As much as Onish wanted to be alone in his chamber, he had to meet his father and the two guests from the capital first. So he trudged behind his mother unwillingly to the dining hall.
The dining hall seemed naked, having its tapestries put down. A handful of maids were scurrying here and there. The great hall was almost empty with his father and five more people. He didn't recognize any of them, but the person who piqued his interest was the red-haired young man sitting beside a man past fifty.
As if sensing his gaze, the young man looked up at him. A look of surprise flashed in his sapphire blue eyes, but he concealed it quickly. He averted his gaze towards Lady Padma. However, it was the red-haired man's aura that had stirred Onish's interest. It was uncannily similar to Amora, the house anima.
"Old Rufaro, meet my wife Padma." Oman's face brightened up as his eyes fell upon the approaching figures. Onish saw relief swept over his concerned face as he rose to his feet to take Padma's hand. "Padma, he is Rufaro, one of the best spiritualists of the nine Mahajapadas."
"I had heard about your beauty, my lady." The old man said, looking enchanted by the lady's beauty, "But now I know they were not the least bit exaggerated."
Padma's face took a pinkish tinge as she exchanged the courtesies. The mother and son took their seats on either side of Oman.
"And I think this young man is the fruit of your love." Rufaro asked, giving Onish an appraising look.
"Yes, this is Ishit my youngest son." Oman said with a blissful look. Despite all the troubles he was facing these days, he felt exalted after sensing the spirit dancing around his son.
"I see the spirit caressing him like a mother. The boy would outshine you, my friend." said the old man.
"Ha..ha .. we would see." Oman chuckled as he beckoned to the waiting maids to serve the dinner.
"So, where are you sending him? I know your prejudice about the royal academy." asked Rufaro, eyeing the steaming meal before him.
"We haven't decided yet." Oman averted his gaze. He couldn't let anyone know about the lad's untimely awakening, not now when Aslan was feeling so edgy and uncanny things happening around him. "You know his illness and all."
"Yes, you've mentioned the strange malady at our last meeting. By the way, you know Lemora has returned to Sursena." said Rufaro, "And if the lad has inherited your path the odd-eyed would be the best mentor. So consider it. And send me a bird if you need my help."
"Yes...yes ..sure I will." Oman said as he requested his guests to dig into the delicious meal cooked with the best ingredients available in Garuna, the southern province.
Soon the hall filled with the clanging sound of spoons, forks, and goblets brimming with the best wine brewed with ember-bee honey.
Onish ate his vegan meal consisting of roasted potato, fresh corn, pepper, creamy black beans, and the flavor bomb, spicy green sauce. He savored the alien taste ignoring Cole, the red-haired young man's stealing glances. The bubbly dark red liquor in his goblet was brewed with the spirit- fruits and had an aroma of apple, stone-fruit, and red berries. Onish, who had led a hermit life, found the non-alcoholic drink quite tempting.
He realized the food was not ordinary. He could sense his body filled with the spirit and pranic energy just after a few morsels and three sups from the goblets.
The awakening of his nadis had opened a new world to him. He could sense the spirit like the air around him, responding to his thoughts. However, he didn't know how to use it as a spirit wielder.
Suddenly, Onish felt something brushing him, the feather-light touch tracing his neck. He touched his neck but found nothing. However, the feeling persisted. Bewildered, he commanded the spirit to rub his neck while he savored his meal.
For his relief, the weird feeling vanished.
"What happened, Cole?" Rufaro asked the red-haired man. "You looked flushed. Don't drink too much. We have to leave for Atlantia at the first light tomorrow."
"I know, Sire." Cole said his face was going red like his hair. "It just I don't go well with southern cooking." He tried to force the erupted spirit down, wondering who had cut off his spirit eyes. He saw no other spiritualist in the hall, and even if any was hiding somewhere. Cole was confident enough none could sense his self devised spying eyes. It must have been an accident. Anyway, he knew their plan had failed. The young lord of Minaak could wield the spirit. He had to warn his lord's father as soon as possible.
After dinner, Onish left the room with his father's permission. He had too many thoughts in his mind to sort out. Besides, he had his training session with Bhadra early in the morning. Lady Padma had informed him on their way home from the white castle.
They wouldn't send him to the elementary academy. The mysterious hooded fowler would train him till they found out what was his path. Onish didn't like the idea too much. He needed the scrolls of the spirit academy so that he could seek the remedy for his damaged soul. He doubted the fowler could help him in this regard.
However, he didn't voice out his thoughts and decided to wait for some time. And it was better this way as his knowledge of this world was still paltry; he needed someone to spoon-feed everything. But again, Was Bhadra, a fitting person for this job? He doubted his parents' decision.
Onish's chamber was in the northern part of the castle across the small yard. Glowing vines, strange to Onish, were dangling from the overhanging eaves, preventing the pale moon from peeking into the chamber.
