The rustle of the silvan water, the whisper of the branches moved by the warm gusts of wind, the song of the wild beasts, and the weird sound of drums that started to be heard all over, from nowhere, somehow deafening the surroundings with their ghost-like representation, were part of the travel of Dike and his fellows, that were crossing the forest, walking on that long way home, as something absolutely necessary for them to listen to while they were walking onto that dangerous path which could have been the last road on which they could have ever stepped on Earth.
However, even if everybody considered those sounds of nature and drums as being weird, nobody could remember when they started to hear them, being too immersed in thoughts, in memories, in re-experiencing past events because leaving the places where they’d been born and where they’d spent so many years of their life and hitting the road toward new adventures, wasn’t as easy as it looked like at first glance: the emotions, the doubts, and the fears were overwhelming them sometimes because even if the People of Siar was used to a long way, they never walked beyond Kiago Forest or Tenebre’s, which had been their home for more than 600 years since they left Rocu Forest after running away of the havoc.
But it wasn’t difficult just for humans to leave their homes. Dike and the others thought the same: that it’s always difficult to hit the road. But they also understood very well actually that living in fear of seeing everything destroyed by evil, and more - being all about the fairy-like places like Rophion Forest, was even more stuffy and hard than the feelings they felt in their chests while thinking about the long way home they had to travel to, about tiredness, about the difficulties they would have had to face in the way and also about that maybe some of them won’t make it in that battle, that maybe someone of them won’t see that beautiful, secular forest so well-known by others as Dike’s home: the forest that he transformed into his kingdom, making it to be the Magical Realm of the Rophions.
They suddenly stopped at the edge of a Glade when Dike raised his hand, motioning to the others that it was time to be on guard. But even so, even if they felt danger all around, that Glade seemed deserted and wild. Only the beauty of flowers, the green of herbs, and the fragrance of nature around betrayed it as being an alive place.
Fenrir, Arion, and Nathaniel pushed through the others and approached Dike.
„Something happens, papa?” Fenrir asked the Titan, observing the horizon. „It seems sure and extremely calm.”
„Namely this silence bothers me,” Dike answered, frowning, trying somehow to imitate Fenrir when he was in the skin of the wolf, sniffing the horizon.
But even if he did the same as Fenrir was doing when he was trying to smell the danger, Dike didn’t feel the same because even if the Titan had wolf blood flowing through his veins, he never transformed into one. Thus, his olfactive sensors weren’t so well developed as Fenrir’s and Samaya’s because they’ve been the first ones who managed to blend in two worlds, totally opposed: one of the beasts and one of the humans, without losing any characteristics of none of the specimens, especially when they were living as the other part of themselves and we are talking here about that when they were in the skin of the wolf, the two were content only to help and protect the others or themselves without getting maudlin just as the humans used to do, and when they were living among humans, the twins weren’t standing out in relief because their human characteristics weren’t betraying them as having another soul inside them, a savage one, so weird and privy for others.
„Maybe one of us should go and check if the road is safe?!” Arion said, looking at Dike, who was with his back to him. But the Titan thought differently.
„I consider this risky,” Dike eventually said, taking Ionas out of its scabbard. But the blade of the sword didn’t scatter its blue light around as it was doing each time an enemy was near them. However, the Titan was still nervous and preoccupied.
Samaya, Bestla, Sephir, and Yellen were long behind Dike, at about half of the line of humans, because they preferred to stay with those who were barely advancing while carrying heavy bags in their backs and, if necessary, the girls could help them to put it on their backs or leave it on the ground.
Suddenly, Sephir got nervous and touched the tail of the whip of winds - Cattai. However, she didn’t take it from her girdle, but she stood like that, touching it while looking around preoccupied.
„Sephir, what’s happening?” Bestla asked her, finally spotting the preoccupation in her elder sister’s eyes.
„The Forest! It becomes savage!” Sephir feverishly said, and the people from around her got also nervous, murmuring about what they heard - a murmur that finally got to Dike and the others’ears, that were at the edge of the Glade, trying to understand the reason for that silence.
But they’ve been so amazed to hear, after the humans’murmur, a loud tuck of unseen drums all around them while the wind woke and the trees parched as if preparing for the fight.
„That’s not our wind,” Boor made a joke, approaching the others because he stood behind, along with Malon, to make sure that they won’t be followed by mean intruders.
