"The Golden-Eyed Devil! I just saw the Golden-Eyed Devil. The one the Malotas soldiers have been trying to catch for the past few months. The one Dad warned me about!" Aditya thought to himself as he made his way out of Karvatan and back to the car which brought him there.
Aditya opened the door and got in as the driver asked him, "Ready to go back home, Young Master Malotas?" to which Aditya said, "Yes."
As the two of them drove off and out of the main city and back to the mansion, Aditya's mind raced with thoughts about what he had just witnessed in the city.
"Was that truly the Golden Eyed Devil or was I just imagining things? I must have been imagining things! There's no way the moment I step out into the city for the first time I run into a dangerous criminal who has been terrorising our people for the past few months! There's no way!" One part of Aditya said to himself, while another part of him argued differently.
"But, it must have been her! Who else could have the same golden eyes as her? Maybe, she stole from me! Maybe when she spilled her juice on me she took something! Wait..." Aditya thought to himself, suddenly getting suspicious and checking his back pocket to make sure he still had the gold which Viraj had given him before he left as well as having his "Malotas family" embroidered pouch.
Slowly, Aditya patted his back right pocket and when he felt nothing there, he panicked. He hurriedly looked behind himself trying to see if perhaps it was on the seat or in his other pocket. But, it wasn't. That little bag of gold given from his father, holding quite a bit of money, was gone.
"She took it. That girl, the Golden Devil took it! Now, what do I do? Should I tell the driver?Whatever his name is. Or, should I wait and tell dad personally? " Aditya asked himself as he sat there, thinking and worrying.
Finally, he made a decision. "I'll tell dad personally instead of the driver. That's what he would want me to do!" So, through the one hour or so ride back to the Malotas mansion, Aditya stared out the window and planned out what he was going to say to his father and soon enough, they arrived back at the mansion.
Aditya bolted into his home and hurriedly climbed the right hand side staircase, passing the maids, and up to the second floor. He scampered his way to his father's office, but, before he could enter, he heard voices from inside of Viraj's office. It sounded like Viraj was arguing with someone, perhaps a colleague Aditya guessed.
"How do you expect me to get a shemesh this quickly?!" Viraj shouted at the person with whom he was talking.
"It doesn't matter how you get it, I need it in Neskarta in a week," The person, who Viraj was yelling at, responded calmly.
"You think I'll be able to get it in a week?! I don't even know what it looks like, where it lives or anything! I'm so busy with this robber terrorising my people that I don't even have the time for this stuff!" Viraj yelled back at the man.
"Her!" Aditya thought to himself, when he heard his father mention the girl he had just seen in Karvatan.
"Your top priority is and should be the shemesh, nothing more nothing less. And I've already helped with some information about it. Remember, Viraj? The Arosten Gardens, my dear friend," the same person responded again.
"That stupid riddle doesn't help with anything! How is that going to help me find a living, wild creature?!" Viraj yelled again at the man, this time his voice rising a bit.
"I don't have the time for all of your complaining. I need the shemesh in Neskarta in a week or else... Well, you know the consequences, Viraj. Your son, what's his name again?" the person responded, clearly trying to make Viraj feel anxious.
"Aditya," Viraj responded, quietly.
"Right..." The person responded softly, "Aditya won't be safe anymore, if I don't get the shemesh. Understood?" Outside the door, Aditya felt shivers run down his body as he heard his name being spoken by this anonymous person.
"Yes, sir," Viraj responded, clenching his teeth tightly as the person made their way out of the office.
Quickly, so he didn't get caught, Aditya hid into the nearest closet and listened as the man(or perhaps woman) left, his mind still racing with thoughts of the private conversation he had just eavesdropped upon. Once their footsteps had become completely silent, Aditya carefully came out of the closet and went back to his father's office. There, he spotted Viraj seated at his desk, holding his head in his hands.
"I need to speak with you," Aditya said out loud as he knocked on his father's office's door. Viraj's head popped up and he looked up from his desk and at his son.
"Yes, Aditya? What is it you need? Were you able to get everything I asked for?" Viraj responded, his voice no longer the scared, anxious one Aditya had heard when he was speaking to that stranger.
"Yes, I was able to get everything you need. Well, everything except for the bowler hat because I couldn't find any good ones," Aditya replied, thinking back to what happened in Karvatan.
"That's fine. It wasn't a necessity, to be honest," Viraj answered back.
Neither of the Malotas men said anything for a moment, as Aditya started to think of the conversation he heard between his father and that man. But, finally, Viraj tried to finish their conversation off. "If that's all, Aditya, you can leave."
Aditya, who finally got back to the present, quickly said, "No, sorry. I have something VERY important to tell you about."
