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7.2% The Alpha's Blind Fate / Chapter 17: The End Of The Lie

章 17: The End Of The Lie

MOON

Once the blind girl was called upon, a smile tugged at Prince Daemon NorthSteed's lips. It looked awry, and equal parts of anticipation mixed with an aged suspense.

The girl, who was called Zina WolfKnight, guided herself forward with her staff. It was a wonder how every emotion was wiped off her face. Like a blind canvass, instead of looking scared, her demeanour demanded that all in the room be scared of her instead.

And perhaps they were, by her haunting and captivating appearance. But they pretended not to have any fear as they whispered amongst themselves,

"The WolfKnights? Who are they? The name sounds familiar."

And the response was, "A once great pack that was ravaged during the great purge. Now, all that is left of the pack are beasts who purport to take their name."

Zina heard it all, but her anger was not stoked. Like a rigid thing… no, like a lamb on its way to the slaughterhouse, Zina prayed that when the guilt eventually came, that it should be enough to kill her.

There was no way she could purport to live after this.

Or better still, the Mondem ritual should find her unworthy, and the water of life should take her life. If she died, she supposed her pack would be set free as there would be no use to keeping them anymore.

The drums were hit anew, and the Mondem ritual started.

A ritual to force a specific vision.

Zina recollected how in the first woman's case it had murdered her for the sole reason that she was a fake seer. In the second woman's case, it had completely engulfed her in the madness of seeing visions, and the woman's life too was taken away from her in the insanity of everything.

Zina wondered what her story would be like? In all cases it seemed that death was the final answer….

….Only death.

While she mused about it, the feeling of letting go and breaking into a dance overwhelming her, her spectators looked on with anticipation… for no matter how much they tried to act like they detested the play, they were in fact wound up from anticipation of it.

Like watching a bloody play come to its end, the tension in the room was particularly high… so much so that even Zina could taste it.

The same way she tasted the Water of Life the moment the bland liquid touched her lips. If Zina expected it to have any unique taste, her expectations were for naught as the liquid was just tasteless… much like water.

Except unlike water, the liquid caused her to feel strange, as if she was floating in the air. The spectators looked on to her with anticipation. Then the Alpha King prowled closer to her, his yellow eyes more yellow for more than one reason.

The Alpha King rested his eyes squarely on the girl who was obviously an aberrant. Knowing fully well that she could not feel the power of his wolf, he still very well growled his intention to receive the truth, his voice conveying the same question he had already asked two times that night.

"Tell me girl, who intends to kill me? And who intends to usurp my throne?"

Zina was still for some time, not because she couldn't speak, but because the lie was very well at the tip of her lips, ready to be told.

The so-called true vision the Mondem ritual and the Water of Life were supposed to force from her were nowhere to be found. The only image that assaulted her was that of the young Daemon bleeding before a throne.

And after that vision was a vision that her own mind had conjured on its accord to remind her of what was at stake…

….an image of her family and pack of twenty-four dying and bleeding while their dead eyes were upturned to her in a manner that would haunt her forever. 

It was time to choose the lesser evil, Zina guessed. And now, she knew what it would mean for her… and that was nothing but her own doom.

Shoulders squared, her ghostly white hair dancing about her in tune with the gust of cold wind that blew through the open windows, Zina opened her lips,

"The time of the Arctic Wolf is nigh." she said, confusing both herself and the guests.

"What?" The Theta asked slowly, staring at the girl who she knew would come that night. The Theta supposed she should be happy though, if no one was able to answer the Alpha's question then she might be able to retain her position.

But she also knew deep down within her that her situation was far more precarious than that. The moon goddess had cursed her too, and her death was going to happen that night. No matter how much she attempted to wiggle out of it, hers was a sealed fate.

All she could do was look onto that girl who seemed to be the last silver lining in what could mean doom for all of Vraga. Whatever the young seer would say that night and how she would say it would decide the fate of many high ranking packs.

