Chapter 48: The Mask of Kotsuzui

The armored man did not respond. He waved his hand, and the rift moved towards Sam faster than he could react, sucking him inside. A moment later, it moved through the hole in the wall and sucked up the others too.

Sam, Brion, Calista, Lazula, and Gabrielle began to panic as they rocketed along through the tunnel of purple and black smoke, not knowing what awaited them at the other end. And then a moment later, they all spilled out into a brightly-lit room.

"Brion!" Valanta cried out as she rushed over and pulled him into a hug. They were now in the throne room at Braska.

"Mother, stop! I’m naked!" he protested. A moment later, the Queen had servants bring in clothes for Brion and the girls.

Sam hugged the girls, and then turned to face the armorer man. "Thank you for saving us, but can you take me back to get my ship?"

The man closed the old rift and opened a new one, but instead of a tunnel, it worked like a scrying spell, showing a view of the Braskan docks. The man then waved his hand, and a second, much larger rift appeared over the water. A moment later, the Emerald Draconis popped out, and then ropes lifted up from an empty dock of their own accord and moored the ship. Then both rifts vanished.

"Who are you?" Sam said as he looked at the man in awe. "That is no ordinary power..."

The man reached a hand up to the chin of his black skull mask and pulled it off. The instant he did, his bone armor and black cape vanished in a puff of black smoke. Koga was standing there with the mask in his hand.

"Koga!" Sam cried out, pulling the man into a hug. "That was you? Why didn’t you speak before?"

"Because that was the only way I could keep my darker half at bay," he explained. "This is the Mask of Kotsuzui, the persona I embodied while I was Maeve’s Unseelie Knight. When I speak while wearing the mask, I speak in Kotsuzui’s voice, which gives him more control."

"Wait, I thought you buried the mask at sea?" Sam asked.

Koga nodded. "I did. And then after I left Ravager’s Roost, I retrieved it. I used it to sneak into Maeve’s prison realm and free your mother."

"Sam?" came a voice from behind them. He turned around to see a woman standing there with bright green eyes and long red hair.

"Mom!" Tears immediately began to flood down Sam’s cheeks as he rushed over and pulled his mother into a tight hug. The girls felt their hearts swell as they watched Sam weep tears of joy as he embraced his mother for the first time in over twelve years.

"Oh, honey, I’ve missed you so much!" Ellamere was crying too, so happy to finally be reunited with her son.

After they had held each other in silence for a few minutes, Sam turned to Koga. "Thank you for saving her. What made you decide to do it?"

"After everything that happened at Ravager’s Roost, I wanted to make sure Maeve could not use your mother against you," Koga explained. "And I knew you’d be able to focus purely on defeating Maeve once and for all if you knew Ellamere was safe."

Sam nodded. "I’ll do whatever it takes to defeat her. Again, thank you, Koga." The two men clasped arms.

"I hope so," Koga replied. "Because once she realizes Ellemere is gone, she is going to be coming at you will everything she has."

"I’ll be ready," Sam proclaimed.

"We all will," added Calista. The others nodded.

Sam then turned to Brion. "Sorry about knocking you out."

The prince shrugged. "Doesn’t really matter now. Just don’t do it again, okay?"

"Deal," Sam said as they shook hands. "Hopefully now that Barbossa and some of his allies are dead, the conflict will end before it becomes a full-on civil war."

"Well, at least there’s that," Brion replied.

Sam then turned back to Ellamere and he remembered something he wanted to ask. "Mom, is King Lucien really my father? My stat book in my mind listed my race as Dracozian."

She nodded. "He is indeed your father. When you Awakened your true self, it seems the Dracozian heritage you got from me became so dominant that your Power Core registered you as a pureblood. It’s not unheard of."

"So are you a true pureblood, then?" Sam asked.

She nodded. "My parents were part of the very first generation of Dracozians, way back when Maeve still ruled over all dragons. They fought back against her during the Dragon Rebellion, and got turned to stone as a punishment."

"That’s horrible..." Sam replied.

"Indeed," Ellamere agreed. "They were stuck like that for thousands of years. And then one day, they just returned to normal. At the time, they had no idea how or why. So they set out to make a new life, found a small island, built a home, and had me.

"But when I was a young adult, it became clear what had happened - Maeve had released them, hoping they would have a child. And then when I turned eighteen and had my Awakening, she turned them to stone again and told me she’d only release them again if I did her bidding. That’s how I ended up with your father."

"So Maeve has been planting seeds for her new Unseelie Knight since long before I was even born..." Sam said after a long sigh.

Ellamere nodded, then pulled Sam into a big hug. "But you have to understand, son - my love for you is real. Once you were born and I held you in my arms, I knew I had to protect you from her. That’s why she manipulated events to get me exiled - because I told her I would protect you from her."

"What magic did you use on me the night you sang to me, right before you were exiled?" Sam had to know.

"I was sealing your true nature deeper to keep you from Awakening as a Dragon Warlock," she revealed. "Had you Awakened as one of the Dawn Archon classes, it would have made the seal permanent. That’s what I was hoping for. But it seems Maeve made new plans."

"Well, you don’t have to worry about that, Mom. I will never let her bend me to her will," Sam pledged.