Standing atop the tall tower, Veer Das couldn't decide if he wanted to be happy or sad that it was a full moon night. A part of him wanted to give in to the clear breeze and play his flute. The other part -- the one that had to pay rent and feed a family of eight -- wanted to stay alert. The gods, praise be upon them, weren't paying him to be a musician tonight.

He pulled on his bowstring once and let go of it, sending the tankaar sound ringing through the silent night. In the moments that followed, other gandharva sentries stationed at street corners and rooftops responded with their own bowstrings. They were all in the same boat, resisting the call of music, waiting for the hour of prophecy to arrive, watching the small house by the lake.

And they were not the only ones. Roaming the streets below, somewhat more conspicuous than the gandharva archers, were two actual Vajra-class yakshas. How brutes such as these came to be in the employ of the gods, Veer didn't know. But it was not his place to question orders. The yakshas were resources, this was a mission, and he was in command. He just hoped the child of prophecy was worth all the trouble.

Veer heard the arrow splitting the night-time air before he saw it coming. What he found interesting was that he didn't even have to evade it. The ornate, obviously custom-made arrow with the Rakshas Dominion seal passed right in front of his eyes, missing him by inches. A less talented archer, Veer thought, would have missed by a wider margin, or worse -- actually made the mistake of shooting a gandharva commander in the face. This wasn't an attack. It was a message, an invitation -- from the Rakshas Prajapati no less. The dark lord was saying hello.

Why him though?

Veer had never really considered himself anything more than an employee of the gods. Unlike many in the service, he was not political. In his mind, the kingdom to the east was not the dominion of darkness where all things evil assembled to plot against the sacred land. It was just another place. It didn't matter to him that the Rakshas Dominion and its allies did not submit to the gods the way gandharva and yaksha people did. He didn't even care much about the tales that the children of Devbhumi were brought up on -- scary stories of how the Rakshas kingdom was a blight on the land and how wiping it off the face of the Earth would ensure eternal prosperity for all beings everywhere. As far as Veer was concerned, people were just people. The world was just the world.