Maayon’s PoV

“And then what happened? Did we marry?” Thalir asked me with twinkling eyes.

“Haha we did!”

“Did you find the cure? Did we have children?” 

“Nope! I still couldn't find the cure, Thalir! I think it is irreparable. They were not supposed to drink the Amirtham just like that.”

“Then, what happened? Did I die?”

“No! You found a way to take your soul out of your body.”

“So I did die!”

“Haha in earthling’s language, yes! You did die. Your soul left your body and I buried you!”

“So then I was rebirthed as ‘Me’?” She asked me pointing towards herself. She is so cute and I just can't get enough of her. I placed a soft kiss on her cheek and admired her crimson cheeks. I drew patterns on her cheek and ears with my finger and she swatted my hands away.

“Pch, should I not touch you?”

“You can!” She said looking down. 

“Oh my! We are husband and wife and we have been living together for years now! Are you still shy with me?” I asked her unbelievably but yet I love that blush she brings out for me! Just for me!

“Shhh, get on with the story!”

“Haha, it is not a story, sweetheart! It is our life! And yes, you were rebirthed as Senthalir on earth after many thousand years!”

“Why? Why that long? What were you doing all those years? Did you have other mates?” She asked me a string of questions with a mixed emotion of sadness, anger and possessiveness.

“You are my only mate, Thalir. I stayed alone for a very long time until I saw you again.”

“Why did I take my life?”

“Because you wanted a baby!”

“And how did me dying help that cause?” She asked me sarcastically.

“Haha, you are so cute, Thalir. We lived happily for some years but when all my family kept multiplying and we were still the same, you started to avoid me in thoughts that I would go away from you and look for another girl.” I said for which she hugged me tight.

“Sorry!” She said in a little voice. She was feeling guilty for something she doesn't even know she did! How good can she get?

“Shhh, I love you! But when you realized I will not stop loving you, you asked me for a promise to let you go in search of a way to break out this cursed body. I agreed for your satisfaction and you ventured out to all the different covens in search for the right thing to do. That is how you came back with this knife!” I showed her the knife that was enclosed within the wall of my room. 

“Huh! You have secret chambers in the walls?” 

“Yes, sweetheart. This is very precious.” I showed her the ‘soul-snatcher’. She looked at it with wide eyes. The knife is curved at the tip and has a hollow bulb-like handle. 

“What is this? It looks like the galaxy.” She asked me, pointing at the bulb.

“That is the soul!” I told her looking at the blue glittery dust in the bulb.

“Mine?”

“No, silly! Yours is already in your body! This is Kothai’s! This knife is to capture the soul. Whoever is killed by this knife, we can store their soul in this bulb for as long as we want. Every soul that escapes to space is reborn somewhere. If we don't want someone to come back from the dead, we must kill them with this soul-snatcher.”

“And I stabbed myself with it?”

“Yes! You asked me to let this soul out on a day when a blue star falls from the sky on the northern side. But I was unable to see the blue star!” I stopped! My memory took me to the past.

Our people banished Maya out of the planet and I could not tolerate it. Even though I had many cousins and uncles and aunts, Maya was the only one I felt like family. She was the one who filled the void my dad and mom left in my life. So I revolted against the coven leaders for their decision to cast out Maya. Though their fear was justifiable, I knew that the casting out will only make her worse. I didn't want that to happen to her and as the result of my revolt, the coven leaders casted my whole family off the planet. 

As a result of my dad’s wisdom, they knew how to use the celestial events for their benefits. They casted us all out through the wormhole that was volatile at the time because of the recent big bang in the skies. We had only very minimal knowledge on how to use it and that happened to be a good thing in all the bad that was happening. The coven didn't know where we actually landed. Fortunately, we reached earth. To our surprise, the earth was fully populated with a different kind of people. There were humongous giants, there were tiny people, short and stout ones, tall and lean ones, built ones, and many different animals. 

