„Is it windy, out there, or only your soul is slowly shaking as if being the water's surface on which the gusts of wind are playing?" But no answer was heard by the talking woods that slowly moved its wooden being into a sweet-bitter movement of the leaves.
And above that woods, a starry sky was stretching in the distance. But even if those stars had light, their souls were dead, living in a scary world, like in that part of the forest where only the white ghosts, of the cursed ones, were walking, after they had been chased away from the Purgatorium and forced to wander the world far and wide.
Suddenly, a sweet voice started to whisper: „these lands are beautiful and warm due to the kind heart of the queen that rules over them. But this must be changed," and the voice lost its sweetness, gaining a frightening sound. „Yes, we must change this, if we want to survive. We must do this, if we want to live forever," were whispering the ghosts that managed to control the trees and the forest's soul, in time.
„Shhh, somebody is approaching. Somebody is approaching us! And... that one is alive!" The uproar was heard closer and closer and the ghosts suddenly gathered in one place and stared into the distance. And they smiled... sketching a devilish smile on their faces, as if they were waiting for that soul, to drag it with them to the Purgatorium.
A strange sound of drums was later heard coming out from the ghosts'transparent body as if the music made by those drums had been the sound of their heart, which was somehow reminding the world about a past war, a battle that still kept, in its essence, the alive memory of those times when everything around was heading toward death at a dizzying speed, and Life, feeling that danger, was frightening moving back, with her back on the Purgatorium and washing with its tears the threshold that separated the Underworld from our World.
Actually, those ghosts have been warriors once, soldiers of the Western Lands, that had been chased away from the Purgatorium by the tears of the mothers that cried for their sons and daughters, killed in terrifying wars by the same soldiers that became mercenaries after they had betrayed their own country and glory, killing even brother and friends alike for money, leaving only barren lands around them, realms haunted by fear and pain.
A sudden shake of the leaves reminded those ghosts about those times and they vanished. And, instead of their transparent bodies, which had a white shade, a thick, milky fog appeared, that surrounded the forest in seconds, sinking it into a strange world.
***
„Where am I?” whispered Baradar, amazed when he realized that he wasn't on the right path. „I think I've turned around the wrong corner and I've entered eventually the Northern Part of the Forest of Shadows," thought the minikin and turned his back on the thick fog, deciding to find the right path toward the Noear Palace. But he has been so amazed to see, in front of him, a young lady, the size of a normal human, with blond hair up to the heels, wearing a white dress as if she was a true fairy.
The fairy smiled and bent a little bit in front to look into the minikin's eyes. After that, she whispered: „Are you lost, boy?"
Generally, Baradar didn't talk to strangers. But that day, something deep inside him awoke and was spurring him to talk to the stranger and that stimulus was her dark brown eyes, full of kindness and, of course, because he understood that he was lost and didn't know how to return to the palace. „Possible,” the minikin said, staring into her eyes. „But... who are you?"
„Me?” The fairy asked him amazed as if she had never expected such a question. „I think they call me the fairy of this forest."
„A white ghost are you then?” And the minikin frowned. „You shouldn't talk to strangers then. You can scare them."
„And…aren't you afraid of me?” And she took a few steps toward a thick tree from whose hollow she took a small bottle.
Her movement had something charming in it and the minikin decided not to lose sight of her, and, when he saw her hand inside of the hollow, he waited for a griffon to exit that hollow and swallow her. And, frightened, Baradar closed his eyes. But... seconds later, nothing happened.
When he opened his eyes again, he saw the fairy in front of him, sitting on a kind of magic chair and looking at him from the side. But what really caught the minikin's glance wasn't her sitting position or her impressive magic chair, similar to a throne, but the small bottle that she had in her hand, which had something amazing in it: a kind of light was coming from inside of it, making the bottle powerfully illuminate around.
„What's this?” asked Baradar, taking a few steps toward her.
„This? Ahilar: the serum of life,” she told him and charmingly smiled.
„May I touch it?”
The fairy, as if she was waiting for that question to make a deal with him, first looked at the baskets with flowers that the minikin was carrying in his hands. „Reward for another reward," she told him and Baradar understood that what she wanted were the flowers he picked up for his queen.
„I think we have to decide this first,” the minikin said, leaving the baskets on the ground. „This isn't for sale or make an exchange: this is for the party."
„For the party?” And her eyes intensely blinked. „What party? May I also be invited?”
„I don't know if… oh, maybe… there even the gnomes have been invited. I don't think it'll be a problem to invite someone else."
