Demons of Time

by Varun Sayal

  “Tej, this concrete block is the physical anchor-pod for your upcoming travel. Lie down on this. In fact, this whole room has been prepped for time travelers to embark upon their voyages with ease.”

  “What are these big, strange symbols on the walls, Gurudev?” Tej asked as he placed himself on the cold cement block. He tried hard to deflect his mind away from the huge muscular bodies of time-demons lying next to him.

  Rigu explained. “These symbols are part of a special warding done to keep other time-demon consciousnesses out of this sacred chamber. When you travel out from this time-slice to other time slices, your body, your vessel, will be empty. An empty body is an ideal space to make a home for evil souls looking for an entry in the physical world. These warding symbols ensure that no other evil entity can enter this room while you are gone. As an extra security precaution, I will surround this cement block with a thick layer of salt after you go. Salt keeps nefarious spirits at bay.”

  Tej gulped. “But these two bodies?”

  “DON’T think about these bodies!” Rigu snapped.

  Tej was taken aback by the Guru’s sudden outburst. “I am sorry, Gurudev. I did not mean to—”

  “Tej, listen to me carefully. I had prepared this room for easing the commencement of time travel. Forty-two learned priests sat here and chanted twenty thousand mantras addressing Goddess Trikaaldevi. They did so for fourteen days, praying and requesting her to bless this chamber. Inside this space, you have to be watchful of what you think.

  “If you keep on thinking about these bodies of Kumbh and Vetri, your consciousness may be transported to the same night when you were being chased by them. Even worse, your consciousness may get wrapped in a confusing time-web. You would find it too difficult to get out of those webs. We don’t have the luxury of time, my boy. As I taught you earlier think about only two things, anchor and destination. This is your anchor; this time, this world, this chamber. Focus only on this. Am I clear?”

  Tej nodded his head in affirmation and laid motionless. Two of Rigu’s disciples, Manika and Gajendra, entered the chamber. Manika was a girl in her late teens and had a pleasant smile on her face. Gajendra was the exact opposite, with a long, sturdy, well-muscled build. He had a grim, stony expression on his face. Both wore the ashram uniform of bright red and crimson white, like Rigu’s own attire.

  “Tej, meet two of my best disciples. On the right is Manika. Don’t let her age belie your impression of her; she is a time-reading virtuoso. On the left is the muscle-man of our ashram, Gajendra. You might have heard the stories that he can run a hundred kilometers at a stretch without getting tired. But he is also a learned man. He knows a lot of ancient texts by heart.”

  Tej smiled at both of them. Manika responded to him with an even brighter smile and slightly lowered her head in respect. Gajendra only nodded his head a little as an acknowledgment, while his lips did a slight movement. It was difficult to tell if he’d smiled or not.

  Manika handed Rigu a small plate of sandalwood paste which she’d brought along with her. The guru used three central fingers of his right hand and took some paste from the plate. He smeared it on Tej’s forehead.

  “The sandalwood will keep your brain calm and your thoughts focused, and will help ease your travel. In a few moments, I will show you the sketches of Rudrakshini which I produced yesterday night. Until then, relax and anchor yourself in the current space and time. Think of nothing else.”

  Rigu signaled for Gajendra to stay there and asked Manika to follow him outside. They both came outside. Rigu closed the door behind him and made sure he shut it tight. The red luminosity of an impending sunrise was already brightening the beautiful gardens of the ashram.

  Manika was a little confused by what Rigu had said inside. “Gurudev, why did you tell Tej you made Rudrakshini’s sketches? I did those sketches after my time-reading on her yesterday.”

  “Kid, you know that I’m old. I no longer can read time with certainty, which is why I seek help from smart disciples such as you. God has gifted you with the boon of time-reading, and you are still young. Your readings are sharper, and your visions are much less hazy than mine are. But Tej is embarking upon this righteous voyage on my word and my word alone. If I tell him that I am too weak even to read the temporal vibrations, will he have any confidence in me as his guru?”

