HOOR

CHAPTER 19: GAYATRI

As we made our way down the path back to the palace, I absentmindedly reached into my satchel, feeling for the few items I always kept close. My fingers brushed against something cold and metallic, something that shouldn't have been there.

I stopped dead in my tracks, my breath catching.

Slowly, I pulled the object out, heart pounding as I looked down at it. The pendant. The one from my dream-no, my nightmare. The exact same one that the old man had handed me. But... how?

I stared, my mind racing, unable to believe what I was holding was real. It had to be some sort of trick. Maybe I was still trapped in that dream? Or maybe...

Without thinking, I pinched the skin on my arm hard enough to make myself wince. It stung, but nothing changed; I was very much awake.

My heart hammered louder as the implications flooded over me. If this pendant was real, then... could everything else I'd seen in that nightmare also be true? The ground swallowing him, that old voice whispering to me-it all came rushing back, a confusing mix of horror and reality.

I looked up at the General, who was watching me closely, concern etched into his features.

"Are you alright?" he asked, his voice breaking through my daze.

"I... I don't know," I admitted, my voice barely above a whisper. My hand tightened around the pendant as I met his eyes, desperately searching for any sense of grounding.

-

I woke up before the first light of dawn crept through the ornate wooden windows of the palace. The sleep that had come in broken snippets left my body restless, tangled in thoughts about the pendant I had found on our trek. The unease in my chest hadn’t gone away, and it gnawed at me like an itch I couldn’t reach. Something about that pendant felt wrong, but I couldn’t figure out exactly why.

Sighing, I threw off the covers and slid out of bed, careful not to wake the others. The palace was still quiet, too early for the usual commotion of servants rushing about. I needed some space, away from all the tension and questions that were building inside me.

The terrace seemed the safest place, high above the palace, where I could think without anyone interrupting me. The stone floor was cool under my feet as I stepped out into the open air, the morning stillness wrapping around me like a heavy cloak.

I pulled the pendant from my pouch, fingers lingering over it, trying to understand it. The metal was warm, warmer than it should be, and the etched markings seemed to shift slightly in the early light. The feeling it gave me, like a warning, only intensified. Something about it was pulling at me, but I couldn’t make sense of it.

I was so lost in my thoughts that I didn’t hear him approach.

“I see you’re an early riser too.”

I jumped, heart racing as I shoved the pendant back into my pouch. My breath caught for a second before I turned around, meeting his unreadable gaze. Aditya stood in the doorway of the terrace, leaning casually against the stone frame. There was a slight curve to his lips, but it was gone before I could tell if it was a smile or something else.

“Could say the same about you,” I muttered, trying to hide how rattled I was. I didn’t want him poking into my thoughts, especially not about that pendant.

He just raised an eyebrow, his smirk barely there. “What’s troubling you this time?”

“Nothing. Just… thinking,” I replied, trying to sound casual, but I knew it wasn’t working.

Aditya gave me that look, the one that always made me feel like I was an open book he could read with just a glance. But he didn’t push it, instead walking over to the edge of the terrace and gazing out over the kingdom as it slowly woke up. The man always looked like he was about to command an army, even when he was standing still.