The void of the darkness of the Cosmos, surrounded by blinks of stars, was slowly rocked by the sweet melody of the star Aeon. Everything seemed so alive and so asleep at the same time and if Michelangelo had seen that beauty, he would have definitely found a way to immortalize it on Earth, in the form of a famous mural, and it would have been for sure a New Miracle of the World.
Suddenly, Chaos’s eyes opened in front of Aeon and slowly blinked from the eyelashes, and, in the light of his glance, a trace of sorrow was sparkling, which he was carrying with him all over since he’d been betrayed by his family and forced to wander throughout the Cosmos in the form of two eyes of fire.
„Are you there?” Chaos’s voice, sent through a telepathic channel, has been heard, talking to someone unseen.
The Cosmos kept silent instead and only slowly trembled the coat of its eternal night. Then, Chaos closed his eyes and kept waiting in silence.
But he hadn’t to wait for long because the void in front of him started to slowly vibrate, then suddenly cracked, and a big light came out of it, illuminating the void, and, from that light, Jar’s body has been formed.
Seconds later, when Jar also opened his eyes, two Balances appeared behind him: one completely illuminated and one surrounded by darkness.
The two Balances were looking the same, but they had also something different in some details: the weights on their pans had different colors - those seen on the illuminated Balance were made from gold and their form was of young virgins, wearing long and white dresses, with blond hair and a black ribbon covering their eyes, a sign that one’s life and future were unknown and sometimes people only grope through life without knowing its true essence.
The second Balance instead, which was completely surrounded by darkness, had the same form of its weights, but the figurines were wearing black dresses and had black hair and no black ribbon on their eyes, a sign that death never comes unexpectedly, but always when it's the right time.
Appearing in front of Chaos, Jar slowly bent in front of him and stood like this, with his head bent, till Chaos didn’t open his eyes again and watched him. „You came!” Chaos said.
„Yes, Master! I came because my purpose is to show up, listening to your voice calling me to come.”
„And you brought the two Balances that you are guarding with you: the one of Life - Vāḻkkai and the one of Death - Iṟappu or how people call it, Maranam.”
„Yes, Master, I brought them too because it’s time to bring Earth back to life and the world all around. This is Yggdrasil’s and Life’s decision and you also know that Vāḻkkai has been the Tree of Life once, which had been dissipated by Genea’s hatred later and forced to float around with no material shape, but she still had a voice.”
„You three are right, but… whom should we give this purpose? At this moment, there’s nobody capable to have this destiny in his power. Helyos is too focused to chase Nyx away, on the limitless vault of the sky; Atlas - is too tired, carrying the Planet Earth on his shoulder, and Dike… well, Dike has another purpose. There’s still Lodur, but we can’t put another burden on his shoulders. He has enough with Eris, guarding her not to escape from Māṉsṭar Kēlaksi.”
„Father Chaos, there’s still Gaea. She already fulfills the function of Life on Earth, giving birth to the alive creatures and people. I think that giving this power to Mother Earth will be fair enough.”
„But still, Jar, you forget Gaea’s destiny and what is her real purpose on Earth.”
„However, she won’t ever betray us. And… I’m not saying that she must have this power forever. At least till the real Master of Life will be born on Earth, as the prophecy says.”
„The prophecy? What prophecy are you talking about, Jar? I… don’t know anything about any prophecy and… I don’t remember to have heard somewhere about such…”
Hearing this, Jar deeply looked into Chaos’s eyes and kept silent for a while. Then, he whispered: „Because this is a secret that we don’t have to know, Father Chaos, but the prophecy was born by two Masters: Life and Death, and they are those who should decide if the prophecy will happen or not.”
„Yggdrasil and Life!” Chaos murmured, and Jar slowly nodded in approval. „Then?”
„Yggdrasil has control over Life and Death. Yet, he won’t ever be reborn from humans, Father Chaos. But Iṟappu and Vāḻkkai will have a human shape on Earth and neither Yggdrasil has the power to know what human being will have this function of Death and a huge power for controlling Fate, flowing through his veins."
Saying this, Jar turned his head and watched Planet Earth which was slowly spinning around the sun, and 7 rings of fire, that surrounded the Planet, appeared in front of him as if Earth itself was trying to keep secret its future.