  “No, but lying to…”

  “Are you going to question my morals, Manika? Especially at this crucial time?”

  “No, Gurudev.”

  Manika realized that the guru was not his usual calm self today. For some reason, he was restless and agitated. She firmly believed that right ends didn’t justify the wrong means, yet she kept quiet.

  “Are all your questions answered, kid? Can I ask mine now? The important ones?”

  “Yes, Gurudev.”

  “So, tell me, what do you have for me from yesterday night’s time-reading?”

  Manika shook her head in negation. “Nothing has changed, Gurudev.”

  “What do you mean, nothing has changed? We have thrown Tej in the mix. He is a time-demon. His actions should have started impacting the timeline. The future should be different now. Are you sure you are reading the right date, December 23rd, 2072?”

  “Yes. Since you met Tej yesterday and brought him to our ashram, the number of possible futures has increased. I could see four thousand, two hundred, and eighty-nine futures two days ago. But today, I can see a little over fifty-three thousand possible futures. Tej’s decisions combined with Kumbh’s original choices have increased the permutations of future multifold.”

  Rigu got even more restless. “Manika, you are one of the strongest time-reader of the Bhavi group. You remind me of my old disciple Kuntala. You know that the number of futures has no impact on our cause. They are mere possibilities. We need to know if the dominant future has changed or not. Let’s discuss that, please.”

  “That’s what I am saying. I studied the whole four years of 2069 to 2072. I also put a special focus on December 23rd, 2072. The dominant future is exactly the same. No detail has changed.”

  “That is impossible. Tell me the details.”

  “Right now?”

  “Yes, right now. The fate of humanity is at stake, kid. If Tej’s involvement is not going to change the future, I need to make other arrangements. Kumbh has to be stopped at any cost. I need to see if I can send more time-warriors to the future. I was bullish on Tej, but after listening to you, I am having my doubts. So tell me each detail of the dominant future before I embark him on the time journey.”

  Manika felt weak in her gut. The apocalyptic future Rigu was asking her to describe was becoming her perennial nightmare. Rigu’s insistence on her describing it, again and again, felt like a punishment. Rigu stretched his eyebrows as he looked at her as if waiting for her to begin anytime soon.

  She took a deep breath as she began her narration. She covered the details around Concordia VX. Kumbh would enter the body of the hacker Karlesha. He would deploy the kill order for billions of souls. By the end of her narration, Manika burst into tears.

  “What a fool this Kumbh is,” Rigu murmured to himself. “He and his brother ruthlessly executed so many people in the past, and he has the exact same soul reaping plans for the future. The irony is that he will own this deadly world-ending power only because of artificial intelligence—a technology built by mankind for its benefit.

  “Now, will you please stop crying, Manika? We have a lot to do. We will need you to have another reading of this same vision after Tej begins his time travel today to Rudrakshini’s time-slice. I hope that the dominant future will change after he does that.”

  “No, Gurudev, not anymore. I cannot live through this soul-crushing vision again and again.”

  Rigu wanted to scold her but realized he needed to take a softer approach. Use of strong words and reproach would not soothe her.<
br />
  “Manika, when I first visited you three years ago, you were having those hazy visions of the future. You were only starting to realize your power as a time-reader, while I was ending my years-long journey. Look at how far you have come since, all from your decisive efforts to enhance yourself.

  “From drawing those vague caricatures of time visions to being a powerful time-reader, your skill has grown in leaps and bounds. I want you to stay even more focused at this crucial moment. Time-reading can be a boon and a curse at the same time. Unfortunately, for you, it’s the latter. Thicken your skin to sustain the mental trauma which comes with this power. Through our efforts, we can alter that horrifying future and save those innocent lives. If that is the case, don’t you think your pain of living through it a few times is worth it?”

  Manika nodded in affirmation as she wiped her tears. Composing herself, she continued, “Gurudev, does Tej know the details of this future?”

