„Karina, you must help me with this, even if it’s hard for you,” murmured Gaea while bending over Yellen, who was still a captive of Bestla’s gelatinous web, staring at the Titanide with hatred. „Fight! Turn back to the Path of Life and forget your second Death!” Gaea added, touching Yellen’s right cheek without fear, making her turn into that Karina, who lived centuries ago, only for a few seconds.

„This can’t be!” Dike murmured feverishly, leaving his arms „fell” next to his body even if till that moment he kept them crossed over his chest. „What kind of witchery is this, Gaea? How can this child be that Karina?”

„Karina? What Karina?” everybody wondered, especially the People of Siar, who stared preoccupied at each other.

The only one still calm was Nathaniel, who eventually said: „Karina was one of the Virgins of Siar, who turned into Yātrīkar centuries ago!” His words amazed everybody.

Hearing such words from the young man’s mouth, Gaea slowly turned toward him, focusing her glance on him and trying to deeply enter his soul. Thus the Titanide didn’t even notice when she unwillingly turned into that old lady that Kaerlleikans and Upprisin met once.

„Oh, Gaea!” Bestla murmured like charmed, pointing the Titanide with her finger. A slap over her hand, received from Samaya, made her withdraw her arm.

„How do you know this name, boy?” Gaea asked him in a half voice, still staring into Nathaniel’s glance, who didn’t seem at all afraid of her insistent look or her strange appearance. „I read into your eyes that’s your first life! This means you didn’t live in those times to see things revealed by fate about what happened then.”

„And you’re right, Mother Earth! I don’t remember this because it’s something that I lived.”

„Then?” Gaea insisted, making the atmosphere around, already very tensed, be felt even more stuffy.

„The old Solan! He told me about this. But… I don’t know where he found out this and neither I asked him, to be honest. He told me about this before we split up in Tenebre’s Forest.”

„Then, I must see this old man!” Gaea shouted. „Faster! Take me to him!” the old Titanide insisted.

„It’ll be a little bit hard, if not impossible,” Island’s voice has been heard and Gaea right away looked for him by the glance. She saw him eventually, standing between Sephir and Fenrir, half a step behind them, and staring at the ground as if feeling guilty for something. „That old man isn’t anymore on this earth.”

„Is he gone?” „Did old Solan leave us? „What happened to him?" the people’s whispers have been heard around, sad and scared at the same time to find out about the old man’s death.

„Life for another Life!” Gaea murmured, barely heard, when Island finally dared to look into her eyes.

„That’s right! Solan made a deal with Gosmel, laying down and exchanging his life for a boy’s life, who eventually got on the Realms of Ice instead of him!”

„Damn you all, Samargo!” Gaea shouted, gnashing her teeth and taking back her previous form, to later change again into the old lady, to seconds later be again a Virgin.

„Gaea, control yourself!” Lodur demanded her, but he only managed to make her furiously stare at him. Lodur instead didn’t bother at all about her upset, knowing very well that her changing was harmless to the surroundings only in normal living conditions, far away from someone’s glances. But there, in the Forest of the Barefaced, it would have only alerted the enemy. „You know very well where we are, Gaea, and what can happen to us if you don’t control yourself.”

„Mda! I know this!” Gaea unhappily mumbled, for even if she was in the body of the young Gaea, she was still acting like an old lady - grouchy and grumpy.

„Alright then! I’ll get back my own with Samargo another time!” she said as if she had had another option. „Now instead we must chase Yātrīkar’s curse out of this young girl’s body. Thus, we can lose her in the evil’s power.”

„To chase the curse? As far as I recall, once transformed into a Yātrīkar, a virgin can’t be saved. More than this: after I and Bestla saw in her memories, Yellen’s soul is already a Yātrīkar, and this makes her immune to all kinds of spells,” said Samaya.

„Now you’re wrong my dear, she-wolf, for a Yātrīkar can’t be released from the curse only even if the body they possessed is completely lacking soul. In this girl’s case, we still have a chance, for… inside her, there’s Karina’s soul and not of a Yātrīkar.”

