I overslept the next day. Neel had already left for his sword fighting training.

It was seven forty five. Well that's pretty early for most people, who happen to be jobless and are sitting in the middle of the past, like me.

Having nothing else to do, I checked my phone for any notifications, but there were none just as I had expected.

I decided to try something, I knew it wasn't much and most probably wouldn't work. I video called Tvisha. I was astonished when the call connected and I heard the familiar ring of the phone.

A shiver ran down my spine. I couldn't believe my ears; I pinched my arm to check if I had imagined it. But it was actually happening.

School started at eight thirty so Tvisha would be in the dormitory right now. I waited. My heart leapt with joy when she finally picked up.

Tvisha was still wearing her pajamas- she must have woken up late as usual. It was my duty to wake her up every morning because I abhor the shrill ring of the alarm.

After seeing people dressed in traditional, heavily embroidered attire for two consecutive days, it was odd to see Tvisha in her pajamas. But it gave me a ray of hope that communication with the 21st century wasn't impossible. At least as long as my phone was charged, that is!

"Hey there TB!" Tvisha chirped. TB was the nickname she had given me because of my initials- and it had nothing to do with tuberculosis, mind you.

"Aren't you supposed to be in detention with Mr. Annoying right now?" she asked with a hint of pity on her chubby face.

Wait a second! Wasn't she worried that I had been missing for two entire days?! What kind of friend was she? And how could she joke about detention like that when I was trying to contact her to assure her of my well being? She was supposed to be hyperventilating with joy because I was alive right now!!

"Hi, umm...." I said, not knowing how to react.

Then it struck me. I asked with a sense of urgency, "Tvish, how long have I been gone?"

"Not long, about fifteen to twenty minutes. Why? By the way do you want to know who A is in Pretty Little Liars is?" She said with a glint in her eye.

So I had been right.

"Oh shut up!" I said, "Go check Miss Kurukshetra's office right now. Be quick, and don't ask any questions right now because I don't have any answers."

"Umm sure," she replied, "Wait a minute."

She hurried to Miss Kurukshetra's office and everything on the screen went into a tizzy.

"What's wrong Tara?" Tvisha asked worriedly, as she swung open the door of our history teacher's office just to find it empty. "Are you in some kind of trouble?"

I heaved a sigh. I didn't know how to explain this to her. I thought that the best way to break the news was to get to the point immediately.

"Would you believe me if I told that I time travelled and landed up in the past?" I asked in a tired voice.

"I don't know. Why?" she said.

"Come on, this serious. Just answer the question." I said.

"Maybe, don't tell me you time travelled. Oh my god! You did, didn't you?!" she said, as she realized what I had been trying to tell her.

She got her answer when I remained silent and made no effort to refute her claim.

Tvisha checked the office and informed me that it was empty. Our half done assignment lay abandoned on the desk. She positioned the phone so as to give me a full view of the office. Nothing looked out of place; everything was just as it had been when I first entered the office. There was absolutely no sign of the portal or any extraordinary event that might have occurred in the office.

"Ok, I'll call you later, Tvisha. Don't worry about me- I'm perfectly safe and sound. And please don't tell anyone about this. Please." I pleaded, "Keep your phone close to you, I'll call soon. Bye."

I cut the call abruptly. I clutched the phone in my hand as my train of thought ran at the speed of 250 km/h.

I was glad that no one knew we were missing yet; it would have given rise to a lot of complications. There could have been a police enquiry. I wondered how we would have explained the portal to them when we got back, if they had been involved.

I heaved a sigh of relief. They would send us to a mental asylum for psychological treatment, because they would assume that we had post traumatic disorder.

I stumbled to the king's audience chamber, taming my uncombed hair into a ponytail on the way. I was granted audience immediately. The guards question me as swung open the door and entered.

"Your Majesty," I said, gasping for air, "I have just out an extraordinary thing about the portal magic."

As I have mentioned earlier, running has never been my forte and now that I think about it running from end of the humungous palace wasn't the best idea. I doubled over, panting.

"Calm down, child. And then talk." Said Ashoka, evidently not amused by the manner in which I had barged into the chamber.

I sucked in a deep breath and said, "Well, it appears that time passes at different paces on either side of the portal. I just found out that although two entire days have already passed since our arrival in Magadha, only about twenty minutes have passed in the future."

"May I ask you how you learnt of this mind boggling new discovery?" King Ashoka said gravely touching his stubble.

I explained how I had attempted to contact Tvisha, and how the call had actually connected. The king was unaware that a communicational device, called mobile phone actually existed so I had to run back to my room and bring it to explain how it worked.

I decided that I needed to start working on my stamina.

I guess Ashoka presumed that I wrote a letter to someone in the future and received one in answer. It was an absurd idea and close to impossible because someone would have to deliver it and the only way was through the portal which had disappeared. Besides, if the portal had been opened we would have returned without further delay, there was no point in staying in the past.

"And the young gentleman accompanying you witnessed this incident, right? I would like to talk to someone trustworthy before I consult the learned scholars of my court." Said Ashoka.

I narrowed my eyes gave him weird look. What was he implying when he said that he wanted to talk to someone trustworthy?!

"Don't you trust my account of the incident, Your Majesty?" I asked indignantly, a little hurt by his statement, "Do you think I would waste my precious time and energy to come up with a lie in a grave situation such as this?"

Ashoka was taken aback by my sudden outburst but plastered his usual cold and serious expression back onto his face. "No young lady, you interpreted my words wrong. I certainly had no intention to demean your intelligence, but from my experience I have learnt that the fairer sex tends to exaggerate a lot and therefore cannot be trusted in an important matter like this." He said in a calm voice.

Great! He didn't trust my story entirely because I belonged to the fairer sex as he said. That's heights of gender discrimination! How dare him! It wasn't even a valid reason. I wouldn't have minded if he asked for a witness to confirm my story, but this... this was absolutely unacceptable.

"Well then, I'm sorry to inform you that Neel wasn't present when this occurred, I was all alone in the room. Now if you would please excuse me..." I said bowing my head slightly.

Then I turned around and walked out of the audience chamber fuming, not waiting for the king's answer.

I willed myself to take a deep breath and exhaled slowly before I went in search of Sanghamitra. After all, we had a shopping expedition to go on!

_________________________________________________________