The last wish

Preface

 ἡμεῖς δ'οἷά τε φύλλα φύει πολυάνθεμος ὥρη
ἔαρος, ὅτ' αἶψ' αὐγῇς αὔξεται ἠελίου,
τοῖς ἴκελοι πήχυιον ἐπὶ χρόνον ἄνθεσιν ἥβης
τερπόμεθα, πρὸς θεῶν εἰδότες οὔτε κακόν
οὔτ' ἀγαθόν· [...] -Mimnermo

We, as the leaves, generate time flowery of spring, when they grow fast in the rays of the sun, equal to those of the ephemeral flowers of youth we delight, ignoring evil and good at the hands of the Numi. [...]

The Sun, the only divinity humans ever believed in, had sent a message: mortals should have followed it. Earthquakes, hurricanes, tsunamis and other terrible natural disasters occurred: the Sun had given life, the Sun could take it away. The islands began to be submerged, the Poles to melt, the humans to die. And so a reckless group of one hundred volunteered to go and ask the Sun god for forgiveness from the Holy Citadel, the oldest and most imposing temple that had ever been dedicated to this deity; a difficult journey, where half died on the way and many others turned down for fear of their own fate. The commanders of that journey began on their footpath to find a way to stop some of the most devastating calamities that claimed the most casualties, thus they invented the Towers, which were a protective field around the entire perimeter of the Holy Citadel, but they were still too rudimentary constructions, which, because of the unstable ground, broke and had to be rebuilt. Furthermore, since the protective field of the Towers acquired energy from the Sun, when a sandstorm that lasted for about two weeks arrived, it stopped working, being no longer powered by any source of energy. In fact, was needed a longer than expected break to change its structure and strengthen its foundations, but finally a quarter of those who had left managed to move towards the mountain and thus continue the arduous undertaking. To overcome all these obstacles were only thirteen, because many others had abandoned the cause, but finally they entered into the largest temple that had ever been created for the Sun, located inside an ancient mountain all tunnels that were believed to be erected above the rubble of all the most cruel men, a kind of personal hell for those who had been ungodly in life towards their divinity. It was not in fact strange that on this mountain there were many other terrifying legends: the one that immediately passed into the mind of Eleutherios Blacklee, a young man who had abandoned his family to try to save all the mankind, was one of the oldest: it was said that at a crossroads only one person would follow the way of the good instead of the bad; only one would have remained faithful to the sun instead of darkness. Maybe he thought of that because he found himself alone, but it was impossible that he had taken the wrong path: as a precaution Eleutherios and his companions had tied themselves to a rope and, being the first in the row, it meant that or the others had all untied by chance, or they had cut the rope. He did not know how to react to this fact and so, without looking back, he continued to move forward, until he came to a kind of fountain divided into six sectors, at the center of which there was a burning fire. This fountain was called the Holy Spring: this source was said to possess various powers including healing all the sick. Eleutherios knew that to invoke the Sun it had to shed the blood of who wanted to speak, so he took the knife he held in his right boot, cut his palm and said his name at the same time, hoping that was the right way to present himself to a divinity. When the ritual ended, the Sun spoke.-Who is it that dares to invoke me? - rumbled the Sun, like thunder hitting the earth - I know you: you are Eleutherios Blacklee, aren't you? So what did you come to ask me, mortal? - Yet even though the voice of God was the most powerful that the young man had ever heard, he could not think of anything but the fact that it was identical to just another voice in the world. A voice that was so familiar to him and loved that it could not be confused with others. The only difference was the harsh tone in which the Sun had pronounced his name; he was used to being called, even with the same voice of God, with a different tone, which let love and not hate like this shine through. But it was impossible, his wife had been killed for a year and certainly could not be alive, yet the similarity was stunning, so much so that it sparked a glimmer of hope in the heart of Eleutherios.- I am not here to ask, but to pray to her as my only divinity - said Eleutherios, in reality he did not know what else to say; on the other hand, the Sun had sent those calamities and would not have ceased to destroy the mortal genre if not of its own volition. He had to be as courteous as possible, because antagonizing a god wouldn't have been the best of experiences.

-You know how to speak Blacklee. But even if your words seem convincing, I can read your thoughts, so tell me what you want and, if it suits me, maybe I could satisfy you- Eleutherios was stunned, he had waited for the Sun to speak to ascertain his suspicions: not he was a man whom all mortals believed to be a God, but a woman, the woman whom Eleutherios loved and whom he had married. The Sun, hearing these thoughts, laughed, a melancholy laugh, but basically happy. Tabitha, even though she had hoped that her husband would survive, would never, ever have imagined finding himself in front of him, as a spokesman for mankind. He certainly knew that Eleutherios had a pure heart and that he would be able to overcome the obstacle, but he believed and hoped that after his death he would hide. Already her death, mortals did not like to feel inferior to someone else and so, when it became known, that she possessed supernatural powers, they sentenced her to the stake. He had had good reasons therefore to judge the wicked and corrupt mankind and so she had decided to punish them, even knowing that some mortals did not deserve this end. - I'm sorry to have read your thoughts, but you're right: it's me, I'm your wife- and saying these words he showed his true appearance. Eleutherios, who never imagined he could hear his wife's voice, let alone see his features again, was astonished by it, almost as if in a dream, from which he certainly did not want to wake up. Her red hair fell into curls on her thin face and her ice-colored eyes looked at her husband dreamily. –If they deserved it, I was simply helping them and they, the mortals, sentenced me to a horrible death. I was thus repaid for the services aimed in favor of my people, in favor of our friends! But now they are the ones to suffer the damage of their actions, it was they who decided their fate-

- Tabitha - to hear Eleutherios call her by name she shivered, certainly she was immortal by now, but still her feelings and feelings had not changed - you punished the world enough, you have to listen to me when I tell you that not only men and women are dying, but also the children. Do you remember how much we dreamed of having a small and fragile child to care for and love. Do not continue with this destruction: those who survive will pass on respect and not hatred to subsequent generations. But if you kill them all, mortals will continue to be evil. - Eleutherios, as he entered the fountain to reach his wife, saw Tabitha's wall of hatred disintegrate; he knew that she would never have wanted to kill innocent children, but sometimes even those who have a purer heart do wrong actions, blinded by hatred.- I ... I didn't want to kill the children too- And with a simple gesture of the hand Eleutherios understood that Tabitha had put an end to those terrible calamities. –However, mortals despised me for my powers, so I thought how to punish them with something they fear and despise? So I decided to give magical powers to mortals: each of your friends, by my will, will enter this room and drink from one of the five sectors. However, they will only be able to control a power between water, air, earth, moon and stars. So your friends, those who helped you stay alive, will become more powerful than mortals: decide whether this is a gift or a burden. - Eleutherios happy that his wife had changed her mind and had ceased to cause such calamities, asked her to take him with her, wherever she was going, forever. The sun kept its promise. Every woman and man drank from a power and the magicians were born, who placed the Supreme at the head of their community; that is, those who have been empowered to create new planets and control the stars. Initially those twelve people did not understand what they were for, but after a while they learned that they served to protect the Earth. They would check the natural elements to avoid further disasters. For centuries the Sun decided not to intervene and to allow the magical world to form, but the keepers, nobody's children and messengers were not happy. These three categories, while knowing of the existence of the magical world, had no power. Thus began the rebellion and the Supreme, now become the absolute leaders of the magical hierarchy, had no idea how to deal with this problem. The community was in crisis and did not know who to trust. The Sun sent Earth the last aid it would give to those people. Would they have followed or ignored him? They would probably have ignored it, but they would never have known that this was the most precious asset that the Sun could ever send.