The Mother

#3 Color vote from February, suggested by Starcat13!

Deep in the forest, Laura meets Willow's "Mother" - the source of the fay.

Willow's mother was originally a beautiful young dragon, one of the very first born. As a child, she was a rambunctious risk-taker, having been told by her own mother that dragons were immortal, and thus she had nothing to fear. But one day, she became injured, and was told to be more careful. That even though dragons were biologically immortal and would never die of old age, she could be killed like any other creature.

The thought terrified the young dragoness. Not just the thought of death, but the idea that, unlike other creatures who had finite lives, when she died, she would be missing out on a potentially infinite life she could have otherwise lived, and that no matter how long she lived, it was inevitable. Death became a specter, lurking everywhere. She needed safety.

One day, she found an enormous field of black mana crystals deep in the forest. Black crystals commonly form around battlefields where many have died. She could feel their power and was sure this was the answer to her fears. She fed off of them, believing they would last her forever. And though the crystals shrunk only imperceptive, year after year, they did eventually begin to run out. By then her natural dragon magic had been entirely replaced by the substance made from souls, and she desperately needed more.

Fearing to go out herself, she used her shapeshifting in an unnatural way and split off pieces of herself to send into the world outside her forest. First to gather black mana from other battlefields and places of death. And then, when those sources became rarer, to find any people who have died recently and bring their life force back. When even that wasn't enough, in desperation, she sent her wisps to lead wandering travelers astray to their deaths. The more she split herself, the less like a dragon she became. Travelers would come to call the strange creatures the fay.

Willow was one such creature, a wisp, but became lost and eventually developed her own personality, and a fear of ever returning to her "mother" else she might consume her once more.

But you know, other than the murdering, she's pretty nice.