Tiyasha's lips were still locked with Shivam's when he remembered Aparajita.
And when memories of her slid back into his mind, the workings of Fate made it seem to him that it must have been Tiyasha who had seduced him into kissing her.
So Shivam did not only break the kiss, but shoved her as hard as he could. Eyes widened with shock, Tiyasha fell to the ground, with the unperturbed, cold raindrops.
"Why..." she muttered, her heart breaking, once and forever. The dark figure of the one she had loved hopelessly, who had kissed her and then tossed her to the ground, loomed above her.
"How dare you?" Shivam muttered.
"How dare what, Shivam?"
"You know I LOVE APARAJITA! HOW DARE YOU KISS ME? HOW COULD YOU DO IT?" Shivam yelled. A thunder masked his shout.
"But...but...it was you..." Tiyasha said, crying.
"Oh, you'll blame me now, won't you? YOU'LL BLAME ME NOW. WON'T YOU, YOU WITCH?"
"That wasn't..." Tiyasha tried to say. But the tears and the choking grief made it impossible to speak.
"Get out of my sight." Shivam's voice was colder than the rain.
"Sh...Shivam...don't...I truly love you...please," Tiyasha said. She hated herself for begging him to understand, and hated him for making her beg and humiliating her like that, but the words came anyway, just like the tears that flowed with the dark rain.
"GET THE HELL OUT OF MY SIGHT!" Shivam screamed, his voice breaking. Anger made his head spin. He had never felt so ruthless in his life.
Tiyasha looked at Shivam for a few more seconds. Silent. And then she rose, and stormed out of Shivam's sight.
Hardly could she have known that she had just began paying the Unseen Price--the price of bringing someone back from the dead.
***
The Imoogi, along with five other dragons, laid siege to the dark castle of Blikrot that night.
The guards on various towers of the castle rang the alarms, and all the Infernos nearabout ran to the castle's defence as soon as they could, but they couldn't have hoped to stop the onslaught of five different dragons.
Still, as they bled and burned and fell to the marbled floors, they managed to hurt most of the dragons badly enough. Only the Imoogi suffered no injury. Its monstrous roaring ripped the night sky itself. Out of its gigantic fangs came jets of fire, water, and smoke: burning, flooding, disorienting.
The Infernos threw their spears, knives, and the commanders used their rings of fire--but they didn't work as they were supposed to. Besides, the absence of Blikrot and Bakrasur broke their morale. Soon, the Infernos and their commanders began to flee, abondoning each other.
The castle burned well. The flames licked the sky. And victorious roaring of the vengeful dragons echoed through the earth. Then they left, as abruptly as they had come.
***
Shivam began regretting his behavior immeadiately after Tiyasha left him alone. He decided to take a stroll in the diminishing rain, and think over what had happened.
Why had Tiyasha seduced him like that?
And what if...what if she was right, and he was equally guilty for whatever had happened between them. But no, he would never betray Aparajita like that. The meaning of his entire journey was in his love for Aparajita.
But...could it have been possible that he had temporarily forgotten all about Aparajita? His memory had been funny lately, hadn't it? The possibility deeply distrubed Shivam.
"I'll have to apologize, that's all," Shivam told himself. So he went back to camp and found that everyone was asleep. Deciding not to disturb her, Shivam thought he would apologize to her in the morning.
He couldn't have known that a blackened human heart would never let him have that opportunity.
***
Blikrot was resting in Weavers' Residence when his castle went up in flames, just like his childhood home.
But he woke up, due to an electric jolt that ran through his body. The alarm. Someone had shed blood on the Capture-Painting of his foe, the sailor, the so called "people's hope".
He quickly traced the location of the sailor, by placing his palm on a Capture-Painting that he carried with him. And immediately began looking for a mirror.