Page 72 of The War of Four Winters

How many times had I told myself that victory required absolute control? That I alone could bear the weight of rebellion? Since childhood, I'd learned to trust no one completely. Not even those closest to me. My father had taught that lesson well, through both instruction and betrayal.

Yet here was Elindir, throwing himself into mortal danger, weaving alliances I'd thought impossible, all while I sat powerless in a cell. The realization was humbling. Perhaps I had never been as alone as I'd believed.

I had nearly succumbed to exhaustion when I heard the lock turn again. This time, only one figure entered—Klaus Wolfheart, alone. His silver-white hair caught what little torchlight filtered through the bars, but his storm-gray eyes remained in shadow as he approached.

I pushed myself up, wincing as my untreated wounds protested the movement. "Lord Wolfheart. Twice in one night. I'm honored."

His mouth tightened. "Save your sarcasm, Starfall. I've risked enough coming here."

"Why have you?" I asked, studying his face for any hint of his true intentions. "You once withdrew your support when I refused to set Elindir aside. Now you risk everything to help us both. What's changed, Lord Wolfheart?"

Klaus paced the small cell, hands clasped behind his back. The gesture reminded me of war councils, of strategy sessions where he'd argued for caution while I'd pushed for action. We'd never seen eye to eye, yet he'd been one of my strongest northern allies before my relationship with Elindir complicated matters.

"Things change," he said finally, stopping to face me directly. "Circumstances shift. Perspectives... evolve."

I studied him, sensing there was more. "Michail's crusade is part of it. But that's not all, is it?"

Klaus's jaw worked, as if the admission pained him. "Taelyn writes to me often," he said finally. "At first, I thought... I believed you had dishonored her. That taking a human consort—a male consort—while married to my daughter was a deliberate slight to House Wolfheart." His eyes met mine. "I could not abide such disrespect to my child."

"And now?" I asked quietly.

"Now I find myself confronted with letters filled with passion not for vengeance, but for your shared vision. She writes of your respect for her, of her own choice in this arrangement." His weathered face softened. "She claims happiness, Ruith. Not the happiness I envisioned for her, but happiness nonetheless."

I hadn't expected such honesty. "I would never dishonor Taelyn. She is my queen, my partner in building something better."

"So she insists," Klaus said. "Repeatedly and with increasing force." The ghost of a smile touched his lips. "She has her mother's stubbornness. And yes, there is Michail."

"I've heard reports," I said carefully, not wanting to reveal Elindir's mission. "Religious zealots burning villages, slaughtering elven civilians."

"Reports," Klaus repeated, a bitter edge to his laugh. "I've seen it firsthand. Three Wolfheart settlements razed. Entire families... children..." He broke off, something like grief flickering across his features before his control reasserted itself. "The humans don't discriminate between loyalists and rebels. They see only knife-ears to be exterminated."

I studied him in the dim light. "So you help me now not because you believe in my cause, but because you need protection against a greater threat."

"Call it pragmatism," he countered. "Something you should understand, given your own political maneuverings."

"And my father? Does he understand the threat Michail poses?"

Klaus' expression hardened. "Tarathiel believes the human incursion is a minor nuisance. Something to be dealt with after he's crushed your rebellion." His voice dropped lower. "He's wrong. By the time your father mobilizes a proper response, half our northern territories could be ashes."

I leaned back against the cold stone wall, suddenly weary beyond words. "So I become the lesser evil. The devil you know."

"Something like that." Klaus moved closer, his voice barely audible now. "Tell me. Do you still want peace in the Yeutlands? Autonomy for the northern clans, an end to the forced levies that have claimed so many of our sons?"

"I do," I confirmed. "The war benefits no one except my father's pride."

"And what about slavery?" His eyes met mine, challenging. "What of your human consort? Your talk of equality between our kinds?"

I held his gaze steadily. "My position hasn't changed, Lord Wolfheart. Slavery ends. Humans gain equal standing under the law. Elindir remains at my side as consort."

A muscle worked in Klaus's jaw. "You demand much from traditionalists like me."

"I offer a future," I countered. "One where no one else’s sons must die in pointless campaigns. Where your clan governs its own territories without interference from D'thallanar. Where true peace might be possible." I paused, measuring my next words carefully. "And where all of our children grow up knowing peace, safety, and a new era of prosperity and trade instead of a life of war."

Klaus shifted, looking away. "You speak of a dream we all share… But it is how we achieve this dream that our ideology differs. I had thought…” He sighed. “I thought it would be simpler.”

"The right path rarely is," I replied.

His eyes met mine. "Equality for humans. The end of slavery. These are radical changes, Ruith. Changes that overturn centuries of tradition."

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