Chapter 451: Ashes in the Council Hall

Two days ago

If Orion thought that after that meeting with Eldric he could take things easy, he thought wrong.

Things moved to the council hall instead, all elders present, including Brynhild and Lysander.

Orion sat at his usual position at the head of the table.

Cloaks brushed stone. Gloves were removed. Chairs scraped softly across the floor.

Madam Tyler was the first to speak.

"Orion," she said gently, inclining her head. "Word reached me that you met with Eldric?"

Orion nodded once. He was sure her fellow musketeers had told her that he had met with Eldric.

"Yes."

Before Madam Tyler could continue, Orion spoke again.

"He will only answer questions when Sophia is awake, so I still do not have answers regarding who he is."

"Why did you just accept that boy?" Caspian asked him. "You should have forced him to speak, especially after knowing that he wasn’t the Eldric we know."

"And what good would forcing him to speak do for us?" Orion asked him. "Besides, I accepted it because he was speaking the truth."

"Just because he didn’t lie doesn’t mean that he couldn’t be withholding information," Daniel told him.

Orion chuckled. "He’s withholding information, Daniel. We all know that, and he gave us a condition. He will only speak if Sophia and I meet him together."

"I kind of understand that, but don’t you think you’re putting a lot of faith in a stranger wearing one of our own?" Daniel asked him.

Orion’s voice remained steady.

"I am putting faith in what I can verify."

"But even if he didn’t lie," Daniel argued, "that doesn’t mean he isn’t dangerous. It doesn’t mean he isn’t hiding something. We are talking about a body being overtaken inside the pack. Inside the territory."

Orion’s jaw tightened.

"You were there," he said quietly. "You heard him. He’s obviously hiding not just something, but many things, Daniel."

Daniel held his ground. "I know that, but I also know we heard what he wanted us to hear."

Orion’s eyes sharpened.

"He swore he will not hurt anyone," Orion said. "Especially not the members of this pack."

His voice lowered.

"That was not a lie. And I doubt he’s dangerous. If he really was, don’t you think he would have hurt at least one person in the pack? He’s been here for a while now, and there’s been no casualty or injury recorded," Orion told him.

"What if him being dangerous does not have to do with casualties but with what is to come? Like the dangers ahead?" Caspian asked him.

"Then we’ll do what we always do," Orion spoke up. "We fight."

Silence lingered in the hall. There was a visible tension in the air.

Brynhild shifted in her seat.

Her posture was rigid, her gloved fingers folded together in her lap.

"Orion," she said.

Orion turned toward her.

"There is something you should know."

Orion inclined his head slightly.

"What is it?" he asked her.

"I don’t know if Daniel and Caspian let this be known to you, but... Eldric sees visions," she told him.

Orion paused.

"What do you mean?" he asked slowly.

Brynhild did not flinch.

"I mean exactly that," she replied. "He sees things before they happen. Or sees them as they are unfolding elsewhere... I think."

"It’s a vision nonetheless," Madam Tyler spoke up.

"You are certain?" Orion asked them.

"Everyone in this hall, except you, is aware. He drew something yesterday," Mary spoke up.

"When Daniel first realized Eldric wasn’t Eldric," she said carefully, "Eldric was frantic. He kept saying we needed to leave immediately. That Sophia was in danger."

"He kept insisting that he was too late and that she was in danger and that we needed to help her. Honestly, we didn’t believe him," she told Orion.

"He wasn’t the Eldric we knew, so his words were unbelievable, and we questioned him instead."

"Brynhild believed Sophia could protect herself," Mary added gently. "And that you were with her."

Her gaze lifted toward Orion.

"We assumed no immediate harm would come to her."

Orion was quiet for a while, and then he spoke up.

"May I see the drawing?" he asked them.

Madam Tyler hesitated only a moment.

Then she reached into the leather satchel she had carried with her. It was like she expected that this conversation would come up. Her staff, which she normally carried, wasn’t with her either.

She passed the parchment to Caspian, who passed it to Orion.

Orion accepted it and stared at the drawing with a frown.

It was of a cave, jagged and uneven, its walls darkened with rough shading.

At the center was a beast. It was misshapen.

Its limbs were too long. Its torso too narrow.

Its hands were bound into the ground by thick, heavy chains.

The body was unmistakably humanoid.

But nothing about it was human.

Its head lay on the ground at its feet.

Severed.

Tilted slightly to the side.

The artist had captured the empty neck with disturbing precision.

In front of the beast stood a woman.

Her back was turned.

Her hair spilled down her shoulders.

The gown was long and flowing—far too ornate to be practical.

In front of her was a massive wolf.

His body arched protectively. His teeth bared. His stance wide and unwavering.

Orion stared at the parchment in silence. Everyone watched him in silence too.

No one dared speak.

The resemblance was unmistakable to Orion. There were slight inconsistencies with what actually happened, but he knew without being told what this drawing was about.

He lowered the parchment slightly.

Orion swallowed.

He remained silent for a while.

Long enough that unease crept through the room.

Long enough that Caspian shifted his weight.

Long enough that Daniel opened his mouth—then closed it again.

"Orion, spill it out. You look like you have something to say," Lysander said to him.

Orion nodded and then spoke up.

"This," he said quietly.

As every ear turned toward him.

"This may have happened."

"May?" Lysander asked him with a frown on his face.

"Yes, may. It happened, but not exactly as it is drawn," Orion told them.

He placed the parchment on the table.

"The gown is wrong," Orion continued. "Sophia would never wear something like that. It’s not her style."

Lysander and Brynhild almost laughed because Lysander had been of the same opinion when he saw the drawing.

Orion continued. "And especially not when fighting."

A faint, almost absent note of dry amusement touched his voice.

"But the woman in the drawing..."

His gaze drifted back to the figure sketched on the parchment.

"...is her."

"We met the headless beast," Orion told them. "And the wolf—"

He paused.

His fingers flexed.

"The wolf is Noctis," Orion said.

"And he was trying to protect Sophia from the headless beast."