Sirius didn't fight unless absolutely necessary, energy too precious to waste on battles that didn't matter. Only dodged, jumped, moved with the desperation of a father who knew his daughter was in danger and nothing else mattered now beyond reaching her alive.

The beasts tried to stop him with claws and fangs but they failed, because Sirius Starweaver had survived a draconic wolf, had descended through ten deadly chambers that had claimed many lives, had lost his wife but found a way to keep her essence safe.

And he wasn't going to allow anything to happen to his daughter as well, he wouldn't accept more loss when he'd already paid more than anyone should have to pay.

♢♢♢♢

PRESENT - SELPHIRA'S OFFICE

"That's my complete deduction of what happened thanks to many clues and things that have occurred little by little, though I'm not certain it's one hundred percent truth..."

Selphira's voice was firm, the confident voice of someone who'd spent years piecing together fragments into a coherent whole. "If I'd had the opportunity to do it without dragging the city into another war involving tens of thousands of innocents, I would have ripped Orion's head off with my own hands, like I did with that idiot Goldcrest leader or many others that deserved it..."

Something told Ren that while Selphira didn't have all the proof, she also had no doubts about it…

The 'truth' she'd uncovered through investigation and deduction went beyond simple evidence.

"After that," Selphira continued, her voice loaded with painful memories, "Sirius realized he was too late to save his region."

Ren still listened with absolute attention while she explained what had happened on the surface while Sirius had been trapped underground pursuing a hope that had turned to ash.

The wave had been massive beyond anything in living memory. Unprecedented in scale and coordination. Tens of thousands of corrupted beasts emerging simultaneously from underground in the very heart of Starweaver territory, in the zone directly under Sirius's protection and responsibility.

And he hadn't been there to defend it for several critical hours when his presence would have made all the difference.

Most of his military forces had been moved under various excuses by the twins Dorian and Magnus, manipulation so smoothly executed nobody had realized it was a coordinated trap.

The forces that remained were dispersed, disorganized, incapable of mounting an effective defense against numbers so overwhelming they made conventional tactics worthless.

The civilians died in horrible quantities that made the statistics into atrocity. Entire municipalities razed before anyone could respond with any meaningful force. The worst possible timing, as if the universe itself had conspired to maximize the suffering for people who'd done nothing to deserve this fate beyond living in the wrong place when nobles played their games.

"Sirius arrived just in time to save Luna," Selphira said softly, the words carrying both relief and grief for those who hadn't been saved. "The best guards had barricaded themselves in Starweaver castle when the wave began. They locked themselves with her in the most resistant and secure core zone, defending the corridor, buying time desperately against odds that got worse with each passing minute."

"When Sirius arrived, they were on the edge of collapse from exhaustion and wounds and sheer weight of numbers that kept coming regardless of how many fell."

She paused, something resembling admiration crossing her expression despite everything else.

"He... he tore through the horde like his vengeance was already personified. His manifested claws at maximum power, destroying everything in his path with efficiency born from desperation. He reached Luna and protected her with everything he had left."

"In the end, Sirius and most of the guards survived the wave through a combination of skill and luck that shouldn't have held but somehow did. We... I, the Dravenholms... we arrived as fast as we could when we found out what was happening. Helped destroy the thousands of creatures that had deviated and somehow continued emerging even after the initial wave. It was a massacre. Dozens of thousands of corrupted beasts killed, bodies piled so high they became obstacles themselves. But the damage was already done to people who couldn't be brought back."

Selphira closed her eyes briefly, seeing scenes she couldn't unsee no matter how much time passed.

"I now know why the beasts had emerged directly from Starweaver territory's heart... For years I was seeing it, as if someone had specifically summoned them there with malicious intent rather than random corruption spread. An unprecedented move for the time. Nobody had seen anything like it before, beasts emerging in such concentrated numbers from a single location bypassing the walls."

She sighed with the weight of accumulated frustration. "The most mature suspicions I've told you today grew when Yino began using that technology openly, and other parts too when the Goldcrests betrayed us. But without Dragarion we never had a clear path to eliminate them... When there was no other option, it was already too late to act without triggering war that would kill more innocents than saving them."

Selphira sighed more heavily, exhaustion showing through composure she usually maintained perfectly. "Politics and its hostages..."

"And after the Starweavers' disgrace, with hundreds of soldiers and thousands of civilians dead, with his reputation destroyed by not having been present to protect them..." her voice hardened with anger that hadn't diminished over years, "Sirius no longer had power to rise up against the Night faction in an open confrontation. And even with our support, Yino remained lurking waiting for an internal war they could exploit for territorial gain... So with hands tied and to protect what remained of his family, he made another decision."

"He told Luna that her mother had been a casualty of the corrupted beasts during the attack."

Ren inhaled sharply, now uneasy and annoyed by the situation too.

"A lie," Selphira confirmed with a heavy voice. "To prevent her from becoming obsessed with the ruins and attempting something suicidal like her father had. To keep her away from the dangers he'd faced below and mainly to protect her from those we began suspecting had pulled strings behind the scenes…

…Luna was seven years old, too young to comprehend the complexity of what had really happened without it destroying her "noble identity". So Sirius simplified things for her understanding... Mom died saving him when fighting against monsters. Dad couldn't save her despite trying everything."

"Easier than explaining dirty politics and brothers you can't trust who'll use family as pawns in power games."

Silence filled the office while Ren processed that information, understanding finally clicking into place about Luna's incomplete knowledge and why Sirius had omitted so much.

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