"Tyrell, will you stop devouring and start spilling?" whispered Leena, dramatically, squaring her shoulders.

"What, let me eat first," he said, wiping a drop of milk dripping from the corner of his lips.

As soon as Tyrell returned from police station and showed himself in Pruthvi's room, our stones began to burn giving an honest opportunity for Tyrell to make a delay. He was exhausted with all the possible hassle he has gone through all night and we had to accept his insist to talk while having breakfast. We were hungry too but we were craving for the story, not to fill our stomachs.

Two slices of bread and I was done. I checked on Pruthvi and Leena, sitting right across me and watching Tyrell with their utmost curious eyes. They haven't even started eating. But our dear friend, sitting next to me, was doing his best to take a hell lot of time to reveal his late night deeds. It was getting unbearable to stand the suspense any longer.

"You are such a jerk," said Pruthvi, irritably, "We partially escaped from having a cardiac arrest and look at you, not having even a pinch of notion to talk to us about it."

"Alright, alright," he said, finally taking a sip of water, "I was stuck in jail."

"We know that," said I, Pruthvi and Leena in unison.

"Man, when you guys are angry, you are actually trippin'," he commented, watching us intently.

"You bet we are trippin'," I said, leaning forward, "What the hell happened to you? Why did you sneak out?"   

"Hayden, may be the better question is," said Pruthvi, lifting a finger, "How the hell did he break Doctor's seal?"

"I did not break any seal," he replied and sighed softly before he said, "I don't remember how I landed in jail."

"What?" asked Leena aghast, as I and Pruthvi frowned in confusion.

"I don't remember, I swear.."

"What does that even mean?"

"Okay, what part of English you don't understand? I seriously don't remember," Tyrell snapped impolitely at Leena.

She folded her hands and sat back, her face twitched trying to suppress her anger.

"How can you not remember walking out of the academy?" I asked.

"You are joking right?" Pruthvi asked, "You are toying with us."

"I am not," he said, "I seriously..."

"Is this about Celina?" Leena asked making our heads turn towards her.

Tyrell stiffened. That was one sensitive topic for him. Whenever we brought up anything about Celina, Tyrell maintained a strained silence, as if he wasn't interested to talk about her. We couldn't quite get if he was angry on her for refusing to visit academy or if he was really missing her so much that was leading him to misery he was so trying to hide.

"No," he said quietly through his gritted teeth.

"Do you want to talk to Celina first?" Pruthvi asked, "Look, if you do, we understand."

I glared at him, opposing his idea. I myself wanted to know before anyone else did.

"Okay, guys," I said, before Tyrell did, "She doesn't have to know anything about this. Leave Celina alone."

"Hayden, its Celina."

"Celina is not..."

"WILL YOU STOP CHANTING THE C-WORD," shouted Tyrell stunning us, also managing a few other heads immediately turn towards us, "I AM SICK OF YOU GUYS ASKING ME QUESTIONS. FIRST IT WAS DOCTOR AND NOW THE THREE OF YOU. YOU ARE JUST HACKING ME OFF."

He gave us a stern look, pushed his chair behind and walked out the lobby without looking back at us

"What is up with him?" said Pruthvi, watching him stomping all down the corridor.

I rubbed the back of my neck feeling a little odd. I have never seen Tyrell like that before. His face totally infuriated, his voice so high, never ever he has talked to me with that tone since I joined the academy.  I looked up involuntarily. I didn't notice it before, but Doctor and Ira weren't present with us for the breakfast. Their non presence was overpowering my curiosity.

I, Pruthvi and Leena decided to leave Tyrell alone for a while. For some reasons he was angry, may or may not be about Celina. But it was Tyrell, we were sure he would come around sometime. Plus, we made up our minds with the fact that atleast he came back from jail safe and sound.

Three of us were standing in the training room for today's session, extremely pumped up. It was only the day before doctor had informed us that he was going to make a bigger announcement today. As Celina was not our training guide anymore, Doctor took over her place, himself training us without passing the job to anyone of us as we had expected. For past six months, we never even won a single fight against him. He was extremely good with his mixed formation techniques. He didn't even have to utter a word to throw an attack upon us. I was glad my stone was a cornelian but I wondered what it would be to be a master of a diamond, the stone of Chandrika.

