Veronica's Fallacy

43.

-HER-

"I see you've found this beautiful painting," A voice snapped me out of my thoughts.

"Karrson," I breathed, looking at the Underlord stalking towards me with a lazy smile on his lips, but something covert gleamed in his eyes. He searched my face for a second before glancing back at the painting.

"The five traitors," He sighed deeply. "It's one of the most valuable paintings in this building. What do you say?" He asked.

"Yeah... it's incredible," I replied hesitantly, unable to take my eyes off Grim. No, his name was Lucarius. It shocked me that I didn't know his real name yet. It made me feel a certain way. The first night when I went to his place, he had introduced himself as Grim.

I wonder why he hadn't given me his real name then. Was it because he didn't want me to know that he was one of the scorned five traitors? Not that it would have made me react differently. It'd still have shocked me—okay, beyond shocked, maybe—but it wouldn't have made any difference in how I felt about her relationship.

"I thought the Traitors were a myth," I told Karrson, and he laughed mockingly at me.

"Who told you it was all myth?" He asked, and I shrugged.

"Stuff like this is usually a myth," I brushed it off, but Karrson didn't seem to take well to that. He frowned at me, and that was the first time I saw another expression on his face apart from his charming, sly smiles and suggestive looks.

"I sense that you're a werewolf. Are you not? If you were human, your faulty beliefs would have made sense," He said.

"I was raised by humans," I blurted out and instantly regretted it. I shouldn't have said that because now he knew the limitations in my knowledge about them. He could use it against me deviously.

"Ah, now I see. Humans generally call these things myth, but they're not. It's all one hundred per cent true," He said.

"All of it?" I couldn't help but ask him because there were so many questionable things in mythology.

"All of it," He assured, glancing back at the painting with a pensive look on his face. "You know about the five Traitors, right?"

"Kind of?" I stated, searching my brain to scrape in all the information I knew about him.

"Well then, I'd like to know what the humans taught you about them," Karrson said amusedly. I shuffled on my feet and licked my lips, feeling uncertain. This was a test. I knew it right away.

"They're the children of Vedaldir— the first Traitor. He betrayed his brothers Solomon and Horrace. In return, Vedaldir was betrayed by his five children,"

"That's too simplified but not wrong," Karrson nodded. I was mentally relieved when Karrson didn't press me more on the issue. "How does it feel like to be the mate of a Traitor?" he asked, and the question knocked the breath out of me because, until now, I had been pretending all this wasn't real. But Karrson's words proved this was all real—that I was the mate of a Traitor.

"How do you think it should make one feel?" I asked him back because I didn't have the right words to answer his question. I doubted I'd ever be able to answer that question. No, I wouldn't need to. This mating bond wasn't real in the first place, I reminded myself, but deep down, I knew that I was lying to myself.

"Honestly? I'd be stoked if I found out that I was paired with a Traitor," He smiled widely, glancing at the youngest Traitor— Mayrion. There was something interesting in his eyes. It looked like admiration. Real admiration. I cocked my eyebrow at him.

"Why? Wouldn't it bother you that your mate comes from a cursed lineage known for its betrayals?" I couldn't help but ask. My question made his head snap towards me, and he frowned again.

"The humans seemed to have done a good job at making you believe in falsities," His reply bemused me.

"What? They're called the traitors. They literally betrayed their father," I pressed, but he shook his head at me as if I was speaking nonsense.

"That wasn't betrayal, but it also depends on who told you the stories," Karrson remarked. "They say that Vedaldir was the first Traitor, but if you ask me, I'd say it was the first Emperor Solomon. He betrayed his brothers first under the guise of wishful thinking,"

"Are we talking about the same people?" I asked. "Ah, of course, you'd say that since you're an Underlord," I added.

"What does it have to do with me being an Undelrord?" He asked sharply, and for a moment, I regretted making that remark. It seemed to have rubbed in the wrong way.

"I'm just trying to understand why you hold them in such high regard. They're the Traitors. Their history is full of treachery, and they had to pay for it at the War of Vahmehl,"

The paintings that hung at Grim's place flashed in front of my eyes. I realised that those paintings were of the War of Vahmehl, where the five Traitors fought against the armies of Horace and Solomon. I was surprised I never noticed such things and connected the dots. But then again, to me, it was all myth and nothing more than that... until I saw this painting here. The more I stared at it, the more it stirred a deep, unprecedented feeling inside me.

I shook my head and glanced at Karrson, who was staring at Mayrion pensively. He seemed to be oddly fixated on her.

"You remember the ancient War of Harrakan?" He asked.

"Yes, the war in which Solomon, Horace, and Vedaldir fought against the powerful Krakkaon. The sea goddess was impressed by their victory and gave them two or three things as a gift, right?" I asked.

"Yes, Aduna blessed them with three gifts for the victory. Do you know what they were?" I asked him.

"I'm not sure if I remember,"

"Then listen," Karrson said, taking a step closer to the painting. Aduna gave three things—a Thunder Sword that can defeat anyone, a Hammer that can break down anything, and..."

"Poison," I answered, instantly remembering the tale because I always found it odd that Aduna gave poison as a gift. What kind of gift was that?

"All the poison collected from the sea. A poison that could kill anyone," Karrson corrected me. "And I think you can guess who took what?"

"Solomon was given the Thunder Sword, Horace was given the Hamm—"

"You've got it all wrong," Karrson said.

"How?" I asked, intrigued.

"Aduna never gave anything particular to any brother. She gave those three things to all three of them. It was all to be shared, but Solomon had different plans. He knew he wanted the sword for himself. He convinced Horace to take the hammer, leaving the poison for Vedaldir. You know what happened next, right? I bet you do,"

"Vedaldir challenged Solomon for the Thunder Sword, and they went to war. Horace took Solomon's side—"

"—because he wanted to keep the Hammer—"

"And Vedaldir lost against the two and had to drink the poison,"

"And that's how the first Traitor came to be,"

~

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