Though they couldn't maintain Aunt El's image for much longer, Aunt Sheila was satisfied by their efforts.
She hugged both of them, thanking them. She didn't let go of them immediately. She looked like she wanted to say something to him, but she was hesitating.
"What's bothering you?" he asked.
Aunt Sheila sighed. "Do you think she will still like me, especially after the ultimatum that I delivered to her back then?" she asked.
Ram thought Em might add something. But she didn't. Ram took it upon himself to cheer Aunt Sheila. "The only person whom she loved was you. She had not been in any relationship since both of you got separated. She refused to see anyone that her sister suggested. I even heard that her sister suggested few females to Aunt El, but she rejected them. Though I don't know whether it was true or not, I know that the one she loved always has been you, other than me, whom she treats me as her own son," he said.
Aunt Sheila chuckled, but she choked on it. "That's what's bothering me. She treated you as her own son. I didn't like you as much back then. I loved Ella, but you came in between us. But I accepted everything about Ella and that includes even you. After spending just couple of days with you and I am already treating you as my own son, just like Ella did. And I forced her to chose between you and me. She chose you. I spent days afterwards thinking I shouldn't have done that. That if I were to meet with her again, whether she still loves me or not," she said.
Ram rubbed her back. "This time you have me with you. Even if Aunt El hesitates, I will make sure that nothing will come between both of you. I will make sure to get the two of you together," he said.
Aunt Sheila trembled.
Ram nudged Em. She nodded at him before she also rubbed circles against Aunt Sheila's back. "Don't forget that you have me with both of you. Who can resist my charm?" she asked.
Aunt Sheila choked, struggling to maintain composure.
Em sighed. "You have seen how Aunt El looks like. Aren't you excited to see her after so long? How did she looked? Sexy enough to make you …" Em trailed off, looking at Ram's direction.
Ram grimaced at her.
She winked at Aunt Sheila, before continuing. "You know what I was about to ask. What do you think?"
Aunt Sheila nodded. "She seemed more mature. God I wish I could meet with her now. But we have to finish this mission for Chitra. Remember that we are not going to steal The Soul Bead from Bharghav. We will pretend that we steal it. We have to give some time for my father to finish with his preparations. Once he gives us signal, we will get the hell out of The Soul World. I hope that we will not have to send two souls that Chitra has in her mind to her," she said.
Ram frowned. "How are we going to fool Chitra and her agents?" he asked.
Aunt Sheila chuckled. "You will come to know during our mission," she said, hugging them harder for a moment before breaking away from the hug.
Ram looked at Em.
She ignored him, her eyes glazed as if she was processing something from datapads.
Ram groaned. "Is this related to your discussion with Bhumi and Rita and Nano? What are you hiding from me?" he asked.
Aunt Sheila shook her head. "Don't worry. It's not as dreadful as you are imagining it to be. It's a pleasant surprise for you. If I reveal it to you, it will ruin all the fun of it," she said.
Ram gave pleading look to Aunt Sheila, she smiled at him. Ram turned his pleading gaze towards Em, who seemed to be on edge. "What is she worried about?" Ram asked.
Aunt Sheila frowned. "I think it's something related to what was going to happen during our mission. But … you don't have to worry about it. She will get around it eventually," she said.
Ram didn't know whether he should believe what Aunt Sheila was saying. Ever since her confession about them being a sort of Soulmates in a way that only both of them could ever be, she seemed to be on edge. She seemed even more edge as Aunt Sheila refereed to something that was going to happen as they go to Bharghav's Palace.
He didn't know what it was, but he had to at least make Em happy. "Em, no matter what happens in the Bharghav's Palace, I will not abandon you. I was already determined before your confession. But after knowing how complex you are feeling, I will never let you go no matter what, just like how I was not going to abandon Aunt El and Aunt Sheila. Even though we became Merged Souls because you wanted to save me and we are struck together forever, I don't hate it. You are my one and only friend in this whole world and I will not change it for anything," he said.
Em perked up. "Is it a promise?" she asked.
Ram nodded.
"You should not break it at any cost."
"I will not break it."
"You really shouldn't break it," she said.
Before Ram could agree to her, Vama interrupted them. "What shouldn't he breaking? He seemed like someone who could did not know how to give pleasure to a women or men. Forget about breaking someone's heart," he said.
Ram groaned. "Don't make it worse than it already is. We are discussing about something personal and you wouldn't understand about our friendship," he said.
Vama frowned. "You are right. I have connections, but I don't have friends. If you want me to give you an advice, it's that you shouldn't make any friends or long-term relationships. They are going to be a burden to us. A weakness others might use against us. At the same time, you shouldn't just stay single your whole life. Immerse yourself into short flings. The gender or race doesn't matter. Just make sure that both of you enjoy in however short it lasts and —" he couldn't get to finish his advice as Aunt Sheila kicked his shins.
Vama yelped, massaging his shins as he glared at her.
