My veil tarnished, how do I hide it,

How do I go home or drop by?

My spotless veil was sullied,

My cover unassailed like my unblemished body.

How do I look my father in eye?

All I promised him evaporated,

In the heat of my lover's embrace.

My immortal soul is dark and impure,

The gleam hidden beneath the dirt of lie.

The world beyond these walls is my father's abode,

This home is my lover's bestowed.

Now how do I look my father in eye?

How do I go home or drop by?

The young maiden sang in a melodious voice while the bells of the temple chimed in background due to gentle breeze. Her hair was braided into thick tail and traditional clothes covered her lithe form. Her beautiful collarbone glistened with sweat as she brooms the premises with a lost mind. Heavy anklets adorn her dry feet and glass bangles in her wrists click with every moment made in haste.

A small smile was plastered on Vasundhara's lips. Her frame was leaning against one of the temple pillars as she listens to the sweetest melancholy full of devotion. Serenity oozed from her pores. Worry lines evaporated from her forehead. The burden on her shoulders seems to lighten with the resonance of shlokas chanted by five priests as they adorned the idol of the Goddess with finest jewels and garments. She swore she napped twice or thrice during the entire exchange. The air here lacked suffocating troubles, greed, and hardships that she battles daily inside the walls of her doomed household.

She wished to stay here and never return for this peace might not follow where her family seeks her return.

And the meager thought breaks that smile. Her stretched lips wrinkle into a grimace. No matter wherever she goes, at the end of the day, before the night obscures the brilliant sun, she has to go home. The responsibilities keep her tied. For once she wished to be a free woman, to dove into the body of the free-spirited teenager she used to be before becoming a clueless Queen.

"Vasundhara"

Her moistened eyes opened and her back straightened. A hand landed on her head and she heaved a breathless sigh. Her lips quivered. Her face turned to greet the entity whom she has been waiting to see for a month.

The saint of the Nilgiri, the holy man who found all his answers within himself, the man who is foresighted and has challenged destiny.

Yogi Sundaram Arya Madhusudan

Floodgates opened in Vasundhara's eyes and from a blurry vision, she drank in the details of his bright persona.

A tripund tilak was made on his forehead. The front portion of his long mane was tied in a small bun over the top whereas the rest was allowed to fall down his back. Rudrakshas of different kinds and sizes were roped into garlands and worn around a neck painted with ash and biceps covered with the same. His honey-brown eyes were trained on her and small pink lips twitched beneath the bushy beard that reached his chest. A hint of grey, a sign of aging could be seen scattered here and there. A saffron robe hung loosely around his slim frame. The countenance of the saint held a light that shined brighter than the gold adorning Goddess's frame.

Vasundhara bowed to touch the floor near his wounded feet since he doesn't allow anyone to make direct skin contact with him. The healing wounds around his ankles raised multiple questions but she pushed the curiosity at bay. He might have acquired them while venturing on a stony path barefoot.

"Baba, I have been waiting for your arrival since yesterday,"

"I know, my dear child. I sensed you crossing the borders of Nilgiri and immediately left to retrieve something of grave importance. I believe things have gone serious from the last time you came to see me after your daughter-in-law's demise."

She immediately nodded and made way for him to enter the temple. The holy man discards his cream satchel at the side and takes the name of Goddess aloud before bowing in her shadow. Touching his forehead to the ground, he joins his hands and shuts his eyes, requesting her to guide him in helping her devotees.

Vasundhara waited at the sidelines patiently and gestures at one of the bodyguards to bring a handful of wheat tied in a red cloth and the dry coconut she brought from home. Once the saint finished his prayers, he sat in the middle of the temple and spreads his palms. Vasundhara immediately puts the untied red cloth filled with wheat on his open palms followed by the coconut.

The priest focuses on the articles in his hands and tense silence floods the once joyous premises. By now the five priests were mutely using rosemary for chanting and the young girl had already left.

Vasundhara bites her lips in trepidation. Her heart was beating faster than usual. Her mind was bombarded with a thousand possibilities. The saint wasn't even breathing as he sat there like a statue and gazed at the items. Inside his mind, he wasn't even present in the Aadishakti temple but venturing into the hallways of the Rana Fort. His body was sitting on the floor of disciples but his soul was traveling in another dimension over the grounds of the haunted palace using coconut and wheat as the medium because they carried the energy of the area of his curiosity.

The realm of spirits was the world inhabited by spirits, both good and evil of various spiritual manifestations. It is an external environment where the souls dwell. Both the spirit and natural world are in constant interaction with each other. A medium is used for communicating between them.

So in the spirit realm, when the saint looked up into the sky, he saw a peculiar alignment of stars. The aura of the burning sun was dimmed by the dark fog surrounding the entire palace. On the opposite end, a full moon was going through an eclipse- an hour of dark forces and perfect for witchcraft related sacrifices. Yogi Sundaram concluded while caressing his beard and decided to penetrate the ever-black clouds hovering over the entrance of Royal Grandeur. Multiple voices, paranormal to be precise, strike against his eardrums and he grimaces. A door to the demonic world was left open. A deal went wrong. The essence of an invited entity still lingers. The Saint's teeth ground at the courage of a stupid witch.

