„Keyṉ! Keyṉ!” Parca madly shouted, appearing in the place where Gaea, Hestia, and the Tineimu fighters have been before. But instead of seeing the Yātrīkars laying on the ground, destroyed or burnt by Hestia’s fire, she saw them waiting for her, in silence while around there were seen a lot of deserted pyres with dozens of Tineimu fighters lifelessly lying behind Keyṉ and her fellows. „What happened here?” Parca asked, scared and amazed at the same time, looking around, but seeing no trace of Karina, Gaea, or Hestia.
„What should have happened,” murmured Keyṉ and stared into Parca’s eyes. But no matter how hard didn’t try the Titanide to see at least a trace of life or emotion in them, she saw nothing.
However, what amazed Keyṉ has been to see wounds all over Parca’s body, especially the ugly bit on her neck. The Titanide of Fate seemed not to care about this, however. She was more interested in finding out about her grandiose plan which seemed to have been a round fiasco. And Parca was ok with those wounds, for the bites of the wolves or of any other living creature from Earth couldn’t kill her. It could only weaken her power, for a short time only. After that, the wounds were healing by themselves and this was what Yātrīkars saw while talking to her: how her skin started to heal as if an invisible hand had erased with a wet cloth something that seemed to be only a great painting on her skin.
„What about Hestia? Gaea? And… the other soul? Where are they?”
„I don’t know where the two Titanides vanished, but we know something for sure: that nothing was left from Karina’s soul, which has been burnt by the same fire that they intended to use to born us.”
„Burnt? By who?”
„Hestia!” And Keyṉ’s sure and so unexpected answer made Parca wince. „Before vanishing… or better to say before running with her tail between her legs, hurt and scared to death to see her unbeatable fighters Tineimu beat, she gave the order to the others to vanish too and look for shelter. But she took a wrong step too, for… trying not to allow us to have the soul of the mortal, she touched it with her palm of fire. Thus, she turned it into ashes. And… if you carefully look around, you’ll see some black traces still left from that soul that ended in pain.”
Yet, something didn’t convince Parca till the end, even if Keyṉ’s voice was the same as always and the words used by her were spoken with the same severe and lacking emotions voice. Just like her eyes, covered by the white peel of the evil, weren’t allowing her to see beyond their blind shinning. And… what exactly bothered Parca was the fact that she couldn’t read the thoughts of the Devilish Virgin anymore, even if she could do this so easily before.
Then, thinking that it might be only a transient effect of her meeting with Gaea, Parca looked into the eyes of the other Yātrikars, but she saw nothing again and this bothered her even more. That’s why she decided to check what had happened and, approaching Keyṉ, she touched her chest, over her heart. But contrary to her expectancies - to feel a heart full of life how’s beating inside - she felt only void inside of that body and the slow movement of that void.
„Let’s go then! Let’s turn back to Kiago Forest!” Parca demanded them and turned her back to the Yātrikars, even if she wasn’t convinced that what she saw was real.
Only when the battlefield was left deserted and she was sure that Yātrikar won’t turn back to check what the Titanide intended to do, Hestia showed up again in the same place where Karina stood before and cunningly smiled, as if the whole world was hers.
„You can stand up now,” she demanded, after opening a small bag, that had the same color as the flames under her soles, but which was so beautifully worked by a skillful hand with draws representing the life of the fire on the dried wood’s body and was also so pleasantly smelling in the spell of that eternal burning. And, from that bag, one by one, small spheres exited, similar to the one that left Keyṉ’s body. Thus, soon, after those souls turned back into their bodies, the Tineimu Virgins stood up and lined up. „Let’s go now! There’s nothing left to do here!” The Titanide of Fire said and, one by one, her fighters vanished behind her.
Only then did nature all around started to normally and rhythmically breathe, just as the Rocu Forest’s heart started to beat again. Thus, that movement of life swept the dried leaves, fallen to the ground, hiding the traces of that battle thus while, from off the branches, red leaves were falling, coloring in a warm light that old land, so tormented by troubles and which saw the death of a Virgin again.
