<~> Chapter 138

I panted in exhaustion after another of Celeste's torturous sessions. It has been three days of this awful training. The moment I switched back to my beastkin form, I was covered in sweat and still subtly shaking. It was better than having my instincts continue to freak me out, but only barely.

Luna frowned down at me. ("Are you okay?")

I wiped the sweat from my brow and awkwardly sat up. "It's... getting better. Slowly."

"You've made good progress, Helena. I'm impressed," Celeste said from her usual meditation spot.

("Are you sure this is helping you? Every time she does whatever it is she's doing, you look like you're scared out of your skin,") Luna asked.

I took a sip of water from my canteen before sighing. "It's hard... but I do think it's helping. I can't imagine anything that could possibly freak me out more than that, and Celeste said that fear is the hardest instinct to get under control."

Luna looked over at Celeste questioningly and the draconic fox-kin nodded. "It's not an easy way to train, but it's fast and effective. Most dragon princes and princesses go through it at some point as well."

("Ask her if I'll have to go through that too,") Luna told me.

"Luna wants to know if she'll have to go through it as well," I said.

Celeste hesitated before nodding. "If your body begins to start showing signs of your draconic heritage, then yes. Otherwise, it may do more harm than good for you to experience it."

Luna frowned and looked over at me. ("If it can do harm, then why are you doing it?") she asked.

I shrugged and turned toward my 'teacher.' "How would it do more harm than good for Luna?"

Celeste frowned and leaned back. "This is an exercise for increasing your ability to think calmly during severe mental strain. Unfortunately, the more experienced you are with it before gaining new instincts, the less impactful it will be after."

I sighed. "Whatever it is you've been doing to me freaks me out so much. Can you do that in a fight? I'd bet it would make anything freeze or run away in an instant."

"For better or worse, it's not something that can be done in a fight. It's something that takes me a lot of concentration, and it's... not without side effects for me either. There's a reason why we begin with a period of meditation before we begin each time," Celeste replied.

"That's not for my benefit?" I asked.

Celeste shook her head. "It does help your training as well, but no. It's mainly for my benefit. I can only do that two or three times in a row before I start feeling a lot of mental strain myself. While I could do something like that in combat if I were protected, there are usually a lot better options available to me. The only way it would be an ideal strategy would be if I was somehow well-rested yet almost entirely out of mana. If I had already spent all of my mana, I likely wouldn't be clear-headed enough to use it. If I did have mana, then I could probably do something better with the effort it would take. Like cast a spell, or just intimidate whatever I'm looking at instead. Perhaps... Using it on a wild beast I had no other hope of defeating could be viable, but it may just get me killed in its inevitable rampage afterward. It might be better than taking my chances running, depending on the creature."

Celeste stood up and smiled over at Luna. "But now that we've finished that, I wanted to spend some time with Luna. Now that you've made good progress on controlling your instincts, I'd like to use the rest of my time speaking with Luna directly, as we discussed."

Luna hesitantly nodded before taking off her ring and setting it on the table near Celeste's desk.

Celeste sat down and reached into a drawer. She carefully removed the truth-detection telepathy amulet she had used the other day and pushed it over to Luna. "If I'm understanding how your ring works properly, we should be able to activate both telepathy enchantments simultaneously. Luna just needs to wear them both at the same time when she activates her ring."

I looked over at her skeptically. "Are you sure this is going to work? There's no chance this could break her ring, could it?"

"No. Worst case, it just doesn't activate on both and only the most recent artifact she attempts to use will function with it. To be sure, why don't you put on the amulet first and Helena's ring on second," Celeste suggested.

Luna nodded and slipped the amulet over her ears and around her neck. She then wore my telepathy ring before putting on her better telepathy ring and activating it. There was a slight crackle of mana as she activated it, but no other indication of whether or not it had worked yet. She returned my telepathy ring before handing the amulet back to Celeste after that.

She took a scratchy deep breath and spoke to us both using her ring. ("Did it work?")

"I can hear you," I replied before turning to Celeste.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Rather than the disappointment I had half expected to see, the dragon woman was on the verge of tears with the biggest smile I had ever seen her wear. Celeste sounded choked up when she cleared her throat. "I can hear you perfectly clearly... dear."

("Hello... Mother,") Luna replied. My fiancé had a vulnerable look on her face. She didn't seem quite as emotional as Celeste did, but I could tell that this meant something to her too.

Celeste sobbed and tears began to stream down her face. Her clawed hands grasped repeatedly at her dress. Seeing the usually ice cold woman break down like this... shattered some of my suspicions surrounding her. I couldn't believe this was somehow fake, that this was acting. If it was, this woman deserved an Oscar. She was making me tear up just from watching.

Luna's own hands were nervously fiddling with each other. ("Celeste... Would it be alright if I... hugged you?")

Celeste sniffed and nodded. "Yes... please," she whispered.

Luna awkwardly circled around the desk as Celeste stood up and subtly held out her arms. It wasn't a full open-armed hug, but I think that had more to do with Celeste's nervousness than any lack of desire for it. Luna cautiously stepped closer before gently wrapping her arms around her mother. Just as carefully, as if her daughter were made of glass, Celeste wrapped her arms around Luna as well and softly squeezed her. Celeste continued to quietly cry and sniffle as they continued the hug for several long minutes.

