Trinket (Reverse Harem)

The Games My Consorts Play

I said the most impossibly insightful thing one could say at a moment like that. "But the unicorns died out a few hundred years ago."

"Disappeared," Korr corrected. "The last herd disappeared."

"Same difference," I said. "That city on the southern coast is overrun with demon-bugs but nobody seems to know about that either. In hundreds of years nobody's seen a unicorn. Not even the dragons or gryphons or anyone."

"And there were only a few in the last herd," Ormiss said darkly. "If the stories are believed to be true. Some of them came below to be with the hippocamp, while others went past the dragon's mountains to that small valley along the sea on the other side. But the dragons have never found a trace of them."

I tapped my fingertips together. "But why did the unicorns disappear? We know the sea-serpents went into the deep ocean looking for magic, but what about the unicorns?"

Korr shook his head. "Not even we know. There are varying stories, and there's probably truth in all of them. The unicorns had been in decline for centuries before they actually disappeared. Some said the herds were fighting amongst themselves and killed each other off, some say they suffered heavy losses in the various shifter wars, others say they were betrayed by the sea-serpents for their magic and it broke their hearts, so they died, some say they were hunted for their horns. The unicorns were aloof and mysterious at the best of times."

Ormiss cradled his elbows in his opposite hands. "Unicorns had great magic and were fierce in battle, but by all accounts, they loved deeply, and could die of broken hearts, hence why they always kept everyone at horn's length. The way to kill a unicorn was to earn its genuine trust and love, then betray it. Personally, I think that sounds like a lot of work, and a harpoon would do the trick more efficiently."

Itek raised a brow. "So you believe they were hunted?"

"Why not both hunted and betrayed? Not necessarily in that order. It's well known that the wolves hated the unicorns."

Well, I hadn't known that.

"And that nobody likes the ravens," Itek said dryly.

"Except the wolves," Korr said.

Ormiss gave Korr an impatient look. "There has always been tension between the high-magic shifters, like the dragons and the unicorns and the sea-serpents, and the low-magic shifters like the wolves and the ravens and even humans. It has nothing to do with affection, but everything to do with alliances and ambition. Do you think we paired my cousin with the Lord-Raven because it was a love match or because it was some good-will gesture? It was because it was our turn to stop being ignored, and now she is gone, and the Lord-Raven is probably relieved he is free to court something more influential. Like, say, a dragon, because there is now a dragon in Haven where he can press his case."

Well, then why would the Lord-Raven want a solitary unicorn who can't properly unicorn? I couldn't bring him wealth or power or influence. He'd want me as some skirt or something, to have back-up bastard hybrid babies, assuming Aeon had been right that I could actually produce offspring like myself. The first time I gave birth to some unimpressive offspring, he'd toss me into the harbor and use the water to literally wash his hands of me.

Korr acknowledged this with a grim nod. "I agree. The world is dying and the shifters are on the verge of another war, but most of them haven't realized it yet. Nor can any shifter ignore the humans and the demon-touched. Everyone always forgets the humans."

"We'll fight over what livable land and water will exist, and the humans seem least affected by the taint," Ormiss said darkly.

Wow, it was just so much fun for them to talk about me like I wasn't even there.