Sunlight filtered through the dusty window, painting lines across a faded bedsheet and cracked plaster.
The hum of the air conditioner was the only sound until Sunny's breath broke the silence.
The room was bare a narrow bed, an old study table, two mismatched chairs, and a battered almirah with a mirror on it.
Outside the window which is just above the study table lay a garden of flowers were looming and the vines of flowers covering the footpath.
Dhruv looked at the sky
The sky seemed normal.
Normal than before
It had been six years since the fight between those two gods, their clash cracked the sky creating cracks and leaving marks left for the years to be seen.
Seeing such a scene in front of him is not rare for Dhruv as he looked up at the sky which still bears the mark of their fight.
Then he looked at the mirror of the almirah.
What stared back wasn't his reflection.
It was something else—something that is not him. A contradiction wrapped in the face of a nine-year-old child.
A boy was standing against him being reflected directly through the mirror whose height is somewhere 4 feet.
The boy's skin was pale, like milk. His hair, jet black and smooth, fell in several strands across his forehead.
But it was the eyes that held Dhruv still
Eyes like polished obsidian, dark black. They shimmered faintly, his eyes always looked like full of cold frenzy.
The child wore a black t-shirt and pajama.
Dhruv, by contrast, stood in a grey overgrown t-shirt, its sleeves drooping past his shoulders like wilted wings. His half-black pants clung awkwardly to his knees, unsure whether to hide or to reveal.
Dhruv himself is 15 but he remembered the child's face is exactly the same like the day he met him.
As their eyes met each other Dhruv let out his inner thought in other words he cursed
"Why the hell is that bastard still there?" he muttered, louder than he meant to.
Six years ago, Dhruv became an orphan.
His parents died the day the sky cracked open and something came down something that destroyed everything. Cities. Forests. People.
He was the only survivor. Somehow.
And somehow, something else had survived with him or became a part of him.
"Hey you bastard who are you calling a bastard, I believe because of me you survived so long you good for nothing and you are here cursing me instead of being thankful of me "
The voice belonged to Aether.
Dhruv had named him Arthur, but the impudent little parasite couldn't pronounce it so he forced Dhruv to call him Aether instead.
"Oh my lord thanks for saving me" Dhruv said his voice resembling a mix of sarcasm and annoyance
"Yeah …yeah I know" Aether responded
As soon as Aether finished a series of curses exploded towards him
"You undignified wretch you didn't saved me. How can you think so high and mighty of yourself" Dhruv told him in an annoying tone.
Aether didn't respond quickly and seemed to be silent opposite for his nature .
Yeah for his uncertain and twisted nature.
But Dhruv felt guilty for saying those words loudly.
Because deep down Dhruv knew it wasn't Aether's fault that he is missing those things it's just no one survived that day or to be more precise nothing survived the whole land has become barren no more food, Water or anything.
And from that day Dhruv had become something else that isn't human or bore a semblance to it because his body doesn't require food that much, he can lifts weights that even body builders can't at just the age of 10.
And now when he reached the age of 15, The time had come for him to left for his graduation but unlike other normal people he isn't going to some lowly university, he has been summoned into the Knight's Association.
A place that had once produced two Sentries beings chosen by the Gods themselves. The highest authority still interacting with the mundane world.
A sentry is itself a god like existence whose mere presence dictate the world. There are only 11 Sentries ever existed in the world.
It was the fight between two sentries that had lead to that destruction, the destruction that devastated whole Europe.
So a University which had two students who became Sentries cannot be average.
Knights Association is one of the most prestigious association if not the most for trainees who wanted to contribute to the world but the reason Dhruv wanted to go there is different.
He wanted to know what kind of beings destroyed his land
Dhruv don't have much memories of his past infact most of his memories are unclear, fade and bizarre.
"Hey you idiot you just spoke that loudly " Aether whispered in his mind, with a hint of pity for Sunny.
"Hello Sunny" The Voice of the orphanage master rolled like thunder in Sunny's room.