The royal apparition

Author’s note: My longest attempt to date. This is different than anything I’ve written before. I wrote this based on the suggestion from a friend, Anaya Chandra, that I try my hand at a different genre – something with magic perhaps. I can’t classify this strictly as a crossdressing story. And whatever there is, doesn’t occur till the very end. I’m not really sure how I feel about the end result. I left the story open-ended, possibly for a sequel. If you have any love it/hate it/meh comments, I’d love to hear it.

WARNING: Contains mature content.

Dr. Vardhan looked at the report on his desk as he walked in with his bag slung across his shoulder with the strong cup of filter coffee in a travel mug in his right hand and his car keys in his left hand.

He dropped the keys into an ashtray that had never seen use as an ashtray. The bas-relief at the bottom of the tray depicted one of the famous Maya ruins in Belize. It was one of the many archaeological references that were in and around his desk. He set his coffee mug down on a coaster that depicted the Obelisk of Akhsum. He unslung his bag and put it up on a coat stand behind his desk.

“Hey Vardhan, Good morning” said his neighbor and friend Dr. Sharmila.

“A very good morning to you too, Sharmila” said Vardhan cheerfully.

“You seem to be in high spirits today” remarked Sharmila.

“And why wouldn’t I be? It is a beautiful day to be alive” said Vardhan and laughed.

“Can I have some of whatever you are smoking or drinking?” asked Sharmila joining in the laughter.

“I can make a cup of strong filter coffee for you tomorrow” replied Vardhan and seeing Sharmila wrinkle her nose, laughed out loud. Sharmila was a fan of tea and prided herself for not having touched coffee ever in her life.

This sort of banter was common between the two of them. The two of them had joined the archaeological department at roughly about the same time both having earned Ph.D. degrees and following up with post-doctoral research abroad. Sharmila had worked under one of the most recognized archaeologists in Italy while Vardhan had worked under an archaeologist of Indian origin in the US.

As such, when both of them came to the department, they felt that they had much work to do in reforming the department which had languished for many years due to repeated underfunding from the government. The funding situation had created a brain drain of young talent and all that remained was ‘the old fogeys’ as Sharmila and Vardhan liked to call them – the old timers who only cared about a salary and doing the minimum amount of work till retirement.

In fact, left to themselves, Sharmila and Vardhan would have gone the way of rest of the talent, finding plum jobs abroad in academia where they’d have been paid well and could have worked on archaeological digs all over the world. Instead, they were here, at the archaeological department due to urging from the department’s current director, Dr. Shankar, a man who was brilliant and charismatic in equal measure. Who else could have persuaded the two of them to come work for the department which paid not one twentieth of what they may have received as salaries elsewhere?

In Sharmila’s case, it had helped that she had no need for a salary. Her parents had left her a trust fund that could keep her comfortable without having to hold a job. Vardhan’s case was different – he came from a middle class background and needed the job. The common thread between the two of them was the passion for archaeology. They both felt that the area had been underserved in the country for a long time, a sentiment echoed by Dr. Shankar when he’d recruited the two of them.

Dr. Shankar had given them carte blanche permission to pick any project of their choice. They had a direct line to him even though they were “junior” archaeologists. Every one in the department knew that the two of them were Dr. Shankar’s proteges and steered clear of them for two reasons. The first was that they wanted no part of any work and the second was the fear that negative reports about them might reach the director’s ear.

This gave both Vardhan and Sharmila freedom to do what they liked. And that they did. They jumped into a bunch of current digs and brought some semblance of order to utter chaos. Slowly, they’d recruited a group of people in the department who understood what the two were trying to do and saw the point of it all. Still, both of them longed for a project that would be a fresh start and that would put them and their department as a serious outfit on the world map. So far, two years into their recruitment, nothing had panned out but both Sharmila and Vardhan were extremely patient.

Underlying all of this was the slowly growing attraction between Vardhan and Sharmila which neither was willing to acknowledge. In each of their minds, they came from different backgrounds, different mother tongues, different states, different cultures. They thought that these differences were too much to bridge in a marital relationship.

Yet, neither could just brush away their feelings for each other. This led to awkward banter like that morning or manifested in other ways.

Vardhan sat down at his desk and looked at the report. “Hey Sharmila, did you get this report?”.

“What report?”.

“The one on this possible site under the waters of Lake Ilavala” said Vardhan.

“No, I didn’t. What do you mean ‘under’?”.

“Under as in submerged in the waters”.

“What? How deep is the lake?”.

“Let me look it up” said Vardhan logging on to the computer on his desk. “The wikipedia article says that the lake, for the longest time, has been pretty deep – about fifty meters at its deepest. It is fed by run off from the mountains surrounding it”.

“That’s crazy. What kind of site is in 180+ feet of water? And how do we know that it is even there?”.

“Good question. Search engines to the rescue” said Vardhan as he typed into his computer. “Ok, this is interesting. According to the state’s water resources website, the last five years have seen a drought in the region and so the lake’s level has been dropping. The deepest point in the lake, at the moment, is only about twenty meters”.

“Only? Vardhan, that’s like sixty five feet of water…”.

“Fair enough. Let’s read the report” said Vardhan. Sharmila pulled her chair over to Vardhan’s desk.

The report was fairly short. The state had allowed swimming in the lake for the sake of tourism. Some foreign tourist who was a scuba diving aficionado had decided to bring his equipment and go scuba diving in the lake. What he had discovered was almost absurd. Down in the deepest part of the lake was a structure. The diver had taken some pictures that were attached to the report. The pictures seemed to show some kind of structure with multiple short towers, spires almost, that went down to a structure that stood about twenty feet tall and seemed to go down into the bedrock at the bottom of the lake. The diver had taken pictures that seemed to show some kind of doorway at the bottom of structure.

“This is crazy” said Sharmila voicing what was on both of their minds.

Vardhan nodded. “How the heck did, whoever built this, manage to build this in the middle of a lake at a depth of 50 meters?” he asked.

“More importantly, how are we going to get to it?” asked Sharmila.

“The answer may lie in answering the first question” said Vardhan. Sharmila nodded slowly.

For the next few weeks, both of them were like hounds on the trail of their prey. They read anything and everything related to the state, the area, the lake that they could lay their hands on.

One morning, as Vardhan entered the office, sipping his coffee as usual, he heard Sharmila say “I think I know the answer” as she smiled at him. She’d come in earlier as usual.

“What is it?” asked an excited Vardhan.

“I went to the library several nights ago and pulled down books on all the surveys from pre-independence times. There’s this one surveyor, a James Montfort, who in 1887, surveyed the area and tried to explain how such a large body of water came to be where Lake Ilavala was. Well, he couldn’t. So he went to a friend of his, a chemist, and asked him to analyze the water from the lake. The chemist told him that the chemicals in the water could have only come from a certain type of rock that is not present in the area at all…”.

“Well, go on. The suspense is killing me” said Vardhan in excitement.

“So, Montfort decided to collect samples from other water bodies around the area and guess what? The chemicals matched those present in the waters of the Vaalranii river”.

Vardhan immediately turned to his computer and pulled up maps of the area. “That’s impossible. According to maps, that river flows several kilometers to the north of the area”.

“Yes, that is what Montfort thought too. But before he could make any progress on this, he was killed by a landslide while surveying the area”.

“Dang, so near yet so far…” said Vardhan banging his desk and stopped as he saw Sharmila smile.

“Not so fast, my friend” she said. “We’re not the first ones on the trail of Mr. Montfort”.

“Really?”.

“Yes, a surveyor appointed by the government after independence, Abhay Sarkar, collected all of the information available on the area including Montfort’s notes. He verified that the existing surveys were all correct. He had a lot of time on his hands. So he decided to follow Montfort’s quest. Well, it took him almost twenty years but he cracked it. Mr. Sarkar was able to prove that a landslide blocked off a deep ravine diverting the Vaalranii river…”.

“Then why isn’t it flowing through the lake now?”.

