Kassandora sat on her bed as she smiled. Maisara’s final shout replayed in her head. “I’ll ask Anassa!” Oh silly Mai… sweet little Goddess of Order. “I’ll ask Anassa!” So Anassa was captured too? Then the rest of the Pantheon would know too. And they were far more lenient with their words than Maisara was.
Freeing herself was one thing. She merely had her mind. Anassa though? Anassa had plenty of tricks up her sleeve. Kassandora needed a plan to break the containment crystal next to her, a plan to leave Olympiada, a plan to hide, a whole lot of plans. Anassa only needed an opening. “Don’t worry sister.” Kassandora murmured to herself. “Big sister hasn’t forgotten about you.”
The night in the ancient ruins of the fortress passed in a blur for Lyca and his party. It was obvious they weren’t part of Fer’s pack, and the elf largely ignored them as he took charge and organised the men and beasts under his command. Bodies had to be buried, collapsing parts of the fort had to be sectioned off. The darkfurs prowled around with their assistants; they pulled up vines to support falling walls or sew wounds shut. One wolfman, Logar, took Lyca and his friends under his patronage. Well… he took Lyca, his friends tagged along.
“Do you not want help?” Eliza asked as the four watched Logar dig out another grave with a shovel. More beastmen, all half-wolves, came to help him as they buried their kind.
“No.” Logar said as he tested the hole. He stabbed something, then slammed down with the shovel. A moment later, he threw a long dying vine out of the dirt. “The pack carries its own.” He dug a minute longer as two beastmen, heavily scarred and covered in cuts brought forth a corpse. “Bulls bury bulls, bears bury bears, wolves bury wolves.” He pulled himself out of the pit. “You.” He pointed to Lyca. “Impressive, very much, you brought us great pride.” Lyca had forgotten how many times it was that he had heard this already.
“I…” It was one thing to argue or respond with snark. Lyca needed sleep to recharge his snark but who could sleep tonight? They just saw a God die. Fuck.
They just saw a God die.
“Great pride, the first beast in a thousand years to hurt a God.” Logar patted him on the back and indicated to throw the body in. The two wolves got to burying it. “And one of us? Great pride indeed.”
“He’s not for sale.” Eliza said quietly and Logar’s tall ears caught the whisper. He burst out in laughter.
“And found a mate already!” Eliza’s cheeks grew red as her friends turned to look at her.
“I was just saying, he’s not for sale.”
“We would not dare steal Godbiter from you.” He laughed again as the two wolf men finished burying the corpses. The three shared a howl which was picked up by other walking wolves in the fortress. Lyca didn’t know why, but he wanted to join. He just barely had the will to stop himself from. The two burying gave nods of acknowledgement to Lyca as they returned to the fortress to pick up another corpse.
“Do you not feel bad?” Fleur asked.
“Feel bad?” Logar asked. “Why?”
“Why?”
“Because you’ve lost...” Fleur thought for words. “Members of your pack?” Logar merely shrugged.
“We are born in litters. I was born as a part of eight. Two brothers and a sister did not survive the first day. Each hunt, you do not know whether the prey will kill you. They died-” Logar nodded towards the graves in the ground. “So that we could walk another day. Is there sadness? Yes. I wish they could see the pride of having Godbiter among them. But I would not want them to cry for me, and they would not wish the same upon me.”
“Different mentality.” Edmonton said.
“What about you?” Logar said. “This is the first time you’ve killed, how does it feel?” Lyca shrugged.
“I don’t know.” Lyca said. “It feels… I don’t feel anything?” He wasn’t sure of himself.
“It’s like that.” Logar turned to his friends. “And you?” Edmonton merely shrugged.
“Disappointing.” He said. “Too easy.”
“I thought it would be more…” Fleur searched for words again. “There’ll be more to it.” Logar looked to Eliza.
“I was raised on a farm.” She said. “It’s the same as when I saw my father put animals down.” Logar nodded at that and turned back to Lyca.
“She will be good for you. You have the pack’s blessing.” Lyca blinked and sighed again. These jokes were funny at the beginning, now they were just starting to drain on him.
“I didn’t ask for a blessing.” He replied.
“They mean nothing if you have to ask for them.” Logar looked up at the door as the two wolfmen returned. They were carrying another corpse. He got to work digging. “Great pride. Great pride indeed.” And another fucking time. Lyca turned away from the beastmen as a darkfur approached. A beast larger than Logar, with a monstrous head with a maw over spilling with crooked teeth. One arm was wrapped in a bandage, and he took uneven wobbly steps towards them.
“Pack leader calls for you.” He said to Lyca and then turned to the other three. “You too.” Fleur tutted at that as Lyca set off behind the man.
