Chapter 69: The Grimmlands - Blackfeather

Cover Art by Mi Chumi

Grimm are formed with one single directive from the God of Darkness: Destroy all Vessels which have both Mind and Soul.

Newly spawned Grimm have two priorities embedded in that directive: Seek out first Vessels that radiate negativity and those whose Souls are expressed upon their surface. Vessels with negativity glowed with a dull red light, drawing Grimm to them. Vessels which expressed their Souls upon the surface, on the other hand, burned like bright beacons. The former was like a canker to be lanced, no matter the likelihood that the Grimm would be destroyed in the process. The latter was an offense to the balance of creation and destruction, and the Grimm's polar opposite, for which mutual destruction was instinctively required.

The Grimm emerged from the Pool of Darkness with its Nevermore brethren, one of a dozen such, with these commands and directives as instinctive drives rather than understood concepts. It emerged fully formed and full-sized, before an Ensouled Vessel.

But this Vessel had that within it that caused it and its brethren to pause in their instinctive drive. This Vessel had not only Soul, but was also Grimm, and had the Power of the God of Darkness within it. They could sense this.

And thus, it had named itself. Queen Salem.

And it had named the land, Her realm, to them. The Grimmlands.

And it had given them additional commands.

Some of these commands ran neutral to their created intent. Fly here. Stay there. Identify Vessels. Report to Her.

Some of them ran directly counter to their created intent, or seemed to. Some Ensouled Vessels were identified by sight or purpose, and they were not to be fractured. They were, like the Grimm, Queen Salem's servants. This command was like an itch that could not be scratched, and one of its brethren had proved unable to resist its primordial directives, and had been destroyed at the first simple thought of disobedience before it could even act upon them.

Time passed. Time which held no meaning to It.

And then Queen Salem had brought before it and its brethren a second, smaller Ensouled Vessel, less than half her height. This one also bore traces of the essence of the God of Darkness within them, but without that Power, that Authority, that Queen Salem held. It also did not have the surface shimmer of an expressed Soul, nor the red glow of negativity. Queen Salem had Named the Vessel, calling it Selene, Daughter, Girl. Queen Salem had Created it.

The Selene had walked before the assembled Nevermore, black and scarlet eyes examining each, looking for something that It could not begin to understand in Its limited capacity.

And then Selene had paused before It, and had placed a hand upon its deadly beak, and had Named It.

Blackfeather.

It became Blackfeather in that moment. Its brethren did not have names. It did, and its entire understanding of existence shifted ever so slightly, but it was as if an entire world had trembled. Over time, it understood that.

Queen Salem dismissed the other Nevermore and stood before Blackfeather, Her ancient scarlet eyes bidding him attend. And then she had instructed him, at length, regarding her expectations of his duties to the Selene. The Selene was a small thing, such that it could have crushed her under a single talon, released her soul. But it was Commanded otherwise:

Protect Selene with your existence.

Destroy those who seek to harm her.

Serve as her Companion.

Carry her where she wills.

These commands could not be disobeyed.

Over the course of years, Blackfeather continued to change from its brethren, and began to understand those differences.

It learned that some Grimm were very old and were blessed by the Gods with the powers not only of Destruction, which was obvious, but also Creation. It knew of at least one of these ancient Grimm. It had encountered it, years ago, in the shape of an enormous beast with a broad head on one end, tapering to a flat tail at the other. It also had a name: Monstra. These ancient Grimm could not only destroy, but could expel the Dark Liquid which would spawn more Grimm like Blackfeather. These Grimm could Create in a the way that Queen Salem had created, though they did not care for the continued existence of their creations.

Blackfeather was not ancient, but it began to believe it also had created things in its mind. It had created ideas, because Blackfeather was and had a Companion. It created ideas about things that most Grimm did not need to have. Things that most Grimm did not have the opportunity to learn.

