She woke to find herself tucked in a bed of leaves next to a crackling fire. Night had long since fallen, leaving sprays of stars to reach out through the gaps in the forest canopy. Breathing in she could smell the mouth-watering scent of charred meat. Her lips were parched with thirst.
Despite her fall, she had little more than a few small scratches. Odd, she thought. In fact, she felt better than she had in weeks. Her tight back felt much less strain, and the festering cut that had been refusing to heal on her forearm was now just a little scar.
She lifted her dreary head, confused and wary.
"Mara?" the voice was soft and gentle.
Mara jolted upward, sending a wave of vertigo through her body.
"Where!?" she panted, frantically searching around her.
The man, Chrom, and his wife, Aria, sat around the other side of the fire, munching on bear meat. Aria stood, healing staff in hand.
Was that why she was feeling so good? Had this woman healed her? And why?
"Peace, child, you're safe here. Are you hungry?" the blue-haired man extended a leg with a chunk of meat clinging to it.
"Child?" Mara's voice stung the air, but she was starving. She snatched the meat from his hand before he could repent his offer and gnawed the leg to the bone.
The man smirked, yet there was pain in his eyes.
"What do you remember, Mara?" he gently pressed.
Mara wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. "Why don't I ask the questions?" The man flinched, she continued, "Who are you and what do you want?"
The blonde woman took a step forward, placing a hand on her husband's shoulder.
"We're—uh—Ylisseans. Are you familiar with Ylisse?" she asked.
Mara thought. She vaguely remembered the halidom—she'd heard of it here and again since the day she woke up with amnesia. She tended to avoid public appearances when she could, but her scant trips to town had earned her little tidbits of gossip.
She shrugged, "Heard of it," she said casually, "rumors of war here and there. I tend to stay out of things."
"Right…" Aria flit her eyes to the man, Chrom. They both looked displeased.
"Uh, well as for names, I'm Aria and…" she looked unsure.
"I am Chrom—ruler of Ylisse," his eyes shone. "Exalt," he added.
Mara stared at the strange man. A king?
"Chrom!" Aria complained. "wait to tell her lightly…" she grumbled.
"Erm, she had to know at some point, right?" he blushed.
"I-I, wait. I don't…?" Mara glanced back and forth between the two feverishly. "You don't look…" She was flustered.
"Like royalty?" Chrom's laugh was warm as the summer night. "We get that a lot."
Mara felt the will to laugh along, but she forced it down. The man and woman made her feel comfortable, which was unacceptable. She still had no way of knowing if they were telling the truth. Her brow furrowed.
"How do I know you're telling the truth?"
They looked at each other.
"I-well-uhhhhmm…"
"Chrom, let me."
"What—?"
Aria began rustling in a pouch at her side. From it, she pulled an envelope and handed it to Mara to examine.
"What is that?" Chrom asked.
"An Ylissean royal decry—inside at least. The seal on the outside is one only used by our house. It bears the mark of Naga; a symbol of our nation's royals. You may recognize it, Mara," Aria explained, both to Mara and her husband.
Chrom nodded, "Smart."
Aria winked at him.
Mara held the envelope up in the firelight. The seal, stamped into blue wax, was something like a teardrop design. The writing was leafed in gold. Skimming her fingers across the surface revealed the rich thickness of the papers. It was addressed from the Ylissean royal house to some noble court.
"Wow," Mara said, dulling her tone to hide her amazement.
"Proof enough?" Aria asked.
Mara thought, then nodded.
"But why me? I mean, what are you doing here?" Mara was afraid of the answer she was about to get.
Chrom took a step into the puttering light of the fire and gestured to a marking on his right shoulder. It was the same image as the one stamped into the seal. "Do you see this birthmark, here? It's the blessing mark of the goddess Naga—all those born into my bloodline carry this mark."
"We believe you have one, Mara," Aria's voice was singed with honey. "In your right eye, to be exact."
Mara's hand traveled instinctively up to her face. She was never one to indulge in self-image, but she enjoyed brushing out her hair when she had the time of day. The mark—it occurred to her—was the same as the one that branded her own eye. She'd seen it a thousand times, seared into the reflection of her image.
"How..?"
"You are of Ylissean blood, Mara," Chrom soothed. "You-you're our daughter."
"I…where have you been? Why am I only meeting you now? Why can't I remember anything?" her head began to ache again.
"Don't push it, Mara. Amnesia runs in our family," Aria cooed.
"We would've come for you sooner if we'd known you existed," Chrom said.
And that pushed her over the edge. Tears spiked Mara's eyes. Her hands balled into fists.
"How did you not know I existed? Did you not give birth to me? Did you not hold me as I was brought into this world?" Mara felt herself spiral out of control.
"Mara, that's not it at all," Aria quelled, a melancholy intensity filling her tone. "You were born in this time only six months ago."
Tears bolted down Mara's cheekbones. Her heart hurt. And her brain did especially. Nothing made sense, nothing pieced together, nothing clicked. She felt more lost than when she woke up in that field with nothing more than the armor on her back and a wounded pegasus.
"What does that even mean!?" she pushed the palms of her hands into her eye sockets to stop the tears.
"You're…from the future Mara. The travel wiped your memory—or at least we assume." Chrom frowned, fiddling with the hilt of a long sword at his side—Mara was surprised she hadn't noticed it until then. "We know little more than you at this point."
"Why are you torturing me like this?" that's what it felt like to her: mental torture.
"Mara, please, I know how scary this all is. I went through something similar almost five years ago…Just look at the information we've given you," Aria stopped a moment, tears nearly brimming her own eyes. "We're your family and we love you, but—if it's too much we can come back later…or you don't ever have to talk to us again."
Aria swallowed hard, "If you don't want."
A disgruntled sob escaped from Mara's lips. She wished she could blame her tears on the blaring sun, but it wasn't near dawn.
"I-I don't know what I want," she choked.
All became silent. The only sound was the light crackling of the fire.
"Mara, it may help if you'd come to visit the palace. You can see your brother and sister and—" Chrom started.
"Brother?" Mara was about to puke. "Gods…" she had exhausted herself; she flopped back onto her bed of leaves.
"Whatever decision you make, Mara, is fine by us," her broken voice told another story. Aria continued. "If you want to come see you—the palace and can't wait to turn tail and run, that's fine."
Silence again.
"Is that what you want? Me to visit?" Mara asked finally.
"Of course, yes. You could see where we believe you belong and…and maybe seeing our Mara—of this time—will show you we aren't the callous madmen you think we are," Aria replied, trying to put strength in her conviction.
Mara stared at her feet.
"I'll…go," she pronounced with difficulty. Her voice was barely even a whisper.
"You will? That's great!" Chrom blurted.
"But." Mara stopped him in his tracks. "I travel alone. In the skies, on my pegasus, totally free of restraint of any kind." She pointed upward to the clouds.
Aria smiled warmly, "As you wish."
"Right! You can follow us from above. We'll be riding from below." Chrom enthused.
"Do you have a mount?" Mara asked.
"Yes, of course—I'm a Valkyrie, so my horse is never far. We left her with our escort just a town out." Aria explained.
"How far out is your reign?"
"About a two day trip."
"Let's go then."
They'd packed and set out upon the dawn of the new day.