Chapter 12

  Old Bonds

  Part Three

  The fight with Ira continued to get messy. Manya forced Ira on the ground and while sitting on her, she hit her head several times, hoping to cure her temporary amnesia. But she also got punched harder on her head, “Ow! You’ll regret this!” Manya said.

  What surprised her next was a smile on Ira’s face. The fight, which started as a joke by an idiot, turned into the battle to mend the broken bonds.

  Every passing minute, Ira’s body shivered; increasing her confusion and surprise regarding her current situation. Manya leaned to charge, but surprised to see Ira, accepted her defeat and laid on the platform. “I am tired, Manya. Can’t fight anymore, you win.”

  Tears filled Manya’s eyes. She dashed forward. Their bodies collided in a tight, joyous embrace. “I missed you!”

  Ira seemed alarmed at first, but she behaved like, as if everything had made sense to her in a minute. “God, I miss our office,” she said. “Hey, can I ask you something, who was you talking to earlier?”

  “When?” Manya said.

  “Before our fight, I saw you, looking at someone, talking.”

  “Oh, it was Happy.”

  “Happy?”

  “Yeah, there he,” she pointed in a direction, but to her surprise, there wasn’t anyone around but the endless sky and destruction he had caused.

  “What happened?” Ira said.

  “He was right there.”

  “There isn’t anyone. Since I had opened my eyes, it was only you.”

  “But,” she moved towards the edge. “We. Right here, and talked.”

  “What did he say?” Ira said.

  “Nothing, I just asked him about.” Manya saw an ariot in the air; scaring her every bone. “They have come again! We have to fight.” she gazed at Ira. “No, we have to run!”

  “Manya, calm down.”

  “No, we have to leave this place!”

  “It’s empty Manya!”

  She looked back at Ira. “No! we… Empty what?”

  “That junk is empty. There’s no life inside.”

  “How did you know?”

  “Perks of being an angel,” Ira smirked. “Let’s hurry inside. This barrier won’t be able to hold us longer.”

  “What barrier?”

  Ira pointed below. A shock enveloped Manya—she wasn’t standing on a sturdy metal of Happy’s shapeshifting thing. But a barrier, similar to one the angels had trapped her in.

  “Something’s wrong. It’s all… different,” Manya said.

  “Nothing’s different. You are just tired,” Ira said. She glanced at the destroyed Revivification Land. “What have you done to this place?”

  ***

  Was it all a lie? No. If he can alter a live feed, he can also go invisible. But why?

  “Here, swallow this, it will calm you down,” Ira handed her a small cube. Fluffy and smell as refreshment.

  “What’s this?”

  “Eat it,” Ira adjusted the panel of the ariot.

  Manya placed it on her tongue and, in an instant, it dissolved into a liquid that relieved her thirst and dizziness.

  “What is this? A medicine?”

  “No, it’s water.”

  “Why does it feel? Health.”

  Ira gigged. “Daily consumption of five will quench your hunger and extend your life up to three centuries.”

  “Please, no.”

  “What?”

  “I can’t handle anymore mind bursting information today. I have already seen and heard enough. Can’t we go back to my apartment, and will continue after a long week or months of rest?”

  “You remember your mamu’s life is in danger, right?” Ira said.

  “Yeah, wait—danger? How did you know?”

  Ira approached her in her floating pilot’s chair. “Dhruv was my brother, Manya. How could I let him wander alone on an entirely new planet? I followed him from the day he arrived on Earth, and,” she controlled her tears. “And to the day before he died.”

  “Before he died?”

  “Yes, the day before Kri attacked the capital, I got a false information that my father had summoned me. And before I could make it back, Dhruv had left the world of living. I-I found him lying alone in the comfort of feathers. I took him back to our home for last rites.” Manya leaned in to hug. “There’s no going back home, Manya. We have to move forward and reach Sevavann.”

  Manya nodded.

  “But how are we going to reach there?” Manya said.

  “I know a location of their nearby facility.”

  “How?”

  “One should know the location of entities closest to them. Rest, don’t stress over it.”

  “No, wait—I think I can handle one more burst of otherworldly information. So, explain to me, what are angels?”

  “Angels. Angels are another word for virtue.”

  “I think you have misunderstood vice for virtue.”

  “Activities of some can’t reflect the entire community, can it?”

  “What about those innocent mercenaries who are brainwashed by you guys into killing machines?”

  “What mercenaries?”

  “So, you know nothing about a remote island, which was filled with ruthless mercenaries, be it men or women, who breath to kill?” Manya said. Ira shook her head. “Then you, Ms. either, know nothing about the activities done by your angel siblings.” Or think of me as a fool.

  Manya doubted her way of thinking, wary that Ira could be associated with those malicious angels. She belonged to a rich family, and criminals targeting rich for fulfilling their needs is not a new thing. It might be her far relative who has ties with such entities. Defaming angels.

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  “I really don’t have any idea about the existence of such a place, but I’ll assure you, I’ll look into it the moment I went back home,” Ira said.

