The view was so beautiful at the horizon, that it could take your breath away, and the sky, of a purple-gray, enriched that outlook with blinks of light that were coming out of its paunchy depth.
„It’s raining somewhere,” Zeal whispered, barely heard, while she was watching the sky, in the distance, which was sparkling under the piercing movement of the thunder lights.
„There is no rain there, Zeal. There is a fight, for life and for death there,” Island told her while both were sitting on a big rock, in the center of a Glade, surrounded by the little amount of snow, still seen here and there, even if it was late April already.
„Do you think that they will make it?” The girl asked again, without even looking at him while she was squatting a little lower on the rock, with her knees stuck to her chest, as she used to stay when she was little and her mother was scolding her for some howler made by her.
„Who?” asked Island and, blowing in the distance, he managed to numb the air, making a few icicles, which were hanging upside down, without any support, similar to huge monsters from the fairy tales into a blue-lightning void.
„I’m talking about Sephir. It's been so long, but none of them came back. I’m afraid that something bad happened to her,” the girl sighed and this profound and stuffy sound was heard coming out of her chest.
„Each of us has his own destiny in this life, Zeal and you know this well. Even if we fight with Parca, giving the best we can in this fight, it does not assure us that we will succeed.”
„I know, grandpa, but I’m still afraid. I’m afraid not to lose her like I lost my mother when she disappeared,” and the last word made the girl shudder till deep in her bones because she remembered about an open wound, a long time ago made, but which was still so painful, as if it was made just a few seconds ago, and not years and years ago.
„When I was still a small child, my mother told me something once, after I've seen your grand-grandfather Coallar for the first time and I told her that I’d better die than to be like him.”
Zeal slowly turned her head toward him and, in her eyes, the curiosity blinked because she adored listening to her grandfather’s stories so much, for most of the time they were full of magic, miraculous things, and hidden lessons, which were filling her with power and dreaming, which she was trying to figure out their true message later while lying on a big lotus leaf, slowly rocked by the melodious voice of the waves. „And?” Zeal’s voice slowly throbbed in the air, who moved closer to Island, waiting for the rest of the story.
„I don’t remember now the exact words my mother used then, but their message sounded like this: this world is unique, like the trees, the sky, the air which we are breathing, and the lands because even if two things seem to be the same, they aren’t perfectly identical and this makes them unique.
And when she told me this, your grandmother, Inlan Diar touched my shoulder then with her soft and cold palm and she smiled at me, and what calmed me down then has been her smile and I understood that not the knowledge and the lessons make us unique, but the kindness and the love of those who surround us because they have a hidden spell in their beings, which can change destinies.”
„But still, grandpa, what about the essence of each of us? We keep the seeds of our ancestors inside us. So, it makes sense to have some of them in us.”
„Hm,” Island slowly frowned and he moved his lips, from one side to another of his mouth, as if that movement could have brought the desired idea to him, and answer Zeal's question thus, but he didn’t know the message. „And still, what about us, Zeal? Each of us has the right to have an opinion and choice. Even if evil influences us, we still can fight with our inner world and decide if to follow that evil or not. But I don’t deny the fact that there are exceptions, as then when one is possessed by the devil…”
And Island suddenly kept silent and this happened because he remembered Bestla’s mother, who attacked her own child, moved by the inner voice of the devil, who ordered her to take the soul of the girl and cut the thread of her existence.
But neither Island nor Boor ever told the girls the real story of Edda, who had been possessed by Ahi’s demons in fact, even before her union with Boor and she seduced the God of Winds with the intention to take his power.
Yet, the night of their marriage, Inlan Diar read Edda’s future in her eyes and that she will give birth to a Huge Power, as the one Bestla had.
That's why Inlan Diar decided to use her magic over Edda and she imprisoned the evil inside her. But as no evil can’t be closed forever, when Bestla was at the age of three, Edda took the girl to the river with the intention to wash the girl’s body in the same waters that gave birth to Edda and bless her with eternal life.
However, when both stepped on those lands, Ahi met them and he melted the icy ring that was chaining the demons inside the Water Spirit, and, at Ahi’s command, after they had transformed from Edda, they attacked the girl, trying to take her power away.
But they failed because they had to face a huge power, that none of them ever thought that could exist in such a small being as Bestla.
