赤裸裸的滑稽故事

“What…?” Ashleigh whispered in shock. “But… how?”

Lian gave her a gentle smile.

“What I am going to tell you will shock you. But it is all true, and I am only telling you because we need your help.”

“What do you mean?” Ashleigh asked and then furrowed her brows. “Wait… you called me the Luna of Summer… but… I hadn’t accepted Caleb yet when I met you… so how–”

“Time works differently here.”

The voice came from behind her. Ashleigh turned and gasped when she recognized Solana, the first Luna of Summer, standing before her.

“This conversation is happening now, in the past, in the future. Here, time folds in on itself with twists and turns,” she continued. “Best not to think too hard about it.”

Ashleigh swallowed.

“So… are you… alive?” she asked.

Solana nodded.

“We all are,” another voice called from behind Ashleigh.

She turned to see the dark woman with the golden curls from the tapestry.

“I am Talis, Mother of Spring,” she smiled. “I guided your mother when she came to us and your friend, Bell.”

“We aren’t ALL alive,” Solana corrected with a solemn expression.

‘She means me,’ Lily whispered in Ashleigh’s ear.

Ashleigh looked around, but she couldn’t see her.

‘I’m always with you, remember? Unfortunately, they can’t see me right now, but you can call me forth in this place.’

‘How do I do that?’ Ashleigh asked.

‘Just focus on me, on seeing me before you.’

‘Ok…’ Ashleigh closed her eyes, then quickly opened them, ‘Wait, she’s not going to try to kill us again, is she?’

Ashleigh glanced at Solana. She heard a soft giggle in her mind.

‘I don’t think so,’ Lily whispered. ‘She hasn’t met you yet.’

Solana raised her brow at Ashleigh, a suspicious glance, but Lily was right. She didn’t seem to recognize her beyond that.

Ashleigh sighed and closed her eyes, focusing on seeing Lily. The gold and steel armor, the long honey blonde braid.

“Welcome back,” smiled Lian. “It has been far too long since we have seen each other, Lily, Mother of Winter.”

“Actually, I saw you not terribly long ago. Unfortunately, we didn’t agree on some things, which led to brain bleeds for you and Ashleigh. But you know time weirdness in such, so I guess you can look forward to that,” Lily smiled.

Lian raised an eyebrow and smirked.

“How uniquely you,” she said softly.

“Let’s not waste our time,” interjected Solana. The look on her face showed irritation masking pain.

“Not even a hello?” Lily asked, looking pointedly at Solana.

Solana clenched her jaw and turned away.

“Solana’s right. The time that Ashleigh spends here must not be wasted,” Lian replied, turning to face Ashleigh. “Like I said, we need your help. And that is why I’m sharing with you secrets held for over a thousand years.”

Ashleigh took a deep breath. What secret could Lian be referring to? And why, of all people, was she about to be trusted with it.

“There are things about the history of your people, of this world, that you don’t know, that none of you know,” Lian began gently.

Lily sighed.

“Just rip the band-aid off!” she grumbled. “You guys may not remember it, but this conversation happened to her almost a year ago. Her mind has been trying desperately to remember it ever since. So, skip the skirting and just tell her plainly.”

“Still as impatient and reckless as always, I see,” Solana growled. “We cannot rush this process if we tell her too much too quickly–”

“She’s waited long enough,” Lily interrupted. “The war is happening out there, now. Like right now. And you don’t know this girl like I do.”

Lily looked at Ashleigh, who looked back at her with confusion.

“She won’t be able to ignore the fighting. It’s not in her to walk away from a battlefield.”

“What are you talking about?” Ashleigh asked. She looked between the women. “Why would I walk away from the battle?”

“Enough,” Lian said. “Lily, I understand your desire to hurry the process, but–”

“You don’t understand!” Lily shouted angrily.

Ashleigh looked at her with concern. The expression she wore was anguished and tired. Could the dead be tired?

“Lily…” she whispered.

Lily looked back at Ashleigh and swallowed before looking away.

“Tell her what you need to tell her but make it fast….” Lily said quietly. “The other one isn’t waiting. She’s already begun with her abominations. She needs to be stopped before there is no one left to save.”

Lily clenched her jaw, looking toward the ground.

“The dead still call to me,” she said. “Even trapped within the husks of their mutated bodies.”

Talis stepped forward and placed a hand on Lily’s shoulder.

“I am so sorry,” she whispered. “It’s my fault this is all happening.”

“The blame does not rest with you alone,” Solana said. “None of us listened. She knew this would happen, and in our grief, we made a selfish choice that is coming back to haunt us all.”

Ashleigh took several deep breaths. She didn’t understand what was happening, what they were talking about. Still, on some primal level, she felt terrified by the implication of their words.

Lian touched her arm, and Ashleigh looked up.

“Come,” Lian whispered. “I think it might be better to have this part of the conversation alone.”

Ashleigh nodded and followed her into another room.

“Lily is right, time is running short, and you need to know many things before you can help us.”

“With what?” Ashleigh asked.

“Do you see the blue light, the haze surrounding this place?” Lian asked.

“Yea,” Ashleigh nodded. “Usually, when I dream of this conversation, I start off in a void of blue hues with light in the distance that I can never reach.”

Lian smiled.

“Those are the ley lines. They are the lifeblood of all living things. It is where our souls travel after death and from where they are reborn. The spark of life within our universe.”

Ashleigh swallowed; she took a deep breath.

“Ok…”

“It’s all right if you don’t understand. There is no reason to go much further into the workings of the ley lines except to say they are a power like no other. And one that can be channeled or tapped into.”

“That seems dangerous,” Ashleigh replied.

“It absolutely is,” Lian said. “The power that Alpha Cain discovered years ago was essentially a vein of the ley line,” Lian said. “He didn’t know exactly what it was, but he understood the danger of it.”

“So… he was right,” Ashleigh whispered. She looked up at Lian. “What about the other part? About the fae… about the wolves….”

Lian swallowed and nodded.

Ashleigh took a deep breath.

“Then… we didn’t descend from humans… you are not human…”

“I am not human, no. But the grand majority of the current werewolf population does descend from humans,” Lian replied.

“I don’t understand….” Ashleigh whispered. “The Goddess hates the fae. She created us to exterminate them, to save the humans… so how could we have been made from them?”

Lian looked away.

“Ashleigh… history is often twisted in ways that make sense to those that survive. Over time, a name, a race, change. Usually, it is just the result of time, but every once in a while, it is a choice.”

“I don’t understand,” Ashleigh sighed.

Lian swallowed.

“Ashleigh, the werewolves were created to stop the remaining fae. Those that had lost themselves in a selfish desire to rule over man instead of maintaining the natural balance of our world,” Lian said sadly. “That war had been raging for over a century by the time the wolves were created. And that decision came at a desperate time, with a high cost.”

“What do you mean?”

“The one that made the decision, the one that made the wolves. It ultimately cost her life.”

“The… Goddess?” Ashleigh asked with hesitance.

Lian looked up at Ashleigh.

“To you, she is the Goddess, but to me and the others, she was our Queen.”