Iris was nestled between two large redwood roots, sitting on the ground and leaning against the trunk of the tree. Her chest and throat hurt with every breath, and her wrists were growing sore from the remains of the broken cuffs that still clung to either wrist. Her eyes were deeply bloodshot, and her hair was a tangled mess. She was without her sword, and had lost one of her hats as well, but kept reminding herself to just be glad she still had Littletooth and that she was even still alive.

There was no way to reach the Gaping Maw on her own, she would have to wait until the schooners arrived at the docks in the morning. In the meantime, the Underbelly was anything but a safe place for her to be with the lingering threat of the Fish Wizard and what she imagined must be his vengeful wrath. For the same reason, she stayed clear of the lake or other water sources, having no desire to encounter him near his home turf. The city proper was also out of the question, as she imagined no small chance of encountering more shadowy followers of Morose if she returned so soon. There was, of course, always the possibility that either of these threats would come looking for her in the forest, but for now this was the best plan she had.

She wasn't sure why she was still crying. The pain was bad, but she had been through much worse. The threat of losing Littletooth, and maybe even Abby in the process, had thoroughly destroyed her nerves, but that threat had at least subsided for the moment. There were concerning questions about Abby and the void swirling around the back of her mind that she would want answers to soon, but they were far from the most pressing issues at the moment. Then there was Milo, and how thoroughly she had fucked things up with him.

Her head hit the trunk of the tree a little too hard as she tossed it back in frustration and regret as she whispered to herself, "you're a fucking idiot, Iris."

That was the reason she was crying, it was obvious now. The guilt of being a fool -- of making mistake after mistake that were all so clear in hindsight, yet she kept failing to avoid. She knew she had no right to have made it this far, to have survived so many times when the odds were in favor of her death -- to have fucked up so many things and keep getting away with it. For the first time in her life, she considered that maybe she would have been better off if she had stayed trapped in her village as a regular nobody. What was the point of being an adventurer if she was so bad at it?

She thumped her head back against the tree multiple times as she chastised herself aloud, "grow the fuck up, Iris."

"You shouldn't be so hard on yourself," a familiar voice spoke, "I've always thought growing up was overrated."

Iris's eyes shot open, and pain shot through her body as she moved too quickly in an attempt to stand. She clutched her chest where her ribs had been cracked, winced in agony and slumped back against the tree. With an involuntary groan, she forced open her eyes and looked at her visitor. It was her mother, clad in silver robes and wielding a tall wizard's staff with a pearlescent orb at the top.

"Mom?" Iris asked in a daze.

The woman laughed, "I'm afraid not, I have a feeling you're a long way from your mother right now. My name is Mary Orion, it's nice to finally meet you, Iris."

"You--" Iris faltered as she inspected the woman more closely. Her features were softer and rounder than Iris remembered, and the skin was smooth on her left brow where there had always been a scar. Iris remembered it vividly, as her mother had made up a different fantastical story to explain it each time a young Iris had asked how she got it. She had guessed the reason for the discrepancies by now, but still needed to hear it out loud, "what year is it?"

"For you? I'm not sure," Mary said, "maybe you should stop hitting your head on that tree, I think you've been through enough tonight."

"No, what year is it for you?"

"971."

It was year 997. This wasn't her mother -- not yet -- but it was woman would become her mother one day. The last journal entry Iris had read from her mother was from the year 969, placing this version of her mom two years later, but still eight years before Iris would be born. A pit of mourning grew in her stomach that her mother wasn’t truly still alive, but she ignored it in favor of the joy of having a chance to speak to her again at all – no matter the details.

"Did you ever make it to the Veiled Catacombs?" Iris croaked, her voice cracking from the damage to her throat.

"So you've been reading my journal entries, after all," Mary laughed again, and shook her head absently as she recalled old memories, "Wow, that feels like so long ago now. But yeah, I did. "

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"What happened? What's your quest about anyway? I want to know everything--"

Mary smiled apologetically, "if you don't know yet, it means you don't have those pages yet, and you'll never catch me spoiling the end of a good book."

Iris smiled back weakly, those were the same words her mother always said when she would ask how a storybook ends before it was over. She nodded in acceptance, "why are you here? Why now?"

She shrugged and laughed, "I wish I knew, I don't get to control these things though. I just kind of show up places and react to what's happening."

"I know the feeling," Iris said, wincing a little as she laughed.

"Oh!" Mary almost shouted, "here, let me get that."

