Chapter Text
Today is a very important anniversary for Adaine Abernant, Eleven Oracle, newly emancipated citizen of Fallinel.
Today marks the end of her first decade as a werewolf.
She steps out of the forest in the quicksilver indigo of the long pre-dawn and conjures the clothes back to her body as she looks up at the sliver of moon grinning down at her. Ironically, she waves a tiny salute at it before the insistent buzz of her newly rematerialized crystal in the pocket of her designer jeans draws her attention.
Frowning, she notes the string of missed calls leading up to the most recent, still ringing. “Aelwyn? What’s wrong?”
A pause. “Oh. You’re alright. Not that I care, obviously–”
“Obviously,” Adaine agrees solemnly.
“Shut up, this is serious. I just thought you’d want to know that something twigged my abjuration ward on you. They have your name, Adaine.”
Adaine’s breath catches silently in her throat, but she hasn’t become known, even by elven standards, as an ice queen, for nothing. “Well, I am the elven oracle, it’s not as if I’m hard to find.”
Aelwyn makes a dissatisfied noise. “They weren’t looking for Adaine the Oracle, they were looking for Adaine the werewolf.”
It’s Adaine’s turn to pause. “Well, shit.”
“Shit indeed, sister-mine. I take it you haven’t heard from any of your little Solace friends you used to hang out with?”
Memories flash across Adaine’s inner eye. “No.”
“Well. Now that I know you’re not dead and I’m not wasting my time, I’ll look them up. Hopefully one or other of them is just feeling nostalgic–ohhh, maybe they want to invite you to their quaint little reunion!”
Adaine snorted, getting a good sniff of the cold morning air. There was a peculiar scent there, one she’d smelled before, but couldn’t quite place now. She found herself curiously reluctant to let Aelwyn off the line, even though they keep in regular contact. “How are the cats?”
“Very subtle. They’re fine. I’m hanging up now. Be careful, you unholy little terror–remember I still have dibs on you.”
“Right, of course,” Adaine says absently, staring at the sky, clouded over now with a thick cold blanket of gray. And white. She clicks off her crystal and holds out a hand, catching something on her palm.
Snow. It was snow.
The first winter in over a thousand years has come to Fallinel.