Chapter 18: The Bone Orchard

B.S. 2082 Baisakh 11 – The Mycelial Colossus, Kathmandu Outskirts

The sapling was no longer a sapling.

It loomed over the valley, a grotesque titan of fungal flesh and knotted roots, its canopy a sprawling necropolis of skeletal branches. The air hummed with the whispers of a thousand erased timelines, their voices trapped in the mycelium's pulsating veins. Jay stood at the edge of the Bone Orchard—a field of petrified trees, each trunk etched with the names of dead worlds.

"It's feeding," Meera said, her Rakshasa mask cracked to reveal sunken, sleepless eyes. "On the valley. On you."

Jay's infected arm throbbed in agreement. The fungal orchid rooted in his ribs had spread, its tendrils now mapping his collarbone like cursed lace. The sapling's call—Come home—vibrated in his marrow.

Anika hovered beside him, her body a flickering hive of wraiths. Rani Lakshmi's presence had dissolved into the swarm, leaving only a hollow rage. "The Council's skyships are closing in. And the Puri…" She pointed to the horizon, where Alessandro's holographic Rudra avatar flickered like a diseased star.

The child-acolyte materialized, his golden threads weaving a barrier around the orchard. "The egg is awake. It dreams of annihilation."

Beneath the colossus's roots lay Swayambhu's Egg—a stone orb veined with primordial light. Pilgrims called it the Cosmic Womb, the seed from which Lord Brahma unfurled creation. But the egg Jay saw was no divine artifact. It pulsed with a sickly radiance, its shell cracked to reveal a viscous, starless void.

"The Dashnami lied," Meera muttered, kneeling beside the egg. "They didn't protect it. They imprisoned it."

The child-acolyte pressed a hand to the shell. "This egg is a tumor. The original Kalpavriksha sprouted from it, and now your sapling will too. Unless we excise it."

Jay's orchid writhed. "Lies," Gorakhnath's voice slithered through the fungus. "The egg is power. The Puri know this. The Council fears it."

Alessandro's laughter boomed across the valley. "You've outdone yourself, Giri! Even I never bred a tree this beautiful!"

Anika's wraiths attacked before the hologram finished speaking. They tore through the orchard, devouring mycelium and bone, but the swarm was fracturing. A wraith seized a fleeing farmer, dissolving him into ash. Anika screamed, clutching her head.

"I can't— control —them!"

Jay grabbed her, the orchid's roots snaking toward her throat. "Fight it!"

"Why?" Her eyes bled wraith-light. "Rani's gone. I'm just… noise now."

The child-acolyte severed the connection with a thread. "The hive is a wound. Let me bind it."

"Touch her and I'll burn your threads," Jay snarled.

The skyships descended, their hulls bristling with mantra-cannons. Yogini Bharati led the charge, her third eye sealed with a Maha Mrityunjaya seal.

"Surrender the egg," she demanded, "or we'll reduce this valley to a footnote."

Meera ignited a stolen Puri flare. "Come down here and try."

The cannon fired.

The blast atomized a swath of the orchard, birthing a crater of glass and screaming timelines. The sapling retaliated, roots spearing a skyship's engine. It exploded, raining shrapnel and Dashnami corpses.

Anika's wraiths swarmed Yogini's ship. "For Vedant!"

"He was weak!*" Yogini hissed, unleashing a mantra that liquefied wraiths. "As are y—"

A root impaled her through the seal. The sapling drank her screams.

While the battle raged, Jay approached the egg. Its void-core beckoned, promising power to mend timelines, resurrect the dead, unmake his sins. The orchid surged, fusing his hand to the shell.

"YES…" Gorakhnath crooned.

Visions erupted:

The original Kalpavriksha, its roots strangling planets.

Alessandro, crowned in Amrita, burning the Fourteen Worlds.

Himself, immortal, weeping as Kathmandu crumbled to dust.

The child-acolyte appeared, his threads binding Jay's wrist. "Break it. Now."

"And condemn every timeline it touched?"

"Yes."

Alessandro's hologram materialized inside the egg, his form warped by the void. "Don't listen, heir. Together, we'll reforge existence."

Jay hesitated.

The orchid chose for him.

He drove the Trishula into the egg.

The valley screamed.

Lightning fractalized the sky. The sapling's roots withered, the colossus collapsing into a mountain of ash. The egg's void spilled forth, erasing Dashnami, Puri, and orchard alike.

Anika's wraiths shielded them, their bodies dissolving. "Go!"

The child-acolyte wove a thread-portal. "Now!"

Jay leapt through, dragging Meera. Anika followed, her hive reduced to a single wraith.

Behind them, the egg's void birthed a black sun.

At dawn, they stood on the ruins of Swayambhunath Hill. The valley was gone, replaced by a sea of glass. The sapling's corpse smoldered in the distance.

Meera tore off her mask. "What have you done?"

The child-acolyte studied the horizon. "What was necessary."

Anika's lone wraith curled in her palm. "Rani…?"

No answer.

Jay's orchid had wilted, its roots dead. But in his chest, the egg's void pulsed—a shard lodged near his heart.

The child frowned. "You kept a piece."

"Insurance," Jay said.

Somewhere, Alessandro laughed.