Jackson's POV
"Okay so what's your point in all of this Gabi?" Athena stressfully pulls her hair back.
"First of all, everyone feel free to call me that. I honestly prefer it! And I don't per se believe this is a...bad scenario. But this thing was scared of the...singularities he dubbed as: The Wolf, The Man and The Witch. We don't exactly know what these black engravings are on you two other than that Fenrir set this on Crest, Oracion set it on you. But both with very obvious different intentions."
"Fenrir...kept mentioning him being the first. Just as we entered the mirror." Percy's wolf form sits up.
"You can speak like that!?" Gabi looks even closer for an expectation on him
"All wolves can, but ever since Fenrir...Crest has been able to maintain that Lycan gift." He painfully smiles with whatever facial muscles he has.
"So let's say that Fenrir was the first being The Wolf. The man...from what I've been told, Oracion was previously Human which is referencing him. But...I've never heard of a Witch before...unless!" She runs from shelf to shelf, practically breaking them all apart in a hurry as the library repairs and re-organises itself. "Oh wait! Nimue, you have the book don't you!?"
"The one about Whispers to the gifted and the cursed? I think it was called. It looks encrypted if anything, only some words look readable to me so I haven't finished it yet."
"Yes yes but in the very first page it states something about selected humans that could interact with the same gifts we've come to know that a majority of the wolves have, right!?"
"Yeah, it did. It was why you recommended it to me in the first place"
"I don't think they were called that in the past though...I believe one of the translations were something along the lines of: Spirit Whisperer? Nonetheless...hold on wouldn't that mean this Lycan...feared a human?"
The room falls silent as the realisation settles in, "Me and Percy believe that book is owned by Oracion's son, Oneiros. Someone that I'm told was the sole reason for all the packs gathering together. And that this historic beast himself, recognised as a threat." Nimue comments
"Fenrir forced him into a cursed zone, torn apart and shredded. A deserved as it was...I think that we all didn't expect him to fall in such a manner" Athena pulls out a chair from the side to sit beside Percy's still slumped form. "This human is long gone though right? He mentioned it himself that she passed away"
"Which then prompted a new person to be "Selected" by this singularity...but he didn't understand it fully himself. He targeted the person with a gamble on whether or not he'd win, risking his life for the sake of gaining that much power. And...something didn't go right." Gabi opens the book back up, scanning through the memories as we continue speaking.
"Any clues on the new person it-"
"Her!" She points out to the long haired girl standing in front of a burning building, those around her crumpled down to nothing more than a corpse. The figure of her phasing in and out into a shadowed monstrous form.
"Is...that how he viewed her? A monster?" A large beast walks through us with ease, nobody bringing him up at all. Holding the book and visibly releasing a tear along the pages. "Is this the memory you were talking about?" He holds it back to Gabriela as she confirms it.
"It's Eden." He states with aggravation, handing the back to her before making his way back "Fancy seeing you here, Percy, Nimue. I couldn't help but involve myself after hearing that man's name." They wave at his figure going past them, only to stop once he passes by me.
"I-I-" Stepping back and fumbling, he grabs me to hold me up straight. Staring directly into his eyes I feel myself becoming lost as his voice briefly enters my head.
"No need to worry, that's my husband, Chris" She waves off to me.
"He isn't human, is he?" He quickly confirms with her after eyeing me up and down with another glance. To which she shrugs. "An alpha, a lycan and a god. Those are the only beings I've struggled using my telepathy on...which one are you?" He tries again to look inside me.
"Stop please" I whisper out but he continues to dig.
His grip increases on my wrist, "There's nothing inside you, I'm looking and all I can see are reflections of myself over and over." My eyes wander to the appearance of Irene, dramatically tiptoeing her way into the scene and grabbing my wrist alongside his with a wicked smirk.
Gaining a sudden focus on my senses like before...I calm myself, listening for the heartbeat to his soul. Standing up firmly I tense my grasp, returning the stern gaze. "Why isn't-...you don't have a heartbeat." I call out.
Making him let go with a deep humble laugh, "Of course I do" He places my hand on his chest. Sure enough he does have one, a sturdy pulse that fits his oversized form.
"But...I can't open it. You're not...hiding behind anything like the others, you're you." I feel myself speak out.
"Or maybe you're just not as strong as you thought, huh? I come from the Goddess of Decay and the God of the Dead. Do you really think you can measure up to me?"
"But...you look like him, the size...the aura you carry alongside yourself. Even he was hiding behind something or with something."
