Beckyann Short Number 17

Beckyann smiled as she flipped the page in the book before her, baleful blue eyes scanning the old writing contained on each page. She lay on her belly on her bed in her quarters in Acherus, the book laid out on the covers before her and her feet up in the air, ankles crossed behind her. A small chuckle escaped her as she flipped another page and read on, a hand coming up to casually push an errant strand of her blonde hair from her face.

The book she was reading was the spellbook that she'd retrieved from her secret grotto in the foothills near Corin's Crossing. It had been many years since she'd read through it, and it amused her now to see her thoughts about magic, her hopes, and her desires from many years ago laid out before her like the pages of a history book. Some of the things she'd written had made her laugh; such as her description of a crush she'd once had on a local boy from town. Other things had been sobering, such as her entries where she discussed the loss of her parents and tried to sort out her emotions about it.

As she flipped the pages, she found a set of magical phrases scrawled on a page, and her eyebrows shot up in surprise as she instantly recognized the spell. “No, it can't be, can it?” she murmured.

Taking the book in hand, she sat up, laying the text down in her lap as she began to recite the words. Magic that she'd not called upon in many years flowed in the air, and suddenly there was a slight 'pop' as the power manifested itself. Almost instantly, her quarters became host to a sound not heard in Acherus ever; the chirping of a living songbird.

The snowy white bird fluttered about the room, chirping happily as Beckyann stared at it, her eyes wide. It had been so many years since she'd seen her Familiar that she had no idea what to think of it. The creature had been an incarnation of her budding magical power as a young girl, and it had often accompanied her on her adventures as a teenager or assisted her with her magical research. It represented a piece of who she was, a part of her magic and power, and a sliver of her very soul. To see it again brought a rush of unfamiliar emotions through her.

“It's been so long,” she said softly. Instantly the bird began to fly around the room, circling closer and closer to her head, it's song echoing through the stone chambers and down the hallway nearby, the sound a pleasant melody that was utterly alien in such a place of death.

Hesitantly, Beckyann held a hand up. As it had when she was alive, the songbird circled closer and then happily landed on one outstretched finger, chirping at her. For a brief moment in time, Beckyann felt like she was a young mage again with a fresh future ahead of her and the world at her fingertips. The bird's song echoed peacefully through the room, and she felt a calm descend over her.

It was not to last sadly. The bird's head tilted as it studied her and it's song faltered. Bird eyes met the glowing curse of the scourged and something indefinable passed between the two. Beckyann shivered as she felt a cold gale of magic wash through the room, and another 'pop' was heard as the spell she'd conjured went terribly wrong.

A second bird appeared in the air where the first had, a dead, black crow that gave off a coarse cawing rather than a pleasant melody. The creature spread tattered wings and fluttered about the room, it's decayed body hollow in spots and its bones visible on its ribcage. Spotting the songbird, the black thing dived down, talons extended. As it attacked, Beckyann realized that it too was an incarnation of her magic and soul, only in its current form. She closed her eyes, not wanting to see the beloved pet and companion of her childhood torn asunder by the cursed existence that she lived in now.

To Beckyann's great surprise, there came no cawing or screeching as there would have been if bird had struck bird. She opened her eyes to find that the songbird had taken flight, avoiding the attack and that both creatures circled her now. It was like an omen, the light and love of her youth and the decay and darkness of her unlife, both a piece of who she was and what she was. A beloved friend and hated enemy both present in the air.

The darkness was not finished though, and the dead crow again assaulted the songbird, it's black, rotted claws extended to take the smaller creature from the air. This time its attack was faster, and almost unavoidable as it struck out. The white bird fluttered in mid-air, and just as it seemed it would be struck it did a barrel-roll, coming up above the crow. Beckyann watched with wide eyes as its own little claws came out and raked across the back of the dead crow.

The black bird shattered into a hundred tiny pieces of shifting darkness and then was gone. The songbird fluttered once in the air, chirping its sweet melody again before it dove down towards the spellbook in Beckyann's lap. It collided with the page, and the runes that represented its spell glowed brightly, even as a small image of the bird was burned into the bottom of the page and the creature itself disappeared.

For long moments afterwords, Beckyann sat unmoving on her bed, simply staring at the newly burned emblem in her spellbook. After a time, she slowly closed the book over, her hand caressing the battered leather cover. As she thought about the encounter, she realized with a start that her heart had been beating the entire time the bird had been present, as if it strengthened the parts of her that still existed from her previous life.

Shaking her head slowly, Beckyann set the book down and laid back in her bed, her glowing eyes staring up at nothing as she tried to understand what the visitation had meant. Memories flowed through her of a time when the world was a much brighter place.

Did the banishment of the crow mean something? Was it a sign that there was more to her unlife than the dark magic that sustained it? The questions would burn in the death knight's mind for many days to come.