The Worthy

"Are you sure about this?!" Korvus shouted over the howling winds that encircled them.

"Am I ever?" Veryl replied - and stepped off the edge, plummeting toward the ground.

"Ah shit!" he cried before leaping off after her.

As the world around them quieted, and time seemed to slow, Veryl could focus on nothing but the sky above her. The look on Korvus's face as his eyes shifted between her and the ground, fear etched in every line on his face, made her smile despite herself.

"Veryl, it's not working! I can't do it!" he cried. She had made a mistake, and a grievous one at that. Her smile vanished as the realization dawned on her. She opened her mouth to scream just as her body hit the ground.

This was the image that had seared itself into Korvus's mind whenever they had discussed this. He would fail, and his best friend would die. The only thing that brought him comfort in those final moments was knowing that he wouldn't have to live with himself as the ground sped up to meet him.

"No," a voice sounded in his mind. It seemed to echo all around him. "This will not come to pass, open your eyes child." Korvus's eyes snapped open against his will and he was back on the cliffside right where the fall began. Veryl was already on the ground, but as she looked up and saw the confusion on his face, the fear on hers became unmistakable. The sensation was that of being grabbed by two giants who were trying to rip you apart, as a searing pain bloomed over Korvus's shoulderblades. "This will not come to pass," echoed again, though this time the words came from his own mouth - carrying easily over the roar of the wind in their ears. A massive pair of wings unfolded from his back as he spoke them, and he made a beeline for Veryl. Tears sprang to her eyes as Korvus suddenly began to pick up speed - taking only seconds to reach her from such a great height. He took hold of her arms, and beat his powerful wings for the first time once to slow their descent, and once more to touch down on the ground - if a little rougher than he intended.

"We did it! It worked, did you see?!" Korvus exclaimed as he righted Veryl on her feet and took a step back, spreading his new brilliantly feathered wings. The tears hadn't left Veryl's eyes though, and what at first he took for shock, he now recognized as horror. "What is it? Are you alright?"

Barely a whisper left her mouth. "Your wings..." was all she could manage to croak through her strangled throat as she collapsed to her knees.

"What about th-" as he curled them around to himself. They weren't brilliantly colored, they weren't even feathered. He ran his hands across the rough membrane that stretched between his back and his wing tip, over the small hooked barb at the joint, "I don't understand. They're supposed to have feathers, and they should be blue or yellow like my parents. Veryl do you kn-"

"STAY BACK!" She shrieked as he moved toward her. Korvus didn't understand. When the Akasi invoke their aspects they exude an aura of calm, even though his wings appeared startling - his angelic countenance should have brought Veryl some peace. She scrambled to pull something from her pack - the mirror they had snuck away from her parent's room so that she could show him how handsome he would look. As she held it up the breath left his lungs. His skin had turned ashen gray, and his teeth came to long points. His hair had gone as black as the Void itself, and while his shoulders had grown broad and his body strong, his wings looked like something out of the scary stories the older children would tell during their wilderness traversal training at night around the fire. They weren't the worst of it though, as his gaze kept returning to his face - his ice blue eyes had dimmed, and now appeared to be a vibrant purple lit by some internal glow.

"Virathi," She said, the word springing from her lips unbidden. "Just like the stories."

"Don't be ridiculous Veryl!" He cried, but his voice now carried a whipcrack of command as she shrunk from him again. "The Virathi don't exist! Even if they did, that was EONS ago!"

As if waiting for that proclamation, their vision went white as a deafening sound ripped through the air around them. Ears ringing and eyes slowly clearing, Korvus looked to the sky and saw smoke, and darkness. The sky ran red as the blood from a fresh wound, and the air smelled faintly metallic. Everything around him was a cacophony, the ring of sword against shield and armor, the cries of pain and of triumph...the smell of blood. Korvus spun trying to take it all in, unsure of what he was seeing much less what he should do about it. He folded his wings against his back and turned to run, sprinting headfirst into what felt like a pillar of stone. Rebounding from the impact and falling flat on his butt, he rubbed his head as a gravelly voice invaded his thoughts.

"Welcome home."