Damn, I'm so sorry for making y'all wait a year for the last few chapters. To be honest, I was beset by a huge dry spell and did not write anything for nearly nine months. Then, finishing just the prologue, I couldn't find any inspiration to continue the Kuberic "tone" despite already knowing how it would end. Thus, it was postponed for another nine months... Sorry ._.;;
BUT the good news is, for anyone still following this, it will surely end within the week. I am currently on the second last chapter and will have a clear idea of how to write the epilogue.
So, countdown: three!
Disclaimer: There are many things in this world that do not belong to me. Kubera is one of them.
S-C-N-D
Courtship of a Phoenix
…
A series of heavy pants filled the air as Vinata raked her bloodstained nails through her hair. The Ananta Rakshasa retook human form, his brown hair matted with shiny streaks of oil and sweat. She had him shaking, kneeling with both palms kissing the dust but he retained his fanged grin as his yellow tail swished back and forth.
"I get it now," laughed the Rakshasa raunchily, tilting his head at an angle, "why you're so hungry, why you feel absolutely ravenous. Do you wonder?"
"…"
"It's because that—" he directed a filthy nail to her swelling belly "—that child is born of desperation." He swiped a hand across his mouth and wiped the blood on a distinguished yellow bow tied around his waist. "Oh, you have damned a lot of people, Phoenix of the Garuda Clan, but that child is by far the most unfortunate and miserable."
Vinata lunged forward, eyes flaring. She grabbed his jaw, crushing it with one hand as she reached into his mouth and wrenched his forked tongue out with the other. Throwing that aside, she kicked him again and again until he became a boneless heap on the ground.
His mocking laughter echoed in her ear in between the screams. It wasn't until she straddled him, one hand around his throat that he rolled his eyeballs down to meet her gaze. He flicked his wrist but she was faster. She caught the limb before his poisonous nails even grazed her skin. Holding his gaze, she snapped his wrist and twisted it for good measure, until his palm was aligned with his elbow.
"How could you even hope to match up to a Nastika?" Vinata hissed, grinding his head into the dirt. "You are weak."
"And yet I could have poisoned you at least a dozen times during our fight. But I didn't and you know why?" He grinned maniacally. "I love imagining the look of your face when your child develops and turns on you. Yes, you deserve to be killed by the one you love the most."
"And you, you don't deserve to die at all," Vinata said. "You deserve to be torn into a thousand little pieces, each fed to the filthy mouths of your kin."
He sneered. "Nastikas, you always think you're so… invincible. The special, chosen ones from the beginning of the universe, I wonder where you'd be if you had to fight tooth and nail for every scrap of material you could truly call yours. There is a lot of mixed blood in the middle ranks. Upanis have been known to slaughter Rakshasas and 5th stage Maras, Upanis. So tell me, is it really so preposterous to think that a Rakshasa might one day kill a Nastika?"
Vinata slouched back and appeared to ponder on the idea. She knew that even with a loose grip, the Rakshasa could not possibly summon enough vigor to knock her off. There was a time, long ago when she still believed in such radical ideas. But the Rakshasa was so full of haught, reminded her so much of herself that she willingly let him revel a while longer in his fake ingenuity.
Sweetly, she smiled as she leaned forward to gauge his eyes out.
…
Chapter Twenty-Seven: Kalavinka
N0 - approx. 170 years
…
"Do you like tempting fate... Vinata?" The taunt was followed by shrill laughter and an ever so annoying faint buzzing as another Nastika of another clan whisked around her.
But Vinata, she maintained her kneeling position, hands on her knees, eyes dully staring into the magenta horizon. There was an annoying bug, she told herself, but one whom she could swat later... when her beloved finally wakes. She lowered her eyes and brushed fingertips under her navel.
My darling...
She felt a calloused hand clutch her shoulder. Ravana leaned down, his vile body pressed to her back, and dug his chin into her shoulder blades. He curved an arm over her arm, nails digging ever so forcefully into her bulging stomach.
"How does it feel," snickered the Nastika, dragging it across her skin, "knowing I can take your love and light of your life away from you while you sit there, helpless."
"There is only one love and light of my life—Garuda," she said listlessly.
