"I sympathize with you only, Third Cornelian User," Lady Matsyasvi said, with a tone of utmost astonishment. "You have come a long way to protect the person suffering from Aatmavyuha. Your heart in right place, but the route you choose very wrong. Too late now. The person is corrupted. Just use Khatanjar, and get rid of the hurdle. Also don't forget, I need the Handle back soon."
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"Stab the person once," said Pizaca, his thin childish voice sounding angry, "And don't pull out the dagger. That will wake up the soul of the Samagraha and keep the foreign soul dormant. But the dagger cannot stay there for too long. The parts of the dagger belong to us and they will return to us during the month of the Fest, even if you don't return it yourself as you've promised. Now get out of my territory. You've caused a lot of trouble the last time you were here."
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Before I traveled to Uttarameer, there was hope. Just a tiny flicker against the storm. With the open eyes of a child, I reached out and begged for a favor. None came, and when the last hope was extinguished, my whole world came crashing down.
"It's perfectly alright to accept failure and take a step back," Ashwant had said once. Could that be a cold truth that I could never agree to accept? Can failure be an option?
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The lighthouse had gone to rack and ruin.
The only old-style tall wooden-slash-concrete lighthouse located in Almourah's territory was now a pile of lumber. It stood in the middle of the flowing stream with peaceful waves lapping against the leftover wooden portion of the wall. The entire territory was a perfect circle of blue that all existed. The wind howled to bring some sensation of touch, a soft hello from calm nature. It persuaded me to leave my brain as empty as that horizon rather than suffer the loss of hope and the tide of emotions it brought.
Almourah's voice echoed in my head as I stepped over the threshold and walked inside the chamber, which was now an open-top accommodating fresh air. What had been once his home and when I'd died a bazillion times...I shuddered remembering the horrific ordeal I had gone through amidst the pile of dismembered dead bodies. There had been entirely too much death in this chamber. I felt a tingling sensation under my skin that made him uneasy, and I glanced warily at the surrounding of the lighthouse once again.
The sky was clear. The sun had passed the high mark and started down toward late afternoon. Although windy, the weather was dry. No essence of dark magic. In the distance, I could hear the swashing of waves like on a beach. Hardik stayed up in the open air, encircling the lighthouse, while I walked around the entire withstood area, looking for anything that I might have missed the last time. I was so focused on killing Almourah, that I had no time or intention to explore the other rooms and chambers of the lighthouse. It was all torn down though. Any room, if any, had been destroyed in the war. There was nothing left. Everything had crumbled to pieces and so did my hopes.
I chided myself for losing my nerve. Being here was making me agitated and jumpy. In my mind's eye, I could vaguely imagine how it would have looked had all the walls remained intact, and there was indeed a setup where Almourah had spent his lifetime. What if there had been a tip written and hidden somewhere in the corner of the book that helped me save my friend from his horrendous fate? Did I destroy all of it?
An overwhelming sense of despair and hopelessness washed over me as I sank to my knees and sat amidst the ruins, uncertain of where to go or what to do next.
"Hayden," Tyrell's voice rocked in my mind. "Pruthvi has started wreaking havoc on people. Shashi is using his Formation. He's killing them, Hayden. He's killing them all like ants. Ashwant is here, demanding answers. What am I supposed to..."
YOU ARE READING
(Book 6) Hayden Mackay and The Third-Eye of the Pancharatna
Fantasy"Mrs. Zutshi, how different was Zarina Khan from you? She was a clairvoyant, that makes her a witch too, right?" "Mages have their own history, Hayden. They have categories too. Since the time of Lady Chandrika's authority over the sections of the p...