Hearing Gaea’s words, Nathaniel shuddered, from top to toe, as if dozen or hundreds of ants were running all over his body.

„Yet, Gaea, you’ll need the one who helped you to change the plans of fate and deceive Yātrīkar, to later Karina take that Yātrīkar’s role and thus steal the Eye of the Devil,” said Sephir, smiling, and, for this, Gaea furiously looked at her.

„Do you think I don’t know this?”

„Grumpy as always,” Dike reproachfully shook his head. „Sephir only gave you an idea. Don’t take it hard with her or take revenge on others for your bad mood.”

„It’s good that you are aware of everything!” Gaea told him, furious, and turned her back on the Titan, moving toward the edge of the forest, for the ritual she had in her mind had to be done where nature wasn’t in danger. „Follow me! But not all of you!” she hissed through her teeth while passing by Lodur. „And don’t forget to bring that child with you. Otherwise, I’ll turn you all into Yātrīkar instead of her,” and she rushed to leave those places, for she had to prepare everything and as soon as possible.

Behind her, Samaya and Bestla approached Nathaniel, to help him to lift Yellen from below, and, because the young girl was fighting against the idea of walking on her own feet, and more, being wrapped in that web, the young man put her eventually on his shoulder and followed Gaea, followed from close by the two young ladies. Then Dike, Lodur, Island, Boor, and the rest, one by one, walked in the same direction.

Sephir instead suddenly grabbed Fenrir’s arm, forcing him to stop, for he was trying to seem upset and didn’t even say hello to her when they saw each other again, and the young man’s upset was due to the fact that Sephir went, following her father, without even telling him about this. „Won’t you say anything?”

„And… what should I say: congratulation that you turned back in one piece?”

„No. That you missed me.”

„And… if I missed you, does it change something? Anyway, you’ll leave someday again, just as you did this before: without telling me about this,” and he tried to turn his back on her and leave. The young woman grabbed him tightly by the arm, forcing him to stay.

„I’m sorry!” she eventually murmured, lowering her glance, even if Fenrir was insistently looking into her eyes. „If I had told you, you wouldn’t have allowed me to go. But they needed me there.”

„While I needed you here, Sephir! I needed to know that you are fine, but you didn’t even send me a good thought, telling me that you are alright.”

„I sent: to Samaya.”

„But not to me, Sephir. Not to me,” and he released his arm and moved away, leaving her alone with her sadness. After a few steps, he turned back however and, grabbing her by the arm, he forced her to follow him, for even if he didn’t forgive her yet, she was his wife, the one who he loved, and Sephir was for him the dearest person in the world, someone who couldn’t be left behind.

***

„How faster the night falls over the surroundings!” murmured Bestla, staring at those black clouds that were gathering in a hurry on the sky’s vault while she, Samaya, and the rest were at the edge of the forest.

„Maranam’s mercy!” Gaea hissed through her teeth, passing between Samaya and Bestla, and forcing them to take a step aside, for a short while. Then, Gaea moved away from them, about 200 meters from the edge of the forest, and, after she grabbed the skirts of her dress, from half of their length, to grab them later to her girdle and leave her feet bare, the Titanide snapped her fingers, and two falchions appeared in her hand. Then, she first took an attack position, moving the weapons beside her or above her head while her feet were rhythmically moving in the ritual of an antic dance, even if no music was heard around.

„How can she move so precisely?” a woman asked another one.

„This is because only a Titanide can hear the saint music of the earth,” but she was wrong, for, shortly after Gaea hit one falchion of the other one, a piece of strange music of lament has been heard all around, as if it was a call for war.

„It can’t be!” murmured Fenrir. „Tineimu?”

„Exactly!” Sephir, who was by his side, told him. „Actually, I saw them already fighting, last night, when Parca showed us her madness again.

Fenrir looked for long at his wife, waiting for a more detailed answer. She instead grabbed his arm with both hands and laid her head on his shoulder, letting him know that they hadn’t why to be afraid.

