As our crowd of boys, an amalgamation of students from about three different Gurukuls got unusually noisy with the sudden appearance of graceful young maidens of our age dressed in flowy white robes, I found myself guilty of stealing glances at some of the cutest students among the newcomers.

Anik explained that three Gurukuls were allocated for the boys and girls each. The seventh gurukul was co-ed, and established for students born with unique, powerful traits who needed more attention than others.

A few older women arrived in tandem with the maidens, probably their wardens, who sent them to a huge three-storied building made of concrete and sturdy cement, with only a few commands, while imitating an impenetrable barrier serving as a boundary between the two areas.

Their tall stature was enough to block our view, much to our disappointment.

"Don't worry," Anik consoled Dweep by patting his broad shoulder, who looked slightly disappointed, "We'll be having lessons together."

"Don't project your feelings on me." Dweep retorted after sidestepping and breaking contact, his face red with hues of exasperation.

We laughed at his defense and went to the building allocated for us. Even though we spent a whole day awake, back in the dimension where I was born, I felt not a single hint of exhaustion currently.

I had been feeling sleepy just a few minutes ago, but now, I was as energetic as a fawn.

"You were stressing about your studies, weren't you? Do you know why so many students from our Gurukuls do well in the all-country examinations?" Anik acted smugly: "By the time you sit for them, you will be over forty years old. So your worries about 'normal' studies should take a back seat. By now, you should already know what kind of role you'll be playing on our team of four. I would recommend taking lessons from the current Sage of Sushruta's Teachings. Once we get our status windows activated, I can give better advice."

"Healing is a risky business." Saiyan mentioned from the side, relaxing on the yoga mat-like gray mattress on the floor.

The inside of the building allocated for us was so other-worldly spacious that it gave me a weird sense of discomfort. Some spatial magic was at work here, reminding me of a joke about the houses in animations for kids.

An infamous one depicted a struggle between cats and cockroaches who lived in a house with a seemingly unending staircase, while the house looked like a simple two-storied building from the outside.

Each corridor here had thrice the number of rooms when compared to our Bhavana. But it only had the basic necessities. Sheep wool yoga mats instead of beds, and that's all. There was nothing else inside the room, to our horror.

Do we not need other sets of clothes? Do they want us to live like the ascetics in jungles, who give up on all worldly needs to focus on gaining enlightenment?

"Why do you say that it's dangerous?" I asked, wondering why he would tag a noble deed as risky.

"You need to give up something to heal the other person. That something, when depleted, automatically incapacitates your bodily functions, which you wouldn't want during a prolonged fight. It takes quite a long time to regenerate. I'm sure you'll find something just for you that suits who you are." Saiyan answered while sitting in a lotus meditation pose. "So take your time getting familiar with the techniques people use."

"Is Saiyan here?" a middle-aged guy with a clean shave and impressive back-brushed hair suddenly arrived at our door. Saiyan sprang up from his mat and followed the person somewhere.

"Let's check where they are going. I'm curious." Anik said, tiptoeing outside with us closely following him at his heels.

From one section of the balcony, we could see the giant Banyan tree in the middle of the campus by sticking our heads out over the railing. It had lush red fruits hanging at different altitudes, looking delicious and savory. But I knew eating them would seal my fate to the toilet for the next three days.

I also wondered where all the students from other standards were.

"The Ashrama consists of a multitude of small villages like this, spread around at the foothills of the Himalayas. Your seniors are in other campuses a few kilometers away from here." Reminding me of our telepathic conversation in that mango grove, Panna communicated with me inside my head.

"We can now talk to each other like this?" I was surprised since I had given in to the notion that we could telepathically communicate only in the space where she was, her personal mango grove.

If my theory is correct, she must be rooted somewhere in this Satya Marta.

"Yeah, it seems like that. Do you know?" she continued excitedly, "Today I grew my third ever leaf!!"

"Congrats!!" I felt genuine happiness emanating from her. It was contagious. "You've worked hard. So rest for now and take care..."

