„Will your footsteps that are wandering through the Valley of Silence feel the burden of the valley, ever?” one of the stars of Ursa Minoris asked Samandra when she descended from the carriage of the sky and, as always, she stepped barefoot through the green grass, slowly rocked by the wind.

Samandra instead kept silent, smiled, and stretched her hands to the side to better feel the kiss of the wind that was caressing her skin and was playing with her hair, and, only then, she answered: „something is a burden only when we want it to be this way. As for the rest… it's just lessons learned from life.”

„Lessons?” the star asked with curiosity and, suddenly, she showed up next to Samandra, but the star’s barefoot feet weren’t touching the ground, the grass, or the flowers from around, but she was floating in the air. And she was beautiful, that star: with yellow hair and dark eyes, shining like the eternity and the void, and her long frock, tied at her belt with a girdle made from small shiners were making her seem even smaller and insignificant than she really was. „What are the lessons, Mēṭai?” the star asked.

Samandra stopped her game with the whisper of the night which was felt in that Valley of Silence and looked in the distance. „Mēṭai,” Samandra’s lips murmured, like absent, because even if the other stars were calling her like this since she left the world and joined the Constellation Ursa Minoris, she never used to it. Sometimes they were also calling her UmI (different) because she was the only one looking like a human person even if she was leading a Constellation while the other stars were looking the same like the star that was at that moment next to her, asking her questions about life because she knew that Samandra was the only one capable to answer to those questions: she had had a soul, in the past, she had had a life, she had loved and she’d been loved. The stars instead were born like dead souls since the beginning of the world, and their cold bodies and their blind light were vanishing somewhere when their finish was coming and they were never turning back to their previous place.

„The lessons are… the feelings of the people that are born in their souls and they are also anguishing that they must feel while they are still alive,” Samandra answered, kindly.

„But … what are then…?” the star had wanted to ask because she felt even more confused than she’d been when she asked the first question, but she had decided that maybe it wasn’t the right time for asking about such things.

„What are the feelings and the pain or the anguishing, do you mean?” and when the star tossed her head, Samandra smiled. „Give me your hand!” Samandra asked for and the star held out her hand toward her. Then, Samandra touched it with both hands and approached it off her chest and this made the star wince.

„Something is moving! Deep inside yourself,” the star whispered, in amazement.

„This is called - life - or how the humans use to call it: heartbeats because even if this body you are seeing is only a corpus and nothing more, it still keeps inside the feelings and emotions it lived while was still alive. Actually, the feelings cross through humans’heart: if they are pleasant, the feelings, then they make the heartbeats be felt so kindly, and if a man suffers then the heart beatings are mad, like the flight of the comets that cross, at full speed, the vault of the sky, heading toward nowhere.”

„Then … probably… it is difficult for humans to have them. I mean, to feel,” the star said.

„It depends. It is difficult for some humans. Others instead cannot live without them,” and Samandra smiled again and bowed to watch a pellet of flowers of Krinkle Kurl of a blue-reddish color which was growing so lonely through the other herbs. „It seems that you also feel so alive the loneliness of this place, my dear,” the woman told the flower and kindly smiled.

The flower, as if it understood Samandra’s words, rose her blue head, shook the sleep from its small petals and that movement filled the Valley with an alluring smell of violets.

While watching the flower, Samandra saw on its petals the image of the same star that Sephir took from Fenrir’s chest when they fought with Goyan. „Irakkam!” Samandra whispered and stared for a while at that image: she saw how the two stars unified with each other, how the missing handle of the miniature sword took its natural place, and how the black, small eye from the center quickly blinked on the form. „It’s already started,” Samandra murmured and shuddered. „Even if I knew that this day will come, I never thought that it’ll be so soon. Let’s go, Mēṭai Ciṟupāṉmai (Small Star) We have urgent things to do.”

