The tempting whispers of the forest are heard all over: in the lisp, in the light gusts of wind felt on the skin, in the sweet chirp of the birds that fly above, but the whispers are much clearer heard around Tenebre Forest while she’s advancing toward the Rophion Forest.

She decided to go to Dike’s Forest after the conversation she had with Coallar who told her that their son, Mannar, is in danger and that it’ll be a better idea to find and save him first than to fight for something impossible: for Eris’salvation.

For the first time in those few thousands of years since they know each other, Tenebre and Coallar agreed on something and not only fought about something as they usually did each time, they met each other and this was due to their temper that was burning everything around worse than an arson.

That has been so for a long time, maybe since she remembers about herself or, better to say, this was so since she met Coallar, 2 thousands of years ago. It was a rainy day when they met, with thunder lights splitting the sky into many pieces. But such a day, full of dark energy and surrounded by a destroying storm wasn’t something that could scare Tenebre. More than this: she loved such days that made her feel alive, filling her with power and giving her hope for dreaming that she’ll be one day the real Queen of the Universe, in Themis’place and thus she’ll control everything around.

And this wasn’t a fatuous dream: Tenebre was living on Earth for twenty years already, but she hadn't found yet the source of the real Dark Power, even if she had looked for it for many years. But despite all power and time she dedicated to this, the Dark Power seemed to be further and further from her and Tenebre was feeling it in the strange sensation of the air around and especially in the vertiginous changing of the heavy clouds in the sky.

Then, that change of energy was also felt in the whispers of nature that were reminding Tenebre about Eris’thoughts and desires: „find the black diamond! Get the upper hand of it and you’ll have thus the power of the Darkness on your side!” she heard Eris’ voice talking to her not only once, but that diamond seemed to hide from her as if controlled by an inner power or, better to say, as if there was another soul, also controlled by the evil, and that wanted the same power as she wanted.

And Tenebre finally found out who that soul was: on that rainy day when she decided to wash her body into the vertiginous and full of sins water of Maranam River.

After swimming into the depths of the water, fully enjoying its grisly coldness, feeling the energy of the water of Death deeply entering her skin and filling her with a burning desire without understanding wherefrom the water was taking that source of desire, Tenebre had finally decided to exit the water and to breath fresh air. Above the water instead, being with her back to the shore, she felt someone spying on her. She looked there only with the corner of her eye at first, but because she couldn’t see well who was spying on her, she decided to face that person and to look into his eyes.

Nobody was on the shore instead, even if she felt his presence there. So, she decided to exit the water and approach the trees. But, while walking through the water, with the satin cloth of the black dress covering her body that was completely wet and stuck to her skin, Tenebre felt a weird sensation on her body. She stopped and deeply breathed in, but the intensity of that sweet touch filled her with another weird desire. This made her suddenly close her eyes and lay back her head as if trying to live to the full the felt sensation while the imaginary touch of someone on each millimeter of her skin, made her feel like going crazy.

Her desire peaked at the moment the sky crackled, stabbed by a huge thunder light, and a long sigh, of pleasure, came out from Tenebre’s throat. Then, she opened her eyes and looked in the distance, seeing Coallar on the river shore.

Actually, she felt only his energy at first, whose vibrations were colored by a kind of black smoke. Then, from nowhere, Coallar’s body was also outlined: he was standing on the river shore, with his hands at his back, with his head slightly bent and looking at the ground, even if his eyes were closed. But, even so, Tenebre felt something strange touching her and when she looked at her chest, she saw the cloth of her dress suddenly becoming transparent, revealing to the furious nature the beauty of her own naked body.

A movement through the space and Coallar got in the water in front of Tenebre. The two stood like this for seconds in a row: he - with his eyes closed and sniffing the horizon, she - completely naked, in front of him, waiting for what will come because something was telling her that their union will be benefic for her too and that she mustn’t run away.

„Finally!” she heard Coallar’s voice, even if he didn’t move his lips to talk to her, but his voice wasn’t a telepathic one - only it was somehow perfectly heard around. „Finally, we met each other and we can unify the He and the She of the world of Darkness,” Coallar told her, suddenly opening his eyes and staring into hers, black like the pitch and burning of desire.

