LOGINMilracWinter continue in Valley Creek.It was snowy on the mountain.The clinic continued to grow.The archives continued to increase in size.The Council's reforms progressed.Things seemed to be normal, it felt like it was the first time in a long, long time.Not perfect.Nothing ever was.But manageable.The softness that enabled one to think about what was to come rather than just live through the moment.I should have been contented.Rather, I felt uncomfortable.I waited by one of the observatory windows and watched the snow fall across the mountain.The network glided gently under all.Ninety-two threads.Steady.Healthy.Safe.Including Ava's.The comfort of her presence was just outside my consciousness.The child too.Not a thread.Not yet.Something earlier.Something growing.A thing I'm still amazed at, each time I felt it.All should have felt well.But it didn't.I couldn't say why.I had come to know that there were some instincts that I could trust after having been
AvaValley Creek experienced winter again several months after the cure was announced.It snowed all over the mountain once more.The morning sky had a light hue and a quiet forest was there.There had been a lot of change since that time.On some days, it seemed an entire lifetime had passed.Other days it was as if it were yesterday that they made the announcement.I was at the clinic entrance watching people walk in and out of the clinic.The doors just kept on opening.Patients arrived.Researchers arrived.Healers arrived.Families arrived.There never seemed to be a time to get any rest there.Several months back we were not able to accommodate everyone.Now the clinic was spread through one part of the mountain.New wings.New departments.New laboratories.New treatment centers.The biggest medical center within any of the clans.Sometimes it was still difficult to believe.Because nothing had been in the original plan.The original plan was quite simple.Find the illness.Sto
AvaAfter a few weeks, Valley Creek no longer felt like a mountain place.It began to seem like it was a place to go.Each day there were new visitors every morning.Some were brought in by cars.Some of them journeyed along transport networks from far away places.Others walked for days!After the first week, people didn't bother asking where people were coming from anymore.There was only one answer:Everywhere.One morning, it was very cold. I was standing outside in the courtyard and another transport vehicle pulled in.Snow covered the edges of the roads now.Winter had set in over the mountain.The air was so sharp that it cut into my lungs as I breathed.The vehicle stopped.A lady came out first.Then another.Then three more.All Lycans.All with the same expression.Hope.Careful hope.The kind of people who were afraid that they would lose it.Behind me, the doors opened.One of the nurses went outside."Three more arrivals."I nodded."We've prepared rooms."She smiled."W
AvaThe gathering hall was packed well before the meeting began.People kept arriving.Additional chairs were added.Then more.People eventually ceased to look for seats and just stood around the walls.The room was not as it was normally.Not tense.Not exactly.Something else.Expectation.Hope.The dangerous kind.The kind that comes out when people want something so much that they are afraid of believing it.I stood in front of the hall and stared at everyone.Delegates from Lycan territories.The archive's researchers.Medical staff.Council members.Families.Wolves that had journeyed for days.Women with a years-long quest for answers.Everyone waited.No one was quite loud.Even the normal chatterings were less noisy.If anyone did want to spoil the moment before it.Milrac was by my side.Not saying anything.Just present.His calm and gentle hand drifted over the bond.It was so much appreciated, as I could have never expressed with words.But it was still nerve-racking, af
AvaNow it was full winter in Valley Creek.The mountain was covered with snow.The morning sun was on the forests, they were white and silent.No one was relaxed enough inside the medical wing to appreciate it.There was tension throughout the entire level.Not panic.Not fear.Something sharper.Hope.The dangerous kind.The kind that people got when they believed they were close to success.I was standing by a table with reports and tried my best to not get ahead of myself.In front of me were the newest treatment results.Organized.Verified.Documented.I have already read them three times.This was the issue.Each time I looked at them, they were the same.Good.Too good.Across the room, Vessa was looking at me.“You've read that report four times already.”"Three.""Four."I glanced at her.She was correct.Unfortunately."I want to be sure.""You are sure already," she said."I would like to be more sure," I replied.Vessa seemed to take offense to this.Researchers were shuf
AvaThe following couple of weeks were some of the most hectic of my life after we discovered the cause of the sickness.Which was a big statement.Winter had fallen upon Valley Creek.The mountain was covered with snow.The ice developed on the higher ridges.It was getting colder each day.No one seemed to notice inside archive, medical levels.We were too busy.Once Vessa and I sorted out the source of the sickness, the focus shifted.The secret was revealed.The difficult task was now upon them.Fixing it.Each morning, I would go to the research wing and see the same thing.Papers everywhere.Researchers arguing.Medical Records on Tables.New data coming in on a daily basis.There was no need to explain how important the work was.Everyone already knew.It was as if the whole mountain knew it.For years Lycan women had been suffering.All these years, no one had an answer.Finally, we were given an opportunity to change that.The burden of the responsibility was very heavy.I wa
Milrac's povThursday arrived without ceremony.No dramatic weather. No ominous signs. Just a cold clear morning that had decided to be straightforward about itself, which felt appropriate given what the day required.We left at mid-morning. Seven of us.Ava and me. Vessa, whose presence at the Cou
Milrac's povWe walked back to the mansion in a group that felt different from the one that had left it.Vessa walked beside Kael in the silence of two people with too much to say to begin anywhere obvious. At one point he simply put his arm around her shoulder and she leaned into him briefly witho
Milrac's povWednesday arrived with a problem nobody had anticipated.Petra was missing.Not gone — her thread was still in the network, present and distinct. But she had not been seen since before dawn and her room was empty with the particular emptiness of someone who had left it intentionally ra
Ava's povI found Solas alone at the eastern wall at mid-morning.My grandmother had returned inside. The courtyard was gradually coming back to life around him but he remained apart, looking at the treeline where he had stood three nights ago watching the mansion from the outside.I stood beside h







