Chapter 16. The Poisonous Duo Guards

The pitch-black place lit up with the voice. The temple sparkled like the place they left just a while ago, in a moment everything filled in the golden and divine atmosphere-- utterly breathtaking and exquisite.

It took a moment for Advik to adjust his sight which was blinded by the sudden light. When he finally focused his eyes he saw two women standing across him.

Those two beautiful ladies were no less than some celestial bodies, truly unreal and divine, with a little bit of deathly aura emitting from them. The finest clothes, colored in purple hugged their perfectly structured bodies. Both had complex braided hairstyles and the same flower design beautifying their foreheads. Yet, their eyes were full of contempt and fury. Their expressions were of some demon seeing their prey delivering themselves to their cave.

Advik and Samay were perplexed looking at those beautiful but unwanted guests with a strange look. Vismay and Tara were silently floating beside the boys. 

"Who are you?" the lady on the right raged, "How did you get here? How did you break the protection spell which guards this Temple?" she had some sharp looks for them with disdain. 

"Stay calm Sister, they are weak against us," said the other on the left sharply as her gaze pierced into the man and the kid ahead of her. 

"B-but Brother, they—" the lady sealed her lips when meeting the cold snake-like eyes of the person beside her. 

Samay stared at those women one by one and crossed his arms. He judged them for a moment while turning his eyes from their head to toe. He raised his tone as if he realized something, "Are you the Poisonous Duo of a Brother and a Sister who guards the Empress of this Lost Soul's Realm?" 

He was certain that they were those infamous guards of the Empress he had always heard about. They were infamous for their blind loyalty to the Empress. Still, he never heard them mistreat anyone just for pleasure.

Seeing them up close was not a thing he ever dreamed about but now up so close he felt that rumors of them being so unreal with poison surrounding them was not just a rumor.

Advik's face was dark with big eyes, lips curled up to ask Samay how he knew them, though Samay was not looking at him but the people ahead of them.

The kid paid no attention to Advik at all and stepped forward, eyes scowling, "What is this place? I have never even read about a Mahakali Temple deep in a forest of our Realm." He put up his hand on the hilt of his sword which accompanied him on his waist. The calmer lady gave him another look and poured her all gaze at Advik not caring for the kid's babbling at all.

"Answer him," Advik commented, "I also want to know about this place." Tara sat down on his shoulder from fright.

"We have no obligation to answer a brat," the other lady hissed, "He is not our Master, we only answer to our Master which is the Empress of this realm."

Advik looked more interested in the serene beauty who was no different than the louder one. In fact, they were like a mirror image of each other. However, there was something about the calmer lady whose gaze was now fixed on Vismay. It seemed like she was carefully examining everyone one of her opponents. 

"Brother Om, let me end these two right here, right now," the aggressive one said as she stepped forward.

For a long time, there was a sting hurting in Advik's head while looking at the serene and more sensible beauty but he could not seem to figure out what. Then he heard their conversation which showed his confused mind a new light! 

Ah! So that was it. He thought. The quiet woman was not a woman but a man, a beautiful man who was dressed in those pretty feminine clothes. And when he looked closely he could see his body structure which was like male and different from his rude sister, the guy was a little taller and even his shoulders were broad as a man.

Advik finally found the missing puzzle piece about the woman which was itching him to his bones. Then he remembered that the aggressive lady and also Samay was calling him her brother.

The guy could have disguised even the gods with his alluring, easy on the eye looks but Advik had his eyes far more trained to see women in men's clothes and vice versa. Though he could not even remember why, still, he got the nostalgic feeling of dressing up as a girl before. And of course, he believed he was quite good at it too. He was certain that he did wear female attires for some reason in the past.

Anyway, the person against him was wearing the clothes with pride, which confirmed that he wore those clothes only because he wanted to because maybe he liked to wear them, not under the pressure of someone or to disguise anyone. Strange…

After staring at the person for a good amount of time, a thought bloomed in his mind. Now, looking at the person ahead he felt that maybe he had an aura the same as His Highness Shwet. Although now he had forgotten the face of his Shwet still remembered the feelings he got with him around and those same old feelings were gathering inside him to be awakened again. 

"Stop staring. You will dirty my Brother with that," the Sister from the Poison Duo, snarled. 

Perhaps Advik was so preoccupied with some thought that he did not even hear a word she said. 

For a moment while still in a daze and with fluttering in his chest and the tightness of abdomen made him weave an impossible thing--

What if this person is Shwet?