The fairy sketched a smile... a devilish one... but the boy, completely charmed by the light that was coming out of the bottle, not even noticed it.
„If you can invite me to the party, I can give you to drink from the Holy Water of the Spirits," she told him and the boy looked at her, open-mouthed.
„The Holy Water of the Spirits?” He whispered, for it was something that others could only dream about because the Holy Spring hadn't been ever seen by the alive creatures. Its presence in this world was like a fairytale, invented for children, and only those with magical power flowing in their veins knew that that spring was real and that if someone drank from it, that creature became immortal.
„Yes,” Baradar finally heard her answer. „In this bottle, there is only a drop of that water. But even so, it's enough to become immortal."
Hearing this, the minikin stopped hearing and seeing anything else around as if charmed by the light of that bottle, dreaming about immortality, and his lips, unwillingly, whispered: „you're invited!" And his hand finally touched that bottle... took the lid off and thirstily drank from it, to enter in a trance then.
And... entering that trance... Baradar got into a twilling world completely sunken in darkness... a forest of evil that was destroying his heart and swallowing his soul while he was restlessly wandering that forest of evil, looking for someone.
But... no matter how hard he didn't try to find that person, he couldn't... and the minikin was so scared while looking around and seeing the dead trees still on their wooden foot, but he couldn't hear their breath... he couldn't smell the serum of life that once flowed through their roots and this scared him so much and the minikin stepped back, stumbled, and fell, and when he opened his eyes again, turning back to reality, he didn't see either the magical chair or its master.
„What was that?” The minikin wondered. „A dream? A hunch?" And he sighed again, frightened, for he had had such premonitions before, but he thought that they had been only dreams and nothing more.
Then, Baradar heard a cry, coming from inside of the trees... and that cry was similar to Noea's, for he could distinguish her sweet voice among thousands and thousands of other voices.
„I told you not to drink or eat anything, Baradar. I told you to come straight to the Palace, but you didn't listen to me. That's why you cursed all of us and, very soon, everything will be sunken into darkness, and the evil will swallow us all... and that evil will be you, Baradar."
Baradar quickly stood up and looked frightened around: far-far in the distance, he could see Noea's transparent body, similar to the white ghosts'one, those ghosts that were guarding that forest, talking to him: „for dreaming of immortality, I'll give it to you. But soon, you'll cry for your own fate while the remorse and the guilt will eat you from inside, and our people will die along with you," and that ghost vanished as it appeared, dispersed in the air.
Tears were streaming down the minikin's cheeks, but he couldn't remember why he was crying, just as he couldn't remember what happened to him in that forest.
Yet, he has been so amazed to see that the flowers from his baskets were already dried and dead as if he picked them up months ago and not only an hour.
But Baradar hadn't time to stay and try to find an answer to this: the gong that announced the starting of the party has been heard in the distance, summoning him there... and Baradar listened to that call, took the baskets in his hands, and entered again, deep into the forest, looking for fresh flowers.
***
A magical Palace, made from water, was built right in the middle of Mortor Forest, to the left of the Stream of Life, and, sitting on a throne, made from green moss, was the one known by the People of Noear as their second king - Ian Gyar.
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Three fairies, looking exactly the same as if they had been born from the same womb, were standing in front of him, smiling, and their devilish smile was no other that the same that charmed Baradar in the forest.
„We fulfilled our promise, king Ian Gyar. Now is your turn," Moirae told the king.
But he kept sitting on his throne, staring somewhere past them, at all bothered that they were also looking for immortality there, just as Baradar did.
„Our pact isn't fulfilled yet, Moirae," he calmly told them. „We must wait first for the final show. And then, yes I'll keep my promise and you'll drink the serum of immortality."
Morta, the one from the middle, took a step in front and, stretching her right hand in front, palm facing up, she showed the king a crystal sphere that was slowly spinning above her palm, which later started to shine.
„The Palantir of Life,” murmured Ian Gyar, and, supporting his arms on his knees, he stretched his hand toward the Palantir.
But, so soon, he discovered in amazement that he was trapt in his own trap - the transparent glass walls that were surrounding his throne, and his hand, for an unknown reason, couldn't pass through it.
„Are you trying to fool me right now?" He shouted, but his shout only made Moirae smile.
„We did nothing, king. It wasn't us who closed you there. It's the Palantir, for those who don't have the power to weave the thread of life can't also touch it."
Klotho approached her elder sister and took the Palantir in her hand. Touched by Klotho, the Palantir turned black and slowly started to reflect the world in its mirror.
„Only Moirae have been blessed with the power of controlling lives, king, and if you think that you can control us, you are so wrong. We can destroy you in seconds if we want, only by cutting the thread of your life."
