„Are you sure you want to do that?” Samaya asked Bestla in a whisper while both were in the water, up to the knees, in the same place where the young she-wolf helped Nathaniel to remember the past.
Bestla said nothing for a few seconds: she only stared at the small ice cube with a sphere of the same material inside it and which was guarding King Coal’s memories. Then, she shuddered, afraid of what she could see in those memories, especially that she’ll have to face his hatred for her once again. But yet - she mustered up her courage, deeply breathed in, and grabbed Samaya’s hand, which the young she-wolf stretched toward her.
Looking into Samaya’s eyes, Bestla finally said: „even if I’m afraid to face that fear, Samaya, I must do this because we aren’t the only ones in danger, but the whole world.”
„Then… let’s get started!”
Saying this, Samaya stretched her left hand in front, palm facing up, to the sky, and raised it at the level of her right hand that was holding Bestla’s hand, and, soon after this, that wooden cube, with Chaos’s eye engraved on it, which Samaya was using to „read memories,” started to float above her palm.
Actually, she received that cube for „reflections” as a gift from Lodur when she was still a little child and she still couldn’t talk to him otherwise than telepathically.
And this happened because, after the fight which Lodur and Gaea had with Mannar, Lodur asked for his brother’s permission to meet only Samaya in the Valley of Silence and, for the first time, the two brothers made a plan: to check how big Samaya’s power was.
To check her power, Lodur had to use Alabar: while standing in front of the little girl, about 12 meters away from her, he threw Alabar toward Samaya and asked the girl to use her entire power against the axis of the Galaxies.
The girl, however, didn’t know much about her power. So, she just stretched her hands in front, palms facing Alabar, and she closed her eyes. But, to her surprise, Alabar didn’t hit her with the power she was expecting to use the wooden stick against her.
But even if she didn’t feel the stick hit, Samaya stood with her eyes closed for seconds in a row. Then, she slowly opened them, shyly, and she has been so amazed to see that Alabar has been forced to float in the air by a kind of blue air that came out of her palms.
Amazed, the girl wanted to say something, but when she saw Lodur touching his lips with his index finger and motioning her to be silent this way, Samaya decided to listen to his advice. And she did well because if she had said something at that moment, even if she had used only telepathy, she would have interrupted the magic. But so, in that big silence that was living inside her, her magical channels intertwined, and, very soon, her power projected the image of the Cosmos from Alabar right behind Lodur.
Feeling something strange behind him, the Titan looked back and saw the limitless Cosmos projected on Earth, all around the Valley of Silence. Then, in the center of that projection, to the right of Lodur and Samaya, on both sides of them, as if they and Alabar were the middle axis of the Cosmos, the reflection of the star Aeon and of Māṉsṭar Kēlaksi showed up, and this made Lodur murmur extremely confused: „it can’t be! Jar?!”
For a moment only, Lodur saw Jar’s reflection between those two stars and that Jar was so kindly smiling. The Titan wanted to say something to Jar, but being afraid that it will scare Samaya and more seeing all this projected by her power, he kept silent and slowly turned toward her, intending to calm her down because she was only a child after all. But Lodur has been stunned, seeing Jar behind him, instead of Samaya while she was horizontally floating in front of the Spirit, with her eyes closed and with folded hands on her chest.
And Lodur also saw that Jar had one of Alabar’s wooden cubes in his hand - namely the one from the middle while Alabar had been split up into two, floating in front of the Titan. And… there was something else weird there: the part of Alabar, illuminated by the light of Aeon, was completely golden while the one from the left, which was right in front of the reflection of the black hole Māṉsṭar Kēlaksi, was completely black while the wooden cube from Jar’s hand was half white and half black.
„I see that you are still amazed by the unknown of the Cosmos, Lodur, you - the Titan of Balance and Fair Justice, but… there are still a lot of secrets still hidden from us, there… in the Cosmos,” Jar calmly said.
„Secrets? As?”
„As the fact that a Spirit like me chose to be reborn into a human shape from a Titan and that I chose to be „closed” in the fragile body of Dike’s girl.”
„That’s why Samaya can’t talk,” Lodur thoughtfully murmured.
„And you are right because being the Guardian of Aeon when Life decided this destiny for me, she had to take something from this child to make a small place for me to fit into her soul and she took the gift of talking and listening from her. But this gift will turn back to her soon when the Balance of Power will be restored.”
„The Balance? Why the Balance, Jar? As far as I know, Samaya is just Chaos’s messenger on Earth.”
