…..
Lost and quiet night hovering over the bay. By this time, late eleven, the majority of Titans headquarters were fast asleep. A circle of candles surrounded an outline in deep meditation, the only light in the sleeping building. Aromatic silence was agitated by a wild rapping on her steel door.
Purple eyes half opened.
"State your business."
Brilliant green peeked through the slip in the door. "Friend Raven? Are you present?" The empath waved her in, the rest of the door inching open.
"Come in, Starfire. What did you need?"
The alien woman nervously stepped into the gloom of her friend's bedroom, intimidated greatly by the enigmatic decorations.
"...I am not preoccupying your time?"
"Spit it out, Starfire."
"You are certain I should do the 'spitting out'?"
"Very."
Starfire hacked through the back of her throat, puffing out her cheeks. Raven clamped a hand over her perfect, bow mouth.
"Not… literally."
Amber cheeks reddened. "Oh. Forgive me. Friend Raven, I require your assistance." She twiddled her thumbs. "I thought you were more experienced in this field of practice, so I did not ask the assistance of our other friends-"
"Star," Raven said, impatiently. "Quit rambling."
Her bow mouth began to quiver. Starfire flung her arms around the other woman, wailing, "Oh dearest friend! I am most distressed by a nightmare of vast proportions. It has resided inside my nocturnal slumber for several days! I cannot stand another night of no sleep!" Raven slipped out of her tight grip, taking in the sight of bags under Starfire's eyes, her unkempt red hair, and frown lines in her normally smooth forehead.
She took pity on her, of course. "I'm not sure how I can help… I could go into your head, possibly."
Starfire whimpered, "You will assist me then, yes?"
"Sure. You should fall asleep naturally." Raven came down from floating over her bed. "Here's the deal. While you sleep, I'll meditate and go into your mind when you start dreaming. I'll observe what goes on; if the occasion calls for it, I'll interfere. If you want to stay here, be my guest." Starfire climbed onto the bed, glancing up at the V-angled headstand. She tugged the sheets.
"Yes, there must… are these mine?"
Raven cleared her throat. "Uh…do you need anything to help you get to sleep?" The alien woman looked around timidly, her muscular shoulders scrunching.
"It is very dark."
Raven silently pushed aside black drapes on the wall to reveal where she blocked out a massive window. Moonlight poured in sheets over the drab carpet.
"Do you not have an animal which is stuffed of cotton?" Starfire asked again, timidly. Raven plucked the raven stuffy off her bookcase and tossed it at her.
"Anything else?"
Green eyes trailed over the two faced statue, the menacing grin acrid and cruel. Starfire pointed to it, too afraid to speak.
The empath unhooked her cloak she was wearing, throwing the dark material over the statue. "Fixed the problem. Tired yet?"
The alien woman blurted out, "On my planet, when a Tamaranean child cannot sleep, their k'norfka sings them Tamaranean nursery rhymes."
"I don't sing."
"Need not, Friend Raven. I remember all 300,730 verses clearly."
A sequence of horrible screeches and strangling noises came from Starfire's mouth, issuing a throb of pain into Raven's skull. After almost an hour and a half of inharmonic gibberish, Starfire was sound asleep in Raven's bed, clutching the raven doll in her curled-up arms. Raven floated close by, eye twitching, "Finally, the madness has ended." She rested her arms on her knees and chanted, feeling her body tremble as her mantra vibrated between her lips, "Azarath Metrion Zinthos….Azarath Metrion….Zinthos…." Her soul-self began to rise from her body.
"Azarath…"
Her stomach jarred suddenly. Bile rose in her esophagus.
"Metrion…."
Spinning.
"Zinthos…"
The feeling of nausea passed quickly as the setting enveloped her.
Raven unthinkingly tried to touch her cloak but soon became conscious to the fact that it had been left behind. Wherever she was, it was -cold-. The empath glanced around at the solid white walls encasing her. 'Okay… situation check... I'm in a mental asylum. Starfire dreams about mental asylums. It is a wonder she wasn't a wreck sooner.'
