An arrow is flying like the wind between the trunks blackened by the evil thoughts of Tenebre’s Forest. Its small body and its sharp top is piercing the cold air of the shadows and it's heading deeper and deeper in the heart of that place of fear, from inside of which the roar of beasts, the rub-a-dumb, and the squeak of old, dry wood is heard and that sound is passing throughout the surroundings like cold iron through alive creatures looking for their death.

The master of that arrow is Mayar, who is standing at the edge of the forest, still with the bow in her hands and with another arrow prepared for shooting. But even so, standing in fighting positing, the young woman isn’t taking her eyes off the trees and she’s waiting for something.

She has the same deep glance as Samaya, the same slim body, and the same beautiful face, which is washed at that moment by the morning sunlight which dared to rise in the sky above that forest of fear.

The only thing that makes Mayar and Samaya different from each other is the color of their hair. While Samaya’s hair is like the ripe chestnuts, almost having a black shade, Mayar has it completely red, as if they are Hestia’s flames in full swing, and this shade of crimson red makes the black of her eyes seem even deeper than it usually is that most of the times her glance is similar to the abyss.

However, mostly Mayar’s glance is so fierce. Even now, when she’s looking at the same point toward which her arrow is heading, Mayar fiercely looks at the woods. „Come on, show up at once!” she growled, seeing that nothing happens for minutes, as nothing changes onto those places, and as nothing shows up from the woods.

„And still, you are there! You can’t hide from me, even if you enter the hole of a snake, because only two souls in this world can hide their beings from the eye of my mind, but none of them is living in this forest. So, don't drive me crazy and show up!” Mayar suddenly yelled, but again nothing happened. „Wonderful then! You wanted it!” she said and she released the rope of the bow while taking the arrow from off it.

Even so, Mayar didn’t look away from the woods and grinned ironically when she saw eyes showing up and disappearing on the trunks of the trees seen in the distance, but what was strange at those trees was the fact that each time when the eyes were appearing, it was on a different part of the bark and this was felt like if they were made with the help of Black Magic and that they are the eyes of the trees. But whoever saw those eyes ran like chased by the devil away of those woods because seeing those eyes was similar for them to seeing Death itself.

Mayar instead looked at all this with anger because she was forced to wait in silence, but seeing that the woods was late to answer her question, the young woman slowly yawned, a sign that she was getting bored. „Come on! Don’t be shy!” the girl said, making a sign to someone to exit the forest and soon after, from the trunk of the trees showed up to the world the real masters of those eyes seen before - the ghosts.

They were probably around forty in number, all black-dressed, with gray hair and deep glance. Their lips were livid as if when they were still alive, they had decided to drown themselves in the water, while on their right cheek they had a small red mark due to a small vein that stood out.

Their nails were long and sharp like beasts have, but still, their fingers were enough soft and this gave to those creatures of death a particular charm.

Although they had decided to show up in front of Mayar, none of the ghosts dared to approach the young woman because where Mayar was standing was fully washed by sunlight and this was the cause of the ghosts‘eternal pain. That’s why they were always running away from it each time when they met on their way a ray of sunshine, which had dared to pierce the shady vault of the crowns of the trees spying on the hidden thickets under them.

Mayar looked at each ghost, but nothing on their facial expression wasn’t revealing what the girl was looking for. „Ah, what a waste of time!” Mayar murmured. „That’s why I hate the world of the dead ones: the same funeral view wherever you look or you step onto. And yet, it’s still looking like an interesting game for me” and, she closed her eyes and focused her mind as if she floated in the darkness from inside her being, where soon after she saw how an eye was wide open and it was similar with the foxes’ eyes - with an oval yellow center, surrounded by a green dark peel which was very quickly changing in black and back. This was Mayar’s inner eye, the one she had discovered still being a child and the one which was helping her to read people’s destiny.

Controlling the power of that eye, Mayar could project on that void the forest from in front of her: the first line of trees looked usual, being controlled by the light and this was something that limited to maximum the power of darkness over them. Then, as you were entering deeper into the forest, the darkness became thicker and thicker and the black smoke, mixed with white, thick fog, made the air around be difficult to be breath.

Suddenly Mayar showed up in the middle of the imaginary forest, projected by her inner eye and the girl looked around, seeing the same eyes on the trees which she saw in the real world. „It seems to me that you won’t give up that easily,” she murmured. „That’s alright. I do not bother having company. But I prefer to see your faces, so, be kind and leave those poor trees and walk normally next to me.”

As if the ghosts listened to her, they exited the trees and started to walk by her side. However, none of them was stepping onto the ground, but they were floating about a meter above it.

