Aster

Bolero eyed the Void Falk before him, muscles tensed, ready to spring. His mind whirled-if they attacked again, he would…what? Throw himself over Indigo to protect her? Try to fight back, only for the both of them to die at the hands of these legends made flesh? Indigo stirred once again, mouth twitching into a grimace. He glanced down at her, still uncertain what to do. His pulse pounded in his neck, veins thrumming with his flame. It begged to be let loose, to unfurl and consume.

“We were not expecting the girl,” The female Void Falk grimaced, and nodded to the young merlin. “ I would have figured you would be more…”

“Subtle. You really allowed someone to follow you?” From beside the ochre-haired woman, the young man spoke at last. His voice was dulcet, perfectly calm. As if his companion hadn’t just attacked Bolero with a matter-destroying falcon of shadow. As if they hadn’t harmed a young eyass without magic ability.

At that, the fear Bolero felt turned to anger. He felt his flames stir. Indigo moaned again- managed to bring herself to her knees. She rubbed her head, eyes still closed.

“Why have you led me here?” He said between clenched teeth.

The male falconer wagged a finger at him. The heat in Bolero intensified, pulsed. “We’ll have plenty of time to discuss details once we rid ourselves of our sweet little interloper here. You may nurse her to health if you wish, but then send her on her way.” The red-haired falconer was hardly any older than Bolero- or at least appeared to be. If the folk tales of his childhood were true- if these really were Void Falk that stood before him- the young man was an immortal. A true immortal. Cursed never to die, never to settle, always simply a nomad of shadow. A lonely, pitiful existence.

Void magic was as far as possible one could get from the Eyrie’s Celestial source. The exact opposite of sacred life energy that Adiamora’s feathers graced the universe with.

“If she is able to fly,” He managed to speak softly, calmly, despite the roaring inferno building up in his chest. He could feel the feathers in his hair spark with the restraint of holding his magic back. The golden bell in his hair rang softly. What other tales of his childhood were true? Did these falconers before him consume souls from the Eyrie? “I would gladly send her on her way,” Slowly, Bolero fell to his knees before Indigo, who steadied herself with her hands on his shoulders. Her gaze darted around the scene before her, eyes wide.

“And the magic you used to block my shifting?”

The golden-eyed man’s dark robes ruffled as he snapped his fingers. The weight that had hung in the air vanished, and Bolero inhaled deeply, turning to Indigo, who stared at him, eyes wide with fear. He could scent the apprehension on her, the regret she was finally feeling at having followed him here.

“Bolero?” She spoke softly, hardly a whisper. “What is…”

“Shhh,” Bolero held Indigo’s hands gently, taking them from his shoulders. “I will explain when I return to the Eyrie,” Out of his periphery, he swore he saw the male falconer smirk at his words. They knew, then- ice settled at the pit of his stomach.

He would explain if he ever returned to the Eyrie. What did these…creatures want from him? He gently wiped the blood from her forehead, stopping when she winced.

“Can you stand?”

Indigo nodded, eyes squinting, “I think so.”

He urged her up to her feet, grasping her elbows gently. He would not let go- not until she could properly balance herself and walk. She straightened, although her muscles tensed. She gingerly tried to take a step on her own- and swore as she pitched forwards with a cry.

“Indigo!” He searched her face, unable to see signs of anything more than the shallow wounds on her scalp.

The void falk were silent as they watched Bolero catch Indigo up in his arms and lower her to the ground. He closed his eyes and inhaled slowly through his nose- it was possible her injury was hidden, unseen. The coppery scent of blood came to his nostrils immediately.

“I have to look for the wound. I may have to look underneath your tunic or pants.” Indigo nodded to give her permission. It took mere moments, and no impropriety, to Bolero’s relief- to locate the cause of her pain.

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Blood streamed from Indigo’s right ankle- it had been hard to notice with her lure dancing slacks covering it. He rolled the pants up to uncover the wound and regarded the injury silently, all-too aware of the Void Falk’s eyes watching him. With a tarsus injury like this, shifting would be possible, maybe. But if she couldn’t even stand in her skin, and without any magic to speak of, Indigo would not make it a moment in the forest alone. Without her magic, Indigo’s body could not heal as quickly as the other members of the Eyrie.

