Miracle of the Moon Goddess

3: The Rules Have Changed

When I finally get home safely, the first thing I meet is Mother Green's warm embrace. From the looks of it, she has been waiting for me. Her green scales look pale, almost grey with worry. The cave is quiet, and when I’m about to ask about mom and Thea, Mother Green gives me the answer with a hushed voice.

“Angel and Mother Brown are comforting Thea as we speak. I think the girl is sleeping now, but both stay close to her. Your mother is still lucid if you want to talk to her.”

“Thea needs her more than me, and I don’t want to add to mom’s worries.” I shake my head as I speak and feel all my energy is draining. “Can you help me to go to my bath instead?” I ask, and Mother Green gives me a comforting smile.

Helping me undress, she tells me of what they know. The slave girl who tripped at court served in court for the first time today. She was too young for the job, but she was cursed to start early with her pretty looks. She was relatively expensive too, being bred to be a showpiece.

“Will her pain be permanent, you think?” I ask.

“No, the slaves at the palace will have made sure of that. They have their secrets.” Mother Green does not share more than that, and I accept it knowing it’s a reason for her tight lips. I might have shown compassion to them, but I live a privileged life. It might be easier to break me if the true elves ever find out that I know about the slave secrets.

“What happened after Angel and Thea left?” Mother Green asks, sensing correctly that more happened. “Did they torture more slaves for fun?”

“No,” I shake my head. I’m somewhat revealed that I did not witness more abuse like what the young slave girl recived, but at the same time I fear for my own future. “Grandmother wants me to become a concubine and introduced the four men who laid their claim on me.” I manage to say it out loud without my voice quivering. “It was horrible!” I cry, not wanting to think of the question they made me answer.

“Choosing a prospect often takes a long time, so if they only just started the process, you might be safe for a couple of more years.” The comforting words calm me a little, but my tears keep falling as Mother Green hugs me.

“I thought I would be older. I thought I would have seen more worlds by then. Oh, Mother Green, I want to see the moon again!” At my exclamation, she freezes her comforting movements on my back. Slowly she releases me from the hug and looks me into my face.

“Again?”

It’s only one word, but with it, I hear so much pain, needs, and most vital of all: I hear hope. The thought of me seeing the moon for the first time gives her so much hope she completely loses it in front of me. Her tears start to stream, and her breathing becomes shallow when I nod. I, on the other hand, stop crying. I’m completely shocked by her reaction. Why does she care about me seeing the moon? I’m about to ask when I see her mouth open to speak.

“Blessed by the Moonlight, her soul will be forged from two halves, and her journey begins.” Her words make it go cold through me. I feel like they belong to me, like I know them, but I’ve never heard them before.

“Oh, never mind me, I’m just silly,” she suddenly exclaims, and dries her tears. The mood change in front of me stuns me, and I want to inquire, but I’m distracted by the commotion coming from mom’s room. We both stand up and follow the noise to check it out. I can hear what mom is shouting before I even enter the room.

“She’s too young for this!” Her voice is cracking. I’m not sure if she is herself anymore or lost in her mind again. Sometimes she has shouting matches by herself. Most of the time, she shouts at father whether he’s there or not.

“If she had been a good little girl, this would not have happened, but it’s out of my control Angel,” father says calmly at the same time as I open the door.

“She’s only a child! You can’t take my little girl away from me!” Something shatters against the wall, and I walk in the open door. “You can’t give her to one of those men!”

I guess it’s me they are talking about, even if I’m hardly a child at 22 years old. Though, knowing mom, she most likely doesn’t know my age. So I’m okay with that. Not that I think my father knows either, but that is from lack of care, not confusion. Come to think about it, I can't be sure either. The constant time changes between worlds can confuse the best of us, and elves generally don’t care. What’s another year for an immortal being?

It doesn't matter how old I am. That mom wants to defend me like this warms my heart, but this will bring her trouble. Ignoring the pieces of broken glass on the floor, I walk directly to mom to embrace her. “Mom, please. He will not listen when you get angry.”

“Who are you?” she asks, and my heart sinks.

“It’s me, mom. Celeste,” I whisper.

“Celeste? One of Mrs. Goodwell’s grandchildren?” I almost groan. This was a new one from her. I knew I was named after a woman who helped her after her parents died, but usually, my name would be enough for her to see that it’s me, her daughter.

