Demons of Time

by Varun Sayal

  9.

  Rudrakshini, the Queen of Necromancers

  Tej realized he was sitting on the same ceremonial altar on which the body of Shambhu lay, as shown in the sketch. He looked around. On his left side, he saw Rudrakshini staring at him with wide eyes. Her left hand’s index finger was pointed at him, while her right arm was stretched out in the air. Her right hand held a human skull smeared with a red powder. She was over eighty years old, but her sharp facial features and glaring eyes looked intimidating.

  He attire was frightening, too. She had a long brown religious mark right in the middle of her forehead. Her long white hair, pitch black robe, and a large skull and bones necklace were making her appearance even more menacing.

  Tej shifted his gaze away from her and looked around the room. Right near his feet, seven middle-aged women stood in a straight line formation. Each of them had their index fingers sandwiched between their tongue and lower teeth as if they were evocating some strange noise from their mouth. Each of them was dressed like Rudrakshini. On his right side stood at least a hundred villagers. Most had tears in their eyes, and their hands clasped in prayer. Some of them had big drums hanging around their necks, with strong sticks to beat them. But Tej realized a strange thing. They were all frozen.

  Rudrakshini, those seven women, and the villagers were all stationary, like statues; as if a mysterious power had taken the whole chamber and the people in it, and turned them into a wax replica of themselves.

  “Why are you all not moving, or saying anything?” Tej asked slowly in a low-pitched voice. His own voice sounded so different to him. He did not know what to make of this situation. Rigu or Manika hadn’t told him what to do in this scenario. Would they remain frozen like this? Should he return to his own time? But how would he do that?

  “Should I focus on my anchor and recite the mantra? Will I then travel back to my anchor?” He murmured to himself.

  He heard a faint voice in his left ear. “Breathe.” He turned left and again looked at Rudrakshini. He had a faint suspicion that she was saying the word “Breathe!” He noticed that although she was not moving at all, her eyeballs were showing motion. It was a frightening sight.

  He gulped in fear and took a deep breath. As soon as he did that, the whole room got lively with a jolt, and everybody started moving. Tej had to clasp his ears because of the loud, screeching noises which struck his ears. Rudrakshini was chanting a mantra loudly. The seven women were rapidly moving their index fingers between their tongue and teeth, making a strange tribal noise. The villagers were whipping the drums, some of them even dancing to the tunes.

  This clamor continued for a few moments before Rudrakshini shouted at top of her voice. “Quiet, everyone!” The whole room came to pin-drop silence.

  “Shambhu? Are you back for good?” Rudrakshini demanded.

  “I am not…” Tej was at loss for words. He looked again to the right to the crowd of villagers. He could recognize his wife, his mother, and two sons in the front row. They were looking at him with expectations as if waiting for him to say a few words.

  But they were not his family. He looked at his wrinkled hands, his dress—they looked so alien. He caught up to the realization that he was inside another person’s body.

  A surge of memories swept through his brain. New people, new areas, and good and bad memories from the past were slowly coming to him. He was remembering vivid incidents from years ago.

  But he knew he never experienced them before. They were not his memories. This is what Manika mentioned. Shambhu’s reminiscences were coming to him in a huge tidal wave of information. Tej had difficulty breathing—he felt as if his throat was collapsing on the inside. He tilted back his head with a jerk, and his eyeballs started moving rapidly. His limbs got stiff. He was going into a seizure.

  “Everyone out! Right now!” Rudrakshini thundered. Her voice echoed as if bouncing off the dark stone walls of the chamber. Her devotees started pushing people outside.

  Rudrakshini took a small glass filled with a tranquilizer and held Shambhu’s otherwise shaking jaw open tight. She poured a few drops from it into Shambhu’s mouth and kept the rest away. In a few moments, the whole room cleared. Shambhu was still lying on the ceremonial altar, wheezing. The tranquilizer had eased his fit. Rudrakshini paced through the room in anger, taking sharp steps back and forth. Her loud breathing indicated that she was fuming with anger.

  “Water, please?” Tej asked in a feeble voice as he sat upon the altar. His face had a dead-tired look.

  “Liar, deceiver! You are not Shambhu. His consciousness would not have rejected this body as yours did. He would not have fallen into a fit like this. Who are you? A ghoul, a lost consciousness, or some demon from hell?”

  Rudrakshini brought her face so close to Shambhu’s. Had she been any closer, their noses would have touched. “Speak, you devil, or be ready to face the wrath of Rudra!”

  “I am a…”, Tej was petrified to the core. He couldn’t say even one word.

  Rudrakshini dug her gaze into his own. “If you don’t disclose your actual identity straightaway, I will condemn you to the worst of the hell fires for the rest of the eternity. Your consciousness will be a prisoner in the nethermost echelons of the inferno. There, a devil-priest will slice and dice you day after day, till the end of time!” Rudrakshini forewarned. For a moment, the whole of her chamber slightly shook and all the candles burning in there flickered.

  Tej collected his courage. “I will tell you the truth. I am here to tell you the truth.”

  “You better do that!”

