THAT'S RIGHT LADIES AND GENTS!!!!!!!!! Come one come all!! Step right up and gaze in awe!! Astonishing thrills! Heart stopping chills! And lots and lots of me!
I can tell you understand your good fortune so get ready to bask in the glory of my presence as I tell you about myself, my journey home and how amazing corvids are.
So there I was standing on the roof of our little hideout watching Bright vanish into the distance. It always made me a little sad when she left but she had her duties and I had mine back in my cold horrible house.
But oh well! Life is pretty awesome when you get right down to it and if it seems bad at the moment that just means something nice is around the corner.
As I thought that I casually stepped off the rooftop, landing with a hollow boom on the pavement below. Pausing for a moment I mentally plotted the best way home, checked a few street names and then with a nod and a wave dashed off into the night.
I moved so fast that I have no doubt I left a blur behind me. I moved with the speed of a lightning bolt and the grace of a ballerina running the length of the street in like ten seconds then spinning into the next one using a gas globe post as a pivot. I hoped I hadn't left a handprint in the metal again but I couldn't be bothered to stop and check... and yes I am that strong and fast and awesome.
But even when I ran all out it didn't take much effort for Hermosa to catch up with me. I may be very fast but she can go as fast... as the crow flies! Yes I am a famous wit as well as an amazing fighter I'm glad you noticed.
As I was saying Hermosa swooped out of the sky next to me and hovered at about head height; skimming along with barely a motion of her wings.
“She's away safely. My flock will shadow her till the bridge then drop back so they don't see where she’s going as per usual.”[28]
“Thanks Hermosa,” I said, ducking into an alley and sliding under a wedged cart. “I hope it's not too much of a bother.”
“Of course not,” replies Hermosa, slowing her flight slightly and zigzagging along after me. “I know you worry about her... as much as you ever worry about anything.”
“Yeah I do,” I replied, reaching a canal and skidding to a halt. “She wasn’t very good at thinking stealthy at the beginning... Hey Hermosa, would you help me over this?”
Hermosa nodded her tiny white head and suddenly her flock exploded out of the sky like a black riptide. I spun and leapt towards the narrow strip of water, most people would be scared leaping into thin air above the depthless and savage waters of Prasus but I had no fear for I knew I was perfect... and I had done this before, like, a lot.
I soared into the air launching myself across the canal, flying through the air like a raven myself but still slowing bit by bit. I was nearly half way across when I felt my momentum run out and I began to fall in earnest but then... from all around me appeared the flock. A cloud of cawing ravens descended upon me and as I fell one of them shot under my boot. They couldn't support me for more than a moment of course even with how light I am but that's all the time someone as perfect as me needs. I pushed off the raven and leapt forwards and again a black feathered body was suddenly under my foot, again and again I leapt and again and again just like the ravens taught me so that I was running through a tunnel of black feathers. Then I was out of the flock and falling to the ground on the opposite side of the canal.
“Thank you all!” I called over my shoulder as I continued running I didn't have much time now.
“Welcome...”
“You’re Welcome...”
“Welcome...”
“You’re...”
“Welcome...”
“...Welcome...”
I have always found the whole flock talking at once to be cute.
Waving goodbye I hurtled up the last avenue and arrived panting outside my front door. Three miles ran in two and a half minutes, not too shabby.
I dashed along the outside of the vast but decrepit manor house. Leaping the half collapsed fence and dodging the rotting trees[29]. Grabbing the trunk of the largest such crumbling giant I scrambled up and into its branches and from there I stepped onto a second story window sill. Stood on the ledge concealed by the predawn murk I quickly removed my crimson costume revealing my normal formal black clothing underneath. A true lady always dresses in layers just like Bright said. Then I reached up, pulled my mask off, jimmied the window open, ducking in and... Thud!
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
“Slet.” I cursed, rubbing my forehead as pain shot down through my horns. “Whose foolish idea was it to use iron for a crossbeam? That really hurt”.
Recovering from my slight misjudgement I slipped with (ha-ha) inhuman grace into the room beyond landing neatly on my bed. A moment later and my bundle of clothes and weapons hung from its accustomed peg outside under my window sill where a gargoyle hides it neatly from view. Then with my jobs done I slid silently under my covers.
Seconds later I heard footsteps in the corridor outside my room. I closed my eyes and laid back the very picture of innocent slumber I assure you.
My door creaked open and I heard the footsteps enter. One of my long pointed ears flicked ever so slightly as the door groaned shut again but my acting is, of course, perfect. I was as still as a grave full of gravestones that had been gravely wounded... My analogies, as well, are perfect.