His arms suddenly hugged her: actually, one hand touched her head, supporting it, while the second hand touched her wet body and approached it more from his, sticking her chest of his.

Tenebre smiled and looked at his lips. Then she whispered: „I feel your presence for a long time already, sneaking around me, but I never saw your face by now. Why?”

„Because it wasn’t the time yet!”

„The time? For what?”

„For joining the passion that is burning us,” he said, slowly bending his head, cunningly smiling at her and when he closed his eyes, his lips hungrily kissed hers.

Even if she wasn’t experienced in such things as love is, Tenebre knew very well what to do in such moments: her arms lapped round his body, the dress vanished somewhere in the water, completely undressing her body, cooled by the Maranam River water and heated by the hot kisses of King Coallar, to make the horizon be prettier and, in the end, the two fell underwater, ready to consume their love.

Many months after this, Tenebre gave birth to Ahi. But none of the two parents felt in the child the vibrations of the power they needed and this made them feel no love for him. But even so, they didn’t abandon him, but they grew him up, making him feel harsher the passing of time, due to their probations.

Despite the increasing hatred of his father for him, who was considering Ahi not a haughty heir of his, the boy grew up powerful and tall, being good in everything he did.

Tenebre instead, contrary to her husband, felt no hatred for her child: only indifference. At first, because Ahi was only a baby, she took care of him to survive, but never gave him some of her love. When he grew up instead, she discovered in her elder son an ally against Coallar that was becoming crazier and crazier by the day, blinded by an imaginary power that he was dreaming about, but he wasn’t able to reach and because of this Tenebre told Ahi to be always her faithful dog. And he did this because he considered that only this way, he can have some of her love.

But none of them could impede Coallar to approach the titanide of Ice and Snow, Inlan Diar. They could only watch at this new union, considered a pact of the two new spouses: he agreed to never attack the Realm of Ice while she agreed to be his every time, he wanted this. But, despite the fact that they wanted something else, it was also something that they both wanted: a child.

Even if a child of the two could be considered a common desire, each of them expected something different from that child: Inlan Diar wanted a haughty heir of her, kind and respectful with nature, strong enough to help her if necessary while Coallar was looking for a cruel heir, inhuman, a grouch and capable of everything, especially to destroy something if Coallar wanted this.

However, Island’s birth didn’t satisfy Coallar’s desire and it could be considered a failure of the Balance of Power for King Coal because his son was completely the opposite of what he wanted: the baby was completely white and around him was floating the Kindness and the White Magic. Because of this, the first time he saw his boy, Coallar roared like a mad person and tried to kill the baby, but Island was immediately surrounded by Ice Walls, created by the baby’s power and Coallar understood that he wasn’t capable to destroy it. Then, Coallar tried to hurt the young mother, but namely the pact he proposed to her forced him to give up the idea to kill her: when a sword of fire appeared in his hand and he tried to stab it into Inlan Diar’s chest, his hand started to badly shake and the sword was covered by ice in seconds, forcing him to kneel in front of his new wife, that was standing in front of him, proudly staring at him, like a real Queen of Ice.

„You forgot on whose realm you are, king Coallar. In the Realm of Ice, I am the only Queen and the air around listens only to my voice. Your rashness to bring the fire in this kingdom of white snow and Ice can leave you without what you want the most,” she told him harshly.

Kneeled and furious, Coallar roared like a desperate man: „you deceived me, cunning queen!”

„Did I deceive you? I? In which way?”

„You gave birth to a son of mine that…”

„…that is the opposite of your face, but he’s still your son, as we agreed. Our pact is considered now fulfilled and signed not only with blood and power but also with life: the breath of the son born from the union of our souls and this doesn’t give you ever the right to break your word, Coallar. So, keep in mind my words: never dare to raise your hand again over my son or over me, intending to take our lives or to hurt us or I swear that from a king of Coal, full of Hatred and Fire, you’ll be only a legend, told by humans like a bad story that ever existed and you know that I have this in my power. And now: get lost in front of me!”

