Chapter 73 - 72. What Happened After

His question gave way to a heavy silence that filled the room. Alana stared at Connor as if he had just spouted nonsense. The woman frowned and exchanged a look with her father.

"What do you mean?" She said as she empathized to show that they were the ones who didn't understand what he said.

Connor rolled his eyes and sighed, he didn't want to be impatient since he still had to wait for the Skinwalkers to lift Glen's curse, but with their attitude and blatant hostility towards him, the agent only had one will, to leave this place as quickly as possible.

"I already told it, but I guess that once more it needed. I didn't know I had a connection to your clan until a few hours ago, so there's no way I have access to information regarding your clan."

"But that doesn't make sense!" Alana commented, as she still suspected Connor was faking.

"And why wouldn't that make sense? I told you my grandmother never spoke of her clan. I was convinced to be a simple civilian and, trust me, I would have preferred to be!"

"It doesn't make sense, because even if you didn't know who they were, you were with a Soul Healer. Why didn't you explain anything to them, Guardian? "

Heads snapped all at once to the old woman who was standing silently in the room.

Since what had happened in the forest, The Elder was lost. Defenseless against the power of the alpha, she hadn't been able to do anything to prevent him from approaching Eden and if the mates hadn't calmed down on their own, the result would have been obvious.

She, who had come thinking of being of any help to those who had received the blessing of the Moon Goddess, had proved useless. Worse still, she had been a dead weight.

Feeling the eyes staring at her, the Elder snapped out of her thoughts and looked up at Alana whose eyes were shooting daggers. The young woman had the same accusing eyes as earlier in the forest.

"Guardian, did you explain to the mates who they were and what fates awaited them?"

The old woman frowned. Just from her expression, the chief of the Skinwalkers understood that the woman had no idea what they were talking about, but he needed to be sure.

"You know they were chosen by our Goddess. Did you tell them that they will to have to fight against Her?"

"Her? A battle? Excuse me, but what and who are you talking about?"

Chief Elias Crimson nodded at his wife and before Connor could react, the witch muttered incomprehensible words. A circle of energy formed on the ground around the Soul Healer.

The old werewolf looked at the line of equal thickness. She guessed what it was. She tried to step over the circle, but an invisible barrier prevented her from continuing. She was a prisoner inside the circle. The Elder recoiled and winced as the backlash of the barrier sent a slight jolt back to her.

Connor reacted and was already grabbing a dagger to attack, but the Soul Healer's voice stopped him.

"No! Wait!" The Elder turned to the Chief and his daughter. "Why this barrier? What do you suspect me of?"

"Why did you hide what you know and come all the way here with the King, the Warrior, and this young man? What are your intentions?"

As he spoke, his wife started mumbling again and runes appeared all around the circle that imprisoned the old werewolf. The symbols began to shine with an almost blinding light before gradually diminishing. The witch then turned to her husband.

"There are no traces of curses on her and I don't feel any…" She stopped mid-sentence. Elias took a step towards approaching the Soul Healer, but Silphie raised a hand to stop him.

"There is a spell that has been placed on her. It's not a curse, but a seal. It looks like something has been sealed inside her. No… It's…" Her eyes widened slightly and the witch briskly stepped towards the grey-haired werewolf. Her hand easily passed through the barrier she had put in place and her index finger touched the Soul Healer's forehead. She mumbled another word and the Soul Healer froze, her mouth ajar.

Connor's eyes couldn't see what was happening, but the witch and the Skinwalkers saw a ball of black energy rise above the werewolf's head and then burst to release bright particles that returned to the Soul Healer's head.

Silphie took a step back and addressed her.

"Someone had sealed away a portion of your memory. Tell us what you see, don't forget any details."

The Elder's voice was hesitant and her gaze stared into space as if recalling something and recounting it at the same time.

"I'm at home in Little Soul. It's been a few weeks since the Master took me under his care and I thought he was starting to trust me, but these days he's been acting weird. It's a moonless night and I woke up because I couldn't sleep. There is an abnormal noise in one of the rooms. No. This is the study.

I walk forward and notice that the door is ajar and the noise is getting louder. Someone is destroying something inside. There is also the sound of pages being torn and... I hear the crackling fire. I approach and I see that my Master is destroying the archives. Half of the shelves have been emptied and the floor is strewn with ledgers whose pages have been torn out."

Elias Crimson cursed between his teeth and his wife shook her head to calm him down.

"Do you know what's in those books?"

"Yes, my Master has explained to us that these are very important stories and, when the time comes, they will help us to protect the… the King?"

She had spoken those last words as a question. The old werewolf seemed unsure of her own words.

"A King will be born. No…" Her head turned to Eden who was lying on the ground. "The heir will bear the mark of the Moon Goddess. An aura brighter and more powerful than any other werewolf, and a golden fur."

