"Remember that, from the conduct of each one, depends the destiny of all."

Alexander the great.

In the small building, which shone in various colors, Eduarda waited sitting on a simple chair and nothing in the Universe could take the girl out of that place. Her eyes, swollen and red, were loaded with sadness, apathetic, showing the fatigue of a long vigil, but no tears because there were none left to shed. She had spent days crying and now only emptiness remained.

She got up and approached the balcony, contemplating the waterfall that she could almost touch with her hands. That world was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen in her dreams, even before meeting her groom, but now everything had a very different connotation and she could not appreciate anything, no beauty; nothing could console her. She remained so absorbed in her thoughts or perhaps just in her pain that she only realized the visitor when she touched her shoulder.

She turned to see a beautiful and delicate girl, with hair as black as coal and eyes of great sweetness. The young woman was accompanied by Valdo and both had a look of concern for the witch.

"Eduarda, exhaustion will not help you at all," she said, speaking with candor and in Portuguese with a slight accent. "Go rest and I'll keep watch."

"I can't, Caroline," she replied, trembling. "I know I need to, but I can't. I don't even know what to do with my life without him."

Valdo took a step forward and hugged her.

"Calm down, Dudinha, don't rush." He squeezed her more and continued. "I know it's bad, but you need to rest. You haven't slept for five days!"

"I don't want to rest," she said, almost crying again, even after deciding that enough of tears. "I just—"

A voice, just a murmur, interrupted what the girl was going to say and maybe no one would ever know what it would be, not even her:

"Eduarda, my beloved, I swear I thought I would never see or hear you again and that was what made me sad above all."

"Igor!" Her scream echoed throughout the place, as she threw herself into his arms, sometimes crying sometimes laughing. "You bastard, you almost killed me with sadness and despair."

"Did you think I was going to leave you that easy?" He smiled, hugging her, still very weak. "Did you forget that I need to fulfill a certain promise and I never break them?"

Caroline appeared in his angle of vision and he extended his hand, touching her. As he felt the contact with the friend he loved so much, Igor said:

"I'm sorry for what I let happen, Carol." He pulled her until she also hugged him and continued. "I should never have let you go without me to protect you. I cried a lot for your death, but I notice that we managed to reverse everything."

With tears in her eyes, the English sorceress kissed his dearest childhood friend.

"It wasn't your fault, Igor, and if it weren't for you, we would still be trapped in that horrible nightmare."

"And my parents?" he asked, anxious. "Did they make it?"

"They are all safe. All the wizards survived." Caroline reassured him. "Your parents went to sleep a few hours ago because they were exhausted from the wait."

"What wait?" the young man asked, curious. "Come on, how long was I unconscious?"

"My love," Eduarda said, without letting him go. "You were dead, dead as a doornail, but the dragons brought you back. Only they were only four and not twelve, which would be necessary to heal you. That's why you were in a coma for ten days and they feared it could be irreversible."

"Wow." Igor widened his eyes. "That's why I feel so weak!"

"I'll get some food for you," Caroline said, leaving the room.

Igor closed his eyes for a few seconds, while Eduarda snuggled on his shoulder, lying down beside him.

"It's over, my princess," he said, finally. When he got no answer he opened his eyes and turned his face to his fiancee, seeing that she was asleep.

Called by Valdo, the parents appeared and still had the air of concern, but very relieved. When he saw them, the young man smiled, happy.

"I imagine it was complicated," the father said, winking. He pointed to the sleeping daughter-in-law and continued. "There is no doubt that you have very good taste, son."

"Yeah, dad, I think you need to learn some things that you lost in this period." Igor laughed. "This is Eduarda and you can start by getting used to her, because she is the one I intend to live with. I missed you a lot."

"We already had the pleasure of talking to her, sonny," the mother said, smiling. "I hope you are very happy. But, after all, are you married or not?"

"It's all a matter of perspective, mom." Igor laughed, feeling very happy. "But it will be resolved very soon. Anyway, we already lived together."

― ☼ ―

The large amphitheater filled up gradually as all the wizards and sorceresses obeyed the call that announced the extraordinary and open meeting with the guardians, who were the last to arrive. It was a place that reminded a little of the ancient Greek theaters with mixes of other peoples and a nuance of its own. In front, where the pulpit was for the case in question or where the stage was, there was a huge acoustic shell. Then, forming a half moon of more than fifty meters in radius, the walls rose in the style of the coliseum, whose top was irregular with the idea of unfinished and, in decline until near the stage, there were very comfortable seats, where more than sixty thousand people fit. The design of the acoustics of the place was so perfect that, from any point of the large amphitheater, everything that was said was heard perfectly. In a city where almost everything was built of crystal, that place made a huge contrast for being of stone and marble. With the return of the friendship of the dragons, several of them perched to watch the meeting, curious.

When the guardians entered solemnly, most of them carrying their staffs in their hands, there was total silence. One of them was none other than Ezequiel, who revealed himself to everyone for the first time.

They, by their prerogatives, sat in front. As soon as they settled in, Igor appeared out of nowhere right in the middle of the podium. The attendees stood up and bowed to him. Then, they clapped for their savior.

"Dear brothers and sisters," he began. "I feel very happy to be here today before you and see that, despite all the misfortune that happened to us, we had no casualties."

Igor had to make a gesture to the audience, asking for silence again. Obeyed immediately, he continued.

"However, I convened the extraordinary meeting because I have a serious debt with this society. I failed as Supreme Guardian and I am not worthy of governing the Crystal World. It was by my exclusive fault that this catastrophe happened and I ask for your forgiveness with all humility. Therefore, I came to this council to put my position at your disposal, in case you wish to choose a new sovereign."

