The Destiny of Shaitan

by Laxmi Hariharan

  “The ultimate choice,” adds Yudi.

  “Sweet!” says Rai.

  "And if we fail?" asks Tiina then adding “OK I take that back, pretend I didn’t ask.”

  "Well, then," and for the first time the Lion-Man falters, “well then, I don’t know really."

  "No, no, not another end of the world story, please!" exclaims Yudi.

  "No," he says, "it is much worse..." Then he says, "But let’s not worry about that now. Come, we must leave. Time is running short.”

  As they had been talking the find that Artemis has restored herself back to a normal sized space ship, ready to take them on their travels. They walk with the Lion Man and get on board.

  The ship is a lot steadier with the Lion Man piloting them into the starlight-filled skies. The three are in sombre mood, each reflecting on the very recent revelations about their true selves. They each wonder how this is going to affect them, if it will aid their mission or else make no difference at all.

  The Lion Man points out the various galaxies, the distant planets, and the stars that they pass. They continue onwards for a few days and nights, during which the Lion Man opts to stay in the driver’s seat all through.

  Then just as Tiina begins to think that those from the other world like the Lion Man obviously don’t need much rest, he gets up, stretches, and yawns. “Artemis” he says, addressing the ship. “Hold course, and alert once we get close to the eye-mountain.”

  Then, turning to the three, he says, “We have a little time to rest before the final rush to the summit. You’ll need your energy for that, believe me.”

  The Lion Man then goes off through to the small sleeping pod cleverly set into the ship’s main deck and just next to the pilot’s pod.

  Yudi, Rai and Tiina walk out of the main deck. The craft seems deceptively small from the outside, they realise, for as they walk out of the main deck now, the bridge takes them down to the level below. They walk across to a small room which has big transparent windows from which they can see the black yet occasionally star-lit void outside. The room has comfortable couches, various types of mind games that one may play, as well as an entertainment centre to watch movies, which Rai walks up to and looks at.

  “How the hell does this work, do you think?” he asks the others.

  Yudi walks up to him and demonstrates. “You just sit down on this very comfortable reclining couch, make yourself comfortable, shut your eyes, ask to be shown all the various movies in the library, and watch …” He proceeds to do just that.

  Rai watches Yudi. He is a little disgusted that he was taken in by that, then shrugs and wanders over to the big windows, gazing out.

  Meanwhile Tiina walks to the tiny music console at the opposite end of the room from Yudi and uses her fingertips to work out how to play the best music suited to their mood.

  “OK, guys, here’s some soothing jazz, then,” she says, as the slow, deep music begins to play.

  “Do any of you guys feel very different since we drank of the Elixir?”

  “Not really, no,” says Rai, shaking his head, while Yudi does not bother to reply.

  Rai comments, “Isn’t it strange how soon one gets used to the entire concept of stars and passing galaxies?” As he continues to stare out, mesmerised, a face at the window looks right into his eyes. He can feel hysteria bubble up and control slowly slip away and, as he feels himself approaching the void, the face whispers, Rai … Rai? In an instant, he feels the dark rage ebb away. And the face grows clearer, revealing the most beautiful non-human (it has to be non-human, he thinks) face in the universe.

  “I saw you go there,” it says, the words falling softly over his skin, making him shiver quite involuntarily in response, “and I had to pull you back.”

  Pulling himself together, Rai asks, “So who are you?”

  “I am,” it says, “the person everyone wants to meet. The fountainhead of imagination. Dip into me every time you want to feel new beginnings. I am your muse, your inspiration. I live in you. I become what you want me to be.”

  Rai reaches out to touch, mesmerised, and then, feeling an incredible urge to follow it, throws himself against the large transparent windows, hurts himself, and falls back with a groan of pain.

  Tiina and Yudi rush up to him. “Why did you do that?” asks Tiina in an incredulous tone.

  Rai rubs his aching head and says, “It’s crazy, but I actually wanted to follow the vision I just saw, follow it, you know. There was this incredible urge I had. And I just did not know what I was doing.”

  The Lion Man, who has just come in to find them, looks at them and says, “And so it starts.”

