Karnan's palms were sweaty. His heart's frenzy rose as the golden pyramid flamed under the sun. The mammoth garden circling the pyramid was filled with boys and girls his age. Today was what he had been awaiting since he had decided to follow the martial path. The day of the choosing. When celestials selected young men and women all over the continent.
"Cheer up! We can't be gloomy on a day like this!" Nina quipped on his left before entangling her soft fingers with his. She smelled of fresh lavender, and her auburn hair was tied into a smooth bun with a single strand deliberately let loose on the side of her face. She wore a long, flowing silver skirt, and red roses were sewn around her slender waist, encircling it like a belt. She winked, and Karnan felt his ears flush.
Before starting for the ceremony today, she had pushed him into an empty alley, not very far from the clan gates, and kissed him. His lips still carried her moisture, her taste and for a moment, he had even forgotten his own name.
A playful slap over his right shoulder made Karnan look that way. Ravim Mara grinned. "Listen to your woman and if possible learn from her." He was his childhood friend, tall and handsome with dark, wavy hair. He spent more time with girls than training. But still, had managed to reach the top five of the academy.
"Stop it!" Nina pushed Ravim away.
He swerved to avoid it while laughing, "It's true! Look how unrattled she is! Even if she doesn't stand at the top of the class like you."
He was right; his behaviour was unbecoming for someone in his position. Pride is our soul! Carry it with your spine straight like swords! Elder Charan's words made more sense today than ever. Karnan exhaled and turned to both his friends, one after the other. "Fine, you guys win as usual in speechcraft. Though I wonder when this mastery will be shown in combat."
Ravin clapped his shoulder again, "Aha! Now that's the haughty friend I have been missing today." Nina laughed with her palm covering her mouth. Her dove-like eyes were shut, and a pink hue spread rapidly on her milky cheeks. He wished to stop time right then and there, to soak in her beauty, to once again taste her crimson lips.
"Who do you think will get one of the seven among us?" Ravin's question brought him down into the world of the living. He now walked backwards on the bustling road while effortlessly dodging the students coming their way.
Nina snuggled closer into his side, resting her head on his shoulder, "Of course, it's going to be my Karnan. The most promising student our clan has seen in a hundred years."
Karnan reciprocated with a peck to her crown. Sometimes he wondered why Nina had chosen him. She had no dearth of good-looking and able suitors. Though he wasn't ugly. But, he couldn't call himself handsome either. His hair was thin and short, his nose sharp and slightly larger than he'd like to have. Thin lips and a beard that only looked good when shaved. He wasn't tall like Ravim or well-built like some of the boys his age. Yet, she had wanted only him.
Post today's choosing, the elders planned to have them betrothed in public, and the thought made him more excited than being selected by any of the nine celestials.
The path was now bustling with students and their teachers, returning from the morning batch, some with beaming faces while others had their heads hung. The ceremony, held annually, was as much a reason for joy as it was for tears.
They reached the inner gate where elder Sha Kuntala was waiting. She had been their teacher since they were children. The Ulukah clan, although not quite as prominent as the Singha or the Khadga clans, had spent nothing short of a fortune on the education of its two promising geniuses. Sha Kuntala came from the Mangal dynasty, one of the seven, and her tutelage hadn't been cheap.
"Heavens! One more minute and I would have thrown all of you out. Such impudence to be late today out of all days!" She was in her sage robes and had braided her crimson hair. Though that was more concerning. Master Sha was the user of the Mangal clan's mane of steel art. Karnan was sure she was channelling prana to her braided locks, turning them into razors able to shred stones like cheese.
The three of them bowed in tandem, "We apologise to the honoured master. After the ceremony, we will await our punishments." Karnan, being the strongest, had taken the lead.
Sha Kuntala scoffed and spun gracefully before pacing towards the pyramid. The three of them groaned; they would need to catch up to the three drop Nayaka, who walked faster than they could sprint.
"I am never going to her Mangal clan, even if I am chosen. Who likes red hair?" Nina yelled between gasps as they ran. The master was near the structure already, her robes a white speck against the golden building, which was still five hundred meters away.
"Pray to the heavens not to be picked by the Shukra clan then," shouted Ravim. "You'd have poop colored hair and skin."
"Chii! shut up!" Nina said disgustingly. Karnan guffawed at her weirdly shaped face. She slipped him a scornful look before looking ahead. They were near the circular entrance to the mundi of blessings. In a few hours, their fates waited to be written.
This was his first time inside such a structure. What appeared opaque from outside was actually quite transparent, like glass. Thousands of chairs were neatly arranged in cascading rows circling a dias. They had been seated on the second row starting from below, so Karnan had a direct view of the crystal scope gleaming on a large golden table in the centre of the circular space. It was a tube, just like normal telescopes, but wider than a banyan's trunk. Its outer scope nearly touched the point where the triangular walls of the pyramid met. The whole thing must have been a Kosha or two long. Surprisingly enough, it wasn't supported over the table, but hovered right above the surface instead.
As students, all above fifteen years of age, poured in, the hall grew more and more silent. Karnan clasped Nina's shaking hands while his own legs pulsated with anxiety.