Intrigued, Viraj asked, "Very important? What do you mean by that?"
Taking a deep breath in, Aditya began the long story of what happened in Karvatan that day with him and the girl, the Golden-Eyed Devil, the thief, Nera.
"Today I went to Wasa, as you know, and my day went pretty well," Aditya began when Viraj cut him off.
"Okay... How is this important?"
"I'm getting there, okay? I'm getting there," Aditya responded, obviously annoyed at being interrupted.
"Right, yes of course."
"The last place I went to was Karvatan to pick up some clothes and stuff you asked me to get," Aditya explained, as his father, for the first time ever, listened intently. "The final store I went to was the hat store, to get the bowler hat you asked for."
"Which you didn't end up buying," Viraj added in between.
"Right, I went to the hat store where I didn't end up buying what you asked for, but at the hat store something happened." Aditya paused for a moment to take a breath and continued, "I met a girl-"
Before Aditya could even continue, his father chuckled slightly and interrupted him by saying, "OH! That's what's so important. A girl you fell in "love" with, huh? What do you want to do next? Run off with her?" Viraj rolled his eyes and turned back to his work.
"No, dad, listen!"
"No, dad! She's special to me! You can't separate us. We were-" Viraj started saying teasingly as he smiled to himself, when Aditya interrupted him, obviously frustrated.
"-DAD! SHE'S THE GOLDEN-EYED DEVIL! SHE'S THE THIEF WE'VE BEEN LOOKING FOR!" Aditya yelled.
Immediately, Viraj jumped off his chair and walked hurriedly towards his son. "You're sure? You're a hundred percent sure it's her, Aditya?"
"Yes! Yes I am! She had golden eyes and she stole my money!" Aditya responded to his father.
"What was she wearing? What does she look like" Viraj asked.
"She was wearing a dark blue robe or dress. And she had a shawl. A light blue one. She looked my age and she had light brown medium length hair. It was a little wavy."
Immediately, Viraj jumped into action and notified every single soldier of the Malotas army in Wasa. He gave the same information Aditya had given him, as well as telling them to search down any girl they saw who matched this description to see if she had a Malotas embroidered money pouch.
"Thank you, Aditya for notifying me immediately," Viraj said to his son, proudly. "Thank you."
"Thank you? Should I say thank you for all you've done for me and then, apologise for what I said earlier?" Nera thought to herself as she walked hurriedly back home to the orphanage.
She rushed out of Karvatan and onto the main streets of Wasa. Her last mission of the day was successful and, now, all she had to do was go back to the rest of the girls. Nera kept her head bent down low, as usual, and speed-walked through the streets. She hoped she didn't look too suspicious. While walking back to the orphanage, Nera's mind raced with thoughts on how to apologise for how she had acted earlier to her guardians, Aunt Jaddua and Aunt Alani.
Finally, when she was almost there, some Malotas soldiers stopped her. A man, who seemed to be the general of all of them, walked towards Nera and stood barely a centimetre away from her.
"I hope this isn't General Darold, the leader of the Malotas, Viraj Malotas' right-hand man..." Nera thought to herself.
"Stop right there ma'am." The general ordered.
"Is there anything wrong, sir?" Nera asked innocently, still looking down.
The general breathed in from his nose, making his nostrils much larger, and letting Nera see all of his nasty nose hair. "We are just doing random check-ups on random people. So if you don't mind please empty your pockets."
Nera nodded and, then, admitted, "I don't have pockets sir." The general fell silent and finally, moved out of the way.
He turned to the rest of the Malotas soldiers and ordered them to, "Search her up and down."
The soldiers nodded to their general and began patting Nera down. Nera thought to argue, but decided otherwise, so she didn't look too suspicious.
One of the Malotas soldiers found the pouch full of gold coins and showed it to the general. "We found this, sir,"The soldiers said.
The general narrowed his eyes at the pouch and grabbed it from the soldier. He examined and inspected it thoroughly and finally his eyes met Nera's. "Very... interesting design on your pouch, young lady."
Nera's eyebrows furrowed slightly as she said, "Thank you?" in an unsure tone.
"It's quite unique. Never seen anything like it before." The general paused for a moment.
Then, he said, "Well actually I have. The design is one only a member of the Malotas Family can have. And recently Aditya Malotas, son of Sir Malotas himself, lost his pouch. I wonder if this is his pouch and not yours."
Nera's eyes widened in fear and worry. "There is no way that is a Malotas' pouch! No way!" Nera thought to herself, but instead she said, "Sir that is my pouch. My great-grandmother gave it to me right before she passed."
The general inhaled sharply and spat the word "Liar" in Nera's face. Nera flinched and the general was able to catch a glimpse of her golden eyes.
