“Mama! Up!”

Gabriela Carreno put her knife down beside the half-chopped onion and bent down to scoop up her beloved son. She grunted as she lifted the two-year-old up to eye level. “You’re getting heavy, Javier. You’re Mommy’s big boy now!” she said to the giggling toddler as she bounced him in her arms.

Carrying him against her shoulder, she walked over to the nearby table, grabbed the cheap plastic toy truck that was sitting idle on the table top, and set Javier down in the corner next to a crib. “Here, play with your truck for a while. Mama has to cook.”

Before she turned back around, Gabriela took a moment to glance into the crib. Inside, Anahi slept soundly. She smiled at the sight of her precious daughter. Only six months old, the baby still slept a lot, which was good. Gabriela didn’t know what she was going to do once they were both able to walk around at once.

Turning back towards the kitchen counter, Gabriela walked the six steps it took to go from one side of the room to the other, weaving around the table and the wheeled cart where a small television rested. Even with just her and her two children, the room felt cramped and crowded, but it couldn’t be helped. Her tiny apartment only had two rooms, after all, their bedroom being the other, so this space served as the kitchen, the dining room, and the living room all in one.

She sighed. This place was already too small for them, and it would only get worse as her babies grew. But there was only so much that she, a single mother, could afford. So much of her income already went to pay Maria, the kindly elderly lady next door, to take care of them while she worked her two jobs, one cleaning office buildings and the other at a warehouse.

Every day she would come home from her jobs, collect her children from Maria, cook dinner and the next day’s breakfast and lunch all together, and spend a few hours with her children before passing out, then get up the next morning and do it all over again. The strain of caring for her babies on her own with her low income pressed down on her daily, but she refused to buckle under the pressure. She was determined to give her children the life she’d never been lucky enough to have: a life of love.

Gabriela had never met her parents. Left at an orphanage here in Mexico City just days after her birth, she’d never known the feeling of family growing up. Sure, the adults at the orphanage had tried their best to fill that void, but nothing really could. Every night she’d fallen asleep to the sound of the sobs of a child who knew they were alone, but didn’t know why. Sometimes those sobs had been her own.

Life had remained tough even after leaving the orphanage. Her lack of a family meant that she had basically nobody to lean on, be it for money, friends, or companionship. Through her strong work ethic she’d landed herself a job that provided a modest but steady living, but even at work she was alone. In part due to her upbringing leaving her with little in common with others and in part because she wasn’t the prettiest girl around, friends and relationships were hard to come by and rarely seemed to last. Then, one day four years ago, she’d run into Juan again.

Like her, Juan had been a child at the orphanage, though he’d been a few years older so they hadn’t interacted as much. She’d been shocked to find that he had been going through many of the same issues she’d been dealing with. Perhaps as a side-effect of the isolation in her life, she’d always thought her problems were hers and hers alone, impossible for others to understand. Juan had shown her just how wrong she’d been.

It had started as a chance meeting in a bar. They’d chatted about this and that, catching up on things after ten years of separation. But what began as two lonely people clinging to each other for a momentary reprieve from their involuntary solitude had grown into something more. They’d decided to meet again to chat. Soon, those chats turned into dates, and then those dates had become something serious. Very serious.

Gabriela had heard other women say that the day they’d gotten married was the happiest day of their lives. She didn’t understand that. For her, it was the day Juan had proposed, the day when that loneliness had finally disappeared. Everything after that had just been a formality to recognize the feelings created that day.

Together, she and Juan had started a family. Both of them had vowed to each other to create the family they’d always dreamed of having as children. But then, a year ago, as she was three months pregnant with her second child, her husband had died in an accident caused by a drunk driver and everything had nearly fallen apart.

But things were different this time. Juan was gone, but the product of their love was not. She had vowed to create a family of warmth and love, and her husband’s death did not free her of that commitment. No, it only strengthened it. Now she was all that stood between them and a childhood like hers. Javier and Anahi needed her more than ever. She needed them even more. It didn’t matter if she had to work three jobs, or never sleep, or go hungry so her kids could eat. She didn’t care if she had to grind her body into dust, she would do whatever it took to see her children grow up healthy, happy, and loved.