***
Knelt next to Adamant’s lifeless body, Gaea bowed her head, being overwhelmed by sorrow, and bitter sobs came out from her chest, making even the surroundings shudder, the trees slowly jerk from their leaves, that had the same color as the blood as if it wept too the death of a heroe while tears were falling from the sky, like raindrops, bathing in the rhythms of a holy dance the Rocu Forest’s garment and also trembling the horizon as if it was only the huge face of a big drum, which was intensely hit by a skillful drummer.
After minutes in a row of inconsolably crying next to Adamant, Gaea finally dared to touch the wolf’s body and, in her mind, like on a white screen, the last moments from the life of the last master of the Forest Kristallar have been painted with ink.
And the last red wolf died having the glory in its soul and the courage in its eyes, clenched in the battle against the Evil Parca, for when she felt the wolf’s fangs stubbed into her right shoulder, Parca decided that in that dual form - neither good nor bad, she won’t make it eventually. That’s why she left herself prey to madness and allowed her evil side, the one that was hidden deep in her soul, to act up as it wanted.
And the Evil Parca seemed to be at the height of her madness and fury when she turned right in front of Adamant’s eyes while his fangs continued stubbed into her right shoulder and his glance focused on her, thunderstruck but that change. But even so, even if he felt the death blowing down his neck, the great red wolf and the free spirit of the mount of gnomes decided to fight till the last breath.
Suddenly, Adamant felt a painful burn in its belly when Parca left her black and sharp nails, her beast’s nails, grow, and, from one sudden precise movement, she stubbed them into Adamant’s body, as if it had been a simple wax figurine.
This made the wolf release its prey and withdrew a few steps. He stopped, however, when he felt the warmth of life leaking from his body and coloring his red fur into a darker red. Then he bowed his head and looked down. This is how he saw how small red drops, drops of energy and of life, were dripping one by one off his left, rear paw right on the green blades of grass, to later drift on those green and alive blades toward the depths of the earth, which was thirstily swallowing them as if that soil, that was under that red coat of leaves, didn’t drink water from the sky for hundreds of years already, even if Gaea opened the sack of rains only one night ago and the water abundantly dripped all over that forest.
Taking advantage of that small moment of relaxation, Parca sat down first. Later she stood up, supporting herself on her right knee and taking an attack position. But she waited after this. Moments later instead, Adamant was still staying in the same place as if he also waited for something. Only when Adamant looked into her eyes, with that glance of a lonely wolf that had longed for centuries after his dead fellows and life, Parca saw the blink of madness in his eyes eventually.
A jump has been enough to make Parca withdraw when Adamant swooped on her. Thus, the wolf fell on his four paws on the ground, and due to that jump, he felt a killing pain that pierced his body from top to toe. Even so, even if he felt that thousands of sharp blades entered his skin, Adamant only closed his eyes for a few moments just to come back a little bit to his senses. But the wolf has been forced to jump to the side when Parca attacked him. Yet, she also failed and her sharp, long nails only scratched the air next to him.
This made Adamant turn toward her, even if after that jump Parca had only a side view of him. Then the wolf showed her his white, sharp, and death-headed fangs, whispering: „do you think that killing me you'll impede Fate to take place?”
„As if someone or something can impede me from doing that,” said Parca, ironically grinning. „And… it’s probably because of the wound that you forget the important thing here: I’m Fate’s master.”
„No, Parca, you are so wrong, for Fate hasn’t any master. It is its own master while you aren’t more than an unhappy copy of it on earth, to make people believe in it. But… you are only a failed copy of Life in the end while it makes everything to triumph.”
„Do you think so?” And Parca smiled again. „Well, of course, not, for even if I was made to be lead, I’ll lead eventually, and the testimony of this is you: the only wolf left alive after the big war on Mount Kuṭṭi Mantiram, hundreds of years ago, and the only one alive due to my great kindness only, due to a mistake. But… I intend to repair this mistake today and turn things on their usual path to flow.
Dozen of Parca suddenly appeared all over around the wolf, dizzyingly moving in a circle. Even so, even if he was seeing that chaotic and rhythmical movement all around him, Adamant knew that that wasn’t more than an illusion. Thus, his eyes looked for a single face through that multitude of devilish faces, and when he found it, the wolf jumped over her and stubbed his fangs into her throat that time, not paying attention to the fact that dozen of knife blades as nails were stubbed into his body… over and over again.
