Coldsnap: The Billionaire Alpha's Fated Pregnant Princess (GL)-Chapter 429 - Ignorance Of The Unseen & Unseeable

Chapter 429: Chapter 429 - Ignorance Of The Unseen & Unseeable

The man who waited for me to step out was likely fifty, perhaps older. It is sometimes hard to tell with humans. He had the hands of a person who worked almost all of those years. That much was clear, when they extended out to shake mine.

"Ms. Lomdi. Or Mrs. Voss, I’ve been told."

Firmly, not aggressively - but also clearly *expecting* and testing for my strength. Seeming also to recognize in that moment the spark of divinity inside me, as his countenance loosened slightly.

Gray threaded through his oiled beard, which smelled like it was probably distilled from cedar, and dark, short hair on top somehow kept more of its color... but smelled of pine tar.

> If I recall it was good for dry scalps... which is probably going to be a real issue in this dry winter cold. <

"Citra is perfectly acceptable to avoid confusion."

"Nice and simple. Which is why I only go by Webber."

The glass-enclosed stairwell, through the door right over to our left, led up toward the roof and the greenhouse. Of course, he looked like he had no intention of going up there at all despite stacking the things I needed together against the wall.

"I’ve brought a preliminary supply list based on what was relayed to me. Look it over before we begin."

He carried an actual, physical clipboard with the list held on it, which struck me as oddly charming given the circumstances. But he doesn’t look nervous at all when being handed a piece of technology either.

In fact, he barely pays attention to the headset at all after taking it. Just staring at me without discomfort at being so suddenly attentive.

"When Martha described you, she undersold the eyes."

"Is that so?"

"Yes. There was a young woman in our group a long time ago. Had eyes as gray as yours. Nothing else like her at all, but those are the color."

With a smirk, I intentionally let them flash a bit of lilac to see his reaction. Since surely that is a tint that no one has in this world... unless there are a group of distant werewolves Helene had never heard of.

But he doesn’t. React. At all.

Frowning, I point at one fiercely glowing one - so much that I can see it brightly on the glass - and do it again. He only tilts his head at my bit of unvoiced insistence.

"Do you have something in there? An eyelash? I’m not sure... we are acquainted enough for you to let me dig it out."

"I was trying to show you the color of my eyeglow."

"Ah... I see the problem. I don’t have the Sight. Not to any useful degree." 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

Blinking rapidly, about a thousand and one things start to make sense to me that I’d hardly considered before now. I’d been quite foolish... there were even signs!

"Martha is the only real Seer of our old group, I’m more of a Touchy. Think our kids these days call it clair... sentience?"

"Hold on. Just to be clear before I restructure my thoughts. You humans require a certain level and variety of attunement to mystical energies in order to perceive this... ocular effect that our kind has?"

Wolf spirits are entirely made of magic. They are originally what cause the eye glow, not the body itself.

Omegas cannot do it, but they clearly *see* it. But I remember a few times where I probably had it showing blue around Anise and-

"She did say your knowledge had gaps."

> AHH! Of course!? How the heck could any of these rilesome werewolves stay hidden in society if they were constantly alerting every hells damned human that pissed them off a little?! <

My hand clutches my forehead. Feeling like an idiot for trying to be so careful, so restrained for more than a month in the city. All because Helene knew that we had to be careful not to give away the secret.

But had no specific memory where *anyone* from her pack ever bothered to tell her this detail. And the hunter’s network forum?

It listed common eye colors for the different local packs. I took that for granted to mean more than I should have.

"...It must be common for hunters to have this ’Sight’."

"Pardon me for saying so, but that relieves me. You can be taught things, take little information and do so much with it."

"I am not relieved at all... to be praised for filling in this ignorance after living with it for this long. Yet, I do appreciate being informed without significant judgement."

A short, low laugh. The kind I often heard in court-life when honesty impressed the members of shifter nobility... unused to how quickly I could pivot to spinning a tale or blustering through a conversation.

"Well, when you’ve taken on students, you tend to learn that people know what they know. Expecting more than that is madness."

He gestured toward the supplies stacked against the wall. Everything that she said I would need for this situation, all ready to be moved upstairs. Curiously, he was the only one out here after he knocked.

> But I doubt he packed everything in the elevator himself? Then again, some elders are go getters. <

"Our Mrs. Callaway walked me through what you’re planning. Processing a kill on a windy rooftop fifty-nine stories high. I’m not sure whether to view this as you not doing things by halves, or whether you only think things half through."

"Both can be true."

"That it can. Doesn’t make the work less ambitious for one person, even a strong one."

"I’ve dressed deer before. Though not in this body."

The admission slipped out because of how easy he was to talk to. But he only nodded, as if people regularly confessed to having different bodies in their past.

Possibly assuming I meant as a hybrid... unless the things they’ve ’seen’ and ’felt’ have told them more than I have said aloud.

However, it was actually with Ravi that I’d learned, like I learned so many practical but not Princess things. An impressive buck my brother took a successful shot at while teaching me to track in my old human form.

Following that up with a lesson on piecing large kills out with more ingenuity than ’stick snout in, chomp until full’. A skill which I used... not since then.

"Bear is different. Greasier, heavier. The fat alone will fill half those buckets. You’ll lose working time fast once the carcass is exposed to the air. Stripping cold fat when every ounce is valuable... is not fun."

As he tried to explain to me more of my foolishness in this choice, I began to fiddle with the supplies. Opening one of the large black contractor bags and shaking it out.

Dividing the buckets into two stacks, I stuff them inside as he grows quiet. Honing stone, rope, tarps, extra bags, and even the bag of butchering implements gets tossed into one bucket.

Using the kind of protruding flaps of the dark plastic, I tie it off with a nice seal and attempt to lift it all. Definitely a bit unwieldy, though I could surely manage to climb the stairs with it over my shoulder.

"That’s certainly a novel way of moving empty buckets."

"Oh, if you think that was interesting-"

A blue glow stretches across my hand, in my vision and mine alone. Even some mystical Sight wouldn’t catch it, apparently. Touching the ’single bag’ does what I expected.

"-then you really should have seen when I brought out the actual bear. Your old friend was flummoxed, despite knowing the rumor you all must know of my special ability."

He doesn’t seem as startled as I hoped. Unfortunate, I was hoping to bewilder him after catching me off guard with the truth of how things work.

> I feel like Vrika would be huffing and rolling it’s eyes... <

"I think her exact word was ’unconventional’. When she spoke of your magic."

"Not-magic. At least not your world’s or mine."

"...Is your world not our world?"

Ah. There we go, that’ll do it!