We kept observing as seven students, four girls and three boys, arrived at the base of the Banyan tree accompanied by their wardens.

Somewhere in the path, Saiyan's companion had changed to Mr. Baagh instead of the back-brush guy who came to fetch him.

The wardens held out their right hand to the side, making a forty-five-degree angle between their hand and ribs, while their thumb and index finger imitated a circle, completed by their tips joined together.

Their left hand went up, making motions as if they were drawing something on an invisible canvas floating somewhere within arm's reach in front of them.

Silver-white colors poured out from their ring fingers like 3D printing directly into the air. The white symbols they wrote combined to create a beautiful picture, giving me an instinctual impression of a fence surrounding a comfortable and safe home.

A blue cuboid space devoured the seven students, isolating them inside a barrier conjured by the wardens. All we could see now were the opaque blue walls of the barrier.

It was so fascinating and out of this world that something awakened deep inside me. I felt an innate desire to learn and try that out.

"What was that? Do they also teach those?" I asked Anik, genuinely curious.

"Bro, are you serious? Why would you learn Charm Creation when you can Chant Hymns for sorcery? It might be flexible but not practical in real-life battles. It is just for little tricks, not usable where it matters." he shook his head like asking him this question was a bad idea.

"Even if you want to learn it, you can't actually." he continued, "Not for four more years atleast. As far as I know, Charm Creation requires advanced knowledge of how Kundalini flows within our body. I don't know the specifics, though. You can try asking around if you want. I don't want you to waste time focusing on something you can't learn right now."

"Okay, don't worry. I'll check things out as you suggested." I tried to stop him before he could restart his nitpicking. I didn't ask more about this Kundalini thing, afraid it might blow my cover.

His nature to be efficient about things related to Satya was understandable when I imagined myself living through his eyes. I have understood from his conversations that he breathed and lived for this place. He had learned whatever was required to stay and survive in this dimension.

His body was in Alik till now, but his mind had always been wandering in a daydream based on some interpretation of this place that he created from basic descriptions of the Ashrama. Finally, at long last, they have become one. He must be unimaginably happy right now.

The cuboid blue barrier surrounding the seven students and their wardens disappeared as the people who had once vanished manifested again.

They broke into two groups and headed towards their dorms in opposite directions. We walked back to our rooms, waiting for Saiyan to arrive.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

We kept anticipating his arrival until we were called to the grounds again, but there was still no sign of him anywhere, not even among the crowd now gathered in front of the Banyan tree. Did his special training already start?

The sages were already standing in front of it, some talking amongst each other and some leaning against the trunk-sized prop roots, adorning saffron clothing while following an imaginary horizontal straight line at the base of the massive tree.

They sensed our complete attendance and, with a swift motion, sat in a meditation pose with folded legs and hands on their knees while gesturing us to do the same.

As we followed their example, the sage in the middle of the line closed his eyes and started explaining.

"The difference between the dimension where you were born and Satya Marta is the presence of Shakti. While Maya is all-encompassing and exists everywhere, like air, Shakti is inherently different. Devi Sati brought Shakti into this world through her ultimate self-sacrifice, ushering peace and stability back to Prithvi long ago, finally ending a tumultuous era in the earlier period of our history." He started recounting one of the Origin stories from our Puranas.

Hearing him mention the stories as history instead of mythology felt weird.

It was a tragic story.

Devi Sati, daughter of King Daksha, son of Brahma, the Creator God, was an incarnation of a Goddess who came down to Earth, binding herself under only one condition: she can never be insulted or humiliated.

Growing up, she grew infatuated with Lord Shiva and toiled hard to gain his affection, sacrificing all her materialistic needs. After many tests, Lord Shiva finally decided to take her as a wife, prompting Devi Sati to leave everything behind and embark on a journey to Mount Kailasa, the abode of The Destroyer.

This angered King Daksha, who didn't like Shiva and, out of spite, arranged an important ritual to which all kings, gods, and goddesses were invited only, except his new son-in-law.

