Hunger...

Riley shook her head as some strange dark impulse ran through her, clawing up from the depths of her soul.

Her ears rang, the sound discordant, coming from two angles and two separate pitches, causing her head to sway.

Just ahead, a purple light glowed in her vision as Iskaros completed the strange magical circle.

Zorna growled, her fur standing on end.

Iskaros pulled out his dagger and brought it down mercilessly.

The pommel impacted into the Zorna's skull with a sickening crack. She wavered on her paws with a whine before falling to the ground, unconscious.

"You bastard," The sound of a chain going taught in Cid's cage heralded the sound of wet drops hitting the ground as he struggled.

Hunger... The voice echoed again as Riley wrestled with something instinctual, something... savage that was breaking free of something deep inside her she didn't even know was there.

She needed to feed, to... kill.

It had been too long without magic, without food...

Hunger....

"That's not me! It's not me!" She chanted, curling into a ball with a whine.

Still, she could not deny the dark impulse within.

"Hungry," she whimpered, curling into a ball.

"It will be quick, old friend, and painless. I owe you that much," Iskaros mourned before tilting his head towards the hawk as if she were whispering to him.

"You owe me more than that! We've fought together, bled together, you owe me your life, and this is your repayment?" Cid's voice had lost all playful edge, falling to panicked desperation.

"I wish I had time to make you understand. You've seen the same things I have. We share the same hatred for the nobles, the first tier aristocrats, and their savagery. You showed me that sometimes great things take a greater sacrifice. This... this is for the best," He shook his head as if grappling with grief, taking up the sleeping Zorna and placing her in the center of the circle.

"Stop!" Cid pleaded, desperation overriding his anger, "At least tell me why. What do you hope to accomplish with this madness?"

Meanwhile, Tobias was working furiously as Riley wobbled with the strange instinctual whisper, the murderous flames stoked by the smell of blood on all sides.

Hunger....

Flashbacks pulsed through her mind, hazy recollections of a strange canyon within a magical desert, as a deeper hunger than she had ever known gnawed at her... pushing her to...hunt!

There had been a small thing, glowing with power and potential, then a winged thing....

The flicker tilted strangely...

Hunger....

There had been terrible light and power, more than it could ever absorb, that ripped it apart, just as it had fed and found something akin to satiety after millennia of starvation.

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Pain....

"Help... me..." She whined, feeling like she was dying all over again.

Strange flickering, eldritch symbols, crawling wiggling words that were not words crawled across her vision. The circle flared to life, burning with a purple power around Zorna.

The hawk began to sing as a ritual began.

The voice discordant and hushed, her atonal screeching crawled into

Riley's brain like maggots feasting on a corpse as she began to squeal in pain.

"This is a pathway to change. Order is born out of chaos; we've seen that, haven't we, Cid? There's a better way, a path to permanent stability, no more power struggles, no more politics costing the lives of good men, and the nobles that have used us like tools will pay the brunt of it," Iskaros sneered, his voice lurching from regret to rage.

"By helping Chadrick? He's the worst of all of them and a second tier. He'll never be more than a Duke of the Ashenrealm," Tobias spat, finally breaking his long silence.

Iskaros tilted his head again as if listening to the hawk, "Chadrick, too, is a means to an end. What matters is the Tyranny of Ashes will end. It's always been up to the blackblades to make the hard choices."

The hawk's screeching song rose to a fevered pitch. Mavora flared her wings while Iskaros brought the dagger down hard, driving it into Zorna's skull, before yanking it out, flicking the blade three times as the strange glistening black dirt grew tiny tendrils lapping up the blood and viscera.

The eldritch sand began to glow, and a purple kraus shaped light flew towards the hawk, illuminating her golden torc white, while a pendant hanging around her neck pulsed in dark warning; she cried in victory as her red eyes pulsed bright with power.

"No! You fucking bastard! I'm going to feed you your entrails! Zorna come! come..." Cid begged, all the while failing and throwing himself against his chains, slamming his crystal shackles so hard into the ground his bones creaked.

Another strange wave of sigils appeared in Riley's vision. She began to convulse. Something was warming against her neck, then burning. The world tilted as she felt the coldness of the stone while her body rocked and smacked against it involuntarily.

Another strange memory flashed of watching the light go out in her own eyes as her spirit was ripped out of her body by the Erkrandir.

This was strangely the opposite. She felt...caged within herself, watching from behind her eyes.

"By the Gods, this is a nightmare! You're a damned monster!" Tobias swore.

Iskaros stalked towards Riley's cage as the hawk chuckled with malevolent laughter.

"Leave her alone!" Tobias screamed, desperation fueling his rage. He and Cid both began working at their chains again, slamming into their cages, ignoring the protestations of aching muscles and creaking bones.

"Son, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. I didn't know this would happen. Please, forgive me," Cid said in sudden, broken resignation.

Opening the door, Riley had gone limp. Every synapse burned as her world seemed to teter near the brink of death. A gnawing, raging need to feed whited out all else, sapping all motivation and drive.

"Already out; at least this will be a little easier," Iskaros mused, unlocking her from the floor and scuffing her by the neck.

Mavora, reaching out with a taloned foot, ran a claw delicately down Riley's jaw as Iskaros moved toward the circle.

"Leave her be!" Tobias demanded.

Iskaros leaned over and sat Riley down upon the circle.

Hunger... The voice echoed as the strange sigils appeared, crawling and dancing oddly, dripping with what looked like blood.

The hawk flared its wings as Riley's eyes found their focus.

Food...

Lines of the strange black sand erupted and wrapped around Riley, coating her like a cloak.

Her eyes began to glow with a yellow fire. A tendril erupted from around her, wrapping around the neck of Iskaros as Mavora screed in panic.

"What? A deeper darkness? They are celestial! Impossible! Impossible!" A burst of energy flew out from around her, rattling the cages, blowing open the door behind her, sending it off its hinges, and flying down the hallway. Yet, Riley remained motionless, as if she had become a singularity of death and entropy herself.

A pale green light wrapped around Iskaros.

Food...

The dark instinct rippled through Riley's mind. She felt something shatter around her neck, and a blissful feeling of energy and nourishment suffused her body, leaving her heady and drunk.

Greedily, she took it all in, like needed air flooding into deprived lungs as the hawk alighted and flew.

Prey was escaping, but for now, this was food...

And there were two other souls to feast upon...

Yesssss.....

Iskaros gave a pathetic whine in final protest as his skin shriveled and his eyes went white, finally falling over dead.

A flicker of light invaded her soul, but still, a greater darkness like a fire, raged within.

Riley knew she only had one chance.

Grimm! Grimm! Grimm!

She heard the flutter of wings as the lights went out.