„Are you sure?” whispered Ian Gyar calmly, but his eyes were still throwing arrows of fire everywhere. „It seems to me that you have already forgotten who created you, witches. Actually, who awoke you: It was me who used his power to chase the eternal sleep from your eyelashes, and, only because of this, you should be faithful to me forever."
„Faithfulness is only for dogs,” and the younger of the sisters, Decuma, approached her elder sisters and, moving her fingers in a kind of circle, she made a pair of scissors appear in her hand.
„Death,” whispered the king this time, staring at the scissors. „How did you manage to have it? It's the scissors Lodur had and only he could control Life and Death on Earth."
„We made a deal - the scissors in exchange for his brother's life," said Decuma, and, in her words, she put all the hatred she was capable of. „Dike had to die when he met the mortals and started to live between them."
„It's because the Titans and the mortals can't live together. If this happens: cither the Titans become mortals or the mortals become Titans," and Klotho's hand moved above the Palantir, making it turn red, the color of the flames.
„For this, Dike convinced his brother to accept the pact with us, the fairies of life: he saw his future when he looked in the mirror of the Palantir. But what Dike doesn't know is that the Palantir can be tricky - it can show two truths and only those who can make the difference between Life and Death can see the cunningness of the Palantir and the difference between lie and truth," whispered Morta.
Hearing their talkathon, Ian Gyar stood up, raised his hands up, in prayer, and closed his eyes. Then, the water from around Moirae started to quickly move, burbling, and the three sisters had been forced to look afraid around, how the water was spinning in big circles toward them, like a kind of tornado made from water. Later, the big tornado split up into many others, which later turned into snakes - water snakes, of dark blue, hungry snakes that managed to keep them captive of their own power, forcing them to feel the incapability of their own vainness.
Suddenly, the color of the Palantir changed to dark blue again and the rays that were coming out of it made the water snakes get a life. „Shhh. Shhh,” were their forked tongues hissing, ready to taste from the fairies'blood, who were shaking and shivering because of fear and anger, seeing the black venom on the tip of their tongues, that were also coloring the water in the shade of the ink.
„You polluted the Holy Waters,” shouted Morta and threw the scissors toward the Palantir... Then, nature around started to lament and a sudden, powerful wind started to bend the trees to the ground, dissipating the water snakes, and the glass box, that was keeping Ian Gyar a captive inside it, also broke into thousands of pieces, thrown everywhere.
When the small pieces of glass had been covered by water, they turned into small, transparent sharks, which killed the multicolored fish that was living in those waters, fish that was born in the same womb of the Stream of Life.
At that moment, the three Moirae held their hands, closed their eyes, and started to whisper the words of their spell: „what was alive to die, and their bodies to be swallowed by the black shark of hell, transforming them into restless souls, chased and hunted by humans, by magical power and even by the sky, in their vainness attempt of finding a shelter in that world of shadows." But... while they spoke their spell, Ian Gyar descended the stairs of his throne and, clapping, he made the sound of wind turn into the sound of drums.
„Ship-shap. Ship-shap,” murmured the king and other waves had raised behind him while above Moirae, the Palantir, of pink color, turned into swords, spinning in circles, with their tips pointing to the king.
A few meters from Moirae, the king stopped and everything around suddenly calmed down.
Then, Moirae opened their eyes and looked at the king, but they also kept silent. Only their fingers kept moving in circles as if they had touched unseen musical keys and, a slow whistle, heard everywhere, started to blow as if it was the music of charms.
„And… what's this?” asked Ian Gyar, staring at them.
„Don't you hear?” asked Morta. „It's the calling to war," but her words made the king loudly laugh, and the sound of his laughter has been moved by the wind far away in the distance while Moirae's breath was heard even more whistling than before.
„To war? Did you at least have been to war, fools?" He shouted and the wall from behind him suddenly turned to white and moved to his right as if imaginary creatures had pushed it there.
Then, on that giant screen, fragments of an arduous war of humans had been seen - blood spilled everywhere... humans and horses fell to the ground after being hit by swords and by spears... slaughter... death... and a deplorable view was seen everywhere.
„This is called war. A real war... you, stupid creatures, called Moirae. But it's time to see what cruelty means with your own eyes, for what you've just seen on that screen it's just a small part of what happens into this world for thousands and thousands of years already since we appeared in this world."
Moirae's power made the swords from above them fly like the wind toward the king, but they eventually hit only the screen on which mishappen images were still seen.
