Chapter 426: The Storm of Songs

Faint hues of gold streaked across the night sky, hailing the imminent dawn. The view from the mountain summit was breathtaking. The city of Evenfall was sprawled below and the trees of Vulture Woods spread out from the base of the mountain like a sea of scarlet. The neighboring mountains stretched to the north and south in what seemed to be an unending path that disappeared in the horizon.

Built at the very top of the mountain, the Eye of the Moon was the most sacred place of the Celestial Shrine. The greatest of the Sylvan’s warriors and leaders had come here in the past in search of clarity from the world below. It was a place to clear one’s mind and gather one’s thoughts, and hopefully, find a bit of wisdom.

For the first time in his life, as Stryg sat at the Eye of the Moon, he felt something he had never before. He felt like the greatest failure the Sylvan had ever known.

Stryg sat at the edge of the mountaintop, his legs hanging off the cliff, his arms resting on his thighs, and his head bowed, staring into the long drop below. He wondered if a goblin had ever climbed up here and accidentally fallen off. Perhaps such a goblin would be labeled a greater fool than he, probably not.

“Don’t lean forward like that. You don’t want to tumble over,” Tauri warned.

Stryg slowly glanced back at her with a tired gaze. “I wouldn’t die.” He raised his hand as if to prove his point and an outline of yellow scales wrapped around his blue skin in an instant.

“Ah, right. It must be convenient to be a Yellow,” she sighed. “You could step in front of an arrow and you wouldn’t even have a scratch.”

“I still can’t fly though.”

“You will, someday. I’m sure you’ll get the hang of it.”

Stryg sighed and grabbed the silver pendant hanging from his neck. He stared at the opal stone embedded at its center, the symbol of his omni-chromatic powers. “I am a master prime mage trained by some of the greatest mages in the realm and despite all that power and knowledge I still can’t cast a spell that most yellow mages of my caliber have already mastered. I feel like I’m always coming up short no matter what I do and not matter how hard I try.”

“Well, most yellow mages of your caliber don’t have to master nine other colors, or weigh as much as three men, or one really fat man,” she smirked.

“What’s your point?”

“My point is that you keep comparing yourself to others without taking into account that you’ve had to face different challenges than any one of them.” She stepped up behind him, grabbed him by the shoulders, and looked down at him with a stern gaze, “My point is that you have to stop being so hard on yourself. You got hit, so what? Shake it off and get back up. I thought the Sylvan warriors would have taught you that by now.”

“That’s easier said than done,” he muttered.

She frowned with a grumble. “Well, it’s getting cold up here, so why don’t you brood indoors, preferably next to a fire and a blanket.”

He sighed, “…I think I’d like that.”

He had to admit snuggling next to Tauri with a warm blanket did seem quite nice right about now. If only to forget about how utterly bizarre and terrible the last few days had been.

“Stryg! What are you still doing up here?” First Mother called out.

If only…

“Mother,” he acknowledged with a grim expression.

“You’ve been up here for hours. The time for paying respects to the Mother Moon and pondering the mysteries of the Null Realms is over.” Aurelia clapped her hands, “Enough is enough. Get up and head back down before you get frostbite.”

“Actually, we were about to head down,” Tauri explained hastily.

“I’d rather stay here,” Stryg interrupted with a frown.

“Excuse me?” Aurelia glared at him. “You have no such right. Virella was gracious enough to let you step into the Eye of the Moon, but this place is reserved for special rites and sacred meditation, not for a man sulking like a petulant child because of one setback.”

“Hey guys!” Plum ran up the steps, holding a steaming cup in her hands. “The Silver Mother just made tea, and it’s the best drink I’ve ever—!”

“One setback?” Stryg jumped to his feet.

Plum took a step back. “Um, am I interrupting something—?”

“One setback!?” Stryg yelled. “The largest army the realm has ever seen is coming to kill my friends and family! And I’ve wasted the last few days in the hopes of trying to convince the Lunar Elect— people I looked up to my entire life—to help, and for what!? To be ridiculed and mocked in front of all the tribes? It was a mistake to come here. I should have gone to warn my friends the moment I encountered Marek’s soldiers.”

“I agree,” Aurelia said coldly. “You should have gone to warn your friends. I told you not to come here, but crying over your mistakes now will not help anyone.”

“Crying?” Stryg scowled.

“You need to be realistic about your next plan of action,” Aurelia said without missing a beat.

“Realistic?”

“Yes, your plan failed, the Lunar Elect won’t listen. That doesn’t mean you’ve failed to save your friends. When dawn comes, ride to Hollow Shade and warn whomever you can. Save the few lives you can. And once you have, abandon that city as fast as you can.”

“Yes, that must come easy to you,” he sneered.

“What did you just say?” Aurelia raised her eyebrow.