Devi Sati arrived alone at the ritual, demanding to know why her father had been so cruel. In answer, Daksha insulted both his daughter, which was a no-no, and his son-in-law, which was an even bigger no-no infront of Devi Sati.

Since her condition that bound her to the mortal world became void, being insulted by her father, her Divine Soul was forcibly yanked out of her mortal vessel.

She left the World in a fit of anger since her time together with Lord Shiva was cut short, cursing everybody present at the Ritual to be killed at the hands of her husband.

She gave up her mortal body in the sacrificial fire of the Ritual, unable to even say goodbye to her husband one last time. This Goddess that came down to Earth was a manifestation of Goddess Adi Parashakti, the Primordial Force.

Lord Shiva, unfortunately, arrived late at the scene, found the dead body of his wife burning in the fire, and started calling upon the incarnations of Destruction by tearing away and transforming the matted locks of his hair.

All hell broke loose as people at the Ritual were slaughtered by the terrible Goddesses and Bhairavas summoned by Lord Shiva.

He retrieved the lifeless body of his wife and started roaming the world in grief, destroying everything in his path.

Fearing the untimely destruction of the whole Brahmand, Lord Vishnu, The Preserver, used his Sudarshan Chakra, a circular divine weapon, to cut up Devi Sati's body into 51 parts, bringing Shiva back to his senses with the shock, deactivating his destructive form.

These 51 parts of her body fell in various parts of the world, creating an interconnected network of Shakti Rekhas, like ley lines, joining each Shakti Peeth, centers of power.

"You can feel Shakti and absorb enough of it only when sitting on one of the Shakti Rekhas. But, as you know, Shakti, originating from the primordial Goddess, is inherently feminine. While the young maidens will have an advantage in absorbing Shakti, I hope the boys won't get discouraged seeing their peers developing faster than them. Take it slowly, coax it inside your body, and let it do its thing. You can never win against it and only channel it to give it a proper outcome. Your first lesson will be discovering the hidden Rekhas in this village and learning how to absorb it slowly into your body." The sage finished his lecture without giving any more hints.

As everybody got up in a hurry and started running around, I kept sitting for now. I have seen and read enough literature to understand the hidden meaning of tests like these.

They often conclude: It had been within you from the beginning, or it had been where you were, you weren't looking correctly—cliche things like these.

I and several others had probably found the answer and were still sitting where we were with a proud look on our faces.

"Look at these..." One of the sages suddenly opened their eyes and scanned us.

"Either you guys fell asleep, or you're overthinking. I can guarantee you that none of the Rekhas pass through here. Start running." he calmly stated.

I sprang up on my feet and ran away, embarrassed. I should have followed my roommates instead.

Stemming from the previous thought that it might be in a place least expected, I tried to visualize the campus from the above.

The imaginary picture was surprisingly vivid, courtesy of my Visualisation Passive. While the Bhavanas at Alik were more or less ' h' shaped, the dorms here were only ' ---- ' shaped.

Where do the girls' dorms lie? Is it on the same line or a different one?

I went to the leftmost part of our dorm building and looked straight ahead.

Yeah, I could see the right end of their dorm directly in front of me. Things fell into place, giving you the same feeling while solving a Wordle.

I ran to my room, remembering how the yoga mats were placed on the floor, on the same horizontal line through the middle of the room. It was right in front of me from the very beginning.

I also realized that the Sages were also sitting on the line connecting the two dorms. They probably didn't get up, thinking students might try sitting once in their spots. As I passed rooms on the way to mine and saw people sitting on their mats, I realized I was correct in my hypothesis.

Just as I was going to enter my room, I heard Panna's voice in my mind.

"Don't just follow what others are doing. I'm sure you're proud that you found one of the answers yourself, but doing only this much won't be enough for both of us, especially you. A constant amount of Shakti flows through a Rekha between two Peeths. Once the Shakti in it is depleted by being absorbed by us, it again replenishes the divine energy in the next power center connected to it." She stopped me midway.

