Theeya came back from the mound with the baby girl of Netra. She went straight to Isfe to show her the baby but Isfe was sleeping on her bed at the time. Theeya was annoyed by Isfe’s irresponsibility. She shuffled Isfe on the bed.

“Hey, wake up!”

“Haa!” Isfe woke up from her victory slumber. The saggy skin folds seemed lessened in about half a day and Isfe looked a bit young.

“Did you use your magic on yourself? Idiot. We need all the support we can get to defeat them. Don't use up your energy to make you look young.”

“Oh come on, Theeya. I have great news for you.”

“So do I! See, this is Netra’s daughter. Your great-granddaughter. I snatched it from her. She is going to come here with great anger. Her anger and agony will surely make these people fear! We need to put Adhiyan on the front line of the fight and that will slow her down. I am feeling very powerful right now.” She said showing the baby to Isfe.

“Of course, you would feel powerful. I have killed Adhiyan!” Isfe said, looking at the peacefully sleeping child.

“What?” Thuriga bellowed. She could not believe what Isfe said. Adhiyan is a very strong man and is immune to the cheap magic of Isfe. She sternly thought that Isfe had nothing that it takes to kill a man like Adhiyan. She didn't believe her for one second that he was gone.

“Yes! You are going to be pulsing with energy. Netra is going to wail in pain!”

“How did you do that? Are you sure he is dead?” Theeya asked her. This time her face looked pale and her lips quivered.

“He was bitten by a snake with superior venom. There is no chance he would live. I have him thrown out into the hollow tree. Anything that has gone into that tree has never come back. Giza said that the tree sucked him in. He is not coming back and you can trust me on this.” Isfe told with pure joy.

“No! No no no no! What have you done!?” Theeya shed tears and her eyes glowed in anger. This feeling of losing everything was surging through her veins and she couldn't take it.

“It was so wrong to have let you live this long!” Theeya added and pranced towards Isfe’s wrinkled body. Isfe was terrified of Theeya’s sudden outburst. She never expected her to react this way. She thought that Theeya would rejoice along with her but this reaction was totally out of place.

“Theeya!” Isfe tried to escape from her clutches but her body did not help her a bit. Theeya was choking Isfe until Isfe’s flailing body stopped protesting.

“Why would you do that? He is mine! He is my love and life. I had plans of raising his baby along with him. I wanted to make a family with him. You shattered all my dreams. Now I have to wait for his birth again! Hundred more years.” Thuriga shed tears while hitting her head on the stone wall. 

“Why!? Why does this happen to me?” She cried her heart out.

***

Netra curled on the icy floor unable to withstand the pain that started on her mate mark on her neck. The pain spread across her chest and back making it hard for her to breathe. Her cries were unheard. The ice pricked her body like a thousand needles poking her all at the same time. She needed Dyan's warm embrace. She remembered the time when he hugged her close to his chest to warm her up after rescuing her from the stream. 

“Dyan!” Her lips murmured as she tried to feel her mate's mark. 

“No! No no! Dyan! Come back to me!” She cried as the mate mark disappeared and the mate bond broke. The pain was unbearable for her as she lay there on the icy floor without moving. 

“Is this a curse? A curse that I would never be happy? Why? What did I ever do? I was born at the wrong time. I never did anything wrong except that. I don't want to be a god! I don't want any special abilities! I just want to be a normal human being with a normal life with my Adhiyan and my kids. Is it too much to ask? I wish everything that is happening in my life to be a dream! A horrible dream!” She cried her eyes out. 

She refused to believe that he is gone forever but everything points to that conclusion only. 

“It is all because of me. I failed to listen to him the first time. I made him come here for me. I failed him again by blocking him out. I was the sole reason that he ended up in the wrong place. I killed him! I killed him for my own selfish needs. He would have been better off if I never had met him in the first place. I am a monster!” She whimpered, lying limp on the ground.

***

Theeya was crying for Adhiyan in Isfe’s hut while Netra was crying for him straight down underneath Isfe’s hut. They both felt like they were caught in an endless loop of anguish and heartbreak! They both were shedding tears at the loss of the love of their life. 

Netra’s baby girl who was sleeping so long started crying, attracting the attention of both the ladies. Just when Netra tried to get up from the floor to climb the stairs that led upstairs, Theeya lifted the baby in her hands and tried to soothe her. 

“Shhh!” She tried to calm down the baby but the baby refused to quiet down. “Oh, my baby girl! We lost your dad to the hands of fate. We are all alone in this wide emptiness. We just have one another.” Theeya shushed the baby amidst her cries and didn't know what the baby understood from her cries, she quieted down like a good girl. 

