Tantrics Of Old

by Bhattacharya, Krishnarjun

  ‘Adri,’ Maya said. ‘Thank you.’

  Adri looked at her expressionlessly. ‘You were my responsibility,’ he spoke simply.

  ‘Yeah,’ she said, still smiling. ‘And I screwed up big time.’

  ‘You were stupid,’ Adri agreed. ‘But we’ve come a long way from there and a lot of things have happened. And right now, you’re okay and I guess that’s what’s important.’

  Maya looked at the floor. ‘I would like you to know some things,’ she said.

  ‘You do not need to explain anything to me,’ Adri said.

  ‘No,’ Maya said, looking at him again. ‘There are some things you should know.’

  Adri and Maya moved to another part of the roof and sat down.

  ‘What has she been through?’ Gray asked. ‘What made her change?’

  ‘You should understand, Gray, that your sister has seen something about Adri while she was in her coma. And that has made the fatiya want to stay on with him right now.’

  ‘But that means even you’ll stay on!’ Gray exclaimed. ‘And me,’ he added.

  ‘Correct,’ Fayne said.

  ‘I want to leave! I want to leave this place and these insecurities! I don’t care about anything—my camera is still lying in that bloody forest in my bag. I don’t even need that anymore. I want to go home; can’t Maya understand that? She should have had enough by now, of all people!’

  ‘If the Apocalypse does happen, myrkho—New Kolkata will not be spared. Nothing will be,’ Fayne said.

  Gray looked at him with distaste. ‘Whose side are you on?’

  ‘I will of course, protect the fatiya until the charge is lifted from me,’ the assassin replied.

  ‘No, I didn’t mean that so literally, you idiot.’

  ‘I do not take very kindly to being insulted,’ Fayne said, sounding ruffled.

  ‘Sorry, sorry!’ Gray exclaimed nervously.

  ‘I am so sorry,’ Maya said as genuinely as she could sound.

  ‘You read my diaries?’ Adri asked again, not being able to believe what he was hearing.

  ‘I know it’s a really bad thing to do. I’m extremely sorry.’

  Adri stared at Maya, all sorts of thoughts going through his head. Then he burst out laughing. Maya panicked, not knowing what to think as Adri laughed and laughed, and laughed some more. Maya tried to laugh along, but she couldn’t. Adri recovered, gasping for breath, and turned to her.

  ‘A student of Demonology from Jadavpur now knows more about me than my own father?’ he asked, laughing again. ‘I mean, I’ve tried to guard my past so well, and all the time I never thought someone could just waltz into my house with me and take my diaries to read.’

  ‘I know it’s not done,’ Maya said. ‘But I didn’t trust you at all back then.’

  Adri stopped laughing. ‘So you trust me now?’

  ‘I know who you are,’ Maya said, looking down. ‘I admit I read the diaries by choice, but the visions, I did not have any choice but to watch them.’

  ‘Those visions you had, they are exactly what happened in my past,’ Adri said quietly. ‘You saw the world exactly as I saw it back then.’

  ‘You know why they happened?’ a surprised Maya asked.

  ‘Yes and no,’ Adri said. ‘The Dreamer’s Brew, which kept you alive all this while, had one ingredient which must be added secretly. It is a personal ingredient, and not one that is announced. A drop of blood; the one I added was mine.’

  Maya stared.

  ‘If I had known you’d read my diaries, I wouldn’t have added my own blood, but I reasoned that it was the safest thing to do as you knew about me the least. Thus the dreams you would have would be minimal, the brew would mostly keep you in an endless sleep. I did not add Gray’s blood as there would be too many memories of his past, maybe things you wouldn’t not want to see, or he wouldn’t want you to. And yet this is debated; the Dreamer’s Brew is a mysterious concoction, and the effects of the blood have never been fully defined. I could never know what it would be that you would see, if at all. Guesses were all I had. But going by what you said—you must know a lot about me by now.’

  ‘An awful lot,’ Maya said. ‘I wish I could keep apologising, Adri.’

  ‘No, it’s good to see that you’re up. No more apologies. You’re going home now with your brother and your personal bodyguard.’

  ‘What?’ Maya cried out.