When Raven looked across the room, she was startled to see a hunched-up shape in the corner. Someone who had her cloak in white. This person didn't notice her dark contour in the bright room and stayed motionless as the only door in the room swung open. Starfire, a younger Starfire, poked her head inside and asked shyly, "Hello? Who is here?"
As her brilliant green eyes overlooked over her side, Raven realized this was the description of what Starfire saw when she time-traveled. This was the 'supposed future'.
With cryptic interest, Raven watched as Dream-Starfire called out softly to Dream-Raven, shyly moving to grip her shoulder.
Instead of making a glowing black shield to keep her out, she allowed the motion and turned around to face her. Starfire recoiled as Dream-Raven threw her head back so that her hood fell away from her face. In place of the matching white leotard underneath the cloak, it was a gruesome red color.
Dream-Raven stretched out gray arms to Starfire in a loving gesture, sticky red liquid dripping from her fingertips. Dripping, staining the spotless floor.
The alien girl stared horror-struck at the blood on the floor and the mad woman smiling, the same red blemished the enamel of her teeth.
"It's Nightwing's. His life force is the blood that runs through his veins. Try some Koriand'r. Try some, sweet, kind Koriand'r."
Starfire shook her head, tears streaming down her cheeks as she backed against the closed door. Dream-Raven drew an arm around her shaking shoulders, pressing her bloody fingers into a soft, orange cheek. Starfire let out a tiny cry and turned her face to the wall, weeping steadily. "I imagine your skin will be more tender then his was," Dream-Raven said, lifting an orange arm to examine. Ashen lips gently skimmed over her arm. Starfire wept hard this time in revulsion.
Raven couldn't take it anymore. She shouted, "Starfire, move! It's just a dream! She's not real; she can't hurt you!"
In a flash, Dream-Raven had the other Raven in her clutches. Pure black eyes glittered. She growled heatedly, "If I'm not real, then how can you feel this?"
A fist slammed into Raven's face. Or so it would have if she hadn't ducked down, missing it by centimeters.
"STARFIRE! WAKE UP! YOU HAVE TO WAKE UP WAK-!"
The dream was gone.
Starfire sat up in the sheets, breathing hard, and sweat glistening on her forehead. Raven's soul-self smashed into her floating body and she went sprawling harshly onto her back.
Unmoving. Violet eyes glassy. Chest slack.
After a few seconds, her shoulders jerked once, twice, and gasps shuddered her upper torso. Raven jolted up into a sitting position, twinges of pain going up and down her arms.
"Raven, you are hurt!" Starfire gasped, concerned.
Her black sleeves were ripped. Deep, half-moon cuts carved into the flesh of her shoulders. Raven ran a finger over them to have her blood smear on her fingertips. She stared at them, a wash of warmth tickling the rear of her head. Her limbs lightened. Raven stood up before she could pass out, replying "I can cover it up," and pinned her cloak on. She didn't want her to know how truly shaken up she was.
Starfire pushed the sheets aside, getting to her feet.
"I believe what you would say is none of these events that have occurred can be spoken of to another living being and I wish to pretend it has not taken place."
"...Close enough to the saying. I'm sorry I can't help you further."
She didn't move to comfort the alien woman, but cast an honest gaze. "I won't hurt you like that in reality... believe me, Kor."
Starfire smiled unmistakeably at her name. "I am also sorry for the situation you have been put into." Raven watched her eyes shine mindfully. "To see the relationship you and Robin have be taken away is a greater tragedy. I too understand the duty a Princess must hold for her planet. To save your people, sacrifices must be made."
"Lucky Robin caught on to what Blackfire was really up to that time."
Starfire shook her head, clasping her arms over her chest insecurely. "I do not speak of my former engagement."
A strong, unfamiliar emotion came out of Starfire's soul-window eyes.
"At the age you would refer to as 'fourteen', an enemy threatened to destroy my home. To slaughter innocents by the galaxy, if not a royal Tamaran woman was handed over to him. I sacrificed myself for my Mother, for my sister, and for my people. The Tamaraneans rebelled against his forces soon after and our planet was once again whole."
Amber eyelids closed, pale eyelashes quivering softly with the effort to keep them shut.
