Mara hid behind a tree filled with golden leaves, having appeared in some orchard. She was using her divine power of Illusions to conceal herself, making her invisible to outsiders. When she activated the system’s Keeper Compass, she found that it was firmly pointing in a single direction, far off into space.
Normally, she would have returned right away to report this to Kruz and the others, but she had been given specific orders to wait ten minutes unless her life was in danger. By now, only two minutes had passed.
Mara saw the door of the nearby house opening, an elven woman walking out in a green dress while humming to herself. Mara’s fists clenched at her side, wanting to pull her gaze away from the woman who was walking over to the various trees and plucking golden fruits. On some level, she knew that this woman was an enemy. She knew that, after the Keeper of this world fell, she would likely be part of those fighting back against the guild to avenge him.
But still, she couldn’t bring herself to inflict harm on the innocent goddess. Mara was not a violent person. If anything, she was incredibly timid. She had been accepted into the guild not because of her personality, but because of her abilities. Unless the other party struck first, she never wished to enter a battle. Sometimes, Mara herself questioned how she had managed to get this level of power, but she had a hard time thinking back that far.
She hasn’t done anything wrong… Mara thought to herself, leaning against the tree. As she did, the woman seemed to tilt her head. She glanced over towards Mara in confusion.
“Is someone there?” She asked, beginning to walk over. Mara’s eyes went wide, shocked that someone seemed to have discovered her presence. Should she fight? No, that would draw attention, and she hadn’t been given any orders to fight any local gods. More importantly…
She doesn’t look mean. Mara gulped, taking the risk of disabling her illusion ability. If this woman was able to sense her through her ability, then it would only increase suspicion if she didn’t appear.
“Oh, hello there.” The woman said, crouching down to be at eye level with Mara. She had a smile on her face as she spoke to the invading goddess. “I haven’t seen you around before. Are you looking for anything in particular?”
“N-No miss, I’m just exploring.” Though Mara said that, she was preparing at any moment to recite the chant and return to the mortal world. If she felt any sign of hostility at all, she was ready to flee.
“Oh?” The woman looked at her in surprise, glancing from side to side. With a playful smile, she held out her hand. A golden fruit dropped down from the tree Mara had been leaning against, landing in her hand. “Here, you can have this. Consider it a present for our first meeting.”
Mara’s eyes went wide at the golden fruit. She could feel the divinity contained within, and couldn’t take her eyes off of it. “What… what does it do?”
The woman seemed surprised at the question, before her eyes became softer. “This is my golden apple. If you eat it, you can restore some of your divine energy over time. Awesome, right?”
Mara slowly nodded her head, reaching out to accept the apple and holding it against her chest. “Thank you…” She muttered softly, a small smile forming on her face. She’s really nice…
“What’s your name, little one?” The woman asked, reaching out to stroke a hand through Mara’s hair, making her close her eyes in happiness.
“I’m… Mara. I’m a god of… Illusions, Transformation, and Trickery.”
“Trickery, huh?” The woman smiled playfully, lightly poking Mara on the nose. Her eyes blinked open, going cross to look at the woman’s finger. “You don’t seem like the type. My name’s Julia, by the way. Julia Hart.”
Mara shook her head, refocusing on Julia’s face. “R-Right. Well… it was a pleasure to meet you, Miss Hart–”
“Julia.” She corrected, shaking one finger at Mara.
“Julia…” Mara nodded briefly, cheeks flushing. “It was a pleasure meeting you, Julia… but I need to get going. My friends are waiting for me.” There was a tinge of sadness flashing by Mara’s face as she thought about returning. Julia truly seemed like a nice person, and the thought of having to fight her later pained Mara.
Julia saw the brief change in her expression, blinking her eyes and placing a hand on Mara’s shoulder. “Do you need help with anything?” She asked with a warm tone. Mara was caught off guard by the question., quickly shaking her head.
“N-No, I’m fine, really.” She held the apple close to her chest. After a moment, she seemed to make a decision. “There’s… something I’d like to give you. To thank you for the apple.”
Julia tilted her head, Mara holding one hand out. A golden coin condensed in her palm, Julia reaching out and taking it gently. “Oh? And what’s this?”
“It’s my… Coin of Many Faces.” She said, her head lowered shyly. “If you flip the coin while thinking of someone, and infuse a bit of divine power into it, it will turn you into that person. The change is based on the information you have on them, though… so you can’t turn into someone with just their name. And… it teaches you how they would react to different circumstances, based on what you know. You’ll just have a sort of feeling about what they would do.”
