She wasn't there when it happened, but she swore the moment it did, a shiver ran down her spine and the wings upon her back shuddered like crumbling leaves in the wind. The once gentle breeze that caressed her turned violent, unforgiving, as if protesting against something. Her eyes, as bright as a summer sky, narrowed slightly and she pivoted her body in the direction of the wind. It sent her brilliant mane of night and day thrashing around her body, and for a moment she thought she could hear a scream in the wind, the tone almost familiar to her...
"Merli?" The soft voice of the Princess drifted in her ears as the winds died down and she turned once more, giving her attention to one of the only people important to her.
"It's nothing, Princess. Let's continue." With those clipped, formal words, the small group she watched over continued their walk through the courtyard without another moment of hesitation, but in the back of her mind, something dark settled, and she found her heart heavy with loss.
Pain.
It hurt, certainly, but it wasn't the right word to describe it. How does one even put it into words, the feeling of something so vital, so precious, being ripped from your very core? The muscles in his back clenched, a scream clawing its way through his throat. Ringing filled his ears, his mind an incoherent mess of words and sounds and every thought that could pass through his head at this very moment. He could feel the rawness in his throat, heard an earth-shattering cry of agony ring through the air, and for a moment he couldn't place the sound. But when it did, his world crumbled.
The ringing in his ears faded to the dull roaring of the wind around him. He could almost hear its concern, echoing through him in its quiet, quiet whisper, the one he knew better than his own voice. He blinked against the blackness threatening to overtake his vision, forcing himself to hold himself together, to look up, to see.
His wings still twitched manically in his father's hands, trying to escape his tight hold even after the deed had been done. His stomach lurched; he clamped down on it, fighting against the stinging taste of bile in the back of his throat. He could feel his own blood leaking down his back.
"Let this be an example of what happens to traitors." The General dropped his son's wings to the filthy floor. "Now begone."
He let his head hang as he was dragged through the portal, tossed through like garbage. His back sang with slow burning agony as he collided with the ground, and he managed to lift himself up just long enough to give in to the rolling of his insides, emptying his stomach in the dirt before his strength failed him. He closed his eyes against the feeling of the entire world spinning, letting out a low groan.
As he sank into unconsciousness, his last fleeting thoughts were of vivid azure pools, too blue to be real, and the disappointment he imagined they would soon be filled with. His heart sank, heavy with regret.