The meadows, studded by the life-giving blades of grass of the Mount Eldur Fjall, were washed that morning by big drops of dew again, and those drops of multicolored glow made nature all around even more charming than before because even the sun in the sky was sometimes stopping in place, from his eternal journey, only to watch that beauty of nature called the gifts of the sky for Earth.
Even if it was early in the morning and the dawn had just appeared in the sky, the fresh air of the morning was warm enough because it was the middle of summer, and this made everything around pleasant to the touch and so warm.
„It’s a wonderful morning, isn’t it?” Kaerlleikans asked her sister when the two of them approached the small rill that was crossing the field not too far from their house, to wash their faces in clean water and prepare for a new day.
„Undoubtedly,” Upprisinn cheerfully answered, who already finished her little ritual of beauty and, standing up, she raised the arms too, heading them toward the sun and trying this way to chase the numbness gathered in her bones over the night away.
Kaerlleikans stealthily looked at her sister and smiled because the 17-years-old girl loved life a lot and she was always ready for mischief.
That’s why, lurking for the right moment, when Upprisinn closed her eyes to head her face toward the sunshine and enjoy their pleasant warmth, Kaerlleikans joined her palms and filled them with water, which she quickly splashed over her sister.
Even if she was expecting such a joke from her sister, Upprisinn pretended to be unpleasantly surprised, and, watching her sister with „furious” eyes, she said: „you looked for it,” and she suddenly ran toward Kaerlleikans.
Thus, the two girls started to play with the water and they didn’t even notice when a stranger approached them.
But the stranger decided not to interrupt their game. So, he took a few steps aside, sat down on a big rock located not far from the rill, and waited for their game to be over while staying in silence and playing with a dried blade of grass, caught between his teeth.
The first who noticed him had been Upprisinn, who stopped their game, forcing her sister to watch in the same direction.
And, seeing him there, both girls looked amazed and scared at the same time because even if a lot of people were living on that mountain, nobody ever dared to interrupt or approach the girls while they were washing their faces in the morning or while they were playing with their feet in the rill. That meant that the stranger didn't know the unwritten laws of the area.
„He seems not to be from the area,” Kaerlleikans whispered, approaching her sister, but still hiding behind Upprisinn.
„It looks like it’s true what you say,” Upprisinn whispered preoccupied, but after she had deeply inhaled fresh air in her chest and found the courage to confront the stranger, she decided to approach him, even if the young girls used to run away in such situations or call their parents for help.
But the two sisters learned, in time, to defend and take care of themselves alone because they saw how hard their parents worked for raising them, for taking care of them while they were still little because life in the mountains is really hard, as it is hard to find food for your family, and also the people of the mountains are not that open to help and they usually are cold with others and more for themselves.
Upprisinn got out of the water and, after a few steps toward the stranger, she stopped, being already a two meters distance from the rock on which the man was sitting.
But he didn’t even look at them, continuing to play with the blade of grass and watch in the distance.
„Who are you?” She suddenly asked him. But realizing that her question might be impolite, she changed the tone of her voice: „I mean, who are you, mister?”
After a few seconds of waiting and sweetly yawning, the stranger looked at them and said in a half voice: „Upprisinn - the sunrise. Not for nothing, the Titanides gave you this name because, in your heart, the sun is rising all the time.”
Surprised by the stranger's words, Kaerlleikans stepped in front and stared at him. „Then, what does my name mean?” She asked. „My name is…”
„Kaerlleikans,” the stranger said, this time more confident about himself. „Who doesn’t know your name?! It has two meanings in its structure - of love and the eternity of the souls after death.”
These words made Kaerlleikans shudder because even if she had never asked herself what her name meant, yet, she had never expected such an interpretation and this made her be so sad.
All this time, while the stranger talked to Kaerlleikans, Upprisinn analyzed every detail of his face and his vestment because his manner of speech, the way he was acting and moving his hands, the same as his black eyes like the pitch, were making the girl be so nervous.
„You aren’t who you pretend to be,” Upprisinn said, in the end, taking by surprise both the stranger, as well as her sister.
Especially, Kaerlleikans looked frightened at her sister, who seemed to be someone else at that moment.
„Even if you are wearing a lambskin over your shoulders, you are just the wolf hidden by the world's eyes. But your real nature betrays you, no matter the place or the garb you are wearing.”