Ravana laughed manically in her ear. "I'd be doing you a favour," he purred, ever so slicing her stomach and watching the line of blood that ran down. "—And one for your loveless marriage. Here I thought you would never sleep with Garuda again, but you have! And now you even hold a child begotten by him! Has he told you that it would be different this time? That he would actually care?"
"..." Vinata stared glassily into the distance. "Do as you will."
"What a proud female..." He retreated, crossing his arms. "If you'd just come to me for help, none of this would have had to happen. But you chose Garuda again, didn't you? Hmph, I don't know what you see in that six winged barbarian. He holds no regard for you and his 'love' is a meaningless echo, but time and time again you play out your role as a dutiful little wife."
Suddenly, his features twist and he aims a harsh kick at Vinata's back, knocking her over. Ravana's scowl deepens as he kicks her over and over, though never in the stomach, never at her darling babe.
"This is why I hate you!" he screeched, eyes flashing. "I want to kill you and eat you and send your bones to Garuda as an anniversary gift. But—" he yanks her to his level by her hair "—you already brought yourself enough misery. So I'll wait that monster to leave your body and I'll watch you suffer all your mistakes again. And everyone will hate you, Vinata. There's no one on your side."
Ravana threw her by her hair and left her on the earth, battered and bleeding. Then, with one last disdained snort, he flew into the magenta sky of the Sura realm.
Dully staring at his retreating form, Vinata closed her eyes once more, wishing that no one else would bother her in her slumber.
My darling, my babe. When will you come out? When will you save me from my misery... Kalavinka.
S-C-N-D
N0 - approx. 160 years
S-C-N-D
Faraway, on another planet called Taitalika in the human realm, Visnu and Gandharva sat in solemnity. It was a lush grassy field with a small pond, and as the wind blew through the strands, it carried Visnu's hair with them. There was a reason that this particular planet was chosen for the two, for Gandharva found its calming nature and large hydrosphere calming to his nerves and Visnu wanted to be the farthest away from the cause of his troubles as possible.
It is merely hours before we have the last piece of the puzzle... and then it will start, the beginning of the end.
"Visnu, I've been wondering this for a while now... but do Suras dream?"
At the abrupt interruption, the Primeval god's head perked in Gandharva's direction. The king dipped his fingertips in the serene waters of a freshwater lake. Though it was not his domain, the soft, fluid movement brought serenity to his heart.
His reflection was that of a pensive face but as Visnu stared, he got a glimpse of his friend covered in blood, as fierce as the ancient days, the eons forgotten. He closed his eyes and signed, a feeling of dread flowing through his very core not for the first time.
... Sorry Gandharva.
"I think you would be better asking Taksaka."
"It was just a pondering. I'm not that eager for death."
"Your heart is hard, Gandharva."
The king paused, a myriad of emotions flashing across his face as he took in the ambiguity of his friend's words. "Thanks, Visnu. I don't think you'll be seeing me for a while."
"It may be for the best," Visnu sighed. There were some things that couldn't be cured even by companionship. Like guilt. And heartbreak.
"I know what you want to ask of me," Gandharva said as his figure retreated into the ocean and his voice became nothing but the whispers of waves. "But you should already know that it's something I can't give. I will have my revenge, not today but definitely someday. And when I do, I will wipe his Name from this world."
The last bubbles subsided and all presence of Gandharva faded. Visnu stared languidly into the white fluffy clouds above. His friend was probably on another planet by now, maybe another realm.
"All beings can dream," reflected Visnu, "even Primeval gods. The reason I didn't tell you, Gandharva, is that there's no point for you to know. Even if you dream of the sweetest moments, you will never bring Menaka back. You will wake up empty and broken.
"Most Nastikas find out the hard way. Their names rot away as they live their ideal worlds until... well maybe they do get what they want, for who's to say that when you cease to exist in this world, you don't begin existing in another?"
S-C-N-D
N0 - approx. 160 years
S-C-N-D
Vinata slowly blinked open her eyes as she was seized by violent, tearing pain inside of her body. The first thing she saw was the pink horizon and the desolate landscape of the Sura Realm. A desolate landscape for a desolate birth—how appropriate. She laid still as the Rakshasa inside her tore its way out into the world.
