Prologue - The Great Fall
There was never-ending darkness that permeated through my soul. It tainted the air that I breathed, clogging my lungs like smoke. The presence of my allies surged around me, but in the blackness, I could not see their faces.
Despite that, a clammy hand slipped its way into mine and squeezed, a reminder that I was not alone. I squeezed back briefly, before letting the hand drop and feeling my way to the sword still waiting in its scabbard. The metal was cool to the touch and the sharp cold anchored me.
The dark writhed and spun, the enemy closing in around us. As one, our side seemed to draw breath in preparation for what was to come. And then we struck.
Together, we were an unstoppable force of light that sparked against the darkness, much like a hammer striking against an anvil. Constantly, we struck, over and over again, that light piercing through the dark, but it seemed to make little difference.
Among the battle cries of my friends and foes, there were also the screams of the dead and dying. Their hollow breaths sounded moments before they faded away, leaving only silence in their wake. Too many of our own had fallen under the black blade of our enemy.
Endless waves of battle depleted my energy, but the adrenaline that coursed through my veins was enough to keep me going. But for how much longer my weakening muscles could hold on was a mystery. I, like my allies, was built for battle. But we hadn’t imagined anything like this.
When my allies fought, I could see the gleaming blades that they held creating sparks and arcs of light through the pitch black. It shot waves of hope through me seeing the light beating back the darkness.
None of us remember how long the battle went on. It could have raged for eons, with the light fighting back the dark. But eventually, the black split upon itself, bright lines of light spearing through, sending the darkness into nothing.
And as that darkness was sent reeling back, crawling into whatever it had seeped out of in the first place, a voice, loud and commanding, boomed behind us: “Let there be light.”
As soon as the words were spoken, an even brighter light flared from behind our ranks, illuminating our torn clothing and fallen brethren. Before our eyes, those who littered the ground rose, their brilliant white wings flaring from their backs with renewed strength and life.
A sense of awe and wonder filled my chest as we were all washed clean from the decay of the battle, the field in front of us stripped bare and clean, ripe for Creation.
***
I stood on the edge of the world, looking down over everything. My wings arched out behind me, the pure white feathers gleaming with heavenly grace. It sparked into a rainbow behind me, a truly stunning sight to behold.
As I closed my eyes, I breathed in the frigid, thin air. It was so cold it burned my lungs, but I barely registered the pain. I was hollow inside, a shell of what I used to be. There was nothing that could save me now. I just wanted it all to end.
“Don’t do this.” The voice was desperate. But there was no one to heed the pleas. There were the sounds of a struggle, of someone being restrained. But I paid it no heed.
I lifted my face up to the sky, feeling the cold sting of a breeze glide against my skin, drying the fresh tears that had tracked down my cheeks. I was too broken for anything else. I deserved this.
“Please don’t do this!” The voice had reached a fever pitch. It was sharp and keening, the cries of a desperate soul.
I didn’t care for their pleading. They had done this to me, all of them. And now they would suffer the consequences. And I would be free.
I took a step forward, holding out my arms, as if the very sky itself would wrap me in it’s cold, damp embrace.
For a second, I was weightless, held high above everything. Then the wind roared past me, ripping my breath from my lungs. My wings flattened against my back, useless in the brutal wind that ripped at every inch of me.
“No!”
I heard the ghastly scream of pain from above before the wind tore that away from me too. The longer I fell, the more pieces of myself I felt shed away into the wind, obliterated.
When everything was finally stripped away from me and only the barest pieces remained, I was washed over with a sense of peace, of finality. It was finally over.
Though I should have felt it when I hit the ground, she didn’t. There was nothing as my body collided with the ground, flesh tearing and bones snapping.
It was as if I was seeing everything through a different set of eyes. I saw myself, bloodied and broken, my perfect white wings spread out behind me. And as I lay there, I found the peace I was seeking before the blackness overtook me.
