bayen

Later he is distressed, remembering how much he loved her. Bhagirath is astonished and frightened that his father talked to a bayen, as doing so is supposed to mean sudden death. He has heard bayens are not human beings and he cannot fathom how he can be the son of one. Malindar tries to explain that she was once a woman but is no longer one, and thus Bhagirath does not have a mother anymore.