Bai floated down to eye level with Marci. He could see a lifetime's exhaustion in her face. Slowly, he rolled his hands one over the other, as though showing a child how to wash theirs. Golden light spilled between his palms, growing brighter with every motion.
"Marci," he said softly, "you've lived in a world that sits atop another."
He stopped moving his hands. In his right palm shimmered a miniature city of shining towers — people made of light walking its streets. In his left, another city took form, one of stone, timber, and creatures unlike any Marci had ever imagined.
Her eyes widened. It was like listening to a grandfather's bedtime story made real.
"We are Draíochta," Bai continued. "Our two worlds were once one. Magic ruled all that was."
As he spoke, the golden illusion deepened, colors bleeding through the light until it swallowed the room. Marci no longer saw Bai, or the cabin — only the vision.
---
The Beginning — Before the Great Divide
Marci found herself in another world, watching yet unable to touch it. It felt like standing inside someone else's dream — everything vivid, yet unreachable.
Familiar, yet alien creatures moved through vast kingdoms of coral, wood, and stone. Cities pulsed with life, and for ages there was peace among the Animal Kingdoms.
Until one night, in the desert realm of the Komodo Dragons.
The Komodo King's daughter — a cruel princess with amber eyes and a smile like a knife — fell gravely ill. The day before her illness, she had raided the Marsh Kingdom, indulging in new depths of cruelty. She devoured her victims whole, leaving one survivor from each family as a witness to her horror. When she tired of slaughter, she would maim them, ensuring their suffering would last.
Desperate, the Frog King of the Marsh had raised an army to defend his people. But when he faced the Princess, she laughed — a dark, chilling sound that echoed through the swamp. His soldiers trembled, their courage slipping away. The Frog King pleaded for mercy, and she answered with joy. Her rampage left the field soaked in blood. When the Frog King finally lay defeated, staked to the earth, she disappeared into the night.
He thought she had gone. Then came her footsteps, heavy and slow. She returned with his daughter in her claws.
Marci could feel the Frog King's despair as though it were her own. The Komodo Princess tore the young frog's skin away, piece by piece, devouring her alive while the King screamed. His tears fell like rain as he cursed her name — and his curse carried power. For he and his daughter bore poison in their very flesh.
That night, the Princess began to die.
---
The Komodo King prayed to the heavens, calling on Mother and Father — the twin deities of Creation and Death.
When they appeared, the air itself bowed.
Mother stood radiant, her skin dark and glowing, hair of molten gold spilling down her shoulders. Her presence warmed the world.
Father was her mirror — a pale figure cloaked in shadow, his hands like carved ivory, his face hidden within his hood. Where she was warmth, he was silence and the cold of graves.
Marci felt her heart race. Even as an observer, she could feel their power. When Father's hidden gaze swept across the room, it felt like he saw her too. Her breath caught in her throat as his thin hand lifted slightly toward her before turning back to the dying Princess.
The Komodo King fell to his knees before them.
"Please," he begged, "save her. I have already lost her mother — don't take my daughter too."
Mother's face softened. "My heart breaks for you," she said, her voice like the first light of dawn. "But I cannot alter fate. My gift is life, not death."
The King's sorrow curdled into rage. He turned to Father.
"Then you will save her!" he roared, lunging forward — and froze mid-stride, held in place by an unseen force. Only his eyes could move, wild with fury.
Father tilted his hood. "I see no room in her heart for anything but hate," he said, his voice echoing like wind through a crypt. "I will not spare her."
The King spat in defiance; the spittle passed through Father like smoke.
"Actions have consequences," Father whispered, and again his unseen gaze flickered toward Marci, as though he knew she was watching.
Mother stepped closer. "It is not too late for you," she told the King gently. "Change your ways, and the rewards of life — and after — may still reach your daughter."
The King's fury erupted. He struck Mother across the face. She staggered but did not retaliate — until his teeth sank into her arm. Her golden blood filled his mouth, power burning through him like fire.
With a flick of her hand, Mother hurled him across the chamber. He hit the floor and lay bound by invisible chains.
"I am not a vengeful creator," she said, her voice steady though tears shone in her eyes. "But know this: kingdoms rise and fall at our whim, and you live at that same whim."
With a single motion, she healed her wound and vanished.
The Komodo King lay trembling in her fading light — poisoned now not by venom, but by his own hunger.