A gasp escaped her mouth as she realized. "My Master… It's him. The one who destroyed the archives is him."

Connor who was watching the scene wasn't sure how to react. He heard what the old woman was saying. In his eyes, the Elder had just undergone a kind of hypnosis. Not seeing the energy flows, he only knew what the witch explained. She was recalling memories that had been imprisoned by a spell.

"Why would the former Soul Healer Elder do such a thing?" Elias thundered, shivering in anger.

"He wasn't in his right mind." The silver-haired werewolf answered him. "There were streams of dark energy around him and when he turned to me, his eyes were black as two abysses."

"It's Her mark." Alana intervened. "How could she come into contact with the Guardians and possess an Elder?"

"She is even more powerful than we expected. And if the King is born, it means the battle will be soon."

Connor watched their exchange and rubbed his temples before taking a breath.

"Are you going to tell me what's going on? For a while now you have been doing I don't know what and talking about I don't know who. What did you do to Oldie? What are these King and Warrior stuffs? And more importantly, when are you going to lift the curse from Glen's body?"

Silphie mumbled again, and this time the barrier and the runes that shone on the ground gradually faded before disappearing.

The Soul Healer suddenly felt tired and staggered. The witch approached just in time to hold her back.

"Sorry, this spell drains a lot of aura, but we had to understand the situation and why you didn't seem to understand us. Thanks to you, I think we have a pretty complete picture of what happened."

"There are several memories that come back to me little by little. Stories that I have read in the records that have disappeared, but also everything that My Master had taught me. Everything is confusing, but I now know why Skinwalkers live in seclusion today. I also know… that She is stronger than ever and that She will do everything to destroy us."

Connor listened to the words and growled when Alana interrupted him.

"We will explain everything, but we have to hurry. The Warrior is marked and he must mark the King on the next Moon. I warn you of one thing. We can't lift the curse."

"What?"

The agent and the Soul Healer spoke at the same time. He had come this far, all this to learn that the clan was useless. Connor clenched his fists in frustration.

"We cannot lift the curse. Only Her death can do that. Nevertheless, we can cut the connections she has with the part of her aura left inside the Warrior's body…"

"Gleen!" The agent shouted, taking everyone by surprise. "It's Glen, not The Warrior! He's not the Warrior. I don't know what role you want him to play, but don't treat him like a nameless tool! His name is Glen Red Creeks. I grew up with him and he's my best friend and my family so…" The man's voice trailed off. "Don't tell me you can't do anything. Do something."

"What right do you have to speak to us in this tone when you are only an outsider!" Alana retorted, but her mother's hand landed on her shoulder and stopped her.

The young woman turned to her and gritted her teeth as the woman shook her head asking her to calm down.

"We will explain everything to you." She laid eyes on the two werewolves who were still sleeping.

"Only the Guardians are supposed to know this part of the history of our two Races. It's some security we've put in place so that what happened to her will never happen again."

"Since a while ago you haven't stopped talking about Her, but who is that person exactly?"

"She…" The witch lowered her head sadly and Elias continued in her place.

"She is the result of our failure. We, Skinwalkers and Werewolves. We failed in our duty to protect her from those who coveted the power of our clan. She is the daughter of the first Alpha and the first Luna.

"Who coveted your power?"

"Do you know the story of the union between the daughter of the Blue Moon Tribe's leader and the alpha of Bloodhood?"

"Yes, Oldie told us on the way. Your ability to transform into wolves would come from a blessing from the Goddess after their union." Connor said as his voice was back to his usual tone.

"Indeed, the Goddess gave us this gift to celebrate the union between the couple. The pack and the tribe had become closer than ever, many saw in the success of the trial, the advent of a new era.

Twins were born. Moon and Light. It's said that the two sisters were bewitchingly beautiful and their aura was even more powerful than that of their parents. The tribe continued to expand its territory and easily repelled its opponents. The pack helped him whenever enemies tried to attack the tribe.

No one thought that would change. After all, we had the blessing of the Goddess and the power to transform ourselves into wolves capable of defeating our enemies. There was also the support of the pack which was of great power. But one day, a man broke into the tribe and Light disappeared." The man paused.

"They took advantage of the absence of the pack and the Skinwalker Warriors went to war to send a man to the tribe. Those who were there couldn't do anything, and the man took Light away."

"Why kidnap a child?"

"Moon and Light were to reach adulthood and, per the Goddess' instructions, they were to perform a ceremony to renew the Goddess' blessing so that our people could retain their ability to transform.

Many enemies had been defeated by Blue Moon and knew their power."

"They kidnapped her so they could gift their men with the Goddess' power," Connor muttered. He understood what had happened.

"Yes, that was their goal. They wanted to defeat Blue Moon at all costs and for them, the best way was to fight on equal terms. They abducted Light and forced her to perform the ritual on their tribe.. Unfortunately, the ceremony didn't go as they hoped."