Who is Magpie?

If she had been a normal Luna, this meeting would have been her introduction to the counsel, and them welcoming her as a leader. Instead, they were congratulating and expressing their regrets for hearing about her experience so far. Pirus had already been informed of the results of the challenge and joined the video call in the conference room halfway through meeting.

Jessamine didn’t believe his assurance that he wasn’t apart of it, and she made it clear, in no uncertain terms, that’s she was sure he was at least aware, but willing to let it pass in exchange for their future compliance. Pirus could see the black in her eyes, and had heard enough about his forgotten cousin to know she would come after him for anything she could if he didn’t listen. He made it clear that he was not his sister or his father, and he had no ill will for the new Luna, even if it was under fear of death. He offered her everything they had been sent when her family was proclaimed dead, as a sign of goodwill, and relinquished any supposed debt Athena had tried to get for the aid they had given.

The meeting had honestly gone smoother than Ezekiel or Bronx could have imagined, and Jessamine, who had never attended a meeting like it, rather liked that she had been the one to speak the most. After Pirus left the call they had to return to important business about the Fae and the rogues. Jessamine had agreed to a second meeting the following day to discuss her actions with the Fae. They would host a meeting for a few hours everyday until she ran out of stories to tell about everything she knew. It was Ezekiel’s only condition, that they spaced out the meetings, so she wouldn’t get burnt out. He knew it was necessary, and he planned to hold her the entire time, but her only condition came after the meeting ended.

When the curtains had been opened and the video calls over, the Alpha, Beta, and Luna were the only ones left in the meeting room when she spoke. “I will only discuss what directly and indirectly might affect the wolven,” she said firmly.

They both looked confused. “Isn’t that the point?” Bronx asked first.

After a moment interpreting her emotions, Ezekiel sighed. “She won’t talk about what happened to her unless she believes it had anything to do with the wolven.”

“What do you mean?” Bronx asked again, and she looked at him with one eye brow raised, thinking how this wasn’t like him.

“I’m not telling you what happened in the kennels, or any of the other ways I was charged for living and doing their bidding. Unless, it traces to information the wolven need. I am not having hour long Jessamine pity-sessions, the point is to figure out what they’re up to.” Jessamine rephrased but raised her hand and pointed to a scar on the back. “Like this scar was for asking which Goddess the wolven prayed to when their people fell. Moral of the story, they are taught that the Wolven are descended from hell hounds, that the wolves souls are already in the rivers for the lost, and have no one to pray to because they’re already forsaken.”

They both looked at her unabashed, but she barely blinked her eyes, definitely not more than usual. “You think I’m kidding? It was one of the few things he had forgotten to compel me into believing, I guess he figure the way my hand split would be enough of a reminder. It’s one of the few things I new to be a stupid lie from the beginning, and the scar became a question in the back of my head that I couldn’t quite fully form; of what else was only gospel.”

Ezekiel looked at her and sighed, he was beginning to understand her expressions. “You can’t fight anyone until you’re healed.”

She nodded and sighed. “With my handicap and my wolf, I’d probably end up seriously hurting someone.”

Ezekiel gave her a light chuckle before helping her to stand and moving back to their bedroom. Jessamine didn’t train, Ezekiel didn’t work, but Bronx picked seven fights in the gym before supper.