„Underwater. It’s cold and I feel nothing around me: only this killing pressure of the darkness and of the void. I’m falling: down and down and down, till I’ll eventually get at the bottom of Earth and then, when I don’t have any more where to fall, I’ll vanish.”

Such words, formed in Samaya’s mind, had pretty much meaning and were resounding somehow as if being chased by someone’s hatred. But she didn’t know who could follow her in that underwater darkness at that moment. But even so, she felt that someone else was there, with her: she could hear that one’s breath, and she could feel him watching her while she was falling down and down. However, that someone wasn’t a friend to help her, but an enemy, with a single purpose in his mind: to end her life.

„Hup! Aaa! Hee…!” Samaya tried to ask for help when she felt that she finally was lacking air and opened her eyes, but she couldn’t see anything. Her mouth was repeatedly opening, looking for air, but instead of the cooling breath of life, death was entering deep inside her body as water, which was entering her throat, blocking her respiratory channels and making her cry.

When Samaya’s eyes filled with tears, she felt them with all her being, for the corner of her eyes was hurting her from so much pressure. And… she wasn’t seeing anything around, just as she wasn’t feeling any friend next to her. Then, she remembered that she could use telepathy to talk and screamed as loudly as she could: „Fenrir! Brother! Help me! Please, help me!”

But Fenrir wasn’t there and neither did she hear any answer coming through the inner channel of her voice. This made her feel unprotected and hopeless. She felt her death close and rushing toward her.

And this was so, for, so suddenly, in front of her, she saw Eris swimming toward her.

This made her freeze because of fear… her body turned to be an alive statue and she looked in the distance at that point of fire approaching her and what she couldn’t understand was how the fire could burn underwater. Soon instead, she understood why – the Black Magic and Evil were helping that point to burn.

At first, two huge points of fire appeared in front of her, trying to confuse her, to make her think that she was actually talking to Chaos and not to the devil.

„Finally, we meet face to face,” a strange voice told Samaya and the shining eyes of the shadow started to burn even more powerfully than before. „It’s time, Samaya. It’s time to join our forces and to make this world shudder in front of us, to make this world fear us. Let’s kneel this world before us, for we are the power. Only the two of us deserve to be the leaders of this world while the others could be only our servants.”

Those feelings awakened in her chest when she heard that voice surrounding her and made her shudder. Then, she heard that voice talking to her from everywhere. But all this was weird and something deep inside her was telling her to stay, to wait, and to listen, for she felt that she saw those eyes before – in her dreams when she was only a cub and she was trying to understand the message which those eyes wanted to send her then. But something changed, yet – the shaking of the voice and it was something heard and felt by Samaya, who finally opened her eyes and looked into the abyss of those eyes of fire, without fear this time.

At that moment, a kind of silence surrounded her. The water around her stopped moving, and the darkness became even thicker than before. Only Samaya’s eyelids were slowly moving, covering and uncovering her eyes, allowing the water to wash them and to make them shine in the distance. And, in contrast with the white of her eye, the black of her retina started to increase in volume and a kind of secret door of her soul opened and the Master of the Jar of Destiny had been seen entering the real world: Jar.

This time, in front of the enemy, not that scared Samaya, that was underwater, fighting with her inner demons, and with the eyes of the fake Chaos, appeared. This new Samaya was totally different as if she had been another person: strong, the master of a supernatural power, something between a Spirit that was making others shudder and a person that was imposing respect on others. And this new master with the face of Samaya was an Androgenic Being.

Totally dressed white, with golden threads richening his vestment, that were outlining the drawing of the stars and of the sun, the contour of the universe, and of Chaos’s eyes on his garments. And all those contours were skillfully sewed on a soft cloth. Also, Jar had long white hair that was shining underwater as if it hadn't been the color of his hair, but a powerful light that was sent everywhere to chase the darkness.

Jar started to slowly approach the open door of Samaya’s soul: and, those two wooden doors were bulky, and when he got next to the threshold, his body had been completely revealed in front of those two fire eyes and they could see who was actually hiding in Samaya’s soul and who was increasing her power - a Holly Spirit, a feared one, even if he had no trace of evil inside him. Only his eyes, dark as the void, were sending waves of energy through that water and those waves were changing their color according to the shade of his eyes that were reflecting in them the fire he saw in front of him.

