It was raining in Nidhivan again. Not the usual gentle monsoon… this was different. The trees weren't swaying — they were bowing. As if the forest itself remembered.
And in the middle of that storm…
She returned.
Vrinda stepped barefoot into the sacred grove, her white robes soaked, her eyes glowing faintly with violet light. Her presence didn't just shift the air — it bent it.
The forest breathed with her.
For years, she had been trapped within the Chakra-loka — the in-between realm where time paused, and souls wandered. But the awakening of the Kalchakra, the sealing of Aarohi's choice… had pulled her back.
And she wasn't the same anymore.
Flashback:
Inside the timeless realm, Vrinda had seen everything — the rise and fall of the Guardians, the Dvandva prophecy, the forbidden rituals of Nidhivan… even herself as a young woman, offering her unborn daughter to destiny under a blood moon.
She saw Aarohi's birth.
She saw Ishaan's creation.
She saw herself split into two — the woman she was, and the vessel she had become.
Present:
Walking deeper into the grove, Vrinda whispered a chant.
The air shimmered. The bark of a tree peeled back, revealing an ancient mirror — not of glass, but liquid memory.
She touched it.
A vision flickered — Aarohi crying, choosing between the two Ishaans.
And then… the fiery Ishaan smiling, with something dangerous behind his eyes.
Vrinda's breath caught.
"No… this wasn't how it was meant to go."
She pulled her hand back.
In her palm, a symbol had burned itself into her skin — a spiral, twisted inward.
The Spiral of Undoing.
Only one Guardian had ever held it.
Her father.
The first traitor of Kalchakra.
Suddenly, behind her, the shadows moved.
A voice — old, cruel, familiar — whispered:
"Back so soon, daughter?"
Vrinda turned.
And came face-to-face with the Other Vrinda — the dark version of herself that had once surrendered to the spirits of Nidhivan.
Her eyes were black. Her smile unholy.
"You gave birth to destiny. But I? I gave birth to endings."
The two Vrindas stood in silence.
One bound by duty.
The other unbound by time.
And far away, in a different part of the forest, a faint drumbeat began — the sound of the final ritual starting, prematurely.
Aarohi's choice had tilted the balance.
Vrinda's return might break it completely.
🌑 Bonus Scene – Vrinda's Memory of the Forbidden Hour
Inside a hidden chamber of her mind, Vrinda found herself standing before a door made of smoke. It didn't have a lock… because it never needed one. It only opened when she was ready.
And tonight… she was.
She stepped through.
Suddenly, she was young again — barely 20, running barefoot through the dense vines of Nidhivan. Her hair was wild, her smile uncertain, her eyes… glowing faintly under the crimson moonlight.
It was the Forbidden Hour — the hour between dusk and night when time thins, and one can glimpse both past and future.
She had come here for answers.
But she found him.
A tall, hooded man stood near the ancient banyan, his back to her.
"You shouldn't be here."
"Neither should you," she had replied.
He turned.
And his face— it was Ishaan's.
But… older.
Wiser.
And not quite him.
"I am a version that never was," he whispered. "And I came to warn you — your child will end the loop… or restart it."
Vrinda had backed away, shaken.
"What child?"
The hooded figure pointed toward her stomach.
She looked down.
And in that surreal moment, she saw a golden mark begin to glow on her skin — the symbol of Kalchakra.
She was already carrying destiny.
"You will forget this night," the man had said. "But when you return… so will I."
Present Day – In the Grove
Vrinda jolted from the vision, breath ragged.
She remembered now.
The man wasn't just a vision — he was the lost Guardian, erased from all records.
The First Ishaan.
And maybe… he never left.
Maybe he was still hiding inside the forest, inside time, inside… someone else.
End of Bonus Scene – Vrinda's Memory of the Forbidden Hour