Demons of Time

by Varun Sayal

  “But how will I find it in future?”

  “You ask too many questions, boy. Your guru is a time-reader, right? Ask him to check his visions of this time-slice. After this visit of yours, the visions will update themselves. He will have his answers. Now, don’t waste more of my time, or I’ll change my mind. Go back the same way you came.”

  “I can’t thank you enough, Mother, and …”

  “Go now!”

  Tej touched Rudrakshini’s feet and again placed himself on the altar table. He closed his eyes and recited the time travel mantra given by his Guru. But this time, he was far more comfortable and relaxed. He felt he did not even need the mantra. He only needed to concentrate on his own body lying on the altar in Rigu’s ashram, his anchor. It was time to return to the source.

  10.

  Kaal-Vaahini, the River Of Time

  This time jump was different for Tej. At first, he felt he was being thrown across a huge, shining tube of light. But then he saw a spectacle which jolted his senses. He was flying towards a gigantic astronomical body, a pitch-black abyss, the periphery of which was gleaming with bright light. It was a supermassive black hole, sucking him in at lightning speed. As he was drawn near, he had to clench his eyes due to the dazzling sharpness of the peripheral glow.

  But when he opened his eyes, he was in an unexpected place. While he’d expected that he would land in his original body, he was sitting in a boat floating through a river. The waters were murky and silent. The sky was overcast with dense clouds, and the surroundings were full of mist.

  “I must be dreaming. What is this place?” he murmured to himself. As the mist around his eyes cleared, he noticed that his friend Manu Kumar was sitting on the other end of the boat. Manu was sitting in a meditative pose, with his eyes closed.

  “Manu, what are you doing here? Where are we?”

  Manu opened his eyes and looked at Tej as if he was seeing him for the first time in his life. He got restless and said, “What are you doing here, Tej? Jump in the water.”

  “Why, Manu? What is this?”

  “I am not Manu. This is the Kaal-vaahini, the river of time. Jump in the water, or you will miss the exact moment you have to go to. You will be forever lost in endless tunnels of time. Jump right now!”

  Tej jumped into the river and dove deep. The water started to fill his eyes, ears, and nostrils, and he gasped for air. He wanted to scream but the feeling of drowning was slowly suffocating the life from him. He pushed strongly towards the surface but went unconscious.

  Chamber of Time-Travel, Rigu’s Ashram | Year 3057 B.C.

  “Tej, wake up, please. Can you hear my voice?” He could hear Manika calling out his name from a distance. He felt pressure on his right arm and woke up, panting. He was back on his anchor pod in Rigu’s ashram. His whole body was perspiring. Manika was standing next to him, with an expression of concern on her face.

  “What happened, Manika, what time it is? Has a lot of time passed? Where is Gurudev?”

  “No, Tej, we are still on the second day. Don’t worry,” Manika assured him, and handed him a glass of water. “Where did you drift to, Tej? We expected that you would return two hours ago, but you were gone. I was getting worried.” She poured him more water and he guzzled the whole glass as if he had been thirsty for ages.

  “I don’t know where I was. But how did you know I was supposed to return two hours ago?” Tej had a hard time thinking. His whole body felt stiff, and he had a severe headache.

  “Our visions got updated; we saw your entire discussion with Rudrakshini. You did a good job of convincing her. Appealing to her ego and to her maternal side was a masterstroke. After that, we saw you starting your travel from there. I saw you entering the black hole, and you should’ve come out right away. But after that, you were un-locatable on the entire time horizon. Did you get confused about the exact location of your anchor?”

  “No, I was clear that this was my anchor. But I don’t know where I drifted to. Is it possible that I experienced a series of nightmares? At first, I was traveling toward a black sun. It was unlike anything I had ever seen. Then I was on a boat. Then I was drowning. I would need to ask Guru Rigu what all these dreams mean. Where is he?”

  “Gurudev waited for some time for you to return. When you did not, he took a few disciples and went to the ancient temple where Rudrakshini preserved the sacred powder three hundred years ago. The old township where Rudrakshini used to practice necromancy is seventy-five kilometers from here. Even with the fastest horses, they won’t return before the wee hours.”

