After Fate Fell

15 • ELLA

1 year, 3 months, and 13 days after it all
•ELLA•

I can't even fathom what I'm hearing. How can this be? We defeated the Mogadorians, the alien race who destroyed our home planet and killed everyone we had ever known, the ones who tried to do the same thing to Earth. So how is this possible? Who, or what, would do this? I had so many questions in my mind before I came here, and now, none of them even seem important in the slightest.

"Wh.......mm......how?" I stumble over the question, unsure of how to speak or what to ask.

"Lorien itself does not even understand this, young one. I'm afraid I won't be able to help you with this one. There's only one thing that can be said... this needs to be stopped, Ella. By you. You will need the others too. Strength in numbers is Lorien's only chance to rise again. And you are the one who has to bring the Loric back together. You must Ella. For Lorien."

I feel hot tears streaming down my face. Why can't this ever end? Why can't we just all live happily ever after? But instead, there's this. There's always something trying to bring Lorien down. But that will never happen again. We are going to stop this. And then we are going home.

"But how will I find Sam? Adam? And Five? And how do I even know where to start?" I ask, unsure of literally everything other than the fact that whatever or whoever is behind this needs to be stopped before Legacy's energy is completely depleted.

"That's the only thing I am strong enough to help with," Legacy tells me.

The blue energy she emits from the well starts to form an image, it's a map of Earth.

"Sam is here," she says, and a dot marks a point on the map. It's somewhere in southern China, probably only a hundred or so miles from where we were in India near the Bhutan border.

"Adam is here," a dot appears in central Albania.

"And Five is here," a dot appears in Mexico, it looks like near Mexico City.

Well, it looks like I'll have to go find him first.

"You should be able to use telepathy to communicate with each of them as needed. I know your powers may be weakened, but you must use all of your strength. The fate of Lorien depends on it," Legacy tells me, almost pleading with me.

"I understand," I tell her, my gaze toward the ground.

And I do. I do understand. Lorien depends on it.

"How will I find the source of this decay, this evil?" I ask, leaning over to peer into the well.

"I don't have enough strength to give you the exact location of the source, but I'm feeling the strongest sense of weakness somewhere in western Africa, along the coast, definitely.  There's waves there, cold water. And sand. Lots of sand. More than on a normal beach. And almost no people live there. I can't feel anything else, I'm so sorry. But I know you can find it. And I know you can destroy whatever the cause of this is."

And so I will.

"Thank you Legacy," I turn, thinking about lying down to rest before the sun rises, but then I remember to ask something.

"Legacy?" I start.

"Dreams, I have so many dreams, almost all of them bad, visions, nightmares, deaths... how can I rid my mind of these?" I ask, my mind straying, and I try to keep the vision of Chicago out of my mind.

"Ella. This legacy was given to you as a gift. It is a connection to Lorien which all people on Lorien had only dreamt of. A connection of the mind, the soul, and the body. And even though I know that the visions are frightening, I know the burden that this connection brings you, I can feel your pain and your anguish. But Ella, you must carry it with you. Everything this war brought you, everything your mind, soul, and body have endured, it is all part of Lorien's story. All part of your story, Ella. And the nightmares, Ella, they're visions of what could have been, what would have been if not for you. And for everything that the Loric did to prevent that fate of destruction in those visions. Ella, you changed everything. In that moment, when you died, you died at this very same well, when Setrákus Ra, your great-grandfather had overtaken my energy and was going to use it all for Mogadore's rule, everything seemed lost. But Ella. You. Came. Back. In that moment, everything changed. You changed your fate. Even I don't know how or why. But Ella, now, I know that you must go stop this evil from spreading further and destroying what is left of me. Lorien depends on you, you out of everyone are the only one who has changed your fate before. You must change the fate of Lorien as well. But, Ella, I must tell you, there is a way to rid yourself of the nightmares, the visions, the endless death scenes. And the only way would be to let me die. To let Lorien fall. If Lorien falls, so do the nightmares. So Ella, make your choice."