A slight movement of her hand, made Coallar vanish from the Ice Palace, being thrown away in the same Glade known later as the Glade of Ahilar.

Mad and kneeled, Coallar looked again for comfort in Tenebre’s arms and nine months later she gave birth to the second son of them, and this third son of king Coal was exactly what they always looked for: the perfect heir.

And finally, Coallar could do what he always wanted: he filled his son’s soul with hatred, making him be completely lonely, resentful, and always looking for killing someone. The first over whom Mannar threw his hatred was his elder brother, Ahi, but Ahi wasn’t an easy prey for him because Ahi learned to defend himself, in time, and thus their power was somehow equal and none of them was enough powerful to kill the other. But this didn’t mean that they stop their fight: no, it became even much fiercer and this, as always, was Coallar’s credit who was always whispering into Mannar’s ear: „kill them! Defeat your brothers and you’ll be the only Master of the World, forever,” and his words were always heard because in time not only Ahi was attacked, but also Island was forced to defend himself from his younger brother’s madness.

But Mannar was weak in the Realm of Ice and he had to say thank you for this to his father who signed the pact with Inlan Diar because the power of that pact was tied not only by Coallar but by each of his heirs. However, Coallar understood this too late, roaring like mad each time he was remembering this and trying to destroy everything around him.

And… he lost everything, at the end when Mannar disappeared one day and nobody knew where he went or where to find him and this was a venom for the soul of his parents.

„I looked for you for years without finding you,” Tenebre whispered after remembering her life while advancing through the Rophion Forest because that forest was the only one that had power over the Black Queen, forcing her to turn back in time and make her feel once again all the pain she suffered in life. „But, son, tell me, can you hear my voice? Can your eyes see my face? Are they somehow talking to you?” but she heard no answer, even from the wind or from the echo that was living in those places.

And she got, in the end, to the edge of the forest and she looked in the distance: the Valley of Silence was seen all over, covered by thick, green grass, full of scentful flowers grown between the blades of grass, but what made Tenebre shudder with each bone was to feel deeply in her soul the power of that silence: „Maranam!” she whispered, eventually, seeing approaching her, in the distance, a black horse and on the back of that horse she saw a rider man … a faceless one.

Frightened, Tenebre took a few steps back and she suddenly fell to the ground when she recognized something in that rider man, something she didn’t know before, but something that still made her heart bleed: on that rider man’s forehead she saw a shinning, black diamond.

Even if she wasn’t a person that could easily be frightened, Tenebre stood up in a jump and ran away with all her strength because she felt, for the first time, death following her while her voice was heard all around screaming: „no, death, no! Mannar can’t be Maranam!”

***

A THOUSAND YEARS AGO. THE DAY OF MANNAR’S DISAPPEARANCE.

Snuffling from his nostrils, as he does each time he loses a battle, Mannar left Coallar’s den and moved in the distance because he felt a weird sensation in his chest that he must leave those places and he must do this immediately.

And he felt all this after another battle he had with Ahi inside the grotto, but, as always, he couldn’t defeat his brother even if Ahi had finished the battle completely bloody, kneeled in front of his father who, instead of being happy with his eldest son’s power, only disdainfully stared at Ahi, then he looked elsewhere, showing to him that it was time to vanish from there and Ahi did this immediately by using teleporting.

Seeing this, Mannar, who had stood in a corner while Ahi has kneeled in front of their father, saw himself forced to leave too because he felt that the hatred Coallar felt for Ahi was actually due to his incapacity to defeat his elder brother and what Mannar wanted at that moment was to not hear another series of sermons from Coallar about how he must fight to win.

Coallar even slapped Mannar once when he dared to affront him by telling him: „if you are so good of sermons why not follow them? Fight in my place and win then!” but after the slap, he became wiser.