But only when the last drop of life dripped from the body of the red wolf, did he powerlessly fall to the ground, opening his lips and taking his fangs out of Parca’s throat, leaving it still bleeding on the right side. And she, while pressing with the palm on the wound, had the same red eyes as the leaves of that cursed forest from around: the color of Death.
„A forest predestined to be a Cradle of Life got to be a Land of Death eventually, Adamant: a realm where the real master of Heavens drew the last breath, the last wolf Adamant Sheen that was still alive. And everything… because I wanted revenge,” Gaea murmured through sobs while her hand was squeezing the bloody fur of the wolf. But due to the fur that had the same color as nature’s coat around, those beads of black and red dripped from it were barely seen on the leaves of Rocu Forest.
„Yet, it was worth effort's will, just as it was worthed the sacrifice,” she heard Adamant’s voice and this made her raise her glance and look around.
She saw him a few meters from her. But it was something changed in him: his fur wasn’t pale red, bathed by rain, storms, and powerful winds, which got mixed with its locks, but it was bright red, just as he had it while being young when he only started to taste the pleasure of life and know the world. Then… there was something more strange at this Adamant: the scar wasn’t seen anymore on his face, just as the sadness vanished from his soul.
Gaea suddenly wiped the tears and looked in front, thinking that she was seeing only an illusion, even if she was aware of the huge force that the People Adamant Sheen hid in their blood and that even after death they could be seen wandering the world. But… while she was wiping her tears, she didn’t pay attention that her hands were bloody from touching the fur and she left thus some red and black traces on her white skin. But… she unwillingly smiled, seeing how Adamant, the alive projection of his soul, smiled at her.
„And… don’t be sad, my lady, and don’t cry for my death for a long time, for… there are so many other important things to do in this life than to cry for those that aren’t alive anymore.”
„Yet, Adamant, how not to be sad when I know that you died helping me?”
„And you are right: I died helping you. But… I did this with all my heart, fulfilling to the end the mission I’ve been born for. And I don’t regret my death, for I end a long period of time of sufferance thus and that I can eventually join my people, those who waited for me for so long to join them,” and the Titanide saw, behind Adamant, appearing, one by one, the projections of his fellows, those died in that cursed war with the monsters, and the last appearance, to Adamant’s left, was of Sheen.
„Sheen,” Gaea feverishly murmured. And the she-wolf, the one which had the same color of fur as her husband, slowly bowed her head in a saintly bow.
„My lady! I’m glad to see you, even if I have this shape now.”
„But… how is this possible?” Gaea murmured, thunderstruck.
„We also don’t know how this is possible, but Life gave us this chance, and then we’ll take advantage of it. And… you should do the same, my lady - to take advantage of successes, and also of failures, for a failure doesn’t mean the end - it can be only a new chance to start something again.”
Gaea sadly smiled and her eyes have been bathed by tears again. Then… she stood up, staring at those that have been the wolves Adamant Sheen once, the glory of the Mountain Kuṭṭi Mantiram, and the real friends of humans, of Titans, and of gnomes. „I’ll miss so much your wisdom, Adamant. I’ll miss so much those moments when I knew you there, on the mount, protecting us.”
„But… you don’t have why to miss us, my Lady, for the last Adamant Sheen didn’t die yet and he’ll accept his throne soon, as a birthright, and if you want to find the truth of our words, come to the mount when good times will be, when these tormented times we live now are gone, and you’ll find out the truth of a new start there,” Adamant murmured and he, Sheen, and the other wolves bowed in front of Gaea at the same time.
The Titanide answered that goodbye greeting with another bow, and when she raised her glance, she saw the wolves leaving those places in a big run, crossing narrow and large paths through the Rocu Forest. Very soon instead, they’ve been part of that view only, due to the color of their fur.
Looking to her left, Gaea saw how Adamant’s body, the lifeless one, slowly turned into ashes, that shone at first with fragments from flames, to later be only grey petals of wind.