Then, a slight gust of wind was felt trembling the leaves and the branches of the trees, the garment of the creatures of shadows and Mayar’s, but as tighter Mayar was squeezing her fists, as quicker was the wind blowing, a sign that two Magical powers were facing each other as if they looked for a fight.

Mayar managed in the end to control herself and she left her palms-free and she stepped in front. The ghosts from around her didn’t move instead. Only their eyes and their heads were moving while watching each movement made by the girl. The young woman instead didn’t bother and entered deeper into the woods.

But she saw something strange while she was entering deeper into the forest: she was seeing in front of her eyes some images of the fight Samaya and Bestla had with Vanamar wolves when they tried to enter Coallar’s den. This made Mayar grimace because she understood that she lost a great opportunity to meet once again the other SHE because she was still remembering their first meeting in the Glade of Shadows, thirteen years ago, when they had their first fought and when none of them neither won nor lost and Mayar was considering this as being their cowardness.

„It seems to me that we are looking for the same thing, wolf cub, but … depends on who will find it first and who will lose this game in the end.”

Getting in front of Coallar’s grotto, Mayar stopped and looked around: the same view she saw in Samaya and Bestla’s memories - the nature around was breathing evil, a white fog surrounding that place and the stink, that made the air around impossible to breathe, was coming out from inside that grotto.

However, something was different then: from inside the grotto wasn’t heard any sound - neither of a wild boar nor of a Vanamar wolf, trying to frighten her and to chase her away.

„It’s exactly like my dream,” Mayar whispered and a gust of warm wind came out from her mouth and she formed with it a small air Portal in front of her which was reflecting on its surface the surroundings.

Suddenly, Mayar’s inner eye closed at the same moment the Portal vanished. Then, Mayar opened her eyes, but the young girl was now in front of the grotto for real, a sign that she could use the reality of her mind to travel through time and space and to teleport herself wherever she wanted.

When and how she discovered this power, she doesn’t remember. But she was sure that it has something to do with Samaya’s power that was increasing too because even if the girls didn’t want it they were tied by fate and often on their ring finger a small ring, made from a red thread, was seen, a sign that their soul mate is still on Earth.

There was something even stranger when on their fingers the ring of red thread was showing up: both had the same vision - a sword which was piercing their chest and someone’s eyes transforming their body into burning ash.

Mayar looked at the ring finger of her left hand and she saw the ring forming while the red thread was wrapping around the finger and it seemed to her so strange because it generally showed up only during the night and when Hestia’s fire was somewhere near her burning. But now it showed up during the day, in the middle of the forest, there where any flame was seen. „What’s going on?” Mayar wondered and suddenly she heard whispers talking to her from inside the grotto.

As if dragged inside of that place, Mayar decided to enter. She hid the arrow in the bag she had on her back and she grabbed the bone handle of the bow, while she entered the grotto walking at a slow step, but so sure of her decision.

While she was advancing on the winding and cold like ice hall of the grotto, Mayar realized that namely, this is the place where the ghosts are hiding because she could see everywhere, inside of the walls of the grotto, wooden sarcophagi, but they were uncovered as if those souls, before death, had been cursed to restless wander the surroundings.

But this was something that couldn’t happen without someone’s help, but the girl didn’t know who that person might be and the reason why he or she did this. Till she got to the middle of the hall and she saw on the handle of a torch on the wall the symbol of a cobra. „Tenebre!” Mayar whispered. „Now I understand who brought all those sarcophagi here and who controls the shadows. Only you have such power and only your devilish mind can make such a plan.”

Mayar didn’t know why, but she couldn’t accept Tenebre as part of their group. Something inside her was telling her that the Queen of the Night is changeable and her being, in continuous search of new sensations, could betray them any time. Even if she later found out that Tenebre was Ahi’s mother, the one who declared himself as being her teacher and protector and who helped her to improve her skills all these years, Mayar couldn’t accept Tenebre only for this, as she couldn’t fight against her own feelings and wishes.

„Let’s go, Mayar! We must move further! If we came here, we must find out the reason why we have it all the time and why it brought us here!” Mayar talked to herself.

Then, she blew warm air around and extinguished the torches that showed up suddenly on the walls because their trembling light was something that made her anxious and was bothering the light of her eyes. She could see very well in the darkness as if it was a day around, but she could never see a flame moved by the wind in front of her: it was killing her inside.

***

Samaya’s eyes suddenly opened and she looked in front, while she was squatting next to the pyre, preparing it for being ignited.

