- Catacombs of Bhashera, LVL 3 -

Amara

HP: 5/15

GLANCE: 0/40

When she woke, she tasted blood, ash, and the hard stone she was lying on.

She propped herself up and leaned against what she assumed to be a wall - the sensation at her bare back of hot and sticky, but she paid it no heed. She slumped against it, looking off into distant nothingness, pleading for her eyes to just close.

-mara-

The Voice was distant. Faded. But it was there. And she knew that, this time, it was not trying to force her to listen. It was like the gentle pat of a mother's arm on her daughter's shoulder, letting her know she was there. That was all.

She sniffed once and conjured a tiny ball of flamelight in her hand. It did little to illuminate her surroundings. But that wasn't what she was after.

"Hi, mom," she said to the flame.

Amara, the voice answered. I'm here.

She closed her eyes. Looked like her mother was going to simply try and move past her concerns. She couldn't be surprised. She was selfish to think her mother would be anything that she really wanted. After all, she'd been the wife of her father, hadn't she? She must've known what he was.

So when she said this next, she almost collapsed from shock.

I'm sorry.

She must've known her daughter didn't believe her. Because she said it again.

I'm sorry. Then, after a pause: I have not tried to understand you as a real mother should. I have housed my hopes in you, as a mother who's life was nothing but a failure places her greatest hopes in her daughter. I have pushed you to reach such heights that I could never reach in life. But I have done so due to my own hubris. I did not stop to consider your own mind, Amara. For that, I am sorry.

She turned her face away from the flame. She would not let it see her bubbling emotion.

"Why did you save me?" she asked. It was easier to stay furious than to allow her mother's words to seep into her heart. "Just so you could have your revenge on father? On the world? Just so you could watch me suffer, too? Do you really hate me that much?"

She kept going even when she knew she'd said too much. She cursed her own childishness. She, who had been forced to grow up past her years, still maintained that ability to hit her parental figure below-the-belt with words that had bite.

But her mother's response was not cold, or rejected. She felt her caress her braids like the little ball in her hand itself grew smooth, ember-coiled fingers and stroked her.

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No Amara, her mother said. I love you. I have always loved you.

She sniffled as she turned back to the fire, believing beyond all belief that she could see her mother's kindly eyes stare back at her.

You were conceived because of my love, dear. I wanted you - not your father. He was too absorbed in his leering over little girls in town. His seed was what I needed, not him. He was nothing but a tool to be used, and then discarded. Yet, it was he who told of my gift to the priests, and consigned me to this prison. I am only sorry I perished before I could take you away. I came when I could - once my body was nothing but rotted ash within the Everloft. I came for you, my daughter of light, but I came too late. I couldn't save you from what he did.

Amara watched her mother's exposed grief - guilt she didn't even know, couldn't even know ever existed.

"...At least you came," she whispered. "You came when I needed you."

She hugged the little ball of fire to her chest, letting her tears drop into the orange core of the flame and dissolve away into nothing.

And I will stay, my love. I will stay as long as you want me to.

She nodded her head, her misery forgotten. So absorbed was she in her private moment with her mother that she did not see the eyes that had lighted upon her, or hear the crunching of stone beneath paws.

"I will find you", she said, her declaration conjuring up her final reserves of dwindling power. "I'll find you here, mom. I won't let you be alone, anymore."

Then heed my lesson now, dear, her mother whispered within her heart. And I shall tell you the reason for all you have been through, and how you can finally reach me. Your destiny is here, Amara, and those you have watched die around you have done so to serve you. Isolation is not your destiny, dear. People shall be your tools just as well as my fire that burns within you is.

Amara drew back and looked into the fireball, still not hearing the movement out there, in the shadows.

"Tools?" she asked.

Tools. Implements. Methods to secure your advance. Just like your father was to me. Think on this: without your father your power would never have woken in you, without the cat's death you would never have met the dog-man, and without him you would never have made it here.

She drew back with a gasp. She understood now.

It was all a plan.

Right, my love. Fate spins along as it should - as I see it. You shall continue down your path, and a warrior shall come. A warrior born of the light, leading a rogue who walks in shadow. They shall be your guides. You shall be their charge.

Once again, her breath ran through her, energizing her, and restoring her lost confidence.

"But I'm still alone now", she said to the dark.

And then, just as she had countless times before, her mother chuckled with the telepathic playfulness.

My love, she said. You're never alone. Don't you see your first tools are already here before you?

She stood to attention when the first howls emanated from the surrounding shadows. On impulse she tossed her firelight into the dark, watching the sphere blaze through the air and land in the room's center.

Then, she saw them.

Bipedal, hunchbacked, covered in dun hair and with snouts that snorted gruff breaths into the cold air. Three of them - each carrying a different spiked flail at their sides, garbed in the same simple leather hauberks.

She did nothing but stare blankly at their beady, animal eyes.

Then they bowed as one, and howled into the air again.

"We have found you!" one of them barked.

"As it was written in the sands, as it was foretold," droned another.

Then the oldest among the pack stepped forward on its hind legs, and Amara saw why she recognized the creatures: they were the same hyena-like beings she had seen represented in the hieroglyphics and frescoes carved into the temple's corridors and chambers. And now here they were, standing right in front of her.

The elder bowed and clasped his claw to his chest.

"We have waited long for this day. But we held out hope that you would come. And our faith has been rewarded."

She heard her mother chuckle in her mind as she stepped back, unable to even form words.

Good tools, no?

"Hail, the Lightbringer!" the elder screamed.

His men followed his lead, belting out their supplication:

"Hail, the Lightbringer!"

Amara double blinked, watching them scream and howl like they were baying, mindless jackals.

"Light...bringer?"