Samandra suddenly stood up and, stretching her hand in front, palm facing the sky, she started to slowly rise in the air, heading toward the sky. Then, they both climbed in the carriage of Ursa Minoris and when Samandra pulled the reins, Elyzar showed up in front of the carriage and, spurred by her, the horse galloped in the distance, heading West, toward the place from where Fenrir and the others were turning home.

***

„It’s weird, this star,” Fenrir said, staring at the metallic star from off his hand. He was sitting, next to the trunk of a tree, while watching at that small beauty from off his palm, and Sephir was next to him, asleep, with her head supported on his shoulder and her sleep seemed so quiet, for the first time in her life.

Taking his glance from off the star, Fenrir watched the face of his wife and smiled, seeing her slowly moving in her sleep. Then, when he felt that her head slipped down from off his shoulder, he touched her cheek with his palm and slowly pushed her up, making her accommodate again her head on the shoulder as she was doing a few moments ago.

Later, feeling that she was calm again, Fenrir looked in front and saw Bestla also asleep, laying on a frock, next to the trunk of a tree, but her sleep was fussy, and she was tossing and sighing while sleeping. But he didn’t see Arion next to her and Fenrir got alarmed, but when he looked on his left he saw Arion at about 300 meters from them, looking somewhere in the distance, folding his arms across his chest.

„Something happens, Arion? Does someone come after us?” Fenrir asked him by using telepathy.

„No. Just thoughts,” Arion answered, without turning his head or watching him. But Fenrir felt a kind of strange tenseness in his voice and he decided to check what was going on. Before standing up, he laid Sephir on the frock on which they were sitting on and then he approached Arion and touched his shoulder. Arion didn’t even look at him, but not because he was upset with Fenrir, but because he was feeling anxious about something that he couldn’t understand what was that. „Maraṇam nam'maic cuṟṟi maṟaintiruppatai uṇarkiṟēṉ (Tamil) - I feel that death is watching us,” Arion eventually said.

„Death? Why do you say so?”

„I don’t know how to explain this, Fenrir. It’s just a feeling I have and … look.”

Stretching forth his hand, Arion showed Fenrir a red transversal on his palm. „Bestla has one too, but hers is different: blue or dark, changing, from time to time.”

„And … since when did you notice this? Why didn’t you two tell us about this?” Fenrir asked, preoccupied.

„Because we thought that it is something transiently. Related to King Goyan’s death. However, it seems that we’ve been wrong. And … it’s the dagger too: it always floats somewhere near us and no matter how I tried or Bestla tried to touch it, we found it impossible.”

Looking around, Fenrir saw the dagger slowly floating in the air, not that far from Bestla, but its top wasn’t trended to Arion or to her, but toward Fenrir. „What does it mean?” Fenrir wondered. „If my dream was true then this dagger should belong to me, but I also cannot touch it. But… it always floats between the three of us, even if none of us can have it.”

The star, from Fenrir’s palm, suddenly started to brightly shine. Fenrir looked first at its light, then he looked at the dagger and saw its blade having the same color as the star. But it was something stranger there: between the dagger and the star, coming from above, it was seen a big trail of white light. Looking at the sky, Fenrir saw the carriage of Ursa Minoris stopped above the forest, in the sky. Seeing this, Fenrir tapped Arion on the shoulder and showed him to look in the same direction.

„The Path of Light!” Arion whispered. „But … how can you see it, Fenrir? This path can be seen only by the dead souls and by those who have power over the clouds and we are only three people who can control the balking horses of the sky - me, Sephir, and God Boor.”

„I don’t know exactly why and how I can see it, Arion, but it seems that it is related to the power of the star. Look! Its light, the light of the dagger and the light of the path - all three have the same tint.”

Arion was also amazed, seeing the same thing. „It seems that you are right, but…”

„That star you have in your hand, son, held once the reins of Ursa Majoris Constellation,” Samandra’s voice was heard from the sky.

„Mother?” Fenrir whispered, but looking up he couldn’t see her: only a bright trial of blinding light was sprawled in front of his eyes.

