Time seemed to warp, stretching the moment of Devansh's impending death into an eternity. Aaditya's heart hammered against his ribs, a frantic drumbeat of pure terror. He saw the beast's muscles coil, saw the deadly glint of its horns, saw Devansh's eyes squeeze shut in resignation.
"DEVANSH!" The roar was ripped from Aaditya's soul. His bowstring sang.
Tung!
The arrow, fletched with hawk feathers and tipped with polished steel, shot straight and true. It was a perfect shot, aimed for the bull's heaving flank—a non-lethal strike to distract and enrage, to draw its attention away from the vulnerable prince.
But an inch from its target, the arrow shivered. It was as if it had struck an invisible, glassy wall. With a sickening crack, it veered wildly off course, embedding itself deep into the trunk of a nearby banyan tree.
Aaditya's blood ran cold. Magic. Dark, intervening magic.
The bull, utterly unaffected, let out a guttural snort of triumph and lunged, its hellish eyes fixed on its prone target. Devansh was mere seconds from being gored.
Accepting the inevitable, Devansh's mind went silent. But his soul screamed. A single, desperate plea echoed in the void within him: Not yet. Please, not yet.
And his veena answered.
A sound erupted from the instrument strapped to his back—not a gentle hum, but a sharp, resonant TWANG! that cut through the air like a physical blade. It was a note of pure, defensive fury. A visible beam of silvery light, condensed from the very sound, shot forth. It twisted and solidified in mid-air, taking the form of a dazzling, ethereal arrow made of solidified melody and moonlight.
It moved faster than sight, drawing a searing, incandescent line through the dim forest. It struck the bull not with physical force, but with a wave of purifying energy, piercing straight through its dark heart.
Huaaaaaaaaa!
The beast's roar was not of pain, but of rage and shock, a sound that seemed too intelligent for a mere animal. It collapsed, its massive body hitting the forest floor with a ground-shaking thud. Then, a foul, black smoke began to pour from its nostrils and eyes, coiling into the air like a venomous serpent before dissipating into nothingness.
The forest fell utterly silent once more.
Aaditya stood frozen, his bow hanging limply in his hand. He had just witnessed the impossible. He saw the light fade from Devansh's veena, leaving the ancient wood looking ordinary once more.
"Devansh!" he finally cried, his voice hoarse, as he scrambled off his horse and sprinted to the other prince's side. He dropped to his knees, his hands frantically checking for injuries. "Are you hurt? Speak to me!"
Devansh's eyes fluttered open, his sapphire-blue irises wide with a shock that mirrored Aaditya's own. He looked from the dead beast to Aaditya's terrified face. "I... I am alright. You... you saved me."
Aaditya let out a shaky breath, his hand closing around Devansh's forearm to help him up. The contact was electric, a jolt of life after facing death. "I did nothing," he murmured, his gaze intense. "The arrow... it was your music. You saved yourself."
Their eyes met, and the world narrowed to that single point of connection. Aaditya's fiery eyes were filled with a storm of emotions—lingering fear, overwhelming relief, and a dawning, awe-struck wonder. Devansh's blue eyes reflected it all back, along with a profound confusion about the power he had just unleashed. For a long, breathless moment, they simply held each other's gaze, a silent conversation passing between them, acknowledging the supernatural event that bound them even closer.
Aaditya was the first to break, clearing his throat and gently helping Devansh to his feet, his touch lingering. "Your ankle? Can you walk?"
Devansh tested his weight, wincing. "It is sore, but I can manage."
"Then we must leave this place. Now," Aaditya said, his voice regaining its command. The forest no longer felt like a sanctuary, but a trap.
---
They had not been gone for more than a few minutes when the shadows under the banyan tree deepened, coalescing into a human form.
A man stepped out from the gloom, draped head to toe in a shawl of woven shadows that seemed to drink the light. A featureless black mask of polished obsidian covered his face, but from its depths, two points of malevolent crimson light glowed. He moved with an unnatural silence, his feet making no sound on the dry leaves.
He knelt beside the carcass of the bull, from which the last tendrils of black smoke were fading. With a gloved hand, he reached into the beast's chest—not through a physical wound, but as if dipping his hand into water—and pulled out the lingering essence of the sound-arrow. It rested on his palm, a shimmering, silent chord of light, already beginning to fade.
"Heh..." A low, hollow laugh escaped him, a sound that held no mirth, only a chilling anticipation. "So it begins... the vessel remembers."
He closed his fist around the fading light, and it dissolved, not vanishing, but being absorbed into his being. A wave of dark energy pulsed outwards from him, causing the leaves on the nearest trees to wither and turn black.
He looked up towards the canopy, as if addressing the heavens themselves. "Indra..." he whispered, the name a curse on his lips. "Your ancient curse is rusting. Their bond is the hammer that will break its chains."
He clenched his newly empowered fist, the shadows around him swirling violently. "But I will not allow it. This love... this accursed harmony... will never reach the heavens again. I will drown their symphony in silence."
Adjusting his mask, the figure dissolved back into the shadows from whence he came, leaving behind only the scent of ozone and decay, and the chilling promise of a war waged from the darkness.
---
On the path back to the palace, the silence between the two princes was heavy with unspoken thoughts.
"Are you truly unharmed?" Aaditya asked again, his gaze fixed ahead, his profile sharp against the setting sun.
Devansh's hand unconsciously went to the wood of his veena. It felt warm. "I don't understand what happened, Aaditya. It has never done that before. I felt... I felt a part of me awaken that I never knew was sleeping."
Aaditya glanced at him, his expression grim. "When my arrow was deflected... that was no natural wind. The Raj-Guru's words echo in my mind now. He said a powerful force does not want us together."
Devansh let out a shaky breath. "I thought it was mere courtly intrigue. Rival kingdoms, political maneuvering. But this... a beast twisted by dark magic? This is something else entirely. Why? We are just... two princes forming an alliance."
Aaditya reined in Agni, turning to look directly at Devansh, the last rays of the sun setting his crimson eyes ablaze. "Perhaps," he said, his voice low and certain, "that is the greatest threat of all."
The spires of the Suryapuri palace came into view in the distance, gilded in the fiery light of dusk. But its majestic walls no longer promised safety. They now felt like the gilded cage at the very center of a storm—a storm of curses, forgotten lives, and a melody that was just beginning to remember its song.
---
Chapter End Note:
The first blow has been struck, not by steel, but by light and shadow. A hidden enemy has revealed his hand, wielding dark magic and speaking the name of a Celestial curse. Devansh's veena is not just an instrument; it is a weapon of his soul. And Aaditya now knows their friendship is a battlefield. The mystery is unraveling, revealing a conflict that spans the mortal and the divine. The hunt is over, but the real game—a game for their very souls—has just begun.