The Last Feather of Akash [E]

[Kaya]

74.09.20 | Dusk | The aerie of an old LifeWing Rider |

The day was ending and grew darker, but the full moons on the horizon spoke of a brightly lit night to come. A pair of clear, sharp eyes surrounded by wrinkles watched the moons start to come up. She had watched for this evening for a long while now. She had a story to tell, and if fate would so have it, she'd have an audience to tell it to.

She had made an appearance a sevenday ago among the Candidates waiting to see if the winged healer's path would choose them. She had hoped to entice them into coming with promises of food, a good tale and two bright moons to tell it under. She hadn't asked the Master to make her bit of legend and history an assignment.

So while they were required to come she still made good on her intend to provide warm, rich and fruity drinks, and had worked with her sister in the kitchens to acquire the best loaves of bread and something sweet to go on them.

Her LifeWing, a common loon, cast the real mood on the room. She watched the moons from the ledge and let out the saddest cry. There was no answer. Her aeriemate had left the world many full moons ago, but they had always loved the moon, and she called to it for him.

So the Rider waited, the wail of the loon spreading out across the Bowl on that night. The Candidates would arrive soon.

[Terayne]

It was quiet this night, with two bright moons and a silent path to the place where he must be. Watching those moons come to lie on the horizon, Querin had then left his barrack and moved to where the gathering was to be held, his eyes bright, curiosity in their jet black depths. He wore the knots of an Aerie Candidate proudly, and hoped to one day be among those who rode the beautiful winged creatures, and helped them when it came to healing those of the sick and injured persuasion.

His thoughts were cut short by the saddest sound, and his head rose, eyes moving to pick out the avian that had made the noise. He'd heard of her kind, and of her sad song to the moon every night, and his heart went out to her, admiring her loyalty to the one she had lost so long ago. As he approached the Aerie, he inclined his head respectfully to rider and Lifewing alike, then moved to seat himself slightly off to the sides, in the slightly darker area just out of reach of the light, watching and waiting.

[Void]

Lesti had heard about the story to be told that night by an old Lifewing rider and though not a candidate that she had asked for she had ended up deciding that she would go, if only out of respect for the pair. But it was more than that she was intrigued to know what the old woman had to say. So as the moons rose she finished the drawing of a plant she had found intriguing earlier that day and prepared to go to the aerie of the older Lifewing pair. She got up and walked out to the ledge of her aerie Klesh walking out behind her. They mounted and flew to the older pair's aerie, the cry of the Loon Lifewing showing them the way. They landed neatly and Lesti dismounted nodding respectfully to the Lifewing and her rider.

"It is a good night for a story, would you mind us listening to it as well?"

[Kaya]

The woman looked up to see Lesti arrive. She had a fair audience of Candidates already but she wouldn't mind one more. "Naht at all, miss. Y'might have heard this-a-one before, but is an important tale. S'why we still tell it," the elder replied.

"Ages ago, in the first days of the return of LifeWings to this world, is when this story finds its start. Much was lost in the Weyr War, but in its wake we were left with LifeWings as we know them today. The villainous DeathWings, so many who could not take the flood of kind memories of their race filling up their minds, perished. And that should have been the end of the story, but I'm sorry to say it's not.

There was a weyrling Rider who had been helping the war effort, and his curiosity and secretiveness would destroy him. For you see, he saw where Akash fell, the last leader of the DeathWings, and he was fascinated by what he saw. The fall had left the cruel bird in a bloody heap, but there was one unblemished, dark feather that remained.

He took this feather for himself and told no one. He kept this feather for many Turns, thinking about it and brooding over what it meant, and it slowly grew on his mind, until his every thought was occupied with that feather. He became convinced that he should not have kept it, but he was loathe to part with it and would not trust it to another soul. Yet he could not bear to have it destroyed. So he decided it would be best if he hid it, somewhere far away. Somewhere safe, somewhere that it could never be found.

So under the cloud filled sky on the night with two covered full moons he took the feather, bundled and boxed, and buried it in a cave just far enough from civilized folk. He couldn't wholly part with it. But even with the feather's presence gone he could not remove it from his mind. With every waking moment, and even in his dreams, it filled his mind, until he could think of nothing but the desire to possess it just once more. In secret, he stole back to the cave, dug up the box, and opened it. Eagerly, he peered inside, but:

there was nothing there. The feather was gone.

It was only then that he confessed the jumbled tale of the feather to his Wingleader and one of the first LifeWing Riders. The LifeWing spent a long time examining the man's mind, but Turns of dark influence from the feather had slowly broken and damaged the man. What was left was the poorly healed remnant, like a twisted leg left to heal unset. The Rider pair descended into a quiet madness, convinced that around every corner was the thief who had stolen their feather. On the next cycle of the moons, when they became full again, they died suddenly in the night.

To this day, the fate of that feather is lost to us. May it remain ever so. For there are those who fear its darkness, and there are those who fear even the belief in its origin is enough to snuff out the light and plunge its victims back into darkness."

The older woman paused in the silence at the end of her tale. Even her LifeWing had grown still, casting a strange shadow across the floor in the light of the moons.

"...do you know why we still tell this tale?" she asked the group in all seriousness. There was a gravity to her message she was very careful to maintain.

[Terayne]

Querin was silent as he listened to the story, a frown touching his shadowed face as he did so. A shiver ran through him, and he drew in a deep breath, fascinated, and yet at the same time frightened of the unknown. For who knew what had happened, where that Feather had disappeared to? When questioned, he shook his head, jet black eyes intense on the Lifewingrider, wanting to know the reason this was so important...