Maggie fell silent for a while before quietly retorting, “But I’m not my father.”
“I know. I just want to tell you that one’s capabilities are limited. Don’t imagine yourself as a hero destined to save the world. Heroes don’t make deals with devils, and they don’t fantasize about obtaining powers they can’t control. All you should do is your best. Begging for powers not meant for you will only backfire. The former queen of the Frost Moon Pack was exiled to the Moon Forest because she craved power that didn’t belong to her.”
Hearing that name, Maggie was momentarily taken aback, “Moon Forest…” She had only been there once, where she received a new Energy Bead as a farewell gift from the deceased woman. Her brain suddenly had a spark of insight, “The woman in shackles!”
Selene nodded, “I saw her in your memories. She used to be the Luna of the Frost Moon Pack, Peirene.”
“What kind of person was she? From what she said, I could tell she once aspired to power, but when we last saw her, all she cared about were her children. I don’t think she had a bad nature.”
Selene smiled, contemplating whether she should remind her daughter not to be overly naive or if perhaps her innocence was what was driving her forward. Only a few extremely idealistic individuals with innocence could ultimately achieve victory, and that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.
“Maggie, sometimes, the people who do bad things don’t necessarily set out to do harm. In a world ruled by interests, she might have wanted power not for herself to become queen, but because she believed that only war could bring the people a better life, broader lands, and richer resources. Throughout history, the primary goal of most wars has been to expand trade. Peirene focused on the Blue Moon Pack to escape the long-standing geographical problems plaguing the Frost Moon Pack and overlooked the true wishes of her people. That’s why she failed and was banished, becoming a mindless wandering corpse.”
Maggie seemed to grasp the concept, “So all I need to understand is that my purpose is for the Blue Moon Pack and its people, and they’ll believe in me?”
“Yes, sincerity works better than any packaged words.”
“I understand,” Maggie’s eyes gleamed with determination, “I’ll do my best!”
Selene gently patted her head, “Do you have any other questions for me?”
In reality, her heart was filled with a basket of questions such as why she had bound Grace and Aldrich together initially when she had chosen Marvin as Grace’s mate from the start, and why she had let Maggie abandon him. Mrs. Jenkins, she knew a lot about things related to the Moon Goddess; did you know her? Will I see you again after I die?
These questions often haunted her, causing her to toss and turn at night, unable to sleep. But in the end, she didn’t ask any of these. Instead, she asked another question, “Are Aldrich and I destined mates?”
Selene looked at her with a hint of a smile, “You’ve supported each other for so long, do you still need to ask me?”
Maggie shook her head, “I don’t know how to describe this feeling. Ever since I’ve been with him, I’ve become more anxious. Alisa says it’s the aftermath of betrayal, and it will heal over time. But when I learned that among the werewolves, those chosen by the Moon Goddess as mates have a mind-link between them, they can sense each other through bonding or other means. It’s not an uncertain intuition; it’s a physical and spiritual connection. And I realized that Aldrich and I don’t have this condition. I just felt disappointed.”
She couldn’t fully receive Aldrich’s thoughts, which meant she often had to rely on guesswork and understanding to figure out what he was thinking. She couldn’t immediately ease his worries or sense his danger.
“I want to understand him more comprehensively, rather than feeling like there’s always a gap between us. If I could establish a mind-link with him, would things be different?”
Selene noticed that despite her short time with her daughter, she seemed to have discovered many new things. Her daughter had many strengths: intelligence, empathy, determination to accomplish great things, but she also had her fair share of flaws. She wasn’t always clear-headed and sometimes looked for shortcuts.
“Behind anything that seems convenient, there are two sides. Convenience also implies a different kind of danger. Mind-link among the werewolves is great, but it’s based on the premise of no barriers between you. There are no two leaves exactly the same in the world, and you’re not the same person at different times. The existence of a mind-link almost eliminates miscommunication, and it’s very intuitive; that’s true.”
The Moon Goddess was always so gentle, even when she mentioned something erroneous, she didn’t express anger. Maggie looked at her calm mother and thought, Can I really become one-thousandth of what my mother is, a guiding light for the werewolves, pointing them in the right direction?
“But have you considered that you’ll absorb the other person’s pain entirely? When his heart is torn apart, you’ll feel the same gut-wrenching pain, and while you may not necessarily share joy first, you’ll definitely share sadness. Before you can become more intimate with him, you’ll be overwhelmed by this suffocating grief. Honestly, as a god believed in and revered by the werewolves, I don’t endorse this mode of connection. But this is the gift my predecessors bestowed upon the werewolves, and I can’t take it back. Even though, in my view, it’s not a gift but rather a collar. A collar to control one another.”
Being of one mind and soul is an extremely dangerous mode of connection. When two people’s rhythms fall out of sync, the benefits of being of one mind and soul disappear, and one wants to leave while the other wants to stay. But neither can convince the other, and at this point, someone might try to tighten the collar like you would with a dog, keeping their partner by their side. The one who wants to leave can’t remove the collar and may end up killing the person controlling it.
She had witnessed such tragedies countless times. Some werewolves pleaded with the Moon Goddess beneath the stone tablets. She heard their murmurs and had tried it herself, but it had failed.
“I understand your point,” Maggie said, “You want me to first become a person who can bear the sorrows of others through effort. When my soul has a certain weight, when I can face these pains and sorrows with equanimity, only then can I truly empathize with others’ feelings more deeply. Otherwise, if I try to shoulder emotions that don’t belong to me from the beginning, I might be overwhelmed by those emotions and lose myself. Is this what you’re trying to convey?”
Selene looked at her grown-up child with great approval.
“No wonder you’re our child, you’re really clever. I believe that even without me, without Aldrich by your side, you can stand on your own.”
Maggie still wasn’t used to being praised so directly, especially by someone as respected as a goddess, even if it was her mother. She felt a bit taken aback.
“I have one more thing I really want to know,” she said.