Prelude (Underworld Lucian Fanfiction)

96 - Chapter XCVI: A Promising Start

Three minutes later.

Obviously, he was not going to Singe.

Despite having indicated as such, for a moment, thinking he could walk a sane and steady path as soon as Reinette left the room. Instead he spent four minutes taking apart his work table, preparing to quietly feed it to the fires of his forge rather than salvaging the thing. About to proceed to burning, only to start tabulating all the other surfaces covered in their postcoital scent. The kind of thing he'd never truly...concerned...himself with.

Allegra seeming to think he knew precisely how to handle all of 'this', as she had so eloquently said, when after seven centuries, it was honestly the kind of thing he always left to servants now, typically the ones from whomever's quarters he was leaving. As far as he was aware, it would take at least a day or two for the smell truly to disappear. And in theory, he could have left it to time, vinegar, and an open window. But they only had until tomorrow morning if a council emissary was on the way. The snow making it a hundred times easier to follow a trail...

...meaning the only thing stopping anyone from following Reinette's scent directly to that table was the age of the hunter and a delayed formal warrant. Morrigan would make them pay for that, he thought in passing. Having completely abandoned the table so he could spend an additional minute tracking Reinette's scent-from table to floor to door-before checking the air on the outside.

It was bad.

No physical tracks but the air low to the ground, and the scent clearly going straight up the hill towards the eastern boundary. Anyone on the other side would know she had come this way, and the chances of a storm were next to nil considering how clear the sky was.

And so he came to the first snag, the issue of how best to hide the obvious nature of their deed, an act that would have serious ramifications for his marriage contract with the North. In the world of lycan politics, it was typical to foil one's opponent with the minor details of paperwork. In this case, an appendix containing the aptly-titled List of Approved Mistresses, updated and controlled by the North, and given his history, meant to be his downfall should he break it.

Obviously, it had seemed a worthwhile exchange at the time. The Northerners obsessed with something so petty, yet willing to agree, when all was said and done to thousands of exiles fleeing to the North in a time of war. For his part, what with not really giving a fuck about whom he was fucking, it had seemed harmless enough.

Unfortunately he'd not factored on...

...Reinette.

The weight of his conundrum leading him to stare at his forge for an additional twelve minutes, freezing his tailbone while meditating on his options. Something he used to do with the aid of his Ming Dynasty tea bowl. At first picturing his shattered bowl intact before allowing its true nature to surface. Realising that in breaking the bowl, he might have released himself from his need for it.

And though it had been over five hours since his last dose-though he often lost his mind after six-he began to wonder if he was for once, finding his answers in the lack of something rather than its material essence.

That perhaps it could be true of...all...his possessions.

Everything inside seeming...unimportant...all of a sudden. Possibly because the last hour had changed everything. Or because his granddaughter was now a search warrant away from losing her inheritance. Allegra able to keep her knowledge of the affair secret, but a council emissary more likely to give an honest report of his findings.

The quiet lending itself to clarity.

The knowledge that-if he really thought about it-he had already tipped past the point of no return. That as he was standing there, a sequence of events would be occurring in the main house. All of it designed to wipe a slate clean and send him to the Americas. Regardless of his actions now, he would be on a ship before any further damage could occur. The emissary would arrive to find Reinette scrubbed, bathed, and mysteriously on her way to the estate of Lady Morrigan, who would only have agreed to this delayed warrant in exchange for an advantage. The very same advantage she had previously been courting with Freyja before he released Reinette from her obligations.