Out of the Sky, Into the City

Chapter 1: Asterope

It was going a long day. Whilst they could have woken up earlier, Asterope was not at all a morning person, seeing as they had thrown their alarm across the room and destroyed it yesterday, and when they opened the window whilst stretching their sky blue wings, the sun immediately almost blinded them. It didn't matter. The dark blue-inked Skyling had been told that today, they would be doing sparring with others. Being an assassin in training was hard, though Queen Calliope had told them that they'd be promoted next year. Seemed like a big deal if the queen had personally told them.

Ehh... well, they'd better head to the training grounds if they didn't want to be yelled at as much by the instructor.

"You're late again." the instructor said as soon as Asterope landed on the grounds.
"My alarm clock's still destroyed, ma'am."
"Young man-"
"Ma'am, I'm non-binary, they/them pronouns." Asterope was annoyed with everyone misgendering them. It was frustrating, how many times it had happened.
"Alright, Asterope, head to the line." As the dark blue Skyling proceeded to do so, their best friend waved them over.
"Aster!" a pale yellow Skyling beckoned them over. "You actually made it five minutes earlier than you usually do, nice job, pal!" Raicho was unique among the residents of Sky Peak, given his powers of generating and controlling lightning as he wished. Which was why he was the best choice for an assassin in the squad. Asterope hoped that they would be partnered with their best friend next year, when the two were made full assassins.

***

After the round of training ended, the instructor walked up to Asterope as they were polishing their sword and armour and tapped them on the shoulder.
"Queen Calliope wishes to see you." she promptly stated. "You have five minutes to prepare." The Queen wanted to see them? Interesting. Well, that couldn't wait long. Asterope quickly packed up and closed their bag before opening their wings and taking flight towards the palace, where the Queen would surely be waiting. It was mandatory to be polite when talking to the Queen, seeing how important she was to the life of the residents of Sky Peak, retaining order above them. In reality... Asterope didn't have many memories of her, nor their childhood. Sometimes, a dark room with gruesome images and a voice echoing inside of it would come to mind, but they waved those images off as nothing but their imagination.