And… when the Titanide turned her back to that place and entered the depths of that forest, those grey ashes, that floated in the air for a while, gathered in one single shape, forming a star, that climbed later to the sky like a sudden hurricane, and it took eventually its place in the chariot of the Canis Majoris, to wait, for he had to wait there for others too to join him there, completing that Constellation thus, just to write later other destinies and lead the people’s feet onto that unknown path of life.
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
***
„You? Here?” Tenebre asked, amazed to see Kaṇkaḷ entering her hide-out and unhooding her head which made her seem often invisible while crossing Tenebre’s Forest. What's the… occasion?”
Kaṇkaḷ only bowed her head and, without watching into the Titanide’s eyes, murmured: „we came to bow in front of you and ask for your help.”
„Help? What kind of help?” Tenebre asked, thunderstruck this time. But… even if she was so amazed because of that unexpected visit, yet, she didn’t forget about precautions. So… while she was by-passing the table to head toward the leader of the Yātrīkars, her hand took a black cloth from off the table, which she later threw over the Palantir, trying to cover it of curios glances thus.
Yet, as if it had had life, the Palantir made that piece of cloth „slip” off its rounded body, and its cold light, of a black mixed with red, made the eyes of the Virgin Yātrīkar get the same shadow.
This change of the young Yātrīkar’s eyes didn’t pass unnoticed by Tenebre, who first carefully looked at the young woman, then she half-turned toward the Palantir and saw how its light suddenly changed from red to black and back, but each time having a different shade.
Something more caught her glance instead: on the Palantir’s walls, Tenebre saw Keyṉ’s death. But the Titanide didn’t see when it will happen or if it happened already. So, she mentally asked her Palantir to show more images about the Yātrīkar’s destiny.
The Palantir instead was also that kind of magic instrument that often showed what one wanted to see: even if it was a lie. That’s why it showed Tenebre what she actually wanted to see - the Earth burning, controlled by Eris’s power while the other Titans were spurred from behind by monsters to enter the Underground where they had been kept captives later. And… the last she saw closed in that underground dungeon has been Gaea, who stopped for a second only before entering it and looked behind… with sad and empty eyes while she had her body and hands hurt, and her legs were cuffed and tied by thick chains, just like the other prisoners.
Those who spurred the Titans to enter the Underground were the Yātrīkars, who were her servants. Then, Tenebre saw Parca’s stone statue. But it was a too aged by fate Parca, and which turned to dust and ashes, hit by a young Virgin. However, Tenebre didn’t know who that young girl was.
She winced, however, when she heard Kaṇkaḷ’s voice: „it seems that Parca went completely crazy. She came last night to our camp and took ten of us with her.
„Did she take ten Yātrīkars with her? What for?”
„I don’t know what for, but she said something about Rocu Forest, Gaea, and Hestia, and that they can attack Kiago Forest and she is trying to protect us thus.”
„She definitely went crazy,” Tenebre happily mumbled. Then she looked at the Palantir again, but she saw no more image on it. Actually, the Palantir was totally black at that moment while the cloth that at first fell off it was covering it at that moment. „Did I imagine all this?” Tenebre wondered. „Was it an illusion only, created by Yātrīkars, that are so good at this?” and she looked at Kaṇkaḷ, trying to read her mind and find out if she told her the truth.
But she saw nothing instead and she found it really strange, even if she was sure that the Palantir didn’t lie to her. So, the Titanide carefully looked at Kaṇkaḷ. „And… who did you say Parca took with her to Rocu Forest?”
„Keyṉ and nine of her fellows.”
„Karina,” Tenebre murmured and smiled, understanding the trick used by both Titanides: Parca has been deceived by Gaea or she tried to deceive Mother Earth, turning into the one Gaea loved so much. „I understand why Yātrīkar asks for my help now: Parca’s madness has no limits and it’ll reach an end very soon. But: this game is something useful for me, and I can fully take advantage of this devilish pact between two crazy Titanides,” Tenebre thought. „And… if I help you, what will I have in exchange for this?” Tenebre cunningly asked.