„You are mistaken here, Titan Lodur: Samaya is the Time Glass - the one which guards the power of Aeon and of Māṉsṭar Kēlaksi, equally, inside her. But when Mannar killed Samandra on the river shore and he created Samaya’s double, the power from inside this child split up: Samaya took only the power of Aeon while the other girl has the power of Māṉsṭar Kēlaksi now. However, this division of power has been unfair and I mean here that not they have been who chose which power to have. But… it will come soon the time when they’ll meet each other, and if they choose on their own initiative to gather their forces, then Samaya will start to talk and hear. But, for this gift, she’ll be always forced to be tied by the other Samaya, forever.”
„The Light and the Shadow! The Evil and the Kindness! Life and Death!” Lodur whispered.
„Exactly. They will always be the shadow of each other as if going everywhere while holding hands because no matter how weird it doesn’t seem to others and no matter if those others think that it’s their own decision to be there together, these two girls are meant to be always side by side. And… there’s one more secret that I must share with you, Lodur, but you must keep it secret, even from Master Dike - one of the two Samaya will be who’ll open the Gates of Maranam!”
Suddenly, the sky started to deafeningly growl and black clouds covered it in seconds: the image of the Cosmos from behind Lodur suddenly vanished, as Samaya also vanished somewhere. Alabar fell to the ground: broken into two while Jar, the Lightened Spirit, became suddenly a Dark one, who was illuminating as the firelight around. Then, this new Jar’s words were heard floating all around even if Lodur saw that Jar’s lips weren’t moving: „don’t even try to understand the impossible, Titan! Only accept the Holy decision of the Cosmos and do everything to make Justice triumph over Unfairness. The Life and the energy of the world will take care of the rest just as those two children must fulfill their own destiny, the one they received as a birthright.”
The sky crackled then nine times behind Lodur and the same number of thunder lights pierced the horizon, after which the Silence and the Light turned back to the real world, and the Titan saw Samaya right in front of him, smiling while playing with her blue light, created from her power and this made Alabar, that wasn’t broken anymore, slowly rotate in the air.
Lodur’s hands, however, weren’t empty anymore: he was holding a small wooden cube in his palm with Chaos’s eye engraved on its upper face. And... watching it carefully, the Titan understood that it was the wooden cube he saw in Jar’s hands when he appeared in front of him, and, in the reflection of that eye engraved on the cube, Lodur saw the Cosmos and he understood that it was a gift for Samaya that she had to use to increase and control her power.
„Samaya, catch it!” Lodur told the girl, throwing the cube toward her.
Amazed to receive a gift, Samaya watched it with pumped eyes and she stretched her arms in front. But after catching it, the girl right away hid it in her pocket and she decided to use it only when it’ll be absolutely necessary.
However, when she and Bestla started to learn to control their power and the „Reflection,” they smoothed the cube to seem as if it was made from a glass material when it was actually only gilded with gelatinous substance by Bestla, making it have the same function as the mirrors created by her and this helped the little she-wolf to increase her power a lot.
At that moment instead, when the two young girls were standing face to face, touching the cube from both sides, they made it reflect Coallar’s memory on the lake’s surface as if it was a big mirror.
And the first memory they saw has been the one Coallar got after being closed inside Ionas’s bubble by Boor and Island, and then they „stole” his memories.
After this, a big wooden wheel has been seen, caught from a carriage of stars and when Samaya’s hand unwillingly touched the water’s surface, where the wheel was reflected onto, it started to move counterclockwise, and they saw king Coal’s memories, one by one.
***
„Coallar and Tenebre plan to use Mayar to release Mannar from his cell,” Samaya told the others when she and Bestla turned back to the camp.
„To release Mannar? In which way?” Fenrir asked.
„We couldn’t see this, but it seems that Tenebre has been already to the Rophion Forest, intending to find the hidden cell and try to take him out of there using only her power. However, it didn’t work and she’s after Mayar now,” Bestla added.
„And this means we have to go to Rophion Forest as soon as possible,” Sephir murmured.
„To go? We?” Fenrir asked confused because he knew very well that Sephir never went there and she never intended to go there someday, being too far from the kingdom of ice where she was taking her power from.
„Yes. To go… together because I’ll go with you,” Sephir said, watching her husband with love.
Actually, she thought a lot about this, about following Fenrir to Rophion Forest, if he had to go there someday, and she started to think about this since the day they married because even if she was a free spirit, she knew very well that she can’t stay away of her soulmate and that Fenrir and his family will turn back one day to their home, and this will bring her to a crossroad, forcing her to decide: to break up with him or follow him. But her love for him was so big and it was increasing every single day. That’s why Sephir took the right decision: to follow her husband.