"I wish he finally decides to go for the job to find my sister," said Pruthvi, cleaning his glasses and putting them back on.

"Not again, Pruthvi," said Leena, "Doctor asked you to be patient."

For almost everyday Pruthvi has been waiting for the day when Doctor comes up and finally takes him for the job he was promised. This time Pruthvi was positive, that now that Doctor has decided to accompany him, they would surely come back only after finding his sister, unlike the last time.

"I am being patient," he said, shrugging, "and I have been patient for the past six months. May be if I find a swing bed and pretend to be a real patient, you will understand how much of a patient I am being."

Leena shook her head, unable to answer him.

"I think he is going to tell something about Tyrell and what had happened to him last night," I said. I was surprised finding my own mind still lingered upon Tyrell. There was something going on with him that I so wanted to know about.

"Hayden," Pruthvi said, vexed, "we decided not to bother about him anymore because he decided to ditch us."

"He did not ditch us," Leena said, backing me, "he is just missing Celina and I can see it...clearly"

"Really?" said her boyfriend, wrapping his hand around her shoulder, "What else can your eyes do, you know, except watching the love birds brood and curing a deadly disease?"

"Can it!"

I chuckled.

From the corner of my eye, I noticed Tyrell walking inside the training making three of us stop our conversation. He has freshened himself up, now looking neat and tidy, wearing black pants, green shirt and a green cap on.

"I am sorry," he said as he came over and stood facing the three of us.

"You don't have to be sorry," said Leena, "But may be you owe us something."

He averted his eyes, probably trying to push away his hesitation.

"Tyrell, whatever it is, just to tell us," I said, trying to force things out of him. "We are not going to judge you."

He licked his upper lip and inhaled a deep breath. "Did you believe me when I told you I don't remember anything?"

"No, of course not," I said, as Pruthvi clicked her tongue, "There is something more to it, isn't there?"

"Look guys, it's hard to believe but I seriously don't remember and that's what I told Doctor. Only thing I remember from last night is entering into my room and the next moment someone was trying to wake me up. When I woke up I found myself lying in the middle of a muddy road somewhere is the Bay Plain county..."

"In the middle of the road?" Pruthvi interrupted, being as bewildered as I was, "How did you get there?"

"That is the part I don't know. I was so shocked that I didn't even realize when cops had taken me to the police station for an interrogation."

"Did they give you a hard time?" asked Leena.

"Of course they did. They thought I was drunk and a nomad.  They started asking about me, who my parents were, where I was from, my address and what not. I did not understand what to say to them."

"Then what did you do?" Pruthvi asked totally immersed.

"I simply told them I needed to talk to my lawyer. Taking that opportunity I contacted you first but when you didn't wake up I contacted Hayden for help."

I swallowed. Even though his way of speech seemed very honest, I was still finding it hard to believe in him. How in the world he couldn't remember?

"What about doctor?" I asked, "What did he do? Did my uncle Ryan come and get you a bail?"

"Your uncle was nowhere in the scene," he said, "I guess Doctor managed well to stop him from showing in the station."

"Then how did you get out?"

He glanced back at Doctor's cabin door. Finding it still closed, he walked a little bit closer and said in a very low voice, "It was Ira. She did some magic. I saw her doing it. She did something that police completely forgot everything about me and they acted as if they never saw me before."

My eyebrows rose to my hairline watching Pruthvi and Leena shared a nervous glance.

"You mean she erased their memories?" I asked, feeling uncertain if she could do that.

"Yes," Tyrell answered, "Watching them acting weird it seemed to me so."

"May be in process, you lost your memories too," suggested Pruthvi, trying not to be sarcastic.

"I don't know," he said, seriously, "but I am sure I wasn't affected by her magic."

An indistinctive conversations silenced us. Four of our head turned around to find all the other remaining Samagraha, the Breaking Samagraha entering inside the training room. Their daily training session was after the lunch. We wondered why they were joining us at this time today.