„Everything you want, for… we must do everything to have Keyṉ and the other Yātrīkars back with us. Our power will be safe only this way. Just as this object will be safe only this way,” and Kaṇkaḷ took out of her pocket the Loupe known as the Eye of the Devil, which was hanging at her neck like a medallion.
Seeing the Loupe, Tenebre’s hand jerked in front, trying to catch that magical object because it was something that not only gave unlimited power to its master, but it could also open any door that one wanted, even those unseen.
But Kaṇkaḷ took suddenly a step back and the Titanide’s hand passed by her, and that failure of grabbing the prey made Tenebre gnash her teeth. Yet, she managed to control herself and not fight, thinking that’s better to use cunningness and intelligence to get that devilish thing than the force. So, she grinned: at first as if she was a dog seeing a cat, to later kindly smile, as if looking for peace because… it’s the saying: keep your friends close, but the enemies closer.
„All right then! Be as you wish! But, in exchange for my protection, you must be always submissive to me and fulfill each order I’ll give you! Especially Keyṉ! I want her closer to me than anyone else.”
Kaṇkaḷ winced: „why?” She asked, confused. „What has Keyṉ that everyone wants her?”
„Fate! Hidden in her glance,” Tenebre hissed through her teeth. „But, you see, not everybody can see this. And… sss, someone’s approaching,” Tenebre whispered.
Then she hurried to approach her Palantir, threw the cloth off it, and put her both palms above the sphere to check who was approaching: Parca and… Keyṉ with the other Yātrīkars. „Where Parca knows from that you are here?” Tenebre snarled at the leader of Yātrīkars.
„I left word with one of us to tell them where we are when they are back from Rocu Forest. Ten of them went there, but 11 came here. The 11th is our Virgin left in the old camp.”
And this was so: looking at the Palantir again, Tenebre saw 12 women approaching her den, but when she saw Parca’s eyes, for a second only, she saw hatred in them. So, Tenebre told the young leader Yātrīkar: „Quickly! Hide! It seems that Parca isn’t in a good mood and she intends to get revenge on someone.”
„To hide? Where?” Kaṇkaḷ asked.
But Tenebre also didn’t know the answer. At first only, for… looking throughout her hollow, she saw the lifeless body of the cobra that was inside of a big recipient and motioned to Kaṇkaḷ to approach her. „Don’t worry about the other ones!” Tenebre said. „This forest is my friend and I sent already word to the trees to hide them. You are the only one left,” and, without waiting for an answer from Kaṇkaḷ, Tenebre hit her neck with the back of the palm, turning her into black smoke, that entered the lifeless body of the cobra.
And Tenebre kept waiting: in the middle of the room after she had covered the Palantir with the cloth again. But, inside her, she was happily smiling, aware of her success: at least for the moment, in front of Parca, and if she could also get the Eye of the Devil, then she would have been invincible.
***
As deeper they entered the forest, as weirder and full of black energy seemed that place, and this was due to the cobras, that were hanging everywhere through the trees’branches or wrapped around the thick trunks, and as closer they were from Tenebre’s den as more cobras were seen around there.
But, even if there wasn’t anything strange there because everybody knew that Tenebre was the queen of the cobras, Parca seemed to think differently, for she considered that it wasn’t something real, or at least this was what was seen at the first glance.
„Tenebre’s daughters,” Keyṉ told herself, carefully looking at the cobras and seeing that many of them were different from the rest, especially due to the color of their eyes: dozen of cobras, just as the number of the Virgins Yātrīkar, those who followed Kaṇkaḷ there, had that famous white peel on their eyes, which made them seem to have an empty and blind glance. „Camouflage! But… why? As far as I know, Tenebre and Parca have been always side by side.”
Keyṉ stopped when Parca stopped, and this made her companions stop too. But Parca didn’t look at the young Yātrīkars from behind her, but at those cobras that were many and many with each second passed, for they came more and more there and from everywhere: sneaking through bushes and herbs, creeping on the ground and leaving winding traces everywhere, or slowly moving through the branches or slipping on the trunks.
Parca instead saw nothing strange, even if she tried a lot to understand something, for her heart told her that something stinky was hidden in that place. What exactly - she couldn’t understand.