Inside the fortress, there wasn’t a wall without a crack and a splash of blood. The cultivators weaponry was being stocked up in one room but the main corridor leading to Fer’s room was cleared out. It was only a short walk, not deep in the fortress whatsoever. That was good, the air inside smelled as if it could kill a man.
The darkfur walked straight into Fer’s room without knocking, there were no guards about. Everyone was simply helping in the clean up operation. Lyca followed him in full stride. Fer was a different beast entirely compared to Anassa in her library. She was sitting under a series of animal hides and even then, her head was at the height of Lyca’s. Those red eyes were a pale flame now, still warm, but dulled from the defeat at Atis’ hands. The elf was sitting on a chair flicking through a pile of notes. He put them away the moment Lyca stepped in. Eliza was last in. “Leave us.” Fer said to the darkfur. He left immediately, his hoof-trots adding silence to the rush outside.
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The wall in the room had been blasted open to reveal the starry sky and a cool wind came in to blow away the smell of death from within the fort. “We’ve…” Lyca didn’t really know what to say. Talking to Anassa was one thing, but then he hadn’t watched Anassa tear people apart with her bare hands. “We’ve come.”
“Yes. I did call for you.” She looked over to the elf sitting on the chair. Still in that fur coat and those black leather boots. One of the elf’s soldiers had explain to them the concept of a rifle. The elf’s own gun lay behind him, his sword over it. “This man here wanted to talk to you.”
“Yes.” The elf stood up and walked over to Lyca. He extended his arm to shake. Lyca shook it, it was a terribly strong grip. “Out of necessity, we will not exchange names.” He said as he shook hands with the rest of them. “I did not ask Fer about you, apart from your actions here and why you’re here in the first place.”
“I’m Eliza.” Eliza said when she shook hands with the elf.
“Like I said, I will not exchange names, for both our sakes.”
“It’s hard to trust a man who won’t give his name.” Edmonton said.
“Fer trusts me. She trusts you too, that’s more than enough for me.”
“Why?” Edmonton said.
“Why does she trust me?” The elf asked gently.
“Why won’t you give us your name?” The elf sighed.
“I don’t expect you to be spies, but likewise I don’t believe you have indominable will. I don’t hold myself to that standard, so I’m not going to ask.” He went and sat down on his seat. His hand went to the rugs on the floor. “Sit down please, I’m not going to make you stand there.” Lyca went and sat crossed legged. Eliza came close and intertwined her arms around his. Fleur sat in the corner, against the wall. Only Edmonton was left standing. He crossed his arms and leaned against the doorframe.
“So what did you want to talk about?” Edmonton asked. Lyca didn’t care about letting him take the lead. He had been on his feet for at least a full day now. Sitting down seemed to dissipate the remnants of adrenaline in his body.
“I wanted information.” Edmonton smiled, opened his mouth as if to speak but the elf cut him off. “I can very well see your game here. I will not pay you, nor offer you anything for it. We are on the same side.”
“Who decided that?” Edmonton asked. Lyca sighed and squeezed Eliza’s hand. Sometimes, Ed could just be an ass for no reason whatsoever.
“You did, the moment you decided to allow Anassa to gift you with sorcery.” Edmonton thought for a second, he looked over to Lyca, then back to the elf.
“It’s not worth having an argument over.”
“No.” The elf said. “It’s not.”
“So what did you want to know?” Ed asked.
“Where is Anassa?”
“The Divine Library.” Fleur spoke up. “Ed, shut the fuck up for once.”
“I apologize but I’ve never heard of it.” The elf said.
“In Arcadia, there’s a building called the Divine Library.” Fleur explained. “Anassa was locked in there twenty-five years after the great war. I suspect it was a prison. It only became known as the Divine Library in one-oh-one.” The elf raised an eyebrow, his eyes entirely on Anassa.
“How do you know that?”
“I did some research.” Fleur shrugged. “Silly answer but I’m not lying, I confirmed the details with Anassa herself. We only discovered who she was when?” She looked to Edmonton, then Eliza and Lyca.
“Ten days ago? A week maybe?” Lyca answered.
“Just before we set off.” Edmonton added. The elf only nodded.
“And this Divine Librar-“ His words were cut off by Fleur.
“It’s publicly accessible information. Arcadia takes visitors sometimes. I’m sorry, but I don’t know the exact geographical coordinates. Excuse my rudeness, but you should be able to work it out yourself.” The elf chuckled at that.
“Have you ever met Elassa?” He asked.
“We’ve seen her, never spoken to.” Fleur answered.
“How often does she visit Arcadia?” The four looked at each other. Eliza answered this time.
“I’m sorry, but we don’t know.”
“You don’t know?”