It took hours... days. She lost track of time, but this babe clawed its way out more painfully than Maruna. Perhaps it was that she was surrounded by everyone during Maruna's birth or perhaps Gandharva had alleviated the pain with his Recovery attribute. Perhaps Garuda wasn't there to hold her hand this time... And she did not know whether he would willingly choose so. Or perhaps she was just too uncertain of everything.
Either way, she took deep breaths at every contraction, squeezing out tears from the corners of her eyes and just praying it would be over over over over.
Then, "mamaaaaaaaaaaaa!" the creature cried after what seemed like forever. "Mamaaaaa! Mama, mama, mama!"
Vinata hoisted her body into a sitting position and looked at the bloody lump. The tiny babe of orange feathers clutched her small fists to her eyes. She laid there on the cold, hard ground with trails and trails of tears running down her face. Vinata picked her up, horrified for the first time that the baby she had so loved was given birth to in the most desolate land, with no one to hold her and no one to love her.
As she wiped the blood away, she noted her baby girl looked nothing like Kalavinka. She had orange skin, lighter than Vinata's, and also Vinata's exact eyes. Her feathers were a beautiful blend of yellow and orange, all disheveled and tangled around the small, purple collar from around her neck. How ironic, she thought as she held the baby in her arms, that this was the child who truly looked like she had been borne from them both. She was not like Maruna, who only resembled Vinata or Jatayu whose face was defined with Garuda's eyes. She was truly a melange of the king and queen.
As the baby cried, Vinata found herself laughing in pure joy for the first time for decades. This child, this beautiful, beautiful child would never be hurt by anyone. Kalavinka was hers, Vinata swore it. She would not let Garuda, Ravana, the gods, the humans, anyone lay a finger on her feathers.
Because the universe had finally heard her wish. It finally granted it; it had given her a fruition of everything she loved.
S-C-N-D
N0 - approx. 160 years
S-C-N-D
"Um... Um, hyung-nim, are you sure we're allowed to do this?"
"Yeah of course!" Maruna piped up as the two of them tiptoed deeper into the cave.
His nervous brother opened his mouth, the infinite rows of teeth defying his innocent demeanor for a split second. "I just don't want Vinata-nim—I-I mean stepmom to be mad at us!"
"She won't be mad!" Maruna huffed, "and I want to know what our little sister looks like, don't you?"
"Y-yes but—"
"Ah!"
The two children stopped as they reached a little bundle of cloth, barely visible, wrapped in the furthermost corner of the cave. The bundle was surrounded by twigs and soft moss, carefully and lovingly weaved into a nest for the sleeping baby. In the dim light, Maruna could barely make out the tiny little face and blown up, chubby cheeks. Her eyes were slightly wrinkled at the discomfort of the blanket itching against her face. A tiny line of drool ran down the white linen.
At once, Maruna was mesmerized with the adorable face of his baby sister. Kneeling over her little nest, he carefully peeled the blanket away from her mouth, allowing her proper circulation. It was the first time he'd had a proper look at his sister. The first thing he noticed was the purple collar, which was quite unusual for a bird, like she was being held back by something.
"Ah-ah! Is that our sister?" Jatayu cooed, and Maruna could see the his faint pink cheeks light up even in the dim light. "Can-can I pet her Hyung-nim?"
Maruna put a finger to his lips. "Shhh, don't wake her up!"
He nodded in great concentration and poked her with a finger before slinking behind his brother to observe the mysterious creature.
The little girl's face wrinkled but slowly smoothed out into peaceful sleep again.
"Huh, I wonder what her name is. I bet mother gave her a very strong name! Not as strong as mine of course," he added quickly, puffing out his chest. "It is my duty as the eldest to protect the three of you. Ah—"
In her sleep, their sister had reached out a chubby arm to tug on Maruna's hair. His eyes bulged as he hopped on one foot before toppling into the nest, squashing the baby.
Jatayu squeaked.
Crap, thought Maruna, waiting for the girl to shriek her lungs out.
