The Chronicles of Alpha Academy (bxb)

34: Healing

Chapter 34: Healing

Kieran

We sat on the grass, criss cross, our knees touching, as the Goddess and the Oracle stood together nearby, silent sentinels.

Remmy looked a little younger, but maybe it was because, as I stared at him carefully, I noticed that his mysterious bad boy aura was gone. His long black hair still lay loose on his shoulders, but his face is more relaxed and at peace since I'd known him. What I took for an artists' focus, at one point, I realized was actually the effort he must have used to hide his true intentions from everyone around him. Now that was gone, and he was changed.

Another difference, the black crescent moon scars on his wrist are now white.

"She's given me a chance to pay back everything I've taken. Most Wolves who die, get to be reborn and live again, love again, try again. Or they spend eternity in the Void. Which is where I should be. But she is far Kinder than I ever realized."

I let him talk. For now, I had nothing to say.

"First, before I begin the tasks She sets me, I asked to speak to you, Kieran. Because...you are the person I wronged the most. The person who's trust I destroyed. The person I hurt the most. I can't ever apologize enough, and I'm not expecting anything from you. I don't at all expect you to forgive me. I want YOU to know that nothing was your fault. That nothing you did caused what happened. I hope that it might give you some peace to know that I'm under her dominion and can't harm you, or anyone else, ever again."

"What happened to you, Remmy? Why did you do this?" I couldn't help but ask.

He whispered his story to me, and I needed to lean a little closer to hear it.

"I walked dark roads, Kieran. When I was eight, I met the Oracle of my Pack. He was an old man, who'd long ago chosen the Blood path to secure his position and his magic. He recognized my anger and my lack of faith, and took advantage of them, enflamed them. Twisted my innocence. I became his .. vessel I guess for power. He did...things... to me. He used my pain and suffering to create bigger magics, to extend his own life, knowing what he faced when he died. He taught me his ways, and I willingly learned them. I learned to draw power myself by hurting and bleeding animals. Blood magic stains everything it touches. When he learned that the Keystone Luna was chosen and the Alpha Academy was opening, we combined our collective power to see that I was Chosen, all with the goal that I shared with you. I will visit Kai next, and thank him for ending that path. I wouldn't have stepped away from it willingly, I was too far gone, but thanks to him I'm free now."

He looked up at the stars and the moon, and back at our Lady.

"The new moon's darkness holds so much power, but Kieran, the Light is stronger, and that power is clean. It doesn't wash away the stains on my soul. I earned those. But with Light I can see better, and choose to follow Truth and not Lies."

I sat back, assessing my feelings, reordering my thoughts. "What will you do, now?"

Remmy took a roll of string from his pocket, the fibers so thin that I could barely see it. "She's allowing me to pursue my art again. For the rest of time, I'm sentenced to weave spider webs that cast innocent, simple charms to give luck to any who encounter them. In the Now, in the Past, and in the Future."

"Will you weave one for me?"

"Of course." In a few quick seconds he had a web created, spinning the thread using only his fingers. A delicate misty snowflake like thing, so completely different from the charm he'd shown me during our horrible experience in his studio.