The Wolfless Queen

Chapter 2

I don’t even realize I slept off until there is a loud knock on the door. My curtains are closed but the sunlight is still penetrating through them.

I stretch and yawn in a way that is unbecoming of a queen because there is no one to see me.

Another knock.

“I’m coming,” I yell and tighten my robe before unlocking my door. It’s not until I see Riven standing there in a black dress with a garment bag slung over her shoulder that I realize today is my father’s funeral.

She comes in and closes the door lockes her.

“Are you okay?” She asks, laying the garment bag carefully on my bed. She is the only person who would. She has been on the court since before I was born.

“No. I am not. I can’t believe I didn’t remember it was today,” I tell her. “I woke up this morning feeling so bright, you know. I let myself forget he was dead”

“And that's fine,” She says holding my chin up with her hands. “Look at me. I know you didn’t want any of this but your father saw it as his way of protecting you”

I nod because she’s told me this a million times especially when I whined about having to read boring books that my father believed would prepare me to become queen.

“So get dressed. Don’t keep the people waiting”. With that, she leaves the room and I hear her bark orders at people on the other side of the door.

I zip open the garment bag and if I got the dress under a different context, it might have immediately become my favorite one but it’s just a reminder of what really isn’t.

I freshen up and dress up quickly. I can’t give the people another reason to talk. When I leave my room, the court is already waiting in the hallway.

We walk quietly to the palace courtyard where a few people are already gathered. A woman is wailing like a banshee but I don’t even recognize her. She just wants the attention.

At the center of the courtyard is a pyre on which my father’s wrapped body has been laid. The priest walks in through the entrance a couple of other people dressed in mourning black trail behind him.

“Can we begin?” The priest asks looking at me. I give him a small nod.

“Silence, please,” He says loudly looking at the wailing woman.

“We gather here today not to mourn. We gather to return King Alaric of House Moonspire to the moon. Son of Elden. Father of Seraphina. Beloved by the people. Bonded to Rhen, the Ironfang. Peacekeeper. King” The priest begins the rites.

He lifts the ceremonial torch and offers it to me.

“Thank you everyone for making out time to be here today. My father believed in peace, but he never feared war,” I say. “He ruled this kingdom with wisdom, and then steel when wisdom failed. Not because he wanted to but because he had to”

“And I will make sure I carry on his legacy well,” I continue, looking to the crowd.

One of the guards passes me my father’s sword and I place it on his wrapped body before lighting the end of the pyre.

The flames catch slowly then faster until the fire consumes the silk, the flowers, and finally the figure lying beneath them.

For a long moment, there is only silence.

Then, from deep within the crowd, a wolf howls.

Then another.

Then another.

It builds into a chorus of mourning, high, aching, and wild. It echoes off the palace walls, climbs into the sky, and fills the courtyard like smoke.

Eventually, the howling stops but I can hear the same woman as earlier crying again.

Riven appears by my side and drapes a mourning cloak around me. “Are you okay?” She asks.

“No. But I will be eventually,” I answer. “Who is she?” I ask nodding towards the crying woman.

“That’s Selene,” She whispers. “Long before your father met your mother, they used to be a thing. I am surprised she showed up today but I don’t understand the crying. She used to send letters saying she wished your father dead when he married your mum. She stopped when she didn’t get any replies”

“Did she eventually move on?” I ask.

“She has been off the grid for a while now,” Riven says.

“You tried contacting her?”

“Not me. Your father,” She answers. “He found a box of her things a few years ago and reached out to her”

Now this is getting weird. Why did my father find a box of her things years after she left? “A box?”

“Yes. But it was weird that he brought it up after two decades”

“Hmmm. Do you know where it is or what was inside it?”

“No. He didn’t show it to anyone,” She tells me. I look to where Selene was standing but she’s gone.

I grab Riven’s arm. “Did you see her leave?”

She looks to Selene’s spot. “No”

Not taking my hand off her, I drag her with me to the entrance.

“You know the woman who was screaming throughout the funeral?” I ask the guards standing there. They nod. “Did any of you see her leave?”

They nod again.

“Which way did she go?”

“I remember this ‘cause she stopped crying on her way out,” One of them starts and tilts his head like he is still confused by how she was acting. “She walked towards the town about 30 seconds ago”.

“Okay. Thank you,” I dart off towards the town with Riven but Selene is nowhere to be found. Almost like she disappeared into thin air.

“Why are you looking for her?” Riven asks and I realize I don’t even know why.

“No reason,” I answer with a smile. “I just wanted to meet her,”

Riven shakes her head obviously not believing my lie.

We walk back to the courtyard where the pyre has stopped burning. The only proof my father existed is me and my memories of him.

“This came in while you were away,” A courier walks up to me. A black envelope in hand.

“From who?” I ask. Two letters in two days?

“I went to the bathroom for a minute and when I came back, it was just there on my table,” He answers handing me the envelope.

There is only one group that sends letters like this.“Has this ever happened before?”

“This is the first time it happened during my shift but the guy who takes the night shift has complained about it a few times. He said something about red envelopes, though”

I nod and dismiss him. I look to Riven and she’s eyeing the envelope suspiciously.

“One came in on your mother’s funeral. Your father wasn’t allowed to attend because of that stupid rule that you can’t attend the funeral of someone you are older than,” She tells me. “It was delivered to him at his office.”

“Did he tell you what was inside?”

“No. He mentioned it to me exactly once and it was to ask if I saw anyone that seemed weird to me,” She answered. “But everyone seems weird to me. So I said no”

Black envelopes at funerals. It could be someone sending their condolences but I have that feeling it isn’t.

Turns out my gut is always right because when I open the envelope. Its contents are not sweet messages to commiserate with me on my father’s death.