„Sephir is right,” Island said. „Neither Kiago Forest nor Tenebre’s Forest is a strategic point to be attacked by Coallar and Tenebre, who are controlled by Eris. But I’m sure that they’ll attack Rophion Forest, intending to destroy that People as they destroyed the Noear and Siar People. Or… at least they’ll try to do that.”
„But… what I don’t get is why they have their knife into Rophions,” Arion loudly wondered and he made the others stare at him in amazement. Arion instead didn’t look at any of them, but he kept staring at a stone that was lying not that far from him. „I think that it’ll be a good idea to follow Mayar all the time. Thus, we can impede her to approach Mannar’s cell and release him.”
„That’s a damn bad idea,” they heard Dike’s voice not that far from them and when they look there, they saw Dike and Lodur approaching them.
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„Uncle!” Samaya happily hailed. „I knew that you are responsible for my father’s missing right at the crack of dawn. And… I wasn’t wrong.”
„As you actually never do that,” Fenrir unhappily murmured because he never could „feel” Lodur when he visited Earth.
Samaya instead was always very good at this, and he was often wondering if they are really twins or if someone just lied to them that they are, and each time he was thinking so, Fenrir was feeling the sweet caressing of his father’s palm slapping the back of his head because no matter what Fenrir wasn’t doing to hide his thoughts of his father, he never could do that, and this was irritating him so much because he always felt vulnerable in front of his father, even if he never knew why he felt like that.
Actually, Dike also didn’t know why he could hear each of Fenrir’s thoughts. He even tried to find out this by talking to Lodur and Gaea about this, and he even asked the elders of the humans’tribes, but nobody ever could give him a logical answer. That’s why, in time, Dike decided that it’ll be better to wait and that he’ll find out soon the answer to that question in due course.
„Why do you say that’s a bad idea, Titan Lodur?” Island asked. „Arion’s words seem to be very logical and…”
„…just as nobody can’t stop the Time, nor us can’t impede someone’s Fate to be fulfilled,” they heard Nathaniel’s murmured answer.
Turning their heads toward Nathaniel, they saw him standing by Malon, only a few steps from Samaya, who he was actually following almost everywhere lately, and this made the others smile and snicker at them, each time they were seen together, calling them „in love pigeons.” But those words never bothered Nathaniel because he knew that it was true: what he started to feel for the young she-wolf was true and sincere, and he was always ready to be by her side.
„The boy is right,” Lodur added. „The Army of Evil will try to attack Rophion Forest because namely there is the Gate of Aeon on Earth, in that forest, and if and if they can open that Gate, then it will be very difficult to fight against them or defeat them.”
„And… to defend our People, our Realms, and our Dignity… we must be there!” Dike said in a whisper. „I think that we left them alone for so long already! It’s time to turn back to my people because they need their leader with them when Fate itself seems to have turned its back upon them. I must be there!”
„Then… we’ll follow you too, Master Dike!” Nathaniel said, and his words amazed everybody. „The People of Siar will join you and the Rophions in this battle.”
„Listen, Nathaniel, I know you are brave, but the People of Siar suffered already too much in this long wandering. I don’t think that it’ll be fair for them to be forced to fight in a war that isn’t theirs,” Boor said.
„Allow us to think differently, God Boor because if the People of Siar was chosen to carry on the elements of the Clock of Time in their blood, it must be for something, and just to stay here and wait while wondering when they attack us next time, I think it’ll be a real cowardness. While we are together, we still have a chance to survive… all of us. But if we separate… I think nobody knows how we’ll end,” Malon confidently said.
„This boy is right, brother. The People of Siar can’t stay aside anymore. This war involved them too, right from the beginning, just as it involved Baradar and the People of Noear in this. Not for nothing they’ve been the first in being attacked and defeated and not the Rophions. Evil always attacks first those who are still weak, thinking that he’ll become stronger later. But evil has been wrong because he made them stronger, unwillingly it made them stand together all the time, and this made the Rophions stronger too. This fight and this war must be for everyone!” Lodur told Dike.
However, Dike continued to muse around for a while. Then, he turned and looked at those still alive from the People of Siar, which had been the Glory of the World once, along with the Rophions and the Noears.
But he understood that many of them were children and elders only, and so few of them were still capable to fight. Then, many of the Siars were innocent women, whom he wouldn’t have forced ever to enter a war, just as only a few of that People were still capable to fight: about 150 in number, the men of Siar People, who slowly approached Nathaniel, gathering in smaller groups.
And no matter how Dike didn't try to see fear or reluctance to fight in that war, in their glance, he saw nothing else than a desire to win, a desire to be free again, and courage while dreaming to end their eternal wandering.