I allowed my mind to shift its focus. If Ira could erase someone's memories, why couldn't she do the same to the police who were searching for me? If she did that, I can easily walk out of the academy and meet my aunt. I was so sick of being in and around this academy all the time. I was given permission of going nowhere but to the lake beside the orphanage. Wait a second! What if she has done that already? I knew Doctor wanted to keep me safe, what if he was hiding this piece of information from me only to keep me inside round the clock?

At once the garage chain sound reverberated all around the training room and Doctor walked outside looking at eleven of us one by one. I observed he wasn't carrying his stick in his hands and that was what making him walk a little bit unsteadily.

"Is everybody here?" he said, placing his hands inside his pocket.

"Yes, Doctor," shouted Maahir, the noblest person, raising his hand.

"Before everything put," said Doctor smiling, "We need some space among us. So spread around the room, everyone. Spread yourselves."

Training room was huge and walls were made of mirrors, reflecting thousands of our own images. I watched each one of us walking backwards, creating ample amount of space between one another. I looked back if I was now standing at the end of the room but to my surprise there was still space for about twenty more people.

Tyrell was standing next to me, flipping his cap and wearing it backwards. Pruthvi and Leena positioned themselves in a line, right in front of me.

"Let's begin," said Doctor, increasing his voice, grabbing our total attention, "Today I am going to teach you something very important. I have taken my time watching everyone of you and the ways you are using your stones. I am highly impressed. Now that I believe you all are accomplished Samagraha, I don't want to wait any longer. It's time you know."

I and Tyrell glanced at each other, holding onto same unreadable expression. Leena turned back to have a look at Pruthvi who shrugged disappointingly that it wasn't going to be about his sister.

Doctor continued, "Let me ask you a direct question. Why are there only twelve Samagraha? Well, can anybody answer me?"

Tyrell, who had lived in the academy longer than any of us, shouted, "Because there are only twelve months."

"And what does it signify?" Doctor asked.

"Er...each Samagraha born in each month."

"That's right but I need it more precisely."

Tyrell couldn't answer. He shrunk his eyes and stared at him, probably racing his mind.

"Don't worry, I am here to teach. The reason there are only twelve Samagraha because there are only twelve Zodiac Constellias, each one of you possessing each Zodiac sign or as I call 'The Rashi'."

The silence in the training room was at once replaced by hushed whispers and murmurs. I glanced at Tyrell who immediately caught my eye and mouthed, "What the hell is he talking about?"

"Then what about your stone, Doctor?" Maahir asked, "You possess a stone too, right?"

Doctor paused for a second and I knew exactly what he was thinking about. Breaking Samagraha were still unaware about the real story behind the stones. Lady Chandrika, the first owner of the diamond, that is passed down from son to son and from daughter to daughter, was also the creator of the other twelve stones for her remaining twelve children. It came to my knowledge that Tanvir, the one who impersonated Doctor for six years has informed them that we were gifted and there could be many people in the world like us. Doctor has actually thought of it as a laugh riot but eventually he continued with Tanvir's story.

"Good question Maahir," he finally said, "We generally live in the false statement that there are only twelve Zodiac signs named: Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricornus, Aquarius and Pisces because we follow twelve month system. But in reality, there exists a thirteenth Zodiac sign,  called the Ophiuchus."

I remained motionless for a moment, my mind racing to something neither I, nor my friends have thought of it before. We all celebrate our birthdays on ninth of each month. But we have never come across Doctor celebrating his. I couldn't contain my curiosity and since I was standing at the end I raised my hand trying to grab Doctor's focus.

"Yes, Hayden?" Doctor asked.

"When do you celebrate your birthday?"

My friends glanced at me in surprise and then quickly turned their heads towards Doctor to hear his answer.

"Very ingenious," he commented smiling, "I do not have a specific day to call it my birthday. Some of the ancient people have told me that it might be around the months of Taurus or either August for the reasons better known to them but there are no proofs regarding it."

I was sure many more questions could be raised for the answer he had given, but before anyone could ask, he continued, standing straight and clasping his hands, "So here comes my main intention to tell you about this. We are the masters of Zodiacs Constellia and not the stones in particular."