Eventually, he decided to go to the Maranam River and cool his heated body in its water because Ahi had recently the unpleasant trick to use the fire for everything, and those flames burnt like hell, leaving on Mannar’s body deep wounds. After that last battle, on Mannar’s forehead could be seen a small wound of burning and this was due to a lump of burning coal that Ahi took from the wall of the grotto, heated it, and after this threw it over Mannar, but for that dare, Mannar rewarded him with two nice fists over Ahi’s body that was felt like the hits of a big hammer: one in the head and one in the chest that made Ahi spit blood.

Remembering this, Mannar also spat aside, with nausea, and the saliva, hitting the petal of a violet flower, burnt it completely and transformed it into ashes. Mannar felt thus a weird sensation because his dare of hurting the innocent flower made nature mad and the trees around him started to talk in their ancient language, unknown to him.

The son of king Coal stopped and looked around, furiously because even nature was against him that day. But he became curious when those antic whispers, like a spell, made be felt a big storm around. „Is this Island’s job?” Mannar wondered, but he chased that thought away soon when he understood that the wind wasn’t filled with ice, but with a kind of hot magma. „This is the power of evil. But… whose?”

Then, he heard a strange burst, increasing in intensity, coming from the river and this made Mannar walk faster, at first, then he practically run toward the river. Getting on the river shore, he stopped and as if enchanted he looked around: everything was floating in the air as if moved by a strange force - dried blades of grass, dried leaves, stones rose from below, different small and forgotten objects. But… what amazed him the most was to see a beautiful deer, not scared at all, approaching the water to drink and this made Mannar understand that if the deer isn’t scared it means that this kind of event like that seen at that moment there is something usual for those places, like a kind of daily routine.

And he felt again the sudden desire to kill and he grinned. Then, he took a small knife used for hunting out of his pocket and tightly grabbed it in his hand while sneaking toward the water, intending to kill the deer by surprise. But the deer continued to calmly drink and he only felt Mannar when he was two steps from him. The deer intended to run away, but Mannar grabbed him by the rear leg and pulled him toward him, not paying at all attention to the fact that the deer was crying blue murder and that he also hit him with the other rear hoof over the mouth, making Mannar’s lips badly bleed, but this only drove Mannar crazier and to use all his force to kill him: from one pull he had the deer next to him. Then, he wrapped one arm around the deer’s throat while tightly grabbing his horn, and with the other hand, he pulled the deer’s head on his back. Then, he took the knife that he had between his teeth all that time and from one movement he cut the animal’s throat, leaving him to die next to the river.

Still kneeled next to the water, Mannar looked at his hand covered with blood and grinned with pleasure. Then, he felt the taste of the innocent blood on the top of his tongue after touching with it the blood drops that were flowing off the blade. „Tasty!” Mannar growled, but he suddenly became sharper when the river water started again to roar. Then, he saw how in the middle of the river the water started to quickly move in circles, and soon after a small tornado was seen there. Later, from the throat of that tornado, the water jerked up, like a geyser and he saw the black diamond slowly spinning above the geyser.

Mannar, staring like charmed at that diamond, stood up and whispered: „Charming! Appetizing! Mine! I must have it!”

„If you want it then you must give up everything you have and be submissive to me,” he heard Eris’voice talking to him and he didn’t know or care about who she was: he only grinned with pleasure and nodded. „Let it be like you wish!” Eris added and the diamond stopped its movement, looking frozen. „You wanted this!” Eris said again and her hysterical laughter was heard all over. When the echo of her laughter vanished into the nothingness, the black diamond jerked from its place and with a dizzying speed approached Mannar, sticking on his forehead because the wound he had there was fresh and the evil is always looking for raw.

Mannar sighed: mad and totally lacking power. He kneeled again and bent his head for a few moments. After this, he rose again his head, and with a lost glance he looked in front of him, whispering: „Maranam, since today I’m your eternal servant.” Then, he stood up and entered the water, advancing toward its middle, but he stopped in the same place where Tenebre and Coallar became a couple, long ago before his birth because what Coallar and Tenebre never knew was that the place where they consumed their passion was in fact the place where the black diamond hid, feeding itself with the power of their love and waiting for their child, the fruit of their evil energy, to come there, to accept to be its servant and to take it out of the water.