There was no way of finding whether he was Shwet or not. Even if he was really Shwet still he would've forgotten about a mere friend like him. 

He was never a special existence for His Highness. He was just a responsibility, a burden fallen upon Shwet's shoulders. It would be a ridiculous thing to remember someone like him who just gave him so many problems, who always put him in many troubles.

A melody like the voice of the older guard, which sounded different from before, asked, "I feel like you want to say something to me or want to ask something?" The guy in feminine clothes came closer, though his sister put up her hand on his shoulder, "Brother, stop." And he did as she said. 

Samay scrutinized seeing the scene. He was about to yell when Vismay ordered him to stay silent before he could even speak a word. When he faced Advik, he knew there was something he could not grasp. Still, he was not so oblivious to the heavy atmosphere around them. He saw the man beside him was determined about something so he stayed quiet for the time being. His curious heart seemed tightened inside him. 

There was some moisture in the eyes of Advik, he quickly closed them as he tried hard to swallow his tears. With many hazy feelings in his head, he uttered while trying to look as normal as possible but his voice shook, "A-Are… you Shwet, the crown prince of Umaya?" His body was trembling slightly. 

He didn't even know why the heck he blurted out those words but it was just something he spoke unconsciously. He tried to make his tone as plain and straight as possible but only his heart knew how much it hurt him, how his heart was about to explode or was about to jump out from his mouth when he said the line.

For others, those words of Advik sounded so plain, straight, and even icy-cold. There was nothing more or nothing less covered in his question for the people around him who were perplexed by him.

Only Om stared at him as if he could feel something in between those lines, he saw something – some sorrow, some pain, some waiting, and some eagerness and a hope of getting a positive reply to his foolish question. 

There was no reason to lie but the Older Guard wanted to see what may happen if he did, though the words of the man pitted against him rang again in his mind giving those same feelings and misery. He sighed, dropping his idea about lying to the pitiable man, and spoke, neutrally, "I apologize, I am not Shwet. I am Om, the Older Guard of the Poison Duo and Shri's Older Brother."

And here was the answer with no fakeness, no false hope, or any sympathy with just an impassive tone.

Actually, Advik knew that Om was not Shwet, but those similar features of his and a similar yet unknown aura of him was making him a mirror image of His Highness which was telling him to think otherwise. Even if he knew the difference between them still his heart, that stupid-idiotic heart of his was just beating rapidly thinking about the 'what-ifs'. 

And now, even his 'what ifs' shattered to dust making his heart sink into the endless abyss, his throat dried up, "Ha! I-I knew you-you can't be… m-Shwet."

A silent cry was behind his words. It was clear, every one of them in the place heard that cry clearly. 

A while passed in the cold silence before Advik broke it with his usual bright voice, "Sorry for the sudden and foolish question," a broken smile showed on his ashen face. 

"Never mind," Om replied plainly. 

Abruptly a sharp sound of unsheathing a sword echoed. The soul and older guard turned their faces toward the sound and saw a white, cold blade meet with Samay's fragile neck. 

Shri had lost her composure, still bewildered by that question. She just saw an opening to kill her enemy so she chose the weak one as her target. Her grip was firm on the handle of her sword as she held Samay hostage from behind, "Do not move, we will take you to our Empress," she pressed her blade tighter on the pale skin of the boy, and as she tightened her grip, "Brother, do not waste time. Let's take them with us."

"Hey! Do something," Samay frowned and hostilely yelled, "Don't stay frozen. Help me!" If it was some other day he would have not asked the same person for help in one day so many times, but his wish to live was stronger than his stubborn nature of not asking for help, thus he asked even when his mind tried stopping him.

Taking a step toward Samay, Advik quickly pieced himself back. A grin was on him again with his face showing some color again but his eyes were so cold that it sent chills down in Shri's spine. "Do you like us this much to take us with you?" 

Shri became more alert as the steps shortened the distance, "Stay still," her sword pressed against the neck of Samay a bit tighter causing him to drop some crimson beads of blood from the place which was exposed with the sword. She said again, "Stay still or he will lose his young life."

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Dictionary:

Om: In Hinduism, Om is one of the most important spiritual symbols. It refers to Atman (soul, self within) and Brahman (ultimate reality, entirety of the universe, truth, divine, supreme spirit, cosmic principles, knowledge).

Shri: "Light; beauty; prosperity; rank; power".