Fifth Lord

Chapter 6

Soft, that's what Corvus woke to.

That is the first thing that Corvus noticed, she was wrapped in a sea of soft. Her hands registered softness before her body registered the debilitating pain that existed to torment each breath.

Before her mind could register the the figure in the corner.

The figure in the corner that watched her with a silhouette the flickered in and out of the wrong side of human. Existing with a droning hum that seemed to thrum in time with a hidden song.

Its body in the shadow created by the curtains that shrouded the window hiding its lack of substance from the light of day as it twisted and shuddered before pulling itself into the semblance of normalcy.

It let out a chittering laugh that drew Corvus' eyes to it. Stepping into the fade of light through the curtain, she could see a glimmer of silver in the fold if its cloak. As the curved blade flicked further into view she looked to it, no, her face to see a grin smattered with dried blood flaking off teeth.

"I thought you would sleep forever," The strangers voice echoed within as it left them, the voice of thousands coalescing into one before breaking apart once again never to meet again. With each word, they stepped forward getting closer and closer to the bed.

Corvus threw the blankets from her body, kicking against the silken sheets to try and put some distance between the approaching threat. A squawking cry leaving her throat, her taloned fingers raking over fabric trying to gain purchase.

Something in her back twisted, a keen of pain dying in her throat as they leaned over her. Breath neither warm nor cold and would have been indistinguishable from the ambient air if not for the harsh way it raked over the jagged flesh of her face. "Just a taste," The metallic curve came up to rest against her throat before dragging down to press on the pulse of her arm, "Mother would forgive a taste."

The playful tone was muddy with a viscous hunger, and if not for the fresh pain would have resonated somewhere within Corvus.

Pale fingers digging into the wound, blood welling under their nails and yellowing hair brushing against her skin. Corvus stared straight ahead, barely breathing, barely blinking. She was vulnerable and did not want to anger her host's daughter, better to be pliant than dead.

Corvus focused on the large wooden door, the gap beneath the floor showing the ghosting shadows of people walking by. The blade made to reenter her flesh when a set of shadows stopped in front of the door and the sound of buzzing was no longer just at her side.

The crash as the doorknob slammed into the wall made Corvus repress a flinch.

The new and much more welcome intruder stalked over to the other. "Daniella," The statement was hissed between clenched teeth, the red pendant at their throat gleaming much like the knife that was now at, no through, what was Daniella's own. Where pale throat once was flesh bled into swarms of bloated flies, hovered and coalescing around the blade still devoid of blood.

"You know what we were told," The cacophony hum at her side made Corvus' ears ring. Thousands of tiny voices screaming over each other to be heard leaving some instinctual part of her wanting to rip and tear and feast on the not-flesh, gorging herself on chitin and dying blood.

She pushed it down, the thrumming in her head dying back. "And you know that you were not to come near our guest because of your lack of control," The one under the knife let out a choked whimper through reforming vocal cords, shaking their head and pleading with the other not to tell with muddied words, "So you will be coming with me, and we will... talk about this with Mother."

A sob left their throat as they dissolved into the swarms, clinging to the others cloak with barely formed hands. "And you," the sister turned to Corvus, "You will be escorted by myself when mother is ready for you."

Turning away, they took a derisive sniff and paused, "And you will have a bath in the meantime, I will send a maid." The last words were spoken as the cloaked form left the room, the shadow of Daniela following in wake.