Difficulty standing up from the makeshift chair on which she stood till that moment, Anaya sighed and, with her head bowed, she headed toward the door, intending to join Ahi and Inmar’s talk with the rest of the red foxes, who were deciding if to join or not the Rophions in the war against Maranam.

But Anaya stopped after a few steps and looked again toward the same blind window from off the wall and images from the moment she went to talk to Kkāṟṟu, about what might happen, came to her mind again. Those were memories of when they were sitting next to the gulf Iṭaiyil and staring at that big stone wall that was separating the world of the alive ones from the Maranam’s Empire. And then, as now, while she left Kkāṟṟu next to the gulf and decided to turn back, she stood up and looked behind. Thus, she saw two moments from the future, as two visions of what might happen soon: Maranam leaving his Kingdom and passing through those gates, heading toward the World of the Humans, intending to subdue them and his returning home. But he was different this time - he was hooded, wearing a long black cloak with red lines on it like those used by Yātrīkar and he seemed shorter in height.

But what amazed Anaya so much hasn’t been to see Maranam’s returning home, but the fact that before entering the World of the Dead Ones, passing again through those stone gates, on that one-way road, that ridder looked back and watched her with nostalgia, something that made Anaya shudder from top to toe, for she didn’t know why, but it seemed to her that the person who was on the back of Vakkurti wasn’t the same Maranam anymore, but it was Mayar, who finally sadly smiled watching her, pulled the reins spurring the horse and entered through those gates that had been opened by the giants of the underworld, to later her body be surrounded by darkness.

From Anaya’s eyes, two tears fell down her cheeks while the image of those two gates through which passed Mayar was still in front of her eyes. And… she also saw those two panthers there - Kurūcim și Koṭumai - which were following their new master with their head bowed, with deep bloody wounds on their skin, a sign that they had been muddled through in that battle and forced to accept a new master.

„I hope that what I saw it’ll be only a meaningless vision,” murmured Anaya eventually, still staring at that blind window. „I hope great Chaos, Yggdrasil, and Life will allow you to also be happy, Mayar, that you’ll also be fulfilled eventually, living next to your mother as your soul longs for so much. And… I hope you’ll fill your heart with so much maternal love while still being on this earth, for… I don’t know why I feel that your time here is limited.”

After that, the old lady turned her back on that stone window and, with her head bowed and sighing, she left that cold room where she stood silently for so long after Ahi had finally decided to fight next to the Rophions, at the urging of Anaya, and he had gone to ask the other red foxes for help.

***

„It’s insane what you’re asking us,” Keṉṉal, one of the elder foxes from Inmar’s tribe, said, with a visible upset in her voice. „I know that you protected us all this time, Mago Ahi and that you fed us and gave us a shelter where we stood hidden from humans, but asking us to die for protecting Mayar it seems to me a too big price for that help, for even if we love Mayar a lot and we saw her growing up among us, yet, our life is also important for us.”

„We won’t have a life to live anymore if not entering this fight, Keṉṉal, for there won’t be life anymore on this earth if others win this war,” said Inmar confidently, after she had appeared from behind a corner of that rocky wall, being accompanied by Morena and both heard what the fox Keṉṉal said.

„We won’t have a life anymore you say? But… who guarantees us that we’ll still have one if we enter the battle?” Keṉṉal insisted, really upset, for it seemed to her that Inmar said what she said only to defend Mayar, who she had protected all her life, no matter what the girl did.

„Nobody, and I know this as well as you actually,” said Inmar, making a wry face when she felt again the pain in her leg while sitting down on a big rock, seen in front of the entrance in the grotto. „Neither the Rophions nor the titans have an answer for this question.”

„The Rophions! This was the worm of guilt!” murmured Keṉṉal upset. „The same Rophions with whom we always fought, fights after which we licked our hurt furs, still feeling the bitter taste of their nails that scratched our bodies. And now you’re asking us to accept them in our camp, to fight side by side with them against a self-proclaimed king of the Underworld - Maranam.”

„Nobody is asking you to accept them in our camp, but to be the ones who accept entering their camp,” said Anaya and all the foxes, as Ahi and Morena, looked at her in amazement, for it was the first time when the old Anaya could be seen by everybody, and not only by Ahi, Mayar, or Inmar.

„Who… who are you?” all the foxes wondered at the same time.

„Me? The old fox Anaya, who followed you always all these years since I’ve been forced to live in the shadows,” murmured the old woman.

„In the shadow?” mumbled Keṉṉal. „What… what do you want to say with that you followed us from the shadow? Are you a… ghost?”

„That’s right. I’ve been born from the water with this old face, paying for unknown sins, and I joined you the day Inmar was given me to take care of her.”

