Chapter 21

Aren

The next morning, we put on our now dry clothes and return to campus. Luckily, Jay assumed I was with a girl, so he didn't worry. He's not wrong, but I wasn't about to fill him in on what girl I spent the night with. Ora and I decided it was time to fill everyone in on what we have been looking into and have learned. Ora went to get Char and Gia, and then met me, along with my suitemates back in my common room. 

"As you know, Ora has been investigating her locket, and yesterday we went to speak to a witch, who filled in a few answers." I step aside and let Ora fill them in on her heritage, since the curse on me still won't let me talk about it with anyone who doesn't already know.

"When I was visiting my mother's grave a few weeks ago, a witch found me and told me my mother was still alive. She also told me to find her when I was able to open the locket. With the help of all of you, I was finally able to open it and translate it." She starts. "The Dark Forest Witch told me…"

Jay cuts her off. "You went to the dark forest?" He yells. "That is so dangerous." Then he turns to me. "I trusted you to protect her and you took her to one of the most dangerous places for any shifter."

Ora speaks up. "It was not his choice to go, it was mine. I would have gone with or without him. He only went to make sure I was safe. Now, as I was saying, it turns out my mother isn't dead, she is actually a goddess."

"Is your mother the moon goddess?" Koda asks.

"No, she is the goddess Theia."

Char surprises me by speaking up. "Isn't she the goddess of vision and light? She's the mother of the moon goddess."

"I know. I am the reincarnation of the moon goddess." Ora finishes her statement and I look around to see stunned looks on everyone's faces except for Jay. Ora notices this too. "Jay, you already knew, didn't you?"

"Aren probably already told you that I knew about your mother, but I had my suspicions about you being a rebirth of the moon goddess."

I'm a little offended that Jay had theories that he never shared with me. He probably has information that he has kept secret. I feel anger and betrayal rising up in be, but then I look at Ora and see how calm she is. She must have felt a hundred times worse yesterday when learning that Jay and I kept secrets from her, than I feel now. She must have been heartbroken, but she was still able to forgive me. More than forgive me. She is still able to love me. Armed with this knowledge, I calmly turn to Jay and ask, "How did you know about the moon goddesses rebirths?"

"One day when I was young, after learning about Ora's real mother, dad took me aside and told me our family line had a gift and a duty to the moon goddess, more than any of the other shifter lines in all of the kingdoms of this empire. He told me that every hundred years or so, we have a duty to impregnate the goddess Theia in order to create a vessel for the moon goddesses soul. He told me Eudora is that vessel."

"So if there is a need for a vessel for the moon goddess to be reborn, does that mean she died in the war?" Koda asks.

"We believe so. We still don't know what exactly happened to her, but we know at some point she died and then roughly a hundred years after the human shifter war, was the first time our family line was visited by the goddess Theia in order to help her create a humanly body for her soul to be reborn into."

"Why was your family chosen?" Ryland asks. I had forgotten he was here since he has been so quiet.

"My family was chosen because her blood runs in our veins. Before she disappeared, the moon goddess gave birth to a son with Sir Arion, the wolf shifter. That son is my and Ora's ancestor."

"Why did the goddess Theia have to give birth to the vessel?" Koda asks.

"My guess is that the moon goddesses soul has too much power for her to live in a fully mortal body."

I can't help but ask my own question, still feeling a little hurt that my best friend kept so much from me for all these years. "How come you never told me any of this?"

"My father told me that it was imperative that no one outside the family learned about the reincarnation cycle because it could put the moon goddess at risk. We know that she died, but the circumstances around that are all hidden. She still had goddess powers even with a semi-mortal body, so she wouldn't have died from sickness. She had to have been killed. It is my responsibility to pass down the information to my children so that when the moon goddesses soul gets reborn again she will be safe."

"Speaking of being reborn again, what happened to the previous vessels? How come if the moon goddess is reborn every 100 years, she hasn't done anything?" Kaden asks and I think I hear some concern in his voice.

"The previous vessels shifted into wolves on their 22 birthdays. They all had extremely powerful magic, but not to the extend of what the moon goddess could do. All of them were their own people with no memories of their past lives, or their life as the moon goddess. I don't really know how rebirth works or why they didn't fully awaken as the moon goddess."

"According to the prophecy 'she will rise again only in the pool of her decent.' Do you think we need to find this pool for Ora to fully become an awakened goddess?" Ryland asks looking around the group, but no one answers. He then looks at Ora. "What else did the witch tell you? Maybe she gave us a clue."

"Wait, I don't even know if I want to fully awaken. Why are we talking about this?" Ora's voice is weak and shaky. I look over at her and notice she looks sheet white with terror. "Do you think if I fully awaken I will lose myself and become the moon goddess of old? Am I just a temporary placeholder for her?"

I move to comfort her but to my surprise Kaden has beaten me to it. He wraps his arms around her and in a gently voice I didn't know he was capable of, he says, "No one is going to make you fully awaken. We just got carried away with the discussion." 

"We have no idea what fully awakened even means. Most likely you would just get really cool powers. You are already the soul of the moon goddess. You are you and it is really unlikely that a previous incarnation would take over." Max adds in.

"I think figuring out how to unlock her full potential is important. The prophecy says that when the moon goddess is reborn she will bring balance and guide the world to a new era. That wasn't done by any of her previous rebirths, so I think you need to be fully awakened in order to fulfill the prophecy." Ryland says.

"The world does feel like it's falling apart." Gia adds in. "Plague, famine, and poverty have gotten extreme in the outer packs of all of the kingdoms. The Emperor has done nothing to help his people or help with our relationship with other empires. He just sits in his palace counting money and eating, while people are suffering." 

Everyone nods in agreement with Gia's words except for Jay and Ryland. 

