Ourselves and Our Posterity

Chapter 13

  Grimm is gone for almost a week. When he returns he brings guests. I can see that Breuer isn't happy about any of it. He's been grumbling all day and he's especially unhappy to learn about dinner tonight.

  Grimm sent us word we would be attending a dinner party with them. Both my and Breuer's presence were mandated. He'd even sent me a dress for the occasion. It's an olive green evening gown. The velvet material is soft under my fingertips. He gave me clothes the last time he had me meet people too.

  There's a knock at my door. Before I can answer a woman comes bustling in carrying a large box. Her body is as scarred as mine but her face is too. It's a jagged line running from her hairline to her jaw. It even crosses through her eye which had glazed over in a milky hue.

  "Who are you?", I ask her.

  She smiles at me, "I am you". I gasp my realization. She's a concubine. I'd heard of how beautiful women went into the castle and came out deformed husks. I guess I am just as she and all the other women were.

  "Why are you here?", I ask.

  "To do your makeup", she says, "and to thank you".

  "Thank me?", I ask. I've never met her and I have no idea what I could've done for her.

  She nods, "if you hadn't shown up I would have died a very long time ago and my sister would have taken my place".

  "How long has it been?", I ask. She only shrugs and opens the box. It's full of cosmetics. She sets to work making me look alive again.

  When she is gone I put on the dress. Looking in the mirror I'm shocked at who stares back at me. Her eyes are sadder than I remember and she's a bit too thin but, it's her nonetheless. The woman I'd seen hanging laundry who'd guided me back to my body. She is me. She does not smile now. 

  Another knock sounds at the door taking me away from my thoughts. I got to answer it a find Grimm standing on the other side.

  He beams at me, "you look incredible". I say nothing in return.

  "I brought you a couple more things", he says steering me to sit at the edge of my bed. He helps me into a pair of black leather heels and drapes a gold and emerald necklace around my neck. I put on the matching earrings myself. When I'm done he smooths my hair and helps me to stand.

  He leads me downstairs and corridors. We walk in silence and eventually end up in a grand dining room. When we get there Breuer and two people I don't know are already sitting there. The atmosphere is tense and Grimm leads me to sit with them. He introduces the couple as Alpha Raúl and Luna Louisa. I say nothing and the room falls into an awkward silence. I can hardly stand even a bite in the tense atmosphere and opt to just stare at my plate.

  "Why are they here?", Breuer's outburst startles me.

"Breuer, Raúl, and Luisa are here to discuss the terms of a cease-fire", Grimm explains.

  "Do any of those involve the head of the late Alpha Panganiban on a stick?", Breuer asks.

  "That's highly inappropriate!", Raúl shouts his shout leading to a coughing fit.

  "I'd settle for that of his children", Breuer growls. For the first time, I feel afraid of him. That dullness I'd seen in him before seems to grow into a great void. The void that the warmth and light and his family must have once filled but, from what I've gathered they're long dead. Did this man he's talking about kill them?

  "Those children have been through enough", Louisa glares at him as she rubs her mate's back. Brewer snorts at this and starts playing with his food. I watch him push around his dinner.