Weeks had passed, and the heavy silence of Dacus the Sleeper's manor became the place where Ioh sank into thoughts. Night after night, with his gaze fixed and lost on the page where he had translated the riddle,
With his fingers clutching the yellowed paper, he spoke again and again the same words:
"Three gates you will pass to break the chains…" — slowly, beyond the silence, the answer rose: three trials… three steps that must be taken to shatter the chains of sleep.
"Ancient shadows will test your soul…" — he whispered, understanding that the answer lay hidden in the past, a past he had to know and understand;
"First, find the book born from the ashes of ancient healers – only it holds the words that wove the sleep of stone." – it was connected to the first challenge, most likely an old book.
"Then, awaken the seal that sleeps deep – for only with its power can you weaken the chains" – the second challenge, "But what is this seal? Where should I look for it?" – Ioh asked himself, seeking an answer.
"But hurry…" — he repeated to himself like a grim echo, understanding that time was the most merciless enemy.
Ioh tried with all his might to understand the riddle, but he was missing some key information. At the same time, Nira was also thinking of another solution, feeling that there was little time left; in nine months, sixteen years would have passed since Dacus had been imprisoned in the orb.
Hours turned into days. Days into months. And so, half a year passed since Ioh, together with the twins, stayed at the manor of Dacus the Sleeper; time passed, the little ones grew, and Nira grew ever more desperate. The scout still had not returned with any information.
One gray morning, on the fourth day of the week, in the distance, a trail of dust cut the horizon. The woman lifted her gaze, sensing a faint hope. The moment became heavy, and the scout's steps drew closer. Paleș arrived and fell to his knees, his eyes sad as rain clouds:
— "Lady Nira… I come with sad news again… The twins who bore the Seal of the Titans have disappeared. For almost two years, nothing has been heard of them. I crossed inns and taverns, valleys and hills, but nothing… They say they were kidnapped by a hunter… no one knows more."
The woman lowered her heavy head, her gaze emptied, and his steps toward the manor were heavy, as if each moment held him back. From the window of his room, Ioh saw her. He saw in her eyes a dull pain, a helplessness that made him clench his fists.
In the hunter's soul, the riddle gave him no peace; his nature told him to unravel this mystery as soon as possible.
Determined, the hunter wrapped the twins in his cloak, then strapped his sword to his back, set his hat firmly on his brow, and step by step descended the stairs, ready to speak with Nira and ask about the riddle… and about the truth hidden behind Dacus the Sleeper.
Luc and Nicolai were already almost two years old. They understood words, even began to grasp the meaning of simple phrases. Slowly, they crawled across the cold floors, something Ioh was not at all used to. He didn't quite know how to care for children, but with clumsy steps and a full heart, he managed to guide them on the right path.
Soon after settling in Dacus the Sleeper's manor, the fragile babbles of the twins turned into attempts to speak words: "Iioooo…hhhhh", "Ioooo…h." Fragile fragments of a name… a name the little ones wished to say: Ioh. To them, he had become more than a protector. He was a father, even if no blood bound them – the man who guarded their sleep and steps.
Then came the first braver movements. They no longer wanted to be swaddled too much, seeking with their gaze and their bodies the presence of Ioh. Nicolai, the braver, spoke the first word and took the first step, while Luc, though clumsier, followed him with wide, shining eyes. Thus, slowly and without hurry, the twins grew… and in the hunter's heart grew a feeling he hadn't known he could have.
Nira stepped into the room. At the heavy oak table, Ioh waited, his back straight and his gaze cold, like a drawn blade. The woman saw him, and with a feigned voice, trying to hide her pain, she spoke:
— "I see you wish to talk… I've felt for a while that you carry a question."
— "Yes, I want you to tell me everything. I want to hear the whole story, Nira. You saw Dacus trapped in the orb." — replied Ioh, not accepting a refusal.
Nira sighed deeply, then sat at the table, and with a careful gaze on Ioh, she said:
— "Then let's begin…"
In a low but clear voice, the woman began to reveal the old secret of hers and the story of Dacus the Sleeper:
"I am Nira, a woman who received the gift of understanding and the power to see into the future; I have lived for several good decades, like a few other rare beings who still wander these lands. I am an old acquaintance of the Guild of the Falcons. Alongside me in this area lived seven scouts, and of the last three scouts sent out, only one returned, Paleș, the scout with the bear pelt.
Lord Dacus… is the last survivor of an ancient clan of guardians from Western Transylvania. For nearly sixteen years, Dacus has lain in a deep sleep, a hibernation into which he was placed by his own father, Get. In three months, those sixteen years will be complete. This place, the manor, is no ordinary place. It is the secret bastion of the Guild of the Falcons, known only to them. A guild of guardians who for centuries were forced to serve the Great Vampire Vlah, the ruthless king of the western part of Transylvania.
By the ancient law of the vampires given by Vlah himself, every human family had to offer as tribute a child of sixteen years, once every five years. And, as fate would have it, it came time for Dacus' family to pay the imposed price… But Get, his father, refused to pay and chose to defy the king's command."
Nira bowed her forehead to the floor, her voice choked in memories:
"Dacus, the young man with an iron heart, wanted to go willingly. He offered his life so that the Guild might flourish. But Get could not lose him. With a trick, he deceived his son, brought him here… and, with his last strength, sealed him in that ancient orb, leaving behind a riddle; only solving the riddle could break the chains that keep him trapped in eternal sleep. His father asked only this of me: to be the guardian of this place. To protect it from vampiric thirst and from strange and evil eyes. I promised I would protect the young man and find the answer to the riddle."
