Deva, Temple of Treachery

Chapter 12

"Is that it?" Amara asked, looking up at the platform several meters up into the air. The high room was covered in gold forming into pillars similar to those of hindi temples. Reliefs of gods and ancient scenes covered every part of the walls. The stone flooring was illuminated by some light coming from a square hole from the ceiling where water dripped down like a waterfall.

The curious part though wasn't the room itself but the platform floating around in the room. Amara had no idea how they could float or what their function is but from the looks of it, the only way up was jumping on the platforms.

"The Asura reliefs seem to all point at that place," Vihaan replied, peering up to try and see better. Silas pulled off his backpack. "What are you doing?"

"The best way to see if there is anything up there is to climb up and take a look." Silas jumped up the nearest platform floating past only to be thrown off when the platform tilted. He successfully landed onto his feet with a grimace, staggering for a bit before reclaiming his balance.

Walking over to the wall to the platform by the ceiling, he tried to grab onto it but the reliefs were too slippery from all the moist and he wasn't able to get a grip. "Any other ideas?"

Amara frowned at the reliefs trying to find anything that might give a clue.

"Did you find anything?" Vihaan hollered from across the hall, as he walked along the relief.

"Maybe, there is a relief that are larger than the others," Amara called back, and watched the pictures. The one in the middle shows Vishnu cutting of an Asura's head while another Asura, Indra if Amara isn't mistaken, holds him down.

"Vishnu sure likes to kill Asuras," Amara muttered trying to identify the scene. Underneath this relief there was two more, showing the birth of two Asuras from the beheaded Asura.

From the body a brown skinned man erupted, with four arms riding an eagle. From the severed head a identical creature erupted, but with green skin and riding a tiger.

"Do you know what those things are?" Vihaan asked, frowning at the picture.

"Yes, the two twins gave me an idea. In the vedic texts, the Rig Veda if I remember correctly, there is an ancient Asura mentioned. His name was Svarbhanu. He stole the sun from the sky and was killed by Indra. His head was cut of but he was immortal so the two parts of his head became the two Asuras Ketu-" Amara pointed at the asura riding an eagle, "- and Rahu." She pointed at the asura riding a tiger.

"They are associated with astrology. The twins must always be 180 degrees away from eachother as they orbit the world. Ketu is said to cause the eclipses of the moon while Rahu causes eclipses of the sun. Each time an eclipse occure shadow demons would come forth."

"Does this place harbor every Asura?" muttered Vihaan, tilting his head to watch a relief of a strange dark skinned woman with terrifying face, naked breasts who seem to bend the shadows.

"That's Simhika. The mother of Svarbhanu and daughter of Hiranyakashipu," Amara said, following his gaze.

"Hiranyakashipu? Father of Prahlada, and uncle of Andhaka?"

"Exactly, so most of these Asuras are relatives of each other."

"The walls are littered with reliefs of Asuras and devas," Vihaan said, pointing at several reliefs.

"I would say that all of them are Asuras, just that some of them are Aditya, the benevolent Asuras," Amara said, nodding to the picture of Surya.

"And the other's?"

"I recognize some of them, Chandra is the moon, Shukra is venus... They are the Graha, the nine heavenly bodies." Amara's eyes went wide, turning toward the floating platforms. "How many platforms are there?"