Black and White Wings

Act I: Allies

Head pounding, Zelaina slowly opens her eyes. The sun above blinds her, she looks around and sees the crashed Nautiloid just beside her.

She feels something warm, soft... comforting shift in her arms. Turning to see what she held so close, she sees Shadowheart nestled in her arms and chest.

Panic rises in her chest for a moment, she presses her hand against her chest. She breathes a sigh of relief as she feels the soft rhythm of her beating heart.

Looking at her, she can't help but see her beauty. She gently brushes Shadowheart's bangs from her face, her hand touching her cheek ever so softly as she moves the hair from her face.

Shadowheart groans, her eyes blinking open, "Ugh, where...? Zelaina? You're alive! I'm alive. How is this possible?", she asks as she sits up.

Her eyes focus on Zelaina, widening as she sees the white feathered wings on her back. "Zelaina you- you have wings! When- how? You're an Aasimar?!", she asks.

Frowning, Zelaina looks over her shoulder. Her eyes widen when she sees the wings on her back, "It wasn't a dream...", she thinks to herself.

"I- I don't know what happened. We were crashing, I hit my head and fell through a hole in the Nautiloid and then...", she pauses, the divine voice's words she had heard speaking to her before she woke in the sky echoing in her mind.

Remembering what it had told her, she swallows hard as she tries to process the voices words. "Selûne called out to me as I fell... she- she said I am her kin. That I have been reborn into the woman I was born to be", she tells the cleric.

Shadowheart's eyes remained wide, she nearly forgets to breathe before blinking away her shock. A frown replaces her expression, "Are you saying you're a daughter of Selûne?", she asks.

Zelaina searches her heart, she knows that she's somehow related to the goddess, but she isn't her daughter. "No, I'm not daughter of Selûne. My mothers were Isobel Thorm and Aylin. They were two Selûnites who were killed a hundred years ago", she tells Shadowheart.

She didn't know why she felt like she could tell her the truth, but she knew that somehow she was safe telling her the truth of her lineage.

Locked in silence, the two stare into the others eyes for a moment. They contemplate what to do now, how to react to Zelaina's revealed demigod blood.

"Isobel and Aylin, they're your birth parents, yes? One of them must be directly related to the moon witch for you to have the divinity in your veins", she replies.

Biting her lower lip, she tries to remember anything from her childhood that may have been hinting towards her angelic nature. As her memories come back to her, she realizes that she has always had divinity in her veins.

Then, anger resurfaced. Anger at the memory of her adoptive parents telling her the truth of her birth parent's fates.

"I don't know, but I do know that it was Sharrans who murdered them. Sharrans murdered my mother Isobel when I was only a year old...", she strains.

Looking up at Shadowheart, there is a fury in her eyes-a fury made from the pain of losing everything she had as a mere babe.

"... I know that Sharrans captured my mother Aylin, and tortured her brutally before killing her", she reveals to the cleric. Shadowheart's expression went from disgust—to remorse.

Just as she felt remorse for the woman before her, the wound on her left hand surged with unspeakable pain. She gasps as she nearly buckles to her knees.