The general looked at the rest of the Malotas soldiers and said, "Chain her up!"
The soldiers did as they were told. Nera tried her hardest to fight them off. She was able to get two off, but the rest of them cornered her and she had no other choice but to surrender and allow the soldiers to tie her up.
The Malotas soldiers took their prisoner, Nera, and stuffed her into one of the Malotas' cars. It was a blue and yellow striped car. The general sat in the same vehicle as the young thief, so he could keep an eye on her. They all drove off together.
The whole ride to the Malotas mansion, General Darold questioned and interrogated Nera aggressively. "Where are you from?", "Who are your parents?", "Where do you live?", "How old are you?", "What's your name?", "Who's your leader?", "Who do you get orders from?". On and on, he went and Nera felt as if he would never stop talking.
But finally, after what felt like hours, they reached a humongous mansion with a group of soldiers guarding the gate. The general stopped questioning Nera and gave the soldiers a complex hand signal consisting of him shaking his wrist and making a circle motion with his fingers, until they finally let all the Malotas cars through the giant gate and into the yard of the Malotas mansion. The general grabbed hold of Nera, shoulder first, and dragged her into the huge mansion, past the front garden. He opened the huge doors and pulled Nera through the plainly-coloured mansion.
There were two sets of staircases coming down to the front entrance. To the left hand side of Nera was a library. There were books on top of books on top of books. To the right hand-side of Nera was a huge black couch and a piano placed next to it. The couch was facing a white brick fireplace and near the fireplace there was a beautifully painted portrait of both father and son Malotas, Viraj Malotas' hand on his son's shoulder. But something about the portrait seemed weird. Odd. Before Nera could get a better look at the portrait, Viraj Malotas appeared, his son, Aditya right behind him. Almost immediately, Nera recognized the boy she had stolen from, Aditya as Aditya recognized the thief who had stolen from him, Nera.
"You found the girl?" Viraj asked as he and his son descended down the right hand side staircase. "Yes I have, Sir Malotas." The general said, as he forcefully pushed Nera to the ground.
Viraj stopped in front of Nera and pulled her chin up so he could see her eyes. Nera's golden eyes burned with hatred at Viraj and she glared at the tall man. Viraj kept eye contact with Nera for a couple seconds and finally dropped her chin, so she was looking at the ground again. Nera could feel Aditya watching her as if expecting to figure out all of Nera's secrets. Viraj stood up straighter and turned to the general.
He cleared his throat and said, "Kill her now."
Nera and Aditya's eyes widened in surprise and, even the general was slightly taken aback.
"Ye-Yes sir!" The general grabbed hold of his gun and took it out.
He pointed it at Nera's head and before he could pull the trigger, Aditya yelled, "Stop!"
Viraj turned to his son in surprise and the general moved his gun away from Nera's head.
"What happened?" Viraj asked his son, narrowing his eyes. "You-you can't kill her, dad! You can't!" Aditya said, his eyes pleading with his father.
"This thing has stolen thousands of dollars from our people. She deserves to be killed."
Aditya's eyes saddened slightly as he said, "I know, dad. I know. But killing her would be inhumane."
Viraj inhaled sharply and practically yelled, "Do you know what's inhumane?! The things this girl has done! From what I've heard she even tried to kill an old man!" Nera's eyes widened and she quickly tried to deny this.
"I never did that!"
"Shut up!" Viraj snapped as he turned around.
"Dad, please. Killing a person isn't right. Can't we just... Lock her up in the dungeon or something?" Aditya suggested. Viraj turned to his son, his eyes burning in rage and, then, he turned back to Nera.
Finally, he straightened his back to make himself look even taller, took a deep breath in and said, "Fine. Take her down to the dungeon, General Darold." General Darold picked Nera up by her shoulder and dragged her down to the dungeon as she furiously tried to get out of his grip.
That night was a hard night, not only for Nera, but for Aditya as well. The whole night, the young man stayed awake thinking about the conversation he had overheard between his father and that man. He tried his best to piece the clues and hints together. The words, "Shemesh," "Arosten Gardens," "Power" and "Neskarta" filled the fourteen year old's mind the whole night. Over and over again, Aditya read "The Myths and Legends of Arosten Gardens," hoping to find some clues in there, but nothing. Not one thing. He needed to figure this stuff out on his own with, perhaps, a little bit of help.
On the other hand, Nera lay on the cold, hard floor of the jail cell, staring up at the cement cell, trying her best not to burst into tears. She missed, no, she longed for her sisters(the other orphans) and her aunts. The fourteen year old girl was hungry, frustrated, and, generally speaking, miserable. "There's nothing in this world I wouldn't do to get out of her. Nothing!" She thought to herself, as she slowly started to fall asleep.