“Outside the forge, the silver-lavender sky of Chhaya Lok stretched to the horizon. The mountains rose. The forests breathed. The Kamdhenu grazed in their golden meadows, their ancient eyes reflecting a light that had burned since before time had a name. The Nagas flew — Takshak's massive emerald form visible against the sky, wheeling in slow circles, the eternal patrol of a creature that had guarded this world for centuries and that now, for the first time in those centuries, had reason to believe the guarding would not be done alone.”