  “But why did Gurudev have to go? He could have sent another disciple. We have so little time, we could have prepared for my travel to the future.” Tej was feeling restless. He wanted all this to be over.

  Manika smiled. “Why are you so restless, Tej? We won a small battle. You secured the demon invocation spell from Rudrakshini. Another step forward, towards your victory in this holy battle. Gurudev went himself because he didn’t want to take any risks.”

  “What risks?”

  “After reading your conversation with Rudrakshini, we also read a vision from the day after. That day, Rudrakshini handed over the sacred powder and the code-word to the head priest of the temple. We listened to the code-word, but Gurudev did not share it with anyone, not even Gajendra. Gurudev suspects that Kumbh may also be planning to stop us from capturing him. Hence, he is being cautious.”

  Tej looked at the bodies of time-demons at his sides and felt helpless. He so wanted to take a sharp sword and slash their necks, but he now understood those bodies were only vessels. For the time-demons, the only equivalent of death was perennial entrapment in one vessel.

  He turned to Manika and looked into her eyes. “Manika.”

  “Yes?”

  “You too are a time-reader, like Guru Rigu is. Isn’t that right?”

  “Yes, I am. He has been time-visioning for decades. But I am fairly new to this art.”

  “Can I ask you a question? I won’t be able to ask this question of Gurudev.”

  Manika felt a little uncomfortable. What if Tej asked about the future? Rigu cautioned her against discussing the future with Tej. There was so much she knew from her visions and wanted to tell Tej, but doing so would be against the guru’s strict orders. It would be a tough dilemma for her to handle.

  “Tej, you look exhausted. Why don’t you rest?” she deflected.

  “No, I want to know the answer to this. This question is eating me from the inside.”

  Manika was tight-lipped.

  “Manika, am I a time-demon too?”

  “What?”

  “Am I an evil presence in this world, like Kumbh and Vetri are? I have no intentions of hurting other people. But when I was talking to Rudrakshini, she referred to me as a time-demon. Although Gurudev told me earlier that I am a time-demon, the way she said it was different. Her tone implied a rather negative connotation. Am I another member of this demonic ilk? Will I become like them?”

  Manika felt relieved—Tej was not asking about the future. She felt a strong feeling of sympathy for him. He was fighting for a righteous cause, putting his family, his life, and his whole being on the line—yet he was so pure of heart that he doubted his own intentions.

  She sat near him. “Tej, since we both are disciples to the same Guru, you are like a brother to me. So please believe every word I am going to say.”

  Tej nodded.

  “If you are a person with religious inclinations, you may view time travel as a boon from the Gods. If you have a scientific bent of mind, you may accept the fact that the ability to time travel is the next step in our evolution. After thousands of years of living within bodies made of bones and flesh, the consciousness evolved into living without them or searched for better bodies to be in. You can believe in either of these schools of thought. But either way, ‘
time-travel’ is another power. Isn’t it?”

  “Yes, it is.” Tej understood where she was going, but kept listening.

  “So, like any other power, or any other weapon time-travel can be used for the betterment of mankind or for the destruction of it. A sword which kills can also be used to protect. There have been time travelers who have been messiahs, rabbis, philanthropists, leaders, and kings—people who did so much good again and again through their re-incarnations. They never went into the past with the aim of gaining power. Rather, they used the wisdom gained from previous births to spread positivity throughout the world.

  “On the flip side, though, we have time travelers such as these two evil brothers, who derived strange mirth out of taking innocent lives. They lusted after money, power, and sexual pleasures. They are the demons of time in the truest diabolical sense. So as a time traveler who has actualized his power, you have a simple choice to make. Which side do you want to be on?”

  “I understand, sister. Those were wise words. You have resolved a pang of strong guilt within me, which would have devoured me from within.” Finally, after what felt like a long time, Tej smiled.

