It was hot, but not the kind of ambient heat from the summer night air; it never got that hot in their little town. Seulgi’s eyes opened slowly, the underside of a bunk bed greeting her blurry gaze. She began to sit up and noticed she was listening to the rhythmic sound of panting. As she laid back on her elbows and looked around she saw the small dark mass that was Jisoo on the floor, her tongue lolling out of for another moment before she realized Seulgi was looking at her. She stopped panting and stood shakily from the floor before slowly coming over to rest her head on Seulgi’s mattress.

Seulgi almost reached over to absently pet her head, but stopped herself. That would probably be weird. She realized Jisoo was the source of the heat, however and remembered what Irene had said about her being injured. “Are you okay?” she murmured down to her. Jisoo’s haunting blue eyes were the only thing that stood out in the dark cabin.

Cabin?

“Where are we?” Seulgi asked.

Right on cue, the door to the small cabin opened and Irene poked her head in. She watched Seulgi for a silent moment, as if deciding what to do, before coming inside and shutting the door behind herself.

“You’re supposed to be resting,” Irene muttered to Jisoo, pushing her head away from Seulgi's lap and pointing back at her spot on the floor. Jisoo complied with only a single whine as she gingerly laid down again. 

Irene was slow to return her gaze to Seulgi, but Seulgi suddenly recalled the events of the evening with a light gasp. “Krystal?” she asked breathlessly.

Irene finally looked at her again, though her expression was unreadable in the gloom. “She’s… she’s with the others for now.” Sunmi really had her work cut out for her. “There’s something - someone - inside of her. They’re going to call Sturgeon to help exorcize it.”

Not a single word Irene had just said made sense to Seulgi. She briefly considered lying back down. “Wait- wait, what? Start over; what do you mean someone’s inside Krystal?” Seulgi recalled the manic laughter, the voice that was Krystal’s, and yet wasn’t, and her confrontation with Taeyeon. “Like a ghost?”

Irene nodded. “Exactly like a ghost,” she confirmed bitterly. She looked like she was going to say more, but stopped.

“But… how? Since when?” Seulgi stood up suddenly. Krystal was all alone with these people, the Ones from the Lake whom she was always apprehensive about. A friendly face might do her some good.

Irene stopped her with a hand on her chest. “Where are you going?”

“To see her,” Seulgi said, her gaze resolute.

Irene was surprised. “You’re Kinfolk - you’re not even supposed to be here. You can’t just wander around wherever you please.”

“You brought me here!” Seulgi shot back. The way Irene looked away made Seulgi realize maybe that had been a lapse in judgment on the alpha’s part, so she tried to calm down. “Can’t you like, me or something? This place… I think it brings up a lot of bad memories for Krystal. I just want to be there for her.”

Irene’s eyes narrowed shrewdly as she returned her gaze to Seulgi. “Yeah, I bet it does. That thing that’s inside her, the reason Taeyeon attacked her, that’s the cause of it all, but I don’t know the story as well as the others here. I wasn’t around for it.” Maybe Sunmi would tell the story during her ritual, Irene couldn’t say, but she wasn’t sure Seulgi should be anywhere near the lake while it was being performed.

Seulgi slowly took Irene’s hand from her chest and held it in both of her own. “Please.”

Irene didn’t know what to say at that, but another whine from Jisoo made her tsk suddenly as she withdrew and turned towards the door. “Fine. But if I get in trouble…”

“I won’t say anything!” Seulgi assured her. “No more bear magic!”

Irene paused with her hand on the doorknob. That’s right. “How did you do that?” she asked as she slowly turned back to the Kinfolk.

Seulgi blinked at her. “Uh, I’m not really sure. But didn’t that giant bear say she was giving me some special powers? She said she’d give me strength.”

“That ‘giant bear’ is Ursa, the patron spirit of your family,” Irene chided with a faint smile. “The patron spirits are the reason Garou exist at all.”

Seulgi wasn’t sure if she was really being scolded or not - this cosmic contract with spirits didn’t have anything to do with her, really. By all accounts, any agreement between Ursa and the Kangs had almost completely dried up.

“Alright, alright, but I don’t really know what it’s for or what any of it means,” Seulgi continued. “All I know is…” What? What did she know? That she wanted to help Krystal? How had she not noticed her best friend was possessed by a ghost? And for how long? “All I know is… I want to help.”