„Tineimu!” Hestia suddenly shouted, appearing from nowhere right in front of Gaea, who continued her rhythmical dance, and her shout brought her warriors of fire there, and their pyres in flames surrounded the field. „In guard!” and, in Hestia’s hands, falchions appeared, like in the hands of the Virgins Tineimu. But only the handles of the falchions seen in Gaea and Hestia’s hands had a different type of engravement: something inspired by the dance of the flames, the burning of the wood, and images taken from the fights where they’ve been involved into.

Then while Tineimu and Hestia were rhythmically moving the falchions they had in their hands, making their girdle also rhythmically move, where long insertions were seen alluringly moving and making the eyes of the spectators also rhythmically move, Hestia shouted: „Attack!” and Tineimu suddenly hit the air in front of her and this made Yellen shriek and kneel down, even if she was tightly grabbed by the arms by Nathaniel and Mago, to impede her to try to run.

And, as if the two had been intertwined, Gaea stopped right in front of Hestia and looked straight into her eyes.

„Is it time?!” Hestia asked, using the voice of her mind.

„Yes, sister! It’s time to pay for our sins!”

After this, Gaea took from her girdle the loupe known as the Eye of the Devil and, after throwing it up, she also jerked in the air and hit it, with both falchions, right over the Eye, in a kind of cross.

Something happened right after this: as if an invisible power kept it in the air, the „Eye” started to float right above Hestia’s fire, strangely illuminating the surroundings in different colors as if it was a rainbow that had the form of musical strings. And when those musical strings started to rhythmically move, as if invisible fingers had touched them, a kind of shamanic music was heard around, and drums appeared in the hands of many of the Tineimu, which they started to hit with empty hands like the Africans tribes do.

The other Tineimu, who didn't have drums in their hands, kept dancing with the falchions, for their movements, connected with Gaea’s and Hestia’s, were meant to purify the souls of sins or curse, and, at that moment, it was time for Yellen to get rid of the Yātrīkar’s curse and, thus, Karina’s soul to be released from her body, just to allow life normally flow in her veins without being influenced by a third soul.

Being too focused on Gaea’s ritual, nobody noticed the fact that a short being approached them, and that being was bald, with no hair on his face, but yet, having white eyebrows and eyelashes. Only his eyes, black, aquiline, betrayed the fact that a strange power was living inside him: an evil power. But… that Barefaced man vanished just like he appeared, for it wasn’t the moment to show all his splendor in front of those who came there or interrupt their ritual - he… only passed by there, „inspecting” the surroundings.

„Namakku mēlē irukkum maṟṟum tīmaiyiliruntu nam'maik kākkum corkkam, maṟṟum nīṅkaḷ eppōtum naṉmaikkāka pōrāṭum nītiyuḷḷa āṉmākkaḷ, inta appāvi āṉmā amaiti peṟa utavuṅkaḷ, ēṉeṉṟāl, pala kaṣṭaṅkaḷiṉ mūlam avar vāḻnāḷ muḻuvatum kaṭantu cella avarukku vaḻaṅkappaṭṭatu, iṟutiyāka ēyōṉiṉ kaikaḷil amaitiyaiyum nim'matiyaiyum kāṇa vēṇṭiya nēram itu. (Tamil)

„Sky that is above us and protects us from evil, and you pure souls that always fought by the good’s side, help this innocent soul to find its rest, for it passed through many harsh times while living and that’s the time to find peace and comfort in the sweet embracement of Aeon,” Gaea eventually murmured, with her head bowed. And when she raised her glance again and looked at the Loupe that was floating above her and Hestia, a small sphere started to float between the two Titanides: half of the sphere was made from flames while the other one was made from water, and, at the bottom of it, which served as a base, was clearly seen the earth while inside of it the currents of air, moving in a spiral, were easily seen with the eye.

„The four elements of the world: water, fire, air, and earth,” murmured Arion, as if he tried to explain to others what Gaea’s ritual meant in fact. „Namely these holy elements, which served to make this earth, thousands of years ago, are the only ones that can purify a soul, subdued by the curse.”

„But, Arion, what about the sacrifice?” Bestla asked in a whisper as if she was afraid to interrupt that magic.

