Coldsnap: The Billionaire Alpha's Fated Pregnant Princess (GL)-Chapter 394 - Allied Witches, Siren Tethers... All Music To My Ears

Chapter 394: Chapter 394 - Allied Witches, Siren Tethers... All Music To My Ears

***[POV: Fixin’ To Vixen]***

The stew had been better than expected. Elk shoulder cut into cubes - with crushed juniper berries to soften the gamey flavor - and root vegetables someone must have gathered before the storm.

My son now slept against my chest in a makeshift sling that Sarah had fashioned from a spare sheet, freeing my arms *theoretically* though I still kept one close. Kyrie sat close beside us, both of our backs against the limestone wall in a quieter alcove.

Around a corner that Tom had directed us toward, far enough from the main chamber for a couple’s privacy but close enough for even a human to still hear the murmur of the other survivors settling in for the night.

Her hand had found mine again some point recently - and I didn’t pull away.

> Already set the precedent, earlier. Now this is just going to happen, isn’t it? <

"Martha brought in several members of an old coven and their current initiates before the storm hit. Agricultural experts, mostly. Herbalists and people who sought to work magic with plant systems."

"Coven...?"

My head turned sharply toward her. The conversation about what had changed at the tower took a strange turn from descriptions of the cyclical ’hydroponic’ and ’aquaponic’ systems being installed.

Farming fish and leafy greens does seem like a nice short term way to kickstart... a new normal. However, I have a feeling that the humans are going to have ’opinions’ about the use of insects in some parts of what she described.

"Three or four of them, I think. Maybe five? Claire would know the exact count. I was... a bit preoccupied after you left."

Her thumb rubbed a circle pattern on the flesh of my knuckles. A distracted but assuring sort of motion, that only increases my guilt. I’ll have to ask someone other than her how she really was then.

> Not because I don’t think she’ll tell the truth. But because I’m not sure she knew it. <

"Martha was insistent. Said we’d need magical knowledge as much as scientific if we wanted the vertical farms to sustain everyone once food started getting scarce. I trusted she was right, even though I’m sure my pack thinks they were just looking for free protection."

"Considering what little I’ve seen of this world’s mystics, I would not have it in me to disagree with your people. However-"

I stopped talking and turned my head again when a sound from deep, very deep within the cave system stole my attention. Like whispers. Like music... like...

"What do you need?"

Shaking my head, I turn and see that she is speaking to the ’former’ park ranger and the former owner of a thrift store again. Was I so focused that I didn’t hear them coming back over?

"There’s something else you should know. And I have a feeling... she just experienced it."

Sarah looked at me knowingly and I angled my face back down the path. I can trust Kyrie to handle them, but I’m not sure she can deal with whatever that just was I heard.

I’m not sure I can deal with it either.

"About a week ago, some of us started hearing... things. From the deepest part of the cave system. We thought it was just the wind at first, or maybe the stress getting to us. But too many people have heard it now."

"Things? Has anyone investigated?"

I can tell by the way she is asking that she thinks there are reasonable explanations. That voices might be echoing from another entrance. That others are around this bastion of the planet’s inner warmth.

> That may well be true, but it’s not the feeling that I’m getting. Like the divine spark, this is something... I used to be used to. <

"The passages get too narrow and unstable. We decided it wasn’t worth the risk. Though I admit a lot of the decision came down to me and one other’s experience with spelunking trying to dissuade people who wanted to explore."

He was right not to let them go. I remember how many paths that the Apocalypse System told me not to take when I explored the section of the cavern system to find my labor den.

But I knew what lay in those deeper passages. Nilhonakan, if I remember the name correctly. Somewhere in the Silvertrap Caves is the place where the ’barrier between worlds grew thin’ that the indigenous people of the region talked of.

> The Lunar Goddess... asked a counterpart of my world for the favor of bringing me here. If there really is a way between worlds in this place, she would know about it. Does that mean she is the one gathering them here? <

Considering that dreams are associated with night - and so is the moon - there is plenty of reason to make that connection if there truly was only two main deities overseeing everything in this world.

"There it is again. That choppy, reedy sound."

The old woman whispered and I looked at her, then to Kyrie and her brown eyes slowly gaining an orange ring as she looked back at me. Probably because I haven’t blinked in too long.

"Choppy...?"

It was clear they were hearing only a fragment of what I was. Whether it was because of werewolf nature or because of a deeper spiritual connection to the origin of the sound... I heard the full *song*.

A court melody played during spring festivals in my homeland. The distinctive glissando notes of rivercane flutes, resonant arched harps, and double-headed drums intertwined in a pattern I’d been made to dance to countless times in palace gardens during etiquette lessons.

"Citra?"

My breath came in short and frequent - as I finally blinked when she spoke. Painful, dry and raspy gasps as inferences piled up in my head. She began squeezing my hand even more tightly until I could feel it and focus on it.

"What’s wrong?"

"The music... it’s music from my kingdom. It’s... there is a tear between worlds."

Understanding of what I suggested was rapid in her eyes - and only for a quick moment were they fully, brightly, desperately orange. When she glanced toward the dark passage leading ever deeper into the cave system, then back to me.

"Breathe. Just breathe. You’re alright."

Her forehead bumped into mine, invading my space and making me feel even more claustrophobic. Like cages I keep slipping from were closing in... or options were being narrowed.

I wanted to flee. I wanted to nip her on the nose and bolt. Yet, the vulnerable, lightweight heaviness of the pup on my chest and the almost painful grip on my hand told me it wasn’t a real option.

> She might just bite back this time. <

An uncomfortable, possibly hysteric laugh escaped my lips even as this body continued to shake and spasm. Because the blue, foxfire glow pulsed around the edges of my vision incessantly even as text tried to spool out against my will.

| TASK: Rift Stabilization |

| REQUIREMENT: 300 Allied At Nexus Point 8 |

| PROGRESS: 19/300 Gathered |

"It calls to you. Just as this place called to us."

Sarah’s voice came over top of the rising and falling notes in my ear - or rather, in my soul. Musical, mathematical patterns that echoed the cyclical tale of beginnings and rebirths after the period of ends and death.

It slithered in my mindscape as if I was looking at our form of sheet music playing out in three dimensions and a rainbow of colors. My hand finally returned the squeeze as I stared at the information in front of me.

A tangible, measurable path back to my world in hard math numbers. All it would require was bringing more people to this cave system.

All it would need is for me to *uncomplicate* my feelings. To be prepared to abandon the responsibility I took on of my own accord...

My other hand pressed lightly on the sleeping pup in the sling. The side of my nose slid against the Alpha’s cheek. Two different burdens that have somehow converged into one.

"If you need me to let go, just say it. You just seemed like you were about to run."

"...I was."

If she hadn’t held onto me, I would have done so. The thing with that is, I don’t think it was ever in the direction she feared. I don’t want to go ’home’.

I don’t want to look deeper. Into the caves. Into this feeling.

Not... not right now.