Irene watched her for a moment there in the dark, a small smile on her face. Was this the same frightened girl who had clung to her so desperately in the Umbra? Maybe Ursa really had given Seulgi something. But as Seulgi looked away under Irene’s warm gaze, the alpha suddenly recalled herself and shook her head.

“Come on, stay close to me, and stay quiet. They’re going to perform a sacred ritual, and if the spirits don’t want you there, they’ll definitely let us know, so I can’t make any promises.”

Seulgi finally smiled back and nodded. “Got it, be as inoffensive as possible.”

Irene snorted and then ce again towards the door that would lead them out into the moonlit night.

+++

It wasn’t difficult to find the other members of the Sept of the Sacred Shore. All Irene had to do was follow the cacophony of howls that led them straight to the Lake. A great bonfire had been built in the pit nearby, illuminating the cluster of lodges that made a half circle facing the gravel shore, though the Garou were all standing together right at the edge of the water, the lake gently lapping at their bare ankles.

There was the Lionheart pack, with Taeyeon, Hyoyeon, and even Yoona, Irene was surprised to note, doing most of the howling as they threw back their heads to the sky. For the Red Song pack, only Wendy was there, standing off by herself, but doing her best to make as much noise as possible with the others.

Yeri was there beside her, even if she wasn’t an official member of the pack, and was adding in her own unpracticed howls here and there.

Between the two groups was Yeeun, with Sunmi and Yubin, and of course Krystal. Yubin had a hand on Krystal’s shoulder, though whether it was in support or to keep her in place, Irene couldn’t tell from this distance. Sunmi had her tools: a knotted wooden scepter wrapped with strips of hide from multiple animals, the different colored fur making stripes up and down its length, as well as an old deerskin shawl covered in hand-painted designs and shells sewn onto it that glinted in the moonlight.

“What’s everyone doing?” Seulgi whispered to Irene as they crouched behind one of the vehicles parked in front of the buildings.

“I thought you said you were going to be quiet,” Irene whispered back to her, though she answered anyway. “They’re preparing to wake up the great spirit that watches over this land. You guys call us the Ones from the Lake, right? Well we call ourselves the Sept of the Sacred Shore. In either case, our cairn’s power comes from the lake, or really, the spirit who lives in it: Sturgeon.”

Seulgi thought for a moment before whispering to Irene again. “The spirit’s going to come here?” 

Irene nodded absently, thinking of Wendy and Yeri there by themselves, but if Sunmi needed anyone’s help with the ritual, it’d be Wendy and Yoona, those more attuned to the spirits. They didn’t need her. Though she was apprehensive and the urge to go to Wendy remained, she was still concerned about Seulgi. She didn’t know what was going to happen during this ritual, but she was afraid of the things Yeeun had mentioned to her about the Kinfolk and spirits.

Yeeun leaned in the doorway, watching Irene lay Seulgi on the bed. In any other circumstance, it might have been cute to watch the small alpha stand there, deciding whether or not to cover up the unconscious Kinfolk with the blanket, or to let her be. But not tonight. In the corner, heat radiating off of her as she tried to mend, was Jisoo, one of the evening’s other victims. It was the first real battle her sept had fought since she had become their leader, and Jisoo’s injury and Daniel’s death weighed heavily on Yeeun.

If she had kept a better eye on everyone, maybe this all could have been avoided. If she hadn’t simply tried to move on from everything that had happened, if she had realized there was still so much healing to be done, if she had paid more attention to the signs… Their old enemy had festered and risen again right under her nose, and she hadn’t noticed.

She watched Irene’s back as the newest alpha in their sept continued to stare down at the Kinfolk pensively. Perhaps this was Yeeun’s chance to start paying better attention.

“She’ll be fine,” Yeeun assured her quietly. Irene startled and stepped away from the bed finally, adopting an expression of nonchalance.

“Sunmi said she wasn’t hurt at all,” Irene agreed. Yeeun was effectively blocking her exit, and probably for a reason, so she waited for her alpha to speak again.

“Is she yours?” Yeeun asked pointedly.

It took Irene a moment to register the question, and she glanced back at Seulgi briefly. “Mine? No, no she’s not mine. She’s just…”

Yeeun waited.

“... caught up in all of this,” Irene finally finished.

“Mhmm,” Yeeun replied cryptically. “So tell me how a Kinfolk acquired a Gift from Ursa.” 

Irene winced. “When we were looking for Daniel, we… I thought Ursa might know where he was, or be able to summon him. I didn’t know if Ursa would even let us into her domain to ask, so we brought one of hers with us,” she admitted, nodding towards Seulgi. 