  “Where is your home?”

  “I can’t tell you that, for your own safety.”

  Manya’s eyes sparkled. She leaned forward. “A home full of good angels, right?” Her eyes drifted upwards. “How beautiful it would be. Living among angels. Why would knowing your address compromise my safety?”

  “Manya, I belong to one of the esteemed families, whom address is the sensitive matter. Not just my home, but the location of my entire planet is a secret.”

  “Don’t you have protection?”

  “We do, but what could protect you from an endless, surprise attacks. Even our slaves don’t know about the place they work at. Being at a certain stature could make you doubt your own kind.”

  Ira’s words sound reasonable, but Manya’s intuition told her to be beware. What mattered most to her was the safety and presence of her best friend by her side.

  “Hey, now I remember, when we were back at the MS mansion, where I lost you. What happened after I left from there?” Manya said.

  Ira’s complete focus was on piloting the Ariot. Manya caught a fleeting sight of two thin white stripes that materialised behind Ira’s neck, only to disappear the next moment.

  “When you left, the fight with the others angels massacred the land. It continued for hours. Many lives were lost.”

  “What happened to Darsh and that white hair girl?”

  Manya again saw those stripes appeared for only a second.

  “I don’t know. I was too busy fighting my kind.”

  Manya noticed a pattern: whenever she asked Ira about certain events, Ira would avoid eye contact and respond only after those black stripes appeared. She doubted the person to not be Ira.

  “Ira, do you remember Sam and his ass?”

  Same pattern happened again. As if she was researching from a storage. Ira laughed and conversed about it for minutes, like an average best friend would do.

  Manya confronted her, regarding the pattern, which startled Ira the sooner she heard it. A sly grin crept across Ira’s face. “Manya, the functionality of our bodies, are different from your average humans. Few of my organs, functions differently from humans.”

  Manya, surprised, said, “Don’t tell me you pee from somewhere else?”

  Ira giggled. “No, you freak! I was talking about the brain.”

  “Don’t tell me your brain is not inside your head but knees?”

  “Shut up! And let me explain! Angel’s brains operate simultaneously with wings,” Manya was about to speak but stopped by Ira, “And without the wings, I couldn’t comprehend certain information right away. To make it easier, my brain doesn’t hold most of the memories. They are stored in my wings, which I don’t have. But all angels have a feature in the middle of their spine, that in case of emergency we can access the data from servers.”

  Manya gazed at her, trying to decipher everything. “Can I ask the number of your internet provider? I also like an advance wireless angelic router in my spine.” Manya stretched her back. “Ira! Did you know me from the past?”

  Ira shook her head. “You are the biggest mystery of my life.”

  “What about mamu? He should be famous?”

  “No, Manya. Just like you, he appeared a normal human.”

  Manya’s eyes expanded. “You said you were keeping an eye on Dhruv… always?”

  A grin spread across Ira’s lips. Manya rushed to grab her neck.

  ***

  The ariots control from the pilot’s chair appeared beautiful. Ira was giving her a leg massage. She wanted to control the ariot, but it was on autopilot. “Where is this your facility?”

  “It’s…”

  “Are we lost?”

  Manya glimpsed a strange, swirling pattern of clouds they were heading towards. The clouds had an artistic rather than natural appearance. Sooner, they passed through it with no reaction, but she experienced a gust of refreshment. “Even my eyes are tired,” Manya said.

  Few minutes later, a huge rectangular aircraft came in sight. Ira hopped up on Manya and angled the ariot straight towards the sky. By executing a series of strategic manoeuvres, they outsmarted the colossal flying machine.

  “What was it?” Manya said.

  “No idea, could be those space pirates.”

  “There are pirates in space?”

  “If you are surprised about them, I don’t think you’ll remain sane after learning about the world you have entered.”

  Just a few seconds after their daring escape from the unknown flying machine, the floor trembled.

  “Is it turbulence?” Manya said.

  “They aren’t space pirates, Manya!”

  In a split second, the ariot crumbled into pieces, its remnants being carried away by the wind. Leaving two helpless females suspended in the sky with no help to propel them forward.

  “Don’t you have any emergency feature in those clothes of yours!” Ira said.

  “Do you think they are capable of such a thing?” Manya checked her thighs for any glowing pattern, but nothing appeared.

  Manya’s heart pounded as the wind howled at her. A wide grin spread across her face. “Whoo!!!”

  “Have you gone insane?” Ira said.

  “Enjoy while you can!”

  She was surprised to find the clothes still wrapping her body—gracefully. Below the cloud layer, a captivating world unfolded like a vast tapestry. It transformed into a mesmerising mosaic of shapes and patterns. “Not water?” She didn’t want to die by smashing on the surface. Her thoughts raced as she tried to find an exit from the upcoming nightmare, but she couldn’t think of any practical action.

  “Don’t you have any spare pair of wings?” she yelled at Ira. Like a starving animal, Ira gazed at her.

  A fast-approaching sharp sound caught their attention.

