Sharath Virayan Darsha was a master of what other actors and spies can only fantasize about: a perfect double life.
During the day, he was the epitome of dumb babyhood—wide eyes glinting like freshly polished obsidian balls, cheeks that should have had their own zip code, and a gurgling laugh that could melt the grumpiest court tax collector into a pool of cooing goo.
He used charm with military exactness:
The Drool Offensive – a spontaneous glint on the lip during a meeting with a noble.
The Tumble Gambit – a well-timed stumble into a duchess's silk skirt, rewarded with an immediate scoop-up and forehead kiss.
The Long Blink – a slow, prolonged eye-close that left witnesses swearing they'd just felt divine peace.
Bards traveling to House Darsha have been known to spontaneously burst out in poetry about him. One, with wine-fueled inspiration, went so far as to proclaim:"There is destiny in his eyelashes!"
Sharath put that under unverified but good for later.
The Baby's Real ScheduleAs soon as night fell and the adults believed their little treasure was fast asleep in dreamland, the mask was removed.
[🐧 PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS: INFANT DENIABILITY SCORE – 94%. MINIMIZED SUSPICIOUS BEHAVIOR DETECTED.]
In the soft, golden light of magic candles, he started what he referred to in private as "Night School, Extreme Edition."
He sat up in his crib, wrapped in a aura of scholarly resolve. To the untrained eye, it appeared to be a baby merely rehearsing how to babble. In fact, he was perfecting his magical linguistics. Every babble of nonsense contained syllables of arcane runic language, coated in innocent baby inflection like an evil spell disguised in a lullaby.
The First Magic Word"Runatha," he whispered one evening, lips shaping the syllables both prayer and code.
Definition: to see and know.
[🐧 **SUPERB PRONUNCIATION. ENCHANTING INFLECTION ASSESSED. RUNATHA = 'KNOW BY SEEING.']
The runes whispered back faintly, threads of luminescence looping through space as if the room itself comprehended him.
He gave himself a small smile. The word didn't merely explain viewing—it induced it. If wielded well, it might allow him to see truths concealed in magic, levels of reality others were not aware of.
To everyone else, it was the kind of babble an infant would utter after biting on a blanket edge.
Close Call with the NursemaidIt was during one of these silent practice exercises that trouble waddled in.
A nursemaid hesitated at his nursery door, carrying a tray of hot milk. "Milady," she breathed to someone down the corridor, "I believe… he recognizes words. He stirs only when he is addressed by specific words."
Sharath was stuck halfway through a syllable.
"He recognizes the word runatha," said the nursemaid, suspicious eyes glinting.
[🐧 ALERT: LINGUISTIC TRAP. SHE'S ASSESSING VOCABULARY RECOGNITION.]
Sharath's engineer mind whirled into crisis mode. He simply couldn't risk blowing his cover now. His brain shouted act natural—which, for a baby, equated to act helpless.
He yawned slowly, perfectly in time.And another.
Two slow blinks, like a sleepy kitten.
[🐧 **CAMOUFLAGE EXCELLENT. SUSPICION LEVEL: REDUCED TO 'AWW' MODE.**
And sure enough, the nursemaid's suspicion dissolved into a warm sigh. "Poor dear, just tired.
She tip-toed away. Crisis averted. His first magic word was secure, stored safely in NeuroBoop's encrypted files where no snoop from the Middle Ages could find it.
Gossip in the HallsRumors did, however, have a tendency to sneak along castle hallways like lazy cats. Whispers passed from servant to servant:
"Have you seen him turn toward certain words?""He keeps tabs on complicated phrases.""I swear, that baby listens more than my husband during tax season."
One maid, more theatric than the rest, grumbled, "He's unnatural."
Sharath didn't mind. In his experience, "unnatural" simply meant "beyond your pay grade."
Counterintelligence Mode[🐧 COUNTERINTELLIGENCE MODE: ACTIVATING PLAUSIBLE BABY BEHAVIOR MODULE. RANDOMIZING RESPONSES.]
After that night, Sharath launched the charm offensive. If a servant made a suspicious remark, he'd counter with accurate drooling, a timed-too-loose giggle, or an intense interest in his own toes.
The plan was to cover genius with a landslide of cute unpredictability. Keep them so preoccupied pinching his cheeks, they never would have seen the high-order arcane math taking place behind those cheeks.
The Scholar's HungerHis understanding of runic syntax by now was surpassing the typical first-year magician. He'd already broken down three root scripts into categories, learned how to straddle modifiers for compounding effects, and even postulated a "debugging spell" for broken enchantments.
But each evening presented more questions:
If runes were code, could he write new ones no one had ever seen?
Could he "hack" magical wards the way a sysadmin worked around firewalls?
And most of all, could he do it without spilling milk on himself?
[🐧 NOTE: TRY EXPERIMENTING WITH MILK-RESISTANT WARDING CLOTHES. POOtENTIAL PATENT OPPORTUNITY.]
The Actor and the EngineerSharath was aware that the game he played was risky. One misdirected look, one misplaced response, and someone would haul him off to the Royal Magical Academy for "research" (translation: poking and prodding him until he wept).
Therefore, he mastered his "dual-boot" life:
Day Mode – Innocent, cute, slightly hapless.
Night Mode – Concentrated, ambitious, soaking up magical information like a sponge dosed with Red Bull.
Other times, he nearly burst out laughing considering it. In his days as a software engineer, "dual-boot" referred to changing between Windows and Linux. Nowadays, it referred to changing between "goo-goo-ga-ga" and "arcane scholar working on optimizing medieval magic."
Late-Night NotesHis crib was now a clandestine computer setup. Notebooks were out of the question—he couldn't precisely be found with a quill in his hand—so he kept it all in memory. NeuroBoop acted as both search engine and encrypted cloud storage.
[🐧 **MEMORY BACKUP COMPLETE. ENCRYPTION: BABY-PROOF + WORLD-CLASS CYBERSECURITY.]
As he finally fell asleep at night, it was with an odd, satisfying strain in his mind—the sense of a man leading two lives in tandem, each nourishing the other.
Baby by day.Scholar by night.
And nobody knew.