“No. Celeste, your daughter. You named me after Mrs. Goodwell. Remember?” A spark of recognition enters her eyes, and I see sadness in her.

“You smell different,” she sniffs at me. Oh, Moon Goddess, I hope she doesn’t reveal my wolf! I laugh it away with a fake laugh hoping she will not talk further on the matter. I cannot let father know, he is already furious enough!

“I’m not a child anymore, mom,” I explain to her, and she nods.

“You’re still too young for those men Aubrey introduced you to.” I can hear father almost stomping his feet when mom doesn’t respect grandmother’s title. Still, I won't let this become another fight about who is disrespecting who again.

“Yeah, on this, I can agree,” I say, turning to my father. He looks ready to pop his angry vein. “Those men are ancient!”

“It doesn’t matter what you think. The claims have been set. The candidates will be tested, and one of them will make you his concubine like Empress Audbrey has deemed fit.” His face is made of stone, but I’m not ready to give up.

“Can’t you…” father holds up a hand.

“As I tried to explain to Angel, if you had behaved like the half-elf you are and not went beyond your station, this would not have happened. We need to control your antics, and this is how Empress Audbrey deems fit,” he repeats the last part like it’s rehearsed. He knows just as well as me that those men will never be able to control me. I will make sure of that, and mom will help me anyway she can when her mind is straight, at least.

“The rules have changed, Celeste. You lived a good life for now, but as soon as the selection is over, your life will be to bring forth hybrids that will take over your mother’s homeworld. You are nothing in the grand scheme of things,” his calculating voice explains to me, and under his words, I hear what he means. I will never roam free again. I will never see the moon, and I will never shift into my wolf. The wolf he doesn’t know I already have met. I feel her stir inside of me, realizing the same.

Again I hear something shatter against the wall, and I turn to mom, who is in full rage mode. I recognize some of her agitation as the need to shift, but she can’t change into her wolf without the moon. She growls like a feral beast, and when father gets closer, she attacks him with her human teeth and nails. Looking at her, the hard truth that this will be me in a few years hits me in my gut. I thought receiving my wolf soul would be a blessing, but I will become a mad woman like my mother one day.

“Calm yourself, or I will put you in a stasis chamber!” father shouts at mom, but her mind is beyond listening now.

“NO!” I scream at him. “Let her be! If you only let her shift, she will….”

“Kill my unborn children!” he growls at me. Slamming her down the bed, he spells her so she cannot move more than an inch. I see her eyes darting wildly back and forth.

“She is mine, and they are mine. I decide what will and will not happen to you, them, and her. You hear me?” His voice filled with fury. He turns towards me, pointing at me and walking closer for every word he utters. “I’ve been too nice to you, girl, but this will not continue.” I hold my breath as he gets closer. “If you so much as step over the line again, you will put in stasis too!”

I cannot hold back my tears as he talks. Fear grips my dual souls. Fear for myself, but also for mom. “Please fath…” I stop myself from repeating the same mistake I always do. “Please, my Sire, Prince Terra. Don’t put her in the stasis chamber again. Her mind is too far gone already. She might not come back again if you do this,” I beg of him, and I can see a shade of sadness in his eyes. I’ve always known he has loved mom in his own way. Just not in a way that is okay. A lesson all my mothers made sure I understood.

“I have enjoyed the company of your mother, but her body is a tool to be used. She will continue to bring forth children for me. I need her body for that, not her mind. The stasis chamber will ensure her physical health, and that is the only thing that matters.”

Tears almost cloud over my eyes, but through them, I see him walking over to mom in the shape of one of her mates, the dark one. He caresses her cheek, and she leans into the touch, suddenly calm.

I sink to the floor, exhausted by fear and heartache. I see father seduce mom to follow him to the stasis chamber. Mom’s bedroom door is open, so I hear how he makes her climb in before he casts the spell needed for the chamber to work. Then he leaves the cave, and I’m alone on the floor.

I don’t know how long I sit there caught in my own racing mind before an electrifying jolt wakes me up. It comes from a gentle touch on my cheek. I lean into the carres, before I’m lifted into strong arms. These arms are known to me, but something is new about them.

“Bjørnar?”

“Shh, Celeste. Let's get you to bed,” my secret childhood friend tells me. He’s calm as always, something he has inherited from his mom, Mother Brown. I’m anything but calm. My skin buzzes most delightfully, and my wolf howls in excitement.