The cool night air did little to ease the fire raging in Satya's chest. His hands trembled from the adrenaline, his breathing still ragged. They had escaped—but just barely.
Virendra pressed a cloth against his bleeding forehead, cursing under his breath. Aryan sat hunched over, gripping his ribs, while Saanvi stood still, staring at the ruins they had just fled from.
Satya followed her gaze. They had left something unfinished.
Devashish had made one thing clear—they weren't the first ones to seek the truth, and if they weren't careful, they might be the next ones to disappear.
Saanvi finally spoke, her voice barely above a whisper. "We can't stop now."
Aryan scoffed. "We almost got killed back there, and you're thinking of going back?"
"We don't have a choice," Satya said, his voice steady despite the weight in his chest. "If we stop now, everything we've learned will mean nothing."
Virendra wiped the blood from his brow. "Then we need to be smarter about this. Devashish isn't just some historian trying to cover up the past. He's connected, powerful, and willing to kill to keep this buried."
Saanvi clutched the strap of her bag, determination flickering in her eyes. "We have proof. The letters, the sketches, the records we found. But we need something stronger. Something that will make it impossible for them to silence us."
Satya thought back to what Devashish had said in the tunnels—"You aren't the first."
His fingers tightened into fists. Who else had tried to uncover this before them? And what had happened to them?
Aryan exhaled sharply, wincing from his bruised ribs. "If we want to go back in, we need a plan. No more running blind."
Virendra nodded. "And we need allies. People who can help us before Devashish makes his next move."
Satya's mind raced. There had to be someone who knew more—someone who had seen this cover-up unravel before.
And then it hit him.
"There's someone we haven't considered yet," Satya said, locking eyes with Saanvi. "The person who lived in that hidden chamber."
Saanvi's breath caught. "The one who was searching for Veer's story."
Aryan sat up. "We found traces of them—old notes, markings, signs that someone was living there. But we never found out who."
Virendra leaned forward. "If they were looking for Veer Meghawal's past, then they might have found something even Devashish doesn't know about."
A tense silence stretched between them.
Then Satya spoke the words they were all thinking.
"We need to find them. Before Devashish does."