Chapter 1: Nulara
Nulara opened her eyes. She was in the room, lying on the bed. Next to the bed stood three identical young men with gray-blue eyes, long dark blond hair, and stubble. She jumped up sharply.
“Wait, calm down, Your Majesty,” one of them shouted.
“Nulara, Your Majesty, we are not your enemies,” said the other. He was exactly the same in appearance as his brothers. “We will explain everything now.”
“Where is Arngalda? Are you keeping her here? Where is Ishkmet? Norenbjord?” Nulara stood beside the bed, looking around.
“They are dead,” said the third man. He stood a little distance away and came closer, he had a mug of some kind of drink in his hand, and he handed it to Nulara.
“What?!” And Nulara furiously pushed the hand of the third, and then kicked the other man in the stomach and flipped over and ran to the door.
“Stop, Your Majesty, Nulara, stop! The world will die without you, if you leave now without knowing the truth, the whole world will die! Think of Timnar Tossed, think of Eldith, and what about Valdiramir?”
Nulara opened the door by inertia and saw a room in front of her with constantly disappearing and appearing portals. She was shocked for a moment, but then one of the men slammed the door in front of her and she kicked him in the groin, he screamed, and then she grabbed his neck.
“Who are you?” Nulara tried to gather her thoughts.
“Let him go, Your Majesty,” the man said, “if you kill him, then we will approach a universal catastrophe, and this is not a dramatic turn of speech or a trick–”
“Arngalda is our mother,” the other interrupted him, “this is who we are, we are the sons of your friend!”
Nulara was taken aback.
“Ha!” she cried out.
“It’s true,” the man she was holding by the throat croaked.
“My name is Garsten,” the snunorf said, who stepped back to the table, where the jugs of drinks and food were placed.
“And I’m Randwalt,” said the other man, who was slowly approaching Nulara. “Look at me, look at me carefully. Does my face remind you of anyone?”
Nulara looked into his eyes and decided to let the other man go.
“How is this possible? You really look like her! But there are three of you!” Nulara was in a state of surprise and shock, trying to find a logical explanation for what was happening.
The one she grabbed was rubbing his neck.
“Your Majesty have a strong grip,” he said, “and by the way, my name is Jelfrig.”
“Where shall we begin our story, your majesty?” Randwalt asked a rhetorical question. “We shall tell you a short story. You saw what happened during the birth of our mother, Arngalda. It was us, there were eleven northerners, born at that terrible and tragic time. Now there are three of us left.”
“But how? Is that magic? And why are there three of you left?” Nulara asked.
“The others were... killed, so there are three of us,” Jelfrig replied, and walked over to the table and poured himself something to drink.
“We need to give her time to digest the information,” Randwalt said.
“Brothers, I think we should tell it like it is,” Garsten said and handed Nulara a glass of drink.
“What’s that?” Nulara asked, taking the glass.
“A mixture of herbs, good for the health, Your Majesty,” Garsten replied.
Nulara sniffed the liquid, but did not drink it and put the glass on the chest of drawers, which stood next to her.
“Your Majesty, forgive me for being blunt, but you are not the daughter of Timnar Tossed, you are the daughter of Dombard Krachtvensen!” Garsten said.
“What?!” Nulara blurted out in a daze. She backed away from him against the wall. “No, no, no, that’s a lie! You’re playing a game!” she bumped into the chest of drawers and opened the top drawer. Without taking her eyes off the three brothers, she began to fumble with her hand, but there were only things there.
“Why are you being so blunt?” Randwalt asked Garsten, and then he turned to the queen, “Nulara, Your Majesty, we sons of Arngalda have fallen into some time hole and have now become watchers of time, we call ourselves tisberwakars. We are unable to change the past or the future directly, but there are indirect possibilities –”
“There are almost none,” Garsten interrupted him.
“Let him speak, Garsten!” Jelfrig shouted at him.