  “Now, no more talk; you need to rest. Also, this cement block is uncomfortable—you need not lie on this till your next time jump. We have arranged a bed for you there.” Manika signaled over to a cot which had been placed in the room, with a comfortable bed laid on to it.

  “Take rest. I’ll arrange food for you. When Gurudev returns, he will meet you.”

  Tej still felt stiff. Manika helped him walk over to the cot and made him sit on it.

  “Can I go outside, sister? I am suffocating in here.”

  “No, we have strict orders from Gurudev. You need to stay in this chamber. Your next time jump is near. We don’t want you to disrupt this well-established anchor.”

  At this moment, Gajendra entered the room and marched towards Kumbh’s body. Tej said hello to him, but as usual, received a guttural “Hmm” noise from him.

  “Does he ever speak?” Tej whispered to Manika.

  She let out a loud chuckle and whispered, “He does at times.”

  Gajendra picked a small metal pot filled with a dark liquid and dropped a few drops in both Kumbh and Vetri’s mouths. He stood there for a moment, then trudged out of the room without saying a word.

  “What did he just do?” Tej was surprised.

  “He has to administer a medicinal dose to Kumbh and Vetri’s bodies daily. This dose has basic life-support nutrients and tranquilizers. Gajendra and other disciples have been doing this every day for the past twenty years without fail since Rigu captured these demons.”

  “Oh, so if this vessel stays in a state of sleep, Kumbh cannot escape it, even if he comes back?”

  “No—if Kumbh ever returns to this vessel, we won’t be able to stop him. Not even with these tranquilizers. He will unquestionably wake up, despite these medications administered to him. But one impact these medicines will have is that he will wake up delirious. In that state, he can again be manipulated to go to a Kaalshoonya, like the previous time Gurudev trapped him in Virtexo.”

  “Oh, so that’s why he’s kept on tranquilizers. And Vetri? Gurudev said he is forever entrapped in this body. Does he get the same dose?”

  “Yes. But for him, this dosage only works as life support, so that the vessel does not die and Vetri stays trapped.”

  “One day, I want to learn this science stuff from you, sister. If I ask too many questions of Gurudev, I am afraid he will beat me with a stick.”

  Manika laughed again. “Okay, no more chit-chat. Lie down and take rest.”

  She left the room and locked it from the outside. Tej looked at the bodies of time-demons one more time, lay back, and closed his eyes. He was so tired that he slipped into the lap of sleep within a few seconds.

  The next morning, when he opened his eyes, he saw a huge man standing next to him and got startled. It was Gajendra. He only stood there with his stone-faced expression and his hands behind his back.

  “You were waiting for me to wake up, weren’t you? And what are you holding in your hands, a dagger?” Tej joked. As usual, he got no reply. Tej got up, yawned, and stretched his hands.

  “Gajendra, brother, I am planning to freshen up first. But where can I find a hot breakfast and some juicy fruit? I am especially looking forward to eating the fresh apples from those trees on the periphery of the ashram. They looked yummy.”

  “Get ready. Gurudev will come and meet you here,” Gajendra said in a heavy, nonchalant tone, and walked outside.

  “Wow, those were your first words to me, brother. And let me tell you, that’s a good start to our friendship.” Before Tej could finish the sentence, Gajendra was out of the door.

  Later, Manika brought some eatables, towels, and fresh clothes for Tej. She told him she’d brought food for him last night as well, but he was fast asleep, so she didn’t wake him up.

  Tej got ready and sat for breakfast. After he finished his meal, he got up but felt giddy. He quickly sat on the cot nearby. He felt a strange feeling of uneasiness for a few moments and took some time to shake it off. An hour later, Rigu entered the room and clutched Tej in a tight hug.

  “Oh Gurudev, you are here.” Tej was feeling awkward in the hug, but the guru didn’t let go for a few seconds.

  “Tej, my son, you did a great job yesterday. We have got Rudrakshini’s sacred bhasm powder. I have made further arrangements for you to get the same powder in the future.”

  “In the same way as you got it from the past, Gurudev?”

