Chapter #3: Iliana
Mara awakened in her bed after a night out on the town. Memories of the experience they had through the misty forest were quickly eclipsed by the feeling of Tiye resting next to her, pressed up to her back and an arm draped across her side, his hand pressed against her stomach. It brought back memories from when she was on Earth living as a human. Back then Tiye was known as Vivian and a human female. Neither had any idea for a lot of their childhood how close they had been incarnation after incarnation. There was only one other person that Mara felt so close to.
Mara tried to shift without disturbing Tiye snuggled up behind her. What she got for her efforts was a grunt from the man behind her, “You’re awake,” He said in a sleepy voice.
“Well, it’s morning,” Mara nodded as he unwrapped his hand from her waist and she sat up, “At least I think it’s morning. Hard to tell with the Divine Spectrum in the middle of the city shining light on everything.”
“I mean the light was fading when we went to sleep,” He nodded in response.
“I remember now. The Divine Spectrum never sets, but the closer we are to needing sleep the closer it looks to night for us that need rest.” Mara mentioned as she swung her legs off the bed and rose to her full height, “It is said that even amongst Exarchs, Avalon never appears exactly the same to two people.”
“That’s true, not everyone sees the walls made of granite and crystal,” Tiye nodded as he rose from his side of the bed and grabbed the link crystal disc that Mara had given him earlier, “Some people see silver and gold on everything.”
“Probably from the believes of the Exarchs they followed when they were in the multiverses,” Mara nodded as she walked to the dresser and grabbed a clean set of clothes. As she started to dress, she asked, “What are your plans for the day?”
“I have to go to the academy,” Tiye mentioned as Mara pulled on her shirt and pants. He walked over as he pulled up his own trousers and gave her a kiss on the shoulder, “I got a day off yesterday because Thoth told me that you were done in the healing chamber. But I have to go back today.”
Mara nodded, slightly crestfallen at the news, “So you will be gone all day then. I thought you had tutors?”
“I do, that is on the fifth day. I am sure you will get some tutoring time first before your entrance exams into the Academy. That will make sure you are placed in the appropriate classes,” Tiye replied. He pulled on his shirt and pocketed his link crystal disc, “What are your plans for the day?”
Mara shrugged as she grasped her crystal disc and slid it into her pocket, “Well, I might see if Wepwawet can help me get to a couple of the Heavens in the Exa-Verse today. I have some family from Earth I would like to see.”
“You don’t think they might be in the city in one of the Heaven’s sectors?” Tiye shrugged, “If you teach me how to use more of the link crystals than just contacting people, I might help you with that when I get time.”
“I don’t want to have to wait on you. As soon as I tell Wepwawet who they are, he can guide me there,” Mara answered after a moment, “I know one of them will be in the Exa-Verse. My father, actually. I don’t know where my Maternal Grandparents will be. They could be in the city, but they were country folks when they were alive on Earth. If they made it here, they probably would have gone straight into the Lutheran Celestial Kingdom.”
He gave her a strange look as he followed her up the stairs, “You don’t want to see where your mother ended up?”
“I can tell you my father and my grandparents were true believers. They ended up in the heaven they expected, I’m positive about that. I am not so sure about my mother.” Mara answered as they ascended the stairs to the top floor.
“That’s harsh,” Tiye mentioned, “What makes you say that?”
“Her and I had a lot of conversations when she was alive about the nature of my faith,” Mara mentioned, “Mainly it went ‘you should be Christian because I don’t want you to end up in a different place from me,’ meaning she didn’t want me to end up in hell.”
“Right, but you had memories from your near-death experience on Earth as a child of Avalon. I would say the conversation should have been reversed,” Tiye mentioned as he crossed to the fridge and pulled out a glass of what looked like orange juice. He found a second one and slid it along the counter to her.
