A Wolf's Howl, A Fairy's Wing

"That…" he mumbled softly as he stared at the unopened letter.

He knew there was only one person who could have left that there, and so did all the others when they realized what Erik was staring at.

Elora and Emma felt his turmoil through their link, and quickly sent him comforting feelings through their link. Emma walked up to him and grabbed his large hand with a bright smile in a show of silent support.

While Emily, Astrid, and Alice were not bonded to Erik in the same way, they could see the complicated feelings on his face and all felt for him in their own way.

Emily, for example, still had some trouble acknowledging her own feelings, although she had, by now, fully accepted that she cared for Erik. Meanwhile, Alice didn't really feel that strongly about Erik yet, but the fact that it involved his mother was a trigger for her due to her own past. Finally, Astrid wasn't so complicated: she loved Erik, and had no problem feeling that way.

Seeing the various amounts and types of support he got from his surroundings made Erik softly chuckle. He couldn't help but talk to Elora through his bond with her, "You know I love you, Elora, and I wouldn't trade our time on Söl for anything, but… having more people around feels nice."

Elora sighed and rolled her eyes in response. "Yes, yes, you sappy, bleeding heart bastard. I love you too. Now get to it already. What are the chances it's going to be bad news, right?"

Erik grinned at Elora's usual antics and walked up to the altar and the letter. He grabbed it, and read the large letters on the front: To my beloved and resurrected son.

Erik raised an eyebrow in surprise. 'Does she actually think I'm resurrected, or is that just a joke?' he thought to himself.

He couldn't exclude the former, but he also wouldn't be surprised by the latter.

'Well, either way, this is clear proof who it's from and who it's for,' he nodded inwardly.

So he opened the letter and started reading.

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Erik,

Or, at least, you had better be my son. If you are standing in this place and reading this letter but are not him, I suggest you simply turn around, leave, and prepare yourself for the unholy vengeance I will rain down upon you and your entire family for whatever harm you might have caused to Viljar, my son, or both.

There is nothing in this place for you.

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Erik chuckled when he read this part, as he could almost see the furious grimace and hard, cold eyes promising untold miseries that would have marred his mother's face as she wrote this.

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However, if you are indeed my son… you cannot imagine the relief that would wash over me at this moment, if only there were some way for me to truly know that you are here.

But there's not. By the time you read this, I will have left Finnmark in pursuit of that traitorous bitch.

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Erik had to smile sadly when he noticed that the next part of the letter was written in an obviously different color. He imagined Runa had broken the pen she was writing with when she thought of Edda.

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I'm sorry I don't have the patience to wait for you, Erik, but I can't stand it anymore. Sitting here in Finnmark doing innate things like struggling with fucking vampires for land and resources, all while… 'you know who' could be anywhere, alive and well, despite what she did.

My anger, sorrow, loneliness, and desire for vengeance are eating at me constantly.

So I have to leave. But I will leave behind this letter and a way to reach this place, in the hope that you will follow after me.

Anyway, I'll get back to that later. First, you're probably wondering why I continue to believe in your survival, despite the odds obviously being against it.

Well, it's actually got to do with the place you are in now. You see, this was all built for you. Well, not specifically you, but the first-born of our bloodline to be alive during the awakening.

To be honest, I don't know all the details either. All I know is what my father and the spirit of this place told me. And that is this: you are supposed to save vampires and werewolves from something. I don't know how, why, or from what but I'm sure that the spirit can tell you more.

All I really cared about was whether it would put you in any danger. Unfortunately, the spirit was a little cryptic about that, but she did say the plans did not involve harming you in any way.

I wasn't told any more, because my only duty was to bring you to this place if the awakening happened while you remained the youngest member of our bloodline. That's been the duty of our family since a countless number of years ago.

Which is what lead to me to seeking the spirits help after your… disappearance. You see, after it all went down, I spend a day searching for you in a panic while Viljar was still recovering. At the time, my mind was already drowning in sorrow over the loss of your father and the others, and I couldn't accept that I'd lost you, too.

I decided there was only one being that surely wanted to find you as much as I did. The spirit. So I went back here, hoping against hope that the spirit had some way to locate you, but she did not.

She did, however, promise me that I would see you again. That her mistress wouldn't just lie down and accept defeat after all this time.

I don't know what any of that meant, but I simply chose to have faith. To believe that you were still out there, and that this mistress or whoever would bring you back to me.

Perhaps that was foolish but… here you are, reading my letter. So who's foolish now?!

Anyway… I wish I could have told you all this earlier, Erik… I'm sorry about that. Unfortunately, I wasn't supposed to share the secret until either the awakening, or your firstborn child, and I didn't feel like pissing off however orchestrated and build all this without good reason.

I'm running out of paper, and we can talk more when we meet each other again, so I need to start wrapping things up.

I'm going to Africa to pursue Edda, and I hope you'll follow me there!

Why do I believe she's in Africa? Well, I might have threatened the spirit with simply not telling you about this place at all if she didn't help me, which annoyed her, but did get her to help in the end.

One last thing… I know you don't like fighting, and I know there will probably be a lot of that in the future, but… please don't let that deter you from following your heart.

I love you, Erik. More than anything.

Yours forever,

Runa

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