With a proud smile and exaggerated flourish, Mary reached down with the wizard staff and tapped Iris on the shoulder with the orb. Healing energy rushed throughout her body, and the pain of her injuries dulled. The sensations were astronomically more gentle than Titus's healing magic.

"I just got the Thread of Life," Mary beamed proudly, "I wouldn't move yet, if I were you. It'll take about ten minutes for everything to reverse."

"Reverse?" Iris asked.

"Yep. That little ability is called Reverse Injury. It isolates the parts of your body that are damaged and reverses them through time until it's like they never happened."

"That's so cool," Iris replied, "that's how threads of Time and Life combine? What else can you do? Can you make people age in reverse? Is that why you look so young?"

"Hey!" Mary replied in mock offense, "I'm pretty sure I'm older than you, thank you. And no-- that's the only Life ability I've gotten so far, other than the evolved Special Ability that's allowing me to be here this long in the first place."

"Oh! Tell me how that one works!"

Mary chuckled and shook her head, "I'm afraid there's not enough time for that. I can linger much longer than I could before, but our time is still running short."

"You can't leave!" Iris shouted a little too loudly, "I've waited so long to talk to you!"

Mary crouched in front of her and smiled apologetically, "this won't be the last time we speak, I promise. For now, though, I have a gift for you -- speaking of gifts, how's that walking stick serving you?"

"It's already saved my life more times than I can count," Iris said.

"Good, I'm glad it's getting good use. Here," Mary pulled out a necklace and held it by the chain as she dropped the locket to dangle below her hand, "I've been dabbling in enchantment recently, and something tells me this will come in handy."

Iris slowly reached out for the necklace, accepting it as her mother gently lowered it into her hand.

"Once a year, you can use this locket to revert time by ten minutes."

"Whoa," Iris whispered as she stared at the locket in wonder.

"It only has three uses," Mary said as she rose to her feet, "and you have to leave it out in the moonlight on the winter solstice to recharge it. With any luck, though, it'll come in handy when you need it most."

"I wish I had this sooner, I have a habit of making bad decisions," Iris said quietly, averting her eyes.

"Let me guess, you've been sitting here beating yourself up because you made a few mistakes and think you're the worst adventurer there's ever been?"

"Yeah, basically," Iris admitted.

"Who's the best adventurer you know? Don't ask questions, just answer."

"Eli, easily," Iris replied, "he's the leader of my party, and he always knows what to do."

"He's a fuck up."

"What?" Iris was taken aback.

"Yeah, he's a fuck up. Guaranteed, he's constantly making mistakes. That's the trick, everyone, everywhere, all the time, is always fucking up. There's always a better way that every single thing could have been done, and people who think they're actually getting stuff right? They're just fuck ups who don't know any better yet. " Mary pointed an accusing finger at Iris, "and you have the audacity to blame yourself for doing the same thing that everyone else is doing. You think you're special enough that you shouldn't be allowed to fuck up, that you should be perfect or not be anything at all. Am I barking up the right tree?"

"Y-yeah," Iris said, not even sure what emotions she should feel.

Mary offered a gentle smile, "I thought so. You remind me a lot of myself. That speech isn't mine, I stole it from a friend of mine. He gave it to me when I needed to hear it most -- when I was sitting alone in the dark hating myself just like you are now. And you know what he told me next?"

"What?"

"Get over yourself, kid. We've got shit to do."

The tension broke when Iris burst into laughter. Mary joined in with a laugh that sounded just the same, and for a moment as the laughter faded, they shared the same smile.

Mary grew somber as the wind blew, turning her head as if looking at something Iris couldn't see, "there are dark days on the horizon, Iris, for you and me both. You’ll need to get a lot stronger to handle what’s coming. We’re just small cogs in a much larger machine, but we have our roles to play.”

“What do you mean? What’s going to happen?”

“That’s all I can say for now. It's time for me to go."

"Wait!" Iris shouted, grunting as she climbed to climb to her feet.

"You shouldn't move--" Mary's words were cut short by Iris slamming into her and wrapping her in a tight hug. She was caught off guard by the hug, but smiled and hesitantly returned it.

"I'll miss you," Iris whispered through tears.

Mary smirked curiously as she withdrew from the hug, "you're a weird one, Iris."

Iris noticed she could now see through her mother's body as if it were translucent, not unlike Victoria's spectral form but without the wisps of magic around the edges. She was rapidly fading away, and Iris quickly guessed they only had seconds left.

"It’s Iris Orion," Iris smiled, "my mother named me Iris Orion."

Mary's eyes went wide, "wait--"

She was gone.