The next morning, Katha woke up with a pounding head and eyes heavy from another night of restless sleep. In truth, peaceful sleep had abandoned her long ago ever since she left Banaras, ever since she walked away from the life and love she once called her own.

Dragging herself out of bed, she moved toward the kitchen, her feet sluggish and shoulders weighed down by invisible burdens. She brewed herself a strong cup of coffee, the only remedy she knew for the kind of exhaustion that clung not to the body, but to the soul.