Riddhima looked around wildly. She was back in her treehouse room, her stuff spread around exactly as she had left it. Gentle sunlight poured in through the translucent drapes, landing on three figures sitting near the balcony door. She stared at them without seeing them. As her foggy brain cleared, she gasped in shock. The shamans! They were sitting in a meditative trance, their hands folded in prayer. Rudra was lying between them on the ground, strange symbols in white dust spread around his body. He had a soft smile plastered on his face, like he was seeing the most beautiful dreams.
“Rudra!” she screamed in fright, bolting off the bed. A wave of dizziness washed over her for a moment. In a flash, Sutapa’s hand tightened over hers. As the feeling passed, she turned to give the old woman a death glare. “If you have hurt my friend, I will knock you senseless, you old hag!”
“I see you have your fire back,” she remarked dispassionately. A flimsy bandage was wrapped around one side of her head, giving her the look of a Mummy and a witch. “Your friend is unhurt. He is helping us. Of his own choice.”
“Why would he help you?”
“Perhaps to save your life, child?” Sutapa tugged her towards the bathroom. She followed reluctantly. “You were slipping away. We had to get you to a safe place urgently. He suggested this one. We have spelled it to prevent Kabir from possessing any of us. But we don’t have much time. I suggest you have a quick bath. Eat some food. You need more strength. We have much to discuss.”
“But-“
“Don’t waste time, child!” she rasped sharply.
Grudgingly, Riddhima obeyed the dictatorial old woman, her legs wobbling with weakness.
Twenty minutes later, showered and dressed in a plain black shirt and jeans, she felt more like herself. Walking imperiously into the room, she took in the bizarre sight before her. Sutapa was sitting placidly on a maroon armchair, watching the other shamans chant around a young boy’s body. It sent a trill of fear through her. What if they hurt him?
A platter of food lay on the table in front of Sutapa, its wafting aroma enticing her famished stomach. She ignored the hunger and touched her pendant.
“Vansh” she spoke silently, conjuring his face in her mind. A little boy’s dimpled smile flashed across her thoughts before fading to Vansh’s adult face. He looked like the painting she had found in his home. His expression grim, hair perfectly set, clad in his favourite royal blue suit. She braced to be lurched back like before in the forest, materializing elsewhere. But nothing happened.
She exhaled, a sense of loss churning within her chest. He was supposed to be here. She hadn’t realized how much she had come to count on his support. Knowing that he had her back in this crazy adventure. How could he leave her alone with these scary magical people? This was his story. He was the hero. Her role was only to be like a lighthouse, guiding him in the dark to his afterlife. Now she was alone, wading past a shipwreck of a story; the pieces scattered too far to make sense. It made her furious.
“Where is Vansh?” she demanded, a steely edge to her tone. Sutapa visibly startled. Good. It was time someone else jumped out of their skin for a change. She walked closer, sitting on the edge of the bed. “Vansh Raisinghania. He was the one Ahilya died for, the lover she tried to protect with necromancy. I am sure you have heard of him from before. Where the fuck is he? Or his ghost, whatever you want to call it.”
She watched the old woman gape, feeling a sadistic satisfaction at taking her unawares. She didn’t care about secrets anymore. She didn’t care about hiding and running and delicately unearthing the next piece of this ancient puzzle. Sutapa had better spill the beans, the whole bloody deal, or she was going to…Well, she hadn’t thought through her threats, but she would take some drastic measure. The whole thing was getting too dangerous… and downright ridiculous!
She had been possessed! Arrrggghh! She felt sick just thinking about it. It was worse than what was shown in the movies. They never explained how violated a human could feel with another spirit in their body. Her skin crawled whenever she thought of Kabir’s presence within her. His creepy essence, the chilling coldness. The suffocating sensation within her, like her very soul was being squeezed too tight and may be blown to smithereens. She never wanted to feel that way again.
“Are you going to answer, lady?” Riddhima asked, her patience at an end.
There was a pause. “Eat your soup,” Sutapa spoke finally.
“But Vansh –”
“Soup.” She held up a hand as Riddhima stirred threateningly. “I will tell you everything I know. But you must eat something. It’s been over two days.”