“Good question. Over time, the force of the river pummeled the landslide until it found a break in the sheer wall of stones. Once it had the foothold, in a mere fifty years, it returned to its old path leaving a big ass lake where there should have been a small puddle of water”.

“Even then the runoff…” said Vardhan.

“Ah, Mr. Montfort had an answer for the question you’re about to ask. He estimated that between the inflow and evaporation, the lake should have been pretty shallow, may be a few feet of water at best”.

Vardhan pulled out the pictures taken by the diver. Sure enough the base of the structure was about five feet high.

He slammed the picture on the desk.

“Yes, there goes the idea of following what the builders did” said Sharmila sadly.

“Did anyone estimate when this diversion happened?”.

Sharmila nodded her head. “Thankfully, there is no outflow from Lake Ilavala. Otherwise, we would have been screwed. According to a rough estimate from the chemist, based on the concentration of chemicals in the lake vs. the river and a rough estimate of inflow and water loss due to evaporation, the lake must have formed at least fifteen hundred years ago”.

Vardhan stared at Sharmila. “My god, this could be the find of the century. If only…”. Sharmila nodded sadly.

“We should verify all of this. We can’t rely on information from 70 and 130 years ago” he continued.

“On it. The state government wanted to construct a dam across the river about ten years ago. So they did a detailed report on possible locations. It confirms Sarkar’s hypothesis. I contacted the state’s water resources board three days ago. They confirmed the chemist’s claim independently”.

“F***” screamed Vardhan startling Sharmila. “Sorry” he apologized.

“I feel your frustration, Vardhan”.

The rest of the day went quietly for both as they were both feeling down. All of the work for nothing…

The next morning, Sharmila came into the office to see Vardhan was already in. Vardhan was always late to the office. He’d never been in the office before Sharmila in their two years there.

“Dang, I forgot to get my umbrella” said Sharmila.

“What?”.

“It has to rain today. This is unheard of” said Sharmila smiling.

“Well, Ms. Early riser, I’ll have you know that I rose at 4am this morning” said Vardhan.

“What? What happened?”.

“I had a brainwave. You’re going to kiss me when you hear it” said Vardhan smiling.

“Ha ha, nice try. What have you got?”.

“I remembered coffer dams”.

Sharmila’s eyes lit up. “That’s pure bloody genius. Oh, I could kiss you” she cried.

“What did I tell you?” teased Vardhan.

“I also updated our report with the proposal. Take a look and make any corrections” he continued.

“No, I trust you” said Sharmila showing that their teamwork was based on trust.

“Then, let me call Dr. Shankar’s secretary” said Sharmila.

“Already done. We have an appointment at 11am”.

Vardhan and Sharmila presented themselves at the director’s office at 11am. They showed themselves in at 11:05.

“Dr. Shankar, sir, we think we have just the thing to blow things up” said Sharmila.

“Blow things up?”.

“Yes sir, we got this report forwarded to us” said Vardhan laying out the report from the state.

“I’ve seen this. I’m the one who forwarded it to you both”.

“Yes sir, we dug up some more info” said Sharmila laying down their report.

“Take a seat, you two” said Dr. Shankar and read the terse report with copious references.

After about half an hour, Dr. Shankar looked up at the two of them. “This is what I hired you two for”. Sharmila and Vardhan beamed.

“What do you need from me?” asked Dr. Shankar.

“Sir, we have no contacts or even an idea of how to go about getting quotes for building coffer dams, pumping out water etc. We’re not civil engineers…” said Vardhan.

“Yes, I’m very well aware of that” said Dr. Shankar laughing.

“Ok, leave this with me. I’ll make some enquiries” he said.

Vardhan and Sharmila took their leave and went back to their offices. Every time the phone rang, they both jumped but they got no call from Dr. Shankar for the next week. Both of them were starting to get dejected when they received an email from Dr. Shankar’s secretary requesting their presence at his office that day at 10am.

When they went into his office, they found him in a video conference. “Here are the two now, sir” said Dr. Shankar and waved to them to come and take a seat. Vardhan and Sharmila were surprised a number of bureaucrats in the conference.

“To bring you both up to speed, the Prime Minister read your report. He contacted the Chief Minister of the state and has been given the pledge of full cooperation by the state. The PM wants this work to be prioritized. He’s already working on a expanded push to promote tourism to our country and thinks that this will be just the thing to lead with for the campaign”.

Vardhan and Sharmila nodded dumbly.

“So, the deal is that you both have to work on this now. No time off, no vacation, no sick leave, nothing till the job gets done”. Both Vardhan and Sharmila gulped.

“As for the logistics, you’re going to have the Army Corps of Engineers to help you. Everyone has been told that money is no object. Time, however, is of the essence” continued Dr. Shankar. Once again, Vardhan and Sharmila nodded wordlessly.

When they got out of the meeting, Vardhan asked Sharmila “What have we gotten ourselves into?”.

“Isn’t it exhilarating?” asked Sharmila. Vardhan had to agree.

They left the very next day and landed at the nearest airport to Lake Ilavala. From there, they were flown by helicopter to the lake.

They were met by a Captain in the Corps. “Hello, my name is Captain David. I’m taking the lead on this project” he introduced himself.

“Now with the formal introduction out of the way, please call me David when we’re alone. Captain when we’re around my men or around brass please”.

“Thank you David. So what’s the plan?” said Vardhan.

“Want to see something cool?” asked David. Both of them nodded.

He waved them to a table setup some distance away. A large tablet like device was setup on the table. He pulled up an app and showed it to them.

They were both flummoxed to see a 3D rendition of the structure in the water.

“How?”.

“Sonar. Think of light illuminating parts of a building in the dark. Now, with enough such pictures, you will be able to reconstruct a picture of the building even in 3D, right? This is the same thing with sound”.

Vardhan and Sharmila stared in awe.

“So, we have this structure that is about 20 by 14 meters in length and width and about 10 meters in height. My job is to build a coffer dam around the structure. It’ll take me a week to set it all up. We cannot start pumping the water out before the dam structure is up. It’ll probably take a few more days to get the water out. After that, it is all yours. We will have a pump going 24×7 because water will get through cracks into the dammed area. When you’re done, we dismantle everything”.

“What do you mean dismantle?” asked Vardhan.

“The dam is temporary. It cannot be a permanent structure. Won’t be stable for long…”.

“But we were told that we should make this available for tourism…” said Sharmila.

“Not what I’ve been told. Please talk to your superiors” said David sympathetically.

Vardhan and Sharmila called Dr. Shankar. “Sir, we’re being told that this dam is going to be temporary…”.

“Yes, I know. It’d be too expensive to build a permanent dam around it. I’ve informed the PM. Get in there. Get the structure scanned so that we can construct a replica. Whatever we find there, it might be better for us to transport out to the surface. That way we can repopulate the replica with the artifacts”.

“Ok, sir. We’ll work on it” said Sharmila.

While they waited for the dam to be built, Sharmila and Vardhan had time on their hands. They decided to walk the mountains around the lake. During the nights, they camped out by the lake along with the Army Corps and the rest of the workers.

On the second night of their stay, Vardhan had a weird dream. A beautiful woman appeared before him in the dream. She was dressed in something like a sari but a lot more revealing. She’d adorned herself with a lot of jewelry. She walked towards him in a regal manner and when she approached near, she kissed him on the cheeks. “How are you?” she asked as if she knew him intimately. Vardhan mumbled something about doing well. The dream ended at that point.

Vardhan thought about bringing up the dream with Sharmila but he was too ashamed to admit to the dream. Besides, the woman was just a figment of his imagination.

The next night, he had the same vivid dream. This time, the woman kissed him and then grabbing his hand, led him somewhere. Suddenly, there was a loud noise that woke Vardhan up. He stepped out of his tent and saw the Captain standing outside.

“What’s the problem?” asked Vardhan.

“The portable generator had a weird malfunction” said David.

“Weird?”.

“Yes, never seen it go like that before…” said David thoughtfully.