I knitted my brow falling into deep confusion. I ducked my hand inside my pocket and took it out, my cornelian. As always, it twinkled, in a most mocking way.

"Doctor," said Pruthvi, in a louder voice, having his hand inside his pocket, "can you be a little bit specific? We are having a hard time understanding it."

"As you wish, Pruthvi," said Doctor smilingly and then shouted, "CONSTELLIA FORMATION!"

Booom!

There was a loud explosive blast, followed by a black puffy smoke, making each one of us startle. Then as I couldn't avert my eyes, I noticed a shadow of a humanly body forming within the smoke. Naomika and Donovan who were standing near Doctor, screamed stepping back from the thing that doctor created.

My mouth dropped and I involuntarily took a step behind. Few gasps and freaky shouts began to reverberate around the room. Within a few minutes as the smoke began to fade away, I had to blink twice to be certain of what I was seeing.

There was a man, standing tall, hands on his hips, his back faced at us. He was draped with only a single piece of cloth that revealed most of his muscular body with wide sloping shoulders. His long, red hair covered most of his neck. As my eyes slightly dropped, there was something crawling around his pelvic area covering his briefs. On watching carefully, I realized it was a snake, a giant size saffron colored, slithering around him and sharply hissing letting its forked tongue clearly visible.

"Good Morning, Naag," said Doctor brightly.

Naag, the emerged man slowly sat on his single knee and bow his down, "My master!"

"I need you to see something very special. Turn around and look at the new generation Samagraha chosen by your associates."

Naag immediately reacted as per his master's instructions. Turning around and standing up, he looked at us, one by one. Now was the chance I could study him properly. His face was almost covered with his mahogany beard, long neck, square chin, his nose slightly sharp and his eyes, as far as I can see, were in the color of bluish-steel of midwinter sky.

"These are just kids," he said in a gravelling voice, having a slight intimidating look on his face.

"Correction Naag. Very strong kids," said Doctor, still holding onto that smile, "That's why your associates did not take much time to choose them."

"Yes, my master," said Naag, "Only a fifty years."

Tyrell sniggered. 

"To everyone, did you understand what I  was telling you?" Doctor asked, taking a step forward to stand beside his Constellia. "I am his master and not of the stone."

"Yes Doctor," I heard only few of us answering him.

I sighed softly, my mind racing. So this is what he meant. We are master of something or someone, not just the stone. I am a Leo. I wondered how this person living inside my stone, giving me mocking stares looked like.

"Thirteen Constellia," continued Doctor, "Living in a separate world, which we usually name it as Parallel Universe. Naag, now you can leave now. I'll call you whenever I need you again."

"Master, I have a request," said Naag, "Before I go, can I meet with the Cornelian user?"

I blinked blankly. At first I failed to grasp what his request actually meant. But as soon as all the heads turned towards me I pleaded that whatever I heard wasn't right.

"Hayden!" shouted Doctor, "Please step forward."

My heart missed a beat. Tyrell chanced to look at me sideways with his eyebrows up. Pruthvi, being more excited than I was, encouraged me to go upfront.

As soon as I took a step, my legs began to shiver. There was a snake right in front of my eyes. Last time when I had encountered a snake, as Celina always teased me, I went nuts and I killed it. I wished this particular snake wouldn't create any ruckus for me to go nuts.

"Pleased to meet you," said Naag and I immediately grasped an edge in his tone, "Don't know why Singh was so headstrong to chose you. But I wish you all the best with him."

I gaped at him. Singh? Did he just say Singh?

His snake's hood rose up and stiffened on watching me. It slithered its tongue out and wagged its tail eerily.

"Naag," said Doctor, "Don't scare the kid, already. Now go back to your universe and alert everyone that their presence is required by their masters, especially to Singh. Tell him to behave properly."

There you go, he said it too.

"Your wish is my command, my master," he said bowing a little with a puff, he disappeared.

Silence fell for a while. Everyone was too stunned to speak a word.

