The flames are madly dancing in front of the eyes, and their blinks of fire, when pieces of hungry dreams are broken from them, illuminate the horizon and make the night seem even more beautiful than it was before.

Then, a wolf’s howl was heard piercing the horizon and disturbing the peace of Siar People’s camp that on that moment of the young night was sitting in front of the burning fire heated to the maximum and in which were burning so beautifully hard oak logs, making the flames to be of a golden reddish and filling the horizon with an inviting smell.

„Our pain started a long time ago and it was written like this for us because of our greed and our hatred for our own people,” the old Solan started his story while his eyes, almost blind because of his age, were staring at the flames that were madly and dreamy dancing in front of him. „But… was it our havoc and our punishment deserved? I can’t answer this question, how it can’t be probably answered also by the titans too because they don’t have anymore the partition of fate in their hands.”

The old Solan’s voice was heard farther and farther away while he continued his story, and the wheel of time, moved by their hearts, started to rotate back, reflecting old times in the humans' eyes, a long time ago forgotten times, and times which they only heard about.

***

„Are you sure that you didn’t hear anything last night?” a servant asked another one while their group was entering the White City, the most beautiful city of the People of Siar, known by many as the City Light too.

Those servants were part of princess Curse’s crew that was turning back home from her long journey after she’d decided that before getting married she must visit the Eastern saint places, called and known by many as Ceyyum Karuvil or the Place of Birth, the place from were humans considered that the titans were born on Earth because even if the humans appeared into this world many thousands of years before, their limited knowledge about life didn’t allow them to see beyond the truth seen in front of their eyes, to understand it and to accept that beyond the sky a new world starts and that there is life in Cosmos too and not only on Earth.

„I’m sure that I didn’t,” the other servant replied while holding princess Curse’s horse by the bridle because she decided to walk on foot to the Palace and greet her people. „Why? Did you hear something?”

„I’m also not sure, but … I think yes. Whispers! Many whispers and they were weird and somehow they entered my bones too when they got to my ears.”

„Didn’t you dream all this, actually?” the second servant asked the first one, catchy winking.

„No. It is more likely that no because even if I’m very tired and one can cut woods on me without feeling anything if he does it, I still have my heart awake and my instinct never deceived me, because…,” but he kept silent, seeing that princess Curse stopped at a crossroad and, smiling, she held the hands of an old lady that put a beautiful red apple in her hands, whispering something in the princess’ears. And Curse smiled, listening to those words, but she shook her head as if denying the old lady’s words. Anyway, the servant didn’t hear what the old lady said because he was too far from them to hear them, but he found it very strange what happened and he had decided to be more careful.

Once at the palace and leaving the horse in their stable, they were told that the princess ordered that each of those who had accompanied her on her journey have three free days because they had deserved it.

So, Arvam, because it was the name of the servant that heard the whispers during the night when Curse and Island joined their lives in the Glade of Ahilar, had decided to find out first more about the old lady that gave princess Curse the apple and after this, instead of going home and having some rest, he went to range the city. He asked many of those present when princess Curse passed by, but nobody was remembering such a lady how he was describing her, and this was so weird.

It was past noon already, the sun was threatening to quickly hide at the horizon and leave room for the night to take over the surroundings, due to the extremely short days during the winter when someone had enough time to think, to check every single detail of an event or thing and to find out answers to all the questions that were spinning in his head.

Arvam did the same. After turning home and his wife placed a steaming plate of soup in front of him, he immersed in thoughts, still holding the spoon in his hand and staring at the flames that looked to be even more hungry than they usually were.

„What are you thinking so deeply about?” Arvam’s wife asked eventually, and Arvam winced, staring at her as if being absent. „I asked you where your thoughts are wandering. Since you turned home your thoughts aren’t here. You even ranged the city to the dusk, looking for a strange old lady, instead of coming home and having some rest after a long journey.”

