by Varun Sayal
Tej hugged her tightly. Tears rolled down his cheeks. He had no words
Rigu’s Ashram | A Few Hours Later
Rigu arrived at his ashram with Tej. After getting refreshed, they were sitting and talking in a quiet, austere room made of fire-torched mud bricks. Tej drank a hot liquid from a small earthen pot mug. Rigu was explaining to Tej the intricacies of traveling through time. Tej listened attentively. The hot liquid he was drinking was a soothing medicine, which, according to Rigu, would prepare him for his travel through time.
“Tej, you have some inkling of time travel. Now I will discuss with you the concept of a time-prison. These details may not make a lot of sense to you, but I will lay them out in simple words. You need to understand these theories and embrace this knowledge at a swift pace. It will be critical for our success in this battle.”
“I am ready, Gurudev. Wherever I have questions, I will ask them.”
“Good. Since a time-demon’s consciousness can travel through time, I had to capture Kumbh in a Kaal-Shoonya. The literal translation of Kaal-Shoonya is Time-nothingness. It’s a space where the concept of time does not exist. Roughly around five thousand years in the future, humans will develop such a place, a virtual-reality based multiplayer game called “Virtual Exoskeleton 2.0” or Virtexo 2.0. This game will allow human beings to enter into that virtual reality and, in a phony way, lead a life very different from their true life.”
“Pardon my ignorance, Gurudev. What is a virtual-reality?”
“How will I explain this to you? Okay. You do understand dreams. Think of virtual reality as an artificial construct, a well-crafted dream—a reverie which allows a human to experience several fantastical worlds without actually traveling to them.”
“So, virtual reality is a dream which humans will create? But how?” Tej was puzzled, but not defeated, by the logic of what he was hearing.
“Using machines, like the bow and arrow. A bow and arrow is a very simple instrument, a rudimentary machine which you can use to hunt animals. The humans of the future will have far more sophisticated machines which can fabricate these dreams, and in a way, put human consciousness within them.”
Rigu knew he’d used a loose analogy, but Tej understood the underlying philosophy.
“Okay, Gurudev, so what you are saying is that Kumbh was imprisoned in that dream, and that dream has no concept of time?”
“Yes, I am coming to that. So within that game Virtexo 2.0, there are different stages. Think of these stages as steps or levels of a ladder. Within each stage, the game players win over some milestones and keep on moving forward to following levels.”
“Okay!”
“There was one stage of this game which the game developers left unfinished. Hence, in that stage, the concept of time was not introduced. But within this stage, they had created a virtual character called Mengalz. This is the virtual character within which I captured Kumbh’s consciousness.”
“Captured? I don’t understand.”
“On that night, when we brought them to my ashram, Kumbh woke up from the effect of my paralytic chemical after a few hours. He was in a delirious state. As a natural time-demon instinct, he wanted to take flight. He wanted to move his consciousness from that body to another, right away. Exactly at that time, I showed him a well-drawn sketch of Mengalz, which worked as a hint to his destination. In that state of disorientation, his judgment was weak. He transported his consciousness to that virtual character. But once he went into that game, inside the body of that character, it became his prison. He no longer had any time waves to ride on and get out.”
“I am not sure I understand very well, Gurudev. But you are saying you tricked him in going to that time-prison, is that right?” Tej had concluded that it was not possible for him to understand each word the guru was saying or will say. But he planned to pick-up the parts which he could understand.
“Yes, I tricked him. Exactly.”
“But how did he even take your bait? He is one of the most powerful time-demons, known throughout history.”
“He is. But most time-demons function on the concept of anchor and destination. A time-demon, when planning a jump through time, needs to establish his or her anchor. An anchor is the current host body to which they are tethered, as well as the current time realm they are in.
“Along with this anchor, they also need to establish a destination host body and time-slice to select. When Kumbh woke up, his consciousness was searching for destination bodies in other time-slices. At that time, a mere suggestion of 2024 AD and a sketch of that character Mengalz worked as a hint to his consciousness.
“As soon as he entered Virtexo, inside the character of Mengalz, he could not travel any further. He was trapped there, because that stage of the game, there was no time.” Rigu finished his explanation and noticed that Tej was scratching his head in confusion.
“Will all due respect, Gurudev, I am not sure if I understood each word you said. But two words stay with me—anchor and destination.”
“Yes, and those two words are critical for you, Tej. These two concepts will aid you to travel to far destinations. They will also help you anchor back to your source using the time-tether.”
Rigu opened the large wooden box near the window and took out several sketches which he’d made a few years ago. The sketches were drawn on thick sheets of paper. In places, they were shaded with different colored powders and charcoal.
Few sketches described the night Rigu captured Kumbh and Vetri. Few other drawings showed fantastical futuristic images of Virtexo. Some had various game-characters in strange clothes. The character of Mengalz looked like a small boy. The boy had yellow hair, a big nose, broken teeth, and wore a red shirt with blue jeans. In a weird way, it reminded Tej of Kaalpriya. He was already missing her.
Tej found some of the sketches bizarre but took a detailed look at them. While going through them, he recalled a fact Rigu had mentioned earlier.
