Alcuin listened quietly as the story unfolded and the pieces began to fit together more neatly in his mind than they had before, although there wasn't much about it that truly surprised him. His expression was one of deep concentration even as he took small bites of his sandwich, or a sip of his drink in the interim. Derek seemed inclined to give him the facts as they were rather than dwell on any one thing and he wanted to remember every word of it for future reference. All knowledge is worth having, Anafiel whispered from the depths of his memory. Even if it was painful; especially when it was painful.
There was a long stretch after he'd finished where Alcuin was visibly taking apart what he had already surmised and reassembling it with what he now knew. “Stiles told me that they had been friends since they were children and that they were raised in the rebel camps before Scott was bitten but he never mentioned Allison, or her mistress...” And now he knew why. “Do they love each other, do you think...?”
Alcuin had loved once – and lost. Unlike those born into power and privilege however, he had no choice but to move on from the pain and the heartbreak. He envied that a little, the choice to be with whomever she wanted most. If it had been left up to him, he would surely have thrown himself on the pyre than to have lived on a single day without his master. His lover.