A story that perfectly blends fantasy and suspense

Young entrepreneur Khyati Agrawal marks her debut in the literary world with her fantasy fiction novel Kalith: Origin of the King’s Nine. The 27-year-old author is a doodle artist and has her own enterprise which provides personalised doodle merchandise. With utmost creativity, she has penned down the story which perfectly blends fantasy and suspense.

The book is perfect for those who are bored of reading western fantasy fiction books and searching for a desi fantasy fiction book which will keep them glued.  “While growing up I loved reading and was a huge fan of superhero books and movies. But since all the books had foreign heroes and were set in foreign lands I could not really relate to the stories, I could not get inspired by the characters. So I missed having that kind of influence in my life, I missed having Indian stories with Indian superhumans. So this was something I always wanted to do — to write a very Indian story with Indian characters that people could relate to and get inspired by,” she explains.

The storyline of the book revolves around its protagonist Kalith who is a phasor, but is not aware of his special power. The story unfolds when he accidentally travels 2,000 years back in time and gets rescued by a man who takes him to a hidden Gurukul. He starts living with eight other gifted students who collectively are called The King’s Nine. He befriends the others and tries to learn how to discipline himself, amplify and manipulate his powers, all the while being unaware that there was a prophecy made many, many years ago in the same land that he is destined to fulfill. The characters, incidents, and presentation of the narration make it interesting and relatable.

“I am someone who constantly keeps thinking about concepts and theories. A couple of years ago while I was sitting alone in a mall, eating ice cream, as my family was shopping — I started wondering what would happen if a person was to accidentally phase back in time.

“I started thinking on the concept of phasing and the physics around it (I had always loved physics while growing up). As time went by the story started developing in my head and all the characters started taking form as I started working on the plot. After that, it took about eight to nine months to write the book,” shares Khyati.

Being a first-time author, Khyati didn’t find it tough to write a fantasy fiction. “I have always been a huge fan of fiction books, especially fantasy fiction. Be it Harry Potter, the Game of Thrones series, Percy Jackson or any other similar book — I was always up for spending my entire downtime reading those books. I have been reading ever since I was a kid. When I became a little older I used to write and direct small plays during my summer vacations. I love fiction, especially fantasy fiction and I want to write the kind of stories that I love reading,” she says.

The author guarantees that the book would provide the readers with the set of heroes that they have been craving for. “The characters in the book are a set of magnificent, fierce, strong, kind, intriguing, skilled and relatable Indian male and female super-humans. They are not unrealistically heroic. While growing up we missed having influences like these in our lives. All I ever wanted was for people to read Kalith’s story: to enter his world and to experience it for themselves. One of my favourite writers said that ‘the stories we love best live in us forever’ and I truly believe in that,” sums up Khyati.

Doodles have been a very important part of her journey and it tells her stories. She says, “My favourite doodles to make are the Brain Map Doodles which are based on people’s personalities and represent them and their stories.

“Doodling and writing are two things that I absolutely love doing and am passionate about. There is a saying that goes like this — ‘find what you love to do and you won’t have to work another day in your life’. So since writing and doodling never felt like work I didn’t have to take breaks from them and so I work on Saturdays and Sundays as well. And therefore I get all the time I need to pursue both doodling and writing.”