It had been three days of exhaustive practicing. Kripa had taught him the ways of Channelling and learning from the predecessors, the ones who had ingested Soma. Kripa had told Kalki that the souls of the Avatars were connected, even though they were no longer manifest physically on the planet. By concentrating and channelling his faculties, he would be able to tap into the resources of common experiences that had been passed down through the ages.

Kalki sat in penance and it was worse. He’d get bored and he’d open his eyes, lie down and watch the skies. And sometimes, when things wouldn’t turn out the way it was supposed to, he’d feel it was a waste of time. But this is not how it was supposed to be. He should have been practicing like the others, learning different combat techniques rather than sitting cross-legged with closed eyes.

And he sat again today, waiting. It had been an hour when things around him began to feel like they were dissolving. His eyes were closed, but he felt he was no longer on land. He opened his eyes and there it was. Darkness. All over the place. It had engulfed him, and tossed him from his familiar terrain into this dark oblivion. His heart raced as he wanted to escape this place, when suddenly, he was instantly plunged forward.

Things were blurry. There was a hut. There was a huge flying bird on top and that was when Kalki realized it wasn’t a bird, but a machine from way behind its time. A mustached man exited from the mechanical bird.

He was again plunged somewhere else, in the forest, perhaps the same one where he saw a man with matted hair, shooting an arrow.

“Well done, Raghav.” A man walked alongside the man named Raghav, and patted him on the shoulder.

Kalki collapsed to find himself in a wasteland now. A peacock-feathered man, rushing and sprinting against the field, with a volley of arrows bearing down over him, as he dodged. In retaliation, he pulled out a chakra, and threw it across. It went straight towards Kalki and he closed his eyes in fear. When he opened it, he found himself again in a different setting, this time in a colder region, perhaps somewhere in the mountains.

“I am surprised to see you here, honestly.”

Kalki turned at the voice. Sitting, cross-legged, on a slab of ice was a man with a long beard and matted hair, with a huge axe mounted at his back. He was wearing a tiger skin around his lower body. Kalki felt cold, but the man seemed impervious to the elements.

“How are you surviving in such w-w-weather?” Kalki shivered.

“You are not feeling cold. You are thinking you are feeling cold,” the figure said. “This is a dream state. This is unreal, all of it. At a snap of a second, you can wake up. You are in meditational yoga.”

Kalki still felt cold. What was this man honestly trying to say?

“Who are you?”

“You,” he said, standing up on his feet. “Years back, I was you. I was the sixth one.”

Kalki automatically let his mouth run, “Lord Bhargav Ram,” and then he knelt down in respect.

“Impressive. Your Channelling powers are indeed working.”

“How am I able to communicate with you and not the others?”

“Those are snapshots,” Lord Bhargav said, “of history, of what happened. Those are your previous selves as well, but you can also connect with them if you really try. But I am real, alive, and waiting for you in the flesh.”

“You are Kripa’s accomplice, are you not?”

Lord Bhargav nodded. “I do not surround myself with the best company, but I do not have many on my side. Maruti has left me to protect his own…”

“Maruti?”

“You might know him as Lord Bajrang.”

Of course! Kalki had read about him in the Gurukul, how he had helped Lord Raghav in defending against a Rakshas, who was still a Tribal back then. They were all Gods now, in his time.

“You are saying I’m all of them?”

“Yes, you are part of a bigger picture, and we are all part of Lord Narayan, who has given us the power that we needed.”

Kalki shook his head. “Kripacharya said that the fact that we got Soma was our choice and Lord Govind had said to stop the Soma so that others couldn’t be turned mad. He said all of it as if it was scientific, but you say it as if it was meant to be, as if it were all premeditated.”

“Kripacharya is a non-believer when it comes to destiny. Yes. Practically speaking, we aren’t same. We were all mistakenly or intentionally exposed to Soma, in some way or the other. But I believe we were exposed for a greater cause, for our time. Just because one person doesn’t believe it, he has no right to impose any restrictions on the other person as well,” Bhargav smiled. “So tell me, what do you believe in?”

Kalki was quiet, contemplating, choosing his words carefully for he was dealing with a strange man who could meet him in his dreams. He was tall, brusque and hard, with veins protruding in his arms, his eyes bulging and his chest flexing. He was old evidently, but he was strong as a rock.

“I haven’t figured it out.”

“It is because you have not seen the world. You live in your nest, but once you come out, you’ll get the answers of who we are—whether we were bestowed or whether we were just mistakes.”

Kalki narrowed his eyes. “All the other Avatars like us have died. How come you didn’t?”

Bhargav went silent. “I would prefer to tell you when you come and meet me. These answers can be understood when you have learnt and lost enough…” and his words trailed off, as he turned to face a visceral image of a woman watching over him.

And with a mighty slap across his cheek, Kalki came into his senses and realized he wasn’t seeing any image, but was back to where he had been—amongst shrubs and twigs, concealed by the canopy. The sun was bright and there was no trace of the bone-chilling cold. Everything had felt so unreal and real at the same time. He could feel his fingertips were cold as ice. There was another smack and Kalki woke up from the delirious dream, watching his hands.

“What in the heavens are you doing in a field?” Lakshmi asked with a concerned look.

“What was I doing?”

“You were comatose. Eyes opened, but not speaking anything. I was worried.” Lakshmi knelt down, to his level. “I was sickly worried for a fool like you. What were you doing?”

Kalki sighed. He wanted to tell her everything, but it would just make things complicated. “I told Shuko to wake me up when someone would be around. Where is that…” he began to scan the environment, when Lakshmi turned his face, inches away from her.

“He said he wouldn’t interfere again like he did last time.”

“Uh.” Kalki felt still delirious. “I see,” he coughed to mask his disorientedness. “Well, uh, I’m sure he didn’t say that .”

“Yeah, well, not in the literal sense, but I got it and you should too.”

Kalki watched her. And he smiled. He couldn’t help but smile. She would bring stability in his life, more than ever. He was stuck in a hole and she had pulled him out. How would he survive without her in this world?

“I’m afraid,” Lakshmi said, her arms wrapping around his neck. “I want you to know I’m afraid. I don’t want to die.”

“You won’t. I promise.” Kalki wrapped his arms around her waist. They were close, so close that he could hear her heartbeat and smell her breath. “I’m afraid too. I want to admit to the world that I’m afraid.”

“I know. I can see it.”

“I know you can. You always do.”

“It’s okay, you know,” she nodded vigorously. “It’s all right if we are afraid. It’s not the end of the world. It’s absolutely all right.”

“I know it is. I know. I wish I could feel it. That it’s okay. But I don’t feel it.”

“What if I die?” Lakshmi asked.

Kalki hadn’t managed to think it through. It was like a pain he wouldn’t be able to face. “I don’t want to think of that kind of a scenario. In my eyes, you live every time, with each blink and each sigh.”

They looked at each other for a while, holding each other tightly. Kalki’s heart skipped a beat when he came forward, hoping to meet her lips, brushing against hers, but then there were multiple sounds, before he could even do something. The horns were blown, the temple bells were rung, and the matter at hand had to be postponed. They looked at each other, both flustered and frightened as they knew what the horns and the bells meant.

The war had begun.