When night took over those places again, Mannar came out of the water: he had at that moment that face of the devil that later killed Samandra and that was making everybody that was seeing him be afraid. Then, he exited the water and moved toward Rophion Forest, listening to Eris’command, sent to him through the vibrations of the diamond, like a message that was telling him that Rophions are his enemies and that he must kill them.

***

Tenebre kept running like a mad person through the forest, still staring behind her to see if Maranam, the Angel of Death, was following her or not. But no matter how long she didn’t look back she saw nobody following her, except the evil nature that was blocking the way of those who could chase her.

Eventually, she stopped when her right shoulder hit something hard, but when she looked in front, she saw nothing, and this amazed and scared her at the same time because she had never seen before air to block someone’s passing.

Stretching her hands in front, she started to palpate the void, feeling something cold and thin in the front and when she grabbed it by wrapping her palm around it, she understood that it was a bar: „A cell? In the void?” she wondered and she moved the other hand in front of her and her power could, in the end, chase away the mirage and she could see Mannar’s cell.

„Mannar! Son!” she whispered, staring mad toward Mannar who was sitting in one of the corners of the cell, with his knees touching his chest while his head was slowly hitting the bars.

Tenebre quickly kneeled, pulling the bars, but incapable to break them. „Mannar, do you hear me? Do you hear your mother? Look at me!” she yelled, but Mannar didn’t react. „The gate! I must find the gate of the cell!” Tenebre whispered. „If I find it and I open it, Mannar will be free then. Yes, he’ll be free!” and she started feverishly to look for the gate, but when she got to the corner of the cubic cell, she understood that she can’t pass to the next face of the cube and the mirage suddenly disappeared, as the cell did and this made Tenebre squirm.

„No. No. Mannar! Son!” she whispered, but to bring back the cell in front of her eyes, she had to fight with her power for a while. When she finally made it and she saw Mannar’s eyes piercing hers, she stepped back because he was standing then right next to the bars, staring at her and devilishly grinning at her.

„Who are you?” Mannar asked her, hissing the words through his teeth and staring at her and this made Tenebre feel scared of her son, for the first time because his eyes which were staring at her and thirsty for blood looked different, like the eyes of a stranger, but namely, the diamond on his forehead made Tenebre shudder with all her body because on that diamond Tenebre saw Eris’reflection and she finally understood who made from her son the monster she was seeing there: it had been the one she had considered being her mother and who she tried to save from her prison.

„Mother!” Tenebre murmured while staring at the diamond, but her words hadn’t been heard by Eris because the diamond only had an opposite function: it was sending Eris’ commands to Mannar and she could see what he was seeing only when she was possessing him, but since he’d been imprisoned, after Samandra’s death, their bond weakened.

Yet, Eris had decided to wait for his liberation, in silence because she felt that he’ll be released from that damn cell, created by Lodur and Gaea, 13-years-ago and when Mannar will be free again she’ll have another chance to succeed.

Eventually, when she understood that Eris cannot hear her or see her, Tenebre got the courage and approached the bars, but still keeping the distance between her and Mannar, to not be hurt by him. But, despite her fear for him, Tenebre looked into his eyes and he did the same, curious to find out who she was. And they stood like this for minutes, without saying a word. But, eventually, Tenebre decided that she must act and she said: „tell me, Mannar, what are my eyes talking to you about?”

Mannar grinned: „about power!”

„And… about nothing else? Aren’t they talking to you about a past that…”

He slowly shook his head: „I … have no past and even if I had one… I don’t want to know it.”

„But… why? If you knew your past…” Tenebre tried to make him react.

„Because our past is our weakness. Our fears and our weaknesses are born from the past, and I don’t want to be weak.”

„Then… what do you want, son?” Tenebre told him and for the first time, tenderness and kindness were heard in her voice.

„Freedom! I need freedom and I’ll be always grateful to the one who’ll release me from here…,” and his eyes deeply looked into hers, sending a message to her, and after she got that message, she slowly nodded in approval and vanished somewhere.

When she vanished, the mirage vanished too, behind her, hiding again Mannar’s cell, who turned back to his corner, waiting in silence for his approaching freedom.