The silence that followed our exchange by the river was heavier than before, filled with the ghost of the word neither of us had spoken but both now acknowledged. Kill. It hung between us, a third, malevolent companion on our journey.
The landscape began to change, the gentle woods giving way to the rugged, rising foothills of the Trikuta mountain. The air grew thinner, cooler. The path became a narrow, treacherous track that snaked up the mountainside, littered with loose shale and hidden pitfalls. It demanded focus, a welcome, if temporary, distraction from the turmoil in my heart.
"Be careful here," I said, my voice rough from disuse. "The path is unstable."
Neer, riding slightly ahead, didn't turn. "I can see that," he replied, his tone clipped.
We were navigating a particularly slippery section when it happened. A rock under his horse's hoof gave way. The animal whinnied in panic, stumbling sideways towards a steep drop. Neer cried out, losing his balance.
Instinct, faster than thought, took over.
I lunged forward, my hand shooting out to grip his forearm, pulling him and his skittish horse back from the edge. For a moment, we were frozen, my grip tight on his arm, his wide, startled eyes locked with mine. The contact was electric, a jolt of pure, unadulterated life that violently contradicted the death I associated with him.
"Be careful, Neer!" The urgency in my voice was a raw, unguarded thing.
He wrenched his arm away, his breath coming in sharp pants. "Thank you," he muttered, the words stiff and unwilling. He wouldn't look at me, instead focusing on calming his horse.
I merely nodded, my own heart hammering. The feel of his warm, solid arm in my grasp was imprinted on my skin. It was the first time I had touched him since the dream, and it felt not like a prelude to violence, but to… something else. Something that terrified me more.
We continued the arduous climb, the tension now a tangled knot of unsaid thanks, acknowledged danger, and the ever-present specter of my duty.
After hours of grueling ascent, we finally reached the mountain peak. The view was breathtaking, a vast expanse of green valleys and distant, purple-hued ranges. For a moment, the sheer scale of it all made our personal tragedy feel small.
"We made it," Neer said, his voice laced with a weary triumph. "Now, let's see what challenge awaits us. I wonder which demon blocks our path now."
He had barely finished speaking when an unnatural, cold tendril of white mist began to curl around our ankles. Within seconds, it thickened into an impenetrable wall, swallowing the world, separating me from Neer.
"Agni! Where are you?" His shout was muffled, directionless in the blinding haze. "What is this smoke? I can't see a thing! Don't just stand there silently—say something!"
"I'm here," I called back, my hand going to the hilt of my sword. "Maintain your focus. This smoke is not natural."
A terrifying, multi-layered laugh echoed around us, vibrating through the very rock beneath our feet. The mist cleared as abruptly as it had appeared, revealing the source of our nightmare.
Bhramtisur, the Demon of Illusion. He stood nine feet tall, with three snarling heads, each with burning red eyes that promised madness. One hand held a jagged sword, the other a whip of crackling energy.
"Who are you!" Neer roared, stepping forward, his own sword drawn. "Why do you block our path?"
"You will grant me life? A jest!" the demon's three heads laughed in unison. "Mortal, do you not fear me?"
"I am a Kshatriya. I have slain countless of your kind. You are merely the next," Neer retorted, his voice steady despite the monstrous visage before him.
"Our Guru foretold of demons on this path," I added, my voice cold. "You are one of them. Stand aside, or prepare to be destroyed."
"Then come!" the demon taunted. "Fight me!"
We charged as one. But as we closed in, a powerful disorientation swept over me. The world wavered. The form of Bhramtisur shimmered, and in his place, standing with a sword raised against me, was Neer.
His eyes were not his own. They glowed with the same malevolent blue fire from my dream.
"Fight! Destroy each other!" Bhramtisur's cackle echoed from everywhere and nowhere.
I parried a furious blow from the illusion-Neer. "Neer! Stop! It's an illusion!"
But he didn't hear me. Or the thing wearing his face didn't care. He fought with a desperate, terrified fury, as if he were fighting for his life against the monster he saw in me.
It was a nightmare come to life. I was locked in combat with the friend I was sworn to protect, forced to defend myself without striking a killing blow. I saw his face, twisted in fear and rage, and my soul screamed.
"Agni! Wake up!" a voice shouted—the real Neer's voice, strained and desperate. "It's me, Neer! The one you're fighting is not me! Look at me!"
I risked a glance. Through the shimmering haze, I saw another Neer, his hands raised, a shield of water forming around him. Which one was real? The one trying to kill me, or the one trying to save me?
The demon-Neer lunged, and I barely dodged. The hesitation cost me. A searing pain shot across my ribs as the illusion's blade grazed me. The pain was real. The blood was real.
It broke the demon's hold for a critical second.
I saw it. The real Neer, his eyes clear, shouting my name. And the demon, its form flickering behind the illusion.
Rage, pure and righteous, ignited within me. It was not the chaotic anger from our night duel. This was a focused inferno. I channeled it, letting it burn away the last vestiges of the illusion.
"Neer!" I shouted, my voice ringing with newfound certainty. "Come to me!"
The demon, still wearing Neer's face, approached confidently, thinking me still deceived.
In that moment, I unleashed my fire. Not a wild conflagration, but a precise, blinding lance of purifying flame. It struck the false Neer square in the chest.
A piercing, inhuman scream filled the air as the illusion shattered. Bhramtisur's true form was revealed, engulfed in holy fire, writhing and burning until nothing but ashes remained.
The mountain peak was silent once more.
Neer rushed to my side, his eyes wide with worry. "Agni! Are you okay? I was shouting for so long—that wasn't me! But you… you wouldn't listen! Look at you… you're hurt."
He was looking at the cut on my ribs, his face etched with a genuine concern that made my chest ache.
I gripped his arm, a mirror of my action from earlier on the path. This time, he didn't pull away. "It's nothing," I said, my voice low. "You broke its concentration."
He helped me sit, his hands surprisingly gentle as he inspected the wound. The battle was over, but a new front had opened. The demon had shown us the deepest fear of both our hearts: that we would become each other's destroyers.
And as Neer tended to my wound with a focus I'd never seen in him before, I was faced with a terrifying truth.
The line between my duty to kill him and my desire to protect him was becoming dangerously, impossibly blurred.
---
: The chapter ends with Agni wounded and Neer tending to him, their dynamic shifting from hostile travel companions to something more complex and dangerous, as Agni realizes his protective instincts are fiercely at odds with his prophesied duty.