„That sacrifice… it seems that it has been made long ago,” they heard Boor’s voice behind them and the two young people looked at the God, who kept staring at Gaea’s movements, which were alike Hestia’s.

„But, father… if the sacrifice was done long ago, why Gaea mentioned the fact that she and Hestia must pay for their sins?” asked Sephir.

„We’ll see, my child. Anyway, part of the story, you already know: the one with transforming Karina into a Yātrīkar.”

„The story of the Virgins of Siar in Rocu Forest?” asked Mago.

„No. That’s an older story, much older than what happened to Karina later. But even if rumors of what happened later got to my ears, hundreds of years later, also inside of Rocu Forest, I can’t tell you, in all sincerity, that I know that story. That’s why it’s better to wait for Hestia and Gaea to tell us that story.”

The young people said nothing. They only looked again at Hestia and Gaea, and they all saw, in amazement, how Yellen was heading straight toward the two Titanides, without being wrapped in Bestla’s net, which kept her a captive by then. But, as if had been afraid not to be cursed by the same fate later, they all kept silent, being grateful for only watching.

Once next to Hestia and Gaea, Yellen stopped between them while they kept looking in front. But the girl didn’t stop right between them, but about a few steps from them, right in front. Then, unwillingly, controlled by a strange force, Yellen touched that sphere, that was still floating in front of the two Titanides, and, seconds later, as if Yellen and the sphere interconnected, the girl, suddenly, took Karina’s body, the one she had while being alive, and she got rid thus of her Yātrīkar’s glance.”

„Long time no see you, Mother Earth!” said Karina, looking at the Titanide, and her words have been heard only by Hestia and Gaea.

„That’s right, my daughter! said Gaea, slowly bowing her head. „I’m sorry that it took too long to take you out of that hell.”

„It’s ok, Mother Earth! If my sacrifice served to protect my people, then it worthed it, just as it worthed my pain and the cell where I’ve been a captive.”

„Of course, it worthed, Karina,” said Hestia, „otherwise, we wouldn’t have ever done that reckless gesture, dozen years ago. Now instead, it’s time to give this object to another master and you to turn back to the place that belongs to you, next to the Gates of Purgatorium, waiting. Anyway, I hope that you won’t wait for long to cross the threshold of those Gates and have the rest you deserve.”

„As long as my people are ok, I don’t care to wait, Hestia. Just… I want them to be fine.”

Karina then sadly smiled, saying this, as if a big pain oppressed her chest. Then, she slowly bowed in front of the two Titanides and, when she touched the sphere again, she vanished like burning ashes in the air while Yellen got to horizontally float right above the Eye, controlled by the power of the two Titanides.

Unwillingly, as if she remembered something she saw a long time ago, Samaya took a step in front, not paying attention to the fact that Nathaniel touched her arm to stop her. Still staring at the Loupe, that was that time floating above Yellen, Samaya murmured, taking everybody by surprise: „the Eye of the Devil is the first element we must find to finish with Maranam’s reign, isn’t it?”

Fenrir approached her from the left, staring at her: „What are you talking about, Samaya?” he asked her, amazed.

Samaya looked at him thunderstruck: „The dream! That one where Upprisin appeared in front of me. Two evenings ago: she showed me this, in that dream. But… I didn’t believe her.”

„And… what exactly did she show you?” asked Dike, approaching his kids.

„A loupe, a key, and a small sphere with my face and Mayar’s reflected on it. These are the three elements that I couldn’t remember or see after I’d looked into the Fountain of Truth when Father Chaos took me to the Desert of Oblivion and I talked to Yggdrasil.”

„But… how is this possible that Yellen has the Eye of the Devil and not you, Samaya?” asked Bestla.

„Because the three elements, that will open the Gates of Aeon, cannot belong to one single person,” said Lodur, making everybody stare at him. „Yellen is the first one who found the element of Death or better to say… the Eye of the Devil found her. There are two more elements left. But… if we found the Eye of the Devil, something that a fellow of evil had to have, then it’s possible that the other army will find something that should belong to us: the key or the sphere, and this will turn the Balance of Time upside down. That’s why we must hurry up and, tomorrow, at dawn, hit the road toward Rophion Forest. There’s no time to waste in vain, Dike. It’s time to face our destiny: once and for all.”

