The Luna's Gift

Saturday Morning

    It was a little after dawn, and Artemis can’t sleep. She tossed and turned, thinking about Helena. Several times during the night she got up and started her way towards the cottage to talk things over, but always stopped herself and went back to her quarters. She knew there was no way she was going to be getting any sleep, and decided the best thing would be to go for a ride, clear her head. She showers quickly, throws on yesterday’s clothes, and grabs her jacket and motorcycle helmet. She stops quickly in the kitchen to leave Ingrid a note asking her to take food to the cottage, stating that Helena is feeling under the weather, and then leaves a second sealed note for her to give to Helena. She hasn't been back in the main house, so Artemis assumes she must be hungry.

Artemis straddles her bike and takes off towards Salem, driving a little faster than she should considering her lack of sleep. The further she gets from Helena, the stronger the pull back towards her is, the tether between them feeling taut. She speeds up even faster, willing the connection to break, but Helena is still there, on her mind and in her soul regardless of how many miles she put between them. First stop: coffee. Second stop: Calliope. 

“It’s like 8am, what the f**k Artemis? This better be important.” Calliope answers the door, half awake. A bathrobe quickly tied around her, a shirt and shorts underneath. Calliope has long curly orange hair with bright pink highlights, and a sleep mask pulled down around her neck. 

“It is. I promise.” Artemis reassures her, extending a cup of coffee to her.

“Mhmm.” She groans unconvinced, taking the coffee, and opening the door wider to let Artemis in, “give me a few minutes to get my life together. Make yourself at home. This better be good, girl.” Calliope yells as she walks down the hall towards her bedroom.

Artemis takes a seat in the living room on a dramatic purple velvet couch, having to move a few books to the coffee table to do so. A black cat slumbers on the other side of the couch, undisturbed. A green chaise lounge was across from the couch, a large cloth-covered crystal ball sat on a table to the side, and unlit holiday string lights covered the ceiling and walls. Artemis eyes a deck of tarot cards on the table, as well as dirty coffee cups from the day before. Rolling papers, some boxes and jars of herbs scattered throughout the room, and a shelf of crystals completed Calliope's oracle chic vibes. 

Calliope returns, coffee in hand, sweats and an oversized sweatshirt, and her hair in a messy bun. She takes a seat on the chaise, tucking her feet under her, takes a sip of her coffee, and gives Artemis a look over, “you look like shit.”

“Gee thanks,” Artemis frowns, “I didn’t get much sleep last night. And not the good kind of sleepless night.”

“Does this have something to do with why you’re at my door at the crack of dawn?”

“First of all, dawn was 2 hours ago. Second of all, yes,” Artemis pauses, “I met my Mate yesterday.”

Calliope stays silent but tilts her head slightly and her eyebrows furrow, “like you met someone you want to marry?”

Artemis shakes her head, “No, like my Mate. My Fated Mate.”

Calliope nods her head, takes another sip and says, “so are you ready to listen to me now?”

                                                                                              ****

    Helena peers out her small window to see Ingrid knocking on the cottage door. Breathing a sigh of relief that it isn’t Artemis at her door, she answers cheerfully. 

“How are you feeling dear? Artemis left a note that you were under the weather, wanted me to bring you some food.” Ingrid says, raising the tray up as if to show Helena what she’s carrying.

“Oh, um yes, I’m not feeling great. Must just be all the travel. Change of...altitude, or something. Thank you so much, Ingrid, I’m starving.” Helena takes the tray and bids Ingrid goodbye, taking the food into her bedroom. It smells amazing, and Helena is so hungry her stomach hurts. She has a wolf’s metabolism, and hasn’t eaten since yesterday’s pancakes at breakfast. She was dreading having to brave the house and potentially run into Artemis. 

Ingrid prepared a plate of eggs, bacon, sausage, toast, oatmeal, a bagel and cream cheese, and fresh fruit. Helena is practically drooling, and stuffs an entire piece of toast in her mouth before noticing a folded piece of paper with her name scrawled across the top. She knows immediately it’s from Artemis, and swallows hard before opening it.

                H-

    I’ve gone for the day. We need to talk. I’ll be by later tonight. 

                -A

    Helena stares at the letter ‘A’, touching her lips subconsciously, remembering the kiss. Even without the note, Helena knows Artemis has left the house, she can feel it. Like a rubber band stretching, she can feel the distance between them. “Is there really a way to break this?”  She wonders, thinking back to her conversation with Mags. “How could this happen...twice? And at the same time? Did Artemis and Apollo do this on purpose, a twin hoax?” But Helena quickly decides that's ridiculous, her physical experience of the Mating was proof of that. “If that’s even what it was, it could just be a folie a deux or something...like group hysteria…” She tries to rationalize. She reaches for her phone, wanting to tell Mags everything, but second guessing herself, “It seems ridiculous, this super amazing rare thing happens to both of us, at the same time, with twin siblings? Would Mags even believe me? Would I make things worse?”

    Refocusing, Helena decides to start researching what she can. She emails her old mentor Raphael, the former Daae librarian, to ask him about Fated Mates. She stays vague, not to tip him off in any way, and poses it as research she needs for her dissertation. The former Daae head librarian is a vampire, and so Helena does not feel hopeful he will have specific information regarding werewolf mating, but he did have decades to read through all the books in the library, and might be able to point her in the right direction. While most popular TV and movies depict vampires as immortal, that was only sort of true. Vampires lived a very, very long time, aging slowly, but do eventually die. Vampires, if they remain unkilled by other forces, can live naturally a thousand years or so. The only truly immortal species in their world were fairies, who also happened to be the rarest species, believed to be extinct. Helena has to put Raphael at around 730 years old, and is living out his remaining centuries on a houseboat currently docked in Amsterdam. 

    Helena opens up a word document and starts typing everything she knows about Fated Mates, which isn’t much. She knows that all species have existed for thousands of years, and around a thousand years ago, a Happening took place around the same time as the Great War, whether connected or not is unknown but generally inferred by scholars, and it caused the Children of Luna to lose their magic, subsequently causing an end to Fated Mates. She knows from the ancient texts they once had other powers, which also died out. Werewolves used to have psychic connections and Alphas having special powers of control over the pack and vampires could shapeshift and fly. Helena knew the biggest change thought with their magic gone was their ability to sire new creatures through bite, now vampires and wolves were born. While there may be a few other Children running around of various Immortals, such as succubi and witches, the Children of Luna and Trickster made up the majority of the Underworld, a few others may have survived the Great War, but in numbers so small they'd most likely be in hiding to avoid collectors and exploitation if they weren't extinct already. Most of the records of Fated Mate occurrences is all from the same time, pre Peace Treaty, more than a thousand years ago, when the unknown Happening took place. Everyone knows that something happened that diminished their power greatly, but no one knew what, and just referred to it as The Happening. Some figured it was just evolution, creatures stopped battling humans and one another, so they had no need for the extra abilities any longer. Other people believe it was a punishment of some sort. Being a species is genetic--werewolves, vampires, and Grounders are all born--but to have special abilities was a gift. Between wars and natural causes, there were no known beings still around today who were alive before the Peace Treaty of 890 AD. “What happened?” She asks herself.