“Well,” Randwalt continued, “as babies, we got into a kind of time portal. That’s when you opened the door and you saw the portals in the next room, those are the time portals we’re watching. And so we got as babies into this house that we still don’t know anything about, but if you go through our rooms and open the door, you get to the room where we are now. We don’t know how to get out of this place except through portals. But there is constant daily food, water, used to be baby warm milk and clothes in different sizes and for different ages in this house. We still don’t know who created this place, and whether it’s even a house or something else. When we were newborn, we immediately had a nanny, a woman who–”
“We’ll be loading her mind with superfluous details and unhelpful information all day,” Garsten interrupted him. “So, Nulara, the world is on the brink of destruction. You are the daughter of a ghost created by the ikhagatbers. Everyone who passes through the time portals, except ghosts or other creatures of the ikhagatbears, lose their memory. Yashkirran and those who were with him, for example, went through such a portal, they lost their memory. However, they gained the ability, immunity to greyskuggies attacks... So, the time portals appear spontaneously throughout Ermir. When you see what’s in a portal, it doesn’t mean that it won’t change during your transition. The intervals and the number of portals appearing changed, apparently, with the deaths of our twin brothers. Your goal Nulara, Your Majesty, is to kill Laeltilat, Laylith, Arnwaldskar, daughter of Edelmer Arnwaldskar. Or if you manage to enter the portal and get in time before her conception, then separate, quarrel between Edelmer and Lanialis KelGalanod, and if she is married to the First, then her surname will be GrenRattik. And if you get even earlier, before the creation of Edelmer-argiphone by the ikhagatbers, then you need to find these ancient elders and convince them not to create Edelmer-argiphone. Remember the names of the three key ikhagatbers, Adalfreer, Eickshamweit, Tillehugskar. It is impossible to kill the child of Laylith–”
“Edelmer, that’s Ingerbert’s cousin!” Nulara tried to digest the information, but it was hard for her.
“But you, Your Majesty, when you enter the portal, you may find yourself on another continent of Ermir,” Randwalt interjected. “Time portals are opening all over the planet.”
“Wait, wait! You want me to kill cousin Ingerbert’s daughter?” Nulara asked.
Jelfrig opened the door to the portal room at this moment.
“Ingerbert told you what the ikhagatbears told him. Edelmer-argiphone isn’t his cousin–” Garsten began.
“Oh!” Jelfrig exclaimed. “Right now I see Laylith. She’s crying over the body... It seems that Ellia was killed.”
“Great moment!” Garsten shouted. “Nulara, hurry, please! You’ll save the world! I swear to you!”
Nulara hesitated, but followed him and approached the portal.
“Quick, come in, Your Majesty!” Randwalt shouted.
And Nulara entered the portal... and fell to the sand. When she turned to rise, the tip of her sword was at her nose.
“Who are you fighting for?” Laylith asked.
“For the Larmar Islands and Norvinoria,” Nulara replied.
“What?” Laylith said in surprise, and she put down her sword. Nulara got up.
“Where are we now? In Kaushmanashtoon?” Nulara asked, not giving Laylith time to think.
“Wait, tell me, what’s your name, and how did you end up here?” Laylith asked.
“I am Nulara Tossed, Queen of Norvinoria and the Larmar Islands,” Nulara replied.
“Someone told me about this, that there’s a new queen in Norvinoria. So it’s you?”
“Yes. And I came through the portal,” Nulara replied.
Laylith drew her sword again.
“Portals are made by the Firsts. The Firsts are my enemies!” Laylith said.
“I won’t lie to you, Laylith. Some northerners, who are almost certainly the sons of my friend Arngalda, have told me to kill you, because you would destroy the whole world. But I don’t even know the details and reasons how the world will be destroyed! And I’m not going to on the orders of strangers, even if they are my friend’s children. But you know, Laylith, I suppose they might not be lying. I didn’t look much like my father, Timnar, in appearance. Nor did I look like my uncle. Perhaps I am indeed Dombard’s daughter, especially if–”
“What?!” Laylith assumed a fighting stance. “Are you the daughter of a bastard ghost who is responsible for my mother’s death?!”
“Yes, Laylith, that bastard, and believe me, because of him I lost my Ermir loved ones too. I wanted to kill him, but Gaal beat me to it. Now he’s dead, and I’m glad.”
“He’s dead?!” Laylith had tears in her eyes. Nulara saw doubt, incomprehension, and shock in her.
“Laylith, I won’t hurt you, I promise–”
“You promise, don’t you, Your Majesty?” Laylith quipped, wiping away her tears.
“I see this pain, it is familiar to me, and I’m already tired of experiencing it. I lost Barnis first, he was burned by a dragon. He was my... mentor friend, but he didn’t teach me magic, though he was a great magician, he just replaced my father when Timnar was in charge and busy. Then I and my friend Eldith crossed the Outland Sea and saw the dangling heads of my father, my uncle Morn, his son Ralmer, and many others I knew. After that, Eldith died because of the yadonagrishes. Then there was Lala’s death.” Tears welled up in Nulara’s eyes. “Lala was about ten years old, she had fallen from a karkhash, and I was the one who had put her in the saddle when I was attacked by brigands. Later, in Eileenelia, I met Valdiramir. You’ve probably guessed by now that he’s dead. Ishkmet, Arngalda, Ingerbert, and many other ermirians are dead. This unbearable pain of loss is destroying me! And I want to experience positive feelings, not just pain and hatred.”