***
19 YEARS AGO
Ahi’s eyes completely mirrored into the blue glance of Edda, who allowed him to possess her and, standing still, a black wave entered her soul, slowly moving through her bones, flowing in the rhythm of her blood, till it got to the shining, icy ring, which was closing the edges of the sack of Edda’s soul inside its round form, blocking the demons there.
Thus, face to face with the dark blow, inside the sack of the soul, 6 small beings fiercely started to move and only the top of their horns could be seen, piercing the cloth without breaking it.
Then, Edda’s being started to slowly pulsate and those pulsations intensified when Ahi’s hand touched her hand and he whispered into her ear: „So long time sleeping in captivity, my dears. It’s time to fulfill your mission for which you had been brought into this world,” and his eyes mirrored in the blue of Bestla’s eyes that time because the little girl was standing behind her mother.
But little Bestla didn’t scare at all. While her little hand was squeezing the cloth of her mother’s garment, she sent a wave of warm energy toward Ahi’s eyes, who thought that it was a kind of knowing the world that the girl was using while trying to enter his being, but he soon understood that he had been wrong.
In contact with the retina of his eyes, Bestla’s energy made it melt the coal of his eyes and flow like a hot liquid on Ahi’s cheeks, blinding him.
That's why Ahi’s palms covered his eyes, but it was already too late because he had been blinded. And, roaring like a madman, he started to fiercely move around, groping for something, but his fingers could grab only the empty void. But the hatred of his soul melted, till the end, the ice of the ring from Edda’s soul, who stood still as if hardened, all the time.
Then, when the last drop of water evaporated under the boiling of her soul, Edda turned toward the child… her eyes were impetuously burning while her lips were continuously moving into a grin, and her body repeatedly transformed from a human into a demon, doubling down with each movement, till it got to six demons.
After that, the six jumped over Bestla, who didn’t move from her place. But, instead of grabbing the girl’s body into their hot arms, all the demons hardly hit the glass wall of the box that was protecting the girl and turned upside down, rolling far away from the box.
Crazy and hurt, the demons infernally roared, shuddering the waters around.
Then, Bestla slowly stretched her hand in front, palm facing up as if watching the sky, and, on the skin of her palm, had been drawn, in one go, by a peacock feather-sized pen, an ink eye.
When the pen finished drawing the eye, it vanished, and then Bestla put the other palm above the first one, with a small distance between them and as if the palms were mirroring into each other, on the upper palm, a similar eye had been drawn, and both eyes started to blink while the girl’s lips were whispering: „let the light of these eyes bring silence here and paint in different colors the surroundings, creating the fantastic.”
And then the miracle happened - the transparent walls of the box fell down, breaking into pieces, and the girl seemed to be unprotected… that's why the demons, feeling that it was their turn, started to move their hooves on the dank soil, leaving deep marks on it, and they attacked the girl again, throwing themselves toward her.
But from the retina of the eye, drawn on the below palm, a thread of black light started to exit, which quickly entered the upper eye and, between them, a kind of exchange of energy channel has been made, which was black at first, but it colored in dark-blue soon, intensifying its pulsations.
Feeling a magma of energy floating around, Ahi took advantage of this, and, inhaling deep inside his chest that breeze, he managed to recover his sight.
But when the air touched his inner throat, he spitted it out, as if it had been poisoned and, after seconds of coughing, he grinned unsatisfied, and looked at the frozen demons in the air, that fiercely jumped over the girl and whose bodies started to liquefy and be absorbed by the vibration of the energy produced by the girl’s palms.
„Yahon,” he mumbled with hatred. „I felt that you would be reborn, but I didn’t know that you would take form from Boor’s flesh. So, you are the one who gave this girl so much power, meant to subdue me.”
A strange voice was heard, pulsating in the air and whispering into Ahi’s ear: „even if you kill me a thousand times more, Ahi, I’ll always find the way to immortality.”
„You say so?! I won’t be that sure if I was you. You are nothing more than a coward hidden inside the spirit of a little girl. You still have a long way till you will defeat me.”
Then, behind Ahi, the real Yahon showed up. However, he wasn’t a grown man, but he was a child, the same size as Bestla, completely white and only his eyes had the shade of emerald. Thus, clapping his palms, Yahon threw a wave of energy toward Ahi and it hit Ahi from behind, forcing him to kneel.
