Chapter 454: What Must Wait for the Waking

Chapter 453: What Must Wait for the Waking

Two Days Ago

Lysander answered Orion without hesitation.

"Marta is in charge of that patient," he said. "I’m on leave for a while, so you’ll have to speak to her directly."

Orion inclined his head.

"And regarding questioning him?" he asked quietly.

Lysander’s mouth flattened.

"I’m not certain we can yet. As far as I know, he’s stable but not awake yet."

A tired breath slipped from Daniel.

"So we still have nothing," he muttered.

Orion folded his hands together on the table.

"We have more than nothing," he said evenly. "But we don’t have what we need."

A few eyes lifted toward him.

"There are too many pieces moving at once," Orion continued. "And too many of them are tied to the same place."

Nirvana.

The name itself hung between them.

"It is becoming clearer that Nirvana is far more than any of us believed it to be," Orion said quietly.

"But for all of that," Orion added, "we cannot pull answers out of empty air."

He looked around the table slowly.

"Ronan needs to be here."

A soft murmur passed through the hall.

"And Sophia needs to be here as well." 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

No one objected.

Orion’s voice remained steady.

"She is an integral part of this—whether any of us like it or not. Of what is happening in Nirvana. Of what we encountered there. And of what is now circling this pack."

He paused.

"She also deserves to hear what is being decided about her."

The elders nodded.

Madam Tyler inclined her head.

"It would be appropriate," she agreed.

Daniel rubbed his hand over his jaw.

"Will she finally start attending council meetings?" he asked.

A faint corner of Orion’s mouth lifted.

"That’s the plan," he said. "Once she recovers."

A few expressions softened.

"She should be present," Orion added. "Not only because this concerns her—but because sometimes, we need a different perspective."

For a moment, the tension in the hall eased. Only slightly.

"There’s something else we still haven’t addressed," Daniel said.

Orion looked toward him.

"The letter from the enclave."

Orion raised a brow faintly.

"What did it say this time?"

Daniel hesitated.

Then reached into the inner fold of his tunic.

He unfolded the thin, carefully preserved parchment.

"It’s... the same request as before," he said.

Orion’s gaze sharpened.

"But?"

Daniel exhaled.

"The others know about it already, but the issue is, this time, they weren’t polite about it."

Daniel continued.

"They are requesting assistance to contain the plague."

Several heads lifted.

"And not just assistance," Daniel added. "They are requesting access to our healers. Our alchemical reserves. Our researchers. And our territory routes."

A pause.

"The wording is closer to a demand. They claim the plague is spreading faster than anticipated," Daniel said, "and that the Nightshade pack has resources that could significantly alter the outcome."

"You did not explicitly say that when you read the letter to us," Caspian growled at him.

Daniel nodded. "I am sorry about that. But there was a lot going on, especially after the issue with Eldric, and I couldn’t risk you all being paranoid. Mary, for one, would look for every opportunity to get to the enclave directly."

"I’m already doing that," Mary said to him, halfway out of her seat.

"For the love of all things holy and for my sanity, can you please sit down?" Orion asked her.

"I have a better suggestion. We find the enclave and perhaps offer their brains to Lysander so he can do some research on them and see what’s really going on with them, and if their brains are capable of working like ours are," Mary told him.

"Please, sit," Orion said with a sigh. "I know how much you hate the enclave, but we can’t go knocking on doors and asking for trouble right now. We have many things to uncover, answers to seek, and if we start a war with the enclave now just because we are annoyed at them or hold resentment towards them, then what happens to the members of the pack? We will be handing ourselves to them on a silver platter, and you know that," Orion told her.

Mary was quiet. She settled back in her chair, arms crossed across her chest. She understood where Orion was coming from, but that did not mean she liked it.

"Should we reply to them?" Daniel asked Orion.

"Of course we should reply to them," Caspian said.

"I have an idea what we should tell them," Mary spoke up.

Orion sighed. He had an idea where this was going already.

"We should tell them to fuck off," Mary said.

Caspian snorted.

Madam Tyler closed her eyes briefly.

Mary continued, entirely unbothered.

"They lost the right to ask us for anything the day they burned our homes, killed our people, destroyed our families. The majority of the older people in the pack are left with scars because of what they did, and even after all that, they still hung posters on different posts and labeled us wanted because we are apparently criminals, even though we never did anything to hurt them except ask for help too," Mary said in anger.

Everyone was quiet. No one would ever forget what the enclave did to them.

Her gaze turned toward Orion.

"I still stand by what I told the council before you came back and by what I am telling you now. Send them a fuck you. Draw the middle finger and send it back to them," she said.

Orion leaned back in his chair, staring straight into her eyes.

"The last letter they sent," he reminded them, "we replied with a very direct refusal."

Daniel barked a weak laugh.

"Direct is generous."

"I said what needed to be said," Orion replied.

"Which is a very elaborate fuck you," Lysander said with a laugh.

Orion smiled. "Exactly."

"And they still wrote again," Caspian muttered.

Orion nodded. "And honestly, from what I’ve seen, they may continue to write to us."

Madam Tyler sighed softly.

"They are desperate."

"But that does not excuse entitlement," Brynhild said.

Madam Tyler folded her hands on the table.

"This would be an opportune time," she said carefully, "for Tobias to gather what information he can about the plague. If anyone can find out what they’re hiding," Madam Tyler continued, "it is him."

It was at that point that Orion remembered a tiny detail. Something Ronan had told him a few minutes before he found out that Sophia was burning up.

"Fuck!" he said, burying his face in his hands.