„If the Holy Tree also can’t see the future, then… what will happen to this Cosmos and how will we control its power then?”
Jar smiled, not taking his eyes off the rings of fire from around Earth: „we never had such a power, Great Chaos. We only thought to have it, but, in the end, it was just a great illusion,” and his eyes could finally see, behind those rings of fire, two daggers: Eftir Daudann and Lifid Ibloma.
When the light of the daggers dazzlingly shone and faded off 7 times, the 12 Magical Balances have been seen around Earth, slowly spinning, like on an axis: the Balance of Time and Space - Nēram Vāṉalai, the Balance of Life and Death - Iṟappu Vāḻkkai, the Balance of Good and Evil - Nalla Mōcamāṉa, the Balance of Light and Darkness - Oḷi Iruḷ, the Balance of Water and Earth - Nīr Pūmi, the Balance of Fire and Ice - Tī Paṉikkaṭṭi, the Balance of Power - Cakti, the Balance of Souls - Āṉmākkaḷ, the Balance of Wisdom - Ñāṉam, the Balance of Doomsday - Aṭuttaṭutta Tīrppukaḷ, the Balance of Shadows - Niḻal, and the twelfth Balance and the one which balances the sins of the world and which decides which path the dead one should take, toward Heavens or toward Hell - Īṭaṉ Narakam.
„And all twelve Balances will finally accept a single Master to dominate them, and that Master will be dignified to control the Balance of the Cosmos, known by us and by many as Themis,” the voice of Life has been heard floating around, but neither Chaos nor Jar had been amazed to hear her voice.
Seconds later, behind them, a huge Balance appeared, the one which had been destroyed when the fight between Eris and Chaos took place, and this was Themis, the Supreme Balance of the Cosmos, and its light seemed so pale seen by Jar and Chaos as if its unknown form was walking on the path toward the Purgatorium at that moment.
„Leave humans and Titans fight their battles, if necessary, but the prophecies instead, those born from the whispers of the Cosmos and which floated for millennia on the waves of the light and darkness to happen because, soon, the one meant to control this huge Power will be born and, in that creature, Life and Death will join and Earth will be a Planet full of power.
And, to be honest, not for nothing Atlas chose this Planet to carry on his shoulders when he has been created by Chaos. He saw life there, on Earth. He saw strong souls capable to fight for their freedom, for their life. Thus, Atlas fulfilled one of his purposes in this Universe - to show us the path to walk onto till will have peace all around. So, be wise, my dears, and wait. Humans and Titans will show us soon what really means to be strong,” Life said, and then she kept silent.
***
„You are asking me to give in to the dagger, you say?!” Goyan ironically asked, sitting on his throne, in his golden palace, and watching the unwelcome guests, who had come in front of him and had dared to ask him to give in to the most valuable thing he had - Eftir Daudann. „And… what I receive in return if I give you the dagger?” He cunningly asked.
His visitors kept silent instead and, because of this, Goyan has been forced to carefully watch each of them: Sephir was thoughtful, with her arms crossed on her chest, far behind her friends, but no matter how much Goyan didn’t stare at her, he understood that he wasn’t interested in her.
Then, the king looked at Fenrir, who was a few steps in front of his wife as he was trying to protect her this way with his own body if necessary and he was also staring with hatred at Goyan, furious to listen to the king’s dare to ask something in exchange for the dagger.
When to move his glance from Fenrir to Arion, Goyan spotted a slight sparkle of light over his heart and this made him curious. So, he stood up from his throne and, at a slow step, but sure while staring at that sparkle seen at the wolf’s chest, Goyan approached them.
Thus, only one step from Fenrir, he stopped and, suddenly stretching his hand in front, touched Fenrir’s chest.
Unpleasantly surprised by the king’s boldness, Fenrir grabbed Goyan’s left wrist and squeezed it, showing his fangs as if he was a wolf and this made Arion touch the handle of his sword, who was expecting an attack from Goyan.
Seeing Arion’s move, Bestla did the same, but she quickly took her hand off the handle, spotting that Sephir was calm, staring past Goyan, and this was something strange because if Fenrir had been in danger, Sephir would have done something to protect him for sure, but she was too calm and this was a sign that the king’s movement was just for curiosity.