God only answers the prayers which are pure and done in good mind, not the ones laced with greed and vengeance. When such perpetrators don't get their wishes fulfilled, they resort to prohibited ways, even if it costs them their lives.

Walking through the smoke, Sundaram comes across a dreadful scene. For the first time in a long time, he thought of immediately backing away. The details shook him. He doesn't have many followers but those who came for help didn't hold a pinch to the amount of disaster thundering around the breakfast table of this Royal house.

Three humans, two males, and one female were settled around a table.

The soul of the oldest of the group looked exhausted, holding to a delicate thread called life. The holy man instantly understood the reason behind such hardship because a ghostly spirit was leeching on him. The spirit was old, and the older they get, the stronger they become. Its bloody eyes trained on the exhausted man with unsettling intentions. Yogi gulped. There was no saving here. The man was a slave of his sins.

Then his eyes studied the younger man. He seemed energetic, his aura vibrating. But his neck was completely bent until his chin touches his chest. He wasn't alone, another soul was attached to him and sitting on his shoulders. Animalistic in nature, with bared canines that might rip anyone in half. His angry eyes trained on the demonic entity hovering seven steps behind the smiling female. The demon was of robust physique, with tiny horns peaking from between his long hairs. His drooling mouth was open wide to latch onto the female's soul but the spirit of the unborn sitting on the young man's shoulder was powerful for it derived its power from this universe, not a dark abyss that the demon left behind. The long arms of demons were frozen mid-air like he was eager to grab her but was unable to do so. The pure soul of a female was quiet but the constant vibration emitting from her struck the holy man as cosmic stardust. God has his eyes on this girl too. As long the light of the almighty shines upon her, the demon won't touch her, he was hopeless at the moment.

On the other hand, the ghost of a young woman lingered in a distance from the younger man, just watching and weeping. In white garments, she was a spirit ready to leave this realm but was unable to do so under the influence of the older ghost who gets her power from them all. The dead ancestors of this house were weeping in the corridors.

"Aadishakti, my goddess, the killer of all evil! These damned souls need your help."

Sundaram whispered in his mind before shutting his eyes and taking a step back.

The next time he opened his eyes, found himself back in the temple in a body that was quacking side by side. His vision was blurry and his lips unknowingly chanted names of Gods.

Goosebumps were covering his flesh and the cold he felt in the palace, clawed his bones.

"Baba!"

An anxious Vasundhara queried after watching worry lines collecting at the saint's forehead. Sundaram puts down the articles in his palms and picks the coconut alone. With a force, he breaks it into two, and Vasundhara gasped watching the supposed milky insides slowly turning black.

A bad sign.

"Baba! What is happening?"

The saint smiles timidly and ties the cloth into a pouch, shutting the chapter which needs to be forgotten.

"Vasundhara, the coming days are going to be hard. I can't tell you the truth for it is yours to discover. But I must warn you about the possibilities. There would be a lunar eclipse in the four months. That day, two deaths might occur in your house. You mustn't fret about the dangers and put a rock on your heart. The things that have been haunting that fort ever since you became Raghuveer's wife are getting stronger. Your ancestors are trying their best to protect this family. It is because of them and God, you didn't face any fatal injuries.

My child, fear is going to be your downfall. Have faith in the lord and he will show you the right path.

At the end of the eclipse, you have to choose between your family and your desires. I have faith that you would do the right thing and use this wisely."

Saying that the saint reaches for his pouch and pulls out the item he went to retrieve yesterday from the secluded cave in the steep valley.

Vasundhara's throat dried watching a sheathed dagger pointed in her direction. She takes it with shivering hands.

"My mentor made it in his youth using the femur of another Saint- Yogi Prabhakar Krishna, who found knowledge of the universe through meditation. The wise aghoras furnished it by scripting language of the dead over it, keeping the high command of God and his cavalry in their mind. Wield it when it gets impossible to see past the dark."

Vasundhara nodded numbly. During her previous ventures, the saint never carried a conversation for so long. He was a man of monosyllables but today he was punctuating the possibilities with a clear mind. Something has gone wrong in her house.

"You must not speak about this exchange to anyone, not even your son."

"My son, is he...?"

"He is in good hands now. The girl you chose for him has settled the earlier wildness in him. He is more focused and will soon show you the impacts of true power. In that Fort, all of you get your strength from him, and now he has found a source to drive him on the right path. He is at the peace now. The negativity ends here."

Vasundhara wipes her tears and smiles.

"Baba, my husband, he is very sick."

Yogi pursed his lips. He has the power to see everything but not reveal the facts. He can't tell. The woman in front of him will break.

"Vasundhara, karma comes for everyone. Now, go home."

The saint instructed before attaining the position of meditation. His eyes close on accord and his mind wandered off.

Vasundhara didn't need to be told twice, she slowly got up while wincing at her aching knees and took her leave from the Aadishakti temple.

Somehow, this trip burdened her shoulders more. In place of finding answers, her mind got clouded with more questions.

What did the saint saw?