  “No, he doesn’t. He only knows that countless lives are in peril, and I don’t even want to give him more details. The less he knows, the better, at this point in time. It may bias his actions and make our future predictions even more convoluted. So you should not mention a word of this to him. I will reveal specific details to him later as required. Let’s go inside. Tej needs to play this visit with Rudrakshini, right? Otherwise, he will not even come back from where he is going.”

  They both went inside. The sun had now risen beyond the horizon, and its red rays were sneaking out from behind the shade of the ancient mountains.

  8.

  The Spell of Reanimation

  While Rigu and Manika were outside, Tej made several attempts to strike a conversation with Gajendra. It was all in vain. Even to his elaborate questions, he only got guttural sounds as a reply. When he tried to get up a couple of times, Gajendra stretched out his arm towards him and showed him his large palm, signaling him to stay where he was.

  Fortunately for him, Rigu and Manika soon came back into the room. Tej noticed that Manika’s face had a sullen look. She was not as cheerful as when she’d left a few minutes ago.

  “What happened, Gurudev? Is everything all right?” Tej tried to sit but was again sternly signaled by Gajendra to not do so.

  “All is fine Tej, don’t worry. Manika please hand me over the sketches of Rudrakshini.”

  Manika handed him a bundle of sheets of paper, on which several elaborate charcoal sketches were drawn. Rigu went through the sketches and picked one. He returned the rest to Manika and showed the chosen sketch to Tej.

  “Look at this, Tej and think of time, around three hundred and five years ago. I want you to go to a time five years before her death.”

  The sketch portrayed a lady with a heavy build, wearing a black dress and a necklace of skull and bones. She was looking towards the sky. Her arms were stretched out as if summoning some paranormal entity. In front of her lay the body of a frail man on a stone block.

  “Oh, is she Rudrakshini? But who is this man lying in front of her, Gurudev?”

  “I’ll explain to you what’s happening in this sketch because this is the exact moment you have to travel to. Rudrakshini is a master of dark sciences. In this sketch, she is performing her legendary re-animation ceremony, where she awakened the dead. The family members of this man brought this body in front of her. They want her to bring this body to life.”

  “Bring a dead body to life? That’s magic, Gurudev.”

  “The parts of science you don’t understand will always look like magic to you. But that does not mean it is magic. Rudrakshini had mastered a reanimation spell. She knew that human consciousness doesn’t completely leave the body for thirteen days after death. That’s the time it needs to let go of the vessel. With her reanimation spell, Rudrakshini could pull that departed consciousness into the body for one day before it left the body for another realm again.”

  “So a dead person gets to live, but only for one day?”

  “Yes—sunrise to sunset, to be precise. Many people came to her with the cadaver of their loved one, and she cast the reanimation spell every day at sunrise. But she had three strict conditions. First, the death should not have happened more than one day prior. Second, the person should have died a natural death, as she couldn’t revive damaged cadavers. And third, she promised to only reanimate the body only once. At dusk, the body drops dead again.”

  “Only from dawn to dusk? So people come to her to have their loved ones live for only one extra day?”

  “Yes. What wouldn’t you give to spend one more day with your mother, Tej? But what they don’t realize is that they will lose their loved one at dusk again. It’s like losing your beloved twice in such a quick span.”

  Tej felt empathy for the people who lost their loved ones. Who wouldn’t want to spend time with their family member who was going far away, and forever? He remembered his mother’s funeral ceremony for a moment, but quickly re-focused on the present. He did not want another stern reprimand from the guru.

  Rigu continued. “So, if you focus on this sketch here, Rudrakshini is casting the reanimation spell to revive a middle-aged shepherd by the name Shambhu. Shambhu lived at a nearby village and died a day before this day. As she summons Shambhu’s consciousness, the vessel is empty. You can enter the vessel riding through her reanimation spell. This spell will ease your movement into this body.”

  “And Shambhu’s soul? Where will that go? Will I not be preventing his soul from entering his own body?”

