A COURT OF DARK SHADOWS AND LIQUID GOLD (AZRIEL X OC)

1.1: Ellaria - A Fall From Grace.

Travel between worlds was not a foreign concept to demigods. Because, believe it no, not all conflicts between the children of the gods are resolved with a war. Yes, the vast majority, but not all.

The murder or harm of another demigod in peacetime is an act considered vile and punishable. The martial court was not a widely used judicial body, since there was not much peace time to commit crimes in them, but it still existed. And, contrary to what one might believe, it is a very effective organ when it is put into operation, always seeking to maintain peace despite circumstances that do not help. Its most severe sentence is exile, not from the territories, but from the world.

Exile through inter-world travel is an effective way to prevent the conflict from escalating, because by not executing the condemned demigod, more tensions due to that death are avoided and the spirits of brothers, cousins, and friends are calmed down. Plus, they really wouldn't have to ask a god to allow their own son to die. Because only the gods could let their children die.

But Ellaria hadn't been a big fan of that science either, or any science for that matter, nor the magic that went with it. But she still knew the basics of it because so many years of her life had left her knowing many things that she didn't really use, but that were small drops of wisdom that she still appreciated. When she was in her fifties, she'd picked up a couple of books on between-world magic because she thought her mother might like the subject. Eliza always told her daughter stories about a world other than the one they lived in, with dragons, princesses, and castles. It wasn't that there weren't dragons, princesses, and castles in her world, but they weren't really as pretty as the ones her mother painted every night at bedtime. So she read at least ten books, she didn't understand most of what she said in them, she was left with the questions that she answered, and then she decided to move on to another hobby. But one of the things that she did understand was that the effects on the body of the demigods had before them that kind of jump. That is how Ellaria knew immediately when she began to fall that they were no longer under the gaze of the gods. Or at least not the ones she knew.

She felt as if she were floating inside her own body, her mind wide awake, but her limbs not fully alert, or not alert enough to do anything against the force of the wind. All around her were white clouds and a blue sky that she shouldn't have long left before dawn. As she turned in the air she saw a thick forest below her that didn't seem very safe, and she realized that a fall of that magnitude would kill her, probably break her neck. That would leave a headache that she will have to deal with later. She also noticed that her hair was flying loose around her, which meant that Dora had fallen somewhere in the forest. It wasn't as if the sword was capable of being lost, but the thought of her most prized possession falling to the ground of an unknown world indefinitely made her uneasy.

She'd been so lost in her own mind, so disoriented, that she didn't hear the sound of something snapping in the wind in her direction until a pair of arms broke her fall. Her neck felt the whiplash from the sudden halt in motion. Silence fell around her for a second as she gazed up at the sky dazedly. And when he finally lifted his head from her, she saw him. Shadows gathered around her vision, hazel eyes regarding her with concern and surprise, but the accompanying face was stoic. Sometimes, when a person gets used to not showing any emotion on their face, their body betrays them and lets everything be seen in their eyes. Ellaria found it very amusing. The eyes are the window to the soul, no matter how cheesy it sounds. It was kind of adorable in her own eyes, the eyes of someone who hid her feelings by not doing so most of the time.

The darkness intensifies around them. She foolishly thought that it was already dark, unable to correctly gauge the passage of time in her state. And then her neck gave way, her head fell back, fainting and not even knowing who was watching her. And then her neck gave way, her head fell back, fainting, while not even knowing who was her savior.