“Ah Lady Lyteth you have returned to us in one piece I see,” I growled softly to myself and sat up in bed looking across at Gideon Crowforth my manservant. He placed the lamp he was holding gently on my bedside table and bowed deeply, flicking his long black tailcoat out as he did so, “And from the burn marks on your sheets it seems you came the worse for wear out of yet another fight. If the young mistress intends to get injured again tomorrow I will require an hour off in the morning to acquire more reinforced bandages.”
Gideon is one of the only... Memories? Relics? Things my mother left me before she left. I don't like to talk about it even to Bright and I'm certainly not getting into it with you lot. Suffice to say he's like 200[30] eons old and knows more about Shaitan’s than anybody I’ve ever met (although considering most think my mother’s race is a myth that's not actually hard). Me being half-human does mean he's wrong sometimes but not often.
Gideon reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a roll of the flexible woven metal bandages that he always carries. My blood is super acidic so normal cloth or cotton bandages just burn away from my wounds in seconds (as a few of the briefer butlers and babysitters that were assigned to supplement Gideon over the eons have learned to their horror). And yes I had gotten a shallow cut from taking down the furnace-knights. I didn't mention it to Bright of course since I don't like her worrying about me but a shattered bit of a pressure release valve had cut me across the back of the hand and the wound was currently busy burning through my bedclothes (like it had done to my glove a few hours ago, luckily my clothes are the same shade of red as my skin so Bright never noticed). It had staunched itself already obviously in the hours since it was inflicted but the scab had broken when I opened the window.
“Bugger!” I shouted as I noticed the spreading acid for the first time. I leapt out of bed and ran over to the sink letting the bright red acid in my veins spill across the enamel which it promptly started to dissolve. As it did so the room was filled with the scent of syrup and lemon which was what my blood (rather unaccountably) smells like. “Hurry hurry!” I snapped waving frantically at him.
“Yes mistress.” Said Gideon his voice slow, smooth, cultured and distinctly put upon. He always sounded like that whether I was asking for extra scones or fencing lessons (one of the skills he displayed from his time working for my mother was a baffling and nearly inhuman ability with a blade and as a half-human myself trust me when I say I know what I'm talking about there).
Gideon was extremely deft and very careful with the bandages since my blood can melt human skin about as quickly as it burned through anything other than metal. Well one kind of metal at least, all the others still burn given time.
“I shall visit the silversmiths again tomorrow,” murmured Gideon smoothly. “Unless the young mistress intends to give up her adventuring and start taking her studies more seriously?”
I just stared at him, golden eyes wide with disbelief. He shook his head and bent back to his task with a sigh. “I suppose it was foolish of me to ask ma’am.”
“We got an aether disruptor today,” I said after a few more seconds’ silence. “And I took down a couple of furnace-knights.”
“An aether disruptor like the one that Duchess Ashford so recently showed your father?” Gideon’s voice didn't lose its put upon tone but it became slightly softer around the edges.
I looked away from him, “Well of course, how else would I find out about fun things to steal?” The candlelight struck lines off my crimson skin which helpfully served to mask the beginnings of a blush (which for me turns my skin black, I don't even understand the science of how that works but there we go).
“I understand lord Lyteth had invested a significant amount of capital in its invention, I think he intended its patent to revitalise the house....”
I pulled my hand free and walked back over to my bed. “Thank you Gideon that will be all.”
I heard him pause behind me then his coat crinkled as he bowed. “Yes young mistress.” He said his voice was kind and sad in equal measure. Seconds later the door creaked as it swung open and then groaned as it closed behind him.
As his soft footsteps faded away into the distance I paced back and forth in my room. “How dare he?” I muttered feeling roiling venom rising in my throat[31] “HOW DARE HE!” Stomping to a halt I lashed my tail out from under my skirts and buried its long black barbs into the bedpost next to me (which shortly began to smoulder).
“HOW DOES HE THINK HE CAN SAY THAT?” My heart burning with anger I raised my hand, my claws shot out with a velvety snapping sound and I... stopped moving... then sighed deeply.
A childish tantrum will do me no good I thought as I pulled my tail free from the bedpost and sheathed my claws.
Sighing again I looked around at the dingy room in the hateful house then my eyes fell on the lamp Gideon had left and, almost despite myself, I smiled. It was a long taper lantern which would burn all night.
Ruefully shaking my head I clambered back into my bed smoothing the quilt down on top of myself. “Old man’s good for something I guess.” I muttered to myself burying my face in my pillow and falling soundly asleep.