On the stairs leading up to City Hall, Raghav and Galreid walked down to where Gati was waiting for them.
Vrisht followed after them silently, but when he reached about halfway, he stepped on the marble stairs and his ears stood up.
Followed by his head as he looked at Raghav, he opened his mouth to say something, but was beaten to it by Raghav.
"Galreid, get a squadron and meet us in the Lord's District. Gati and Vrisht will stay with you."
Just as he said those words, a tornado of dust rose at the other end of the city.
When Galreid looked back at Raghav, he was gone, leaving a gust of wind behind.
"Soldiers! To the Lord's district."
Raghav sped through the city, running inside a straight tunnel made of Mana Barriers, which allowed him to travel at dangerously high speeds.
As he crossed into Old Plied, he saw Mana blasts emerging from the tornado, and he reached for them with his telekinesis, exploding them midair and away from the buildings.
Within ten seconds, since he left the City Hall, he had reached the Lord's district and rushed inside the crater, where he caught Aurelia before she fell on her back.
.
.
.
.
At the bottom of the crater, Raghav cradled Aurelia in his arms.
While the rest of the party stood a couple of metres away, enough that their voice did not reach the two.
"Her first kill?"
Eldrain asked as An nodded, silently. "Although it eludes my understanding, I still know how much it pains her."
The act of taking a life for the first time is something that is not easily forgotten; it scars the person.
Even if they were determined to take a life or did it accidentally, the guilt stays, the only exception are the people who have detached themselves from all sense of ego and self.
Or someone with a twisted mind, who takes pleasure from these actions.
However, over time, if they keep taking lives, they will start to get numb to it.
But that wasn't the case here; this was Aurelia's first, and she was not alone, for she had her companions.
Sometime later, Aurelia calmed down to a great degree and stood up, picking up her blade and sheathing it.
She did it all without speaking a word, and no one spoke to her either.
When Galreid arrived, he was about to rush towards Aurelia and call out to her, but stopped himself when he saw her expression, and his eyes moved to Prod's body.
He pieced the picture together and stayed silent, letting Aurelia walk away, followed by her companions.
The journey back to the inn went by like a flash as the fight replayed inside Aurelia's mind, while bells ringing throughout the city echoed in her mind.
Drowning her in the memory when her sword cut through Prod's flesh.
She was now sitting in An's room with everyone sitting around her.
"How did you move on from this?"
The first words she spoke in hours, asking for guidance.
"I never felt the guilt as you have. I just knew that I did something wrong, yet I never felt guilt."
Eldrain shared with Aurelia, followed by his wife. "I experienced the same thing."
"I picked up drinking to drown it, yet it kept on returning. In the end, I became an addict who sought two moments of blurred memories over confronting the pain. It is true what they say, that you always remember your first."
All heads turned towards Shin as he kept his head turned away from them. "I know, I am stupid and quite dumb, but I am not oblivious as to what my flaws are, even if I do not have the strength to overcome them."
"I see."
Her voice was weak as she reached beside her, holding Raghav's hand.
Holding her hand, Raghav shared with her what she wanted to know. "I have never taken a life."
She looked up at him, her face scrunched as she stuttered. "Wha...That can't be you... You killed Prime Minister Vaughn."
"I did not."
No one questioned him, even when everyone knew that Raghav was the one who went after the Prime Minister when he escaped and brought his corpse back, because everyone knew Raghav not to be a liar, and there was nothing but the truth in his eyes as she stared deep into the black eyes, whose depth knew no end.
"Why do I feel this guilt? Why is it that Shin feels it, but not Eldrain nor An, why?"
Trembling, she lowered her head and pressed her forehead on his chest as he squeezed her hands.
"Because you and Shin are humans, while Eldrain and An are not."
"What?" she mumbled, her head still on his chest, veiled by her hair falling down on the side.
"The human species is different from all the other species in existence, because they can cultivate new deeds, better called Karm. Which later, makes their Prarabdh and Bhagye, which is called fate in English."
"In the cyclic nature of life, a soul travels from the most insignificant life, like a bacterium, to the greatest of life, the Primordial Entities, according to Maya, which is the great illusion that binds the soul down, making it forget its true identity. At the pinnacle of these species is the human body, the only body capable of achieving freedom from this cycle of birth and rebirth."
"The way to freedom is by doing something that is not written in anyone's Bhagye, but can only be forged through resilience and the only pure desire of either attaining The Supreme or recognising the truth within. That is the true purpose of Life. Returning to where they came from."
He gestured towards An, Eldrain, and even Vrisht.
"They do not feel the same guilt, because they did not create an action, they are inspired by their Prarabdh and the Prarabdh of those that they are around. Tell me, does a dog feel bad after biting a random stranger? No, does he get punished? No, because he does not have the Vivek, which you can call Distinct wisdom, the ability to distinguish Right from Wrong. The dog bit him for either of the reasons, one because that is his Swabhav or nature, his instinct, or he was influenced by the stranger's Bhagye, because it was in that man's Bhagye to get bitten by a dog."
"Humans, as well as some species, from the likes of Elves and Deities to planets and Mythical Beasts, possess Vivek, but since their actions do not create any new Karm, they do not feel the backlash of it, unless it is a part of their Bhagye."
"That is why the humans feel the greatest of emotions out of all the other species; their grief runs deep, and their joy soars high. That is why humans will feel a varying degree of guilt when taking a life; a bug barely feels like taking a life, however, a cat or a dog makes a person feel more guilt, and at the end comes the Human life, the only life that can get out of this cycle, so taking it has the deepest of toll on the mind."