"Has it really gotten that bad?" Jay asks.

"It has." Char states quietly.

"It really has." Leon says, firmly backing up Gia and Char.

"I had no idea." Ryland says and I see a deep sadness in his eyes. Up until now I think he saw this whole thing as an interesting puzzle. I don't think he's ever considered the implications of how awakening the moon goddess could change our country.

"Would you be willing to share your stories with me? I grew up in the Ruling Pack and we were always taught that everything in our kingdom was amazing. I didn't learn until I started here that anyone was unhappy with how our kingdom was run." Ryland asks Char, Gia, and Leon.

Leon walks over to Ryland and claps a hand on the much taller boys shoulder. "Of course I am willing to tell you about my experiences." 

We spend the next few hours discussing what is going on in each pack and especially how hard life is in the outer packs. 

After a break for food Ora speaks up. "The thought of fully awakening the moon goddess terrifies me, but I think we can all agree it is time for change. I don't think our Empire, no our species as shifters, can survive another 100 years waiting for the moon goddess to be reborn again. We have to do something now. I have to do something."

"So you want to try to find the moon goddesses pool?" Jay asks. 

"Yes." Ora responds with a strong and confident voice. I am so proud of her. Just a few hours ago she was terrified, and now she's ready to face the challenge. "The witch told me that the locket is the key to finding the pool and the tree."

"Can you remind me what the inscription says inside it?" Koda asks.

This time Char answers the question. "In her image, comes the fire, Now united she will tower, Her heart holds the key, In her eyes is the lock she can see."

"What if the locket doesn't just hold the directions to find the tree and pool, what if it is an actual key?" Ryland suggests.

Kaden rolls his eyes "A locket can't be a key." 

"The inscription says, 'Her heart holds the key.' The locket is heart shaped." Ryland says.

"You're taking it too literally." Kaden retorts.

"I don't know. I think he might be onto something." Koda says.

"What about the other line, 'in her eyes is the lock she can see.' Do you think we should take that literally as well?" Kaden gruffly responds.

"Like the lock is an actual eye? Gross." Gia says.

"Who is the 'she' they are talking about anyway?" Leon asks.

"Obviously it's the moon goddess." Ryland says.

"So do you think Ora's eye is a lock?" I ask. They all then turn and look at Ora's eyes.

"They look like normal eyes to me, other than the color." Gia states.

"I say let's try." Leon jumps up and starts holding the locket towards Ora's face. She swats his hand away.

"You are not going to poke me in the eye with my locket!" Ora exclaims.

"I wasn't going to poke you. I was going to gently place the locket on your eye." Leon states.

"It's still a no!" Ora says.

"I don't think her actual eye could be the lock anyway. It would make more sense for the lock to be something that could open." Jay says.

Char quietly says, "So we need an eye that is in a permanent location."

"Like a statue!" Koda shouts and then jumps up from the table.

Leon jumps up right next to him. "Yes! Like the statue of the moon goddess in the lost library." 

"Let's go now and check it out." I say.

A few minutes later, we are all crowded into the small room of the lost library, staring at the statue of the moon goddess. I hadn't noticed before but her expression looks almost hopeful. 

Ora steps forward and carefully presses the locket into the statue's left eye. The stone where the locket touches it shifts like soft clay allowing the locket to be embedded into it. As soon as it's lodged in, the floor at the statue's feet begins to shift and open revealing a staircase. Ora takes the locked back out of the eye and places it around her neck. We walk down flight after flight of stairs, and I can hear the wall behind me closing over the stairs cutting off the light from the library. As the last drop of light is cut off, the entire passageway slowly starts to glow. The rocks in the walls of the cave light our way. We walk for what feels like hours until the passageway opens up into a cave. The cave is rather small with a pool butting up against the wall directly across from us. On all the walls of the cave are drawings of the story of the moon goddess. They depict her coming to earth and befriending the five original shifters. They show them building a city together and her creating more shifters, until there is an entire kingdom of the new species. 

Ora takes a step further into the cave, closer to the pool, and suddenly her eyes go dim. Her necklace lights up and pulls her towards the water. As if in a trance she walks straight into the pool. I call her name, but she doesn't seem to be able to hear me. I run after her to drag her out of the pool, but my hand bounces away from her. It's as if a forcefield is around her. Every step takes her deeper and deeper into the water, until she disappears completely into the dark water. I dive under and swim after her. Where I am expecting to find solid rock, I am shocked to find nothing. I swim under where the cave wall was. I keep swimming until my lungs scream for air. Darkness surrounds me, and just as I am beginning to think that I am doomed to drown, I see light coming through the water. I kick as hard as I can towards it and my head breaks the surface. I gulp in the air and heave myself out of the pool. After a few moments, I look around and see that the rest of the guys as well as Char and Gia have followed me. 

The new cave we have entered doesn't even look anything like the previous cave. It doesn't look like a cave at all. Plants cover the floors and walls. The walls behind the plant cover are glowing and the light they provide is warm. Even though we must be a mile underground, it feels like daylight here. 

In the center of the cave, there is a pool with a small island in the middle of it. On that island, there is a huge tree. The tree is nothing like any tree I have ever seen before. It is golden with wide spreading branches. The branches reach out over the pool creating a covering over it. The large golden leaves are big enough to use as a blanket. The whole area is filled with warmth and power. Standing on the island in front of the tree is a towering woman. I recognize this woman from my childhood. It is Ora's mother. 

Just then I spot Ora. She is still in a trance and being guided by her locket, walking on the water towards her mother and the tree. She looks like a goddess herself as she strides confidently. Her feet seem to only delicately tap the top of the water. I watch as she makes it to land and then her necklace stops glowing and falls back onto her chest. Her eyes regain consciousness and she looks at the goddess in front of her.