Night had fallen thick over the jungles of Vanrajgarh, and yet Ravi could not sleep.
The crystal heart of the Sixth Limb pulsed faintly within the sealed scroll on his belt — alive with memory and emotion. He had passed its trial… but part of him hadn't returned.
Across the fire, Meera sat alone, tracing the air with her fingers. The healing sigils she usually weaved came out wrong — twisted lines, reversed mantras, red instead of white.
Kiran watched her warily.But Ravi… he trusted her.
That trust would be tested before dawn.
A Whisper Too Familiar
Later that night, Meera wandered from camp, drawn by a familiar voice echoing through the trees:
"Help me… Meera… please…"
It was her own voice.
She turned — and there it was.
Herself.
Same face. Same eyes.But the other Meera was soaked in blood, hands covered in sigils burned into her flesh.
"I'm what you would become," the doppelgänger said, smiling with too many teeth."If you stopped pretending."
Meera stepped back, instinctively conjuring a barrier. But the copy melted through it like mist.
"You want to save Ravi, don't you?Then stop healing. Start sacrificing."
In the Firelight
Meera returned to camp, pale and quiet.
Ravi looked up. "Everything okay?"
She nodded slowly. "Just… tired."
But as she lay beside him, her hands shook. That night, she dreamed of a red temple. Of a thousand dying voices. Of Ravi turning to her with empty eyes, whispering, "You chose wrong."
Cracks in the Bond
In the morning, Kiran confronted her.
"You've been… different since the jungle."
Meera turned sharply. "So now you don't trust me either?"
Ravi stepped between them. "Enough. We're all fraying. The Limb touched each of us in ways we don't yet understand."
Kiran looked Ravi in the eye. "And what if the Limb didn't just test us? What if it split us?"
That question hung in the air.
Because none of them knew the answer.
Elsewhere…
In Bhargtanaya's temple, the false Meera bled from her mouth and smiled.
"She resists. But she's beginning to listen."
Bhargtanaya placed a single drop of flame on her brow.
"Let her doubt herself. That will do more damage than any blade."
The Next Destination
Ravi unrolled the map. Another mark had begun to glow — the Seventh Limb, buried beneath the City of Bells, a ruined kingdom drowned in eternal sound.
He felt the presence of the Limb before he even named it.
Shravanmaya — The Limb of Sound.
It sang to him like a siren.
But Ravi didn't hear music.
He heard screams.