Akenna (prime)/Tithes and Death

Tithes and Death

Originally posted on the official forums by SMITHS89 on 01/15/2020 at 06:04 PM CST.

She moved through the commons that morning and noted it was empty. Far different from yesterday, she felt eyes on her and turned her head to see it was someone staring at her through a window in a shop. It was a lady there gazing at her with red, tear-stained eyes before turning away. Akenna frowned, and continued to the beach, Phalyn trotting next to her. She heard an intense argument, three men, she noted, one shouting in defiance about tithe. Her face turned towards the sound, and not paying attention to what was in front of her, she almost ran into a slight figure in an avian mask. “Hello there, Defender.” It sneered at her. “Your tithe? I don’t believe we’ve collected from you yet.”

Akenna’s eyes glowed as she uttered a short phrase, at the end of it the avian-masked figure went limp and slumped to the ground, snoring quietly. Adjusting her gait, she carefully stepped over them and continued on her way. She needed to breathe and what better place she thought, than the beach. She skipped her way over a dune and slid down it but before she could make her way to the shore she found a body, still and stiff.

It was one of the younger men from last night. One who had helped her vandalize posters, his stiff, curled hands still stained scarlet with paint. His eyes were wide open, but he wasn’t breathing, and his neck was bent at an odd angle, his mouth a pale blue and parted. She gasped in shock at the sight and fell to her knees in front of him, but he was cold to the touch, his soul had long since passed. She wept, this poor boy who she had incited to rebel, to stand up to these terrible forces of the Flock; because of it he now lay broken at her knees. She tried her best to close his eyes and then covered her own to weep into her trembling hands. Phalyn beside her whined to see her distressed, she paused a moment to pat his neck; before sending him off to the shrine to get aid in taking the man’s body back to the town proper so he could be identified.

After making sure that of matter the boy’s body being placed in the care of his family was settled, she stormed off towards her house, Phalyn behind her.

“Phalyn, I need you to deliver a letter for me.”