After leaving the valley of dreams, I felt something different within me. I had faced fear, illusion, and desire, yet a quiet emptiness remained. Nineteen masters had taught me their worlds, but what tied them all together? Elder Aarion seemed to know what I was thinking.
He arrived that dawn, his silver robe flowing like mist. "You've learnt logic, strength, compassion, balance, creation, and truth," he said softly. "Now, it's time for the lesson that binds them all — the truth of existence itself."
I looked up. "And who will teach that?"
He only smiled. "The twentieth master. The one who was here before all of us."
He led me back to the heart of Aarvak Island — the silver tree that touched the heavens. I had stood beneath it once long ago when I first opened my eyes here. But this time, it looked richer, vast enough to hold stars in its leaves. Its roots glowed with golden rivers that pulsed like veins.
At its base sat an old man with white hair flowing past his shoulders and eyes that shimmered like galaxies — gold, blue, green, and something beyond colour altogether. He wore no crown, no jewels, only a simple robe woven of light and shadow.
When I approached, he raised his gaze and smiled kindly. "Welcome home, child."
I bowed. "Are you… the twentieth master?"
He nodded. "Yes. Though names are illusions, I was once called Master Aarion, the Eternal Sage."
I froze in surprise — the same Elder Aarion who had guided me since the beginning.
He chuckled softly at my expression. "Surprised? You've been walking beside me all along, Mukul. But only after the other nineteen would you be ready to see me—not as your guide, but as your true teacher."
The realisation struck deep. "You knew from the beginning?"
"I did," he said gently. "And so did the island."
He rose slowly, his presence calm yet infinite. "I am not simply your final master. I am the voice of this island, the will of the twenty who came before you. I represent the unity they abandoned long ago."
He explained that once, the twenty masters were not individuals but one consciousness — a guardian spirit divided into twenty fragments to teach different paths. "Each of us pursued knowledge until we forgot the whole. The island was created to hold us together—and now you, the child of seven stars, must restore what was lost."
His words filled the air like echoes of thunder gently wrapped in music.
"But Master," I said, "how can I unite something so vast?"
He smiled knowingly. "By remembering there is nothing to unite. You've already carried us all in your soul since birth."
Then my training began — not with weapons or scrolls, but silence. For days, we spoke little. He made me sit beneath the silver tree while light filtered through its branches, filling everything with colour.
"When the mind stops running," he said, "truth stands still long enough to be seen."
He first taught The Ancient Flow of Unity, a forgotten practice of aligning spirit with existence. "Every master taught you a fragment of the whole," he said. "Now breathe as the island breathes — see logic in leaves, healing in wind, and destiny in dust."
Under his guidance, I learnt to merge all I had gathered. Arken's precision met Inara's compassion; Kaien's strength blended with Lyra's emotion; Zephyr's illusion aligned with Lucan's dream. I realised every discipline becomes one if seen with balance.
Then came his modern teachings.
In the crystalline halls beneath the silver tree, he revealed what he called Quantum Symmetry, the science that connected every breath, atom, and star. Through glowing screens of light, he showed me how ancient energy fields matched modern quantum laws. "What mystics saw as spirit," he said, "scientists now see as pattern. Both speak the same truth — connection."
He made me synchronise my life energy with the island's pulse. Sensors mapped it as sound waves in the air, forming a song that resonated with reality itself. "This is the true system," Aarion whispered. "Neither divine nor digital — simply alive."
He shared his story then — why he stayed here alone. "Long ago, we twenty thought we could guide humanity. But pride corrupted us. Each of us took a different world to rule. Conflict followed, destroying balance. The island sealed us here until one worthy soul would arrive — a vessel pure enough to absorb our essence and carry it forward."
I finally understood why I had been brought here. "So… that soul is me."
"Not just you," he said softly, touching his chest. "Us—together. The twenty masters live in you now. I am the last thread that binds your fate."
He taught me the Art of Integration—meditation merging consciousness with the twenty streams of knowledge. It wasn't about learning anymore but remembering. One dawn, as I sat beneath the tree, I felt energy entering me — warmth, cold, sound, silence — everything and nothing all at once.
When I opened my eyes, the twenty silhouettes stood around us, their forms shimmering like stars. Arken, Kaien, Inara, Darius, Lucien, Seraphina, Thalon, Alden, Kael, Orion, Elara, Chronos, Lyra, Aveline, Dragan, Elior, Sylas, Zephyr, and Lucan—all watching me with pride. For a heartbeat, I could feel their souls inside mine.
"You are no longer our student," Aarion said, his voice soft yet powerful. "You are our continuation."
Before I could speak, he handed me a staff carved from the silver tree's branch. "This is the Rod of Unison," he said. "It hums with the energy of all who came before. When your journey takes you beyond this island, this will remind you that every realm lives within you."
As I held it, the island's light flared brightly — shining across the sea as though greeting the entire world.
Aarion looked at me one last time, his form starting to dissolve into thousands of lights. "My task ends where yours begins. Go, Mukul Sharma — heir to the Seven Stars, keeper of the twenty paths. The world awaits its guardian."
His light rose, merging into the silver tree's heart.
And that was how I met my final teacher, Aarion — The Eternal Sage, the master who was all masters in one, who taught me that destiny is not a path of learning but remembrance — that everything I would ever need was already within me from the very beginning.