After about 30 minutes, the girl he met at the Enbo emporium started to walk towards the altar. She walked towards the altar with a confident look on her face. She sat down, and unlike others, she sat for a longer time when the dance of lights began. Post which, she started to get up, and one of the bottles which had a yellowish liquid inside it came towards her. She collected the vial, drank it, and walked towards the chamber as instructed earlier.
There were two more people with her who had drawn his attention, as they also had similar-looking bottles but with a lighter shade of yellow and green. He understood that it may have something to do with the light and healing aspects, but it's just speculation on his part. After a while, his turn comes, and Shuchi nods at him to walk towards the altar.
While Raghu is walking towards the altar, Shuchi is lost in her thoughts. She is actually disappointed with the lot this time. There aren't many talented in this lot; only a few of them are above average. The lot last time was much more developed and had better traits. She is observing the others that are currently in chambers undergoing a transformation and invoking their potential and linking to their elements. She is observing 10 people whom she believes would have good potential than others, especially the girl with that dusky complexion and oval face. She is a sneaky one, she thought.
Raghu has reached the altar, appreciating the mystique and grandeur of the altar, he sits at the spot. He feels an immense force pulling him towards the altar; he feels that his soul is calling out to something. Then something happens that leaves him absolutely speechless and flabbergasted. He has appeared in a place where there are only mountains, completely surrounded by snow. He can hardly see anything as everything is foggy and white.
He does not know what to do as he is also totally confused about what is happening. Suddenly he feels that his body is moving towards the top of the mountain; he can feel the elevation increasing, and the strain on his body increases. But he can't do anything as his body is moving on its own, and he is having no control over his own body. He is feeling like a third wheel in his own body. After walking for what seemed like eternity to him, he arrives at the mountain top. What he sees their surprises him even more; there is a huge lake surrounded by trees on all sides covered with snow.
The setting is so serene and calming; he feels like he can just sit here for the rest of his life admiring the lake and the scenery. He then spots a lady of unnatural beauty sitting there at one end of the lake, having her back against one of the trees and relaxing there. There are several wolf-like creatures surrounding her. She seems to be not minding them as they are all sleeping soundly around her.
He is trying to remember where he has seen these creatures, and that's when he realizes he read about them in scrolls; they are from a lost bloodline of golden white-furred jackals. From what he read; they were erased from history about 2000 years back. Observing his body is still not showing any signs of slowing down as he walks towards the lady and jackals. He eventually arrives at the end of the lake where she is sitting, and his body suddenly feels immense pressure directed at him.
Now he understands that he could never have walked towards her if he was the one controlling his body. She looks at him with interest and says something, but he can't understand her. Sensing he can't understand her in his current body, she bends down and starts touching the sleeping jackal tenderly, waking him from his sleep by using her fingers to glide through the thick fur near the belly of the jackal.
He wakes up and, as if worshipping her, touches her head on her feet and then looks at Raghu. The lady whispers something in his ears, and suddenly he turns ethereal, followed by a burst of light that enters Raghu's body. He has an overwhelming feeling of suddenly being filled with so much power that he feels like his body will explode, but nothing of that sort happens. After about 10 minutes of experiencing this immense power, his body returns to normal.
What he does not get to know is his right forearm now has a tattoo of a jackal, and it looks very real. When Raghu senses he can feel his body again, the lady looks at him and speaks again. But this time, to his amazement, he can understand her words. "You know you are the 3rd person to come here since the founding of the realms. There are not many that resonate with my divinity or can understand the nature of my powers.
What's your name, child, and from which realm have you arrived?" she asks him. Raghu, who still can't comprehend what's going on, answers her genuinely, feeling no need to hide anything. He tells her that it's his first initiation, and he just arrived at the first station of the train in the 14th realm. He just sat at that altar, and he arrived here somehow.
For some reason, he can't comprehend, he feels inclined to tell this lady everything about his life, and he tells her all about his life before being chosen as the sacrifice and then finding about the train and realms through one of his Commanding Officers he was serving under. She listens all intently as he pours his heart out to her and smiles brightly, with a smile that could light up universe, at least that's what he feels.
She speaks again, "Good. Now that I have an idea what the Fates have planned, child as you have arrived here, I have gifted you one of my favorite beasts. You can name him whatever you want; he will be bound to your soul and will serve you till you are alive. He has a noble bloodline and will help you climb the realms. As you've been through a lot, I will grant you one more thing. I say that not because I pity your suffering but because you need to understand life is a suffering ,one which you need to go through to grow and progress, you must strive to live on. I see that you are operating on autopilot with no will to go further, nor do you strive for anything. Why is that?"
The question baffles him, reminding him of his life's greatest blunder. He tells her that he feels that all his life, he thought as long as he had the intellect and will, he could achieve anything. But his thinking was proven wrong when she died. No amount of intellect or will could reverse her death. What was the point of working hard and proving yourself if you can't even protect one person that cared for you? So, I see no point in even going on with this whole fiasco.
The only reason I even agreed to climb the train was that I was forced and wanted to repay the favor Shaw had just done to him. I plan to find his brother and settle down in the realm wherever I find him and go no further. She observes him and finding no lies, she believes that it is time to give him a reason. "You know the one you feel is lost to time is actually in the 3rd realm. She is imprisoned there by the Lion's tribe. They took her away as she betrayed them 150 years ago and fled to the 14th realm. She hid there for all this years before they found her and took her back to the tribe to be punished for her crimes and is currently imprisoned."