Bladeless

Tej was left as a baby at a roadside dhaba on Highway 47. Amma, who runs it, raised him, and now he fixes truck engines in the yard out back. One night a blast at the Saatpahadi quarry cracks open an ancient cave, and something in the dark calls Tej by name. Inside lies a plain hilt with no blade: the Shunya astra, the void, the seventh of seven astras that everyone believed was lost. It gives Tej power, and every time it takes a bond in return: someone who loves him forgets him. The seven oath-bound orders of the Saptak sentence him to death, a lightning warrior named Damini is sent to carry it out, and an old trucker called Ustad Jogi knows far more than he will say. Every victory leaves Tej more alone, and on the morning Amma looks at him and asks, 'Beta, who are you?', the real fight begins. This is an original mythology-inspired fantasy. It is not based on any scripture, epic, Purana, deity or religious tradition; all its astras, orders, places and characters are invented.