The Kingdom of Death

The **Kingdom of Death** is the afterlife in the Otherworld of the Hindu Gods. In order for *live* people to bring forth the door to go here, they must collect three keys: the sprig of youth, the bite of adulthood and the sip of old age.

## Different Locations

The door was slim as a laptop from the side and wrought of bone, leaf and light. Inside was a tunnel of utter darkness and the door will soon disappear once people enter. The last words of people who died can be heard. Ek and Do, the guard dogs of this underworld, determine whether or not a person is dead, if not they have the option to help them die. The true door to the kingdom was a thin sliver of light behind them.

### Karma & Sins

After getting past Ek and Do, people are taken to an area of blinding light near the office of Chitrigupta, a neon sign said Karma & Sins. It was established at the first hiccup of time and no solicitors or indulgences (since the fifteenth century) are permitted. People in a long line were still shown as how they died and they talk backwards. On his desk, seven miniature versions of Chitrigupta helped him with his pens and papers. On the table was a small brass plaque with his name and a mug that read: FOURTEEN WORLDS’ BEST DAD. Behind him were bookcases and file cabinets and mountains upon mountains of paperwork.

### Halls of Death

The Halls of Death was like a maze that and actually grew, colors gathered and stretched into passageways. There were three signs with an arrow was attached to each: TO DARE which pointed right down a blue corridor, TO DISTURB which pointed left down a red corridor, and TO DEIGN which pointed up into nothing. The floor was polished marble and the ceiling was a strange twisting river of names that belonged to the dead. In between the signs was an invisible wall, the TO DEIGN sign actually means to look down on as in looking at what's beneath, a hole will then open leading to the Palace of Illusions.

### Bridge of Forgetting

This bridge was invisible, but snow clung to the outline, its guardian was Shukra but he doesn't venture often beyond his bridge. Below was a cliff with a steep drop without a platform, step or anything.

There was a winding road leading to the bridge, the sky was black like the flat darkness of a room with the lights off, statues were half sunken into the earth and tall white trees blocked the view of what lay ahead.

But then the temperature drops drastically, blue-bellied clouds dropped white flurries of snow to the ground in slow spirals. The doesn't really feel like snow, it causes you to forget. Shukra has the ability to control this snow, but mirrors around him prevent him from losing his own memories.

### Chamber of the Astras

Past the bridge was at first seemed like a cave, though more like a ravine through a mountain range, it was actually a Timingala. Pale stalactites (teeth) dripped down from the ceiling, jagged and sharp, and crowded so tightly that they reminded her of teeth. The smell was absolutely horrible, worse than when someone leaves groceries to rot in a car. The floor (tongue) was springy, like a mattress, it had a slender fish spine and its color was cherry red so deep it glinted black. The walls were a wet shade of pink, every now and again a gust of hot wind brought the stench of rotting fish. A slender, shining silver thread stretched across the ravine, when touched it reveals a neon sign with the name of the cave dangling from a stalactite, it changes to the following message:

*Answers hide in plain sight,*

*Things aren't as they seem;*

*There's power to find here and knowledge to glean*

*But Time waits for no man, and Time has no ears,*

*If you don't move quickly, you'll meet all your fears.*

If the celestial weapons of the Pandavas are brought here, they'd be "awakened" into their true forms. The celestial guard always gets weapons stuck in its mouth.

### Chitragupta's Archives

Outside of the whale's mouth, was a stone path wound around it. Thousands upon thousands of windows looked out onto worlds like lands where there were palaces of snow or sand, places where sea creatures with rows of eyes blinked back at them from the other side of the glass. That's because everyplace has connection to death.

In the distance, the walls had that iridescent quality of polished oyster shells and stalactites made of paper spiraled down from the ceiling. On the papers are accounts of what every person does every day.

It can change into the Chamber of Pools, it contains pools that can be from the size of rain puddles to ponds, also low-hanging incense burners. There are no signs tell people what each pool is. Looking into the Pool of the Past shows you moments of someone's life.

### Reincarnation Manufacturing Services

Around the corner of the pools is a large archway was emblazoned with the sign saying the name in capital letters as well as REMAKE, REBUILD, RELIVE!. This is where souls were fitted for new bodies and new lives. The manifestations of Time and Wish are in charge here as they are the things that make a body what it is. They won't let visiting people who are still alive out of the kingdom unless they give them something in return, like good karma.

Here's how the samsara cycle of reincarnation works: As people live, their good and bad deeds are extracted from karma. Along the way, the body is subjected to the wear and tear of time. But the soul sheds bodies, just as the body sheds clothes. There is a goal, of course, to leave all that behind, but sometimes that takes people many lifetimes.

## *The Pandava Quintet*

### *Aru Shah and the End of Time*

The **Kingdom of Death** is the primary location in which the events of the book unfurl. It is first mentioned when Urvashi guides the two Pandava sisters on how to retrieve the celestial *astras*.

Urvashi directs Aru Shah and Mini to go to the Kingdom of Death and retrieve the celestial weapons of the Pandavas before the Sleeper does. Within the Kingdom of Death lies the Pool of the Past, looking into which will reveal how the Sleeper can be vanquished once and for all.

