Disclaimer: I do not own the Fable universe. Characters you do not recognize were created by me for the purposes of this story. Changes have been made to the region of Silverpines. The area is larger and buildings have been added. I have added my own details about balverines and their culture and hierarchy, so do not be surprised if you read a detail or two that the game does not cover. Please note - this story will be quite dark at times, you have been warned.
Thank you for taking the time to read my story, any and all feedback is greatly appreciated! - Fallon.
Chapter Six
Walter and Hale were still waiting for Maya at the entrance to Silverpines when she approached them with Von in tow. She imagined they were quite a sight, Von half-naked, sickly grey and semi hairy, and herself, sweaty and lugging a roll of fur on her back.
"By the gods, Amaythea, where did you go?" Walter demanded as he ran to her side, taken aback by the half naked man by her side.
Maya rolled her eyes, she always hated it when he used her full name.
Hale growled at Von, but it didn't seem to bother the balverine in the slightest.
"Walter, this is Von – Ezra`s brother." Maya said as she walked past her mentor.
Walter walked with her into the gloomy region, "You need to tell me what happened, Maya. You've been gone for nearly twenty hours!"
"Not right now, Walter, I need to get Von back so someone can take a look at the gun shot in his gut."
Walter groaned and rolled his eyes, certain she wouldn't notice, and followed her deeper into the Pine. Hale nervously sniffed the gate to the region, and glared suspiciously into the darkness. Even he didn't like the feel of the Pine.
But Walter shouted for him to follow, so he reluctantly sprinted into the woods.
By the time they got to the Family's mansion, Walter needed to help Von walk as he was getting to heavy for Maya to support on her own.
"Damn boy, what do you eat?" Walter joked as Von shifted against him.
Von sighed and forced a smile, "M-Mainly deer...but I p-prefer goat."
Maya snorted, "Sure there's not some people thrown in there?"
"Not enough m-meat on the b-bones..." Von said in all seriousness.
Maya knocked on the mansion door and jumped back when it was thrown open. Loki and a few others Maya didn't recognize grabbed Von and hurried him down a long corridor.
"Who is your friend?"
Maya glanced up and saw Ezra walked down the grand staircase. "This is Walter, my mentor, we bumped into him on the way back. The mutt is Hale."
Walter stepped forward, "She was supposed to make contact with me. I'm not here to make trouble. I promised an old friend I'd not let anything happen to her - I hope you understand."
Ezra eyed Walter suspiciously but ultimately nodded, apparently understanding the old knight perfectly, "So be it, the pelt...please." He extended his hand and nodded to the bundle on Maya`s back.
"Oh!" Maya slipped it off her shoulders and handed it to Ezra.
The Alpha held it like it was at risk of blowing away in the wind. "I had given up hope of ever seeing it again..." He looked up from the pelt, "I trust finding it wasn't too difficult?"
As if on cue, screams erupted from the corridor Von was rushed down. It was shrill, but Maya didn't think it could have come from anyone else.
"Umm, well there were some troubles...but we got the pelt and that's what counts, right?"
Ezra nodded, "Indeed."
The screams faded off, apparently someone had thought to knock him out before proceeding further.
Maya looked down the corridor, "Is he going to be alright?"
He shrugged, "He has suffered far worse. You must stay for the ceremony."
"Ceremony?"
"Yes, to bond my father with his pelt." Ezra said as he handed the pelt off to a girl who had approached him. "Scarlet, will you please get that ready?"
The girl nodded and gave a low bow before hurrying off.
"I-I don't understand." Maya said reluctantly.
Ezra smiled, "That is a very honest thing for you to say, I am pleased." He headed back up the stairs, "But don't worry, my dear, you will."
The ceremony was modest - for balverines.
Walter and Hale stood with Maya off to the side, while Ezra, Vienna, Shiloh, and Von stood around a large stone coffin in the basement of the mansion. Someone Ezra introduced as Priestess Nairna stood at the head of the coffin, the pelt laying limp in her hands. She chanted something under her breath and Von and Ezra lifted the lid off to the side.
Shiloh stood on the tips of her toes and tried to peak inside, Vienna lifted her up so she could see.
The family standing before her, she realized Shiloh looked nothing like Vienna and she wondered if perhaps another had birthed the child. Maya had thought wolves mated for life, but maybe balverines were different?
She looked up and saw that the Kaiser brothers were watching her. She swallowed hard.
"Come here, Princess." Ezra said calmly, offering her his hand.
Maya looked to Walter, who offered a shrug.