She looked eventually at Keyṉ, but saw only her empty and cold glance. Yet, she decided to ask her: „are you sure that there’s nothing strange around us? No trace of the other Yātrīkars?”
Keyṉ took a short time to think, time used to carefully check the area, but more to carefully choose the words to tell to Parca, from many words formed in her head, just to give Parca the desired answer: „I’m sure!” she murmured eventually. „Here are only snakes and cobras around. Nothing weird or unseen in this forest - Tenebre’s kingdom actually.”
„You’re right. But yet: something bothers me.”
„What exactly?” Keyṉ inquired.
„The air! The aura of this forest and… even the cobras. Are too many… too mysterious… too cold, just as it’s too weird this atmosphere. And it’s also the fact that we didn’t see any Yātrīkar by now, even if they left word that they will be here. Are you sure that they said Tenebre Forest?” Parca asked the other Yātrīkar this time, the one left in Kiago Forest to tell the others where to find them.
„Yes, they said that they’ll be here and that we should come here as soon as Keyṉ and the rest turn back from Rocu Forest,” the Virgin rushed to answer.
„Yet: they aren’t here!” Parca snarled and moved further.
Even if Keyṉ’s face seemed to be made from stone, yet, a smile could be seen in the corner of her lips. No one instead noticed that smile, caused by a strange impulse and joy, something that the soul of a Yātrīkar shouldn’t have ever felt.
***
„Tenebre, where are the Yātrīkars?” Parca shouted, breaking into the hide-out. But, to her great surprise, nobody was there.
Entering behind her, Keyṉ and the other companions carefully looked around too. But… even if everything seemed too deserted and lifeless, yet, there was life there too.
Where she felt that energy from… she didn’t understand at first. That’s why she stopped and carefully looked around. Eventually, her eyes stopped over the Palantir, which was completely „blind,” and this amazed her, for she was sure that if Tenebre is around, that devilish eye was immediately activated. Yet, at that moment it was completely lacking energy, and she couldn’t understand why.
Soon, however, she heard two heartbeats and so clearly in her ears. But… it couldn’t be the hearts of the Virgins that were following her, for they were dead, since long ago actually, and, in a lifeless body, no beating heart can be found.
Eventually, she glanced at that big cobra that was floating inside of that big recipient, which was right on the center of the table, floating in the air. „Weird!” Keyṉ thought. „A dead cobra with two hearts!”
She smiled inside: two hearts! It meant that Tenebre was inside the cobra. But… who was the owner of the second heart?!
She suddenly winced, feeling something cold slipping under her clothes, and her hand involuntarily tried to touch her chest, and, touching it, she stopped that cold „flowing” on her skin, for she was sure that a dead body shouldn’t feel anything. Yet, she felt everything so alive, so real.
„It can’t be!” Keyṉ thought. „The Yātrīkar’s energy is still in this body, even if that soul left it! How’s this possible? The question is yet: why do I feel it when I’m only a human being, put in this body thanks to Gaea’s boundness?!”
Then she remembered Gaea’s words, whispered into her ear when she hugged her in Rocu Forest: „remember, Karina - someone’s body remembers its master even hundreds of years after death! Being in your body again, it’s possible to feel everything that it felt in those 6 centuries while it belonged to Yātrīkar.”
„It’s true: the skin’s memory! The memory of each part of me! Even if Yātrīkar possessed it for centuries, this body waited for its master, and this means that I can also use the power used by a Yātrīkar once.”
„Yet, I feel the presence of that cobra here,” she heard Parca’s voice and this made the voice of her mind keep silent, for even if Gaea and Hestia’s magic blocked the access to their minds, to be sure that neither Parca nor another person will read what’s inside those bodies or read their past and find out about the exchange thus, Karina, or as she was recently known as Keyṉ, decided to be careful and think about such things only when such powerful beings as Parca or Tenebre weren’t around her.
The Titanide of Fate didn’t find anything useful in that hollow instead and she left eventually, even angrier than she was when she came there. Yet, before leaving, she demanded Keyṉ to wait there, and if the Virgins Yātrīkars pass by there, to tell them to go to the Mount of Fear, for she’ll wait for them there and will tell them what to do next.
