Here, in this place of total darkness, he ought to have had his pick of exits. In fact, he often ran into the opposite problem—there were usually so many exits that it made choosing difficult.
Indeed, there were plenty of exists, but they all lay behind him. Not a single one existed past the door.
Was I wrong? Is there nothing beyond here? Vir wondered, surfacing in front of the door again.
Using both hands, he felt around for anything that might resemble a doorknob.
He found no knob, but he did find a bump. His fingers traced the bump, and he soon realized it was part of a design, flowing and curving.
Thinking it fruitless, Vir was about to stop, but something prevented him. His fingers continued tracing the design until they came to a sharp point.
Heartbeat quickening, Vir traced a new line originating from there. A straight line that went diagonally down to another point. From there, it turned right, before a third line finally connected back to the original.
A triangle. An upside-down equilateral triangle.
Vir felt for the other lines and found them to be circles. Three circles that intersected with the triangle.
He retraced the design—the insignia—several times to be sure.
There was no doubt. The lines traced a symbol he’d seen his entire life.
The symbol of the Akh Nara.
Without hesitation, Vir surged Ash prana from his fingers into the symbol. As the only being in all the realms capable of doing so, he was certain this was the key.
He became less certain when, after a full minute, the symbol continued to suck his prana, forcing him to cycle Prana Current to draw in more from the surroundings.
Vir’s body became a conduit, cycling greater and greater amounts of prana.
He could scarcely remember a time when he’d last done this. It was dangerous. It stretched his body well past its capacity. It was intoxicating.
So much raw, unbridled power flowed through him. Enough to match the very best mejai in the Human Realm. And it was all his.
Vir’s thoughts grew muddy as the surge overwhelmed him.
He caught himself just in time. The calmness of the Godshollow flooded him as he opened his Foundation Chakra, blowing away the fog that had clouded his mind.
In that moment of clarity, Vir understood that this door needed not just prana, but mastery over Chakra as well. For a split-second, he worried he hadn’t unlocked the right Chakras. That the door would not admit him passage.
Then the torrent of prana ceased, and Vir’s world went dark.
Vir didn’t black out. Not quite. He’d know—he had plenty of experience in that area. No, Vir maintained his consciousness, even as his body was transported past the door to the other side.
He was alive—he could feel the beating of his heart and the air of his breath—just that Vir’s mind was elsewhere. Taken to another place. Another time.
In front of him, a brightly lit room materialized. A laboratory that Vir was intimately familiar with.
Mahādi. Janak’s lab.
In the distance, a person in a white coat stood hunched over, though it was somewhat difficult to make out. Parts of the room were foggy—all detail lost. Items placed on the many cluttered tables sometimes disappeared, only to reappear moments later.
Vir approached the demon. He too, seemed to flicker. Sometimes freezing in place before suddenly appearing a few paces away. It wasn’t the same as when someone used a movement art. No, this looked… corrupted. As if whatever memory Vir was experiencing had faded through the ages.
Even with the anomalies, Vir was half-certain of the man’s identity, even before he turned around. The head of shiny black hair and the earring in one ear were good hints, as was the locale.
When Janak turned, it was not the proud, bronze-skinned man who’d beamed in front of his daughter.
A single glance was all Vir needed to know that this Janak was dead. Not physically, but mentally. Bags lined his eyes, and his skin had gone pale. Wrinkles even shone on his forehead—something Vir knew the Imperium had solved ages before their fall.
Janak had the look of a man who hadn’t slept in months. Whose reason for existence had been robbed. A soulless, lifeless husk of the person he once was, and it wasn’t hard to guess why.
This is a vision from after the fall. So Janak survived?
Either that, or Vir was looking at his replica. The one who’d contacted Vir in Valaka Amara in the caverns under Daha.
A million questions went through Vir’s mind, but Janak interrupted them. In a delirious rage, the demon clutched his head and spun, sweeping the contents off a table and sending them clattering on the ground.
Vir recoiled, despite having never been there. His mind struggled to reconcile the man before him with the wise god who’d spoken to him in Valaka Amara.
The distraught Janak didn’t seem to notice the clutter he’d caused. His eyes were focused with singular intent on a piece of paper on the table.
Curious, Vir edged closer to the table.
It’s… a map?
Draped across the table was a piece of… Well, not quite paper, but its Imperium equivalent. Glowing lines rose from the map, giving it depth normally impossible.
Along it, borders were drawn. Strange borders that Vir didn’t recognize.
He did, however, recognize the beam of red light at its very center that shone up, nearly reaching the ceiling of the tall room.
Mahādi. In various locations around the continent were dozens of other dimmer red beams. Red, Vir realized, for destroyed.
It was a map of the realm. The one realm from before the fall. But the state of the cities showed this was clearly a map of after.
He wouldn’t have had the ability to chart out the new realms. He’s using old information.
It made Vir question when exactly this scene took place, and what Janak was hoping to achieve here.
Vir was soon able to place terrain features in the Human Realm. To the west lay Jatan Forest near Sonam. The Godshollow. The North and South Legion Mountains that divided Rani from the Pagan Order.
To the east, Vir recognized the terrain that corresponded to the Demon Realm.
And in the middle, where Mahādi sat… That must be the Ashen Realm!
It was, surprisingly, far smaller than Vir had thought it would be. Just a mere sliver in the shape of a vertical eye, with Mahādi at its very center. At its greatest width, it couldn’t have spanned more than half that of the Human Realm.
Yet Vir had spent years there, traveling. He’d known the Ashen Realm was broken in some fundamental way, but seeing the full map like this truly put into perspective its true extent.
Janak played his fingers over a tablet nearby, and several blue beams popped up around the map.
Vir leaned over the table, taking a closer look. They were spread out across the world. Some in the Human Realm. Some in the Demon Realm, and some even in what was now the Ash.
Hang on a minute…
Vir found the Gargan Sea and traced west to the mountains that met with the Ash Boundary. From there, he went north…
No way!
One of the blue beams corresponded to Praya Parul. Specifically, to the chamber beneath Praya Parul.
Which means the other ones…
Vir willed his body to move. While the connection was tenuous at best, it did exist. Slowly, agonizingly, Vir moved his arm to his belt pocket, and retrieved the piece of parchment he’d appropriated from a supply Ash’va, along with a charcoal pencil.
The action was akin to moving his arm while it was asleep. He couldn’t feel it at all, which made the involved task of transcribing a map an incredibly arduous affair.