Under the light of a full moon, a stranger travels across an ancient land that has only known the likes of man three times before. Some would say that only a fool would venture there, for it was just an endless sea of dunes under the burning sun. Others with a stronger faith would tell you that the land was where gods tread and that one should not trespass on the gods. But those that have actually stood at the precipice of those ancient lands would tell you that only death lurked within.
But they would all be wrong, but also all be right.
For deep within those shifting white sands hid more secrets than stars in the sky. But only to those worthy enough to find them, those not worthy would only find dune after dune after dune. There were beings that once resided within that lesser minds would call gods, but they had long since departed with the receding waters eons before mankind's ancestors first stood on their hind legs. And while only three had returned from the abyss in heart of the peninsula, what took the others was not death, for even death feared the unknown that lay within.
But none of that gave the stranger pause, only spurring them onward over the sandy slopes, through the shadowed valleys, and across the moonlit plains. For although it had been nearly three decades since they escaped those wretched lands with their life, they had dreamed about them and the horrors within for many years after, etching a map into their very soul.
They had never wanted to go back and had sworn to themselves countless times that they would never would set foot their again in their life. But circumstances well beyond the boundaries of normal had forced them to return, and what they felt now could not be called life; a grim technicality to get around their oaths.
And yet they did not fear what they would find within, unlike the mad prophet and crazed explorer before them. Because when the dreams returned after sixteen years of silence, their message had changed from one of cruel mocking but to a willingness to bargain. And what they had to offer was the only thing that mattered to them anymore, and they did not care what the price was; even if it was their other leg.
For a mother would do anything for her children.
----
If you were to ask the citizens of New Rome who Ashley Williams was, you'd get the following responses from the younger generations:
"The tennis player?"
"The zombie guy?"
"Am I supposed to know that name?"
But if you were to ask the older crowd, those that had lived in the secret Roman city for a few decades, they would hang their head and lament the loss of one of the legion's heroes. Not that she was dead, but for a society that valued strength she might of well have been.
Ashley was a tenth-generation legacy of Fortuna; possibly having less divine in her than even the mortals in the outside world. But despite being so far removed from her divine matron, she was quite exceptional in a variety of ways. A natural with a sword, a prodigy with a bow, and blessed with the looks of a queen of the Nile that turned more than a few heads. But for every give there must be a take, and she was no exception. Her parents had died shortly after she joined the legion, she suffered from insomnia, and she never could find anyone that caught her fancy; realizing years later that no one ever would.
Yet despite the ebb and flow of extremes of luck in her life, Ashley did well for herself. She climbed up the ranks, and possibly could have been made praetor if she really tried. She devoted those frequent sleepless nights to community projects, earning her the respect of quite a few people and making New Rome a better place in the process. What she had been known best for was her brownies which had won the Cohort Cook Competition three years running; her recipe even being used in several cafes around the city.
