"She's still upset, Master." Kaala said as Aila peeked in on Ellie. Nuri currently tried to comfort the girl, but she remained a bit depressed.

"She'll need to get over it." Aila said. "She's real lucky that I was in a pleasant mood with what she kept pressing for."

"Was it really so bad, Master?" Shaala asked. The quick answer surprised her.

"Worse. Thousands of deaths. Men and women. Not to mention the beasts, and the babies that were mutated. It took a long time to make stable offspring, and the ones that paid that price were the slaves, and the poor." Aila shivered.

"How do you know this, Master?" Shaala asked.

"The universe itself told me." That answer didn't surprise them, but how could Aila tell them the real reason? As soon as she gave them their beast cores, she began to see backward in time, right back with when the Cananes, and the Balask, were first bred.

Back then, people were stronger, and the methods to absorb the elements were more pure. The world shook up the civilizations that descended into debauchery, desiring the things they should not want. Nor be given.

"If she had pursued it further, I would have no choice but to sterilize her." Aila said. Her fingers left marks in the surface of the table.

"She's one of my people, but would force me to do bring harm to her like that." She turned to the two women. "Do you know how that makes me feel? That she won't be obedient? That she won't trust my judgment? I saved her! I want the best for her, but she still does that!" Aila stood back up again.

"I took away the python core to protect her." Aila walked back outside, the former calm she felt was already gone. Alara and Ivadra stepped out of a side room. As a pair, they went into the room, and looked down at the sulking young woman. Ivadra finally growled, which caught Nuri's attention.

"She's still upset." Nuri said softly.

"So?" Alara said. "Master gave her a core to a river python, and expected her to behave. Instead, she betrayed Master's trust. Does she already forget what it was like before Master? Ungrateful." Ivadra pursed her lips.

'Master, can you cut your connection to Ellie?' she asked.

'I can. I can close the door to her space, even prevent her core from absorbing elemental essence.' She said within her mind. 'What are you proposing?'

'Cut the connection. Make it go dark. Show her what it feels like to be alone again. Don't even let her sense Elena.' Ivadra said.

'I understand your intentions.' All of them, including Ellie, heard Aila sigh mentally, though she didn't know what it meant. However, when she felt her space go dark, she looked inside her space where she had been able to see her Master's presence since she was first named.

Ellie started to scream. Within her space, the altar had disappeared.

 

* * *

 

Ellie was curled up on the bed and couldn't be calmed. Elena looked down at her and shook her head.

"Still not asking for Master to forgive you?" She asked.

"She abandoned me!" Ellie cried out. "I'm alone again!" Elena looked around with a frown.

"Alone? Are you in a cage?" Elena asked. "Are you put in a cell? Were you chained and left hanging after the clan whipped you again?" Elena sat on the side of the bed. "I didn't know my sister was so stupid."

"You too?" She asked miserably.

"Me? What about you? You were told not to let little snake touch you that way. Not only did you allow it, when Master said it was possible, but the results would be horrific, you pursued it! You also would have risked Ava! What kind of a person are you?" Ellie finally stopped her tears, as this was a complete accusation, and it stung.

"I..."

"Master brings both of us here. Gives us a home. Takes off our collars. Heals us. Makes us strong. Gives us food. I work, but what do you do? You frolic in the water, and disobey the one thing Master said. She doesn't try to harm you, punish you, or whip you. She tried to teach you, and you still wouldn't listen." Elena shook her head. "I don't even see my beloved sister in front of me now. I see someone who is ungrateful for what she's been given. Not only did you not listen several times, but you would have risked Ava's life. What kind of a person are you now? She took the core and replaced it, with the thought that if you couldn't control your wild streak, she would help, but not remove your strength. You are still not only ungrateful, you blame her and cry. CRY!" Elena said angrily. "You cry for twisted babies that would cry in pain for being born! You cry for the blood that would spill from your womb, or Ava's! Just what kind of a person are you?" Elena stood up.

"She hasn't taken your core. She just doesn't want to feel your tears. You make her sad. She doesn't even want to be in the same place as you now because you're sad over what you think you lost." Elena rolled her eyes. "I'm going to my den with Sil. Don't look for me until you get your head on straight."

