My heart skipped a beat. "Cornelian users?"

"Yes."

He stayed mum, looking sideways as if in deep thoughts reminiscing things from the past. That raised curiosity and desire to peep into his mind and see what was in there. "And?" I asked. "What about them? Tell me in detail."

His shoulder muscles tightened. "We were acquainted with the Authentic Universe for the very first time, only after the Firsts became our masters. Never before had we transported ourselves to this universe. But it became a necessity and a compulsion only when Lady Chandrika converted the twelve gemstones into sources of conveyance. Right from the early stages of bonding with our masters, there had always been a tension circulating around the country. This man, Almourah, was already a huge troublemaker. I was inexperienced, alright? I was too young to understand the humanly magic and commotions surrounding the origination of these leeches."

"How young are we talking about?"

"About a hundred."

I bit my cheek from burst out laughing. "So the gist is, these beasts were troublesome since then and even the Firsts were trying to take them down?"

He again fell silent for an awful amount of time. His muscles around his eyes twitched as if he was restraining himself from letting out an angry roar.

"What happened next?" I asked, trying to force things out of him. "Singh, your silence is creeping me out."

Singh released a steaming breathe. "The First cornelian user was blamed for their origination."

Nerves frazzled. "What? What did you say?"

Singh replied in a louder tone. "The First Cornelian user was blamed..."

"I heard that. Tell me what do you mean by that?"

"This is all because of the dark magic, Yajna."

I creased my brow in slight trepidation. "There's more to it?"

"Oh, you have no idea."

Yajna, the one ambitious dark magic the First had started a thousand years ago had been waiting to become absolute. It was the reason why I was called the Fire of Vengeance. I had been under the impression that with Shaytan's death, things were resolved. One of the three immortals of Paramarashtra was down. But not that Singh had brought that up...even in this temperature, I felt sweat springing out all over my body.

"Care to give me one?" I asked.

Another steaming breathe out. "First might be the one to start this complicated dark magic and accomplished developing it further with the help of his mother Lady Chandrika. Though unfortunately, rumors flew high that the idea actually belonged to Almourah, who was in the beginning stage of learning magic. In those days trading or borrowing ideas were strictly prohibited. Not following this basic rule, the First robbed the idea and pretended to be his own. Wars, commotions, arguments and whatnot. Everything only because of the pretentious act of the First. Almourah, on the other hand, in order to become stronger than the First, initiated advanced deadliest dark magic in the country. Most of them are directly related to the soul of the human."

"First and Almourah, how well they did they know each other?"

Singh once again stayed quite. His eyes turned shinier and distant. His silence was becoming unbearable, seemingly an initiation of a storm. "Singh, why does it feel like you're unable to decide whether or not to tell me?"

"You said you didn't want to know anything about the First."

True, I was the one to make a promise with Singh after our challenge ended in Parallel universe. I honestly had no interest in learning about the First and the second, and then deliberately wanting to be nothing like them. It was my decision to create this new, fresh bond with my Constellia being my own person.

"I want to know about Almourah and his magic," I explained, "It's his magic my friend is being tortured with. Remember that day when you refused to help? He hasn't returned yet. I got to get to the bottom of this magic. Singh, I am looking for one tip- one damn tip, that can help me help my friend."

"One reason that makes you different from the First," he said, warming my heart. "Fine. Then, listen. Almourah was younger than the First by only a couple of years. Their closeness was widely known. They grew up together. They were buddies, home skillets until the idea of Yajna intruded into their lives and eventually earned a fair share of an enemyship between them."

"Wait, er... did this enemyship become the reason for him to turn the way he is today?"

"Yes."

My heartbeat quickened in a frenzied way. This piece of information took me back to the day when Ashwant narrated me the story of TriAramb. Didn't he say that Lady Matsyasvi's betrayal against her own brother was the reason for this hatred towards the woman of the country?

It threw me for a loop and Singh noticed me standing dumbfounded.

"Nothing should be surprising about the First," he said, "Being the youngest and dearest to his mother, his sadism had no limits. Anyway, to answer your question regarding how I tackled them-Almourah gathered men willing to learn magic on an account of his urge to expand his army and to wage wars against the First for stealing the idea. I helped my master because I had to. One of them being a Samagraha and the other, a successful dark magic user bearing two hearts, with death never to claim either of them, the war ended only when the First decided to travel to the parallel universe."

"Was it really a big deal?" I asked, "I mean Yajna was just a stupid idea that hardly served any practical purpose ..."

