Chapter 37: Looking In

Kayden's POV:

We reach the prisoners at the dungeons, The Grand Priestess Moira has her interest on a particular one first. 

"Beta, take me to see Elder Joel at once!" She turned to him when he didn't answer. 

"My Lady, you will get to peak into Elder Joel's mind if you wish, but not right now." She looked at him questioningly. 

"You seriously don't TRUST me to question him before you? You think I would hide foul play?" Bayoán just looks at her.

"Moira, do you seriously expect me to be the same idiot you knew years back?! I will not have you to go near Elder Joel without Yaya and since you dismissed her, I called my own mate, only when Morgana is here will I allow you near him. I am going to make sure to have a Truth Seer I trust at all times." Her face was stone, but I did notice a corner of her mouth switch up slightly. So they definitely have history, as to the nature of it...

"So I am NOT a trusted Truth Seer Beta?" Her voice is giving no emotion. 

"Moira cut the bullshit, you KNOW I'm doing my damn job, so focus on Theo there and see if there are more Unicorns to get! You will get your tour inside Elder Joel's head when I have Morgana here telling me you aren't wiping his mind clean. We have made sure to cut his link to the pack and have monitored him to not allow anyone near him, so don't take it personally your Ladyship!" And she starts laughing at this! And she gives him a large smile. 

"You do know that is THE MAIN reason she chose you as Beta don't you? Can you ever imagine her talking to me like that?" Her face now relaxed and filled with amusement.

"Not in a million years, and then she would be cornered everytime by you. She really fucking hates all the formality and politics of it, she made sure to disjoin herself from that by puting me as her middle man, it's the best way to be Alpha yet not have her loyalty to Avalon questioned... That's a worthy play out of our father's play book! Was this what you expected she would become?" He asks with a smirk and a raised eyebrow. 

"Not quite... I never expected for her to dare name you. It seems your little sister has indeed been doing her homework and paying attention to even attempt to play this game with both Avalon and The Council, I hope for all of our sakes you gide her well." Then looking at me. "Take me to this Theo, I will look into him now." I don't have a Bayoán who can read, understand and retort to the Grand Priestess of Avalon, so of course I lead the way and take her directly to see Theo. I really wish I could speak with my mate... Maybe if I tell her directly maybe they'll allow my parents to be banished? Shit! I wish I didn't know this information! 

"You seem quite tense Alpha." The Priestess tells me. Yeah no shit! "I just wish to be able to at least speak with my mate, it has been... hard." She stops us.

"Are you telling me that you have yet to have a conversation with Loiza?" She looks from me to Bayoán. He just shrugs. 

"That would be correct My Lady." And it's driving me crazy. Look I get that they have been trained to deal with this but even her brother found his Twin Soul and with the blink of an eye they were Marked and mated. I want to at least hold my mate and inhale her scent to feel alive again, feel like I can handle all of this insanity. 

"Bayoán! This can't go on. Loiza is not only an Alpha but she is a Priestess of the Goddess, those urges that are put for mates are there for a reason and it's more intense for Alphas, this could hurt THEM more. They need to talk and have contact, make it happen! And I don't want to hear this Osupa code of how The Pack comes first Beta, I am in a foul disposition and am about to go in the mind of a slaver. I hope I have made myself clear!" 

He gives her a dashing smile... "Of course My Lady." Then he just gives me a death stare: "Tattletale!" Asshole... 

We reach Theo's cell, he got roughed up by some of the boys, oh well. The Lady Moira puts her hands on either side of Theo's head and her black eyes turn fully white as does Theo's. A few moments go by and their eyes go to their respective color, the Priestess looked at him with disgust and she looks sick. She leaves the cell and looks at the rest of the cells and goes to the next to last. "Open this cell! He isn't one of them." 

Inside there is a young wolf and I notice he isn't Blood Moon, he is malnourished. Who brought him in? I open the cell and get the silver chains of him. She goes to him and looks into him..."Get him treatment, he is of Blue Moon and knows where they are keeping another unicorn. That's why they made you believe he was one of them, if he is executed with the others, this information dies with him. Alpha Kayden the Goddess has willed that it shall be by your hand that the criminals shall die. The Sword of Peace is a cursed relic and any who die by it's blade go to Hades's torture chamber." To the rest of the prisoners... "I hope you all enjoyed the torture, humiliation and rape you have bestowed upon the innocent, you will live it yourselves forever, I have been inside of this vermin's mind and see your faces, I can not wait to visit Hades next month and see what is left of your souls." 