She let out a tired groan as she stretched out her weary muscles before getting back to chopping. At least tomorrow was Sunday. She only had to work one job on Sunday. Of course, there was mass as well.

Back at the orphanage, faith in God, specifically the Catholic variety, had been fundamental to growing up. Even after leaving the place, her belief in the Christ remained strong. In fact, at some points in her life, it had been the only thing keeping her going. She found comfort in it, in the idea that she was loved in Heaven even if she was alone on Earth. It calmed her soul to know that Juan was looking down at her, watching her. She knew he was proud of her and what she’d done in the year since his death.

A soft wail broke Gabriela from her thoughts. Anahi was awake and hungry. She needed to get-

A sudden pain, unlike anything she’d felt before, enveloped her very being and she let out a scream of agony. The knife dropped from her hand as her vision blurred. She felt something grab a hold of her soul and pull... and then she was somewhere else and everything was so much worse. Existence was pain, a trillion red-hot pokers stabbing into each and every cell in her body. Her vision swam with strange, unintelligible sights, where everything seemed wrong and the very act of being felt like a crime against nature. Was this Hell?

Then, as suddenly as it started, it was gone again. Gabriela’s body slammed against something cold and hard, forcing a gasp of pain from her lips. Slowly she pushed herself onto her hands and knees, her vision clearing. She froze. Her palms weren’t resting on the old, faded tiles of her kitchen floor. Instead, they pressed against smooth, gray stone. Her mind spun, unable to come to grips with this strange happening.

“The Champion has arrived! All hail the Champion!” called out a commanding voice somewhere off to her right.

“Hail!” cried a chorus of other voices.

Gabriela’s head turned towards the voices and she froze, a scream caught in her throat. A good twenty people stood before her in several rows, all of them dressed in strange robes and bowing towards her. Behind them stood a solitary man, dressed in finer, more colorful robes and wearing a large amount of jewelry and an elaborate crown covered in jewels. He was bowing as well, though not as much.

They were all in a weird stone room ringed in metal machines she couldn’t recognize comprised of cables, crystals, and pieces of metal in bizarre abstract shapes that looked like some form of bad modern art. Light from glowing crystals shone down from above, reflecting off the metal and crystal below. A stairway led upwards from the other end of the room.

After a split second of bewilderment, instinct kicked in and Gabriela scrambled to her feet, backing away from these strange people — these unknown kidnappers. That was what had happened. She didn’t know how, but somehow this weird cult had kidnapped her, stolen her away from her-

Her children.

Desperately she looked around, hoping beyond hope, but nobody else other than the robed strangers could be seen in the wide open room. They weren’t here. Her children weren’t here.

“Take me back!” Gabriela hollered in panic at her kidnappers. “I need to go back! Take me back!”

One of the robed men approached her, a soft smile on his handsome face. “Please calm yourself, Champion,” he began. “I am-”

“My babies!” Gabriela cried. She reached forward with both hands, grabbing the man’s shoulders and squeezing with panicked strength. “Take me back to my babies!”

Gabriela’s fingers went through the man’s flesh and bone as if his body were made of half-melted butter, her hands balling into fists due to the unexpected lack of resistance. His arms, now only connected to his torso by a few cords of muscle and skin, swung limply. Fountains of blood squirted out from the bloody pulp that had been his shoulders just a moment ago.

The man screamed. Gabriela looked at the crimson mash in her hands and screamed. Quickly the chamber filled with the sound of the assembly's horrified cries as blood pooled on the stone floor below.

Something inside Gabriela snapped. She ran. She ran through the crowd, past the man the back, and up the stairs, running faster than she’d ever run before. She ran down hallways and up stairs, dodging frightened and confused people as she went. She ran and ran, following no predetermined path other than to keep going up and away until she couldn’t anymore.

Her flight ended in a room at the end of a hallway. Looking about, she saw some brooms, some buckets, and something that seemed like some sort of rudimentary mop. If things were different she would have laughed at the sight — she’d seen enough janitor’s closets in her life as a cleaner to realize where she’d ended up. Instead, she focused on the complete lack of other exits. The only way out of the storage room was the door from whence she’d come and a window.