„To be honest, I’m not sure what I’m thinking about. But I’m sure that I’m thinking of something,” Arvam’s weird answer came, an answer that made his wife stare in amazement at him while wondering what her husband drank to beat around the bush. Yet, she kept silent and left him alone, convinced that his raving was due to tiredness, and after a good sleep and a whole night in her arms, he’ll be again ready for work.

However, Arvam was extremely nervous and so he passed the night: he had a troubled sleep, he was listening to whispers and seeing someone’s steps approaching the princess while she was sleeping next to the fire. But he wasn’t seeing whose steps were approaching… only the traces left on the snow.

Eventually, almost at dawn, Arvam left the warm bed, carefully covering his wife with the blanket, so she could continue her sleep, and then he got out of the house, wearing a warm coat on his shoulders.

Outside instead, the wind was harshly whipping the surroundings, and that harshness was well-felt by Arvam on his cheeks too. But even so, with all the coldness felt around, he preferred it instead to the troubled time in his warm bed, when he practically didn’t put his eyes together.

„And why do I feel so nervous?” the man wondered, shivering from the cold and pulling the edges of the coat closer to his chest. „I feel that something bad approaches these places, but I can’t understand what.” Looking around, he saw footsteps on the snow and he stared in amazement at them, wondering whose they can be because it snowed a lot over the night, and it was too early in the morning for someone to dare to leave his warm bed and to start to work. Well, others were well-sleeping at that early hour in the morning. Only Arvam was wandering around as if chased by the devil, being decided to find out where those footsteps led.

But he had been even more amazed, seeing that those footsteps led him to princess Course’s manor and they stopped a few meters from the wall only, as if the master of those footsteps stopped in place and only looked up. „To climb the wall from such a distance… I find it impossible,” Arvam mumbled, scratching his head. „And yet… if he came toward here, I don’t think that he had been pleased with only looking. But yet, who came toward here and what the hell he’s doing hanging around?”

He bent to better check the footsteps and he realized that their form was unusual as if it was the footsteps of a child, even if Arvam was sure that when he saw the first one and he started to follow them, it was the footsteps of a man, enough tall how Arvam was suspecting after checking the dip of the traces left on the snow. But, in the end, they were only about a short span, as if a child has just passed by.

„I see things for sure,” Arvam told himself and rubbed his eyes. But, opening his eyes again, he saw in amazement that there weren’t footsteps around anymore. „What kind of peashooter is this? They were here, only what,” the man said, looking thunderstruck around. Eventually, he decided that he just saw things because of tiredness and he started to walk back home.

In front of his house, the footsteps were still seen, but after staring at them for a while, Arvam had decided that it wasn’t a good idea yet to put himself into trouble. So, he carefully opened the door and entered the house. His wife was still asleep, with her back at him. So, he sighed with relief because he hadn’t to explain to her where the night was chasing him. Then, he quickly took off his coat, put it on a chair, and entered again the warm bed, sticking his body to his wife’s and he fell asleep soon after.

However, he saw the same thing in his dream, but clearer this time: they were all awake, preparing everything for sleep when the wind started to slowly blow in the glade and a kind of strange whispers were heard around. But it seemed that only Arvam had heard those whispers because only he glanced preoccupied around, but he saw nothing strange, and also the beasts of the woods weren’t seen hanging around.

Watching the princess, he saw her asleep next to the fire. Then, he saw the other servants half asleep and he understood that it was already a late hour and after the long journey with very little time for resting, it was probably that he just heard things that they really weren’t.

So, he sat down next to the trunk of a tree and he covered himself better with the bear’s fur that he brought with him not to freeze during the night and his eyes started to close automatically as if a big sleep was taking over him. But even so, Arvam had often the habit to sleep with his eyes wide open, a habit he had no idea when he got it, and while he was closing and opening his eyes, half-asleep, he saw footsteps left on the snow next to the princess, but he saw nobody around and it calmed him.