Julia’s eyes went wide, looking down at the coin. “That’s amazing, Mara. That’s worth way more than a single apple… would it be alright if I give you a few more?”
Mara’s smile grew wider at the question. “I’d like that, Julia.” In truth, she wanted to give the apples to her friends. Maybe they’d decide to give her special treatment after the battle if they knew how helpful she was?
Julia nodded her head, pulling four more apples from her basket and handing them to Mara. “I guess this coin must be why you have the Trickery domain, huh?” She asked with a chuckle, though Mara gave a somewhat saddened look. “Uhm… I’m sorry, did I say something wrong?”
“No, it’s just…” Mara bit her lip, deciding to be at least somewhat honest with Julia. “I don’t really know if this is the real me. I’ve used that coin so many times to become different people. I don’t know if the original me was Mara, or someone else anymore. I know… I think I’ve been Mara for at least a few years now, but my faces just blurred together over time. So please… don’t overuse the coin. I think I’ve fixed that problem, but I don’t want to risk you losing your sense of identity like I might have, okay?”
Julia’s eyes went wide, clutching the coin and nodding her head. “I’ll be careful, Mara.” She promised, giving Mara’s shoulder a gentle squeeze. “Now, you said you have some friends waiting for you?”
“Huh? Oh, right…” Mara nodded, putting the five apples in her inventory. Thankfully, this world had an inventory system as well, so the action was well rehearsed for her. “I… wish to return to the mortal realm.”
Golden mist wrapped around Mara’s body, and she gave one last look at Julia before she vanished. When she reappeared, she was back in that same alley that she had left from. Kruz and the others were waiting with their arms crossed. Just as she was about to reach for her inventory to take out the apples again, Lana’s voice rang out in her mind. You’re late. What made you take so long while we were waiting in this trash heap of a world.
Mira’s hand twitched, stopping just as she was opening her inventory. I-I’m sorry. There were other people around, so I had to find somewhere safe to leave.
It would have been faster just to kill them, with your strength. Lana snorted mentally, though Kruz shot her a look.
We don’t want to arouse suspicion before we find the Keeper. Save the bloodlust for after that. He scolded, causing Lana to look away briefly. Afterwards, he turned his gaze back to Mara. So, what did the compass say?
Mara gulped, knowing that this was one fact she couldn’t hide from them. He’s… in the same realm. But it’s in the distant stars, not on the same planet. We’ll need Klaus to send us when we get to that realm.
Kruz let out a sigh of relief, nodding his head. Good, now we have a starting point. From what Lana has been saying, the world of the gods is in the same realm as the planet known as Earth. Lana, pass the message along to everyone and have them meet up on Earth. I guess we just got unlucky with our gate timing.
Lana nodded her head in agreement, though Mara had her head lowered. She had already decided not to give them the apples that Julia gave her. Instead, she simply thought to herself. That’s right… if they knew about someone able to make these, they’d want to capture and exploit her. I don’t want that to happen. I’m sorry…
Aurivy’s fists clenched as she watched the scene displayed in the air. To help the others keep up with what was going on, I was using my illusions to project what I was seeing with my World Sight. Golden mist was circulating around Aurivy’s feet, clearly prepared to jump to Julia’s aid if Mara had shown even the slightest sign of wanting to fight.
However, when she heard Mara talk about herself, Aurivy’s face had tensed up for an entirely different reason. “Why do you have to make me feel bad for an invader… Dale, is that coin what she said it is?”
My gaze flicked to the coin in Julia’s hand, focusing intently on it. After a moment, I nodded my head. “There aren’t any traps. It’s a replicated divine artifact. She probably has the original on herself.”
Alena bit her lip, watching the scene with sad eyes. “Keeper… may I ask a favor?”
“What is it?” I knew that I had a soft spot for Alena, due to her being the incarnation of Irena. If there was something that I could do for her, I’d happily comply.
“If we get the chance to do so without arousing suspicion, can we bring Mara here? I’d like to talk with her before the battle, if possible. Watching her expressions and how she is behaving, I think that there is a chance we can bring her to our side. At the very least, I think it would be cruel not to try.”
I furrowed my brow, taking a deep breath. “We’d be asking her to abandon her home, and all of her friends.”
“I’ve seen that face before, Keeper.” Alena interjected. “That’s the face of someone who doesn’t have a home. I don’t know the exact details, obviously, but… I think there is a chance. At the very least, we lose nothing. If she refuses, and reveals our location, it will only bring the battle closer. If she attacks us, Lady Aurivy can send her back before she can do any true damage to us.”
I gave a long sigh, nodding my head. “If the opportunity presents itself, I’ll do what I can.”