  “What?” asks Rai?

  “The illusions. As we get closer to Shaitan, the dreams grow. No longer can you believe what you see through your eyes.”

  “And you?” says Rai. “Do you get affected?”

  “Not normally. Then, I have never come this close to the devil himself. So it will be interesting to see if, indeed, it does impact me.”

  Once more, they continue on the journey. Rai’s encounter has shaken them a little. So this time the group has much less energy to make wisecracks or indeed talk frivolities. Yudi follows Tiina, who takes the bridge that appears again as they walk out of the door and into the small kitchen just opposite the leisure room.

  “I’ll never get used to this thing just springing out of nowhere," he says, gesturing to the bridge that has just disappeared behind them.

  She looks up from the clear liquid she is pouring for herself, then, gesturing to it, raises her eyebrows and asks him silently if he wants the same. He nods. Yudi accepts the glass and then asks her suddenly, “It’s not more of the Elixir, is it?”

  She smiles and says, “No. It's just the best of the wine this side of outer space.”

  “Salut,” says Yudi, as they clink and sip the wine. Then, walking across to the table by the wide bay windows, he sits down. Tiina joins him, sitting down across from him.

  She asks, “Have you wondered how all of us came to be on this journey?”

  “It’s something I have been asking myself a lot of late. Why us? Why me? Why now? That’s what I’d like to know.”

  “You could never accept that each of us was special, the chosen ones. You never have, not since I knew you, at least,” Tiina retorts.

  “It could have been anybody else, right?”

  “But it wasn’t. It was we. We are the chosen ones. The ones who will make a difference to the universe,” she says emphatically.

  “You like it!” he exclaims.

  “I love it. Thrive on it." Tiina looks at him, her eyes gleaming with an almost unreal light.

  “You scare me sometimes, Tiina.”

  “But you like that about me! It arouses you. Admit it now!” she cajoles teasingly, moving closer to him.

  As he is about to reply the spacecraft jolts abruptly and then the world turns upside down, as they seem to go into free fall.

  When they awake it seems that they are back on Earth. It’s a beautiful place which neither of them recognise. Water from a beautiful waterfall tumbles over the side of a small hill ending in a beautiful pond fringed by green fern fronds. It forms a perfect frame to the incredible joy they feel as they strip their clothes and dive into the water and frolic like dolphins.

  Diving below the surface Yudi comes up for air then spotting Tiina swimming towards the waterfall, he dives in again and pulls her under water laughing when she goes under. The swim with the fishes for a while longer as the light breeze fans the surface of the water.

  Finally exhausted, they climb out and onto the sun-warmed rocks, and lie there breathing heavily from their exhaustion. They lie there for many minutes, or it could even be hours. Yudi does not know. Finally he raises his head and looks at Tiina. “Are you sleeping, Tiina?”

  It takes her a minute to find her voice, so caught up in the serenity is she, but finally she replies, her voice husky with relaxation.

  “No” she w
hispers.

  Yudi raises himself on his elbow and kisses her gently on her forehead, her closed eyes, her nose and finally on her lips, continuing his journey down to the hollow of her throat, her breasts, her navel and the secret place between her thighs until it seems to her that her entire body is enflamed, the once serene beats of her heart replaced with a growing restlessness until she finally opens her eyes, brings his head up in front of her face and kisses him with the pent-up intensity of a lifetime.

  This is an idyllic time. The days pass in a haze of building a small house just by the waterfall. The nights in lovemaking. They discover the sheer pleasure of each other’s company. So self-sufficient in that warm cocooned feeling that the world reduces to just the two of them.

  Tiina gives birth to Luv and Kush. In that utter peace, watching the children grow up, it seems to them that nothing could ever go wrong. “Watch me, mother,” says Luv and, before she can stop him, to her horror he dives off the small hillock, straight into the beautiful pond and hits his head on the rocky bottom.

  Tiina screams, “Luv!" She dives in after him, bringing his limp body to shore where Yudi wades out to greet her. They frantically try to revive him, then realise that he is not going to breathe again. And, giving into the horrible, sinking feeling, that incredible sense of overwhelming loss, they cling to each other and weep.