  ‘Listen to me before you start protesting,’ Adri said. ‘There are dangers ahead that you cannot possibly comprehend. After all I’ve done to save you I cannot risk you to danger again.’

  ‘Then you might as well have hired Fayne,’ Maya said. Her attitude had changed completely in seconds. A stubborn light shone in her eyes as she looked at Adri. ‘You had sworn to protect me, Adri, and you honoured that. And for that I thank you. But if you think I will abandon you after all you’ve done for me, you’re wrong.’

  ‘It’s not about abandoning. The Old City—you’re not supposed to be here.’

  ‘I don’t remember you saying that when you needed us to go with you for your own reasons,’ Maya said.

  ‘It’s true that I needed you to come along,’ Adri said. ‘But I never thought back then that the city was like this, like a ticking bomb ready to explode. I did not know that it had changed in its danger, or perhaps the years had made me forget. If I had known, I would have reconsidered.’

  ‘Then where are we supposed to go, Adri? Are we supposed to leave everything on your shoulders and go back to New Kolkata and wait for the Apocalypse to find out whether you survived the Horseman or not? I know who you are, Adri Sen. I have followed you around, I have watched you sleep, I have walked a thousand kilometres with you. Don’t you try and push yourself into a heroic self-sacrifice here. You deserve better than that.’

  Adri stared at her.

  ‘You have more than one enemy, Adri,’ Maya said. ‘I’d say it’s about time you figured out who your allies are.’

  In unconsciousness, Maya always had a sense of where she was going, where she was being taken. It was unlike being asleep or in a coma; this feeling was much more real, and it proved to be remarkably accurate as well. The only thing was that it all came to her immediately on her waking up—places they had travelled to, snatches of conversations around her, what she had smelled, and the taste of the liquid food they had poured down her throat. She took a while after waking up to assimilate everything; her mind hurt terribly still, but she was alive. Gray summed up what had happened while she had been gone, and the more she heard about what the Tantric had been up to, the more in awe and shock she went into, even after knowing that someone like Adri was perfectly capable of experiencing phenomena like he did.

  The entire existence of Fayne was a shock to her as well—apart from having no clue as to who would pay for her protection, she was very uncomfortable with the idea of a bodyguard. Fayne became more alert about where she went ever since she woke up; Maya knew and resented that. She, however, made it clear to Gray that she was staying with Adri as he investigated things further. She was not going to be one to run away after all Adri had done; though Gray, somewhere within, knew that she was right, he was still disappointed. He had been thinking of home.

  Maya got to know about Adri’s next objective, and without hesitation she decided to support him. No longer would she question Adri where he did not need to be questioned. No, what Adri needed was reassurance, and she would try and be there for him.

  ‘I’m going to kill Death,’ Adri said. ‘It isn’t going to be easy, and it definitely might have collateral damage. I want you to understand that and then think about this.’

  Maya nodded. ‘I have already been told what your plans are,’ she said. ‘And I’ll come with you, even if I only stand and watch when you take on the Horseman. If he is threatening to bring in a new age of terror, then you’re right. There is no other way.’

  ‘And how do you propose to kill the Horseman?’ Gray asked. ‘Last I checked, the mad Tant
ric was going on about how they are not a foe you can beat.’

  ‘I repeat myself,’ Adri said. ‘If Death is not immortal, I will kill it. Kali talked about the cave of Pestilence beneath the Howrah Bridge. I think we should move.’

  Everyone nodded, except Gray. They had packed supplies for a short duration on Natasha’s orders. They picked those up now and slung the bags across their shoulders as they left. Before they left, Adri took Natasha aside.

  ‘Nat,’ he said. ‘There is something I must tell you.’

  Natasha smiled. ‘Don’t say something stupid, Sen.’

  ‘There was a guy in our Tantric batch, same year. His name was Aman.’

  Natasha’s face scrunched up as she tried to remember. ‘Aman, Aman. I can’t really place him, sounds vaguely familiar. What about him?’

  Adri looked at Natasha. ‘He was in love with you,’ he said.

  ‘What?’ Natasha cried in surprise.

  ‘He was, and then he died. A Demon got him. But his spirit could not move on because he was still attached to you.’

  ‘Good God,’ Natasha said. ‘I had no idea.’

