Page 133 of The Burning Mountain
Veer stilled at the unusually perceptive answer.
“Are you going to stay with her until she dies?”
“How old did you say you were?” Veer asked with renewed suspicion.
“I did not say. There are not enough numbers in the universe to count my age,” she said through a gap-toothed smile.
A strange buzzing filled his ears. He half expected the yaksha to appear, but the forest, for once, had fallen completely silent, as if time itself stood still.
“Who are you?” he asked again, already suspecting the answer.
“I am known by many names, but most people, in the many languages spoken in the different dimensions, call me Mother.”
Silence descended. At any other time, Veer would have been properly shocked that he was talking to a goddess, but all he felt were muted emotions. Like he was dead already, in ways that mattered.
“She would have been thrilled to meet you.” It was all Veer could think to say.
The goddess smiled. “I know. But she does not need to see me to believe.”
Silence fell again, broken by the sounds of insects, the furtive noises of small animals from the underbrush, and the distant roars of the predators, as time began to flow again.
“Why have you appeared before me?” asked Veer wearily. “I’m not a believer. I’ve no interest in what you have to say, except if you can heal her. I’ve been hearing the same thing from everyone I encounter. I hope you will say something different, Mother.”
The child finished eating the nuts and dusted her hands. “I have met you both seven times and your regrets are as genuine as the first time, eons ago.”
“I don’t understand.”
“You are not meant to. But this destiny of you both, this is written in the stars.Iwrote it. Because of a request you both made many years ago as a penance.”
“The yaksha told me we were both reborn. Will there be another lifetime for us?” asked Veer.
“No, this is to be the last lifetime. You have completed what I set you out to do.” She tilted her head, as if puzzled. “Why, Veer? What difference does it make?”
“I wanted to see if I have another chance to undo my mistakes, to make up for the suffering I put her through. I…didn’t have nearly enough time to show how much she means to me.”
The goddess contemplated Veer’s words before speaking, the childlike lilt turning grave with meaning. “The woman you know as Chandrasena suffers because of the crimes she committed in her past life, and you grieve because of the role you playedin the destruction of Stupala. This iskarma. It is unavoidable, preordained, unescapable. You cannot run from it.”
Veer bowed his head, staring blindly at his feet, feeling as if the weight of the world was on his shoulders. He didn’t understand completely, but he didn’t want to understand either. His thoughts were black, and he fought to have a glimmer of hope amid all the darkness.
The goddess’s voice broke through with clarity. “There is a way, though,” she said. “You do not need my help for it either.”
Veer looked up, hope briefly dissipating the dense mists that seemed to envelope him. “What way?”
“Virat. Did he not mention he could find answers that did not exist here? You just need to open the portal to other dimensions. Your demon, Ilavasura, may not know the actual knowledge to bring back the dead, but he knows where to find it. You could force him to reveal it to you. He depends on you for his existence; he cannot go against a direct order.”
Veer gazed at her in horror. “That would make me no different from Virat!”
“You searched for such answers when Virat died. Why does your wife not warrant the same consideration?”
Veer lowered his head, his eyes closed, his mind in conflict as it raced through the possibilities. The person he was before the start of this quest would waste no time jumping at this opportunity.
It would be so easy to succumb, to listen to the goddess’s advice. To open the portal. He could almost see his future, with Chandra by his side. So what if it meant putting humanity in danger.
In his mind’s eye, he saw flashes of a battle. Some knowledge inside him told him that this was the past. A long ago, centuries past. A verdant forest kingdom burned to the ground in anintense discharge of power from a celestial wheel in the sky. Screams of beasts, men, devas, and danavas felled in battle.
This is karma. It is unavoidable, preordained, unescapable. You cannot run from it.
There was always going to be a price to pay. This choice was a poisoned fruit.