Her words made the stranger smile and, bending a little bit in front and leaning his arms on his lap, he deeply looked into her eyes. „And still, not for nothing the world says that beauty and wisdom are twin sisters. As far as I can see you can see beneath the surface.”
„As I can guess the reason for your visit here,” Upprisinn said this time.
„Really?! So surprising! And… Why am I here then?”
„What your soul is looking for, but it won’t ever find,” Kaerlleikans answered instead of her sister, and when Upprisinn and the stranger looked at the girl, they noticed in amazement that the young woman looked as if being in a trance.
„Hestia!” The stranger growled, unpleasantly surprised by that turn of events. „I thought that you calmed down after being closed inside of your flames and cursed to be part of them forever. But I see that I was wrong,” and his voice resounded like thunder and when he stood up, pushing the tails of his black robe aside, the stranger revealed his real guise - Coallar.
The black-like pitch eyes of the King of Coal were burning like extinct embers but still had that boiling of the magma in them, magma that threatened to burn the surroundings only by throwing a few pieces of wood above. His hair, up to the shoulders and black as the raven's feathers, was all over his back, falling in curly waves, caught by the top of the head of a creature without life or death in him.
His clothes weren't wealthy. Yet, even if they were completely black, they had a shining shade in them, something that was reminding the world about the garb of the noblemen because Coallar was well known for his ability to give lofty to his garment, as well as gave it to each thing he was touching because even if he was ruling only over the Mountains of Coal, he still had the freedom to move wherever he wanted and, this way, he could always look for something and the humans knew who he was.
That's why, when he drew his sword from its scabbard, the girls suddenly stepped back, frightened. But Coallar didn’t take even two steps toward them when, from nowhere, Iohar showed up, with a long pitchfork in his hands and he positioned himself between the King of Coal and the girls, intending to defend them even with his own life.
„Are you alright?” Iohar asked his girls, and they just nodded in approval. „Go inside!” He commandingly said.
„But, father…,” Upprisinn tried to oppose his order.
„Now, Upprisinn! Now! Don’t make me say it again!”
Reluctantly, Upprisinn grabbed her sister’s hand and forced her to come back to the real world, and only then the two girls ran toward the house.
Coallar stared in the same direction, till the girls didn’t enter the house and they locked the door. Then he smiled. „You taught them well, as far as I see. To hide from their fate, I mean.”
„You are wrong here, King of Coal because not they are hiding from their fate, but their fate is hiding from them.”
„So, you know why I came here,” Coallar said, and, descending from his rock, he took a few steps toward Iohar, who crawled back, but without taking the pitchfork between them.
But, when he felt that he couldn't run away from that unequal fight, Iohar stopped and, stretching his back, he looked into the eyes of his enemy, leaving the teeth of the pitchfork to bite from the surface of the earth while he supported his body on its handle.
„Of course, I know what you are looking for, as I know that you’ll never find it,” Iohar said, in a half voice.
„It seems to me that you’re wrong, human creature because what you are hiding was born from my soul and it belongs to me.”
„The Icon of Souls wasn’t born from you, King Coallar. What gave birth to this Icon is Immortality - what you are trying to reach for centuries already, but you had never had the chance to smell the scent of its perfume. Or am I wrong?”
Coallar stopped his walk in front of Iohar, with his hands touched at his back, as he used to walk when he was trying to confuse someone.
This gave courage to the man because Iohar knew well the explosive nature of Coallar. But that time the king was extremely calmly and cautiously acting, something that wasn’t natural for him and which made Iohar doubt the real intention of the King of Coal.
Then, something moved behind Iohar, and this made Coallar smile. „Now is when,” the King of Coal said and, slowly moving his right hand, he made that something, from behind Iohar, approach with much more force from the man.
Feeling this, Iohar grabbed the handle of the pitchfork and, in a sudden twist on his heels, he hit Coallar’s sword with the pitchfork, which was threatening him with death.
The sword instead broke the handle into two and made it fall on the ground. But its sharp edge stopped only two centimeters from the man’s chest as if controlled by an unseen force.
„Ah, I hate bastards,” Coallar mumbled, and, suddenly, both - he and the sword, vanished into nothingness.
Extremely amazed by that turn of events, Iohar looked around, but he could see something only when he looked at the sky, where Dike was approaching the earth from, on the back of a black, winged horse.
„Master Dike!” Iohar feverishly whispered and he bent his face to the ground as if he was praying in front of the Titan.