“Right, because me seeing Avalon as a kid made me a total cheat,” Mara rolled her blue green eyes in response and chuckled, “I remember what it was like when I told you about what I saw here. I realized I didn’t like shaking people’s faith by seeing Horus, Thoth, and Bastet in my near-death experience.”
“Yeah, but you also said we all go exactly where we expect to go when we die,” Tiye mentioned and took a large swallow of his juice, “And here we are.”
Mara took a drink, “The point remains, if she is so upset about where I would end up, it could be a sign that she joined the Reincarnation cycle instead of ascending.”
“Are you thinking about taking any of the people you are seeing back here and making them Exalted?” Tiye questioned.
Mara shrugged, “I don’t know. I assume if I were to ask, they would have to be part of my clergy, like you.”
Tiye nodded and walked towards the entrance of Mara’s house and opened the door. He stood there and blinked with a somewhat blank look of surprise on his face, “You might want to think about changing your plans.” He spoke.
Mara turned around and asked, “Why?”
Tiye stepped out of the doorway and a human looking female with brown curly hair, pale skin and mismatched eyes stepped through. The blue left eye looked almost identical to the image of the woman she saw before, but the right eye used to be brown, now it was gold. It didn’t matter to Mara, she knew who was at the door right away, she ran to the door and embraced the woman in a tight hug, “Iliana!” Mara squealed in delight, “I was wondering when I would see you!”
Iliana giggled and nodded at Tiye as he patted Mara on the back, “See you two later.” He said and walked out the door.
Mara glanced up at Iliana, “How are things? I heard you left your sarcophagus before I did.”
Iliana nodded, “Things have been great. I got to spend a lot of time with Anubis. I didn’t realize how much I missed him until I was in his arms the first night.” She glanced into Mara’s eyes and smiled, “I’m glad you didn’t spend your time back alone. Well, outside the sarcophagus I mean.”
Mara nodded then caught onto something, “Oh shoot!” She said and released Iliana from her grasp, “Should I be calling you Anput now?”
“Probably in public,” Iliana nodded, “But in private you can call me Iliana or Atropia.”
Mara nodded and smirked, “Sure, give me a choice. But which one will you answer in private? Your Maldeveckian name or your human name?”
“Both,” Iliana replied, “But in private Anubis likes using Atropia.”
“Cool, so I will call you Iliana then,” Mara answered and led Iliana into the kitchen, “Are you thirsty or hungry?”
“I will take some water,” Iliana nodded. Mara grabbed a glass and walked over to the sink and filled it with crystal clear water. She handed it to Iliana and Iliana asked, “What was that Tiye said about you considering a change in plans? What did you have planned initially?”
“You mean plan A or plan B?” Mara questioned in response.
“How about all of the above,” Iliana mentioned, “You never know, we can still do those plans.”
“I don’t think Plan A is still on the table. That was me hanging out with Tiye and letting the wind blow us whichever way we want.” Mara mentioned.
“That’s right I have seen Tiye in school,” Iliana nodded, “That will be one of the places you will need to call me Anput in. No need to confuse people. Unless you make a good group of good friends while you are there.”
“Well, my aim is always to make friends,” Mara nodded in response. She smirked, “This might be just like the year we spent together in middle school back on Earth.”
“Well, I hope there isn’t going to be any sudden relocations between now and then,” Iliana nodded, “What was your plan B?”
Mara grimaced, “You won’t like it.”
“Why do you say that?” Iliana cocked her head in response.
Mara crossed her arms, almost hugging herself as she answered, “We talked about it when we were living on Earth.”
“We talked a lot about what we were going to do when we got back to Avalon,” Iliana cocked her head in confusion, “The only thing I can think of that I didn’t like was—” Iliana’s eyes rolled as she stopped in the middle of her sentence, “You are right, you have fun with that. I aint gonna to be caught dead anywhere near any of the Celestial Heavens.”
“I didn’t say I would go today or drag you along,” Mara shrugged, “That was just my plan B.”