Keṉṉal and the other foxes stared both at Anaya and Inmar, who was staring at a blind spot, somewhere above the gulf, which was opening in front of the tents settled in front of the grotto, nostalgically smiling.

„That’s right: I’ve been grown by a ghost,” murmured Inmar randomly. „I never knew who’s my mother and I neither know who my father is. But… I don’t regret this, for… I’ve been next to you and my brother, Ahi. And… I’ll be by his side in this fight.”

„That’s why you adopted Mayar so easily: because she’s like you - an orphan,” murmured Keṉṉal, sitting down on the ground and supporting her head with her palms.

„Yes: Mayar reminds me about me at her age when I was wandering the surroundings, looking for myself. But… there’s one more reason why I accepted her among us: her huge power, which actually protected us so many times when we met death on our way. If not for her we would have had not only our furs broken but we would have also had continuous fights with our enemies. Now instead we must choose another path to walk onto: the one of survival.”

„But… if we do that, as you said that Mayar protected us all this time, how we’ll make it without her?” asked Alena, a young fox, who had the same age as Mayar. „As Mago Ahi said, it seemed that she’s by the titanide of fate’s side and not by our side.”

„Joining the other Mayar or as is she known as Samaya, the daughter of the Rophions,” murmured Ahi.

„Yes. Ahi is right, for when they had been born, fate gave them both a huge power. That’s why we must join one of them, for she’s the only one who can protect us from Mayar’s destructive power, in case Parca, the one with a poisoned soul, will demand her to attack us, for Samaya is the only one who can face Mayar,” said Anaya.

„But… what about the hatred and rivalry between us and the Rophions?” asked Alena. „Let’s not forget that they also hate us as we hate them. I don’t think that if simply go with them and ask them to join us in battle, they’ll accept that easily.”

„Even if they don’t believe in our sincerity, they will accept us,” said Ahi confidently and the foxes watched them, seeing him standing crossed arms on his chest and staring at the ground as if seeing something on it as on a screen. „Let’s not yet forget that the Rophions have a wise leader, Dike, and they also have Lodur by their side, who’s known as the titan of the fair justice. That’s why they’ll accept the pact we want to propose to them, for they also know well that as many will fight against Maranam all the more chances we have to defeat him.”

„That goes without saying: that as many fighting for the same cause all the more chances to succeed they have. But heart and feelings are something that can’t be changed,” said Keṉṉal.

„But both heart and feelings are something that we can quench,” said Morena eventually. „We are different from you only due to your magical power. All the rest we are similar: at face and feelings, and as you can control yourself, we can also do the same if we must not hurt someone.”

„To keep the evil inside you isn’t always something good or to brag about,” murmured Anaya. „All the evil things that are kept captive start to boil like hot magma in the depths of the earth, to explode eventually like a volcano, scorching everything around.”

„Then, what to do, Anaya? I don’t think that showing everybody what we feel will help us to join the other camp. Per contra: it’ll split up us more,” said Inmar.

„I was talking about not pretending that everything is nice and well, that you love each other if it’s not true, as you shouldn’t hide the hatred for someone if you feel it. But… what you should do is what the mortal Morena said - keep tight rein of the hatred, don’t let it explode like the volcano, and this is something I’m more than sure that you can do. Then, when everything is back to normal, you are free to think once again what to do or what should you do with that hatred: to let it free to surround the world or to bury it forever inside the ground.”

„Our mind understands what you want to say, old fox, but it’s so hard for our heart to understand it,” murmured Keṉṉal.

„It’s when wisdom enters the game. And the same happens for the manhood, even if those who feel it aren’t blood brothers,” said Anaya.

The foxes stared in amazement at Anaya, and Ahi did the same, even if what she said was as clearer as the virgin water. He was yet curious to find out what she’ll say next and decided to keep silent, for he understood that the old fox was wiser than he was and she would manage to do what he couldn’t: to convince the foxes to join him in that battle against Maranam.

„Manhood? Do you mean that…,” murmured Alena.

„Yes, I mean that loving someone isn't that difficult as it seems to be at first glance as it isn’t difficult to respect someone’s values, even if you disagree with that, and you must accept yet that the Rophions have always been good leaders, disciplined, fighting only to protect their territory and not hurting you.”

„Yes. This is true,” the foxes murmured. „The old Anaya is right: we’ve always attacked them, and not they on us.”

„Even so, even if we join them, we won’t ever forget about our dignity,” murmured Inmar, making everybody stare at her in amazement, „I mean here not allowing the Rophions lead us, but being equal partners.”

