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Trinity
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With the punishment decided, it was time to get back to work. I needed to remain focused. Today was Wednesday, and I planned to deliver the verdict on Charles and Ralph Saturday evening. This would give me time to think about the process, and figure out exactly how I was going to do it.
I knew I could do it. That wasn't the issue. I could feel it in my gut that I was capable of sealing away their wolves. However, I obviously had never done this before. Furthermore, I knew that Nehalennia would be on my side for this. She would not like this show of disobedience toward her successor. That much I was absolutely certain of.
The day after the fight, I was to begin training and learning about the marks that had appeared on my body. These marks apparently had different meanings. Each one would tell me about different abilities I had. Some I had been able to discern for myself, like the arrows, but the others were still a complete mystery to me.
Thankfully, there was a complete record of shifter history, and there had been people over the last few millennia, aside from we Queens and Goddess Incarnates, that had received marks. Their runes, as they called them, were studied in great detail so as to ascertain the truth behind the abilities they granted.
I met with Gabriel, it seemed like he was going to attend all of my lessons with me, and two other men. They were the experts on runes, aside from Gabriel who seemed to contain the entirety of the Sentinelle's knowledge.
The first man Hideki, a tall thin man with black hair, handsome gray eyes, and a slight Japanese accent. He looked clean cut and very studious. And he was the only one I had seen in the entire Sentinelle that wore glasses. He didn't seem to have the greatest of personalities, but he wasn't outright rude either, just brusque. I had dealt with that plenty of times with Reece.
The other man, Sebastian, looked similar in a way. He had the same black hair but it was paired with eyes that were so dark they nearly looked black. He looked very capable and spoke very politely.
Also, the two of them were wearing very nice looking suits. Sebastians was black and Hideki's was dark, navy blue. These two men looked like they would be thorough and efficient with teaching me all about the runes and markings I currently had and ones I could expect later.
"It is a pleasure to be working with you, my lady." Sebastian swept forward into a deep bow but did not kneel. His left arm was folded behind his back while his right hand was placed over his heart.
"It is a pleasure to work with the both of you." I gave a kind smile and a nod of my head.
"Please, come with us and let us get to work." Hideki's voice was calm and with a slight hint of kindness. It was in there, just not on the surface. Oh well, as long as he was polite, that's all that mattered.
We got to work, a very thick, very dusty book opened on the table. The writings in it were done in many different languages. Each line repeated itself over and over in Old English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Chinese, and so many more that I couldn't keep track of it all.
The writing of each line was also very small to allow for the multiple translations. And after every couple pages there was an accompanying picture of a runic mark.
"These marks have been passed down since before the Goddess left the earth. Each mark that she has given has been recorded in some way. Now, we must not only teach you about these runes, but study any that might be new on your body." Hideki's words gave me pause. Were they planning on looking everywhere on my body just to be certain that I didn't have other marks.
"W-well I-I have marks f-from Thoth too." I informed them stutteringly. They needed to know that I was marked by more than one celestial being.
"Really?" Sebastian seemed intrigued.
"Yes, when I was named the Queen of Thoth's children as well I was given new marks."
"May we see your marks?" Hideki spoke clinically, with no feelings at all. Did he not know that I would have to remove my shirt for them to see all the marks.
"Let us teach her about the marks we know of first. When she has learned all of them then we will check her markings with the King present." Gabriel interjected for me. I silently thanked him with my eyes for his help. He nodded as if he understood and gave a small smile.
"What is the issue?" Hideki seemed confused.
"The King is quite possessive of his wife." Gabriel's words still seemed to go over Hideki's head, like he couldn't understand my modesty at all.
"Let it slide, my friend, we do not wish to anger our King." Sebastian smiled knowingly.
"As you wish. Let us begin." Hideki finally conceded and moved to sit at the wooden table in the middle of the room.
They were very knowledgeable about the runes. The explanations they gave were extremely easy to understand. Not to mention, there were both more and less runes than I expected.
With all the different kinds of runes in the world, I at first thought there had to be a lot of them, considering the size of that tome they were reading from. But then I got to thinking about the fact that they only recorded runes that had been granted to shifters by Nehalennia.