When Onish paused open his door, he was startled to find a strange figure sitting on the rocking chair, with saliva drooling from his gaped mouth. The sound of shuffling feet jolted awake the printed-skinned creature. It hurriedly rose to its feet, wiping saliva with the sleeve of the creamy gown. Onish took two steps back, racing his brain should he call for help. He had never seen such a creature before.
"Sorry, Sire , for intruding in your chamber so late at night. But Villi couldn't help." said the creature; his large eyes looked at him innocently.
"Who are you and what are you doing in my chamber?." Onish demanded, eying the creature warily.
"Ah! I'm Villy the bookling, Sire. Most wise and learned bookling of the Old Archive." The creature raised his pointed chin as he introduced himself. "I could stay awake almost two hours without reading a scroll. Even Toshi praised ..." He clutched his wrinkled mouth with his gnarled hands, looking at Onish with wide eyes.
Onish let go of the spirit. The creature wore no ill will towards him. But he didn't know what it was spouting.
"You didn't tell me why you're here, Mr. Villy." He asked in a less severe tone. As he walked over to his bed to pick up the dropped books he had borrowed from Guha. The maid must have knocked them down.
"Ah ! Sorry sire. Villy is silly. He forgot." The creature said in his baby-like voice, "Someone , but not Toshi, had sent this letter for you." Villi took out a leaf from his baggy gown and handed it to Onish, looking worried. "Remember sire, It can be anyone but Toshi," he added.
Onish didn't know what he should say to this wisest bookling.
"Ok, I got it was not Toshi who sent it." Onish reassured the anxious bookling as he took the colorful leaf of the shape of red maple. He glanced at it. There was no message except the fine veins. Puzzled, he looked up to ask the dwarf. The room was empty. He had gone, and with him gone the two books.
It took Onish a while to conceive the simple truth that he had been fooled. The dwarf was a book thief. How foolish he could be to trust a strange creature! Onish shook his head. It was not that he was a fool; the dwarf was an expert at hiding his true nature from Onish's instinct. He truly needed a good tutor to teach him about this world's uncanniness.
He looked at the leaf again; except for its pretty color, it was an ordinary leaf. He placed it on the table with a sigh.
Now what he would tell Guha when he would ask for his books back.
After pulling off his dress, he washed his face and sat down on the floor in the padmasana (lotus position).
He checked his invisible nadis, tracing them with his spiritual sense. The spirit was gushing in his body, filling his chakra to the brim, but he didn't know what to do with the energy. He circulated it through nadis, and again a soothing sensation swept over him.
And then came the funny feeling he was not in the room but in some other place with his body fully exposed to wind.
Onish shivered as the feeling deepened. He stopped the spirit at once. And the feeling subsided.
What it was, he wondered. The only experience that could come close to it was the awakening of a third eye. He could recall the strange feeling he had when it happened to him.
The intangible time became as tangible as the other three dimensions. He felt exposed as if someone had broken down the wall that had sheltered him for eons. The paths appeared before him, one to the future and the other to the past. His mind would have collapsed if the Vedas, Puranas, and his guru had not described the alien state. He felt as though he was living in all three 'times' (present, past, future) at once.
It took him quite a while to adjust his Chita (mind) so that he could stay in only one time.
The experience he had just got was a little different. It was like being at two places at once. Though he had done this before, it was with the help of another body. Yogi, who could control panchabhoota ( five elements), could forge multiple gross bodies and be present at different places simultaneously.
However, being at two different places with the same body was unheard of. He wrecked his brain to find an anecdote or tale mentioned in Vedas or Puranas concerning the odd happening. But he couldn't, except the story of Lord Kartikeya, the eldest son of Lord Shiva.
Once Kartikey was playing alone in a forest when he saw a large tawny cat following him quietly. The general of Deva's army didn't like the cat's conduct. He tried to shoo the animal away. But it didn't buzz. So he took a stick and gently hit it to frighten the bold cat. The animal finally ran away mewing.
When Kartikey returned home in the evening, He saw his mother, Ma Parvati. Her face had a red scare as if someone had hit her face with a thin, flexible stick. Enraged, he asked his mother the name of the evildoer.
The divine mother smiled and said, it was you, my child. Seeing him baffled by her reply, Goddess, then, reminded him of his misdeed and told him it was her in the form of the cat.
The rest was the tale of how the small incident made Kartikey take an oath never to marry as his mother was present in every female.
However, this incident didn't explain Onish's odd experience.
The interlude had buzzed sages' minds for eons, how Ma Parvati had managed to be present at two places at once. As the injury to one gross body would not inflict on the original one. So she must have been present at the two places in her original gross body.
Onish stopped himself from pondering further. It was already midnight, and he must not be late for his training session. The incident with the dwarf had taught him a lesson that if he wanted to survive in this strange world, he must learn its ways. He gave a quick look at his chakras.
The blue pearl in his heart chakra was glowing faintly, still unresponding to his probing.
Onish pulled back his awareness and decided to have some rest. It was really a long day.