Evaline:
This question had been sitting in the back of my mind for days now, quietly growing heavier every ti I thought about it.
Elion was the one who had first told that my mother once possessed the Records of Silver Healing... before the council took it away and locked it in their archives.
At the ti, I had been too overwheld by everything else to think deeply about it. But now that I had actually touched the book, felt its weight, sensed the familiarity humming beneath my skin... the question refused to stay silent any longer.
Why my mother?
Among the three remaining mbers of the Silver Wolf bloodline back then, why was she the one trusted with sothing so important?
And there was another question too. One I had deliberately held back, letting it coil inside my chest without voicing it aloud.
How did Elion’s father and Elder Will know so much?
According to the record book itself, the divine healing was never public knowledge. It was guarded, whispered from alpha of one generation to the next, known only by a selective few every era. Yet Elion’s father and Elder Will - both just normal pack mbers back then - knew enough about the divine healing and other secrets of our bloodline.
That didn’t add up.
I hadn’t asked that question.
But sohow, as Elion leaned back in his chair and studied my face, it was as if he already knew it was there.
He let out a slow breath, his gaze drifting montarily toward the tall window behind him before returning to .
"To answer that," he said calmly, "I’ll need to start sowhere else."
I nodded, folding my hands in my lap.
He began with the question I hadn’t asked.
"The last Alpha of the Silver Wolf Pack," Elion said, "was your uncle."
My breath hitched.
"My... uncle?"
"Yes," he confird. "Your mother’s older brother."
I stared at him, my mind scrambling to adjust to this new reality. I had known, logically, that my mother must have had family. A past. A pack. But hearing it spoken aloud... hearing that she had a brother who was the last Alpha of Silver Wolf Pack... made it painfully real.
"There were very few of our bloodline left back then," Elion continued. "By the ti your uncle took over as Alpha, the Silver Wolf Pack was barely surviving. Not only the rogue attacks left the pack with just a handful of people, the divine healers also hadn’t appeared in centuries that most believed the Moon Goddess had turned her back on our bloodline."
My fingers curled slightly into my palm.
"The secret of the divine healing," he went on, "was traditionally passed from Alpha to Alpha, along with the elders. It wasn’t shared with the pack. It existed so that when... and if... another divine healer was born, they would be recognized, protected, and guided by the Alpha and the elders."
I swallowed.
"But your uncle realized sothing," Elion said quietly. "He realized that the end was near."
I just listened in silence.
"He knew the pack was being hunted. He knew it was just a matter of ti. And he knew that if he died with those secrets locked inside him... just like the elders before him... everything the Silver Wolf bloodline had endured would vanish."
Elion leaned forward slightly, his voice steady but heavy with history.
"So he made a choice."
My heart began to race.
"Instead of keeping the knowledge with himself and dying with it," Elion said, "he gathered every remaining mber of the Silver Wolf Pack."
"How many were there?" I asked softly.
"Fifteen," he replied.
My throat closed.
"Fifteen people," he repeated. "That’s all that remained of the ancient and once most powerful pack blessed directly by the Moon Goddess."
I couldn’t look away from him.
"He told them everything," he continued. "The myth of origin of divine healing. The divine healers born in their pack over centuries. The reason secrecy had once been necessary... and the reason it no longer was."
My chest felt tight, like sothing unseen was pressing down on it.
"He didn’t want the knowledge to die with him," Elion said. "So he gave it to everyone who still carried Silver Wolf blood in their veins."
I exhaled shakily.
"And then," Elion added, lowering his voice, "the rogues attacked."
The words struck like a blow.
"The Alpha didn’t survive," he said quietly. "Neither did twelve of the fifteen pack mbers."
My vision blurred slightly.
"Only three survived," Elion continued. "Your mother-Marialle. My father. And Elder Will."
I pressed my lips together, trying to keep my emotions from spilling over.
"They were found days later," Elion said. "Wounded. Exhausted. Hiding among the ruins of what used to be the Silver Wolf territory."
I closed my eyes briefly.
"When my father told this," Elion went on, "he said sothing that stayed with him all his life."
I opened my eyes again.
"When they found Marialle," Elion said softly, "she was clutching a thick, old book to her chest."
My breath caught.
"The record book," I whispered.
He nodded.
"She told them that her brother... your uncle... had given it to her," he said. "He was dying. Badly wounded. And with what little strength he had left, he pressed the book into her hands."
I could picture it far too clearly.
"He told her to keep it safe," Elion continued. "To protect it. And if no new divine healer was born before her death, to pass it down to soone she trusted with her life."
Tears burned at the corners of my eyes.
"But the council took it," I said hoarsely.
"Yes," Elion said. "They did."
He sighed softly.
"Your mother didn’t fight them," he added. "At least, not openly. She was injured. Holess. Hunted. And from her perspective... the council vaults were safer than her hands."
I clenched my fists.
"She believed the book would survive there," Elion said. "Even if she didn’t."
Silence stretched between us.
I felt like my chest was splitting open under the weight of it all.
My mother hadn’t just been a victim.
She had been a guardian.
I wiped at my eyes, breathing carefully.
"So that’s why," I murmured. "That’s why the book was with her. And why your father and Elder Will knew so much."
"Yes," Elion said gently. "They were among the last who heard the full truth directly from their last Alpha himself."
I nodded slowly.
So many missing pieces suddenly fell into place.
And yet... one question remained, looming larger than all the others.
I lifted my gaze back to Elion.
"How," I asked, "did such a powerful pack even ended up getting wiped out?"
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