When the hooves of the black horse touched the ground and Dike descended off his back in a jump, he approached Iohar in a hurry and helped him to stand up.
„There’s no time to waste in vain, Iohar. You also know that Coallar isn’t someone who easily gives up on something, especially when he feels that what he is looking for is somewhere close.”
„Then, what to do, master Dike? You know that I can’t face King Coallar’s hatred and my girls…”
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„I know, Iohar. That’s why it’s time to leave these places.”
Iohar’s face suddenly became serious and he stood up, still supported by Dike’s hands, which were touching his arms.
Watching the ground, with sad eyes, Iohar confidently said: „this is my home, master Dike. I left it once and I lost a lot. I have no intention to leave this house behind me once again.”
„But Iohar,” Dike insisted.
„I fulfilled my destiny, master Dike. I took care of my girls and, with my tired hands, I gave shape and soul to those two daggers called the Icon of Souls. The one who should now take care of the prophecy to come true is you, Master. That’s why my girls should leave these surroundings and accompany you on your journey.”
„But, father…,” Kaerlleikans’voice has been heard not too far from them, and, watching in the same direction, Iohar saw both his daughters and Syan stopped and watching him, preoccupied.
Iohar said nothing, but his face was reflecting the storm of his soul, a storm that only Syana could see on his face. That’s why she grabbed her daughters' wrists and forced them to follow her into the house.
***
Arriving inside the house, Syana started to gather the girls’things in bundles. „Your father is right. You must leave this house and never return here.”
„But… what about you, mother? What about our home?” Upprisinn said this practically in a whisper, and her words made Syana stop the movement of her hands.
And Syana stood like this for minutes in a row, blankly watching the things grabbed in her hands. „Home is where one decides it to be,” the woman said in the end and she linked the bundles. „This wasn’t ever your home. You had been brought into this world with one purpose and Titans chose us for being your parents only for a while, but you must go to fulfill your destiny and reach the place your heart misses.”
„But, mother, one’s house is where his parents live,” Kaerlleikans said this time, and Syana smiled, looking into her eyes.
„Someone’s house is where his heart is telling him that it is,” Syana said and put the bundles into the girls’arms and also gave them the daggers made for them. „For creating these daggers, your father worked a life, for they are those which will protect you from evil. That’s why you must protect them with your bodies, if necessary, but they mustn’t fall into the hands of evil, ever.”
Upprisinn looked at her dagger with the blue stripe above and the red one on the bottom. „That’s what King Coallar was looking for, isn't it?”
„Yes, my child. These two daggers are the Icon of Souls. Those that have the capacity to change someone’s fate, making him prosper or destroying him. That's why even Moirae has no force in front of the power of these daggers.
And... let me tell you something else about these two daggers - one you hold in your hand, Upprisinn, is called Lifid Ibloma or Life in Full Bloom while the one of Kaerlleikans is known as Eftir Daudann or the Eternity of Souls after Death.
Also, you should know that your breath of life is closely related to their energy and you are a whole with a huge power for this world. That’s why you mustn’t lose them ever or give them to someone else because the thread of your life will be broken then and you’ll be lost forever for this world.”
After that, Syana took two mantles, which were hanging on the hanger beside the door, and she put them on the girls’shoulders while she was watching them with love and sadness at the same time.
„You first showed up in my dream as two perfectly ripe peaches. That’s why you had been our joy when you showed up into this world and you had been our pride and glory. And you’ll continue to be so till our souls will leave this Earth and, even then, our hearts will remember you and will love you, beating in a chest that doesn’t exist anymore. For this, my sweet girls, you must love each other, even if you aren't together anymore, even if you are far from each other, even if you never meet each other again because the love of a sister is holy and it will protect you forever, no matter where you are.”
A slight knock in the window made Syana wince and look toward the face of her husband, barely seen through the glass. „It’s time,” she said and sighed, pushing the two girls out of the house.
***
Iohar said nothing to the girls before leaving. He only grabbed their hands and kissed them with love.
And, even if the girls waited for a good word from their father, they knew that he preferred to keep silent when he was losing someone, as he had always been. But they knew that he loved them and that what he felt in his chest for them was so big, that there was no need for words to feel it.
Then, Dike and the girls, on the back of the black horse, lost soon on the horizon.
Yet, even after their leaving, Iohar and Syana kept standing for a long while in front of the house, looking toward the limitless road in front of them.
„Do you think we’ll see them again?” Syana slowly whispered.
