The Chandravanshi Family Fighting Arena. It's this massive floating island that just... hangs there. In the void. Like someone cut a chunk out of a mountain and decided to leave it suspended in nothing.

  Lots of the younger clan kids come here to train. Not just the serious ones either even the ones who'd rather be doing something else show up because, you know, family pressure. Gotta be seen practicing. Gotta look like you're trying. Since Indian families even in cultivation world will put pressure on thier kid.

  The place is huge. Got fighting rings obviously, but also testing grounds and practice chambers and all sorts of stuff. Basically anything a growing Chandravanshi might need to punch or meditate on. All of it's meant for descendants to figure out how strong they are getting.

  One thing everyone cares about is the Himavan Shila. It's this ancient stone slab supposedly carved from the actual cosmic mountain. Some ancestor way back dragged it here. Now it sits in the arena and everyone uses it to test their physical cultivation. You hit it, it tells you how much force you hit with. Simple. Effective. Kinda addictive honestly.

  Today there was this girl sitting beside it. Adjusting her breath. Getting ready.

  She was around eleven. Had long golden hair not blonde, but actually gold, like sunlight made into hair. Wavy. Gleaming. The kind of hair that makes other girls jealous and boys confused about why they're staring.

  Her dress was silk. Fitted. Palace stuff. Her skin was smooth. Lips had this faint purple tint. Whole vibe was just... noble. Graceful. Even sitting there breathing she looked like she belonged on a throne.

  People were already whispering actually.

  "I wonder what record she'll set this time?"

  "She's got the Sapta-Randhra Hridaya, remember? Seven-orifice heart. She learns everything crazy fast. Probably mastered like fifty techniques by now."

  "Some of the Dash Kram wanted her as their disciple. The top ten sequences! And she turned them all down. Can you imagine?"

  Her name was Kavya. Wasn't in the top ten herself not yet anyway but everyone knew her. One of the most famous girls in the clan.

  The Sapta-Randhra Hridaya. They also call it the Hridaya of a Rishi. Means if she doesn't die young she's basically destined to become a sage.

  Now, in the Chandravanshi clan, sages aren't exactly rare. They have had plenty. But across the whole Bharatvarsha Mystic Realm? Different story. Sages are top-tier there. Like, standing-in-the-highest-ranks top-tier.

  So yeah. People pay attention to Kavya. She has opened one of her chakra gates too

  The sequences the top ten they'd all tried to bring her into their circles. Extending blessings, offering protection, the whole deal. She said no to every single one. Just... no thanks. I'm good.

  She raised her hand. Fair skin, jade-like, the kind of hand that looks like it's never held anything heavier than a flower.

  Then she hit the stone.

  "Swarna Karatala" she says quitely

  She looked delicate. Slender. Like a breeze might knock her over.

  But then she hit the stone and boom.

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  Thunder. Actual thunder.

  The Himavan Shila lit up.

  One hundred fifty thousand Tula.

  People lost it.

  "Kavya's that strong? That's thirty thousand more than last time!"

  "Regular prodigies max out at one hundred thousand! She's already past that! She's eleven!"

  Everyone was staring.

  One hundred fifty thousand Tula. For an eleven-year-old girl in a silk dress? That was something.

  But Kavya herself? She just stood there. Her face was calm.Her snow-white skin didn't have a drop of sweat on it. Her golden hair caught the light and threw it back. She looked like a painting.

  Then someone had to ruin it.

  "Kavya." Sharp voice. Female. The kind that cuts. "Thirty thousand more than last time? That's it? After all these months, that's really all you could manage?"

  A woman stepped forward. Blue silk skirt that swished when she walked the expensive kind of swish. Her face was pretty. Actually, more than pretty. Charming. But her smile? That wasn't charming at all. That was thorns wrapped in silk.

  People nearby started whispering. They always did.

  "That's Neela. She is 19. She's with Dhananjay."

  "With him? I heard he favors her. Like, really favors her. Like in that way"

  "Shh. She'll hear you."

  Neela wasn't Chandravanshi. She was an outsider someone Dhananjay,someone competing for the dash kram, had brought into the clan. Not the top, but close enough that people bowed when he walked by. And Neela? She'd made sure everyone knew she was his.

  Kavya didn't look at her.

  This made it worse.