Bolero hesitated, mind racing. He was no healer. The best he could do with his flame was to cease the bleeding, maybe prevent infection, but it would be painful. Would these falconers change their minds about letting her go, if they knew she couldn’t possibly leave? Indigo eyed him suspiciously.

“It’s that bad, is it?”

“Indigo…I…” The feathers on Bolero’s nape raised as one of the void falk, the young-looking man with dark red hair, took a step towards them. “Stand back!” He mantled over Indigo protectively, his head spinning, sweat dripping from his brow. Snarling, he pivoted to face the falconer.

‘Well?” The male falconer’s mouth was upturned in a half-smile. “Will our friend be able to fly away home?” He continued to approach. The air around him buzzed, seemed to part as he walked, as if it knew the power contained in his unassuming visage.

“I told you to stay away!”

The void falk paused several paces away and lifted an eyebrow, meeting Bolero’s gaze. The brilliant gold of his eyes, the impossibility of such a color even existing, sent chills down his spine. The air around this man rippled with power, with magic as his dark robes billowed with every step. He could only hope that such powerful magic wouldn’t be aimed at him. If the fell birds had been that powerful- he shuddered to think about being on the receiving end of the true power of these beings. The falconer tilted his head and regarded him silently for a moment.

“My name is Kieran,” The falconer-Kieran, rolled the ‘r’ of his name heavily. He stepped further forward. When Bolero didn’t move to stop him, he cast his falcon off of his fist. The shadow bird alighted on the ground nearby, grass dying underneath its talons. Kieran fell to his knees beside Indigo. Bolero froze, absolutely at a loss. What choice did he have? “Do you mind?”

Bolero opened his mouth to answer, but realized once Indigo shook her head, eyes wide with fear, that the question had not been posed to him. He kept his eyes on Kieran’s hands as they reached towards Indigo's injured leg, muscles shaking from tension. The man’s hands never made contact, however, simply hovering above the wounded area.

Kieran gazed intently at her wounded ankle. Bolero clenched his fists, flames licking his fingertips in rage as Indigo winced and shrank away from the interloper. The falconer’s face remained expressionless. For a long moment he froze, doing nothing more than gazing upon Indigo’s injury. He glanced at Bolero beside him and smiled charmingly.

“Good bird,” Kieran said, and moved to stand beside Tamryn. Flames jumped from Bolero’s fingers to the feathers in his hair, making Indigo’s warded bell in his hair ring loudly. He didn’t know what he disliked more- Kieran’s lazy arrogance, or what he was. Uncertainty weighed heavily in his chest. Should he have fought? Told Kieran to stay far away from the merlin? But without his shifting, and with his magic unsealed, He wouldn’t have a chance.

There would be no winning a fight against the Void Falk.

“We’ll get her fixed up.”

Kieran held a hand up to Bolero. He spoke loudly, his voice a different timbre than it had been mere moments ago. The musical, gutteral language was unknown to Bolero, almost all consonants. He could feel the intensity of the words- there was certainly magic entwined within them. After a moment, the blue flowers in the glen glowed brightly. A silence descended upon them, heavy and thick as the fog that had hovered over it prior. The atmosphere felt smothering, a strange scent permeating the air, almost like moss on trees. The magic he had sensed initially in the clearing.

Kieran’s gaze shifted from the two shifters, to almost directly behind them. He smiled, a casual, pleasant expression, and bowed his head slightly. Bolero cautiously turned to follow the man’s line of sight.

He didn’t like this. Not at all. Unease sat heavy in his chest as his eyes settled on the blurred outline as it slowly became clearer through the foliage.

A figure, gaunt and pale, emerged from the woods. His hair fell, white as snow under the moonlight, pin-straight to his waist. His eyes were a haunting, milky light blue. Whether it reminded Bolero of the clouded eyes of the recent dead, or of a brilliant morning sunrise, he could not decide. The creature’s gaze was sharp- the moment its eyes met Bolero’s, he could feel the impact.

The latent magic. The agelessness of this being. It was beautiful, despite the near-nudeness and the skin so pale it was almost translucent. Bolero’s eyes alighted at last upon the figure’s ears- gently curved, gracefully ending in a point.

He shuddered, and the world around him froze.

Fae.

The white-haired man was a fae, a Sidhe.

Which meant that these walls, these moss-covered mounds erupting from the ground…

They were in a Sidhe village. Bolero felt sweat drip down his back, and a breeze blew another unfamiliar scent into the air.