In her dream, Lucia found herself by a crystal blue ocean. The beach was misty, warm, and bright and the white powder sand slipped between her bare toes. There were three longships out at sea and the wind puffed up the red and white striped sails. She turned toward land, and in the near distance she saw several longhouses on the green hillside.
Turning toward the beach again, she noticed a woman in white gliding toward her. At first, she wanted to flee, but when she saw that the woman looked like an older version of her, her heart leapt in her bosom. Could it be? She took a hesitant step forward, and then she gasped.
“Mother! Mother!” She ran toward Maud as fast as her legs could carry her and she did not stop until she had leapt into her arms. Maud looked beautiful, radiant and healthy, and she squeezed Lucia tight and stroked her hair the way she used to when she was alive. “Mother,” she cried. “How I have missed you! I thought I would never see you again. I was so worried I…” She could not speak any more words—her throat had swollen shut with emotion— and all she knew was that she was in the arms of a being of pure light and love. They stood there for some time just holding each other as Lucia soaked up everything she had so desperately missed, as she began to remember what it felt like to feel safe and whole again.
“I have missed you, too, Lucia. But there is little time. Now, walk with me.” She took Lucia’s arm in hers. “You are not just the soon-to-be queen, my love. You were born at the end of Midgard as we know it. You were created to help bring to pass many important things.”
“Father explained some things to me, but—”
“There is another with whom you must be reunited, one who you cannot do without. I cannot tell you who that person is now, for Eiess will surely know if I tell you. Seek this person out and by the grace of the heavens, together you will conquer Eiess.”
Maud started to slowly fade away before Lucia’s eyes. Her face and hands were vanishing, blending with the misty air, disappearing into nothingness.
Her chest ached. “Mother, do not go. Please, stay. I will do anything, anything you want to have you stay. Please, Mother, please!” She tried to grasp her mother’s vanishing hand.
“Remember what I have told you and you will understand who you are. You will be tempted to betray your family, Lucia.” Now Maud was barely visible, and as the force of the wind increased, Maud’s voice was whisked away with it.
She was alone again. Tears brimmed in her eyes. “Mother!” she gasped, crossing her arms in front of her chest, embracing her shattered heart. All the days and nights of hurt, of despair and fear, came down on her all at once, and it felt as if her mother had died all over again. She fell to the sand on hands and knees, and as she collapsed to her side, she rolled up into a ball, weeping.
Suddenly, she heard a loud crackling sound. Startled, she lifted her head and saw that fire had erupted on the sea’s surface. The violent flames licked the blues, and as they approached the shore, threatening to ignite the sand, she retreated backwards on elbows and feet.
“Lucia,” someone shouted in the distance. “Lucia,” the voice said, summoning her again, this time with more force.
She squinted her eyes, and in the sea of fire, she saw a woman walking toward her. The flames did not take to the woman’s black dress, nor did she seem to be harmed by the scorching flames. By the way she held herself and the way she dressed, it made her think the woman was of noble birth. The bottom half of her face was covered with a black veil, so only her green eyes were visible. When the woman reached the sand, she floated toward Lucia.
“Come, follow me,” she said in a deep voice.
Lucia felt an invisible force grab hold of her, lifting her off the sand, and pulling her toward the woman. As they glided down the shore, the sky grew darker and darker, turning black from the smoke. The clouds started churning in the heavens and swallowed the light from the day into itself.
“Where are we going?” Lucia asked.
“Just follow me,” the woman answered.
“Who are you?” she dug further.
“Why, I am your destroyer. Do you not remember me?” she sneered sarcastically.
She felt a surge of fear grip every part of her being.
The woman turned around. “This is my reign,” she said. Without warning, she ripped the veil off her face and flung it into the flames that now surrounded them. She was a beautiful woman, young-looking at first glance, but with hateful, old eyes. “Tell me what your mother said!”
“My mother?” she asked. She would never divulge what her mother said to her. “My mother is dead.”
“Tell me the truth about what your mother said, or you will never see your father again!” she yelled.
Lucia wrestled with the force which held her captive, trying to run away, but bound like a thrall to her master, she could not move at all.
“You will fail! You will die! I can take your life away in a heartbeat, just as I did in your lifetimes before!”
“Leave me be!” she demanded.
The woman started laughing. “You will never escape me, do you not see? I am the destroyer—your destroyer!” She waved her hand toward the flames, and Lucia was flung into the sea of fire.
7
Mare Demons