Rise of the Goddess

Chapter Eleven - Corvus

She turned to leave, but her eyes caught sight of her reflection in the mirror. Captivated, she slowly came closer.

The Rito in the mirror was unrecognizable. She looked taller, somehow, and much slimmer. Before she barely had any fat on her muscular structure, but now she had lost all muscle, she was weaker and frailer than she'd ever been before, nothing but skin and bone. Her black feathers tried their best to conceal this. They were longer than she'd ever seen before, she had more of them, with varying lengths, they seemed a richer black. At the edges, they all turned a deep purple. That was the most surprising thing about her appearance, more surprising than her fragile state, the bare patches of skin, the white bandages that stuck out from beneath the green scarf. As she remembered, most Rito only had one color to their feathers, only a few changed, and never like this. Her arms were black, but her fingertips were purple. It was such a dark color that she realized why she never noticed it before, it blended in with the black. She shifted her gaze, turning her head to one side, noticing the razor sharp end to her beak, the jagged ends to her talons.

She took a breath, then tied back the feathers in her face into a knot behind her head, clearing her vision.

She turned towards the door and opened it. The soldiers waited for her on the other side.

She was silent, allowing them to drag her away again, until they opened another door and let her go inside, alone, waiting for the Queen to arrive.

Aadil whipped his head towards Zariah, "Are you going to explain?" he said, spitting venom.

Admirably, Zariah stood her ground, "It was the first thing I did as Queen," she said, "I regret not doing anything sooner,"

"She betrayed us! Do you not remember that?!"

"Yeah, I do, actually. But in the time that's passed, I've forgiven her,"

Aadil locked eyes with Corvus, "I will never,"

She scoffed internally. Of course he wouldn't.

Jira stepped up, "Well, I'm glad you're finally out,"

And of course Jira would be happy.

Corvus smiled at her as Miko spoke up, he seemed distant surprisingly, "We're all different people from who we were back then,"

Aadil looked at him borderline betrayed.

"Look, Aadil, I completely understand," Corvus said, speaking up finally, "If our roles were switched, I would be furious too. I deserve every bit of your hatred. But it's already been done. The least you could do is to respect Zariah's decisions,"

Her words seemed to spark something in the man, he finally seemed to calm down.

Darmar cleared his throat, "So, what's been going on with you guys?" he said, obviously trying to make it less awkward, "Like, uh, Miko, what you been doing?"

Miko immediately froze up, "I, uh, I explored the world for a while, settled down for a bit in Faron,"

"What happened between you and Aadil? You two were together right?" Darmar asked, not seeing the awkward tension between the two of them.

Corvus could laugh, it seemed hilarious to her, Darmar was completely oblivious to whatever had happened between them.

Aadil uneasily glanced at Miko, "Well, I'm still ready for a relationship,"

Relief flushed over Miko's face, "That's good to hear,"

Jira rolled her eyes and moved towards the center of the room where there was a long table surrounded by several chairs, she drew a chair and lounged back in it, "So, Aadil, how's the arm working for you?"