  Neela stepped closer. Her voice got that scornful edge the kind women use when they've been saving up insults and finally get to spend them.

  "Let me remind you of something." She was enjoying this. You could tell. "Dhananjay left a record on that stone. Fifty million Tula. Fifty million. That's " she did the math in her head, smile growing, "more than three hundred times what you just did. Three hundred times. And you? You refused his blessing." She laughed. Not a nice laugh. "You see how stupid that was now? Do you finally get it?"

  She'd been holding onto this for a while. Dhananjay, the man she'd attached herself to, the man whose favor was her whole status had extended his hand to this girl. This little girl in her silk dress with her golden hair and her calm face. And Kavya had said no. Just... no. Like it was nothing.

  Like he was nothing.

  Neela couldn't stand it. Couldn't stand the way Kavya carried herself, like she belonged somewhere higher. Like she was waiting for something better.

  So when she saw Kavya at the Himavan Shila today, she couldn't help herself. Had to come over. Had to say something. Had to wipe that calm look off her face.

  Didn't work though.

  Kavya finally turned. Slowly. Like she had all the time in the world and wasn't using any of it on Neela.

  "Dhananjay is talented." Her voice was quiet. Almost soft. The kind of soft that makes people lean in to hear. "I'm not saying he isn't."

  She paused.

  "But talent isn't the peak."

  Neela blinked. "What?"

  "The peak," Kavya repeated, like it was obvious. "I'm not waiting for someone else to reach it. I'm going to stand there myself."

  The words hung in the air.

  For a second, nobody said anything. The other kids standing around the ones who'd been whispering they went completely silent. Even the wind seemed to pause.

  Neela's mouth opened. Closed. Opened again.

  Then she laughed.

  Not the scornful laugh from before. This one was different. Louder. More forced. The kind of laugh people do when something makes them uncomfortable and they don't know how else to react.

  "You?" Neela's voice cracked on the word. "You're going to dominate an entire yuga? You, Kavya? A girl who just hit a hundred fifty thousand on her best day?"

  She gestured at the stone. At the numbers still fading on its surface.

  "Do you have any idea how ridiculous that sounds? The first sequence himself the first sequence! wouldn't say something like that. Because this is the Kali Yuga. Ten thousand clans. Prodigies coming out of everywhere. From every corner of the three worlds. And you think you're going to "

  "Neela."

  Kavya's voice cut through like a blade through silk. Still quiet. Still calm. But there was something underneath it now. Something that made Neela stop mid-sentence.

  "I didn't ask you to understand."

  Their eyes met.

  Neela held it for maybe three seconds. Then she looked away.

  "Whatever," Neela muttered. "Talk all you want. Words are cheap. We'll see where you are in ten years. Twenty. When Dhananjay's sitting among the Dash Kram and you're "

  She stopped.

  Because everyone was looking up.

  A white crane was descending from the sky. Not flying down descending, like it was being lowered on invisible strings. Slow. Graceful. The kind of entrance that made people stop talking without knowing why.

  On its back sat a figure.

  Cross-legged. Meditating.He looked young. Around Kavya's age maybe. But there was something about him. Something that made you look twice.

  The crane landed softly on the edge of the platform. The boy opened his eyes.

  And for a moment just a moment his gaze swept across the crowd. Past Neela. Past the whispering kids. Past everyone.

  Past Kavya.

  He walked toward the testing grounds like he owned them.

  People started whispering again.

  "Who's that?"

  "Don't you know? That's Anand. The son of patriachy! He was born after 12 years and is said to have some secret body."

  "The cursed one? The kid that even alerted the ancestors and even dash kram themselves!?"

  "Yeah. But I heard... I heard he opened Muladhara. In a year."

  "A year? No way. That's impossible."

  "Tell that to the Pitamaha. Apparently the old man laughed for like ten minutes straight."

  Kavya watched him walk away. Watched the way he moved—smooth, unhurried, like water finding its level.

  Neela was still talking. Something about Dhananjay. Something about records. Something about how this boy was nothing, just a curiosity, just a

  Kavya wasn't listening anymore.

  She was watching Anand.

  And for the first time that day, her calm face showed something. Just a flicker. So small no one caught it.

  Interest.

  The crane took off behind him, wings spreading wide, and for a second the sun caught its feathers and turned them gold.