„What would that mean, exactly, God Boor? You are the God of Winds. How’s this possible that…?” Nathaniel wondered, preoccupied.
„Well, my friend, allow me to tell you a story… from many stories I guard in my bag with secrets: even if I’m the God of Winds, not all of them are in my service. There are three winds that don’t listen to anybody: Kkāṟṟu - the Wind of the Desert, Savaṉṉā - the Wind that wanders the fields of the Underworld, and Aḻivu - the Wind of Havoc and Destruction. This last one is the most feared by people, animals, and even by the whole world because each time Aḻivu crosses a land, it lets only loss and despair behind him.”
„And… which one is after us now?” Malon asked, staring thunderstruck around as if what happened at that moment was all Greek to him. More: Malon slowly shook, feeling cold blow like ice on his skin even if the wind suddenly stopped blowing.
„Aḻivu!” Sephir murmured, watching back, even if there was nobody seen, and the murmur among humans started to be heard again.
Suddenly, around them, another cold blowing of wind was felt. But no matter how mad that wind was blowing, giving a shiver to the trees and to the herbs, it couldn’t remove the humans from their place, even if it seemed to be its intention because Boor and Sephir, touching the tails of their whips Cattai, managed to control the intensity of Aḻivu somehow, even if Boor said before that he can’t control that wrecker wind.
A deafening shriek, heard high above them, made people wince, and many of them bowed low as if being afraid not to be taken in the clutches of some mysterious or evil bird and become her prey.
„From where one hears?” Dike asked shouting because even if that scream deeply entered their brains, making them shake inside, the Titan couldn’t understand whose it was.
„The Hawks,” Yellen said in a whisper, with her eyes fixed on the sky, looking through the hole made by the trees'branches, at those a few dozen of Hawks Pern, which were making a pass over the forest, looking for someone or something.
„Cronus’s spies!” Fenrir shouted this time, gnashing his teeth, and showing his fangs later. „Let’s hide! Thus, they won’t leave us alone!”
„I totally agree with Fenrir! If we hide till they pass, they’ll lose our trace! So, everybody to the shelter!” Nathaniel gave the command and his people didn’t expect a second invitation - they hid where it has been possible: in the bushes, behind the trunks of the trees, or in the hollows of the trunks, fallen to the ground since long ago, and where the wild animals lived once.
„What I think is that’ll be a damn good idea to measure noses with those hawks,” Bestla furiously murmured, playing with her little arrow and intending to raise above the forest and chase the hawks away. But, when she crossed her arms on her chest and closed her eyes, murmuring some incomprehensible words, someone grabbed her by the collar and forced her to touch the ground with the tiptoe again, even if she was already about 1 meter above it.
Angry, the girl opened her eyes, making a grimace. But she stared round-eyed when she saw, right in front of her eyes, Boor’s big nose while his black like coal eyes were sparkling like the fire because of fury. „What?” Bestla finally managed to mumble.
„If someone tells you to be as quiet as a mouse and don’t even show your nose from your hiding place, it’s because that person met that devil we are facing now already. But you are looking for your death, it seems to me because it hasn’t been enough for you what happened to you and Arion when you fell prey to Ian Gyar’s magic. You still want to be hurt again, don’t you?” Boor hissed through his teeth.
„And why I’m the scolded one now?” Arion murmured. But a nudge in his back, pocked by Fenrir, made him keep silent and withdrew to the shelter.
Bestla did the same thing - she hid in a safe place and not because she was so eager to do that, but because she had no choice, and to escape from her father’s hand was something beyond her ability.
More than that: after grabbing his daughter by the collar, Boor didn’t release it even for a second, dragging Bestla behind him while mumbling to her to be a nice girl and listen to what he said or she’ll finally see what means to face Boor’s anger.
Actually, Bestla knew very well what her father was made of because not only once did she manage to infuriate him, still being a child, and when she and Samaya started to show up all over unseparated like Siamese twins, they’ve been in trouble for so many times and this, of course, had bad effects for their skin too because both Dike and Boor weren’t the kind of fathers that will have pity upon their own child or will let him unpunished if this one is a troublemaker.
And, as Fenrir wasn't quite the clean potato and he had to stand the racket so many times, Samaya, as his twin sister, couldn’t be different: so, she also felt Dike’s hand „sweetly caressing” her back or grabbing her by the hair or by the ear as it happened to Bestla.
