A different kind of silence

The structure below remained as magnificent as ever, towering largely over everyone, including even the Empress herself.

Everyone was tired and exhausted,

At a corner, the Queen of light along with Rohaan were being tended to, their wounds slowly closing up, Rohaan who was almost completely devoid of energy was dangling his dagger between his fingers, his expressions were distant.

The Queen of light sat, embracing him from the side in a motherly hug, #212 was sitting beside Rohaan and the rest of the squads were with the Empress, they were staring at the bursting pool of massive energy that the gateway was,

Golden's eyes were thoughtful, light blue of the gateway danced within her irises.

She turned around and everyone looked up at her,

"Queen Lara, along with Rohaan, will get the core of wasl to safety" Lara's eyes twitched, she felt a deep sting at that, it reminded her of how Rohaan was made to play the sacrifical entity, she was not informed about it at all, but her reverence towards the Empress was such that she dared not ask about the matter at the moment,

She simply nodded affirmitively.

"Everyone else is already informed of their objectives"

#212 nodded,

"Remember, we must keep the gateway open until the armies completely cross through, nomatter what" The empress said and turned around to depart.

But just before she entered through the gateway, a creature never seen before emerged from the shadows, it was tall and lanky,

it looked as if it was a shadow made tangible by an unknown force, swaying like an ominous black mark with wildly moving limbs and a roughly put together face, its eyes were like two black voids with hints of purple burning somewhere deep within.

At first glance the entity looked extremely hostile, prompting the soldiers to surround it in a matter of seconds, but #212 dismissed them, and on the contrary asked everyone to give the Empress some privacy.

The soldiers unconditionally, obeyed.

'That was too reckless you damn black cat' #212 muttered to himself as he withdrew aswell.

For years proceeding the liberation of Shomaal, those who knew Amawas on a personal scale and were not affiliated directly with the monarchy were identified and targeted, and their memories were rewritten regarding her.

Amawas was made into an extremely secret existance for the realm and it had cost the realm owing favors to highly disliked beings aswell,

but lately, something was prompting her to be unusually bold, it worried #212.

After the squads withdrew, including Lara and Rohaan,

The shadow took the shape of its master.

"My Queen, Something is not right" Amawas said, her voice cracking at the end uncharacteristically,

"What is it?"

Amawas stopped for a few seconds and forced herself to say something, which made the surroundings even colder than before.

"Azdaha the white seer prophesized an inevitable end of shargh, and the time is drawing extremely near- i just recieved a glider.. "

"Who sent it to you?"

"The Crow's mark"

Golden stood petrified, two things in that sentence were harrowing to even imagine, the first was, Azdaha was a powerful, unchallenged seer, she was also known for her ruthlessness but there wasn't a single prophecy done by her that hadn't come true, it meant that shargh was absoloutely going to be destroyed in matter of short time, but the second thing scared Golden even further, it wasn't the kind of fear that would instill dread in your heart, she felt deep buddings of new hope, new unknown hope taking place within her, a new facet she had not even considered exploring, and that was the crow having its own objectives, which technically would not be possible unless..

'One thing at a time' She thought to herself, then turned around and dismissed Amawas.

************

Aatish flew away in an angry streak of flames, tearing open the stormy clouds.

Ever since the operation in Shargh, something inside her had started breaking, bit by bit, crack by crack. The last battle had completely shattered her from within, despite the victory.

The fake mask of an overly joyful and easygoing persona she had always worn was cracking away. Each raindrop that touched her skin stole a part of her soul. Her flames pulsed black for a brief moment before changing back to hues of blue and red.

A door that should never have been breached was now battered and hanging by its hinges inside her and the feelings she had kept locked away for centuries were rapidly taking over.

Black flames pulsed within her again, but she remained unaware, lost in her turmoil.

Perhaps, at first, the pain had been locked away due to the company she kept. The girls she cared for had felt like home. Then there was Amawas, who, despite her apparent evil persona, was a gentle and kind soul deep down.

These factors had kept Aatish sane, adaptable, and moving forward. But now, something felt too heavy inside her to carry around. She needed to let it out.

Flying through thick, foggy clouds, her mind wandered. Everything darkened as memories of a long-lost time took over. She remembered a time before any terrible events, when her weakness hadn't yet failed anyone.

In the hazy dimensions of her subconscious, she saw a tiny kitten covered in a shawl of blue flowers, plucking them in a field and gently collecting them on her shawl. Each flower she plucked was instantly replaced by another. Beside her, two slightly taller cats—one made of fire, the other soft and swirly like fluffy clouds—followed.

She was their little sister, Gul. And everything had started from the moment they failed her.

A sudden bitterness filled her mouth as she dwelled deeper. She hated Shahrukh bhaijan for that. What good was his strength if he couldn't save Gul? But was he entirely to blame? After all, she had been given a chance to reach Gul first.

She cursed Kehkashaan, she hated him. She cursed the sovereigns. She wanted to burn them, skin them alive if she could. Her fires turned black again. She wanted to destroy every cell of those who took Gul and her parents from her.

Before, she wasn't strong enough.

And now...

Now she wasn't either, and that realization killed her the most.

She grabbed her chest, it hurted like hell.

First, she had let Gul die.

And now she had let a whole battalion of soldiers who looked up to her die because she had been told to wait, to let Rohaan fight, as if those soldiers weren't hers. Each of their deaths felt like a deep stab, her mouth contorting in pain.

Some deaths were necessary, like Sarwar's. He was a traitor, so his death had to happen. But Aatish wondered if there could have been another way, one with fewer casualties.

She closed her eyes and let herself fall through the clouds. Wind brushing past her cheeks as streams of tears flew away until she crashed into a mountain, breaking it in a long, narrow trail of molten stone and lava, not even bothering to open her eyes.

She deserved this pain, she thought.

She deserved it because she was weak and helpless when it came to protecting the people most important to her, lost in the ever moving train of thoughts, she raised her hand up, staring at the vambrace of her armor.

The flames had turned a hue of deep purple, it was an odd color, she had never seen herself like this before.

With a glassy, indifferent gaze, she kept staring at its detailing until her eyes trailed behind on the clouds beyond.

They looked unnatural to say the least,

never in her years had she seen them so riled up as today above the shargh, the speed they were floating at indicated immense air pressure above, not even the titanic battle that had occured was able to develop a change of this scale.

Then she saw something that took her breath away, interlaced with the thick formations of clouds were thousands of tiny black dots, riding them and spewing purple lightning from time to time, and her eyes widened as she whispered to herself in disbelief.

'Thunderbirds?'