„Jar!” the voice behind those eyes of fire talked to the Spirit with hatred. „Here you were! Hiding! And I looked for you everywhere!”

„Eris! You're still up to your trick! And the poor wisdom is still far from you,” and, snapping his fingers, Jar turned the fake of those eyes of fire into the real reflection of Eris’body.

Only then did the water turn red, taking the same shade from Eris’body, which was surrounded by flames, and, soon, instead of the dark and cold water, Eris had been surrounded by a huge curtain of flames.

And that dance of the flames made her seem beautiful, in her own way. A kind of Queen of Fire, in full splendor, for she wasn’t the same demon Mannar was transformed in each time she was controlling him, completely driving him crazy. Eris looked at that moment like any other normal woman: with long hair, of dark red, black eyes, and dark olive skin. Her long dress, with sewed dragons of fire on it, was skillfully tailored from an expensive material, for it was a gift from Genea, received on the day Eris has been born. Only her long and dark nails betrayed the fact that she had an evil heart and, while walking through the water, approaching Jar, she was hitting nail from a nail, making a deafening sound all around.

Even so, no matter how many steps she wasn’t taking toward Jar, the same distance remained between them, even if Jar and those wooden doors weren’t moving at all, and he wasn’t also afraid of what could have happened eventually.

„Did I ever tell you how annoying you can be?” Eris told him after a long way of walking in vain. Jar instead kept silent and listened, and the fact that Jar chose silence instead of words, drove her crazy and made her roar: „you and your devilish tricks. Why can’t I have a normal talk with you like with any other person? Why do you keep silent when words are necessary?”

„For words aren’t for using them with useless people.”

„Useless? Did you dare to call the Master of the World useless?”

„Of course,” simply answered Jar and he touched palm by palm, weaving his fingers between them, and, behind Eris, a huge jar appeared after this: on that jar, the image of the world was drawn – its continents, waters, mountains, etc. And, on both parts of that jar’s handle, two stars were drawn – one completely black that resulted to be Māṉsṭar Kēlaksi and a total illuminated one – Aeon, surrounded by an amalgam of shining stars.

„You know the meaning of this jar, don’t you, Eris?”

Eris slowly turned her head and looked back, and her eyes started to analyze each detail on that jar. But only the form of Māṉsṭar Kēlaksi made her shudder because of anger and unhappily murmur: „Themis!”

„True! This jar is Themis’shape or at least the Balance had this shape at the beginning of this world when it was peace all over the universe and when evil wasn’t yet born. But when Genea let Yggdrasil dormant, she broke the laws of the Universe, and Themis’jar was also broken and its crocks scattered all over the world, hiding, and it won’t get a complete form again. Not until Themis won’t be born from humans.”

„From humans? Do you mean that Themis’power will be owned by a human?” and Eris stared into Jar’s eyes. The Spirit instead only bowed his head, cunningly smiling.

„Who knows?! Maybe yes, or maybe no. But what I can really tell you is that I have already a human shape. That’s why: stop dreaming controlling me!”

„Really?! Well, let me remind you that your human shape is already dead. Only look at her, if you don’t believe me: there’s no trace of life left inside her.”

And it was so: Samaya’s body was floating in that water, dragged by currents to its bottom, into a weird world, into a twilling world, with her eyes wide open in which no blink of life was seen. But, while Eris was grinning because of pleasure, thinking that it was Samaya’s end and it will also be Jar’s too, right after the last drop of life will leave the she-wolf's body and so she’ll have the possibility to control the Spirit, Jar smiled, looking at Samaya as if he was her father, her brother, or her guardian angel.

„This is what you think, Eris, for your mind is limited here. But you forgot something: the humans’heart is unstable and if something is turned off because of stupidity, it can be turned on with a kiss or a touch, by a good thought, and this is something that you won’t ever know. But it’ll come the time when you finally understand what the power of love means, what the devotion means, and only then you’ll be definitely defeated.”

Jar turned his back on Eris, leaving her roaring because of unpleasant surprise while moving in pain on that sand of fire which was the soil of Māṉsṭar Kēlaksi and which was burning her skin while the cuffs that were tightly holding her ankles were hurting her flesh because she was desperately trying to release herself by breaking those chains, to reach Jar, at those massive wooden doors, of golden color, which were guarding the entrance in Aeon – a place where Eris won’t ever enter.

