To my dearest Melo, Gauchito Gil, Ana Gram and my Knights...

    The banshee dragged her gray cloak along the secret path. Her green dress seemed to be made of silver as the dim light of the full moon filtered through the birch trees and illuminated it at discontinuous intervals. His red eyes suddenly widened as he reached the edge of the cliff.

   A lake of still waters separated it from the abbey. Little could be seen of her, at that distance. Only some torches that flickered in the highest watchtowers made it stand out from the darkness of the night.

   The banshee sat cross-legged and rested her back against a dry log. As her eyes stared into the distance, another banshee approached from behind her with a silent step. She stayed at a safe distance and her eyes also turned in the direction of the fortress.

   "The big three of Heaven are already lined up...," said the oldest, taking something out of her clothes. "It's time to start, Bean."

   Bean then advanced a few more steps and sat down on a blackish rock and asked:

   "Which event will happen first, Aihbill?"

   "Everything will be simultaneous, that's how it is written. This December solstice will open the doors of a New Order. The heir will be born today, unless dark forces prevent it."'

   "The three bowls are ready, can we see everything that happens...?"

   "Not everything...," Aihbill replied, while she stirred the liquid in one of the containers with one of her long nails, which the other banshee had been preparing while she spoke. "Just as it is true that everything is written, so it is also true that Nobody knows what happens in the hearts of mortals. A single heartbeat from an ordinary human being can be enough to twist the claw that writes destinies."

   "But we cannot intervene, Aihbill, and you know it. We can only cry for the misfortune that will come."

   Aihbill did not answer. He took with his sharp fingers a small crimson bag hanging from his chest and opened it. A profuse aroma emanated from it that intoxicated the night air, along with dense white smoke that rose rapidly.

   He poured a little powder from the bag into each clay bowl and stirred with his slender fingers, until the mixtures turned into thick liquids. He closed his eyes, continuing to stir. He began to pronounce a few barely audible words, in a language reserved for a few initiates. And then the contents of the first vessel became cloudy and it began to boil; Immediately the liquids in the second and third bowls followed suit.

   Bean felt that the time had come. He stood up and, staring at the abbey on the other side of the lake, began to scream, one after another, each time higher and sharper, as the vessels began to vibrate and boil more.

   Aihbill then opened his eyes and looked at the liquids that were now beginning to change color: from jet black to blood red and then to golden yellow, all in a few seconds. And suddenly, reflected images appeared there. Still looking at the containers, Aihbill joined Bean in lamenting him.

   "The banshee are crying! " He said with terror one of the midwives who could be seen in one of the bowls.

   The image began to rise in the form of dense smoke until it became an oval mirror, but it did not reflect the banshee but instead showed a scene that was taking place at that moment in the fortress. A young woman could be seen, lying on a wide four-poster bed, in labor. Her face was tense and drenched in sweat. Her hands clung to the dark, blood-stained sheets and her heartbroken screams became more and more continuous.

   An image had also formed in the bowl on the left: a man was running desperately through a lush, dark and mysterious forest. He seemed to have difficulty moving forward. A cut in his pants revealed a deep, bleeding wound. Despite the pain, he didn't stop. Another man followed closely. He was only a few meters behind. He had his long black hair dripping with perspiration. His face was paler than usual. He looked from time to time, desperately, in all directions and breathed deeply as if trying to smell the danger.

   As the first man turned a stone bend, the second slowed his pace. He took one last look back and was lost among the trunks of some ancient oak trees. They both looked at each other and fell exhausted in the mud, soaked by a copious rain that had not abated all night.

   You must do it now! Thought the red-haired man.

   The other responded, also with the thought:

   What should I do?

   What you have promised me, Persseus: you will be his guide and his protector until he takes his place among his people and becomes the guardian of Orffelios' paila.

   They won't let me do it. They think I'm a traitor, the man with long black hair thought bitterly, while he scanned the nearby trees with his gaze and strained his ears.

   "I know that you are not a traitor," the other man told him and fixed his gaze intensely on the other's eyes.

   "But...just do it, Samej, if you really want to do it."

   "I must... do it." He answered out loud and took something out of his pocket.

