College Concert Grounds - Moments Later
Cheers echoed across the wide-open college lawns as the audience chanted Mihir's name, still high from the electrifying duet between MK and Maira Sharma. Colored lights flashed, smoke machines hissed, and the music pulsed like a living heartbeat.
But far above, the skies began to shift.
The air thickened.
Unseen by the screaming crowd, on the rooftop of the abandoned auditorium building overlooking the venue, Ruby stood tall, her arms outstretched, black smoke spiraling around her ankles.
She inhaled sharply-then spat.
From her mouth erupted a stream of flaming daayan fire, sizzling red and cursed black, arcing high over the edge and crashing down toward the center of the lawn.
Beside her, Sunehri whispered a wind incantation and then unleashed a gust from her mouth, sharp and violent as a cyclone, slicing through the barricades, flipping lights, tearing through banners like paper.
Below, the festivities turned to confusion.
A spotlight exploded with a bang.
The large LED display fizzled and sparked.
The fireball crashed into the side of the open lawn, flames licking up toward the sound tower as screams broke out from the back rows. Within seconds, the swirling wind scattered the equipment like toys-tables flipped, chairs clattered, people stumbled.
On Stage
Mihir stopped strumming mid-verse, eyes narrowing. Maira instinctively stepped back from the mic, the sudden heat brushing her cheek.
"What the hell-?" Mihir murmured, shielding his eyes as the flames lit up the horizon.
Panic surged through the audience. Students began running, shoving, tripping over each other.
Savi grabbed Teju's arm. "Teju! It's a fire!"
Teju stood frozen. The storm... the heat... they weren't natural.
They were calling something ancient inside her.
She didn't know why... but her blood felt like it had started to boil.
Maira turned sharply toward the burning edge of the field, her eyes darting between the chaos and Mihir. But Mihir was no longer looking at the flames-he was staring into the sky.
And what he saw made his jaw clench.
Two women.
Figures floating above the chaos. Their long black hair waving like serpents. Eyes glowing. One flaming, the other wind-wreathed.
Daayans.
And one of them-Ruby-locked her gaze straight onto Teju in the crowd.
The wind howled like a cursed hymn, and flames danced wild through the grass and tents, swallowing the festive lights one by one. Screams rose like a tide as the crowd scattered in all directions, tripping over cables, chairs, and each other.
From the stage, Maira's eyes followed Mihir's line of vision-upward. Through the spiraling smoke, she saw them: two figures floating like vengeful goddesses of destruction. One cloaked in flame, the other in smoke-laced wind.
Ruby.
Her features were obscured by the flickering firelight, her silhouette menacing, swathed in glowing embers and smoke.
Beside her, Sunehri's wild hair whipped around her face like storm-laced serpents as she conjured another wave of destruction.
Meanwhile, Sahir moved swiftly through the crowd, guiding Moti Baa, Uma, Akhil, and Sapna toward the emergency corridor. "Stay together-move fast!" he barked, shielding them as falling debris clipped the path behind them.
Across the chaos, Savi gripped Teju's wrist. "We need to go-now!"
"I can't!" Teju shouted, breaking away. She sprinted toward a cluster of frightened juniors, crouching to shield an injured girl. Her medical instincts blazed through her panic-torn fabric became makeshift bandages, and her hands trembled not from fear, but urgency.
Up on stage, Mihir's eyes scanned the destruction-until they landed on a small child, huddled near a collapsed speaker tower, paralyzed by fear.
And then-
A creaking shriek.
A flaming steel pole overhead began to tip forward-its weight tearing through the weakened support beams.
No time.
Mihir vanished in a blur, a gust of wind swirling in his place.
One blink later, he was there-scooping the child up, rolling them both away as the pole crashed down, a second too late to claim a life.
Gasps filled the air.
Even Maira, frozen at the side of the stage, watched in stunned silence.
He saved him...
But there was no time to process the shock. From above, Sunehri let loose a black cyclone-sharp, swirling wind streaked with daayanic power-hurtling down toward-
Teju.
Teju didn't notice the cracking pillar behind her, already split from its foundation and now tipping dangerously in her direction.
She doesn't see it!
Maira broke into a sprint.
"Move!" she screamed.
Teju turned-too late.
Maira lunged, yanking her out of the way. The pillar slammed down behind them with a deafening BOOM, sending dust and shards of stone flying.
They fell-hard-against the scorched grass. For a moment, silence wrapped around them like a bubble.
Their eyes met.
Hands still clasped tightly.
Strangers.
And yet something echoed-deep, ancient, unspoken-between them. Not recognition, but resonance.
Teju gasped, winded. "You... you saved me..."
Maira, equally shaken, nodded once, her grip steady. "Are you hurt?"
"No," Teju said softly, still stunned. "I don't think so."
