Page 60 of Court of Aether and Shadows

Or beginning?

I’d begun to hold my breath after my last words, and how the stinging burn of my lungs only made this fall more agonizingly painful. It made me pick up on the sight following me — a creature, following my descent with what I could have sworn was a look of approval in its gleaming eyes.

Pushed me to endure it, feeling the sudden shift in the spiraling atmosphere. The stirring power, the whispers of the wind, and the droplets of uncertainty created frost across my flushed cheeks.

It took biting my bottom lip to realize this was all real and happening, but I began to grasp the change in worlds.

The veils between my plummeting reality and the enchanting beauty of color shifting and blending.

Until they were one.

Home At Last

~SPARROW~

“I’m still falling?”

The wind whistled past my ears as I plummeted from the rooftop, my heart racing with a mixture of fear and exhilaration.

Marco's betrayal, the chaos of the mission, the strange shift between a world of unexplored territory and tempting reality — all of it swirled in my mind as the ground rushed up to meet me.

For a split second, I try to wonder, who I once was.

What life did I live that encouraged the senseless death of the innocent? I wouldn’t kill a family, would I? An entire village? Maybe…not intentionally?

Key pieces were missing in this trivial riddle, and Marco knew that. He wanted me to feel guilty. As if I deserved to spend my last moments of life thinking of the terror and turmoil I caused to him and a family I never knew existed.

A village within a place of starlight and a fae prince that betrayed his court for me.

All of it sounded preposterous to me, but if it was nothing, would I keep pestering my frazzled mind over it? There was asense of familiarity with the situation, but I didn’t…pity him.Pity them.It felt deserved.

A punishment plagued the lands as a reminder of who carried the scythe of judgment in their grasp.

A shame to admit, I didn’t feel bad in the slightest. I guess it was a blessing when I dared think about it. To not feel a hint of remorse, because truthfully, there was nothing to be ashamed of.

At least, that’s what my very being told me.

Just as I braced for impact, convinced these were my final moments, the world around me shimmered and rippled. It felt as if I was passing through a curtain of cool mist, and suddenly, I was no longer falling through the frosty city air.

Instead, I plunged into chilled water, deep and startlingly clear.

HUH?!

The shock of it drove the air from my lungs, but some instinct –one I didn't even know I possessed– took over. My body moved with a grace and certainty that felt both foreign and achingly familiar, propelling me upward through the crystalline depths.

As I swam, I caught glimpses of impossible beauty, especially when I realized just how deep I’d fallen within this paradise of underwater bliss.

Schools of fish with scales that glowed like living jewels darted past me. Plants in shapes I'd never seen before swayed in an unfelt current, their fronds reaching out as if to caress me as I passed.

The water itself seemed alive, tiny motes of light dancing through it like underwater fireflies.

When I finally pierced the surface, I gasped, filling my lungs with sweet, fragrant air, unlike anything I'd ever breathed before.

It tasted of exotic flowers and sun-warmed fruit, with an underlying crackle of energy that made every nerve-ending tingle.

Holy fucking hell…I made it. I…survived?!

"I'm... alive?" I sputtered, treading water as I tried to make sense of my surroundings. Gone was the dark city night, the looming threat of capture or death.

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