A Fall From Darkness

“OFF WITH HER FUCKING HEAD!”
“KILL THAT MEEK, MONOTONE, MISERABLE LITTLE BITCH!”
“GUT HER LIKE THE ANIMAL SHE IS!”
The usual ravings from the Lara-Shadar are like nails against the inside of my skull. It is only made worse by the fact I am perched in front of the stands where they sit in eager anticipation of today’s judgment. As per usual, it is a Zena-Shadar and for once it is one I know fairly well. Mother gave her special attention by assigning four more of my siblings to her in addition to me, and the reason was clear. She rose quickly through her studies in the Towers of Ennui and by such an early age she was able to evoke powerful spells of destruction; as well as, synthesizing gold from mere specs of stone, crafting durable wards of varying intensity that could rebel fireballs, but perhaps the most impressive was her efficiency. By the time of her betrayal she had completed 5,280 assignments and succeeded every time. Though I suppose every successful creature must fall. It was unfortunate that her fall was so… unexpected. However, that was in the past. We are in the present. It is time for judgment. I can feel Mother seeing through me, seeing through all of us, and the traitor lies chained before the entirety of her entire race.
Here in the center of Zena-Coliseum with its stone carved stands filled with apathetic intellectuals and livid thrill seekers alike, everyone will bear witness to this act of mercy by our Mother. Most of my siblings agree with my sentiments as I watch them all preen their feathers in unison while others shake their heads, thinking she should have been killed immediately.
The black sky looms over our heads and as I feel the rising call of my mother within my breast I caw with my siblings to signify the start of the trial. A cold silence washes over the coliseum and leaping down from the stands is a fairly manic looking Lara-Shadar with several piercings through his lips and a golden nose ring dangling above his upper lip. He was shirtless with baggy grey shorts that stopped right above his kneecaps. He wasn’t wearing any shoes. It’s common for the Lara-Shadar who wish to experience pain since no one dusts the sharper shards of stone out of the way.
The Betrayer
The Betrayer is restrained within the middle of the coliseum with her arms tied behind her back and linked to her ankles using magically crafted white chains that have held only two more fools who were bold enough to conflict with Mother.
He is the judge.
Emagi he is called. He stops moving when he reaches the Betrayer. Mother is watching. The Judge speaks.
"Apprentice. As you lay here beaten before others of my race and at the mercy of our Queen what more do you have to say for yourself?"
The Betrayer says nothing. She is very quiet. She is very smart. My head tilts. She doesn’t move. The Judge speaks again.
"Nothing to utter sludge?"
She thinks about my secrets. She wants them. Bothersome toad.
She thinks about Mother’s secrets. She is smart not to talk. Mother has no more mercy to spare. Those who work with the dead work against Mother. Serve Mother, we do.
"Very well. In the presence of the Queen's Voice and being witnessed by five of her messengers, who will act as your jailers, you are sentenced to imprisonment upon the Material Plane and cursed by the Raven Queen."

