Ancient Moonlight

The Inn Keeper

The carriage rolls to stop as the final word leaves my mouth. I haven’t looked away from Varek once during my tirade, he needs to understand what he’s done. His by any means necessary attitude has changed my entire life, taken the person who most felt like family from me. Nothing will ever be the same. I grimace in his direction and turn to leave, but before I can open the carriage door, his hand is on my wrist.

“I am sorry, Theron told me he had a way to force his way into Alpha early, and as Alpha he would provide me with you. I was not told explicitly that these changes would come about through his…elimination…of his father. I cannot say for certain how I would have reacted if I had known the true depth of the plot though. I have been searching for you my whole life. Once I knew where you were, the idea of waiting was too much. I just couldn’t. But, I am sorry that someone who meant so much to you is gone now.” He releases me as he finishes. Without looking back, I wrench the door open and leap out.

We are stopped at an Inn. The building itself seems worn down, old in a way that I’ve rarely seen. Most of the structures back home had been built when Cassian took leadership. All shiny and new for the life I had lived there. Beyond the Inn, there is a large field filled with wildflowers that juts up against the forest that surrounded my village, just further away from home than I had ever been before. If it weren’t for the circumstances, I would potentially find it beautiful. As it stands, it's simply a reminder of how different everything will be from this day forward. How I will be forced again and again to acclimate to things I have never imagined, much less prepared for.

Walking toward the door to the Inn, I hear Varek behind me. I don’t bother turning around. When we walk through the entrance, the inside is even more ragged than the outside had been. I wonder why the King, the Alpha of all Alphas, would deign to stay here for the night. Before I can get too far into that thought, we are greeted by the innkeeper.

“Hello Varek! It's so good to see you again, and I see you’ve brought a young lady!” The innkeeper is a sprightly old woman, all wrinkled face and wild gray curls haloing around said wrinkled face. “I hope you don’t expect a single room? I know you haven’t had any ceremonies…it would have been the talk of the Kingdom.”

“Of course not Caryn,” Varek responds, with more lightness in his voice than I’ve heard the entire time I’ve known him. “We will require two rooms, although I would like it if you had two that were adjoining-”

The innkeeper, Caryn apparently, interrupts,“ Not for any funny business, I hope? I won’t play any role in any funny business of any kind young man. Your mother would never let me hear the end of it.” She ends her words with a chuckle. She seems warm this woman, who seems to know Varek and his family so intimately, but my mind can’t seem to wrap itself around how a woman in the Mid Kingdom, still half a day at least from the capital, knows the Royal family so well that she feels comfortable scolding the King.

“No, no funny business at all,” Varek laughs (it’s a nice laugh and I hate myself for noticing that) “She’s never left her village, and I don’t want her too far. I want to be able to be near enough to keep her safe from the typical riffraff you let stay here.”

Caryn looks me over, her eye seems to settle on my own longer than is socially acceptable. “I see,” she says. “Well, the only riffraff here at the moment is yourself, but as that’s the case, the Inn is empty enough for you to have your pick of the rooms. I do have one set of adjoining rooms, as you know, so I will have them refreshed for you while you eat, and you can settle in for the night after.”

“Oh, I’m sure dinner is going to be amazing as always,” Varek replies.

The entire time, I’ve stood here, barely being acknowledged outside the once over Caryn had done while speaking exclusively with Varek. I shake my head, “I’m so sorry, I promise I have more manners than this usually, it's been a really…odd day. My name is Aurelia, but everyone calls me Relia. It's nice to meet you.”

Caryn looks to Varek one more time before responding to me. “It's nice to meet you as well Relia. I’ll get your things from the carriage and have you settled in no time. I’m sure you're exhausted from the trip.”

It's at this moment I realize I have no things. There is nothing to get from the carriage. Nothing for this strangely grandmotherly woman to settle into a room for me. I'd left everything behind, not knowing, as I was taken into the clearing earlier in the night, that it would be the last time I was escorted anywhere in the village I called home. All at once, it comes back to me, the crushing weight of the grieving Cassian, and now grieving my home. All the fight I had in me, the audacity to yell at the Lycan King who has taken me from my home under the delusion that I am somehow his fated mate drains out of me at once, leaving me exhausted.

Varek seems to notice the change in me immediately. “I think, Caryn, maybe we could have food sent to our rooms tonight? It has been a long trip so far, and as Aurelia said, an odd day. I think we’re both ready to get to bed as quickly as possible. Maybe just something small?”

She seems to think this over, tapping her foot rhythmically in such a way that its almost soothing. “I will send up some soup and bread. Tea also, of course.” A small shift in her face, reinforcing her grandmotherly qualities, “I’ll also have some night clothes laid out. I’m sure you have lovely things packed up, but there is nothing like sleeping in clothes made by the locals. Softest fabric I’ve ever felt, I insist you try it.”

“Thank you, ma’am, I really appreciate that. It's very kind of you to offer.” I am using every single lesson I’ve ever been taught on how to be gracious in the moment. I don’t know how she knows, but I know she knows. I have nothing other than my grief and her kindness to hold onto tonight. As she guides us up the stairs to our rooms, Varek walks ahead, seemingly knowing exactly where they are, she grabs my hand. I look over into her eyes, and she just stares for a minute before giving me a gentle squeeze of her own.

“The fates have smiled on you Aurelia, even if you cannot feel that now. Rest now, and tomorrow we will talk more, yes?”