In the fourth installment of the Kumasagi saga, things really heat up. Stuff is going down in this book, and its size certainly reflects it. Sindhupat is a chonker, and the pictures of it next to the other books in the series don’t do it justice. This book is easily three times the length of the others, and the chapters are also a bit thicker. I still finished it fairly quickly, however.
As with the other books, Sindhupat picks up where the previous book left off. Asta, Jayan, and Charu are leaving Shakti Lake City for the far-off island of Sindhupat. Jayan has been struck by his usual wanderlust and is taking his wife with him to meet his father and see his childhood home, while Charu has been assigned to accompany them on their trip and bring back glue powder for his boss. Their voyage goes smoothly and they all enjoy the scenery and the side stops. Najat continues to train Asta in shielding herself as preparation for when she meets her potentially evil father-in-law.
They reach the island and Asta makes discovery after discovery. She finds her other sister Raya, and tries to befriend her, though Raya isn’t receptive at first. Being on the island also triggers the memories Asta accidentally stole from Najat way back in book one. She sees what he experienced when he met the Mahasagi, as well as all the experiences that led him to believe his father is evil. Delan isn’t entirely a heartless piece of scum, but Najat’s memories and Delan’s own behavior toward Asta make a very convincing argument. Delan is certainly someone you love to hate. You learn about him and his goals, which are sort of sympathetic, but I still wasn’t mad when Asta used magical domestic violence to turn him into a drill bit.
Asta’s final big discovery comes from Sindhupat island itself. Her mystic abilities pick up cues from the island as it urges her to discover the reason its Nakshidra vein is damaged, and begs her to heal it. She discovers the real reason it was damaged fifteen years ago thanks to Najat’s memories, and sets out to heal it with the help of the Kumasagi, all the Amalas from surrounding towns, Raya, and the piece of Asta’s soul that Najat still has. They fix it so the destin lake can hopefully start growing pods again.
Until this book, I didn’t have a full understanding of what the Nakshidra veins were, or how they relate to the magic system and the destin lakes. Shakti Lake City has a Nakshidra grotto, and Asta visited it a few times. It was described as a pool of magical water that flowed from the rock. With that in mind, I thought “mineral vein” when reading Wife. I figured Nakshidra water was regular water that seeped into the grotto from somewhere, then gained magical properties from coming into contact with the vein of Nakshidra rock.
Well I was wrong. There is no Nakshidra rock, the vein is an actual vein. Like a blood vessel. The Nakshidra water is blood coming directly from the earth. That water nourishes the roots of the destin pod plants which allows them to grow new women. This reveal was very surprising to me. Same with the reveal that the blood was from an extradimensional being similar to the Ayudena.
After the Nakshidra grotto is healed, Asta and Charu return home to Shakti Lake City. Jayan stays behind to assist in rebuilding the grotto and help his father after Delan gets hurt. Asta needs to get her piece of soul back from Najat, so that’s why she and her husband split up temporarily. Asta goes to Najat instead of Amala Tebbe like everyone advised her to, and things get out of hand. But I won’t spoil what happens there. Sindhupat, like Wife, gets 4.5 out of 5 stars from me.
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