Page 59 of Glass Wings
“No, no, she is much more than that. Hailey here is the one we’ve all been waiting for. She is a full-blooded Kinnari descendant. The first, the only.”
Hushed whispers broke throughout the group, even among people in the background who didn’t seem to be listening. Everyone hosted a range of emotions on their faces, not excluding panic, fascination, or awe.
“What did you just tell them I am?” she asked Sheng, having understood none of it. Her eyes flitted back, her head now also unable to support herself. Her vision turned black as she collapsed, unconscious, into Sheng’s arms.
18
Reign | Myrilosis | Late 1900s
Vortexes of windsprayed melted snow and ice so fiercely that Reign felt as if she were avoiding hundreds of knives, all aiming for her throat and heart. Arryn stood in the storm's center, his anger fueling the power that was blowing her away. Being forced to tuck her wings back in, Reign fell to all fours, inching towards Arryn to command his tantrum to be over.
Above him was a figure, a shape that did not resemble anything. It was only a black void of space and time. She had never laid eyes on the Life Gifter before, but seeing that the god didn’t waste any time presenting a relatable form told her most of what she needed to know about the creator of this universe.
Everyone was here for her, the pain and burning and the fear that this family was experiencing was all her fault. If she hadn't told anyone, then maybe she could have found a way to save Allienna’s life by herself. She could have done it alone and spared them all of this.She had been so selfish. She would never again break the rules given to her regarding time jumping.
“Arryn, help,” screamed Roksana, though Arryn likely couldn’t hear her plea. Precession was mangled, trapped in a maelstrom, being spun as the wind had her wings pinned to the air. She let her body go limp and lifeless, like a doll being tossed between children in the sky.
Roksana’s hands were buried in the earth, clawing onto anything that kept her grounded as her panicked face searched for a way to help her twin sister. Her red hair whipped around angrily, and Reign could feel Roksana’s loosening grip on her magic as Reign’s own fear and terror steadily increased. She felt as if she were about to have a goddamn heart attack. Surely, Roksana was amplifying every emotion trembling off of her.
“Arryn,” she shouted, screamed, continuing to inch closer to the brute. He would pay for this if she left here alive. Putting on a show like this in front of something all-powerful felt like suicide, and he had a baby on the way. He needed to protect her best friend. Allienna was destined to die as well.
Reign was less than six feet from Arryn; the skin on her neck had started to crack from the cold and wind daggers.
“One hand forward, one knee forward,” she yelled out loud to keep herself motivated. This fucking wind made it impossible. Her muscles were screaming. She was trying to crawl through a tornado.
A shimmering astral dress stepped before her, seemingly untouched by the chaos Arryn had created. Karmakara held out a hand towards Reign, who accepted it willingly, wincing at the normalcy of the gesture. The goddess’s kind eyes lit up, her skin as smooth and as dark as the cosmic sky, with stardust highlighting her more attractive human features.
Reign was able to get to her feet, the wind still pulling her body back despite Karmakara’s good hold on her. She watched the goddess span the distance and place her other long arm onto Arryn’s shoulder.
Arryn stiffened and, for a moment, all was still. Tornados seemed cemented in time, and half a tear was stuck in Roksana’s eyelash.
Reign realized that she had never been so cold as she was at that moment. Time was not still—she was frozen. The temperature had plummeted when Karmakara touched Arryn, and it was suddenly impossible to blink or move. The sensation of her eyelids about to crack like fine glass was a first for her.
Arryn turned his head slowly, his eyes locked on Karmakara. Reign saw the distrust, the hurt in the Kinnari’s face when he took in the scene around him. The destruction and chaos he created without even trying was exactly what he had always hated about himself. This being was the noble gladiator she picked up many years ago who was there of his own free will, giving penance for the pain he had caused.
Arryn let go in that moment, and the sensation of warm blood flowing back through Reign’s heart caused a moment of shock.
“Djoser,” Arryn called out in a plea for help, panting and noticing Reign parallel with him for the first time. The tornados vanished as if they never had existed at all. Any darkness or threat of storm lifted away, revealing Djoser and Amis clinging to each other midway up a large tree.
“He could have ended the storm that entire time?” Reign asked rhetorically, throwing her hands up in the air but bringing them back into herself once she realized who she accidentally pointed to.
“I’m here to fight for my family,” Arryn yelled up at the nothingness, the cloud of darkness and essence that was so alive and horrifying at the same time.
“And that,” Arryn said as his hand pointed towards Ayurveda, “killed a member of my family. There must be retribution. I demand that my child is granted safety. I demand that Allienna and Reign are granted?—”
“You are nothing, no one, to make demands,” the husky female voice of Ayurveda filled the skies as her flamed body appeared, levitating through the air, making herself both visible and invisible to everyone watching.
“You do not speak for the Gifter, for my creator,” Arryn yelled outin frustration. Reign’s breath caught, wondering why Arryn had a death wish. Ayurveda was the real danger here. They were nature's prey, all of the Kinnari, a pale comparison to the power of any of the deities in their presence. If there was a trigger button to push, Reign felt it obvious that Ayurveda could blow up like a celestial grenade.
“There is no voice to speak for the Gifter,” Karmakara’s high-pitched voice soothed, giving Reign the feeling of peace and destiny. This was the path then; it had to be. Where she stood was right. The goddess of fate wove all their stories together in real time.
“The Gifter, as you can see, did not choose to embody a physical being before appearing before you all. More importantly, you are mistaken. No true kinnari life has ever been taken by one of your creators, by one of us.”
Reign took to anger in that moment as a celestial being, the greatest power, was lying. It made no sense to her. She felt like a child, left with no information. Powerless.
“She made the Vrae,” Reign whispered through clenched teeth, though everyone seemed to be able to hear her. “The Vrae killed Tristan. The murder, the gore will always forever live with me.” Tears streamed down her face. Why was she so weak? Why was she being vulnerable in front of this audience?
“A true Kinnari cannot die,” Amis said, gliding down from the safety of the large tree side by side with Djoser. “Otherwise, the balance in the realm is uneven since a true full-blooded Kinnari can also not be born.”