„Probably not. Probably this was our destiny: to give them life, to grow them up, and then to give them to the world, for its mad caprice,” and, hugging his wife from behind, gently touching her shoulders, Iohar forced her to enter the house because he knew that if he allowed her to stay there, in front of the threshold of their house, she would have stood there and would have waited for the girls’return till the end of her life because the girls had been for her two ripe peaches, which gave sense to her life and which she was missing so much... what she had a long time ago only dreamt about.
After that day, nobody ever saw Iohar and Syana again, as if Earth split into two and swallowed them. But there still was a shy whisper of the wind which told the world that King Coallar turned back later that day and that the missing of the two spouses was somehow related to his mercy for them.
***
The black horse of Dike stopped on the Sunset Realms a few months later after the event which took place on the Mount of Eldur Fjall, an event that forced the girls to leave their home and face the world.
And, even if the black horse was a winged one and he could take the three of them in seconds on those new realms, Dike preferred to walk at a slow step on secret paths on earth because an unseen force was stopping evil to discover the Titan’s plans only when he was on earth, but he was completely exposed as if he was naked when he was in the height of the sky.
„What place is this?” Upprisinn asked Dike when the Titan was already down off the horse’s back and, grabbing the bridle, he made the animal slowly step among the people in that crowded fair.
„They call this place the fair of Na Greine or the City of the Falling Sun. It’s the place where Kaerlleikans must establish her new home and the place where Eftir Daudann will last for eternity.”
The girls, still on the back of the horse, looked around at all those people, who even though they were extremely busy with their sales were so amazed to see three strangers crossing that fair.
Kaerlleikans, who was behind Upprisinn on the horse’s back, moved a little bit in front and grabbed her sister’s waist with both hands and, approaching her sister's ear, she whispered: „maybe, it will be better to go somewhere else, don’t you think? I don’t like this place. It’s too secret. There’re too many curious eyes here.”
„I don’t like this place either, Kaerlleikans, but Master Dike is right… Fate chose our place for living already. We can’t oppose it.”
Her sister’s answer made Kaerlleikans grimace - she didn't like that ordinance of things planned by Fate that much and this was because she loved life and she loved to be herself the one to choose the path on which to walk. But, at that moment, she saw herself caught in that trap of fate from which she ran always off. Even though, she couldn’t see anywhere an open gate to run through.
Then, leaving the fair, Dike pulled the halter, forcing the animal to walk on a narrow and dark street, till they arrived in front of a small house, built from gray stone, and which was so visible between the rest of the imposing houses of the city, which color reminded about the warmth of the sunshine, and this was something strange for those places.
And when the two sisters saw the house, they looked amazed at each other, but none of them said a word about this.
Only Dike stopped the horse in front of the door and slowly knocked on the dried and eaten by caries wood, which the door was made from.
But... for a few minutes, nothing happened, as if nobody was living there. That’s why Dike decided to knock once again, louder.
Yet, when his fingers, grabbed in a fist, almost touched the wood, the door suddenly opened and an old lady about 80 showed up in front of them, bending almost till the ground, and looked at them extremely unhappy.
„I see the years didn’t teach you what respect means, Titan Dike! Should I grab the handle of a broom and teach you as mothers teach their naughty children?”
Dike smiled, hearing her words. „And I thought that years made your character sweeter, but as far as I see is more bitter than ever.”
The old lady grimaced. „As uneducated as always. Eh, well, let it be as you wish! I have no time to lose with you! Come in!” She said and turned her back to them.
Dike first helped the girls to descend off the horse and then the three of them entered the house. But before the Titan carefully closed the door behind them, he touched the horse’s neck and this one vanished like a black smoke somewhere, right at the moment when, at the corner of the street, the silhouette of a spy appeared and he looked toward the house where Dike and the girls had entered in.
Inside the house instead, things looked different from how the girls imagined: instead of a small and shattered hut, full of old and useless things, which the old ladies used to gather, the girls saw a large room, with two levels and with a spiral stair on the left, which was leading toward the upper part of the house.
Also, there was little furniture there - only a large and oval table in the middle, with a lot of candles lit on, and a few chairs were seen here and there around the house.
But around the room, all along the four walls, there were shelves with books, and from what could be seen, between them, there were also small bottles with a magic potion.
„Are you trying a new profession?” Dike joked, watching all that arrangement of things in the room, which reminded more of the den of a witch than the house of a Titanide, even if Dike knew well that the owner of that house never used to do such things.