Suddenly, those golden doors closed at the moment the strong arms of a man hugged Samaya and, when their bodies touched, the light of Aeon also faded off, forcing Eris’eyes to vanish and, the young man’s kiss on Samaya’s lips while trying to give her some air, forced the she-wolf close her eyes, allowing him to take care of her.

***

„Something tickles me,” Samaya thought, feeling a strange warmth on her lips and a sweet pressure of something wet and warm. But she liked that soft touch and she also liked the feeling born in her soul, but she couldn’t understand what it was owed to that feeling.

„It’s probably a deer,” she thought, remembering that once, when she was still a little girl, right after she recovered her human shape, she fell asleep next to the River with Golden Water, in the Rophion Forest and that the kiss of a deer awoke her from her sleep then, for it approached her thinking that she was a Spirit of the Water, for the deer are always charmed by those spirits.

But that deer’s kiss had been felt differently that time. Now it lasted for long and she also felt that the lips that were kissing her didn’t have hair on them and as far as she remembers the deer without fur don’t ex… „Aaaa?!” and, Samaya suddenly opened her eyes and she saw a young man, bending toward her face after he had inhaled a big amount of fresh air.

„What’s this?” Samaya wondered, amazed and scared at the same time and, till the stranger realized that she was already awake, Samaya managed to kick his stomach, forcing him to tumble down.

Another jump, and Samaya was already in an attack position, for the stranger’s behavior seemed weird to her and she kept staring at his slow movement while he was standing up.

„Who are you?” Samaya shouted.

The Stranger was a man about 25, with blond hair up to the shoulders, 1.8 meters in height, and an athletic body. His vestment was simple and, as far as she could see, he had no weapon.

„To be honest, I think I’m a fool,” he said, staring at her.

„What?” murmured Samaya. „Well, the fool is for granted. But I was asking about your name and why did you dare to kiss me.”

„To kiss you?” the young man stuttered, staring into her eyes. „Have you lost your mind? I was trying to save you.”

„To save me? By whom? By you?”

„No. Not to drown. You were almost dead when I took you out of the water. I was just trying to make you breathe again. That’s all.”

„With the lips? Since when touching someone’s lips you can make him breathe again? Only if you try to kill him with a…” and, Samaya suddenly kept silent, understanding that she had talked too much, for she saw the stranger wide-opening his eyes and staring at her like an idiot. Soon instead, a peal of powerful laugh came out of his chest, and this made her confused. „Did I say something comic?”

The Stranger, still falling over laughing, but this time somehow rhythmically, took a few steps toward her. Samaya took the same number of steps, but back, staring at him and wondering what he wanted to do. She had been forced instead to stop when her heels had touched the water, for the last thing she wanted at that moment was to face the underwater monsters again.

Not that she was afraid of the water, but the water was something that wolves generally hate. So, she took again an attack position, with her fists clenched, and headed toward him, waiting for the stranger to come closer. „If he takes one more step, I’ll punch his nose,” Samaya told herself and waited. But the stranger stopped in place and stared at her amused.

„What are you doing?” he asked. „Don’t tell me that you thought that I’ll kiss you once again.”

„No, of course… not,” Samaya stuttered, taking a normal standing position. „I was just… practicing. And… you still didn’t tell me who you are.”

„Nobody and let’s go till you didn’t freeze to death.”

The young man turned his back on her, heading toward the forest. Samaya instead stood in the same place for a few more moments. But when she saw the stranger about to disappear into that thick forest, she rushed to catch up with him, for those places weren’t looking at her with good eyes.

***

That part of the forest, next to the river, wasn’t frozen. It had a kind of thrill of life in it, and this wasn’t something particular for the Kingdom of Ice, and this happened only in that part of the Kingdom which was also under Tenebre’s influence.

While advancing through that forest, Samaya looked around, at the trees in particular: they were quite calm and looked normal, and this was felt in the breath of nature around them which had a slow shake of its leaves while being blown by a calm gust of wind and it was also seen in the form and in the color of the leaves too.

„What forest is that?” Samaya suddenly asked

„They are calling it Tenebre’s Forest,” said the stranger, without stopping or looking at her.

„Tenebre’s Forest? But… who’s Tenebre? I never heard about her before.”

„She’s Ahi’s and Mannar’s mother. Or at least this is what others say. I also never met her before. But, in this forest, her presence can be felt everywhere.”

