When Ben returned from his rendezvous with Tania, he brought a pile of files from the council for Fenris to fill out, much to the younger brother's displeasure. Ryker also came to discuss everything that had happened.
We found ourselves in the study that used to belong to Amir, their father. It had been unused since his passing, yet everything was well-kept. There were ancient items he had collected from his travels as the head of Cerberus.
Once we were all sitting by one of the couches near the main table, the sun elf turned to the young silver blood.
"So, when will you take the helm in Cerberus?" He asked.
A soft chuckle left Fenris, gripping me by my waist before tugging me closer. "How about effective from today?"
A soft nod left Ryker, "I understand; I shall clean up my things by day's end."
He went to stand, only for my wolf to stop him by grabbing his hand.
"Na, old friend, that won't be necessary. You'll be the director, but instead of me reporting to you, you'll be telling me about everything that happens." He declared, triggering the elf's eyes to open wider than I had ever seen them go.
With this, he would make most of the critical choices instead of the young Lycan, who had no intentions of biting more than he could handle. With the council and Lycans, he had enough on his plate.
"What?" The elf cocked his head.
"You've always done what's best for everyone. Lilith would've been in a dungeon or worse if it weren't for you. I know you were the one who fought to keep us together, so I see no reason to kick you off the post when you saved my future wife and, in turn, saved us all."
"Fen—ah, I don't know what you mean. I never did anything of the sort." Ryker huffed, crossing his arms. "But if you don't want your duties by birthright, I won't argue there. Let's keep working like we always have, young silver blood."
"Hah, of course." Fenris smiled as the elf left, allowing us to focus on other matters.
Yet I couldn't help but wonder if I hadn't been pregnant…
Would that have changed your decision?
Shifting my eyes away from my wolf, I tried not to dwell on it. This development wasn't a bad thing, per se. After all, he already had a lot on his plate with the Lycans in the council and being the alpha they admired.
Of course, Ben and Liam would be there to help along the way.
"Hey, Lily," He voiced, drawing my gaze back onto him.
Reaching to touch my cheek, he trailed down it, "Don't think I didn't accept because of you. I don't want my life to be work alone. It's a mistake my dad made, and I refuse to make it. Nothing's more important to me than my family."
His father's choices were something he wanted to avoid at all costs with me. After a brief, sweet kiss, he tugged away to be met with Ben's mountain of documents that needed to be processed. I sat quietly on the comfy couch while the brothers went to work.
They dedicated the rest of the day to all the paperwork in front of them. It was the first time I saw him act so seriously. Liam was also there to be my wolf's ears and feet, running out multiple times to do errands that emerged.
Even Ezra came around to help, too. The grey wolf spent time with Mia, helping her with the pregnancy and such matters before arriving to help his friend. With the new developments, everything became busier than ever before.
Fenris, the head of the council of Lycans, took on the role effortlessly, working from home with the help of his comrades. When I became the new chair of witchcraft, a human visited me to teach me how to work with politics and such.
Before I knew it, I also had a mountain of paperwork I hadn't considered doing. My wolf made it seem so effortless. Meanwhile, I dreaded every time someone came in with more papers or letters for me to read.
Most of the time, it felt like my head was going to explode when complications popped up. They had trained Fenris since birth for this role, while I had nothing of the sort, even though my chair wasn't officialized yet.
That wouldn't happen until I could deal with the masses publicly, which was a danger thanks to my pregnancy. However, that didn't stop rumors spreading, thanks to the Cerberus scouts traveling worldwide. It made some witchcraft users who had left or joined rogues come back to the order.
Most of them had no other way but hoped to avoid persecution with the news of the new chair being filled. After all, never in their wildest dreams did they think witchcraft would be represented in the court.
Every time their letters reached my hands, I couldn't help but relate to the feeling of having their backs pinned against the wall. However, that all changed when they found a voice through me. It had only been a day, and somehow, I was bombarded with ravens, leaving messages requesting the council to meet their needs.
Most of them were reasonable, while others weren't. Whenever Fenris had free time, he would help me sort out and prioritize their request. I never knew seeing the difference between them would be difficult, but some had more urgent needs than others.
"They're all essential, but you can't meet everyone's needs. Focus on the big stuff, and then the little things will fall in line with time." Fenris voiced, holding me close in one of our short breaks.
"Everything's tiresome. My head feels like it's spinning; I don't know how you can mow down so many." I mumbled, smothering myself on his chest.
"Ah, I don't do it alone, love. I'll always be here for you, but you must build your coven too. Fill it with people you trust, human or not." He trailed his fingertips down my hair.
This wolf wasn't wrong; even though he tried his best to help me, he also had his heaps of hoops to go through. Not every witchcraft user wanted to have a Lycan helping them either, though building a coven would require time, which we didn't have much.
Luckily, Ryker was willing to help me find trustworthy people to keep me going. Though, they were just the start of everything. Before any letter came to me, it was checked for harmful substances. Thankfully, they never found any.
This isn't your style, either way. You'll want bloodshed, won't you, grandmother?