  ‘I bound the spirit from telling you what he wanted to. And slowly, I helped him pass onto the next Plane. He’s long gone, but I wanted you to know. He was a good friend to me, once.’

  Natasha could only nod softly, not knowing what to say.

  ‘Sorry to have to tell you this. But—’

  ‘Thanks for telling me,’ Natasha said, shaking her head. ‘And thank you for helping him move on.’

  Adri nodded. ‘Thank you for everything. You helped me save a life, and I owe you.’

  ‘You owe a lot of people, Sen,’ Natasha said, a ghost of a smile on her lips. ‘Now get out of here.’

  Adri smiled and lit a cigarette as he walked out. They walked down a couple of side alleys until they reached the main road and began to follow it towards the Bridge.

  ‘You want to quickly let the Wraith go? I mean his graveyard should be somewhere around here right?’ Gray said when they passed a lone coffin by the side of the road.

  Adri was silent. They kept walking.

  Maya looked at everything around her in a new light. She had seen a lot of these places in Adri’s memories, and now everything had changed, everything was deserted. They were the only ones on the road now, walking. The Devil Mask had escaped the night before, and if it had not found a host, it was probably dead. The presence of a Necrotic had a direct effect on the revenant; no longer fuelled by the creature, they were not visible like before. Adri only glimpsed the occasional revenant, dragging itself sadly down a random alley

  The Bridge wasn’t far. They had a new objective now, and Maya was perhaps the only one whose resolve was freshest; even Adri was beginning to have doubts despite himself. But he could not give up and he knew that. Not without trying. As they reached the Bridge, Adri thought about his father and what could have possibly happened to Smith who’d been tracking him. There had been no news from Smith since they had last seen him, and Adri did not have a messenger dragonfly with him. He hoped Smith was all right, but the change in the city’s mood seemed to be an ill omen. Even the sun could not stay for long, as clouds began to gather, the sky darkening.

  ‘Wait,’ Fayne said suddenly, stopping. Everyone stopped and looked where Fayne was looking. The Howrah Bridge was very close now, and there was something on the Bridge looking at them.

  ‘What is that?’ Maya asked, squinting.

  ‘A Demon,’ Fayne said. ‘It’s watching us.’

  They stopped and looked at the figure, small in the distance, standing on the edge of the bridge. Then in a moment’s blink, it was gone.

  ‘Someone blinked,’ Adri said. Fayne nodded quietly. Adri looked at the sibling’s confused faces and explained. ‘Blinking is a powerful form of magic that not many creatures are capable of; it’s something that takes a high level of magical power to pull off. It gives one the ability to teleport over short distances, provided someone looking at the teleporter blinks his eyes.’

  ‘What?’ Gray exclaimed. ‘If we hadn’t blinked the creature couldn’t have teleported?’

  ‘Yes. That’s how it works. In the moment that you close your eyes, the user gets his opportunity to make the visual jump. Short distances only, but that Demon is now gone.’

  ‘Yeteyer. I don’t like this,’ Fayne said. ‘We should be more careful from now.’

  ‘When I tell everyone to stare from now, no one blinks their eyes,’ Adri said darkly. ‘If that Demon can blink, it’s dangerous.’

  They moved slowly, cautiously, but were not interrupted or attacked. Fayne was more alert than anyone had ever seen him be. The usually calm assassin was positively jumpy now, increasing the sense of threat and danger and suitably scaring the siblings. ‘Kali did not mention which side the cave was on,’ Gray said after a while. They had taken a small mud road after the buildings gradually ended and were walking through an abandoned slum towards the base of the Bridge.

  ‘We might have to cross the Bridge, then.’

  Adri nodded. ‘That will not be easy. We’ll be sitting ducks for anything that might be stalking us.’

  They were, however, in luck. As they crossed the slum and reached the River bank, they could see the black outline of a cave carved into a large rock beneath the Bridge. Beside them lay the mighty Ganga—unaffected and unperturbed by all that was happening in the Old City, continuing to flow with all its power. There were no ferries, no fishermen. A couple of abandoned boats floated in the current, held in place by ropes. They walked slowly towards the cave, looking up at the imposing, powerful Howrah Bridge, standing guard over this part of Old Kolkata, one of the largest magical hubs in the Old City.

