The Council's decree fell upon them like a divine hammer, shattering the fragile peace they had built in secret. "Separation. Effective immediately. You will be assigned to posts on opposite ends of the cosmos. Any contact is forbidden."
Shaurya's face, usually a mask of stoic discipline, turned to pale marble. He bowed his head in silent acceptance, his fists clenched so tightly that his divine knuckles shone white. But beside him, Advik's entire being rebelled. A low growl escaped his throat, and the air around him shimmered with suppressed heat. "No," he breathed, the single word laced with a dangerous, defiant promise.
That night, under the cold, watchful light of the celestial moons, they risked everything for a final meeting in a secluded grove of whispering silver trees. The moment they were alone, Advik grabbed Shaurya's wrists, his grip desperate. "I can't do this, Shaurya. I can't be sent away from you. It's not a posting; it's a death sentence for my soul."
Shaurya's resolve crumbled. He pulled Advik into a crushing embrace, his voice a raw whisper against his ear. "And what choice do we have? To defy the Council is to defy Anant's own design. It is treason."
"Then let it be treason!" Advik pulled back, his amber eyes blazing with a storm of love and fury. "What is Heaven without you? What is eternity if I have to spend it in a golden cage, alone? I'd rather fall forever into the void than live in a paradise that has exiled my heart."
His words hung between them, a prophecy that would soon etch itself into the very stones of Swarg.
---
For two agonizing days, Shaurya performed his duties like a ghost, his movements precise but empty. Advik, however, was plotting. The wild, untamed part of his heart, the part that loved Shaurya more than he feared any celestial law, conceived a desperate, reckless plan. He would steal the Astra-Pasha.
The ancient texts spoke of it as a primordial weapon, a conduit of raw creation that could bind the very elements of reality. In the right hands, it could be used to negotiate, to force the Council to listen, to revoke their cruel decree. It was a mad gamble, but it was the only one he had.
He moved through the lesser-known corridors of the celestial palace, a shadow among the light. His heart was a frantic drum against his ribs, not with fear of capture, but with the desperate hope of a future reunited with his other half. He reached the innermost vault, its doors sealed with runes of power. With a whispered incantation he had unearthed from forbidden scrolls, the runes flickered and died. He slipped inside.
The Astra-Pasha rested on a pedestal of solidified light, pulsing with a soft, mesmerizing rhythm. It was beautiful. As his fingers closed around the warm, metallic hilt, a surge of power shot up his arm, vibrant and terrifying.
It was at that moment the vault flooded with a blinding, golden radiance.
He was surrounded. Dozens of celestial guards, their spears aimed at his heart. And at their front, his face a landscape of agony and duty, stood Shaurya. His sword was already drawn, its tip hovering in the space between them.
"Step away from the weapon, Advik," Shaurya's voice was strained, cracking under the weight of his command. "Please. Don't make this worse."
A broken, disbelieving laugh escaped Advik. "You? They sent you to arrest me? Tell me, Shaurya, is this your famous duty? To cage the one you love?"
"This is not love! This is madness! Look at what you're doing!"
"I am doing this for us! While you stand there doing nothing but obey!" The hurt and betrayal in Advik's voice was a physical force in the room.
Their swords met. It was not the graceful, practiced dance of their sparring sessions. This was brutal, ugly, and filled with a pain that choked the air from the vault. To the encircling guards, it was a fierce battle against a traitorous demon. But between the two of them, every clang of steel was a screamed conversation.
I would burn Heaven for you! Advik's furious strikes declared.
And you will burn us both!Shaurya's desperate parries cried back.
Then came the moment that shattered eternity.
In a basic defensive maneuver—the 'Dhriti Asana' that every novice learned—Shaurya, the paragon of warriors, the master of form, left his right flank exposed. It was not a stumble. It was not a error in judgment.
It was a choice. A deliberate, heartbreaking surrender.
Advik's blade, already in motion, could not be stopped. It sank deep into Shaurya's side, piercing through his divine armor with a sickening crunch.
Time froze. Advik's eyes widened in horror. Shaurya staggered, a gasp escaping his lips as dark, shimmering blood bloomed across his pristine white uniform. But as his gaze met Advik's, there was no anger, no accusation. Only a profound, accepting sorrow, and an unwavering love that shone brighter than the pain.
"You… you let me," Advik choked, his voice barely a whisper.
"Now…" Shaurya rasped, his hand pressing against the wound, "we share the same fate."
The unstable Astra-Pasha, resonating with the violent surge of their emotions, could no longer be contained. It erupted. A wave of raw, uncontrolled energy exploded outwards, a silent, blinding flash that incinerated three celestial guards where they stood, turning them to motes of shimmering, golden dust.
The horror of what he had done—the lives lost for his selfish love—crashed down upon Advik, suffocating him. He hadn't meant for this. He only wanted their freedom.
The magnificent marble floor of the vault groaned, then split apart with a sound like the world ending, revealing the cold, infinite darkness of the cosmic void below.
Advik looked from the destruction to Shaurya's bleeding form, to the weapon that had caused it all. There was only one path left.
Penance.
He stepped towards the abyss.
"NO!" Shaurya lunged forward, ignoring his own grievous wound. He slammed onto his knees, his hand shooting out to grip Advik's wrist with a strength born of sheer desperation. "Don't you dare let go! Hold on!"
Advik looked down at him, his eyes filled with a terrifying peace. "Will you come for me?" he asked, his voice soft but clear. "Promise me, Shaurya. Promise you'll find me."
Shaurya's grip was iron, but his voice failed him. A silent scream of agony contorted his features, tears streaming down his face in a relentless river—his only, heartbreaking answer.
With a final, devastating smile that held all the love and sorrow in the universe, Advik gently pried Shaurya's fingers loose.
"Wait for me."
He let go.
The scream that tore from Shaurya's very core—"ADVIK!"—was a sound of such pure, unending despair that it was said the stars themselves dimmed in sympathy, and the eternal music of the spheres faltered for a single, silent beat.
---
The judgment at dawn was swift and merciless.
Advik was stripped of his power, his title, and his very form. His spirit was imprisoned in a cage of solidified light, sentenced to an eternity of solitary confinement.
Shaurya, for his "emotional indiscipline" and role in the catastrophe, was not imprisoned. His punishment was deemed more poetic. He was exiled from the divine courts and the heart of Swarg for five thousand years. He would remain a Deva, but a solitary one—a ghost forced to wander the peripheries of Heaven, forever haunted by the memory of falling amber eyes and the feel of a hand slipping from his grasp.
As the guards led him away, the head Council Elder's final words echoed in the silent hall, "Let this be a lesson to all. Some lines were never meant to be crossed. Some loves were never meant to be."
But as Shaurya was marched past the glittering spires of his home, now his gilded prison, he looked not at the judging faces of his kin, but towards the distant, shimmering prison where his heart was locked away. And in the deepest, most secret chamber of his soul, he made a new vow, one that defied the Council, his exile, and the very laws of Anant.
I will wait. However long it takes.
I will become stronger than any law, any prison, any fate.
And I will find you again.
Even if I have to break Heaven itself to do it.
---
Chapter End
He fell for love. He remained for a promise. But as the stars dimmed above his lonely exile, Shaurya knew one thing for certain—this was not the end of their story. It was only the beginning of his rebellion. And Heaven was not ready for a heartbroken god with nothing left to lose.
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