"You have a bright future." I said without excitement. Remembering him all alone in that dim wasteland made me sad. But who planted those future memories within me? I refuse to take them casually thinking they are only dreams after all this. I need to remember exact details of what I heard or saw there. Who were the people that were talking to me? Usually what I have seen whenever this past-present-future concepts come into play is that I myself might be the person who sent this back to me to make sure I was on the correct path. But my dreams looked as if it was synced to different people. Like they were using some device to talk with me. Remembering my dream i got a hunch that the place with twin waterfalls surrounded by mountains was the Ashrama everyone keeps talking about. Someone said that they have something even better than internet there. Things were slowly falling into place. I need to gather as much info I can get as soon as possible. I am already way behind other people. I can't stop using my brain and miss clues getting surprised at every little thing that anybody with common sense can see coming from a few miles away.

"Since I can read emotions, I know you're someone I can trust. I rarely feel negative emotions towards others from you. They only seem to be directed at yourself which I think is admirable. I got my own things to do but I won't turn you away if you ever need help. Maybe one day you can also view me as someone you can trust." Saiyan stated sternly.

Negative emotions towards myself? Yeah for the last few hours I have only been thinking how inferior i was compared to the others here. All my achievements before coming here, which I were quite proud of suddenly didn't matter in this world I deliberately stepped in. I just need to get better, adapt and keep self reflecting. That's what I have done before and what I'll keep continuing. I also felt a warm feeling inside me when I heard that someone trusted me and wanted to be trusted back. He surprisingly has a way with words. He will definitely be popular with the ladies in future.

"I think it was my grandfather." I answered a question asked by him hours ago."The one who attended Ashrama before. Things are actually slowly falling into place for me. I'll tell you all about it after we get enough time. I think you will be able to fill the gaps iny understanding. Just a question, don't think too much about it. Did you guys dream about the Ashrama and talked with someone?"

"Ohh, that? Yeah everybody did. Lord Ashwatthama and the other immortals often use the mobile tower to take a look at the new students. As you can guess, we get teachings from one immortal every year. The Ashrama looked awesome didn't it? Can't wait to visit it tonight. Remind me to give you the pills before going to sleep, okay?" He tapped my shoulder and went inside to wear his traditional clothing for the ritual. Suddenly a bunch of seniors entered our corridor holding white papers. I followed four of them inside our room as they started calling names. I went to the senior who called mine.

"Let's get you ready for your big day. I'm Roop. Don't get me into trouble okay?" He smiled and beckoned me to bring out my traditional wear. There were two pieces of long white cloth. The first one went around my waist with me in the middle. Two knots were made at my waist, followed by bunch of folds on the left side that went between my legs towards the back and the right side was also made into folds to be tucked at my front. The other piece of cloth was wrapped from the shoulder to my waist and went around twice over my body with a free end at the left side. It reminded my of the Sages that were depicted in carvings or murals in ancient temples. All the seniors made us follow them to the third floor of our Bhavana where a huge corridor which was supposed to contain 6 to 7 rooms was made into a hall by removing the walls between. Orange carpets lay on the floor with a tree like sculpture at the furthest end of the hall made out of a bluish stone. Its trunk was hollow with a Shiv Ling inside, which looked like a geometrical cylinder with a hemisphere on top of it made out of solid black granite. We sat in columns on the left side of the hall till the middle and our seniors occupied the right side. After conches were blowed thrice the seniors started chanting realising my fears till now. It was nothing like the chanting I had learnt. Each of the pronunciations I knew were correct but the frequencies... Wait, the frequencies were about a few levels lower than the one I had learnt. I heard for a while to make out known words and compared the difference between the two frequencies, the one I knew and the one being chanted right now. Soon I understood that my chants are a few frequencies higher than the actual ones. Was it because it was taught to me by my mother? Women usually have a higher pitch than males, so maybe the method got modified accordingly as it was passed down. Thank you Mom, for teaching me the correct pronunciations. I can take care of the frequencies myself. One of the problems that were plaguing me was now solved. I need to see the skill sets of the other students here. How many of them were possible to learn starting now and how many were impossible. That mind reading skill of Saiyan was probably impossible to learn. There might be some skills that only select families knew and kept them secrets. Other skills might arise from their bloodlines. I need to gather a list of skills to learn that will arm me with enough options to guarantee my survival. If what Saiyan said was true, we might be fighting some entities, whether humans of Marta Loka or evils from the myths. As the chanting ended, my batch mates who were sitting in 6 columns and 9 rows got up one by one from the first row. They went up to the tree sculpture and touched the base of the Shiv Ling. Some fell down right after touching it, looking around dazed as if they lost their bearings garnering snickers from our seniors. They themselves might have done the same thing last year I'm sure. Some jerked away their hands as if a bee had stung them or some outright fainted and had to be carried back by the seniors to the back of the hall towards the entrance. This is fun, I thought wondering what kind of reaction I'll have. Right on time as if to make things worse, I felt the need to relieve myself as I suddenly got nervous from worrying. Just don't release it all in the hall, I'll have wear to a mask for the rest of my life otherwise. I wished luck to Saiyan as he got up from my right and walked up to the shrine. As soon as he touched the black stone it shone with a golden light enveloping the inner part of the hollow. Surprised reactions burst out from the students and wardens.

"Silence!" Baagh roared like a Tiger as his name suggests and told Saiyan to meet him after the ritual ends.

"What was that?" I asked Saiyan as I got up while he sat down embarrassed. "Tell me later."

As I walked up to the shrine i remembered his words. Think what you can do best. Think what you can do best... I kept repeating. I took a deep breath and touched the base of the black stone that was cold as ice. As I braced myself waiting for whatever mobile tower to arrive in my vision I was suddenly transported to a mango grove that filled me with nostalgia. Okay, there are no mobile towers around. I thought while scanning my new surroundings. I suddenly heard a soft voice coming from my right. Following the whispers, I arrived in front of a little sapling, that had just broken through the earth and spread its first two little leaves.

"We finally meet!" The sapling whispered right into my head."We don't have much time. Quickly follow what I tell you to and never mention about my existence to anybody. It will be better for both us."