AMANअमनThe Fearless

Twelve years ago, Aman, the fearless mortal champion of the yaksha legions, burned a valley, then turned his mace on the army that hired him. Now, on the night of Indra Jatra, serpents and yakshas rise from the river for the cast-out living goddess, and the exile stops hiding.

To leave the Valley, Aman and Nani must pass the gates of the Ashta Matrika. Brahmayani tests the former goddess's pride, Chamunda tests the exile's rage, yaksha hunters come out of the dark, and Padmini is never far behind.

The Nagamani, a serpent jewel that holds fire without burning, could slow the goddess burning inside Nani. It lies in Karkotak's own hall. Aman fights his way to it, and finds a crowded kingdom of children. On the shore, Nani and Padmini fall into the dark together, and stop being only enemies.

Sheltering with a potter's family in Bhaktapur, Aman and Nani meet Bhulu, the house's loudmouth Khyak, who swears that every attic in the Valley gossips with every other. Tonight the gossip says Gurumapa is coming for the children, and the only way to stop him runs up the steps of Nyatapola.

The salt road out of Bhaktapur leads to a ridge village that knows Aman's face: the butcher who once marched beside the asuras. Now Mahishasura is coming for the goddess inside Nani, and the only man who can hold the ridge is the one the village wants dead. On Dashain, every blessing is paid for in blood.

Down on the cremation ghats of Pashupati, an old sadhu's ash can cool the goddess in Nani, but every pyre on the river has gone out. One drop of Raktabija, the demon whose every drop of blood becomes another of him, survived Kali's war in the Bagmati. Aman can't hit him without making more. Then Bhairav comes to judge the butcher.

Gurumapa holds Sundarijal, the Valley's last gate north, with every hungry ghost that still serves the old dark: kichkandi, pret, mulkatta. Achedya brings every Lakhe in the Valley to break it open. A Lakhe cannot leave the Valley. So someone has to stay behind and hold the gate.

Day seven, the last day. In the Trishuli gorge the river is running uphill toward Shiva's lake, and Karkotak comes down it with the whole flood behind him. The water takes Nani. With no one left to stop him, Aman lets the gold rage out, and when it's over, Padmini is lying in the river.

Five hours to moonrise and seven hours of mountain. Padmini knows a faster way: the serpent road under the mountain, past her own brothers. In the deepest caves she finds what her father kept from her: the flood that seals the gorge will drown the Naga eggs first. She has to choose. And she tells Aman the one way the Nagamani could save Nani, and what it would cost him.

Season 1 finale. Moonrise at Gosaikunda, the lake Shiva made to cool the poison he drank for the world. One man against the yaksha host, Gurumapa and the Naga king, with the dead of the snow valley watching from the ice. The Nagamani can drink a goddess's fire, if someone will hold it to his heart and burn.