Tauri grabbed his shoulder, “Stryg, don’t. This isn’t the time—”

He shook her off and stomped towards Aurelia. “It must be easy for you, to just accept your failure and throw away all responsibility for your mistakes. Isn’t that what you’ve always done? 21 years ago, did you stand right here and look down the mountain, right before you abandoned this place and never looked back?”

Aurelia narrowed her eyes, “I’d be very careful with your next words.”

Stryg scoffed and smiled angrily. He rubbed his hand over his chin and nodded thoughtfully, “Careful, hm? Okay. Then tell me, was it hard to lie to me all these years?”

“My past at Evenfall are my own affairs and it has nothing to do with a brat like you. So stay out of it,” she growled.

“Bullshit!” he screamed.

Aurelia’s form blurred and in a flash. She slammed Stryg into the wall and lifted him up by the collar of his tunic. “You don’t get to speak to me like that,” she hissed.

“Tell me I’m wrong,” he whispered. “Look me in the eyes and tell me none of this has anything to do with me. Tell me the truth… Mom.”

Aurelia's eyes widened and a hollow sound escaped her lips. Her grip loosened and she stumbled back. She rounded on Plum, rage burning in her yellow eyes. “You—!”

Plum paled in horror and fell back, her arms held over her face, “I didn’t say anything!”

Tauri hurriedly stepped in between them. “Please, wait. This doesn’t need to turn violent.”

“So you were a part of this? I should have known,” Aurelia snarled.

“Leave them out of this! I figured it out myself.” Stryg drew Krikolm and ran his hand across the scarlet blade, “After I bonded with the sword it showed me glimpses, memories of its past wielders. I saw Veres the First and his son Callum. I saw every Veres that had ever carried Krikolm, including Stryga Veres, my ancestor. Our ancestor.”

Aurelia turned to him, worry in her eyes, “Stryg, you don’t know what you’re talking about—”

“Last night, I asked you why you named me after the Bane of Lunis and you told me that it didn’t matter; all that mattered was that I was Stryg of the Blood Fang tribe, child of the scarlet forest and the Sylvan folk. You told me that was who I am and that was enough. And I believed you. I believed you.” Stryg clenched his fists tights and closed his eyes, tears streaming down his cheeks. “But you lied to me, it’s not enough.”

Aurelia stared at the ground and sighed deeply.

“Why don’t you say something? Say something!” Stryg roared in a hoarse voice.

She slowly looked up at him, her expression tired. “What is there to say?”

He bit his trembling lip, “Was any of it true? Was anything you told me ever true? Was I born on a new moon? Was I even a bad omen?”

She turned away. “You were… unfortunately.”

“And my father? The story you told me about how my parents met one night during a full moon celebration and never saw each other again, was that true?”

“Your father…” Aurelia sighed tiredly, “Your father was an outsider from the Scarlet Realm.”

Stryg blinked. “He was an orc?”

“No. He was different and he was the most beautiful person I’ve ever met,” she said bitterly. “And we did meet at the full moon celebration, but I didn’t sleep with him. In fact, we barely even spoke that night.”

“Then how…? I thought you hated outsiders. I thought they were treated like prisoners in Evenfall?”

“All that is true, but your father— was the exception. He was different, he wasn’t interested in fighting, yet there was no one who could defeat him, not even Arden stood a chance. Your father seemed curious about everything; he was always asking questions, yet he seemed to know more than anyone in the room. I had never met anyone like him. He always seemed free from it all, the honor of the warrior, the petty squabbles of the tribes, the Lunar Elects’ politics, or even the responsibilities that I had chained myself to. I envied him and I loved him. And then… then he was gone.”

“Is he dead?” Stryg whispered.

Aurelia scoffed wryly, “I hope so, but I doubt it.”

“Did you leave Evenfall because of him? …Or because of me?”

Aurelia looked sharply at him. “What?”

“At the tribunal chamber you told the council that you left Evenfall because of a mistake 21 years ago, one you refused to admit. Am I your mistake?” he asked with a trembling voice.

Aurelia reached out and touched his wet cheek, and smiled weakly, “Oh, Stryg, you were never my mistake. Falling in love with your father was the mistake.”

“That’s the same thing!” Stryg pulled back.

“No, it isn’t.”

“If you had never fallen in love with him I’d never have been born!”

“Stryg, it’s more complicated than that and you know it.”

“I don’t know anything! You’ve lied to me my whole life!” he yelled.

“Stryg, when I got pregnant I had to abandon everything I had worked so hard for. But I didn’t need to stay pregnant. There are ways, certain potions a red mage can create to end a pregnancy early.”

“What are you saying…?”

“I’m telling you I stood on this mountaintop wondering if I should keep the baby or not.” Aurelia closed her eyes and tried to steady her breaking voice, “In the end, I gave up on my dreams, my friends, my tribe, everything. You have no idea what it took to walk away from my entire life, how close I was to ending it all!”