The woman lifted her eyes to Ioh, her gaze shadowed by guilt:
"But the truth… the truth is that, for a long time, the shadows of the dead haunted him. I felt them… I saw them. But I had no courage to tell anyone. Get returned to Vlah, trying to make him renounce that cruel law. But the king refused mercilessly. He ordered that every member of the Guild of the Falcons be killed, by his most feared executioners – the Sons of Darkness."
Nira sighed, and her voice softened, carrying an old pain:
"You know… I watched over Dacus all these years. Since he was just a baby, Get often brought him here, to the manor… to calm him, hoping he would never lose him. I watched him sleep, dream, his face bearing the peace of childhood."
Her eyes now shone, shadowed by bitterness:
"Why do I want to save him? Because he is only a child… a child who never got to truly be a child. To know he is now trapped, prisoner in an enchanted sleep, gnaws at me inside…"
The woman drew in a deep breath, as if the weight of the words pressed upon her:
"And thus was born the story of Dacus the Sleeper… a child hidden from death, locked in the heart of a riddle."
Ioh now saw, between the woman's words, some clear answers that had slipped through his fingers until then. Luc and Nicolai, fascinated by the story, murmured softly, mangling the syllables of a name they didn't fully understand:
— "Daacusss…"
Ioh felt the weight of responsibility on his shoulders, and the twins, with their speech and innocence, pushed him further. Knowing that only three months remained, the hunter, alongside Nira, began to tie the threads of the riddle and wrote on paper each verse of the riddle. Ioh read aloud, clearly:
"Three gates you will pass to break the chains,
Ancient shadows will test your soul."
— "Clearly… I must pass three trials," — said Ioh, convinced.
The woman nodded silently.
The first trial appears in the second stanza, Nira said in a firm voice:
"First, find the book born from the ashes of ancient healers – only it holds the words that wove the sleep of stone."
— "It's about a book… but what kind of book?" — Ioh asked, slightly puzzled.
— "The book from which the incantation was spoken that sealed Dacus," — Nira answered, who understood at once.
— "And where is this book now?"
— "In the eastern wing of the library of the Church of Saint Corvin, in southern Moldova, near the border with Wallachia. After the Great Pact, the book was restored and hidden by Catholic priests. And it is guarded by the Seraphim of Silence, an assault troop sent by the Pope himself…"
Nira spoke the last words with a shadow of fear in her voice, but Ioh smiled calmly:
— "Don't worry. I will go after it. Not only the Seraphim of Silence have influence over the Catholic Church."
He noted the third stanza:
"Then, awaken the seal that sleeps deep – for only with its power can you weaken the chains."
— "For this trial…" — the woman began, in a low voice, — "we need someone with an ancient, powerful seal that can break the curse. But through the scouts' paths… none were found… The only ones said to bear such a seal were some twins… but they were kidnapped by a hunter."
Ioh lowered his gaze, lost for a moment in memory, then lifted it, smiling:
— "The twins are here, right beside us. Luc and Nicolai. And I am the hunter who saved them, not the one who stole them. Ronan the Blind told me they bear the Seal of the Titans."
— "You know…" she whispered, her voice softening. "You really have deciphered it…"
— "Yes. It was right under my nose. But I needed your voice to see clearly; sometimes you must take a step back to see the full picture."
— "True…" — Nira sighed, — "I always felt these two children hid something… The shadow of their future was always unseen to me."
— "God…," she breathed, with a mix of joy, "this means we still have our chance."
Ioh noted the last stanza:
"But hurry, for when the shadow of years will count the sixteenth hour, only then will the sleep not be a tomb."
— "It's about time," — he said. — "We have only until the sixteen years since Dacus was imprisoned."
Thus, the answers of the riddle connected, and in the silence of the room, the first threads of hope took shape. The woman could no longer hold back:
— "After so many years of shadows and waiting… Dacus may awaken," she said, her voice cracking with an emotion she hadn't felt in a long time.
Ioh stepped closer, his fists clenched. His shadow stretched on the wall, monstrous, devouring the light.
— "Now we know how to wake him." he said, looking out the window where the full moon shone.
Nira took out an old, yellowed map, and showed him the route: from the manor, through Wallachia and to southern Moldova, where the Church of Saint Corvin lay. On the map, the three great nations separated by a frontier traced in blood: Transylvania, Moldova, and Wallachia — but Wallachia itself broken in two: West and East.
Ioh calculated quickly: the journey would take him nearly five days if he rode without rest.
— "Before sunrise I will leave. Prepare me a horse… the fastest you have," — said Ioh urgently.
— "So I shall," — Nira answered at once.
In the silence of the night, Ioh brought the twins to their room, laid them in their crib, and softly whispered:
— "I must leave for a short time… to recover a book, to save another child, as innocent as you. I need your help when I return. Please… wait for me."
Luc and Nicolai burst into tears; just the word "without you" troubled him to his very core. Ioh set again the small round bead to protect them, and after it began to pulse, he stepped away; Luc and Nicolai began to calm and waved to him, babbling:
— "Ioh… hhh…"
When dawn began to color the sky, the woman awaited him in the courtyard, her gaze pale with unspoken thoughts. Beside her, the black, powerful horse, its armor gleaming cold in the pale light — a living shadow ready to cross the lands.
Ioh mounted, pulled his cloak around his shoulders, and his eyes rested for a moment on the trembling line of the horizon. No word of farewell.
Without looking back, he set out… and behind him, the wind seemed to whisper a forgotten warning:
"Not only answers await him on his path… and…"