Instead, they were answered by a series of girlish giggles. Maruna quickly backed out of the nest, seeing his sister awake for the first time. The girl covered her mouth with two tiny hands, as if trying to stop laughter from leaking out of the orifice. Her orange eyes, curving with mirth, were warm as the liquid sky. Maruna and Jatayu blushed, instantly infatuated.
"What's your name?" Jatayu asked.
"Kalavinka!" she exclaimed, her voice exactly resemblant of the first birds chirping in the morning.
"I-I'm Jatayu," he stammered, "and that's my elder brother Maruna!"
She tilted her head, blinking curiously. "Are you two my brothers? Mama said I have two strong, handsome brothers!"
Maruna's startled red eyes met Jatayu's equally startled grey ones. They both nodded frantically, both suddenly reduced to shy little boys, unsure of how to utter a "yes" without stuttering.
Kalavinka grinned adorably, her tiny white teeth glinting in the light, except for two gaps where they had yet to grow.
S-C-N-D
N0 - approx. 140 years
S-C-N-D
It was shortly after the birth of her youngest, one and only girl that Vinata started to regain control over her life. She went soaring in the skies again, sometimes for hours at a time, loving the feel of the fresh breeze against her feathers. Her arm muscles ached after spending years in the solemn, windless Sura Realm. Going from zero to sixty in less than the thousandth thousandth of a nanosecond, watching the sun set then shooting to the mountain peak to watch it again—these were all things she missed about the world, beyond explanation, beyond emotion, like her bones were shaking just because they could, because it felt so tremendously right.
But then, it happened—the one thing she would remember for years to come, all the more clearly because it had been on the exact date of Kalavinka's twentieth birthday.
She had gathered a handful of delicious entrails for her baby, knowing that the little girl's favourite was fresh snake liver. Vinata practically hummed as she descended on her home planet, determined that nothing could ruin her day.
Until there was a flash and a bloodied orange body falling right past her shoulder.
Vinata froze.
That was—she could have sworn that she just saw her little girl, her flesh and blood daughter Kalavinka falling into the chasms below. But that couldn't be? That couldn't be, right?
"M-mom," she heard a tiny voice squeak in terror.
And that was when she saw him, her other precious child brandishing Garuda's sword at a swarm of Upani while the wretched little monster cowered behind his brother. The abomination was biting his hand, his fangs drawing black trails that drip-dripped with a sickening sound. Bright red blood flecked his body, like a blatant warning sign, if it weren't for the other entrails—the ones stained on the devil's lap, still connected to a barely breathing bird. His eyes blackened like a soulless pit, with red irises and grotesque veins stretching his face almost unrecognizable. And Maruna was protecting that monster.
Vinata felt the rage rush through her veins before she was aware of what she was doing. She felt red, she saw red, she was red.
When she blinked again, the sky was the same shade as before, the ground was littered with bodies, except for three little Rakshasas squished into the fissures of a jutting rock. She hadn't realized it, but Kalavinka had flown back up the mountain sometime during her blackout rage and joined her brothers. She and Maruna stood in front of Jatayu, shielding the creature as if protecting him from her, their mother.
So, this is what it's going to be... She fought the urge to laugh crazily. Maybe that was the way it was meant to be all along, certainly how Ravana and that Ananta Rakshasa wanted... what unreciprocated love.
She glared at the white Sura with seething hate. "You certainly have special tastes. I've never met anyone who liked to gauge out their prey's insides while eating them alive."
Jatayu shivered. The eyes were gone, she noticed hatefully. She'd rather he wear them all the time so the world could see what he really was. She'd rather not look at the beast and see the same irises as her lover as he whispered sweet words in her ears.
"Well? Take your pick," scowled Vinata, gesturing to the war-worthy count of bodies. "You can have whichever one you like. In fact, why don't you eat them all?"
The little Sura shook harder. Was it her imagination or did he cower more into the crevice?
"Eat!" snarled Vinata, reaching past her children to wrangle the beast. She threw him on the ground and crushed his chest with her talons, all while her children were watching on with horror. They probably hate me. "What's wrong, you little shit? I thought you were hungry. Where are your claws and teeth? I said, eat, you moron!"
Jatayu silently sobbed as his skull was crushed into the dirt.
