Lowly Ascent

"Is it true you're a raven, birdie? Father has been looking for one. Father says ravens are important to all the cults. I don't know why though. Father never tells me anything important, he says he'll tell me when I'm older but I'm old enough now!" The girl complained, going on and on as she leaned on Cain's cage.

'This girl doesn't stop...though, the part about Ravens seems important...'

"Darla, didn't your father tell you not to tell the bird anything?" From the shadows, the Counselor entered the light.

"Come child, your father wishes to see the raven, he wishes for privacy."

"Father's coming here?" She asked.

"Yes, now come." The Counselor took Darla by the hand. The two left Cain, entering the dark.

'So the father is some sort of head honcho? Even this counselor left for him.' Cain waited in silence.

A while later, footsteps echoed in the chamber where Cain was held. The jingling of bells came with every step, and soon, Cain saw a staff of bells escape the shadows, along with a bloodied man with a sewn body.

Parts of his body were torn with peeled skin, it was obvious they were in a fight recently. The man himself was young, around 30, their skin a darkish pale with bags under the eyes. The man had thick black hair and his most prominent feature was his mouth, sewn shut with what looked to be hair.

The man jingled the staff. Suddenly, a voice entered Cain's mind.

(Lots of people are after you little one. I made the mistake of striking first and had to deal with the consequences. If you were wondering what's with the staff, the cult that attacked likes bells, just like how we like sewing our bodies. Hehe)

He laughed and took a few steps around the cage, the man knew how ridiculous all of this must seem, even more so since he was talking to a bird.

(I came here to help clear your head. Payment, for when I take your life, sacrificing it to my god. I believe you to have some intelligence, you have taken actions that show you understand things at least.)

Cain didn't move, his eyes narrowing on the staff of bells painted in blood.

The man stared at Cain and smiled. (Yes, it was a hard fight, those maniacs far outnumber us, their leader far stronger than me, but for a single raven, such resources are not worth it.) The sewn man's lips stretched, the black hair sewn between his lips visibly becoming more prominent.

Kneeling on one leg to get a close up look on Cain, the man tapped the stolen staff against the birdcage, causing the raven to instinctively caw.

Jingle Jingle Jingle

(I wonder, if you are truly intelligent, what you might know. You come from the Bureau, you must've overheard some secrets, or do they take precautions against even that...) The priest stood up and began to pace again.

(I remember when my father told me about ravens, he was a boy when the great hunt commenced and ravens were killed by the cults and eventually captured by the Bureau. Although your kind is more intelligent than other birds and had power over luck in a sense, it was already proven you were of no use in harnessing such powers, ravens being only useful for concoctions and such. Yet...a revelation from a priestess came, not just from any priestess, but from The Priestess of the Vale...)

...

In a massive church hidden in a valley outside the countryside, within its pristine walls, a man in priestly robes entered a large chamber. At the end of the chamber was an altar where a woman with cloth over her eyes prayed, from the cloth blocking her sight, blood flowed.

"Head Priestess, you asked- oh my! Priestess your eyes are bleeding!"

A quiet reserved voice echoed, "I'm fine. God has graced me with his presence. We have been given a mission."

'God?!' The man looked at the altar, there was nothing on it but behind it on the wall was a tapestry of symbols and lines.

This tapestry was the symbol of the Onlooker. If translated into the form of the cults and how they respect their gods and their forms, it was an idol, God's representation in the mundane world.

The Priestess continued, "God has had a vision, in the near future there will be a great danger that might prove to meddle in God's plans, it will take the form of a specific bird, a raven. God has given us the mission to eradicate these birds so that evil may never come. If not eradicate at least leave few enough where we will know where this evil will be."

"Priestess....that's an entire species...it will be far harder to do than you think. Plus the ravens are a special kind of bird, they have powers over luck."

Blood dripped and dyed her white clothes red. "It matters not, spread this news, twist it even. We only need to be fast enough until the false gods pick up on what we are doing and tell their followers to capture the birds instead of investigating. But before that, we will have the world humming to our tune, we have the resources. My only fear is that the Bureau will get in the way..."

Her plan was simple, use the church's connections and the fear from the revelation to exterminate the majority of ravens, the remaining few would be easy to track and deal with later.

The Priest's doubts were snuffed out by the Priestess's words, he humbly lowered himself.

"I see, your genius is above us all. I should not question god, I am ignorant. God's will shall be executed." He proceeded to leave the chamber, leaving the priestess to herself.

Under her breath, she whispered, "Hah

....how tainted has this holy order become."

...

The bells on the staff jingled as the priest sat down in the chair his daughter would sit in.

(When the world was told a great evil was to come from the species of raven, a bird not sought out since the age of fortune when people first learned of their powers of misfortune, the world panicked. The public was told the birds carried a deadly disease while the cults and Bureau were told of the danger within the race itself. We hunted and hunted until our gods revealed the truth, that the raven was something dangerous to the Church. We scattered to capture the few that remained and sacrificed them for god's favor, but the remaining were taken by the bureau.)

The priest leaned in, his face close to Cain, almost touching his beak through the cage.

(You are special, but I do not know how special. I hope you are the one God seeks, for then the gift I will be granted will be enough for our church to rise and destroy the Vale, taking our place at the top! But before then, get stronger, I need a powerful specimen if I am to attract God's gaze!)

Although the man's face was constricted with thread, his eyes were full of life, so much that there was a burning desire. A desire Cain had seen in many people who once served him.

'Such is the way of those at the bottom, only every wanting to devour the ones above them. It is like an infinite ladder where they keep wanting more, for they cannot see how far they are from the top, a summit they can never reach. The world is huge, satisfaction isn't something humans have, only hunger. At least for people like this, that is.' 

Cain knew many who had endless desires, but there were a few who were humble and only wished for peace in the corners of his memory. 

The Raven looked away, going back to his food. The priest smiled and left at some point after that.

An hour or so later, Darla returned, eagerly looking at Cain.

'Hah...at least I know why I was hunted now. I'm like a golden goose that will lay a massive egg once sacrificed. Nowhere is safe, the Bureau wants to lock me away and everyone else wants me dead. Waiting won't work, I need to do something.'

His beak pointed up, Cain was staring at the bright light above him and the cage around him.

'Although I don't know if this will work since I haven't tried yet, but the cores are connected to me, body and soul. My body isn't here, but I am, and I have half of my origin, which will make my success rate higher.'

Cain licked his beak clean before sitting down in his nest.

'Here goes nothing.'

Closing his eyes, Cain focused his breath and entered a rhythmic state. Soon, the world seemed to destabilize around him and when he opened his eyes again, he was in a world of blood.

Now, however, even the blood was barren, the sky losing its color, and the eye in the sky forever shut.

'The body is the container of the soul, did something change because I'm not in my body?'

A weak voice called out behind Cain.

"Master...Master is that you?"