The single bulb overhead buzzed faintly, casting harsh, cold light across Kunal's apartment. Maps of Elephanta Island were spread across the table, circled and marked where Abhishek had sketched possible routes and blind spots.
Ananya sat over her laptop, cross-checking ferry schedules and tides, her brows furrowed tight. She glanced up now and then, her eyes flicking to Kunal when he wasn't looking, tracking his subtle movements, the tension in his shoulders, the restless twitch of his fingers.
Kunal stared at the map but his mind wasn't on logistics.
It was on the throne.
Not Kunala's throne.
The other one.
The one he saw only once but it left a deep impression on him, the one he'd been ignoring, until now however now it looks wrong to ignore it. There can't be anything useless in his memories and even that scene left very strong impression on him.
He pressed a palm to his temple, a low groan slipping out.
"Any problem?" Abhishek muttered without looking up.
"We are overlooking a very important point here," Kunal said, pushing from the table. He paced the small room, tension crackling off him. "Planning how to get there is good and all but we don't understand why. Or the reason for all of this, even after putting our heads together with all these shitty things and people invading my life like they own it."
Ananya's heart gave a small jolt. She lifted her head quickly, her voice trying to stay steady. "We know it's about Kunala. We concluded that after all of our research, the visions, the records, the memories. Even the people who approached you called you Kunala. And this message also confirms it."
Kunal exhaled roughly, lighting a cigarette, taking a deep puff. "Yeah. And most of it fits well with this: the court, the throne, the whispers, the queen, the prince, the pain. Everything BUT"
He paused.
"But this other vision is what's bothering me.". I saw it only once, but it was entirely different. I kept brushing it off, thinking it was part of the Kunala stuff… but when I look at it now, it doesn't fit. It sticks out like a sore thumb, like someone inserted a page with different fonts and format into the file."
Abhishek finally looked up. Ananya straightened, alert, her pulse picked up, watching Kunal's face tighten.
"In that dream, I'm older. Not just older, heavier, somehow. Bigger. Dangerous. It's like…" Kunal's hands clenched. "Like a person sitting at the top of the food chain. Like the ground itself, dwarfing the sky."
He searched for words.
"The throne wasn't Mauryan. It wasn't marble or stone. It felt carved from a bleeding sun. And the symbols in it, they weren't just carved. They pulsed. They looked alive. They burned with that deep crimson colour."
His voice dropped, rough. "And the figure sitting there… It looked like me, a bit older. But not Kunala. Kunala never gave off that dangerous feeling. He was like a calm lake. Always serene. But the man on that grand throne. He was an apex predator with that deep gaze. The kind that could massacre his enemies without blinking. That ruthlessness, that fierceness I never saw in Kunala."
The room fell quiet.
Ananya watched Kunal closely, her hands curling into fists on the table. He always carried everything on his shoulder trying to find answers on his own, even when it tore him apart.
Kunal let the silence sit for a moment, then shook his head. "We need to dig deeper. We're missing a piece. And most importantly it's not sitting right with me to ignore this anymore."
Ananya frowned. "Could it be Ashoka? Or… a vision overlap, a memory bleed?"
"No," Kunal said sharply. "I've seen Ashoka's face in murals. This was different. I know it. Yeah, Ashoka was ruthless before Kalinga, but he was never described as divine or something like that, however the man on the throne in my vision looked like a god of war. Also Ashoka and Kunala weren't alike."
His certainty rang hard and cold.
Abhishek blew out a breath. "So, we're not just up against unknown enemies. We're chasing a history which is not even in the books anymore or got lost with time."
He ran a hand through his hair. "Though it doesn't change Elephanta. Two days. Nine p.m. We move."
Kunal nodded. "Agreed. But we need every answer we can dig up before we go. I'm not walking in blind."
"We split tasks," Ananya said, her voice steadier now. "Abhi, you handle Elephanta and everything around it. Transport, fallback, contingencies. Kunal and I will dig records. Buddhist scrolls, Jain texts, ancient scriptures, obscure myths, regional legends, anything about Kunala which we can find after the blinding."
Abhishek pulled out a burner phone, scanning a rough harbor map. "If it's a trap, we better be prepared for it, we hit it smart."
Kunal dropped into a chair beside Ananya, booting up a second laptop. She hesitated, then reached out briefly, her fingers brushing his arm just enough to ground him. "We'll figure this out," she murmured, the faintest smile flickering across her face.
Screens scrolled. Obscure references of the blurred past, emperors and kings connected to suns, warriors "who carried the ancient legacies in their veins," fragmented pieces of half-remembered myths.
Most would call it folklore.
But Kunal's gut said it otherwise.
For him, the myths were knocking at the door. They looked more real than his whole life till now. He felt like he was living in a simulation, with realities bleeding and blending together.
He had only two days.
Two days to chase the answers clawing at his mind.
Two days until everything changed — for him, and for them all.
To be continued…