A blinding light pierced the horizon at the moment Ian Gyar got on one knee and made a lit torch appear in his left hand.

  All around him instead, the night was acting up with its magical power, hiding those searched by the eyes of the evil, even if the night was generally considered the master of the Black Magic. Yet, at that time, the cloth of night and the power of the old fox were hiding Anaya and Mayar from the sights of those two Mago that were looking for the girl with a hidden purpose in their mind.

  At the moment she saw the flame of the torch increasing in volume as if piercing the darkness, Mayar shuddered, for, on both sides of Ian Gyar, the heads of two black panthers appeared and, on the foreheads of each animal, a star was seen, that was shining even more blinding than the light of the torch.

  „What’s this?” Mayar asked in a whisper, staring at Anaya, who was carefully watching Tenebre while the Queen of the Eternal Night was forming, above her left palm, a magic sphere made from black air.

  „This is Maranam,” Anaya answered eventually, also in a whisper. „It seems that is approaching the time to face what Fate decided for us,” the old lady added, reproachfully shaking her head. „They are playing with the fire and they don’t even realize this.”

  „Do you mean Tenebre and that snake?”

  „Who else?! Because of their greed and stupidity, the Gates of Darkness will be eventually opened and then they will all see what means the real power of Maranam because those two panthers, that you see next to Ian Gyar, are Maranam’s faithful servants: the one from the left is Kurūcim, what in the ancient language means Destruction, and the one from the right is Koṭumai or Cruelty. Actually, these are only two of the names given to them by humans. They are also known as Loss, Tirrany, Submission, or the name that makes all of us shudder: the Hell.”

  „Hell? Do you mean that…”

  „… the two panthers are the servants that stay on each side of Maranam’s throne, the one known as the Master of Hell: a she or a he.”

  „Wait a minute, that it’s confusing for me: how it can be a she or a he? No one knows what gender is Maranam?”

  Anaya smiled and watched Mayar: „did you ever see him?”

  „Whom?”

  „Maranam.”

  „Of course not. How could I see him if I’m still alive?!”

  „Then?! How did you expect humans to know who Maranam is if they are still alive?! The same happens to Titans: being immortals, they haven't been ever forced to cross the borders of this world or of the Cosmos into the underworld. Thus, none of them either saw Maranam.”

  „But yet: they know his name and they are afraid of him. Why? How did they get to know Maranam?”

  „Genea! The one who's known as Chaos and Eris’s mother: she saw him. Genea saw Maranam, but she didn’t tell anyone about what he looks like or if Maranam is a she or a he.”

  Anaya finally looked at the sky and saw the weak light of Aeon suddenly appearing among the stars, and this made the old fox shudder, especially after spotting that the light was bathing Mayar into a yellow wave. „It can’t be,” Anaya murmured.

  „What exactly?” Mayar asked again in a whisper, but she couldn’t hear the answer because she felt how suddenly something surrounded her as if invisible lianas had wrapped around her body.

  At first, she felt that strange thrill wrapping around her feet, from the ankles, and the fact that Mayar was wincing because of that cold touch, made the torch from Ian Gyar's hand illuminate more and the same happened to the stars seen on the panthers’forheads: they started to send a blinding light around.

  The light of Aeon instead, projected over her, was weakening in intensity, leaving place for the darkness to surround her even more. Then, Mayar felt those invisible lianas climbing up and up on her feet, getting to her hips, and then wrapping around her girdle, tightening her hands next to the body and completely immobilizing her.

  „Anaya, do something!” Mayar feverishly murmured when she felt the invisible trap girding around her neck eventually and that she couldn’t breathe anymore.

  The old fox, however, was weak in front of the black magic of Ian Gyar, which was amplified by the power of Maranam’s panthers and of Tenebre’s.

  „Use your mind, Mayar! Don't get caught in the trap!” Mayar heard Ahi’s shout eventually, as if coming out of the void, but watching in front of her, she couldn’t see him. Yet, she decided to listen to his advice. So, she closed her eyes and immersed herself in her inner world, awakening the eye of her mind.

  When the eye projected its yellow light over Mayar, the girl told him in a whisper as if being strangled by something. „Air! I need air!”