"….I was not."
"You were defiled." No emotion came from Raven's statement.
Starfire reopened her eyes dimly, the catch in her voice no longer there, "Yes."
"I escaped as our enemy met his demise by the hands of my parents, their lives for mine. I came to Earth much later, looking for something new, a different existence, a reason why I survived. I love Tamaran as I always will, but hurtful recollection ensues when I visit. It is…" Raven summoned the raven plushie from her bed and into Starfire's lonely arms. She squeezed it forcefully, the seams threatening to burst.
"I wish for you not to speak of any of this."
"My lips are sealed."
Both women stood by the doorway and Starfire held out the ruined plushie. Raven replied, "You can keep it if you want." Starfire nodded and disappeared into the darkness of the hallway, her footsteps fading. The empath couldn't sleep now. Raven wanted to pack for the soon-to-be-journey to Azarath, but Starfire's memory had struck her off-guard. If she could think of the things Starfire would be hiding... that subject would have never crossed her mind.
They were all keeping secrets from each other. Was that the way a team was suppose to be? What other things were buried away?
Violet eyes flickered down.
Hers would have to wait for the moment.
A curious beeping echoed in the Tower. Raven discovered the cause as she turned on the monitors and checked the island. Someone was closing in on the entrance. She prepared for whatever it was to make its arrival known down by the mammoth-sized doors.
With her hands glowing, Raven thrust the entrance to the Tower wide open, coming nose-to-nose with a pair of jade orbs.
"Hey, Shorty. You got anything to eat in this dump?"
Blank silence followed after that announcement. She threw her arms around the boy in the foyer, embracing him with an unusual amount of affection.
"Garfield."
Beast Boy yawned a little, raising his eyebrows at her display of emotion. "Yeah…" He patted her shoulders. "Good to see you. I'd go crazy with the hugs... but I'm seriously starving."
…..
Inside the kitchen, Beast Boy heated up a few tofu dogs (hidden behind Starfire's Pudding of Matrimony) and warmed the soy milk. He patted his stomach. "Mmmm... nothing like a full stomach at two in the morning." He looked to his right to see Raven sitting nearby on a stool and still staring at him. "What?" He asked, "I got a soy mustache?"
"You dyed your hair."
Beast Boy perked up, running his hands through short locks of gold-blond styled in small mohawk.
"It was a last minute decision in hiding. But hey, I still got the green skin… so, I guess you don't hate me for leaving?"
She answered, "No. Robin had a difficult time understanding. He was upset."
"Upset like... missed me upset or the angry one?"
"The latter."
He pulled on a confused face and Raven smirked, not really believing it but she had missed that look.
"Angry one. He got over it. He'll be happier to see you back."
"I know the dude's gonna kill me but I had to go," Beast Boy argued. "You got the letter, right? You understand, don't you, Rae?"
She nodded calmly. He leaned back, relieved. "So, uh, what's been going on since I left?"
It took a total of three hours to explain everything to the last detail. Beast Boy's responses include and were not limited to: amazement; his catch phrases of dude and sweet; a colorful number of cusses; some more amazement; and disappointment for two reasons.
When she mentioned Starfire and Cyborg becoming friendly, a strange thing happened. His ears drooped and the shine in his eyes seemed to all together disappear with a trace.
Then came the shouting.
"What the hell? They can't make you marry a stranger!"
"They can and they are."
"They're all the way over there. They can't make you do anything." Beast Boy frowned. "What does Robin have to say about this? Don't tell me he's all for it because I'll call a bluff."
"He knows as well as I do." Raven's eyes narrowed gloomily. "...he hasn't said anything."
"No. You do have a choice, and you want to be unhappy for the rest of your life? Raven, you're smarter than that." Her bare, left hand fell over her lips and Raven dropped her eyes. Tears welling in her amethyst eyes. Beast Boy said, this time more warily, "...Why are you crying?"
Water-stains blossomed onto her spandex.
"I might be pregnant."
He wasn't sure he heard her correctly. Beast Boy dug a finger into his ear canal and wiggled. No wax.
