A window opened up next to me- "Choose your side quickly. Choosing the side of Gods, you shall go to heaven on your first death. If you die within heaven again, it shall be undone but dying outside heaven for the second time shall cause your soul to be lost forever. Choosing the side of Demons, you shall receive the same benefits except for the fact that you shall go to hell, without any of the pain or misery of it, upon your first death. If you chose to be non-aligned to both factions or not choose any faction in the time given to you, upon your first death your soul shall be stuck in a limbo. You may or may not be able to get out of there. Upon getting out, if you die again- you shall be in a state of life and death. You shall face immense pain for eternity. You shall be in an inescapable limbo. You can try to get to wherever it is you wish but you shall never reach there.
You have 24 hours to choose!"
That has got to be the system telling me that I am screwed in the case that I don't align myself with either factions. I say, "I guess our kind just needs to strive to not die huh?"
Dharmendra looks at me in horror, "You plan to go against both factions?!! You understand what that means, do you not? If you die, there won't be a second chance!! Do you understand what that means don't you? You're going to be left with just one life! Are you insane?!! Do you want to lose your life for good the first time you die?!!"
"HOW'S THAT ANY DIFFERENT FROM REAL LIFE??!!" I scream at him, "We have just one chance in real life. If we died once over there, we would be done for good. That doesn't mean that people didn't take risks. We can come out of it alive. I know we can. Besides, we have one advantage- our souls shan't be destroyed. We shall be in limbo"
Dharmendra says, "An eternity in limbo is not better than death!"
Adi speaks up, "Would you rather spend a lifetime in jail, where you are still alive or would you rather die?"
Dharmendra says, "Limbo is solitary confinement! You can't get out!"
"That's not what it says. If we can get out of limbo once, we can get out again," say I.
Dharmendra looks at me in disbelief. He says, "Regardless, if you join any faction, you shall get extra incentives that you have been receiving till now. What about those?"
I say, "You were the one who said that it is not right to suck up to those stronger than you while demeaning those below you. I shall not be ruled by anyone anymore. We humans are but puppets in the hand of Gods. We have a chance to rise above. We have a chance to transcend myths and legends. We have a chance to stand up to the tyranny of the Demons and the wrath of the Gods. Gods are not free of sins. Gods are not perfect. They created humans in their own liking. It is only fair to believe that Gods are like humans. They too have manipulated us like the demons they condemn. You accused me of hypocrisy not an hour ago and now you want to follow one for as long as we are going to be here. Life has given us a chance. Let us take it. Let us rise. Let us transcend!"
I look at Adi and say, "Let's do it!"
The both of us get up and say, "I, Karthik/Aditya, warrior of Bharatha formerly aligned to the Indian Gods, hereby renounce my allegiance to the Gods. I also swear that I shall not ally with the demons and that I shall strictly stay non-aligned!"
All the buffs that we received by siding with the Gods left us the moment we proclaimed our non alignment. Dharmendra looked at us in sheer surprise and horror. Adi told him, "Arise! Awake! Transcend! Become your own man. Leave the side of the Gods."[Arise! Awake! Stop not till you reach your goal!-Swami Vivekanada. The above sentence is borrowed from this quote]
Dharmendra said, "You are really serious about this aren't you? Hmmm.... I told you that I would support you if you gave me good reason to. I shall stall off my decision till the last hour. Convince me and I shall join your side. Else I shall reconfirm my allegiance to the Gods"
Adi says, "So be it. You want us to prove to you that you can trust us, don't you? Let's start with our anonymous informant Rahaas."
Dharmendra raises his eyebrow and says, "Him.... Let's see."
I say, "Follow me. I know where to find him."
Dharmendra asks, "He wasn't arrested with the other players?"
I snort, "Him, getting arrested? That's highly unlikely. There is not one man born who can capture him"
I walk out of the room and make my way to the outside. The room was within the new palace and getting out of the palace took quite a lot of time. This palace is a maze! A bloody maze!
After we get out of the palace, we make our way to the Hastinapur Madhu and Sura club.
A wonderful place for mead and beer. You can find one of the best collection of mead in the country in this place. There are few cities with mead and beer as good as this. This place also happens to be the home of Rahaas. You can always find him there in this time of the year.
The Hastinapur Madhu and Sura Club is decorated with many flowers and torches. The inside is dully lit. There are some dancers dancing to the public in the centre of the place. This place is similar to a modern day club in Las Vegas. There is a ginormous casino opposite to us. The counter extends from door to door.
I go and sit on a chair by the counter and order a small glass. Dharmendra looks perplexed. He asks me, "What are we doing here? I thought that we were going to be finding Rahaas. We shouldn't be here!"
I sigh and say, "Talk softly. You don't want to start rumours about yourself."
Dharmendra looks at me and starts laughing and says, "Rumors? Is that why you brought me here? To reduce my reputation?"
Yep, the rumor mill begins. I put my hand over my head. Dharmendra is about to start protesting but he is cut short by someone who puts a scarf over his mouth. Dharmendra falls asleep. Must have been dosed with a high seductive. His head falls down on the counter. A young man in a black suit with a tie and an earpiece is behind him. The typical bodyguard. The man says, "Rahaas calls for the two of you."
Adi tells him, "Bring the other guy as well. He's with us. We'll claim that both of us were dosed as well. In the end, dose him again."
The man nods and picks up Dharmendra. We walk to the first floor and the suite in there. Rahaas is sitting on a couch in there like a king. He says, "Welcome to the Lair of Liars"
[Mythological titbits: Last time we learnt about Karna's curse. Today, we shall learn about how Duryodhana tried to poison Bhima. Bhima and Duryodhana were rivals from the beginning. Both of them were warriors who wielded the Gadha. They got into many battles against each other. Duryodhan wasn't able to win against Bhima no matter what he did. He was so agitated by this that he wanted Bhima dead. Though I do not believe that Duryodhana had the thoughts of cold blooded murder at such a young age and that Shakuni had a hand in Duryodhana's hatred for the Pandavas and his desire to kill Bhima at such a young age. Once, when the Pandavas and Kauravas were having their dinner, Duryodhana, under the influence of Shakuni, poisoned Bhima and drowned him in the river Ganga. When everyone on the surface found that Bhima had died, they were all mourning. Little did they know that it was Duryodhana who had done that and that Bhima was in fact alive. When Duryodhana tried to drown Bhima in the Ganga, the naga(snake) king Vasuki found him. He saved Bhima from Duryodhana's poison as he noticed that Bhima was the wind God Vayu's son. In doing so, Vasuki also gave Bhima immunity to all poisons. He also blessed Bhima with the strength of ten thousand elephants. Bhima came back out of the ocean and met his siblings, mother after he got out of the river.
That's all for today. Tomorrow, we shall deal with the story of Drupada and Drona.]