Yeeun’s eyes were wide in the dark and she straightened from her relaxed position. “You brought a Kinfolk into the Umbra? Into the Wild?”

Irene didn’t say anything. Thinking back, she wasn’t sure why she had agreed to Wendy’s plan in the first place.

“You know what wanders around in the Umbra - that girl could have had her mind ripped from her body. She could have been into anyone’s domain! Or worse, she could have ended up like that Jung girl.” Yeeun sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. “I know you’re one of Grandfather Thunder’s children, but you have to understand, the ends don’t always justify the means when we’re talking about the lives of the Kinfolk. Without them, we’d die off in a generation.”

Irene was silent under the scolding, though as Yeeun raised her point about the Kinfolk, she met the sept alpha’s gaze. “The Kinfolk aren’t just breeding stock for the Garou!” she retorted. “Seulgi wanted to help us, in whatever way she could. Yeri’s her friend, they grew up together.”

Yeeun sighed again, looking at Irene sympathetically. “I know how you feel. But I have to think about the bigger picture here. This town… with its Kangs, and Kims, and Jungs… who’s even left? We’re a dying race, Irene. The spirits don’t hold the same power they once did. The Families are weakening. Fewer and fewer are Born True every generation. There’s nothing more important in our world than the Kinfolk - they need our protection now more than ever.”

Irene hadn’t thought of that. Brinton had very few Kinfolk left. What did that mean for their sept? Would they have to keep taking in Garou from other regions? Like she and Wendy? Even Jisoo, in a sense. Their entire pack, one of the only remaining packs in the sept, was made up entirely of transplants.

“I…”

“But now that she has a Gift, we can’t shut her out of everything completely, hmm? Ursa chose her. For some reason,” Yeeun mused, tapping her lip. Irene looked up at the sept alpha with wide eyes.

“You don’t mean making her a member of the sept?”

Yeeun shook her head. “Unfortunately, no. I think it’s still too dangerous to have a non-Garou wandering around here with hotheads like Yubin and Hyoyeon about.” She watched Irene for a moment, a small smirk playing on her lips in the dark. “Why don’t you keep an eye on her for now? But don’t get her mixed up in anything else that might get her killed, alright? No more jaunts into the Umbra. Humans, even Kinfolk, are way more susceptible to the influence of Wyrm and its agents of Chaos than we are. She shines like a beacon to them in a place like that.”

She shines like a beacon. Irene’s gaze drifted back to Seulgi’s unconscious form. At least now she’d been given permission to keep tabs on her.

“Here goes,” Sunmi Sunspeaker said, interrupting Irene’s thoughts. The howling ceased and the other members of the Sept of the Sacred Shore watched her silently. “I’m going to call him, but don’t be scared,” she continued, mostly addressing Yeri, though her gaze shifted to Krystal and remained there. “He’s going to help you. Jessica was one of ours - he won’t turn his back on a Jung.”

Krystal could only nod mutely, the cold water around her feet making her shiver.

Sunmi beckoned, and she and Yubin led Krystal farther into the lake, until they were up to their hips in the dark water, the brilliant moonlight dancing on the ripples around them. Sunmi dunked her hide-covered scepter into the water and began to chant in an unearthly language.

“Sunspeaker. It has been a long time.” A voice, undulating and ancient like the lake itself, cut her chanting short as it echoed loudly throughout the gathering. “Save your breath, fair child of Unicorn. I have been waiting for you to call upon me ever since she came to the Lake.”

Sunmi waited quietly as waves began to rise, washing over and past them to the shore from the center of the lake. A shape broke the surface, a rounded spine almost like a shark fin, followed by another, and then another, as the long, wide back of Sturgeon s its way towards the gathered Garou. 

Seulgi had a hard time seeing what the commotion in the water was from her vantage point, but the rising noise of the waves lapping the gravel bank filled her with dread. 

Much closer than anyone in the gathering thought comfortable, the great piscine head of Sturgeon broke the water’s surface and greeted them with his golden eyes, each as large as portals in a ship. Water poured down his fine grey and white striped scales, dripping from the long tendrils that lined his wide mouth like whiskers. He rose higher and higher above the gathering until he had an unobstructed view of the Garou and their cabins beyond.

“Whoa…” Seulgi breathed, and Irene covered with a hand as she hissed for her to be quiet. But Irene had also never seen Sturgeon before, and her attention soon returned to the great spirit that protected their sept.