Zina on her own part was surprised that she wasn't dead yet. She had decided to start off spewing nonsense in an attempt to test her fate and sound so mighty. Although it wasn't exactly nonsense as she was simply leaning on what the middle-aged seer had said to the Alpha King earlier.

It could be said that she was cursing the Alpha King, but at that point she didn't really care. The man had brought it to himself by wanting his son dead.

In the same mysterious and eerie voice, Zina continued, pointing her staff at the Alpha King who stood directly before her, "The time of the Arctic Wolf will come to an end, and the DireWolf shall take his place."

The intended meaning of her words became so painfully obvious as she spoke the words. The Young Seer, unlike her predecessors, had given a name to the Alpha King. And while it was an answer alright, it was coined in a way that was greatly unsatisfying.

Afterall, for who else if not Daemon NorthSteed was the blood of the ancient, extinct DireWolf?


next chapter

章 18: The DireWolf Shall Take His Place

MOON

The time of the Arctic Wolf is nigh.

Since time immemorial, the white wolf had always protected the North. Once thought to be extinct, it had been a blessing when Alpha Xavier of the NorthSteed pack had come to possess the pureblooded supreme wolf— a feat not even his recent ancestors could come about as they only managed to possess the mixed blood arctic wolf.

But Alpha Xavier had done it, thus, reinforcing the flag of the Arctic Wolf that united the Packs in the North. Under that one flag, they successfully resisted enemies, made their lands prosperous, and became one of the mightiest regions in Vraga.

But in one night, the young Seer, Zina had all but declared that the position was one that would change course soon. That instead of the Arctic Wolf, the DireWolf would take his place.

The problem with that theory was the fact that no direwolf existed. The mighty Were that once swept through all the regions of Vraga had ceased to exist for centuries. Indeed, the late Luna Queen was a descendant of said line, but even her wolf and her father's, and her father's father's were ordinary.

Even her brother, the current Alpha Direwolf who paraded the name was no less a yellow stone pretending to be gold.

And yet, when the young seer spoke of the DireWolf, all eyes turned to Prince Daemon NorthSteed for they all knew the same thing that the Alpha King knew of… that Daemon was no ordinary shifter.

For when the Late Luna Queen had met her untimely strange demise twenty-two years ago, and everyone thought that the child in her womb would die naturally with her. A small claw had ripped open the Luna's belly, revealing a baby that neither cried or bawled… the child only stared with dark eyes, his small body cradled in a puddle of his mother's flesh and blood.

The shock was so bad that the Alpha King had roared his grief for losing his mate, refusing to acknowledge his son. And that night, when the former Theta was called upon to explain why such a horrible tragedy had befallen his true mate within the walls of his castles, the Theta had only left him six horrible words shrouded as a prophecy,

'For greatnesses birth, death must pay.'

That night, the Theta had died mysteriously, and the Alpha King never forgot the prophecy. Like a nightmare, it haunted him. Afterall, what kind of greatness could warrant the sacrifice of the one woman he truly loved.

"What Direwolf?" The Alpha king asked, staggering beneath the power of Zina WolfKnight's words. Young as she was, in that moment, her words held so much power over him… the power of the tongue.

The shrewd, wicked smile did not leave the young seer's lips. Then, every attention was now on her. The only seer who seemed to be finally uttering an answer to the Alpha King's query. For the fact that she had not yet staggered under the potency of the water of life, she had to be speaking the truth.

Her staff still pointing at the Alpha King, Zina continued, "You know him better than I do." She simply said leading him on by the very illusion he wanted to believe. And since he wanted to believe so much, Zina would let him have it.

The Alpha King stiffened, "Be clear!" He growled, his patience nonexistent.

Zina knew the time to properly perform her role had come. Tracing the heated stare that ghosted her skin, she blindly walked to where she believed Daemon NorthSteed sat, causing all in the room to splutter in surprise.

Even if she were not truly blind, there was no way she could have seen through her blindfolds. And yet, it would seem to all that she properly traced the one that she referred to as the DireWolf.

They all looked on until she was standing in front of the true blood prince of the Late Luna Queen. Her posture held no fear, and Daemon who once wore a look of amusement now looked serious… his dark eyes particularly intense as they rested on the woman before him.

