The morning of the festival, Makriva woke Viriya up to get ready. Then he left to get their luggage after talking to Maam Khanti.
On the way, in the market, he noticed a familiar face in a shop. It was the man from the couple who had come to Upavana — the one involved in the Voodoo healing of Viriya.
He went to talk with him.
At first it was normal.
At the end, the man was yelling at Makriva, among others there. Makriva left that shop with bitter ears.
Then he went to the old building they had settled in on the first day. He got their bags, exchanged words with the building owner, and left for Upavana.
After keeping the luggage in their room, he went to Maam Khanti to talk.
She was talking with some sages and guards. After waiting a bit for them to leave,
Makriva asked her, "Did you know that man was a disgusting person?"
"Which man?" Maam asked calmly.
"The man from the couple who came yesterday.
Voodoo healing." Makriva replied.
"Did you meet him?
What happened?" Maam asked.
"After I saw him in a stall, I went to talk with him.
At first he was so sweet. But when I talked about the healing — without even mentioning Voodoo — he went off on me." Makriva said while pacing around the room.
Maam, trying to calm Makriva down, said,
"Hm, yes. Try not to think about it too much.
Your energy loss at the end of the day. Did he told something specific?"
"Not really.
Just — just, nothing.
Don't even talk about it."
After seeing Makriva didn't say anything for a while, Maam said,
"Ok, I do have a big responsibility for you. Kind of festival related, but not really."
After a few moments he asked,
"Hm, sure. What do I do?"
"You have to stay with Viriya."
"With Viriya? Ok, but what about other work, Maam?"
"Not much work today.
And you are not only staying with her — you have to observe her."
"Ok... but why? I can stay with her, but what do I observe?"
"Not much to observe most of the time. Just try to convince her to participate in Angati. It will clear our doubts about her identity."
Makriva, looking at her eyes, said, "Why not inform her first then?
Isn't this deception towards Viriya?"
"Yes, we could do that. But after knowing what she might see in there, she may not want to participate.
Also, you will go first, so a confirmation from you as well."
Makriva didn't say anything — he just looked at the ground.
"You don't have to. See what happens when you participate, then you can decide."
Hearing that, he said, "Sure," and left the room.
___
Viriya wasn't in the room they were staying, so Makriva came outside the buildings. After a while of searching, he saw Viriya sitting by herself.
Seeing that, Makriva calmed himself down and slowly went towards Viriya and sat beside her. She was observing the Praghava tree.
After staying silent for a while, Makriva asked in a low voice, "Did you remember anything?"
"Ahh!" Viriya was startled hearing that, "What? What?"
"Did you remember anything?" Makriva asked again with a slight smile.
"Remember? No, don't." Viriya replied.
She then said, "Don't scare."
While talking to her, Makriva noticed what was most probably rice paste on Viriya's cloth. He pointed at the capelet and asked, "What happened?"
Viriya looked at it, thought for a bit, and said, "Help someone. Then." Viriya replied.
"You free now?" Viriya asked.
"Not really."
"Then why you here?" Viriya continued asking.
"What do you mean why I am here? Is staying with you any less of a task?" Makriva replied smiling.
Viriya looked at Makriva dumbfounded.
"Maam Khanti told me to stay with you today." Makriva said, seeing Viriya's expression.
"Hmm, ok." Viriya replied.
Viriya asked about the tree. Makriva replied with basic, observable information,
while thinking, And I have to make you participate in it apparently....
"Do you know, many sages come here from far away?" Makriva asked.
Viriya looked at him and said blankly, "How can I?"
"Yes, memory loss, my bad." Makriva replied.
Viriya mumbled something in Hindi, "... memory..."
Makriva didn't ask anything about it.
They sat there and talked casually — about language, about others — till almost evening.
___
Going up the stairs, Viriya said, "Aunty warned about it," pointing at the capelet on her hand.
"Aunty?
Oh, got it. What did she warn you about?" Makriva asked.
"It will be uncomfortable inside a crowd.
That didn't exactly happen, but it got dirty." Viriya replied.
"Hmm, you didn't had to go again to help, you know. Other people were already there to help. That made it dirtier." Makriva replied.
"Ehh, whatever. Bored, sitting there." Viriya replied.
They reached the second floor. After waiting on the bridge for a while, Kavith came out of a building.
"Designer! Viriya got your clothes dirty." Makriva said to Kavith before Viriya could utter a single word.
"You did what?
...
Well, just give it back.
What happened?"
"It's some paste, when I was..."
Makriva tuned out of the conversation thinking,
It's almost evening, I have to convince her.
But how? Lie? Should I?
What if that's...
"THANKS FOR LETTING ME BORROW IT." The yelling of Viriya snapped Makriva out of the daze.
"Wha—" before he could ask about it, he heard Kavith yelling,
"NO PROBLEM, BUT DON'T DIRTY IT NEXT TIME."
"Wha—" before he could ask again, he heard another male voice yelling,
"KAVITH, NOT AGAIN."
Makriva stood there silently thinking, "Is anyone else left to scream?"
After a few beats he asked, "What was that?"
"Thanking aunty, help reason?" Viriya said to Makriva like it was an obvious way of thanking anyone.
"Well, whatever.
Want to go towards the centre of the bridge to see the tree up close?" Makriva asked.
The tree had split into eight parts this year, which maybe had never happened before, but that couldn't be said for sure.
After going near the tree and waiting for a while, Makriva asked,
"I will participate now, do you want to?"
"Participate? What need do?
They emotional there, should I?" Viriya asked.
Makriva thought about what he should do. Do I have to convince her?
"You can choose, no pressure. If you want, you can come with me. Or just wait here." Makriva replied thinking, If she participates, then ok. I am not forcing her.
