The winds howled across the broken plains outside Vaitalgarh. Dust and ash danced together like ghosts refusing to settle.
Ravi sat alone at the edge of a dried riverbed, staring at the silent horizon. The battle was over. The Sleeper was gone. But peace did not come.
Behind him, Kiran sharpened his blades — not out of need, but habit. Meera tended to the injured villagers they had found emerging from hiding. They had survived the curse — but not without scars.
Ravi could still feel it: The stillness inside him. Too calm.Too quiet.
"Is That Still You?"
Meera approached, her eyes searching.
"You haven't spoken since yesterday."
Ravi didn't turn. "I didn't kill the Sleeper."
"What do you mean?"
"I… released it. Set it free."
He looked at his hand. "But for a moment, I felt like I could do it to anything. To you. To the sky. To time itself."
She knelt beside him. "You chose not to. That's what matters."
He looked at her — eyes filled with something she hadn't seen before. Not rage. Not pride.
Dread.
"I'm not afraid of the power," he said. "I'm afraid of how easy it is to call it mercy."
The Map Opens
That night, they gathered around a fire. Ravi unsealed the scroll Rakta Vina had given them.
As the ancient script unwound, glowing marks formed a map of the subcontinent — but not as it was now. This was a living map, shifting with breath, pulsing with spiritual veins.
Ten sacred sites pulsed faintly. Most were dark.
But one — in the northern forests of Vanrajgarh — glowed like blood on water.
Kiran scowled. "That's old hunting ground for Rakshas-born. Bandits who drink moon-wine and carve their skin into armor."
Meera whispered, "The map says that's where the Sixth Limb lies — Manomaya, the Mind-Limb."
Ravi folded the scroll. "Then that's where we go."
In the Shadows
But someone else was watching.
Far to the south, in a sunken fortress beneath the desert, a man sat cross-legged in fire, unburned, unblinking.
His skin was marked with gold. His eyes had no pupils.
And in his hand, he held a severed tongue wrapped in black thread.
"Ravi Rawat…" he muttered."Bearer of the Tenth…You free what I would consume."
This was Bhargtanaya, Lord of the Hollow Flame.One of the seven forbidden sages.And he had once tried to claim the Tenth Limb for himself — and failed.
But now… the limb walked the world again.And Bhargtanaya would not fail twice.
He whispered to the flame:
"Bring me the girl who guards him.Break the one who follows him.I will unmake the mercy."