The morning inside Sambhala felt strangely peaceful despite the weight hanging over the world.
Refugees from Puri rested beneath trees and beside small wooden homes, wrapped in blankets and finally sleeping without fear for the first time in weeks. Smoke rose softly from cooking fires. Somewhere nearby, temple bells rang gently with the wind.
Life still existed here.
And that itself felt miraculous.
Padmavati had already started organizing everyone before sunrise.
Sia, Meera, and Avni spent most of the morning helping the refugees. Some people had burns. Some were starving. Some looked physically fine but stared into nothing, too traumatized to speak properly anymore.
Yet somehow, Sambhala softened all suffering little by little.
Padmavati moved among them calmly, carrying bowls of warm herbal water and food herself despite everyone insisting she shouldn't.
A frightened child stopped crying the moment she touched his forehead.
An old man who couldn't stand earlier somehow managed to sit upright after she fed him with her own hands.
Meera watched all this with complete disbelief.
"Okay," she whispered while crushing herbs beside Sia, "I officially give up trying to understand anything anymore."
Sia smiled faintly while wrapping cloth around a refugee woman's injured arm.
"That's probably healthier for your brain."
Meera pointed dramatically toward Padmavati.
"That woman radiates peace like WiFi. She Indeed is the incernation of ma Laxmi"
Sia laughed softly for the first time that morning.
Nearby, Avni was helping prepare medicines with two elderly women from Sambhala. Surprisingly, she looked completely comfortable doing it.
One of the women smiled warmly at her.
"You've done this before."
Avni blinked.
"No?"
The old woman chuckled.
"Your hands disagree."
Avni stared at her own fingers for a second before quietly returning to work.
---
Meanwhile—
Parth, Neel, and Aarav spent the morning exploring Sambhala itself.
The man who had first brought them here guided them through the valley patiently after realizing they would absolutely get lost otherwise.
"My name is Dhruv, by the way," he finally introduced himself while leading them along a narrow stone path.
Aarav looked offended.
"You waited this long to tell us your name?"
Dhruv shrugged calmly.
"You never asked."
Neel actually smiled slightly at that.
The deeper they walked, the more unreal Sambhala became.
It wasn't just a hidden village.
It was an entire world folded somewhere outside ordinary reality.
Rivers flowed through silver-green valleys untouched by pollution. Dense forests stretched endlessly beside mountains whose peaks disappeared into clouds glowing gold beneath sunlight.
Birds Parth had never seen before flew overhead.
The air itself felt cleaner here.
Alive.
No smoke.
No radiation.
No humming from machines.
Just wind, water, trees, and silence untouched by decay.
At one point Aarav stopped walking entirely just to stare upward.
"This place is cheating," he muttered. "How does this even exist?"
Dhruv smiled faintly.
"Sambhala exists because the world forgot how to deserve it."
That line stayed with Parth for a long time.
Eventually they reached the larger residential part of Sambhala.
And Parth finally understood something important.
This wasn't a kingdom.
It was a family.
Wooden houses stood close together beneath massive trees heavy with fruits and flowers. Children ran barefoot through grass while elders sat outside weaving baskets or preparing grains. Women laughed while washing clothes beside the river. Men repaired fences, carried crops, chopped wood.
Nobody looked rich.
Nobody looked powerful.
Yet everyone looked… peaceful.
As if humanity had once been meant to live like this.
A little boy accidentally bumped into Parth while running after a handmade cloth ball.
The child immediately froze.
"S-sorry."
Parth blinked before crouching slightly and handing him the ball.
"It's okay."
The boy stared at him for another second before smiling brightly and running away again.
Something painful tightened in Parth's chest.
Three hundred years of destruction.
And yet children still laughed.
Humanity really was stubborn.
Neel noticed Parth watching the villagers quietly.
"You'd die protecting this place, wouldn't you?"
Parth answered instantly.
"Without hesitation."
Aarav looked around silently.
For once, even his constant anxiety seemed quieter here.
Almost.
---
By the time they returned near Padmavati's house, the sun had already shifted westward.
The refugees had all been treated and settled properly.
Large pots of food simmered outside over firewood while several women from Sambhala prepared vegetables nearby.
Padmavati herself sat among them comfortably, sleeves folded slightly as she stirred rice calmly.
And somehow—
the sight of Goddess Lakshmi casually cooking rice during the apocalypse felt completely normal now.
Aarav stared emotionally.
"I want this to be my afterlife."
Neel sighed.
"You say that about food constantly."
"Because food understands me."
Nearby, Meera stretched tiredly after working all morning.
"I'm sleeping for at least twelve years."
Nobody blamed her.
Avni stayed back to help with cooking almost immediately. She worked naturally beside the women, laughing softly now and then while helping cut vegetables.
---
He started roaming around once again to process everything that happened today. Then he saw Sia.
She sat beneath a massive mango tree a little away from the house, surrounded by two tiny girls who couldn't have been older than six or seven.
One of them was trying to braid flowers into Sia's hair very seriously while the other kept talking endlessly about something important involving birds.
Sia listened to both with complete focus.
Parth stopped walking for a second just to watch her.
No sarcasm.
No fear.
No walls.
Just Subhadra.