  „There's a need for freedom to can breathe,” she heard the voice of the eye and she suddenly saw the blade of a dagger between them.

  „Eftir Daudann,” Mayar murmured. „Why exactly this dagger?” She added and she suddenly put both hands to the neck as if trying to release her throat from that invisible trap that was strangling her.

  „Because Eftir Daudann is Maranam’s war weapon, and now, when the dagger doesn’t have a Master, it looks for one. To survive, you must have it, Mayar.”

  „But… I don’t have this dagger. I can’t even get to it. It’s with the Rophions,” Mayar said, still forcing herself to release herself while her eyes were bathed in tears.

  „If you can’t get it, then make the dagger come to you,” she heard the voice of the eye talking to her in a whisper again. Then, a total silence took over the surroundings, and the light of the eye suddenly faded off, allowing the darkness to be the master of that place.

  „Ah,” Mayar's muffled sigh has been suddenly heard as if she had lost that essential struggle for life. But… it was just an illusion because, with that muffled sound, the dagger, which was still floating in the same place, started to send a reddish light around, coloring the black of the night into the red.

  In Mayar’s mind, words of spell suddenly started to be formed, words that she had never known before: „life for another life if it's asked, I’ll give you the power of mind instead, for nothing can be more powerful and destructive than the mind of the one who wants to be the Master of Immortality.”

  „What’s this?” Mayar wondered. „Where do I know these words from?”

  „Beyond the borders of a human mind it’s the space of the eternal power, the place that makes you the master over everything, and if you want to have that power, then you should decide on which of the paths you’ll eventually walk onto,” and two paths had been outlined on both sides of the dagger, having the top of its blade as a starting point.

  The paths however weren’t parallel with the dagger but positioned at 45 degrees to the left and to the right. And, at the end of the road from the right, Mayar saw a golden cage, surrounded by a strange, magical power, and, at the edge of the road from the left, she saw Samaya and, behind her, she saw the People of Siar and the Rophions, waiting for her, ready for the fight.

  „It's decision time, Mayar, on whose side you want to be: of the losers,” and the path from the left has been powerfully illuminated for a few seconds, „or by your side, as the supreme Queen,” and those words made the light surround the cage into a blinding golden.

  „The voice of the dagger,” Mayar murmured when she finally realized whose voice, which she had heard all that time, was, for even if she imagined that she has been the one who has projected the eye of her mind, everything has been made and controlled by Eftir Daudann instead. But… with what purpose did the dagger do that and why has it chosen namely her?!

  She suddenly winced when she remembered the name whispered by Anaya with such fear: „Maranam! It can’t be!” Has Maranam controlled her all that time? If it was true, then it might be that he also controlled Samaya because the two daggers are tightened by each other. But… „air!” she suddenly murmured when she felt again that trap wrapping around her throat and it squeezed it until she was completely lacking breath.

  A huge power, that awakened inside Mayar, pushed her up and the girl grabbed the dagger’s handle, which she later powerfully squeezed, making the light from around vanish.

  Then, she heard the deaf sound of a fight, she heard whispers told by many voices, and, at last, she heard a young girl's terrifying cry when the blade of the dagger finally got between Mayar’s throat and the invisible body of the liana, which had been later cut with such hatred that made it splash with red drops of blood all around.

***

  „Where did it go?” Samaya worriedly wondered when she saw that only Lifid Ibloma was floating in front of the tent while Eftir Daudann suddenly vanished somewhere, leaving only sparkling ashes behind it.

  And Samaya’s concern wasn’t unfounded because since she, Fenrir, and the others returned to the camp, the two daggers have floated in the air and nobody could separate them. And this was very curious, for when she got to the glade, where her brother and Sephir fought with Arion and Bestla, who have been controlled by Ian Gyar, her dagger got out of her girdle by itself and raised in the air at the level Eftir Daudann was floating.

  At first, Samaya didn’t notice that, being too focused to take care of Arion. The one who noticed it instead has been Sephir, who was waiting for them at the edge of the forest, next to Navarro.

  „Samaya, the dagger!” Sephir told her in a shout then and she motioned her to look back.