„And… from where do you know that namely her influence can be felt around? Or… can you also see her?”

„Humans don’t have such a power. We only rely on our instinct. We leave the stories about great powers and magic for others. We have better things to do and other problems to dedicate our time to than to waste it on stupid things like Magic and fights for power.”

„Magic isn’t a stupid thing.”

„If you say so.”

Then they continued their way in silence for a while, time which Samaya took to carefully look around, for nature all around still had something strange in it, and, while advancing, the thickets became even thicker than before.

At a moment, Samaya even thought that someone was lurking on them and stopped. Somewhere, in the thickets, she seemed to see the eyes of a wild animal blinking, but when she closed her eyes and tried to see what was hidden there, she couldn’t see anything and anyone spying on them.

When the stranger’s hand touched her shoulder, Samaya suddenly grabbed it and tried to turn him upside down, just as Fenrir taught her to do to defend herself. But she saw in amazement that she hadn’t such power over that young man. So, she slowly turned her head toward him and innocently grinned at him, looking for peace: „no offense,” she said. „I just don’t like to be touched without permission. At all.”

„Me neither, but you did this twice: once when you kicked my stomach and secondly – right now when you tried to break my back. So, I can't assure you that the third time I will stay calm. And… who knows what I’ll be able to do,” he teased her, simulating a kiss and forcing Samaya to crawl a little bit back, covering her mouth with her palms. „I’m Nathaniel, by the way,” he said, continuing his way. „And this part of the forest has its own magic, something that doesn’t allow others to use their tricks on it.”

Samaya made a wry face: she disliked his tone and the fact that he knew about her magic. „And… may I know from where do you know about my magic?” she asked, still standing in place.

„You should ask this the wolf that lives inside you. I saw him three times while trying to save you in that river.”

Samaya stared in the distance, trying to remember what happened underwater. Soon instead, she realized that she couldn’t. So, she rushed to catch up with Nathaniel, who had already vanished behind a tall bush.

„What surprises me is that you are still alive,” Samaya tried to tease him while watching at his back. „Nobody remains alive if meets that wolf.”

„The wolf I saw wasn’t at all scary. He looked more like a frightened puppy.”

„Whaat?” Samaya shouted. „Puppy? I’m a real wolf, dude. If I want…”

Nathaniel stopped, forcing her to stop too. „Can you be quiet?” he told her, lowering his voice.

„Why? Something happens?” but she didn’t manage to ask this when Nathaniel suddenly covered her mouth with his palm and forced her to follow him into the bushes.

Samaya instead disliked that gesture and made a wry face, for she didn’t understand what the hell he was trying to do with her. Only when Nathaniel motioned her to keep her mouth shut, did he release her and showed her to watch toward the main road toward which they headed till that moment. And, looking toward there, Samaya swallowed hard, for, what she saw, was really something to be scared about: a group of about 12 young women, all black dressed, with long cloaks, hooded and who were advancing at a rhythmical step, heading toward them. All the women had about 20, black long hair, white skin, almost livid, and their eyes were completely lifeless.

And those eyes really looked weird and, to see them better, Samaya closed her eyes, trying to see if she can fight with nature to use her power. And, to her surprise, she managed to do this and her inner eye could approach those women through the void and look at them more closely. And Samaya shuddered from top to toe seeing those eyes, for they were covered by a kind of red peel, and their retina was almost blind. But even so, they could normally walk, without stumbling against something or mistaking the road.

„Who are they?” Samaya asked in a whisper. But that whisper made those Virgins stop as if receiving an order.

Seeing this, Nathaniel grabbed Samaya by the wrist and forced her to turn to the real world and hide with him behind a thick trunk.

But even so, Samaya couldn’t stay still, being too curious to find out what was going on with those Virgins. So, she touched the man’s chest, taking him by surprise, while the other hand she put to her chest and, so suddenly that this amazed Nathaniel, Samaya managed to transform them into two small fireflies, which quickly lifted in the air and hid between that tree’s leaves. Thus, they could lurk on those Virgins without being seen by their inner eyes, for they could see the world around them so, even those things hidden from others.

The fireflies, hidden at the shelter of a dark green leaf, lurked on the „intruders” and saw them taking off the hoods and how their ears, apparently normal, like the humans’, suddenly became the ears of a bat. Then, using their power, the Black Virgins managed to form from the air around a kind of reversed cone, like the tone arm of a gramophone, whose large mouth was „attracting” everything toward it, including the sounds of nature around.