But Ahi still had enough power to fight. That's why he transformed his fingers into black dagger blades, which he threw behind him, intending the hit the Spirit of Mirrors.
Yahon instead was used to Ahi’s style of the fighting because it wasn’t the first time they were fighting in those hundreds of years since they hated each other. So, he vanished into the air when he felt the daggers approaching his body at full speed. But, right away, he showed up in front of Ahi and another wave of energy hit him, throwing him a few dozen meters back.
Even if Yahon was out of Bestla, the girl wasn’t frozen as generally happens to the human shape of the Spirits. Per contra - she had her own force and, finishing to swallow the demons inside her palms, she put them one on the other, as if covering a jar with a lid and, touching the skin of the palms in a circle, as if sealing something, she watched at Yahon and whispered: „I’ll wait for you in our place, Yahon. Don’t be late and don’t let him hurt you,” and the moment the mirror box had been formed from glass ashes again, she disappeared.
Yahon just nodded in approval and, watching Ahi again, who stood up and was slowly approaching him, he smiled.
„So, you didn’t reborn, but you hid only.”
„To be reborn, I had to be dead,” answered Yahon in mockery and, lifting his body from the ground, floating in the air, with his legs under his body, as the Oriental style of sitting on an invisible carpet, and with the palms touched in a pray, he vanished too, and then Ahi saw Boor and Island running toward him and he decided that it was the perfect time to hit the pike and, roaring as if he was a mad beast, he transformed his body in burning ashes and the wind blew them all over.
***
Yahon’s shape had been projected into Bestla’s world, in the same position as he disappeared from in front of Ahi and he has been so amazed to see how, from those eyes, drawn with ink, blue water was flowing on the mirror land as a stream.
„Edda,” Yahon whispered with sadness, staring at the water flowing out of the girl’s palms, and the same sigh had been heard behind him, and when he looked back at the one who whispered the same word, Yahon saw Boor, sad and desolated, and how Island was touching his son’s shoulder, trying to give him relief.
„Everything has its own meaning in this world, Boor. Edda fulfilled her destiny. Let her breathe a sigh of relief now and rest in peace.”
And Edda answered him, using the slow rustling of the water, washed by the blinking of that mirror world: „I’m happy, Boor, that our little girl is safe and that I didn’t hurt her. At least for this, I’m happy that, leaving the real world, I can stay here, in her inner world, and be with you forever.”
Boor approached the girl and she right away asked him to take her into his arms when the last drop of ink transformed into water and reached the stream’s surface.
And, after tightly hugging her father’s neck, laying her head on his shoulder, she fell asleep while a lullaby was heard around her, slowly sung by Edda’s voice, which was coming out of the waters while its surface was gently touched by Boor’s hand.
***
PRESENT
„What are you thinking of?” Zeal asked Island when she saw him so deeply immersed in his memories, and his eyes, staring at a blind spot, were strangely blinking.
„At nothing special. Only… thoughts that are crossing now through my mind. Let’s go back! Bestla is probably worried that we are absent for so long already.”
„Of course, let’s turn back!” Zeal said and, standing up, from off the rock, she has been the first one who moved toward the forest seen in the distance.
Island instead kept sitting on the rock for a little bit more, staring at those two pieces of sky, illuminated by thunder lights, and his heart twitched because of fear… because there was a part of his soul too there, in the presence of Sephir, who was in danger and he didn’t know if Dike and the others will manage to save her and bring her back home, safe.
And, if they bring her home safely, Island intended to tightly hug her to his chest and whisper to her that he loves her because he so many times hid this from her, deliberately pushing her away while trying to punish her for her explosive nature and make her understand her mistake.
But that decision was pressing his chest at that moment, in the form of remorse.
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Yet, even if Island felt that he lacked air, he finally stood up when he saw Zeal stopping and waiting for him and, approaching her, he put an arm on her shoulders and kindly smiled at her, and, in that smile, Zeal could see the kindness of a father that wished nothing else than happiness for his children.