“There is one thing I didn’t understand, Gurudev. You said we only have seven days before we can capture Kumbh? What is the logic behind that?”
“Yes, Tej, today at 6 PM Eastern time in 2024 AD …”
“Eastern?”
“Oh, I keep forgetting you don’t see what I can see. This morning, sometime around sunrise our time, Virtexo’s development team uploaded a code-fix to the game. This fix introduced the concept of time in the stage of the game where Mengalz, i.e. Kumbh, was entrapped. At that exact instant, Kumbh re-gained his powers and moved his consciousness out of that game character. He acquired a new host, a human within the same time-slice—that is, in 2024 AD. At that moment, I intercepted a great shock-wave traveling through time. I realized that Kumbh has broken free of the time jail, which is when I rushed to your village.”
“So that’s how he escaped.”
“Yes. And this escape would not have been possible without external intervention. If this escape was pre-destined, we would have seen it earlier in our time visions. Anything in the future which does not involve time-demons is crystal-clear to us. We can see it whenever we want, and it will remain the same. But the situations affected by time-demon actions only reveal themselves as they take those actions—which is why I am sure that in this case, another time-demon helped him escape.”
“But where do seven days come into the picture?” Tej was rather flummoxed with these theories, characters, and the concept of time-prison.
“I am coming to that. When I entrapped Kumbh into Virtexo twenty years ago, he lost touch with time. His anchor location was cut off. As a result of this, he will be stuck in the year 2024 for seven days. He will not be able to travel to another time-slice right away.
“Time-demon’s anchors are rarely severed like this because they are consistently traveling through time. But when a time-demon’s anchor is cut off for some reason, he needs approximately seven days of time, to
reestablish it. He has to spend those seven days to re-build the current location and time as a new anchor. Only after the completion of these seven days can he make the next time jump to a new destination.”
“Oh, so these are the seven days you were talking about.”
“Yes—after today’s sunrise, we have seven days before he makes his next time jump. After the sunset of the seventh day, he will be free to make a fresh time jump at any time. With this reestablished anchor, he will go farther in the future, where he will be beyond our reach. We need to capture him right where he currently is, in the year 2024 AD.”
“Okay, Gurudev. Let us for a moment assume that I can somehow go to this 2024, to the future. I find him, and I am even able to somehow capture him. But how will we bring his consciousness to our current time? He may move to a new body at any time, and I will have to go looking for his new vessel?”
“No, he can’t move to another body right away, because his anchor is weakened. That’s our advantage. When I send your consciousness to a body in 2024, you will need to find him and look into his eyes.”
“Look into his eyes? Why?”
“Although his anchor is severed, the remnants of his previous anchor are still connected to his consciousness. As soon as you look into his eyes, his consciousness will read your consciousness’s anchor. And that anchor lies in the present time, i.e. 3057 BC. His consciousness will re-establish its anchor to yours. That, Tej, will be your advantage. After that as soon as you travel back to this time, you will drag his consciousness along.”
Tej chewed his lower lip and looked at Rigu as if he was a child about to be reprimanded by his teacher. He had not understood a single word of what the guru said. He only gathered that he could somehow travel through time and go to some future, and once he got there, he needed to find Kumbh and look into his eyes.
“Please pardon me, Gurudev. These concepts are too confusing for me. First, I don’t know how to travel through time to the future. And second, when I go and visit him in the future, why should I look into his eyes? Why shouldn’t I kill him there and then, and end his life forever?”
Rigu knew that time was running out and Tej’s questions were too basic. But he also knew that if Tej was not prepared in the right way, this whole undertaking could be rendered futile. Too much depended on Tej’s success.
He placed his hands on Tej’s shoulders. “Son, do you trust me?”
“I do.”
“Will you do exactly as I say? Will you fight this demon for me?”
“I owe my life to you, Gurudev. I would follow you to the end of the world if I have to. That night, when we had lost all hope, you were our light, and you were our savior.”
“Good. Then you will follow my simple instructions as I guide you to where you have to go. Now, coming to your question about killing him. Please understand that time-demons cannot be killed in the same sense as humans can be. Time-demons are parasitic energies, pure consciousnesses. They own a host and tie themselves to it. Even if you kill Kumbh, i.e. Kumbh’s host body in 2024 AD, you will only be killing that vessel. After his vessel dies, his consciousness will again travel to another vessel in 2024. And as the seventh day passes, he will be gone forever. So don’t think too much on that.
“And about your doubts on your capability for time travel, please understand that it has been passed onto you via genetics. It’s deep-rooted into your consciousness, too. It will come as easily to you as wielding a sword. Since you are a genetic time-demon, even if your consciousness leaves your body, it will stay hale and hearty until you come back. So if you can’t trust yourself for now, please trust me. Because I chose you for a reason.”
“All right, Gurudev, I will follow your instructions. But we have lost one day—the sun is about to set. We have only six days.”
“Yes, we have lost this one day. But this one day was important for you to understand this situation, and to discuss and plan our path forward. Take a proper rest tonight. Tomorrow, you need to spend time learning another important skill—but not here; it will be at another place. You will need to learn how to conduct a Pret-Baadha, i.e. how to cast a spell and summon a demonic consciousness.”
