**Tuesday, 3:17 a.m. – Yamuna Riverside Villa**
Rajesh woke before the birds.
Not from a dream, but from a **tremor in the void**.
A single thread of time (thin as spider silk) had snagged on the edge of the estate.
He slipped from the bed where Anjali slept, ring glinting on her finger, and padded barefoot to the terrace.
The Yamuna was black glass.
But beneath it, something moved.
Not fish. Not current.
**A silhouette**, tall, cloaked in starless night, standing *on* the water.
Rajesh's divine sense unfurled.
The figure raised a hand.
A ripple spread (silent, cold, ancient).
Every lotus in the pond **closed** at once.
Little Sheru growled from the doorway, hackles raised, eyes blazing gold.
Rajesh whispered, "Stay."
He stepped off the terrace.
Bare feet touched dew-wet grass, then air.
He walked across the lawn, across the pool, across the river (until he stood face-to-face with the intruder, ten feet above the current).
The cloak fell back.
A woman.
Skin like moonlight on steel.
Eyes **red as the Reincarnation Mirror's core**.
She spoke in a voice that tasted of burnt epochs:
**"You stole time, Rajesh Kumar."**
**"You broke the Mirror. You owe the Void a daughter."**
Rajesh's heart turned to ice.
Priya.
He smiled (cold, calm, the smile that had ended star realms).
"Over my corpse."
The woman tilted her head.
**"That can be arranged."**
---
### 3:25 a.m. – The Duel on Water
No weapons.
Just **will**.
She raised a hand.
The river **rose** (a wall of black water, thirty feet high, shaped like a screaming face).
Rajesh flicked a finger.
The wall **froze** into a lotus of ice, petals sharp as chakrams.
She clapped.
The ice **shattered** into a thousand crimson butterflies, each dripping void-blood.
Rajesh exhaled.
The butterflies **aged a billion years in a blink**, crumbling to dust.
She laughed (sound like breaking galaxies).
**"You delay. You do not deny. The debt is etched."**
Rajesh stepped closer.
"Name your price. But not her."
**"A life for a life. The girl's heartbeat for the Mirror's shard in your soul."**
She pointed to his chest.
A faint red glow pulsed beneath the skin (the **Time Bead** from Chapter 7).
Rajesh's eyes narrowed.
"You're the Mirror's remnant. The price was paid when I shattered you."
**"Shards remember."**
She extended a hand.
**"Give it willingly, or I take her at dawn."**
---
### 3:30 a.m. – The Choice
Rajesh looked back at the villa.
Third floor, lotus bedroom.
Priya slept curled around her butterfly crown.
Anjali's arm draped protectively over her.
He closed his eyes.
Ten thousand years of war.
One moment of peace.
One daughter.
He opened them.
"Take me instead."
The woman's smile was a wound.
**"You are not the debt. She is the *interest*."**
Rajesh's voice dropped to a whisper that cracked the river's surface:
**"Then you'll have to go through me. And every guardian I've ever made."**
He raised his hand.
Across Delhi-Noida, **bronze lotus coins** heated in pockets:
- Brijesh Joshi's kurta.
- Dr. Iyer's diary.
- Neha's keychain.
The woman hissed.
**"You call mortals?"**
"I call **family**."
---
### 3:33 a.m. – The Calm Before
Rajesh stepped back onto the lawn.
The woman sank into the river (gone, but not defeated).
The lotuses reopened, trembling.
He returned to the bedroom.
Anjali stirred. "Bad dream?"
He kissed her forehead. "Just a nightmare. Go back to sleep."
But he didn't.
He sat by the window, watching the Yamuna until dawn,
Little Sheru at his feet,
the **Time Bead** pulsing like a second heart.
---
### 6:00 a.m. – Breakfast
Priya bounced in, crown askew.
"Papa, I dreamed of a lady in black! She wanted my crown, but Sheru growled and she ran!"
Rajesh forced a smile.
"Dreams can't hurt you, beta."
Anjali watched him, eyes sharp. "Rajesh. What aren't you telling me?"
He served her a dosa shaped like a lotus.
"Later. After school drop-off."
---
### 7:00 a.m. – The Message
His phone buzzed.
**Unknown Number:**
**"Dawn tomorrow. The girl, or the shard. No guardians. No tricks."**
**—The Void's Debt Collector**
Rajesh deleted it.
Then opened **Priya's Village** group:
**Rajesh:**
Emergency play-date. Tonight. 8 p.m.
Bring coffee, veena, and every bronze coin you own.
The lotus is under siege.
He looked at Priya, licking jam off her fingers.
Day 16.
The war wasn't over.
It had just come home.