Vardhan went back to sleep but didn’t get the dream again that night. The next day, after a strenuous workout walking up mountains, Vardhan slept soundly. The dream occurred that night as well. This time, the dream progressed further. He could see that the woman was leading him up to the structure. She turned and smiled at him when they neared the entrance and then walked right through the stone door as if it were air. Vardhan tried to follow and just hit his head on the door in his dream. He could hear the laughter of the woman. There ended the dream on the third day.

The next morning, David came to them. “So we’re making faster than expected progress. We should have the structure up in two more days and then let’s say two days and nights of pumping the water out. You should be in action on the morning of the fifth day”.

Vardhan’s dream continued that night as well. This time, the woman led him to the door and then, pointed up to something written over the lintel. Vardhan could see that it was in some form of Prakrit. “Here is the…” he read and stopped as he didn’t understand the next word. “resting place” said the woman. “of the Princess of the Valrana kingdom, Varsha. If you…”. “come” completed the woman.

“If you come to steal, be warned. The fate…”.

“that awaits you…”.

“The fate that awaits you is beyond description” Vardhan finished reading.

The woman smiled at him before disappearing through the door again. The dream ended there.

Vardhan thought that he was going crazy. The dreams seemed to be getting more vivid and he could remember them clearly. But there was something that was inexorably pulling him towards the structure. He could feel it. Still, he made no mention of this to Sharmila.

The following night, the dream repeated. This time, when he had finished reading the inscription, he turned to the woman and asked “You are the Princess?”. He seemed to be speaking in a language he didn’t recognize although the question was clear in his head. The woman nodded.

“You highness, please, we don’t come to steal. We’re here several centuries later. We want to make you and your history known to the people of this country” said Vardhan to Varsha. The woman looked at him in anger but it seemed to Vardhan that she was trying to keep her face straight. “Thief” she said.

“No, please understand. We just want to know you. Know about you. You will have a place in our history unaccorded to most people of the past”.

Varsha turned and walked through the door in a huff. Vardhan woke up with a start when he heard his name called.

“Vardhan, are you ok?” asked Sharmila’s voice from outside the tent.

“Yes, yes, I’m fine” said Vardhan opening the door to the tent. The sun was already out.

“Oh wow, what time is it?”.

“8:05”.

“Oh, I overslept”.

“Yes. I was also worried because I heard some noises from your tent”.

“Noises?”.

“Yes, as if you were speaking. Except whatever you were saying was in no language I could recognize”.

“The stuctures are up. We’re going to being pumping water out this morning” said Captain David triumphantly. Sharmila and Vardhan thanked him for all the hard work that the Army was putting in.

Later that day, as they walked up another mountain path, Vardhan wondered if he should tell Sharmila about the dreams. He still could not bring himself to say it. Sharmila would think that he’d lost his marbles completely. He might be taken off the project if word got out.

That night, Vardhan was almost looking forward to the dream. The same sequence of events. Except this time, when he pleaded, Varsha scrutinized his face deeply for some time. She smiled “I understand. I like you. You’re like a kindred soul. Let me think about it”.

Just then, Vardhan heard his name being called. This was still in the dream. He turned to see Sharmila walking towards them.

“Vardhan, what’s going on? Why are you here this late at night? Who is she?” asked Sharmila on seeing Varsha.

Vardhan was tongue-tied. Sharmila looked at him questioningly without looking at Varsha. He tried to say something but it felt as though the words were stuck in his mouth. Varsha smiled and holding Vardhan’s hand walked though the shut doorway. Vardhan felt his body become porous, for the lack of a better word, as he seemed to walk into the stone effortlessly.

He stepped out on the other side. He saw that he was in a corridor about 12 meters in length. Directly ahead of him was another door that was also shut. Varsha still held him by the hand. She started to walk towards the left along the corridor. Vardhan glanced in wonder at the intricate carvings on either side of the corridor.

“Dear god, this is exquisite” he muttered.

Varsha turned to him and smiled. “Do you like it? My father had it made specially for me”. Vardhan nodded his head as he looked around in wonder.

“Your highness, please consider this. If we were able to exhibit replicas of all these exquisite sculptures that cannot be taken away and possibly any of the artifacts that are loose here to the world, your fame would spread the world over”.

“I considered what you told me last night and I approve but there is a cost…” said Varsha.

“What is it, your highness?”.

“We will come to that later. For now, let us walk around and enjoy the beauty of things around us”.

Vardhan and Varsha walked hand in hand. For the first time, Vardhan noticed that Varsha matched his height of 5′ 11″. “That is pretty wild. I always thought that people, especially women from bygone eras were short” he thought to himself.

Varsha turned to him and smiled. “I took after my father, a giant of a man, who towered above most people in his kingdom” she said.

“I’d love to know your story, you highness” blurted out Vardhan.

Varsha sighed. “Where shall I begin? I guess I should begin with my name. Pretty straightforward. I was born in the rainy season and, for my parents, who’d been childless for long time, I brought joy. My father would have preferred a son to succeed him but he never showed that to me or made me feel it. It was obvious early on that I took on my father’s height although, thankfully, not his physique. I was taught everything a prince and a princess should have been taught – everything from poetry to sword fighting. My parents tried for another child but none was forthcoming. He was pressured by his ministers to marry a second time to produce male heirs but he resisted. He felt that in due time, a brave young warrior from the kingdom should claim my hand and become the ruler and I, his queen”.

Vardhan listened with rapt attention.

“But… as usual, there was a twist in the plot. As I reached puberty, I realized that I… was not interested in… men. I found myself attracted to women. The prettier the woman, the faster my heart raced. How could I say this to my father or mother? I decided that my fate was to accede to my father’s command and marry someone from my kingdom. And resigned to that decision, I was… until I met Kamini. She was a daughter of a vassal of my father’s. Kamini was just a few months younger than me. Her father, hoping to curry my father’s favor, dropped her off in our palace to be a royal companion to me. Fortunate was I that Kamini reciprocated my feelings. We became enthusiastic lovers at night. Since she was the royal companion, a close friend and slept with me in the same bed, no one suspected a thing. Or even if they did, no one dared to say a word. Those few months were blissful in my life”.

“I soon turned fifteen years of age. An age considered to be fit for marriage. My father came to me and asked me to prepare for a svayamvara – a ceremony in which a number of suitors would vie for my hand by completing hard tasks. I did not want to marry a man and so I begged my father to let me set the tasks. He allowed me to do so”.

“A month later, my father announced his intention far and wide in the kingdom. Suitors were asked to assemble at the palace three months hence for the ceremony. On the day of the ceremony, I was shocked to see about a thousand men, from young to old, standing in front of the palace. I’d already decided what tasks I’d set. I announced that there would be a set of three tasks and if there was a tie, I’d announce a fourth task”.

“For the first task, I asked that men swim the length of Lake Nardala – a long distance indeed”. Vardhan wondered how long the lake was.

“Immediately, about half of the men walked away. Over the next several weeks, the remaining people tried. Some gave up on seeing the lake, others after swimming just a hundred yards, yet others almost drowned and had to be rescued. About thirty seven young men succeeded in the task. I was sad that I was misleading these brave men but I had no choice. The next task I set was to go from one end of the kingdom to the other in four days on foot. I expected that almost no one would survive this task but to my surprise, three men completed the task within four days. Now, for the third task, I asked them to bring me a flower that is found only in the extreme north. It blooms only for a few days and you’d need to cross mighty mountains to get there and back. My father was annoyed with me. He challenged me but I told him that a man who could do this would be a worthy successor to him. His ego boosted, my father agreed. It would take the three men at least a year to get back if they got back. By that time, I hoped that I could find a solution”.

Vardhan looked at Varsha with his mouth agape. He could not believe that a princess who was fifteen years of age could have thought all of this up. “I know what you’re thinking. This seems like a fantasy tale, doesn’t it?” asked Varsha smiling.

“How does she know what I’m thinking?” he thought to which she replied “Because I’m also you… I mean I’m your imagination, silly” and laughed.

“Please continue, your highness” said Vardhan.