***

„Are you rushing somewhere, great Barefaced?” Parca, the evil, said, suddenly appearing in front of the albino man.

This one instead didn’t scare or withdrew, for that one wasn’t the first time he measured noses with the Titanide of Fate. Yet, something caught his glance and he looked to the left, toward the tree, against whose trunk Mayar was supporting her body, for the wound was still fresh and this made her lack power and look so pale.

„A dead soul in the world of the alive ones,” the Barefaced said, almost in a whisper, staring behind and remembering that he saw the same face that day, Samaya’s, when he unnoticedly visited Dike and his fellows at the edge of the woods.

„No one is dead on these lands, Barefaced. But… with a little bit of luck and… of your help, we can make these words be real,” Parca cunningly said.

„And… What do I win?”

„Not losing your head?!” Mayar said, gnashing her teeth, and took Eftir Daudann out of her girdle, heading toward the Barefaced.

This one instead didn’t move either that time but stared at the dagger Mayar had in her hand. „Careful with the weapons you’re using, the she-wolf’s copy,” he told her, staring into her eyes. Then, after a few seconds of staring at each other, Mayar staggered to her feet, touching the wounded shoulder. Yet, she kept her position. „I said this with no mean meaning. I just… relate some facts.”

„Are you recently into guessing?” Parca teased him. „You’ll do better fulfilling the role you have in this world, a man without luck, for this is why you’ve been created, thanks to my kindness: to sow mistrust among those who you are, try them, subdue them, and make them lose their will while fulfilling your desire.”

The Barefaced smiled: „I know my place very well. Yet, I can’t figure out what you are after, trying to take advantage of my gift.”

„The Eye of the Devil!” said Mayar confidently, something that made Parca wry her nose, for the girl said what she wanted to say.

„What saved that Virgin, taken from next to the Door of Purgatorium, by the Yātrīkar’s curse and deceived Fate?” he said in mockery.

„Are you rubbing salt on the open wound?” said Parca, gnashing her teeth.

„Why not if I can do this?!”

„Then, if you don’t want to lose your head too, as you lost your hair and mustache, being a useless being now, pale, and sick all the time, I suggest you turn me that favor, or… this time I swear that your head will land at your feet, Barefaced! You have time till dawn!” Parca hissed through her teeth and suddenly vanished, followed by Mayar, for since the girl transformed, being just a shadow of the Titanide of Fate, she was forced to be always by her master’s side, controlled by a strange force.

„Not that they didn’t know to guard what was theirs, but they still have the shame to command,” the Barefaced hissed through his teeth, gnashing them, and staring with hatred toward the place where Parca and Mayar stood before. But after two steps in front, intending to go without fulfilling his promise, he saw, in front of his eyes, a fragment of his faraway past: a gulf with walls made from friable rock, he barely supporting his body with one hand while hanging over that open mouth of the abyss that was threatening him with swallowing him, for he could support himself only with the right hand while the other one was broken. Then he saw Parca’s hand stretched toward him and he later implored her. But he didn’t remember what he told her then: „damn you, fate! You are always showing up to ask me something at the wrong moment. But… wait, I swear I’ll find your weak point and I’ll make you one day kneel in front of me, complimenting the wisdom of the Barefaced,” he eventually hissed through his teeth and, loathy, he headed again toward the edge of the woods, where he left the others fulfilling their ritual.

***

A Light Show was seen all over the Field of the Barefaced, for, in those times, only a few fields had their own name while the majority were „borrowing” them from the rivers, mountains, or forest next to which they could be found.

But, at that moment, was already silence around, and, instead of the rhythmical music, of the ritual, only fairy-like music of pan flute and harp was heard, music sang by the Tineimu Virgins, for they were good singers, just as they were good fighters of Fire. Thus, while singing, Tineimu were squatting on their hams on the same pyres where they were forming from.