For example, it began to understand the underlying logic beneath its primordial imperatives and their consequences, despite its immense youth. A newly spawned Grimm would react to these drives, and likely perish in its mindless drive. But slowly, over time, any Grimm that survived learned to be patient with how the directive and drive were applied. They might live for decades near a mass of ensouled vessels, biding time, until the beacons were at their most negative, or most vulnerable, or until they were given a more overpowering directive by one who held Authority over them, one who had been granted the power of the Gods to command the Grimm.

It learned this over the years that it accompanied Selene, carried her, across the length and breadth of the Grimmlands. And over those years, it began to accept himself as a He.

And his primary drive shifted inexorably from seeking and destroying Ensouled Vessels, to protecting and accompanying Selene. Yes, the drive, the desire, to destroy the ensouled was there, but the fact that he had been ordered to protect and accompany Selene, who was ensouled, overrode that 'natural' imperative. And that shift in focus gradually expanded to those who served and frequented Selene's nest, Evernight, such that Queen Salem's original command was no longer necessary.

It also made Selene's later commands easier to understand and implement, long after Selene had finished increasing in height and weight and more closely resembled her own creator.

Selene had found and claimed a new nest. It was a small land surrounded by water. It was clear that this was a Nest, by the way that Selene treated it, and so Blackfeather adopted it as well. They visited it frequently.

And then, Selene and Blackfeather had found a Vessel there. A bright shining Vessel that demanded to be broken, one that might or might not be a threat.

But instead of bidding Blackfeather fracture it, Selene had ordered him to stay and wait, as her Companion.

That had been very difficult. Had Blackfeather been much younger, he might have defaulted to his primordial drive, or Queen Salem's other commands, to protect and destroy. But being Selene's Companion had caused it to weight Salem's commands differently.

Serve as her Companion was one of the four commands, and the most complex and nuanced of the four commands.

When he served as Selene's Companion well, Selene praised him. She did things that made him seek to serve her further. Sometimes it was the way that she spoke to him. Sometimes it was how she helped him preen. It made him seek to behave in ways that further pleased her, beyond the other three, more simple instructions Salem had provided.

And then, instead of bidding Blackfeather fracture the new, shining Vessel, Selene had adopted it as a Companion as well. And she had named him Garek. This was evident by how she behaved around him. She even brought him to Blackfeather, for his inspection.

Acceptance of the fact that Selene would have other Companions, and that Blackfeather was required to treat them as such… likewise required a dramatic shift in his thinking. It required more abstract thinking.

The God of Darkness had imparted authority to Queen Salem.

Queen Salem had commanded him to be Companion to Selene.

Selene had given him commands, but also expectations.

It was a clear hierarchy.

The first test of that had been when Queen Salem had come to him after a visit to Selene's new Nest and adoption of her new Companion.

"You will delay arrival," Salem had commanded. "You will divert your path, in this manner, until two hours have passed, and then you will resume following Selene's commands."

Blackfeather was faced with a direct Command from a higher authority against the more general Command and desire to be Selene's Companion.

It had nearly broken his mind, as they flew over the northern seas between the Grimmlands and her new Nest, as he disobeyed Selene's desire to fly straight, in favor of Salem's command to delay, in opposition to Salem's command to serve as Selene's Companion.

Selene had first radiated confusion, then concern. She had commanded him further to fly straight, which command had slammed into the directly contradictory command by Salem. It had made his mind itch and squirm within his head.

And then she had begun to make horrible sounds and radiate emotion. Negative emotion. She made sounds of pain. Blackfeather was causing Selene pain. And that pain reflected back upon him.

But Salem's Command.

And then Selene had threatened to throw herself f into the sea.

But Salem's Command.

And then she had.

Something within Blackfeather's mind strained, then resolved.

Salem had given two commands those years ago. Protect Selene's life with your existence now contradicted directly with the newer command to delay, and Blackfeather rightly, determined which one was the greater requirement. It was also the one that he wanted to obey. The one that Selene wanted him to obey.

He had dove after her, and pulled her from the sea, and bore her to her new Nest, in direct contradiction to Salem's latest command, and he felt no conflict from it. And in the end, it had been right, Selene and Queen Salem both had assured him.

His thinking shifted again.

