"She…" the little boy looked around finding his teacher nowhere. "She disappeared! She's invisible in normal places…you can forget about finding her here!"

Vajra knew that Ashangi wasn't invisible like an assassin. When an assassin suddenly appears, you could sense that he had been hiding. He springs up from seemingly nowhere, but when you go back to the incident later, it's not actually nowhere. But Kush's teacher Ashangi was not like that. When she disappears, it was because she had always been there. Perhaps since the beginning of time. Since before this building had been built. Who knows, perhaps, she was the substance that made the air that she breathes. She was invisible in that way…When you look at her, you wouldn't think she had been hiding. You blame yourself for not seeing what was obviously in front of you.

When Vajradandaka heard of the divine manifestation in his third sister Agni during these days, he thought it was the opposite of what Ashangi was. While his sister excited every particle in her vicinity until they revealed their potential in the form of flames without actually burning down, Ashangi created a vacancy in space instead, displaying how every form disintegrates into nothing in the end. Come to think of it now, her blood cannot be ordinary considering she can produce a divine manifestation like that.

Sitting across from Kush on an ornate low table, Vajra asked in a businesslike manner, "Are you buying or selling? You should know I can't give you back the royal medallion now that you brought back to us. Wait till…" his façade cracked a bit. "Well, wait till I get a new one and this old one is stricken off the records…then you can take it back."

"That's fine," the boy's greedy eyes sparkled as he rubbed his hands. "You can just give me something of equal value. That'll work too."

Vajradandaka couldn't help but smile at his naivete. What can be of equal value to his personal royal seal? "How can that work? A promise is a promise. I'll certainly give it back to you… Having my personal token with you will come in handy one day, trust me. It's not just about the gold."

"Oh…" the little boy's brows creased thoughtfully. As it turned out, he really hadn't thought about what it meant to be friends with a prince.

"So what else?" Vajradandaka was excited too. He could finally get back at this boy for stealing all his stuff. He wondered what he could offer now in return for his jewels. Water? Food? Or was it medicine? Obviously, only the last one had the slightest value for him. He was curious what wild medicine the boy could produce that would make him shed his jewels once more.

But then the other boy said something that surprised Vajra. "I'm not buying this time, I'm selling."

"Oh?" Vajra said, taken aback. Did he plan to sell back the jewels from earlier? Honestly, even though they were precious, he purposely didn't carry on him any family heirlooms at that time. Even the crown that he lost while attacking Jeh-shaan of Patr-dal was a gift from his sisters, not a consecrated prince's crown. Only the gold medallion was truly precious.

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If this greedy boy wanted to profit twice because he thought Vajra couldn't afford to lose some of that jewelry, he had really overestimated himself. Vajra was all prepared to laugh at his face.

However, the boy only produced a lumpy old sack that looked oily and dirty and put it on the table. Though he swam in dirt and sweat for ten or more days in the jungle, Vajra was still disgusted by it. Looking up, he noticed that Kush was in those coarse and dirty looking clothes that he always wore. He didn't understand why the boy was like that all the time when his teacher looked like mortal filth couldn't touch her no matter what she did. Didn't she teach him?

"Well, what is it?" he asked impatiently.

To his surprise, Chandra Kush only looked more solemn. He didn't answer straight away. Vajra didn't know that the mischievous boy actually had it in him to look so serious.

A foreboding feeling coming upon him, he asked again, but in a humbler tone. "What is it?"

Giving Vajra a firm look, Chandra Kush unveiled the dirty sack gently, revealing a harsh golden thing covered in red blood. "I also have the armor…" he murmured and fell silent.

Vajra's heart skipped a beat. He recognized the helmet very well. He snuck in with Varuna into the blacksmith's workshop back when his brother commissioned it. The two of them made a fuss insisting that the alloy helmet should be a youthful gold in color, instead of the solemn white of the past Rtadhara generals. The blacksmith then complained to the eldest prince having which resulted in him having to leave everything and run to the workshop in order to drag the naughty siblings out by the ear.

Vajra new exactly who was wearing the helmet and when, but he still asked, "This is…"

Chandra Kush nodded with the honesty of a child, putting his whole body into it.

"So he…"

Vajra's friend nodded again in the same forceful manner, his big eyes staring intently at his friend who seemed to be in a daze.

The other day when he saw him, he felt like he saw a skeleton. His movements were slow and lifeless. Kush was so scared that he became enraged. He wanted to shake him out of that state. But now he knew it wasn't so simple, it wasn't so easy.

"You saw…"

Kush nodded once again, patiently without scorning his friend. Yes, he died. I saw his corpse.

"Peaceful…?"

That one word hung there in silence.

Eventually, Kush said, "Is there peace in war…?"

It took until Kush continued to the next sentence for Vajra to know he wasn't mocking him. "If there is, then yes. Your brother died peacefully."

"Is there peace in war?" Vajra rolled those syllables on his tongue.

After a long silence, the little prince flicked his fingers in the air prompting an attendant to come forth. He was a soldier in his brother's legion, the one called back from the border recently after his passing.

"Tell brother Teer-gaan to call off the search party…We have found big brother's remains. Tell the Brahmins they can start to consecrate the pyre."

The soldier was already shivering intensely, red eyes fixated on the table where the golden helmet lay. He was overwhelmed with emotions, but was unable to make a sound.

Ignoring him, Vajradandaka frowned pensively while facing the wild boy from the forest.

"I'm afraid I'm unable to offer anything of equal value to this…" he said in a quiet voice, fondling the bloodstained helmet.