  ‘That is how Pestilence can hide his aura,’ Adri said. ‘By living beneath the Bridge it won’t be detected by outsiders, or the government. The Bridge sends out too much magic, completely overshadowing the Horseman.’

  ‘Why will Pestilence help you?’ Maya asked.

  ‘I don’t know,’ Adri said.

  ‘Are you sure big brother Death won’t be visiting him?’ Gray asked nervously.

  ‘I don’t think they can meet each other while the seals are unbroken,’ Adri replied. ‘At least, that’s what the theory is behind a seal curse.’

  Adri began feeling a new vibe as they approached the cave. A new, powerful, magical vibe, one he had never felt before in his life. It did not radiate of power like Death’s, but had a different taste to it. It spoke to him of hidden things and secrets.

  ‘Curious,’ Adri mumbled.

  He had the shooter he had been using, outfitted with holy rounds, but he knew he could not possibly battle the Horseman if things got out of hand. No, it would be best to go in unarmed. And alone. They stood in front of the cave now. It was dark and silent, and nothing seemed to exist beyond its doorway. It was large, large enough for any Demon to enter, yet unnoticeable from a distance, almost camouflaged among the other large rocks which were around it. This was where the second Horseman lived.

  Adri handed Gray his shooter and took off his supply bag. ‘I have to go alone,’ he said. Maya was about to protest, but he caught her eye before she could. ‘I have to.’ She looked at him, and finally nodded. Adri looked up at the sky. The sun was hidden, and dark clouds were gathering, faster than before. Taking a deep breath, he entered the cave.

  Complete darkness greeted him. He took a small step, testing the footing the ground offered—solid rock, stable. Slowly, he began to walk, one hand on a wall for guidance. Spirit vision was always an easy way out, but now Adri did not want to have anything to do with the Wraith. He did not have to bear the darkness for long, however. Soon, a faint light appeared in the tunnel, and he realised that he had been on a gentle slope, going downwards. He walked faster now, as his eyes got accustomed to the light. Then he saw the torch. Wall mounted, magical fire burning within. He passed it and walked on, crossing another similar torch a while later.

  His b
ody began to itch slowly, everything except the right arm. He stopped and scratched—the itching flared up, then ebbed, but did not leave. He looked at his hand in the light of the next torch and drew a sharp breath; it was covered in an angry red rash. Then, before his very eyes, his fingernails started to grow slowly and a general tiredness crept in.

  ‘What’s happening?’ he mumbled.

  Nothing good, the Wraith said. Get a move on, and hurry, fool.

  Angry as he was at the Wraith, the advice was sound. Adri started walking faster as the itchiness slowly spread to his scalp. He scratched his hair, and a clump of hair came away in his fist. He was losing hair. He started running now; the tunnel went on and on and on, as did the torches.

  ‘Where is the end?’ Adri shouted, running.

  He felt his face. Boils. The panic in him rose. He nails were quite long now, which helped him scratch himself all over, but he was horrified with what was happening to him. He ran on and on, then finally saw the door. He ran into the door, pushing it and hoping it would open. It stood firm. He took a step back and observed it in the light of the torch above it—a door cut directly out of the bark of some great, ancient tree. It looked tremendously heavy, with gnarled texture and millions of lines across it. It had no knocker. Adri used his right hand to knock, and was surprised momentarily by how strong his armoured hand was as he thumped on the door loudly and audibly. The sound resonated in the tunnel for a while. Then silence. Adri was going to knock again when the door swung open on its own accord, softly, soundlessly. Adri peeped inside, and then entered.

  He was now in a large circular room, well lit by over twenty to thirty torches burning fiercely. He looked around, ignoring the burning that had now started in his skin. This was some kind of a laboratory. Crystal beakers and test tubes filled the shelves along the walls, every single one sporting its own shade of liquid and gas. There were no labels or notes or files to be seen anywhere—the Horseman seemed to commit everything to memory. The room was wooden, as was the floor, and apart from tables filled with more equipment, more burners, beakers, and devices Adri had no possibility of recognising, there was nothing else in the room other than a large throne at the far end. A throne made of pure crystal, glimmering like a million diamonds in the firelight.