  Yudi shakes away the hand on his shoulder and then, getting angry, turns around, throwing his fist to shove away whatever is there. Lion Man deftly blocks his throw and says softly, “Come back to the real world, Yudi.”

  In the next instant, they find themselves back on the spacecraft, being shaken awake by the Lion Man. He has a hand on each of their shoulders as they lie next to each other on the floor in front of the window they had been looking out of earlier, Tiina’s left hand clasped in Yudi’s right.

  “That was a dream. I told you, Shaitan’s powers are not to be underestimated. He can get right inside your mind.”

  Tiina wipes the tears from her eyes. “Well, these tears are real,” she says, “and the grief I feel right now is very real, doesn’t matter what you say.”

  “That’s what he does,” replies the Lion Man. “He can get right inside your mind and play with your emotions. He weakens you until you can no longer differentiate between the real and the unreal.”

  “So what we felt was real?” asks Yudi.

  “Yes, the emotions you felt were real. Everything else was an illusion.”

  “You mean our child …” Yudi swallows hard and lets the rest of the sentence hang in the air.

  “Yes, all of it,” says the Lion Man.

  “We have to stop this from happening again”

  “The only way to protect yourself is to question everything you see. Do not take anything for granted. Not even each other.”

  Right then Artemis seems to lose momentum and it grinds to a complete standstill with a very loud, screeching noise, as if brakes have been applied. Then, inch by inch, she starts moving again, this time much more slowly, almost at a different energy level. It feels as if a different set of gears somewhere deep have been activated. Tiina, Yudi & Rai run quickly through the doors, which swish open, and into the main driving pod. The joystick in the driving pod is moving by itself, as if on autopilot. The Lion Man follows them to the bridge at a more leisurely pace. He merely smiles at them and says, “It’s found us, then.”

  “The Isthmus, it’s found us!” exclaims Tiina.

  “What? Like a homing device?” questions Yudi.

  Tiina exclaims at the same time, “But the spacecraft is not linked to it at all, is it?”

  “No, it’s not. The peculiarity of the Isthmus is that it attracts every object in the radius of a light year. So we are really close now.”

  “Much like a tractor beam?” asks Rai.

  “Yes, but much more sophisticated.”

  “Like making everything in sight fall in love with it?” asks Tiina.

  “Yes, almost like matter attracting matter,” replies the Lion Man.

  “So, then, how we shall escape?” asks Rai.

  “The power of the Isthmus belongs to its master," says the Lion Man.

  “So all we have to do is own it, and we can direct its power,” says Tiina, jokingly.

  “That simple, eh?" asks Yudi

  “It's all in your mind” says the Lion Man.

  “Well, it’s all very well for you to say this. I wonder if you ever practice any of this yourself?” challenges Rai.

  The Lion Man looks at him and for a moment it seems that he is about to lose his temper, for as they watch fascinated the whiskers on his face grow longer, his skin goes red and his cheeks puff up in anger.

  Then he calms himself with an effort, and as Artemis gathers speed says “Come on, we need to secure ourselves in right away; we are very close to the Isthmus!”

  The four of them hastily get into their specific pods, which instantly mould themselves to the shape of each of their bodies, enveloping them in warmth. And Artemis gathers speed, going faster than light into a blinding white space where all seems suspended, life itself, and then they seem to drop right out of space onto the surface of the new planet, not far away from the eye-pyramid.

  Artemis slides through the sand, the impact carrying them all the way to the base of the eye-pyramid, finally coming to a complete standstill with all systems screeching, until they drop to the ground, bounce once, and land again firmly, just a few metres from the edge of the pyramid itself. Quiet descends on them like the final trickle of sand through an hourglass.

  Yudi leaps out of Artemis, tapping its side smartly as if in gratitude. He walks out on the planet, stretches himself, and smiles. “This is it then, guys,” he says excitedly. “The final face-off. Where it all happens. Come on, eh!”

