The world Mandakini woke into was familiar—
and wrong.
The sky above the Citadel was bluer than she remembered, almost painfully clear. No orbital scars. No residual distortion. The multiverse had been sealed into a single reinforced timeline.
Successful.
Complete.
Too clean.
Viraj walked beside her through the open corridors.
"Cities that were destroyed are standing,"he said quietly.
"Wars that never ended…never started."
Mandakini stopped.
"And the cost?"
Viraj hesitated.
"History remembers a war,"he said.
"But not the man who ended it."
Agastya joined them, his staff restored—but older somehow.
"The Council never existed,"he said.
"At least,not in this continuity."
Mandakini closed her eyes.
Kashyap was not written into this world.
Yet—
She still felt him.
A faint pressure behind her thoughts.Like a gravity well with no visible source.
Vasundhara met them at the observation deck.
"You should see this,"she said.
She activated the display.
Deep-space telemetry scrolled past—clean, stable—
Until one anomaly blinked into focus.
A localized causality shadow.
Viraj leaned forward.
"That's impossible."
Agastya's grip tightened.
"That's not a shadow,"he said slowly.
"It's aplaceholder."
Mandakini's breath caught.
"A space left for someone,"she whispered.
The readings pulsed—
Not randomly.
In rhythm.
Herrhythm.
She reached out instinctively.
The anomaly reacted.
A voice—not spoken, but felt—brushed the edge of her awareness.
Still choosing.
Mandakini staggered.
Viraj caught her.
"That was him," she said, breathless.
"Kashyap is still…somewhere."
Agastya nodded grimly.
"He exists outside recorded time,"he said.
"A living paradox."
Vasundhara's eyes sharpened.
"And paradoxes don't stay quiet forever."
Mandakini straightened, resolve hardening.
"Then we find him."
Viraj frowned.
"The Gate is gone.The Axis destroyed."
Mandakini placed her hand over her chest.
"Not all of it."
Light flared softly beneath her skin—
The merged Constant still alive.
Agastya exhaled.
"The multiverse is sealed,"he said.
"But not unreachable."
Outside, the stars shifted slightly—
Not moving—
Realigning.
And somewhere in the gaps between moments—
A man who had chosen love over fate opened his eyes.