A Wolf's Howl, A Fairy's Wing

Next up was their meeting with Viljar and Runa naturally smiled fondly at their reunion. "He's a good man, but Edda's betrayal and Ingrid's death devastated him," she smiled sadly. "When I decided to leave, I used my technique on Jonas, because… frankly, I wasn't sure Viljar could handle it."

"He seemed to be doing good when I met him," Erik reassured her. "Remember, it's been five years since you left. He's had some extra time to come to terms with what happened."

Runa groaned slightly, "Ugh, don't remind me. I hope those memories come back quick, because I hate having a hole in my mind." Then she smiled softly, "But I'm glad he's doing better."

At the same time, Erik couldn't help but dread one particular memory returning: that of his mother nearly killing him. But that was a problem for a later date.

Then came the part where Viljar gave him Runa's message and the medallion, which made Runa nod in appreciation, curious to see how their meeting with Eira went, but unwilling to skip ahead.

Since Erik was skirting around the fact he'd created a harem, it was almost immediately after Viljar that he he started talking about his meeting with Jonas, rather than give a detailed account of the events with Astrid in between.

"That little shit," Runa narrowed her eyes as soon as Jonas started throwing his weight around in the story. "He dares try and coerce my son using the power I gave him?! Clearly, I didn't teach him well enough…"

The look in her eyes promised future retaliation, and neither Erik nor Elora was able to hide their grins of satisfaction. Tattling had never felt so good.

Then, as the story continued, Runa's impression of what Jonas had become was rapidly worsening. Particularly when they got to the fate of Björn and his daughter, her anger flared up.

"He did what?!" she seethed, straining her weak body as if she wanted to chase after him right now. "When did it become okay to ignore the plight of children?! That idiot has lost all perspective! Tell me Alice is safe!"

Erik remembered how Björn mentioned Runa had helped him keep Alice safe by putting her with a family of pureblood wereverines, so it came as no surprise that she'd know her name.

Inside his dimension, Alice had curled up a little, now hugging her knees, as she looked at Runa with wet eyes and a lump in her throat. She hadn't actually realized how much she would appreciate Runa's support. Naturally, her three adoptive mothers quickly gathered around her.

Outside, Erik nodded solemnly, "She's fine, Mom. I've actually adopted her since then, but… Björn didn't make it."

Runa sighed, and closed her eyes as she rubbed her forehead. "Well, at least Alice survived. Thank goodness for small mercy's, I guess."

"As for Björn…" she continued with a complicated expression. "I liked him. He had a warrior spirit, and an easy-going nature. It feels a little weird, because I feel like I saw him recently, but I know it's been five years."

She felt sad about his death, but not overly so. In the three years she'd spent training her students and founding the Enclave, she'd still been very preoccupied with the desire for revenge and to see her son again. Thus, she'd formed very little attachment.

Naturally, the reason for his death quickly followed, and Runa looked at them sullenly for a moment. Then she sighed wryly, "I guess I can't blame you for doing what it took to get out of there. The real culprits were obviously Jonas and that Victor. But did you tell Alice the truth?"

"We did," he nodded in response. "I wouldn't keep that from her. She's a mature girl, despite her age."

"She'd have to be, considering all she went through," Elora agreed with a sad smile. Alice was family, and she'd already wormed her way into the fairy's heart.

Runa nodded, finding her fondness for Elora growing steadily. "Well, I'm sure I'll meet her later," she then sighed. "Tell me what happened next."

The story started picking up a little more speed from there. They covered Emily's difficulties in Muonio, Alice's rescue from the Karolinska institute, their meeting with Katya, which increased Runa's appreciation of the werebear Councillor, and finally, Victor's death.

"You really have changed," she muttered as she looked at her son with a slight frown. She doubted the Erik she used to know would have pushed Alice into revenge like that. Not that she disapproved, though. Quite the opposite, in fact, but it was still a shock to see him like this.

"Circumstances forced me to, Mom…" Erik nodded solemnly. "I hope you don't mind the new me, though."

Runa smiled slightly, "No, I like it. I'll still miss the Erik I used to know, but I doubt I'll have much trouble getting used to this one. You are, and always will be, my son, after all. You'll have to start doing some really fucked up shit for me to start seeing you any differently."

Erik smiled slightly at his mother's words. She always had an arsenal full of curse words, and wasn't shy about using them.

Next came the moment she'd been waiting for: their meeting with Eira. Yet, it broke all her expectations when she learned there was a separate dimension with a luxurious mansion inside it prepared for her son.
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Then, Erik told her everything he'd found out about Audumla and the plans she'd made for him. Unfortunately, it wasn't much. For now, they were just supposed to find Audumla by destroying the hunters, and Runa agreed they were going to do that anyway.

Still, she told him to be careful, naturally.

The next parts were largely skipped, as it mostly involved training and relationship stuff, the latter of which he was still trying to skirt around. The fact this dimension was now being carried around inside her son's body had come as a surprise, of course, but mostly it wasn't particularly interesting.

When they finally ended their training session and moved on to the Dominion-Enclave war, Runa lamented she wasn't able to strike a deal with Liv Frost, Astrid's mother, before she left.

"Perhaps that whole war, including Sigurd's rise, could have been prevented then," she sighed a little regretfully.

Regardless, she was glad when things more or less worked out.

By the end, she approved of their handling of the matter, including Jonas's punishment. "It's good you left him alive to protect the Enclave, but he better not think this is all the punishment he's going to get," she scoffed with narrowed eyes.

Finally, she found out how they knew about the technique she'd used on Jonas, just before the story moved back to England.

She had little to comment about this part, however, except to reiterate that she liked that Katya woman.

Yet, when they reached the African coast just after rescuing Seraphina, her eyes had narrowed significantly. Her gaze filled with suspicion as she looked at Erik.

There was one thing she'd been wondering about, because there were some holes in his story…