„Well then! The women, the elders, and the children will stay here. We can’t expose them in this battle because…”
„…I’ll lead them to the Realms of Ice. Queen Inlan Diar and our soldiers will defend them there,” Island confidently said. „I’ll go with them first, leading them on a safe path toward my kingdom, and when I see them all safe, I’ll join you in battle because, even though I’m just an old ice dragon, I’m still a dragon that can be useful in this war,” and he winked at a 3-years-old girl that was insistently watching him from behind her mother, and this playful gesture of Island made the small girl loudly laugh, and her innocent laugh made others burst to laugh too because that laugh was filling everybody’s heart with hope for a better future, even if each of them knew that there will still be harsh times to live in the future, times that will force them to split up and suffer in silence, far away from their beloved family. But even so, none of them was ready to give up.
***
Nymphs'music was heard all over the Mountain of Fear. A powerful sound of pan flute was crossing the horizon, making the currents of air slowly shake in the dance of the green blades of grass, in the sweet melody of the tree leaves, in the whisper of the mountain streams, and even in the fairy-like presence of the wild animals, here and there, that were exiting their dens, looking at the sky while trying to understand what fairy came to their home and who was singing at that moment so wonderfully, and this was making the mountain be a Realm of Splendor.
Slowly advancing on a winding, mountain path, Mayar stopped and looked back, and her sudden move amazed Morena a lot, who was following her, in silence.
That’s why Morena also stopped and looked in the same direction. But she saw nothing special: except the movement of the grass seen around and feeling the sweet touch of a gust of wind on her skin that was both warm and cold at the same time.
„Something happens?” Morena asked Mayar.
„The song of Oreads (the mountain nymphs), of Dryades (Forest Nymphs,) and of Napaeae (the Nymphs of the Green Valleys),” Mayar whispered and she suddenly saw the spectacular dance of the nymphs, and she also saw that many of them had panflutes touching their lips while a fairy-like melody was heard all around, accompanying their dance.
„The song of Nymphs? But this is…,” Morena whispered, preoccupied.
„Nature's call to war,” the girl whispered. „Very soon… that war that scares so much both humans and nature will start. Very soon… everything around will start to prepare for long battles and it seems that nymphs started already to prepare for this.”
„Well, you might be right. They always start to prepare for something in advance because they know so well how much pain will bring this war in their homes, on their lands: nature,” Morena murmured and sadly smiled. „And yet, we must be aware that there’s nothing we can do to impede this war because each time we think that we could avoid a battle, the Wheel of Time starts to move back, so fast, even if we think that we just stay in place, and the time brings tragic events back in our lives this way, forcing us to remember that the time passes so fast and if we don't cherish it, then we’ll waste it in vain.”
„It’s true, but yet… it seems to me so useless to prepare for something that you never saw,” Mayar hissed the words through her teeth, and then she kept moving further.
Morena sat still for a few moments, feeling the whisper and the harsh breathing of the wind closer and closer. Then, when she understood that it won’t help her to understand something, she followed Mayar that was already far from her, climbing onto that mountain path toward the top of the mountain: where the knife of the wind cuts to the bones, where its harsh breath never makes you feel like home, and where you understand that you are closer to death as you’ve never been, and namely this made Morena wrap the warm shawl around her body, covering her tender shoulders with it.
***
Arriving at the small mountain plain in front of Ahi’s grotto, Morena has been so amazed to see the same tents of the red foxes that she saw many years ago. And… in a blink of an eye, she remembered that night spent in the foxes’village when she met Ahi. But what made her slowly shake has been to spot again the big pyre right in the middle of the village, which was burning like the one seen on that faraway night.
Then, her glance moved toward the entrance to the grotto when she heard a rustle and she focused it on Ahi, that was standing in front of the entrance, staring at her.
However, none of them seemed amazed to see each other, as if they saw each other a lot in those past years or they’d never been separated for more than a few moments. Even so, none of them said something either.
The only one who said something has been Mayar, who hissed through her teeth toward Ahi and Inmar that were only two steps from her, staring at her: „she stays!” Then, the girl entered the grotto, without watching Ahi and Inmar, and this has been a painful blowing for Inmar, who has never expected to see Morena again, and more… that she’ll be brought to their camp by Mayar.
„Brother, I think that…,” Inmar whispered, trying to make Ahi react because she disliked the idea to see the woman there: she didn’t know why, but Inmar was feeling something weird inside her, something similar to guilt, and she hated that feeling felt in her chest.
