Chapter 52 – Mira Breaks the Code

"Truth doesn't save you. But it does show you who the enemy really is."

For days, the Rakshasa-Vira signals had been interfering with their comms. Static, distorted whispers, and sharp pulses of rage that echoed through the shelter's radios and emergency frequencies.

Most thought it was noise. A byproduct of the apocalypse.

Mira knew better.

She hadn't slept in two nights.

In the far corner of the shelter, she sat cross-legged, surrounded by salvaged equipment — broken laptops, jury-rigged solar panels, an ancient analog frequency receiver, and wires that twisted like veins across the floor.

Her eyes were bloodshot.

Her fingers moved like she was defusing a bomb.

And in a way — she was.

Because the code wasn't just digital.

It was emotional.

And someone was broadcasting fear.

"Not to control us," she muttered to herself, "but to condition us."

She played the signal again.

It wasn't random static. It had pulses, pauses, patterns.

Almost like chanting.

But in reverse.

Khushi came in, holding a plate of cold rice. "You need to eat."

Mira didn't look up. "Tell Yash the signals are... layered. One part is surface — meant to agitate. The second is deeper. Something is embedded."

Khushi blinked. "Like what?"

Mira stared at the waveform. "A location. Coordinates. Possibly… names."

She stopped breathing for a second.

Then she whispered:

"They're not just calling us."

"They're calling each other."

Mira played the decoded fragment aloud.

A chorus of disconnected voices, chanting something almost human — but not quite.

And then came a whisper in Bengali:

"He watches you, even now. The boy of ash. The one who broke time."

She froze.

Khushi's plate hit the floor.

"Yash," Mira called through the comms, "You need to hear this. It's not a warning. It's a hunt signal."

There was no reply.

Only the sudden blaring of breach alarms.

And then — static.

That night, Mira didn't sleep again.

But she finally understood one thing:

The Rakshasa-Viras weren't chaotic. They were organized.

And they had been talking to each other this entire time —

right under the gods' silence.