  Tej narrated his whole story to Rudrakshini. He started from his childhood, the encounter with Kumbh and Vetri. He also gave details on the last few days, how Rigu approached him, and how he’d traveled from three hundred and five years in the future to this date in the past.

  Rudrakshini listened to him without saying a word. She realized he was not lying and offered him water. “Hmm. It’s an interesting story, Tej. So you are a time-demon, ha?”

  “I would say a time traveler, ma’am.”

  “Yeah, you time travelers are all the same to me, ha. I cannot understand why you do it. I understand paranormal realms; I understand Heaven and Hell. This time travel crap doesn’t interest me. What do you want from me?”

  “Guru Rigu said that you have a powerful spell which can help you control any consciousness. I want to learn that spell as your disciple.”

  Rudrakshini cachinnated, and her whole body shook. “You must be kidding, boy. There are people who’ve lived as my disciples for over fifteen years. I have not even taught them a single exorcism spell. Here you arrive today, riding your high horse, weaving stories of capturing some demon and helping mankind, etcetera. And you want me to help you right away? Listen, kid—be my disciple for two years, and then I will consider teaching you spells.”

  Tej went quiet.

  “Although there is one thing I can do.” Rudrakshini looked at Tej as if evaluating him. He felt hopeful.

  “Since you came asking for help, I will not let you leave empty-handed. It would give me a bad name. I also feel a lot of wrongs have been done to you by God and nature. I sympathize with you. So I have an offer for you.”

  “An offer?”

  “Yes. How would like to have a new life? An entirely new beginning?”

  “A new life?” This conversation was not going where Tej wanted it to—towards the demon-invocation spell.

  “Yes. A seven-year-old girl Tarika, who lived nearby, died yesterday evening. I am sure her consciousness has already left her body. Reanimation is challenging with small kids anyway. Their consciousness is not tied well enough to their meat and bones. Her parents are in a deep shock. But we can solve both their problem and yours. I can move your consciousness out of this frail old body of Shambhu the shepherd, and into that girl.”

  “What?” />
  “Yes, my boy. You can start over. Live your whole life again. Grow up, get loved, pampered, fall in love again, and get married. It’s a fresh beginning, Tej. Take it.”

  This proposal baffled Tej. He felt Rigu somehow should have either time-traveled with him, or he should have prepared him better for this scenario. What should he say now?

  “Come on, boy, what are you thinking? Would you not like that gift?”’

  Gift… that word echoed in Tej’s mind. It instantly reminded him of the two pieces of advice Rigu had given right before his time jump. “Don’t accept the gift, and everybody has an ego.”

  “Don’t accept the gift, and everybody has an ego,” Tej murmured to himself.

  “What was that? You said something?” Rudrakshini brought her ear near his mouth. “I am old, so I am hard of hearing. Can you please repeat yourself? Should I do the reanimation ritual on the kid with your consciousness?”

  Tej thought on his feet. Don’t accept the gift. Yes, that’s the right advice. He would not accept this so-called gift. He had his own wife, daughter, and village to go back to. He was not going to spend the rest of his life in some girl’s body. So that one part of the advice was fine.

  But “everybody has an ego”—why did Rigu say that? Should he appeal to Rudrakshini’s ego? Yes, that’s how he would get her to co-operate. Rigu would have seen signs of her inflated ego in his time visions.

  “I understand you need time to think. I will return by the afternoon. I want your decisive answer at that time.” Rudrakshini turned and started to walk out of the chamber.

  “You are the best,” Tej whispered.

  Rudrakshini stopped walking and turned back. “Can you be a little louder, kid? I can’t hear you.”

  Tej got up from the altar and walked towards Rudrakshini. He got down on his knees and put his forehead on Rudrakshini’s feet. Rudrakshini felt awkward.

  He folded his hands in prayer and spoke in a humble tone. “O Rudrakshini Devi, the Queen of necromancers, please accept my salutations a thousand times over. You are the best necromancer this world ever had. No one like you ever existed, or will ever exist in this whole universe.”

  It was Rudrakshini’s turn to stammer. “Yes, I mean, that’s the truth. The whole world knows that. I’m the best.” Sycophants around her praised her many times a day, yet she recognized a tone of pleading and humility in Tej’s tone.

  Tej went on, his hands folded and his gaze directed towards Rudrakshini’s feet. “My Guru told me to go after Kumbh because Kumbh is a peril for the survival of humanity. He wants to capture this demon for the benefit of others, for the whole of mankind. But Rudrakshini Devi, for me, this fight is personal. This demon and his brother kept me and my mother as slaves for years. They tortured us physically and mentally, threatened our lives day in and day out. They even outraged my mother’s modesty.” Tej’s throat choked with emotions, and his eyes filled with tears. His anger towards Kumbh and his sharp desire for revenge had driven him to this point, and he had to use them.

  Rudrakshini was silent. She had sympathy in her eyes.

  “My mother is no longer alive, Rudrakshini Devi, but within you, I see another mother. A normal mother may give life to one or two children throughout her life. But you have given life to thousands of people by re-animating them. You are not only the best necromancer, but you are also the world’s best mother. Please help me bring peace to the departed soul of my mother. She is no longer with me, and she cannot see me exacting my revenge from Kumbh. But if I am able to achieve that in my lifetime, I am sure I would be able to show my face to her in the afterlife. I beg you, as a son—please help me resolve the deepest conflict of my life. Please help me avenge her death.”