Yellen, who was approaching her, bringing more woods for the fire, caught her fixed glance and the girl became alert. After a few minutes of watching Samaya, who was squatting in the same position, without even blinking or breathing, Yellen understood that something weird happens, so she decided to say this to Nathaniel.

The girl looked around and she saw him not too far from them, helping a young man with fixing the tent. He was with his back at them, so Yellen’s movements, to make him pay attention to her, passed unnoticed, but when she threw a wood toward him, that hit the ground a few steps behind him, Nathaniel turned and looked at her, amazed to see that Yellen showed him at first not to make a sound and then she pointed toward Samaya.

Nathaniel also became alert, not understanding what was happing to the young she-wolf, as he didn’t know what to do: to sound the alarm to the others to hide or to wait. He eventually decided that it will be better first to approach Samaya and to ask her what was going on. But, arriving one step from her, he stopped and waited in silence.

Yellen did the same, but Samaya suddenly fixed her glance on the girl, as if she was trying to see what was inside her, and this made the girl be nervous and look frightened at her brother.

„Mayar!” Samaya murmured in the end. „That girl is now inside Coallar’s grotto,” she said and she suddenly stood up and looked at her left hand and she saw the red thread wrapping around her ring finger. „Fate plans something weird. Thus, I can’t explain how that child got to Coallar.”

Do you mean that they are somehow tied?” Nathaniel asked and took the wood from Yellen’s hands and put it on the ground. „Maybe … should we go and see what’s going on?”

Samaya shook her head, denying the idea. „Those places aren’t friendly with us. Only with stepping onto those lands, in the Northern Part of the Forest, Vanamar will wait for us. But … I saw none around her. Only shadows.”

„Shadows? What kind of shadows?” the young man asked.

„Those who Tenebre brought there and told them to guard her home. Those ghosts are the souls of the women and men who died in waters, running of a curse or trying to reach one,” Yellen murmured frightened. „They will be here soon,” she also said and she looked toward the place wherefrom the rustle of the Waterfall of Fireflies was heard.

„Nathaniel, tell this our people too! I don’t like the feeling I have in my chest. Let’s go to our den! Better be prepared if something happens! Better be prepared,” Samaya whispered and the young man approved, by shaking his head. Then, he took out of his girdle the horn and blew it, giving the signal for everybody to get prepared for moving away.

***

The sound of the blown horn was heard till deep inside Coallar’s grotto. Mayar turned her head and looked back, listening to that sound for minutes in a row: „they are hiding,” Mayar whispered. „Samaya knows that I’m here! It seems that she also sees my movements,” she growled happily because she finally got an answer to one of her eternal questions related to Samaya, who became a real obsession for her, in time.

***

Siar People is preparing for moving to the West while gathering its stuff as quickly as possible. The tents are kicked down, while the pylons are taken out of the ground, practically forced to get out, by the men of the group.

Meanwhile, the women are bringing water from the waterfall and are throwing it all around: extinguishing the pyres, washing the ground, as if they tried to hide their scent and not to let any trace behind them that can betray their hidden place.

Yellen, who was at that moment pouring water over one of the pyres, suddenly stopped and looked at the sky: it was so blue, so bright and so alive. But still, something made her feel anxious and wasn’t allowing her to take her eyes away from it. Her glance was piercing the horizon, looking for something, while her fingers were squeezing more and more the handle of the broom, while a lump in her throat was moving up and down so quickly as if she swallowed bite after bite without even chewing.

Suddenly a roar was heard coming from the horizon as if black clouds full of heavy rain were approaching in the sky and the sun was soon hidden by darkness. But it wasn’t the darkness of the night that took over the sky by using black magic. That night was due to Tarther, the huge blackbird who was floating above the forest of Tenebre.

„In the hedges!” Samaya suddenly yelled, after she noticed Yellen’s glance, she also looked at the sky and she saw the bird.

Siar People didn’t wait for a second yelling. They started to run, looking for a hidden place not to be seen by the all-seeing eye of the evil bird who was looking for someone from heights and if she chose namely this part of the forest it meant that Tenebre knew about their people.

Tarther’s scary yell shook the surroundings and forced people to cover their ears because the sound made by her was so hard to bear. Even so, even if the sound of her scream was cracking the sky and the earth, her eye couldn't see even the run of a mouse or the bent of the blades of grass as the entire nature „froze” feeling the approaching evil.

Lying on the ground, at the shelter of the tall grasses and of the trees, Nathaniel and Samaya practically weren’t breathing. Suddenly she closed her eyes and she moved in a twilling world through the same tunnel where Mayar was advancing toward Coallar’s den and she didn’t stop till she didn’t get in front of Mayar, but the young fox couldn’t see Samaya and this seemed weird for the young she-wolf.

