the courage of stars; either be straia or have wings

[Oksana]

you taught me the courage of the stars before you left

how light carries on endlessly, even after death

There was dissonance in her heart as she stood at the edge of the Chamber. This place had never been home, had never tethered itself to her soul as it had to some. But impossibly, irrevocably, she always returned to it. But it was Straia that brought her back each time, the promise of family, of something solid. And it was Straia to which she felt any loyalty, not to the kingdom. But for now that was enough, they were one in the same.

But with each new weight that settled like a stain of snow over her shoulders, it became harder to return. It was Chamber magic that fed life back into Makai when his bones crumbled and his skin wilted. It was his fathers’ heart that thump-thump-thumped in the dirt beneath her feet. But as the lie she had built her life on had unraveled before her in the wake of Makai’s sneering face and anything of substance had turned to sand sifting between gaping cracks, only Straia had remained.

Her wings unfurled at her shoulders, large and leather and the same shade of copper as her gleaming skin. With a breath as deep as the chasms dug across her heart, she stepped back into the Chamber. A thought flickered past her eyes, darkening the green.

Perhaps the Chamber had managed to tether her soul after all.

Almost immediately she takes to the sky, launching herself effortlessly into the blue with just a few bounding strides. With the trees shrinking beneath her and the sky yawning before her, she can feel the tension in her chest loosen. And as she dropped her chin to trace the shapes meandering like mice across the trails below, there was one bay and white mare in particular for which she waited.

oksana