„Yes, Fenrir, it’s me, but as long as you are on Earth and I am in the sky, we cannot see each other.”

„But… why? Samaya told me about the day when you saw her in our house. If she can see you, why I cannot too?”

„Because she has the power of the Clepsydra of the Time, Fenrir, as you don’t have it. But… don’t be sad: it’ll come the time when we’ll meet again and you’ll see my face then.”

„But … mother!”

„UmI, did you say that Fenrir’s star held once the reins of Ursa Majoris Constellation?”

„Yes, it’s right, Soan. Long-ago, Ursa Majoris, and the Tree of Life were tied with the same thread of time, but when Genea dissipated the tree into nothingness, Ursa Majoris had also split up. The stars from the Constellation vanished and their light faded off, but the biggest star of that Constellation, the one from the middle that was so brightly shining over the surroundings wasn’t destroyed. It just … disappeared, but because of its own power and nobody knew, till nowadays, where it was. Till today when you managed whole it again.”

„How was this possible? If this star was thrown on Earth, thousands of years ago, how did it stay hidden till today?” Arion asked, curiously.

„I can’t answer this question, Soan, because I don’t have an answer to it. But I'm sure now … you have another mystery to find out. And ... I fulfilled my mission too: to tell you about the star and it is everything that I could find out about from the stars of Ursa Minoris when I joined them. I never saw that star: only in my dreams because while Ursa Majoris is broken, the power of Ursa Minoris is limited and we cannot see beyond the limits of ower time. And… I’ll tell you one more secret: the day Ursa Majoris will be restored, I’ll finally enter Aeon and then, the Era of Themis will be started.”

„Themis? The Master of the Twelve Balances?” Fenrir asked.

„That’s right, son. Themis will be reborn from nothingness and from humans when all the twelve Balances will be found. Your mission is to find now the Balance of Time, but Eris seems to be after the Balance of Life and Death, after Iṟappu Vāḻkkai.”

„But … does Eris really have the power to restore a Balance? Wasn't told that only the One has this power?” Arion asked.

„There are many prophecies in the Cosmos and on Earth, Soan. We don’t know them all. But from what Yggdrasil told us a long time ago, the power of Good as the power of Evil has the same right for restoring the Balance and to make it protect them. That’s why, to be sure about your success, keep safe the dagger Eftir Daudann and the star because soon, the real Master of Death, Maranam, will ask for his rights.”

The light of the carriage of Ursa Minoris faded off as the light of the star and of the dagger did and this made Fenrir and Arion look at each other, preoccupied, but they couldn’t read the truth in the eyes of none of them.

Eventually, Arion whispered: „go and have some rest, Fenrir. I’ll keep an eye on the surroundings because I feel that something is hardly pressing my heart and it won’t allow me to have some sleep tonight.”

„Alright then, I’ll be next to Sephir. But, in case you need me don’t doubt to awake me. It isn’t right for you to be alone with a lot of black thoughts spinning in your head,” Fenrir told Arion, trying to send to him a big amount of good energy and to make him feel his support. Then, Fenrir approached Sephir, laid next to her, holding her into his arms, and, feeling her calm and rhythmical breath, he also fell asleep as he did while being a child and instead of Sephir, Samaya was sleeping next to him.

***

„Take care of the dagger and of the star from your chest, Kaerlleikans and never allow anybody to know the real value of them or everything will be lost,” Upprisinn told her sister, before going East, along with Gaea and Dike.

„Mmm. I’ll do it as you say,” Kaerlleikans slowly whispered. Inwardly instead, she felt like an upset child who’ll be left alone, in the end, when what she really wanted was to have someone next to her always. „Maybe … you’ll stay with me, in the end?” she asked Upprisinn.

„You know that this is outside my capabilities, sister. I’d give the world for being with you forever, but … I have another destiny to fulfill and I can’t oppose it.”

„Fate! I’ve started to hate it!” Kaerlleikans murmured, furiously.

