“I think that there’s a traitor in the council!” That jumped right to the top of the list of things said to me that blew my mind.

“What,” I asked, still not believing my ears.

“Look, I know what I am saying sounds ludicrous but…”, Emma said, not completing her sentence.

“You think!” My voice had gotten really high pitched, a clear sign of whenever I was in panic mode.

There was a brief moment of silence, with us just staring at each other, not knowing what the other was thinking. Finally, the silence got to me and I said, “What do you want from me anyway? I am the least equipped to deal with this situation. If you didn’t know, let me tell you, I have been an Untethered for just a few weeks.”

“I know this is too much to take in at once but don’t get overwhelmed. I just wanted to let you know so that you could watch out for any further attempts on your life,” Emma said in a placating tone.

That didn’t soothe my nerves at all. In fact, it only served to fray my nerves even more. Further attempts on one’s life aren’t something a man wants to be constantly on the lookout for. Not for the first time and I suspected not for the last time either, I cursed my luck after entering this world. I mean, if you can't even trust the guardians of the Untethered, who the hell can you trust?

We tried for some small talk after that but the conversation was stilted after that, as expected. My last day at the council headquarters was spent looking at everyone with mistrust.

I especially hated the fact that I was suspicious of Shadow, Light, and Nova after all they had done for me. It seemed like a poor repayment of their services and I found myself unable to meet their eye as they came to send me off as I was about to leave the headquarters. If they sensed something was off with me, they didn’t say anything, instead of giving me a few pointers to follow when I trained on my own.

I had just exited the premises when I ran into the current bane of my existence, Emma. She just looked at me before proceeding to walk beside me, matching my pace. After a few seconds of me trying to quicken my pace and get rid of her and her continuing to match me step by step, I had finally had enough.

“What do you want now? Not content with compromising my relationship with my teachers?” I was unable to keep the snide remarks to myself, tired of whatever game this woman was playing with me.

“I just wanted to make sure you were okay after our talk last time,” Emma concerningly said.

“Yeah, I am okay. No need for you to worry.” I said in a flat tone, eager to end this conversation.

“Good, just look out, will you?”

That had me reaching my breaking point. My frustration at this situation, my guilt at my suspicion towards my teacher and the fear of the threat to my life, all these emotions had been warring inside for the last day and now I needed to vent.

“I said you didn’t need to worry. What part of that didn’t go through your head? And tell me something, why are you worrying about me anyways? I mean, in all our conversations till now, you have never given the impression that you gave two hoots about me. So, what changed now?”

“And most importantly, how do I know you aren’t the suspicious one? The traitor? The only thing you have accomplished is poisoning my mind when it comes to the council. How come you are hanging at the council anyways? Didn’t you say you were slotless? So, what makes you so special?”

Emma’s face had morphed into stone during my tirade. She didn’t let any of her emotions show as she said, “Sorry for being bothered about you. Anyways, I just wanted to come to you with a warning. The scent of the grim reaper lingers until something powerful washes it away. Like the red Luna. And it’s tomorrow.  So, I just wanted to warn you to not wander into that area because the griffin may come back. Because I don’t think that the reason for the griffin coming there in the first place would have gone way, not while the mark of the grim reaper still permeates the environment.”

With that said, she just turned around and went her way, not looking back even once, leaving me behind in a pit of guilt and foreboding. The whirlwind of emotions that was raging inside me had me conflicted and had clouded my emotions. Now I had seemingly treated another person unfairly and jeopardized my relationship with them.

This constant looking behind my back, the suspicion regarding every person, I knew it was going to be the death of me. I was not the kind of person who thrives in paranoia and never would be.

With these thoughts swirling in my mind, I reached home. I stayed home, not having any desire to go to the club and seeing Frank or Frost. I didn’t think I could confront them with the situation. The reason for this was twofold. The first being the last time I had seen Frank he hadn’t known anything about the council and I didn’t think one month would have changed that. Secondly, Frost was on the council. And that made him a suspect. And I didn’t think I could bear to look at Frank and Frost with suspicion clouding my eyes. The guilt would be too much for me to bear, especially after all they had done for me.