“Nice try to pity me, to make me sympathize with you, Nulara, or whatever your real name is?” Laylith smirked.
“Distrust is right, it helps to survive. You can kill me, but I’m not your enemy, and I told the truth,” Nulara replied calmly.
“If you don’t resist, I’ll bind you, and you’ll be a prisoner until your story is confirmed or disproved, all right, Your Majesty?”
“As I said, distrust helps to survive. Arngalda’s sons may be wrong about you. I made the right choice, so I agree,” Nulara said and held out her hands.
“I don’t have a rope yet and you yourself know that magic is not working now,” Laylith said and pointed to the staff with the crystal that lay beside her friend’s dead body.
“Magic doesn’t work?” Nulara wondered.
“Don’t pretend you don’t know anything about ataklantack,” Laylith said with displeasure.
“I really don’t know anything. I don’t even know where we are,” Nulara said frankly.
“Stay here and don’t move,” Laylith demanded.
“All right,” Nulara felt comfortable.
Laylith walked over to the staff, picked it up, and looked at her dead friend.
“Goodbye, Ellia, I’m sorry to leave you here like this,” Laylith said and tears welled up in her eyes again.
“Were you close to her?” Nulara asked.
“None of your business, Your Majesty,” Laylith said. “Go forward.”
Nulara obeyed. She walked ahead; they passed a small forest with sandy soil, then a lake. Then they walked slowly through a vast area strewn with the corpses of dragons and dark-skinned and swarthy ermirians.
“Is this tukhtaashes? What was the battle here?” Nulara asked.
“The battle between the past and the present, between the prejudice and the freedom,” Laylith replied.
“Poetic,” Nulara remarked.
“Look at those corpses, queen, there’s no poetry in this. Hundreds or thousands died because some ruler thought it his duty to follow a tradition of oppression, and someone else decided to rebel against it. If that’s poetry to you, I sympathize with your subjects,” Laylith said.
“Death is always poetry, that’s why ermirians write songs about battles, under the guise of valor, righteousness, honor, but in fact every such song is a mixture of pain, blood, and suffering,” Nulara said.
A black dragon with green and brown lines flew up and landed not far from Nulara and Laylith. The dragon transformed into a tukhtaash man. He was a handsome tukhtaash with stiff long curly hair and big green-brown eyes.
“Frad!” Laylith exclaimed.
“Where is Ellia?” Frad asked and saw Laylith’s sad face. “I’m sorry, I understand it has been a terrible day, and the sorrow of loss will always be stronger than the feeling of joy of our victory. But still, Laylith! We have won! Now the citizens of Taashtar can enjoy their freedom!”
“Taashtar?” Nulara wondered.
“Who is that with you?” Frad, who until then had paid little attention to Nulara, asked.
“The Queen of Norvinoria and the Larmar Islands,” Laylith said and smiled.
“Hmm...” Frad was surprised.
“She’s also my prisoner,” Laylith said. “I’d like to leave her here, and I need to find a portal to Malderfir, Frad,” with these words Laylith handed the staff with the crystal to Frad.
“You wanted to question me, didn’t you?” Nulara wondered.
“Your Majesty, you are not my problem now,” Laylith said and looked at Frad. “Frad, now you’re going to send ships to my continent, right?”
“Yes, we have to tell the military that we are no longer going to attack and take Aalgarbtash–”
“So I’ll sail with them,” Laylith interrupted him.
“I’d like to return to Norvinoria, too,” Nulara said.
“But not with me,” Laylith said.
“How can you ever refute or confirm my story if you have no witnesses? They are all in Norvinoria. If you come and tell anyone that you left the rightful queen of Norvinoria on another continent, you’ll certainly lose your allies!”
“Your Majesty, on behalf of the people of Free Taashtaria,” Frad addressed Nulara, ’I propose an alliance between our states, an alliance of friendship and cooperation and mutual military assistance!”
“Frad?!” Laylith was surprised.
“If she is queen of Norvinoria, she had better come with my men and with you, showing the rest of us that it makes no sense to resume aggressive actions. It is a strong political and military move. Let Queen Nulara sail with you, Laylith–”
“I accept your offer, erm... honored Frad,” Nulara said, smiling.
“All right,” Laylith said grudgingly, “but let Her Majesty be on another ship. And bury Ellia according to isterses customs, please. Her body is beyond the lake in the sandy woods. And if Shattiel is alive, apologize to her for the fact that I’m leaving without saying goodbye like this.”
Frad nodded and Laylith and Nulara headed toward the port.