Aunt Sheila hissed at Vama. "He is already a mess enough. Don't try to add on top of it. You just do what you are supposed to do and nothing more. Do not advice him on how to lead his life life. And especially do not advice him on relationships. As his aunt, I will take care of that along with my Soulmate," she said.
Vama raised his hands in surrender. "This is why I hate you. You are so stubborn. And you are someone I don't want to antagonize more than I already did. You belong to the level that Chitra and Bharghav's daughter belong to. The dangerous kind. Since he is your niece, I will do as you ask," he said.
Aunt Sheila still gave him harsh glare.
Ram sighed. "Aunt Sheila, you don't have to worry about me. You know where I stood on stand on relationships. If you want to look after anyone, it must be Em," he said, pointing towards Em.
Em glared at him, but ignored his suggestions as she went back to accessing the contents of her datapads. Whatever she was consuming didn't seemed to be calming her. She became even more angry, as she was clenching her fists.
Aunt gave one final glare at Vama, before standing between them. "You also remember not to involve Em in it. You know who she was and I will not tolerate if you have any bad ideas for her," she said.
Vama groaned. "I promise not to have bad thoughts involving the ones related to you one way or another. Now why don't we focus on your mission?" he asked.
Aunt Sheila nodded.
Vama continued. "You already know what Ram's First Mission is. It is to steal The Soul Bead from Bharghav. But we just can't go looking for it so easily. We have prepared a short presentation for you at one of our bases. But I would have to block your senses first if I have to take you there," he said.
They agreed.
As Vama placed block on them, Ram realized that it was somewhat different to what others did as they took him towards Chitra's palace, but they shared one similarity. He was not able to see anything. But this time, he was also not able to hear or smell anything.
As Ram focused more, he noticed that something was different now from last time.
He was able to sense his surroundings in a way that was difficult to explain. It felt like his body was emitting sound waves. The sound waves would clash against his surroundings. If they found anything, they would imprint the echoes of the basic essence of objects inside his Mind World.
For instance, the imprint he has of Vama in front of him was a small orange smudge. Their surroundings was that of globs of orange or black of various shapes and sizes.
As they pushed him into the largest of the globs that was darkest black color, Ram felt a sense of disorientation similar to what felt when Chitra opened a portal on her own.
Ram frowned. No, it was not how he felt like when Chitra opened the portal. She had so much power and she opened much portal with much difficulty. She was pretty exhausted after opening one. But the one that was used by Vama seemed to be existed for a long time and was stable.
Was it a back door between the two worlds? If it was, then why did Chitra sent them through Akila's barrier? Did she knew about Akila or did she doubt her and did this as a test for her?
Or was it portal within the Living Soul World and it was much easier to open portals over here?
Ram didn't know. But as he moved deep into the portal, the disorientation increased so much that he felt nauseous.
The imprint in his mind was that of crazy swirling blackness that looked like it was going to destroy his mind.
Ram didn't know how to stop seeing it. It was making him crazy.
He clutched his head, hoping to stop the oncoming headache.
But it didn't help.
It was followed by the spinning of his head.
Ram was at the edge of it.
He wished he would lose his consciousness.
but he didn't.
Every step he took worsened the feeling.
Finally when they stopped walking, Ram collapsed.
They removed the blocks they placed on his mind.
He heard a gasp. It was from Aunt Sheila. "What's wrong with him?" he heard Aunt Sheila asking.
There was a pause. "We don't know. But something seems to be wrong with him. No matter who came through the way, they would at most feel a sense of nausea, but he was reacting as if he was left in the vast darkness for years," he heard Vama say.
Aunt Sheila grunted, then Ram felt her trying to get him up.
Ram didn't even have an ounce of strength.
He fell right back down.
Aunt Sheila was shouting something at others, there was lot of groaning and protest, but finally, it was quite.
Ram then felt a weird sensation and he realized that Em merged with him and she took control of his body. She kept his consciousness under heavy protection inside of his Mind World.
She appeared moments later and gave him 5 vials of Soulva.
"You recover enough Soulfire and take some rest as we listen to what they have to say. Once you are ready, we will go do our thing," she said.
Ram nodded.
Em stepped out of his Mind World and Ram consumed the mild Soulva Replica from the vials all at once. He could feel the Soulfire inside of his Mind World rising steadily.
Once he had enough Soulfire in it, he was able to see that his Mind World was changed drastically.
It was different from earlier, with extra additions. His Mind World was vibrant and more lively than it did earlier. He was also able to hear a sense of content emitting from his Mind World as if it has a mind of it's own?
Ram didn't know.
He didn't have time to explore it further he saw that Em and Aunt Sheila were rushed inside a discussion room.
He was shocked to realize that he was able to see the outside form his Mind World very clearly. Back when Em took control of his body, he was able to watch everything through shades of black and white. But now, he was able to notice everything with much more color and clarity.
They were inside a room with a giant staging area at the front. It was white colored and stream of light fell on top of it, which resulted in 3D holographic representation of a spire.
It was similar to the one he had seen when he first stepped inside The Living Soul World along with Aunt Sheila and Em after their meeting with Akila, The Gatekeeper.
