'Teacher, why will the path of a sovereign be open to me, a commoner?'

For the first time, Kush asked this question. Ever since he entered Ashangi's tutelage, he never questioned her direction. But now he felt that he had to. He had already decided to rival with the little prince of Rtadhara, Vajradandaka. He wanted to make him lose even more when he heard the tone of admiration in his teacher's tone towards this country, the ruling clan and even his elder brother who he admired as well. It was almost an immature itch that a bull gets when it meets another strong bull. He just had to butt heads. But how?

This is one thing that never made sense to him.

Displaying a rare smile that diffused in the form of gentle warmth in the night, his teacher Ashangi answered, 'When you are ready, there will naturally be a way.'

'But teacher—'

Ashangi's tone became sterner when he was about to pester. 'Don't forget the name I gave you Kush. There is a reason for everything I do for you. Be patient.'

Chandra?

The fourth Aditya? Kush didn't understand. Didn't his reign in Rtadhara end several generations ago? Why would that name be relevant now? Or was it related to one of the branches that ruled a neighbouring kingdom in the arid lands? They could've branched away from the original Adityas centuries ago…But still, this is just a remote place. Kush would be loathe to be stuck here all his life even if he was hegemon.

Now matter how he thought, he couldn't unravel the puzzle and could only helplessly fall asleep. Indeed, the little kid was too caught up in the present to remember what he experienced in the past. There was a faction in the central plateau that had gone underground for five decades and had been amassing power quietly in the dark. The supreme power who rules this faction was titled Chandra after the Deva.

Only, what was this faction planning for so long? Who was the current Chandra? What was his ambition?

Or does he even exist…?

Among the major Devas, Chandra had been missing in action for so long. The last man who had that title died under mysterious circumstances. He was survived by a daughter, but nobody knows where she is anymore or what she looks like.

The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Nobody but herself.

'Sigh…' Looking at the peacefully sleeping boy by her side, Ashangi was swept by deep melancholia. She looked like the lonely moon in the sky that may be resplendent at the first glance, but when you look close, you will only see everlasting loneliness.

'The moon has waned. It's the dark of the night. Father, when will you shine upon us once again?'

In the arid valley, the whistling winds still carried the woman's mournful song. The gory scene made it look as though the sun had set prematurely between two hills. But the sun who set might come back alive the next morning, where these countless souls had gone however, Vishnu only knew.

Looking out of place in this cruel scene was a small boy. He was beside the woman whose presence brought solace to the dead souls.

"Teacher, was Prince Vajradhaara the man you fell in love with?"

He pointed to the corpse beside his teacher, bringing her out of her strange reverie. Her song too had stopped. The winds that carried the dead souls had become lonely yet again.

"What? Silly boy. This prince was still a child when teacher reached marriageable age."

"Really?" Little Kush looked doubtful. His teacher looked really young. He would've thought her age was nineteen or twenty. Which makes her fifteen or sixteen when she met him. Their closeness in age was perhaps the only factor which he thought made her a little approachable. If there wasn't even that for him to bank on, he wouldn't know just how to communicate with this otherworldly person.

Unfortunately, the illusion was shattered today. As he had long suspected based on the amount of wisdom she possessed, his teacher really was someone who looked far younger than her age.

Seeing her disciple's fallen face, Ashangi couldn't help but feel genuinely mirthful. "Don't feel too sad. I'm still younger than your birth mother by a few years. That's good enough, yes?"

Like a chicken pecking rice, Kush nodded enthusiastically with a smile.

The lovely woman then handed him the bloody golden helmet. "Let's go make a delivery to the palace."

Taking the token belonging to the fallen hero reverentially, Kush said, "Teacher, will they allow us into the palace with this?"

He was still worried about his friend Vajra. Although he did wake up from his coma in the end, there's no way Kush could've known that.

'Don't forget you still have his personal token,' the lady's lips curved up. Despite her personal nature, she couldn't help but be amused by her disciple. To actually burrow through a prince's belongings all the ways to his royal seal…Who else but her capable disciple to do that?

With a sheepish look, Chandra Kush brought his stubby legs to follow after her.

The valley's gruesome scene didn't seem so disturbing as her pure and slender visage glided through its middle. Reminding sage and bard alike of the pure lotus that blooms unhindered in the suffocating marsh.