“In that time, I wracked my brains to come up with a solution. I could think of none. Kamini and I grew desperate. I wished that I were a man so that I could marry Kamini and rule the kingdom. I came to know of a sage who lived at the edge of the kingdom in the mountains – near here. I made up something and on the pretext of needing some rest, I came here with Kamini and met the sage. He looked at us calmly told us that we would not be together in this lifetime. I was crushed, as was Kamini. We pleaded with him to see if there was a way for us to be together. He asked us to go away and come back in two days. When we came back two days later, he told us that the answer was still the same. Devastated, we were about to leave when he smiled and said ‘All is not lost, my child’. I was shocked by his pronouncement and asked him to explain. ‘Even though you will not be able to be together in this lifetime, you will get another chance… in another lifetime’ he said. I was willing to grasp at straws at that time and I asked him how it was possible. He gave no answer to my question. Instead, he said ‘Ask your father to build a beautiful structure at the location that I’ll show to you’. Desperate to try anything, I asked him to show me the place”.

“Here?” asked Vardhan in anticipation. Varsha nodded.

“Wow” said Vardhan.

“At the time, there was a small lake here”. Vardhan nodded – he knew all about that.

“I went back to my father and asked him to build a resting place for me at the lake. He took it to mean that it would be a place where I rest when I traveled here. He commissioned men to build this” said Varsha pointing around.

“Work on this building progressed. As the year came to an end, I grew more and more desperate. I could not stand the thought of being a man’s wife. I came back here with Kamini one last time. The structure was already complete but the artistic works had just been commissioned and were in progress. In there…” said Varsha pointing to the structure surrounded by the corridor, “we decided to end it all. I asked for privacy. All the artisans were sent out. I also sent out my other companions and the royal bodyguard. Kamini and I partook poison from the same cup…”.

“Oh my god” cried Vardhan. He was not sure why this story in a dream was affecting him so much but it was almost too much to bear. He felt a heavy weight on his chest.

“Vardhan” came the call from Sharmila.

“Wha…”. Vardhan was not even sure if he was in the dream or in the world for a few moments. He saw that he was inside the tent. The sun was already shining outside.

He stuck his head outside the tent. “Hey, are you ok? I heard something similar to the other day. What sounds like a language – nothing I could understand… but there was a language like quality to what you were saying”.

“I… I don’t know. Must be a bad dream or something…” said Vardhan. He changed into his clothes quickly and headed out.

“One more day. Be ready tomorrow morning…” said David as he saw the two of them. They nodded.

They went on their walk. Sharmila could see that Vardhan was distracted and was unable to hold a conversation. She attributed it to the anxiety of opening the structure. After all, she was pretty much in the same boat wondering what they’d find inside. They fell into silence as they walked and each were immersed in their own thoughts.

Vardhan eagerly looked forward to that night and the dream. He fell asleep soon after dinner and almost immediately, the whole scene played out again.

When Varsha had finished reciting her story, he asked “Did the sage tell you when you’d be in the other lifetime?”.

Varsha looked at Vardhan with what looked like love – nothing that resembled an earthly kind of love. A love that seemed like an outpouring of compassion. “Yes, he did. He described a fantastic time when men could fly in the sky at will and could do wondrous things…”.

“Wow. How long till then?” asked Vardhan.

“Do you not know the answer to that?” asked Varsha.

Vardhan felt a constriction in his chest as if the weight of the entire world was on it. “Now?” he almost expelled the word from his lungs as if being pressured by a tremendous weight to exhale. Varsha nodded.

“But you’re still… in this form” said Vardhan.

“Am I?” asked Varsha and touched Vardhan’s cheek. “Am I really this form?” she asked again pointing to herself.

Vardhan felt like his chest would explode. He almost looked pleadingly at Varsha. She gave him the sweetest smile and said “Remember what I told you earlier? I am you”.

Vardhan looked like a ton of bricks had hit him at the same time and slumped back.

“I know this is a lot to process…”. Vardhan just stared at Varsha.

“How? No, I think this is just some trickery…” he said almost angry.

“Look inside yourself”.

The more Vardhan tried to do it, the more calm he became. It was as if slowly the weight was lifting. He breathed easily.

“So, what you’re saying is that you’re me and I’m you?”. Varsha nodded.

“Why didn’t you tell me this upfront?”.

“Think of it. You’re having trouble accepting this now. If I’d dropped this bombshell on you the first time we met…”.

“I see your point. Oh god, all of this is too fantastic”. Varsha’s eyes had that look of compassion once again.

“Wait, how many lifetimes between…”.

“None, one, a million… Does it matter?”.

“I’ve lived thirty years in this life. Why am I aware of this… you… only now?”.

“Imagine if we could remember our past lives all the time… Forget that, imagine if you could remember all the incidents of your current life vividly…”.

“Point taken…”.

“What do I do now?” he asked.

“Whatever you want to do…”.

“I’m lost. Should I open this structure? Should I not?”.

“Is that under your control?”. Vardhan shook his head. “Then why worry?”.

“Thank you” he said.

Varsha laughed out loud. “How absurd is it to thank yourself?” she asked.

The dream dissipated slowly and Vardhan fell into a deep sleep for the first time in almost a week. He woke up refreshed the next morning at 7am.

“Wow, someone is back to their normal self” said Sharmila smiling.

“Yes, feeling a lot better after… the last few days”.

A scaffolding had been erected on one side of the dam and a makeshift lift attached to a motorized pulley had been hung from the scaffolding. Sharmila and Vardhan stepped close to the edge and looked down to see the structure completely out of the water for the first time. Down below, engineers were building a makeshift landing area for people to step off the lift and a gangway from the landing area to the platform in front of the door.

The work was complete in an hour. “It is all yours” said David.

Vardhan and Sharmila nodded and made their way to the lift. They were both given suits with attached cylinders of oxygen that they could activate if necessary. They also had radios attached to the suit that they could activate with a button on their wrist. Although it was uncomfortable, both of them understood that it was for their safety.

The lift descended slowly to the landing area. They were helped off the lift by some army personnel. They made their way down the gangway gingerly and stepped into the platform. Vardhan knelt down and felt the stone. “This is granite. We’re on stable ground” he said into the radio.

Slowly, they walked towards the doorway. As they stood before it, Sharmila started to read. “If you…”.

“come” completed Vardhan. Sharmila turned and stared at Vardhan. Those symbols were unknown to her or to anyone else in the world as far as she knew.

“If you come to steal, be warned. The fate…” she continued.

“that awaits you…”.

“The fate that awaits you is beyond description” Sharmila finished reading. “Vardhan, how do you know those symbols?” she asked.

Vardhan gave no reply. He just kept staring at the lintel. It wasn’t all a dream. The sentence kept repeating itself in his head.

“Vardhan”. Sharmila’s call shook him out of his reverie. “What’s going on?”.

“Nothing, let’s see how we can get in”.

They looked for any keyholes in the doorway. There were none. They looked for any secret ways to open the door. Nothing obvious presented itself. After about two hours, the stifling humidity sapped them of all their energy. They came back up.

Dr. Shankar called to check on their progress. He’d seen the inscription on the lintel already. “How did you know how to translate this, Vardhan?” he asked.

“I don’t know, Sir. I just knew” said Vardhan. In a way he was lying but in a different way he wasn’t.

“So you cannot find a way to open the door. Should we consider using a small amount of explosive?”.

“No… No, Sir. I think we might end up doing irreparable damage if we do that. Please give us time till tomorrow morning” said Vardhan.

Unfortunately for them, it started to rain heavily that afternoon and the engineers said that it’d be too unsafe for them down near the platform.

Vardhan retired for the night. Varsha appeared. This time there was none of the preamble. No replay of the past week.

They were sitting inside, along the corridor on a stone bench.

“I have many questions”.

“I will answer two questions. No more” said Varsha.

“But…”.

“Pick your questions carefully”.

Vardhan thought for a bit and said “Where is Kamini?”.

“I was waiting for you to ask that question” said Varsha smiling.