They had recorded and extensively researched fifty-six different Runes. Chances were at least a few of them matched the ones on my body. Also, from my quick skimming of the book, some of the designs were elaborate and clear in their meaning, while others were very simplistic and therefore cryptic about their power.
Also, there weren't just runes for positive things. It seemed that one could be cursed by the Goddess as well. There were runes for chaos and destruction, suffering, and mortality and pain. These definitely weren't favors granted by the benevolent Goddess.
Likewise there were runes for prosperity, strength, speed, accuracy, success, and so many more. There were some that seemed like they wouldn't give you a necessary advantage in the short term but were great for the long term, like growth, reaching potential, and happiness. The people who had received those runes must have gained a lot of favor with Nehalennia.
We spent hours pouring over the text. Learning, studying, researching. That was what my day consisted of. It was boring, that was for sure, but the information I gathered was actually pretty interesting.
I didn't mind studying and learning like this, but I was eager to finally get to physical the training. But, I guess we all must start with academic lessons first. This was truly where all things started.
Just when I was starting to get a headache from all the reading and studying, Reece and Vincent came into the study room near the library that we were in. The room was really too bland, it only had two wooden tables with four chairs each, nothing else. I guess it was really only for studying.
"Just about done?" Reece smiled at me, clearly pleased with himself after a hard day of training.
"Hmm." I made a noncommittal noise as my head was really starting to hurt from all the small writing I had been staring at.
"King Reece, there is one thing that we would like your help with." Sebastian stood as soon as they had come into the room and he once again bowed just like he did before.
"Help with what?" Reece looked confused at his words.
"Ah, well-." He started before Gabriel cut him off.
"Allow me to explain." He grinned, hoping to bridge the gap between the two groups of men as I just sat there and massaged my temples.
"Ok." Reece encouraged him to go on.
"We would like to examine the marks on the Queen."
"Examine them?" Vincent was stunned by these words.
"It is one mission of the Sentinelle to thoroughly record all Goddess given marks. But we would not like to offend the Queen or yourself. We want you here to assist, if that is possible."
"Why do you need to know?" Reece was skeptical.
"We cannot begin to fathom what types of power she possesses if we do not know what her marks look like." Hideki answered blandly. Reece quirked his eyebrow at him, but he knew that all the men here were trustworthy. He had met them all yesterday after all.
"Gabriel, is this something that is necessary?" Vincent asked him for clarity.
"I'm afraid that it is, Sir." Gabriel nodded to us. "We need to know what runes she has so we know how best to train her."
"And how am I supposed to help?" Reece still seemed to be perplexed.
"Well, we didn't feel comfortable examining the marks without you in the room." Gabriel actually blushed a little as he spoke those words.
"Oh." Reece grinned then looked over at me. "I see you're treating my wife right, Gabriel. I'm glad none of you thought to disrobe her while I was not here." I saw Hideki stiffen for a moment, most likely he was remembering his earlier words.
"We wouldn't dream of it, Sir." Sebastian said with a grin.
"Plus, you need someone here that knows when she got each and every one of those marks." Reece smirked as he looked at me. "No one knows her body better than I do." I blushed crimson red at his remark. Goddess, did he have to put it like that?
After the permission was given and Reece was with me, we moved on to examining the marks on my body. I removed my shirt, feeling heat rise in my face as I felt their eyes on me. I was not really comfortable with this, but I just imagined it was like a doctor's visit. It was no different from Griffin giving me that exam for the baby.
My blue lacy bra was still in place, and I covered my front with my shirt as I moved to sit in the chair. Vincent stood behind me, keeping an eye on the other men in the room while Reece knelt before me.
Gabriel, Sebastian, and Hideki all looked over my back with intense looks on their faces. I could feel them staring at me, but it wasn't heated so that made things easier. They were definitely looking at me with clinical interest and not lust. That was both comforting and disheartening. Wasn't I pretty enough?
No, I shouldn't be thinking that way. I wasn't interested in them looking at me heatedly. It was just wounding my pride as a woman that they were so uninterested. For all I know they were hiding any interest because they knew that my husband would kill them if they showed any sort of sexual interest in me. Yeah, that was most likely it, and I definitely don't need people around here getting murdered. I nearly laughed at that thought.