"It was a big deal, kid. You need to put yourself in that generation and make judgments. No mercy was shown in those days towards the mages stealing ideas. It the same as today's robbery of human wealth and accomplishments. And kid, you, out of all the people shouldn't discriminate Yajna. It had the power to generate an invisible person you dealt with."

I slightly gasped. Singh's words instinctively seemed to be joining the missing link that Pruthvi had raised. "Do you think this is how Shaytan Rup was born? Almourah created him with his magic to sabotage the First?"

"It was believed so. But when the First couldn't get through all the challenges, Shaytan Rup henceforth worked for Almourah-the one person who can be invisible and can see other invisible people."

"Actually, Almourah is not the only one he worked for."

"Sorry."

"Nothing," I said, uninterested to go anywhere near Shashi Thribhuvan. "What do you mean by the one person who can be invisible?"

"Don't know how much truth is in this belief. But Almourah, after he became too infamous for his dark magic was never seen by anyone except the First. Because of the First was always on the brink of utter mental breakdown and claimed to see his friend attacking him when no one else did. Now if he lied or did not, I don't know. But the truth is Almourah is still invisible to humans and to the Constellia. Naag's masters prior to Doctor, wanted to track Almourah's whereabouts. They suspected where he lived, but never actually found him. And so declared invincible."

"Dark magic?"

"Perhaps."

"What happened after the First died in Parallel universe?"

"Had nothing to do with this beast or the Authentic Universe after the First died. Hardly once or twice I might have traveled down to this universe since there were a few obligations and promises to make and that's it. Other Constellia might be involved in fighting Almourah until their masters' demise, I don't know. I couldn't care less."

"Singh," I asked, curiosity taking over and my nervousness crawling over my skin, "Did you have anything to do with the First and Second's death?"

"I'll pretend that you've never asked me the question," Singh said immediately, his voice shaky with anger. I cringed.

"Sorry," I said and kept my face expressionless. There was still no clue about the remedy to break Aatmayukta and I was slightly getting disheartened but stood resilient. "Tell me about Almourah during second generation."

"By the time we chose the Seconds, this country was already disintegrated into smaller pieces of land called dynasties. Kings and politics were spread everywhere. Just like you, a Samagraha had to work for a king. Everyone obeyed the rules...except for the Second. Not surprising, is it? After much deliberation and considerations, I chose him but it was a total disaster. He turned out to be a little devil, who led a rather loose life with little concern for human morals. He had his own ideas, own beliefs, own dissimilar interests. But he was different in one and good way though- being a Samagraha, he withstood the effects caused by the unavailability of the stone.

I raised my eyebrows, remembering my challenge with Mithuna. How it had a detrimental impact on me when my stone was taken away. The insurmountable pain in my stomach, the monstrous feeling of tearing everything apart only satisfy the hunger. "We can do that?" I asked. "Keep the stone away and still be...alive?"

"Second proved that you can. He could have done a lot of unbelievable things. But his lack of determination and focus never let him."

"He never faced any trouble with Almourah?"

"I don't know," Singh replied. "Because he never really cared about it and instead pretended to be on so-called duty of saving the woman of the country. In reality, he was always engaged in boozing, gambling, inhaling opium, and treating me like his pet. Nincompoop."

Our buzzers suddenly rang and that startled both of us. I turned it off at once, feeling lost.

"It time for you to go," Singh said, lifting his heavy body up. "And don't you worry, kid. I'll keep in mind not to harm humans accidentally on purpose. Won't let you down."

I grimly nodded my thanks, in spite of his phrasing confused me at first. There was a vague feeling of bewilderment. I wasn't satisfied with the information that was in total conflict with Ashwant's. Two different scenarios and either one of them could be the reason for a human-like Almourah to turn beastly. Apart from the clue that I was searching for, I wanted to get deeper into the story related to these friends turned enemies.

"How is the girl?" Singh suddenly asked, stopping me midway.

I set my eyes on him but watched him vaguely through my peripheral vision. My mind was on a roller coaster ride with the details, a notion arising that I wasn't able to comprehend yet. And it took me a moment to realize who he was asking about. "Oh, she is okay. Thanks for asking."

Singh turned back around, the red light of the buzzer flickering like an unstable street light. "As okay as she was before you killed Shaytan Rup?"

"Well, yeah," I replied, not knowing what exactly to say and then the question slipped out of my tongue. "Why? Should there be a difference?"

"No, there shouldn't be. Just making sure. Anyway, remember I told you how humans make me crazy? So you need to stop thinking about her the way you do or I'll start calling you a pervert."

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