Ilm was reading a daily, perhaps just watg on his tablet. He moved to the sd teology se and found an article about programming for AI. He downloaded the file.

  "Rov!" He called his little brother.

  "What is it, Dada?"

  "Bring that ector wire with you."

  Rov picked up a bck ector wire from the work table. Ilm instructed Rov to ect the tablet and his baeck port point with the ector.

  "Take this tablet. And follow my instrus. I have no time to read this whole article, better to install it in my brain," Ilm said.

  Kuro noticed their work, so he quickly came to them and said, "Young master, may I help you? Little master is still a kid. I'm afraid he may make a mistake that harm you."

  "No Kuro, I don't need you now. Rov should learhings. Moreover, I'm here to watch him," Ilm said.

  "Kuro, don't think little of me. I am Dada's greatest helper," Rov procimed proudly. Then they all started to ugh… a sweet warm surroundings.

  Pema was helping another robot with household work in her room just opposite the kids’ room. She smiled over her sons' pyfulness.

  The white robot, she was helping, was a little bigger and different model than Kuro. He had a single ball at the bottom rather than wheels and a square-type head whicluded a dispy s as the face. He was a more advanced model, Judo-977-h-002. Like Kuro, he also had a home name, Shiro. Yes, Kuro for bck, Shiro for white.

  "Lady Pema, Old Master asked you to meet him after dinner," Shiro said.

  "Is it urgent?" Pema asked, a little worriedly.

  The bell was ringed.

  "Kuro! Go, open the door. Maybe, it is Shakhai. Shiro is helping me, he 't go," Pema ordered.

  Kuro went downstairs to open the main door. And she was right. It's Shakhai. He came up. He was looking pale. Two days away from home is enough to make a man crazy-looking.

  "Were you fasting?" Pema frow him.

  "I was missing all homemade dishes, cooked by my sweet wife," Shakhai smirked. However, his words had no effect.

  "Hahaha, very cute," well her tone didn't match her words. It was a little sarcastic.

  " you people stop flirting?" Ilm said from behind. "Baba, first of all, what have yht for us?" Everyone waits for their ce always and so do these little kids.

  "Zhondousi. It's a popur bame in Masad." He opened his bag and brought out a packaged box. Ilm and Rov snatched that box ao their room to open it.

  It was a square disk. Ilm pressed a button on their pying table and a narrow pce ened. He ied the disk there. Again pressed another switch. The virtual model was geed.

  After dihe kids wao py with their newly got game, but the mother was a mother. Names, early to bed. So, they had to go to the bed. Shakhai was still processing what happened iwo days. He was on the baly which was fully made with gsses. Uhe day, the night was calm oh. People who didn't have shielding suits, could at st go out. No radiation would harm. His eyes were wandering somewhere. Silently. He sighed. Sighed over his helplessness and powerlessness. His despair clouded over his face.

  "Are you okay?" Pema broke his silence.

  "There is something, I o tell you," Shakhai recalled everything that happened on Masad. He told her. At st. He shared his pain with someone. Someone who romised.

  "So, when will we go?" Pema asked.

  "In two days. I just o inform them and they will e to take us."

  "What will you say to Ilm?"

  "I don't know!" Shakhai shouted. Then he remembered the kids were sleeping. He apologised to Pema. " you vince Ilm for me?" he requested. It's a request for sourful sequences.

  "I will," Pema softly smiled.

  He embraced her. Rubbed her cheek with his.

  "Ahh!" Pema pushed Shakhai. "But at first, this small pricky beard."

  Then they ughed together. Together.

  Pema went down. Bharatas' vil was a two-story house. On the upper floor, there were rooms for kids, Shakhai and Pema, Bhagavat, robots, and three fuests. While down there was a grand hall which was used for parties and celebrations. Adjat to it, were a pying room, kit, dining hall, and Bhagavat's giant library.

  Pema knew her father was a night owl. No sleep till sunrise, sleep till midday. Lunch was his breakfast, evening food was his lunch, and he avoided dinner until midnight. He spent more time in his library than in his room.

  She opehe door of the library and found Bhagavat at his pce. Bhagavat smiled.

  "Shakhai has returned?" He asked. He was wearing his speech-clearer this time. A tiny mic-type gadget at his mouth.

  "Yeah."

  "Why did the gover want to meet him?" This is normal. Especially for Bhagavat.

  She told what she was told by Shakhai. "So, we o move in two days."

  "You go. But I won't." This statement was not just a statement but rather a determinate decision. Pema didn't ask anything. She could uand.

  "Okay, as you wish. But I want to carry that sword with us."

  Bhagavat stared at her silently. He asked patiently, "Why?"

  "For Ilm. He is aremely fast learner. He is not just a prodigy but something beyond that. We don't know how many days we are going to spend. That's why I want to take the sword. My feeling is saying that Ilm will soon be an exceptional warrior."

  "Do not cloud your judgment." A simple sentence was enough to offend anyone. And so ema.

  "Baba! Have you ever carefully noticed yrandsons? Oh, fet grandsons… why am I even talking about them? HAVE YOU EVER NOTICED YOUR OWN DAUGHTER? You haven't fotten the bankruptcy, the fall of the pany, all the despair yet." She's filled with tears. "Look at yourself. You had been pletely ged."

  Then she wiped her tears and said with a determione, "Urjan Bharata made prophesies. He stated that one day from his blood a warrior will rise. He prophesied this warrior will hold his sword, the warrior who will be the one. I believe… no, I KNOW this warrior is no o Ilm. Urjan Bharata saw that a thousand years after, a great war would happen, and that would be the end of the old era, and the dawn of a new."

  "You are exaggerating. Do not believe in something so absolutely," he looked at her face. She was ready with a ter-argument. But he was doh debates. "But you take the sword."

  "Really?" Even Pema couldn't believe her ears. How she win the argument so easily? Perhaps, it was Bhagavat's age. "One more thing. I want those books for myself."

  "Books? Oh listen Pema, I actually called you for those books. I thought you were ready. But the behaviour, you've just shown proves me wrong. You wahe sword for Ilm, take it. No one properly uand the power of that sword. If Ilm… as you are saying… is an exception, he may find any clue. But you're not. You are just a Gova?is. You're yet to learn many things."

  The st three sentences made Pema feel disgraceful. But she remained silent. Bhagavat brought out a long big box from the lowest row of his bookshelf behind. The box looked heavy, but the weight was nothing for this sixty-year-old man.

  Pema simply snatched the box of the sword a on the way back. And she stumped the door close. Bhagavat sighed.