I don’t remember coming into this cave in search of some sort of demented wolf’s wisdom. Well, I mean, I was assuming she was a wolf, it sounded like a girl and the bloodied paw prints made me assume it was a wolf but maybe I was wrong? Then again I suppose my mistake was not truly considering what the wolf was saying so much as coming into the cave at all. I would laugh about it later. One day, when I was grown I would look back on this moment and roll my eyes at my own idiocy really- for following bloodied paws into a cave and then engaging the voice in conversation. It would be rude to ignore it I suppose and yet in time I would wonder about a lot of the things I did as a child with the world on my shoulders and a legacy at my paws that seemed far too big for just one child. The voice said something then about fairness, about how the world was hardly fair and that I should learn that now, my shoulders rolling in a shrug of sorts as I eyed the darkness with a look slightly critical I suppose.

“I already know life isn’t fair, believe me I do although I do so much agree that it is part of the balance. A balance can be tipped after all, it depends how much weight is in one’s corner. Fair is a matter or perspective.”

I allowed a simper of sorts to touch my lips, mind turning over the events in Diveen of late as the words rang out, an amused snort of sorts following a moment later as my mind considered some of the more amusing moments of Covet’s failure and the return of Achilles and subsequent rise of my own interests and ideals. As I said, fair, I think- is a matter of perspective. Fair is decided by the one who hits the hardest in the end. The mention of her name saw such thoughts flee from my mind all the same, youthful head tilting slightly once more in consideration. Ahorvi. I would remember that name. A secret keeper could be….useful after all, someone worth knowing, my interest in this wolf only seeming to grow all the more. Maybe that was why she lived in this cave in the dark- maybe she herself was a secret. I liked that. It was, well, curious in the least. Her asking for a secret though, saw my features from once more.

“Are secret keepers supposed to ask for secrets like that?”

One eye lifted slightly, doubtful, a grin upon my features all the same before I rose to my paws once more and shrugged in a manner that was surely callous to perceive, taking a few steps into the darkness as I considered what she wanted. A secret. I knew a lot of secrets and I suppose a secret for a secret is fair enough. Yet what to tell her? I was hardly going to offer a stranger in the dark my most secret of secrets now was I? No, they were not hers to hear, but there were other things I could share.

“Are you of a political mind, Ahorvi?”

It didn’t really matter if she wasn’t, she asked for a secret, she didn’t specify what it had to be about. That was her mistake I suppose.

“There is a wolf, a white wolf called Zeus. He killed a wolf of Diveen called Sulan as a group of warriors travelled to the mountain, he attacked a number of others, he also attacked a lone female, Aviias, for her connection to another wolf of the Diveen pack. Not exactly a secret, wolves talk about it. What is secret though, is that a few days ago he snuck into the Diveen pack, this Zeus, unseen by any- save for one of our assassins, Majora. Majora followed him, he believes Zeus is planning an attack of Diveen. If Zeus has others with him- there might be another war for Diveen yet. Warriors are beginning to stir. How’s that for a secret?”

Why did I choose to share that secret? Well, I have my reasons, that sort of information may not hurt to be spread a little in the end, it would test how good a secret keeper this wolf really was. She would either prove herself true to the implication she would keep it, or she would share the information with others and that in itself would not be…unhelpful to my plans in the end. Heyel said everything must be done for a reason and I would try to uphold that wisdom, if I could.


h y r u l e
The Once and Future King
The Heir of Heyel