After she was left alone in the room, Ellie began to remember what it felt like to be truly alone, and she hated the sensation. That was when her space began to open a little.

"Master?" Ellie rolled her eyes and fell over onto the bed.

 

* * *

 

Aila was on the roof, in a form of stasis, and let her body naturally absorb the ice elements in the air. It was at this moment, that her body became saturated with the final element she needed to begin her transformation.

However, while she was asleep, her mind traveled, and obeyed her unspoken thoughts about how she could make Ellie see the past.

 

* * *

 

Ellie frowned. She couldn't move. She couldn't move her head, and also couldn't speak. She didn't feel her Master's presence, which was odd as Aila's presence was so strong, even with the connection closed, she could still feel her location.

"Hm. Implantation complete." Ellie focused on the voice of an elderly male. She felt his hand on her lower belly and a flood of elemental essence enter her.

Ellie soon realized why she couldn't move her head, or speak. She was strapped down to a table, and gagged.

"Good. Nurture the egg. It took us a while to figure out how to cross the species." Ellie started to panic as pain flared within her belly. She was a water channeler, or as these people believed, a water cultivator. The egg within her womb was from an old lizard that had the earth element.

"Implantation unsuccessful. Wash her out and begin again. If she wastes two more eggs, dispose of her. Slaves are cheap, but these eggs are not." She heard a grunt, after water element flooded her middle. That was when she realized that her space could not absorb the element to make herself stronger. She had no access, and her channels were clogged solid.

That could mean only a few things. Someone captured her and poisoned her. Or this wasn't her body.

"Slaves aren't as cheap as they once were. We've wasted thousands already." He grunted again. "I guess a few more doesn't matter. Our rivals already have viable offspring from the wolves. We need some from these lizards if we are to maintain the balance."

Over the next hour, she was flooded and cleaned out, and implanted again. Ellie couldn't understand where her Master was, nor why she was there. She closed her eyes for only a moment, to rest, but when she opened them, she could sense that something else was wrong. Her belly was swollen, and something moved inside her.

"Pregnancy nearing it's end. Get ready for the first live birth of the descendants of the basilisk." Ellie felt a gut wrenching pain in her belly. "Cut it out. There is no sense in risking the child for her."

"I disagree. She is compatible. She can bare more young in the future." She heard a sigh in spite of the gnawing pain. "Well, maybe that is incorrect. The baby is cutting its own way out. We'll need a few more slaves to test compatibility on."

Ellie closed her eyes, the pain faded, and she blacked out.

After what seemed like only a few minutes again, she opened her eyes, and was surrounded by nothing but horror. Dead bodies everywhere. Humans. Beasts. Twisted hybrids. All the bodies looked mutilated, and each in a gruesome manner that varied between males and females.

"MASTER!" Ellie cried out in terror. She felt a rumble in the earth and the air.

"MASTER!" She called again, hope in her heart. Her space began to shine.

'Ellie, my sweet water baby.' She sounded confused. 'What are you doing here? This is the past of this world. I was just meditating while on the roof and found myself here. I was exploring when I heard your cry.' Ellie felt her body get lifted, and scanned with light energy.

'Ellie? Is that you in there?' Ellie felt her Master reach into her mind, which felt quite soothing. 'My little water baby, what are you doing in...what....' She felt her Master grow angry. 'What have they done to my Ellie?!' She felt her Master's rage blaze forth.

"Master, I felt them put something inside me." She said in a sad voice. "I couldn't speak. I couldn't move. Then something ate its way out of me."

No one knew how the previous civilizations had been destroyed, or how humanity had fallen to such a low level, but now Ellie knew. She could see a pair of eyes that looked like twin suns appear in the night sky.

It was a night of judgment.

Entire countries disappeared overnight. Children, along with their young mothers, huddled in the ruins of old cities, and watched their world burn.

Ellie finally realized that her Master had not abandoned her. She had wanted to spare her the horror of this old world. What Aila did not realize just yet was that this was not a vision. This ancient world did burn on this night thousands of years in the past.

All because a young woman called out for her Master to save her.