  Hearing Sephir’s shout, everybody turned and looked back, and they all saw the two daggers following them while floating in the air as if being controlled by someone invisible.

  Fenrir unpleasantly grinned and, powerfully shaking his back, he threw Arion off him, and when Arion hit the ground, panted and suddenly came back to his senses, shaking his head to chase the numbness away. And only when his sight hasn't been blurred anymore, Arion looked around and saw the wolf slowly advancing toward the daggers, while staring at them.

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  „What the hell is this?” Arion murmured. Then, he remembered fragments of what happened to him and Bestla before, and, watching his palm, he saw that the red mark was already gone.

  Then, he stood up and approached Bestla, who was sleeping on Navarro’s back. On her palm instead, he also didn’t see any blue mark as it has been seen before.

  Arion winced listening to Boor’s voice behind him. „Something happens, Arion?

  „The daggers. They are changing their masters,” Arion feverishly murmured, and his words amazed everyone.

  However, it concerned Dike a lot, for Lifid Ibloma belonged to Rophions for centuries. It was impossible that the dagger was looking for a new master now and betraying Upprisinn thus, who has been its first Master.

  „Samaya, try to do the same thing as Fenrir does. Approach the daggers like a wolf,” Arion told her without giving her more details about his intention.

  The she-wolf said nothing and listened to his demand, without even blinking, and then she transformed herself into a wolf and hurried to catch up with Fenrir.

  Being only a few steps from the place above which the daggers were floating in the air, Fenrir stopped and looked with concern at the small thunder lights that were seen between the daggers, but having different colors: red and blue.

  „Is it true what Arion says? That the daggers are changing their Masters?” Samaya asked her brother with concern when she got to the left of Fenrir.

  „I’m not sure, but it seems to be so. If it wasn’t so, Lifid Ibloma wouldn’t have left its place, from your waist. What concerns me is not the change of the Master, but the exchange of power between the daggers.”

  „The exchange of power? What do you mean?”

  Fenrir looked at her in amazement. „Samaya, don’t you see the exchange of power between the daggers?”

  „No. I just see them floating in the air. That’s all.”

  This concerned Fenrir a lot because Lifid Ibloma had always listened to Samaya’s command and its power has been always intertwined with hers. At that moment instead, it seemed that the power of the dagger gave up on Samaya and, as if it betrayed her, Lifid Ibloma joined to its darker side, to Eftir Daudann.

  Suddenly taking his human body back, Fenrir used his power to raise himself in the air at the level of the daggers. But at that height, he also couldn’t see the small thunderlights between them. Yet, he decided to take a risk, and, forming flames on his right palm, he approached it with the daggers.

  But he has been right away blown back as if a sudden explosion took place when the power of the fire from its palm and the power of the daggers faced each other, and the power of the blow forced Fenrir to roll on the ground a few meters away from the daggers.

  „Fenrir!” The others shouted, running toward him. But they calmed down, seeing the wolf standing up on all four and, watching them, he grinned, a hint that he was fine.

  „So… the fire is something not to your taste,” Fenrir snarled and he headed toward the daggers again. He stopped, however, when Samaya was positioned in front of him.

  „The one who should have disliked the fire should be you, idiot! Reckless! How could you risk your life only to test the daggers?” Samaya hissed at him through the teeth and slapped his snout with her big paw and this made him roll on the ground again.

  This „joke” wasn’t something that Fenrir has expected. So, coming back to his senses, after the shock produced by Samaya’s reaction, he stood up again and, slowly turning toward his sister, unpleasantly grinned at her.

  „What? Don’t tell me that my teaching manner lesson wasn’t something to your taste?!” Samaya teased him.

  „Let’s say that what I don’t taste is to feel someone’s nails scratching my back without having asked for it,” the wolf said and he slowly walked toward his sister.

  Even if Samaya knew well what was coming: a real fight with her brother for her daring, she stood in place and sweetly yawned, trying to provoke him with her „boring,” but… why she was doing this, she had no idea.

  Yet, at the moment Fenrir took off and wanted to jump over Samaya, a loud „mama!” has been heard coming out of his throat, because Sephir suddenly appeared between the two wolves, sparkling fire through her eyes, shock-headed, and with the tails of her clothes floating around her, lifted up by a cold wind that started to blow from nowhere.

