The [i]Solas Na Gelaí[/i].

With a grim smile, the werewolf's amber gaze fell, as always - eternally - to her lover. She held her ebony clawed hand out to Thad, a silent invitation to the other half of her soul to join her while so many spoke. She felt so heavy - and yet somehow so hollow - with precious little to offer to this new gathering in Ardgroom, precious little to add to this conversation. All Veti had was her quiet fury, her solemn promise to a wolf she loved as her own brother, and these things howled within the confines of her head, silenced only by her lover's touch.

Siya offered to move them, if Jay-Jay or even Thad could somehow to determine the destination. Her dear friend seemed so contented, curled so easily into Atticus, as if her tiny, powerful body had been created to fit his demonic form.

And Veti listened to Atticus, letting his words roll over her. So, for all the sadistic joy the white wolf had taken murdering Aislinn, for nearly killing her, it had all only ever been a means to an end. Well, technically to [i]the[/i] end. All this time, Aislinn had been custodian to such a powerful artifact, and Veti had not even realized something so vital until this very moment. She might have barked a bitter laugh if it wouldn't make her seem mad - and if she were sure she could stop herself once she started. 

Veti listened to Henry, the import of [i]his[/i] words running past her and through her. She had no arguments for the death of Fenrir at the dawn of Ragnarök, but its demise at the hands of Odin's son was only ever for coming of the true, prophesied Twilight of the Gods. What was happening at this moment was unprecedented, conformed to none of the Norse prophecies. Who could possibly know what rules were in play anymore?

She was so lost in her thoughts, following the threads of so many disparate conversations, Veti was almost surprised to realize Daisy was speaking to her directly. The Reaper had only just offered Artie to help with the tracking if need be, once they determined wherever the white wolf had fled. The space of several heartbeats passed as she listened to her precious friend, to the words Daisy offered that sank into her soul like a balm.

"Oh Daisy... " Veti bent her lupine face toward her Reaper friend, somehow managing a subtle, almost gentle smile despite the ivory fangs. Small tears began to well up in her amber eyes, as one clawed hand reached to gently cradle Daisy's cool cheek. "You took her over then? Aislinn... You took her over."

"[i]Thank you[/i] Daisy. That could not have been an easy thing - to say the very least. But I am so grateful that it was you."

Veti could not even begin to speak to Aislinn's message for her, not trusting her voice wouldn't crack, or that she wouldn't dissolve in tears. And so she simply let her claw fall from Daisy's cheek to Artie's wide, ebony head, affectionately scratching behind the hellhound's velvety ears and jowls.

[i]Later.[/i] Later, when she could truly grieve the only wolf sister she had ever known, even if it were for a few precious moments. Perhaps she would even return to Ardgroom in Aislinn's honor, to the place that had been her home once, and the ancestral home of the Teachglach Mac Tíre -

Veti's amber eyes widened, her entire body stiffening in shock. Her ebony hand still rested on Artie's head, but the standing stones, the deep Irish night and all her companions disappeared from sight, tossed in a sudden, screaming tempest that - however impossibly - seemed to emanate from her chest, from the still bloodied scar the white wolf's sword had left. She tried to turn to Thad, the question in her eyes begging an answer for what in the world was happening - for what he had done? But her lover - and all else - was shredded from her sight by a howling verdant blast that faded to the blacks of the void, relieved only by the pale, almost glowing hues of impossible whites and blue.

[i]A glacial blue. A glacial blue in black ice and black blood, a lake filled with the most bitter resentment and hatred, bled from a monster. Her mind tried to reel from the sight before her, the enormity of the wolf half-encased in ice. She did not need to be told what she was witnessed at this moment - far, far from it. But there had been nothing in all her studies, nothing in all her experience in the Veiled World, that could have prepared her for the malevolent reality of the Fenrir to her mortal eyes.

Unable to move, unable to speak or interact or effect a single thing, Veti felt suspended about the roof of the massive ice cave, an unwilling, unwitting witness to the events that unfolded below. Aislinn had seen this, all of this to the last, and now she shared that vision - but with a difference, with a sickening surety that this was no mere portent of what was to come. Every last thing to the last, was truly happening now. [b]At this very moment.[/b]

And Veti was helpless to stop him, the white wolf. He was a mere, insignificant speck beside the Fenrir, striving with all his might to strike the golden chain that bound the monstrous demigod. She could see the muscles that fought beneath that alabaster fur, a final heave rewarded with a *CRACK* that filled the cavern, that reverberated almost painfully to her ephemeral bones. The white wolf was tossed across the frozen lake of black blood as the Fenrir finally lifted his impossible maw with a howl to shake the very heavens. Veti felt herself lifted and flung, far across a universe of bleak void, endless emptiness and indifferent stars... [/i]

The werewolf gasped, finally drawing a breath, a true breath in her true body as she tentatively lifted her clawed hand from Artie's head. Yes, her body was her own again, and her fingers flew to her newest scar, resting over the still-sticky blood for several seconds as she drew another deep breath. Incredulous, she turned to Thad, amber eyes wide. "It's already done," she said, her voice hushed but thick with a hurricane of emotion.

"The white wolf. He has released the Fenrir." She lifted her great crimson head as she looked over all those assembled. "The Fenrir," she said louder still, her voice carrying among the stones. "The white wolf has already found him, and set him free."