After that, the hit of the swords broke that screen into many pieces as if it was made from glass and not from transparent water. But the swords, after reaching their target, didn't fall to the ground but kept floating in the air.
Thus, they only slowly moved at first behind him, turning their sharp tips toward Ian Gyar, who kept spying on them from the corner of his eyes.
The corner of his lips instead sketched an ironical smile then, and, suddenly, he turned to face the swords. Then, clapping once again, the swords stuck to each other... another clap and the swords split up, and this made Moirae madly scream, for Ian Gyar finally found the manner to control and kneel them down and they have also lost the power of controlling the Palantir.
„Do it!” Ian Gyar suddenly ordered and, after the swords unified into one, it pierced his body without killing him... only a light wound on his chest was made, that was actually barely bleeding, staining his clothes into a dark red yet, as it was also seen on the blade of the sword that was floating in the air between him and Moirae at that moment.
Turning to face Moirae again, Ian Gyar saw that the sword was gone, and, instead of it, the Palantir was floating in the air, above the water, broken into pieces. And, after the parts of the Palantir were losing their power and were touching the water, they were transformed into small ants and Cyclops, which Moirae intended to use in the battle.
„You won't dare do that!” murmured Ian Gyar with hatred, seeing the spindle of fate in Klotho's hand. „If you do that, everything will be lost." But Klotho just smiled, for she finally could hide her thoughts from that evil Mago, and this was a hint that they could succeed.
„I know that what I've created with my own hands, I can't destroy, but I still can change the future: yours and of the humans that are meant to die because of your hatred."
The spindle slowly detached from Klotho's hand and started to spin in the air, but nowhere in front of them could be seen a woven cloth: only seconds later, a thread, tiny like the spider thread, appeared in front of them.
It was the thread of someone's life, and that process of weaving was amazing because, above its own form, the thread was projecting the destiny of someone that would be born soon or in the future.
And, seeing this, Ian Gyar froze - two girls, looking exactly the same, in a fight of hatred. And, he also saw that, in that war, he'll die too. But he hadn't a form at that moment and he had the glance of a demon, whose head was decapitated and, he also saw, another head falling off its master's shoulders - but that one was completely black and had a black diamond on his forehead. And, in the gallop of the horses, it has been squashed under the hooves of the animals.
„What's this?” He asked Moirae, but his voice had been heard as if coming out of the abyss.
„Your future, king, and those who'll kill you, eventually," the three Moirae told him in a single voice.
„But… there are two… and the thread is only one.”
The three Moirae just smiled and, holding their hands again, they made the Palantir revive from the water. But this time it had a smaller size and its reappearance didn't kill the Cyclops or the ants. Then, Moirae whispered a new spell, and, behind them, a Portal appeared, through which they managed to escape, taking the Palantir, the scissors, and the spindle with them.
When the light of the Portal completely vanished, Ian Gyar kneeled... the water around him calmed down and the glass sharks vanished too as if they had never been in that spring.
„They are… terrible,” murmured the king, still knelt down and, then, he sat down on the water, but without sinking in it, as if it was soft blue bedding.
And, when the water finally stopped its movement, Ian Gyar could see his mother, Marea, also sitting next to him. „What was that, mother? Did you also see my future?"
„Mmm, I saw it, son, but I didn't know it before, for I don't have in my power the capacity of seeing the future. But, as far as I could see, that future was just created by Moirae, and this is because you dared to break your promise."
„But… I didn't want to break it… it hasn't been my intention,” the king with watery eyes stuttered.
„Maybe it wasn't your intention, but... you did it eventually and you must pay for this, son."
Then, the silence took over the surroundings, turning it into a deep void... and, after the void was gone, the sound of the water was the first to be heard, and, turning his glance to the stream and watching the mirror, seen on the water's surface, Ian Gyar saw the images of Noea's Gardens... he saw a lot of guests that came at that party... he saw their dance... he heard that fairy-like music... and he also saw Baradar, showing up at the edge of the forest, carrying two baskets of fresh flowers, full to the brim.
„It'll start soon," he whispered, but no trace of joy had been felt in his voice. Then, he looked at his mother again, that was staring somewhere. „Everything is alright, mother? I thought that you'll scold me for my foolishness of hurting the People of Noear."
„What for?! What's done already is well-done, Ian Gyar and there is no point to talk about this. More, they dared to chase my son from his throne, which was your birthright, and only because of this I won't ever forgive Noea for what she did. And, for her betrayal, she must pay. She must," and, saying this, Marea's body transformed into the water which sunk into other waters, and mermaid's music was heard everywhere in the Palace of Ian Gyar.