Kaerlleikans and Upprisinn exchanged glances again because both understood well that things weren’t like they seemed to be at first glance.
And they were right because even if the old lady entered the house before them, she wasn’t seen anywhere, even if there wasn’t a place to hide in there or another door through which exit in the street.
„Who’s she?” Kaerlleikans dared to ask Dike after a long silence.
„Are you asking about the old and grumpy lady or about the real owner of this house?”
„If it’s possible… to know: about both.”
The girl’s curiosity and the shine from her eyes, made Dike cunningly smile. „Someone knows her as Mother Nature. Others call her Mother Earth, but many more know her as Gaea, even if the locals know her as Kalleia or Diana, the old lady who even the king of the City of the Sun fears and who tries not to make her get angry with him.”
„You still have a sharp tongue, old wolf,” Gaea’s voice has been heard from all over, even if her face couldn’t be seen. „And still you are right.”
„Do you see? And you still say that I don’t know what I’m talking about!”
„I never said that,” the Titanide said and she suddenly showed up in front of Dike, taking him by surprise and forcing him to step back. „So, it’s the time!” She said and she looked toward the two girls, who were looking at her in amazement because, instead of the old lady, Gaea showed up this time like she was - a young virgin. „Aaa, it seems that I took the wrong body with me,” she joked. „Don’t worry, they should see me one day as I really look like, anyway.”
„It’s how a Titanide looks like and she usually acts this way,” Dike joked, but his joke made Gaea grimace unsatisfied. „I see that you don’t get bored here. Especially with all the spies that are hanging around the house.”
„Did you also see him? Oh, and I thought that my old age played a prank on me, but it still seems that I wasn’t mistaken. Obregon follows in my footsteps and breathes down my neck for a long time already. It seems that he knows that something valuable for his people is approaching. So, he decided not to let me breathe.”
„Does he know about the daggers? How is this possible?” The Titan asked her.
„I don’t know this, but it seems that the Nomads are on their toes with the last attacks of Obregon’s army, and this means that this little army is enough prepared and ready to chase away a master who ruled over these lands for four centuries already.”
„But still, Gaea, this Obregon is right. Nomads conquered their lands in the War of the Beasts and since then these people have been submissive, kneeled, and forced to live looking at the ground and not at the sky.”
„But still, they live. I don’t understand why so many fights are necessary for this earth when ones can live together, in peace and in agreement, on the realms Fate gave them,” Gaea said this time, peevishly, because what the Titanide hated the most were the wars that killed her children and that made her beloved earth moan in fear and in pain, and this was piercing her heart, making it badly bleeding.
„This is because you never understood the real nature of men,” Dike convincingly said. „It’s written in their nature to not stay in place and become legends.”
„Eh, if I could, I would have broken their necks, and this way they would have become legends,” Gaea whispered with hatred and she moved her hands as if she was squeezing a wet cloth.
But her clumsy movement only sketched a smile on the girls’faces, and this forced the Titanide to look into their eyes. „And yet, I heard that Coallar is looking for the same thing as Obregon. How did this one hear about the daggers?”
„It was probably Tenebre who told him about this. You know that our sister is capable of reading the truth even in blurred water.”
„She’s not my sister,” Gaea said, suddenly, but she moved back when she noticed Dike’s amazed glance. „Even if we are born from the same seed, the truth within us makes us unique, and not sisters.”
„And still you are sisters,” Dike whispered into her ear and then he smiled. „Get ready, old Diana, we have a long way to walk on,” he joked, and, taking the sword out of its scabbard, he looked at its blade while Ionas was so beautiful reflecting the shining light of the candles on it.
„And… where to go this time?” Gaea asked and, in a blink of an eye, she took back her old lady guise, bending to the floor.
„Toward the sunset. You should go first because I have something more to do,” Dike said, and, touching his chest with Ionas’shape, he vanished in the air.
„He’s always looking for trouble,” Gaea said, nodding in reproach. „Let’s go, daughters of mine. As Dike said, there’s still a long way to walk on, and the sun is already going to bed. That’s why we must hurry up.”
Gaea stepped in front and, taking a long and gnarly stick from next to the door, she supported her oldness in it and she exited the house.
The girls followed her without saying a word, and when the door closed behind them, the house completely transformed into an old hut, in which the broken vessel was carefully put next to the chimney, patiently waiting for the owner of the house to fill their broken shapes with food.