“Pret-Baadha? Why, and who will teach me?”
“To capture Kumbh’s consciousness, you will have to look into his eyes. I told you that a few moments ago, right?”
“Yes—that’s the only part I understood, Gurudev.”
“So before you look into Kumbh’s eyes, you would need to summon his consciousness, in the same way, any demon is summoned. Only after you run this pret-baadha spell will you be able to connect to Kumbh’s consciousness. It’s akin to a spell to cure demonic possession.”
“Demonic possession?” Tej gulped in fear. He remembered seeing a dark shadow near his farm one night. He stayed as far away from it as possible. Village elders later told him it was the ghost of a farmer who was killed by wolves ten years ago. That has been his closest encounter with anything supernatural.
Rigu could understand his fear. “Don’t worry, son. You will be taught by best of the best—Rudrakshini, the queen of necromancers.”
Necromancer? Tej’s eyes widened at the mere mention of the word. He had heard strange necromancer stories from his foster parents and community elders. In his village, people addressed necromancers as Aghori. They called Aghoris to perform exorcisms on village men or women who were claimed to be possessed by evil spirits.
He also had a vivid memory from childhood when he’d witnessed an exorcism live. Fifteen years ago an old Aghori was called in his village to exorcize a spirit. The subject was a man in his early twenties. This man started behaving in an erratic manner one day. He was found uttering strange words, making weird noises, and scratching his body. He fought with anyone who tried to come near him.
The Aghori came in and built a small bonfire. He then applied a thick paste on the subject’s forehead. He touched his own forehead to the subject’s forehead and started his incantation. Within a few minutes, the subject became normal. It was no less than a miracle.
The Aghori left with a mysterious smile on his face. Tej could never forget that uncanny smile. Those red, stained teeth, shining between those thin darkened lips, were too bizarre for him to forget. After that, Tej stayed away from the strange necromancy ceremonies.
“What are you saying, Gurudev? These people, these necromancers claim that they can talk to dead people. They deal with ghosts and ghouls. They engage in gory activities—like cannibalism and bathing in blood. Staying and eating on funeral grounds is common for them. Do you believe in their cult and philosophy?”
Rigu understood the deep prejudice Tej had for the discipline of necromancy. He felt it was important to remove this misconception right away.
“Tej, necromancy is another path to actualize yourself. Their ways are unusual, look different and darker. Their practices may appear strange and abhorrent. But their destination is the same: the pursuit of truth. Some of their practices are very scientific and are rooted deeply in reason and logic. I don’t believe in following their cult, but I respect them as parallel pursuant of the same cause.
“Though I agree there are some quacks among their ranks who don’t have true power. These swindlers are masters of smokes and mirrors. They have corroded the name of the necromancy as a practice.
“But Rudrakshini was different. She was a prevailing necromancer and an eminent neuroscientist. The pastes, potions, and medical practices she mastered and documented are still used for curing several neurological disorders. Unfortunately, she is not known for these accomplishments. She is famous because she mastered the art of controlling consciousnesses. Controversial fields of study, such as astral-projection, reanimation, and posthumous-communication, which are shunned by researchers as pseudo-science, were pioneered by her. After her death, the necromancy cult has degenerated.”
“Wait, Gurudev,
is she dead?”
“Yes, she died three hundred years ago. But she is a legend. Several necromancer tribes still worship her like a queen mother, a goddess.”
“But if she is dead, how will she teach me? We can’t go to the past and…oh, okay.”
“I can’t go to the past. But you can. You are a time-demon!” Rigu smiled and stroked the back of Tej’s head.
“Now have some food, son, and get a good sleep. We will begin before sunrise tomorrow, and we need to work a lot before you travel three hundred years in the past to Rudrakshini’s lair.”
Day 2 of 7
7.
The Chamber of Time Travel
The sun was about to rise. Rigu had woken up Tej early and asked him to get ready at once. They sat near the riverside, where the guru lit the holy fire and chanted several mantras. He also made Tej drink regular sips of water from a metal pot. Then he took Tej to a big, rectangular cottage with a slanting metal roof. This chamber was readied for Tej’s travel through time.
Upon entering the chamber, Tej realized that the lights inside the chamber were dim. There were no windows, either. Only a few thick candles, kept on the ground near the walls, were illuminating the whole space. Another peculiar aspect of this chamber was that it was much bigger on the inside than it appeared from the outside. This was puzzling for Tej. The walls of the room were painted deep yellow, and with a red powder, long stripes of strange ancient symbols were smeared on them. It was unlike any room he had ever been in. The strange ambiance was making him even more nervous.
Guru signaled him to move further inside the room. “Go on, Tej.”
As Tej walked towards further into the room, what he saw impeded his steps and froze his blood. His nervousness turned into pure fear. He saw three huge rectangular cement blocks stationed at the center of the room in parallel. They sat approximately two meters apart from each other. On two of those blocks were two bodies bound in thick metal chains. Tej had recognized them as the bodies of Kumbh and Vetri. Kumbh’s body was lying on the middle block; Vetri was on the left one. The block on the right was empty. That was for Tej.