So, that’s what I did for the rest of the day. Lazing about, stewing in my own emotions, not knowing what to do or what lay ahead. The day passed in a strange sort of melancholy that shouldn’t be the highlight of a teenager’s day.

In the evening, I was looking at the two moons in the sky, bathing the world in their divinity when I remembered something Emma had said. That Luna was going to be red tomorrow. And how the trace of the grim reaper would not be washed away from that area and that would draw out the griffin again. Which meant the reason for the griffin coming to that area in the first place should still be there.

That all meant one thing. Evidence. Either there was a traitor in the council trying to kill me or there wasn’t. And I just wanted to put my mind to ease one way or another. Having to watch my back constantly didn’t seem to be doing me any favours. I needed to be certain to plan the next course of action.

So, it was after this inner contemplation that I decided that I had to revisit the area where I had unlocked my ability. Tonight. It didn’t matter that the trace of the grim reaper would still be there and I would put myself in danger, I just had to know. It was a foolish and dangerous plan, to be sure, but I didn’t have anyone else to rely on and this is the best I could come up with alone.

I set out an hour before midnight. The night seemed to be stifling, filled with ominous silence, reflecting my own mood perfectly. I set myself on a brisk pace, constantly on the lookout to see if anyone was following me. I was seeing moving shadows at every corner and I wasn’t even in the area yet.

I reached the area finally. I don’t know why but I felt that there was an imaginary threshold just before entering the area. Like I knew that there was no going back once I entered. A now or never sort of situation. With a deep breath, I stepped past that threshold.

At once, I could tell something had changed. The air seemed charged as if live wires were running through the environment. The stench of death and blood hung in the air, the entire area telling anyone who would listen that this area was recently a guest to death itself.

I didn’t need to look at my tattoo to know it was glowing. Or rather, the mark of the reaper, the scythe was glowing. The dim light, red as blood, seemed to glow eerily in the pitch dark of the night, making my heart clench more times than I could care to count.

As I continued to walk deeper into the area, the tattoo seemed to glow even more brightly. Eventually, it was bright enough that someone would who just came into the area could be forgiven if he thought that the Luna was red tonight.

After looking around for a certain amount of time, I could feel myself being drawn to a certain place. Not pleasantly drawn, like one is drawn to a tantalising smell suggesting that your favourite meal was being cooked somewhere. No, this was more drawn to a closet when you know you are going to find a dead body there. The same way children are drawn to look under their bed when they suspect there might be a monster there.

I let myself walk in the direction where I could feel myself getting drawn by. I came upon a desolate building, on its last legs. The entire structure looked like it could fall down at any moment. I was dreading even going inside it, for the fear that it could collapse on top of me anytime.

But I remembered why I had come there. I had to do this. I had to know what lay inside this building. Whether what lay inside this building would be enough to shed light on my suspicions, either to confirm It or dispel it all together.

I walked into the building and almost immediately knew something was wrong. The feeling of death that had seemed to permeate my very being in the area left me altogether. As if the grim reaper didn’t want this building to be experiencing the heart-wrenching fear I had experienced as soon as I had entered the area.

It was almost as if the grim reaper was providing this place with some sort of protection. Even my tattoo had stopped glowing. But nothing could dispel the feeling of dread I could feel bubbling in my stomach. All of this was too unusual, too unnatural. The grim reaper didn’t protect. It simply didn’t care. All it was concerned about was death. It never gave protection, it only snatched. Lives and for me, the peace of my mind, branding me like some sort of cattle.

I had made it to the topmost floor of the building when a constant chirping sound caught my ears. I made my way to the source of the sound and a fascinating sight caught my eyes. A trio of little chicks was the source of the sound, constantly chirping to bring attention to themselves.

I made my way towards them and knelt beside them. While I was looking at the chicks, something was gnawing at the back of my mind and I was struggling to understand the reason for it. It was when I looked at the chicks closely did; I realise that they looked eerily similar to the griffin I and Samuel had fought on that eventful night.