When Makriva was going down, Viriya started to follow him.
Will she participate? Should I participate? A contradicting storm was going on inside his mind.
After reaching the bottom stair of the water body, he looked back at Viriya. She was waiting a few steps up.
He mumbled, "Dad, no dita this year as well."
Pomegranate was the closest thing to dita he could find on earth, which was his dad's favourite.
He took some rice paste with pomegranate seeds.
Viriya asked, "What white paste? And that pomegranate?"
Makriva replied, "It's rice paste, and yes, it's pomegranate. I will be quiet for a while, you wait."
He pointed his hand towards the water and mumbled, "Hey, great palm, source of this great tree, help me feed my da—
—ahm, past ones."
A wet wooden branch wrapped around his palms.
___
After a bit, Makriva heard the sound of a harmonica. He opened his eyes. He was in a coral jasmine maze and some paths were sealed off by lotus stems.
Makriva, without any expression, went towards the sound. A man without any facial features was playing a harmonica, looking downwards at someone. Makriva didn't make a sound, he just went and sat where the man was looking.
The tune was joyful, but sadness was mixed inside.
He almost, almost forgot the situation about Viriya.
It was like a river of happiness was flowing through his whole body.
He sat there knowing it would end soon. He had experienced it multiple times — every time the same, every time it ends.
With this massive amount of joy he could make himself smile.
After a while the man stopped playing and said, "Son, you keep this," while pointing his harmonica down and forward.
Makriva extended both of his hands to catch it. His father dropped it. And it went through Makriva's hands. As it stopped mid air after being dropped, it vanished into thin air.
Makriva stood up and left that area.
"Maybe again next year, dad?"
That man sat on nothing and gave no response.
Makriva moved forward slowly thinking, "The front path is blocked, so if Viriya is here then at the back side?"
Thinking this, he started to go back through the maze. While walking, he reached the start of the maze but found no one.
Seeing that, he was relieved. He finally smiled after not finding Viriya there.
Then he thought to go and sit near his dad until he got pulled out of the vision.
On the way there, his vision blurred and he thought, "Well, need to cover a bit less path next time."
Makriva felt the branch retracting. He opened his eyes, looked back at Viriya and said,
"Viriya,"
No one said anything for a while.
"Viriya, will you do it?"
Viriya asked, "What happened now?"
Makriva said, "I saw many close ones, but not you, Viriya."
Makriva asked again, "Viriya, will you?"
Makriva was insisting because he was sure that Viriya wasn't dead.
Viriya nodded slightly.
Seeing Viriya agree, Makriva explained what to do and when at the ritual.
After the ritual started, Viriya was calm for a long time, then her face contorted. Makriva seeing that was a bit worried.
Then it became calm, too calm, unnaturally calm.
Makriva watching that was more worried, thinking about what she might be witnessing. He was still sure that that person was Viriya.
Viriya slowly opened her eyes with a confused expression.
Standing still for a moment, she looked at Makriva with a wide smile.
Makriva was looking at Viriya, thinking about what she would say.
Viriya said with the smile, "Makriva, teach me thing, forgot everything right?"
"Is — is it really you then? Did you remember everything? Or just somehow understood? That you — you are Viriya?" Makriva thought when Viriya said that.
"Let's went second floor. Or anywhere." Viriya said smiling.
"Yes, you are Viriya. No one else." Makriva almost convinced himself that she was Viriya.
With a little confused state, he led the way for Viriya.
They talked somewhat on their way. While going up the stairs, Makriva asked Viriya if she wanted to go outside to see how the place looked from outside.
The whole place was on higher grounds. At the bottom there were two paths which were inside a forest.
After talking a bit there, he noticed a jolt of force push Viriya a little.
"Guard? Or something else? What happened?" Makriva thought, seeing Viriya getting pushed back.
Viriya asked if they should go in and check what happened. Makriva instinctively denied the request.
After a while, someone came from inside. He asked that person, "What happened?"
That person replied, "Like the eight buds — flowers there on the tree. Like a Katayantra tried stealing it."
"Katayantra? Did it succeed or..?" Makriva asked again.
"No, I think like the guards took it down. After like it cut down like a flower." The person replied.
"Ok, are you leaving this place or?" Makriva asked the person.
"Like, don't know, maybe." That person replied.
Makriva nodded at him and came back to Viriya thinking, "The Katayantra is taken down by the guards, and if there are more, the guards are more active now."
They finally decided to go inside, Viriya behind him. The Katayantra was dropped face down near the water body, swimming in a pool of blood, and near it the white flower, filled with blood between its open petals. The blood was dripping from the top — the damaged branch.
He answered some questions about it to Viriya.
Maam Khanti and some others came and tried healing the branch.
Later they went up to the second floor and asked Maam what happened. Maam explained to Makriva and Makriva explained the context to Viriya.
During that, Viriya introduced herself as Viriya to Maam. She looked at Viriya a little strangely but seemed to accept it.
Then they came back to their room, intending to sleep early. They ate. He opened up his braid, did Viriya's braids, and told her to sleep. He intended to sleep early as well.
Viriya went outside for a while and came back with a luggage filled with Designer's clothes.
Viriya went to sleep after that, and shortly after, he did too.
______
When Makriva woke up in the morning, the room was filled with a fragrance and metallic smell of blood. He didn't think much of it and came outside and saw Maam Khanti sitting outside.
Makriva asked, "Did anything happen?"
"Look at Viriya's hand." Maam replied.
"Hm, what?" Makriva asked in a sleepy voice.
While going back to the room, Maam said, "At night she went to the water body. When she reached for it, guards tried to stop her but she took it before they could."
Inside he saw, in Viriya's left hand, a bloomed Praghava flower with red spots on the outer layer.