Soon, his body fell asleep, but not his feelings because the whispers, which were heard around and controlled by Island, were meant to charm those who were listening to them: people, trees, and even the beasts of the forest, and thus not leave witnesses behind. But Arvam was somehow special because even if he wasn’t understanding the meaning of those ancient words, unknown to humans, he was still somehow being a witness to what happened after, because very soon he heard princess Curse’s voice and when he opened his eyes only for a second, he saw her with her arms around someone’s neck, whispering to him love words. Then, he saw her kiss that stranger, but… what Arvam didn’t see was what came after this because he was finally defeated by Island’s spell and he fell asleep.

But yet, the next morning, the image of the footsteps left on the snow was still seen by Arvam in front of his eyes, but when he tried to find it, he found it impossible because Island took care to cover them with his saint breath and everything around was covered by fresh and pure snow.

***

„The stars of the sky… are so beautiful and their light is so deep,” Island whispered while lying down on the thick green grass, with his hands under his head and with his eyes focused on the sky.

„You are probably right,” Dike said, who till then had sat down next to Island, but, seeing him so charmed by that fairy-like celestial image, he also laid down on the grass and looked in the same direction as Island did. „Tell me, Island, don’t you feel weird here?”

„Weird? Like?”

„Like being among Siar People, knowing that actually part of their pain is due to you. If you wouldn’t have deceived princess Curse then, in the Glade of Ahilar, maybe…”

„…she would have probably fallen prey to Ahi’s black heart and Siar People would have ended by wandering the world till its end and maybe suffering worse pains than only the wandering.”

A deep silence was settled between the two, a silence disturbed only by the whispers of the wind that managed to make dance the blades of tall grass from around them, and the same happened to the branches of the trees and their leaves, and this also made nature to whisper, to sing, to be fairy-like. „The only thing I regret is that I wasn’t strong enough then and that I wasn’t able to protect the one who gave me a son and whom I learned to love because from her my family became bigger and I have now three beautiful granddaughters: Bestla, Zeal, and Sephir.

„Speaking about Spehir: does she know about her appearance with princess Curse?”

„Now and… actually nobody knows this, except my mother. I couldn’t tell Boor about this.”

Why? I’m sure that Boor would have liked to know what his mother looked like.”

„Because … I didn’t want for him to feel the same as I do… a pain that I carry on inside and that is similar to a fire that consumes me inside and that I can’t extinguish because each time I’ve tried it, Sephir appeared in front of me, reminding me with her physical appearance about the woman I loved so much or better to say, I got to love, in time, after she was already gone. And … what’s worse, it is that I can only watch that face, without touching it as I would have liked to do with Curse and this makes my heart jerk in my chest. But… while my heart twists each time Sephir is around, my mind is still healthy and makes me understand that she’s not Curse, that she’s actually gone. And … it’s so hard, Dike. So hard. As probably it’s hard for you to watch Samaya, who’s so similar to Samandra.”

„Yes, but… I can at least watch the sky of the night, knowing that Samandra is up there, leading the carriage of Ursa Minoris, watching us and waiting for us because when this curse that was thrown over the world will be broken, I’ll be able to join her in Cosmos and then, our beautiful love story will continue… in the far away Cosmos.”

„What about humans? Won’t you miss them?”

„I will, Island. I will, but … I miss love more. I’m hungry for it and… I feel that I have to atone for my sins in front of Samandra.”

„Sins?” Island looked at Dike with curiosity. Dike instead kept watching the sky, where the carriage of Ursa Minoris was stopped, above them, watching and protecting them, and, as if moved by an inner call, Dike closed his eyes and fell prey to the herbs' whispers, that were telling him words of a spell.

Then, without anyone seeing her or being aware that she was there, a white star descended from the sky, floating horizontally in the air, and stopped above Dike. After a few seconds of looking frozen, the star took Samandra’s shape, who looked with love at her husband and nostalgically smiled because she was missing him, she was missing their moments, their whispers of love, their warm hugs, and their kisses.

But she could only stay like this, floating above him and this was due to Samaya who broke the spell when she touched the clepsydra on the beatch of the River of Sins, allowing thus Samandra to freely move, but not to be seen and this was hurting her so much.