   The one with red hair took the silver knife that the other gave him and began to open a cut in one of the branches of the tree on which he was leaning. And, with great care, he hid something there. Then he made a hole in the ground with his hands and repeated the previous action.

   "They're here!" The dark-haired man said suddenly.

   And he jumped to his feet, with energy renewed by adrenaline.

   You know what to do...

   Immediately afterwards and without hesitation he made a cut in his left hand and sprinkled the gushing blood on a small stone that the other was holding with trembling fingers. A few seconds later, he motioned for her to put it away.

   It's time! Go away! The red-haired man thought firmly.

   The other hesitated for a few moments, but at the sound of nearby hooves, he stared into his companion's eyes and ran away from the place, without stopping, without looking back, without hesitating, even when he heard a piercing scream that chilled his blood. and it made his heart race even faster. He crossed a dry riverbed, then a stretch of young maples, climbed a hill and slid down a ravine. When he reached the stone path he just stopped and looked agitatedly at the firmament that was now being stripped of clouds.

   The three great ones in heaven are already aligned, he thought.

   He tightened his grip on the stone in his hand and continued running in the direction of the fortification that loomed at the top of the hexagonal hill.

   One of the banshee stirred the contents of the third bowl with her twisted fingernail until a clear image formed. At first there was only an empty throne with a ring of fire surrounding it. Hundreds of emeralds of various sizes shone on the dais.

   The other banshee continued to moan piteously without taking her red eyes off the first bowl: the woman in labor was exhausted; I no longer had the strength. The women who assisted her cried in silence. Suddenly, the pregnant woman's face seemed to light up. Her hands clutched the stained sheets and she began to push hard, letting out a banshee-like scream. Her hands went limp again and she collapsed exhausted, just as the midwives managed to get the baby out. Her midwives looked at each other in horror; A fragile, dirty and immobile little body was placed in a woven basket.

   The banshee backed away upon seeing this scene in the bowl.

   "This is how it should be...," said Bean.

   "No!" Aihbill shouted. "This...is how it should be...!!!" He pointed to bowl number three and with a sudden movement of his cape, he disappeared.

   Someone had just sat on the throne. And immediately the emeralds went out and the fire was completely extinguished. The one who had sat down uttered a cry of fury, stood up and brandished his sword. He whispered a spell through clenched teeth but it didn't seem to work. His fury increased.

   "You have betrayed me!" The stranger shouted full of rage, brandishing his sword. "I will keep your powers and turn you into a mere mortal."

   But the man with long, dark hair, held from behind by a being with a deformed face, seemed unfazed by the threat.

   "I have not betrayed you," he said calmly. "I have done what you asked of me, I have guided you to him."

   "But I killed him myself!" He said with a roar in his voice. "Why doesn't the throne accept me?"

   The banshee, upon hearing this, focused their attention on the first bowl: the newborn's little body seemed to suddenly breathe life. He began to spasm and finally burst into tears. On his chest was a stone soaked in blood with the mark of an X with a hook. A bright light began to escape from it and covered first the cell, then the castle until reaching the mountains that surrounded it. Just at the moment when the man dangerously moved his sword on his prisoner's neck and whispered a deadly spell, the blinding light invaded everything.

   The man with straight, dark hair took advantage of the moment and tried to escape but his powers failed him. Still, before his captors reacted, he ran away up the river. He only stopped once, when he heard an explosion go off behind him.

   Aihbill appeared wrapped in an ocher flame and held out her hand. The man and the banshee disappeared just as their pursuers approached.

   "You are going to pay me, Persseus, your betrayal will cost you your life! I am the heir! There is no other! "I AM THE ONLY KING!!!" The stranger proclaimed and let out a heartbroken scream, disappearing in a dense black cloud.

   Bean looked around in shock, just in time to see Aihbill reappear next to him holding a weakened Persseus.

   "But...it was written...," said Bean. "Why did you do it?!"

   The other banshee did not respond. She gathered the three bowls and carrying the semi-unconscious man, she began to retrace the stormy path. Bean took one last look at the castle and thought:

   "You know they will make you pay for this. Interventions are prohibited."

   "I know," said Aihbill. "I can already feel the transformation in my hands and in my hair. But...I had to do it."

   "Maybe that was also written."

   "Maybe yes, sister, maybe yes..."