She tried to call Mayar, to make her stop from her sneaking toward the depths of the grotto, but Samaya’s voice couldn’t be heard. Shaking like a leaf in the wind, Samaya returned to the real world and touched her chest with her hand. She tried to whisper something, but she again didn’t hear anything. She tried then the scream, but it had the same effect, and then her eyes filled with tears.

Frightened and as if in trance, Samaya tried to stand up, but Nathaniel suddenly hugged her and both threw on the ground, at the moment Tarther flew above that place. At the man’s chest, who was tightly holding her into his arms, Samaya was slowly shaking, but soon her fear vanished somewhere and her breath became calm again.

She raised her glance and looked at Nathaniel’s face, who was focused on spying on the surroundings. He seemed so calm in her eyes, that man who protected her with his own body and it was also strange for her, because she never managed before to calm so quickly her heartbeats and to bring back the peace in her soul as it happened while she was with him.

Eventually, the man looked at her, but Samaya’s face reflected nothing. But their daydream moments, when were they only and the void, was interrupted by Yellen’s hand touch who showed them the glade seen in the distance and they saw how Tarther landed on the ground after she decided to leave the heights of the sky and to feel the breeze of the Earth.

Winging its huge wings around her body, Tarther slowly shook her head as if she tried to chase away the thoughts she had in her head at that moment, but it was only a movement taken from Eris, from whose thoughts the bird was made and who took this way Eris’habits too.

Wherever Eris felt so deep the bite of Māṉsṭar Kēlaksi loneliness and the tiredness of times taking over her, she was shaking her head several times, clearing her mind and taking back her safeties while looking at the sky above the desert.

Tarther took later a few steps in front, heading toward the forest, and her movement made Siar People crawl back, noiseless, till they got to a gathering of rocks, placed there by of an unknown force, a long time ago and, even if those rocks seemed useless for those places, they were still useful because they were guarding the surroundings and were serving as a shelter for those who needed it.

Becoming as small as possible, Nathaniel and the others, hid between the cracks of the rocks, under it, looking this way for a safe shelter.

But Tarther changed her mind in the end and, right before entering the forest, she fluttered from her huge wings and rose in the air, like a huge shadow who was liquifying in contact with the nature around, but even so, she wasn’t vanishing somewhere but was keeping her shape while passing through woods.

After Tarther lost on the horizon, Siar People left their hidden place and looked behind her, but the bird didn’t look back even for a second.

„Do you think she’ll be back?” Yellen asked Nathaniel.

„I’m sure she will! Her coming here isn’t random. Tenebre is planning something. That’s why we must be prepared. We move toward our den!” the man demanded and his people quickly ran toward their stuff and moved toward the sunset.

***

Hidden behind a stone wall, Mayar looked at the big grotto which served as the throne hall for Coallar. The king was sitting on his throne at that moment, lazily yawning, because he started to feel the passing of time, even if he didn’t show it, because he was still looking well and young for a man of his age.

He had been awakened from his numbness by Tenebre’s scream, who showed up in the middle of the room from nowhere. „Damn people of mice!” she growled. „They manage to hide each time I need them. But when I give no damn penny on them, I can see them all over.”

Coallar again slowly yawned and looked at his wife with half-opened eyes, not understanding why she was so mad while moving through the room. „What did they do this time? And who?” Coallar asked in half a voice.

„The People of Siar! It seems that they hid! Again!”

„And? What business do you have with them this time?”

Unexpectedly, Tenebre threw toward him a cobra, which Coallar managed to grab by neck right before cobra’s forked tongue was about to touch his face. He squeezed her neck and later hit it against the wall. „You never think when you need it,” Tenebre hissed through the teeth. „I’m speaking about Rophion’s girl. The one who has the power to open The Gates of Aeon. We must find her before being too late.”

„The Gates of Aeon? And what’s this?” Mayar wondered and she sneaked a little bit in front, trying to listen to their conversation from a better place. „I’m sure that they are talking about Samaya, but what exactly does she have and what do they need from her? Don’t tell me that…”

„Right!” Tenebre suddenly yelled, as if reading the girl's thoughts, and amazed Mayar took two steps back, looking for a shelter. „We must find her, Coallar! That’s enough for how long we had been lazy. It’s time to set Eris free and to subdue this Earth. I’m tired of Rophion’s ruling and of Inlan Diar's who all the time find a way to ruin our plans.”

„That’s because you’re stupid!” Mayar mumbled ironically. „If you had some brain, you would have found already the manner to kneel them. But so, you are just thinking that a prisoner, who is somewhere in Cosmos for thousands of years, will help you to open a damn Gate you never knew how to open.”