But, even if watching Bestla and Boor’s bickering was something between comic-tragic and also fun to watch, the People of Siar suddenly had to calm down its murmur because of the silence that surrounded them all of sudden and that was so tricky, giving the feeling of being alone there.
However, it was only an illusion because the hawks turned back and the humans had to hide again, after leaving their hiding places, thinking that they were already safe.
„Do you think they are after us?” Nathaniel asked Fenrir in a whisper while they were both hiding after the trunk of a big tree, which had fallen across a spruce open wood, on the elbows.
„I’m sure that we are their target! Even if it surprises me because Cronus knows well about Eris’s plans to dethrone Chaos with Tenebre and Mannar’s help, and if this happens, Uranus will be slaughtered then, and Cronus won't get also off scot-free of all this. But… it still seems that he preferred to join the evil and not to help his father.”
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„No,” Samaya’s voice has been heard behind him, making both of them wince because they didn’t see her coming.
„You’ll kill me once with your stupid habit of sneaking around and all this due to Zeal and her… cobras, who taught you this stupid trick,” Fenrir unhappily mumbled, but he stared in amazement seeing Samaya smiling. „Does it seem funny to you?!
„Should I cry then?! You are too gentle, brother, and the girl between us it’s me,” Samaya made a joke, winking at Fenrir. „Back to ours: I’m sure that Cronus didn't send those hawks after us, even if I still think that it’ll be better to stay hidden till they leave because I consider that it’ll be a bad idea to reveal to him that we are heading to Rophion Forest.”
„And… if he isn’t after us, what does he look for then?” Nathaniel asked.
„Mannar’s nook. At least this is what I think because if choosing between the throne and his back, Cronus will fight to have that black diamond Mannar wares between his horns first, then to slaughter him, and only after that he’ll breathe a sigh of relief on that throne,” Samaya answered him in a soft voice, gently watching him.
„And… did you deduce that by yourself or did you again ask for the famous „help” from the Cosmos?” Fenrir teased her, referring to her ability to talk to Chaos.
Samaya instead only gave him a harsh laugh, mumbling something „pleasant” about him, but incomprehensible, even if Fenrir, seeing her lips moving, pricked up his ears and narrowed his eyes, trying to understand how she „blessed” him that time.
But he had to give up because that feature of saying things without giving herself away was something fitting Samaya like a glove and it was something characteristic only to her because she learned to use that trick of talking when she was barely a child and she started to normally talk, and she invented that trick to use it only when she wanted to hide something from the others, but still not to keep it inside her.
Carefully watching around, Dike saw the hawks heading North eventually, and after their straight flight and not in circles as till that moment, the Titan understood that the birds gave up on the idea to find something in that place of the forest.
„Let’s go!” Dike gave the command, putting Ionas in its sheath. „We are safe now. Cronus’s hawks went North and I don’t think they’ll turn back soon.”
„I think so, too, father, for if they are really looking for Mannar, they’ll try to check other areas too, and not only this one,” Samaya said, approaching Dike.
„Even if they look for Mannar so feverishly, they won’t find him because Gaea and Lodur took care to hide him well, and Cronus doesn't have the ability to find Mannar without the help of those two Titans,” Dike said, smiling.
„Why? Cronus is as strong as the two Titans are. If he wants…,” Boor started his speech, but he kept silent, seeing Dike grinning.
„They won’t find him, even if they drain Cronus’s entire power because if two Titans join their black magic to hide something from someone, they can make it impossible to find that place or thing for eternity, and, as a shred of true evidence: Mannar is still closed, for 13 years already. Hardly someone will find him,” Dike said, somehow proud of his brother’s deed.
„You have forgotten about the other Samaya, father. About Mayar. She has written in her destiny to find that devil,” Fenrir murmured.
„That’s another story, my boy, but there’s still necessary to hurry to get to Rophion Forest till she’ll find that cell and, if possible, to ruin her plans because even if she manages to take him out of that cell, I intend to make him pay for every single evil thing he did in his life,” Dike furiously growled, gnashing his teeth because he was waiting for the moment when he finds Mannar and this was for so long already, dreaming to break his neck and make him pay for Samandra’s death this way.
***
„Coallar! Coallar! I found him!” Tenebre entered king Coal’s grotto, madly screaming her happiness to have found Mannar.
