⚜️redeeming light ⚜️

💗dove💗

"Get up and make space, respectful goddess. Your sister incoming."
That was all Dove heard before someone she'd spent half her life with crashed on top of her daily gruel. She cursed, "Dang it!" And helped the person up.
The person who'd just flown in had long black hair in an intricate but messed up bun. All she was in was a dark purple outer robe held together with a rough rope, and it fell off as she climbed up. The woman hurried to cover her underclothes but Dove sighed. "We're family. I've seen everything anyway."
"..." Raven put down her long robe and changed into the fitting tweed tunic Dove held out. She stayed silent as Dove went behind her and took the hair slips and jewels that remained on her head out of the messy bun, and unravelled her knitted hair. Raven looked up at her sister, who was helping her clean up with a serious expression.
"H-how do we get out?" She asked frantically, pointing at the bars.
"It's impossible unless someone opens the door. Only he has those keys." Dove replied sullenly, pulling off threads of dark hair off her comb. Raven marvelled at her observations, but then she froze. "How do you know that?" Whipping around her stare seemed to pierce Dove's eyes and her sister looked away. "What did you do?"
"I merely tempted the guards with one of my silk cloaks when I first came." She explained back to Raven. "I told him I needed the sun to live, and so I regained a bit of power under the sunshine and also turned back to human." She paused, looking at Raven with a face that suggested that Raven had betrayed her. "Your little spell was that easy to break."
Raven quickly came to her own defense. "I didn't expect you to come in with your 'tempting' clothes and jewels at all, but anyway that's behind us."
Dove sniffed, trying to hide the fact she was going to cry soon, and sighed. Neither had I expected you to get thrown in here.
"You spoke out loud." Raven realised, crawling next to Dove and plopping herself on the mattress. "You're like her."
"Her who?" Dove asked, combing her matted blonde hair. Tufts of hair fell out and she flinched.
"The imperial concubine." Her sister answered, laying on the mattress in tiredness. "Gwen."
Dove was frozen for about one minute; all the possibilities ran through her head. My daughter? Or a coincidence? She ripped at the bedsheets in frustration, and gasped softly as Raven took her hand. "But still, I must apologise." Raven said quietly, tears trailing down her cheeks. "I was infatuated with that bastard. He.... he was toxic."
Being someone who had been in love before, Dove immediately understood and hugged Raven. "Shh, we are sisters. No matter what the other three think I will still protect you."
The older darkness goddess nodded, her face shoved between Dove's shoulder and head. The younger girl patted her.
They were halted by the jingles of keys and the shouting of eunuchs from outside. "Long live Queen Adeline!"
The woman with ice blue eyes and dark hair stepped into the cell, her maid holding a handkerchief to shield her from the stench. "Why hello, Raven." She said, muffled from behind the cloth. Raven glared at her and Dove felt her sister's fist twitch in her grasp. She squeezed her hand.
The maid was a little servant Raven had seen before, probably promoted to the head maid of the queen now, as she stood proud and tall in front of the sisters. A warm wet feeling slid down Dove's leg and she realised the maid had just spat disrespectfully at her. "You!" Raven yelled. Dove held her back. "Your Majesty, I'm so sorry for my sister's behaviour." She apologised, buying time for Raven. Her sister's eyes were fixated on the silver keys on the maid's belt.
"It makes sense." Adeline rolled her eyes. "Suits a girl who was raised in a brothel, huh." She was referring to Raven's past in one of the brothels of her hometown as a courtesan who merely danced for her customers, but Raven still fumed in anger.
"So now that little prostitute is off MY throne, I will-"
"Too late. If I were Sin I'd regret giving those keys to you, He just killed his queen and let out his enemies." Raven laughed.
"Wha-?!"
When Adeline looked back, the two sisters were outside the cell. She gritted her teeth in annoyance as Raven twirled the jangling keys around her fingers. Dove had a mocking smile on her face. "How do we dispose of her?"

"Make her regret all she's done to us in this one hour." Raven curled her lip. Dove reached for her hand and felt the darkness throbbing in it, and quickly pulled away. Soon she heard the cracking of bones and twisting of tendons, and covered her eyes. When she opened them again she saw the queen and her maid in the mid air, strangled by tendrils of dark magic, their limbs all separated from their torso, the blood dripping out with no sign of stopping.

"Raven, I thought we could do something much...kinder?" the light goddess hinted, gesturing at their arms and legs. "You didn't have to do that, did you?"

Raven's breath was cold even in the blistering dungeon. "Are you going to defend the person who just called your sister a prostitute? I'm very disappointed, Dove, but I will not stop." She pressed her face to the bars and twisted her fingers, and Adeline's neck twisted the same way. Slowly Dove watched as Adeline's head was facing the opposite direction her head was once in, and the queen squeaked in agony as Raven snapped her fingers. There was a crack of bones and Dove shuddered as the woman wailed, her head turned an abnormal direction. "Stop this!"

Something sprinted next to them and pushed Raven away from the bars. The figure pointed at Adeline and fire started spreading towards her, wrapping up her soft skinned torso like a deadly cloak. Before the victim could yell Raven quickly sealed it with her magic, leaving her with a grotesque thin slit on her face. Dove held onto the unknown person subconsciously and felt a warm hand hold her back, while the person's other hand yanked Raven by the collar. The darkness goddess sighed. "You have to ruin my kill every time? Aqua, get a life."

"The royal guards are coming." Aqua hissed back, the three of them landing. She whistled and a chestnut mare cantered to her obediently, whinnying in protest when Raven touched its mane. "We've got to leave soon. This mare, she's the one I ride often, she will be nice and tame, won't you, Blaze?" Blaze snorted in annoyance and dipped her head. Quickly the three goddesses one by one clambered onto their mount of the day and sped towards the gate.

(Sorry, this one is shorter!)