Approaching the window, she looked out and her mind went numb as the sight before her eyes threatening to break her apart. Outside the window stood a city. A huge, gigantic city unlike anything she’d ever seen. Strange stone buildings covered the land as far as her eyes could see, lining streets filled with people dressed in bizarre fashion, some leading animals that shouldn’t exist. Then there were the monuments — giant stone statues towering dozens of meters high, each of a different imposing figure striking a regal pose. Dozens of them sprouted up from the city, as if watching over its inhabitants, or more likely demanding their awe and worship.

This wasn’t Earth.

Gabriela’s world came crashing down around her. Her body began to shake and she fell against the wall, tears streaming down her face. All alone in a foreign land, she felt like she was drowning as an overwhelming helplessness dragged her deeper and deeper into depths of despair.

Her children were gone.

*     *     *

The sound of several different people slowly walking down the hallway brought Gabriela back to reality. How long had it been? She wasn’t sure. She couldn’t see the sun from the window, though the sky had begun to tint orange.

Backing away from the door, she cowered behind a stack of buckets. It did little to hide her, but there wasn’t much to work with inside the room. Her mind raced as she tried to think of what she could do in this situation.

A voice said something that she could not make out, and all the footsteps halted, save one. That person continued to approach until they were just outside the open door, and then stopped.

“I am coming in,” a clear, calm male voice stated. “I mean you no harm, and merely wish to talk.”

Gabriela didn’t say a word as she remained in her hiding place.

After a moment of silence, the man crossed through the doorway. The colorful glint of gold and gemstones caught Gabriela’s eyes as a crown glistened in the early evening light. The crown sat on a balding head lined with gray hair around a long face with a pointed chin and regal beard. He was the man who’d been in the back of the crowd when she’d first appeared.

The man entered the room as if her were merely taking and evening stroll, unbothered by anything. He stopped several steps from the doorway and looked about, spotting her in an instant. She squirmed as he inspected her, his eyes seeming to soak in every possible detail, no matter how small.

She studied him in return, noting the fine craftsmanship and ornate decorations of his clothes. He seemed to be in his fifties, perhaps, his body of average height but somewhat on the thin side. His hands grasped a large, thick book, a metal chain emerging from the bottom of the spine and running up into his robes. He’d been holding that book back then too, she realized, but she’d been too off balance to really notice until now.

“I greet you, Champion, and come in the name of peace,” he said, his voice clear and polite. He bowed to her again, this time deeper than before. “I am Emperor Haidar Batra, ruler of Ubrus, the land which he see before you. May I have the honor of knowing your name?”

“Why? Why did you take me?” Gabriela pleaded, her voice weak. “Please, just send me home. I need to go home!”

The Emperor gazed at her wretched form for a moment before speaking again. “Champion, I give you my humblest apologies. Anyone with eyes could see how much you are in distress, but it seems that there has been a great deal of confusion. Your arrival was not brought about by our hands.”

“What do you mean?”

“May I approach?”

“What?”

“I merely wish to show you something, if you will permit me.”

“Why are you aski-” The image of that other man flashed before her eyes, his face contorted in pain as he writhed on the ground, blood spurting out of two large holes where his shoulder blades used to be. She took a look at her hands and found them stained red with dried blood. “Is... is he going to be alright?”

Emperor Batra frowned. “He will likely not survive the night. Even if he does, he will live the rest of his life without arms. A sad fate for a promising young man.”

Gabriela felt her legs losing strength and she slowly sank down to the floor. She’d killed somebody. Not intentionally, but the result was the same. She was a murderer now.

“I will provide for his family, do not worry. They will not suffer no matter the outcome. Now please, if you would, I will explain the truth about all of this. I know that you are frightened and confused, and I only wish to help.”

Gabriela nodded, slowly, her mind still churning over the implications of her unintended actions. Now that she’d recalled those horrid events down below, she couldn’t seem to shut them off. Her guilt grew. She felt as if she would vomit any moment now.