"Which marks are from the initial Goddess marking?" Gabriel asked Reece with curiosity in his voice. "There are so many new marks here that I have never seen before."
"Everything on the left shoulder is from the Moon Goddess, everything on the right shoulder is from Thoth. The ones across the back, I am uncertain of. And the collar bones go with their respective shoulders for who gave the marks." Reece told him what he wanted to know in an almost flat voice, almost. I could hear the slight heat that laid low in his voice as he looked at me.
"These marks are fascinating." Sebastian spoke with excitement. "There are some that seem somewhat similar to the ones we already know."
"Yes, like here." I felt Hideki's finger as it grazed my back and heard a very low, nearly silent rumble come from Reece's throat. Hideki instantly pulled his hand away.
"Yes, that is most definitely a memory recall rune." Gabriel answered him.
"And this is the wisdom rune." Sebastian added.
"I also see accuracy, tracking, precog, and communications." Hedeki added without touching my back this time.
"Which runes are those?" Reece asked curiously.
"This eye here is precognition. She will, with training, be able to detect danger to those immediately around her. This tree here, and all the others like it, have to do with communications."
"Is that why she can speak to us inside our head, and why her animal forms can speak like a human and not, well, an animal?"
"Yes, that would most definitely be the reason." Hideki responded with a steady tone.
"This bullseye is the accuracy rune, most likely to work with these arrow runes." Sebastian was moving on.
"I can make arrows of both ice and wind." I told him.
"That will most definitely come in handy. I am certain that is why you have this archer symbol." I nodded in agreement to Sebastian's words. "But you also have multiple elemental markings. On both shoulders and across the back. To me that speaks volumes about your connection to the elements."
"I would guess that you will be able to make arrows out of any element, given practice." Gabriel sounded awed as he looked at the markings.
"This mark here is a bit unique." Sebastian pointed to one and Reece immediately answered.
"That mark has changed, it was just a slight modification of our pack crest, and it is right where a true mate mark would go. But since she was named the Queen of the Warlocks as well, it was changed to have multiple animals and people kneeling to what appears to be the Goddess."
"What was it before?" Hideki questioned.
"It was the Goddess descending to a pack of leaping wolves."
"Hmm." Hideki seemed interested in the mark. "I see it is on both shoulders. It must truly be the mark of her ranking."
"That was my assumption as well. And also that she now had warlocks to add to her personal pack." Reece told him of his thoughts.
"She also seems to have this mark in multiple areas. The clasped hands, what could they mean?"
"I always associated it with my ability to share powers with the others."
"That is a very valid thought." Gabriel sounded proud as he listened to my idea.
"This one here, with the moon." Hideki stopped there as he pointed.
"I feel a sense of the Goddess from it. I can almost feel Nehalennia." Gabriel seemed awed.
"My thoughts exactly." Sebastian spoke reverently. "And this mark also feels celestial." He pointed to another one.
"The Ankh?" Gabriel questioned.
"Yes, it's like I can feel another God's power in it."
"Thoth." Vincent provided for them. "It's safe to assume these runes are to mark her as the Queen of the different people."
"I believe you are right, Vincent. They are very definitely full of power. They must be how Thoth and Nehalennia will stay connected to her." Gabriel answered him.
"What intrigues me is that there are trinity symbols connecting everything. That and the colors." Hideki intoned.
"The trinity symbols, beside associating with her name, is most likely speaking to her multiple roles." Sebastian mused.
"Roles?" Reece asked him
"Luna Queen, Warlock Queen, Goddess Incarnate. Three roles for a trinity. But there is also the chance that there could be another role coming for her." Shock filled me at Sebastian's words.
"Another role?" There was genuine fear in my voice at that. I didn't want, or need, another role. I had my hands full already.
"That's just a possibility. It could also mean the wolf, the witch, and the Goddess."
"I hope you're right Sebastian." I gave him a look that I know was filled with dread.
I had a lot to think about for the rest of that night. I was so distracted that I barely paid attention to anything Reece said to me. I think he was a little upset about that, but oh well. I was having a mental crisis here.