A light gust of wind raveled the skirts of her white dress and her hair of the same shade, scattering a Myosotis palustris (forget-me-not) flowers perfume around. „Samandra!” Dike murmured and smiled because he knew well that perfume, of his beloved woman and, even though he wasn’t seeing her, he could feel her, next to him, but he preferred not to reveal the fact that he was aware that she was near him not to make her sad, not to make her suffer more than he was sure that she suffers in such moments when they can’t see each other.

Then, Samandra slowly bent over Dike and kissed his lips for long moments, and, even if she thought that she was the only one to feel that kiss, she was wrong because Dike also deeply felt it, deep in his heart and this gave him power for what was coming. Then he whispered: „the sins I want to pay for in front of Samandra were made in the moments when I wasn’t next to her and I couldn’t protect her. But … it’ll come a day when we’ll defeat fate and everything will be turned back to normal. And … that time will come. For sure,” and he opened his eyes and saw that white star moving away from him and climbing back into the sky.

Meanwhile, Island had completely immersed in thoughts, and after he closed his eyes he remembered that winter night when Curse and her people turned back to the Palace.

Actually, a few days had already passed after the night they spent together when Island could finally leave the Glade of Ahilar after he defeated the demons he had fought with. After this, he went to the City Light, to check what happened, in the end, with the woman that managed to steal his heart in a single night. Namely that night he left the footsteps on the snow that had been spotted by Arvam because being overwhelmed by the emotions of seeing her again, Island had been inattentive and he didn’t scatter well the snow how he usually did when he wanted to hide his traces.

Arriving in front of the princess’balcony, he stopped a few meters from the wall and looked up: he saw her standing in front of the open window and watching the sky and … she was so charming, in her white dress, with her long black hair left free on her back while her eyes, similar to the color of the abyss, were beautifully shinning in the shine of the winter nights, blinks taken from the light of the snow.

She closed her eyes and whispered his name, and Island was amazed that she knows it because he was sure that he didn’t tell her that night. And her whispers made his heart beat wildly and he had also wanted to climb onto her balcony, take her into his arms, and spend next to her another eternity of pleasure.

But when he started to rise in the air, Island suddenly winced and, looking at his left, he saw a little girl, about 7, with blue transparent hair, long and beautifully gathered in a woven wreath at the back of her head. The girl’s vestment was made from a material the shade of ice: when white to purple, when pure white and only a red ribbon, at the end of the skirts of her dress that also ended into a black edge were more evident in her garment. Then, it was a thin crown on her forehead with a little star, Cetil, on the middle of the crown and the white light of the star was so saint, so peaceful, bringing calmness around because Cetil was taking the source of its power from Aṭōṉis, the Morning Star of the Ursa Majoris that vanished a long time ago and this was still keeping alive the being of Aṭōṉis, even if it had been almost forgotten by everyone.

„Mother!” Island whispered while looking at the girl and she turned her head toward him and told him reproachfully:

„I didn’t teach you to behave this way, Island. To take someone’s innocence without giving at least your heart in exchange is unforgivable cruelty. You don’t even know what kind of curse you put on this child’s shoulders with your foolhardiness.”

„But, mother… it was the only way to protect these people from Ahi’s cruelty. You know very well what he was planning to do with them.”

„I know, but still… I won’t defend your deed. And… we have to double our efforts now to protect these people because so much pain waits for them and so many try-outs are waiting for them in the future, and it is also due to your behavior with this child, Island. To save a people from an evil Mago’s hatred, you brought even more troubles on their shoulders than they can fight against it for an entire life. Follow me!” she told him harshly.

The girl turned her back to Island, grabbing the skirts of her dress with both hands, and, from a jump, she transformed into a deer that was going away from those places in gleeful jumps.

Island hesitated to follow his mother. He first looked up, hoping to see Curse again, but she wasn’t anymore on her balcony and the window of her room was also closed. So, Island formed into his palm a small ice sphere, that started soon to spin above the palm and, a few seconds later, Island started to spin too, transforming himself into an ice dragon. Then, the dragon jerked up, flying up -up to the sky.