Her arms crossed over her slim belly. "I have a suspicion that.. I might be pregnant with Robin's... i-if I am..." She stifled a weak sob into her hand and the green changeling gently enfolded her into his arms, carefully around her neck.
"I shoulda been here for this... Raven, please don't cry."
Her wet, scrunched face turned away. "I can't help it," she muttered. Not put off, he stepped away.
"Are you gonna tell him?"
Raven wiped her nose, hiding the remainder of her tears within the tucks of her hood. "Why tell him when I'll never be with him again?" she said. "Why give him that pain?"
"Do you have an idea how selfish you sound? Robin would want to know. It's his kid, too!"
Her eyes turned blue around the edges. "I said I might be. Keep your mouth shut about things you cannot possibly comprehend."
"I'm not going to rat on you, but show you have a heart under that stupid cloak by telling him."
Raven thought about raising a glowing arm but the stinging in her shoulder made her put it back down. "Where did you go to get your new silver tongue?"
Beast Boy lowered the higher pitch in his voice. "I didn't want to start a fight with you when I came back," he said, gripping her shoulders. "Believe me, it's the last thing I want. I don't know how you feel. I'm not pretending to. I just want to help." His green hand covered her limp, gray hand.
Her monotone cracked, the ill morning falling over their heads from the windows, "You always wanted to… you can help me by pretending this night never happened."
…..
Three weeks. Arella told her she just had three weeks before returning to Azarath became mandatory. Raven should have just told her to stuff it and destroyed the spell to ever enter that dimension again. At least, that's what she was telling herself the first week. In reality, she knew what couldn't be avoided.
On the last day, Raven decided to leave everything in her room. She'd be coming back, even with no hope, she'd come back.
The Teen Titans stood outside her bedroom door, waiting to say goodbye. No Robin. Her soul-self had already searched the entire island. He wasn't known to like farewells.
Somehow, she wasn't too upset by his disappearance. Call it a feeling.
Cyborg messed with her purple hair as he did when she was a kid.
"You be good, Dark Girl. We'll miss you." Raven favored him with one of her realest smiles.
Starfire cautiously hugged her with less force.
"Take care, Friend. I shall never find another Raven."
Cyborg agreed, "Yeah. You're one of a kind."
Beast Boy nudged her from behind.
"I'll miss my little sis." Raven didn't smack him, instead let him get his goodbye hug in. He gave her a big squeeze and whispered in her ear, "Tell him."
She said so everyone could hear her, "I'll be back, expect it." Raven looked to his eyes for a long time, then touched her lips wryly on his cheek. "I'm not your little sis, little brother." She didn't wait for a reaction and vanished into the confides of her room. A watchful figure stood in the middle of her circle she made.
"Did you really think I would let you get away before having my say?" Robin half smiled in the candlelight.
"You can't-"
He interrupted her, his hands cradling her face."You know wherever you go, I'll be following."
"Robin-"
"Accept it."
"I can accept that, but the matter is-"
He pressed a finger to her lips, the motion giving her comically aggravated look, and added, "Isn't there something I can say to your mom? Maybe…"
"Bird Boy, you are stubborn." Raven sighed, pondering a moment. "Maybe... there is something you can do. You could come with me, and help me convince Arella… I don't know…"
Robin said. quickly, "I'll do it."
At any rate, she had to give him credit for being enthusiastic. Raven drew him back into the circle, taking the ruby necklace off her bureau and slipped it over his head. She checked to be sure if it was hooked securely, her chin settling on his shoulder. His hands found their way to her back and massaged the flesh tenderly. She let out a soft sigh.
'That feels so good….'
Her neck arched as Raven pulled away, closing her eyes against the sensation of her skin being peppered with tiny kisses, shivering. Robin cradled the back of her head with his hand and kissed her mouth, breathing against it, "Here goes everything, I guess." Raven sat down on the carpet and he did the same, gripping her hands as she slowly floated up.
Dark blue light shrouded them both hovering three feet off the floor.
"-Azarath AZARATH!"
The ride was a blur but they came across their way safely, flying onto the stone and dust street. Raven spread out on Robin, his torso lodged between her legs. He smirked up at her, mischievously.