The sky roared above them-another wave of daayan energy crashing into the earth.
They scrambled to their feet.
Still holding hands.
Still strangers.
But no longer disconnected.
Concert Grounds - Chaos Unleashed
The grounds were ablaze in sound and smoke. Panic ran wild through the air as students and guests scattered like ants, dodging the raging fire and falling debris. But above it all, two daayans hovered in fury.
Ruby's eyes burned molten gold, her hair blazing behind her like a comet's trail. Beside her, Sunehri's smirk twisted into a sneer, her silver-black aura curling outward, eyes locked on Teju again.
"She saved her," Ruby hissed, eyes now narrowing on Maira. "That... girl... saved Bishwa."
Sunehri blinked. "But who is she? She isn't part of Mohana's vision..."
Ruby's fists ignited. "I don't care. Whoever she is-she interfered. And for that, they both die."
With a howl of rage, Ruby raised her arms, conjuring a spiral of burning fireballs, red as vengeance and hot as hell. They spun above her head like a blazing crown, then rained downward, dozens at once, streaking toward the ground like divine punishment.
On the lawn, Teju looked up, horror widening her eyes. "They're coming straight for us!"
Maira turned, instincts snapping to life. "Get down!" she shouted, pulling Teju close, shielding her with her body.
But even as she did, she knew-this wasn't going to be enough.
The fireballs shrieked closer-
Until, from opposite ends of the blazing field, two blasts of magic collided with fate.
From the left, a brilliant surge of silver light split the air, runes igniting in the wind. Sahir, standing tall, hand outstretched, summoned a barrier of glowing light and air, stopping several fireballs mid-flight and turning them into harmless spark showers.
From the right, a crimson streak blazed like lightning. Mihir, eyes burning red and palm out, summoned a crackling crimson wave that hardened into a dark obsidian dome, catching the remaining fireballs with a deep, vibrating pulse that shook the earth.
The ground trembled-and the attack dissolved into glittering embers.
Teju gasped, clutching her chest as the light faded.
But she hadn't seen who had saved them-her gaze was lost in the chaos, shielded by smoke and dust.
Maira, however, had seen everything. She stared-frozen-at both men. Sahir's glow dimmed as he lowered his hand. Mihir's jaw was tense, his face unreadable, crimson aura retreating like flames pulled back into embers.
Above, Ruby's eyes narrowed.
"Impossible," she seethed. "They reacted... both of them. To the stranger and Bishwa's danger."
Sunehri's voice trembled with unease. "They shouldn't have felt that... it's beginning, Ruby. The link. Maybe even they don't know it yet."
Ruby's mouth curled. "Then we end it before it fully awakens."
But below, unaware of their own significance, Teju and Maira looked at each other again-a silent understanding passing between strangers who'd just nearly died for each other.
And a storm-far deeper than wind and fire-was beginning to stir.
Concert Grounds - Just After the Rescue
Ash floated down like black snow. The embers crackled faintly, swallowed slowly by the scorched earth. But for a moment, the world stood still.
Then came footsteps.
Fast. Urgent. Determined.
Sahir darted through the settling smoke, eyes scanning-heart pounding. He spotted Teju, still frozen in place, dust clinging to her hair, her hand clutching her chest.
Without thinking, he reached her.
"Teju!"
Her wide eyes met his-relief flooding them just as her knees buckled.
But before she could fall, Sahir caught her, pulling her swiftly against him. His arms wrapped around her instinctively, shielding her again-this time not from magic, but from the aftershock.
"You're safe now," he whispered, almost to himself.
She looked up at him, dazed. "You..."
"I saw the fireballs coming," he said softly, avoiding her gaze. "I just reacted."
She didn't know what to say.
And then-
From the other end of the ruined lawn, Mihir stormed forward like a dark shadow with a mission. His eyes locked on Maira, who still stood breathless, staring at the sky where Ruby had vanished behind a curtain of smoke.
But she didn't see him until he was inches away.
"You could've been burnt alive," Mihir snapped, grabbing her wrist.
Maira turned, startled-too stunned to argue.
And then she gasped as he pulled her sharply to him, one arm wrapping around her waist in a possessive grip that almost felt... protective.
"What were you thinking?" he growled, his voice low but rattling with tension. "Running into fire like that?"
Maira's lips parted, still breathless. "I didn't think... She was in danger."
Mihir's jaw clenched.
He didn't let go.
And neither did Sahir.
The crowd had mostly dispersed. Security was rushing in. But in the center of the chaos, four souls stood-entwined by something deeper than magic.
One pair held together by a forgotten past.
Another, by a fate not yet revealed.
Above, behind a veil of fading firelight, the daayans vanished into the night-but their final words echoed in the wind:
"Now we know their weakness... Now we wait for the strike."