“Got a plan C?” Iliana raised a brow in response.
“Spend time with you. You will probably have something you would like to do and drag me along?” Mara shrugged.
Iliana smirked, “I like that answer.” She walked over to the globe in the living room and ran her hand over it. It sprung to life right away, “Have you learned how to work this yet?”
Mara shook her head, “No I got my crystalarium created yesterday which is what is powering it right now. By the time I was finished I had forgotten the reason why I created it.” She blushed, “Plus, I got a little distracted yesterday.”
Iliana smirked, “The best kind of distraction by the look of it.”
Mara’s blush worsened, “Oh quiet you!”
Iliana giggled and embraced her in a hug, “How about we do something that meets you halfway?” She offered and kissed Mara’s forehead.
“Like what?” Mara cocked her head in response.
“Well, it will teach you how to use some of the more advanced options of the crystal Holarium,” She gestured back toward the crystal ball that was showing random images above it like a holographic display of a television.
Mara walked towards it and noticed what was playing on the Holarium was a TV show, “You tuned it like a TV.”
“That’s partly what it is, it’s like a computer, really. I don’t know why I am telling you this, you should have known it since you were born here,” Iliana shrugged.
“I was very young when the Ennead and Nekomatis left for the universe and took me with them,” Mara mentioned, “The only part of the Holarium I remember was my parents using them. I didn’t have a lot of interest in the things it could show me back then.”
Iliana smirked and swiped her hands in front of the display which seemed to bring up some basic controls, “Fortunately, it allows you to tune into anything,” She said as she started to play with some of the dial like controls, “You can tune into a particular place and time, follow a person, or see future seasons of those TV shows that you liked, even shows that didn’t exist in the universe we came from. Want to watch that Eighth season of your favorite sci-fi show from the 80s and 90s, just tune into the right multiverse. The Crystalariums can intuit what you want to see and place it in the Holarium.”
“Go back a moment,” Mara blinked, “You said we can see anyone and follow them too?”
“I figured that would get your attention,” Iliana nodded with a smirk, “I bet I can guess who, as well. Namely your human twin sister.”
Mara nodded, “I miss Kara, we didn’t get to spend a lot of time together once I managed to get her spirit into her body.” She stated in response.
Iliana didn’t need to hear another word, she manipulated the dials and tuned into a sight familiar to both Iliana and Mara. The sight was that of a house in western Maryland in the middle of a long winter that had stretched for nearly three years now. Even after a couple of days, from Mara’s perspective, in Avalon, she had seemed to forget about the bitter cold of the ice age that quickly took hold of the Earth. The people in that universe called what happened the Dark World era.
Finding the house, Iliana zoomed in and used the Holarium to look through it. She adjusted the dial and by the shade of lights it looked like she was rewinding time to find Mara’s twin. After a moment they saw her walk backwards through the living room. Iliana stopped adjusting the time backwards and highlighted Mara’s twin. She changed the perspective where they saw her face on. Mara didn’t have time to digest all the differences between them before, her form looked more feminine than Mara’s original body but that was understandable because Kara’s body wasn’t surgically mutilated after birth to remove an extra part, a part that made her intersex. Her DNA, like Mara’s, was also receptive to the changed puberty brought on both ends. There was also a big difference in the eyes between Mara and Kara. Mara’s eyes were all blue green, almost turquoise colored. The colors had been separated out in Kara; her left eye was green and right eye was blue. Mara walked forward, “Follow her to her present, please.”
“Technically from our vantage point,” Iliana answered, “Any time we fix on is the present. Since you are an Exarch, and an Exarch of Time at that, you can manipulate time in that universe how you want it.”
“You know what I mean,” Mara sighed, “She was heading somewhere.”
Iliana nodded and adjusted the wheel forward until Kara was at her destination, “This is what you are referring to. Experiences she hasn’t had yet.”
