A Wolf's Howl, A Fairy's Wing

While Astrid kept her mother company, Erik had reappeared outside. The area around him was a disaster area. The field in front of Kirkenes looked like it had been destroyed by an explosion of snow, dirt, and ice. Some icy pillars even stuck out of the ground, challenging the sky.

But such was the result of a clash between third-rankers, even if this particular fight had been relatively subdued.

It had taken him and Astrid about an hour to feed Liv enough blood to get her back, so now Erik scanned the area, wondering what the others had done in that time.

He quickly noticed the Dominion vampires sitting on the ground. Their expression were forlorn and a little anxious, but they appeared subdued. Seemingly content to wait for judgment day. Explore more at empire

They were guarded by the 5000 tireless ghouls that were essentially under Emily and Emma's control. Apparently, someone had decided it was best for them to do the guarding, rather than the Enclave.

'That's fair enough,' Erik mused inwardly. 'Tempers might run hot if the Enclave were to do it. This way, the ghouls will also intimidate the shapeshifters into staying away.'

That said, he was surprised by the minimal number of shapeshifters present. He figured they'd all be standing there, eyeing the ghouls with suspicion, but there were only a few tens of them. They appeared to grumble about something, with their gazes fluttering between the ghouls and the entrance to the town.

At this point, it had become widely known that some people loyal to Erik were supposedly in control of these ghouls now, but that concept was naturally a little hard to grasp for these shapeshifters. Just recently, these same ghouls had still been killing their friends, after all.

Curious, Erik walked up to them.

As soon as they saw him approach, the shapeshifters panicked a little, and straightened up their posture. "L— Lord Erik!" one them exclaimed with parts anxiety and parts awe.

By now, Erik's feats of appearing and disappearing into thin air were already well known by these shapeshifters. He hadn't exactly made a secret of it, after all. But hey didn't think about it too long.

After all, he was Runa's son.

Even now, with only three of four years having passed since Runa left, stories were circulating around the Enclave about how she was 10 feet tall and could demolish a row of third-rankers with a single blow.

Which meant that her son being able to appear and disappear, really wasn't much of a stretch. And neither was his ability to defeat third-rankers.

After the first guard greeted him, a few others ran up as well.

"Sir Erik!" one young woman ran up to him, stars in her eyes, fists clenched, "You were so amazing out there! The way you manhandled that damn bloodsucker, had me cheering at the sky! You really are Lady Runa's son!"

"You doubted it?!" another woman growled, and slapped the back of the first woman's head. Then she turned to Erik and gave him a respectful bow, "My friend is excitable, please ignore her, Lord Erik."

Some more guards came up to greet him, some anxious, others excited, some ingratiating, others reluctantly respectful. A few of them clearly wanted to ask him why he was protecting the vampires, but they were too afraid to actually open their mouths.

Regardless, Erik focused on the two young women in front of him. They weren't particularly beautiful or special, but they were pretty enough. A lustful glint passed through his eyes. A thought entered his mind. They looked at him with so much reference and awe, he couldn't help imagine some scenarios.

Suddenly, Elora's voice echoed through his head. Her tone was seductive, and conspiratory. "Why these two? They're nobodies! Go get that Anne woman instead. She's not worthy of being your wife, but her affinity is better than Nora's.

Maybe we can convince her to Take the same deal as her, hmm? I know you've been imagining what it might be like to subdue her…"

Immediately, thoughts of these two guards were wiped out, as Anne entered his mind instead. A perverted grin spread across his face. "She has been opening up a little… and she doesn't seem sexually active. Plus, I do enjoy doing a little corrupting now and then."

The idea had naturally come to him before, but he hadn't done anything about it yet because of one issue, "But she'd need to relent her anger towards humans, at least a little. Can't have her giving Emma and Emily the stink eye all the time."

"I'm sure you can convince her," Elora chuckled. While she got a little jealous with Astrid earlier, that was mostly because it involved actual love and feelings. This was entirely different.

Purging these thoughts from his mind, he quieted the surrounding shapeshifters down and got to the point. "Why are there only so few of you? Where's everyone else?"

"You mean you don't know?" one them exclaimed. "They're all in or around the square, getting some revenge on that bloodsucker. We want to be there, but… the Bo— I mean, Frostfang said there needed to be some guards here at least."

Immediately, Erik frowned. 'I'd ordered Frostfang to keep him alive… What the hell is he doing?'

So he bid goodbye to the guards, and quickly made his way towards the city square. He had promised Astrid that she and her mother would get to decide his fate, and he didn't like breaking his promises. 'I'd just started to feel a little better about Jonas, but I swear, if he did something…' he growled inwardly.

But then he arrived at the center of town, and his eyebrow twitched. A crowd of nearly two thousand shapeshifters were gathered around. They were in the square, in the streets surrounding the square, on the roofs, in the houses. And they all looked at the middle of of the square with various gazes.

Anger. Fury. Sadness. Pain. Loss. Glee.

Sadistic pleasure.

In the middle, Sigurd was chained to a pillar of ice, stabbed into the ground. Frostfang stood next to him, and a long row of shapeshifters was lining up in front of him.

For a moment, Erik wondered what was going on, but when he saw what was happening, and heard some of the surrounding shapeshifters talk, he realized what Frostfang had done.

He was letting them air their emotions.

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