The Darkest Sacrifice

Part One

I stare at the grey abyss of floating ashes and burnt earth. Since the day I was born I've been told no faerie should ever cross the death divide, for darkness and light can never coexist. Yet there it is at wing's reach. I open my hand, hiding the obsidian pebbles I found but a few dawns ago not far from home. Like a crumb trail, someone or something has led me here.

One is harmless, but together they've affected me somehow. An unfamiliar feeling awakening my curiosity for more than what my realm has to satisfy. My purpose is greater than the simple task of pollination, light births and preserving our ways. Now I'm here to collect bigger stones in hopes it will satiate this dark craving I've but only tasted.

Hovering above the ground, I move in closer. Never has any faerie set foot on the other side and lived to tell the tale. If the smoke doesn't kill me the crows will. Slowly, I pick the first stone and hear a low croak disrupt the eerie silence. Above me, perched on a branch of the lifeless black oak tree, yellow eyes glare and follow as I move.

Three, four... I drop them in my pouch one by one and hear the leaves wrestle behind me. Quickly grabbing a fistful, something jumps out.

"Lycoris! What are you doing here? This is dangerous, you could get eaten or worse-"

"Willow, shhhh!" I point towards the raven on the tree top and she covers her mouth, waving her hand for me to rush.

Hiding the rocks, I fly in front of her and tie the pouch strings in a knot. She continues with the pestering questions, wanting to know all the whys. "I'm experimenting with the soil, I may have found rare minerals we could use for the garden!"

"That's impossible, there's only sulfur spread along the death divide!"

"Okay okay, I won't go back!" I lie.

I hurry home without looking back and swing the latch on my door. Alone at last, I remove the stones and search for my thimble of sap. The stones match the size of my fingernail, then one at a time, I glue them together into a necklace. Holding it around my neck, I seal it with the last piece and my vision blurs as I slowly fall to the ground.

I'm surrounded in smoke and I can't tell where I am, confused by the hard surface below me and the cloud-like haze above. A hiss encircles the room as black ink spills and intertwines. Darkness and light dance together but never become one. A glimpse of the raven appears, he calls my name. The moment it all fades back to my room, I know I must return.

After sunrise, I find myself floating before the oak tree with my quiet observer up high. There's a force pulling me to cross the line, a whisper in the wind telling me it's alright. In blind courage, I fly low and pass the border. Nothing happens. Searching for any marks on my arms and legs, my back and condition of my wings, to my surprise I'm fine.

What are you doing?  A voice says inside my head.

"Who said that?"

You know very well. I've been watching you. But tell me, Faerie, what are you doing on this side?

"It calls to me."

The raven flaps his wings and swoops down to a lower branch. Calls to you? I've never heard such a thing. And what is that you're wearing around your neck?

Fluttering my wings higher, I sit at the very end of the branch. "I made it... and it gave me a vision. You were in it." I smile.

Me?

Dreadful caws echo in the sky, a murder of crows are narrowing fast. One shoots right by me and I scream before the next darts behind. Quick, there's a cave at the bottom of the tree where you can hide! I flatten my wings and dive for the ground, barely making it in time as two crows block the entrance. Holding my head between my knees, I hear wings flap violently and loud caws screech, enough to make my whole body tremble in fear.

Then silence.

It's safe now. He appears with blood shed and torn feathers. But you must go.

"Thank you..."

Stygian.

"I'm-"

Promise me you won't ever return. It isn't safe for you, Lycoris.

"But if I crossed over once, surely I can do it again."

You mustn't. You don't belong here.

"We can't even be friends? There's a reason nothing has happened to me as I'm still here."

You are good, return to the light lands or death will swallow you whole... Maybe we can speak another time, but you must remain on your side. Now go!

Stygian leaps and I burst out from the cave like a gust of wind, sneaking one more glance before disappearing all the way home. Soon after, I settle into bed, fluffing the moss to my liking. I tug on the necklace but it won't budge. After a few more attempts, leaving my neck red and swollen, I give up and fall into deep sleep. Black smoke guides me onward.

Stygian's voice calls out to me, yellow eyes attached to his raven form and then a man's. Black feathers and pink petals toss in hissing winds. Sensations turn inside me. I love you, he says. My mind is quick to believe. Can you feel this? A shiver runs down my body. There's a way for us... to be together...

I'm haunted by the the last image of our bodies in a new form. Human. Or what it appears to be. There's a reason why my body accepts this dark energy. I know I don't belong here. Now I must find the way for us.