Aunt Sheila mentioned it as the Bharghav's Palace. The Palace in his world was more spread over an expanse of fields. But here, it was a gigantic Spire, that touched the sky.
Ram tracked the stream of light forming the 3D holographic projection back towards the source of it. It was a soul who seemed more like an Amoeba with a gigantic eye in the center. The rays of light were emitted from the gigantic eye, which was emitting multicolored light.
It must be some dumb soul being used as a projector or a failed experiment of a Merged Soul which resulted in the accidental discovery of it. Ram was beginning to feel what Bhumi was feeling and could recognize why she was so angry and against Chitra, her father and her agents.
He turned his face away from it, and observed the rest of the room.
It was a huge hall void of any sitting arrangements. The hall was filled with living souls with dark colored Nonliving Souls here and there who were distracted enough that other living souls were finding it difficult to focus on the projection.
They were were dressed in Ninja Overalls that he had seen Bhumi and her friends wore. While Bhumi's dress was black colored , Chitra's agents wore white.
He then saw Aunt Sheila frowning. "Ram?" she mouthed.
He nodded.
"How?"
"Twins?"
She frowned, but nodded. She pointed at Vama and their surroundings and gave him a meaningful stare.
Ram nodded, then focused on not exposing to others that he was conscious.
He just watched as they projected one image after another.
The first one was that of the guards surrounding The Spire of Bharghav's. They wore dark green Ninja Overalls, completely different from Bhumi and her friend's black.
That explained the rebel group that Bhumi and her friend's belonged to who were against Bharghav's decision to not fight Chitra and her father and who took it in their own hands to wage war against them in small scale.
The guards in dark green Ninja Overalls were standing stiff, holding staffs in their hands instead of spear like he had seen in the hands of Bhumi and her friends.
Next projection was that of a giant hallway filled with sitting arrangements that looked comfortable enough even from just the projection. Each of sitting area was occupied with many Living Souls. They were looking eagerly at something in front of them. It was not covered by the current projection.
The next one revealed what they were looking into. It was that of Bharghav standing in front of the living souls, raising his right hand and giving some speech.
Next projection included both Bharghav and the crowd, who seemed to be cheering and roused from Bharghav's speech.
The projections that appeared later included spiral stairways connecting the various floors of The Spire, a vast library occupied one entire floor, one floor occupied by Dark Green colored Ninja Overalls that were somehow different from the ones guarding The Spire. They seemed to be training with their staffs along with their partners.
The next one was that of a garden with mini waterfall. The next one was that of an entertainment area. On and on it went before finally stopping at the entrance of a single circular room occupied an entire floor. "This is where Bharghav would retire at the end of the day. And it was believed that he would keep his precious items over there. The only ones who has access to this area was himself and his daughter, who we don't know what she looked like or even where in The Spire she was staying. But we know for sure that she stays inside The Spire.
"We tried sending many of our spies over there to see what was inside of the room. But nobody returned from there. It was secretive and we believe it was where Bharghav keeps The Soul Bead. And your mission was to get inside The Room, search for The Soul Bead and if you find it, return back to our meeting point with it," Vama said.
Ram frowned. He shared his doubts with Em. "If none of your trained spies are able to come out of it alive, then what makes you believe that we could achieve where they have failed?" Em asked.
Vama chuckled. "With the powers both of you displayed back at Manish's Lab when you acted as if you were Siraj. You shape shift into something tiny and enter the room. You search the place for The Soul Bead. You know the rest of our plan," he said.
Ram still thought that it was very difficult. He didn't think he could actually pull it off. He shared his doubts to Em once again. "What if we failed to locate The Soul Bead?" she asked.
Vama turned serious. "Then it could possibly be place din only one location that was even more secret and heavily guarded than Bharghav's. It's believed that in case if The Spire was attacked, Bharghav built this room so that only his daughter has access to it. And no one else. You will have to improvise and search for The Soul Bead inside that room. We don't care how you do it, but if you failed to get The Soul Bead, your aunt's life was in danger. Since she cannot shape shift, she will be under 'protection' of our agents. If you were to do something funny, we will make sure that she will not come out of it alive," he said.
Ram was so angry that he wanted to kill Vama then and there itself.
Aunt Sheila shook her head.
Ram controlled himself.
Aunt Sheila chuckled. "Don't worry about me, you focus on finding The Soul Bead. Listen to Em and I am sure that you will get your hands on it one way or another," Aunt Sheila said.
"What if I don't get it? What if they harm you?" he mouthed the words back.
Aunt Sheila gave him a meaningful smile. "You would be surprised what was going to happen. Trust in me. I can save myself," she said.
Ram sighed and nodded.
Their senses were once again blocked, but Ram was able to see echoes of his surroundings in his Mind World. It was not as disorienting and nauseous as he felt during the first time. He was still standing as they stepped out of the portal and Vama removed the block they placed on their senses.
Ram gasped as he saw The Giant Spire in front of him.