I burst through the front doors of my manor, racing across the courtyard when a thunderous rumbling rises up from the cliffs. I watch Leverii scatter from it, frozen in place as a great slab of the wall slides away. Stirring up a cloud of dust where it impacted at least a fifth of Morfan’s city and his home. My bow slips from numb fingers, clattering to the stone.

The attack had begun when I’d found Zaki’s cage door wide open and Zaki himself gone. That hardly matters now that Morfran is dead, I can’t even remember why I’m out here.

I squint, a flash. Something punches through the rubble, it’s bright like a star and I can see two figures emerging. They shoot into the sky, a black dot against the sky, then swoops into the centerpoint of Ecrye. Scooping up my bow, I too take off to see what this strange display is all about.

“You destroyed my tree.” A familiar voice snarls.

The scene laid out before me is surreal. The Fallen herself is standing off with the Leverii Monarch butterfly. Sword in one hand and… Morfran’s alive!

“I’ll kill her.” The Monarch is missing an arm but still holds a sword to Lezabel’s throat. My arrow solves that problem, now the Monarch has a hole in her hand.

The Fallen lunges, severing The Monarch’s head. Then, turning in my direction, points her sword at me.

“Cloud Spire.”

And that’s all I need.

It’s so easy to get into Cloud Spire it’s scary. The Ivory Lady truly doesn’t expect an Ignaisin to drop out of the clouds and walk right through the front doors of her temple. The walls are too close for me to fly through them, as if flying in any building is a safe idea. There aren’t even any windows and all I have to do to keep anyone from following me inside is to barricade the door. Circling above earlier, there were skylights but there’s no way I can physically wiggle through two inch gaps, only a rat can do that and I'm definitely no rat. Except, I feel like one, lady ivory’s temple is a maze and I can’t make heads or tails of it. Zaki probably knows this place like the back of his hand and where he might be in this place, the most likely of them are all very unpleasant.

I find the dungeons rather easily but Zaki is nowhere to be found so I ask some of the inmates whether or not a pretty brunet with blue eyes and freckles passed through. Most don’t respond but one jaded old geezer gives me directions to a courtyard.

Pushing open the doors, my heart sinks at what is laid out before me. A forest of crosses, it makes me sick to acknowledge anymore than the frames but I need to know if he’s here. So I force myself to look.

I don’t recognize any of them and for a time I'm relieved. Until I’m suddenly not.

Zaki is among the crucified. He’s naked from the waist up, covered by barely more than a dirty sheet; they were trying to shame him. I can’t tell if he’s still breathing and that’s what terrifies me.

As soon as I'm finished dry heaving, I stumble my way to his frame and punch it till Zaki rouses.

“Hey!” I give the wood another hit. “How do I get you down?”

“Lift up.” He slurs.

I stare at the base of the cross as if it’ll spill it’s secrets for me. Lift it up? Is that even possible for one person to do without help?

Oh well, I think as I wrap my arms around the cross’s base. Zaki himself doesn’t weigh much, he’d be incredibly easy for me to punt across my room but the cross he’s bound to feels as though it’s filled with lead. If only Zeldris were here, he’d rip this thing in half.

Just as the tears flood my eyes, the wood groans, splinters flying. One centimeter, two, three, four and it begins to lean. Crackling, the tree topples too fast and too far forward for me to slow it down in time to spare Zaki a hard landing. I cringe at the loud crash it makes on impact. 

I’m kneeling over him in seconds anyways. I tear out the pegs that pinned his delicate wrists and feet to the wooden frame, taking care to release his wings, and chuck the thorny crown so hard it cracks in half against the far wall of the chamber. I wipe the blood from his eyes, taking care not to stab out his eyes with my sharp nails. He blinks away the fog, recognition washing over his demeanor.

I sit him up but he slumps forward, burying his face in my shoulder. “You found me.”

“Damn it all, Zacchaeus! Why did you do it?”

“For you.” He chokes out.

I shake my head. “I’m taking you home.”

Zaki lifts his head to give me a weak smile.

I lift him into my arms and whisk him out of this nightmare.

Turning into a small ballroom-like corridor a loud crack rings out. Resonating off the walls of my skull. The world tilts and I can’t understand why, nor do I have time to process either. White hot talons tear into the back of my left eye socket, bleeding into the right but with less intensity. My knees give out with it, tearing Zaki from my grasp and pressing my newly liberated hands to my ears to dampen the terrible ringing rattling my brain. I grit my teeth and take in the thing that rolls into my line of sight. It looks like a little more than half my…

Zaki is goggling at my head, fingers pressed to his lips, some dark liquid dripping onto his face; blood I realize.

Abscently, I pick up the broken piece of my horn, Placing it on Zaki’s chest and curling his hands over it. “Hold this.”

“What are you doing?” He mutters.

I don’t answer him, I rise to meet Evangelos instead. I clear the tears from my eyes and draw my bow, knocking an arrow just for him. “Coward.”

Evangelos shrugs, raising his crossbow for another shot. “I’ll make sure to hit your face this time.”

I drop into a crouch, tucking my wings as close to my body as possible and launch myself at him.