Chapter 4 ( Part 2 )

'What does that mean?' Anita was reduced to helpless sobs. She wanted to tear off the thing with her bare claws and run to get Nate.

'If you do that, you won't see the kid ever again. His journey has already began. You will never catch up with him.'

Anita could only struggle to regain her composure. She definitely heard Nate's footsteps moments ago, but they suddenly disappeared. It made her imagination run wild.

Unknown to Anita, Nate was actually redirected back to the Sun pod by his father-in-law. He was told to 'go to the prayer room' in fifteen minutes.

It was a race against time. Nate didn't even stop to ask why father-in-law actually appeared in a mirror just outside the couple room. He simply ran.

Nate had everything at stake, yet he followed a man he had not seen in nearly a decade. Sometimes, there was just that much trust between men.

It seemed completely impossible, but Sahoo also believed his son will complete the journey in fifteen minutes.

'What does faith mean father…'

The timekeeper couldn't help it. He pat his daughter on her head. 'What happened when One became a child and prayed to god to save him?'

What a bad example. 'One died.'

'That's what everyone thinks, but One did not die, did he?'

Anita didn't know how her father knew this, but ever since the beginning, father knew everything. She sobbed. 'He died father. Aniket is a different person. He was born on the dot of the twenty-second century as an Aerog twin. He doesn't remember anything before that, just like a normal baby.'

'Then, would you say, he reincarnated?'

Anita's crying stopped. Under the sheath of the soft shell, she mildly nodded.

'Would you say his second life is a gift given by god?'

'Everybody reincarnates…' Anita pouted.

'But nobody has proof.'

This one remembers Maa Lelise.

Anita was lying. Aniket does remember some things from his life as One. He starts to remember them as he decodes the code he thinks and creates himself. It as if One had created his own self in the form of code. As Aniket remembers and connects to it, the more he remembers.

'So…god listened and granted Aniket's wish.'

'Who can say this isn't true? He made the Saintess of Creation, whose virgin conception is Nathaniel River.'

'Father!'

People of the younger generation didn't knew this fact, but Nate was born to a virgin woman, worshipped as the Saintess of Creation. They lived in a small country that lived in relative peace. It was a fairly liberal place where the Saintess gained many followers due to her philosophy. Her egalitarianism spread to the two bordering countries that are always feuding with each other. One is a staunch muslim nation, another is a place that was important during the life of Jesus Christ. The two countries fought over issues that stemmed from religion itself. Hundreds of years did not change their stance.

But Nate's mother had a severe impact on the war situation in both countries. She had been applauded for her egalitarianism throughout the world and even received many awards for peacekeeping. Unfortunately, when she was pregnant with Nate, the two countries suspected her of fraud. Some outraged religious groups called for her death because a 'harlot' was using Jesus's name.

Because of the various tensions, her small country couldn't protect her. They had as much as removed all security, but she faced it all with a smile on her face. When it was convenient for them, people praise her to the heavens. When it was inconvenient, friends from so many countries are silent.

But she still has other friends. She called for the timekeepers.

Timekeepers protected the Saintess throughout her pregnancy and through Nate's birth. But they couldn't protect her forever. In order to save Nate, she gave him to his future fathers. She let them run while she remained at home. She martyred herself.

'God split the Primal Creatrix into three parts. She created a womb within a womb within a womb. She captured that tiny particle One had become in that womb. She gave that tiny particle three heavens. First heaven was childhood. Second heaven was adolescence. Third heaven was adulthood. When the tiny particle experienced all three heavens, death captured the tiny particle in an urn. The urn was reversed on the womb.

'Death's womb was reversed on Life's womb.

'Daughter, do you know why the Aerog twin is fed and developed by his life twin?'

'No…'

'An Aerog twin is not an identical twin as people once thought. An Aerog twin is a spare. During the cellular stage, the womb may sometimes make a spare, in case the original is dropped or is otherwise destroyed. In other words, he is the 'Fear of Death' inside a womb. This fear of death is later transferred to the life twin. Therefore life twin raises the death twin.

The life twin is following the mother's plan to make a spare for herself. She doesn't know this is not possible, but the intention is copied from the womb. The fact that she can make a being is learned from the mother, and this is why the life twin is always female. The death twin is always male.

'When the Russian doll was reversed, a twist in time was formed. The life twin became death and the death twin became life. That's how the world's first Aerog twin was ever born. But the life twin had certainly died.

That's how god saved One.'

The life twin had certainly died…

Anita closed her eyes. Her father knowing Aniket was not the original Aerog twin did not surprise her. What surprised her was that the original death womb belonged not to One, but to his twin sister.

There is no such thing as magic in the world. Every mystery eventually unravels. When One was folded into a particle, he met this wave. He was swept into the womb of the Primal Creatrix. But the wave herself was fully and completely lost after that.

Suddenly, everything became clear. Nikki did not become obedient in the past three years. He was grieving.

Not his mothers who committed suicide to give him life. Because as he said, 'How can I grieve for something that has given me life? I must worship it. Death.'

But why did he become so…spiritless?

She often asked herself. And she asked Nate. Nate assured her he was fine. He just needs time to get over everything that happened. 'He needs to find his energy cycles without using drugs. It's a slow process. Be patient.'

Only, a mother's intuition can never be wrong. Anita should've pursued it more.

'Child, One lived twenty five years past his fated tryst with death. If this is not a miracle, what is? Faith is exactly such a thing. The day you invoke your faith, it would've already long fulfilled its promise.

'So, will you sleep now?'

Her sciencekeeper father suddenly started talking about faith.

But hearing that made Anita teary. Her child had died at the age of twenty-five. They call him a hero and a king, but he was only twenty-five. Even younger than Aniket. How terrified must he have been?

Without his wits about him, attacked by disease, knowing he was about to die…He must've known all doors have closed for him. He was no believer. He had only come to the temple for a second time. But he had given up his ego and become a child. He prayed to an unknown god with pure devotion. But all the while, he knew he was going to die.

He knew everything was over. He was saying goodbye to his podmates and goodbye to life. And the goodbye was in the form of faith.

Let's meet again.

That's Anita's son.

That's what he said then. That's what he said now.

Again.

That's going to happen again.

Death will happen again.

Again…

Sahoo didn't know why his wild child was crying again. He sighed and pat her head for a while. The soft shell slowly put her to sleep. She didn't notice it in her grief.

Just as she fell asleep, a second soft shell appeared on the big bed, as though by magic. Nate was enclosed in it like a C. He cupped Anita perfectly, as though he knew exactly how and where she would be.

Unfortunately, Nate was already very injured. The soft shell was full of blood. It didn't look like he will make it.

He opened his eyes and looked at his father-in-law. There was no entreaty, there was no emotion. Just faith.

'

The timekeeper who didn't wish to disturb the time continuum sighed again and again as he tended to both his children. And there was a grandchild who needed most help. The reason Sahoo was here in the first place. But there was not any time.

Pod Deva was overlapped by pod Surya. The space folding had begun.

The grandchild had no egg maker. Even Sahoo didn't know how he will make it through the time distortion.