“So you resent me for costing you everything?” he mumbled, ashamed.

“No,” she shook her head vehemently and grabbed his hands, “No. I’m saying that if I had to do it all over again, I wouldn’t change a thing, do you hear me? Not a thing. You are the only good that came out of my mistakes.”

“Then why?” he cried. “Why didn’t you ever tell me? What did I do that was so wrong that you refused to acknowledge me?”

“Stryg… It wasn’t about you. I had oaths… I couldn’t tell you, even if I wanted to.”

“Oaths? What do oaths have to do with family? Do you think I stood up against the Lunar Elects because of oaths? I stood ready to fight, ready to die, because they were going to execute you! My tribe’s First Mother, my mother! I’d have fought for you, oaths be damned! If you gave me the command I would have fought the whole world for you! I’d have fought for you!” Stryg stepped back, his voice hoarse, “So why couldn’t you fight for me?”

Aurelia stared at the ground, unable to meet his heartbroken gaze, “Stryg… I—”

“Just go. Please, just go,” he whispered and sat back down at the edge of the cliff, his head bowed, and his back turned away from them.

With tears in her eyes, Aurelia reached out to him, then stopped, and slowly turned around and walked away.

Plum glanced between Tauri and Stryg worriedly. Tauri shook her head silently and dragged her back down to the temple.

Stryg waited until he heard the sound of the gates closing behind them before he took a deep shuddering breath and broke down into tears. He wailed in the darkness before dawn, in the shadow of the mountain, and in his own grief.

He cried until his breath became sputtering gasps and his tears froze in the cold wind. He cried until his throat burned and his voice grew raw. He cried until Plum asked, “You done?”

Stryg looked up, surprised. The drow was leaning on a nearby boulder, fiddling with her glasses.

“H-How? How long have you been standing there?”

“I never left.”

Stryg scoffed weakly, “And here I thought you’d be sitting next to a fire with Tauri drinking that delicious tea.”

“I’ve never much liked tea.” She slipped her glasses into her pocket and walked up next to him. “And I'd rather sit with you, do you mind?”

He sniffed and rubbed his eyes. “No.”

She plopped down next to him, but she didn’t look at him. She simply stared at the sun rising in the east above the scarlet forest, painting Vulture Woods in hues of bright warm reds.

She sighed in contentment, “It really is beautiful.”

“The view?” he mumbled.

“The sunrise. I never tire of it. Do you?”

“It hurts my eyes. My irises usually break apart and expand when I stare too long at it. Not a pleasant experience.”

“Ah, right. I suppose you prefer the moon then, what with all that Sylvan stuff, hm?” Plum nudged his shoulder with hers playfully.

“Heh, yeah, maybe,” he chuckled softly.

“...You want to talk about it?”

Stryg sighed and his shoulders slumped. “Was it all meaningless? Coming here, I mean. I feel like I just wasted everyone’s time and put you all at risk.”

“Maybe you did, waste everyone’s time I mean. You certainly put many people’s lives at risk. But was it all meaningless? I’d say that’s up to you. We give our moment’s meaning, not the other way around.”

“You’re not angry at me? I could have just taken you to Hollow Shade and instead, I dragged you across the forest and almost got you killed on not one, but two mountains.”

“Meh,” she shrugged. “It’s not all bad. Not even this whole situation with the Lunar Elect.”

He raised his eyebrow, “What makes you say that?”

“Well, think about it. Even if the Lunar Elect had given you the thousand warriors you’d still be unable to evacuate the thousands of more goblins living in Holo's Shade. The commoners living in the city would die, along with the thousand Sylvan warriors and probably the rest of the city’s armies.”

“I mean, we’d at least put up a fight,” he said defensively. “Maybe with the right tactics we could—”

Plum gave him a side-eye glance, “Stryg, there are over 20,000 soldiers marching towards Holo’s Shade as we speak. Do you really think you’d claim victory?”

He hung his head in defeat, “No, I guess not…”

“Hey, cheer up, at least you won’t have to die with all of them. At least half of those Holo’s Shaders don’t even like you.”

“It’s not about me.”

“Hm?”

“It’s not about me. It’s about everyone else living there.”

“Right,” she nodded as if remembering. “Feli, was it? And that vampire girl you seem so fond of.”

“It’s not just them either, I’ve made friends, people I can’t— I won’t abandon.” Stryg clasped his hands together and smiled faintly, “There’s this baby, Kamilo, he’s not even a year old… His father was Clypeus Gale. I don’t deserve to be in that little boy’s life, but his mother, Nora, deigned me worthy of being his uncle.”