  “Don’t worry about that, Tej. Our cause is far more important. Mankind will pay a very hefty price for Kumbh’s actions in the future. Saving countless human lives is more important than an old shepherd reuniting with his family for one day.”

  “But Gurudev…”

  “Do I need to repeat myself?”

  “No, I have a different question,” Tej said in a subtly rebuking tone but maintained a respectful stance. He, too, realized that Rigu was not his usual self today, but could not understand the reason why.

  “Go on.” Rigu was losing patience with Tej and his questions.

  “My consciousness will travel to three hundred years in the past. Do they speak Sanskrit, as we do?”

  “No, Tej, not exactly. They speak another dialect of Sanskrit called Vanibhransh.”

  “Then how will I communicate with them?”

  Seeing that Rigu was getting impatient, Manika stepped in. “Gurudev, can I explain this? With your permission, please?” Rigu nodded and asked Gajendra to walk over to a corner with him, while Manika came near Tej.

  “Manika, did I get your name right?” Tej asked. He was tired of seeing Gajendra’s brick-stern face. Even Guru Rigu was on the edge. Among all this, Manika’s beautiful eyes and her chirpy voice sounded welcoming to him.

  “Yes, I’m Manika. Okay, let me explain it to you. As soon as your consciousness enters another body, it will have full access to all the body functions. You will also gain full control over the organs. So you will have access to the host’s brain, his memory, his habits, tastes, likes, dislikes, and etcetera.”

  “So when I am inside of that person’s head, I will become that person?”

  “Yes. Getting into a brain may be overwhelming at first. For the first few seconds, you may sense a lot of new information coming to you, so relax your mind. As regards to language, when the first word slips off your tongue, you will actually start to speak in the same language as your host does. At the same time, you will also comprehend what others near you are speaking. After a few moments, you will be exhibiting most of the natural behaviors the host used to exhibit. But at the inside, you will remember your anchor world and will have total control over the host. My advice would be, give it some time.”

  Rigu finished his conversation with Gajendra and came over to Tej. He touched his head softly and said, “I should apologize, Tej. I poured my anger out on y
ou earlier. I am desperate to win this battle, to get rid of Kumbh and be of some service to mankind before I die.”

  “I understand, Gurudev. I’m ready to follow your instructions.”

  “I can’t tell you what exactly will happen there. You will make your own decisions, which will keep altering our time visions. But remember two pieces of advice. First, don’t accept the gift, and second, everybody has an ego.”

  “I don’t quite understand what you said, Gurudev.”

  “Just repeat what I said.”

  “You said, don’t accept the gift, and everybody has an ego.”

  “Again.”

  “Don’t accept the gift, and everybody has an ego.”

  “Good. Engrave these two facts on the canvas of your mind. These will guide you when you make decisions there. This is your first time-voyage, son. As I told you earlier, you will have to recite the Trikaaldevi mantra seventy-nine times. Close your eyes. Have this sketch of Rudrakshini performing re-animation spell on Shambhu etched into your mind. Concentrate on Shambhu’s body and recite the mantra.”

  Tej closed his eyes and focused his mind on the mental picture he had formed of that sketch. He knew there were a lot of questions to which he wanted the answers, but some would come to him in due time. He first said his prayers to his mother, his guru, and started chanting the mantra of Goddess Trikaaldevi. He continuously thought of Shambhu’s body and kept reciting the mantra. After repeating the mantra a few times, he felt a little cold, but nothing was happening.

  I knew it would not work, he thought to himself. But he was afraid to open his eyes, as he feared the guru might scold him for not properly attempting it. He did a few more recitals, but after a few seconds, he got irritated, opened his eyes and sat up. “It’s not working, Gurudev, I don’t know why.”

  But his surroundings had completely changed. He was no longer in that chamber in Rigu’s ashram. He was in Rudrakshini’s reanimation chamber in the year 3362 BC. His first jump had been successful! He was three hundred and five years in the past.