Inside instead was total silence, and she found it weird eventually while advancing through the winding corridor that was leading toward the depths of the mountain because silence had never been a specific feature for those places.
However, Tenebre didn’t bother about that silence at first. Only when she's been halfway from the throne hall of the Kingdom of Coal, did she see what made her worry: the torches on the walls - they didn’t ignite as they used to do and there weren’t also those cobra-shaped stone figurines, that she considered her symbols, next to the torches.
Actually, who placed the stone figurines next to the torches has been Tenebre and she did this after what happened with Anaya because Tenebre hoped that this way everybody that will ever enter that place will know who was in fact king Coal's wife and won’t dare ever to take him from her again.
„What happens here?” Tenebre wondered and hurried to the throne hall.
Getting inside instead she stared thunderstruck at Coallar, who was still floating inside that strange, transparent bubble: something that she has never seen before.
Stopped only one step from the threshold, Tenebre murmured Coallar’s name, but he didn’t say a word and also his weird presence wasn’t felt around.
„Coallar, what’s going on? Why are you inside that…?” but she kept silent, spotting the ghost of the young Anaya, appearing from behind the throne.
„You!” Tenebre furiously shouted and took two steps toward the young lady with the intention to hurt her. But she stopped when she suddenly hit a current of air that threw her away from the place where Anaya was and that hit made Tenebre feel her bones cracking when she noisily touched the ground. „The Aura! Ionas’s aura! Ah, that devilish sword and its scallawag master, Dike!”
Running her eyes over the young Anaya, that was at that moment right in the middle of the hall, with her hands crossed on her chest, over her heart, as if she was praying or something, Tenebre gnashed her teeth while mumbling: „you, do you know something about the one who came here with Dike?” But Tenebre didn’t hear any answer from Anaya, who kept staring at her, in silence, waiting for what was coming.
Wailing at the pain of the loin that she suddenly felt so harsh piercing her body, Tenebre stood up eventually and took a step in front.
However, she didn't advance further when she felt the magma of the alive energy coming out of that transparent wall that was separating her from Anaya. But something was making her feel agitated. So, Tenebre decided to see what was bothering her and, because of this, she stretched her hand in front and touched that wall.
At the moment Tenebre’s palm touched the wall, a strand of fire came out of the palm and, touching the wall projected by Ionas’s bubble, the fire colored it to crimson in some places, forming a kind of net of red veins through which was flowing a liquid with such a speed that it could have been compared with the vital signs of a human being or with the Christmas tree lights that were brightly sparkling.
But the fire that was coming out of Tenebre’s body didn’t cross the wall that was protecting Anaya as if the place where she was had been a separate area from the bubble inside of which Coallar was, surrounded by the same transparent wall because as Dike told Boor and Island, Tenebre didn’t have the power to take Coallar out of that cell.
„The Sphere of Life,” Tenebre murmured eventually, approaching the bubble more, and, as much as possible, she touched its wall.
As if by magic, Coallar’s body rotated inside of the bubble and he turned his face toward Tenebre, staring at her with his empty, lifeless eyes.
But even so, even if king Coal’s eyes seemed empty, Tenebre saw in them the same memories Anaya sent to Coallar to punish him: Anaya’s biggest secret.
„A child!” Tenebre mumbled. „Coallar, do you have a child with that mortal?”
However, not the fact that she finally found out the secret that the ghost was hiding from them both made the Black Queen shudder. What made her afraid was to realize that she was losing power because even if she knew about the affair of Coallar with the mortal and she found out about that affair due to her big power, Tenebre never saw the truth in the ghost’s eyes, that she had had a child with the great king of Coal, even if she and Coallar have seen Anaya around them for so many times since she died and it was closely related to the fact that a third force was hanging around them, influencing their lives.
„Who can be the third force which has always hidden the mortal’s secret from me?” Tenebre feverishly wondered, staring afraid around, but everything was looking as she knew it for hundreds of years already since she met Coallar and she also knew that there couldn’t be the power of Titans or of Eris in that grotto because Tenebre could feel their power well.
She suddenly winced and looked afraid behind her, toward the entrance to the grotto, seeing all the white ghosts gathered there, but they didn’t come at her command, but influenced by a stranger, listening to his command.
„Tell me, my dear ones, what these realms are hiding from me? Whose force do I feel around? Who dared to declare me war and designate his territory here, in the grotto that is mine?” Tenebre madly shouted and, from between the ghosts, she saw Ian Gyar approaching her. „You!”