„Are you sure of what are you doing, king, and that you really want to know this?” Sephir whispered, taking everybody by surprise and also making them stare at her.
Sephir instead didn’t look at any of them, but somewhere past them as if there was something seen only by her. „Sometimes is better for the secrets to remain secrets,” she said and, with a slight movement of her hand, she managed to make the medallion in the form of a star, which was on Fenrir’s chest, vanish and it has been seen on her palm soon.
Her sudden movement transformed Fenrir into a wolf, and Goyan, seeing the huge, black wolf in front of him, quickly crawled back and chattered, seeing the wolf’s fangs showed to him because Fenrir was definitely upset that he’d been touched without permission and that later Goyan stared at him as if Fenrir was one of his soldiers only.
Sephir instead didn’t bother because of the men’s pride. She only focused her glance on Fenrir’s medallion, which had a rounded base as if it was a coin.
Then, on the back part of the base, the fight between Eris and Chaos was carved while the front part had a huge lighted star engraved on it. Also, on the front part, miniature swords were seen crossed one on the other, positioned thus to point with their sharp top to the middle of the coin while their handles formed the sharp points of the star.
In the middle of the swords, surrounded from all over by the tops of their blades, a small eye was seen and it was similar to the one Mayar used for talking to each time she was entering her inner world: her mind's eye, but this one had, instead of the yellow, oval middle, a black one and a white one, separated in the middle by a zig-zag line.
But it was something missing from that medallion: the handle of one sword and the small, black sphere from the center of the eye.
„Why… where do you have this from?” Goyan stammered, seeing the star slowly shining in Sephir’s palm and she smiled.
„Where from? From Fenrir’s chest and while I have this star with me he can’t return to his human form.”
„But… how could you take it? That star can be taken from its master’s body only if…”
„…we are bound together by blood? Well, allow me to inform you something, king: I'm the wolf’s wife and when we joined our lives, he gave me, along with his heart, the right to touch this star.”
„This is madness,” Bestla whispered. „This is… is…”
„…the form of Aeon or of the Sphere of the Cosmos created by Chaos and which was later given to humans and Titans,” Sephir said, cunningly smiling. „Such a star was given to the Titans when Upprisinn was born and who is considered the Mother of the Rophion Kingdom, and the second part of the star was given to the humans… those of the City of the Sunset,” and she pierced Goyan with her glance, making him shudder because he couldn’t understand how she knew all this. It was a secret: known only by him and which seemed to be revealed at that moment by a crazy fairy, the wife of a wolf, who simply decided to get possession of his richness and his kingdom.
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„Charlatans!” Goyan hissed. „I don’t know who told you my secret or how did you find out this and… I’m not even curious to find out how, but…”
„…but you’ll give in to that dagger because you don’t have anymore the right to have it… not after we all saw how far goes your madness and how much you hurt your people,” the wolf growled and he took a few steps toward Goyan, who crawled behind his throne as if he was trying to find a shelter thus.
The wolf instead kept advancing. Getting to the stairs, Fenrir climbed a few of them, but he stopped and looked at Sephir, who hid the star in her palm, and thus she could communicate with her husband by telepathy. „It isn’t yet the time, Fenrir,” the wolf heard her voice in his head and this made him stop and grin unsatisfied.
The fact that the wolf stopped gave some courage to the king, who suddenly sat down on his throne and quickly looked throughout the throne hall: a dozen of his soldiers were also there, but they seemed to be frozen, an indication that someone, who could control them by magic, was there and, eventually, he saw who was the source of that power - Bestla.
She was playing with a kind of ball, made from a gelatinous material of a bright blue color, which was slowly waving and slipping on her palm and on the back of her hand as if it was a snake wrapped around a body.
Playing with that ball, Bestla was projecting mirrors all over the throne hall, positioning them in front of each solider and somehow forcing them to look at it and be incapable of even blinking, and this was giving the gelatinous ball the power to control their minds, continuously because it was sticky and no matter how inclined was Bestla’s hand, it wasn’t falling to the ground.
Also, because of the magic used with the ball, Bestla’s eyes seemed even brighter and the blue of her eyes was so beautiful and so charming, and this made Goyan be interested in her because she was looking like the girl that he saw in his dream once - a dream he had had still being a child.