The silence that followed was embarrassing. This type of meeting, in general, would be behind closed doors only with the council, but Igor chose otherwise, since he thought he should apologize in public.

Caroline, as a guardian of the portals although she was not from the governing council, was the first to react and stood up:

"Why do you think you failed with our society, Magnificent, if it was Your Magnificence who saved us?"

"Because I allowed it to happen—"

"Progress," interrupted Ezequiel, standing up and making a big mistake, but ignoring it completely, as was his nature, "is inevitable both in the mundane world and here. If it weren't now, it would be in a hundred years, for so it was written, Magnificent. It was your dedication, even giving up your own life for the good of the whole, that brought our society back. I do not support your departure.

"Neither do I," insisted Caroline, standing up again. "If anyone is guilty, that someone is me. Remember, Magnificent, that I participated in all the research and nothing indicated any danger, never a portal brought danger before that."

Sergey also stood up and, as a former supreme guardian, went up to the pulpit, standing next to Igor, a right that belonged to any guardian who wore the white cape.

"I chosed Igor Montenegro as supreme guardian and it was not a mere coincidence. As Ezequiel said, our master and friend, progress could not be contained and His Magnificence was the suitable element to prevent a possible catastrophe. On the other hand, Ezequiel spent the last thousand years preparing all the new supreme guardians who were elected for the fact that would occur unequivocally, unless we wanted to destroy our society. All of us, Great Guardians, knew that this would happen and we put our lives in the hands of the Goddess, confident in the information of the older brother. However, we did not know who and when, except at the moment when I passed my position to our savior of two eras. I am sure that everyone will agree with me that, without him, we would not be here, because it was His Magnificence who defeated the warlocks in the past and freed our people, also showing the Crystal World to one of the founders of the Citadel. Since time immemorial, this story has been kept under lock and key, only read by the magnificents when elected, but I made it public on the day of our return and it is already on the computers for anyone who wants to study it. As I said, we would not be here if it were otherwise and, therefore, I ask the council to manifest itself with the green or red light in order to resolve this once and for all, but I want you to remember to whom we owe our lives twice."

He fell silent and returned to his place. The guardians of the council stood up and raised their staffs that began to shine; the glow that would determine the future of that world. Igor looked at those men and women raising their staffs, seeing things happening very slowly, and realized for the first time that he liked that position and would like to remain so. A cascade of green light gushed upwards and he was relieved, smiling at everyone. The other wizards, very satisfied with the results, also raised their staffs and launched green fires to the sky, applauding standing. From above, forty dragons made the air flicker with the intense jets of flames thrown, forming a dome of fire that covered the green arches of the staffs like a roof of pure fire around the amphitheater.

― ☼ ―

Igor and Eduarda were hugging on the balcony of their apartment, enjoying the rainbow that the sunset made on the nearest waterfall.

"So, angel," he asked, "are you really going to like living here?"

"Are you kidding," she laughed, "this place is dreamy, magical, special. Literally! And I thought that your talk at the university was something of a promising fiction writer!"

"At that time, I thought I would never return here," the groom commented. "But now that everything is back to normal and the council decided that I will continue as Supreme Guardian, we will spend a few years here, maybe many."

"And would you give this up for me?" she asked, laughing.

"Do you have any doubt?" Igor joined the laughter. "I'll do it now, if you want. I just have to resign and—"

"Stop it," she said, amused. "After all, where else would I be a first lady of a whole planet?"

"True, sweetie, every coin has two sides. And then, what do you want to do now?"

"Well," Eduarda turned her face to him. "To start with, we can go back to our interrupted talk with my abduction, which was our immediate marriage."

"Wow, my love, we are already married," Igor questioned, pretending to be surprised, "at least that's what everyone said on Earth, even your parents!"

"No way," she retorted, indignant. "I was dominated by that infamous demon and it's not fair. I want this to be undone somehow and I want to have my real wedding and with the man I chose to live with me."

"I think it's easier," Igor wrapped his waist and kissed her, "we get married here in the Citadel in the Celtic style. The godparents can be the same, since Valdinho already knows everything and you, carefully, tell to Valéria."

"And remember our baby."

"Well, we can arrange that whenever you want." The groom laughed and kissed her again.

"Great. You're going to start training tonight." She gave a laugh of happiness. "After all, I'm still very needy."

― ☼ ―

Levi and Fátima entered the apartment of their daughter and son-in-law, smiling.

"Well, my children," said her mother. "We need to go back to Porto Alegre and we will hitch a ride with the Montenegro to learn how to use the planar capsules in practice.

"Good idea, mom." Eduarda kissed her parents. "When will we see each other again?"

"Soon, kids. Everything is new to us and we have to adapt to two different lives. Ezequiel arranged an assistant to help us. He said it was at your request, Igor."

"Well, since I'm the chief, I think I can give a hand to my dear in-laws, especially after all the mess I made for them," said the young man "don't you think?"

"Thank you, Igor. I'm very happy to have been wrong about you because I always liked you very much."

Igor hugged his mother-in-law. Then he extended his hand to Levi, smiling.

"I await you for the Beltane fires. We want to have a new wedding, since I wasn't present at the first one."

As he was moving away, he turned again to his father-in-law and extended his hand. In the middle of the way, Levi noticed that he presented a respectable pile of printed papers that appeared out of nowhere.

"What is this?" asked the father-in-law, taking them, curious.

"The research we were doing, I had already finished it a long time ago, but I couldn't deliver it without exposing my disguise. Samuel caused a great loss, but here is all of it with some additional gifts. Enjoy, Levi."

"Thank you," he said, happy. "By the way, congratulations on your father. Few scientists have his credentials. I hadn't correlated the names until I met him in person."

― ☼ ―