Tantrics Of Old by Krishnarjun Bhattacharya Page A

the quiet—things were unnaturally quiet, and they were sure that it would be easy to overhear them even at longer distances.
    Gray, wanting to talk, whispered, ‘It’s unnaturally quiet.’
    ‘Yeah,’ Maya agreed. Both of them looked expectantly at Adri as they walked, searching for an explanation. He didn’t disappoint.
    ‘The Old City is mostly like this.’
    ‘Ghost town,’ Gray said.
    The entrances to almost all the buildings they crossed were secured by massive chains and padlocks and metal shutters. It effectively looked like a city in lockdown, afraid of the daylight and all that came with it. Everything was dead silent, except for the occasional dim sound of music playing, or films running, hidden away inside structures, and other hushed voices making hushed conversation in places unseen.
    ‘Old Kolkata is like this all the time?’ Gray asked.
    ‘Gariya is like this. The landscape of the Old City is quite drastically diverse; you’ll find every kind of place here. Before its expansion it was just a city, but it’s like a small country now. It’s still called the Old City though, which makes it the largest city in the world at present.’
    ‘The only city in the world without a government,’ Maya said.
    ‘That might change soon,’ Gray spoke. ‘MYTH is trying hard to take control, right?’
    Adri shook his head. ‘The territory wars are a more complex matter than that.’
    ‘Complex as in? It’s MYTH versus the Free Demons,’ Gray argued.
    ‘You forget the Coven.’
    ‘The who?’
    ‘The witches. They hold quite a lot of territory here, and as far as I know, neither MYTH nor the Demons have tried to negotiate with them. And anyway, even if MYTH wins they will not gain control over all of Old Kolkata. MYTH has allied with the Angels in the territory wars, and the Angels will obviously want something back from MYTH. And MYTH has also been attempting a Great Purification rather unsuccessfully for quite some time now; the Old City, as I told you before, is as big as a small country and there are far too many dangers tucked away.’
    ‘Wasn’t the first Great Purification the political term for what they did to New Kolkata in the beginning?’ Maya asked. Demonology had always kept her away from current affairs.
    ‘Yes,’ Gray answered her. ‘It’s the term they use for the complete eradication of anything that can harm the common people.’
    ‘A slow and thorough process,’ Adri added. ‘They send patrols of Commandos and Guardians, headed by a Sorcerer or a Tantric, into every single building, every single street and alley, covering every single square inch of the land, and kill anything magically dangerous, even remotely so. They move with a calculated plan, with great precision, and clean up the city like a wave; it takes a
lot
of manpower and good planning, not to mention time.
    ‘MYTH was about to launch one in Old Kolkata when the Free Demons opposed them and the territory wars began. I guess you would know about the Free Demons.’
    ‘Of course,’ Maya said. She did. Every word.
    ‘New Kolkata was far easier to purify because all it had were spirits,’ Adri continued. ‘But this city? This city hides too much under its breath. No one, not one soul, knows all of this city’s secrets; and I personally think a purification is impossible.’
    ‘Ah, they’ll do it,’ Gray spoke with confidence. ‘The Demons have to either die or get out of their way.’
    Adri smiled to himself. Gray did not know Demons. After all, there was a reason why the war had been raging for ten straight years now; it was a different matter that the war itself wasn’t covered by the New Kolkata newspapers, except for the occasional vague article. The territory wars had been strictly declared as government business, and no citizen had a right to its information. Not that the citizens wanted to know anyway. Old Kolkata was too dangerous and unattractive a city for most people, and its fate did not