Behind them, nature came back to life, and the frail strands of grass, slowly shaken by the wind, were stretching their small and prickly bodies toward North, there, wherein the distance the sky was sparkling, under the tight hug of the devilish thunder lights and, from those feeble blades of grass, similar to a thread made from the soul, a thin thread raised up to the sky and when it joined the black-purple of the clouds, it had been moved away on the limitless surface of the sky till it finally reached the place of the battle and when it finally got into the center of the thunder lights avalanche, it had been spit on earth and that fireball, in which the thread of life had been transformed, didn’t scorch the soil around, but it lifted up, like a poppy flower, which was floating in the air and, slowly spinning around, on two of its petals, eyes showed up, painted with ink and which were watching in the distance.
At about one hundred meters from the poppy flower, floating in the air, something still burning was seen, even if the flames were so weak, a sign that the burning body was about to vanish.
And it was so, because that body, which was transforming into ashes, was Ian Gyar’s, who couldn’t escape from the trap of chains and, caught inside them, he saw how his life was leaving his body and reaching its end.
Dike and Nathaniel were not too far from him, watching his end in silence, but none of them was happy with the death of the enemy, who finished burning at the moment when a Portal, made from fire, opened from nowhere in front of them and, through it, Baradar, Sephir, and Fenrir came back to the real-life, on the back of Navarro.
Seeing his son practically without any power on the horse’s back, Dike approached him in a hurry while the wind blew the ashes of Ian Gyar’s body all over behind him.
„What happened there, Minikin? Why is my son more dead than alive and why did he return on the back of Navarro?” And, helped by Nathaniel, Dike laid Fenrir on the ground and his hand moved above Fenrir’s body, healing him and trying to bring him back to life.
„We just… just…,” slowly stuttered Baradar, not knowing what to answer and he looked at Sephir, with pleading eyes.
Yet, seeing herself forced to explain something, Sephir only unpleasantly grinned at the minikin, and, taking a few steps in front, she intended to leave.
However, she couldn't go because Nathaniel stepped in front of her and stopped her. „Master Dike asked you something.”
„And why should I be the one to answer?” She cantankerously answered, sinking her eyes in the man’s glance, but she right away understood that she can’t control him with her Magic and she frowned.
Nathaniel smiled instead, understanding the reason for her upset. „There had been others too,” he said and took a few more steps toward her. „It seems that your Magic isn’t working on me. Let’s say I’m a kind of magnet, with minus resonance, like your magic is, and this is a problem for you.”
Sephir also took a step in front, ready to fight. But they right away felt how Baradar’s palms touched their bodies while standing between them and trying to end the argument between the two.
Watching them with a furious and reproachful glance, he wheezed through his teeth:
„You better keep your energy for others. Here are enough demons lurking on you and waiting to break your bones or I can step back and allow you to kill each other and, this way, you will do me and the demons a favor because, this way, we will have a minus problem and more energy not wasted,” and, finishing his speech, on an irritated tone, the minikin approached Dike again, who finished his spell on Fenrir and the young man finally opened his eyes.
„Welcome back to life,” the minikin tried to provoke Fenrir.
Yet, the young man disliked Baradar’s joke and, lifting his body to a sitting position, helped by Dike, he watched Sephir and, understanding that she was fine, he smiled and a sigh of relief came out of his chest: „Thank God she’s fine! What a release!”
But a slap on the back of his head awake him from his daydream and, looking into his father’s furious eyes, who understood that Fenrir foolishly acted in the battle with the snake Ian Gyar, risking his life, the young man foolishly smiled and, stuttering, he slowly whispered: „it happened to others too.”
Yet, Dike disliked his son’s remark and reproachfully nodded, but when he was about to start his long speech about safety, which he usually told Fenrir in such situations, he had been interrupted by a body, rolling in front of him while turning upside down, through a Portal, which showed up from nowhere and they all saw how Tenebre hit, in the end, the front legs of Navarro.
Looking up, into the horse’s eyes, which was furiously watching her, Tenebre grinned, whistling a „no offense. I have nothing against you. Only against him,” and her arm stretched toward the Portal, which was still blinking in the air, and they could see a furious Jar there, showing his anger through the blinking of his eyes.