"I had a vague idea you liked it on top."
"Ever the gentlemen," she retorted, rolling off.
Robin helped her to her feet and brushed himself off.
"Kinda empty, huh? I don't hear a lot going on."
Raven glanced down one of the streets. Only two black robed people conversed unaware of the new guests. "After Trigon, not a lot of people survived."
'That's why they need me, to pop out the babies.'
She shuddered without thinking.
"What's everyone wear here?" Robin asked.
"Black. The monks have robes with hoods, everyone else has collars. My mother wears white to show nobility and my colors... are just there."
A soft voice coming from behind them. "Your Father's influence determined that." Robin was enchanted by this sudden melody. Arella stood nearby in her white robe, almost as tall as he was. He extended a hand in the direction of this new voice.
"I'm Robin, your Majesty. It's nice to meet you." Robin wasn't shy. She placed her palm over his.
"You have a very willful aura, Robin."
He faltered for a moment, her smiling lightening. "Um… is that good?"
"You are courageous and honorable... I'd imagine that would be a good thing." A small smile curled her lips. "It is a pleasure to meet you as well."
Arella switched to Raven. "There are guests here that desire to meet you. Robin will be taken care of." Before she could protest, Arella draped her in bright white power and carried them over to one of the smaller copper structures. Her mother summoned open the door after landing and gently elbowed her inside. '
The simple furnished room was decorated in the softest pastel colors. Inside the room was a man and a girl.
The man standing by a high bookcase wore a pleated, maroon robe, looked no older than his late thirties, and wore thin, round spectacles over black eyes. Very intelligent eyes. They seemed to take everything carefully. The girl had the same black eyes except they were cloudier, the maroon robe, and long brown hair that brushed their shoulders. The major difference between them was the wicked emotion lurking behind a sneer pasted on her pink lips. Raven did not even know this girl. She didn't believe in quick judgment, but already... she wasn't trusting of her.
Arella announced the background, "The King of Feignez and his sister. I am proud to inform you that my daughter has agreed to an alliance."
Raven stiffened her back as she bowed to them, wishing with all her might that she was back with Robin. Leaving with Robin.
The King smiled amiably, speaking up, "The famous Raven of Azarath. It is a privilege to meet you at last." He bowed back to her, drawing her hand to his lips. She took it with resigned grace. The girl yawned bored from the couch she laid in.
He eyed her, black eyes shining with humor and some other emotion Raven could not place. "Mary, dear, are you not feeling well?"
"I am perfectly fine where I am," she answered, primly.
'Brat.'
Arella offered, "You must be tired from your journey. We shall continue introductions this evening for dinner. Raven, your room is in the Main Temple."
She muttered, "I remember," and grudgingly bowed again to them before leaving the room. The empath shook off her agitation, dreading the next time she had to parade around for this charade. The king himself didn't appear to be a bad person; it was the sister who was clearly disrespectful.
She was leaving with Robin. She couldn't do this. Raven hurried her strides, and then stopped. What about her home? What about the alliance? She couldn't abandon it.
But, Robin…
'Argh… Beast Boy is wrong. I don't have a choice.'
Raven levitated up to the gold emblem tower, phasing through the sealed, rose-colored steel doors into the plain living space. Her fiancé knew her coming as soon as it happened, as did the old woman by him who hacked with decaying breath. "Well, well," the old woman with an over-sized cloak and leaky eyes muttered, "if it isn't our little Corvus."
"Claudia," Raven greeted, dully.
T"To think I thought you were going to grow into an ugly ogre. You are actually becoming the image of your Mother, although your hips are fatter."
"Insults… you did miss me."
Claudia coughed, again. "The boy over there is blind. Did you know that?"
Raven faked being shocked, mouth slack, a hand over her chest.
"Good Azar, no. I thought he bumped into walls to impress me." Robin laughed at this, hanging an arm around her shoulder. Claudia glared at him.
"You'd better watch your hands, young man. That's the future Queen you're touching."
He smiled, cockily. "I'm well aware."
