"मूलाधार स्थितो ब्रह्मा, जगतः कारणं स्मृतम्।"
"Brahma dwells in Muladhara, the root of all creation and fear."
🪨 Location: The Cliffs of Kaala-Grah
The sun had not yet risen when Aarav reached the edge of the cliffs. The air was thick with fog, the kind that clung to the skin like ash, heavy with the scent of rain-soaked stone and ancient moss. Below him stretched Kaala-Grah — the canyon said to be bottomless. The locals called it the "Gorge of Forgotten Time," a place where the world folded inward.
He stood there, silent, wrapped in the wool shawl Kaala-Rishi had left behind. In his palm rested the scroll, now warm against his skin as if breathing. The wind howled low, like a conch blown beneath the earth.
A narrow rope bridge swayed before him, aged prayer flags clinging to the ropes like forgotten hopes. One bore the Ajna symbol that burned on his forehead the night before — two petals and an inverted triangle, now faintly pulsing beneath his skin.
Aarav gripped the rope and stepped forward.
---
📜 The First Trial Scroll — Page Two
Later, beside a fire he barely managed to start with wet twigs and sheer will, the scroll came alive again.
The air shifted.
The parchment unfurled itself like it remembered its purpose.
A line appeared, glowing red:
"Muladhara is bound by the First Fear — the wound that birthed your survival instinct. To awaken it, you must return to the place of your breaking."
He didn't want to.
But the scroll had no mercy. His Ajna chakra pulsed once, and the memory poured back like blood from an old wound.
He saw a small cave entrance, half-covered by vines. He saw a boy no older than seven screaming for help as the earth closed behind him. A red-robed figure stood unmoved at the mouth of the cave, whispering prayers to gods that had turned their backs.
The boy was him.
And the cave still waited.
---
🧹 Return to the Wound
Aarav found it before noon. Tucked into the belly of the canyon wall, behind a fallen banyan and a curtain of thorns, the cave looked smaller than he remembered. But its presence was heavy. The very earth seemed to hold its breath around it.
He stood at the entrance and waited.
He listened.
The wind fell silent.
Then he stepped inside.
Darkness swallowed him whole.
No torch, no flame. Only instinct. He crawled through the narrow tunnel, guided by breath and memory. The path led downward, deeper than it should have. The air turned colder with each footstep.
And then it opened.
A wide chamber, smooth stone walls, bones scattered like old offerings. The air pulsed.
And then — whispers.
His own voice.
"I'm scared. Please don't leave me."
"Why did they put me here?"
"Am I cursed?"
Then a second voice.
Deeper. Older. Familiar.
"You should have died that day."
A figure stepped out from the shadows. It looked like him. A boy no more than seven. But twisted.
The eyes were hollow. The mouth curved in a cruel smile. And on its forehead, the Ajna symbol pulsed black smoke.
---
⚔️ Shadow Duel
"You left me here," the shadow said. "You survived, but you didn't face what broke you."
Aarav tried to speak, but the air was thick with memory.
"You forgot me," it hissed. "But I remember everything. The cold. The darkness. The hunger. The silence."
Then it charged.
Aarav braced himself. He closed his eyes, not to shut it out, but to look within.
Breathe in fear. Breathe out fire.
He focused. His breath slowed. And then it came — from the base of his spine. A slow burn. A red glow that traveled upward like a rising flame.
Muladhara Chakra: Igniting.
Status: Bound by Trauma. Unlocking Initiated...
He opened his eyes and met the shadow's charge head-on.
He didn't strike with fists.
He struck with memory.
With the truth.
His palm glowed red, sigils forming in the air before him. As he touched the shadow, it screamed — not in pain, but in release...
The shadow gasped.
Then smiled.
"Finally," it whispered, fading like smoke. "You remember."
---
🧘️ Muladhara: Awakened
The chamber trembled.
Aarav dropped to his knees. His breath was ragged, but something inside him felt… rooted. Anchored.
A dull red glow pulsed from beneath the floor. It didn't burn. It didn't scream. It simply was
Muladhara Chakra: Unlocked.
The scroll pulsed once in his satchel. He didn't need to check it. He could feel the next page waiting.
Above him, the cave roof shimmered. A single drop of water fell onto his forehead, landing directly on the Ajna symbol.
It hissed. Then cooled.
Aarav stood.
He was no longer just a boy cursed to die.
He was a seeker.
And the path to the second gate had already begun to open.
Chapter 3 ends .