"So, I have to behead them? I usually just pull their heart out or cut their throat." I ask puzzled. 

"Kayden, if you kill them without the sword they go to the Realm of Selene, she doesn't want slavers in her realm. When unforgivable acts are committed, the Goddess demands death by this sword." Would they condemn my parents to die by this sword?

"I understand, do you wish this be done now?" As long as I can speak with Loiza I'll do anything at this point. 

"No, today we honor our dead, we shan't have our ceremony disturbed by vermin blood." Bayoán said with venom in his tone. At that moment his mate, the witch arrived and curtsied the Lady Moira. 

"My Lady, it is an honor to meet you again." Morgana said full of respect. "MY mate informs me you wish to peak inside the mind of Elder Joel?" The Priestess examines her and give her a pleasant smile. The emphasis on MY did not escape me.

"Yes, it's time to get on with that business and see what happened... your mate trusts your judgment entirely, it seems he needs you at his side for the big choices." Ok I feel tension... Morgana gives her the same pleasant smile. 

"Not big choices, only important ones like she is to me My Lady." He takes his mate's hand giving it a tender kiss while looking at her and Morgana in turn kept looking at Moira with the same smile. And I can definitely tell what's going on, no wonder Loiza wanted Bayoán as her Beta, it's not just because he is her brother, but everything points that he and the Priestess were an item, this helps greatly with the politics of Avalon leaving her free to deal with The Council... brilliant! No wonder they laughed it off earlier. 

"Let's just see who the culprit is already, maybe we can execute him or her with the slavers." Bayoán takes his mates hand and guides her to where they have their Elder. When we get there the Elder is silent and at first glance seems asleep, however he was just quiet. Moira goes to him and the same thing that happened with Theo occurs... Bayoán looks at Morgana but she gives a gloomy look and shakes her head. 

"His memory has been fully erased, and from what I can see, he was a puppet too, you say Urayoán found Joel's scent as the strongest?" And for a moment I see Bayoán's eyes turn gold, his wolf clearly not happy with the outcome, yet he stayed calm and instructed one of their warriors to escort Elder Joel for memory recovery therapy. We escorted the women outside. "Yes... if Joel was in fact a puppet? What kind of magic is needed for this?! That was anti climatic and Joel will probably never get his memories back, yet they can possibly map out his last 48 hours." Bayoán said raking his hair back, his eyes still gold, he closes them as he takes his mate in his arms and takes a deep breath from the crook of her neck where I imagine his Mark is. When he comes up again he opens them and they are black again. I could really use my mate's scent right now. 

"I feel Blood Magic over all of this... only a Prime Priestess could have caused the cataclysm, but the moment Blood Magic is conducted she would loose her Mark. We have ONE Priestess who lost her Mark that day, so we can asume Joel's loss of memory and puppet status was achieved another way." She said. 

"How many witches does The Council employ?" Morgana interjects. "There IS a spell in my Great grandmother's book, that can indeed perform this magic."

"Yes, Morgaine Le Fey would have that spell, but with her almost pure fae blood she could perform it alone, yet for ordinary witches it would take a full pentagram to perform, so it would take 5. Beta, are you willing to send spies into The Council?" She asks. 

"My Lady this is something that I would not dare move into action without the Alpha's order, I will wait to bring this matter to Loiza. However we have some skins we need turned into drum heads, could you be so kind to assign Priestesses for this?" He asks now rubbing his face clearly frustrated. 

"Avalon is here to help, I will put a Priestess to do this and I must go to Karaya and continue with the investigation and you will see to it that Loiza has some time with her mate." She states giving me a sympathetic look. "It will help BOTH of them to be in each other's company, I am not saying for a mating ritual, but they need to talk and get to know each other. If the Goddess mated them in this particular moment it means that each has something the other needs. Make it happen Beta." Thank YOU Lady of the Lake!

"After the ceremony tonight Loiza had put time aside to have time with her mate. Fret not My Lady, it will be as you say." Tonight? It feels like a decade since I found my mate even though it was just yesterday. I will finally fucking TALK with her, maybe even touch her. 'Kayden, will you tell her about mother?' Deacon asks. Shit...