"You got a mouth on you, too. Lovely." The old woman grunted. "I'll be attending to little miss Corvus and yourself, so don't bother me unless you're dying." She limped out the door, spitting mucus as she went. Robin frowned in Raven's direction.
"For the record, I don't bump into walls anymore."
"I know."
"Corvus…" he murmured. "I heard that word before. Latin?"
"It's her nickname for me, roughly it translates as 'raven'. She's as kind as ever." Raven glanced at the empty doorway. "Did she say anything to you?"
"Made some assumptions about my appearance. Because I was dressed in bright colors and tight clothes, it must mean I'm a clown."
Raven smirked.
"Now that's funny."
Robin flicked her arm playfully. "You would think that. Who was that woman?" he asked.
"My nurse," she said, blandly. His mask eyes turned to circles.
"Wait… are you telling me that she took care of you as a kid?"
"Believe me, she was better at it when she was younger. A lot of people used to think I got my cynical temperament from her."
He said, honestly, "It wouldn't surprise me. She seems terrible."
"That's my Claudia."
…..
Robin wasn't worried when Raven went missing. She frequently disappeared back home, and he wasn't about to leave the floor they were staying on. Other than the old woman spying on him, he wasn't all too sure how to get downstairs without going through a window. The staircase he found earlier melted from existence.
She finally turned up in the second room of the apartment-area.
Spilled out in her lap was black velvet and a spool of black thread. With nimble fingers, she slipped a tiny needle betwixt the material, pulling and pushing the almost invisible string. It was hypnotic how fast and smoothly she did this project, how her face scrunched with concentration. Her lips in a pout; despite what he knew was to come, he wanted to feel those lips urging back for his. "What are you doing?"
Safest route: be inquisitive.
Her eyes visibly brightened at the sight of him. She cared, those little trivial details never stop reassuring him.
"Sewing."
Robin sat down on the round bed where she was curled up. "What for?" he asked.
Raven stopped working. "You're full of questions today." She explained with a faint look, "On the first dinner, when it's a special occasion... the guests wear something that represents past pain. Afterward, we get rid of those things to symbolize moving on by casting them into a holy fire... it's strange."
He smiled back.
"So, why are you doing it?"
Raven didn't make a comeback and ran a hand over the silver gems lacing the sleeves. He fingered the fabric.
"Hey, isn't this the dress you wore in Gotham?"
"My mother's dress, yes. It got ripped and needed some alterations."
"You said something about it one time."
Raven chewed on her lip.
"This dress was what she wore when she sacrificed her body to the demon Trigon. He took form of a human male to… you know…" An uncomfortable silence filled the bedroom. She drew herself to her feet. "I think I'm done." Robin thumped his head against the bedpost in aggravation.
'Good going, get her more upset than she already is…'
"I don't really care what they think, but tell me what you do."
Raven came from the master bathroom in record time, adorned in black velvet from head to toe. Black velvet boots. The dress was actually two separate pieces. The top had one, long scoop-sleeve on the right. And on the left was a lone strap, her bellybutton visible. The bottom was a skirt about calf high but on her right leg it slit to mid-thigh, exposing much more skin than intended. A miscalculation on her behalf. The velvet clung to her like it had before, in the perfect places, and the bloodstains had been cut away.
An unexpected blush ran up her cheekbones when Robin leaned forward, speaking huskily, "Raven, come closer." She blushed again when his hands drifted over her arms, over the material. "You really want to wear this?"
"Why not?"
Raven wasn't certain what he meant by that. He took her shoulders, face tilting down and closed his mouth over hers, gratifying breathing entwined. Her purple eyes stared and blinked when the kiss ended and she murmured, "Possessive."
Robin apologized, quietly, "Sorry."
"I'm not."
Not wasting another second, Raven hoisted herself into his arms, wrapping her legs around his waist, battling aggressive kisses. He groaned when her hands stroked his hair, her mere touch sending sparks down his spine. One of his arms pressed her back, the other held her bottom, his fingers squeezing an ample cheek gently.
