Vanitha had lost her sense of time. It was irrelevant under the earth. The idari led a strict schedule, turning each day into a repeat of the previous, only graced by that one hour she was allowed outside, on the cliff. Waves crashed against the rocks, ships arrived and left, unknowing, without relevance. Nothing was relevant except Him. Even this mountain eroded in a thousand years, only the sea remained.
There were moments when even she wavered. Too many people told her she was insane. Too many voiced their concern about her unhealthy attachment and ridiculous longing. They told Vanitha she had been abandoned, made a fool of, left alone in this vast world. From the outside, she retained her devotion, but deep down she pondered the worth of this all. Lying there, watching, searching for the secret her love sought. Waiting endlessly, not knowing if she was to die among the idari, praying for Ivara to see her standing at the cliff, returning the man she loved.
“I have returned, my love.”
The voice was distant, like the heaving of seafoam, yet she heard it. She turned around, prepared to be disappointed by a mere jest of her imagination – but there he was.
Vanitha fell to her knees. “Returned… You truly returned. I knew you wouldn’t leave me forever.”
Arjun’s eyes shone brighter than the sky above. His lips showed a kind smile, reaching down to help her up. He had grown thin during these years. His clothes were ragged, hair braided in a single plait, yet even that wasn’t as clean as before.
“I promised, didn’t I? To return after I prepared everything.”
Vanitha nodded. She would have cried, had she not known pride and power was precisely what Arjun loved about her. The strength to rise again after every fall.
“Have you? Are you free?”
“Not yet, but soon. The fools are ready to tear themselves apart, destroying this world so the next rain could grow a new kingdom. Our kingdom.”
Arjun’s voice was the only melody that could make her believe those words, even if she didn’t need anything so grandiose. She took his hand, holding them up to blow a soft kiss on Arjun’s fingers. “I only need you, and only wish to bring you joy. I’ve done what you asked.”
Arjun’s smile widened. “Have you found the Gate of the Sea?”
“I’ve found its location, but I wasn’t allowed in. The idari guard that place like any prince guards their treasury. There’s something under the mountain. A corridor covered in steel, and a door that speaks. I felt great power behind it.”
Vanitha had felt the shiver of magic from the first step she took inside. That’s why Arjun had chosen her. She could feel the trinkets, sense them vibrating on her skin, each with a different rhythm. Her family was proud to breed the most powerful mejai, but none could find trinkets like her. That was beyond their skill, only reserved for the most powerful.
Whatever lay hidden behind the speaking door had almost crushed her, with such a force vibrating that it felt like Vanitha’s bones were breaking. That was what Arjun searched for.
“I’m proud of you, my love. Soon the Gate shall open, and the sea will pour through. Then no one will remain to stand between us. But, until then, I brought you a present.”
Arjun unveiled a flat disc spreading almost four inches wide, with a hole inside about the size of someone’s wrist. It glimmered with an emerald green, alternating with darker, green rays coming from the inner hole. Like an empty, blind eye. When she touched it, Vanitha could feel magic pulsing through her arm.
“What is this?”
“A relic. An ancient trinket from before the Old Garden. Only the most skillful mejai can use it – one like you, my love. If you wield it, the whole continent, even the sea, is ours to travel. We can be everywhere in the blink of an eye.”
Vanitha slipped her hand into the hole, wearing the disc like a bracelet, connecting with its magic. Arjun hadn’t only returned; he brought a trinket unlike anyone in her family had ever wielded. It was intoxicating, the power rushing at her felt more potent than anything – apart from the man gifting this to her.
“Where should we go, my love?”
“To Qajar,” Arjun replied. “Time to collect the fruits of my long labor.”
Vanitha smiled, taking Arjun’s hand with one hand and holding out the other with the trinket wrapped around her wrist. She closed her eyes.
Then they both disappeared in a flash of green energy.