After Parca’s departure, Keyṉ told the other 10 Virgins to exit the hollow. Then, being alone, she approached the Palantir, intending to touch it and see how much her power has increased.
Yet, the closer she was to the Palantir, as colder was felt that touch on the skin of her chest, and this made her feel weird, even if it shouldn’t be this way, for Yātrīkars were known for their incapacity of feeling things. That’s why, no matter how hard didn’t she want to pull that cold object from next to her skin and throw it away, she decided not to take the risk and wait.
She did well when she stopped, for, being only one step from the Palantir, this suddenly activated itself and started to project red rays all around, and all of those rays headed toward one single point on her body: her chest, namely that place where she felt that cold movement on her skin.
„Don’t touch it!” she suddenly heard Kaṇkaḷ’s voice when she unwillingly tried to touch the object hidden under her robe. „Even if your soul feels the old power, the one taken from this Palantir, they mustn’t ever join again.”
„Not to join their power again? Did it get its power from the Palantir?” They heard Tenebre’s voice and Keyṉ saw the Titanide only one step behind Kaṇkaḷ, but so close to that huge recipient with the cobra inside. But the tub was already „sitting” on the table, looking for support, not being anymore controlled by Tenebre’s power because it didn't have its own force. And more with the power of the Palantir heading toward her.
„The Eye of the Devil and the Palantir you have in your power have been one single power once,” Kaṇkaḷ continued her story. „It was called Maṉatiṉ Kaṇ or the Eye of Mind in those times and it was controlled by our mother, Oḷi, which in the ancient language of the Yātrīkars means light.”
„The light projected by the Eye of Minds and which reflects truths,” Tenebre murmured.
„That’s right! But the war with the Virgins Añcali or those known today as Dirges destroyed our kingdom and forced us to split up. It has been then that our mother decided to split Maṉatiṉ Kaṇ into three: she gave me Picācu or the Eye of the Devil, Keyṉ got the Axis Accu, and my mother kept the Palantir. But we’ve been all defeated eventually and only the Palantir was left on Earth, for… before her death, it has been taken by Dirges from my mother. This however not happened to Keyṉ and me because, being killed while having these objects with us, we took their material shape at the Gates of the Purgatorium too.”
„Yet… why the Palantir didn’t stay with the Dirges? You just said that they got it when they killed your mother, Oḷi,” Tenebre asked with curiosity.
„I don’t know this and we can find out only by joining the three elements of the Eye of Mind.”
This was what Tenebre waited for. „Let’s hurry to unify them then,” and she jerked toward the Palantir, intending to touch it first, and if the three elements join then she’ll be able to control them all.
Yet, Tenebre has been stopped, feeling Keyṉ’s cold hand grabbing her arm and telling her in a low, but sure voice: „if these three forces have been split up and forced to wander the world alone, it must be for something! That’s why, until we don’t find out the reason why my mother decided so, Maṉatiṉ Kaṇ will continue to be split up.”
„But… it’s foolishness!” Tenebre shouted. „Having the possibility to be the master of the world, you prefer to be someone’s slave instead.”
„Then… you should be grateful that we are your slaves,” Keyṉ hissed through her teeth, and this made Kaṇkaḷ attentive, for it was the first time when she felt something strange at her sister, someone who has been so quiet and private till that moment. But she had the courage to confront Tenebre and this so suddenly, something even she, Kaṇkaḷ could never do, even if she had the power of the Eye of the Devil by her side and, if she had wanted, she could have been able to bring Tenebre to her knees and take the Palantir.
But she didn’t have time to think and try to discover that mystery, for Keyṉ, understanding that she has been wrong, took a step back and slowly bowed her head in front of Tenebre: „I make a pardon for my daring, Titanide! Yet: I lived for a second the hatred of the past years and this made me lose my head.”
Tenebre smiled and believed those words. Not the same happened to Kaṇkaḷ, who decided to keep an eye on her sister from that moment, more… seeing Keyṉ often touching her chest, right where the axis Accu was.