They noticed that Kara was cooking food in the kitchen. Iliana smirked, “You want to smell what she is cooking? Even have some? The Holarium can make food for you.”
Mara shook her head, “No, watching is fine. What is the date, from her perspective?”
Iliana opened a menu and typed in a few commands, “Looks like it is May 25th, 2058-CE there.”
“So, just over a week since we left.” Mara mentioned, “Why did Isis make it out like I had been in the Sarcophagus for a long time?”
“Well time here moves at the pace of the ebbs and flows of magic. Since there is always some sort of magic being used or converted in Avalon, time here does move at a certain pace. But months here could be a day in the universe we came from. When we use a lot of magic, days there could be hours here. I would say at the pace of magic that had been used and converted since we arrived, it was probably something like the average pace.”
Mara pulled out one of the two crystal discs she carried with her and dropped it in Iliana’s hand, “This is for you. We can contact each other wherever we are.”
Iliana took the crystal disc and smiled, “Thank you.” She held up the obsidian disc and asked, “I have my own crystalarium at my own place, do you mind if I integrate this link crystal into mine?”
Mara shook her head, “I don’t mind. I guess it would be a little network of ours.” She smiled.
Iliana nodded and pocketed the disc. She glanced back to the scene of life on Earth for Mara’s twin sister unfolding and asked, “Do you want to talk to her?”
Mara’s eyes lit up, “I can?”
“Yeah,” Iliana nodded and dialed in a few controls, “When you are ready, go ahead and press this button. It will allow you to talk to her. It might sound like you are in her head, from her vantage. Or it might sound like a disembodied voice.”
“Is there a way I can talk to her there? Project myself?” Mara questioned in response.
“It’s your crystalarium. You should be able to use the path of time to cross over. Just remember that you don’t want to stay there for long since you have a construct body now,” Iliana advised.
Mara nodded, “Set it up for me.”
Iliana went back to the controls and typed in a few commands into the holographic grid. After a moment a pad showed up in the middle of the display, “When you are ready, put your hand on the pad. You will be transported there. I assume you have a link crystal of your own?”
Mara took the second disc out of her pocket and held it up, “Right here.”
“Cool, you can use your recall feature to get yourself back here,” Iliana mentioned, “Don’t worry. I configured it where it will use the path of time so no one should know you are gone.”
Mara nodded and slid the disc back into her pocket. She took a deep breath and pressed her hand against the clear holographic panel. A moment later she was standing in the living room of the house that used to belong to her and Iliana when they lived on Earth. She was facing the Crystalarium she had made long ago on Earth. One that when she left, she reprogrammed it to be responsive to her sister.
The smell of freshly cooked bacon and eggs hung in the air. The sound of butter scratching against bread meant that her sister was almost done preparing her meal. Dull gray light streamed through the window, unobscured by the miniblinds which were pulled up most of the way. The sound of a knife scratching against toast meant she only had a few seconds to work her magic here before her sister would surely come through the entranceway from the kitchen to the living room. She waved her hand over each bowl, transforming the crystals into a close representation of her own setup. She snapped her fingers quietly which sent a burst of Nwyfre to the link crystals, transforming them into something similar to her own crystal disc. She couldn’t do a precise transformation before due to the lack of power she had before she unlocked her seals and went back to Avalon.
Work done, she turned around and walked into the kitchen. Kara still had the butter knife in her hand, but she was moving to the sink to rinse off the utensil. Her back was to her sister. Mara smiled and said, “That smells good.”
Kara jumped, startled. The butter knife clanked in the bottom of the sink as she let go of it. She spun around with fear in her mismatched eyes. The fear of someone suddenly in her house was replaced with bewilderment and wonder as she realized her sister was standing in the entryway, “Mara!” She gasped, “You scared the life out of me!”
“I’m sorry. I should have called first,” Mara replied as she held her arms wide, “It must be hard dealing with a sister that can drop in uninvited.”
