Grand Game 485: The Wise Old Elders

As we drew closer to the new den—much expanded from the original two dozen igloos I’d constructed—we found a welcome party waiting.

Duggar. Aira. Leta. Sulan.

The dire wolf elders.

But of the rest of the pack, there was no sign. Nor for that matter was there any sign of the arctic wolves or my former human companions. I could sense their minds in the igloos beyond but that they were not present told me all I needed to know.

This was to be a private meeting.

Drawing to a halt, I studied the elders in the distance.

“What’s wrong?” Nyra asked. “Why have we stopped?” 

“The Pack elders have come out to meet us,” I replied softly. She couldn’t see the wolves through the howling wind and whipping snow, but I could. They sat waiting, implacable as stone despite the storm raging about the den. 

“Aira?” I asked, projecting the question to her.

It was not Aira who answered though, but Leta. “Bring the lost pup forward,” she instructed, her mindvoice cold and dispassionate. 

Aira must have sensed my unease because a moment later, she added, “We must be certain what she is before the Pack can meet her.”

The words of the two elders did not reassure, and I felt Ghost press up against my side, similarly disturbed. Running my hand through her coat, I felt a cold nose push into my other hand. 

Looking down, I saw Snow staring up at me. “Dire wolf business,” he seemed to say.

I nodded. “Go. Take Nyra and Adriel with you. We’ll talk again soon.” I glanced over my shoulder at the rest of my companions, but no words were necessary. Anticipating my request, the pair were already striding after Snow.

“No,” Sulan interjected. “Bring the girl.”

I hesitated. Girl?

“This matter concerns Wolf,” Duggar added. “She should be present.”

They meant my apprentice then. “Nyra, hold up,” I said.

Stopping, the young woman looked at me in surprise.

“They want to see you as well,” I told her. I threw Adriel an apologetic glance. “Just her.”

The lich, though, was not offended. “House matters, I understand,” she said with a shrug. “Good luck.” Stepping past, she trailed after the arctic wolves. 

“Thank you,” I murmured, watching Snow lead Adriel and the pups into a large oblong structure. Unlike the other igloos in the den it hadn’t been constructed as a singular dome. Instead, it looked like it had been internally partitioned into multiple rooms.

“Come,” Duggar ordered when the six disappeared from view. Turning around, the elders strode into a smaller igloo set off on the side. 

“Prime?” Ghost enquired worriedly at the same time as Nyra asked, “What’s this about?”

I sighed. “I don’t know,” I said, speaking aloud for both their benefit. “But everything will be fine.” It had to be. Tugging the pair along, I followed in the elders’ wake. 

And to whatever judgment awaited.

✵ ✵ ✵

It was noticeably warmer in the igloo, but Nyra’s sigh of contentment went unremarked by the elders. 

They had eyes only for Ghost.

My gaze flickered between the four. The elders were arrayed in a half-circle on the far side of the igloo, leaving me and my two companions to face them across the empty middle. Duggar’s face was impassive. Aira appeared intrigued. Leta was actually snarling. And Sulan… Sulan looked forlorn.

“Ghost is not a stygian,” I said without preamble, wanting to head off the fears I saw writ large in the elders’ faces.

“She looks like one,” Leta growled.

“But she isn’t,” I said, continuing to speak aloud for Nyra’s benefit.

“How can you say that?” the elder demanded. “She practically reeks of the nether!”

I opened my mouth to object, but Sulan spoke first. “Leta is right. I can smell the taint on her. The void has claimed her. She is one of them now.”

“I’m not!” Ghost cried, but Sulan looked away, paying her protest no mind.

“Do you deny she is of the nether?” Leta demanded.

I ran my hand through my hair. “No, but—” 

“You see!” Leta snarled. “He admits it. We should—”

“Enough!” Duggar barked. “Give the scion a chance to explain. He has earned the right to that much.” Tilting his head to the side, he studied me quizzically. “Besides, he is no longer ours to question.”

Leta stiffened. “What does that mean?”

Duggar glanced at his fellow elders, all three of whose gazes were still locked on Ghost. “Do you not see it?” he asked, his mouth opening in what looked suspiciously like a laugh. “Are you three so consumed with our lost pup that you’ve failed to give our scion more than a cursory glance?” 

That earned him a trio of sharp looks.

“Elders should be more observant,” Duggar continued sagely. “Look at him. Look at the scion.” At the alpha’s command, the gazes of the other three elders drifted my way. 

Sulan was the first to see it. Aira followed suit quickly after, and even Leta was not so oblivious as to fail to notice the changes in my Mark.

So that’s what a gaping wolf looks like, I thought wryly.

Duggar went down on his belly. “Hail Protector, and welcome to the Pack. Know that we stand ready to serve.”

The other three quickly followed suit. “Hail Protector,” they echoed.

“Stop that,” I snapped, gesturing impatiently at them. 

“Nothing has changed between us,” I added as the four elders rose back to their haunches. “I’m still the same Michael I always was. You will treat me no differently.”

“As you wish, Protector,” Aira murmured, an indecipherable undercurrent in her tone. Was that amusement? 

 “It’s Michael,” I said, stressing the point.

Aira inclined her head. “Of course, Protector Michael.”

I rolled my eyes. No doubt about it—she was definitely laughing at me. But I was not offended. In fact, I was relieved. Being made fun of I could handle; bowing and scraping… not so much. I had had enough of deference from the New Haveners, and I didn’t want the Pack to start treating me the same way.

More relaxed than I had been to this point, I sat down and indicated Nyra and Ghost to do likewise. The byplay with Aira had served to lighten the atmosphere in the room somewhat. 