Just at that moment, Sharmila walked into the corridor. Varsha got up and walked towards Sharmila who stared at her. When she got close to Sharmila, Varsha grabbed her by the waist and kissed her. She turned to Vardhan and asked “Does that answer your question?”.

As Vardhan started to ask another question, Varsha stopped him and said “Remember, last question”.

“Does she know?”.

“She doesn’t… yet. Take her into the room…” said Varsha nodding to the closed door “…and hold her hand while there”.

“For a moment, I thought you were going to say something else” replied Vardhan blushing.

“On that note, one unsolicited piece of advice. Inside that room, you will find a bracelet made out of a single piece of sapphire. It is of no archaeological, historical or cultural value but it has immense value to you and to her. No one else. Pocket it and keep it to yourself”.

Vardhan nodded but a million questions were popping into his mind.

“It was given to me by the sage…”.

Vardhan took that reply from Varsha to mean that he could ask more questions. “How do I open these doors and what should I expect to find?”.

Varsha looked at him crossly and said “I’m done here. You don’t need me to find answers” and then vanished into thin air. Vardhan called out to her but there was no response.

Vardhan got up the following morning. He could not face up to Sharmila knowing what he knew. Or maybe he had just gone crazy.

Vardhan and Sharmila adorned their suits and got onto the lift. They reached the platform and Sharmila was immediately the busy bee trying all sorts of things that she’d been thinking about overnight. Vardhan just stood there in the light rain looking zen.

“What is wrong with you? We have only today to get this open. Else, they will use explosives” she said frustrated with Vardhan.

Vardhan closed his eyes and envisioned the door and the surrounding area. His mind automatically zoomed to the carved elephant carrying a mahout. “Sharmila, step away from the door” ordered Vardhan. Sharmila, unsure of what Vardhan was doing, complied anyways. Vardhan walked to one side.

He nodded to the engineers who were standing by with pumps. The expectation was that as the water drained, it would have drained from inside the structure as well but they had to be careful.

Vardhan approached the carving of an elephant in the stone. He almost caressed the tusks of the elephant that protruded out from the wall. Then, with one swift motion, he twisted one tusk clockwise and the other counter-clockwise. There was a low rumbling sound and slowly something caused the heavy stone door to rise. Everyone, including the engineers, gaped in awe. The stone was made of one single rock, was at least a meter think and must have weighed quite something. What was even more amazing was that the inside of the structure was dry.

Someone would later try to figure out how people more than fifteen centuries ago managed to build airtight structures but for the moment, it brought out a loud cheer from everyone watching.

“Careful there” came the warning from David as Sharmila and Vardhan walked towards the door.

While Vardhan’s attention was squarely on the opening, Sharmila was staring at him with single-pointed attention. “How did he figure out how to get the door open? How did he know to read the script?”. All these questions ran in her mind repeatedly. The fact that he had not seemed himself for some days also bothered her.

Vardhan held out his hand for Sharmila. She joined hands with him and they walked into the structure and into the corridor. Vardhan turned on a battery-operated light attached to his suit and indicated to Sharmila to do the same.

Vardhan, having seen it all before, said “Come” and leading Sharmila by the hand walked to the left just as Varsha had done. Sharmila stared in wonder at the exquisite stone carvings that adorned the walls just the same as Vardhan.

They went one full circle along the corridor and returned back to the entrance.

“What do you think?” asked Vardhan.

“This is beyond anything I could have dreamt” replied Sharmila.

The radio crackled. “How are you folks doing in there?” asked David.

“Oh, it is like being in heaven” replied Sharmila which elicited a short laugh from David.

“Please send in the crew to do the scan of the interior of the outer structure” said Vardhan.

“Come Sharmila. Our work for the day is done” said Vardhan. They were still holding hands and he led her out of the structure.

As the lift came back up slowly to the top of the dam, the Captain walked up to them.

“That was genius. How on earth did you figure out how to open the door?” he asked.

If someone had asked Vardhan a few minutes before he actually opened the door, he’d have been flummoxed. “Oh, it was only logical. I expected to either find something like a depression or protrusion in the surrounding rock to control the door. This was the only possible answer”.

“But there are many such elephants…”.

“Oh, I just got lucky I guess” said Vardhan feeling bad that he was lying. The alternative would land him in a mental health institution for good. That much he knew.

When they’d walked away some distance, Sharmila turned to Vardhan and said “That was some bulls***…”.

“Huh?”.

“About getting lucky. I saw you up close. You walked up to that elephant with purpose. You knew that was the key”.

“I cannot lie to you, Sharmila. Please bear with me for one more day. I promise it will all become clear”.

Sharmila looked uncertain but she nodded and walked away. The scanning crews set up their equipment and walked away. The independent robots would roam the corridors and take detailed 3D images of the entire corridor so that it could be replicated later.

That night, Vardhan slept really well knowing that the end game was near. Sharmila, on the other hand, was tormented by weird dreams. She’d never had any lesbian tendencies before but in her dreams, she was kissing a tall beautiful woman passionately. She woke up several times but the dream never got any clearer.

The next morning, Sharmila didn’t look so fresh while Vardhan did.

“Ready to take on the next step, partner?” he asked jovially.

Sharmila’s face showed trepidation for the first time. “I… I don’t know. I feel kind of uneasy…” she replied.

“I promise you that everything will be clear before the day is over”. Sharmila nodded but her face showed that she was not convinced.

The lift made its way down to the landing area once again. The scanning crew’s leader walked up to them. “We’re done with the corridor”.

“Good, I think you won’t start on the inside structure today. We have to figure out a way to open it and even if we do, we don’t know what’s in there. If there are any loose items, we will need to photograph and catalogue them before allowing the crew inside” said Vardhan.

“Oh, don’t worry about people coming inside. These robots that we recently acquired are autonomous. We just let them inside and as long as they have some space to move around, they will scan the entire place. No chance of any thefts or things being ‘misplaced'” said the crew leader.

“Thanks, I’ll keep you posted” said Vardhan and walked into the structure followed by Sharmila. Once again, they were the only two people in the structure.

“Are you ready?” asked Vardhan. Sharmila nodded slowly.

He stepped up to the door of the inner structure and stared at it intently. After a while, he raised his right hand and pushed on an area to the right of the door. This made a block of wood pop out to the left of the door. He twisted the block of wood slowly and deliberately. The door began to slide into a recessed area in the wall.

Once again, Vardhan turned on the lights attached to his suit. He also pulled out a battery-operated lantern and raised it up after turning it on. The inside of the structure was a luxurious bedroom with a large bed and several wooden storage containers to the sides. Vardhan looked down to see where he was stepping. The floor seemed to be covered with a carpet. He gingerly set foot on the carpet and found that it was plush and it seemed to be in good shape. He turned and extended a hand to Sharmila who was standing behind him transfixed. Her eyes were fixed on two urns that were on the bed.

“Come on, Sharmila”.

“N… No. You go ahead”.

“You don’t have a choice. Come with me” said Vardhan and grabbing her hand, pulled her in. As soon as Sharmila set foot in the room, wave after wave of emotions seemed to hit her. Vardhan waited patiently. Sharmila stood there for about fifteen minutes just staring at the urns.

Slowly, as if breaking out of a trance, she turned to Vardhan and said “Var… Varsha?”. Vardhan nodded.

Sharmila’s eyes filled with tears as she hugged Vardhan and cried. Vardhan comforted her. When she recovered, they both looked into each other’s eyes and knew who they were or who they had been.

“Let’s get the robots in here to scan the room and then we can have the cataloguing team come in and pack all of this away” said Vardhan. Sharmila nodded. “But before that, look for a bracelet made out of sapphire, please”.

They both searched the room but couldn’t find it. Vardhan despaired. Then it hit him. He turned to look at the urns. They were covered with a gold lid. Intuitively, he opened the one that was a bit taller and shined a light inside. Sure enough, on top of the ashes was the bracelet. He used a pair of tweezers to pull it out and put it into a bag and put the bag in his pocket. They walked out of the structure.

