Theeya who was poofed from earth landed on the ardhanari planet. Her love for Iraniyan brought her straight to him. All the waking hours, her only thought is about her love. She thought about her love and all the lives she had with him beyond time when the giants and the dwarfs offered her their collective prayers. And that was why she reached her love across the universe. This was the first time she came out of a planet without destroying it. 

As soon as she landed on the ardhanari planet, she felt the presence of Iraniyan. She very well knew that only if Iraniyan dies, he would be reborn somewhere else. So she started searching in the dangerous waters in her mermaid form. She swam in the harshest waters of the ocean in the harshest climates of the planet. She looked for all the coral reefs but she could not find Iraniyan. 

Maya kept dumping the ocean with humongous creatures that threatened her life. She was not worried for her life but for Iraniyan’s. She knew he was a mortal and could not live forever. The connection she had with him when she landed on the planet started weaning away as time passed and she knew he was dying. 

“No! You cannot die with a curse!” She spoke in the air, thinking of Iraniyan. “Mayaaaa!” She screamed at the top of her voice. She picked up a scallop and sliced her arm with it, making the water flood with her blood. “Here, take it. Isn’t it what you want? My blood? Free him of his suffering. Come here. Don’t burden his soul.” She called for her but to no avail. 

When a curse is placed on a soul, a part of the soul lingers around with the curse even if the body dies and the soul leaves the mortal world. But the part of the soul with the curse stays powerless until the other part of the soul was born somewhere. So, when Iraniyan and his people were sent to the ardhanari planet, they stayed there powerless in the waters, fearing for their life from the huge creatures. They went into the midnight zone of the ocean to live without the fear of someone spotting them. Their ugly appearance scared many creatures away and their life here was like being in solitary confinement. Theeya never thought of searching in the midnight zone and thus she could not find Iraniyan. Eventually, they all died of old age but their soul with the curse lingered there.

Theeya was very powerful! But she was not powerful enough to see a part of the soul. When the connection between her and Iraniyan felt void, she knew that he was no more. She knew he would not be born immediately after his demise. The wait time was hell to her. She got out of the water and looked around the surroundings. She started understanding the working nature of this planet in peace. It was just her and the trees and plants on land until Maya started dumping the land with animals and Theeya had to shrink her living space. It was she who planted the carnivorous plants around the mound to protect herself from the ferocious animals. She made the mound her living place. She had no desire to lookout in the night zone of the planet and that was her little mistake. If at all she had known that Isfe was there, she would have killed her for giving birth to Maya.

“Iraniyan!” She closed her eyes and tried to see him in her subconscious but was shocked to see his ugly slimy merman body slowly drifting in the water. 

‘How is this possible? He was born as the same merman again?’ She thought to herself but waited no later to teleport to the ocean. She spent days looking for him and finally found him and his people in a cave in the water. 

“Iraniyan!” She called from behind him and he turned with a dead fish in his mouth. They were all eating a huge fish that they had hunted together. As soon as he saw her beautiful appearance as a mermaid, he looked down on himself.

“Why are you here? What more do you want from me?” He asked her as calm as he could.

“I will do anything to free you from this curse, Iran. All I wanted to do was to be with you. I never meant any harm to you, Iran.”

“I trusted you with all my heart and you betrayed my trust. My soul could not get completely purified because of this curse. I am broken into two because of you. I am not allowed in the amortal world with curse. With the small time I got to spend in the amortal world, I looked into my past memory. You poisoned me because I fell in love with Maya? Why?”

“Because I cannot see you with anyone else. You are mine.”

“No, I am not yours. Stop crying.” He wiped her tears away. “I cannot get mad at you, Theeya. You have been there for my parents when I failed to be a good son. You gave them comfort. You took care of them. You gave me comfort and courage to gain back my people. My people think that you are their guardian angel for fighting against their god to protect them. You have been nothing but good to me. But you did this all with an expectation of getting my love which nullifies everything you have done. Love should never expect anything in return which means yours is not love. Only if my curse is broken, I can reunite with my other piece of the soul. Because of me, my people are broken too. I owe them. As their king, it is my responsibility to break the curse and free my people.”

“Call Maya. Ask her to break the curse. I will do anything, Iran. Don’t question my love for you. I am ready to even die for you.”

“I have tried to call her but she is not responding to my calls. Maybe because I am already dead in this body. I have no power to call her. I will wait for a way to break this curse. Our god and Kayalvizhi would feel happy if I kill you. Who knows maybe that will be the curse breaker. I cannot do it with my own hands but I will use any opportunity to kill you. Go away, Theeya. Don’t come into my sight again. You will never find me.” He said and dived with his people to the deepest waters. 

“Iran!” She tried to follow them but her body is not made to withhold such pressure and hence she had to retreat. She cried all day sitting on the beach.

‘What did I do except to have fallen in love with you? Why should I live when I clearly know how much  you hate me?’ She asked herself. But just then she remembered what he actually told her. His soul is broken into two, which means the other part is born somewhere and that was why Iraniyan regained his body here. All she now wanted was to know where the other part of his soul is and how she could reach him. 