It was her turn to gape. Two days? Two days since a ghost had knocked her unconscious? Two days of dreams that felt all too real? As Sutapa looked pointedly at the table, she absentmindedly picked up the bowl. Her stomach growled louder in anticipation. The smell of chicken broth and herbs made her mouth water. She wolfed it down hungrily, focusing for some time on the soothing feel of the hot liquid sliding down her parched throat. It soothed her agitated nerves, bringing her a small measure of comfort in this topsy turvy world.
She dipped some bread in the soup, ravenously slurping it down. Her eyes darted to Rudra’s prone form on the ground. She still couldn’t believe he had agreed voluntarily to do this.
“You have some good friends.” Sutapa gave her a small smile, her creepy version of it making her nervous again. Riddhima didn’t answer, suddenly unwilling to look at the woman’s milky eyes. The warm afternoon light could not dispel the image of those eyes when she had been possessed. The raspy cackle. The insidiously spoken words.
“I am Kabir Raisinghania. I am Sutapa, I am Daman. I am…even you.”
She shivered.
“Are you cold, child?”
“Yes.” she spoke in an agonizing whisper. “I am cold, I feel sick. My blood bonded ghost abandoned me. His half-brother possessed me. My boyfriend is just…lying there having some magical stuff being done to him… I don’t-“
Sutapa grabbed her by the shoulders. It halted her tirade. “I know, Riddhima.” She looked at the old woman in surprise. This was the first time she had spoken her given name, hadn’t called her a ‘child.’ Well, barring the time she herself was possessed by Kabir two days ago.
“I know how it feels,” she spoke wearily, sitting back in the armchair. “In my needlessly long life, I have been possessed many times by him. We all have. I spelled the bell outside my cottage, so that I could be warned about it. It rang when you were with me and I knew…I knew he was coming. I just didn’t know he could possess you too.” She gestured towards the shamans. “Rudra’s human energy and our magic hides us from Kabir now. Our blood bond with him makes the four of us vulnerable to his whims. It’s a temporary measure but I had to be free to pull you out of those visions…You were going in too deep. Thankfully, Rudra volunteered, and you are now safe. But it’s only a matter of time… They will have to stop chanting soon. Well before the boy’s life force is disturbed.”
“His life force?” The term sounded frightening to her. She nervously looked at his still form.
“Most of us have excess energy in our bodies. More than required to sustain. They are drawing the power of that energy to create a protective barrier,” she explained. “We also have a threshold called the ‘life force’ within us. It is the minimum energy required for life. Rudra will be safe in their hands. Don’t worry about him. We aren’t the monsters you think we are.”
Sutapa raised a shaking hand to her head, the fingers lightly touching the bandage. “Ahilya’s curse doomed us. Some of us, like me, deserved this suffering. But our children? Their grand children? They don’t deserve this misery. The next generation can barely access their shaman magic anymore. They have all sorts of afflictions of the soul. Rage, sadness, hatred…Kabir uses them when he wants to. Our ancestors thought they were doing the right thing, saving us from a sorceress’ unbridled power. I thought I was doing the right thing…”
“I’m sorry.” She couldn’t help but feel pity for the shamans. Despite their horrendous deeds, Sutapa was right. There were also innocents suffering for their ancestors’ sins.
“You need not be.” She looked exhausted, the chair seeming to engulf her frail body. “But I am. All of this is because of me.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m the reason Ahilya burned.” Sutapa looked away, a pained expression on her face. “I was sixteen, young and impressionable. He was so charming…and tortured. I fancied myself in love with him. I wanted to be the one to heal him. I…I was Sutapa Raisinghania, Kabir’s wife.”
“What?!” Her mind scrambled to make sense of these words. She stared at the old woman, her mouth open in shock. She was Kabir’s widow?
“I’m very very old, child,” she stated quietly. “We all are, but I’m the oldest. Sometimes I feel this is a part of Ahilya’s curse. For me to live along torturous life. Be alive to see the sufferings of my loved ones, the ones who are innocent. The four of us are the last remaining people who were present the day Ahilya cursed us. The day she let us burn her. For she was too powerful for us to subdue otherwise.” She looked beseechingly into her eyes. “I’m desperate, Riddhima. All of this…This pain, this suffering. It has to end before I die. I have to make it right for my people.”
