Chapter 96

Chapter 96: Chapter 96

Chapter 96

Mrs. Locke’s skin glistened under the bright light that filled the room. Against the soft lines of old age that marked her face, she definitely maintained taking care of herself in ways that showed. I wondered, as I looked at her, how proud Mr. Locke must have been of her over all the years they had spent together.

"You said you’re the Watcher of this fortress. What does that mean?" I asked, wanting to hear more about it.

"Oh, that’s a story I like to tell." She shifted into a more comfortable position in her seat, crossing one leg over the other as she sank deeper into the cushions. "My family has been here since the dawn of the fortress. Since it was first built, long before many of the things around us existed in the way they do now."

"Wow..." I said, taking in the weight of what she had shared.

"Yes. In fact, I met my husband here. He’d been a tourist who came to SilverFang for sightseeing, nothing more than that at first, but well, it’s been forty-three years together now." In her eyes, I could almost swear I saw the girl she once was, the younger version of herself that still lived somewhere behind the years. The young, radiant beauty of her youth seemed to flicker there for a moment as she spoke.

"Kai lived with us for most of his childhood, you know, after the incident with his brothers."

Mrs. Locke paused then, and I took the opportunity to chime in before the silence stretched too long.

"Oh, right. I know about that."

"Precisely. His father was a tough man, the kind who held firm to his ways, but Kai was much lighter at heart. He spent many summers and winters here with us, season after season, and oh, he loved the forest behind the fortress. He always said the trees were one, connected in ways that went deeper than what the eye could see, and that life was just as connected as their roots running through the earth. He was a special child in that way."

The warm light in the room helped my observation as I watched the memories drift across Mrs. Locke’s eyes. Her gaze softened further, and for a moment it felt as though she wasn’t looking at me at all but at a much younger Kai racing through the woods the way he must have done so many times before.

"So," she slapped her thighs lightly with both hands, "we’re glad to have the Luna with us as well. Oh, I can’t wait to know you better."

The energy she carried was one I hadn’t expected to witness, not even in the tiniest corner of my imagination. It filled the space around her in a way that made the conversation feel easier than it might have otherwise.

The rest of the night blurred into conversations that weren’t particularly important in the grand scheme of things, though somehow they were enjoyable all the same. Words passed back and forth in a steady, comfortable rhythm until the hours began to slip away. I regretted not asking her about the artists behind the portraits that hung on the walls, but I had to assume they were either her, Mr. Locke, or one of the servants who had lived and worked here over time.

Back in my room later that night, I picked up my phone and scrolled through the internet for hours. Page after page passed under my thumb until my vision grew heavy and my lashes fluttered against my cheeks. Before I knew it, I’d fallen asleep with the soft glow of the screen still lingering somewhere in the background of my thoughts.

???

Warm beams of light poured in through the windows the next morning, followed by the scratching of metal against metal. The irritating, ear-piercing shriek itched at my brain, and I rolled over in bed with a low sound of protest.

Groaning between yawns that stretched my jaw, a cheery voice woke me fully.

"Good morning, Luna."

Having grown surprisingly familiar with Mrs. Locke’s voice already, I grabbed a pillow and covered my face from the light that insisted on cutting through the room.

"Good morning to you too, Mrs. Locke," I answered from beneath the fabric.

"It’s time for some yoga. I heard you haven’t done any before."

A frown settled on my forehead before I yanked the pillow away and glared at her from where I still lay.

"Who told you that?"

"Ser Clawface."

Ser?

Oh, my. Thinking about it now, I realized I’d never really known Clawface’s title. I couldn’t imagine how annoying I’d probably been around him when we first met, never once regarding him as a knight the way others must have. But hey, that’s why we became friends, isn’t it?

Oh, no. We aren’t friends anymore. He kept secrets like Kai, and I’m still angry about it.

Ugh. Ugh. Ugh.

"Please, don’t listen to him," I said.

"He was raised here before he became Kai’s friend and knight. He’d protect the crown with his life if it came to that."

"Please don’t defend him," I groaned under my breath, the words slipping out quieter than I intended.

Thinking about it, there seemed to be a lot of stories hidden within this place, layers of them that went back years, and considering how open-minded Mrs. Locke was, I supposed I’d learn quite a few of them in time if I stayed long enough.

"Well, get ready. I’ll have a maid send you a smoothie to start the day." She chirped in a motherly tone, wrapping me in her natural warmth the way she seemed to do so easily. As she bustled out of the room, somehow too agile and hale for her age, I cracked my knuckles one by one.

"Well..." I drawled to the empty space she left behind. "Let’s do this."

???

Yoga with Mrs. Locke tested my patience more than I cared to admit. Her exercises were intense and unbelievably time-consuming, each pose held longer than felt reasonable, and we weren’t allowed to eat until we’d finished the entire session from start to finish.

I met other women around her age there in the open space where the session took place. Though I didn’t know who they were or how they had come to be part of this morning routine, they were very accommodating. They watched me carefully to make sure I managed every stretch without straining something, and even shared their equipment with me whenever I needed it, passing mats or blocks without a word of complaint.

"I’d like to take a break now," I said after stealing countless glances at my wristwatch, the numbers ticking by slower than they had any right to.

I hurried out before Mrs. Locke could stop me or call me back into another set of poses.

"I’m never doing that again," I muttered under my breath as I put distance between myself and the group, careful not to let Mrs. Locke or her little army catch a whiff of my betrayal to the cult of early-morning stretching.

As funny as it sounded in my own head, she was very serious about it, especially her belief that it would help with an easier childbirth when the time came.

The scenery beyond the field opened toward the forest behind the fortress in a wide, quiet stretch of green. Mrs. Locke’s compliments about it drifted back into my mind one after another, and I decided to take a stroll to its edge just to see it for myself.

I peered into the forest, hesitant to enter at first, standing there for a moment longer than necessary. But when I turned around and realized no one was nearby, and remembered there wasn’t much else to do except stare at my phone and slowly die of boredom in the same four walls, I ventured into the woods step by careful step.

My eyes wandered about as I moved deeper under the canopy.

One of the first things I noticed was that it didn’t feel like a forest at all in the ordinary sense. It felt more like an enchanted garden woven together by smooth, graceful vines, their leaves wrapping around towering, deep-rooted trees that seemed to have stood there for longer than anyone could measure. The air smelled fresh, touched by earth and greenery in equal measure, while birdsong drifted lazily overhead in soft, unbroken waves.

And then I saw the shimmering lake in the distance, its surface catching the light in quiet, shifting patterns.

A willow tree stood across from it, its branches hanging low and still.

It looked like something out of a fantasy film, the kind of place that belonged on a screen rather than in the real world. I could hardly believe my eyes as I stood there taking it in.

But it was real.

Very much real.