“This must be the one,” Sturgeon bubbled, turning a glossy golden eye towards Krystal, in the arms of Sunmi and Yubin. “A child of Cygnus, host to yet another child of Cygnus. Did you know that? He is under her domain, though now he has trespassed into my cairn. Hmm.” As Sturgeon seemed to deliberate, his great rayed tail swirled the dark waters behind him.

“Are there any among you who would warn Cygnus of the fate of her children? To rid this girl of the wraith that defiles her, I must break the bonds between their spirits, the bonds that bind them to their Patron herself. Anything less would simply release this restless entity upon another present, or those mortals you seek to protect. To banish him to the Maelstrom requires his spirit be completely severed from anything that binds him to Gaia.”

Seulgi grasped Irene’s shoulder, her fingers digging in with worry. “What does that mean?” she breathed.

“I… don’t know,” Irene admitted, too shocked to hush Seulgi again. “Sever… like… cut her off from Cygnus?” Irene bit her lip. She thought she could guess what that meant, but was afraid of voicing the answer aloud. “... She wouldn’t be Kinfolk anymore.”

Seulgi didn’t think that sounded so bad, but as she looked at Irene, she realized perhaps she didn’t realize the full implication. The small alpha wore a dark expression as her gaze was fixed on the proceedings, until she finally stood from their hiding spot, surprising Seulgi.

“Irene…! Irene, where are you going?” Seulgi squeaked from behind the car.

“I’ll go. I’ll talk to Cygnus,” Taeyeon announced before Irene could even open . 

“I am sorry, Oathbreaker, but I fear you would not be welcome in her domain. Your bravery gladdens me, but Cyngus is a proud creature. Until your honor is restored, I fear she would not look upon you favorably.” His bubbling voice held no malice, but the effect was like a blow, nonetheless. Taeyeon dipped her head in frustration, and Yoona put a hand on her shoulder.

“Let me do it, then,” Irene spoke up, as she walked closer to the gathering. “I’ll take Wendy with me.”

“Two does not a pack make, Halfmoon. Where is your second?”

Irene balked as Sturgeon addressed her and she too felt cowed under his scrutiny. Jisoo was still recovering, and Irene didn’t think her second in command should come with them on another journey through the Umbra. “She is injured. I can’t take her into the Wild in her condition.” She would only be a liability.

“W…” Wendy stammered as all eyes turned to her. “What about…?” she tried again, hooking a thumb at Yeri. 

Yeri pointed at herself. “Me? Me go? To see Cygnus?”

“I meant, what if you join our pack? Then there’d be three of us, right?” Wendy clarified, looking around at everyone. Irene gave her a firm nod. The thought of Yeri joining their pack felt… natural. Expected, after everything they had gone through together.

Yeeun smirked. Things were tidying up nicely. “She did complete her first trial,” she mused aloud.

Yubin sighed dramatically. “The trial you sent her on. But I guess so. They brought back Daniel, just like you asked.” Yubin cleared and turned to Yeri. “Congratulations, you have proven yourself to be a worthy member of the Sept of the Sacred Shore, blah blah. The Red Song pack has extended an offer to you, do you accept?”

“Uh, sure. I mean yes, I accept!” Yeri answered quickly.

“And do you challenge Irene’s right to alpha status? As a new member of her pack this is your right. If you refuse, you may not challenge her again - this is wartime, kiddo.”

Irene blinked and glanced between Yeri and Yubin. No one in her pack had ever challenged her before - she had almost forgotten that it was a possibility, although Yubin was right, peace had only reigned over the sept for a few short months before war was seemingly upon them again.

“Huh? No? Why would I do that?” Yeri asked, scandalized.

Yubin smiled. “Alright, as the Master of Challenges and whatever, I will perform the rites later. Consider yourself a working member of the Red Song pack until then.”

Sturgeon’s large glassy eyes refocused on the group. “...With that decided, I am satisfied. Halfmoon will take her pack to Cygnus, and I shall prepare the Rite of Severance - this may take some time, especially if Cygnus does not heed your entreaties. Sunspeaker, please make our ‘guest’ at home until all is ready.”

The giant, archaic figure of Sturgeon slipped back into the water until only his great head remained just above its rippling, moon-kissed surface. “Although, this may only be the first step if there are others who would sponsor his persistence in your realm.” And with that, he sank beneath the waters and all was still.