The Emperor walked back to the doorway and closed the door before walking around the buckets to stand before her. With a weary sigh, Emperor Batra sat down beside her. “What I am about to show you is the greatest secret of the Imperial family. Nobody but the Emperor is allowed to read it, but we will overlook that in this case because of the unique nature of this situation.” He opened the book. “This is The Compass. Each ruler of Ubrus, before their passing, leaves behind their wisdom within, allowing them to aid their successors and pass down their most important knowledge.” He turned to the first page, revealing a page filled with angular text that Gabriela couldn’t understand. “These pages at the start are the words of the First Emperor, the founder of this country. His words are holy and it is every Emperor’s duty to follow his teachings to his best ability.”

Turning the page several times, the Emperor stopped at a page filled with drawings. Gabriela caught her breath as she recognized the pictures as depictions of the strange machine in the stone room.

“The ruins below are older than almost anything that we know, far older than the Empire, that is to be sure. When the First Emperor died, he left behind his greatest commandment, and a prophecy. He built this palace atop the ruins to hide them and protect them, and instructed future Emperors to guard them and keep watch, saying that one day the ruins would awaken and bring forth a Champion chosen by the spirits to bring salvation. And so, for many centuries, we have watched, and waited, but the ruins remained silent. But that changed yesterday, when the devices within that room began to glow for the first time. And so, with great joy, we prepared to welcome the Champion of prophecy. And then you arrived.”

“I’m sorry, I can’t be your Champion,” Gabriela said. “I have to get back to my children. They need me.”

“It pains me to know that you are suffering so,” the emperor replied, “but unfortunately I am unable to return you to your home. Not even the First understood the magic by which these machines operate, and none have dared to try to find out, lest some fool accidentally break them and disrupt the prophecy.”

Gabriela began to hyperventilate as the man’s words hit home. “No, please, no...” she sobbed, tears staining her cheeks once more.

“Please, calm yourself,” Emperor Batra said, placing a comforting hand upon her shoulder. “Given time, my scholars may be able to find a way to return you to your family. Now that the prophecy has been fulfilled, there is no need to keep them away from the ruins any longer.”

A sudden hope sprang up within her at his words. “Y-you would do that for me? But what about being a Champion?”

“We can discuss that another time,” he chuckled. “The thing is, we do not actually need a Champion at the moment. Ubrus is stronger than it has ever been. My people live in happiness, their stomachs full and their minds at ease. I’m sure there are many tasks for which you would excel, but as to why the spirits sent you to us now I cannot guess.”

Gabriela didn’t know what to think anymore. Stolen from her children by an ancient machine to be a Champion for people who didn’t need one? She would have laughed at the absurdity if it weren’t her in the middle of it all.

Emperor Batra rose back up to his feet with a groan. “Every day these old bones get wearier,” he muttered. He extended her a hand. “I’ll ask again, would you permit me the honor of knowing your name?”

“Gabriela Carreno,” she replied, taking his hand.

“Come, Gabriela, let us leave this dreary room before my guard breaks the door down in worry.”

Her mind still spinning from all these revelations, Gabriela staggered to her feet and numbly followed. They exited the storage room into the hallway as two people, one man and one woman, approached. Gabriela took an involuntary step back at the sight of the pair.

“This is Taras, my bodyguard,” Emperor Batra said with a wave towards the man. The bodyguard towered over the others in the hallway, standing at least two meters high. His body rippled with muscles and two large swords were strapped to his back in the shape of the ‘X’. Gabriela couldn’t help but notice the man’s milky eyes that stared straight ahead without focusing on anything. Was he blind? Cataracts, perhaps?

“And this is Chitra, one of the Batranala,” the emperor continued. “I have assigned her to serve you for the duration of your stay.”

The woman who stood to the bodyguard’s side was the most beautiful woman that Gabriela had ever seen. Standing a head taller than Gabriela, the woman smiled a welcoming smile with her perfect lips, her gorgeous emerald eyes radiating warmth. Perhaps in her mid twenties, woman bowed, giving Gabriela a better view of her silky amber hair against her alabaster skin.

“It is the greatest honor to serve you, Champion. Please rely on me for anything you might require.”

“Chitra, show our guest to her room. She is very tired.”

“As His Eminence desires. Please come with me, Champion.”

In a daze, Gabriela followed the resplendent woman as she walked with sure steps down a maze of halls and hallways. Many others passed by in both directions. Some glanced at Chitra with a tinge of fear. Others glanced at Gabriela with curiosity or disdain. All gave the two of them a wide berth.

