Author Games: Path of the Guildpact

Quarterfinals: Hesperia Haera

The crows sing with the screams

and she runs.

Their voices fleet;

Hesperia awaits a reason

to see her, see her and smile.

it's sound; it's too much.

A heart sits still in her palm. The beating inside her head makes the organ swell alive, a thrum and a hum, beat, beat- Hesperia watches it. She waits for it to pump, waits for its arteries to burst. Nothing happens, and she steps forward, closer to Rakdos. She can't see him- no, not yet- and the ground seems further than her feet.

Blood falls down her wrist. It's cold, a thicker consistency than water, strange and familiar. She's felt this sensation before, yet her skin shakes under the liquid, eyes latched on the red. And the sky looms, feathers and beaks and talons swirling above her.

A crow's eyes follow her, every last step. It's caws whisper of guilt and shame- it's almost as if the bird's eyes had seen her. Maybe, they had.

Hesperia looks behind her. Suddenly trepidacious, suddenly too aware of her surroundings; the heart in her hand crescendos sound, as loud as her breath. Heavy. A dangerous thing. She promises the blood it's the last to ever drip.

Because three minutes earlier, she'd murdered Angelique.

Well, not exactly; the heart belongs to a woman so similar to Angelique, the same hair and skin and eyes- golden lanterns of glorious sun. Hesperia hadn't even heard the woman speak. It'd been so quick.

The Rakdos signet has to be hers, now. And if the birds in the sky saw her- again, for they've been witnesses to blood before- she doesn't mind. She'll just have to kill those, too.

The crow falls dead

and she's silent.

Her mouth parts;

Hesperia waits for her throat

to tear and rip and shred.

it's screaming; it's unheard