Mora, the villainess from The Ancestors' Secrets Series
Mora is a classic through-and-through villainess. Yet as we know more and more about her backstory, we're almost starting to understand what drives her and empathize with her, until her next cruel act... when we're passionately hating her again.
The Royals and Elders were furious when they found out many centuries ago that Joland had shared the gift of eternal life with Mora and gave her the power to keep her body young. The Elders separated them, but they couldn’t make them mortal again. She has lived so many lifetimes, alone, because Joland was exiled to a timeline in the distant past. As his punishment, he couldn’t move forward in time with her. The Elders succeeded in taking away the ability to rejuvenate her body, which became bones with wasted muscles and shriveled skin. Although her withered body was useless, the power of her mind allowed her to reach the remotest part of the world and beyond.
She wants power, she wants to rule, and most of all, she wants revenge. There is nothing she wouldn't do to achieve her goal. Will she succeed?
A short excerpt from the book
The soft humming of Mora's rotating, air-filled mattress relaxed her and protected her withered body from developing bed sores. Her castle was well hidden from prying eyes, deep in the woods on the mountainside. Nobody knew about its existence, only Zelda, her trusted servant throughout the centuries.
Mora didn’t allow anyone to see her in her miserable state, old and wrinkled. Her mind control ability helped her to make even Zelda see her in her youthful glory as she had known her so long ago, but she couldn’t completely conceal her body’s present state of old and wrinkled. The image of her old body is shown in Zelda’s mind through the youthful picture Mora projected.
Mora closed her eyes and began searching the complicated network of the Collective Memory, in her mind. She murmured under her breath, “The Elders took everything I valued in life from me, but they never found out I could read every word that is written by every gifted Hunor after they reach maturity. When they use the ancient letters given to them by the Ancestors and they mention the meaning of the flowers, their lives are open books for me.”
Mora’s prune-like face lit up, “Good girl, Adel. You are the servant of the Leaders and can’t talk to anyone about this, but you just wrote in your diary that the Elders are planning a meeting. Oh, I see. One of them is about to take her last breath, and they need to choose her successor. Hmm… could I use it to my advantage? We’ll see. There is another interesting sentence here; you are worried about your mistress, Csenge. She seems distant and unhappy. Let’s see what our Leader has been writing…” she scoured Csenge’s desk in her mind.
“What?!” Mora shouted angrily when she read Csenge’s note in her calendar, “The Chosen One, Ilona, is coming of age today.” Mora was furious, “I can get into the minds of those who are related to me, but I can’t get into the Elders’ meeting or see the Chosen One. I curse you Ancestors for taking away my powers, and I curse you for tearing me away from the arms of my beloved, Joland. We’ll be together again one day, my love. I’ll find a way, somehow…”
In her fury, Mora clawed a hole in her soft comforter, but then, she started seeing an unfamiliar handwriting in her mind. Someone, unknown to her was writing a diary with the ancient Hunor letters. Mora’s rage calmed instantly as she rejoiced, “Ilona’s diary! She must be the Chosen One that Csenge wrote about.”
In her mind’s eye, the ancient Hunor letters appeared as Ilona wrote them in her diary. Dear diary, I’m supposed to keep a detailed journal from now on…
Mora grinned, “Write my little princess, and keep writing. I want to know everything about you.”
Mora continued her monologue in a subdued voice, “They will pay! But, for now, I have to gather every bit of information I could use for my revenge. Let me see what they’re writing about. Oh, so that’s where the Seer is hiding. She has written about every boring detail, but she never mentioned whose housekeeper she was. Damn, this crippled body and the constrictions they installed in my mind. Hah! The Chosen is in love with Bela, the mutt, now that’s ironic. His mother was excommunicated from the tribe for breaking the law. He’s useless to me but let me see what Zoltan is doing. At first, he refused to write in his diary, but his mother made sure that he does now. This is interesting! He decided to move to the town where the Chosen One works, which means that I can use him. Finally, my chance to change the future arrived. They must meet, and he has to get close enough to her, and then I will make him kill her, whenever I see fit.”
The Ancestors' Secrets
Epic fantasy-magical realism novels
Ilona resigns to live the simple life of a small-town doctor, but her life goes into a tailspin on her birthday. She finds out she was born into a secretive, ancient clan still hidden among us. She starts to develop unusual powers which she finds exciting as well as frightening. She can slow time and heal with her touch, but how and why?
She struggles to find answers, but those who try to reveal the clan secrets are severely punished.
A menacing man is following her and wants to kill her. Who is he?
More life struggles continue to plague her. After being thrust into a world of clan mysteries, obscure traditions, and beliefs, her life is drastically changing.
She must seek out and stop Mora’s evil plan. Punished by the ancestors long ago, Mora has waited centuries for the chance to reunite with her beloved Joland and to gain power over the Hunor clan. Revenge has kept her alive for over 1600 years.
Ilona must search for the mysterious Destiny Box that holds a message from her Ancestors while she attempts to sort out her feelings for the men in her life.
The spirits of the clan come to Ilona’s aid with answers to the clan’s secrets and the key to helping her maintain her sanity amidst the fear of danger lurking everywhere as she tries to succeed.
She must activate her Chameleon ability and obtain unimaginable powers. The clan Leaders and Elders are worried knowing that she can use her growing powers for absolute good or absolute evil. But they have no choice, they’re powerless against Mora and must place their trust in Ilona.
With the help of the clan’s Time Bender, her journey will take her back in time to when her people lived as nomads, to the castles of the 14th century as they struggle to overcome the obstacles in their path due to the evils of Mora.
Ilona finds her Destiny Box where the ancestors reveal what she must do—but it does not come without cost.
She must ensure the birth of the Chosen Child in the 4th century to save the future of the Hunor Clan. Will Ilona succeed in saving the child? Will she accept her destiny?
A review from Reader's Favorite
"I was keen to read The Ancestors' Secrets Series by Erika M Szabo for a couple of reasons. The first is that I was impressed by the premise and the promise of two strong female leads, and Mora and Ilona are worthy in this regard. Neither are perfect and even though we are not meant to like Mora, we do sort of understand her motive. It's deeper than the power and the revenge she seeks; we get that. She is not a cookie-cutter antagonist, and because Ilona is far from perfect herself, we are able to read through the eyes of women who are authentic. This is refreshing. The second part that piqued my interest is a modern female thrust back into the 1300s. This is something of an origin story, not just for Ilona but the entirety of the Hunor Clan. The magic is fun, but the tension and the settings are Szabo's best work."
Erika M Szabo
Erika loves to dance to her own tunes and follow her dreams, introducing her story-writing skills and her books that are based on creative imagination with themes such as magical realism, alternate history, urban fantasy, cozy mystery, sweet romance, and supernatural stories. Her children’s stories are informative, and educational, and deliver moral values in a non-preachy way.
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