"My father, King Máfortion, had faith, and for four days, he was sure I would return," said Erunestian, sitting upright. "But a week pass with no news of me. He began to worry. I'm his only son, the heir of Erymannen.

He took two loyal guards with him and traveled to Xenea's palace. There, he was received by her and her sirens. But he behaved irreverently, the queen did not appreciate.

He said: 'We offer you our food and treasures in these times of hunger. Was it for nothing, guardians of the sea?'

'Stop your complaints, man of the water. You know I cannot interfere with the fate of mortals, no matter your gifts,' Xenea replied.

'At least tell me where my son is.'

'I respect our agreement, for your son is safe. I give you no further explanations,' she replied.

'It was all for nothing!' he protested. 'It seems that there is no agreement between us.'

The queen gave no answer. She simply laughed maliciously and suddenly vanished.

My father and his guards were left alone in the dark in the stone palace. Their travel was in vain. He foresaw difficult times approaching and could do nothing, just pray to the gods for help."

Mateo raised an eyebrow. "The same gods that will get mad if the sea people start a war?"

"So why would the sea people start a war?" asked Isabel.

"Is it too complicated to explain, Eru? Don't worry," said Helena. "Tell us from the beginning." 

"In the beginning there was nothing," Erunestian continued with a smirk on his face, "Erukönnem, the creator, was born from nothingness (Nemrlig) and time (Kön)."

"Oh... that's the very beginning," said Helena, wide-eyed.

"Prepare, auntie Isa, this is gonna take a while..." Mateo crossed his arms, grinning.

Erukönnem is everything. When he thought of light, light came into being, and with it, its opposite: darkness. The world always seeks balance.

From his thoughts, two pairs of twins were born: Atragtinem and Etreietinem from light, and Erglütinem and Ardentinem from darkness.

Atragtinem grew jealous when he saw them dancing around the newborn earth. He descended from the sky, stood in between them and challenged the god of the blue skin. 

Etreietinem screamed and cried, but even her voice could not calm the rage of the male gods.

They started fighting. When their bodies clashed, hot steam billowed into the air. Etreietinem's cold skin caused the steam to condense, and so it rained without cease—for centuries.

Lightning struck the skies and the valleys and rivers Ardentinem had shaped filled with water. 

Eventually, Atragtinem prevailed. He returned to the heavens and forbade his sister from descending again into Erglütinem’s realm.

Yet Etreietinem found ways to sneak past his gaze, to visit her beloved.

Erglütinem’s domain was the vast ocean, endless and deep. There he composed the music of the waters, singing day and night to his radiant Etreietinem. When he looks at her, the waters ripple. When she reaches down, the sea freezes and the sky glows with color.

Together they had many children, the suruglüienan, or water spirits. Xenea and her sirens are among them.

Meanwhile Atragtinem, who forbade their love, secretly yearned for Ardentinem. He watched her from above, her lands covered in green, her majestic mountains, her plants and beasts.

Longing consumed him. He descended to Earth and begged for her affection, but she rejected him coldly and hid in the mountains.

Atragtinem returned to the sky and did as she asked.

And so, two weddings were held.

Atragtinem and Ardentinem had children too: the suruardennan, forest spirits and suruatragienan, fire spirits.

The children of the Tinei were tasked with protecting their parents'creations, but they did not possess the power of creation themselves, only the children of Erukönnem do. Us, humans and Mannen are children of Erukönnem and thus, we have free will and the ability to create. 

By the time humanity was born, four more Tinei had come into being: the guardians of souls—Iridtinem, and Igrudtinem, the Shepherd of Souls, and the Mistress of Destiny—and the guardians of the sky—Sonnatinem, and Maintinem, the Sun, and the Moon.

In the first era, Mannen and Ardennen lived together and they would not have differentiated each other from their appearance. They stayed close to the Tinei, delighting in their songs and teachings. But men were curious, and they soon began to explore further away from the gods. 

When they discovered darkness they felt fear. A strange sensation began to stirring in their hearts. Something watched them from the shadows and started calling their names with a sweet voice: 

"I am Amchuis. Who are you?" 

The terrified men did not respond. That creature was unlike anything they had ever seen. Its long, scaled body slithered through the shadows. Its head resembled that of an eel, with a mouth full with sharp fangs. It had claws like those of a seal, and feathered wings like those of a bird. 

Amchuis stayed close and spoke kindly, until the men trusted him. 

"I know you are afraid, and I have the knowledge you need." 

The men finally agreed, and to pass on his wisdom, Amchuis bit each of them. In this way, he acquired information about them. They returned home carrying Amchuis's venom in their bodies. They lived on without suspicion, but soon, the small community of the first men became chaotic. They had grown greedy and jealous of each other. They began to fight over food, over power—over anything. Their ambition grew so big that taking the lives of their peers had become an option. 

The horrified Tinei saw how the men had turned into something worse than beasts. 

Igrudtinem, the guardian of destiny, knows the past, the present and the future. She warned the other Tinei about the creature that was lurking in the shadows, one that would bring great calamities to the world. To prevent Amchuis from roaming freely, Sonnatinem and Maintinem placed their two great lights at opposite ends of the world: the warm, golden light in the East, and the cold, silver light in the West, illuminating the world perpetually.

This marked the end of the first era. With the rise of the sun, the second era began.

The men had strayed away from the gods. They had tasted the flesh of living creatures to calm their hunger, they had covered their hands in the blood of their brothers and separated into different clans that would rage war against each other with the smallest provocation. 

Amchuis was furious, he could no longer wander on Earth as he pleased. He slithered into the shadows, digging deep tunnels beneath the earth to build his lair. There he hid for centuries, and brooded resentment against the Tinei. 