“When I looked into his eyes,” Stryg recalled, “They were purple, not pale like mine, but they were still purple. He’s a hybrid like me. And I don’t want him to grow up in a world that makes him feel like he isn’t enough, because I know from the moment he was born, he was enough. I swore I would never abandon him, that he would never be alone, and I intend to keep that promise.”

“Holo’s Shade is a graveyard, its people just don’t know it yet,” Plum warned.

“Even still, I’m not leaving them to die, not alone.”

“You’d give up on your dreams? Risk everything, for a promise to a baby?”

“What do dreams matter if all you care for is gone?”

Plum’s eyes widened in realization, “You really love this hybrid child, don’t you? Even though you’ve barely known him for a small fraction of your life.”

“It’s odd, I know,” he scratched his cheek abashedly. “I don’t expect you to understand.”

“No, I think I do,” Plum said dryly. She glanced at the sunrise and her expression grew solemn, “You know, if you go back there you’ll be facing the largest army in the realm accompanied by ancient monsters quite possibly capable of destroying even the shade walls. Holo’s Shade will fall, there is nothing you can do to stop it.”

“I know,” he sighed. “It’s hopeless, but even if I’m alone, I’ll fight to defend them.”

Her lips twitched in a small smile of disbelief, “You’d march into a hopelessly outmatched battle? All alone?”

He chuckled, “It sounds like something you would do, doesn’t it? I guess I’m the fool this time.”

Plum leaned back, stretched her arms, and groaned comfortably, “Mm, that settles it then.”

She pushed herself to her feet and dusted off her pants.

Stryg cocked his head to the side. “Settles what?”

Without a word, she flicked him on the forehead.

“Ow!” he winced.

She smirked, “That you are still without a doubt a tedious little baby.”

“Is that right…?” he rubbed his forehead and looked at her, startled. It stung more than he’d like to admit.

“It is. And you were wrong about one thing.”

He frowned, “What might that be?”

Her blue eyes turned silver and she smiled wide. “You are not alone, little one.”

Plum’s body shimmered with brilliant silver light and faded away in a cloud of frost-mist. There stood a wolf larger than any frost-wolf Stryg had ever seen. Pristine white fur shining in the rays of the rising sun. Ancient silver eyes glimmering from a light deep within.

Lunae raised her head and howled to the dawn sky. Her deep rumbling voice resounded from the mountaintop, the ground itself trembling at her song. And a thousand howls answered her call in a storm of songs.

Stryg sat on the ground, eyes round in shock, his mouth hanging agape. “W-Wha… What— uagh!?”

Lunae’s jaws opened wide and picked him up by the scruff of his shirt, careful not to dig her fangs into his flesh. She turned to the rising dawn, bent her legs back, and vaulted off the summit.

~~~

A deep thundering howl burst like a shattering wave over the mountaintop, shaking the foundations of the city of Evenfall below. The Mother-Elect, Sabina, jumped out of her bed in a panic.

Was the city under attack? Had the danger the Mother Moon warned them of finally arrived?

She threw on her cloak and rushed out of her room as quickly as her old bones could carry her. All the while, thousands of howls echoed through the mountain, like a hurricane of angry songs swirling in the air.

Sabina met the Shaman-Elect in the hallway, the younger woman’s makeup and hair in disarray. “Lumi, what is happening!?”

“I don’t know, the explosion came from the Celestial Shrine!” she replied anxiously.

Sabina’s face paled in fear. “The Silver Mother! We must protect the priestesses! Hurry!”

“I’m on it!” Lumi turned and ran down the hall.

Sabina followed as best she could, her knee cracking painfully with every step. She clenched her teeth and ignored the pain. When she turned the corner to the balcony she stopped. Lumi and Lykos were already there.

“What are you two doing just standing here!? The city is in danger, we must…!” Sabina’s voice trailed off.

From every street around thousands of wolves were rushing into the Silver Keep’s front courtyard. Many still had their goblin riders on their backs, but the riders had lost control.

There were far more wolves here than the ones that had joined with the tribes. These were the wolves of the forest, these were the wolves of the goddess.

“What is this…?” Lykos mumbled in awe.

Dozens of frost wolves, far larger than their cousins, stood at the front of the procession. They howled in greetings and bowed their heads. The others quickly followed, howling with approval.

Sabina furrowed her brow. She slowly turned around and looked up. At the top of the Silver Keep, in the glory of the rising sun, stood the wolf goddess Lunae, and beside her, a small blue figure.

“Mother Moon!” Sabina yelled in awe and fear, before throwing herself to the ground in subservience.

The Warrior and Shaman Elects quickly turned around at the sound of her voice and threw themselves to the ground as well.

“Stand, my Elects!” Lunae’s voice boomed over the Silver Keep. “Prepare the tribes, gather your steel, and sharpen your claws! Lunis marches to war!”

Book 4 End