Seeing this and being afraid not to be heard, Samaya and Nathaniel even stopped breathing, waiting for what was next. But so suddenly nature all around them sunk into a deep silence, to later start to talk in its antic language, calmly spoking strange words, intelligible, and the forest did this not to allow those Virgins to find what they were looking for. And, to manage to chase them away, the forest sacrificed a mouse, which exited its home moved by a strange inner call and, being out, it had been caught by the claws of a big owl, that threw itself on that poor mouse.

Feeling the sharp nails of the owl around its body, the mouse let out of its throat a short squeak, and that squeak was somehow similar to Samaya’s voice when she asked Nathaniel who those Virgins were.

Hearing this, Nathaniel and Samaya looked amazed at each other, not understanding what was going on. Soon instead, they noticed that the whispers of nature were heard louder while the Virgins were looking from the corner of their eyes at the owl’s flying through the air. Especially they noticed the mouse caught in that owl’s claws, which they didn’t lose from their sight and followed them till the owl didn’t sit down on a thick branch. But, before sitting on that branch, the owl took the mouse in its beak, making the poor victim understand that it has no chance to escape.

„There’s no one here,” a strange voice had been heard soon, coming from the group and they continued their way.

Only when the Dark Virgins were far away from them and they couldn’t hear them anymore or feel their presence, did the two fireflies descend on the ground and took their human body back. And this happened when the man’s hand touched Samaya’s, forcing her to withdraw her arm, but still looking at him while they were still holding hands.

„They are Yātrīkar. Those virgins. They had been once human, but when the People of Siar had been cursed by their princess and they lost their houses and their dears, those virgins decided to take revenge, and this destroyed their lives when they accepted that vow.”

„Vow? What vow?”

„To bow forever in front of the Black Magic. The problem is that they met the three Moirae that day when the People of Siar were hiding from the havoc. At first, they showed in front of the virgins in the form of an old lady, who deceived them by convincing them to drink a magical liquid, telling them that they’ll take revenge this way. But that potion transformed them into what you saw today. And they’ll live like this forever because they neither can die nor turn back to life.”

„And? What are they looking for?”

„I don’t know yet. I still couldn’t figure it out. But we try not to meet them generally, especially the young virgins are trying not to do this, for if this happens, they also turn to be Yātrīkar.”

„Do you want to say that if a Virgin meets a Yātrīkar she takes the same form?”

„This is what I’ve heard from the elders. We never saw this, but we think that this is true.”

„That’s why you forced me to hide,” and Samaya looked again behind the Yātrīkar, but none of them was seen.

„You are a Rophion, aren’t you?” Nathaniel asked her, still holding her hand into his. „I can see this in your eyes. They don’t have any trace of evil in them and they are similar to the eyes of the one who saved me once from death.”

„A Rophion saved you?”

„Yes. Dike. The King of Rophion Wolves. I met him once when the Yātrīkar were about to hurt us. He used his magic then to defend us, hiding us in a kind of magic bubble, for Moirae and Yātrīkar looked then to kill us all: the men I mean, for the girls, that fell prey to them then, never turn back.”

„A magic bubble?! Ionas!” whispered Samaya and touched the dagger she had at her girdle. „It was Ionas, my father’s sword which saved you then and not he. That sword is known as the Blade of Justice and it feels the traces of evil from far away. I also saw that bubble. Once. When I was little. In the Glade of Mannar. Then Ionas projected that bubble with the power of the Fire of Atar and saved us: me and my twin brother, Fenrir. But till nowadays I don’t know from who they saved us then, but I still feel that evil breathing in my face.”

„And you’ll feel it even closer from now on, for the world is preparing for war. A slaughter that seems to involve us all.”

The eyes of the two had mirrored in the other one’s glance and a kind of pink wave surrounded them. But none of them saw it: that wave was projected by the dagger seen at Samaya’s girdle, which had been in fact who helped her to defeat the black Magic from around her and to transform them into fireflies. Then, the same dagger sent a message to nature through magic waves and it helped them by sacrificing that mouse. And, at that moment when the two were standing face to face, a red thread was weaving on their pinky, joining their lives in a kind of eternal spell.