  “Shut up, kid.” Rudrakshini’s voice was heavy too.

  “Please, Mother, if there’s a price attached to your help, I will gladly pay it. Whatever it is,” Tej begged again.

  “I said, shut up. I will help you.” Rudrakshini wiped a tear from her left eye and took a deep breath. “And stop crying like a baby. You got me all emotional, too.”

  Tej finally had a smile on his face, he wiped his tears.

  “I will teach you the spell. But be aware that the demon-invocation spell comes with a death-condition.”

  “Death condition? What is that, Mother?”

  “You will use this spell to achieve a goal, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “If you use this spell, but fail to achieve that goal, then that counts as the failure of the spell, too.”

  “I don’t understand?”

  “Your goal is to entrap Kumbh in that body within the next six days, right?”

  “Yes, a little less than six.”

  “So, if you use this spell, but cannot entrap Kumbh in that body by the sunset of the sixth day from now, you will fail, and the death-condition will apply.”

  “And what will happen then?”

  “If you fail this aim, the spell would suck your consciousness from your body and throw it into an abyss. You can never return from that dark pit. If you accept this death-condition, only then can I teach you the spell.”

  Rigu had not mentioned anything like this—but Tej decided he would go with the flow.

  “Mother, as I said, I will gladly pay any price. I accept. Please teach me.”

  “You are a valiant kid, son.” Rudrakshini put her hand on Tej’s head and blessed him. “I will now tell you a secret mantra. Recite it fifteen thousand times, I will be back in a while.”

  Rudrakshini brought her lips near to Tej’s right ear and whispered a sacred chant into it.

  “This chant? Fifteen thousand times? But I have to go back too, Mother.”

  “I know you are eager to go back. But, just because you are pressed for time doesn’t mean the spell won’t be learned the right way. This is the mantra of eternal Lord Shiva, destroyer of the universes. This chant is necessary before I can teach you the spell. Do you want to waste any more time by asking more inane questions? Or should I go and come back early so that I can help you?”

  Tej folded his hands and bowed his head. Rudrakshini left the chamber, and Tej started his recital.

  Rudrakshini returned after a few hours and found Tej waiting for her. She brought with her a small earthen pot which she showed to Tej. The pot was filled with a brittle green powder.

  “Are you ready to learn, boy?” she asked.

  “Yes. I’m ready.”

  “Fifteen thousand chants of the mantra have made sure you have assimilated the spell within you. It’s a weapon waiting to be used. But there is a systematic way in which the weapon needs to be invoked.

  “Whenever you want to invoke a demonic consciousness and control it, the first step is to establish a blood-connection. This connection is established with the host in which the demon resides. Blood is the second most important life force in the body, after the praan-vaayu, the life-giving-air you inhale. Blood flows throughout the body, most of it through the brain, constantly taking life to the brain and back to the organs. Hence, to control a consciousness which resides in the brain, you need a blood-connection first.”

  “How will I establish a blood-connection, Mother?”

  “That is where this bhasm, this sacred powder, will help.” Rudrakshini showed him the green powder again. “First, smear this powder on the whole palm of your right hand. Which hand?”

  “Right…right hand.”

  “Then you need to take a sharp knife and slice your palm, right in the middle, like this.” Rudrakshini moved her left index finger across an imaginary line on her right palm to show Tej exactly where he needed to make the cut.

  “Okay.”

  “Make sure the blood flows out of it and gets mixed with this powder. Do the same with the right hand of the host body, make sure his blood drips too.”

  “Okay.”r />
  “And while you are still chanting the mantra, clasp both the palms together, yours and his. The blood-connection will establish. After that, look into the vessel’s eyes. Once you do that, you will have complete control over the demonic consciousness inside that vessel. That, in a true sense, is demon invocation and control.”

  “But I have one question if you don’t mind?”

  “Why would I mind? It’s important that you ask as many questions as possible. This spell, although a simple one, is quite powerful. It should not go wrong.”

  “I understood the spell, but how will I take this powder with me? My consciousness will go to my body three hundred and five years in the future. But this powder—how will I take this with me?”

  “You are an intelligent boy, but do you think you are smarter than I am?”

  “No, I didn’t mean that, Mother.”

  “Did you think you are the first time-demon who’s come and asked me for help?”

  “No, Mother.”

  “There is a simple way to transfer objects from the past to the future. There is a clan of priests who call themselves vaahaks, the carriers. Vaahaks keep objects safe and transfer them from generation to generation. They only give it to a specific individual in the future, who comes to them on a specified day, with a specified code-word. The best part is that they are very secretive. Books, letters, artifacts, any objects of small size are safe with them.

  “I will give this powder to the high-priest of a temple nearby who is a vaahak. He and his clan will make sure they and their sons and their grandsons keep it safe until a traveler to the future collects this from them. I will also give them a code-word. They will only hand it over to the person who says that code-word.”

  “Okay. Where is this temple, and what is that code-word, Mother?”

  “I won’t tell you that.”