"That was so cool," cried Ruchin suddenly. His sudden outburst made everyone come back to their senses. Murmurs began again. Leena turned around and she started whispering at Pruthvi, I was sure he wasn't able to understand a bit.

"Everyone quiet," shouted Doctor, flinging his hand, "Now listen to me carefully. Have you ever felt hungry whenever you use most of your energy? Have you ever felt you can't fight anymore? That is the time you use your Zodiac Constellia.  Each one of you possess an associate, a companion and you are its master. It helps you to move on with the fight or finish the task. In other words it is an extension of you. It can perform all the formations or break into anyone's mind just like yourselves but in a slight different way. Only how you command it, depends on you."

"Awesome!" muttered Pruthvi.

"Now, I want you to repeat the command after me. To Formation Samagraha, say Constellia Formation! And Breaking Samagraha, say Constellia Break."

All eleven of us shouted in a chorus repeating after the command.

"Perfect," said Doctor, "Keep repeating the command concentrating a lot on your stone until your Constellia listens to your voice and come out from their universe. And when they do, I want all of you to be nice and build up a proper relationship with them just like you do when meet someone new. Begin everyone."

Doctor walked around and sat on the bench placed near the statue of King Harsh.

One by one everyone started uttering the command but obviously no one was successful on their first try.

"Constellia Formation! Constellia Break!"

To my surprise or I guessed to everyone's surprise, it was Leena who was the one to first call out her companion.

She shrieked loudly when the same kind of blast was created right in front of her. A short man, probably of Leena's height, was whom she has called out, wearing a silk blue cloth from his waist down and his upper body covered with golden sparkling ornaments. He was holding on to a large blue colored pot, water droplets dripping out of it and the pot was decorated nicely with an intricate design that reminded me of Hardik. The golden diadem over his head was helping his blue long hair from falling over his face.   

"My master!" he said bowing his head, "Pleased to meet you."

We stopped commanding their stones and were now having our eyes fixed upon the newly emerged person. I checked upon Doctor who was sitting with one leg upon the other and having a proud smile on his face.

"Hello" she said nervously, "I am Leena Savant."

"I am Kumbh," he said, his voice sounding a little feminine, "Now how can I help you today?"

"Er..." said Leena with her eyes wide open.

"That's alright, Kumbh," said Doctor for Leena, "You were just called upon to meet your new master. Leena, you can command him to leave."

"Right," she said and then turned to Kumbh, "You can go back to your world, thank you."

He bowed again before he left with a puff.

"Well done Leena," said Doctor, as Pruthvi walked over and gave her pat on her shoulder, "Now if you want you can leave the training room."

Really? It's that easy? I thought. What was Naag thinking?

"No, doctor," Leena replied, "I would like to stay here and watch."

"Fine, you can come and sit beside me. Others please resume."

Leena glanced back at Pruthvi, me and Tyrell, smiled at us cheerfully and walked forward to sit on the floor beside doctor.

We began commanding our stone. It took several minutes but one after the other almost all the Samagraha were able to pull out their Constellia having some peculiar ethnic names.

Aries named Mesha, a strong and tall girl with face of a twelve year old, her white hair stands made of wool and horns protruding out of her head. She was totally wrapped in a woolen white body hugging outfit.

Pisces named Meena, a pair of ten year old male and female twins, their bodies covered with an outfit that seemed like a scale just like the skin of a fish.

Sagittarius named Dhanu, a half-man, half-horse carrying a bow and arrow. Head, neck, chest, and arms of a man and the body and legs of a brown horse.

Scorpio named Vrischika, a male wearing a red and black designer cloth from his waist down, having a long, segmented tail, remeinscenting the one of a real scorpion, and ready to sting any moment.

Libra named Tula, a female wearing a golden sari and lipstick of a sparkling silver, her hands shaped like an ancient balance. Most peculiar thing about her was her eyes covered with a white crepe bandage.

Cancer named Karka, a male wearing a cotton black shirt and trousers, crab-claws and three pairs of legs that gave a loud tapping sound on walking.

Gemini named Mithuna, twins, teenagers, a male and female. Male wearing a slim fitted crepe white shirt with frilled detailing, and black trousers; female in a blue latin ballroom dress, with hair neatly tied in a bun.

