Chapter 7: The race for truth had begun.
They weren't safe not out there, not yet. So, without another word, the three of them rushed back to Deepak's room. The moment they entered, Lalit stopped in his tracks.
"What the hell happened here?" he exclaimed, staring wide-eyed at the chaos.
The room looked like a cyclone of ancient knowledge had swept through it. Books some leather-bound, some barely held together were scattered across the bed and floor. Scrolls and yellowed pages were stacked in crooked piles on the table, and in the center of it all lay the mysterious wooden box, now open, its contents fulfilled. A faded map was pinned to the wall with makeshift tape, and the red book sat ominously under a beam of light from the window, almost as if it had claimed the room.
Kapil gave an awkward grin. "Yeah... welcome to our archaeology site."
"We were trying to find answers," Deepak said seriously, Though they'd all grown up hearing tales of Ramayana, it had always felt like mythology distant, sacred, and locked in temples and old scriptures. But now, it was no longer just a story. The red book, the spiral mark, and the demons they had encountered suggested there were layers to the epic that history had never revealed. Ramayana had always spoken of gods, demons, and divine wars but what if some truths had been buried or altered over time? What if parts of the great tale had been erased... or hidden to protect something?
"After you left, we couldn't stop thinking. That red book we found in the box it has the same spiral mark as mine. It has to be connected to everything happening."
Lalit walked over to the bed and picked up one of the ancient pages, his fingers gently brushing the worn edges. He flipped through a few torn sheets before glancing at the map on the wall.
"What exactly are you looking for?" he asked, tone sharp.
"Anything," Deepak said. "Any clue about that spiral mark, the shadow, the energy that saved us… even the well. We're not even sure what we're trying to solve, but we feel like this red book has something. We just don't know how to understand it."
Kapil chimed in, "There's stuff in there about Vanara armies, lost tribes… and this weird handwritten note that sounds more like a warning than a journal."
Deepak held out the red book. "Can you help us? Please. You're the best at decoding puzzles. We really need you."
Lalit hesitated for a moment. His eyes flicked between the clutter and his two exhausted, desperate friends. Then, without another word, he sat down cross-legged on the floor, pulled the book into his lap, and began reading.
"Okay," he muttered. "Let's see what you idiots missed."
Deepak smiled faintly. "We knew you'd come through."
Lalit didn't respond, already focused. His eyes moved quickly over the page. "This handwriting's old, but it's not completely unreadable. Some of the phrases are in ancient Hindi... wait, this passage talks about a 'tribe exiled by divine command.'" He paused. "Vanara… but not the ones we know."
"You mean not Lord Hanuman's army?" Kapil asked, leaning in.
"No," Lalit said slowly. "These seem different. Like… a splinter group. Hidden. Forgotten." He pointed at a symbol on the margin. "And here look this one matches the spiral on your palm, Deepak. It's drawn next to the word 'Raksh'."
"Raksh?" Deepak echoed. "Like Rakshasa?"
"Could be," Lalit said. "Or maybe something older. There's a mention of a war that never made it into the main versions of Ramayan. Something buried or hidden intentionally."
Deepak leaned forward, eyes intense. "You're saying there are parts of the Ramayan that were erased?"
Lalit nodded. "Or kept secret. Maybe for a reason."
Kapil whistled low. "This is bigger than I thought."
As Lalit continued flipping through pages, he began organizing the materials around him matching scrolls with phrases, comparing symbols from the book with markings on the old map.
"This is like piecing together a broken mirror," he muttered. "But I think there's something buried in this... a location maybe? Or a warning?"
Deepak and Kapil watched silently as Lalit dove deep into research mode. The mess in the room no longer looked random. It had become a battlefield of knowledge, and Lalit was leading the charge.
Whatever lay ahead secrets, darkness, or truths buried in ancient myth they were no longer searching blindly.
The race for answers had truly begun.
