Private Tales Evolution

She'd be coming soon.

The eyes of the raven never told a lie. The black curtain of feathered sentinels that patrolled every corner of the region were his legion to command, and no flittering shadow could hope to hide from their inescapable gaze. Atop a boulder he sat, a lone stone centerpiece to what had once been a small fishing village built along the edge of a massive lake, now an empty shell. This had been his home for at least a month now: an experiment gone splendidly. The buildings that surrounded him, built from the same solid stone as his seat, showed incredible damage; chunks of rock taken out, holes dozed through the walls, roofs collapsed in on themselves. The scent of death was only overpowered by the stench of fish. One wouldn't think the man dressed in black, blind as death and pale as a ghost, would be capable of such destruction.

One would be correct. The being called Kor didn't make this mess, he'd just pointed the finger.

It was the loyal beasts of the surrounding forest that had vacated this village for him, bending to his will, to the might of an ever-increasing magical prowess that had long since extended from the avian and into the realm of mammal, reptile and amphibian. One step closer to his dream, to the goal he'd sought before he'd allowed himself to be corrupted by sentiment and emotion.

Beyond Master of Bird. Ever closer toward Master of All. Those vestiges of humanity who'd resisted? As the bears and hawks and snakes and alligators ravaged their home? They became food for the flock, meat for the pack. There was nothing left of them now, of course. Kor had appropriated the village and it's amenities for himself now. All that remained was their eyes, fashioned into a grotesque necklace and hanging from the pallor skin of his neck. That which the Gods sought to keep from him, he now took from others.

Even now, he could find the humor in irony.

Alas, though he'd purged himself of much of his humanity, his sentiment and affection, there remained one stubborn piece of his heart that remained red and human. One person he still felt the familiar twinge of desire for somewhere deep in the refuse that was his soul. Soleil Verdane. The strange sand-woman who'd shown him kindness, or her version of it, where none else ever had before. There were still times he felt the press of her fingertip on his chest, the single word she'd spoken to him.

"Friend."

Kor couldn't decide if he hated the sensation, or craved more of it. Either way, he needed to meet with her to figure that out. More than that, he needed to return to Soleil that piece of her he'd kept for all this time.

Had she even noticed it missing, he wondered?

Risen Soleil Verdane

Unwelcome eyes.

Even as the sand began to shift and twist before his own unseeing, he could think only of the prying gaze of another, some distant observer to this most precious meeting he'd waited so long for. How was it that a being such as her still remained on a leash and collar?

Were it not for the pleasant sensation that settled in his chest as he watched Soleil assemble through the numerous ravens perched in a semi-circle around him, the rage he felt knowing some subjugating mass of rotten flesh now had eyes on him as well would be twofold. A courtesy, he decided, would be spared to his 'friend'. The observer would keep his eyes, for now. No doubt she'd enough trouble of her own without him making more for her.

"Soleil. It's been too long." Kor slowly rose a hand to his chest, fingers clad in rings of bone clutching lightly at the fabric of his shirt. "I suspected it would not take you long to return to proper form." He'd not seen her since the failed plan of Apex, the unspoken proposal he'd been about to make still a fresh memory in the back of his mind. What fun they could have had...

Regrets of a past era, one he no longer associated with.

"My time since we've last spoken like this has been... trying." If there was any emotion behind the words, it was buried underneath the white mask of calm he'd disallowed from leaving his face since finding himself alone amongst steel and grass in an empty road between cities, his only remaining friend vanishing, and taking that last vestige of humanity with him. "To see you. To know that you still are. These things make my suffering lesser. In hindsight, the words you spoke to me make more sense than I was capable of comprehending."

Bringing his palms to the stone beneath him, Kor slowly slid down until his feet hit the ground, the birds that were his eyes scattering to the sky.

"But I did not summon you to shower you with my praise." The Exile reached into his shirt, gripping something that rested against the bare flesh of his chest. With a sudden yank, Kor ripped a hidden necklace free and pulled it up and out of his garment. "As I told you before, I have something that belongs to you."

Kor held aloft the trinket tied to the broken chain of the necklace; An hourglass, crafted with twisted black wood and inscribed with the insignia of a raven on its top and bottom. Within the clear glass, a palmful of sand, resting at the base.

"Or, more accurately, a part of you."

Risen Soleil Verdane