„Allow me to disagree with you, Inmar,” said the old lady. „And I think Ahi will agree with me here: where are two leaders are always controversy, rancor, betrayal, and disunion. That’s why it must be a single head and many arms. Am I right, Ahi?” and the old fox stared into his eyes.

Ahi instead made a wry face, for even if he didn’t want to accept, Anaya was right: there’s a need for a single general in the war, even if there are thousands or millions of soldiers around to give him a piece of good advice and only that single general gives the final order to lead them toward success. „It’ll be as you said,” he snarled when he spotted everybody’s eyes focused on him. After that, he turned his back on them and entered his grotto. But, still, in front of the door, he stopped and said to them without watching them: „you have a single night to think and decide if to follow me toward the Rophion Forest or not. Who’ll join me in this battle should be here tomorrow morning at dawn. We’ll hit the road before the sun rises.”

After Ahi’s departure, nobody said anything else and one by one the foxes entered their tent, for even if they didn’t get to an agreement while being together, they still heard wise words, and precious advice and they had to make the final decision eventually, for their leader gave them the right to decide by themselves, respecting their identity.

***

After crossing that fire Portal, Mayar and Parca have been thrown into a forest similar to the one where Mayar used to hide from her fears and from which Ahi, Morena, and Anaya took her out the last time she hid. But this one had yet something different: the trees were still alive, even if extremely savage and the eyes of the wild animals, similar to burning embers, could be seen everywhere.

„Where are we?” asked Mayar, carefully looking around, still on her four as she fell after crossing the Portal.

Supporting herself on her palms to stand up and feeling damn well the pain of the falling in all her bones, Parca forced to sit on the ground, and then she also looked around: „to be damn if I know this.”

Mayar smiled, hearing the titanide of fate’s words. „And you were talking tall in front of Ahi.” After that, she stood up, chasing the numbness away from her bones.

Parca stared in amazement at her: „did you hear what I talked to Ahi?”

„Aha.”

„But… how is this possible? My spell…?”

„It’s useless with me, for being created by you, you have the right to possess my body, but not to control the eye of my mind.”

„Damn fussy,” Parca snarled through her teeth, for she also tried to control Samaya, but because of the same inner eye, she couldn’t. „And… how much did you hear?”

„Let’s say everything you said. But… I don’t understand what you win fighting by Maranam’s side. As Ahi said, he’ll defeat you all eventually. So: you have no win in this.”

Parca made a wry face. After that, she stood up, cleaning her dress with her palm. „That’s not your business. But… I must fulfill my role in this world.”

„Why?” insisted Mayar.

„Because it’s my fate: to fight in this war by everybody’s side and to help each of them the best I can.”

„But it’s insane what you say. How can you be by everybody’s side in this war? It means to be neither winner nor defeated.”

„And… isn’t this an advantage? I mean: if Maranam wins, my darker part will prevail on my body, and if Rophions win then I’ll be swallowed by light and I’ll win again.”

„And you are stupid if you think this,” said Mayar randomly. „And you’re calling yourself the titanide of fate for nothing if you can’t decide your own fate.”

„You should give it a try.”

„To what exactly?”

„To control your fate. To see how easy is this,” said Parca ironically. „Otherwise, you’ll be as coward as I am.”

„At least I have the advantage of not being a titanide.”

„And… who told you this?” said Parca cunningly, and this trick help her to make Mayar stop, for she took a few steps in front, intending to leave that place. Then, the girl focused her glance on the cunning eyes of the titanide.

„Who told me this?! I don’t remember. But they say that you aren't born a titan, but you're predestined to be one,” Mayar played with the words.

„It means that everybody can become a titan,” and Parca took a few steps toward Mayar. „Thus, if you want, you can be a king from a simple human or a simple man from a king. The same happened to princess Curse, the one chased away by her own people and who died in the arms of Ahilar as a simple woman.”

„Yet, I don’t see the point of everything you said.”

„The acceptance of your own destiny: this is what I try to send you as a message, for each of us came into this world with a final meaning which he must fulfill till his death. Mine is to be always between evil and good. Thus… never by the side of anyone.”

„Then… which is my role?”

„To get the power. Be by Maranam’s side.”

„Have you lost your mind?” said Mayar, after staring at Parca for a few moments, in silence. „Why should I fight by the side of the one who’ll defeat me eventually? I’ll better be by the side of the winners,” and she turned her back on Parca, moving away from that place.

„Little stubborn,” Parca hissed through her teeth and, for a few seconds, she took the form of her negative Spirit, as she showed herself before in front of Ahi. After this, taking her usual form, she followed the girl.