“But-but what did you mean?” Riddhima fumbled for words to the questions whirring in her tired brain. “You were in love? With Kabir? Why?” She was finding it really hard to keep a track of people’s love stories and their awful choice in partners.
“Kabir was not always evil,” Sutapa spoke softly, her eyes lost in reminiscence. “The world pushed him too hard. He could have been a good man. I saw that light in him…he resisted the call of darkness for the longest time. Any lesser man would have given up. But he had more strength than most.” Riddhima detected a note of pride in her husky voice. Was Sutapa still in love with her husband? She was suddenly reminded of that boy on the street in one of her dreams. The grubby faced one no one seemed to care about. The one who craved for a family.
“He was shunned all his life. Kabir was an illegitimate child, born of love between Vikram Raisinghania and Ganga- a shaman woman. Vikram’s mother forbade the match and forced him to marry Sahiti, her best friend’s daughter. In the olden days, it was unheard of for a rich family’s heir to marry against his mother’s wishes. Vikram too obeyed his mother, breaking Ganga’s heart. No one knew she was pregnant till it was too late. After marrying Sahiti, he never visited Ganga or his child. Never cared for their welfare. In later years, Ganga married a man from her village, hoping to give young Kabir a father. But I don’t think she ever forgave Vikram’s betrayal. She was such a sad woman…”
Sutapa took in a deep breath, staring at the wall behind Riddhima. “And then one day…she killed herself, leaving her small child in the hands of an abusive stepfather. Kabir suffered the worst of humanity all his life. And yet he had love in his heart to give. I wanted that love. I yearned to be the woman that healed him. But he wanted Ahilya. When she rejected him too…I think it broke something precious within him. I hated her for the longest time for this. But now I had hope that he would see me… Want me.”
She paused. “One day, in a fit of rage, he stabbed Janani’s husband. We don’t even know why… But that was the day I knew he was lost.” She sighed morosely. “But I couldn’t let him go. Not even when he planned to murder the whole Raisinghania family…I tried to dissuade him many times, but he was determined. Finally, he came to me with a proposal I could not refuse. If I helped him convince the shamans that Ahilya was practicing necromancy, he would marry me.”
There was a dead silence in the room. Her emotions coiled within her stomach like an agitated snake. Sutapa braced warily, expecting harsh judgement. “Oh my God!” Riddhima wanted to shake the foolish woman. “You put an innocent woman to death just to marry a deranged man?!”
“I didn’t know they would burn her!” she uttered defensively. “I was barely 17!”
“Oh my God. Stop it!”
“What?”
“I said stop it!” Riddhima sat up, her hands balled into fists. “Don’t you dare defend this. I can’t believe the evil you have in you!”
“Child-“
“I am not a child!” she snapped, her eyes flashing. “I am a fully-grown woman. Why do I have to keep telling people that? And you…you are a horrible person. You let a woman burn to death to marry a man, a murderer. Then you allowed said murderer to kill the whole Raisinghania family in cold blood! Your ancestors cursed Vansh’s people to dust. His spirit is trapped in this world till this day. And you! You sit here defending your crimes! What are you made of, huh? Ahilya’s punishment is too good for the likes of you!” She stood up suddenly. The old woman shrank back, looking sickly and scared. “Get out. All of you! Get out of my room!” She moved towards the meditating shamans, their brows creased in concentration. “Hey you all! Stop your voodoo bullshit and get out!”
“Riddhima-“
“Leave!”
“No.” The word was mere breath but spoken with stony conviction. It gave Riddhima pause. Sutapa rose to her feet slowly, a weary resignation on her face. “I cannot leave till you hear…know all of it. We don’t have time. Not even for your righteous anger.”
“Oh really?” she returned, sarcasm dripping in her voice. “You have a whole bevy of crimes to confess to me?”
