The room smelled of metal and herbs.
Raven lay still on the wide bed, her skin pale against the dark sheets, her black hair spread like ink across the pillow. Thin lines of magic glowed faintly around her wrists and temples, pulsing in slow, careful rhythms, she had not awakened since leaving the underground floor.
Physicians moved in tight circles, their breaths short, tension in their hearts. They knew very well that their lives were hanging by on a thin thread.
Scrolls hovered in the air, turning their own pages. Glass instruments chimed softly as they measured herbs, trying to find a way to awaken the 'sleeping beauty'. One healer pressed glowing fingers to Raven's chest. Another whispered an incantation that made the lamps flicker.
"She is still stable," one said.
"For now, we know nothing about her condition" another replied.
Damian stood at the foot of the bed.
He had not moved in hours.
His coat hung open. His hands were clenched so tight that thin cracks spidered across the stone floor beneath his boots.
"She does not respond to healing magic, sire we don't know what's wrong." a physician said carefully.
Damian's eyes snapped to him.
"What do you mean, does not respond?"
"Sire, it seems there is nothing to heal". he said, his eyes darting, cold sweat drenching his back.
"what do you mean by that?, is she just sleeping then?."
"Sire, we don't know."
"Try something else, wake her up, or you die."
Silence.
Nairel stood beside Damian, arms folded behind his back, his expression calm but his eyes were cold. Ice crept faintly along the edges of the window behind him, spreading without his notice.
"She is not dying," Nairel said quietly. "That matters."
"That is not enough," Damian replied, his jaw tightening. Nairel didn't refuse. His beast tense inside him.
Damian's shadow flared along the wall.
"I want her back."
No one answered.
************
Word spread fast.
The Blood Wing mansion filled with low voices and uneasy movement. Servants walked softly. Guards doubled their patrols. No one laughed. The mansion cold with a bloody aura.
Darel arrived before noon.
He took one look at Raven and went pale. His eyes catching the murderous intent in his brother's eyes.' Nairel too?', he wondered, brows furrowed.
"No external Wounds.....That's good."
Damian did not look at him.
Dareevah came later, escorted carefully, one hand on her stomach, Kavriel at her side, this time there was no smile in his eyes.
The moment she saw Raven, her eyes grew cold.
"how did this happen? " Darevah whispered, cold eyes on her brother.
Kavriel frowned. "I don't like this."
Damian finally turned.
"She spoke to something, i think" Nairel said.
They all turned to him.
"What?"
"Before she fell," Damian continued, voice low, "the building reacted, we both felt it. she was on the 61st floor...I don't get how she found it."
Darel cursed softly.
"The company," Kavriel said slowly. "It sits on old ground."
"Older than the city," Darevah added.
Damian closed his eyes briefly.
Silence pressed in.
Nairel spoke then.
"I will leave for the Fae Kingdom once she wakes."
Damian opened his eyes.
"mmhmm" Damian acknowledged.
the other three turned to him and then to Damian. "What's going on?" Darel finally asked.
Silence resumed..... nobody willing to break the ice.
The physicians continued their work.
Hours passed, nobody moving from the room. Then the bells rang.
A servant rushed in, breathless.
"Sire," he said to Damian. "An emergency council meeting has been called."
Damian did not move.
"By whom?" Nairel asked.
"The Werewolf King," the servant replied, not daring to speak his name.
Darel stiffened. "Did something happen in the east."
The servant swallowed.
"His lands were attacked by the dark witch forces gathering at the east border."
The room went cold with the chilling silence. Damian's eyes grew colder.
The servant looked down, not daring to face the doom lingering in the air. 'shit, i'm so dead'
Nairel's eyes narrowed. " the possibilities can be considered during the meeting."
Damian looked at Raven, the ice in his eyes melting.
"I am not leaving her like this." he said.
"You must. we are still here." Darel replied. "If the east falls, the balance will be broken."
Damian did not answer.
The bells rang again, the urgency in their tolls tugging the strings of every listeners heart.
Damian straightened slowly. Calmness returning to his eyes.
Nairel hesitantly placed a hand on his shoulder.
"i won't let anything harm her. Go."
Damian looked at him before turning to the rest of his family.
"Guard her," he said. "With everything."
Dareevah nodded, an answer for everyone present.
Damian left with the trembling servant, entrusting his daughter to the only ones he trusted.
***********
The dark building kilometers away from the bloodwing mansion came into view again. It's dark visage humming with trepidation. Disturbed by the actions of it's current inhabitants.
Damian walked steady through the dark hallways. The murals on the walls not striking his fancy. He was in no mood for appreciation. Reaching the giant double doors enclosing the Council hall, his red eyes glowed . The doors opened to his arrival..... proof of identity.
The air in the hall was heavier. Kronan sat at his throne on the round table. He was slender. light muscles lined his body. for a werewolf, he was indeed quite thin. His golden eyes burned bright with frustration.
"You took your time," Kronan growled.
"You took yours when i called before." Damian replied. "Choose your next words carefully."
Kronan bared his teeth. "My people are dead." his voice trembling with rage.
Silence followed.
"The dark witches struck our eastern borders," Kronan continued, his voice softer but still trembling. " they had prepared for everything we brought."
Manak, the druid king spoke softly. "That should not be possible."
"And yet it happened," Kronan snapped, his morphing eyes blazing with untold fury.
The witch, Valaria, sat still, hands folded, expression unreadable.
"Interesting," Navaiah, the fae king murmured. "A traitor then?"
Kronan's gaze locked onto Damian.
Damian's eyes grew colder, his iris glowing with a bloody light.
"Are you accusing me?"
"I am asking," Kronan replied, voice tight, "why they would attack right after your child came of age"
Valaria smiled faintly.
Damian's shadow rose behind him, wings stretching across the walls.
"My daughter is in a coma," he said. "If this is your attempt to corner me—"
"It is not," Kronan cut in. "we are all afraid, Damian."
The druid nodded. "The ancient flame flickered again."
"We should not doubt each other, even if it has something to do with the child," the fae added.
The torches flickered.
Far away, in the Blood Wing mansion, Raven's magic surged, the shadows rising.
War was coming and they could all smell it.