Since the earth was heavily populated, our arrival did not cause a stir and we merged in with them without much of a fuss. I was stunned to see the tall structures they were building. It was all humongous. They seemed very orderly and were using gizmos and animals to help them build them. But that was not all! When I saw what was inside the buildings, I was awestruck. It was the replica of my dad’s spaceship that he built. My dad called his spaceship ‘Lingam’ and the earthlings called it ‘ShivaLingam’ as they addressed the sky as ‘Shiva’. It meant that the lingam that came from the sky. 

“He was our mentor! He came here from the sky! He taught us everything.” the earthlings told us. We gradually learnt that my dad came here just like he went to other places. He found the abundance of ore on earth and taught them how to extract it. He taught them the use of the metal iron! He taught them how to make machines out of it to make their jobs easy! They were worshiping the ‘Lingam’ in memory of him after he left the place. It is after him that they named the pingala nadi (pineal gland) in remembrance of him for he was the first one to awaken the third eye.

Except for Kaalan, everyone else merged with the people on earth. It was hard for me to assess the timing of earth as it was slightly different from our place. With the help of the amirtham from my mom’s vial and the practical knowledge I gathered from working with my dad, I tried to find a way to go to our planet by building a ‘Lingam’ for myself. But I was late! The coven leaders have hexed our planet with our blood and hence I could not enter our planet. 

I understood that the only common thing between earth and our planet was the moon! Our planet has a moon similar to earth’s moon. I started calculating the time using the lunar calendar. But there was no way I could find the falling blue star. It took me so many years to find the blue star that fell to the north of our planet. And so I released Dhira’s soul and here she is with me as Senthalir!

“So Shiva Lingam is a spacecraft?” She asked me, astonished for which I nodded my head. 

“Is it so unbelievable?” I asked her.

“Mhum! I can believe it! It makes sense.”

“Whoa!” Now it was my turn to astonish.

“Yes, Ranjan! I remember reading in a magazine that at the time of world war 1, a war-plane landed on a remote island and there were people living there who had no contact out of their island. They were living a primitive life and they were stupefied with the airplane and the man that came with it. When he made fire with the lighter he had, they feared him. He eventually taught them some simple life hacks that made them awestruck. Soon he left the place but the people there made statues of the airplane in rock and wood and were worshiping it. It is just a similar story!”

“Yeah!” I just had to agree to her.

“So I should have been with you many millennia ago and because of your people, it took us so many years to reunite?” She asked me with anger.

“It was partly because of them and partly because of me, Thalir. I was torn between you and Maya. I had to find her and make sure she was fine. I had to take measures to reach her.”

“And you haven't found a way to reach her yet!?”

“No, Thalir! That was why I conceived Netra to be her replica. Maya is not herself. She unleashed cruelty on many planets. It is like she is now living on the evil aura that is covering all the planets that support life. Only Netra can give her salvation.”

“Ranjan!”

“Mmm?”

“Is my brother Ellavan really bad?”

“No, Thalir. I made him bad!”

“Why? What did he ever do to you? I could not understand you! You talk all lovey dovey to me but everything to do to my people was destruction. Why?” Her eyes changed color and the cute Thalir was turning into the beast.

“I had to stop him from making a baby, Thalir. That was why I isolated him. He was too good to kill. If it was Kathiravan, I would have gone for a kill for sure. He was just a selfish prick. But Ellavan was too good. I didn't want to kill him but he was equally easy to manipulate and hence I used him as a distraction for our escape. The only thing that happened out of my control was Sivagami snatching Netra from me at the last minute.” I told her trying to contain her in my arms.

“Why should he not have a baby?” She growled, she was trying hard to subtle her wolf and snarled at me. 

“Because I thought he would make a complete black wolf baby! For many millennia I have been stopping the emergence of a black wolf for that would become the death of my sister! But this time, I failed in my calculations.”

“Which means?”

“Adhiyan is the black wolf! And he is the death of my sister.”

“Grrr!” She pounced on me as soon as I said that. She sank her claws in my stomach and neck. I slowly closed my eyes! No matter what, Adhiyan must be killed before he could reach my sister! I must kill him!