  „If you don’t really want to see your mammy, I suggest you stay calm,” Sephir told Fenrir in a loud hissing through the teeth, and this made the wolf crawl a few steps back, knowing very well what Sephir was capable of when she was really mad.

  And at that moment Sephir looked like a really scary fright. That’s why it was a wise thought for both wolves to end their little childish game and move back. And… to be honest, who understood better Sephir’s message has been Fenrir and he decided that he’ll teach Samaya manners when Sephir won’t be around.

  Then, when the spirits calmed down a little bit and the two wolves changed back to their human shape, Dike approached the daggers and has been the only one allowed to touch them without feeling anything or being hurt, and this amazed everybody.

  Especially this amazed Fenrir, for when he has been thrown by the explosion created by his fire intertwined with the power of the daggers, his fur has been burnt in some places, and the skin was burning him at that moment as if that flame touched his human shape.

  „Not Lifid Ibloma is changing his master, but Eftir Daudann,” Dike murmured, after standing for minutes in a row with his eyes closed and touching the handle of the daggers. „But… we can’t do anything to impede this change, it seems that it has been decided by Fate already.”

  „What do you mean, Dike?” Boor asked.

  „That the other Samaya will have Maranam’s power,” Dike said, and, suddenly, his appearance changed to his previous one, which he had while he was still in Cosmos, and this was something really impressive for everyone.

***

  „Mayar, no!” Ahi demanded her in a shout when the girl suddenly appeared in front of Ian Gyar and, looking as if she was really mad, for the power of Eftir Daudann was something that she was still incapable to control, and, because of this, the dagger could completely control her at that moment.

  Both around her and Ian Gyar, Tenebre was fighting against Ahi and Inmar's foxes and she didn't hesitate to attack them only to impede them to frustrate her plans.

  „Ahi, do something!” Inmar told her brother in a shout when she saw Mayar’s burning eyes because of anger.

  „There’s nothing we can do to impede her,” Anaya murmured, suddenly appearing next to Inmar. „Who controls the girl is Maranam and Mayar is the only one who has to decide on which path she’ll walk onto: to Hell or to Heaven.”

  Spotting concern on Inmar’s face, Tenebre focused her glance on her, for something was bothering her in the fox’s glance: Inmar had something between Coallar’s physical traits and Anaya’s, the ghost that was still living inside of the king Coal’s grotto.

  „It can’t be,” Tenebre snarled, furiously watching Ahi when she remembered that Coallar and Anaya had a girl. „Did you really betray me, Ahi? Did you really dare to take care of the bastard of your…?”

  „Be quiet, mother!” Ahi hissed through his teeth, and he motioned barely noticed toward Inmar, a hint that she had no idea who her parents were. „Betrayal? I don’t know who betrayed who, mother! You attacked my people only for others to reach their goals.”

  „Mannar deserves that!”

  „And… don’t I deserve it too? According to you, don’t I deserve anything from you?” Ahi screamed, outraged, for even if he knew that Tenebre never loved him, he at least hoped that she had at least some sympathy for him, for being her older son.

  But he has been wrong, for Tenebre loved nobody, not even Mannar, even if she said that she loves him. Yet, Tenebre loved only herself and, just like Eris, she dreamt about having the supreme power in her hand while the rest of the world will bend only in front of her.

  „I won’t give up on this, Ahi. So, you should give up before your people won’t be hurt. I only need the girl. I only need her and I promise you that she’ll be safe. At the moment she releases Mannar, she’ll be free to go whenever she wants.”

  Ahi trembled from all limbs, because of a huge hatred felt for his mother, a hatred that he never thought that he was capable of, but which has been reborn in his chest at the moment he saw his child in danger and about to be used as he has been used each time Coallar forced him to fight against Mannar.

  A deafening roar pierced the horizon at the moment Ahi hit, with all his forces, Tenebre with a small mace that showed up in his hand from nowhere, and that blow threw Tenebre away, piercing the wave of energy that protected her from the foxes’attack.

