<h4>Chapter 370: The long game - revtions...</h4>


    <strong>Miriam </strong>


    "What the fuck is going on?" Ramsey snapped, staring at us. "Did I miss a memo? I thought Cassidy was fighting for him?"


    "Well," I rubbed at the back of my neck as my gaze strayed to L, who nodded quietly. "There’s something you all need to know. About how we got to this stage and why Circe is still alive and Cassidy is here with us."


    Ramsey turned to me, his face still pale from Xander’s attack, but his eyes filled with curiosity. "What do you mean?"


    I took a deep breath, knowing that what I was about to reveal would alter their perception of everything that had happened. "It began when Xander kidnapped L. I went to the Moon Temple to meet with Mother Liora, to show her the picture of the markings that had appeared on L’s back and to also help me understand what was going on."


    Ramsey’s eyes widened in shock. "She was kidnapped? When? How did I not know about this?"


    I nodded grimly. "It happened long before we came back to Blue Ridge. Around that time, L left. You weren’t together and..." I trailed off, turning to look at L.


    "It happened so long ago, my love," L finished, shing Ramsey a smile. "I forgot to mention it."


    "But that kidnapping was the catalyst for everything that followed afterwards," I added.


    "I discovered strange markings on L’s back, and Mother Liora took one look at those markings and knew immediately who L was," I continued. "She revealed to me that L was the Moonsinger, destined to either save our world or watch it burn. But she also told me something else—something that nearly broke my heart."


    I paused, seeing the tension building in everyone’s faces.


    "She told me the interpretation of the original prophecy: L was destined to die. That the only way to defeat the Dark One was through her death."


    "So when she came to the White Mountain Council," Ramsey interrupted, his voice tight with emotion, "L already knew she was a Moonsinger?"


    I looked at L, who nodded slowly. "I knew way before they told me, Ramsey. Xander was the first person who told me and wouldn’t shut up about it during my captivity. He was so proud of having found me, so confident that he could corrupt me or use me for his own purposes."


    "That gave us an advantage," I said, picking up the story. "Mother Liora devised a n—a way to turn Xander’s certainty against him. We decided to dance to his tune, to make him believe he was in control while we slowly undermined his power."


    Ramsey frowned. "What do you mean?"


    "Xander had already marked L," I exined. "From her first encounter with the Ferals, and especially through the orb incident. You know about that, right?" I asked, as my gaze drifted to my daughter again. I didn’t want toplicate things. L shook her head slowly.


    "Though he didn’t take her powers directly," I continued, giving no further exnation on the orb thingy, "he created a psychic link between them. He could sense her thoughts, fuel her fears, and manipte her emotions from a distance."


    L spoke up again. "Pretending to be a fool was the hardest thing I ever had to do. Constantly acting like I wanted nothing to do with my powers, like I was afraid of what I was, so that Xander would think he hadplete control over me."


    "But that was the genius of Mother Liora’s n," I continued. "Every time Xander manifested to L, every time he tried to manipte her through their link, he was transferring small amounts of his power to her. He thought he was feeding off her fear and uncertainty, but instead, he was slowly bleeding himself dry."


    "Which brings us to Cassidy," I said, turning to Cassidy.


    Cassidy stepped forward, her face showing a mixture of shame and pride. "I was bitter at first," she admitted. "All I wanted was to kill L and im my ce as Ramsey’s mate. But after the Harvest Moon festival, after seeing Ramsey’s reaction to everything that happened, I knew I had no chance. His heart belongedpletely to L."


    She paused. "That’s when Mother Liora reached out to me. She told me I had an important role to y in bringing the Dark One’s reign to an end. That my bitterness and jealousy could be weapons against him if I were willing to use them properly."


    "Cassidy became the perfect unwitting tool for Xander’s maniption," I exined. "He thought he was using her feelings against L, but really, she was feeding him false information, making him overconfident, leading him exactly where we wanted him to go."


    "She tried to kill, L," Ramsey fumed. "She stabbed her. Was that supposed to be some grand n, too? What if L had died?"


    "It was not part of the n," Cassidy lowered her head in shame. "I had to do it to remove every doubt the Dark One had in me. He was right there watching everything. I’m sorry, and I were careful not to cause too much harm."


    "This is crazy," Ramsey shook his head,ughing dryly. "I don’t know if I want to keep listening to this."


    "Rx, Ramsey," Circe came forward. "I had a part to y as well. Mother Liora asked me to help create confusion around the true prophecy."


    She looked almost embarrassed as she continued. "I began making up fake prophecies and had them scattered throughout various archives and libraries. Conflicting ounts of what the Moonsinger’s destiny truly was, false information about binding rituals, andpletely fabricated requirements for defeating the Dark One."


    "Why?" Ramsey asked, clearly struggling to understand the scope of the deception.


    "Because we knew Xander was connected to L through the orb," I said. "He could ess her thoughts, her ns, her knowledge. So everything she learned, everything she discovered, had to be part of our misdirection."


    "The research you found in Alpha Logan’s secret office," I said to Ramsey, "none of it was real. We nted all of those documents, knowing that L would eventually find them and that through her link, Xander would see them too."


    Ramsey stared at me in amazement. "You mean the binding ritual, the requirements for the sacrifice, all of those ancient texts..."


    "Completely fabricated," I confirmed. "We needed Xander to believe he understood how to work against the original prophecy. "How to absorb the Moonsinger’s power, how to prevent L from choosing our side in the end. Every piece of false information made him more vulnerable to our real n."


    "But what was the real n?" Caius asked. "If everything we thought we knew was false, how did you defeat him?" he waved his hand to Xander in the ritual circle. "How did ite to this stage?"


    I smiled, feeling a deep sense of satisfaction at how everything hade together perfectly. "The real n was to let Xander think he was winning right up until the very end. To allow him to absorb what he thought was L’s power, to let him believe he had sessfully corrupted the Moonsinger’s abilities."


    "But he wasn’t absorbing my power," L said, "He was absorbing the fake power Mother Liora had helped me create, the false energy signatures that made him think he was getting stronger."


    "Exactly," I said. "And with every ’victory,’ with every bit of false power he absorbed, he was weakening his connection to the true dark magic that sustained him. Remember also that L was the one who helped unleash part of this dark magic, but didn’t go through with it because they hadn’tpleted the blood oath. I stopped them before that. By the time he realised what was happening, it was toote."


    "The final binding didn’t require a sacrifice at all," Circe added. "It required him to be in a weakened state, separated from his true power source, vulnerable to thebined will of the Moonsinger and her allies."


    Ramsey shook his head in wonder. "All those weeks of fear, of preparing for L’s death, of thinking we were going to lose everything..."


    "Were necessary," I said firmly. "Your genuine emotions, your real terror at the thought of losing her, your desperate attempts to find another way—all of that fed into the deception. Xander needed to believe that everyone, including you, thought L was doomed."


    "Mother Liora knew that the only way to defeat an enemy who could read minds and manipte emotions was to make sure that even our closest allies believed the false narrative," I continued. "Your reactions had to be authentic, or Xander would have seen through the deception."


    L moved closer to Ramsey, taking his hand. "I’m sorry we had to lie to you. But it was the only way."


    "All those times you seemed terrified of your powers," Ramsey said slowly, "all those moments when you acted like you didn’t want to be the Moonsinger..."


    "Were you following Mother Liora’s script?" L finished and nodded. "Yes, though I have to admit, some of the fear was real. Pretending to be weak and helpless when every instinct screamed at me to fight back was torture."


    "And now?" Caius asked. "What happens now that the Dark One has been captured?"