The Chronicles of Shamballa

Chapter X: The League (WIC)

“There-“said Carey pointing towards an old ruined temple straight ahead, located almost a kilometre away.

“What’s there?” asked the Princess.

“The ruin, I think it’s over there, I mean look around you, every shrine and temple around here is shiny and decorated but not the one over there, near the edge of the river, the texts- they clearly mention-

Beyond the shores of the mother Ganges,

Floats the heavenly abode of our Lord,

Beneath the sands of time,

Lies the gateway…

The Immortals rests in their northern abode…

… Now I guess that temple or shrine over there is an old ruin, far older than civilization, which makes it the perfect candidate for the location of the map, Hah! Don’t you see? ‘the gateway; sands of time; these are all indicators of an old ruined shrine- a, a- heavenly abode of the Lord, Yes- we’re close, Come on then, Quick March!” explained Carey while Ram Babu looked at him with absolutely no idea as to what he was saying, while the Princess gave him a blank look and followed him.

He was so excited to finally have found the location, after more than a year’s worth of searching. But more than anything, he was excited and happy that he was right because after so many failures, he was beginning to doubt his skills.

“Mr. Carey, what is this ‘sands of time’? “ asked the Princess.

“Well your highness, it’s quite simple you see, the sands of time is just a metaphorical way of saying- erm…that a long time has passed, which is why I presumed that there must be something really old on the banks of this river that the poem is referring to and lo and behold! There she is-“replied Carey.

The Princess almost laughed at his childlike excitement, she realized by now that he was not like the other foreigners who only know how to take, this man was here to learn the culture… he was here for knowledge…

As the three of them walked along the banks of the river on that sunny morning, they saw that the ruin was getting bigger and bigger. They must have been around two hundred metres away from it when they suddenly stopped and hesitated.

“Oh! Sahib, you want to go there? Bad place Sahib,” remarked Ram Babu from behind.

“Quit your whining, I don’t see why we cannot simply walk over there and take a look inside,” replied Carey.

As Carey had predicted, it was indeed an old ruined shrine and it almost appeared to be floating on the edge of the river as the soil around it had slowly degraded and fell away into the river leaving only a few feet of distance around the edges, where the shrine stood miraculously, almost 200 meters tall, broken and deserted. The reason that Ram Babu hesitated to move ahead was because there was this place just in front of the ruin which was used as a crematorium, a place where they performed the last rites of the dead. It was inauspicious for any man to enter such a place for no reason and Ram being a highly superstitious person, thought that it would bring him bad luck. Carey, however was an academic and didn’t believe in such things but he detested the thought of seeing dead bodies and that too so early in the morning. The Princess however, wound her veil tightly across her face and kept walking. Carey saw that some people were standing around a funeral pyre with sad faces and tears in their eyes, he looked away and covered his face with the shawl.

“Isn’t it weird that there’s a crematorium right in front of a holy shrine?” asked the Princess.

“You’re right but haven’t you noticed that there are hardly any worshippers in the shrine, I am beginning to doubt whether or not if it’s a shrine or just an ancient ruin-“replied Carey as he walked closer and closer towards the ruins.



Suddenly Carey almost let out a cry as he somehow managed to hold on to his bearings. A strange, naked man jumped out of nowhere and began to say something to him, making strange hand gestures. He had nothing on, just a few strange necklaces made of bones around his neck and he held a strange trident shaped stick in his hand. His entire body was covered in white ash and he began to dance around Carey, shouting at him, mocking him. Carey was highly uncomfortable but the Princess did nothing and smiled as he tried to distance himself from the strange man. Ram Babu however clasped his hand and bowed down to the strange man, after a while he went along his merry way, singing and dancing.

“What on earth was that?” cried out Carey, absolutely terrified.

“That was an Aghora, a devotee of our God, it is there tradition to break away from all the bonds of shame and embarrassment and free their minds and bodies… they stay here in the crematorium and they rub their bodies with the ashes of the dead and meditate, they are always in a state of trance, and it is said that they can commune with the Gods and can see into the past and the future,” explained the Princess.

“Well, what did it want from me?”

“He was saying something to you, you’re lucky, they don’t usually talk to normal people like us. You understand our language, well what did he say to you?” replied the Princess.

“Well, erm, ‘hail! the lost one has returned, beware- beware- the path you seek is a dangerous one’ , ah! Something like that- God! I have never been so terrified in my life- phew! That was quite a shock, let’s keep moving-“

They walked onwards and upwards towards the broken stairs. Ram Babu was told to wait outside with the mule and keep a look out, he happily obliged…

Somewhere in a secret and unknown location in merry old London, there sat five men inside a dimly lit room. There was a huge table in the center of the room and five chairs around it, they sat quietly scribbling on their notes- everyone was busy writing letters.

“It is done, Sir Rutherford, are you sure this is a good idea?” asked a man.

“Well, think of it as an insurance, this will assure that we get what is rightfully ours,” replied Sir Rutherford.

A letter was carefully signed and sealed in an envelope and the address on top was signed-

“To,

The Dutchman,

From the League.

(Confidential)”

The letters were then sent out of the room in a small leather bag which was then carefully taken out

of the room. The five men then quietly sat there drinking the finest scotch and smoking Cuban cigars.

“Have we received any word from our men in the subcontinent?” asked one of them.

“Yes, indeed they say that Mr. Carey’s on his way, he has travelled from Calcutta to Benaras, unfortunately, they lost track of him after the Thugs attacked the train that he was on- but they say he escaped into the jungle,” replied another one of them.

“That’s hardly an issue, once the Dutchman receives our letter, he will follow him like a hound,” remarked Mr. Rutherford.

“We need to find Shamballa, our empire is falling and only its secrets can help us,” replied one from the edge of the table.

“Indeed, it is of grave importance that we hold the greatest power in the world, we have been influencing the major affairs of the world since the last decade, we have our sources on every corner of the world, we decide who lives and who dies and yet we are slowly losing our grip… the Indian subcontinent is full of rebels and Thugs and what’s this business of a mutiny I hear?” said Rutherford.

“Some soldier in our Indian regiment dared to cause a major ruckus on some trivial matter, do not worry Sir, it has been swiftly dealt with,” replied one.

“Good, good, we cannot let the common people stand up against us, from now on let us make sure that any thought of a revolution will be crushed at its roots,” remarked Rutherford.

“Sir, there’s another pressing matter at hand that requires your immediate attention-“said a bald old man in his late sixties, “some archduke of Austria is causing trouble…”

“I shall look into it, now gentlemen, let’s raise our glasses and pray that we live forever- to a thousand years reign of the League- Cheers!” replied Rutherford.



The men raised their glasses, took a quick sip and began chatting amongst them.