The robots were sent in. After they’d done their work, a team that catalogued the items went in and individually bagged the items and transported them out to be flown to the capital and put into temperature-controlled storage units.

Vardhan and Sharmila worked like zombies with everyone involved to wrap up the work at the site. What was evident to everyone was that they seemed to be closer to each other than before almost never leaving each other’s side. No one thought it odd. That the whole experience must have been an emotional rollercoaster was a given. After all, many archaeologists go through an entire lifetime without finding anything and these two had hit jackpot in just two years. Dr. Shankar called to congratulate them on a job well done.

They landed back a week later and went directly to the office. When they walked into Dr. Shankar’s office, it was obvious to him that he had two seriously sleep deprived individuals on his hands. He made an executive decision to give them some PTO.

“A job well done. Congratulations” said Dr. Shankar.

“Now comes the hard part, Sir” said Vardhan.

“Yes, but that can wait for a bit. I want you two to get some R&R. You both get a week off. Come back here next Monday and you can get started on the next steps”.

Vardhan and Sharmila walked out of his office. For the first time in more than two weeks, their time was theirs again.

“What do we do?” asked Vardhan.

“Maybe get a shower, change of clothes and then meet?” replied Sharmila. Vardhan nodded.

“Want to come to my place? In a couple of hours? We can have lunch”. Vardhan nodded again.

Vardhan drove to Sharmila’s house reaching there just about two hours after they’d split up.

Sharmila opened the door for Vardhan. She had a knife in hand. “Whoa, the daggers are out already?” joked Vardhan.

“Lunch won’t cook itself” said Sharmila. She was dressed in a floral skirt and top that showed off her curves. Vardhan looked at her appreciatively.

Once Vardhan stepped in, he said “Come, let me help you”.

Sharmila gave him a ‘Thank you’ look and led the way to the kitchen. They worked together in silence. When everything was ready, they sat down to lunch.

As they ate, Vardhan broached the topic that neither seemed to be comfortable with.

“Sharmila, I… I have to confess something. Before all of this, before we ever saw that report, I was already attracted to you…”.

Sharmila looked up in surprise. “I thought I was the only one…” she said. Vardhan raised an eyebrow.

“Phew, that is one mole hill out of the way. Now, we have to deal with the mountain” said Vardhan smiling.

“Shall I go first?” he asked. Sharmila nodded.

He started to describe, in detail, the sequence of dreams that he’d had before the opening of the structure. Sharmila seemed unfazed by what he said. He described the turmoil in his mind about disclosing the dreams to her at the time.

In the midst of his narrative, they finished lunch and having put everything away, sat down side by side on a sofa.

“I would have considered you mad if you’d told me any of this before…” said Sharmila falling into a reverie.

After waiting for several minutes, Vardhan reached out and slowly touched Sharmila’s hand. Sharmila snapped out of her reverie and smiled at Vardhan. “That day, after the opening of the outer structure, I had all these weird dreams of me kissing a woman. I wondered that I’d never had that kind of thought or dream before. And then this trepidation set in when we were at the door of the inner structure. I was afraid and didn’t want to set foot into the structure at all. You pulled me into the room. Then came the flood of memories as if a dam had broken…” said Sharmila her eyes starting to tear up.

“Can I?” asked Vardhan indicating that he wanted to hug her. Sharmila gave him a stare that said “You’re being formal now?”.

He hugged her and slowly wiped away her tears. The proximity brought a sense of intimacy to them and they kissed.

“Are we doing the right thing?” asked Vardhan.

“I don’t know but I do know that if we don’t explore what we have right now, we’d be doing ourselves a great disservice”.

They continued to kiss tenderly and make out. Their bodies felt familiar to the other as if they’d already known each other intimately in the past.

“Whatever we do, I think we should be careful not to give in to our passions just yet” said Vardhan. Sharmila nodded.

“And I think I have the right diversion” said Vardhan and pulled out a box from his pocket. He opened the box and inside it was the bracelet. It was slightly oval in shape. There was a colorless jewel that seemed to be set in the bracelet on the outer side of one of the flatter areas. Together, they examined the bracelet but could find nothing interesting about it.

“What could she have meant by ‘it is important to us’?” asked Sharmila.

“I don’t know” said Vardhan. “Perhaps, we should try wearing it… Maybe one at a time… Do you want to go first?”.

Sharmila took the bracelet and taking a deep breath, pushed it onto her wrist. They waited for several minutes. Nothing happened.

“That doesn’t inspire any confidence” said Vardhan smiling wryly. Sharmila took the bracelet off and handed it to Vardhan.

“This seems too small for my hand” said Vardhan turning the bracelet over. “But what the heck…” he continued and pushed it onto his right hand. The bracelet slid right over his palm and onto his wrist. Nothing happened.

“Well, so that was a disappointment” said Vardhan.

Sharmila stared at the bracelet. “Hmm, I don’t think it is quite that simple…”.

“What do you mean?”.

“Remember the size of the bracelet?”.

“Yes, what about it?”.

“You commented about how it would be too small for you. Yet, now that you have it on, it is the perfect size for you. When I wore it, it didn’t change. It was the same size as when you removed it from the box…”.

“That should be simple to test” said Vardhan and pulled it off his hand. The bracelet seemed to contract in size as it slid off Vardhan’s hand.

“Ok, we know that it changes size. Great, we can solve world hunger with this size-changing bracelet” joked Vardhan.

Sharmila gave him a stare and continued to look thoughtful. “Put it back on” she ordered.

Vardhan looked at her curiously but said nothing and put it back on. The bracelet slid back on without any trouble.

“What did Varsha say to you when you asked for answers?”.

“‘Look inside yourself'”.

“Well then, what are you waiting for?” asked Sharmila.

“You can’t be serious”. Sharmila’s stare told Vardhan all he needed to know.

“Fine” he said as he closed his eyes. His mind raced everywhere but to the bracelet. He started to replay his conversations with Varsha. Her words “I’m you” came to his mind. He felt an urge to project her appearance onto himself. He opened his eyes and looked at Sharmila in shock as he felt something like a surge of electricity through his body.

As Sharmila watched, Vardhan collapsed back onto the sofa as if he had fallen unconscious. Sharmila almost screamed. She desperately tried to get the bracelet off but it wouldn’t budge. That’s when she noticed the hand that she was holding. It was turning into the slender hands of a woman. She gasped in shock and looked up at Vardhan’s face. The transformation was happening really quickly. In under two minutes, Vardhan looked like a daintier, prettier, female version of himself. Even his hair seemed to be growing out really fast.

Sharmila could only stare in shock at what should have been impossible but was somehow made possible by the bracelet. She felt the urge to kiss Vardhan and she did. This woke Vardhan up.

“What… What happened?… What happened to my voice?” he asked disoriented. Sharmila calmed him down by just kissing him.

“We know what the bracelet does” she said once Vardhan had quietened down. “It changes you into a woman”.

“Woman?” asked Vardhan in shock.

“Come, I’ll show you what I see” said Sharmila and leading Vardhan by the hand, went to the bathroom which had a full-length mirror. Vardhan gasped at his transformation.

“I feel so turned on by my own body” he said as he used his hands to feel his body. He stopped and gasped as his fingers touched his chest. “The breasts are real” he said.

“If you’ve been transformed into a woman, then, of course, they’d be real” said Sharmila smiling.

Vardhan continued his exploration. When his hands reached the groin area, he gasped again. “I’m… not… all woman” he said blushing.

“You mean…” said Sharmila with eyes wide. Vardhan nodded.

“Come with me” said Sharmila and led Vardhan up to her bedroom. “Now undress” she said.

“What? Why?”.

“So we can document what’s happened to you, silly. Why else?”.

“I thought you might have some nefarious designs…” teased Vardhan.

“I can see that your brain is still male. All you men can think of is…” said Sharmila leaving the sentence unfinished.

Vardhan felt conscious but Sharmila would have none of it. She took a few photos and videos to document Vardhan’s transformation.

