But it was almost poetic. Dying for the same valley that sank my father. Perhaps, they will remember me. As the foolish one. Daft enough to believe in himself. Only to pay the price for the choices of others. Perhaps they will tell stories. Make an example of me. To teach kids to make the best of each day, make the most of little moments, because the bitter truth is that oftentimes, entire lives can amount to absolutely nothing. Not everyone finds happiness or attains something great. Most lives are insignificant and thus blown away into the sands of time.

‘Promise me you’ll live,’ Aman told Idhika. ‘On my behalf, you’ll return to the valley and expose Sanaka. You’ll live to be the proof that I existed. My legacy and my goals. Tell Ma and Fayza my story. Don’t let them all forget me, Idhika.’

His chin trembling, Aman walked up to Jagrav. ‘Don’t cry, brother, or I won’t be able to go.’ One by one, he hugged each of the Souls.

He wanted to run back down the mountain. But as if guided by an invisible force, he stepped up one last time and wiped the tears streaming down his burning cheeks. At the edge of the cliff, he cleared the pebbles and sat down. Despite his blurry vision, he could see how at times the clouds hid and at times revealed the stars above.

Aman took a deep breath. And then, for the last time in seven life cycles, he closed his eyes. Remembering Idhika’s instructions, his soul searched for an appropriate companion, and in no time latched on to a fully grown Himalayan vulture with aged feathers and droopy eyelids flying a little way above him. Through his sharp vision, half covered by his white beak, Aman spotted the Souls, and at the edge of the cliff, his own body in meditation. And below that was his target, the branch with the bees. His broad wings straightened until they lay flat against the wind currents, allowing him to glide towards the honeycombs.

Idhika had told him that the Himalayan bee’s hives were often on inaccessible terrain, which made it difficult to collect the Madhu, even with a bird as a companion. There was no way to separate the hives from the branch. And if the bird managed somehow, its claws would tear into the cells and waste precious Madhu. And because of these reasons, Vanyasa had perfected a unique system.

Aman raced past the Souls, and in one hard flap of his wings, gained momentum towards the wide branch. Through his razor-sharp eyes, he could see how the branch grew horizontally from within a lone patch of grass surfacing the stony face of the cliffside. Truly, Aman realized, nature is tenacious and finds a way to survive in the harshest of terrains. Within seconds, the head of the vulture met with full force the middle of the branch. Although this shook the beehives up and down violently, Aman had failed to break off the branch.