Todos los capítulos de The Orphan Luna: Capítulo 31 - Capítulo 40

The second session began after a short break. The council members slowly returned to their seats, their quiet conversations fading as the doors were closed and the room settled again. Chairs scraped softly against stone. Papers were aligned, someone coughed once and then thought better of making another sound. The atmosphere was more serious than before. Everyone seemed aware that the next decisions would affect several packs, and no one wanted to miss a word. Even the light from the high windows felt different now, less generous, as if the hall itself had decided the morning’s courtesies were finished.Serena returned to her seat without looking toward the Blackwood table. She opened a scanty folder, read the next set of proposals, and waited for the council leader to call the room to order. Her posture did not change, her hands did not fidget. She turned a page with the same unhurried care she had used all morning, as though the pressure of the room had nothing to do with her and

Blackwood sent the request the next morning. It arrived on formal paper, stamped with the pack seal, and was delivered to Serena’s private suite by a council clerk. The clerk waited only long enough to see her take it, then withdrew. Outside, the summit grounds were already awake: carts, flags, voices practicing courtesy. Inside, the suite held a thinner quiet. She read the letter once at the small table near the window. The language was careful. Trade access, shared northern routes and a limited partnership that would benefit both territories if the terms stayed clean.There was no mention of the past. Sunlight lay across the page in a pale strip. Serena set the letter down and called her aide. “Tell Blackwood I will meet them at midday in the east conference room, thirty minutes. Business only.”The aide left. A clock on the mantel marked the hour without comment. Serena finished her notes for the afternoon session and did not look at the letter again until it was time to go. She

Serena left the summit the next morning. Her carriage waited with the crest covered until the gates, two Ashbourne guards checked the road ahead while her aide loaded the last of the contracts. Leather straps tightened and a lock clicked. Serena paused only long enough to send a short message home, written in the spare hand she used when a letter had to outrun rumors.The twins were well. Alexander had asked when she would return, Elara had fallen asleep holding the small wooden fox Magnus carved for her. No visitor had been allowed near them, no name from Blackwood had crossed the manor gates.That was how Serena intended to keep it. She read the reply once, folded it into her coat, and did not linger for a second. The court smelled of horses and damp iron. Someone offered a farewell from a doorway and received only a nod. She climbed into the carriage and closed the curtain. The partnership papers stayed in a locked case at her feet. The personal conversation she had refused stil

Lady Victoria heard the news before the delegation finished the ride home.A letter reached her by private rider, sealed and brief. The wax was unmarked by any pack a steward would catalog. Two children had been seen in Ashbourne’s outer court. A boy with silver eyes and a girl with a calm, watchful manner, both are about five years old. Serena had hidden them at once and ended the visit early. The rider did not wait for a reply because had been paid to arrive, not to linger.Victoria read the letter twice, then set it on the table beside her chair. The sitting room held its usual order: needlework unfinished, a lamp already lit though daylight still clung to the glass. She did not call for tea, instead she called for the three women who would need to hear the news before the men returned with whatever softened version they intended to carry.Elena entered first. Rosaline and Selene followed. They already knew something had shifted. The house had that particular stillness that came wh

The accidental meeting happened two days after Victoria left.Serena had taken the twins to the lower gardens because the inner rooms felt too unsafe after the confrontation. Alexander ran ahead along the stone path, Elara stayed closer, stopping to touch the leaves as if she could tell which ones needed care.The lower gardens were older than the palace they served, stone benches sat half swallowed by ivy. The hedges had been cut into walls so high that even a grown man lost the house behind them after two turns. Serena had chosen the place for that reason, distance and quiet. A stretch of ground where the children could run without courtiers watching every tilt of their heads.Alexander’s stick scraped the path as he went. He liked the sound of it but Elara did not. She paused at a flowering shrub, pressed two fingers to a leaf, and frowned as if the plant had spoken poorly of itself. Serena watched them both and tried to let the burden in her chest loosen. Victoria’s departure had