The young Anaya shouted afraid, seeing Ian Gyar, and run to hide behind the throne again. But even so, after a few seconds of hiding, she dared to look at what was happening between Ian Gyar and Tenebre.
Ian Gyar stopped at only one step from Tenebre, not losing her from his sight, and he devilishly grinned: „It seems that you could feel my presence around you, eventually, after centuries of being here,” he said to her with irony.
„No. Not after centuries, snake because the Magic you have now, floating in your veins, isn’t yours,” Tenebre hissed the words, trying to poison him with their meaning, but she only managed to make Ian Gyar burst laughing. „What is so funny? Did I say something comic”?”
„Comic... no, but I finally understood your foolishness and… that you are afraid, Tenebre,” Ian Gyar told her, slowly bending toward her. „Why? What are you afraid of if you consider yourself extremely powerful? The real Master of the Black Magic? Much more superior than the other Evil Mago?!”
„Because this evil is heading its force against us,” Tenebre feverishly murmured, looking again afraid around. „This new evil will swallow all of us, will devour us, and it will finally take over everything that was ours once,” and she took a few steps in front, analyzing each detail of the grotto.
Ian Gyar skeptically looked behind her, wondering if she was crazy or if she was only pretending to be. But he quickly understood that what she said was right when the fire that was piercing the wall of the bubble suddenly sparkled so powerfully as if the wall ignited by itself.
At first, Ian Gyar thought that Tenebre was controlling that power, but he again understood that he has been mistaken: she was too focused to understand where that evil was felt from than to play with him. „Another Mago? Much more powerful than we are?” He asked her eventually.
„I don’t know, snake. I don’t think that this one is just a simple Mago.”
„Then… is Eris? Is she who is sending these vibrations around us, trying to make us afraid and help her?”
„I also don’t think so because I know very well what my mother is capable of and I also can feel her influence well. But… she’s now with Mannar and, because he’s closed in that damn cell, her all-seeing eye is blind while he’s captive, and, because of this, she can’t see anything around. This means that her power can’t also be here.”
„Mannar? Does it mean that…?”
„…I found him, but… even if we join our power, we can’t take him out of there. Our power is limited compared with the power that controls that cell,” and she suddenly turned toward him, piercing him with her glance, but she saw him ironically smiling while evilly staring at Coallar, that was still floating inside the bubble. „Are you grinning now? Do you think that I am arguing round and round the subject?”
„Yes, because I know that we have a huge power and if to join it, the three of us…,”
„…we'll simply rip a hole into the water,” Tenebre said in mockery, but Ian Gyar only grimaced unsatisfied. „We are talking about the black magic of the first Titans now. If that black magic is used only by a single Titan, it can form a black hole, but if two or more Titans join their black power… then, they can simply blow the world.”
„… but Maranam can defeat that power,” Ian Gyar feverishly murmured this time. „Wait a minute, if you talk about the Black Magic of the first Titans, it means that…”
„…Gaea and Lodur used it, thirteen years ago to close Mannar inside of a Māṉsṭar Kēlaksi here, on Earth. That’s why I told you that’s impossible to release Mannar only using our power.”
„Then? What should we do: only to stay with the finger in our mouth and wait till another one will kneel us down?”
Tenebre approached him more and more while piercing his glance with hers as if trying to make him submissive. Thus, being only a few centimeters from him, she deeply looked into his eyes, whispering: „help me to convince Ahi’s child to help us, and, to succeed in this, we have to take her away from the Mountain of Fear. She can save Mannar.”
„Why don’t you ask Ahi to help you? He’s your son and…”
„He won’t ever sacrifice his child to save his brother… the one he hates so much. That’s why: we must deceive him somehow and if it’s possible to send him away from the mountain - better. This will give us the perfect chance to convince Mayar.”
Ian Gyar grinned with pleasure because what Tenebre told him was something perfect for him not only for the plans she had with Tenebre, but also to make Ahi pay for a lot of unpleasant battles that kneeled the snake down because Ahi’s power was bigger than of the king snake, and this was due to his increasing anger to see Ian Gyar next to Tenebre and so close of those Ahi was taking care of.
„The perfect chance to get revenge on that bastard,” Ian Gyar eventually mumbled, and, rubbing his palms, he vanished from the grotto.