Adhiyan’s PoV

I am now ready to go to my love. It is a full moon day and the Siddhar said he would take me to the place where the portal is! When I saw myself swimming in the depths of the water effortlessly, I was astonished to see a fish tail instead of feet on me. I tried to open my eyes from that fantasy dream but when I opened my eyes, I could see nothing in the water. My ears were locked and I could hear nothing either. I swam deeper in search of the Siddhar for so long that I forgot that I had no problem breathing under the water. 

I felt the water vibrate and I went to the source of the vibration. There I saw Siddhar sitting on the sea floor surrounded by flashing jelly fishes. I saw an underwater river on the ocean bed near him. It was dark but yet illuminated by the bioluminescent rocks and creatures swimming around. I sat near him and he clicked his tongue that made the vibrations. 

“Sit down and try to forget who you really are!” That was what he tried to tell me through the clicks and hums. I had no problem understanding his clicks. Is he talking in a dolphin language? If so, how am I understanding it without any problem? I was unable to believe anything that was happening to me yet I was witnessing the impossibly amazing things in my life. I sat near him and tried to close my eyes. The pressure was too much until I found him and now I just feel like I am sitting on the floor of a swimming pool. 

“Adhiyan! There are many wormholes in space. Space is not just the sky and beyond. Space includes you and me and this very place. Our ancestors have found many similar wormholes and tried to contain them in a place. They built temples around it. Many wormholes stayed in the place while many moved on as time passed. Similarly, many Siddhars attained ‘Jeeva Samadhi’ (leaving the physical body behind to merge with the universe) and they themselves selected the place for their Samadhi and constructed a cage to hold their body for eternity. They did so because they were aware of the wormholes at those places. Siddhars used that to escape their physical body to travel to their ultimate destination.”

“What is their destination?”

“I don't know! I have not left my physical body yet!” 

“When you can live on and on for eternity with good health and immense knowledge of the functioning of nature and the universe, what more greatness could you get if you leave your physical body behind?”

“I don't know, maybe when you know there is nothing new you can learn here, that must be the final way to get away! You might get bored, you see!”

“So you are still learning new things?”

“Of course, yes! Do you know what? Siddhars who left their physical body in their samadhi have come back in old times. They have used the same bodies even after thousands of years. When asked where you were for so long, they said it was a secret not to be shared.”

“How in the world did their bodies stay intact after thousands of years? You are lying to me just because I listen to everything you say.”

“Hahaha, Adhiyan! You are such an adorable kid. Come, and see!” He showed me a siddhar jeeva samadhi. We were standing on a hilltop. The nameboard said ‘Machcha Muni Jeeva Samadhi’. 

“Where are we? How did we come here?”

“Same old question? Learn faster! We are in ‘Thiruparankundram’. Here is a wormhole for the destination you want to go to. Are you ready to see the physical body of the Siddhar?”  He asked me and walked into the temple-like building. I walked in along with him. Luckily there was no one and he walked straight into the main place disregarding all the barricades. He turned the little Lingam that was placed and an underground cellar was seen beneath it.

“Where does it go?”

“Come on!” He called me and walked on the steps to the ground. I followed him behind and was surprised to see the fresh body of the Siddhar covered in white cloth. He looked like he was just sleeping. 

“How long is he here?”

“I don't know, maybe some hundred years!”

“No way! How is it still fresh? Why is this place very airy? Why is it not stinky?”

“Because of the opening here to the universe.” He said and moved the body of the Siddhar after a little penance in front of him. There was a very tiny hole underneath him.

“What is this hole?”

“That is the wormhole.”

“What? How am I supposed to fit in there?”

“Here! Have this in your mouth. Don't swallow it. Remember what I told you. Forget your physical body. Wake up your subconscious. Just jump in.” He said and I did just that. The pressure was overwhelming. I felt like my body disintegrated into pieces. I put to use all my will power, I must not die in this never ending pit. I must reach Netra. I must kill Niranjan! He is my enemy who took my mate from me. I must kill him!