The head master, a short and stocky man wearing oversized robes of white, cantered into view, hands resting on his back like he was out for a morning stroll. He cleared his throat out of habit before his voice boomed, "Students of Paras city! Welcome to this auspicious day. When the heavens choose their champions. A day when-"
"Just begin already!" someone barked from behind.
Headmaster Jomapunya sighed, unaware that his throat still circulated prana. He whispered, "Such bratty and insolent youngsters!" loud and reverberating enough for the whole city to hear.
The room burst into giggles and smiles. Karnan shook his head as Nina too joined in the fun. There was nothing to worry about. He had a strong body with thick prana channels that gave him vast reserves of pure prana. None in the Uluka clan could boast such strength at such a young age. The celestials hungered for prana and favoured people like him. He, above all, shouldn't be so nervous. Karnan al Veera, a prodigy who was destined to rule.
"Silence!" Assistant headmaster Vukunda Ma thundered, stilling the cacophony. His tone was wiry as his frame and his large, round spectacles made him look like a toad as he scanned the rows.
"We will call out your names one by one. Lie on this table, with your chakra aligned with the celestial scope. After being chosen, I should see you out of this hall the next moment. No whispering, or merry making, or even crying. Straight out through the other door." Master Vukunda said, with his perpetual scorn.
Jomapunya cleared his throat for the second time and announced, "The first one, Nina Kumarin from the Uluka clan, or as we say in the common tongue. The owl constellation."
Nina threw him a nervous glance, and he nodded with a smile. She got up and made her way to the circular arena.
"Get yellow hair!" shouted Ravim from the opposite end, earning a glare from the sub head master and most probably Nina also.
She bowed to the two masters and the line of elders from all clans of Paras city, seated on the first row, and lay underneath the telescope. As soon as she had done so, an ivory light began to swirl around her navel, the seat of prana, also called the chakra. Gasps came from everywhere. Karnan looked on with pride; strong individuals were always selected in no time.
The light changed colour all of a sudden; gone was the dull white, and like blood seeping into water, a deep red emerged from her chakra. It coiled around her body, and the hall was filled with applause.
Principal Jomapunya yelled out the name of the celestial body that had accepted Nina. Although Karna knew it. Mangal, also called Mars, the lord of battle, now cradled his future wife. Nina was going to be miffed with the thought of losing the colour of her hair, though he would have loved her no less even if they had turned yellow.
The elders of his clan, including the patriarch, rushed to her. She was escorted out like royalty with the elders. Master Sha and patriarch Manrajam al Veera remained behind to await his result. Before taking his seat, he looked at Karnan and nodded. Karnan bowed while seated. If not for the patriarch, he'd be nothing more than a street urchin. He owed him and his clan, and after being selected by a celestial, he'd be able to return the favour.
"Karnan al Veera!" Principal Jomapunya declared.
Karnan jumped at hearing his name. He veered left and reached the stairs leading down. His movements were like a Yantra, stiff and mechanical. His heart seemed to have stopped beating altogether. Anxiety brewed a storm inside him, twisting his stomach and making him nauseous.
Sha Kuntala gripped his arm as he reached the table. She whispered into his ear, "Just breathe. Control your prana. Breathe in deeply. You will be fine, I know."
Her voice broke his trance. Eyes closed, he inhaled, circulating his prana around his chakra. Fear left him, and he lay underneath the rotating scope.
The view was magnificent. The crystal telescope reflected the light from the sky; it was a myriad of silver, gold, blue, amber, violet, yellow, and many other colours he couldn't name. Like rainbows, they throbbed over the surface. He forced his eyes away towards the roof, the singular point where the three sides of the pyramid met, and a gasp escaped him. Each side of the pyramid had become a screen of cosmic brilliance. He saw the heavens, clearer than ever. The great moon, so huge and inviting. The sun, no longer blinding but radiating a golden warmth. He saw the seven planets, the disks of Saturn and the icy world of Pluto. He saw the red mountains of Mars and the acidic lakes of Venus. On one side were strewn the stars. Twinkling incessantly, like silver specks over a black cloth. After a while, the stars started to take shape. Forming constellations. The boar, owl, hunter, seven sages, lion, tiger, mouse and so on. All that he had seen in scrolls and memory tablets was now standing before him in all its glory. Even the most sophisticated telescopes of the clan couldn't grasp what this pyramid was capable of.
"This is weird."
Principal Jomapunya said he stood near his head. Vice Principal Vukunda's face looked fraught with worry. He was standing at the end of the table, near his legs. What was wrong?
Master Sha and the patriarch rushed near him. "What's the matter?" asked Manrajam.
"Err, I think something's wrong. Terribly, terribly wrong," the principal replied.
Karnan careened his head at him. "Master," he said, his voice shaking.
Master Sha had her palms covering her mouth, eyes cloudy. Patriarch Manrajam looked blankly at him.
Karnan closed his eyes and checked his chakra. He felt no surge of energy, no light from any of the celestials. There wasn't even the silvery glow of being blessed by any constellation.
"I think he has been claimed by a lone star. So far away it is that even its light fails to reach us. Not even a constellation, a single, lone star. Heaven help this boy." Master Vukanda's pity-filled voice was the last thing Karnan heard before the hall erupted into chaos.