The Rats Refrain - ONC 2023

Chapter 5 - Lyron

There was a loud thud as she slammed into the other side of the door and I twisted the key in the lock before she could open it. The handle rattled twice before another bang shook the door.

"Let me out!" She shrieked, and I listened as her little fists beat against the solid oak.

I knew it would never give to her fury, but that didn't make it any easier to hear. Laying my head against the wall, I fought to calm my racing heartbeat. Better for her to be angry and alive than dangling precariously from an enchanted building she had no real understanding of, as she had been just moments earlier. My skin rippled, and I was thankful she hadn't noticed the fur beginning to spring up along my arms as we argued just moments earlier.

Ever since that first transformation, any extreme emotions had triggered slight changes in me again. Sometimes whiskers on my cheeks, or my teeth stretching out over my bottom lip. I had gone through countless shoes and gloves when the claws burst free from me.

Thankfully, though, the fur was far easier to hide as it pressed uncomfortably against the fabric of my clothes. Usually, I was able to keep my feelings in check and avoid triggering anything at all. After all, remaining emotionless and keeping a mask in place had trained into me from my earliest memories.

The fear when I spotted her dangling there, face tight with determination, had sent chills through me and the emotions were so raw they escaped before I could stop them. She wasn't the first to try to escape me, but she was the first to try it so soon and in such a dangerous fashion.

"You can't keep me here! What is so dangerous? Why won't you let me out?" She screamed, punctuating each comment with a pounding of her fist.

Of course, she didn't understand. She couldn't discover the truth without ruining it for everyone and how could I tell her the danger I was protecting her from was me?

I would keep her safe. Even if she fought against my protection like the little wildcat I had seen in the carriage and just now. Perhaps that fire would serve her well in the month ahead?

With a deep breath, I straightened. "Someone will collect you at six." I repeated, "There is plenty to entertain you in there. Paints and canvas in the trunk at the foot of the bed, books in the cabinet under the window, and parchment and ink on the desk."

Things left behind by the girls that came before her and my attempts at placating them would hopefully stall for time until I found out what she needed. There was a long silence, and I took a step towards the door again to listen more closely and see if she was trying to escape again.

"Is that ok?" I asked, listening as her footsteps moved across the room.

There was a creak as the book cabinet opened and I smiled. A bookworm. I filed that information away in my mind for future reference.

"I can organise other things if you need them?" I offered after the silence stretched on a little longer, "I am not a cruel man, Miss Weatherby. I just want to keep you safe and happy."

I didn't add that I wasn't really a man at all. Not anymore. Not after all these years. Curses had a nasty habit of changing us. I wasn't sure who I was now, but it was nothing like who I had been.

"Locking people up is not how you make them happy." Came the slightly muffled reply.

Not for the first time I longed for the magic which was buried somewhere inside of me. At some point in the last thousand years, I had forgotten how to access it. With no royal fae of my own court still around to communicate with, those skills had been left in my past.

"I am only trying to keep you safe. Perhaps I can explain more later if you'll just stay here?" I asked.

"Do you promise?" Her voice was closer again as she made her way back to the door.