The afternoon sunlight filtered through mango leaves above her, painting soft gold across her face while she laughed quietly at something one of the girls said.
For a brief moment—
the apocalypse felt impossibly far away.
Aarav had arrived there following him, when he noticed him roaming around mindlessly. He followed Parth's gaze and smirked immediately.
"Oh no."
Parth didn't look away.
"What?"
"You have that expression again."
"What expression?"
"The deeply tragic hero in love expression."
Neel joined them as well and glanced once toward Sia before calmly continuing forward.
"You should probably talk to her before the universe explodes."
"Thank you for the encouragement," Parth muttered dryly.
Aarav grinned.
"We're going to collect wood from the forest before evening. Take your time, Romeo."
Parth threw a leaf at him. That random comparison sounded too weird.
Aarav dodged dramatically and disappeared into the trees alongside Neel.
---
Parth finally walked toward the mango tree slowly.
The two little girls noticed him first.
Then immediately exchanged suspiciously excited looks.
Parth leaned casually against the tree trunk with folded arms.
"When exactly do you plan to grow up, Chitra?"
The nickname slipped out naturally.
And immediately both of them froze.
Including Parth himself.
Sia looked up at him slowly.
The little girls looked between them like they had just discovered entertainment.
Sia recovered first.
"Are you glitching between timelines again?"
Her tone sounded confident enough.
Unfortunately for her—
her cheeks had turned pink.
Parth noticed instantly.
And suddenly, for reasons even he didn't understand, confidence appeared out of nowhere.
Maybe Arjun really had awakened fully inside him.
He smirked slightly.
"But you don't seem to dislike it much, Princess Chitra."
Sia blinked.
Clearly she hadn't expected him to answer back properly.
But surrender was not in her personality.
"Oh?" she said sweetly. "I thought you were the type who avoids saying things directly, Swami."
Parth almost choked on air.
Swami.
The two girls gasped dramatically like witnesses at a live drama.
Sia looked incredibly pleased with herself.
"You've never been good at wooing girls, Parth," she declared smugly. "You should avoid dangerous situations like this."
Parth rolled his eyes.
"And who said I was trying to woo you?"
Sia crossed her arms confidently.
"Your eyes ever since you recognized me."
Then quieter—
"You're terrible at hiding feelings."
That last line lost some of its teasing.
The air shifted slightly between them.
Parth's smile faded into something softer.
Because she was right.
And because beneath all her jokes—
he could feel the same uncertainty inside her too.
This strange distance.
This almost-confession hanging between them for days.
Sia looked away briefly.
"We're standing in the middle of the end of the world," she said quietly. "People are dying outside Sambhala every day. Sometimes I feel selfish even thinking about..."
She stopped.
Parth's chest tightened.
Thinking about us.
She didn't say it.
But he heard it anyway.
He stepped closer slowly.
"Then why won't you let me stay beside you through all this?"
Sia looked back at him.
Parth's voice softened.
"I already lost you once across lifetimes. I don't want to keep pretending anymore."
The breeze moved gently through the mango leaves above them.
Parth swallowed slightly before continuing.
"I know everything is falling apart. I know we're probably heading toward another war none of us might survive."
His eyes stayed fixed on hers.
"But shouldn't Arjun and Subhadra stand together through it all?"
Sia's eyes immediately filled slightly.
Parth continued softly,
"You want to save people. So do I. You carry everyone's pain alone because that's who you are."
He smiled faintly.
"But why can't we carry it together this time?"
That completely shattered whatever walls Sia still had left.
She looked down briefly, laughing weakly through forming tears.
"You really became unfair after recognizing me properly."
Parth smiled softly.
The two little girls quietly disappeared at some point during this emotional catastrophe.
Traitors.
Sia finally looked at him fully again.
And this time—
there was no hiding left in her expression.
"I was scared," she admitted quietly.
Parth frowned slightly.
"Of me?"
"No." She shook her head immediately. "Of this."
Her voice trembled softly.
"Every time I remembered Subhadra… I also remembered losing everything. War. Separation. A distant longing."
She laughed painfully.
"And then this apocalypse happened. I kept thinking maybe loving someone in times like this is dangerous."
Parth stepped even closer.
"It is dangerous."
Sia blinked.
Parth smiled gently.
"But loving you has literally been dangerous across multiple lifetimes already. I think we're past worrying now."
That earned an actual laugh through her tears.
Then quietly—
almost shyly for once—
she whispered,
"You really are my Parth."
Something inside him broke beautifully hearing that.
Not Arjun.
Not warrior.
Not protector.
Her Parth.
Parth slowly reached for her hand.
And this time—
she let him.
Their fingers intertwined naturally like they had remembered each other before their minds did.
Sia looked at him for a long moment.
Then softly—
"So what happens now, Swami?"
Parth smiled helplessly.
"Honestly? I have no idea."
She laughed again.
"But…"
He squeezed her hand gently.
"We stay together through whatever comes next."
Sia nodded slowly.
"Together."
The word felt like a promise.
Not just for this life.
For every life after it too.
Above them, mango leaves swayed softly in warm afternoon wind while somewhere nearby children laughed again.
And for the first time in centuries—
Arjun and Subhadra finally stood side by side once more.