Chapter 55: A Tale of Two Sisters, Part IV
Beads of sweat formed on Uncle Reuben’s forehead as he removed the hex wrapping around the book Kieran and I picked up. As soon as the smoke cleared, he slumped on his chair, visibly exhausted.
I frowned as I noticed that the book had a lock, preventing us from opening it. There was no mechanism or a hint of a key within the book or any of its parts. My hand hovered over it, but Uncle Reuben stopped me.
“That might be safe to touch now, but I’ll still ask Kieran to be the one handling it. After all, every lock needs its key. This one needs a drop of blood from a specific person… someone only the caster would know,” Uncle Reuben said. “I can feel that your core is still weak, Hestia.”
I nodded, my eyes still fixated on the book, a sense of eagerness rising within me. Kieran was still busy talking to his scouts for incident reports the prior night in the settlement, and I didn’t want to bother him.
I somehow felt… useless. All this time, all I ever did was inconvenience people.
“Are you thinking of something, dearest?”
I looked up at Uncle Reuben, who was staring at me with worry in his eyes. I softly chuckled and massaged my temple. “It’s nothing, Uncle. I’m just thinking about all of this, and… the trials.”
“Mother won’t let you wade through all of this alone, my child,” he comforted me. “She already chose you. That’s all that matters. The rest are nothing but noise.”
I sighed as I leaned on my seat. Before Uncle Reuben left the room, I stopped him. “Uncle, do you really not know a werewolf pack named Aurora? Or an Alpha named Hakim?”
He stopped in his tracks. A foreign emotion crossed Uncle Reuben’s eyes before he shot me a smile. “Dearest, if I did know them, I would’ve already told you.”
I didn’t press any further. After all, the Temple Priests were often locked in the High Temple, except during Queen trials and times of war.
Castiel was only lucky that both happened during his reign, giving him time and chance to know the Alphas in the High Council, and who should and shouldn’t be trusted.
Kieran came back later that afternoon, covered with mud, probably after hunting a massive boar for dinner. After he had taken a shower, he grabbed me and the book to face the old woman in the settlement dungeon.
Her eyes immediately lit up as soon as she saw me and Kieran enter the room. She had been lying on her bed, motionless, as if lost in thought.
“There’s no need to kneel,” I stopped her as I pulled a chair. “We’re here to ask… questions.”
A smile crept on the old woman’s lips. “Has her Majesty found that I’m telling the truth?”
Kieran placed the book in front of the old woman. It created a soft thud as it hit her lap, “We found that book in the library you told us. We couldn’t open it. Uncle Reuben said that we need a drop of blood of a certain person to open—”
Instincts kicked in as the old woman drew a sharpened fork and raised it high. Kieran immediately tackled her, as I tried to call for the scouts stationed outside.
The room was filled with blinding light before I could even step out. As I glanced at them, I noticed that the old woman had pricked her finger with the tip of the fork, letting it flow on the book’s lock.
“You…”
The book popped open, specifically in the middle. The book was hollowed out, and the hollowed pages hid a small music box.
The ringing in my ears grew louder. Stronger. As if it was forcing me to remember things. Things that I do not even know if my brain specifically decided to block out, or if someone forced me to.
The old woman cranked the music box, and it revealed a pair of wolves howling to the full moon well above them. The tune… the sight—
“Hestia?”
Flashes of images crossed my mind. Ones that I’ve never seen before. Ones that carried the faces of Luna Mera and Alpha Hakim, as they doted on my twin sister and me. Memories that seemingly came when I was nothing but an infant.
A tear rolled down my cheek as the images grew more and more violent. That one fateful night when a band of Black Wolves suddenly barged into our manor. How they stripped Alpha Hakim of his wolf and his powers. How they dragged Luna Mera as she carried my twin and me tight in her arms. The wails. The dungeon. The…
“The Locke Manor…” I whispered, my voice weak. “Alpha Heron took us to the Locke Manor…”
Kieran grabbed the woman by her wrist, stopping her from cranking the music box anymore. But it kept on playing its tune, as the images—memories, in my mind, became more and more recent.
“You have the right to know, Hestia,” the old woman softly said as she placed the music box back in its vessel. “I don’t know where your sister is, but all I know is that the Alpha Heron took you and your sister. After all, both of you possessed divine powers that came directly from the Goddess. Whether he builds you or breaks you, both of you are capable of destroying kingdoms and conquering lands.”
My teeth gnashed as I thought of the possibilities. If Medea truly were my twin, then her mind must have been poisoned to the point that she would dare to hurt me.
But it felt strange… if both of us truly did possess such immense power, then why did she struggle to even form a Divine Link with her sworn Vassal? Why did her powers feel weak compared to mine, when she received all of the attention and care from Father?”
“How would I recognize my sister?”
The old woman’s eyes became glassy as she answered my question. “She has the Goddess’s mark on her hip.”
Before I could even press any further, one of Kieran’s men came rushing into the room. He struggled to form coherent sentences for a while until he finally managed to catch his breath.
“Chief, your Highness! News came from Capital… They’ve already decided on your status as a candidate to the Queen’s crown!”