After partly avenging her mother's death, Evette Star, the illegitimate daughter of an elven king, sets off on a warpath to find the adversary of her people.
The human King in the West, Dracul Dregoth, has locked himself away in a stone tower for r...
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The sound of jingling keys suddenly rustled behind the locked door to the room, and as Jade stepped over the threshold, she found Evette sitting beside the large cage. Evette backed away suddenly, tilting her head sideways so she could see who had entered the room. "It's a trap." Jade murmured, ignoring the way Eve's breath hitched, she was clearly startled. "They always want out right before they make the transition. If you let him out, we won't be able to control him."
"You can hear us from out there?" Eve wondered obliviously, licking her lips to hopefully ease the dull, cracked ache she felt.
"I could hear you yelling from down the hall. You're bickering like a couple." Jade looked between the two, her brow raised.
"Sorry," Eve muttered. "We did not mean to disturb you."
"You didn't. I had to come and talk to you anyway."
"About what?" Evette slumped forward, too tired to sit up straight.
"His transformation." Jade replied, pointing to Narcisse.
"Why?"
"Well, he isn't in the right headspace to make the decision, so I thought I would let you decide his fate. You seem to have his best interests at heart." Jade smiled.
"He seems perfectly capable of making his own decisions." Evette closed her eyes as she huffed, arms folded over her chest.
Jade shook her head like she had a few times before, the same sad gleam in her eyes. She held that dejection when they were both trapped inside the confines of the dungeon cell, ridden with blackened dirt and hollowed bones one could not see in the dark. "It may seem like it, but he really isn't. It's the anger and self-hatred talking, not him. He's going to have to work through a lot of guilt before we can let him out. The mood swings are normal."
"What about me? Am I turning into a wolf too?" Eve wondered. She felt a sudden chill, and wondered if the cold shivers had returned.
"No." Jade stepped over to Eve and pressed the palm of her hand against her forehead. "The fever has broken, which means that you'll live. You may feel like your temperature is fluctuating, but it isn't. I myself get the sickness once or twice a year. The other wolves get it too, but it usually isn't as bad. If I had to guess, I'd say it is a cleansing cycle, to rid the world of weaker creatures that won't be able to make it through winter. You may have held the privilege of living in a castle most of your life, but out here in the wild, we lose a few to the cold each year."
"You have fur. Does it not help with staying warm in winter?" The cold shivers and flaming shakes had indeed returned, and Eve felt them worsen.
Jade shook her head yet again, and began. "Only the wolves that were bitten by my family can change at will— we call them transition wolves. The others can only change on nights when the moon is full. They are called lunar wolves. About half of the clan are disadvantaged because of it, and that is why we segregate the groups most of the time. If the number of transition wolves continues to be greater than the number of wolves who only become beasts during the full moon, then we are able to keep the smaller group from overthrowing the others. My family could lose everything if that happens."
