"Brother Danish, what do you mean by "he knew"?" Ashwin asked. Those words were too much of a shock and took time to sink in. Shaurya too looked at Danish with hopeful eyes. They might finally have a lead, even though this ray of hope was still dim yet it was enough to put a sparkle in their eyes. Both of them were waiting for their senior to impart some knowledge to them. The expression on their faces hasn"t changed even now. Danish thought. Shaurya was now the leader and he still looked up to him the same way he did on his first day. He hadn"t lost the respect he had even after gaining a t.i.tle, this made Danish feel warm inside. He nodded and spoke up."I cannot help but feel so. You remember, how everything was just fine at first? But as soon as we mentioned the Forbidden forest, High Priest"s behavior took a full 360 degree turn. There is definitely something he knows but wouldn"t let off."
Ashwin let out an "ah" as he finally understood what Danish meant by High Priest knowing. He hadn"t paid much attention till it was mentioned. But now that they tried to remember, it was exactly as Danish had said. High Priest had asked them to stop and leave right after they mention the forest.
"But what could be the reason to hide it from us? We came here to help them out and we"d have done that till the end regardless of the difficulties it posed." Shaurya asked. It really was a bit off though. They"d have happily agreed to lend a hand to deal with whoever the thief was. Then why would High Priest go to such extreme lengths and send them away.
"Hm. That"s something I"m trying to wrap my head around. There could be a few reasons. Maybe they believe it"s an internal matter if it involves the forest and don"t want outsiders to intervene. Or they could be afraid of taking responsibility of getting us hurt or missing or dead." Danish concluded. He had already seen that Priest Vishva was a n.o.ble man who"d never put others in danger. The only other thing he was concerned about was the priesthood, so aside from these two he couldn"t see any other reasons at all.
"Hurt or missing or DEAD!" Ashwin repeated the words cowering in fear. His face had went pale as if he had already faced death.
"Cowards shouldn"t have made it to the elite team. You"re a disgrace." Shaurya teased and Ashwin pouted at that. Their little banter reminded Danish of the good old days, and he couldn"t help but chuckle up. These two had always had a love hate relationship. Their heartfelt reminiscence of memories was disrupted as someone suddenly opened the door to their room. A small hooded figure sneaked in before closing the door behind it. The hooded figure them smoothened its cloak before removing the hood. It was Visha!
"What are you doing here so late at night?" Shaurya asked.
"I found something." Visha informed as she strode in and sat down on a chair in the room. The trio exchanged glances among themselves and then turned to her with knitted brows. Even the slightest movements of theirs were always perfectly in sync. Visha had never noticed it until now as this was the first time she had seen them together like this. It was a very small detail but Visha had a habit of a.n.a.lysing even the tiniest of them. They must have been together for a really long time, doing every little thing alongside each other to achieve this level of synced movements. To the point where even their eye movements were enough to convey thoughts. This deduction had made her even more determined to work hard so she could reach the same level of understanding and be like that with her Big Sis. Just like them. They truly were a team!
Visha told them everything she had heard in the meeting of the Priests. From their mutual disagreement on the alliance to dismissal of all the disciples. The more they heard, the more shocked they were. Danish was right, they had hidden things from them. The Forbidden forest or the Spirit Forest, as they had just found out, really was the reason for halting the investigation mid way. Not only that, High Priest also had the idea about the suspect. It was someone in the forest. Someone who was powerful and scary enough to make this millennium old priesthood, shake in fear. And apparently, it was a difficult task to survive in that forest too. As the fact that person had survived for years in there is what made them even more afraid. The survival had claimed to make that person stronger and it made them determined enough to dismiss the entire priesthood! And even made the priests talk as if it was their final will, before they left for their final battle!
"You were very quick-witted to plant a mole spell on him at that time. I"m honestly both shocked and impressed." Shaurya complimented.