Ashes of Revenge

Chapter 17: Colors of the Kingdom

With a deep inhale, Raven slowly opened her eyes and stared at the high ceiling for a second. She pushed her head off the floor and looked ahead at her new pile of clothes; Ida had put them there awhile ago. Internally groaning, she decided she had been in the bath long enough. Standing up, she grabbed the cloth used for drying off.

As Raven dried herself off, she looked to the side and froze, staring at her reflection in the mirror.

The mass majority of her body was overlaid in scar tissue. The burns pulled at her skin in weird ways and made it look fake, like the top layer could be pulled off and reveal the smooth, tan skin beneath it. There were only a few areas that lacked burns, and the only other variations were the small scar Colt had accidentally given her and the raised area on her shoulder from the cauterization.

Raven looked down at the ground and could feel a burning sensation enter her eyes. She hated the way she looked, but she refused to give in to her own stupid self-pity. Crying wouldn't make them go away. It was her unchanging, terrible, painful reality. She repeated in her head over and over and over again that it was a symbol of what she had survived and endured. The scars were simply a result of that.

Harshly throwing the cloth onto the ground, she began to put her clothes on, her back facing the mirror the entire time. She quickly redressed her hand with clean fabric. Only when Raven was done getting dressed did she turn back to her reflection.

Her leather pants were black. The white undershirt that Dara had bought her was underneath her green long sleeve leather overshirt; gold and black leaf-like designs were the only new feature; even having the silver latches down the middle.

Raven rubbed her hand against the bottom of her nose. She hated the green design, and the thought of burning the shirt entered her mind.

Walking out of the washroom, she was met with Ida tending to the fire. When Ida heard Raven enter into the room, she stood up and turned. "Sorry that I'm still here, Miss, but you were in there so long the fire died down, so I had to add more wood."

"Do yeh have another overshirt?" Raven asked.

"I like the green on you."

Raven paused for a second. The remark was so peculiar, especially for a servant. "I don't," she retorted.

Ida smiled ear to ear.

Raven's face fell in recognition.

Ida reached both hands behind her head and pushed forward. When the head was pushed down, Death's face became visible. Grabbing her back, he proceeded to peel her off of him until her lifeless body hit on the floor.

Raven looked down at Ida's body and felt as her skin grew pale.

"Relax!" he exclaimed with a smile. "She was already dead when I found her. . . . Poor thing got sick." He looked down at her body and tilted his head to the side, hair floating with the movement.

She swallowed. "So Ash was–"

"Just a skin for me. I believe he was a farmer who got lured to death by Sirens. I found him and waltzed my way into that little pub you were so fond of with my Necromancer persona." He kicked Ida's body over, so she was lying on her back. With a simple hand motion, Ida's eyes opened, and she stared at Raven, like all the dead before her. The charm of Death overtaking her body had disappeared, and it left behind the sickness.

"Seriously, though, I like the green on you," he mocked as he walked by her, lightly slapping her scarred face twice. With a flick of his wrist, Ida dissolved into black smoke.

Swallowing what she thought was bile, Raven quickly walked to the fireplace, remembering what she had wanted to do before the bath.

Her hands roamed and pressed against the stone as Death watched on. Finally, finding a loose rock, she pushed on it, sinking it into the fireplace. She let go, and the stone slowly went back to its original position. Grabbing the iron poker, she leaned against the wall and inserted the iron into the chimney, careful not to get burned by the fire. The tip fell into a small hole that had been opened when the stone had been pushed in. When she removed it, she stepped back as her foot tapped against the ground.