"Please, mom!" Kalavinka sobbed, tugging onto her leg. "He can't help it! He can't control his instincts! We're sorry!"
Maruna stared, horrified and unsure of what to do.
Vinata ignored her children and instead grabbed her stepson, almost strangling him by his own coat. "Why do you always have to be such a thorn in my side? Why can't you just leave me and my children in peace? Whatever your twisted habits are, whatever promise my husband made to your mother, I wouldn't have thought you'd have the gall to throw it all away in one instant."
"P-please," begged Maruna.
"Don't think I don't see how you're playing my children in the palm of your hands," hissed Vinata, narrowing her eyes. "Don't you dare involve Maruna and Kalavinka in whatever scheme you're planning, and don't you dare use them like they're nothing but meat shields. If I ever see this again, I will make a very special mountain and make sure you remember nothing but rock, promise be damned."
The Sura nodded limply, paler than usual. Unsatisfied with the response, Vinata lobbed him into the mountain face with a very audible crack.
"Maruna, Kalavinka, let's go."
"But—"
Vinata glared death at her children and both of them, with one last regretful look at their brother, dragged their feet after their mother, no doubt to get a scolding of their own.
S-C-N-D
N0 - approx. 140 years
S-C-N-D
"I heard he was covered head to toe with blood."
"And I heard that Vinata-nim, instead of punishing him, hit all of our kin until they were unconscious. Don't you think this is too much?"
"He killed a Garuda Sura, one from his own clan. Are you just going to ignore this heinous—"
"If that were my son, I'd have clobbered him immediately."
"...Disgraceful."
Garuda's head throbbed with angry reports from various Nastika of the bloodbath that had taken place just hours before. His wife locked herself up in her cave, and his children—all of them—were nowhere to be found. Of course, he knew more than anyone that the father of father and the mother of mother of the victims actually gave no two chirps about their harmed grandchildren; in fact, he found it hard pressed that any Nastika even remembered what lineage these Upani were of.
Regardless, it did not these one celled birdbrains any less annoying.
"Silence," he commanded, rubbing a throbbing vein. "Who decided to give any of you peons a mouth?"
"Visnu did."
"And everyday I am sorely tempted to ask him to take it away."
He rose from his throne and stepped past the mass of coloured feathers.
"Garuda-nim, where are you going?"
"Away, meeting adjourned," said the king, waving a hand and just knowing that he would grow to regret this later on.
Right now, he needed a peaceful place to meditate and think of some kind of appropriate compromise that would satisfy his clan, his wife, and—
"You hateful, despicable woman," he muttered to himself, thinking of the devious cyan eyes.
"Those are some angry adjectives," a sugary voice interrupted his thoughts.
Unsurprising, considering the owner of the voice looked as sugary as anyone would expect. Shuri donned a pink robe, an article of clothing she had taken a liking to recently, in lieu of her usual red dress. She herself sat on the makeshift throne carved into a fallen log, the very place Garuda loved to perch when he needed some time alone to think.
"Considering that you are not a very angry man, there must be something grave stirred up there," she said solemnly, gesturing at the peak of the mountains where Garuda's original throne awaited him.
"Nothing graver than the usual, only a problematic child."
"Ah, I see." She smiled slightly. "I'm glad. I was worried that something... irreversible had happened, knowing Gandharva's situation..." Her eyes darkened.
Garuda blinked. "No, my wife is very much alive, although not talking to me. She seems to know most of what had happened, but I'm reluctant to stir up her temper and I know she would not tell me the entire story."
"And what about the little one? What has he said?"
"I suspect he's gone in hiding. I haven't seen Jatayu or his siblings since the incident was first reported."
"Ah," Shuri replied with a kind smile. "Well, why don't you ask him first?"
Garuda's feathers fluttered in confusion.
"His story may the the truest of all," Shuri continued. "Don't you think there's a reason his siblings have never left his side? Maybe, Garuda, it would do well to listen to children too, once in a while."
The bird scratched his ears irritably. "How can I judge him based on his own testimony? My entire clan expects me to kill or exile the boy, regardless of what I say—"
"Isn't that the most important?" Shuri frowned. "The king is absolute, after all. What do you think should happen to little Jatayu?"