Curse. Too kind a word. Mother rebuked her. Mother abhors her. Mother cared once. No more. We cared once. No more.
And as Emagi says his words, I hear in our mental spaces my siblings whisper,” Nevermore.”
Then one flies towards the Betrayer and lands on her shoulder with the whispers of Mother on their talons. Her body tenses. Her blood doesn’t spill. Mother’s words pierce her veins. Blood turns black. Marked for eternity. Mother is benevolent.
A single tear burns into the middle of her forehead. Emagi continues.
"As is common to all people of our blood, the Shadow Curse is a constant in our lives. It is a part of us that we must either fight through living our lives to the fullest or accept its bleak reality and reap the benefits of such an existence. For you, it shall be a reminder of your betrayal. A vivid nightmare from which you will never escape. You are, as part of your punishment, robbed of the ability to take pleasure in anything and will be left to the horrors of emptiness. You shall be a husk of a creature. Unable to draw any feeling from all of your activities from this moment forward. And, in relation to the regular rabble, your soul will not merge with our home upon your transition.”
My siblings caw with me twice to signify our acceptance and praise of this sentence. We would maul the Betrayer if Mother allowed her to be reincarnated. We could not stomach her.
Do not stomach her presence. Be merciless. Draw out her suffering.
Another of my siblings swoops down towards the Betrayer, more eager than the last, and pecks at her right ear while one of their talons tear into her neck. Still, she says nothing. Taking it all as she is meant to. Still, she does not bleed. The second stage of the blight. Another tear upon her forehead.
The Lara-Shadar swirl into a frenzy of approval while the Zena-Shadar clap loudly but calmly.
“HOWEVER, this gives way to a punishment much worse! As said previously, the pieces of your dying spirit shall not return to the gloom of our home! Instead, it shall stay within your body and remake you into a mongrel. A shambling HORROR of PUTRESCENT design with a REPUGNANT ODOR enveloping you for the rest of your days, AND FURTHERMORE with each death you shall return to life more abominable than before! So in essence, even IF you were to escape your bindings, slay our diligent familiars, AND MAKE IT TO THE COASTS OF ANY CIVILIZATIONS… You shall be so REPULSIVE that you will be sent to death’s embrace by what whatever means the society you burden sees fit. When intimacy and fellowship would waltz freely into your heart, let them instead rebuke YOU, traitor!”
Two more siblings dive down. Four more talons sink into flesh. This time into her ankles. Two more tears burn into her forehead. A bit of steam wafts off of her branded, pale skin. Emagi laughs. He stops slowly. He speaks again.
“Now, with the emissaries of the Queen as our witness, do you have ANY last words?!”
She is going to speak. More blasphemy.
My feathers ruffled from being irritated. Opening and closing my beak. The words are so close. Almost time to let them know Mother’s voice. Our voice.
The Betrayer’s head moves. She is looking up at the Judge. Emagi looks livid. So exaggerated. Prefer Zena-Shadar. The Betrayer breathes. She is calm. She speaks. All is quiet.
“Brothers and sisters, I tell you this as a worshipper of our Queen and a lover of life’s highs. The Queen is not well. Her transformation. Her ascendancy. It has all made her ill. The Nagpa are an example of the fate that awaits us. I do not mean to kill her. Even as I kneel here… broken and defeated, I still would not fathom harming our Queen or any of you my siblings. If you would call me a liar in this then take count of the number of you who are still alive. All of you are alive to witness my sentence and even better the population remains whole. Furthermore, look around you. Had I not done what I did then the Shadar-Kai would still be a race powerful yet separated. We do live in cohesion, but would it not be better to work more closely together? I feel this rift between us widening more and more as the Queen asks us for more and more. She made great sacrifices for us and so we repay her every day, but all prices have an end. We give and we give, but I can’t feeling as if we deserve more and she can not provide for us unless she is freed of her own power. You all do not see that in her madness she begs us to free her. Or perhaps not. I know my words are hollow to all of you which is alright. For those who worked beside me, those who saw my vision, those who could feel the life of misery our Queen exists in and desired to free her from that suffering, I thank you for believing in me. Transition into her service and earn your redemption. I have plans of my own. I shall miss you all-”
Emagi started to cut her off but she said what he was going to say.
“And so… let the ravens sing. In her voice, I am sentenced and this shall be the last time I see home again. My lasts breath of life. Will I ever be the same again?”
I was on her head. My wings are sore. I could feel my talons scratch at her skull. I smelled another tear. Mother is speaking. She speaks through all of us. And so we say…
“Nevermore.”
Send her to the bottom of the ocean. A portal is waiting for you. Get her out of my realm.
Then we were gone. I looked behind myself a few times. I saw us flying over the gates. Mother’s tower in the background. The people hollering and praising that justice had been served, but had it?
Though I could not remember her name as me and my siblings reached the portal, I distinctly recall that she was a prodigy. At least I think she was. Mother is already erasing her from our memories. What was her name? Surely I can remember this. Did I have a name?
“Do. I think you mean do, and yes Raisin you do have a name. It was I who gave it to you when we first met.”
The Betrayer speaks to me like we are friends. We are friends. Nova? She was my best friend. What is a best friend? She taught me how to say her name. Why can’t I remember the rest? There’s something warm on my talons and I think it is blood.
There is a bright light right below us. Nova? My siblings and I dive forward to enter the strange world we have all seen time and time again. A blue surface. Mother said blue. This will do. Betrayer will go hear. We all let go. She falls. More blood. Splash. Nothing. Drowning she is. Brothers and sisters start to circle around her grave. We circle here until Mother calls us home.

Bye Nova.