Lacrimosa

[Kaeli]

((This is a story that actually began some time ago, but I just started perusing the forums, so figured I'd post the story thus far. I'll make it several posts to allow space for other characters involved to offer their own POV of scenes that have already transpired))


I. Prologue


In a remote corner of Myrken wood, the air is pierced by the shrieks of all the choirs of the heavens. In the empty silence that follows, a slow pool of crimson saturates the forest floor. Lying sprawled prone on her back, the angel called Kaeli is dying. Her wings have been removed, daggers reaching deep within to dig out even the bones that once held them. She lies there, naked save the long locks of black hair spread around her, blending with the widening pool of blood, and heavy footsteps, satisfied that the deed is done, turn and walk away.

That was a month ago. By happenstance a small group of gypsies foraging for food and magical supplies had happened upon her lifeless body and carried her back to camp. They'd said she'd lost a lot of blood, that they had to stitch her up and perform rituals over her unconscious body nightly until she finally regained consciousness. The ordeal had been so traumatic that the memories before her awakening are, at best, a blur.

The doves came after that. The camp was overrun with them, suddenly... bloodthirsty, ravenous doves tearing at each other's throats with their tiny beaks and falling, bloodied, from the sky with broken necks and severed wings. They regarded it as a terrible omen, and at once set about a plot to put her to death. The death which they had delivered her from not two days prior. The debate went on for hours, Kaeli listening from the caravan where they kept her, crying tears of mercury until her face glistens with silver.

Finally, the verdict comes. She was to live, but banished, never to see any of them again. They release her to the wilderness and she wanders down the only obvious path. Still in the grey robes they made for her and completely unarmed, she finds herself in front of a tavern...