"So the amount of Shakti you absorb directly depends on the number of people already sitting before you. Got it. So we have to find a new one?" I tried to summarise what she wanted to say.

"Technically, yeah. But you'll need to trust me. With the little amount of my sap inside your body, I can try finding a new line for you, which was probably hidden by Maya." Panna theorized.

Why would Maya hide it? Do they deliberately want us to absorb less Shakti? How will we develop otherwise?

"They know that absorbing more than prescribed amounts of Shakti with our immature bodies, which don't have a chakra point yet, will cause harm to us instead. The sages sit on the line to ensure that all the students get a balanced amount of it. Whenever they feel like someone might get overloaded, they suck up more Shakti and reduce the amount flowing through the Rekha." Panna explained the mechanism, leaving me perplexed.

How much storage space do they have inside their bodies to store a quantity directly influencing the amount flowing in the line?

"Regarding the status windows, their Shakti stat will lie over a hundred. Every chakra point can hold twice the amount of Shakti than the previous one. Since there are seven chakra points... you can calculate it to be somewhere around 128."

"Does everybody with seven chakra points have that amount of stats?" I asked, getting excited.

This was just like browsing through the tutorial systems of a game where you have to read quite a bit to understand the power systems' underlying mechanisms.

"No, this is the maximum one can get. Most people don't have that much capacity, even with seven Chakras. There might be seven of them, but their efficiency in storing Shakti varies from person to person. Not all your chakra points can hold Shakti with the same efficiency. Some points do better, some relatively worse. So the best chakras need to be created last." she emphasized this part.

This was important information. I need to understand the chakras before I can start creating them properly.

I was afraid my overthinking mind would commit some irredeemable mistakes.

As if Panna sensed my worries, she consoled me, "What am I here for? Trust me, okay?"

I started feeling a tugging sensation in my left arm and followed it outside the dorms. I crossed the Bathroom stalls, the Dining Hall, a shooting range and a cow shed, finally reaching the shrubs in the outskirts of the clearing.

The mountains suddenly seemed a lot closer now that they loomed over me like a colossal Danava from their depictions written in the Puranas.

"If you have 51 centers with all of them connected, how many lines will you get?" Panna asked, "51 centers will all have fifty lines coming in or out. Do you think this huge place will only have one Rekha going through it? That huge Banyan tree is suspicious; I can feel the Maya bending around it."

"Why do you think it's suspicious? Is it not a regular tree?" I kept the conversation going.

"The tree has been carved with lots of Aksharas running a huge array of spells." Panna was getting excited, judging from the tone I could hear over the telepathic channel.

"They have designed the infrastructure in such a way that it increases efficiency in an organized manner. Students can meditate sitting right in their rooms while the sages can keep an eye on them. They pulled the closest Rekha using Maya and set it up like a line passing right through the front of the Banyan tree, joining the two dorms. Quite fascinating."

Moving southeast through the forest and reaching the base of the twin waterfalls with a small pool at its base, I marveled at the sight of the eternal rain drizzling over it. The clouds above drifted along the peaks, becoming one with the ash-gray skies over the mountains.

Moss and vines grew along the mountain face, gradually turning to barren yellow rocks before shrouding itself in a blanket of snow. It's wild how different a naked mountain looked without vegetation covering its body.

Droplets of water landing softly from above touched my face like dew over grass at dawn, leaving a cold, stinging feeling behind. The beauty here is no joke. But the absence of sun is quite concerning. The cold white ball overhead did not have the intensity a star is supposed to have.

Is it going to be like this all the time? I am not complaining, but Vitamin D is vital for a growing child.

"Ughh, what was that?" I felt my left arm getting zapped with some static.

I could feel the air vibrating infront of me as if some hydroelectric plant was working incessantly below the waterfall.

Isn't this quite a cliche? Training under an ancient waterfall? I thought, suppressing a smile.

If people came for some sightseeing and found me meditating here, they'd surely tag me as a martial arts fan.

"Ah!" I felt Panna getting embarrassed. "A slight miscalculation on my part. It seems that the line lies somewhere within the mountain."