Without watching his sister while staring into Morena’s eyes which seemed as if they lacked life at that moment, completely lacking feelings also, Ahi murmured: „she stays!” and he followed Mayar then.
But his answer didn’t calm Inmar down, who approached Morena. Only one step from the woman, she deeply looked into her eyes while mumbling: „Why are you here? I think that I’ve been clear enough, 13-years-ago when I told you to forget Mayar. Now instead, I see that…”
„How can someone tell a mother to forget a child when she never felt maternal love in her soul?” Morena told Inmar with reproach while taking a step-in front.
However, such words didn’t please the fox and she suddenly grabbed Morena by the arms, squeezing them. Then she pushed the woman back, forcing her to approach the edge of the abyss that was seen only a few dozen meters from the grotto. „You don’t even know who you are standing against, stupid mortal! I won’t allow you to break the egg in my own pocket, not after such hard work I’ve done all these years. Mayar isn’t your child anymore. She’s our child and she’s…”
„That was the problem,” Morena whispered, disappointed to see that the one she considered a good friend was a traitor in fact. „You are afraid that Mayar will find out that you had something to do with her birth after such a scumbag betrayal for her mother.”
„Afraid? Don’t be…”
„…stupid?! No, I’m sure about this and I can see this in your eyes, Inmar. I can see this in the same eyes that looked at me with feigned admiration in the past and which I considered the eyes of a good friend once.
I still don’t know how you managed to cheat on me then, but you did this and I must accept that: I’m the only guilty person for being blind and following you that night, even if my heart yelled at me not to do that, desperately asking me to turn back.
But I have my mind clear now and I won’t allow you to deceive me once again with a sweet voice, and nor you’ll make me leave this place, even by threatening me, because I know that I must be here, with my child, even if this means that I can die in your hands. And the same Fate I believe in now has been the one which deceived me then, by bringing you in front of me and making me the mother of a red fox. But… I can see that Mayar’s heart hasn’t been completely controlled by evil and I still hope to make her live a quiet life between humans, someday.”
Inmar sketched an ironic smile. „Among humans? Do you think that a fox can live among humans after feeling the sweet taste of blood on the top of her tongue? You are a real dreamer, Morena. Just as you’ve been 25 years ago. But a fox will never change her nature, even if humans use to do that.”
„You are wrong, Inmar. Foxes have a heart too and I’m sure I can get to my child’s heart, giving her all my love. I’m her mother, after all.”
Inmar, who was about to throw Morena into the abyss, squeezed even harder the woman’s arms.
But on Morena’s face wasn’t seen any grimace - neither of pain nor of fury or disappointment: she suffered too much in her life and onto too many paths she walked while trying to find her girl to give up at that moment so easily when she just found her, even if her life was in danger.
Suddenly, their unequal „fight” has been interrupted by Ahi, who grabbed Inmar’s hand and squeezed it, hissing her the words through his teeth: „even if foxes cheat and hurt, they must listen to their master, Inmar. As far as I remember, you and your foxes chose me as your leader 13 years ago. Or maybe something changed meanwhile?”
Inmar stared at her brother, furious, and she saw that famous fireball forming in the palm of her brother, and she understood that, for an unknown reason for her, he was by Morena’s side. „Do you remember sweet moments now, brother?” She telepathically told to Ahi, but he only sketched a devilish smile.
„Even if it’s like you say: it’s none of your business, Inmar. So, don’t touch what is mine,” and he pushed Inmar back, forcing her to fall to the ground. Then, he turned his back to Morena, demanding her: „follow me!”
And Morena followed him right away, and not because she would have been afraid of Inmar, but because she was extremely curious to find out what was next and decide thus how she must act to win because she came there being convinced to take Mayar away from there and release her from the claws of the evil.
While Morena was heading toward the entrance to the grotto, Inmar pierced her with her furious glance, still sitting on the ground, in the same position she fell after being pushed by Ahi. „Traitor! Inmar murmured because she really felt that Ahi betrayed her when he chose Morena instead of her, even if she helped him always all those years.
Anaya instead managed to calm her down when she approached the fox and offered her arm to stand up. Then, she caressed her cheeks and kindly told her: „don’t fight against maternal love, Inmar or you’ll always lose.”
Inmar mirrored her glance into the old fox's eyes, but she saw nothing in them and this made her anxious because each time Anaya was talking to her about maternal love, she managed to make Inmar shudder because she always wanted to meet her real mother, to feel at least for a moment her love, to listen to her sweet voice calling her name because this was something Inmar has always dreamt of, but she never had, even though Anaya tried to offer her all the love her heart was capable of.