing in the gentle night breeze. The scene before him was so beautiful that he wished he had two extra pairs of eyes.

"Who goes there?" a sharp voice demanded.

"It's me Drona. Amora," Drona replied as they climbed the white marble stairs.

Onish was startled to see the familiar fierce-looking face with a deep scar materialized on the door.

" You all spiritualists are really book- worms. You just got here two hours ago, you need the library. I really wonder what ..." The scarred face growled, but as its hawk-like eyes fell on Onish, he stopped.

"Why must you bring this poor child? He has just got on his feet." Amora complained, giving Onish a pitying look.

"You've mistaken something Old Amora. It's not me but Ishit wanted to come here. As you know he has lost his memories. So his brain needs a good filling." Drona said with a smile. He seemed pretty friendly to the savage face.

"Yes, I was there in the room when Nimohi explained the cause. What a poor child! I really wonder why Spirit is so heartless towards him." Amora sighed as he swung open the door.. for the two brothers.