For entering the Kingdom of Death without dying, Urvashi tattoos them a magical map with mehndi which will guide them to find three keys: The sprig of youth, the bite of adulthood and the sip of old age. The map is necessary for reaching the Kingdom of Death by taking them to the location the key is in by pressing the key on the map, the girls have nine days before the new moon. Before leaving, Hanuman recounts his childhood memories of a curse which required him to be reminded of his strength by someone else, telling them that they don’t realize their own strength.

Throughout the first half of the book, Aru, Mini and Boo travel around the Otherworld, in search of the three keys to the Kingdom of Death, a task which they successfully accomplish.

Once they find the three keys, they place it on the floor, and all of them melt in to transform into a door. Mini talks to the door saying they would like to go, to the Pool of the Past, after some hesitation the door let them in.

Inside, Aru can hear the final words of people who died. The two meet the dogs Ek and Do (one and two in Hindi) who say they have to be dead to continue. Mini tells them she is the daughter of their ruler, Aru uses her ball to play catch with the dogs. With them distracted, the heroines go through a silver door. All around in blinding light, they witnessed how people died, they were in line for an office but Mini's compact proves that they all speak backwards. The sign said KARMA & SINS, at the end of the line was a man with a bulbous nose and miniature versions of himself, he is not Dharma Raja, he is Chitrigupta who keeps a record of everything a soul had ever done. He says Yudhishthira has never been a female before, but he and not even Dharma Raja could help them on their quest, gives them good karma (two tokens with mirrors) to get past the Halls of Death, a cookie that smell like books, soma so they won't get thirsty from the dead and a slim ballpoint pen.

The halls of death had three arrow signs:

> *TO DARE, TO DISTURB, TO DEIGN*
>
>

Mini doesn't think dare sounds heroic and disturb sounds like their doing the wrong thing. Deign means ‘*to do something that one considers beneath one’s dignity*’ but an invisible wall wouldn't let the girls go any other way. There are only *two* days left till the new moon, Mini eats the wisdom cookie and realizes that it's a riddle. There is a hole below the *deign* sign, they slide down into a forest with silk dirt and tree you can walk through. Mini jumps into water thinking it will be a trampoline but it turns out to be quicksand, Aru saves her with a silk rope. Mini realizes they are in the Palace of Illusions made by the demon king Mayasura, it's giving them tests. After entering a mausoleum, the palace speaks to them. It doesn't believe their the Pandava brothers as they left their dream home, it shows them what each brother and their wife, Draupadi, liked to do by changing the scenery around the girls. The palace gives Aru a bow and arrow and sent fiery fireflies at her. She loses her arrow in forest, remembering the tale of Arjuna and the fish’s eye, Aru sense an Otherworld door and escape. Mini was arguing with a clone of herself, one of them vanished and the palace is now convince that they are reincarnated from Arjuna and Yudhistira. He is *so* sad they have to leave again, so the girls stay here and enjoy the palace a little while longer while learning more about it's backstory.

It starts to snow and Aru and Mini start to forget. Shukra, Guardian of the Bridge of Forgetting, emerges and restores their memory by getting rid of the snow on them. Shukra tells them of how he killed his wife and is now forced to have his mirrors around him to prevent forgetting. In order to cross the bridge, Shukra wants *all* of their memories. The girls refuse but it starts snowing again when they try to cross, Aru decides to break Shukra's mirrors. This works and they make it to the other side, but before disappearing Shukra curses Aru to forget something when it will matter the most.

On the other side was a giant cave, they look for celestial weapons which seem to be rotting.

On the floor of the Chamber of Astras, it said:

*Answers hide in plain sight,*

*Things aren't as they seem;*

*There's power to find here and knowledge to glean*

*But Time waits for no man, and Time has no ears,*

*If you don't move quickly, you'll meet all your fears.*

Suddenly, a *celestial guard* Timingala appears and eats the girls. Remembering *Pixar's Finding Nemo*, Mini suggests they look for the uvula. Aru realizes that this whale is the location of the weapons, their poking antics reveal the true gifts as Indra's Vajra and Dharma Raja's Danda. It was the orb and mirror the whole time, they were awakened when the sisters tried to save each other. The Vajra's true form was too heavy for Aru, but Mini used the danda (which she nicknamed "Dee Dee") as a walking stick. Aru wants to get out of this Kingdom of Death, death had some claim everywhere. They reach a group of ponds but before they could leave Aru hears her mother. After observing her grandfather talking to his daughter and her putting the away the Sleeper's diya in the Pool of the Past, Aru realizes her mother loved the Sleeper (whose real name is ​​Suyodhana) and that she was his biological daughter.

At the place where bodies are reincarnated, the girls encounter a spider made out of clockworks and a dragon covered in eyelashes, they are Time and Wish respectively. Past Time explains that he is only one part, Future Time is invisible and Present Time can’t hold any one shape. They want something for them to leave if Time is to be saved, Mini tells them of the good deeds she has done but neither of them buy it. Aru shares the good karma she got from Chitrigupta with Past Time and Wish, who then let them go.