Sutapa stared into her eyes, undaunted by her biting words. “Vansh Raisinghania was a good honourable man. He loved his family, took care of his tenants. He did not deserve what happened to him. I accept a large part of the blame for that. But you must know…I have wronged him in death as much as a I did in life.”
“What the hell-“
“He believes,” Sutapa stoically ignored her interruption. “that he can destroy Kabir’s soul. But he will only be sacrificing himself.”
Riddhima went cold, her heart jumping to her throat.
“You must understand, chil-I mean Riddhima,” she corrected hastily. “Souls do not linger in this world of their own volition. They are meant to pass into The Void, a realm of darkness where everything and nothing exists together. Where they go from there… we do not know. But if a spirit has remained here on this plane, it is because the Creator has a plan for them.”
“So Vansh has like…an unfinished business?”
“Yes. We don’t know the Creator’s plan but Vansh is intent on destroying Kabir’s very soul,” she spoke gravely. “It is not enough for his human body to die. Vansh wants to destroy his soul’s existence. Kabir knew that. When he could not enter Vansh’s home after his death, he knew Vansh lingered in wait for him and only him. It terrified him. It terrified all of us, to be honest. Vansh’s spirit was too strong for even the shamans to exorcise. It was the oddest thing…” She trailed off, looking towards the window. Riddhima followed her gaze. It was almost evening.
“After we were married, Kabir expressed his fear that Vansh’s spirit would find a way someday. He begged me to destroy him instead. But I couldn’t. No one knows the secret to destroying souls. It is far beyond the realm of any known magic. But I-I could not let Vansh kill my husband’s soul. So, I summoned a witch’s spirit to visit him and pretend to give him the secret to destroying another soul. She gave him a mantra that would release him from this life if he ever spoke it…It unties any obligation he may have to this world and forces him towards The Void. It would have pushed him to the afterlife, keeping Kabir safe.”
Riddhima was speechless. She opened her mouth, but words seemed lodged in her throat. Memories of the time on the Ferris wheel passed by her mind.
If he is more powerful than you, why do you insist on taking Kabir on singlehandedly. What else are you hiding, Vansh?”
“I am not a fool.”
Apparently, he was a fool and a whole lot more. She cursed internally. This was his grand plan all along? She vowed to knock him on the head when she next saw him.
Sutapa continued, looking at her warily. “I wanted you to know this because Vansh is likely to try that mantra if he faces Kabir. And if you are with him at the time, his spirit would move on from this world, leaving you to deal with Kabir’s. Which will end rather badly for you. So, you must not go searching for either of them. It’s my advice to you.”
“How kind of you,” Riddhima muttered irritably. “Anything else?”
“Yes,” the old lady pursed her lips. “Kabir himself has been searching for the secret to destroying souls. It was why he did not challenge Vansh till now, despite having more magic and the freedom to travel through the shaman blood ties. He wants to destroy Vansh’s spirit too. Defeat him in the spirit realm like he did in life.”
Goosebumps rose on her skin. “Did he succeed?” Her voice was a whisper, thoughts a prayer.
“No,” the old woman shook her head. “He has been searching for years. But there is truly no known magic that can do something like this. He never found it. But now he grows impatient. If he confronts Vansh finally…I don’t want the sin of spoiling the Creator’s plan on my head too.”
Yeah. After the things Sutapa had done, the ‘Creator’ would likely find hell too good for her, Riddhima mused. “Where is Vansh?”
“I don’t know.” The old woman pulled her shawl closer around her. Her eyes looked speculatively at her. “But I can guess.”
“Then guess. What are you waiting for?”
“The answer to a question.”
Riddhima arched a brow, a sharp remark sitting on her tongue. She watched as the old woman hobbled down to the armchair again, her wrinkled hands trembling in her lap. Looking down at her, she was struck by the realization that this woman had to be at least 115 years old, if not more. Going by her revelations, she had suffered for most of that time. She bit back her words and simply crossed her arms, waiting for her to throw her next bomb on her.
“I asked you this earlier,” she began hesitantly, raising cataract ridden eyes to hers. “Tell me, child…I mean Riddhima… why were you seeking Ahilya’s descendent?”
