Chapter 32 Trusting Again

Chapter 32 Trusting Again
Luna POV

The first idea I had was to call Kieran and the council. But something stopped me. Something in the manner in which Kai was staring at me. He was desperate. He was terrified. But he was also truthful.

"What's going to happen?" I asked him.

Kai looked around nervously. "Not here," he said. Not where people can hear and see. Please. Will you come with me?"

I was traced into the woods by him. It was the forest that had so much to it. Where I'd run from my wedding. I had struggled against Shadow Entities and the immortals. Where I'd learned to be brave.

Kai brought me to a clear place which I knew. And it was at this place I had earlier encountered the Elder Guardian. Where I had heard about forbidden magic.

I did not go through normal time, I explained to Kai, when we were alone. I made my way through a hole in the wall. Sera sent me. You will know, said she.<|human|>You will know, she said.

"Sera sent you?" I asked. But she is not able to go beyond the fence.

It can be punctured in minor holes by her, Kai said. "But only for short periods. And only when something is significant enough. Luna, there's going to be a war. Around half a year later, somebody will find a way of controlling both humans and werewolves at the same time. They will use that control to begin a war that will take all the past wars as games to children.

"Who?" I demanded. "Who's going to do this?"

I don't know their names yet, said Kai. But I know they are related to the hunters. I understand they are a person having a bitter score to settle with both species. And I know they already have their plan made.

"How do you know all this?" I asked.

Kai looked ashamed. Because they would in my time, he thought to himself. The war occurs in my timeline. And everyone dies. The barrier breaks. The Void returns. Everything ends."

I felt cold. "How is that possible?" I asked. "Sera would stop them. Elena would stop them."

Our lady and I do not know of the danger yet, Kai said. And when they discover it too late it is too late. That's why I came back. This is the reason why Sera had to risk breaching the barrier to deliver me. She replied that no one could change the future but you.

"I'm not special," I said. I am just a man who was a choice maker.

"Exactly," Kai said. You are a person who understands how to make a difference in choices. You are a person who has tried the impossible things and made it. In my timeline people have lost the knowledge on how to do that. They forgot how to choose. That's why they failed."

I was quiet for a long moment. I was only just returning to the world. And I was still in the first steps of my life. And here I was requested to save it once more.

"Why should I trust you?" I asked. "You could be anyone. You could be a trap."

"You're right," Kai said. You can not trust me on what I say. But perhaps you will believe me according to this.'

He held out his hand. Something in it made me stop my heart. It was a photograph. And in the photograph was me. But older. Much older. Maybe eighty years old. And I was standing with Ethan, who did not look a day older than he did just now. This was before the bakery and we had joined hands, with grandchildren around us.

This is one of my time lines, Kai said. "But only if we prevent the war. Only in the sense that you are listening to what I am telling you. This is not the case in my future. You die at forty in my timeline. Most people die much younger."

I looked at the photograph. I saw myself old and happy. I had a possible future but not a guaranteed one. I perceived something to be fought over.

"Tell me everything," I said. "Tell me everything you know."

As much as it was possible, Kai explained. He informed me of the personality in charge of the conspiracy. He informed me that they belonged to a party that had lost all in the human and the werewolf wars. He informed me that they had a way of controlling minds. One of the methods to make human beings and werewolves fight and not be able to stop it.

"Where are they?" I asked.

"I don't know exactly," Kai said. But they are recruiting disciples. Both human and werewolf. People who are afraid. People who are angry. Individuals that desire to revise the past ways.

"How many followers?" I asked.

"Thousands," Kai said. Perhaps tens of thousands before they are ready to do anything.

My mind was racing. This was too big. This was too much. It was the first time I was being called upon to save the world after again returning to a normal life.

But I looked once more at the photograph. I stared at my future self, grinning next to Ethan. I stared at the grandchildren around me. I stared at the bakery, it was still there, it was still baking bread, it was still serving the community.

It was a future worthy of protection.

"I'll need help," I said. "I can't do this alone."

"I know," Kai said. "Sera said you would say that. She mentioned that he, Thomas, has already guessed that something is amiss. She told me that Elena needs to warn you about the danger and the grandmother of this family can not do it because of the barrier. She told me I must tell you you need to bring your people together and get ready.

"How long do we have?" I asked.

"Six months," Kai said. "Maybe less. The conspiracy is taking a more swift pace than anticipated. You need to act soon."
I summoned an emergency council meeting that night. I took Kai along, but I did not tell anybody who he was and where he had come to. I told them about the threat. I informed them of the conspiracy.

Kieran believed me at a glance. Elena trusted me without a question. But others were skeptical. David asked for proof. Thomas asked how I knew.

"I can't explain exactly," I said. "But I know this is happening. I hear that they are going to have a war. And I know we must put them to the halt before they are prepared to attack.

We are going to form the very division we are attempting to prevent by beginning to investigate the rumor, one of the council members said. We shall be distrusting both human and werewolf societies.

But, I replied, otherwise we shall be permitting war to begin.

The discussion was like a circle of hell. There are individuals who want to do it at once. Others needed to wait till they had further evidence. Others did not want to do anything but wish there was no threat.

Finally, Elena stood up. "I trust Luna," she said simply. Whatever she says there is threat, there is threat. I know her well enough to know that she does not make such claims so casually. Therefore I suggest a small team go and have a quiet look round. Not publicly. Not as a divisive panic-inducing way. But we will investigate."

I will be the head of the investigation, said Kieran. With David and Thomas and any one we can trust.

The investigation started in the following few weeks. Quietly. Without drawing attention. And what they saw was still worse than what Kai had told them.

There was a conspiracy all right. People were gathering in thousands indeed. And in the very middle of it was one I had not thought of.

Someone I had trusted. Someone I had helped. A human being who had apparently converted to the peace movement.

Their bringing the evidence to me was like breaking my heart. Since the one who organized this conspiracy was somebody I thought was my friend.