"Those Tinei wield such power, yet all they ever do is obey Eru," Amchuis thought. "Men, on the other hand, do as they please. If they stopped following the Tinei and stood by my side, we could build a free world!" 

He waited patiently in the dark, always watching the skies. In time, he discovered that once a month, Maintinem retreated to rest, leaving the earth in complete darkness. And so, on one of those moonless nights, Amchuis changed his appearance to that of a man, and approached the human settlements. He walked among them, spoke to them, and gained their trust again. Then he began teaching: he showed them how to dig deep into the earth until they found rocks that shone like the skin of their gods. He showed them how to break them with their strength, and how to melt them with fire to obtain metal. 

Each time the moon vanished, he returned, offering new knowledge. Among his gifts was also animal husbandry and agriculture. The men rejoiced. They awaited his return with growing eagerness. 

Their progress quickened, and their populations thrived. But the precious metals they had extracted from the earth fed their ambition. Now they were building and hoarding, not for need, but for pride. So, Amchuis took advantage of their aspirations, and challenged them to build a tower so high it would pierce the skies. The men agreed, feeling that there was nothing they could not achieve. 

Over the years the tower rose higher, until it truly grazed the clouds. But this magnificent feat came at the high cost of human lives, vast amounts of gold, and the destruction of entire mountains, which they had mined for materials. 

Suddenly the domains of the guardian of souls, Iridtinem, were flooded with the spirits of dead men. Alarmed, he went to talk with his wife, Igrudtinem. "I cannot tell you the future, Irid." She said. "But do as I say: Warn Arden that men destroyed her mountain, tell Erglü that the waters are poisoned, and inform Atrag, Etreie, Sonna, and Main that men's ambition now reaches their dwelling." 

Iridtinem rushed out of the underworld to carry her warning. The Tinei descended to the earth and discovered the tower. Beneath it, the humans celebrated singing, feasting, and dancing wildly. 

At the summit, Amchuis revealed his true form. His long wings unfurled, and his skin, gleaming with fish-like scales, shimmered under the stars. He raked the sky with a single claw and struck down the moon. Then, with a roar, he plunged into the earth, seizing two handfuls of people before vanishing into the darkness.

The moon fell. The ground trembled and cracked. When Ardentinem saw the ravaged land, she screamed in agony. The once mighty tower crumbled into ruin and half of humanity perished in the catastrophe. 

Furious, Maintinem and Etreietinem took to the skies in pursuit, freezing the earth as they went. They would not stop until they found the demon, guilty of shattering the white light of the night. 

Atragtinem, consumed by wrath, rained fire upon the land. To him, the men were accomplices in the betrayal. 

The survivors tried fleeing into the oceans to seek refuge from the rain of fire. But Erglütinem stood blocking their path. 

"Repent from the depth of your hearts! And I shall cleanse you with the waters of all the seas, so you may be pure in the eyes of Erukönnem. This is my gift to you, children of eternity. You have but one chance." He proclaimed. 

The men fell to their knees, weeping. 

"Take us with you, great lord! Let the waters of the seas we so love cleanse us forever. Save us from the cold of the earth, the fire of the sky, and the poison of Amchuis. We want no part of the golden rocks that bring hatred in our hearts. We wish to change our lives. And in your domain, we shall live under your law, filled with the infinite virtue of Eru." 

Erglütinem gathered them in his arms and descended into the sea. He transformed their legs into tails, turned their skin gray, gave them webbed hands for swimming, strengthened their lungs, enlarged their eyes, and stripped away their hair—along with anything else that was useless for life underwater. These were the first Mannen, the sea people.

Blessed with Erglütinem's forgiveness, they were cleansed of their past sins and purified of their greed. They thrived in his domain, always obedient and kind, taking only what they needed and never fighting among themselves. For they remembered well what had befallen the great tower, all because of ambition. 

Meanwhile, Iridtinem returned to his realm, deep beneath the ocean, where no light can reach. It was filled with the souls of all the fallen humans. He and his wife exchanged a solemn glance, then began to purify the souls—one by one.

In Iridtinem's domain, souls go to rest for centuries. Their memory is erased and their names forgotten. Igrudtinem then decides in which body that person shall be reborn. 

The Earth was covered in ice for two hundred years, as Etreietinem and Maintinem searched. At last, they discovered Amchuis’ lair. They tore down the entrance and ventured into endless dark corridors, crawling with corrupted, vile creatures.

At the end of the tunnels stood an opulent hall, where Amchuis lay atop a mountain of gold. He looked up with his gleaming eyes, stunned.

“Vile creature!” cried Etreietinem.

“Cowardly eel!” shouted Maintinem. “Behold the disaster your absurd ambitions have wrought. You shall be punished!”

Etreietinem soared after him in fury. Just as she was about to catch him by the tail, Amchuis twisted midair and spat again. But at that very moment, Atragtinem descended from the sky and shielded his sister. He was unharmed, for poison cannot wound the Tinem of heavenly fire.

He lunged at Amchuis and seized him by the neck. The creature twisted violently, thrashing with such force that he threw Atragtinem to the ground below. The crash thundered across the land.

Amchuis pounced, jaws wide open, aiming for his throat. Atragtinem held him off, gripping his mouth as sharp fangs pierced his fingers. The beast flailed, and Atragtinem trembled, pushed to the edge of his strength.

“Now, Etreie!” he shouted. “I cannot hold him much longer!”

Etreietinem quickly forged a long net of ice. She swung it through the air and hurled it at the dragon. The net wrapped around his wings, and in his struggle, Amchuis became more entangled until he could no longer move.

Then she dragged him to the highest mountain and stood upon his head.

“You will never speak again,” she declared. “Demon unworthy of your own existence. Your venomous words have spread far enough. This shall be your prison and your punishment for poisoning the souls of Erukönnem’s children.”