Coallar stood up off his throne and took a few steps through the room, with his hands at his back, as he used to walk. „And why should we do this for setting Eris free and not to do this for us?”

Tenebre looked at him with interest. „What are you planning this time?”

„Mannar! I think that we should set free our boy first and not a mother you had invented thousands of years ago and in front of whom you are so blindly worshiping, but who never did anything for you.”

„Coallar! You are crossing the limits!” Tenebre yelled at him and furiously threw a black cloud that was sparkling fire around toward him, but the king dispersed it before being touched by its power and he did it without doing anything in particular.

„Oho. That is power!” Mayar whispered. „He didn’t even blink, but that cloud vanished in a blink of an eye. How the hell did he do this? I must find out his secret!”

Coallar slowly stepped toward Tenebre, who was spitting fire through her eyes and suddenly he grabbed her by the neck, hissing through the teeth: „think before acting foolishly, Tenebre. Only due to your damn impulsive character we lost in front of them all these years. And the most important person we lost, because of you, was our son, Mannar, about whom we know nothing for about 13 years already, while you are looking to set free the one who transformed our son into the monster he’s today.”

„Eris made him even more powerful than he was before,” Tenebre mumbled furiously. „Because of this, we must be grateful to her!”

Coallar grinned at her. „Eris put that malefic eye on his forehead only for having the power over the world, not to make him powerful. Mannar was enough powerful at that moment. Much more powerful than his brothers. But now, instead of having my throne and the power he deserves, he must hide like a rat who runs off cats. Only because of this I won’t help Eris, ever.”

He let her go and she fell helpless on the ground while slowly shaking because of anger and hatred for everything that was surrounding her and then she touched with her hand the red mark she had on her neck.

„We must find those daggers, Tenebre. One of them will bring our son back to us and thus we’ll kneel Rophions and you know better than me where we can find it.”

„That girl of Rophions”, Tenebre eventually mumbled. „The one blessed with having part of the soul and of the destiny of the first master of Lifid Ibloma, the offshoot of Upprisinn, the one named Samaya.”

Her words amazed both Coallar and Mayar, who had no idea about what the Black Queen was talking about, but whose words resounded so tempting for them. Especially for Mayar. „So, we have some magical instruments here. Interesting, what exactly my copy can do more.”

„Where can I find that Samaya?” Coallar asked with half a voice, while his eyes were spitting fire because of hatred he felt in his chest for Rophions.

„I don’t know where she’s now, but you had her in front of you when you sent that wild boar to attack her and she later fought with Vanamar. But Coallar, none of us can fight against her, because she has Chaos’power and we can’t afford to lose our power.”

„There’s someone in this world who has that power to face the girl of Rophions,” Coallar said and a grin of pleasure could be seen on his lips. „The one who had been born from Mannar’s wish of power and in whose veins is flowing our blood. Ahi’s child!”

Tenebre suddenly stood up. „Does Ahi have a child?”

Coallar looked at her, amazed that she didn’t know about it and he shook his head in approval. „Of course, he has! I don’t know why, but he fell in love with an earthly woman and he left in her womb the seed from which was later born a child with huge power and who can turn this world upside down if he manages to control his power, of course.”

„Another power? Who the hell is that idiot?” Mayar mumbled, unpleasantly surprised to hear that there was someone else in this world she didn’t know about. But what amazed her the most was the fact that she read Ahi’s future and past, so many times before, but she never saw that he has a child, especially one with such a big power that can allow her or him to control the world. But …still, she heard something that could help her find out about the future: the name of the one who transformed Ahi’s child into what she’s today. Thus, she must find first this Ahi and also to find out his secret.

Mayar didn’t wait for the end of the conversation. She sneaked toward the exit, thinking that she hadn’t been noticed there by the two, but she was wrong. Coallar watched her leaving and he smiled, while he whispered to Tenebre: „the one who’ll grab that dagger and will take the diamond of fear off Mannar’s forehead is already in her way to him. We don’t have to do anything about this. We have only to wait because you were right, Tenebre when you said that we can’t control fate, as we can’t control Parca. But still, there’s someone in this world who has this power and soon the world will shake in front of us.”

Tenebre looked in the same direction as Coallar, but she saw nobody and she also hadn’t the power to read her husband’s thoughts and to find out what he was planning. But still, she had decided to listen to Coallar, because Mannar was her child too and she was loving him as much as she loves Ahi. That’s why, Tenebre was ready to take a risk and to fight by Mannar and Coallar’s side, even if it means to betray her mother.