Discordant Note: Crescendo | TBATE

Chapter 270: Branded

Thank you to my beta reader and editor, GlassThreads!

Toren Asclepius

In my dreams, I flew. My feathers were a glistening, translucent silver as I coasted about the winds, free and unburdened. The scent of summertime eddied about me as the land passed far below.

Gravity tried to take me, but it could not hold me. The sky was mine. Gravity? It was a paltry, petty thing. An arrogant thing.

I coasted about, enjoying my freedom. That sweet kiss of the breeze let me know I was alive. For such a long time, I coasted on the winds. The embers of those I loved drifted about on my feathers. In my talons was a hope so precious I could not put it into words.

I let a tailwind push me higher as I flapped my wings, calling into the expansive world. It echoed as the reverberating joy of a falcon, yet there was music inside, too. I continued my cries, singing to the world as my heart beat.

This is life, I thought, flying high above a continent I could not name. This is wonder.

But then the winds started. I flapped my wings in surprise as the world began to churn, winds picking up and ruffling my feathers. I turned an uncertain look behind me as I felt the scent of a storm approaching.

I swiveled, my beak poised as I followed that scent. What could intervene in my domain? I would see their wings broken and their–

My heart went cold.

A black hurricane approached, the wall a hundred miles high. Never had I seen a storm such as this. Never had I felt such power as it surged forward. The shadows that storm cast over the land were dark enough to trap light. It howled and raged, a million shifting scales and batlike wings churning inside.

And everywhere it went, the land was rent asunder. Lightning bolts the color of a grave flashed and screamed, carving across the earth with the sound of thunder. Winds that decayed and eroded and took the souls from their victims turned mountains to dust and trees to corpses.

I cannot face this! I realized, flapping my wings as I did an about-turn, looking east for a reason I could not understand. I cannot!

I sped along with the force of lightning. The hurricane laughed at me as I flew, my wings flapping faster and faster. It mocked me as I struggled like a mourning dove facing entropy itself. Each crackling bolt and tumbling mountain behind me sounded like a sneering cackle.

The hurricane could move faster, I knew. Even as it reaped the lives of a million souls, I knew it still was toying with me.

It was gaining. The winds pushed me to the side, tearing at my feathers. I nearly fell from the sky as lightning crashed overhead, taunting tendrils misting across my beak and making me spasm.

Can't fall, I thought, terrified. I saw that shadow inching closer, casting the world into a darkness blacker than the blackest night. It will tear me apart!

I opened my beak to scream. To call out as those winds teased at my tailfeathers, staying just out of reach. I wanted to cry out. To who, for what, I knew not. I just needed to cry.

Then something flashed, binding my beak in a weave. I blinked, stupefied, as vines stretched up from the forest floor far below.

Silver vines erupted from that forest, cascading upward with smothering love. I struggled against the tendril binding my tongue, ripping and tearing at it with my claws. The glittering plant came apart beneath my talons, freeing me.

I breathed, looking upward as that storm and the vines both sought my soul. The stars. That is the only place I am safe!

I flapped my wings, changing my angle. I began to ascend, the turbulent winds and crashing devastation of a damned god pulling away my feathers. More and more of them fell away, ripped from me and with them taking my flight.