„Kaerlleikans! Stop it! Don’t talk like this or you can turn Moirae against us.”

„Why? I said only the truth. Others decided our destiny, even before being born. Even what dagger we will have and where should we live, also others have decided for us. We, humans, also have the right to choose.”

The young woman’s eyes flashed fire while both were under the same huge, rotated tree where Obregon used to have a nap, talking to the wolf Fenrir. In front of her, Upprisinn looked instead so calm, so right-minded. Actually, Upprisinn had been always like this: right-minded and calm, thinking twice before acting while Kaerlleikans was impulsive and always needed for her sister's support, in everything. „It seems to me that you’ve forgotten already our father’s lessons, Kaerlleikans: we can’t judge fate, but fate can judge us.”

„Dad! You don’t even know how much I miss him.”

„I know and I feel the same because a twin heart cannot feel otherwise, sister. But it’s time to make our own choice. Actually, you already made it,” and she looked at Obregon who was in front of the tent with Dike and Gaea.

„And… what will you choose, Upprisinn? Will you go with Gaea or with titan Dike?”

„I’ll go where my heart will tell me to go,” Upprisinn answered and stretched her hand toward Kaerlleikans. On her palm, Kaerlleikans saw the same blue line Arion saw on Bestla’s, after they fought with king Goyan and when Kaerlleikans showed her palm to her sister it was seen a red one on hers.

„The borders between Life and Death,” Kaerlleikans whispered, looking at the red line from off her palm. „When Yggdrasil and the Tree of Life had been split up and the Star that was leading Ursa Majoris also vanished somewhere, on Earth, these lines also showed up and at the door of the Purgatorium, and when we’ve been born, the star Irakkam was also split up in two: one took the path of Life and the second one shone over the path of Death and only when we’ll meet again, after our death, at the door of the Purgatorium, these lines will be erased and the star will be joined again.”

Upprisinn nodded and her palm touched Kaerlleikans’palm and the two vanished, but only Obregon had been amazed to notice their missing and he got alarmed, thinking that he lost his wife.

Dike put a hand on Obregon’s shoulder and calmly told him: „don’t worry, Obregon, they’ll be back soon. Your young wife followed her sister to see dear places for a few moments only and when she’ll be back, she’ll be with you till the end of your lives.”

Obregon said nothing. He looked first around, trying to avoid Gaea’s glance, who was keeping an eye on him, like an eagle looking for his prey. He only looked at the titanide when she told him: „and yet, being the one who’ll show to that child the path to walk onto toward the realm of Maranam, you seem quite nervous, young Obregon. Is it because of love?” but her question received no answer.

***

Upprisinn and Kaerlleikans suddenly showed up in front of the big Gates of the Purgatorium, positioned deep underground. It was a huge, stone gate, closed for them at that moment because that gate was opening only when Charon, the boatman, was bringing in his wooden boat a soul that left the world of the alive ones and chose to be crossed over Styx, avoiding this way to pass toward the Purgatorium by not crossing the Bridge Yeomna and this was possible by paying a coin to Charon or giving something valuable to Moirae if he was lucky to see them at the hour of his death.

The huge, stone Gates had many carvings on them: carvings representing the oppressed souls, the happy souls that could see the richness and the beauty of Aeon or the Heavens, how people and titans used to call Aeon, but also, on the same Gates, were engraved the forms of the twelve Balances, but their place was empty, a sign that when they’ll be found the balances will take back their place on the Gates of the Purgatorium, waiting for Themis to be born and to rule over them, and thus, the Gates of the Purgatorium were considered like being the guardians of the power between Life and Death or Good and Evil.

Upprisinn, who was standing on the right, in front of the Gates, opened her palm and, above the blue line, she saw a small, blue petal of a lotus flower while, in Kaerlleikans’palm, who was standing on the left of the Gates, was a petal of violet.