She deliberated for a moment, curiosity and caution warring for prominence. “I was seeking Kabir’s haunting grounds,” she stated finally. “Since we share a blood bond, Vansh was now free to move out of his mansion. He wanted to find Kabir’s haunt and finish him. But of course, due to your meddling, he would have brought forth his own downfall… because Vansh has an affinity towards random spirits that visit his home. He is such a pig-headed little – “
“I see.” She detected a note of amusement in Sutapa’s tone.
“That’s it? That’s all you are going to say?”
“You don’t need Layla to find Kabir’s haunting ground. I can tell you where he rests.” Sutapa rubbed a hand over her forehead, her mouth grimacing in pain. “Kabir’s body was cremated in the shaman’s forest, near the river. He died when he was barely 40, a rich man with a lonely wife who had come to fear him…It-it was almost a relief when he passed away. In later years, he had grown into a paranoid man, always scared that Vansh would kill him. I thought…that he would come to love me eventually. But his hatred for Ahilya and then Vansh damaged him.” A lone tear trailed down a wrinkled cheek. Riddhima looked away uncomfortably, torn between going close and keeping a safe distance. “I cremated my husband and spread his ashes in the river, hoping he would find some peace after death. But he came back as a spirit, triggered by Ahilya’s curse. His haunting ground is the forest we first met in. It is also why he could possess you.”
Without warning, she pulled her by the shirt. “Hey!” Ignoring Riddhima’s protest, she tugged her sleeve up, squinting at the barely noticeable mark on her arm. “You were bleeding when we met that night. Did you get hurt in the forest?”
Riddhima nodded, staring at the innocent looking scratch. Vansh had healed the wound earlier. “The bonding wasn’t complete,” she told her. “A blood bond is formed when the spirit partakes some bit of the victim’s blood directly. Your blood falling in his haunting ground created a weak link. It should have shattered with your soul’s resistance. But Kabir and Vansh Raisinghania are half-brothers. And Vansh has…had a strong bond with you. This must have made it easier for Kabir’s spirit to possess you after he was done with me.”
“You said ‘had’.” She tried to keep the panic out of her voice.
“What?”
“You said Vansh had a strong bond with me. Why did you say that?”
Sutapa looked at her sorrowfully. “Your soul was very unstable. It can take a mortal toll on some to be bonded to just one spirit, let alone two strong ones. You almost died.” The last words were a whisper. “When we couldn’t wake you with magic, we tried to break Vansh’s blood link. It was the only way. I think…I think Vansh must have allowed us. To save your life. Because he is too strong to be forced. Without Vansh’s blood link, Kabir can’t link himself to you. Once we broke that bond, I could venture in your mind and pull you out of those visions.”
A painful ache ripped through her. She was aware of a growing hollow within her. He had broken their blood tie to save her? Paused his vendetta in exchange for her life? She should have been overjoyed to be free of the stupid ghost. But she could only think of how it had felt to be in his arms. How dark his eyes were in passion, how the dimples played hide and seek in his cheeks…How cherished and protected he had made her feel in his presence… How he had become her friend.
Suddenly, she knew exactly where he was. In his empty mansion. Wandering the walls, consumed by his pain once more.
“If you want to help Vansh, you must go to Layla,” Sutapa interrupted her thoughts, patting her on the arm to get her attention. “Kabir doesn’t know about her. Only a priestess can delve into the deeper secrets of The Void.” Riddhima backed away from her, feeling an urgent need to go elsewhere. “Don’t do this, child. Vansh and Kabir are both spirits. You are just a human girl.” Sutapa’s voice was anguished. Riddhima paused at the door.
“Wake Rudra after I leave.” She spoke quietly, without looking back. “Tell him everything. If he chooses to help again, tell him he is the best person in the world and to meet me at the mansion in an hour.
“Find Layla. She will help you,” Sutapa rasped urgently. “Tell us what she says. We will do the rest. We aren’t your enemies. We want this to end as much as you do.”
“That’s the difference, lady” she turned her head to the side, her gaze shuttered. “You want this to end. I want my friend to get justice.”
And then she left.
***