Stella

Chapter III

In the realm of the Nightmares, foggy skies like silk drapes enveloped the imposing towers of an immense fortress made of massive, shining black stone. Inside one of the towers, in a dark room, echoed the nervous footsteps of Sibilla. She now felt a strong feeling for Amon, she was prey to an emotion that she had never known before their first encounter. She could not forget it and felt guilty about what she had done to him. In front of a mirror her red scarlet eyes looked back at her and her skin was again the color of ashes. The spell created by the potion her father had given her had ended, and this meant that her mission was accomplished. She was pregnant with the prince's child.

"If he had seen my true appearance, he would never have fallen in love with me," Sibilla thought, trying to comfort herself. "All this happened only thanks to that cursed spell. "Sibilla had always obeyed her father without argument; she did not love him but respected him, and specifically she was afraid of him. This time, however it was different. She was not the same person she had been before, imperturbable and merciless as her blood commanded her to be. Now she was a mother: she wanted to know why she was forced to behave in that way and what would happen to her child. She decided to go to the king to ask for an explanation.

She walked out of her room and walked along the balcony until she came to the bridge, swept by the wind that connected the two towers. She climbed the ramp of large steps leading to the King's apartments. Decorated by two tall, winged statues of reptiles, the door was slightly open and a blade of reddish light shone out. She was about to enter when she heard a female voice coming from within, "And so Master everything is proceeding as expected, soon the Supreme Being will be born, you will have your revenge and I will reward you."

"Yes, Neremana," replied the King, "and I hope your prophecy will come true."

"It will happen, my lord: it will be a female and it will become the most powerful and wicked being that these cursed lands remember! She will descend on the realm of Dreams and eternal night will fall! But remember what I have already told you when you came to my land: the creature must have scarlet eyes for the prophecy to come true. If she has green eyes she will belong to the lineage of dreams and should be killed immediately!"

"I remember perfectly," said the king, turning to the door as if he sensed a presence behind it. With one glance it opened, but there was no one behind it. Sibilla had fled a moment before.

She was distressed; she could not believe what she had just heard. She would never allow her daughter to be responsible for the eternal damnation of the prince and of all the creatures of the realm of the Dream! She had to flee and make sure that the king never found the child. She returned to her accommodation to think calmly. She sat on the windowsill and looked at the landscape made even more silent and muffled by the snow falling slowly and incessantly. Sibilla leaned out more and looked down. The sky and the ground had the same whitish color, and the tower was so tall that she could not see the ground. She looked at her slightly swollen belly and considered the idea of falling into the void, but she lacked the courage.

She went back into her room. She thought maybe that killing herself would solve everything but that before doing so she would have to tell the prince the truth. She had to return to the woods as soon as she could. She wore a cape with a hood to cover her face and red eyes when she arrived in the land of Half-awake. She wrote a few lines on a parchment and left the fortress, being careful not to be seen by anyone. When she came to the place where she had met the prince for the first time she fixed the parchment to a branch, she planted it in the center of the clearing and waited hidden behind thick bushes. She thought she would wait until she could be sure that Amon had read the letter, and then she would return to the top of the tower and end everything. The prince did not have to see her true appearance. Sibilla wanted to keep the memory of how Amon had looked and wanted for the last time for her final memory.