Chapter 54: The Pit Where Fire Waits
The path appeared at sunrise.
Not a road, not a vision. Just... a feeling. A pull in Aarav's chest. Like breath drawn backward through time.
He followed it.
Out of Shraddhalok. Through dry valleys. Past silent hills.
No one followed.
Even Bhaktarakshaka stayed behind. Even Meha felt the distance and did not ask.
Because this wasn't a path for guidance.
It was a path for reckoning.
By dusk, Aarav stood before a crater.
Not carved. Burned.
The land around it was scorched, yet nothing smoldered. No smoke. No glow.
Just heat.
Old heat.
It radiated from the pit like a heartbeat that hadn't stopped… just slowed.
He descended.
Each step stripped something from him—doubt, identity, even memory.
Not as punishment.
As price.
The bottom held no fire.
Only silence.
And at its center, seated in a coil of blackened ash, was a figure.
Bare-skinned. Hair like coals. Eyes shut.
Breathing once every few minutes.
Waiting.
Agnimaas.
It opened its eyes.
No rage.
No welcome.
Just truth.
"You walk free. But do you walk alone?"
Aarav didn't answer.
Because he didn't know.
Yet.