With Walter offering no suggestions, she stepped forward and accepted his hand.
She stepped up, and was able to look down into the coffin. Mathias Kaiser was stuck in his balverine form and without skin. He looked withered and dry, like a pruning grape - although instead of purple he was a bizarre shade of brown.
Maya tried not to be repulsed by what she saw and reminded herself that she needed their support to lead a successful rebellion - vomiting would certainly turn them off the idea.
"His pelt must be fused with his body for his soul to be at peace, a blood sacrifice is required." Priestess Nairna said cryptically.
Everyone looked at Maya.
She felt like she should do something, but surely they didn't expect her to do it! She liked her blood right were it was - inside of her.
"Umm..." She stammered.
Von stared at her from the other side of the coffin.
"We request you to offer yours, Princess. You brought him back, you deserve the honor." Ezra said with a smile.
"B-Brought him back? But you already had his body?"
She heard Walter groan behind her and Von glared at her.
She hurried to recover, "I-I just don't understand, isn't...his body...him?"
"The pelt is everything," Nairna said, waving a finger in the air, "without it, a balverine is nothing. It is our identity."
"Having it taken is the most horrible act that can be done to us, Princess." Vienna said calmly, "But bonding it back to the flesh is highly intimate, you will essentially be one of us."
Shiloh gave her a toothy grin from her spot at Vienna's feet.
Maya swallowed hard, they wanted her to become a balverine?
Von must have seen the disgust in her face, "Don't worry, it's all in title only, and honorary - you won't sprout fangs." His voice was cold.
Maya looked down at the wrinkled, skinned balverine. His eyes were gone, having long been eaten away by time, but his teeth were still bright white. She looked up to Ezra, "Alright, I'll do it."
He smiled and turned her hand so it was palm up. Nairna pressed a blade to Maya`s palm, and before she could protest, the Priestess sliced her palm. Maya winced, but Ezra held her wrist firmly. He squeezed her hand, causing the blood to rush to the surface until there was a pool of bright red blood in her hand. Ezra tipped her hand over, spilling the blood onto the dry skin of Mathias Kaiser.
Maya bit her lip as her hand throbbed until, finally, Ezra released her.
Her blood splattered over the mummified remains, Nairna folded the pelt over the body, making sure he was completely covered.
Maya held her hand to her skirt, trying to stop the bleeding without offending the Family. "What happens now?"
Nairna produced a match and flicked it over the coffin, lighting it easily. "We seal the bond."
She dropped the match, which ignited the pelt instantly. The smell was revolting and she couldn't believe they were destroying what she struggled to retrieve.
Von and Loki returned the lid to the coffin, sealing the fire and the blood inside. Nairna said a prayer, or what Maya assumed was one, and touched the lid solemnly.
Vienna, Shiloh and Loki left the room with the Priestess, and Ezra asked Walter to leave.
"You have done us a great honor, Princess." Ezra said once everyone had left, everyone save Von and Hale. His gaze was intense, so much so she suspected he didn't care Von was present.
"Don't mention it." She managed to say despite the awkwardness of the entire situation.
Ezra smirked and reached for her hand.
Maya jumped.
"I'll not hurt you..." He whispered.
Maya looked to Von, hoping he could tell her what was happening, but he was staring at the coffin.
Ezra took Maya`s hand, which was completely covered in sticky blood. He laced his fingers between hers, and began licking the blood from her palm.
Maya gasped and tried to pull away.
"Let me." He said before twirling his tongue around her index finger.
She whimpered but let him continue.
Her fingers clean...sort of, he tended to the slash down her palm, gently licking it up and down.
Ezra paused to growl to Von, who quickly looked at them, before continuing his motions. She hissed as his tongue ran over a jagged end of the cut, and Ezra chuckled.
"There," he said proudly, "you are done."
Maya pulled her hand back, feeling like something intimate had occurred between them.
Ezra licked his lips, glared at Von, and left the room - licking his fingers as he went.
Silence hung in the air between Von and Maya. Hale was whimpering at her feet, but other than that the room was silent - and cold.
Maya rubbed her hand on her leggings, "What is it with licking with you guys?" She said with a chuckle, trying to diffuse the tension.
Von walked around the coffin and sighed, "It is a sign of affection...for balverines. Between unmated, single balverines, it signifies a willingness to mate, to bond."
Maya blushed, remembering what happened at Reaver`s manor. "So...what Reaver made me do to you..."
"In our world, means that you want me to take you as my mate." Von said unable to look at her. "But you are not a balverine, so do not worry."