„Poor child, she finally fell asleep,” murmured Gaea, caressing Yellen’s hair, who was sleeping with her head on Gaea’s lap while the Titanide was sitting on the ground, next to Hestia’s fire. The Titanide of Fire wasn’t singing, but kindly watching Yellen, as if blessing her.

„It was time to have some refreshing sleep, sister! It’s enough how much she suffered because of our plan.”

„But… I’m not so sure that turning her the object that belongs to her from birthright, we didn’t endanger her even more,” said Gaea, touching the loup from Yellen’s chest, which the girl was squeezing in her hand, for a few seconds. Thus, touched by the Titanide’s hand, the loupe sent a kind of blue ray of light around, a light similar to the one sent by Ionas when the enemies were approaching.

Actually, the moment the loupe's ray has been projected up, Ionas shone in the same color, but… being in its shell, only a small blue ray has been seen at the base of the handle.

Dike and the others were also sitting on the ground after they had a small council where they decided that it was better to spend the night in an open field, protected by Hestia and Tineimu than to enter that forest, where the Barefaced was living. However, even if they all were afraid of the Barefaced, the only one who knew that he was real was Lodur. But he decided not to tell others about this, just not to concern them more. He only told them to stay in the same place where the ritual took place, for, being released from spell, that place was protected from evil for three days. That’s why, for the moment, they were safe.

„What’s going on?” Island asked Dike in a whisper, seeing the blue ray coming out of Ionas’s shell.

„To be honest - I’m not sure. But I think that it has something to do with that blue light projected by the Eye of the Devil,” and the two Titans looked over there.

„You’re probably right. Yet, it seems to me weird this place and weirded I consider Lodur’s proposal to stay in an open field and not protected by the depths of a forest.”

„And… why do you consider weird my proposal?” asked Lodur, taking Island by surprise, who, seeing himself uncovered, even if he thought that he barely said those words, winced and stared at Lodur.

But Island quickly turned back from his „funk” and innocently smiled, staring at Lodur: „No offense! I only said what I think.”

„I respect your thought. But… as I said: I don’t force anyone to stay on an open field. I only suggested this. You instead can try it on your own skin and enter that forest during the night.”

The one who eventually winced has been Lodur when Fenrir’s beard touched his shoulder and two cunning eyes, of a wolf, pierced him: „what are you planning this time, Uncle Lodur? I consider your behavior damn suspicious and don’t even try to say that’s something I invented, for my nose feels very well that’s not like you say.”

Lodur only made a wry face, feeling uncovered. But… he could avoid the twin’s interrogatory eventually when Gaea started to talk, for Samaya also suddenly showed up next to Lodur, feeling something suspect planned there, and if it was still quiet, the twins undoubtedly would have found out what sins their uncle had on his soul, just as they could have discovered the fact that the Barefaced wasn’t just a legend, but a real being, who Lodur tried hard to keep away from them.

***

Gaea’s melodious voice, who finally decided to tell others the weird history of Karina and how she eventually turned into a Yātrīkar, was so pleasantly resounding around that Field of the Barefaced, being accompanied by the music of the Virgins Tineimu and the slow gusts of Boor’s wind, who called them there to cool the air a little bit, for the flames of Tineimu’s pyres made be felt, all around them, a kind of magma gust, even if they tried hard not to let their presence be felt so well there.

Suddenly the sky cracked in one single place. But when Sephir looked up, she saw only her beloved cloud there. „Palar,” she whispered and laid her head on Fenrir’s lap while she kept staring at Palar, which continued to slowly sparkle, illuminating the surroundings and making its presence also felt there.

Then Sephir closed her eyes, feeling that pleasant gust of wind tickling her nostrils and kissing her cheeks while Fenrir’s palm was gently caressing her hair. Thus, accompanied by Gaea’s sweet voice, Sephir turned back in time, when she was only a little child, for even if she was born in this world hundreds of years ago, yet, she reached the adult body only 50 years ago, right when Hestia and Gaea decided to turn Karina into a Yātrīkar, to make it eventually in the fight against the evil.