Chapter

The Crow moved through the underbrush, quietly as her namesake though the sky. She used a wing to move aside a branch, looking behind herself at the Investor, the pony who had insisted on these strange code-names after flopping the pile of coin down on her floor.

He'd heard of her through the normal channels, names whispered of in seedy bars and dark, smokey rooms. He wasn't one of her usual ones though. Mostly they looked to move cargo through paths not known, the safe routes that changed every hour. This one, though, wanted to move himself into a deeper part of the forest, and she was happy enough to escort him for the pay.

She held the branch aside as he crept under it, keeping almost as quiet as she did. It was admirable, in a way. Creepy, almost, in most other ways, the way he could almost glide over the forest floor.

Still, she didn't need to be comfortable around him, she needed to be paid by him, so she held her comments close to her chest and moved through the forest.

She stopped, froze with a wing outstretched in front of his path.

They crouched in the brush for a long moment before a massive leg drifted silently down in from of them, cloven of hoof and covered in long, coarse brown fur. They glanced up as an Elk of massive proportions moved through the brush ahead of them, ethereal and graceful even as the fur on its chest draped over the bushes they hid beneath, dousing them in a rich, earthy smell as the mossy fur drifted around them.

The giant paused, as though it sensed their presence somehow. They sat, waiting, as the creature wavered above them.

To their absolute horror, the beast rocked its head back and opened its mouth, letting out a low pitching call, nearly a scream, as though to speak with both the heavens and the hells at the same time.

Crow sat crouched, shivering as the call continued, the beast's lungs never seeming to empty of air. After what felt like an hour it ceased, her ears ringing as the last of the echoes dispersed.

Through it all Investor sat, his ears folded down and eyes closed, as though meditating.

After a hundred and sixteen seconds, counted in her head, the Elk moved on, disappearing into a mist that formed, enveloped the beast, then whisked away into nothingness.

Crow breathed out, softly, before standing and glancing at Investor.

Shaking his head, his ears flapping on his skull, he opened his dark slate eyes and stood himself, nodding at Crow.

They continued through the forest then, the same steady pace they'd kept up through the morning. As they'd started Crow had mentioned that maybe the Investor partake in some of the grasses and herbs on the outskirts of the forest, as they wouldn't find much truly edible inside and his pack was much too small to contain any sort of rations.

He'd nodded, then watched her fill up on the clover patch nearby. When she'd finished he'd moved to her side, and they'd entered the forest posthaste.

They were nearing the location he'd been seeking, one of the older places in the already ancient forest.

After another hour she glanced it's stone walls, and pointed it out silently.

He nodded, then continued walking forward.

The reached the door easily enough, Crow having attached a harness to Investor and flown him over the deep gorge that surrounded the edifice they sought. The doors must have been enchanted, as the hardwood showed no sign of age or wear. Even the hinges opened smoothly, allowing them free entry to the grounds of what seemed to be an ancient castle.

They paused there, Investor taking out a complicated-looking bit of machinery and waving around a metal wand attached to it with a wire. It let out a strange series of intense clicks as he moved it through the air, the clicks getting denser as he eventually moved it towards the castle.

He nodded, silencing the machine and replacing it in the pack. He then gazed levelly at Crow, watching as she drank shallowly from a canteen. He looked away politely when she moved over to and behind an overgrown bush to relieve herself, then stood as she walked back to him and gestured at the castle.

The doors there, too, were easily moved and made no sound. Crow walked gently on the marbled floor, an old carpet keeping her hooves from clacking noisily on the raw stone. She sniffed experimentally and noted a lack of the smells of dust and rot.

Investor moved beside her, glancing up and down the long hallways before withdrawing only the wand, the machine making it's muted clicks from inside his pack. Waving it though the air he followed the direction of the fastest clicks, and they made their way through ancient and dusty halls decorated with landscapes unrecognizable to Crow.

They ascended a staircase and walked towards a set of double doors, the machine in the bag frantically increasing its pace as they neared until eventually Investor replaced the wand and reached up to place a hoof on the doors.

For the first time they found themselves stymied, the doors refusing to budge. After attempting muscle they tried several magic items from Investor's thin bags, settling finally on a stone that seemed ordinary and simple until Investor placed it in the middle of the crease between the doors.

As soon as it touched the doors lit up with a gently shimmering sheen, which was eventually drawn into the stone, transforming it into a piece of what looked like iridescent diamond.

After half an hour the stone dropped to the floor, Investor picking it up and replacing it in the bag before easily pushing open one of the doors.

Crow's eyes glanced inside, skirting over the middle as she took in the pillared room, decorated with banners in both gold and the darkest purple, moons and suns playing over the fabric in proud proclamation of some thing she did not understand, something lost in time to her.

As they moved into the room the windows, long and tall, let in piercing bolt after bolt of light, all aimed at a dais at the end of the room. Empty pools flanked the stairs, and the only object of true curiosity sat at the top of them, on one of the two massive chairs Crow took to be thrones.

Investor moved smoothly through the room, Crow close behind him, ignoring all but the figure on the throne.

They mounted the stairs, and Crow stopped looking around the room to stare at it.

It was pure white and tall, twice as tall as herself at least, even though it remained sitting. It was obviously a pony, albeit of a breed she'd never seen before; it possessed both a long, spiraling horn and massive pillowy white wings that were currently fully spread to either of its sides. It seemed to be gazing out at its court, eyes creased as though deep in thought, although the orbs in its sockets were pure white.

It seemed almost as though carved from pure marble in every way except for its mane, made of the same iridescence as the power that had bound the door. While every other part of it was as well made of unmoving marble, its mane and tail flowed and flickered, as though in some celestial wind.

Crow lifted a hoof, reaching out to press it into the figure's chest.

"Don't."

She started, jerking away from both statue and voice as though electrocuted, positive that she would've emptied her bladder had she not done so outside. Her eyes whipped towards Investor, who was laying out tools and equipment from his bags.

"Don't touch it," he said smoothly, pulling out a long set of tweezers and reaching out with his magic, pulling one of the large secondaries carefully from its wing from the base of its shaft. Even as she watched, dark blood pooled from the gap he'd made in its wing. "Don't touch it. This is the corpse of a God."

Then he turned the tweezers in his magic and gently, carefully, pressed the feather into his own chest.

Author's Note:

Yes, that's the end. Yeah, I get that's it's kind of cheap and overdone. Nonetheless, I feel it's the best end I could conceive of for this story. If you're desperate for a true ending you could try watching the last, I unno, twenty-five minutes of Evangelion? But I like it as-is.

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