Eklavya drew the five jade stones from his storage ring and arranged them carefully before him. Aligning them with almost ceremonial precision as though neatness might somehow make the day feel less chaotic. Which, given the number of supernatural incidents he had already survived before bedtime, felt like a reasonable hope — yet before he could even lean forward to examine the faint runic veins etched across their surfaces, the stones trembled, lifted smoothly into the air, and hovered in a silent arc above him.
He barely had time to react before they shot forward in five streaks of pale light and pierced the space between his brows without resistance, not painfully but with undeniable authority. It started sinking deep into his consciousness as though returning to a place they had been separated from for far too long.
Instinctively, he closed his eyes and allowed his awareness to descend once more into his sea of consciousness. He materialised near the twisted tree and the vast, unmoving pool of blood, only to see the jade stones now suspended high above the floating islands; they glowed softly, then drifted into position, each settling above an island with flawless symmetry, balanced in a way that felt less like placement and more like restoration.
“So… these stones were connected to this place,” he murmured, studying the alignment with narrowed eyes. “No wonder Father kept them hidden. But what is it?” Questions surged through him in waves — what exactly did Ishant know, were these islands fragments of an inheritance older than the clan itself — but speculation would not strengthen him, and strength was what he needed.
He moved beneath the serpent-twisted tree and extended his fingers toward the blood pool again, drawing two more drops; they rose obediently, dark and heavy, and the instant they touched him, power detonated through his channels.
His Crown Chakra burst open in a cascade of blinding light, a flood that roared through his channels— yet the realm refused to stabilise, hovering at the brink without granting advancement. He grit his teeth, refusing to retreat, and summoned four additional drops. They ascended slowly, almost deliberately, before entering him all at once.
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Something inside him snapped. His Divine Chakra tore open violently, but instead of elevation, searing agony exploded through his skull — a stabbing, relentless torment as if molten spikes were being driven through bone and thought alike.
He screamed, clutching his head as the inner sea convulsed and shattered like glass under pressure, the twisted tree distorting, the islands trembling, and then the world ripped away entirely.
He was no longer himself. He stood within the fragile body of a five-year-old child. Fire consumed everything. The ground shook beneath small, unsteady feet. The sky churned black with thunderous clouds as titanic figures clashed above, each collision sending shockwaves that tore through buildings and flung debris into the inferno.
Screams filled the air — men, women, children — raw and desperate. Heat scorched his skin. Smoke choked his lungs. Tears streamed uncontrollably down a face too young to comprehend such devastation, yet the grief felt ancient, suffocating, as though something precious had been annihilated before it had the chance to be named.
The sensation of loss crushed him from within. Then darkness swallowed everything. He jolted awake in his room, dragging in a ragged breath — only for his consciousness to collapse again, his body falling limply to the floor. Moments later, the door burst open.
Ashish reached him first. “Eklavya!” Ishant knelt with controlled urgency, lifting him onto the bed and checking his pulse with steady fingers. After several tense seconds, he exhaled quietly. “He’s fine. Exhausted. Something drained him.” His voice remained composed, but the tightness in his gaze betrayed the truth. Aashi brushed trembling fingers through Eklavya’s hair, relief softening her expression. “I’ll stay with him tonight.”
The two men nodded and withdrew in silence, leaving mother and son bathed in the dim glow of lantern light. Shadows stretched long across the walls, flickering faintly as if whispering secrets of their own, while Eklavya lay unconscious, unaware that whatever he had witnessed was not merely a memory, not merely a vision — but the first crack in a sealed past that had just begun to awaken. And somewhere deep within his inner sea, the blood pool rippled for the first time.