  But not only Tenebre suffered because of that attack: when the mace hit the wall that was protecting her, it has been followed by a kind of implosion, and the power of this implosion hit later the foxes too, throwing them also all over.

  And among the victims of that implosion has been also Inmar, who hit her head on a rock while falling and she lost consciousness.

  Concerned, Anaya ran toward Inmar and kneeled down next to her, trying to bring her back to her senses. But neither her shouts nor her cry has been capable of awakening Inmar. However, the old fox was convinced not to give up and she took Inmar’s body into her arms, slowly slapping her face or holding her head to the chest.

  „Dog!” Mayar's scream has been suddenly heard when she threw herself over Ian Gyar, stabbing the dagger’s blade into his left shoulder and making him cry blue murder, for even if he had a body made from smoke, Eftir Daudann’s power was beyond his power and the blade injured his body eventually.

  After taking the dagger out of Ian Gyar’s shoulder and she squeezed its handle again, Mayar suddenly vanished and only the sparkle of her furious eyes has been seen for a few moments after she was gone.

  „Damn it!” Ahi murmured barely heard, understanding that he lost at that moment not in front of his mother or of Ian Gyar, but in front of Mayar because she chose to join Maranam on the path to death eventually because if she had chosen another path, she would have released the dagger and would have asked her father to help her and save her of that pain.

  Then, the weak sound of silence has been heard around, only bothered by the slight blow of nature and by the weak wind that started to be felt from nowhere. And, a few seconds later, a strange melody was heard, increasing in volume and heard as if being a call to fight, but there weren’t seen the musicians anywhere and nobody understood who was playing that melody in fact.

  Coming back to her senses, Tenebre sat bolt upright and looked around: Inmar’s foxes were still unconscious on the ground as if they tried to avoid the pain again, Anaya kept sitting on the ground and holding Inmar to her chest, while Ahi was still standing somewhere in the middle of that finished battle and staring at the horizon flushed from a strange light, unseen till then.

  Then, listening to a woeful sigh, Tenebre looked to her left and saw Ian Gyar touching his left shoulder which was badly bleeding, and bedaubing his arm with black blood.

  And namely, the bleeding made the snake shudder with all his body as if Eftir Daudann’s blade poisoned his blood, and that venom was rapidly spread throughout his body.

  However, no matter how hard Tenebre didn’t try to see Mayar somewhere around her, she couldn’t and this frightened her. So, standing up in a jump, she hurried to approach Ahi. „Where is the girl, Ahi?” She asked with concern in her voice, and her question made Ahi stare at her with hatred.

  „To the Hell!” He madly murmured. „In the same hell where I’ll send you all eventually! We are leaving!” He shouted to the foxes and, approaching Inmar, he took her into his arms, and all of them moved up to the mountain.

  Ahi’s reaction really preoccupied Tenebre and this was the first time she was really shaking inside, for this meant that they all made a big mistake when they decided to take Mayar by force from next to Ahi.

  Also, she understood that she did wrong when she considered that it wasn't necessary to convince Ahi of anything. But… she had to because this would have ensured their success.

  However, it was already too late to try something else: for her and probably for all of them. So, she decided to turn back to Coallar’s den and try hard to turn him back to his senses, for she wasn’t capable of fulfilling her plan by herself only.

  Then, when Tenebre suddenly vanished from behind Ian Gyar, without even checking if he was fine, the snake madly shouted and his hand has been settled in fire, healing the wound. Later, when the bleeding finally stopped, he stood up, but still staggering to his feet, and he also looked at the reddish sky that was sparkling, as if, somewhere in the distance, there was a big arson that was burning everything around it.

  „It seems to have started!” Ian Gyar murmured while he was forming, above his right palm, a blue sphere made from water, and his eyes, till then black like pitch, suddenly became of a clear blue, for not for nothing he has been called the king with watery eyes once.

  After finishing forming the sphere, the size of a pumpkin, Ian Gyar threw it up and broke it over himself, cooling his body, and slight steam has been seen floating around him, and the same steam helped the snake vanish later.

  Behind him, the ground started to slowly moan, scorched in places by their hatred, but nobody cared about what he left behind, for each of them had their own plan that they had to fulfill no matter the consequences.