Over the next years, Selene had adopted additional Companions. This required Blackfeather to also adopt them as Companions within the framework of its prior commands, to which Selene added additional orders:

Carry others that Selene deemed worthy of her esteem.

Do not attack unless ordered to.

Do not destroy unless necessary.

Blackfeather's definition of "Companion" continued to expand and refine as Selene named Vessels as such. Garek and Cinder held primacy. Others named Crystal, Forrest, Reggie, and Summer were a second tier. Vernal and Raven another. Blackfeather could feel how she regarded each one. Some were tightly bonded, like he was. Others were… just companions, with less emphasis.

There were times when Selene used other Grimm for her tasks, and in those moments, Blackfeather found himself more and more aware of how different he had become.

The other Grimm nearly vibrated with the simple drive to destroy. To satisfy their imperative. They were bound from doing so only by Selene's direct commands, rather than due to understanding her intent like Blackfeather did. Blackfeather found their mental processes… crippled. They were tools of the Gods, and little more.

Blackfeather began to truly consider himself an *I* and found its drive to satisfy that primordial imperative fading into the background.

And then a group of Vessels, who were not Companions, had hurt both him and Selene.

A concussive explosion had struck his left wing and flung him into a spin. An intense wall of flame had billowed out from there, singeing his feathers to the pins, and an intense flash of white had followed, tendrils spreading from the point of impact.

One of his eyes went dark in agony.

And he was spiraling through the sky.

But his agony was meaningless, because Selene had separated from her harness. He could see her, falling, her mind darkened as if sleeping, on a trajectory that would send her far from him. He struggled desperately to reach her, but his left wing would not respond and all he could do was scream in anger and frustration as he tumbled further from her.

Failure.

Anger.

Pain.

Failure.

He slammed through treetops, further fracturing his broken left wing, and took only moments to orient himself. He found that he could sense Selene again. She lived, but was in pain and confused.

She had been harmed.

He must reach her.

And then the Vessels approached.

A war took place in his mind. Destroy the Shining Vessels who had harmed he and Selene, or ignore them and reach her more quickly.

He ignored the imperative of the God of Darkness, for the moment, and sought his Companion.

. . .

When he finally reached her, he had hopelessly destroyed his left wing. It had been a hindrance in the thick forest, and he had wrenched and torn it further moving among the tree trunks and underbrush in his haste. It was of no import. It was agonizing. But that was also of no import.

He reached the clearing too late. Some of the Shining Vessels had beaten him there, and had immobilized Selene with a weapons, while a second stood over her, preparing to destroy her own Vessel and release her Soul.

He could not prevent it. He had failed. He would avenge her, but it would be empty vengeance. Worthless. He would have no purpose afterward. He would be nothing without her.

And then Companion Cinder had appeared, and protected Selene, as Blackfeather had sought to do, and that left only a single threat.

For a beautiful moment, every imperative and command that Blackfeather had ever received was unified in purpose.

Destroy the Shining Vessel. Silence the negative emotions. Protect Selene. Remove the threat. Be a Companion.

Blackfeather flung himself forward, and grasped the Shining Vessel's upper half in his beak, and felt new agony as it used its Soul to create spikes that embedded through Blackfeather's maw. But simple pain was not a deterrence in the face of Blackfeather's unified imperatives.

Blackfeather forced his beak closed, even as his right talons came up and pierced the Vessel's lower half. He felt the Soul resist, and then fail, retreating inside the Vessel, which he then tore and destroyed.

Blackfeather's being sang as it felt the Soul released from the Vessel.

And then there was silence.

Selene and Companion Cinder stood. Both radiated negative emotions. Agony. Pain both physical and emotional. Fear. Sadness. The other Grimm reacted to this. They could not attack Selene, but they shifted toward Companion Cinder.

Blackfeather felt the urge to join them. To purge the world of negative emotion.

But Cinder was a Companion and therefore an extension of Selene. Blackfeather prepared to spend its existence protecting Companion Cinder against its own brethren instead.