Kara raced the distance between them and embraced her in a hug, “Not hard at all, sis,” Kara stated as she hugged her sister tightly, “I just never expected to see you again.”
“The short time we had in the pyramid wasn’t enough for me,” Mara replied as she hugged Kara tightly, “I can’t say this will be the last time you see me but most likely I will probably check up on you in a more ethereal sense.”
“Do you still have your human body, or do you have your construct restored?” Kara questioned as she held her sister’s shoulders, “You look exactly like you did when you left, except you have different clothes.”
“It’s a construct body,” Mara mentioned as she led her sister back to her food, “But I can stay long enough for a short conversation. How are you holding up? How is Luna?”
“Luna decided to live with Amber Day,” Kara replied as she grabbed her plate of bacon, eggs, and toast, “If you called ahead, I would have made food for you. You can have this plate and I can make myself more food.” She offered.
Mara shook her head and sat down at the kitchen table, “Don’t worry about it. It’s not like I could have called you over the phone anyway. I would have had to give you some other message and as I am still learning my powers, I wouldn’t have known how to do it. As it was, Iliana had to show me how to get here and get back.”
“I’m glad you and Iliana still have each other. I was concerned that she would be spending all her time with Anubis, and you’d be alone.” Kara mentioned as she grasped her plate and went to the kitchen table.
“She spends time with Anubis too,” Mara mentioned, “But I’m not alone there. You remember Vivian?” She asked.
Kara snacked on a piece of bacon then swallowed what was in her mouth, “She is there too?”
Mara nodded, “She is. I have company a-plenty.” She studied her sister’s face as she added, “It is you I am concerned about. Been getting out much recently?”
Kara shrugged, “Not really. I have been making friends online and in VR. Not really sure what to do with myself. I still have all those gold coins from when you and Kyra hunted together. I was thinking about getting back to that sometime. It’s better than sitting here like a hermit.”
“I might send people your way from time to time,” Mara mentioned, “Don’t worry, I won’t watch you constantly, but you have Exarchs on your side.” She added, “I’m glad that you are looking for a way to get back into the swing of things.”
“Well, that’s the thing,” She mentioned, “These are all friends you made before you left. You seemed to have altered everyone’s memories, so they all think that I was you. The ones I could trust to even ask the question don’t remember you anymore.”
“Yeah, I can manipulate time to do that,” Mara mentioned, “I know I did a lot of things when I crossed over before my body was healed. I wanted to make sure you didn’t have to rebuild your life from scratch. That would be unfair to you.”
“We shared a body for a long time. So, you would know better than anyone that life is unfair and has been unfair to us since the beginning,” Kara commented in response.
“I can make things less unfair,” Mara added, “It might take me some time—”
“Says the Exarch of Time,” Kara chuckled and interrupted.
“That’s true. So, I might have already made things better for you but that is a future version of me doing the work. You never know.”
“I think I would,” Kara answered, “I guess the hardest part of being here right now is getting used to not being in the back of your mind. My head feels so empty now.”
“I am sure you will get used to it,” She mentioned, “You just need some time.”
“Says the Exarch of Time,” Kara mentioned and munched on the piece of bacon they were earlier.
“I wanted to let you know that I love you,” Mara mentioned, “I don’t know how long is too long so I will let you finish your breakfast.”
“How can I reach you if I want to talk to you?” She asked in response as Mara rose to her feet.
“Prayer,” Mara mentioned, “It will reach me in the Exa verse. After all you are one of the few that know my name.”
“Do you go by Imhoteptis in the Exa Verse?” Kara questioned in response.
“No, I still go by Mara,” She smiled, “That is how I know you will be able to reach me if you need. I may not be able to respond right away. You can say I am still in training. But I will get back to you when the time is right.” She said then added, “Until next time.” She took out her link crystal and placed it in her left palm. With her right hand she swiped the air above it and disappeared from her sister’s kitchen and the universe her sister resided in.
