Page 38 of A Curse So Vile
“I’m sure some of my ideals are cultural, just as yours are. Gryndar is probably very different from the Mainland, and even more different from the Dusklands.”
“It is, but it isn’t. There are some values that transcend place and even time.”
“Will you ever go back? Now that Fiona is well?” Brenna asked, hoping she’d say yes so the older woman wouldn’t be so out of place at the Den.
“I never came to Dreyléon for Fiona, but I vowed to see her through her condition. In Gryndar, we don’t have curses. Nothing like that. It scares me knowing that such foul things exist, but I can never go back.”
“Why?”
Dorthea cast her a suspicious look.
“Fine, don’t tell me.”
“How about I tell you after you tell me what’s going on with you?”
Save for the witches she visited, she’d never told a single person of her plight. It was her burden to bear.
But she was tired of feeling so alone. She hadn’t wanted to burden those she loved with her dark fate, but Dorthea was hardly more than a stranger.
“Uhhh huh,” Dorthea rolled her eyes, “we’ll keep our secrets then.”
“No, wait,” Brenna blurted.
Of all the people to tell, she made the most sense. She’d never grow close to the pack, at least not close enough to share secrets with, and as rough as she was around the edges, there was an honesty to her.
Dorthea would not betray her.
Brenna scanned the area in search of a discrete corner and finally settled on a tavern down the way. “Let’s talk.”
* * *
Brenna
They sat at a table in the empty tavern, a copper buying their privacy.
“To be blunt, as soon as my people find out what I’ve done, I’ll be executed. I’ll have a day or so to say farewell to my loved ones, and then the sentence will be completed.”
Dorthea’s brow furrowed. “Aren’t they supposed to send you up the path? To face the judgment of the cold king?”
“The Den holds different laws, and they’re overlooked for the most part. My people have what is called Denithian blood, passed down from our ancestors. We keep to ourselves; no one’s the wiser.”
“What are you, exactly?”
“You won’t like the answer to that.”
“I’m sure I won’t, but tell me anyway.”
Brenna sighed. She knew these were secrets not meant to be spilt, but for some reason, she trusted the older Gryndari woman.
“Centuries ago, over a thousand years, the first of my blood came over from another world. We know little of that time, as we were very different then, and the knowledge is lost to us. We were…beasts.”
“You weren’t human?”
“Correct. My people started stealing human women to mate with. The children born of these women had less of the Denithian blood than their fathers, and over time, my people grew to be more human, not just in form, but in their minds as well. Where once the human women were kept as slaves, they eventually became lovers and wives, doted upon by the people of my blood. Which led to my pack warring against itself.”
“Why would they war?”
“As my people grew more civilized, they searched for ways to hide their beastly nature. They sought a blood witch for assistance, and a ritual was performed, allowing us to take two forms, man and beast. We let the beast out to hunt and when there’s danger, but for the most part, we keep it contained and have learned to live with it in peace.”