Deva, Temple of Treachery

Chapter 15

"My name is Prahlada."

The words seemed to make the world fade away, making Amara blink. For a second, she thought she had become blind only to notice that the world finally faded into light. The golden city came into her view, filled with strange looking children and fierce guards watching over them. A small black skinned girl, with wild black hair and red lips meditated in the sun.

The other children tried to pull her away but she just kicked them, flashing her sharp teeth at them.

"Who is that?" Amara muttered, not thinking Prahlada would come up beside her.

"Her name is Kalika, the daughter of the Asura king Mayasura, and later by mortals came to be called Kali."

"What is she doing?"

"Purifying her karma. You see, the Asura and Deva's are the same. Both born from Brahma, the Anterion of Balance, to be mirrored after his image."

"Anterion?"

"The true gods of all the realms. The divine beings that govern all higher powers, such as time, fate, death and magic. Brahma was the Anterion of Balance, wanting even the gods to be in perfect balance he created a being that was two sides of one coin. One side was the benevolent deva while the other side was the malevolent Asura. Would a deva fall to anger, bloodlust or depravity then he would turn into an Asura and if a Asura would purify himself then-"

"He would become a Deva."

Prahlada nodded, "Though it is hard. Every one of them was born with a dominant trait, being born an Asura or Deva but having the potential to become the other, but since it rarely happens, the one race became two and they warred against eachother."

"So Kalika wanted to become a devi?"

"Yes, she was the reincarnation of Shiva's wife, Sati, and wanted to join him but that would never be allowed until she turned into a deva."

The landscape changed, showing Kalika slowly turning to a beautiful woman, dressed in a colorful sari, a dot in her forhead and golden jewerly covering her arms and legs. She had now become Parvati. The devi stood before a blue skinned man, handsome and fierce, smiling at her as she handed him a pomgrenade. They both bit down, never taking their eyes of eachother.

The scene faded away, showing a bed where Parvati where screaming out her pain. Her stomache ripe with child as she was about to give birth.

"But her Asura blood was still there. Singing strong, and it was given to her child as well," Prahlada said. The midwifes gasped, as they looked at the child. Amara carefully walked over, watching the little bundle.

She let out a gasp when joy and familiarity rushed over her, at the sight of the chubby little child with obsidian skin, four eyes waving in the air and wild black hair. The little bundle open his eyes, but they where pitch black with no whites in sight.

"I'm sorry, the boy is blind," the midwife said, handing over the bundle who was almost immediately dropped by Parvati who refused to touch the child. Staring at the bundle like it was a monstrocity.

Amara felt pain go through her, and she was just about to reach out for the screaming child when another set of arms seem to go through her. Shiva reached for the child, lifting it up into the air. "What should we name our child?"

"That monster deserves no name," Parvati said, Shiva turning to her with pain in his eyes.

"Is he not our son? He should be loved."

"He is an Asura!"

"So were you."

Parvati stared at him, her mouth gaping as she held her breath. The scene faded away, showing Shiva giving the son to a green, four armed creature with a boar head. Prahlada walked over, looking at the scene.