In his dream, Goyan saw himself, the child, in his palace garden, trying to climb an apple tree to pick some apples.
Suddenly, through the branches of the trees, he saw a snake hissing at him while approaching him, and the child, frightened, fell to the ground and kept crawling back, still staring at the snake that was slipping on the bark, coming toward him.
The snake instead didn’t advance far and, in a blink of an eye, froze, and when the child Goyan looked back, he saw Bestla controlling the snake with a small mirror that she had in her hand. Then, she stretched her hand toward him, helping him to stand up and, face to face, they both smiled because the boy suddenly became an adult, and two children were playing around them: a boy and a girl and he understood that those kids were his and of that girl.
„The one predestined to be mine,” Goyan whispered. „The one who’ll give me a child!” He also mumbled.
But Arion, hearing those muffled whispers, thanks to his sharp hearing, grabbed the handle of his sword and headed toward the throne, ready to draw his sword and attack the king.
Being only one step behind Fenrir, the wolf turned his head and murmured: „he’s not worth it, Arion. Anyway, he won’t ever have what he’s asking for. But still: let’s listen to what he wants to tell us,” and Fenrir looked at Goyan, who fixed his glance into the wolf’s and said in a sure voice: „I want her: as my wife! If I have her, you’ll have what you want: the dagger!”
Arion grabbed the handle of his sword again, hopping mad because of the bold words he had heard, but he stopped, listening to the Bestla’s laughter: „Your wife, you say?! Well, do you at least have an idea who am I?”
„The fairy from my dream and the one destined for me,” Goyan told her, proudly.
„Well, let me correct you, king, and make you see the reality because I’m a kind person and I hate when people lie to themselves - I’m Bestla - the daughter of the God of Winds, of Boor, and the granddaughter of the Titan of the Ice, of Island. My mother was a Water Spirit. Her name was Edda and my grandmother is the first Titanide who had ever control over the cold, the ice, and the snow. Because of this, I also have in my power the ice and the snow, and my mirrors reflect the past of the souls. But… I don’t have written in my destiny the union of my life with a mortal.”
„The future can be changed, you, Bestla, Boor’s daughter. People have this in their power. It’s necessary only to believe and…”
„Then… fight with Arion,” and her words amazed everybody, who turned their head to her and stared at her in amazement. „In a fair fight: no weapons, no magic. If you defeat him, I’ll be your wife…”
„Bestla, this is crazy,” Sephir whispered, taking a few steps toward her sister, but Bestla didn’t even look at her - she just grinned with pleasure while saying: „… but if the winged horse wins then I’ll have the right to take everything I want from you. What do you say: do we have a deal?”
Her blue, charming eyes drove Goyan completely crazy, who wasn’t seeing anything else in front of him than the fulfillment of his dream: having Bestla in his, arms, in his bed, and two children with her, and he even saw those children, running in front of him as it happened into his dream. And, because of this, he wasn’t late to cunningly whisper: „deal!”
But he had a plan and he was sure that he wins because he never lost in front of anybody while having the dagger in his power which he was planning to use, by trickery, in that fight too, as he did before and, thinking that nobody was seeing him, he touched the blade of the dagger, hidden under his coat.
Yet, the sharp eyes of the wolf saw everything as Arion saw it, but they said nothing, and, around them, a big secret started to float.
***
Slowly walking in circles, the wolf Fenrir carefully looked at the fighters, who were in the middle of the battle ring: both were shirtless, with the hair grabbed in the middle of the head not to be a problem during the fight, the belt tied around the girdle and, around their hands, they both had wrapped ribbons as if they were ready for a boxing match.
On both sides of Fenrir, but at equal distance from him, on the circumference of the circle, were standing Sephir and Bestla, who were also watching that saint ritual of the two men before the battle: the fighters were carefully analyzing each movement of the foe, trying to understand how he was thinking and what movement he would do in the end and this way intending not to fall into the other’s trap.
Even so, Arion was nervous enough even if he was sure that he wins. But finding out about Goyan’s stupid requests made him lose his head and he couldn’t even calm down when Bestla sent him her good thoughts.
Then, was Goyan’s cunningness: in need, the instinct of survival suddenly awoke inside his being and, in his glance, the light of hope sparkled because only standing in front of a foe like Arion he understood the big mistake he made listening to his madness - he condemned himself to death, dreaming to have a goddess with magical power next to him and the only one who could give birth to his son.
