CHANDRA KNOCKED HIM DOWN.
As soon as Chandra announced that he would let the Elder of Air decide what his punishment would be for violating the rules set by them — by trying to manipulate Chandra to bring him to Justice Hall — Chandra knocked him down.
Ram was no match for Chandra, whether it was in getting the love of Sandhya, strength or even when it comes to his control for using his powers.
Ram instantly lost consciousness.
The moment Ram regained consciousness, the back of his head where Chandra beat him ached like hell. He also had the worst headache he had in the last few days and Ram tried to massage his head to bring the pain down.
But he couldn't.
Ram's hands and with horror he realized that even his legs were tied to … a chair.
This resembled to the scene from many movies that Ram had seen, where once a character was kidnapped, they would be kept in a dark room, with their hands and legs tied to a chair, along with their eyes covered.
But in his case, Ram realized that his eyes were uncovered.
It didn't matter much because he was kept in a really, really dark room. It was the complete opposite of the room inside of his head, where he would be meeting with Em.
The darkness of the room confused him at first. His thoughts became muddled and momentarily forgot about whom this room possibly belonged to and panicked.
Where was he? Had he gone blind? Whom did he offended? What crime had he committed?
Ram took deep breathes and once it settled, he was able to see a vague shape in various shades of black and gray in front of him.
And he could see a person standing, with their arms crossed.
Ram had answers to all the questions that he had.
And he hated every one of them.
The person in front of him was probably the Elder of Air, the one who wanted him killed so that she could be less scared.
And he also remembered whom he had offered and what crime he committed.
Chandra.
Despite promising him and Sandhya that he would treat her as her brother, Ram failed to do so. Especially after seeing their intertwined hands, Ram was consumed by a fit of jealously so strong that he threatened to pursue her.
All hell broke loose and here he was.
Ram sighed.
"I will kill you," a shaky said that was filled with a hint of conviction.
She was definitely Elder of Air.
Oh. My. God.
How did this happen?
He was supposed to be meeting with the proxy Elder of Light, the Powerful Female Elder who was curious about him back at the Justice Hall.
But his emotions got better of him and he angered Chandra, which ended up with him tied to a chair inside a dark room with Elder of Air in front of him.
Ram could practically feel her glares even in this dark room that was devoid of any light, that was filled with shades of black and dark grey.
What should he do?
Tell her the truth? That he was the new Elder of Time, the successor of the Old Man, the new leader of Faction of Hope?
But if she were from the Forces of Darkness, this would be something that they would very much like to hear.
Or even if she were an agent for Faction of Realists, then she would use this to her advantage. She already wanted to kill him. If she were to know the truth about him, then she would definitely get him killed in hopes of getting his powers to herself or to someone else of her choice.
But what if she were not from the Forces of Darkness? If she were the genuine one, then telling her the truth could save a hell lot of trouble for him.
No.
He couldn't tell her the truth even then.
She seemed like one who gets scared easily, avoid any sort of trouble with all of her powers. If she were to know the truth about him, she would still look a way for him to get killed, so that she could save herself.
That left him with only one choice.
To make her believe that he were harmless, to make her trust him enough so that she could let him live.
But how should he do it?
Ram thought about it for long and finally decided what he should do.
"Elder of Air. I know that you are scared of me and what my arrival meant to you and to the Faction of Hope. But you don't have to be scared of me, worried about the doom that would never arrive in the first place. I will reveal the truth about myself and I hope that you would change your opinion of me by the end of my reveal," Ram said.
"Sorry, I am not the Elder of Air. It seemed like you have something important to reveal about yourself and Elder of Air will be angry at me if I didn't invite her and would listen to it by myself instead. Excuse me," she said.
There was a brief flash of light when she opened the door, but it was too quick for Ram to really observe his surroundings.
He cursed at himself, but waited for Elder of Air to appear before him.
He hated waiting.
So, to relieve his anxiety, he closed his eyes and tried to call Em.
He couldn't call her.
Ram noticed that he was getting panicked, took deep breathes and tried to control his anxiety.
"No. Nothing is wrong. It's just that I might be tired. After all, I had been knocked down pretty hard by Chandra and I am sure that he had put every ounce of his power behind it," Ram repeated to himself while taking deep breathes.
Once Ram calmed down sufficiently, he tried to go inside his mind, to the endless white room to meet with Em.
He couldn't.
It's as if the endless white room and Em disappeared out of thin air. Or to be more precise, it felt as if they didn't exist in the first place. That all of this was his imagination.