Never Let an Elf Steal Your Heart

Caelyn's hand stopped and steadied Markos's retreat. "Why is she up there?" Caelyn pressed, his tone hostile as he pointed up towards the large stone suspended in the ceiling beyond the illusion. "Why would she cage herself like that?"

"She is acting as the key to the gate." Mara's smile faded as the illusion of the woman settled back into place. "You are too direct, child. I know how you feel and your connection to her." She pointed at the middle of Caelyn's chest. "It is rare to resonant with multiple people. You are blessed and cursed in this way."

"Mara, why are you doing this?" Markos interjected. He felt the conversation would linger too long elsewhere when time was slipping away. Iliana was the key inside a magical door. The idea unsettled him. Doors could be closed and locked just as much as they could be opened.

Mara flicked her claws at them. "I can't leave here but I can open the gateway to see my children, and those that were brought home without their knowledge."

Caelyn's brow furrowed. He'd been seeking the truth for so long and now the opportunity had arrived to get some answered from one of the gods. "It's true then? You were imprisoned in the heart of Jord after the war?"

"Something like that. I can't influence what happens above too much without attracting their attention again. I'm trapped here, and do you realize how tedious that is? Trying to reach people that can no longer understand your words? That only bumble their way forward when they have all the power in their hands?" Mara grumbled. A gust of wind pushed the templars back.

"Who's they? Whose attention are you trying not to attract?" Markos asked this time. Who could a god be afraid of? "Surely not the Church?"

Mara's laughter boomed around them. "No, child. Them. The ones that created my species, and reality. Even we don't know who they are, only what they can do to us. They brought you humans here from elsewhere, manipulated your species memories and left you here for my children to tend to."

"What do you call them?" Caelyn pried, his agitation over the situation growing the longer the conversation carried on. "Brought from where?"

"Assh*les," was Mara's tense reply. "They are my creators and I hate them. You were brought after our experiment in this region failed. We had better success elsewhere, but we couldn't be involved in the lives of the children on the surface."

Markos focused on the impression of the chamber beyond the illusion, the complex tapestry of their surroundings that covered everything into a gridwork of what really was. He searched for Iliana's body, but his only clue was within the tightest weave in the heartstone shape in the ceiling. Mara must've had some intention for luring them out, something more than to chat. Were they next for dinner?

Mara shrugged. "You children were brought from another region. I've spent my entire existence on this side, so I don't know where home was but you're here now. Everything is wrong and I'm trapped until I can fix it."

Caelyn's expression relaxed. "How is it broken?" Mara's thoughts had mirrored what Caelyn had witnessed and imparted to Markos. The Church had disturbed a balance as far as they'd discovered, but Mara was involved with the creation of the Word.

"You're all here to create a new species," Mara stated flatly. "It's frustrating, watching you kill one another when I want to mash you all together like dolls to make little ones."

"Then why make it so the embers kill those they touch?" Caelyn asked, prodding for more information.

"Have you ever wondered why humans can wield the Word? You're not one of my children," Mara countered with a question.

"… you mean to say that we're of mingled blood?" Caelyn frowned. "Somewhere the family lines crossed with elves to make magic users?"

"And embers. You are all compatible. Your Church is the one that tells you it's forbidden and denies the embers the knowledge to control their abilities." Mara glanced up for a moment. "If you all intermingle like your supposed to, the planet will balance out and things will grow like its supposed to again. It was so much work to create it to function one way and then get locked away before I could fix it." She frowned.

"What did you need us for?" Markos asked, he was starting to get the bigger picture. Mara stared at Markos from the side, her gaze heavy and judging.

"I need you to go out and make babies," Mara stated flatly. Both men flushed red.

"What? You dragged us here to tell us that?!" Caelyn's hands clenched into fists.

"No. There's someone tampering with the system and interjecting these were weird protocols to change how things function on the surface. I can't pin where they are. The aphotics respond to power surges for stability but I can't find the interloper. It might be that they are also hiding from the creators." Mara quickly spoke. Markos wasn't sure what the dragon meant by systems, power surges, and protocols. It was too strange. "I can't interfere too much; I can only watch. My voice is a whisper over the network, and most can't understand the language."

More strange concepts. "You need us to find the interloper and stop them?"

Mara nodded. "Yes. I can restore Iliana and remove what limiters you all have before I return you back to the surface to make this easier. You'll need to pretend nothing has changed or else your Church will kill you or the interloper will notice you."

Caelyn stared at the dragon oddly but smiled, slightly relieved. "Iliana won't burn out then?"

Mara shook her head. "No. It'll mark her as special and powerful. You'll need to avoid the Church locking her away - unless you want me to keep her inside the heartstone."

"No," Caelyn and Markos said in unison. Mara smiled again.

"Go back to the heart and think of Iliana to take her from here," she instructed, gesturing to the stone. The darkness fell away like a curtain, revealing the dimly lit cavern once more. Mara stretched her monstrous wings, her true neck long and elegant. If their foe was a demon dragon then she was an angelic one. She ruled over the domain of devoid of life, alone until balance was returned.

Caelyn pulled Markos toward the source of the light in the room, the gigantic heartstone. They hurried to stand beneath the tip of the crystalline structure. Markos looked back at Mara who was watching them with ageless golden eyes. "Why did you put the others in the pot?"

Mara's mouth opened revealing large sword sized teeth in a dragon form of a grin. "Even I must eat."