Ghost, though, was still tense.

“Alright, Aira, you’ve had your fun,” I said, resting my hand reassuringly on the pyre wolf. “Now, can we get back to the matter at hand?”

“Tell us about your Protector Mark,” Sulan demanded, her preoccupation with Ghost temporarily forgotten. “How did you get it?”

I waved aside her question. “We’ll get to that. But first, let’s talk about Ghost.” I exhaled. “Ghost is… Ghost is no longer a dire wolf. What she is, is a stygian pyre wolf. Her spirit was rehomed in a physical shell created from a mix of organic matter, including the remains of a phoenix and, yes, the nether as well—which is the reason for the taint you smell on her. The void does not impinge on her mind, though. She is still the same Ghost you knew.” I paused. “Well, perhaps a bit more grown up.”

Not unexpectedly, my explanation unleashed a flurry of questions.

“Rehomed? What you say is impossible.”

“A phoenix? Where did you find such a creature?” 

“How was this done? And by whom?”

“Why use the nether? Why not give her a dire wolf body?”

I opened my mouth to reply, answers at the ready, but before I could respond, Ghost took it upon herself to do so. “Time was short,” she said, raising her snout defiantly. “Adriel—the one who fashioned my new body—had no choice but to use the material she had on hand.”

Momentary silence.

“Adriel… she is the other human who accompanies you?” Aira asked.

Sulan sniffed. “She is no human. She stinks of death.”

Ignoring Sulan’s interjection, I nodded mutely, choosing not to delve into the details of exactly who and what Adriel was. There would be enough time for that later.

“But why use nether?” Sulan demanded again. “Why not wait until—” 

“I told you, there was no time,” Ghost interjected angrily. “If Adriel waited, I would be dead.” She glared at the white wolf. “Or would you have preferred that?”

Sulan shrank back from the raw hurt in Ghost’s words. “No,” she whispered, hanging her head. “Not that. Never that.”

“Then why…?” Ghost asked, her own voice just as small. “Why shut me out? Why not let me in?” She was referring to Sulan’s mind. Like the other elders, Sulan held hers firmly shuttered.

Sulan took a tentative step forward. “I’m sorry, pup. The fault is not yours, but mine. Just an old wolf being foolish.” She touched her nose to Ghost’s while simultaneously baring her mind. “Will you forgive me?”

Ghost rubbed her chin against the older wolf’s. “Of course, Sulan.”

“Tell us about the phoenix,” Duggar said, deliberately drawing away my attention—and that of the other elders—in a bid to give Sulan and Ghost a semblance of privacy.

I shook my head. “We’ll get to Sunfury in due time. My tale is a long one, and it’s best if I relate it to everyone at once.”

The alpha inclined his head in acceptance. “What can you tell us of this one then?” he asked, his gaze shifting to Nyra.

“Nyra is my apprentice,” I replied.

Hearing her name, the sniper straightened. Despite me speaking aloud, she was understandably having difficulty following the conversation. Unlike me, Nyra lacked the beast tongue trait. Her Wolf Mark notwithstanding, she would require a skill like telepathy to communicate with the dire wolves.

In fact, I suspected that in the times of the ancients, telepathy had been the primary means by which most scions communicated with their Houses’ beastkin. Only a few Houses—such as Death—would’ve had no beastly counterparts. This in turn led me to wonder if the prevalence of telepathy amongst the ancients also explained its relative absence in the modern era. 

Do the new Powers and their players—whether knowingly or not—shun the psi disciplines because of its tainted association with the Primes of old? 

It was an interesting question, but one meant for later pondering. Refocusing on the here and now, I saw Duggar rise to his feet.

Padding forward, the alpha walked a slow circle around a nervous Nyra. “She is young,” he noted.

“But still bears the Mark,” Leta added in a more subdued tone than she’d used thus far. Of all the elders, she seemed the most affected by my new status as a Pack Protector.

“And yet she cannot communicate with us,” Aira observed.

I nodded. “All those things are true, but Nyra is still new to the Game. “She will learn, both to speak to the Pack and to understand the ways of Wolf.”

“Then it is not to enter the Trials that you’ve brought her here?” Aira asked.

I shook my head. “No. Nyra is not ready for the Trials. But one day, she will be.”

“Soon hopefully,” Nyra added unexpectedly. “Michael is teaching me. I have given him my allegiance and will follow wherever he leads. But I hope to be a friend of the Pack in my own right someday.”

“She speaks truly,” Leta noted.

“Her thoughts are free of deceit,” Duggar agreed. He glanced at me. “Please welcome her in the name of the Pack and tell her that we, too, look forward to that day.”

“The alpha has extended his welcome,” I told Nyra with a smile. “You are free to come and go amongst the Pack as you wish, and unless you prove otherwise, you will be treated as a trusted pack member.”

Nyra did not miss the warning implicit in my words. “Thank you,” she said, bowing in the direction of the elders. “I will not betray your trust.”

I rose to my feet. “Now that that is all out of the way, will you see to Nyra’s introduction to the rest of the Pack?” I asked, directing the question to Aira specifically.

“Of course, Michael,” she replied warmly. “Oursk and the others are most impatient to meet her.” She paused. “And you, too.”

I nodded. “As I am them.” I glanced in the direction of the structure Snow had taken Adriel. “But there are a few others that I must greet first.”

Aira laughed. “Go. I know you are anxious to be reacquainted with your human friends and… perhaps one in particular?”

Ignoring her teasing note, I ducked out of the igloo, safe in the knowledge that Ghost and Nyra were in good hands.