I am the heat of the sun.
I hold back the rain and release it.
I am death, and the deathless.
And all that is or is not.
—Bhagavad Gita

One spectacular day towards the end of summer, Maruti and Vegavat disappeared. As Ishvari lay napping under the bakula trees that night, the fire threw up a vision regarding their sudden vanishing. She received confirmation that their spirits had been close to her in past lives, and that the gods had ordered them to see her through an excruciating rite of passage in this lifetime; now she was to look for them no more.

She felt neither sadness nor fear to be alone again; what she did feel was a powerful surge of gratitude for their magical companionship—had there been humans around to dist...

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