Behind the dragon, the snow-swept itself on its surface, covering the titan’s footsteps, but letting behind the girl’s ones and namely those small footsteps Arvam saw later and he thought that he sees things. But this was Inlan Diar’s power, to make things seem what they really aren’t when it was necessary to save someone.

Floating in the air, the ice dragon saw the small deer advancing in gleeful jumps over the snowy field till she got on the top of a hill from where it was seen as if it was in one’s palm, the Valley that Siar People called The Valley of Cry because that valley was lacking life from thousands of years already, but only Gaea and Uranus knew the real story of this.

The deer stopped on the top of the hill and sniffed in silence the horizon of the valley because even if the valley seemed calm and completely covered by snow, something was bothering Inlan Diar and, soon, she took again the girl’s shape and waited till the dragon sat down on the ground a few steps from her.

„The Valley of Cry!” the dragon Island said practically in a whisper. „But, mother, why did we come here? There’s nobody here and …”

Stretching her arm in front, Inlan Diar moved it through the air, and, in front of their eyes, appeared soon the Yātrīkar Virgins marching, but they hadn’t a human shape then, but they were only looking like underground shadows.

This amazed Island so much, that right away took his human form and looked at the girl: „what are they?”

„They will be named in the future the Virgins of Shadows or Yātrīkar, and this will be your punishment for daring to deceive the People of Siar, that carries in his blood the Clock of Time.”

„The Clock of Time? Do you mean that…?”

„Yes, that’s right: the needle Nēram and the wheels that move the Balance of time - Kaṭikāram, that disappeared a long time ago and that hid on Earth, are now in the power of the People of Siar. But… nobody knows who is carrying in his blood the needle of Time, who’s carrying the wheels, and who’s the Clepsydra - the Maṇimēkal. But… there’s known that if the three elements of the Balance of Time and Space - Nēram, Kaṭikāram, and Maṇimēkal will be found and gathered together, then the Balance will be restored, and thus the People of Siar will be invincible in front of Ahi.”

„That’s why Ahi tried to approach Curse and her people. For the Balance.”

„And you are right, son. Ahi tries to restore Nēram Vāṉalai (the Balance of Time and Space) to have the possibility to rule over the Earth. However, now, when your blood and of Curse’s joined, the Balance can’t be inclined in the favor of evil. At least not until the People of Siar won’t die till the last child and thus, the elements of the Balance will be forced to hide again in another People of Humans, giving this way the possibility to Ahi to apprehend the power.”

„This means that even if you consider a meanness what I did, I consider that I did well: the Balance is safe.”

The girl looked at him with her blue eyes, the color of the sky on a sunny summer day. „Only for the moment, Island. But, the Balance will ask for a payment for having been betrayed, and those who’ll also pay for this we’ll be us too. And the People of Siar will pay for this… with the wandering and with… those Virgins that are crossing now that valley.”

„With the Virgins of the Shadows? But… how’re the People of Siar related to them?”

„They aren’t related to them for the moment, but they’ll be. Moirae will take care of this soon. We have to prepare meanwhile.”

„To prepare? For what?”

„For finding more people to be at our side and for the coming of a huge power on this Earth. So, from now on, we won’t have time for rest, Island: the time of war is approaching and we must do everything to avoid this or at least delay this, till the Prophecy of Times won’t be started. Only then we’ll have time to breathe a sigh of relief and… who knows… maybe we’ll have again peace on this Earth.”

The deer continued her path, crossing hills and valleys to Kiago Forest, to the Mountain of Fear, there where, on the top of the mountain, the Ice and the Snow are ruling forever and where her Palace is because it was the time to walk on the path of the eternal battles and the most important: to prepare for the coming of her grandson because she saw springing, in Curse’s belly, the seed of love, when she and Island had stood in front of Curse’s balcony. But she didn’t tell Island about this because that power that was about to be born from the union of ice and of humans, had its dark part too, and Inlan Diar had first to ensure that everything won’t be ended in a tragedy.