Chapter 1: The Book Was Not Finished
The banyan roots no longer whispered.
But silence had its own language.
After placing the Nilavanti book back into its underground chamber, Shivi thought it was over. The stitched man was gone, the serpents scattered, and the voices had quieted.
But on the third night, she dreamt of him again.
Standing at the edge of the field.
Facing her house.
And then… he turned toward it.
She awoke with a scream, breath ragged, her body burning with fever. On her palm, the old mark had returned—the coiled serpent with its eye open.
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Chapter 2: The Warning
The village was changing.
Birds no longer sang at dawn. The temple bell rang at midnight. And everyone whispered that the banyan tree had started bleeding sap the color of rust.
One morning, Shivi found a bundle of bones tied in red thread outside her doorstep. Inside it was a note—written in the same ink as the cursed book.
> "The first book was a door.
The second is a trial.
If you fail, the curse chooses your mother next."
Shivi knew what it meant.
The stitched man had returned.
But now… the serpent wanted more than secrets.
It wanted a soul.
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Chapter 3: The First Trial – The Voice
In her dreams, the stitched man whispered a riddle. Not through his mouth—but through the air itself.
Shivi found herself in a fog-covered field, surrounded by chanting shadows.
"What speaks without sound? What hears without ears? What lives without blood, and dies without fear?"
She panicked. The shadows circled her, tighter, darker.
Then she remembered.
“The whisper,” she said. “The Nilavanti.”
The fog vanished. Her first trial was passed.
But her lips had turned black from the curse. She would not be able to speak until the next trial.
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Chapter 4: The Second Trial – The Mirror of Ancestry
In the broken temple, a serpent’s eye glowed above a silver mirror. Inside it, she saw her own grandmother, holding the Nilavanti book.
But it wasn’t Shivi’s grandmother. It was a past version—Sharvani—the woman who first read the book centuries ago.
Sharvani’s reflection spoke:
> “I failed the trial. That’s why your blood burns. Finish what I started, child. Or lose your mother to the stitched one.”
Tears welled in Shivi’s eyes. The second trial wasn’t about knowledge—it was about accepting her legacy.
She bowed before the mirror.
It cracked.
Her voice returned.
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Chapter 5: The Third Trial – The Bite
Back under the banyan, Shivi waited. The book glowed. A snake emerged—black as ink, eyes like embers.
It bit her wrist.
She screamed—but did not pull away. The poison ran through her. Her veins turned cold, her heart slowed. She collapsed into a vision.
In it, she saw the stitched man—not a villain, but a protector—who stitched his own eyes shut so the serpent inside him would never escape.
The book wasn’t cursed.
It was guarded.
Shivi gasped awake, whispering, “He was protecting us…”
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Chapter 6: The Serpent’s Shadow
Shivi returned home.
But she was too late.
The door was open. Her mother was frozen, eyes wide, a serpent symbol burned into the wall behind her.
The stitched man stood near the altar.
Shivi didn't run.
Instead, she knelt.
“I accept the final trial,” she whispered.
He stepped forward. Held out the Nilavanti book.
> “Then write your fate.”
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Chapter 7: The Final Trial – The Page of Fire
Shivi opened the book.
All pages were blank—except the last.
It said:
> “A name must seal the book. A soul must carry the burden.”
She picked up her mother’s name thread.
And slowly, she wrote her own name.
The pages turned to ash.
The stitched man collapsed into dust.
The serpents vanished.
The book sealed.
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Epilogue – The Trial Never Ends
Shivi buried the ashes of the book beneath the banyan.
But some nights, she still hears whispers in her dreams.
Because the serpent never truly dies.
It waits.
For the next reader.
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To be contained.......