She moaned, "I have to go downstairs… before…"
He didn't want her to leave his arms. He didn't want her warmth to leave him cold and detached. Robin bit down softly on her bottom lip, the empath gasping. It turned a lovely, rose color, the only color to her gray skin save the flush in her cheeks traveling up to her forehead. Robin set her down on her feet and bumped his lips against hers. "I'll be here when you get back."
Raven nodded, unable to reply, and went for the door. At the last second, she went back to pinch him, rendering him speechless.
"That's for being nosy earlier." She winked. Laughter teemed her ears as Raven entered the hallway.
It was just as ornate as the living area. Off-white carpet, blank walls, tall doors. The only color to be seen was the dark blue characters trimming the edges of the walls. She could read them effortlessly; simple Azarathian language. Raven entered the lower level of the building where the esteemed guests waited patiently.
The room they'd be eating in was grand with rarely-crafted bookcases wall-to-wall; a theme of red with cherrywood tables, cherrywood chairs, and red draperies. Red. Red. Red.
Raven winced from the vibrancy, looking at the king and princess in the same room. They wore typical silk robes decorated with feathers, the same maroon hue. Around the King's neck was a garnet cross; on the Princess was a lacy garter. Before Raven could move in any general direction (perhaps to find an escape path), the Queen of Azarath appeared alongside her.
Identical violet eyes met. The outfit Arella wore she had worn on the day Raven was forced out of Azarath. The day she forgot her Mother still lived. The vivid memory of a plum and ebony, V-necked hood that she now bore over her long, flat hair. Raven stared deliberately at her Mother all through dinner.
The King of Feignez smiled. "The food you have is delicious. Isn't that right, sister dearest?" Again, his black eyes shone eerily at her as she leered.
"Quite. Speaking of things that are appetizing, I saw the most gorgeous boy this morning from a window. I believe you've been keeping this human in your realm?"
Crack-clink.
Raven's wine glass broke in two. She smiled a phony smile at everyone, wiping her hands of the drink. The king handed her a napkin. "Here you are."
"Thank you."
The princess sighed dreamily, twirling her brown hair with her pinky. "He is marvelous-looking. If only I had him as my male concubine….mmm…I'd whip him until he was red and make him beg…"
A tiny, savage growl erupted from Raven's throat, her fists turning an ominous blue under the table.
"Was that you or your stomach, darling? I daresay you're looking scrawny as well as unsightly," Princess Mary said, beginning to laugh , her pink lips stretching misshapen over her now visible teeth. The rest of that moment was a blur, a livid blue one at that, ending with Arella yanking her into the darkening evening.
"Stop it, stop it now." Her mother scorned her resistance lightly.
Apparently the only damage Raven had done was shattered the plates and glasses, flipping the table over to get her revenge with blue hands instead of using magic.
"I hate her," Raven stated tonelessly, rage going down. "She's an atrocious girl that needs a foot up her ass." Arella raised an eyebrow.
"Your tongue doesn't exactly convince me. She is horribly tempered, yes, but she will be our relative unless something tragic happens to her…"
"That could be arranged."
Arella lowered her daughter's glowing hands.
"You aren't going to help me," Raven snapped. "You'd patiently watch me suffer to see that Azarath is saved. I love my homeland as much as you do. I go along with this travesty because of it, but I have a greater love that runs deeper than the ancestry in your precious books."
"You want so badly to free from this, don't you?"
Raven whispered darkly, her beautiful face twisting, "I'd rather die."
She flew immediately out into the sky and the Queen sighed, talking out loud, "I apologize. My daughter is quite very headstrong for her age."
The middle-aged king joined her side with a nod.
"Headstrong but ideal for the throne."
The rims of his glasses flashed kindly at her. Arella's face warmed as he stooped down to kiss her hand, holding it longer than he had with Raven. "Madam, you and I haven't an opportunity to properly greet each other," he said, with a mock-pained tone.
She responded, thoughtfully, "You are very bold, Adonis. Be wary of your actions towards me."
"Of course, milady. Would you do me the honor of accompany me in a stroll of your divine realm?"
She suppressed the urge to grin, hardly remembering the last time a man asked for her company.
"If I must."
Red and black forsook the night.