His ear suddenly twitches, "And who would that b-" He quickly engulfs my body with his chest, holding me tight but blinding me from the view. Irene's grasp on my hand letting go as she hides back along the shelves.
"Percy!?" Athena screams out as the sound of dripping alerts me.
"You good Jackson?" He lets go of me, standing in front of me and revealing a large gash along his back.
"I-"
Noticing my stutters he assures my confusion and answers for me, "It'll heal in a moment, no worries." He pats it with a toothy smile and without another moment passing, I watch as the furs and tears in skin already beginning to seal up.
A growling hound now standing on guard in front of us, the hazed slice from under his stomach now emitting a smoke like effect that gradually wraps around his body. "Hold on guys" Gabi creeps towards him with caution but more-so curiosity.
"What are you doing?" Nimue tries to hold her but she leans in out of her reach.
"I don't think this is a particularly bad thing...he's not attacking just anyone. He tried going after Jackson."
"Again" Nimue completes
"This has happened twice now? As bad as it sounds I again, don't think we should be worrying about it. So long as Jackson-" She looks towards the healing Chris, "-So long as anyone isn't being hurt".
"So if it isn't bad, then what is it!?" Athena asks with annoyance."
"Well if Oracion marked you to watch you. And Fenrir marked Crest...it wouldn't be just to watch him. If I was an old rampaging wolf sealed away...I'd want out."
"So we're just going to leave him to become Crest again!?"
"No it was different that time, his physical form was quite literally remade from his biological relation to Percy/Crest. It's why he was even able to be sealed in the first place, he kept nothing more than a fraction of what his original body had. Whereas Oracion only ever got stronger over time with his own body. Even I doubt he has the energy to remake himself in such a short amount of time, something like that could possibly take centuries even if we are comparing these singularities to the strongest thing we know...like a god? I guess?"
"So?"
"So he marked him for another reason, if Oneiros mentions within the story that the singularities are built into the very soul of the person without choice. Then...he's abandoning his sealed body? Or rather reshaping Crest himself? And Crest fighting it is actually doing the opposite of helping?"
"And you believe we should jus-" He jumps for me again but Gabi grabs him by the tail, letting Chris sit him down as she whispers in his ear. Forcing him to shift back into a human skin.
Silencing the room with amazement, "I-Uh, my mother taught me it. She always sung it to me when I was little" She laughs it off from the sudden attention drawn to her.
"Your mother...taught you how to shift a wolf? Someone as high ranking as Percy?" Athena picks him up from his slumped form, hushing him behind the shelf to redress himself.
"I...anyway! It's been a long day don't you think? We should get some rest back at our homes! But jokes aside, I think we need to let Crest deal with it in his own way. The first singularity...one that made Fenrir unchallenged to the gods, the second...a man made beast that could steal the gifts of others and unironically halt that very same unchallenged god. Not to mention the third...a power strong enough to make a Lycan of that calibre fear a human. I believe figuring out who the new one is...or rather what happened that night is the key to figuring out what those marks on both of you truly are."
"And what about me?" I state, feeling left out from the scenario.
"I...I'm sorry but I'm not even sure of what you can do or where to start."
"Look!" I press my hand against Percy's chest, feeling nothing I run to Nimue's...Athena's. Again nothing." Leading me to look back to her awkwardly. "I just don't know how to trigger it!" I thump my foot in annoyance.
Having Nimue's arms comfort around me, "It's alright, one day at a time Jackson. We'll come back here with a new outlook just for you." I weakly smile up at her, earning one right back.
"Nice meeting you Jackson" Chris' giant hand waves over me, walking alongside Gabriela as they return to their rooms.
"I think we should be heading home, thanks for this Athena" Percy jumps into her with more energy than he had prior.
"No problem bud, oh and I don't know if you're interested or not but Adam's heading over to the old rainmaker pack. You going with him or nah?"
A little hesitation fills him for some reason, "I'd rather not, no offence to your father. But I'll wait till he gets home or I'll come here after doing some daily tasks around the pack cause you know...Luna and that" He scratches his head as if feeling guilty.
"See you around then, I assume you know how to get out of here" She winks at him, walking the same path as Chris which is presumably to their room.
"C'mon I'll get us out of here!" Nimue jumps ahead with way too much enthusiasm, bumping her head against a floating book but shrugging it off. Smiling when she realised it made me laugh a little. Those gaps in my memories...I don't know what they were before and the simple conscious thought of them hurts me beyond belief. So right now, for each day that passes I'll accept my new self, these people and this place, it feels like more than what I had before. A lot more.