Passion springing from aggression is voracious and sinful.
Know that it is hostile to all beings.
—Bhagavad Gita

Shards of memory from the night before forced Ishvari into wakefulness. She blinked uneasily at the light streaming in through her windows, feeling as vulnerable as a field mouse hiding from predators. Out of the blue, words she had recently overheard flitted through her disturbed mind. She had been out in the courtyard perusing a rare and absorbing scroll on the nature of reality while Ketaki and Mandakini strung ivory buds on fine cotton thread in the adjacent jasmine arbor. This fragrant garland would later be laid at the feet of the Great Gods, even as the women prayed for the continual rising of the High Tantrika’s fire and the greater goo...

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