But, even if she was staring behind Mayar, who was slowly advancing between the trees, Parca noticed the change around her: the trees became even more alive than before, with dozen of eyes on each bark, with green lips shown here and there on their trunks which were sketching devilish smiles, as if they were waiting by then to catch someone in their trap and to end with his life.

This change had been also noticed by Mayar, who preferred to pretend that she saw nothing. But her hand was still squeezing the handle of Eftir Daudann, which she had hidden under her cloak.

Suddenly she stopped, forcing Parca to stop too when she got next to the girl, and both carefully looked around while the forest started to dizzily move around them as if the trees were madly dancing, trying to drive others crazy. „The Mortor Forest!” murmured Mayar.

„No, it isn’t. That forest is gone, thousands of years ago, and, recently, their phantasmagorical existence has vanished too. This one is a forest of evil, but even if it seems known to me, I can't understand whose earthly opposite side it is as if my mind is blurred by an extremely influent power,” murmured Parca and, suddenly, her nails sharpened even if she had still the body of the good Parca. Yet, it was her fight shape, and, being a whole, both parts were protecting each other not to vanish eventually.

Suddenly, Mayar closed her eyes and, staggering to her feet, took a few steps back. She stopped when Parca touched her shoulders as if trying not to allow her to fall or lose consciousness.

Opening again her eyes, Mayar looked into the depth of Parca’s eyes and the titanide could see the reason why the girl staggered to her feet: she saw herself kneeling in the Rophion Forest while Maranam was approaching her on a horse while tightly holding a sword and intending to decapitate her.

„The Rophion Forest! This is the shadow of that Forest!” murmured Parca eventually and looked afraid around, for even if she was born in the depths of Rophions Forest, she has been always afraid of it.”

„That’s right, titanide of fate,” they suddenly heard the voice of a man, talking to them from that dizzy speed that was surrounding them. And also suddenly, two dark green eyes have been seen in front of them on the bark of a thick trunk.

Both Mayar and Parca withdrew a few steps back. But they soon heard other voices echoing the first one behind them, and when they looked back, they saw in amazement that they were actually surrounded by dozen or maybe hundreds of trees that had the same dark green eyes on their bark and lips sketching devilish smiles while staring at them.

„Who are you?” Mayar asked eventually, summoning up courage, and staring at the first tree that talked to them.

„Me? Shiver Sun or the guardian of the Devil’s Eye!” he said, outlining each word.

„The talking log, the one with whom Baradar always talks while wandering the Rophion Forest,” murmured Parca.

„Well, not exactly him. Let’s say that’s my imperfect shape. Me instead… I’m the master,” the tree said confidently, believing in each word he said.

Mayar instead smiled, seeing how proud was the tree saying those words. But the tree disliked the girl’s smile, which suddenly roared, making the horizon shudder. „You are laughing, huh? Are you making fun of me?” and his roar made appear in front of those two women a hideous wooden face - the perfect personation of a soul, blackened by hatred and evil, the opposite side of Shiver Sun.

„Why shouldn’t I laugh?” asked Mayar confidently. „I have the right not to be amazed by someone’s stupidity. So, I can laugh.”

„But… you won’t laugh anymore when you find out what you should do for helping us,” Shiver Sun the Black hissed through its teeth.

„To do? For you?” asked Mayar, not understanding what the hell the tree was talking about.

„That’s right. You shouldn’t think that you got here only to make fun of… us,” and a forked tongue, of a cobra, full of venom on its top, has been suddenly thrown against Mayar, coming out of the tree’s mouth, that suddenly opened.

The girl instead didn’t scare and nor did she withdraw. She confidently looked into Shiver Sun’s eyes, trying to see what was hidden in his glance. And… at the same time, she was trying to understand the reason why Parca brought her there.

But she couldn’t see anything and she tried to read that truth at least into Parca’s eyes. But when she looked back, she saw the dark Parca next to her, the one who tried to kill Ahi.

„You!” murmured Mayar, feeling deceived by the titanide, even if they have never been allies.

Parca slowly stepped toward her, then passed by her, approaching the tree. Eventually, she stopped on his right and confidently looked into Mayar’s eyes. „Welcome into the World of Darkness! Welcome, you, new leader of Hell!”

Suddenly, Parca threw her hand toward Mayar, an arm that stretched too much than normal, and squeezed hard the girl’s throat, which she grabbed.

Feeling that she has no air, Mayar grabbed with both hands Parca’s hand, trying to release her fingers to breathe again. But even if she asked her inner eye for help, even if she asked Ahi to come to save her, nobody came, and, slowly-slowly, the light of her eyes faded off, as the light of her inner eye did. And, when it seemed that’s no life left in Ahi’s child’s body, Parca released Mayar, leaving her to fall unconscious to the ground.