Echoes of Forgotten Wings

Chapter 14: The Ritual Begins

The elements began mutinously threatening, as they began shrieking demons which sustained the wretched in their calls. Jagged forks of lightning brutally illuminated the night sky, only to briefly bathe the eerie village in nervous light. Unending rains beated as slabs over lands tai odi semi tau, within an entrenched outbound dwelling of Kael, sanguinary pinei was all there stood. The tension in the thickened air was such that it was as if the entire earth had become still, as everyone was waiting for something to happen.

Ivo remained on his knees in front of the Skyborn warrior, his hands shaking when placing the last relic in a circle around the thin figure. Every detail of the past, most of which he had no comprehension of, bound with enchantment that existed age before ages, was omnipresent. An old, clouded silver pendant, cut with ready from the glowing ramas of the torch Just Under The Silver Pendant. A piece of glass which many tales mention such was the piece of sky, which was stolen from the, Skyborn. And the feather, the feather of Kael, warm with ancient forces, power and alive in his palms glowing.

The burden of his ancestors was very present and even difficult to shake off. There are those people's injustices that took root in history like being exiled to their dominant islands. The treachery of his own bloodline and the ensuing curse of his anointed lineage, it's all in this bundle, at this very juncture, at this very choice made. The same vortex of energies that had propelled his forefathers to rip out the wraths of the Skyborn was in close proximity surrounding him and Ivo asked himself if he was likely to make such an error.

Before him lay Kael, the magnificent wings reduced to remnants, broken down and tattered beyond recognition to the original design that once seemed tailored to him. His breath came in short and strained intervals, his once fierce eyes dulled by the suffering within. Still, even in such depleted form, Kael was sitting in the cave surrounded by a gentle form that was a shadow of the majesty the Skyborn race had embodied.

"Ivo..." Kael croaked, his voice barely cutting through the storm ringing in the background. His eyes opened, meeting Ivo's in a way that made the latter filament tremble. "Are you really in a position to call me sure? Once this starts.... there is no going backwards." 

Ivo gasped as he ardently sent his heart pounding painfully inside his chest. He was not so certain. Just like he had come to be, uncertain about everything. The feather in his palm felt as heavy as a chain, lying at the mercy of what he was bound to but did not understand entirely. Every single instinct inside of him tried to shout out, to stop, to evade. To leave Kael right there where he was, and to let the curse die with him. However, there was something deeper, a drag he did not understand, pushing him in the opposite direction. 

"The relics are ready," Ivo spoke, hardly concerning himself with Kael. He further looked down to the things placed in a circle towards the warrior's head, which were various shapes and ancient patterns starting to glow with the power of the storm. "I have everything."

 Kael's eyes dropped again, and this time he let out a tired breath. 

"Then it commences." But even as Ivo was getting ready to perform the ritual, he felt an unease settling along the corners of his mind. Alma's words stayed in his head: "When the ritual commences, it wont be possible to fidget." The resonance of her spoken charges had the weight of wisdom that is earned and paid through a long existence of tormenting eras. She had suffered the consequences, the consequences of her deciding to cut off her wings and stay with the mortals. A consequence that now until recently was to ask from Ivo.

And what if all this was one big error traveling this far. What departure from his primary objective did he actually not embrace the overconfidence that preceded the downfall of the Skyborn in the first place. His bloodline had once tried to mess with something they did not know how to use by trying to earth the Skyborn and snatching away their sorcery. And now he was, about to try out the same—summoning things that he knew were over his head and wishing that he could control them.