He still smelled like ash.
With melting snow soaking his boots and a heavy red cloak covering his shoulders, Fenris stood at the doorway to the huge chamber. The fire in the hearth burned low; no one dared feed it while he was silent.
With black circles beneath his eyes and his hands clasped behind his back, Thalen remained motionless at the side. The servants behind him moved more quickly than usual and kept their heads down.
"Sayori disappeared," Fenris finally stated, his voice like steel being pulled through frost.
"Yes, my lord," Thalen stated. "Two evenings ago."
"Where?"
The eastern gate. No evidence of the smell, no witnesses. Nothing, really. As though she—
"Vanished into the wind?" Fenris retorted. "She's mine, not the wind."
Thalen remained unfazed. "She left the wing silently. Like always. She was instructed to watch. Perhaps she saw something.
Fenris's eyes turned a deep red.
The torches that lined the room went out.
Bring the guards from the east wall. Bring the personnel who are on duty at night. Every animal that dared approach her residence, whether it was a mongrel or a noble. Bring them here.
"Certainly, my lord."
"And Thalen—if any of them lie…" Fenris grinned, showing his teeth. "They'll wish I stopped at the truth."
---
The castle was filled with screams an hour later.
Rather of suffering, at least for the time being, terror. Of excitement.
Fenris prowled the courtyard as if it were a caged predator. Each servant summoned forward stood between two of his war hounds, their mouths covered yet still drooling.
Every one was asked.
They prodded each other.
As she admitted to hearing Sayori humming that evening, one faun servant sobbed. One man even swore he saw a shadow moving along the ramparts, but it had no shape or aroma.
Cloaking. Magic.
She was kidnapped.
And now, they had to pay.
---
Thalen located him once more close to the hound pens where Sayori had spent so many tranquil evenings, close to sunset.
With a trembling hand, Fenris stroked the biggest hound and whispered, "She was erased, not simply gone." As if someone wished she would vanish without a trace.
"We're exploring the woods," Thalen stated. "Extending into the eastern wilds. However, my lord, if this is the Council's doing, or worse..."
Fenris got up. Gradually.
"Nobody takes what is mine," he stated.
He gazed up at the sky, where the red moon from his dream remained, unnaturally full.
"I'll become the monster they all dread if it means I can win her back."
He faced Thalen.
"Call the bloodhounds." Bring riders to the old healer's town. Ask questions of every spirit, every murmuring stone, and every shadow.
His voice lowered to a growl.
"If we have to, we burn the world."