Blackheart

A Light in the Dark

Through the far-flung housing districts of a city in ruin, a lone figure staggered through the streets of Palethorn. A koutu barely able to stay upright struggled to retain her sanity.

Looking down from the fatigue and stress only fueled her worries. Her feathers, once a beautiful, vibrant mix of orange and blue, were now a uniform black.

Unholy energies surged through her, so fiercely that they were not content or not able to remain solely in her. A mist of evil surrounded her, making her appear even more evil and horrifying to anyone unfortunate enough to witness the fallen creature.

All the while, her mind raced with new, alien and terrifying thoughts, impulses and people.

Voices screamed at her, an eternal cacophony of shrill and shrieking noise telling her everything it knew could undermine her will...and by the Shining Lord, did it know everything she didn't wish to hear.

It was in her mind. It knew everything about her, after all.

She struggled ferociously to retain her past, her memories, what made her...her.

The corruption was working to erode her into just another faceless, mad beast. Already she felt a desire once alien to her. The desire to hurt, to kill. The urge to feel blood run through her talons, to tear flesh asunder, to hear the dying shrieks of another, to have her blood pumping as a life was extinguished by her own hand...

She blinked and shook her head wildly. She couldn't think like that. Couldn't let the ideas take hold, as strangely appealing as they now were...

No, that was the work of the demon! These were ITS urges, not hers! The fiend had implanted them onto her!

She could still remember that fateful moment. After months of hiding in her home, she was caught...and by a demon, no less.

Dragging her into the street, wrapping its hands around her, the feeling of pure evil entering her, taking what was once innocence and turning it into wickedness. The manic grin, the dark thoughts, the...the...

The knight.

Praise be to the Shining Lord. The Lord himself must have sent the man to save her.

If he had only a few more moments, the demon would have shattered her mind, and she would have been his faithful minion...

The koutu shuttered at the thought. She had to keep going. Going. Going...

...where am I going, again?

Ignoring the voices, she simply kept walking. There was no destination, no place that would bring her salvation, but...maybe, if she just kept going...something, anything would happen.

She had to be...something...

It was so hard to think. The screaming, the urges, the dark thoughts...she shoved them aside as best she could. No, thinking would only get her to undermine herself through doubt.

She just focused on doing. Acting.

Walking.

Step after step. Everything was a blur. She stumbled through many streets, often walking past other unfortunate souls just like her...well, almost.

She still had a shred of awareness.

These others had been fully broken.

As she passed a large crowd of corrupted, she suddenly recoiled.

A dark atmosphere had settled over the koutu...more so than usual. Something was even MORE wrong than it already was.

Stopping, she looked around at what was causing her such distress.