It only took Gabriela five minutes to feel completely lost. She knew they were going somewhere high, higher than the storage room at least, but past that she had no idea. She did notice, however, that the number of people in the halls kept dropping. After what felt like half an hour of walking, they entered a hallway completely devoid of other people. It was quiet here, the hallway gloomy in the soft light of the evening. Unlike the hallway she’d ended up in before, this one had no doors anywhere along it except all the way at the end.

“These are the best guest chambers in the palace,” Chitra said, breaking the silence. “I hope it will not disappoint. I’m sure someone as great as yourself has high standards.” She opened the door and ushered Gabriela inside.

Gabriela froze in the doorway, staring at her room and the opulence within. Elegant furniture, polished to a shine, filled the room. Plush chairs and sofas covered in furs, tables and dressers carved with incredibly delicate decoration, one of those massive beds that had their own curtains... any single one of them likely would cost more money than she’d made in her lifetime. And it was everywhere.

“Is it not to your liking?” Chitra asked with trepidation in her voice.

“N-no! It’s amazing!”

“Oh, good! It is important that the Champion get only the best after all. Please, go in and I will show you all the rooms.”

There were more?! Gabriela followed Chitra about in a haze as she gave a quick tour of the chambers. Indeed, there were more. Many more. The largest bathroom that Gabriela had ever seen. A “study” filled with books, with a fireplace fully stocked with firewood. A balcony that overlooked the city, offering a much grander view than the small window in the storage closet. Gabriela had trouble coming to grips with this level of wealth. She felt like she was defiling it with her very presence.

“That is everything, Champion. If you need anything, please let me know immediately and I will take care of it.”

“T-thanks,” Gabriela stammered. Seeing Chitra turn towards the door, she herself turned back towards the bed on the other side of the room. Sitting down on the soft mattress, she stroked the smooth covering and wondered at the size of it all. The bed was so large that it was bigger than her entire bedroom at home!

Home.

For the past while, she’d been so distracted by all the new sights and people that she’d been able to forget, however momentarily, the tragedy that was her situation. But now there was nothing keeping those thoughts at bay, and they rushed back with a vengeance. Javier’s smile when he laughed, so bright it could light up a room. Anahi’s adorable face as she slept. She began to shake again as memories of her children flooded her mind.

They were still back in her apartment in Mexico City, with nobody to care for them, while here she was, surrounded by luxury. The thought made her retch. How would they survive, with nobody to care for them? Would anybody even find them, or would they starve to death, alone and unloved? She collapsed onto the bed and wailed into the soft pillows.

“What’s wrong? Champion, are you alright?”

Gabriela jumped at the voice. Chitra stood beside her, staring down, concern radiating from her eyes.

“W-why are y-you here?” Gabriela stammered.

“You did not dismiss me, so I waited by the door, as is proper.”

“Then you’re dismissed!” Gabriela sobbed. “Go away!”

Chitra sat down next to her on the wide bed. “Is that what you truly desire? Do you really want to be alone?” she asked softly.

“Yes! I- I- NO!” Gabriela choked out. “I want to be back with my babies! I need to be back with my babies!”

Caring hands pulled Gabriela up into a soft, motherly embrace. “Tell me what’s wrong,” Chitra said, slowly stroking Gabriela’s matted hair. “Tell me everything.”

The dam burst. Gabriela cried and sobbed and wailed, and through it all she told her everything, about her children, her life, her love. Chitra held her lovingly and listened to it all, her hand still delicately caressing the weeping mother’s head.

“I’m all alone,” Gabriela whimpered, her tale finally finished, her tears still falling.

“You are not alone,” Chitra responded firmly. “I am here. I am with you. I will always be with you, as long as you need me. So please, know that you are not alone.”

Gabriela began to bawl, clutching at her companion like a drowning sailor to a life preserver. Chitra kept hugging the smaller woman, still petting the miserable woman as she trembled against her shoulder.

“That’s right. Let it out. Your fears, your pain, your sorrow. Let it all out. I will take it all for you, so that you may finally rest.”

And so she did. Gabriela cried and cried, emptying her soul until there was nothing left inside of her. Only then did she finally fall asleep, still in Chitra’s gentle grasp.