Then, the stars that were hanging at their necks started to shine, and when their light joined in front of the Gates, between the two girls, right in the center of the two lights a big, while lotus flower showed up, slowly floating in the air, and, on one of the petals was seen a small creature: a very small little girl, of the size of a finger, with a blue eye and a purple one and their wings were similar to a butterfly - also, one blue and one purple. Her hair was long and blonde, something similar to the color of the lotus and on her forehead was seen a crown: in the middle of the crown was seen an empty place in the form of the same star that was hanging at the girls’neck.

„Bodhi!” Upprisinn whispered. „You, here?”

The girl, named Bodhi, smiled and slowly bent in front of them. „Where else should be the guardian of Life and Death if not in front of the Gates of the Purgatorium?! I’m the Balance between the sharpness of the humans’minds and their spiritual perfection. In other terms: I’m the Goddess and the science in a simple creature, and this huge, pure flower of the souls is known all over the Universe as the Womb of the World: the reconcilement of the human being with his fate,” and Bodhi looked at Kaerlleikans who right away looked at the ground, feeling shame for her previous words told to her sister about fate.

„Now I understand why you brought me here, Upprisinn,” Kaerlleikans whispered. „To make peace with fate, even if I’m just a simple human being.”

Bodhi burst laughing and her ringing laughter amazed the two girls. „Nobody is forced to accept fate. You can try to change it if you want, but you must know first that if you start to change something you haven’t the right to turn the bridle.”

„To turn the bridle? What do you mean?” Kaerlleikans asked, with curiosity.

Bodhi instead just focused her glance on the girl’s and smiled and her eyes became dark like the night is: „Did you ever see the night trying to become a day?” Bodhi asked with a severe tone.

„No, but this doesn’t mean that the night can’t change its essence,” Kaerlleikans answered.

„Like?” Bodhi asked, this time watching with vivid curiosity into the woman’s eyes, but she couldn’t see what was at that moment in Kaerlleikans’soul, a sign that the woman’s power started to increase due to the star seeing shining at her neck and due to the blade of the dagger off her girdle.

„At the beginning of the world, the night was the essence of the void only. Then, the light was born from the night and later it was sent on Earth to bring peace and rest for the human beings.”

„But the night is also the perfect time for hiding the lie, the betrayal, the fear, the shadows, and the rest of the forms of evil that are lurking on us from all over,” Bodhi said.

„But the night is also the time of love, of conceiving new lives. Is the muse for creation.”

„The creation can be also destructive.”

„Depends on how you look at it: what for one can be destruction, for another one can be a new beginning,” Kaerlleikans smiled, spotting that Bodhi grimaces, not knowing what else to say. Then, Bodhi also smiled.

„What else can I say: I give up. Human beings can philosophize about abstract things even more than Life really means. I instead… I’ll just stay here and wait for immortality.”

Upprisinn smiled and this made the two watch her: „I feel as if I look at the argument between my mother and Kaerlleikans: they are both so stubborn and none of them gives up ever even if they know that the other one is right.”

„Well, Kaerlleikans is right… in something and I am right in… others. Let’s say that we just have different manners of looking at the things that surround us.”

„And you are right. But: you two also know that there aren’t half measures in this world. Every bit as much as life and death cannot fulfill their meaning into this world on half only,” Upprisinn said.

„What if it is possible?” Bodhi asked and the girls looked in amazement at her. „You two forgot about reincarnation and this isn’t something only related to death or to life, but it can be considered as being a halfway.”

„But, Bodhi, how does somebody know if he will have another life or not?” Kaerlleikans asked.

„He doesn’t know and also the Universe doesn't know this because the reincarnation of a soul is closely tied to his huge desire of living and this makes that the cosmic waves of the life and death energy to join and from their union the souls are reborn. But only to want this … isn’t possible. It's all about luck. So: take care of the star of goodness because it is the only one which has the power and the capacity to give to a human being the possibility to have a second life,” and Bodhi suddenly vanished like the lotus flower and the girls turned back to the real world, still having in their palms the petals of the flowers they had while talking to Bodhi.