Almost immediately, my brain caught up to what my eyes were seeing. These were not baby chicks; these were baby griffin. Probably the progeny of the griffin we had encountered that night.

While I was wallowing in my thoughts, one of the trio of chicks had made their way over to me and pecked me on my index finger, drawing blood. Before I knew what was going on, the baby griffin had started consuming the blood that dripping out of my wound.

Almost immediately, I was drawn within, towards my core. I didn’t know what was happening but I touched the string that was visible, hoping to draw the connection I had with my core. As soon as the core came into view, I knew something was different this time around.

The golden threads which had thickened over time were still present. But there was a new set of threads, red in colour, that had entered the area and were trying to force their way to my core. I could feel the invasion of these threads and I tried to resist it for some time.

But the more I resisted, the more I got the feeling that the red threads didn’t mean any harm. So, against all my instincts, I let them enter my core, waiting to see what would happen.

The impact was noticeable immediately. As soon as the red threads entered my core, they seemed to sprout out of my core and spread in all directions. Before I could comprehend what was happening, the red threads had wrapped themselves around the already present golden threads. Still, I didn’t feel any threat coming from them and just waited for the event to pass.

But not all threads entangled themselves around the golden ones. No, some just collected in one area, just like a ball of wool. It was almost as if a new core was forming within my being and I was helpless to stop it. Not that I wanted to. The formation of the new core was making my own core burn stronger and causing the golden threads to thicken, making it look more like ropes rather than threads.

The new, red core also started to burn, with a pleasant red glow, which contrasted nicely with my own core. It was just a vivid splash of colours; more beautiful than the most beautiful sunset I had ever seen.

And just like that, I had exited the place, as abruptly as I had seemed to enter it. I found myself feeling disoriented at the sudden change of scenery before a chirp helped me regain my bearings.

Looking down, I saw that the little griffin which had pecked was now chirping with glee, overflowing with exuberance, almost as if someone had told it that its parent was coming back or it had gained a new friend.

And that’s when it all clicked in my head. The drawing of blood, the changes in my core, the formation of a new core within me, I now knew what it all meant. I had formed a bond with the baby griffin, a familiar bond.

I didn’t even realise what I was doing before I found myself stroking the head of the baby griffin with it gladly leaning into my touch.

“You are pretty smart, aren’t you?”, I asked it, not really expecting it to understand me.

Nonetheless, she chirped back loudly, almost as if it had understood me. which it probably had, I deduced. If anyone had come across here, they would have found a weird and wondrous scene. An untethered stroking a baby griffin’s head, talking to it, with the baby griffin chirping back.

Our interaction was interrupted by a loud screech from outside. I knew who it was even before I saw it. The griffin from the last red Luna was looking at me from across the room, with me still astounded by its grace. It seemed like it too had decided to brave the stench of the grim reaper for the sake of its children.

I raised my hands, trying to tell it that I meant no harm. It looked at me and its children and its eyes widened when it saw me and the little griffin which had bonded to me. All the baby-griffins bounded towards it in a show of glee which would have been adorable in a different setting and situation. The griffin just took its three children in its claws, even the one who had bonded to me. Because I knew it was not the right time to separate my familiar from its parent. Not when my future was uncertain and my familiar was still a baby, incapable of protecting itself.

With a final nod towards me, the griffin took off into the air, my familiar safely in its claws. But I wasn’t worried. I knew I would see my familiar again, soon, if I had anything to say about it.

I had gained a familiar but that was not the main reason I came here. No, I had gotten what I came here for. There was no room for uncertainty anymore. The griffin had been baited to come here and attack whoever it encountered.

Emma’s suspicions were proven correct. There was a traitor on the council and I had no idea regarding their identity. But there were no two ways about it. There was someone out there, in a position of power, who had tried to kill me and who had almost killed Samuel. The person was still out there, possibly biding their time. And I had no choice but to stop them, even if it was the last thing I did.