“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?”

Silas immediately understood and lifted his head to count them, “Eight.”

“Then it one missing,” Vihaan pointed out.

“Not if you count the platform that is stuck on the wall,” Silas said, still watching the moving platforms, ready to try and jump on them.

“I don’t think that is it. Can you see any symbols on the platforms?” Amara asked, then she saw it. Underneath the platform was various  symbols. “The sun is in the middle, I think we will need to time it right. Each body is normally painted like a clock around the sun.”

“Does they follow a system?” asked Vihaan, starting to catch up to the idea.

“Yes, but I’m not sure which one to start,” Amara bit her lip, looking at a platform with a tiger. “Let’s start with the tiger one. It is the symbol of Rahu, the North node. Try and jump onto it as it comes just in front of the platform we are trying to get to.”

Silas didn’t answer, but did as she said. He tensed when he landed, fully thinking he would topple over but instead, the platform not only stayed straight, it stopped moving.

“I would say that is the correct answer,” Silas shouted, his eyes glittering in excitement.

“Chandra is second. Symbolized by a Lotus. Think of it like a clock, the one you are now is twelve a clock, you are going to the next one,” Amara ordered Silas who nodded, taking the leap just as the Lotus platform went past him. Amara felt the pressure rising as this platform was higher than the one before.

“What comes next?” Vihaan said eaglerly, moving about the room to get a good look at the moving platforms.

“Next are Mandala. He is the ram.”

Silas jumped onto the next one, once again coming a bit higher up and you could now see the pattern as the frozen platformed formed a stairway.

“Next one?” Silas asked.

“Budha. He is the Lion.”

“Got it, the next one,” Silas had started to pick up speed. How he was able to jump so gracefully from platform to platform was beyond Amara who suspected that we Vihaan and she would follow, the process wouldn’t be as beautiful or speedy.

“Then it should be the south node, Ketu, symbolized by the eagle. Be careful, I’m not sure about this one. He should be directly opposite of Rahu though,” Amara said, Silas didn’t hesitate to jump over and Amara let out a sigh of relief as the platform stayed. He would have been bad if he had fallen.

“Then it is Brihaspati, the white ele-“ Amara silenced as darkness slowly loomed over the room. Had night fallen already, no it can’t be. They could only have been here for a few hours. “Vihaan?”

Vihaan peered up into the waterfall, shading his eyes to see better before his eyes went wide. “An eclipse.”

“There wasn’t suppose to be a solar-“ Amara voice faded away when crunching sound started to sound behind her. Slowly turning around, afraid to startle whatever was behind her, she started at the shadows coming alive, forming terrifying shapes that clawed at the floor trying to escape the shadows.

“God!” she shouted, hearing Vihaan let out a startle surprise as well. Both darting to the first platform to start and climb.

“Amara! What’s next?” shouted Silas who had pulled his gun.

“The white elephant, then the horse and lastly the vulture!” Amara shouted, climbing up the platforms grabbing onto Vihaan for aid, as they rushed up the stairs like madman as they were chased by twisting shadows.

As they arrived to the south platform, Silas had jumped up to his destination standing before a giant golden gate with a strange shape, the western one was of Kali while the eastern one was of Parvati. Amara hadn’t time to ponder it though since as she jumped to the next platform, something grabbed onto her leg, holding it tightly as the shadow pulled her.

Amara shouted, trying to claw her way onto the platform. Kicking the shadow only to hit air as the shadow seem to twist to avoid her flailing foot. The grip was finally released though when bullets whisked past her ear, hitting the shadow that screamed in terror. Like the iron of the bullet hurt it.

Silas continued to shoot while Vihaan pulled her up and they continued on without looking back. The bullets seem to hold the creatures back while they climbed, finally arriving to the final platform.

“Open the gates!” Silas ordered, not peeling his eyes from the shadows now coming closer. Amara didn’t hesitate, eager to get out of there, and rushed toward the door. With a complaining squeak, the gate was slowly pressed open and Amara rushed in, turning around to see Silas and Vihaan pushing it shut.

“Push!” Silas shouted.

“Really? What do you think I’m doing?” Vihaan hissed back, Amara rolled her eyes and went to help them.

With a loud clang, the door shut close. Creaking escaping the door as the shadows seem to claw at it. It slowly started to bend. Not caring to stay any longer, Amara turned around to run, but she had only rushed for a few steps before she stopped in her tracks as a loud clang echoed in the hallway.

Both Amara and Vihaan turned around, their eyes still adjusting to the darkness but soon saw Silas leaning against the door. Both his hands pressed on them, like he was trying to hold them shut. His head was leaned down and Amara could hear his heavy breathing.

No other sound came through, the shadows seem to have gone silent.

“What are you doing? We need to run,” Amara said, going forward to pull at Silas.

“Stay back,” Silas voice was dark, almost a growl as he stood there, seemingly shaking. Amara froze in her tracks, Vihaan grabbed onto her by instinct, ready to pull her to safety.

“Silas?”

Seconds went by, before Silas seemed to relax, turning around cracking his neck. “Sorry about that. I accidentally hit my knee against the damn door. My eyes were filling up with water.”

“You were crying,” Vihaan said, cocking an eyebrow at him.

“No, my eyes were filling up with water,” Silas said, waving of both their incredulous expressions like it was nothing.

“Sure,” Vihaan smirked. ”I won’t tell anyone about you crying like a girl when hitting your knee.”

“I can still open this damn gate to throw you out, wiseacre,” Silas said, slamming his shoulder into Vihaan’s as he walked past, making Vihaan grimace and rub his aching shoulder as they continue their travel further into the depth of the temple.