It was not required. Selene commanded. Cinder fled. And Selene sobbed and raged, radiating sorrow. Blackfeather realized that he hurt. He hurt everywhere. One wing hung twisted and broken, huge swaths of feathers singed down to the pins. A network of burned paths, dendritic, had fanned out from an obvious point of impact, leaving char-marks on its bone-like face. One eye had been extinguished.

Selene turned back to him. "Oh Blackfeather," Selene said, stumbling over to him and burying her face in his feathers. "What do I do now?"

It filled him with satisfaction, through the pain. She had turned to him in her moment of pain. He had performed correctly. After a few moments, she began to remove the charred remains of the harness from him.

"Blackfeather. You must listen to me," Selene said softly. "You must go and find a place. The darkest, deepest place you can. Tell Nevermore chicks once you find it. And then you must crawl into it, as deep as you can, and stay there. Await me."

I understand. I obey. But you are harmed.

"I… I will be well. I will come for you. I swear. But you must stay safe, and hidden, until I do. Go. Go now. That way as fast as you can without leaving a clear trail. Do not wait for me."

This was difficult. It put multiple commands in direct conflict. To protect. To obey.

But in the end, he reasoned. If he were found, he would be destroyed in his present condition. Then he would be unable to protect. With a mournful sound, he turned and began picking his way west.

The way was agony. He tried to avoid leaving a trail, as she commanded, and that meant trying to keep his mangled wing close to his body, which was excruciating. And he had to find a place, a deep dark place.

It took three days to find a final resting place. During the day he hid as best he could, and then moved on. Each time he called to his lesser brethren, and told them of his travels. And then finally he found a cave.

It was not empty. A Deathstalker nest also occupied it. But they served the same master, and he need not fight for the shelter. He bypassed it, and drove himself into a deep, dark chamber, smearing himself with the dirt and slime of the cave in his passing. And there, he curled into a tight ball of pain and waited.

And thought.

A day passed. Two days. A week. Two weeks. Time and pain didn't matter. Selene would come.

Selene came. Blackfeather was no longer capable of movement on his own, and she enlisted the Deathstalkers to draw him from his hiding space. Upon seeing him, she made the same mourning sounds that she'd made that night, long ago, before she'd throw herself into the sea. She radiated sorrow. Sorrow for him.

It was… a difficult thing to rationalize. Negative emotions required action. To extinguish them. But this negative emotion was… on his behalf?

She had also brought her Companions. The ones named Garek and Reggie and Crystal. She had to prevent the Deathstalkers from attacking them, as Blackfeather was incapable of protecting them. It was frustrating. It made him angry.

Wracked with agony, he was bundled into the large machine, and for hours he stayed there, to be removed again from the vessel in a familiar clearing. One where they had previously flown together, Selene and he and Cinder and Vernal. The Companion Forrest was there.

"You will wait here, Blackfeather. Father will watch over you, until Mother sends someone to retrieve you." She stroked his filthy feathers. He had been unable to preen. "I will see you after you are healed."

She was leaving him again.

That hurt worse than the physical pain. If he was not her Companion, what purpose did he serve? How could he protect her like this? How could he remove threats if she left him?

"You will heal, Blackfeather, and you will always be my Companion," she assured him.

Companion Forrest stayed. He smelled… slightly like Selene did, which was reassuring, though he did not speak with Blackfeather. And then his Scroll rang, and he bid Blackfeather goodbye, and left.

And then, in the darkness, a large dragon-like Grimm arrived, closed a massive claw around Blackfeather, and flew northeast.

. . .

He was deposited at the edge of a Pool of Darkness, where stood the familiar figure of Queen Salem, appraising him with her ancient eyes. He felt… judged, but he also felt… strange regarding her.

It was as if her features were blurred. He could sense the Soul inside her, taste it in the same way he could taste the souls of Selene and her Companions when he sensed them. But Queen Salem's now held two slightly competing flavors. One felt angry and destructive, the other radiated a quiet pain and weariness.

But both expressed satisfaction with him.

