Book Five, Chapter 78: A Tentative Plan
Somehow, we managed to squeeze all of us into that small hidden room behind the bookcase. We only had two chairs, so most everyone was left to cram amongst the stacks and hope there wasn’t an avalanche of books anytime soon.
We had two items on the agenda. First, we needed to decide whether we were going to dig further into a possible hidden subplot dealing with the history of the werewolf curse even if we might accidentally hit secret lore and ruin the storyline. Second, we needed to get our plan together for First Blood because it was upon us.
“So, in the story we’re actually in, the woman in the painting is named Clara Withers, and she died mysteriously,” Antoine said. “Do we know how that affects the story?”
“Nope,” I replied. “I don’t think it has to affect this story at all. Every single bit of lore we’ve uncovered about the history of the werewolf curse has been through sheer effort. Carousel doesn’t seem to be pulling us in that direction. It is mostly concerned about us killing the pack leader.”
For a moment, we were all silent, as if waiting for the books to start speaking to us.
“Well, we need some of it to get a complete story,” Andrew said. “The question of the werewolf curse and its origins has been brought up to some extent, especially if it changes that the curse has gone through. It’s at least been established that our werewolves here in Carousel are different than the werewolves around the world.”
It felt like we’d had this same conversation over and over, just with different arrangements of the words, as we all grasped it in our own time. As best we could tell, delving into the history of the curse was optional. And, of course, trying to pursue secret lore was extra optional.
“What does your guy say about the death of Clara?” Kimberly asked me.
She was very interested in Clara Woolsey—or, as Carousel had renamed her, Clara Withers.