The First Moon Mates: Mara & Fergus
Our earlier essays explored rejection, fragility, and polyamory, but none touched on the most important couple in moon mate history: Mara and Fergus, the very first bonded pair. Their story is not a romantic origin tale — it is the most toxic relationship in the series, worse even than Justin and Sierra’s.
The Bond Begins
Mara and Fergus were bonded by the moon about 15,000 years ago, when they were only sixteen. For centuries they seemed to embody what moon mates should be: powerful, united, and devoted. But the moon’s bond doesn’t guarantee compatibility — it only guarantees connection. Over time, that connection decayed into something destructive.
What Went Wrong
Their downfall began with the immortals’ first great ritual 10,000 years ago, to seperate magic, when Mara faltered in her role. She stumbled during the chant. Though the ritual succeeded in splitting the realms, the mistake forced the immortals to spend years patching the fractures so the realms wouldn’t collapse back together. To Fergus, this was Mara’s first unforgivable “failure,” and he never let it go.
From there, the relationship only grew worse. Fergus began to use the bond against her:
Cheating deliberately — knowing she would feel the agony of betrayal. (Readers see how crushing this pain is through Justin and Sierra, but Fergus inflicted it on purpose.)
Rejections as punishment — every time a moon mate rejects the other, it sears like a wound. Fergus rejected Mara over and over, sometimes in public, sometimes in private, ensuring she would carry that pain endlessly. One rejection hurts; dozens create scars that never heal.
While Mara was manipulative, cruel, and complicit in terrible things, Fergus’s actions were outright abusive. He weaponized the very thing that was supposed to be sacred between them.
Ellen’s Visions
In Book Two, Ellen’s seer visions reveal the full scope of Mara and Fergus’s relationship. She sees not just the immortal battles, but also the private, repeated rejections and humiliations that defined her grandmother’s bond. Those visions make it clear: their relationship wasn’t just toxic — it was sustained abuse, centuries deep.
The Final Break
By the time of Amber’s generation, Fergus despises Mara. He calls her useless, mocks her failures, and threatens to imprison her. Mara, desperate to prove herself, frames her granddaughter Ellen and later attempts to kill Amber. But her story ends when the dark magic sacrifice spell rebounds a lightning strike onto her during the battle at Foothills in Book Two. Her death severs the original moon mate bond once and for all.
The Lesson of Mara and Fergus
Mara and Fergus show that the moon mate bond is not inherently good, safe, or romantic. It is powerful — but that power can destroy just as easily as it can heal. Their story teaches us:
A bond does not erase cruelty. It can actually magnify it.
Rejection, repeated, becomes a form of abuse.
Even the first moon mates can fail catastrophically.
No matter how horrible Mara became, she didn’t deserve Fergus’s cycle of betrayal and rejection. Their relationship is a warning: destiny without love or respect becomes a prison, not a gift.