Ujal took the amulet willingly and sat down beside the fire, with Payal and Dhara.

Then everyone’s eyes turned to Aman. He knew he was no warrior, unlike Fayza. And Idhika, Aarti, Prithvi, Savitri and Jagrav—the best fighters among them. But before he could volunteer to be one of the Atmayogis, Idhika asked, ‘Aman, why don’t you sit down?’

Here goes nothing, loser, Aman told himself as he took a seat beside the fire. Payal and Dhara were already lost in their yog. Ujal’s forearm was yet to start glowing. Aman, too, closed his eyes to search for a companion. The six who had chosen to stay in the conscious world surrounded the Atmayogis, standing in a circle.

With the Swastika drawn and the Souls in formation, Idhika initiated the final step in invoking Agni. She turned to watch the fire between the Souls and started humming, softly at first, but when it became audible to the others, they realized that Idhika was in fact reciting an intricate chant. The Eka’s voice appeared to vibrate and made the flames go wild. The fire reached higher, until parts of it started to linger in the air. Soon, a yellow aura started to materialize above them. It first grew in patches, all around the Souls, and then the gaps began to be filled. When it finished, they found themselves inside a translucent solid dome; it had a light-yellow tinge.

Time was up. It was the roar of the kirtimukhas that they heard first. Then came a flurry of spears shooting out from the darkness. The spears struck the dome but left hardly a scratch.

Idhika looked at Fayza. Fayza looked at Prithvi.

Prithvi took a deep breath and looked up to the sky through the dome. She noticed a bright star, the name of which she did not know. She only hoped that Bhavesh, wherever he was, would look at the same star sometime that night.

Finally, the beasts emerged, in all their fury, from the blackness of the land. Fire glowed in the large metal rings around their necks. Prithvi could take on one, maybe two if luck was on her side. But there were at least thirty of them, elbowing one another, repeatedly pounding against the dome or trying to rip it open using their spears. Agni’s protection held strong.

The kirtimukhas were of many sizes, but all of them had white skin. Only when one of them, no bigger than a well-built human, climbed over the dome, right above Prithvi, did she realize that the white skin was in fact a garment fashioned out of goatskin. The kirtimukha’s eyeballs popped out and two small horns jutted out through his hair.

The siege continued. Only once did the kirtimukhas pause their efforts to penetrate the dome, when they reverentially bowed their heads as another of their kind showed up. Sporting a long forked beard, long nails that looked like a set of daggers and a smile that put his decayed teeth on full display—this was surely Chayan. He stood by himself as the kirtimukhas resumed their attempts.