Raven Feathers

Chapter One

"Watching"

His footsteps were silent in the cavernous chamber as he steadily marched forward. The trailing edge of his robe dusted silently behind him along the burnished marble floor. Silence echoed around the room.

The chamber was built into the walls of an underground cavern. Corinthian columns were etched from the naturally rough surface of the cave itself, and fine crystal or reflective glass hung suspended from stalactites in the chamber's ceiling. The great length of the hall was nearly bare except for the black robed figure walking silently to the single adornment on the smooth marble floor. A gray stone basin appeared to rise from the marble, growing straight from the stone beneath the floor, as much a natural formation of the cave as the stalactites themselves. But like everything else in the room, it had been molded, changed, and transformed until it barely resembled its previous natural order. Clouds curled around its pedestal, etched in relief from the stone, their wispy shapes curling lazily around the base while carven rays of light drifted lazily down from the circular basin of water, a magnificent sun depicted along the bottom of the bowl. Then, stretched in carefully carven relief until they appeared to drift through the clouds, were divine angels. Details worked so finely into their face that their heavenly beauty appeared nearly lifelike, if not for its perfection. Expansive wings with detailed feathers stretched their tips along the wisps of clouds, and the carven figures appeared float through their stone heaven.

An odd silence blanketed the room even as the lone figure slowed his pace towards the basin. His walking had made no sound along the floor, nor the gentle swish of his robes with movement, and the glass and crystal above was soundless as they shifted and spun to reflect the minimal light of the room in all directions. A bluish-green glow diffused throughout the room, shadows flickering and wavering in the soft light.

The light fell on the figure cloaked in black robes and created flickering flames along his clothes, dancing with the smooth movements of his body as though a ballet of lights. He came to a halt beside the stone basin, and the blue-green glow lit his face from below.

The air became thicker and pressed more heavily on his tall frame, covering the room with an oppressive still as he stood beside the basin of glowing water, and, for several moments, he stood as motionless as the air within the chamber.

The sudden shifting of the long sleeves of his robe first seemed like the beginning of a chill within the cavern, but the movement was transmuted into the slow raising of the man's hand, the gesture like the slow progress of time to nature, where eons pass and mountains grow or crumble but only with the long passage of time, when in the interim these great forces are overlooked or forgotten. With deliberate care, he dipped a pale, elegant hand into the liquid. Droplets of now clear water trailed down his palm and hand, falling into obscurity within the sleeves of his robe. A single tear pearled along one skeletal finger, sliding down to its very tip. He raised his hand above the center of the pool of water, and the room watched with bated breath as the drop slowly fell away from his hand. Falling straight through the air with the slowness of a feather, but without the erratic drifting as though air no longer had any bearing and time was meaningless..

The first noise in the chamber since the man had stepped within was his sudden rapid, rattling intake of breath just as the droplet hit the water with a soft ping. The quiet sound echoed like an explosion around the room, and suddenly the crystal and glass was stirred by an unseen wind into a chorus of tinkling voices. Ripples spread out rapidly from the point of impact, and the cloaked figure leaned over the basin, the glow dimming until the light barely reached beyond the man's face. The soprano tinkling of glass still drifted from an unseen source in the background.

A distorted shape was forming from the ripples of the watery basin, and as the water stilled, a reflected face appeared. Kind, warm brown eyes stared back with small crinkles spreading from a smile. Cheeks were ruddy with warmth and life as the face suddenly turned, and the cloaked man stood watching the reflection of a worn face from his vantage point above the pool.
The young woman, lines of age and hardship morphing into smiling wrinkles, ran carefree through a hazy world where glowing jellyfish lit the blue night with the soft light of floating stars and drifted lazily through the air.

The man touched the water briefly and the ripples shifted the image.

A group of children were laughing, their mouths moving with the familiar shape, but no sound escaping the dimly glowing water of the basin. He dipped his finger into the water once again and watched the ripples swirl away.

Another young woman was now within the bowl, the image of her fading into a blue-green glow around the edges of the circular basin. Her face was young and glowing, and her features were rounded, childlike, but she carried herself with the bearing of a proud, confident woman. Her hair fell in waves of black down her back, contrasting sharply to the pale color of her skin. Her eyes were dark as well, a deep, nearly violet, blue. Her body was tall, but unnaturally thin and she looked trapped at the cusp of adulthood despite her obvious maturity.

She was dancing, twirling within a myriad of people in elegant gowns and masks. Her own was remarkably simple next to the extravagance of the other couples, yet beautiful in its simplicity. The dark violet of her dress made the darkness in her eyes more pronounced, and against the paleness of her skin, a slight, pale flush of pink along her cheeks gave her whole face a glowing color. Her long black hair was left to hang in rolling waves on her shoulders and the mask was as alluring as it was mysterious. Dark, glossy feathers swept back from her eyes in the semblance of a pair of wings and a single crystal diamond glittered from the center of her masked forehead, laying fragile and breathtaking from its nest of black feathers. Her dark eyes were lined in silver color and a dark wine color dusted her lips. She appeared every inch the raven.

The dim glow revealed a small uplifting of pale lips on the man's face, a ghost of a smile. He leaned forward briefly, and the curtain of his hair fell forward to frame his face and shield it from view. The blue-green glow backlit the glossy black sheen on his hair as he leaned more fully on the stone basin. His robes fell forward, cloaking the basin and shielding its etched carvings from view. A sudden crack echoed around the chamber, filling the silence with noise and fear. The robed figure was gone before the basin had hit the floor, a clean crack running diagonally through the pedestal where the angels flitted oblivious. Water rushed across the marble floor and the glow died with the endless sound of stone cracking and breaking upon stone.