It was just then Maayon and his men reached Isfe’s hut and at the right time, Netra came out of the latched door on the floor. Theeya looked at them in fear! Fear of losing the only thing that is going to keep her going for the coming century that she had to endure in the depth of the burning hell hole. She hugged the baby to her heart in a tight hold.

“Give me my baby, Theeya!” Netra asked her with pouring eyes and a bleeding heart.

“She is mine.” Theeya hissed, unable to stop the tears that blocked her vision. 

“I will end you once and for all. You are the starting point of all the miseries.” Maayon lunged at her while Kaalan grabbed the baby from her. Infuriated by the sudden attack, Theeya vanished in Maayon’s hands. 

She reappeared behind Maayon and gave him a quick punch on his neck. Maayon fell on his knees on the ground and Netra just stood there witnessing everything unfolding in front of her eyes. She could not come to think of anything at the moment. Nothing she planned has happened so far. She thought of destroying Isfe’s body but the old ragged body was laying on the floor lifeless and that means only one thing. Isfe resumed her body after this one was killed. 

Now, Theeya is fighting her dad for her daughter. Why would she want her daughter? She could not put anything in place. The distress Theeya is in at the moment, Netra could feel it. She is in genuine torment. But why? Why would she feel distraught now?

Maayon swiftly turned to face her with his spell to make her go limp. She just moved away before his blood could hit her. She looked straight into his eyes and inflicted pain on him that made him go limp.

“I will not let you live to stop the birth of my love. I will end you now.” She pounced on him and started choking him.

“Theeya, why? Why are you crying? Why did you kill Isfe? What is bothering you?” Netra asked her from the place she was standing. She never moved an inch. Theeya looked up at her.

“You want to know why?” She asked her leaving Maayon under her feet, “Because I lost my love. Because she killed him. Now I have to wait a century for him to be reborn. But again, I would have to fight you and Maaya to be with him. I would have to use all my deception to get near him. All you know is Maya's agony. No one would ever know my pain. He is mine. Now I am left with his daughter until I see him again.” She burst out her feelings to Netra and looked at the baby in Kaalan’s hand.

“I sent men to kill you when you were a baby. But nature was with you. It protected you. I appreciate you, Netra. Even in your utter distraught, you try to reason with me. You could see my pain. You brought a life to console me and numb my pain. You have a hundred years to go in search of answers while Adhiyan’s daughter will be mine.” She added and looked at Kaalan.

“Come on, Kaalan. We have to go far away from this place.” She went to Kaalan and grabbed him on his shoulder and disappeared once and for all with the baby, leaving Netra and Maayon in complete distress and puzzled.

“No!” Netra screamed and ran to stop them but they were long gone.

“Why!” Netra could not take in any more pain and disappointments. She bent down on the floor crying and lost consciousness!  

“Netra!” Maayon went to her, disregarding the pain Theeya inflicted upon him. He tried to sit up and dragged his daughter onto his lap and started patting her cheeks to bring her to sense. 

“Oh no! When will this circle stop? I lost my wife first and then my baby! Now the same thing has happened to my daughter! What have we ever done to get this fate!” Maayon cried his heart out while trying to wake Netra. 

***

The moment Adhiyan was wiped off from the living world, the tornado that Isfe had made disappeared, exposing her city to deadly cold and ice! The animals and birds were running in havoc while the people who were led by the animals to the forbidden forest as per Netra’s order got scared. Cold started to spread across the land and the plants started to wilt, unable to withstand the cold. 

Men gathered women and children and walked towards Isfe’s hut in hopes that their leader would rescue them. But the dead body of Isfe and an unconscious Netra greeted them there. Maayon was a mess and Namib walked to him.

“What happened? The tornado that was protecting us for so long stopped. Ice is covering the floor. Our trees are dying and animals are running here and there in confusion. Our people never knew this harsh world outside and they are not actually strong enough to withstand this cold.” He said to Maayon and Maayon lifted his eyes at him. 

“Don't worry!” He told Namib and closed his eyes to mutter a spell. The spell made the hut a little warmer and he asked older women and children to come into the hut. He contacted his men through his ring. 

“Maayon!” Viruthan, Maayon’s chief of Militia came in.

“Make arrangements to take all these people to our mound. Make sleds quickly. Use the trees here. Ask our men to open the tunnel. That is the quick way to go to our mound.” He ordered for which Viruthan nodded his head. 

“Princess?” He asked hesitantly.

“She would be fine. I will take her to my home now.” Maayon wiped away his tears and stood up, lifting his daughter in his hands. He walked out of the hut where Aira was ready. She kneeled down for Maayon to climb up on her and took off toward the mound’s compound wall.