When Luna began to pull away, Celeste was quick to let her go and took a step back. In that moment, the fierce woman I had gotten to know a little better over the last few days looked completely different. A pure happiness, tinged with an undercurrent of sadness and longing, had softened her features. The hardened woman looked softer and more vulnerable than I had ever seen her. I wondered if this was the real her, the one before she watched her other children die, or if this was something she had kept buried even then.

Luna sniffled and wiped the tears from her face. Then she let out a small laugh. ("When we came over here today... I hadn't planned to ask for that yet. I had a thousand things to say, to talk with you about... but that was the first and only thing I could think of once I could finally speak to you.")

Some of Celeste's hardened exterior had returned, but it now carried that softer feeling of happiness within it. It was like a giant weight had been lifted off the dragon woman's shoulders. "Thank you, Luna. I've been waiting for this day for a long time... Even before I lost my other children, I have always wanted to come see you. I wish circumstances could have been different... I would have come for you sooner had I known how badly you've been treated... but we're here now. I... cannot promise to always protect you... I have already broken that promise to my other children... but I'll instead promise to do anything in my power to help you, and make you strong enough to protect yourself... even if I cannot be there."

Luna shook her head. ("I don't want any of that... I just want you to love me.") Luna's voice was pained, full of hurt that alluded to her difficult childhood.

A fresh wave of tears began to fall from Celeste's face and she sniffled. Her arms trembled, but she stepped forward and pulled Luna into another hug. Her voice came out as a ragged whisper, "I will always love you. No matter what. Even if you somehow come to hate me or curse me, I will always love you. That I can promise."

I felt a bit out of place being here to watch over this, but I'm glad I did. I wiped my own tears from my face. I'm not sure I know when I began crying, but it could have been at any point during this entire thing. I was watching two people, broken in different ways, reconciling any potential differences they may have had and discarding all of that to accept each other. Luna could have been mad for being abandoned, could have been spiteful after having been left alone with her father, but she wasn't. Celeste had been afraid of being rejected, afraid of stepping into the role of Luna's mother unwanted, but that hadn't happened. Luna cared more about finally getting to know someone she had always longed to know, and Celeste was relieved she hadn't been shunned by her last living child.

A loud horn blew, followed by a stream of other whistles and horns. I hadn't known that any sound could be heard through the enchantments that silenced the world around us. The noise made Celeste jump and she carefully drew herself away from Luna. She returned to her desk and pulled a bottle of wine from one of the drawers while sniffling.

("What's going on?") Luna asked while looking around. Her ears followed the whistles and horns that were continuously blowing around us.

Celeste sniffled and wiped the tears away from her eyes before taking a long swig of wine. A long draught later, she corked the bottle and placed it on the desk. "That's the signal that one of our soldiers has been found dead. It's either intruders or that changeling, but either way, I need to pull myself together."

She took a deep breath and stood up straight. The tall and imposing Celeste returned in that moment. The only sign she had been crying a moment before was her slightly red eyes that now made her look more angry than sad. "Follow me. I need to investigate and I don't want either of you away from me right now. Don't hesitate to shift if you need to, Helena, but wait until something attacks us."

I nodded. "Yes, ma'am." I retrieved my blindfold from my spatial ring and quickly put it on.

Celeste glanced back at Luna, and for a brief moment, it looked like her composure would break, but she looked away and tucked her amulet under her shirt. "Luna, use some protective magic. We're not sure what we're about to walk into."

Luna nodded without a word and a ring of fire came to life around her. I hadn't seen her use this before, but it was obviously some kind of defensive spell. I would have to talk to her about it later. I was confused why she didn't use it more. The two of us followed Celeste out of her tent and the loud sounds of the world returned around us.

The moment we left the tent, a soldier came running from the opposite direction of the dungeon. "Lady Celeste, we found a soldier dead in his bunk in the barracks. The body looks like it's been there all day, but the soldier has been seen patrolling his usual shift."

A deep growl reverberated through Celeste's chest. Maybe her red eyes had been angry. I didn't know if it was because of the death of her soldier, her time with Luna being interrupted, or both. "I'll have that changeling's head on a pike. Show me to the body, I want to take a look."

The four of us weaved through the chaotic rush of soldiers as everyone moved to their emergency posts. Only when the soldiers were right in front of us did they move out of Celeste's way. I hadn't been in this area of the camp before, but the soldiers seemed well-organized despite the situation. Soldiers already at their emergency posts saluted Celeste as we walked by, while other guards patrolled and looked for anything out of the ordinary.

We arrived at the barracks tent and there was a small crowd surrounding the body of the dead soldier. His throat had been cut and the body looked shriveled up. The scent of the blood was in the air, but none of it was coming from the body... It had been completely desanguinated.

Among the crowd of people surrounding the body was Tor'jek, the blue draco. He turned to Celeste and smiled. "I've finally found its trail. Now we can root this changeling out."

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