„Jar” Dike slowly whispered. „How is it possible?” But his amazement had been felt even more when, watching Jar, who was so furious that was hearing and seeing nothing around, he saw him stepping over the threshold of that Portal and his body, in contrast with the semi-blue light of it, had revealed, for a few moments only, Samaya’s silhouette, and this forced Nathaniel and Fenrir whisper her name at the same time.
A sudden neigh pierced the dusk and a hove hit, well fixed on Tenebre’s butt, forced her to fly back through the Portal, as if the horse decided to answer her and the message „then go back to him if you have nothing against me,” had been received, and the black Queen flew through the Portal, past Jar, who stepped aside not to be hit by the sudden, flying creature and he unpleasantly grinned, watching behind her.
Then, Jar turned his back to the others and, heading toward the place where Tenebre landed in her fly, after the horse’s kick, he made the light of the Portal blink fast while it was fading off.
„Find the entrance into the cobra’s den. See you there!” Dike yelled to the others and, running toward the Portal, he jumped through it, being swallowed by it a few seconds before closing.
Behind him, the four were quickly moving from their eyelids, amazed and confused, because none of them knew what kind of devilish event had been.
But they returned to reality, when Navarro’s snout touched Nathaniel’s back, spurring him to walk and unhappily neighing, and, standing up, they prepared to leave the place, but they saw a smile sketched on Sephir’s face then, that amazed them all.
„I didn’t know that cobras can smile,” Nathaniel whispered, upset while feeling that he was the object of the others'mockery.
Sephir watched amazed at Fenrir. „Now is it my fault?” her eyes were asking him.
„Don’t pay attention to him. He’s just envious,” whispered Fenrir and, slowly tapping with the palm on Navarro’s back, he gave the signal to move further, and the horse, at a slow step, passed by them and, approaching Nathaniel, he slowly puffed from his nostrils, conciliatory.
„Now are you looking for peace?” Nathaniel mumbled and, even if he wanted to pretend to be upset for more time, he gave up on the idea, seeing the horse’s glance staring at him and, stretching his hand, he touched Navarro’s warm snout. „All right, let it be as you wish,” Nathaniel whispered and they continued their path together as if they were friends as old as the hills.
„I thought that Navarro is nobody’s friend,” whispered the minikin, amazed to see a fierce horse and a man becoming friends so easily.
„Maybe you don’t believe this, but this bad-tempered horse has a soul even more kind than I have. Traitor!” Sephir unpleasantly mumbled because Navarro usually acted like this only in her presence, but it seemed that it liked Nathaniel too.
„And it seems to me that we have another jealous person here,” Fenrir joked and, passing next to her, he grabbed her hand and forced her to follow him, and this gentle touch of the young wolf made Baradar look at the sky and joke: „youth, you - which is playing pranks on hearts, where you went without a story?” And, at a slow step, he followed the others.
***
Jumping through the Portal of Jar, Dike felt how his inner energy was unbalanced as if controlled by a hidden force, and, instead of normally stepping on hard soil, the Titan turned upside down and rolled on the floor, right away he reached Tenebre’s den.
Landing on all four, Dike sighed, happy that at least that time he didn’t hit any stone, whose hit would have been felt later, on rainy days, deep inside his old bones.
Then, he raised his glance and looked around… it seemed to him to be too quiet there and only a light gust of wind was slowly moving the lit of the small torches, stabbed on the walls, similar to candles, a sign that the fresh air of life was entering inside that den, even if there was no alive creature seen there.
„Where have they vanished?” Dike mumbled, standing up and, taking a few steps in front, he carefully watched the den.
The place seemed to be something not out of the ordinary. On the contrary, it was too ordinary for Dike’s taste, who used the eye of his mind to watch the place from outside: a hollow inside of a huge tree's trunk, whose roots entered deep inside the earth and which could be also seen in the den.
Then, there were also a few wooden tables there, on which many small bottles with liquid of different colors and a few books of magic were seen. But what caught Dike’s sight was a big bottle on the table from the center, with a kind of reddish liquid, in which a cobra was kept and even if Dike could see that the soul of the cobra left that body a long time ago, it was still moving inside the liquid, as if controlled by an inner strange energy.
„As usual, she can think only about evil things!” Dike unpleasantly mumbled and approached the table, attracted by a black cloth, which was covering something floating, and this made the edge of that cloth slowly vibrate under it while the floating thing was slowly spinning in the air as if it was the Planet Earth, which was spinning around its axes.
