Eclipse - Act 1 - The Healing

Chapter 16 - The Glass Slipper

Cinder

The red portal splits open in the air as she falls from the tower, accepting the end and the cold hands of death to grapple round her. But instead she keeps falling, and falling and falling until she came out the other side, crashing into the ground and tumbling across, dust covering the sticky hot blood on her burned body. She groans in pain, some trailing across her body as she looks around, looking in the direction of the tower to see her standing there.

Raven Branwen.

Her mane of black hair blows softly in the wind with her hand resting on the pommel of her Odachi, staring at the Grimm that flee from the Academy and the city, retreating into the safety of the forests that surround them. She looks over her shoulder slowly at Cinder with narrowed red eyes, then walks towards her calmly. "Cinder Fall..." She softly greets as she approaches, and Cinder snarls as she activates the dust in her dress to form a sword, only for Raven to kick it from her palm, then stamping onto her scorched arm. Cinder screeches in complete agony as she grabs onto the heeled boot of the mother of Yang Xiao Long.

Raven leans down and stares into her eyes...or her eye from how much blood has left the scarring. "Let's chat, back at my place, shall we?" Raven asks her curiously, until she winds her leg back and kicks Cinder in the side of her head with full force. The impact knocks the young woman out in one swift motion. Raven exhales, sheathing her side and turning to a bandit from her tribe who approaches her.

She is a young woman with tan-coloured skin, short brown hair and icy blue eyes. She has a tattoo of a bird rising from flowers on her left arm. She wears a brown vest over a torn white shirt, with a collar that appears to spike up behind her neck. She also wears maroon-coloured pants with the right side rolled up to her thigh. At the same time, she wears dark brown knee guards that go down to her brown boots.

Clearly one of her closest friends, looking at Raven. "Shouldn't we kill her, Raven? She is...dangerous...she caused all this. She works for Salem." The woman asks her with concern in her voice, and Raven looks down at her, scooping her unconscious body up and slinging her over her shoulder, the blood from her eye and arm staining the back of her red clothes.

"I know who she is, Vernal. We could get a lot of money for turning her in...but at the same time she is powerful, like you said. If she does work for Salem, and I think she is...then she can never return. Salem is going to kill her for failure, she doesn't broker it." Raven explains as she walks towards Vernal with Cinder over her shoulder.

"And if she tries to kill us? She is a Fall Maiden." Vernal reminds, and Raven scoffs with a grin on her face.

"Please, for her it is nothing more than a title. I can handle her." She assures as she takes her sword and opens up another portal, but before she leaves, she looks back in the direction of the Academy.

"Your daughter is in there, Raven...don't you want to check on her?" Vernal asks, and Raven sighs, shutting her eyes.

"She's a strong girl...she will be fine." Raven states, walking through the portal with Cinder in her custody. Vernal looks back at the destruction the Academy and parts of Vale suffered that night. She sighs, then follows Raven, the portal closing behind her.

Years Ago...

Snowflakes danced in the breeze that eve. The moon was hidden behind thick heavy clouds, the occasional seep of liquid light bleeding through. White coated the land, and the clocks hands twitched ever closer to midnight.

The village was silent, flurries of snow speckling the cobbles, bathed in dim street lamp light. Then the clacking of hooves broke the nightly hush, trotting through the inch-deep snow. A pair of chestnut brown horses merrily trotted down the street, pumpkin shaped carriage trundling behind, wheels carving swaths in the snow.