“She’s generally always there when something important is happening.” Edmonton said. “But she doesn’t hold classes. She’s a member of the White Pantheon so I assume she’ll be at Olympiada every now and then, but when she’s in her office or when she’s there.” He shrugged.
“I would like to ask a favour.” The elf asked.
“What is it?”
“To deliver a letter.”
“To Anassa I assume?” Edmonton asked.
“I want Eliza to handle it.” The elf pulled it open. “The letter itself is unimportant, but Anassa will like it.” He looked over to the Goddess sitting under her rugs. “Fer put a spell over it, it will burn up if anyone but Anassa opens it.”
“I did.” Fer said. Lyca felt the hairs on his back stand up. Fer was lying. He didn’t know how he could tell, but he simply could. He remained silent. The elf watched him with careful eyes and inclined his head an amount so small, only Lyca could notice the unsaid thank you.
“That is all I have to ask.” The elf stood up. “I thank you for the information. If you stay with Anassa, we’ll meet again. I owe you all a favour.” He left the room without giving them a chance to ask him a question. Heel clicked on corridor, the few moments the door was open, Lyca heard some beastman roar orders.
“That man is a friend.” Fer said as she pulled the blankets around her. “You may stay in the pack as long as you wish, your help was invaluable, all of you, not just Lyca.” Lyca laughed and awkwardly scratched his back to relieve the tension.
“I mean… I got knocked away immediately from what everyone told me. They actually saved you.” Eliza gripped his hand and Fer shook her head. Her golden hair swaying like a lion’s mane.
“You set Atis’ armour on fire. The rifles would have not penetrated that leather. They only got a clean because he took it off.” Fer said. “The wolfmen wish for you to stay, but you should not.”
“Why not?”
“You’re not of the pack yet. Give it a decade, we’ll talk again, I will accept you if you ask, but I would advise against it, you can’t keep up.”
“Yet?” Eliza blurted out and Fer chuckled. Lyca wished she stopped being so obvious about her feelings.
“And you have a lovely girl by your side. She would not be accepted.” Fer said. Lyca nodded and finally asked the question he needed from Fer for in the first place.
“Anassa said I became a werewolf.” Lyca spoke slowly. “Honestly, I have no clue what it means.”
“Two bodies shared in one.” Fer replied. “A body of a beast, and of a man. Interchangeable. You lost control tonight and the wolf overtook you. I assume you tasted blood.” Licking his own red hands were the last things Lyca remembered.
“I did.”
“It sets off the bloodlust. It’s dangerous and uncontrollable. The cycles of the moon affect it too.”
“So will he turn again?” Eliza gripped Lyca’s arms so hard it felt like she was cutting off the blood flow.
“When Anassa sent you here, she said I’d like one of you.” Fer said and laughed, her smile exposed those large fangs of hers. “She was wrong, I like all of you.” Her giggle was entirely unbecoming of a Goddess, it was more of a little girl. “I can give you help, but it’s not something like Anassa’s sorcery. She can awaken it in people like this.” Her hand emerged from the rug and she snapped her fingers. “For me…” Fer tilted her head and thought for a moment. “It’s like raising a child. I can put the child in you, but you have to raise it yourself. It won’t ever be easy, but you’ll get better at it over time.”
“And what is the child?” Lyca asked.
“The child is the combined being, wolf and man in one. Two bodies merged as a whole.”
“Lyca won’t become a beastman?” Eliza exclaimed and Fer laughed again.
“No.” She thought again for a moment. “It’s like armour. Something to take off and put on as the need arises.”
“I see.” Lyca said.
“There is no way to explain it, I can merely lay the seeds for your own growth.”
“But it won’t destroy me?” Lyca asked.
“It can, you failed Anassa’s test so you ended up like this in the first place. This happened a fair amount in the past, but then I had no reason to help out her pet projects.” She shrugged.
“So you’ve never done it before?” Eliza spoke, her tone almost shaking.
“Once, when me and her created the first werewolf. It was to see if we could.”
“And what happened?” Eliza asked.
“The man died in the Great War.”
“Will it work?” Lyca asked.
“It will.” For those words, her tone was so dead set Lyca would have believed if she told him the sun wouldn’t rise tomorrow.
“What will it require?”
“Drinking my blood.” Fer replied.
“When can we do it?”
“Now.” Fer said, then raised an eyebrow. “Are you ready?”
“I am.” Lyca tried to answer with the same level of confidence that Fer had.
“Good. Everyone else should leave. You will hear screams. Do not open the door under any circumstance.” Fer’s eyes grew soft as they moved to Eliza. “And you should give him a kiss.” Eliza’s cheeks grew red, but she didn’t move an inch away from Lyca.
“Why?”
“To give him something to hold onto.”