บท 16: The Middle of The Lie
MOON
The middle-aged woman was called up, and the old woman's body was dragged out of the room. The sound of her body being dragged out the room scraped against the marble floors, causing Zina to flinch.
The Mondem ritual was repeated, and the water of life was given to her. But the woman didn't fall to the ground as the old woman had, perhaps, just perhaps, she was a true seer unlike her predecessor.
The question was asked to her by the Alpha King who now panted hard. So hard that Zina's hearing could easily pick it up. She wasn't so sure the man was in a state to attend the banquet, if anything it seemed like he was on death's door.
"Who shall kill me, and who shall inherit my throne?"
Yet again, those words ghosted over Zina's skin like the whisper of doom. Already, her fingers that held her staff in a deathly tight grip were so white from the lack of proper flow of blood.
The middle-aged Seer seemed to be in a trance-like state where her eyes fluttered open and close. The traditional drums that were hit caused the ground to tremble with anticipation, as all ears strained to hear the words the woman would spew.
Whether it be lies or truth, the anticipation was still the same.
Everyone in the room thought it was ridiculous, and the display, nothing short of barbaric and insensitive, but they couldn't deny their curiosity… the thrill of delving into the world of the unknown.
But the woman said nothing. Instead, looking so out of her mind she slowly lifted a finger.
The movement was languid and suspenseful, causing every breath to hitch. The Alpha King simply stared at the woman, while Prince Daemon's attention was hardly on the woman. No, his attention was elsewhere, and he stared straight at the young seer whose hair billowed all over her, the tresses caressing her flowing white dress.
At first, the young seer seemed oblivious to the heated attention that was yet again on her, afterall, there were many in the room. But then, goosebumps ghosted over her neck, causing her head to tilt in the direction of the man who stared at her.
It was almost like a staring contest. The young seer, looking so mysterious and seemingly blind, and the Alpha Prince, seemingly oblivious to what might be his impending doom.
The middle-aged seer's fingers finally halted in its ascent, finding its mark. But surprisingly, the subject of her pointing wss none other than the Alpha King himself.
In a voice like a shriek that threatened to shatter the windows in the room she screamed, "the Deformed! They are here!! I can see them! Deadly things! Oh, they smell!! Oh, they wrack my body with shivers!"
"What is she saying?"
"Has she lost her mind?"
"Did she even hear the question that was asked?"
"I knew this display was a joke… albeit an ill-conceived one."
On and on the whispers carried on, even as the ghost of the woman's forbidden words descended on them. The Deformed? What a cursed thing to hear about on the Alpha King's birthday banquet.
The woman thrashed violently as the Epsilons tried to hold her down. The Theta, lost for words, said nothing as they all watched the power of the Mondem ritual completely swallow the woman whole till her mind was a scattered, grainy mess.
Control was lost as the middle-aged woman was submerged in the power of a ritual as ancient as Vraga itself. Like a woman possessed, she easily broke free of the control of the Epsilons that purported to hold her down. Fingers still pointing at the king she shrieked,
"They're coming! And not even the almighty Arctic Wolf shall save us all!!!!" She cried out.
The guests angrily started chanting for her to be removed. As far as anyone was concerned, the horrors of the Deformed was a thing that only existed in history books. Monsters that looked half wolf and half human with terrifying red eyes and an ability to steal a man's wolf only existed in the horror stories that were told to children to keep them away from doing bad things.
After the last great purge, they hardly existed anymore. That was what they attempted to convince themselves.
But then, at the same time they all thought of the same thing. Of how the late luna queen died. The monster that was rumoured to have torn her apart. And how her personal guard had come back from the horrible ordeal without his wolf.
The story had been skimmed, no one daring to think much of it… no one daring to dig deeper of it especially in the face of the Alpha King's grief. But it would seem as though that which they had tried to avoid had come back to haunt them.
"I tell you now, you bringer of doom!" the woman billowed in a voice that successfully halted all the commotion about her. This time around, her fingers had left the Alpha KIng and now pointed at Zina.
The voice was unlike hers, it screamed vengeance and doom and even Zina who once stood like a lost pup was forced to actually reckon on what the woman said. Especially since she felt she now spoke to her considering her skin pricked with the unhealthy amount of stare that rested on her.
At the beginning of her blabberings, Zina had neither felt the commotion or panic about her. She had been more concerned about when it would reach her turn and what would be her fate. Although she had to admit that it seemed the woman's visions rang true. Even if it did seem out of place.
But with her next words, Zina tilted her head towards the woman, and actually listened. The ribbon of the blindfold tied to the back of her hair danced with the gust of a strange wind. Her eyes almost dared the woman to speak what it was she wanted to speak of her. Afterall, she had fallen into a mad rampage of spewing visions, she might as well have her fill of it.
Continuing in the same foreign voice, she said, "I see your treachery for what it is, and I shall visit it with the vengeance of a thousand knives burning against your skin."
Zina's full red lips tugged into a hauntingly beautiful smile that sent chills to anyone who dared stare at her. The curve of her lips dared the woman to say more; afterall, of all the things she had been afraid of, visions were not one of them.
The woman's words did not scare her, that was until she called her a name. That name,
"Thralgor, you and I have a debt to settle, and we shall settle it."
The unexpected smile on Zina's lips faltered on hearing the name that her original family had engraved in the staff she clutched onto everyday.
Thralgor…. The abandoned one.
The woman too, heavily exhausted and her strength dissipating into the air collapsed to her death, and no one said a thing as they simply stewed in the two visions she had left them…
… none which answered the agitated Alpha King's question.
And finally, it was the young Seers turn.
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