  “Similar, but not the same. This time, this powder has to stay safe for five thousand years, not a mere three hundred. I have chosen an ancient sect of vaahaks. They are priests who, I know from my time vision, adhere intensely to their customs and rituals. These vaahaks will inherit this sealed packet of sacred powder as an artifact in their ancient temple. When you travel to the future, you will have to go to them and retrieve it. I will transfer this powder into a puzzle box.”

  “A puzzle box?” Tej had never seen a puzzle box.

  “Yes, it’s a special box. The lid of this box will be encrypted with certain levers and buttons. These need to be pressed in a certain specific combination, and only then can the box be opened.”

  “So that no one other than me can open this box?”

  “Yes.”

  “Okay, Gurudev. I wanted to ask—I also felt a little uneasy a few moments ago. I am not sure why.”

  “The reason for that, Tej, is that your consciousness is not fully back into this body. Remnants of it are still traveling through time, coming to you slowly. That is the exact phenomena which will ease your travel to the future. By sending you into the past, I have served another purpose. You will be able to slingshot into the future.”

  Rigu explained Tej the concept of a slingshot in time-travel. A stone placed in a slingshot is first pulled backward and then launched forward with a steep velocity. Using the same principle, by going into the recent past, Tej had pulled his consciousness further in the past. Now he would be thrown towards the future at a fast speed.

  “I am sure I’ll need a lifetime to understand these concepts, Gurudev.”

  “You are a time-demon, Tej, but one with righteous intentions. You will have not one but many lifetimes to learn. You may have been born human, but your consciousness is immortal. Get ready—you have a plane to catch.”

  “A plane?”

  “Yes, a plane to catch and a cardiac arrest to survive through.”

  Day 3 of 7

  11.

  Flight VQ7101, Dallas To Mumbai

  It was almost afternoon when Tej and Rigu spoke about various subjects related to time travel. Tej’s jump to the future was two hours away. While Tej was asking questions, Rigu held back his answers. He only mentioned those details which he felt Tej
would absolutely need to succeed on his mission.

  Tej was still wrapping his head around the concept of a slingshot in time travel. He was talking to Rigu, trying to understand what he meant by plane and a cardiac arrest when Manika entered the room.

  She had bought piping-hot herbal tea for Rigu and Tej, along with some fresh fruit. She also brought sketches of the future date and time which represented Tej’s destination. But Rigu didn’t allow Tej to see them yet. He maintained that it would be better if Tej only saw the sketch at the exact moment when he needs to time-jump.

  As he sipped that refreshing tea, Tej asked Rigu, “Why could I not have gone to the future yesterday itself, or a year earlier? That would have given me a lot of time to prepare.”

  Rigu explained to him that the flow of time is like a laminar flow of concrete. Time’s course rarely changes, not unless time-demons return to the past and alter the course of events. Since Kumbh had already taken a body in the year 2024, they would have to be cautious of the time to which they sent Tej. If they sent Tej to, say, the year 2023 in the same location, it would affect Kumbh’s actions in a way they don’t know. When Kumbh possessed a body in 2024, Tej would already be present there. If that happened, Kumbh would sense the presence of another time-demon in the same location. Their actions would start impacting Kumbh’s actions.

  Time-readers usually tied together specific start and end points in two time-slices, essential for them to keep accurate track of impending events. Rigu and Manika tied the sunrise of the first day in 2024 AD, when the Kumbh escaped, with the sunrise of the day in 3057 BC, when Rigu came to visit Tej. Since then, they had been charting out the visions in both the time-slices hour by hour, in parallel. They had been updating their visions and taking further actions as needed.

  Unable to understand much of these concepts, Tej decided it was best to keep quiet. No point asking questions for which the answers were beyond his comprehension.

  Rigu also told Tej they could not identify Kumbh’s specific host in the year 2024 yet, but they had triangulated Kumbh’s location with reasonable accuracy. They knew that Kumbh has acquired a host somewhere in a city called Mumbai, in the India of the future.