„And what’s this now?!” He wondered and stretched his hand to uncover the object.
But a sudden pain pierced his brain and, bringing his hand to his temple, the Titan closed his eyes for a few seconds, as if bothered by the light around, and then he saw, passing in front of his inner eye, a deplorable view of the world in fire and two huge eyes, all-seeing, were burning in the sky.
Even if those eyes were similar to Chaos’s eyes, something told Dike that what he was seeing was nothing else than an illusion.
That's why, to see it better, Dike completely closed his eyes while his hand touched the black cloth without uncovering the floating object and, sinking into darkness again, he entered the world which was burning and, reaching there and leaning with both feet firmly on the ground, he raised his glance and watched those eyes.
Looking like two fires in full force, those eyes were strongly illuminating the surroundings, feeding, with their energy, the fire that was „eating” the world around them.
But when they felt a glance piercing them, the eyes moved the trajectory of their look and their retina, of a heated black, stared at the Titan’s body, who saw how behind those eyes a huge being was forming his shape and, soon, a large demon, black like all the nights, whose eyes, horns, and his 6 tails were burning, bent a little toward Dike while his big fingers were hitting one of the other and there was a thud, all around.
„Master Dike, glad to see you again, even if after so much time,” but Dike didn’t hurry to answer because even if the body and the voice of the demon were remembering him about Mannar, something was whispering to him that it was only an illusion and, soon, he finally understood whom he was speaking with, when he heard Eris’s grin, slowly laughing in mockery.
„It was you!” The titan furiously grinned and his hand tightly grabbed the cloth and revealed the Palantir, hidden under that material, and Eris’s reflection could be seen floating inside the sphere.
She was still imprisoned in Māṉsṭar Kēlaksi, but her power grew up so much, fed by the force of her followers on earth and, pulling the huge and heavy chains after her, she approached the wall of the Palantir more and deeply watched inside of Dike’s soul.
„Did you finally understand now that you have wrongly chosen your master, Dike? Chaos isn’t more than dying energy while I am the future. Join me and I promise to make you king.”
„A king ruling from your shadow?” The Titan angrily whispered. „I’ll better burn this world with my own hands than leave it at your mercy.”
„Great words are you saying, Dike, but will you be able to burn it knowing that this way you kill your offshoot too? I don’t think so. Your heart isn’t able to feel the evil yet. But if you join me…”
And Eris’s hand had been stretched toward him as if she wanted to pass it through the dark-red wall of the Palantir and grab the Titan from the throat.
Dike, as if blinded by the magic of her eyes, harden, because he saw himself in her place when he noticed the burning sand under her body, and his mind played a prank on him and, for a few seconds, he teleported himself on those lands and felt the arson of Māṉsṭar Kēlaksi on his skin.
Then he shuddered and turned back to reality when Jar’s hand lifted the cloth from off the floor and threw it above the Palantir, covering its all-seeing eye.
Watching him, Dike didn’t understand at first who he was seeing in front of him: the Spirit who lived inside his daughter or Samaya and he slowly whispered: „Who are you?”
„Jar” the Spirit simply answered. „Samaya isn’t capable of showing her real shape yet and of using her immense power which Chaos gave her, but she will manage it after passing the last of the pranks this life will play on her.”
„A prank? What kind of prank?”
„I couldn’t figure it out yet, but I feel that it will happen soon because Mannar is about to be settled free from the dungeon in which he had been imprisoned, a long time ago, by Lodur and Gaea, and we still don’t know what he is capable of. Not for nothing, Tenebre is gathering power here.”
„Does Tenebre gather power? For what?
„I don't know yet. All I could find out is that she is looking for the three elements that can open the Gate of Aeon."
As if enchanted by a sudden revelation, Dike took a few steps while the fingers of his right hand were tapping on the left palm and his eyes were staring at a blind spot, seeing nothing else around.
„The Gates of Aeon... but this is... this is Eris's chance to escape," he finally answered and the Titan turned his body and deeply looked into Jar's eyes.
„If evil manages to open those Gates, then we will be all lost forever because they will kill the Prophecy and the birth of the One will be delayed..."