Lalit sat cross-legged on the floor, surrounded by ancient papers, old books, and the open wooden box. Dust hung in the air like a memory too stubborn to fade. His fingers moved slowly over the fragile pages of the red book, carefully scanning every word, every symbol, hoping something would make sense.
Suddenly, he paused.
"Guys… look at this," he said, pulling out what looked like a crumpled, time-worn piece of parchment.
Deepak and Kapil leaned in.
"What is it?" Kapil asked.
"It's a map," Lalit replied, spreading it gently on the floor. "But not an ordinary one. This doesn't look modern at all… it's old. Ancient. Maybe hundreds of years old."
The parchment was filled with hand-drawn lines and faded ink symbols. A spiral emblem sat boldly in one corner, just like the mark on Deepak's palm. Trails branched out from the spiral like paths, twisting and turning through scribbled landmarks and forgotten rivers.
"This… this looks sacred," Deepak whispered. "Like it belonged to someone with purpose. This wasn't just drawn to find land this was meant to reveal something."
Kapil pointed at a mark near the center of the page. "This here… is that a river? Wait… that could be the Sarayu River!"
"Exactly what I thought," Lalit said, nodding. "And look at this strange symbol right next to it. It's not Sanskrit... maybe some ancient tribal dialect?"
Deepak squinted at it. "Could it be Vanara script?"
Kapil blinked. "Vanara? As in the monkey army from the Ramayana?"
Lalit nodded. "Yes. And look at this part here 'The Path of the Vanara will awaken the seal.' It's written in a circle around the spiral mark. It's almost like a riddle."
"So… this might be connected to the Vanara tribe?" Kapil asked, eyes wide with curiosity.
"I think it's more than just a connection," Deepak said. "This might be evidence of a tribe that still existed after the Ramayana. A lost tribe. Maybe they protected something… something linked to Lord Rama."
They all fell silent for a long moment. The air around them felt heavy again, almost sacred.
"This spiral mark on your palm," Lalit said slowly, "it's not a curse… It might be a key."
Kapil sat up straighter. "Wait… are you saying all this this map, this red book, this spiral mark it's leading us somewhere?"
Lalit nodded, pointing to a faded location on the map. "There's something drawn here. It looks like a ruin or temple site. There's no name, just symbols… but I think this is where we need to go first."
"Do you think…?" Kapil started, hesitating.
"That it leads to something divine?" Lalit asked, finishing the thought. "Maybe. Or something forgotten. Maybe even dangerous."
"Don't say that," Deepak muttered. "We've already seen shadows come alive and creatures walk from stories into reality. If this map leads to something worse…"
Kapil interrupted. "What if it leads to the Ram Mandir?"
Deepak looked at him, uncertain. "You mean the Ram Mandir?"
Kapil nodded. "What if this map doesn't just lead to a place? What if it leads to the truth? To something about Lord Rama that no one else knows? Maybe something even the scriptures forgot?"
"It's possible," Lalit agreed. "The red book talked about protectors. Guardians. Tribes that were chosen to hide something... or guard it."
Deepak stared down at the spiral on his palm. It pulsed again just once like a heartbeat of something deeper. Something waiting.
"Then we follow the map," he said softly.
"But we must be careful," Lalit warned. "Whatever is hidden here… it was hidden for a reason."
Kapil stood up, fire in his eyes. "I say we go. We've come too far to stop now. This is our story now."
They gathered the materials, rolled up the ancient map, and packed the red book carefully.
Lalit looked at both of them. "There's a location marked near a dense forest not far from here. It might be the first piece of the puzzle."
"When do we leave?" Kapil asked.
"Tomorrow morning," Deepak said firmly. "We rest tonight. We prepare. Then we find the truth."
The diya flickered on the table, and outside, the wind whispered through the trees like it was listening.
Unseen… something stirred.
Far away, deep within that marked forest, the air began to shift.
And the spiral mark on Deepak's hand burned a little brighter as if it knew…
They weren't just following clues anymore. They were stepping into a forgotten layer of the Ramayana.
A darker one.
A version never meant to be retold.
The race for truth had begun.