I never thought overseeing anything would be easy, but it was more complicated than I imagined. The pressure of having so many people depend on me for their needs was overwhelming. By the second day, the council had resumed a decision on the matters that we had left unsaid before.
Thankfully, most elves had come to reason, pooling their sources together. Whatever god artifacts they had would be brought to Silverant within the following weeks. In the meeting, I tried to procure some resources the witchcraft users were asking for, only to be met by a dead end.
Until we removed the rogues, the witchcraft chair couldn't fully proceed. Thus, helping them would only strengthen their forces. All the members didn't fully agree with this, but it didn't allow me to help those willing to return.
Their rejection didn't deter me from arguing otherwise.
"You're all feeding the flame that's burning our world! I hope you know that!" I growled.
Sadly, it was disregarded, leaving me feeling heated in ways I didn't understand. After the meeting ended, my wolf reassured me again that I wouldn't be alone in this. Sadly, I couldn't depend on him constantly, though.
Silverant had its plethora of issues, especially after the recent attacks. It wasn't long before Nyla came forward, offering herbs to help the witchcraft users with their potions. She was followed by Jaxon and Charles, who offered to do the same.
"If we don't support them, they'll just leave again, and the rest won't turn towards us." Jaxon sighed, "So, just tell us what you need, and I'll try to acquire it for you."
"Thank you!" I smiled.
The request that had been denied concerned the potions we witchcraft users could make. These potions would also help us and every race, allowing them to prove themselves for peace rather than chaos. Once we left them behind, Ryker took Fenris and me to his office.
There, I saw something familiar sitting on his table.
What...? Isn't that my grimoire?
It appeared the same as when it was first summoned into this world.
"Why's it there?" I mumbled, gazing at my wolf.
He smiled in response to my question, gesturing to Ryker.
"Well, if you want to be respected by witchcraft users, you must have your grimoire. Fenris has convinced me it should be alright for you to have yours." The elf informed, tapping the cover with his fingertips.
Taking a few steps towards it, I barely recognized it. When the fall happened, I hadn't inspected it before. It was blue, with black laces around it. It had no title or anything else to identify, much like any other grimoire.
"I thought you would've destroyed it," I commented.
Ryker shook his head in response to my assessment of the situation.
"Well, powerful grimoires are indestructible. The magic within them makes them that way, and yours is from the Soul Carin." Ryker clarified.
This was something I knew, as most were indestructible by normal means. Even so, I thought they would've found a way to eliminate it.
"Even to elven fire?" I asked, knowing their inferno was more potent than my incantation, which scorched parts of the forest.
Nothing rarely survived them. Some even said they burned hotter than the stars, so they only existed in Blaze Elven territory.
"Yes, although we never tried to do anything to this one," The elf reassured me, leaving me unsure of his intentions.
"Why? I don't understand why anyone would allow this to exist." I continued my query, wanting to know more about my situation.
"Ah, child, that's because I always thought there would come a day I would have to return it to you. Witchcraft magic's chaotic if deprived of a grimoire. With it, witches can make their spells work more accurately. It also records all the spells you've learned throughout your life." He breathed, shifting his eyes towards my wolf.
"I see," I mumbled.
But… can I control it too?
Fenris stepped towards the grimoire, grabbing it in his hands before turning to me and offering it.
"Also, no one can seem to open the book either. Even though they've tried, or so I was told. I haven't even tried to read it." He added, shaking his head.
His words left me baffled, shifting my eyes towards the grimoire.
"But it has no locks," I noted, glancing at it.
There weren't any restrictive spells, either. This book was nothing more than an ordinary bearer of information.
"Some grimoires only respond to their owners or their kin, especially if they are still alive, " Ryker said, sitting in his chair.
"Oh..." I murmured, remembering the library incident from before.
So, Lilith's grimoire resonated with me, and it was true. Tobias didn't lie. Yet again, he never did.
I hesitantly reached for it when I walked towards Fenris, who held it. The moment my fingers touched the cover of it, it glowed slightly before dimming right after. A soft sigh left me, alerting me it probably was safe to handle since nothing terrible happened. I took it from his hands before finally opening it and revealing all the spells I had encountered.
I had also created the newest ones, as many other pages were empty.
"Witchcraft users, most of the time, create their spells to fill their pages. They do this by understanding other ones they have come across, but you already know how to do that since you turned ten." Fenris breathed, grabbing me by my waist.
With every page I turned, I could see all the spells Stella forced me to learn, even the ones I had little memory of. There was an arsenal in there.
"It also records any spell you might have seen. So, we hope maybe you saw something about what Stella has planned." Ryker voiced, leaving me to realize that probably was the only reason he agreed to return the grimoire.
It didn't matter to me, though. Sitting down, I took the chance that we were alone in this room to glance at the book. While I did so, Ryker gave his report to Fenris based on what he had learned today. Nothing had changed in the past few days.
Although Tania was processing the shipment of the elven artifacts, she would personally oversee getting them to Silverant to avoid any hurdles. It appeared Ben would have only one more day with her before she left to gather the artifacts.
After a while of reading, I again fell ill, making Fenris call it a day for us. Leading me out of the room, we walked into another storm—one I wanted to be no part of.