The same strange staff was now pointed at him as the girl said in the same mysterious voice, "Prince Daemon NorthSteed, fourth legitimate son of the Alpha King, born in the year of the Direwolf, and twenty-two years old is the one who shall kill, and the one who shall usurp your throne!" Zina screamed at the end, tears burning at her eyes.

She hardly ever cried, and yet then, she was more than grateful for the blindfolds that covered her eyes and the shame that probably burned through it.

The room was silent for five seconds after her treacherous declaration before it erupted into a noise like no other.

"How dare you!" Yaren NorthSteed screamed from where he sat with the guests. As an illegitimate son he was not allowed to sit with the rest of the princes. "She spews lies! Nothing but lies!"

Zina no longer heard anything. In her head, she had receded at a place where no one would reach her. In a place where only her conscience flogged her. A horrible haven.

"Your majesty! You must execute the prince and protect the path of the Arctic Wolf!"

"Surely your majesty, you will not believe such lies spewed against Prince Daemon?!"

"Your majesty! Treachery must not be allowed to infest! Especially where the source is in the family no less!!"

"Do you purport to doubt the efficacy of the Water of Life?! This great seer has spoken! And such treachery must not be left!!"

"Enough!" The Alpha King roared as a splitting headache came over him. He had been growing weaker and weaker, but that night, the feeling of weakness was particularly daunting.

Facing his only son from his destined mate, he asked. "I shall make you a final offer. For your wolf to defeat mine since you purport to take my throne!"

The atmosphere grew even more stifling. The king might as well have asked Daemon to commit suicide as there was no way an ordinary grey wolf could go against the white Arctic Wolf.

Daemon merely appraised Zina whose face was even more ghostly than usual, "Since the great seer has spoken," he said with voice laced with sarcasm, "I shall of course, have no objections."

Yaren screamed, "Daemon! You must not admit to such falsehood!" To Zina, he said in a voice that dripped with all the hatred in the world, "I knew it from the first time I saw you that you were terrible news!"

"Someone should escort Yaren out." Moorim said coolly, "it would seem as though his overwhelming love for Prince Daemon confuses his thoughts!"

Yaren growled, half-shifting as the Epsilons approached him to take him away. They cowered back, knowing that he was a mad man, and his black wolf, an even crazier Were.

Everything was happening so fast, many chanting for Daemon's death, and many chanting that it should not be.

Daemon looked at his father, the man who had always hated him, and smiled bitterly. The girl before him was still so pale, and he had an idea that perhaps it was not her real complexion.

Lowly, he whispered to her, "Tell me Great Seer," he drawled with a voice that caused Zina, who thought she was far into her mind to hear anything, to stagger back, "are all you said true?"

There was sarcasm laced to his words, and they were almost daring Zina. Like the whisper of something that would bite her back terribly.

"It is what it is." Zina simply answered, greatly surprised at how firm her voice was.

In a voice loud enough for all in the room to hear her, Zina spoke, "his death is not for any of you to demand."

The commotion halted and all eyes turned to her. Zina supposed since they called her a Great Seer, she might as well take advantage of that fact. She was asked to tell a lie, and not to kill a person.

Pretending the role of the mysterious one. Zina willed a smug smile to tug on her lips. "The goddess does not yet demand his head to roll."

"Then what does the goddess demand?!" A voice screamed from the guest.

Zina thought about it hard, Daemon's supposed sins were mighty and she could not pretend to demean it. But then, she remembered the first blood that was spilled in that room.

"The moon goddess demands that his death be meaningful. Send him to quell the tension with the Arising Rogues...alone." Zina said coldly.

Alas, humanity was even farther from her

Yaren growled ferociously, attempting to reach her and perhaps, gouge her eyes out. This time, Moorim stepped in, subduing him.

"You might as well ask him to die now! The arising rogues are big enough to demand that the five regions quell it together! And yet you ask only one man to do it?!"

"It is what the goddess demands."


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