The wolves became uneasy and tense after the Veyr's departure. The base was quite alive and heavy, as no one returned to rest; they all looked worried and disturbed.
The dagger pulses…not as usual.
It pulsed restlessly; I ignored it, knowing fully well that I was too disturbed to care.
It started to vibrate like it was impatient and tired of waiting; it glowed! I couldn't simply ignore it anymore.
….
I stood alone in the clearing as I held the dagger in my hand. I didn't know what it wanted from me, but I was sure it was directing me towards something. It didn't vibrate violently; it was deliberate.
Kael stood there watching from a distance; he was quiet and observing, which I found quite irritating.
I raised the dagger up in the air, and nothing happened, just a hum. If there's one thing I know is that I definitely do not understand the dagger at all.
I exhaled sharply.
"I'm not your pawn," I muttered.
The blade flickered faintly…nothing happened, and it still hummed uneasily.
Kael stepped forward.
"You're holding it like a weapon," he says.
"It is a weapon," I answered.
"No. It's a key."
Weapon or key, it wanted something, and I couldn't tell what it was, and I definitely didn't know what to do at that moment.
Kael started to walk in circles around me. "You're making this tougher than it already is," I said.
"No, I'm helping." He continued to pace. "Stop trying to control it."
"Everything needs control." I looked at him.
"And that's your first mistake." He said.
I kept quiet, and silence followed; the air became suddenly tense for me.
He stepped behind me; he didn't come in contact, but I could feel him behind me.
"Close your eyes." His voice is low.
I didn't.
"Trust me."
Silence…
I hesitated and inwardly detested the idea, but I had no other choice than to comply.
I closed my eyes.
Nothing happened…not until I became a little bit at ease; the dagger started to burn, not painfully. Like it was awakening, the ground beneath me began to crack faintly, and the wolves near the vicinity started to shift uneasily.
Kael's jaw tightened. "It's responding."
The air thickened.
The scent of pine sharpened…fresher, greener.
The carved stone walls behind me blurred at the edges.
Vines unthreaded themselves from pillars.
The torches dimmed.
And when I blinked…
The base was gone.
The forest stood untouched.
Ancient. Whole.
I stood in the same clearing; it was untouched, no base, no carvings, and definitely no wolves around either.
It was like a blank space.
Just the ancient forest and the moonlight.
Three figures stand before a stone altar carved with the same symbols from the base.
Lykos...younger, towering, golden-eyed.
Dad…human, stern, strategic, proud.
And a third figure not fully solid.
A Veyr.
But not shadowed.
Whole.
Defined.
Its form is tall and draped in something like smoke turned to silk.
Its eyes are not embers.
They are stars.
The dagger is planted into the soil between them.
Not as a weapon.
As a seal.
I heard words not spoken aloud, but carved into the air:
"Blood will anchor." "Species will bind." "No realm will dominate the other."
The Veyr presses a hand over the blade.
Lykos places his palm over it.
Hornold places his last.
The earth pulses once.
The forest bows.
The Accord forms.
And then in a blur everything changed; I was in another site.
Smoke, screams, fire. The air carried the weight of sorrows… I felt it.
I saw wolves; they were running. They weren't warriors; they weren't fighting; they were families. Innocent young ones are grasped by fear.
Axen, he stood at the edge of the forest. His gaze cold, his sight calculated, he was watching.
He wasn't raging; he was studying.
I saw it! My jaw and fist clenched; I had seen suffering, but this was far more sorrowful than any other I've ever encountered…
Cages, metal restraints on their legs, arms, and neck. Wolves half shifted, humans strapped down and injected.
The air sang sorrow as the wind shifted.
I felt it.
The corruption wasn't just science; it was distortion.
Something extracted from the dagger's energy, a stolen fragment.
Then I saw him…Lykos.
He was on the ground, with a blade to his chest.
The blade was silver.
But it wasn't the silver that killed him.
It was what coated it.
Something extracted from the dagger's own energy.
Something that disrupted the Alpha bond.
Blood soaked against his white fur...The Alpha bond fractured.
The pack felt it like a spine snapping through the forest. That was Axen's motive.
I saw him…Dad, he ran to Lykos's side.
Lykos grips the dagger.
His voice is weak.
"Protect what binds us."
He presses it into Hornold's hands.
Not desperate.
Knowing.
Like he knew this would happen.
Like the dagger was meant to leave.
Then everything blurred…another location.
It was more of a vision than history this time, something that was hidden even from the wolves.
I saw the dagger alone in the darkness; it was floating, waiting, and it hummed.
It didn't hum toward wolves.
Nor Veyr.
Nor anything born of the forest.
It turned toward something human.
A thin thread of light stretches outward.
Through time.
Through bloodlines.
Through generations, it wasn't just generations!
It was my generation.
And it landed on me.
It definitely wasn't random.
It was chosen long ago.
Not because I'm strong.
Not because I'm Mafia.
Because of Hornold, because of what he carried.
Because of something in my blood that was altered when the dagger was hidden.
Her family line didn't just hide it.
It adapted to it.
That's why it bonded.
The wolves think it's abnormal; it isn't.
It's a delayed design.
The vision blurs out again…into another.
It's void; it's dark.
I see something, a battlefield.
It wasn't the forest, not the base. It was an open land; wolves were fallen.
The hybrids… they stood; they were different; they were stable and controlled.
Their eyes cleared; it didn't look mindless as it should have been.
One turned slowly.
Its eyes locked on mine.
And it knelt. Not to anyone but to me.
Behind the hybrid a shadow splits the sky.
The Veyrs are no longer silhouettes; they're massive and descending.
The realms started thinning.
The Accord is cracking.
And I hear one final word:
"Rewrite."
Not restore, not protect.
Rewrite.
The dagger overheats, and light explodes outward into a circular wave.
I gasped out violently as I fell forward; Kael caught me before I hit the ground.
I opened my eyes.
The world snapped back into place.
I sucked in air like I'd been underwater.
My skin felt… tighter, not painful, just aware.
Every sound sharpened…the scrape of claws on stone, the pulse of someone's heartbeat three steps away.
My vision flickered.
For a second the world wasn't outlined in edges…
It was layered.
Heat, movement, intention.
Then it was gone.
I was standing.
Human.
But something inside me hadn't fully returned.
The wolves nearby step back, not in fear… In recognition.
Kael stared at me.
"What did you see?" He asked.
I didn't answer immediately.
Because I just realized something terrifying.
The dagger wasn't meant to return the balance.
It was meant to replace it.