Chapter 33 The Council's History
Kian's POV
Two weeks after Lana and Nyx left, I was in the war room reviewing reports when Alexander brought me news.
"Scouts report the Council is consolidating forces," he said, spreading a map across the table. "They're moving slower than expected. There's friction among the allied packs."
"What kind of friction?" I asked.
"The kind that comes from defeat," Alexander said. "Some packs are questioning whether fighting us is worth the cost. Others are angry that the Council lost so many warriors in the first assault."
"That's good," I said. "It buys us more time."
"But there's something else," Alexander continued. He pulled out a worn journal, leather-bound and ancient-looking. "We captured this from one of the Council's scouts during a skirmish yesterday. He was carrying it, which means it's important."
I took the journal and opened it carefully. The pages were filled with neat handwriting, dates spanning back centuries.
"What am I looking at?" I asked.
"A history," Alexander said. "A secret history. The Council's true origins."
Sera appeared in the doorway. "You need to see this," she said, clearly having already read it.
I began reading. The entries were dated back four hundred years, written in different hands but all describing the same organization- the Council. But in these early entries, the Council wasn't tyrannical. It was something else entirely.
"They were peacekeepers," I said, reading aloud. "'Our purpose is to maintain balance among the packs, to ensure that no single alpha becomes too powerful, to protect the innocent from those who would abuse their strength.'"
"Keep reading," Sera said.
I turned the pages. The early entries spoke of a noble mission, of wise alphas who worked together to prevent wars and protect the weak. But somewhere around two hundred years ago, the tone shifted.
"'The fear grows,'" one entry read. "'There are whispers of something ancient, something that feeds on chaos. We must be more vigilant. We must be stronger. We must control the packs more tightly, for their own protection.'"
"What is this?" I asked, looking up from the journal.
"The Council's decline," Alexander said. "But more importantly, the reason for it."
I continued reading. The entries grew darker, more obsessive. The Council began to see threats everywhere. They started implementing stricter rules, executing alphas they deemed too powerful or too independent. What had been guardianship became tyranny.
"'We are the only thing standing between the packs and destruction,'" another entry read from about a hundred years ago. "'If we do not control them, they will destroy each other. We must be willing to do terrible things for the greater good.'"
I closed the journal and looked at Sera and Alexander. "This was written by Council members. They documented their own corruption."
"Not corruption," a voice said, then a howl of air surrounded the room, when it settled, Nyx appeared "Possession." She said. She has summoned her subconscious to communicate with us. Her violet eyes dark and serious.
I was on my feet immediately. "How is Lana?"
"Safe," Nyx said. "Hidden in a secure location near Shadowmere.”
"What?" I demanded.
The howling air and Nyx moved to the table. She looked at the journal Alexander had left there, and her expression grew even darker.
"Can you flip through the journal? I can't do that since I'm not here physically” she said, gesturing to the journal.
I held the journal and flipped through the pages quickly, she read faster than should have been possible, her ancient eyes absorbing decades of writing in moments.
"This is the truth " Nyx said finally. "The Council wasn't corrupted by ambition or greed. They were corrupted by something far older and far more dangerous."
"What are you talking about?" I asked.
Nyx sat down heavily, looking older than I'd ever seen her. "Do you know why the Council exists in the first place?" she asked.
"To maintain balance," Sera said. "According to the journal."
"That's the truth they were told," Nyx said. "But the real reason? They exist because of a prison. A very old prison. One that's slowly breaking down."
"A prison for what?" I asked.
"For something that existed before your kind learned to walk upright," Nyx said. "Something that feeds on fear, despair, and the desire for control. Your ancestors called it many names across many languages. But the closest translation in your current tongue would be... the Hunger."
"The Hunger," Alexander repeated, testing the word.
"It's an entity of pure predation," Nyx continued. "It doesn't think or feel in any way you would recognize. It simply consumes. And what it consumes most eagerly is hope. When the Hunger feeds on despair, on chaos, on the darkness in a being's heart, it grows stronger."
"And the Council?" I asked, understanding beginning to dawn on me.
"The Council was created by the ancient wolves who imprisoned the Hunger," Nyx said. "They were meant to be guardians, to maintain order in a way that would keep the world stable and the Hunger starved. But the Hunger is patient, and it's clever. Over centuries, it began to whisper to the Council's leaders. It showed them visions of chaos, of what would happen if they weren't strong enough, if they didn't control everything."
I looked down at the journal again. "They thought they were protecting the world."
"They believed they were," Nyx said. "The Hunger didn't tell them to become tyrants. It simply fed them fear. It made them see threats everywhere. It made them believe that only through absolute control could they prevent catastrophe. And as they became more authoritarian, more willing to commit atrocities in the name of order, the Hunger grew stronger."
"Why are you telling me this?" I asked. "What does this have to do with Lana?"
"Everything," Nyx said. She leaned forward. "The Hunger doesn't create, it only consumes. But Lana's power is different. She heals. She restores. She creates hope where there was none. To the Hunger, she's not just a threat; she's poison. And that's why the Council hunts her so desperately."
"The Council is hunting her because of this... Hunger?" Sera asked.
"The Hunger is hunting her through the Council," Nyx corrected. "The Council's leaders don't know that. They think they're simply following their mandate to eliminate a threat. But the Hunger is directing their actions. It's feeding them the desperation they feel to destroy Lana before she can grow too powerful."
"And if we defeat the Council?" I asked.
"You'll have won a war but lost the larger battle," Nyx said. "The Hunger will simply find new servants. New leaders to whisper to. It's been imprisoned for thousands of years, but it's growing restless. The bars of its cage are weakening. When it finally breaks free…"
"How long?" Alexander asked sharply. "How long until it breaks free?"
"Years," Nyx said. "Perhaps decades. But it's coming. And when it does, it won't matter if the Council is dead or alive. Everything will be consumed."