Raghav's words echoed in their ears as Aurelia sighed, wiping the tears from her face.
In response, Raghav patted her on the head. "It's okay, it was a life or death situation, he was putting the people of the city in danger. Stopping him was your duty to the people, and I am proud of you."
Shin leaned back in his chair, turning to Vrisht. "You hear that, doggy, you can't create new Karm."
Vrisht leaned towards Shin as he whispered back. "But I can be influenced by your bad Karm, to bite you in the rear. So don't blame me when it happens, blame your Karm."
"Behave yourselves. Can't you take a break?"
An scolded the two as they stopped their bickering.
Hearing her words, Raghav nodded. "A break would be good. Let's take a break and regroup in the evening. Shin, come with me for a moment. I want to talk to you."
"Let me join you two." Eldrain chimed in as he stood up.
An also stood up, reaching for Auelia. "I will take Aurelia to her room and stay with her there. While you boys go do your own thing."
Aurelia stood, holding An's hand as they left the room.
Followed by the men as they made their way into the warehouse.
"By the way, when were the two of you going to tell me you are Grand Masters?"
Shin questioned, watching Raghav and Eldrain, who looked at one another, then back at Shin.
"You never asked."
Answered Raghav in his straightforward manner.
"If that surprised you, wait till you hear about Raghav's post as the Grand Guild Master of the adventurer guild and his pocket dimension."
"He is what and has what?"
"I am the acting Grand Guild Master, and I do not have a pocket dimension; I am only looking after it for someone else."
Raghav made his position clear to Shin to remove any misunderstandings.
When they were in the warehouse, Raghav opened the carriage door and stepped inside, while the other three waited outside.
Rustle Rustle
A few moments later, he emerged with a box in his hand, which he held out to Shin. "This is for you."
"What is it?"
To that, Raghav opened the box and revealed two handguns, one white, one black.
They were as big as a Desert Eagle but structurally different; the chamber was reminiscent of a revolver.
"Whoa! You made these for me?"
Shin could not control his excitement, reaching for the guns, but Raghav closed the box and pulled it back towards himself. "Not yet, this you will get after you get over your addiction."
"Then why did you show it to me?"
"I wanted you to know that I have great things to give you, but I am holding onto them because you are not yet ready for them. Once I give you these, I will also tell you what our quest truly is."
Then he calmly walked back inside and placed the box back on the table.
Left out in the open, because he knew Shin would not just go and grab them without his consent.
"Now, tell me what happened with Markus?"
Ding
Bells rang outside as soldiers ran through the road, storming a building across. "Looks like they are taking this seriously." Shin chuckled, turning back to his friends.
"Of course they would, these are the Special Forces from Marne." Eldrain responded to Shin's remark before he, too, turned back to Raghav.
He jolted as he looked at Raghav's narrow eyes, as he realised that they had forgotten to answer him.
"Oh, of course, we received some valuable information from Markus, ranging from an understanding of the underworld to information about our group that is known to the underworld, ranging from our ranks to our identities. And lastly, this letter from Mark."
Eldrain finished as he reached inside his clothes and pulled out the letter, handing it over to Raghav, who began to read it, holding it up with his left hand.
"He is left handed, you can notice the smudging of ink and paper starts before the words and travels left to right, ending before they do, meaning his hand glided over the words as he wrote. He has medium sized hands; the distance from the base of the fingers to the wrist is about three to three and a half inches. However, they are not heavy, but rather light, so we are looking at a skinny or lean person, with slender hands."
He then walked back inside and came out holding the file Markus had given them last night. "There is no similarity between them; these are indeed two different hands that wrote these."
For a moment, he remained silent, looking between the two. "I will go inform The Duke of Mark's intentions. You two can go back and rest."
"Yes, Captain."
The two of them spoke in unison before going back to the Inn as Raghav placed the file back inside the carriage and locked it.
He then placed the letter inside his jacket and called out to Gati, when he heard a voice call out to him.
"Aman?" Raghav recognised the boy even before he turned around. "What brings you here?"
"I came to give you this."
In the boy's hand was a colourful envelope, which made Raghav's lips curl in a gentle smile. "She said yes?"
"She did."
Taking the envelope from the boy's hand, Raghav looked down at it as he read the words written on it. "You are invited to the auspicious marriage of Aman and Luna. In the afternoon of this Sunday, on the 20th of July, 1238 TNW."
Raghav held the envelope up as he looked at the boy in the eyes and patted his head. "I will be there."
Aman smiled widely as he hugged Raghav, before touching his feet. "May devotion grow in your heart, and you look for The One together."
After receiving the blessings from Raghav, Aman stood up and bowed his head with his hands joined, before he spoke. "I think you must be busy with all that is happening in the city. So I will let you get back to work."
With that, the young boy left as Gati walked beside Raghav. "The marriage and Mark's plan are both on this Sunday, the day after tomorrow. We have to clean the city, uncover Mark's intention and thwart his plans in two days."
"And that is enough."
Raghav responded to her in a quiet voice as he watched Aman run away and disappear around the corner.
Without wasting any time, he patted his pockets, checking for his phone and keys, before he mounted Gati and patted her on the neck. "To Galreid, you know his scent, yes?" "I do."
She sped out of the warehouse and rushed towards the industrial complex as it began to rain.