His withdrawn manner was strange to her, not that she had known him long, but it seemed out of the ordinary. "But the meaning is still there, right? It still means affection to your kind. So..what does that m-mean for...u-us?"
He shrugged, "Nothing, as I have not returned the action and the courting has not been continued."
"Good," Maya said, trying to understand, "so what did Ezra do?"
"The same thing."
She arched an eyebrow, "But he is mated to Vienna -"
"Vienna has not given him a child." Von said without emotion, "Shiloh was birthed from his original mate, who died in child birth. Vienna must provide him a child, or he will be forced to choose another. I guess she is running out of time..."
"I thought a bond between mates was one of love?" Recalling her original meeting with the Family.
"Yes, but it is complicated with the Alpha. Only his children can take his place, and Shiloh -"
"Is a girl." Maya said, a bit of anger in her tone.
Von nodded, "She will become a Priestess likely, and a strong one no doubt. Don't get me wrong, there is love there, but the Alpha has a duty to tend to."
"So...what was the licking supposed to mean?"
Von slicked his hair back and looked at her awkwardly. "If Vienna can not have children, as is a common problem with the females in our Family, he intends to pursue you as his next mate."
She wanted to clean her hand, "I am not one of you though! And why did he growl at you? When he was licking my hand?"
"He would change that. And I have no idea." He lied, knowing she wouldn't understand.
Maya was disgusted, "H-How dare he!"
"Please don't be angry, for us it is an honor."
"An honor! To be chosen like an appetizer for a-a monster!" She felt rage boiling in her and she reached for her Dragonstomper. She was done with being nice, that beast intended to turn her!
Von quickly grabbed her hand as she pulled the Dragonstomper from its holster and forced her against the wall. Hale whimpered, not sure what to do, the scent from the balverine telling him everything was alright.
Maya, however, could not smell Von`s scent. "Let go of me!"
Von squeezed her wrist and she dropped her pistol. She tried to kick him, so he pressed himself against her.
Maya wanted to claw his eyes out, to skin him alive and show him his pelt right before he died! - but she couldn't manage to free herself from his iron-tight grip.
"You tricked me! I never should have agreed to meet you animals!" She spat in his face.
Von`s face was only an inch from hers. "I couldn't let you do that, I would have to kill you."
"Then do it!" She taunted, "Or did Reaver lash off your balls too?"
Maya waited for one of his witty remarks, but it never came. She examined his face. His lips were relaxed, not tight, as was his jaw. His mohawk was mussed, and his black hair was in his face. Though it could not hide the awesome intensity of his glowing white-blue eyes.
His eyes sucked her in, and she couldn't look away. She went limp against him as the anger left her body. It was strangely relaxing, like slipping into a warm bath.
"Are you going to be civil now?" He asked calmly, a flicker dancing in his eyes.
She nodded, but he remained pressed against her - though he was mostly holding her up now.
"Good." He whispered.
Maya`s head rolled to the side, "I heard you scream."
"What?"
"Earlier," she clarified, "when Loki and the others took you away."
"Oh, they were digging into my wound to pull the bullet out."
Her eyes felt heavy, but strangely she was not tired, she felt completely and utterly relaxed and at ease. "And your back?"
Von bit the inside of his cheek, "Why do you care?"
"I don't," she said with a weak shake of her head, "couldn't care less, just asking..."
"Fine, I'm fine." He said sternly.
"Can you even change?"
He gave her a confused look.
"Into your balverine form? I've only ever seen you sort of change."
"I can," he admitted, "but I fight it often."
"Why?"
"It hurts -"
"Why?" She asked more insistently.
He backed away from her, "None of your business."
"I thought we were being civil?"
"We are, I'm not going to tell Ezra you tried to draw your weapon on me."
She blinked, trying to get the image of his eyes out of her head, "How nice -"
"I'm not doing it for you," he snarled, seemingly done with being withdrawn, "I am doing it for my Family."
"Oh, how noble!" She joked, holstering her pistol but still pissed at what Ezra had done to her without even explaining what he was really doing. Only in a dream world would she ever wed or mate with a damned wolf-monster! She looked forward to turning Ezra down - whenever that would be.
"Don't pretend to understand me, Princess."
She laughed, "Oh, I don't - I'll tell you that straight up!"
She walked with Hale out of the room, the dog turning and giving Von a grow before they ascended the stairs.
"Hmm," Von pondered once he was alone, "perhaps, I do not understand you, either...Amaythea"