'What if they're telling the truth?'
The thought slipped into Avantika's mind before she could stop it.
She immediately rejected it.
No.
Impossible.
Time travel didn't exist.
Ancient warriors didn't appear in Delhi street markets asking strangers what year it was.
And yet…
Her eyes moved back to the two men standing a careful distance away from her.
The market lane buzzed with life around them.
Scooters pushed through narrow gaps in traffic, horns blaring impatiently. A vendor nearby shouted the price of pani puri to a group of college students. The smell of frying oil, roasted peanuts, and sweet jalebi floated through the warm evening air.
Normal.
Everything was normal.
Except for the two men standing beneath the uneven glow of a streetlight like misplaced figures from another century.
Avantika looked at them again.
Not casually.
Carefully.
The taller one—Karna—stood slightly ahead of the other, his posture straight and steady in a way that felt almost unnatural in a modern crowd.
The armor covering his chest caught the light again.
At first glance it could be mistaken for costume metal.
But the longer she looked, the more details appeared.
The curved plates were not shiny or decorative.
They were worn.
Tiny scratches crossed the surface. Slight dents marked the edges. The metal had the dull sheen of something that had seen real use under the sun and dust.
The way it sat on his body also looked… correct.
Not strapped awkwardly like cosplay armor.
It rested naturally over his shoulders and torso, as though it belonged there.
As though he had worn it every day of his life.
He was tall. Much taller than most men she saw in the city. His shoulders were wide, his arms thick with the kind of strength that came from years of physical training rather than gym aesthetics.
Long dark hair fell loosely past his shoulders, stirred slightly by the warm night breeze. His face was sharp, severe but strangely calm.
And the earrings.
Thick golden rings that glowed softly beneath the streetlight.
Avantika's gaze shifted to the second man.
Sahadev.
He looked younger.
Lean.
His build wasn't as imposing as Karna's, but there was something unsettling about the way he carried himself.
His posture was relaxed but balanced.
His eyes moved constantly.
Studying everything.
The vehicles racing past the road beyond the market.
The electric lights overhead.
The people passing by.
Her phone.
Everything.
He looked less like a lost traveler and more like someone quietly trying to understand a puzzle.
Which made Avantika slightly uneasy.
She pulled her phone out again.
The screen lit up in her hand.
Google Translate was still open.
Hindi → Sanskrit.
Her fingers hovered above the microphone icon for a moment.
Then she pressed it.
"Do you have any proof?"
The phone processed the sentence.
Then the mechanical voice spoke in Sanskrit.
"किमपि प्रमाणम् अस्ति?"
Both men listened.
Neither answered immediately.
Avantika crossed her arms slowly.
The panic she had felt earlier had faded now.
Twenty minutes had passed since she first ran.
Twenty minutes of cautious distance, awkward translator exchanges, and watching them closely.
And during those twenty minutes…
Neither man had tried to approach her without permission.
Neither had tried to grab the phone.
Neither had shown any aggression.
Which meant two possibilities remained.
They were either extremely disciplined pranksters…
Or genuinely confused.
She spoke into the phone again.
"You speak Sanskrit extremely well."
The translation echoed through the small pocket of quiet between them.
"Almost perfectly."
Her eyes flicked between them.
"That makes it harder to believe you are lying."
Another translation followed.
"But something like this does not happen."
The mechanical Sanskrit voice repeated the sentence calmly.
Avantika rubbed her forehead slightly.
"So it is difficult to process why you are here."
The phone translated again.
Silence followed.
A scooter roared past the end of the lane, headlights briefly illuminating the three of them before disappearing into the traffic.
Karna finally leaned slightly toward the phone.
"We do not know."
The translator spoke.
"हम नहीं जानते।"
Sahadev spoke next.
"We were not searching for this place."
The phone translated again.
Avantika watched the screen carefully.
Then looked back up at them.
Her brain kept circling the same dangerous idea.
What if…
She shut the thought down immediately.
No assumptions.
Not yet.
She had read enough weird fiction online to know that jumping to conclusions too quickly was the fastest way to get yourself killed.
Her expression remained neutral.
But inside her mind something very different was happening.
Because one tiny part of her brain was screaming.
If this is real…
if this is actually happening…
then those two might be from the Mahabharata.
Her heart beat once.
Harder.
She forced herself to remain calm.
The less they knew about what she suspected…
The better.
Information was power.
And right now she had more of it.
She slipped the phone back into her pocket.
"You seem confused."
Both men nodded slightly.
Avantika sighed quietly.
"…Alright."
She glanced around the crowded market again.
No one was paying them any serious attention.
A few people had glanced at Karna's armor earlier, but most assumed it was some kind of costume for a shoot or festival event.
Delhi had seen stranger things.
She looked back at them.
"This situation is ridiculous."
Karna asked calmly,
"What is ridiculous?"
Avantika gestured vaguely toward the towering buildings beyond the market.
"This."
The traffic.
The lights.
The glowing advertisements.
"You two appearing in the middle of a modern city."
Sahadev tilted his head slightly.
"Modern?"
Avantika paused.
Right.
They wouldn't understand that word.
She pulled the phone out again.
Pressed the microphone.
"This world is very different from yours."
The translator repeated the sentence in Sanskrit.
She hesitated slightly before adding,
"If you are telling the truth."
Karna's voice came quietly through the device.
"We are."
The translator repeated it.
Avantika studied their faces again.
Still calm.
Still steady.
Still not behaving like pranksters.
Her mind reluctantly admitted something.
They did not look like liars.
And if they were acting…
They were extraordinarily good at it.
She exhaled slowly.
"…Fine."
The phone translated the word.
"For now I will assume you are not dangerous."
Both warriors seemed to relax slightly.
Not much.
But enough for her to notice.
Avantika pointed at the crowded market around them.
"You cannot stay here like this."
The translation echoed through the device.
"You look like you came out of a historical film."
She gestured toward Karna's armor.
"That attracts attention."
Sahadev glanced briefly around the market again.
More people were starting to look at them now.
Not alarmed.
Just curious.
He understood the problem immediately.
"What should we do?"
The translator repeated the question.
Avantika hesitated.
Helping two strangers dressed like ancient warriors was not something she had planned for tonight.
But leaving them here would almost certainly create a bigger problem.
And despite everything…
They didn't feel dangerous.
Just lost.
She rubbed the back of her neck.
"…First," she said slowly.
"You stop following me like I'm prey."
The phone translated the sentence.
"Second…"
She gestured toward the wider road beyond the market.
"…we move somewhere quieter."
The translation repeated the instruction.
Karna nodded once.
Sahadev watched her carefully.
Avantika took a breath.
Then added one more thing.
"And you keep your distance."
The phone translated.
"I am still not convinced you are not psychos."
The Sanskrit version sounded oddly polite.
Both warriors accepted the condition without argument.
Avantika turned and started walking toward the road.
After a moment…
They followed.
Keeping the exact distance she demanded.
Behind her, the noise of the crowded market slowly faded.
And Avantika felt the strange weight of the situation settling deeper into her mind.
Because one possibility refused to leave her thoughts.
A possibility she still refused to say out loud.
If they are really from the Mahabharata…
then history just walked into the future.
And somehow…
It had walked straight into her.