The Chronicles of Shamballa

Chapter LXI : The Masters of Fate

Somewhere in London, in a secret room near the Buckingham palace, five men sat brooding over a large round table. All of them had a cup of tea laid in front of them and some scones. Three of them were busy in an intense discussion while two sat down lazily smoking and drinking tea.

“All right! That will be enough!” spoke one of the elderly looking gentleman.

“Have we finally come to an agreement?” he asked in an assertive voice.

“My lord,” replied one young gentleman from one corner of the table “we cannot resort to violence... nay we should not... all these years we have been silently influencing world affairs but this- this assassination of archduke, it will bring ripples across Europe!”

“Well isn’t that what we want?” said another middle aged man from another corner of the table “ we thrive on chaos; instability is our business...without such disturbances we have nothing...”

“Aye! I concur... but this thing looks too risky, I predict it will start a big war ...” replied the younger gentleman.

“What about our colonies? How are they faring?” asked the elderly man.

“It seems that our colonies are doing fine for now, save for the subcontinent ; I heard of some pesky revolution going on in there” replied the younger gentleman.

“And how’s our agent doing?” asked the elderly gentleman again.

“He seems to be on the hunt...according to the last report received, he is somewhere in the Himalayas, tracking our archaeologist...he knows how to do his job , I hope we receive good news soon” replied the young man.

“Well then, as I see it, the assassination will go on as planned and to control the revolution; I think we need to put someone else in charge.. hmm.. Where’s General Blackwood now?” asked the old man.

“He is in the Africas...handling some crisis, shall I send a wire to him, My lord?” replied the middle aged man.

“Yes, tell him to drop everything and go to the subcontinent; it is of utmost importance that we crush this revolution as soon as we possibly can...” replied the old man.

The league met every full moon to discuss their activities across the world. These five men inside that dimly lit room could control the fate of the world. They decide which government or which monarch shall stay and which one should be removed from power. They had their claws buried deep all over the world. By simply sending a letter, they could make or break history. They controlled the politics of the world through money and blackmail. Most of the high ranking officials in governments all around the world were in their pocket; be it a king or a queen or a prime minister . The league worked in secrecy in some unnamed office near the palace. The names of their members were not known to anybody not even to the Queen herself. They ran a shadow government under the actual government and all they cared was power and wealth by all means.

They were the ones who send Arthur Carey on a mission to find the mysterious city of Shamballa. Due to their belief in the occult, they sought to find the secrets of the lost ancient city. Somehow they thought that Shamballa held the secrets of immortality and immense power and once it is found they hoped to have the power all for themselves by any means possible. Sending Carey was the first step; the Dutchman was the insurance and if needed they would even send an army to get what they wanted. All this from a single dimly lit room in London...

Meanwhile there was no trace of Raza- the filthy, cunning pirate. Carey and the others had already presumed him dead but clever as he was he would even fund a way to cheat death itself. When the Yeti took Raza from the train carriage, Raza screamed and resisted but soon he was unconscious only to wake up hours later in some dark cavern surrounded by those animal like cavemen.

The Yeti were not the brainless impulsive animals like in the folklores but wise and intelligent primitive man like creature who dwelled in the icy Himalayas. These creatures were thousands of years old; some might even call them precursors to modern humans who simply were out of touch with the modern world and didn’t develop any distinct language of their own. But unbeknownst to the rest of he world these Yetis were close friends with the Himalayan monks who treated them like brothers and sisters. These primitive creatures knew every nook and cranny of the treacherous mountains and guarded the Himalayas with their lives.

When they took Raza from the train , they merely wanted to scare Carey and his team as they were trespassing in their territory. They had no intention of hurting or killing anyone; in fact they were prohibited to take any human life. These Yetis helped the guardian monks to keep the secret of Shamballa from the outside world. Raza was taken to their cavern in the mountains as they thought they have mortally hurt him but when they saw that he was fine they decided to lock him up for a few days until further orders from the guardian monks.

The mountains held many secrets and mysteries and these secrets were guarded by a band of immortal guardian monks who were the direct descendants of the Shamballa people. For thousands of years they have stayed in this region watching over the path that led to Shamballa. They have seen humans try and fail but no one had ever gotten close enough. They also knew that it was written in the prophecy that one day a seeker will come and he will restore Shamballa to its former glory. They knew that Carey had arrived and he was very close to finding the ancient city and so they patiently kept watch from a distance knowing full well that if he is worthy enough he will find Shamballa by himself.