  “They are coming!” Ira said.

  “The pirates?” Manya was eager to see such entities. She prayed to Krishna for pirates to be good, not like the stories she had heard, where they had tortured the girls.

  The noise grew louder as a massive rectangular purple aircraft emerged and flew towards them. Scared from the collision, both of them dove away from it, Ira was falling faster than her.

  “You cheat!” Manya said.

  The aircraft was metres away from them. It shifted to a parallel position and started rotating.

  “What kind of weird pirates are they? Do they crush before capturing?” Manya said.

  The aircraft was faster than her unsuccessful tries. Just as it appeared above her, she glimpsed an open space before being pulled in.

  “See, I told you I could do it!” a male voice announced.

  The area transformed from darkness to a large space filled with cargo and people wearing MS manufactured SL. And she wasn’t naked.

  “You guys are not pirates?” Manya said.

  They laughed. “Sorry, to break your hope, we aren’t,” a guy said, while working through a panel.

  “You must be Ira?” he said. He reminded her she wasn’t the only one falling. Yet, she was stuck, as she couldn’t question them regarding an angel to whom the name Ira belonged.

  “There was another person with me in the sky.”

  “You mean the angel?” he said, “Don’t worry, we had tied her down, and contacted the officials, she’ll spend a long and rewarding time in prison.”

  “No!” she said. “I mean, she was a good angel. She had helped me.”

  “Helped you? But we didn’t see her in your live feed,” he said, while going through her feed.

  Manya remembered Happy’s words about altering her feeds. This time in her feed—her journey came to an abrupt halt when she fainted, exhausted from destroying the Revivification Land and successfully capturing Karulsh. But there was no moment of escaping the place!

  “She’s not here, because I met her, when I was on my way to find an ariot to escape. Without her help, I wouldn’t have survived,” Manya said, “And if I had relied on the medical team, I would already be buried somewhere there.”

  “… Ok, I’ll tell the officials to record your statement.”

  “So, you are really Ira?” A girl leading two men approached her.

  More people, nice. “Are you the one whom I owe 5k?” Manya said.

  The girl got confused. “No.”

  Manya extended a handshake. “Then, I am Ira.”

  The girl smiled. “Marina,” she said. “Been hearing a lot about you.”

  “Who’s slandering?”

  A few giggles escaped from the girl and guys with less mass; appeared to be her friends or slaves. One of them approached Manya. “It’s an honour to meet you.” Fear overwhelmed her as she saw his sweaty hands inching closer to her.

  “So, how did you guys find me?” Manya said. The guy pulled his arm back.

  “We were on our way back when Vidyut saw an ariot, and your presence on it,” Marina said.

  “Who’s Vidyut?”

  “The captain and a maniac,” Marina said. “How were you able to get past the restriction?”

  “What restriction?”

  “To bring an angel technology, and an angel herself on this planet, without any clearance?”

  Have I committed a crime? Oh! “My AI. Aery. She provided me one time access.”

  “She?” one of Marina’s lackeys snorted. “Expected from an unranked.”

  “If you don’t mind, I’d like to ask you, how were you able to beat the legendary Karulsh?” Marina said.

  Legendary?

  “Who?” Manya said. “That weak guy. He was begging me to not kill him.”

  Anger flared in Marina’s eyes. “If he was so weak, then why did you end up with critical wounds?”

  Manya was surprised to see a fan girl aggression for an angel. “What wounds?” They all were surprised to see her unscathed. Manya moved closer. “I’ll let you on a secret. He’s a pervert.”

  Two men had to hold Marina back from rushing towards her.

  “We are back!” a male voice announced.

  A man who was both healthy and fit entered the area. His grey hair and age were something she had been struggling to decipher according to his fit physique. He approached Manya and made a bow similar to that of a performer. “I hope you liked my little stunt,” he said.

  “I loved it,” Manya said.

  He offered a handshake. “Vidyut.”

  Manya glanced at Marina. “I’ve heard.” She returned the gesture.

  “She’s crazy over angles.”

  “… How did you?”

  “This place is like an external organ to me.”

  “That’s how you ruin the first impression.”

  He smiled and faced the crowd. “A guest isn’t allowed to work! All the others who can hear me! Get your asses out of here!”

  The aircraft’s massive doors opened, but with no rush of wind. The people inside began shifting the cargo in mid-air. Manya recalled the weight poor people carried in villages back on Earth. Doubting Happy’s words on Earth was not ready for powerful technologies, but the harmless ones should be allowed.

  Vidyut guided her to a square pattern, a few metres away. A barrier surrounded them. Within a second, the square space elevated and crossed a larger distance. Manya was relieved to find that a layer of protection enveloped her lower body, guarding against falls or tilting.

  The view was so captivating that she forgot to breathe.

  Vidyut smirked after seeing her bewildered expressions.

  “It’s amazing, isn’t it?” he said.

  “How and where is this place hiding on earth?”

  Vidyut snuck up behind her and whispered in her ear. “This isn’t Earth, Ms. Ira.”