But Goyan was also sure that he hurried to take that decision because if he loses in front of that young man, that was piercing him with his glance, he won’t lose only the dagger Eftir Daudann, but also his life because not for nothing Sephir showed him the star she took from the wolf’s chest: she intended to take his star too, the half of the wolf’s, and if he loses it, then he must die.
And to be sure that he won’t lose, Goyan took a last-minute decision: the best defense is the attack. So, he took a few steps toward Arion, but when to grab his arm, Arion jumped sideways and the king passed him in a hurry that he was about to lose his balance and fall.
Thus, Arion took advantage of Goyan’s clumsiness and kicked the king’s back, forcing him to kneel. Then, he jumped on the king’s back and put his arm around Goyan’s neck, immobilizing him and intending to strangle him this way to force Goyan to give in. But he also forgot a thing: haste makes waste. So, he right away jumped back, feeling the blade of the dagger Eftir Daudann passing by his girdle when Goyan hit like crazy.
„I said: no weapons,” Bestla hissed, furious to see that Goyan used tricks to win.
Goyan instead just smiled, still being in an attack position, and, gawped at Arion, who grabbed, on the fly, a small piece of cloth, thrown by Bestla to completely cover his left palm.
„Do you think that you can win this way?” Goyan ironically hissed, but his words just made Arion smile.
„Why not? A trick for another trick. You thought that by using a small dagger, which you believed that nobody spotted, you’ll defeat me. But: you forgot who I am.”
„Ah, right. I definitely forgot this: Soan, the protector of the Realms of Life! But what I don’t get is why are you fighting with me for getting an instrument of Death because Eftir Daudann definitely belongs to the Realm of the dead ones and not of this Earth.”
„Let’s just say that I just hate to lose. More when I see someone dreaming of something mine,” Arion growled unsatisfied and this made Goyan grimace, furious, understanding that Arion had feelings for Bestla, and when he watched the girl, he saw the same in her eyes: love for the winged horse.
Thus, her choice wasn’t random: she had confidence in the power of her love for Arion and that Goyan will be defeated eventually.
Well, if and if, by magic, Goyan wins, she also had her trick, but she never talked about it, at least not loudly, and she decided to wait till the last possible moment, believing in her beloved man.
Suddenly, Goyan’s hand started to badly shake, taking everybody by surprise.
„What kind of trick is this?" Fenrir hissed, furious.
„No one,” Sephir whispered. „It seems that Eftir Daudann changes his master,” and her words made Arion and Bestla stare at her, confused. „I saw this last night when Marry died in his arms because of the dagger. In that vision, I also saw how Eftir Daudann had been stabbed by someone in his chest too, but I never saw the face of the attacker.”
And the star from Sephir’s hand also changed: it started to brightly shine in a bright red as the blade of Eftir Daudann did.
Blinded by that light, Goyan covered his eyes with his arm and Arion had been also forced to do this.
But when Arion opened them back, their color changed from bright blue to red and this change scared Bestla too.
„What’s going on?” She whispered afraid. „Yātrīkar’s eyes in Arion’s glance. How’s this possible? He… he… is the Spirit of Life. How can Soan have an energy that brings death, flowing through his veins?”
Her words made Fenrir close his eyes and the place had been surrounded by a circle made from fire. And, in his inner world, the wolf was standing face to face with Arion, the one with red eyes, who was staring at Fenrir and was slowly shaking because even if he seemed to be controlled by evil, he still had enough power inside him to fight against that evil.
„Arion, look at me!” The wolf demanded and, after fighting for seconds with his ego, Arion listened to him and mirrored his glance into the wolf’s, and this made Fenrir’s eyes also change to red, but this was the color of the flames inside the wolf.
This exchange of glances formed, in Arion’s palm, a small sphere of air that was changing in size: back and forth, and also its color was changing repeatedly from blue to red and back and that sphere was Soan’s symbol, the symbol of Life, and this change of the sphere was also changing the color of Arion’s eyes, showing the world that the Spirit of Life isn’t that easily enslaved.
„You must choose, in the end, Arion, on whose side you’ll be - our side or of Yātrīkar’s, and you know that we won’t ever have an alliance with a Yātrīkar and this means that you’ll leave us.”
