The Luna's Gift

Helena & Magnolia

“He’s...what?” Helena asks her friend and co-worker Magnolia in utter disbelief. 

“Yup.” Is all Mags replies. 

“You’re joking.” Helena has been restocking books in the library before Mags came jogging in to find her to share the latest gossip. 

“Nope.”

“How is this the first I’m hearing of this?” Helena steps down from the ladder, brushing her auburn curls out of her face, and setting down the book in her hand. 

“It literally just happened, I only just found out from Duke, and I came straight over to tell you.” Mags moves to sit on top of a table, facing Helena. Her long legs swinging in excitement over the gossip. 

“I don’t even know what to say. This is like...the biggest thing to ever happen. Yet on the other hand, very sad that an Alpha abdicating to join the Tribunal is the “biggest thing to ever happen” my god are we boring.” Helena moves and takes a seat in an armchair next to the bookcase, facing Mags. 

“Speak for yourself! My life is thrilling and exciting!”

“Mags, you’re f*****g a low level guard who can't find your c******s , and the most exciting part of your week was trying white cheddar macaroni and cheese for the first time.”

“And yet it’s still more exciting than yours.”

Helena laughs, “sadly, you’re right. You win. So what’s going to happen with this guy’s pack?”

“No idea. This has never happened before when there hasn’t been an heir, technically their Beta is also gone. Before you ask, I have no idea what’s up with the Beta.”

“They don’t have a Gamma either? What pack is this? They seem like a mess.”

“Also don’t know, but I have a feeling they’re a pretty important pack because if they weren’t then why would anyone be freaking out, you know?”

“Hmmm intriguing. Well try to get more dirt from Duke, I am dying for some excitement.”

“The only other thing I know is that there’s a big meeting with The Tribunal tomorrow morning to discuss this. I guess they’re flying in this Alpha for the meeting. Duke said he got told to go pick him up from the airport. I ran into him as he was leaving, and he filled me in.”

“Well, I guess we’ll find out more tomorrow then. Want to get dinner? I’m off in 15.” Mags nods and asks “is that what you’re wearing?”

Helena frowns, “what wrong with what I’m wearing?” She looks down, she rather liked her outfit today. High waist taupe dress pants, and a loose white blouse tucked in, she even added a belt that she feels really makes the outfit pop.

“It’s a great outfit! I swear! You just look a little bit like an archaeologist is all.”

“Yes this is what I’m wearing.” Helena says, rolling her eyes at Mags’ outfit of jeans, boots, and a t-shirt riddled with holes that was purposefully made that way. 

                                                                                                                 ****

    Mags bounces on her tiptoes as her and Helena peer through a crack in the library door. They are in the perfect position to watch The Tribunal members come in and out of the main hall doors, and if they are lucky, they can catch some conversation. Mags makes a low growl of excitement and Helena shushes her. They are waiting for the Alpha from America who has decided to abdicate his throne to join The Tribunal. This is the most excitement in the Daae that Mags or Helena have seen in their time here, normally it’s just day to day Tribunal members, scholars, council members, packs meeting for negotiations, and even people coming on pilgrimage to the temple. 

“Everyone is here, the Tribunal and the Council, I even saw some other Alphas, and all the guards!” Mags whispers to Helena.

“Do you think they’ll appoint a new Alpha, or just combine the pack with another one? Or maybe they’ll deny his bid to join the Tribunal and he’ll have to stay Alpha? Can they do that? I mean I guess they can---” Mags cuts Helena off with a loud shush and says “that’s him!”

A young man wearing a grey suit comes in, followed by a few guards, one of them Mags’ on-again-off-again f**k buddy. He is much younger than either of them were expecting, maybe 25 or 26. Why would an Alpha in his prime give up his pack, family, children, even his mate to join the Tribunal?

“I can’t get a super good look at him, but I bet he’s hot. Alphas are always hot.” Mags says. Helena rolls her eyes, to which Mags replies, “I can feel you rolling your eyes at me. Let me remind you that I graduated Magna c*m Laude and turned down an internship at Apple to be here, so let me be both a genius and a lover of a fine physique.” Helena smiles, “you’re right, you contain multitudes.” “Damn right.” Mags says curtly.

The Alpha stands in front of the great doors to the main hall, he pauses momentarily, takes a deep breath and walks through. The doors shut behind him. Mags groaned in disappointment. Helena sighs and they both stand upright. 

“It looks like Duke went in there too, hopefully you’ll be able to get the tea from him after.”

Mags nods, “who knows how long that will be! I guess I should do something constructive like work on my dissertation.”

“How’s it coming along?”

Mags shrugs, “I guess as good as it can be. It’s so hard to write something objective when you know it’s true.” Mags and Helena are both working on their PhDs, and rely on the library at the Daae for their research. Mags is writing about how folklore is heavily rooted in existing biases and stereotypes, and Helena is writing her’s on the history of the Occult and its ignored influence in major religions and politics. 

“Like what exactly?”

“Well take the ‘hidden people’, and the lore surrounding them. People feared changelings, that the Fae would swap their disfigured child for a human child, and now the rational mind believes this was people’s fear of neurodivergent or disabled children, which is correct but also Fae actually existed and do asshole s**t like steal babies. People suck, but the Fae also sucked, and I can’t write about that second part.”

Helena nods, “Yes exactly. When I started writing, I had no idea how difficult it would be to police myself from exposing secrets, and having to create an artificial barrier for myself in understanding something we naturally know so well because it would be suspicious to non Underworld creatures.”

Mags makes a loud ‘Mhm’ and plops down in a chair. Helena sits across from her and they continue discussing their research with one another, complaining about how much they have to restrict themselves because of the knowledge they both have from being werewolves. Their world is secret, all of the Underworld is secret. When they first met a year ago, Mags and Helena bonded quickly over their shared experiences of walking the line between their Underworld home and the outside world of scholars.