The road to Srirangapatna followed the banks of the Kaveri River.
Dark clouds drifted overhead.
Aditya drove while Ananya studied the sketch found in Mahadev's pocket.
The symbol of three interlocked circles had occupied her thoughts all morning.
Inspector Prakash followed behind in a police vehicle.
For the first time since the investigation began, all the clues seemed to point in the same direction.
The lion.
The river.
The cipher.
And a secret society.
Yet Aditya felt uneasy.
Someone always seemed one step ahead.
They reached the abandoned riverside garden shortly before noon.
Nature had reclaimed most of it.
Broken stone pathways disappeared beneath thick grass.
Ancient trees cast long shadows across the grounds.
And there, overlooking the flowing river, stood the lion statue.
Weathered.
Cracked.
Silent.
Waiting.
"The professor was right," Ananya whispered.
Aditya approached carefully.
The stone lion faced the river exactly as described in the letter.
Years of rain had eroded much of its surface.
Yet one detail remained visible.
A tiger emblem carved beneath its front paw.
The same tiger from the brass token.
Prakash smiled.
"Looks like we're finally getting somewhere."
The three searched the area for nearly an hour.
Nothing.
No hidden chamber.
No documents.
No treasure.
Just rocks, roots, and ruins.
Then Ananya noticed something.
"Aditya."
He turned.
She pointed to the statue's base.
A tiny hole had been carved into the stone.
Too precise to be natural.
Aditya inserted a flashlight.
Something metallic reflected inside.
Using a pocket knife, he carefully extracted the object.
A small brass cylinder.
About the size of a finger.
Sealed at both ends.
Prakash stared.
"A message container?"
"Looks like it."
The seal was ancient but intact.
Aditya twisted it open.
Inside was a tightly rolled strip of parchment.
The writing had faded but remained legible.
Only one sentence appeared.
'When the moon touches the palace dome, seek the keeper of emerald eyes.'
The three exchanged puzzled looks.
"Emerald eyes?" Prakash asked.
"Sounds like a riddle," Aditya replied.
Ananya remained silent.
Too silent.
As they walked back toward their vehicles, Aditya noticed something strange.
Ananya seemed disturbed.
Distracted.
Almost frightened.
"What is it?" he asked.
She hesitated.
"Nothing."
"That wasn't a convincing answer."
She looked toward the river.
"The phrase isn't completely unfamiliar."
Aditya stopped walking.
"What do you mean?"
"My grandfather used to tell stories about a woman called the Keeper of Emerald Eyes."
Prakash laughed.
"A ghost story?"
"No."
Ananya's expression remained serious.
"A guardian."
The wind rustled the trees.
"He said she protected something hidden by the royal family generations ago."
Aditya's curiosity sharpened.
"Did he ever tell you who she was?"
Ananya slowly shook her head.
"Only that nobody who searched for her returned unchanged."
They returned to Mysuru just before sunset.
Traffic crowded the roads.
The city bustled with life.
But Aditya couldn't shake the feeling that someone was watching them.
Then he saw her.
Across the street.
Standing near a bus stop.
A young woman.
Perhaps twenty-five.
Long dark hair.
Green eyes.
Remarkably green.
Emerald green.
She was staring directly at him.
Not casually.
Intentionally.
As if she knew him.
As if she had been waiting.
The moment their eyes met, she turned and disappeared into the crowd.
Aditya immediately stepped out of the vehicle.
"Hey!"
Too late.
She was gone.
Vanished among hundreds of people.
Prakash approached.
"What happened?"
Aditya scanned the street.
"I just saw someone."
"Who?"
"I'm not sure."
He remembered the parchment.
The keeper of emerald eyes.
Coincidence?
Or another clue?
That evening, Aditya returned home exhausted.
As he unlocked his apartment door, something slid across the floor.
An envelope.
Someone had pushed it through the gap beneath the door.
His pulse quickened.
The envelope contained a single photograph.
Nothing else.
The image showed Professor Acharya.
Taken only days before his death.
Standing beside a woman.
A woman with striking green eyes.
On the back of the photograph, someone had written three words.
She knows everything.
Aditya stared at the message.
Outside, thunder rolled across the Mysuru skyline.
Somewhere in the city, the woman from the photograph was alive.
Watching.
Waiting.
And she might hold the key to the entire mystery.
To be continued in Part 5: Secrets of the Old Palac