The north was cold. Not the cold of mountains or mist—but of silence, and memory. The kind of cold that sank into bone and whispered old names in the dark.
Ashvath and Sita rode in silence, their horses kicking up frost-bitten dirt. Ahead loomed the ruins the scouts had warned of—an ancient Kalingan temple, long buried, now breathing again.
Its spires looked like fingers clutching the sky.
---
Inside the Temple
The doors opened with a groan, not from rust, but from something else.
Reluctance.
Sita lit her torch. "This place shouldn't exist."
Ashvath stepped forward, sword drawn. "Then why does it?"
They walked into a wide hall, murals covering the stone like veins: gods with too many eyes, children with no mouths, fire that bled from the sky.
Symbols everywhere—burned into the walls in ash and blood.
And at the center, a stone basin.
Inside it, fresh blood.
---
The Dream Trap
Ashvath leaned closer.
That's when the smoke rose.
Sita screamed as it curled around him, sinking into his nose, his mouth, his eyes.
He fell.
---
In the Dream
Ashvath stood on a battlefield. Alone.
Bodies surrounded him—soldiers of Magadha, of Kalinga, of kingdoms unknown. And on each body...
Ashvath's face.
He turned and saw himself, a younger version—dressed in black robes, blade soaked.
The dream-self spoke. "You were always a killer. Even before Ashoka. Even before a name."
Ashvath shouted, "I serve justice!"
"You serve blood."
Then came her voice.
Soft. Familiar.
"Ashvath…"
He turned. Sita stood in the smoke, tears in her eyes.
But when he reached out—she crumbled to ash.
---
Return to the Flesh
Sita was shaking him.
"Wake up! Please—Ashvath, come back!"
He gasped, jerking upright. Sweat pouring down. Blade already drawn.
She held him, not afraid. Just sad.
"They tried to take you."
Ashvath looked around. The basin was empty. The blood gone.
"They showed me what I was," he whispered.
"And I reminded you who you are."
---
The Message in Stone
Before they left, Ashvath smashed the basin. Inside, they found a scroll—sewn with hair and sealed in blood wax.
It read:
"When the Lion bleeds, the Shadow will wear the crown."
Sita looked at him. "They want Ashoka gone. And you on the throne."
Ashvath's face was stone. "Then we burn every trace of this cult before it burns us."
---
End of Chapter 8