As she finished up, her eyed narrowed. “What’s that?” she asked curiously.

“What?”.

“The jewel… it seems to have changed color to… it looks like cat’s eye… almost golden”.

Sharmila took some closeups of the jewel.

“Should we try to take it off?” asked Vardhan.

“Not so fast. We should record something about the psychological changes besides the physiological…”.

“Ok, like what?”.

“Like how you feel…”.

“Hmm, I feel surprisingly comfortable in this body. I don’t feel like… anything is out of place or is not normal. In fact, I feel like this is natural…”.

“Yes, I can see some of that as well. It is as if a switch was turned on and I have this feminine… in every way… woman in front of me” said Sharmila eliciting a blush from Vardhan.

“About my state of mind… my mind is telling me that all of this is ok. That it is not incongruous with my mental image of myself”.

“That is absolutely amazing. It’d mean that the bracelet is not only affecting you physiologically…”.

“It would seem that way…”.

“Now about your genitalia…”.

“That seems fine too”.

“That’s not what I’m asking…”.

“Then?”.

“Think about what might turn you on… What comes to mind first?”.

“You”. Sharmila was nonplussed for a moment. She recovered quickly and said “Ok, now sit down and then take off your bracelet”.

Vardhan sat down and was about to slip the bracelet off when he heard Sharmila shout “Wait…”.

“We haven’t really explored why you turned out this way. Can you describe what was going through your mind as you closed your eyes?”.

Vardhan talked about the feeling of superimposition.

“If it was superimposition, shouldn’t you be fully a woman?” asked Sharmila.

“That question does make sense but I don’t know…”.

“Ok, it’s a start. Now take off the bracelet”.

Vardhan slowly slipped the bracelet off his right hand. As he did, he felt disoriented as if he were in rarified air but he did not lose consciousness. He observed his transformation back to Vardhan although he felt really tired.

“The jewel is colorless now” observed Sharmila. Vardhan donned his clothes once again.

“Now let’s repeat the same set of questions” said Sharmila.

The answers came out consistent with Vardhan’s image of his body.

They tried the bracelet again on Sharmila but it had no effect.

“I have a hypothesis about what’s going on” said Sharmila.

“Put it back on your right hand” she said.

“I think the effect will be the same” said Vardhan. Sharmila shrugged.

As Vardhan slipped the bracelet onto his right hand again, he felt nothing.

“Now, when you had that thought of superimposition, think about what you visualized. Did you visualize the superimposition on the whole body?”.

Vardhan’s look on amazement said it all. He closed his eyes and thought of the super imposition but he went over the body part by part. As he did he felt the disorientation again. This time though, he didn’t pass out.

As Sharmila watched in wonder, this time without the panic, she saw that Vardhan was changing body part by body part into a female version of himself.

“You’re right. The effect is the same” said Sharmila.

Vardhan turned to her and said “No, it is not”.

“What do you mean?”.

Vardhan grabbed hold of Sharmila’s hand and slowly moved it so that it rested on his groin area. Sharmila shot Vardhan a look.

“You… You are…”.

“A complete woman, yes” said Vardhan. Sharmila looked at the jewel. “It has the golden hue again” she commented.

Something came over Sharmila and she almost pounced on Vardhan and kissed him. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what came over me” she said shyly when they broke off the kiss.

“Don’t feel bad. If you hadn’t, I would have done it. I felt the urge too”.

“So no matter who you are, you’re attracted to women”.

“No, not to women. Woman… You. It is especially so when I was wearing the bracelet” said Vardhan.

“Hmm, perhaps I should have you wear the bracelet all the time” said Sharmila giggling. “Do you want to… explore?” she asked.

Vardhan nodded. They moved closer to the bed and undressed each other in a frenzy. Neither had the right experience – to make love as a woman in one case and to make love to a woman in the other but somehow they seemed to know what to do to get each other excited.

Vardhan started to kiss Sharmila inch by inch starting from her face and got down to her breasts. He teased her areolas with his tongue as she moaned in ecstasy. Then he slowly moved down to her navel. When he reached down below, Sharmila was already wet from his attentions. She exploded with orgasm after orgasm as Vardhan used his tongue expertly.

“Now, it is my turn, my love” said Sharmila and returned the favor to Vardhan.

Vardhan moaned and screamed as Sharmila made him writhe and dance with ecstasy. “Wow, that is unlike anything I’ve ever experienced as a man” said Vardhan.

“My girlfriend is a screamer” teased Sharmila after she was done. Then, thinking of something, she giggled.

“What’s so funny?”.

“I thought ‘My girlfriend Vardhan’ and it cracked me up. We need a name for you when you’re this way”.

“How about… Varshini?”.

“That is pretty apt”.

“As good a name as any…”.

“Ok Varshini, we should take a break and get some refreshments” said Sharmila getting up off the bed.

“Varshini doesn’t have any clothes to wear”.

“We’ll get her a wardrobe soon” said Sharmila smiling. “In the mean time, she can use my night gowns”.

They both had something to eat with tea.

“Perhaps we should stick with this version of Varshini till we’re…”.

“Married?” asked Sharmila. Varshini nodded shyly.

“I don’t think so. There’s a reason why contraceptives and condoms exist, my love. I want to experience every version of Varshini and Vardhan”.

“Are you sure?”.

“Yes, I am. But for today, I’m content making love to my girlfriend Varshini. Talking of which, shall we, your highness?”.

“Yes, we shall” said Varshini and walked in front as if she were a princess in a king’s court. When they reached the bedroom, Varshini went near the bed and turned around.

Sharmila laughed out loud. “What so funny, servant girl?” asked Varshini trying to keep a straight face.

“Servant girl? Why, I’ll show you…”.

“Stop blathering and come here and help us get undressed”.

“Yes, your highness. That I’ll gladly do” said Sharmila and coming near Varshini, slowly undid the sash of her nightgown and slid it off her shoulders.

“Now, attend to us” said Varshini trying to look imperious but failing miserably.

“Yes, I shall, your highness. Please take a seat” said Sharmila slowly pushing Varshini on to the bed.

She knelt in front of Varshini and brought her to more orgasms. Varshini returned the favor with gusto. They were unstoppable and only let up to eat a quick dinner.

“Would you like to experience something more, Varshini?”.

“What?”.

“Being taken… as a woman”.

Varshini’s eyes widened. “No…”.

“Ok baby. Don’t worry. If ever you want to experience it, let me know”. Varshini nodded.

They lay in each other’s arms for some time.

“I want to try one more thing” said Sharmila.

“What is it?”.

“As I saw you change part by part, I wondered if you had control over which part changed”.

“Interesting thought. What do you want me to do?”.

“Hmm, let’s see. Focus only on your outer appearance. Can you change into a feminine looking man? Without the breasts and…”.

Vardhan nodded. A couple of minutes later, Sharmila was looking at exactly what she’d imagined Vardhan would look like.

They lapsed into silence.

“I feel like I have multiple personalities now” said Varshini.

“Nope. You only have one personality. You have multiple appearances” said Sharmila giggling.

“So, if the complete woman was Varshini, who is this?” asked Varshini.

“Pravarshini”.

“Pravarshini?”.

“Yes, Varshini is a complete woman. Pravarshini is Varshini plus Vardhan…” said Sharmila smiling slyly eliciting a giggle from Pravarshini.

“Ok, so, what do we do now?” asked Pravarshini.

“In what way?”.

“In life, at work, in the world”.

“Oh, that is simple. To the world, we are Vardhan and Sharmila, archaeologists extraordinaire. At work, we are two married professionals. In the privacy of our own home, or with the right amount of privacy elsewhere, we are lovers – Varshini and Sharmila, Vardhan and Sharmila or Pravarshini and Sharmila”.

“We have to make sure that this remains secret to the world” added Sharmila seriously. Varshini nodded vigorously.

They slept in each other’s arms peacefully that night.

The next morning, Pravarshini was woken up by Sharmila. “Wake up, your highness. It is time for Vardhan to make an appearance”.