„But… that child, Yellen, is also a Yātrīkar, but she’s still by your side,” and, in Arion’s glance, the mistrust has been seen because he was feeling that he had no choice left in that argument but to fight against himself, even if he wasn’t guilty and it was something more that bothered him: the discrimination - while Yellen was so easily accepted between humans, despite her nature, Arion was forced to fight and somehow blamed for falling prey to a spell.
„That child was forced to be a Yātrīkar. You instead… they gave you the chance to choose this,” Fenrir whispered.
„I can’t oppose this. It’s beyond me,” Arion yelled and he suddenly vanished and forced Fenrir to turn back to the real world too.
Watching left, Fenrir saw that Arion had completely transformed: his eyes were red as his hair was. All over his body were seen red, thin veins through which was quickly flowing the blood, and as strong Arion was squeezing his arm around Goyan’s neck, as visible were the veins on his body and Arion got that chance to attack Goyan again when the king had been kneeled by a strange force. Also, the white of Arion’s skin slowly transformed and was coloring black.
„You dared to stain my body with innocent blood,” Arion hissed to Goyan, who was fighting very hard to release himself from his enemy’s trap. „You dared to tame me for millennia without glorifying my name and without knowing my true value and you must pay for this,” Arion yelled, in the end, and his skin totally colored black.
Suddenly, the inevitable took place: in Goyan’s chest the blade of Eftir Daudann has been stabbed and the king sighed, surprised by the unexpected death and his sigh was loudly heard around. Then, his glance lowered on the handle of the dagger and he saw two hands holding that dagger: his, on the handle, and Bestla’s above his hand, squeezing it and powerfully pushing the dagger in while her other hand was on Arion’s arm, forcing him somehow to turn back to his natural appearance.
When she finally understood what she did, Bestla screamed, terrified, and took a few steps back, and, as if she got tripped on something, she fell to the ground and started to crawl back, still staring at Goyan, who was piercing her with his frightened glance, that was slowly covering with the black cloth of death.
At the moment Arion took back his previous form, he had been so amazed to see that his arm was still around Goyan’s neck, squeezing it and that the king had the dagger stabbed into his chest.
Frightened, he suddenly released Goyan and took a few steps back. Then, listening to Bestla’s sigh, he ran toward her, kneeled in front of her, and, grabbing her arms, shook her strongly to make her come back to her senses and watch him: „Bestla, react!” He ordered her, but she was insistently shaking her head in denial. Only when he held her to his chest, she kept silent and close her eyes, trying to calm down.
Behind them, Fenrir approached his wife, who was still squeezing the star in her palm and, as if she was in a trance, she whispered: „and yet, I would have wished not to find out who the person from my dream was, the one who stabbed the king.”
„I know, Sephir, but… Bestla sacrificed herself in the name of love. Now she…”
„… she’s blamed forever to suffer, Fenrir. And… Eftir Daudann will choose a new master, but… who of the two will be now the new Master of Death?” And her frightened glance fixed into the wolf’s glance.
Fenrir instead was calm and he looked this way at his wife, trying to calm her down too because when he had talked to Arion, in his twilling world, Fenrir remembered a fragment from his past life: the real face of the Master of Eftir Daudann, but he preferred to keep it secret.
Behind the wolf, after Goyan’s soul left his body as if chased away by unseen magic, the dagger also came out of the king’s chest, and Goyan right away transformed into burning ashes, in just seconds, and soon vanished into nothingness.
Together with the dagger, the star from Goyan’s chest also exited and was seen floating in the air… then it moved through the void and unified with the star seen on Sephir’s palm.
The new star had got a blue-reddish color after being unified and completed and entered the wolf’s body again, allowing him to get back his human body.
But not the same happened with the dagger, as Sephir thought: it didn’t choose a new master… it just continued floating in the air but it had its sharp top pointing toward Arion and Bestla, who were still embraced.
Feeling that something strange was lurking them, Bestla and Arion looked at the dagger and they saw how its blade was coloring again in red, the same red which has been seen before in Arion’s glance when he had been possessed by the dagger.
Thus, Eftir Daudann kept secret the name of his new master. But, for a strange reason, from time to time, Fenrir’s face was reflected on the blade.