It was Pruthvi's turn to meet his companion, Capricorn, who introduced himself as Makara. A six and a half feet tall male with a lean physique covered with black shirt and Capri pants. He was having a long feathery tail, spiky ears and big dark eyes and a little beard just like an aged goat.

"What do you want me to do, tear the earth? Break a hill? Or fight Vrishabha?" said Makara making poses that I have seen Pruthvi doing when in action. Makara turned here and there as if in search of someone. "Where is Vrishabha?"

Pruthvi was gaping at him from top to bottom, his mouth slightly ajar. He was too much involved in studying his companion that made him forget to have a sense to reply him.

"Makara, you need to calm down," said Doctor, immediately, "We are not in the middle of a fight. And master of Vrishabha is not living with us anymore."

Tyrell coughed. I didn't have to use my logical side of my brain to understand that Vrishabha was Celina's Constellia, the Taurus.

"Nice to meet you," said Pruthvi, finally spreading a smile on his face,  "You can go."

Makara's face dripped in disappointment but he bowed his head and disappeared in the same fashion.

"Tyrell and Hayden, come on, it's only you two," said Doctor, giving me a slight shiver.

Everyone except the two of us, were gathered around Doctor's bench, sitting on the floor watching us intently. I generally didn't mind people watching me fight or doing any of my crazy stuff but today, I don't know why but my confidence levels were drowning in gutter knowing I wasn't doing my best.

"What the hell Doc, it's not coming out!" cried Tyrell, impatiently.

"She is a little bit shy, Tyrell," said Doctor, "and patience is always the key to success."

"She?" said Tyrell, slightly stunned, "You mean my Constellia is a girl?"

"Do you have a problem?"

"Of course not," he said, flailing his hands in the air.

Tyrell then commanded for few more time, raising his voice and pressurizing himself. Finally he did it. She appeared, standing right front of his eyes.

"M...my ma...master," she said very sweetly and calmly, "I am Kanya. W...what can I d...do for y...you?"

Tyrell was too stunned to speak at first. He was looking at the woman sharply and wide-eyed. I began having a vague feeling that somehow he was too much impressed with his Constellia.

She turned out to be most beautiful person among the other ten Constellias  that were managed to pull out. Wearing a white toe length sparkling gown, her long ginger hair flowing that matched her red glowing lips. The one thing that made her prettier was the red rose she was holding up with her left hand.

"Hello," he said finally without taking his eyes off her, "I am Tyrell Kissler."

Kanya giggled without lifting her head up. She was so shy that even I couldn't help containing my snigger.

"That's it, Tyrell," said Doctor, "You may ask her to leave."

"Yeah please do," commented Pruthvi, "or else she might just sweat some blushes out."

Tyrell made a face, when everyone else roared with laughter.

"That's enough," said Doctor, shutting us up, "Tyrell, do your thing."

Tyrell still having his eyes on her said, "You can go."

"Right, m...my m...master."

And poof!

Tyrell quietly walked upfront to sit beside Pruthvi and hitting him on his head for teasing him. I sighed in dissatisfaction. I was standing alone, in the humongous training room.

"So?" Doctor asked.

"I am sorry, doctor," I said, shrugging, "But I am trying."

"You have to try harder," he suggested.

Naomika who was sitting at the back, placing her head over Donovan's shoulder suddenly said, "Doctor, can we go for lunch. My stone is kind of burning."

I checked my watch and it was twelve already. Surprisingly I wasn't that hungry but yet I felt as if a fine break would bring back my lost confidence.

"Of course, you may all go," said Doctor, standing up, "And after lunch, go back to your room, call your Constellia and make proper acquaintances with them."

Slowly the mob started to dissipate, everyone walking outside except Tyrell, Pruthvi and Leena who stayed back looking curiously at me.

Doctor realized what they were waiting for. He turned around and spotted me standing alone at the end of the training room.

"Hayden, you can have your lunch too," he said, "and as soon as you finish, come back and resume your training."

I nodded and immediately joined my friends for the much needed break.

-x-