“What? Why?”.

“Because we’re going to take a vacation”.

“A vacation? Where?”.

“I found a nice cottage for rent up in the mountains for the rest of our time off”.

Pravarshini smiled and pulled off the bracelet.

“We need to buy some clothes for Varshini/Pravarshini before we go. Go home and pack for Vardhan minimally. He’s only going to be present on the journey to and from the cottage” said Sharmila winking. “I’ll go make some purchases and meet you back here in… three hours”.

“How about your packing?”. Sharmila pointed to a small suitcase that was sitting ready adjacent to a wall.

Vardhan got up and said “We need to keep this safe” opening the palm of his hand and showing the bracelet.

“I have a thought about that. Here, put it on” said Sharmila.

Vardhan put the bracelet on again. She came near and tried to pull it off his hand. The bracelet refused to budge. “There you go. Unless you pull it off your wrist, it won’t come off”.

“But I could start changing…”.

“Then I suggest that you don’t think such thoughts” said Sharmila laughing. Going to an almirah, she pulled something out.

She dropped a chain made of silver into Vardhan’s hand. “If you’re worried, for now, you can loop the bracelet through the chain and wear the chain around your neck. But I think you should learn to control it…”.

Vardhan left to pack for himself. Sharmila went on a shopping spree and was waiting for Vardhan with another suitcase when he came to pick her up.

They drove for the next three hours only making a stop to eat lunch on the way.

When the reached the cottage, they found it to be well appointed. The owner had made sure that the place was stocked with provisions to last them for the next four days.

Vardhan started to put the bracelet back on his hand.

“So, Varshini?”.

“No, time for Pravarshini to make an appearance”.

“Are you sure?”.

“I came prepared” said Sharmila smiling.

Once Pravarshini had made an appearance, Sharmila showed her the purchases she’d made. Pravarshini gasped as she saw the items Sharmila had bought. “I plan to ravage my girlfriends during these four days” said Sharmila winking.

“Girlfriends? You’re cheating on me already?” asked Pravarshini.

“What can I say? I got a two for one package deal”.

“Alright now. Time for me to teach you. Normally, even for women, hair removal is a pain. We have to go to great lengths and pains to remove it off our bodies. But the princess that you are, your body seems to be always smooth and your skin really soft” said Sharmila almost jealous. Pravarshini blushed.

“Strip… Here…” said Sharmila cutting the tag off a bra and handing it to Pravarshini after Pravarshini had removed all her clothes and stood naked.

“Oh, but I didn’t think of…”.

“Then think it now. Actually, no. Wait. Wear the bra first”.

Pravarshini took the bra from Sharmila’s hands and put her hands through the straps. And then she struggled to hook it at the back. Sharmila laughed and said “You’ll get it with practice”. She walked around and hooked it for Pravarshini.

“Now, fill the cups”.

Pravarshini sighed and closed her eyes. Slowly, her breasts grew out till she felt comfortable and supported.

“Now, I got you some panties as well but the fit is going to be… whatever” said Sharmila handing it to Pravarshini.

“Now, this next garment is the slip” said Sharmila and showed Pravarshini how to put it on.

“Ok, the skirt and blouse now… This is one of the simpler ensembles to wear. We will get to more complicated wear and saris soon”. Pravarshini nodded dumbly.

“Sit down at the dresser” ordered Sharmila.

She brushed Pravarshini’s hair and put it up in a pony tail. She started on the makeup but almost none was needed. She just applied a little bit of lip gloss and some mascara.

“Good thing that Varshini and Pravarshini have pierced ears” said Sharmila as she pulled out a pair of danglers and had Pravarshini screw them in.

“One last touch” said Sharmila and put a bindi on the forehead.

“Now, let me see my pretty girlfriend. Stand up… Now walk for me… Dear god, you walk like a woman. How is that?”.

“I guess that is ingrained somehow with this body?”.

“Then, how come you didn’t know how to put the bra on?”.

“There were no bras in the fifth century” came the pat reply. Sharmila laughed and said “Ok, fair enough”.

“We’ll need you to walk in heels which were also not available in the fifth century but for now let’s just work with sandals” said Sharmila.

“How did you know the right sandal size? Or the right bra size? Or the right size for the clothes?”.

“I estimated everything. As far as your footwear goes, you and I are of the same size, girlfriend. Now, let’s go out for a stroll”.

“What? No way. I’m not stepping outside”.

“No one can tell that you’re not who you seem to be. Now stop whining and come with me” said Sharmila and holding Pravarshini by the hand, dragged her out of the door.

They went for a short stroll and got to a wooded area. Sharmila turned to Pravarshini and hugging her, kissed her on the lips.

“What if someone sees us?”.

“Let them enjoy the scenery then” said Sharmila before kissing Pravarshini again.

They came home, made dinner and ate. Afterwards, they sat next to each other just holding hands for a while. Sharmila made the first move again. She kissed Pravarshini.

“You’re a beautiful girl, Pravarshini. I’ll be honest. I love Varshini but, to me, you bring the best of both worlds” said Sharmila. “I’m going to get my girlfriend excited” she said as she knelt down. When Pravarshini’s member was erect, Sharmila opened a condom and rolled it out. When Pravarshini entered Sharmila, she shivered from the sensation. Pravarshini was tender with Sharmila pleasuring her and making sure she had multiple orgasms before ejaculating herself. They collapsed on the bed next to each other after the love making and slept blissfully.

True to her word, Sharmila consummated the relationship with Varshini and Pravarshini in many different ways.

“I wonder if you’ll be as comfortable with Vardhan as you are with Varshini and Pravarshini in bed” quipped Varshini on the final day of their stay.

“I know I will be. After all, Vardhan was the first one that I fell in love with. Besides, if that doesn’t work out, Pravarshini is perfectly capable of impregnating me. I’m not worried” said Sharmila giggling.

They returned home and presented themselves the following Monday at the director’s office.

“Both of you are looking well-rested. Great, now, get started. We want to build a replica in the state capital. All the items found in the inner structure will also be replaced by replicas. The real stuff will be put away in storage and made available for special exhibitions. There are people to work on all of this. What I’m looking for from the two of you is a coherent story about the structure, the people whose ashes are in those urns and match that with known history. Can you do that?”.

Vardhan and Sharmila looked at each other. “Yes, Sir” they answered in unison.

Dr. Shankar looked at them curiously. “Do I sense something more that professional camaraderie here?” he asked smiling.

The two of them blushed. “Good, I always hoped that two of the brightest minds in the business will get together and produce even brighter minds” he said smiling.

They both said nothing still blushing.

“I heard that there is some repairs being conducted at the artifact storage facility today. Why don’t you both go there tomorrow?”.

They took their leave and went back to their offices.

That night, as they slept, Varshini had another dream. He was back inside the structure. The interesting change was that he was Varshini in the dream not Vardhan.

“Why am I Varshini?” she thought to herself.

“Because your dream form mirrors your current physcial form” said Varsha’s voice. Varshini turned to see Varsha.

“Why are you back?”.

“Because, I have no choice”.

“What do you mean?”.

“The artifacts recovered from the inner structure has been stolen”.

“What? No way. That is a very secure facility”.

“That may be so but the artifacts are gone”.

“What do we do?”.

“Go in search of them” said Varsha.

“How? Where do we even start?”.

“Look inside you, as always” said Varsha.

“You’re beginning to annoy me with this ‘look inside you’ bulls***”.

“Take or leave it, girlfriend. I’ll give you one hint. That bracelet is capable of doing much more than just changing you…”.

Varshini stared at the bracelet on her hand.

“By the way, you make an amazing Varshini and Pravarshini” said Varsha and smiled. Varshini blushed.

They remained silent for a little while.

“Will everything be ok?” asked Varshini worried.

Varsha looked kindly at Varshini. Her eyes shone with compassion. “I’ll give you the same answer that the sage gave me when I asked him the question. No matter what happens, everything will be ok”. She smiled as she began to disappear. Varshini felt at peace.

The End.