„Delayed no, Jar. That soul won't be ever born because both Eris and her followers and the army of evil know that the One will be who will control Time and all the parts of the Balance if he restores it, and if he does it, Eris will be destroyed and, for sure, she won't ever allow this and will chase him forever. And us too."
„I agree with you, but... according to Chaos's prophecy, The One will be born from humans and wolves and even if Fenrir and Samaya have the same blood flowing in their veins, I couldn't see who of them has the energy of the One, energy that I felt first still being in Aeon when Moirae just started to weave that prophecy, at Chaos's command.”
„Moirae!" Dike feverishly whispered, still looking around for something, but he couldn't understand what he was looking for. „We need to find those three weavers. Only they can reveal the future.”
„But we aren't sure that they will be by our side, Titan Dike. Remember that they cheated once on Yggdrasil and Lodur when they stole holy water from the Fountain of Truth, looking for Immortality. I'm sure that they will try it once again when they will smell that chance."
„Then, let's take advantage of this," whispered Dike, decided, and a cunning smile had been sketched on his face. „If they want immortality they will have it, even if it's just as a promise," and, furious, Dike threw the Palantir on the floor, breaking it into three equal parts and, moving his hand above it, the Titan forced the Palantir to show him what he was looking for: the hidden den of Moirae and the projection of the Palantir showed them the entrance in Arkadia Cave, on Kyllini Mountain, there where Moirae had been imprisoned by Ian Gyar.
„Let's go!" He ordered Jar and he was the first to exit out of Tenebre's den.
Before following Dike, Jar threw the black cloth above the three pieces of the Palantir and then he left the room, advancing through the long and arched tunnel, seen in the distance.
Behind Jar, the Palantir took a spherical shape again and, touched by Tenebre's hand, who all that time spied on Dike and Jar from inside of the Cobra's body, which was kept inside the bottle, and the Palantir started to float again.
And Tenebre decided to hide from Jar, after she had been thrown through the Portal, at Navarro's feet, because that had been the moment when she understood that Jar and Samaya's power started already to join in one while she was still so weak.
So, taking advantage of the horse's kick, who threw her deep inside her den, she hurried to hide before Jar turned back inside the hollow, and she managed it because when Jar looked for her, he couldn't understand where she was and Tenebre could cheat on him, sending her voice along that tunnel, as if she was there while she was spying on him through the eyes of the cobra.
Then, when she finally managed to send Jar away, using her cunning and he ran toward there, mad to find her, Tenebre decided to run, but she had been forced to keep silent and remain in the cobra's body, as a moving wave of dark fog, as she entered it, when she saw Dike approaching the table.
„Thusly, the Gate to Aeon," she said, gently and awkwardly tapping the Palantir's bottle. „Then let's use that to our advantage and find Mannar this way. Only then we can begin what we have been planning for centuries.”
„Let's not hurry!" Eris said, who reappeared in Palantir. „We will not find the Gate to Aeon alone. Those who are able to find it are the ones who formed it. "
„So, what should we do? Shall we sit and wait for them to take our laurels which we have fought for so many hundreds of years?”
„Patience, my daughter, patience! Everything has its own specific time!”
„But, mother, how can you speak so calmly knowing how the sand of Māṉsṭar Kēlaksi burns you every time you move your body on it? You should be the one in a hurry to exit it.”
„I rushed up once, Tenebre when I sent my heart to Earth and I was defeated. This time I'm going to wait and win. So, listen to my plan and do exactly as I say.”
Eris's voice began to whisper, speaking in a long-forgotten language again, and that whisper increased the Palantir's energy, which essentially reflected, in its shape, the moment when Dike and Jar came out of the hollow and joined Fenrir and the others, who were waiting for him.
And Eris has been amazed to see how Jar turned into Samaya in the rays of the sun, for she saw, in Samaya's face, the creature that Chaos had shown her many years ago and who he had predicted to be the one to destroy her, by cutting her head.
„The executioner!" Eris said with hatred, and that hatred, from distant Māṉsṭar Kēlaksi, spread over Samaya like a mist of black air, and the girl lost consciousness in her father's arms.
„Now they'll have an extra concern for them," Tenebre grinned. „And it will slow them down while we will have plenty of time to perfect our plan," and her laughter, echoing around while being accompanied by Eris's laughter, shook the surroundings.