She had no device to open the portal and travel through the universe. All she knew was the different places Maya had opened a portal to dump the animals on this planet. She decided to wait for another dump by Maya to use it to get out of this planet. She thought if she could navigate backwards through the opened portal, she would reach Maya. If she could reach Maya, then from there, she could find a way to reach Iraniyan. She decided to hide herself from Maya in a different disguise. 

But nothing like she planned happened. From the moment she decided to backway through the portal, Maya stopped opening portals to the ardhanari planet. The power the worship of the earthlings gave her weakened as time passed. There was nothing except the animals, birds, and ocean creatures. She didn't like to cause them pain to boost her powers. She felt trapped in the place without any ways to get out. 

‘Maybe this is my end!’ She thought as she felt her soul diminish. 

‘Maybe this is how I die! Alone in a vast place!’ Her thoughts were never ending.

‘All I wish is to see you once! Leave this mortal world in your embrace! To see the love dripping in your eyes only for me.’ She thought of her love before she closed her eyes drawing a heavy breath in the same beach where she cried over him.

***

Theeya let out a long sigh before she stood up from the beach. She looked at her bleeding hand with a bitter smile. 

‘I should have died that day on this same beach! If I had died then, you would be united with your soul and with Maya. But I didn’t die. Death never nears me, Iran. I am indestructible. Which only means that you cannot fall in love with anyone else other than me. I cannot bear to witness you with anyone else. Not when I am alive. I will kill anyone who comes between, even if it is you! I will not think before I kill you like I did before.’ She thought and teleported to the mainland. 

She walked into the woods searching for Isfe. She closed her eyes trying to locate Isfe but she could not see her. 

“Damn your magic!” She kicked on the floor, opening a hollow place under her feet. When she was here alone long before in time, she had made many underground tunnels to reach the portal entries to avoid being spotted by the dangerous animals as teleportation consumed so much of her energy. The underground tunnels were filled with roots of the trees and plants that gave her enough food to survive. 

She jumped into the tunnel and started walking amidst the hanging roots. There were many dead roots because of the chaos Netra had brought upon this land. Isfe could hide from above the surface but she cannot hide herself from beneath her. Theeya now tried to locate Isfe but she saw two other faces. One new face of a girl and one familiar face. The familiar face put a wide smile on Theeya's face.

“I can find her without any problem.” She said it aloud.

***

Asuran, Gandharvan, Maran and Seedan brought together all the necessary ingredients to make the blood trail. 

“We have everything. But there is one problem.” Asuran said.

“What is it?” Maayon asked.

“When the blood trail is established, Isfe will know it too. We will have only a little window to find her before she hides again.”

“Isn't there any other way to make her not know that we are making a blood trail?” Maayon asked as he didn’t want to take chances.

“If we have some masking herb, we can give ourselves some extra time. But we don’t have one. This low pressure on the ground will not help grow such herbs.” Maran said.

“Does Naripuhayilai work? If so, I have some.” Maayon asked them.

“What is it?”

“It is a herb the Lycans use to hide their wolf on earth. I asked Netra to bring some Naripuhayilai to suppress Thalir’s wolf. I know Thalir’s wolf hates me, I also know it will surface when it meets Netra. So I wanted to be on the safer side. But I could not do it to her as she is also a part of Thalir. I love Thalir, which means I love her wolf too. I am glad to receive any punishment she gives me.” Maayon said.

“I love you, Ranjan. Which means my wolf loves you too. She may be a little demanding and angry, but she loves you too.” Senthalir who was there with him told him with a pleasant smile. She remembered all the times her wolf attacked him fatally and injured him wantedly. Her love for him soared high knowing that he had means to suppress her wolf and yet he decided against using it on her.

“I think this will work,” Netra said while enjoying the love of her parents. Even though she could not hate her dad as much as she did earlier, she could not love him with all her heart either. She remembered Ganesan and others from whom she took the Naripuhayilai from. They died for nothing! He killed them for nothing or even worse he killed them to save himself from her mom’s wolf. 

“I wanted to stall Adhiyan from stopping you, Netra. Since my sister was gone, he had been my enemy. All I wanted was to kill him. He was so strong and his ability to void magic was a big hurdle. That angered me more. I wanted to weaken him. I wanted him to get hurt. That was why I killed his people.” Maayon answered Netra’s thoughts and Netra shed a bitter smile at her dad. 

“We shall try it in the spell. Despatch all your men to follow the blood trail. Put your men in the sky to see from up. Even if she tried to hide herself, we would know the approximate place of her hiding spot. If we neared her, our collective power would break her cloak easily.” Gandharvan said to break that awkward silence and they all agreed.

The Yagna was made and Maayon’s blood was offered to the fire along with the locket of Isfe and Naripuhayilai. As soon as they hit the fire, the coven leaders chanted their spell. The fire grew as they chanted the spell and blasted into a huge boom up at the ceiling. The blood trickled out of the fire and made a trail. The trail led them out and in a flash of a second it moved out of their sight. 

“Look where the trail ended,” Maayon ordered his men on hover vehicles. Everyone smiled at each other while Netra spilled a cruel smile.

“I am coming for you, Isfe!” She murmured looking at the soul-snatcher in her hand.