vi. Redemption of the First incarnation

It was Mandrake's doing, but no one, especially Mandra at the time, knew it. There was a temple built on the ruins of a old house in Southern Randoria, near the Banishment Zone. It was simple and small, like a stone gazebo, and inside was a glass coffin. Encased was a naked woman who had markings on her left and right eyes, her hair white, and a red line that bisected her from forehead to crotch.

A farm boy found it, once. No one claimed responsibility for the lovely woman inside or explained why she was there, so the boy took it on himself to care for her once a week. He brought flowers, he cleaned out weeds, he polished the glass, and he left.

A year after the small temple's discovery the glass cracked and chipped away. The woman inside awoke to a tabula rasa. She had a language that matched the country she was in and a tornado of disjointed images in her head.

The boy's family realized she had been enchanted and was in need of help, so they took care of her. In return, with nothing else to do but think, she helped on the farm.

Teaching Mandra humility is ridiculous. She held no honor in power, except to try and right perceived wrongs, but this was a family that held no wrongs. They were honest and hard workers who showed compassion for those who had less. They took from the land what they sewed and gave surplus to those in need. They laid no blame on problems that didn't exist. It wasn't about humility, it was about stability.

The memories eventually healed and slowly, Mandra realized the world she had been trying to "fix" wasn't as broken as she once thought. There was more to humanity than her experiences, so experience must be the cure to her poisoned past. This epiphany all but disbanded her believers when she returned. She looked different and her words changed. Black could not be white, and why would you want it to be? There are children who were not abused and parents who were proud of their daughters.

After centuries of single minded dogma, she had changed almost 180 on her followers beliefs.

To the small group of loyals left she had were given instructions. She left a library of books and diaries, a dungeon cell, and a thrown of gold and walked, literally walked, into death.