(Book 6) Hayden Mackay and The Third-Eye of the Pancharatna

33.1. The Last Memory

"Lava...fire spirits?"

"Exactly."

"Nazira, I want to go inside the vault. I want to fetch Breaking Samagraha's stones myself."

"I figured, and I'll help you get there." Her voice was reluctant. She blinked a couple of times and nervously glanced away.

I brushed a strand of stray hair from her face and tugged it gently behind her ear. She focused back on my lips. "Is there anything else I need to know about it?" I asked. "Remember, no more secrets."

She bit her lower lip and held my hand firmly in both of hers. "Listen. Events are imprinted in the vault," she said. "Even if you do not mean to, it will still sense the one thing that you desire to see and show you the event from the past. This may not feed you with any new information but there could be consequences. Like how it turned Shashi into a mage? To avoid that, you must remember that you're happy the way you are and that you're in the present, not in the past. You must open yourself to the moment and let things go by. I'm already a mage, the spirit will not care about me even if she remembers who I am. It's you who I'm worried about. Promise me that you'll be mindful and believe in what you want to believe every second you're inside the vault."

A warm glow spread throughout my insides listening to her long answer and explaining more comprehensibly than needed. "Nazira, what am I going to see?"

"I don't know," she whispered. "What is it that you want to see? No! Don't tell me. It's better that way...I think."

I smiled at her innocence. "What's your middle name?"

She pulled a face. "Now you ask. And guess what, Your Majesty, I'm not telling you."

"How mean, why not?" I asked, sniggering. "Does anybody know?"

"Shashi does. He knows everything about me. Creepy, right?"

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Nazira and I flowed our way around the molten-molded wonder.

The thick waves of the magma simmered and bubbled, rocking ominously in and out of the tubes and thrashing against the walls of the extended portion of the chamber. The white wisps rose from the bottom like fumes, and it did not give the impression of just the steam. I formed a small gust of my fire, letting it whoosh through the fumes. Nazira did not appear in my mind as it had all the while during my fight with Agnidaanav and knew why- she was right beside me. Instead, a whispering high-pitched scream pounded against my eardrums. Fire spirits, damn you.

Nazira and I descended the staircase attached to the wall. The waves of the magma seemed to rage like wildfire. If Nazira was talking, I wouldn't know. I couldn't hear a thing, even in my mind. My lungs were full of rotten-egg smoke and each step down made my vision blur with the constant streaming of my eyes. I was sweating like an overdriven horse. The air was searing hot in the blazing heat from the magma, and I felt my bloody shirt clinging to my skin. The heat stung my shoulder wound ceaselessly making me hiss now and then, no matter if it assisted the healing process. However, the fact that I was about to visit the Molten Vault drove the deluge of complaints off my mind. This non-action-packed, and the final adventure for this morning was feeding my aroused curiosity.

A twist of nausea swept over me. It was dread, I confess. The dread to think what was I supposed to do if Shashi swooped down and wrecked all my well-going plans and the succeeding ones that I was to commence the very night. Should I focus on making Nazira escape, or should I make it to the final showdown and bring development to this stalemated battle? Now that the tomb was under Pruthvi's keep, the latter option seemed more tempting than visiting the spirit of Lady Drishtika.