"You have done well, Blackfeather," Salem spoke aloud. "You sought to protect my daughter, and for that, I am willing to attempt your restoration." She gestured and Power lifted him gently and moved him out over the Pool of Darkness. "I do not know how this ill affect your mind, Blackfeather. Previously, I have used the Pools to break down and recreate, but never to repair while retaining its original essence." She considered. "For Selene, we will make the attempt."

And Blackfeather was submerged. It burned and salved. He felt his substance, his matter, sloughed off and reformed gradually, atom by atom as the Pool both ate at him and reformed him in unison. But that was not the worst of it.

Blackfeather's mind was submerged.

He understood, in that moment, the drive of his Brethren like never before. The Pools of Darkness were pure destruction. They served only a single purpose, and imparted a single drive. The Pools destroyed, and that which was formed of their essence was merely a tool, an extension, of that purpose. It was only the will of the God of Darkness, or of Salem, Blackfeather realized, that could override that destruction and instead extrude it into physical form.

But that process did not account for an existing mind.

The Pool sought to overwrite Blackfeather. To repair it, yes, but in the form it would have had originally. What would emerge would look like Blackfeather, would be merely another Nevermore. It assaulted his mind, pressing in, seeking to erase that which made Blackfeather a Him. Dimly, he could feel Salem's Power seeking to bolster, to insulate him, but it was not something that she had done before.

Blackfeather fought back against oblivion.

He lost ground, infinitesimally but inexorably.

He fought still. With every essence of his being. He drew on his Commands and sought to use them as a bulwark. He could not protect if he did not remember her. He could not destroy those who sought to harm Selene if he did not remember who they were. He could not be her Companion if he was not Blackfeather.

He would not go quietly into that darkness. He raged against the dying of his Self.

And from the depths of the Darkness, something stirred. A dreadful Power, as far above Salem's as the stars were above Remnant, emerged from… somewhere, and enveloped him.

What is this?

All change halted. All things halted. Blackfeather felt himself stripped to component atoms and thoughts, analyzed. Scrutinized in a way that left him naked to the universe.

Hmmm…

Blackfeather could feel the focus. Yet there was no judgment, only a feeling of intense momentary curiosity and perhaps a hint of surprise.

I did not envisage such a use, and yet it is… of minute interest. The Presence's attention seemed to shift away from him for an instant. And that too, is not anticipated. The focus returned to Blackfeather, like a burning ray that did not consume. You remind me of another creation, though you appear to be more… focused in maintaining your intent.

There was an eternity of consideration, during which the pressure on Blackfeather's mind felt like it would cause it to burst.

Perhaps I shall see what becomes of this. My Brother may be… amused to learn of it.

And then the Presence was gone, though a tiny echo of its power remained, an infinitesimally thin yet unbreakable shell around a tiny core.

The Nevermore emerged from the Pool of Darkness. He looked around to find three things.

The first was an awareness that time had passed. Months perhaps.

The second was that Salem stood before him, a riding harness in hand.

The third was that he was Blackfeather.

"Come Blackfeather, we have a wedding to attend," Salem said, mouth turning up into a smile. "I would not wish to be tardy."

An intense feeling of satisfaction spread through him.

Yes.

[A/N] A thousand thanks to AtomicR4yand Shadowstorm-Vash for your recent reviews.

So I was out in the wilds of the Minnesota Boundary Waters for a week. No phone, no lights, no motorcar, not a single luxury. Canoe loaded down with about 700 lbs of people and gear and fighting a 15 MPH headwind, and I found myself thinking... Someone made a side comment about the idea of a chapter from Blackfeather's PoV and it felt appealing. So what you got here was literally his life story, and a nice happy transition that hints at what is to come next chapter. I really enjoyed digging into the mindset (such as they have one) of the Grimm, along with some thoughts on the Pools, how the Grimm view humans/faunus (Vessels with mind and soul) and their motivations. I thought it interesting that they didn't see themselves as evil per se, and frankly when viewed from the perspective of the Soul being the eternal aspect, I doubt the Brother Gods see death and the destruction of the "Vessel" the same way we would either, which maybe explains a lot too.