"I have no choice but to keep him here, but I do not think he should be let go without any compensation for his crime. I suppose I must confine him until the commotion settles," sighed Garuda. "Well, I suppose I should thank you. Although it pains me to have to return to my duties..." He massaged his neck. There were way too many knots as of recent. "The sooner I deal with this, the sooner I'll get peace."
Shuri watched as the white figure drifted gracefully into the sky. She signed and snuggled into the corner of the wood.
"Patience, Garuda, patience," sighed the fox. "Even monsters of their kind can be tamed if treated with patience and understanding."
Alas, it was a lesson that Garuda and Gandharva and even Visnu would never learn.
S-C-N-D
N0 - approx. 140 years
S-C-N-D
"Kalavinka should have been my first child," Vinata found herself confessing to Shuri.
The two women watched in the background as Garuda snuggled the bundle of orange feathers in his lap. She clutched her hands together worriedly as she told him of all her worries for Jatayu, who had been confined for nearly a month yet. Her father's face was stiff as she promised, promised that he would never, ever do anything like that again.
Shuri chuckled. "You would have been jealous out of your mind with all the attention Garuda gives her."
"It is true that she seems to have inherited my bad habit," Vinata remarked, recalling the days when she had snuggled against her husband like that.
It irritated her beyond belief, having been betrayed by her children for the strange Jatayu. She did not trust him and she was certain that he could hold up well enough on his own without the protection of her children. Even Garuda's punishment, which she barely saw fit, only just relieved her enough to let Maruna and Kalavinka run around freely.
"Well, maybe not to that extreme," chuckled Shuri, recalling the gods' assault on Vinata, before her expression grew more solemn. "I don't understand one thing, however. Kalavinka is a dead name, so how can it be used again?"
"Why that is true my dear Shuri! How astute you are!" exclaimed a new voice, and Shuri startled as Visnu placed a hand around her shoulders, so much that she instinctively kicked him into the opposing mountain face.
Once the dust cleared, everyone stared in the direction of the abused god, who was wiping a streak of blood from his mouth. Shuri gasped in horror.
"V-Visnu?" Garuda asked hesitantly.
"That was close!" Visnu exclaimed cheerily, a trail of blood running from the corner of his mouth. "I almost died just then!"
"Don't say it with such a tone!" shrieked Shuri.
Visnu laughed airily as Shuri rushed to give him a helping hand and pull him back onto the ledge they were standing on. He patted his pants as if it were nothing but a very bad fall.
"As I was saying, it is true that Nastika names themselves die after their owners do but, the Power of the Name still remains. This is because part of that Name is passed down to the Rakshasa's name, and part of that power passes onto the Upani's name. So, although theoretically the name Kalavinka has died, its power still remains in the names of Rakshasas, even if... that is not her child."
Vinata froze as she realized that she was staring right into Visnu's eyes. What she saw paralyzed her with more fear than she'd ever felt before. There was a flash of violence, and red blood staining into white feathers. Another hiss of ice and the boiling hot depths of hell.
"Well, anyway, there's no problem," Visnu said, smiling at the image of Garuda holding his daughter. "Besides, she certainly has Kalavinka's cuteness! Oh, just look at that expression!"
Shuri narrowed her eyes at Visnu, who bounced over to Garuda to congratulate her. Vinata, focusing at first entirely on her husband, turned and was entirely taken back. She knew Shuri had been a king for many years, but that was easy to forget when she and Visnu constantly cooed back and forth in borderline endearments of love. Now she had been reminded once again of the ruthlessness of the Yaksha woman.
"What's wrong?" Vinata followed her gaze straight to Visnu. "Did something happen between you two?"
For a moment, Shuri seemed so... sad. She turned and retreated into the deep forest, her tail swishing back and forth.
"Never trust a god who can smile in the face of a blatant lie."
S-C-N-D
I picture the Rakshasa at the beginning to be Cloche and Clophe's father, as it was mentioned that the two were fathered by a Rakshasa. Wow, sort of running out of Canon characters to include in this fic. Good thing it's almost over!
Thanks for reading! Please leave a review!
-SCND