  He walks a few more minutes before realising that there is no corresponding answer back from his friends. He looks back and realises that he is alone. Puzzled, he breaks into a run, jogs back to the ship and peers inside. All the three inside seem to be stunned. Then, seeing the Lion Man stir, he goes up to him. “Hey, what’s up? What’s with the three of you, then?” he asks.

  “That was quite a jolt,” the Lion Man replies.

  Rai, wakes up with a gasp, as if coming up for air but does not make any effort to move yet, though.

  Yudi walks up to Tiina and places his palm on her cheek “Tiina?" He calls out her name. She opens her eyes slowly, and then shuts them again, “Whew!” she says, “that was quite an impact.”

  “I seem to be the only one not hurt...the rest of you seem to be still recovering.”

  Even as she speaks, the Lion Man finally gets to his feet.

  “Interesting” he says looking at Yudi fairly bouncing about filled with energy. “It seems the crash has not had any impact on you...” he says.

  Tiina looks at Yudi who seems the picture of health. He seems to be standing straight, his eyes glowing with enthusiasm even his skin seems to radiate energy. As for herself, Artemis’ crash landing has her insides still shaking. She rubs the back of her head where it had earlier struck the wall of the ship feeling slightly disoriented. And then she realises “Wait a minute” she says “Obviously the Elixir....”

  “Is having an effect on Yudi” says the Lion Man “who would have thought it was him after all” he says aloud. Tiina looks to the Lion Man as the full weight of his words sinks in. “Of course” she realises, “it is Yudi.”

  The Lion Man nods and they exchange a silent look.

  The Lion Man gets to his feet. He walks out to where is Yudi is impatiently waiting for them and pats the ship in a friendly manner. “What happened to you Artemis?” he asks “That was quite a bumpy landing.” As if in reply Artemis’ hull darkens on itself, as if blushing, or at least definitely not being quite proud of herself. Then lighting up again, the ship lifts a bit off the ground and floats gracefully.

  Tiina appears at the entrance of the ship and hails them. “Hey guys, look what I f
ound” she says holding up the swords she had found earlier.

  “Perhaps you should arm yourself considering we may run in Shaitan himself out there?”

  Before they can reply, she tosses the swords at them. Yudi raises his hand catching the weapon in mid-air, and smartly navigates it so it straps itself at his waist. Tiina watches him with an eyebrow raised as she straps her own weapon in place.

  Rai holds his in his hand admiringly and, mock-practicing with it, “Not bad, where did you find these?”

  “In the hold. There’s more ... if you had but bothered to look.”

  “Hey, that’s why we keep you around,” says Yudi.

  The Lion Man who has already set off towards the eye-pyramid in the distance turns to them and gestures “Come on,” he tells them, “let’s get to the top before it gets dark.”

  The three of them fall into a light jog behind him, the Lion Man leading and Rai bringing up the rear. As they walk up the path leading to the peak of the eye-mountain, night slowly begins to descend. They look back to find that Artemis is fading into the backdrop of the deserted landscape and the night sky feels unreal. It is a dark blue with the stars twinkling, flashing, blinking, like tear drops drying on rose petals.

  “Wow!” Tiina comes to a halt gasping for breath. “This is amazing” she says looking at the scene in front of them.

  Rai looks up. “The two moons of Saturn,” he says. The group is silent, savouring the unexpected beauty of their surroundings.

  “It’s hard to imagine all the evil hidden here” remarks Yudi.

  Tiina says, “I’ve often found that extremes go hand in hand.”

  “Just means you have to look below the surface to find that which is true?”

  The Lion Man smiles, “it seems the Elixir has increased not only your physical strength but also your emotional sense, Yudi.”

  Rai chuckles, Tiina laughs and even Yudi manages to crack a smile as they continue to head up the slope. The joking banter gives away to silence as they continue to labour up, the hard climb winding them, making all of them pant and get out of breath. Even the Lion Man’s muscles strain, as he has to make an effort to keep the pace. He looks back to find that the rest have fallen behind. Yudi seems to be doing better than the rest thanks to the Elixir having increased his energy levels substantially and, as he pauses for a quick rest, Yudi catches up with him.