CHAPTER 67: SACRIFICIAL LAMB (2)

The crowd fell silent with one fleeting look from Ixana. No one dared speak again while their Sky Matron and her son engaged in this little showdown.

And here Nova thought she was being introduced to his mother for this whole Nokari thing. She wasn’t quite sure if it was going to plan or if this was how they usually interacted with each other.

It was getting a little too hot up here, and Nova had zero intention of being caught in the middle of this family drama. Slowly, she began sliding one foot back in an attempt to quietly sneak away while they had their little mother-son chat. Everyone’s attention was on them anyway. She was merely a bystander- Nova tried to convince herself, hoping nobody would see her backing away.

"You didn’t look beyond the first few lines of the legend, Ixana." Vulcan gestured to Nova, halting her escape from the new spotlight. "Sacrificing the Electa grants power to one person. Binding the Electa to me..."

His hand then slid along Nova’s back, gripping her waist and pulling her into his side. "Well..." he drawled. "That strengthens the entire flock. Isn’t that what a good leader should do? Share in their wins?"

Vulcan’s words stirred the crowds into hushed chatter even after Ixana’s glare. The air was palpable with coiling tension between mother and son as they remained locked in a battle of stares. Guards, padded in armour made of monkey bones, not so subtly inched closer from their positions to control the crowd. A few glanced at each other, unsure how things would go down.

Ixana was the Sky Matron, a woman of undeniable power, but Vulcan spoke of making the entire flock stronger. Nova glanced at some of the gathered tribesmen and could almost see the cogs turning behind their eyes.

"How... would it strengthen the entire flock?" A woman asked, stepping forward. She brushed off another woman’s hand that reached out to stop her, whose eyes widened in panic as she looked between her and Ixana.

Ixana’s eyes narrowed on the woman, spearing her with an icy stare that made Nova shiver, wondering how she ruled this tribe.

Instead of acting violently towards the woman like Nova assumed, Ixana tilted her head, staring at her son with saccharine concern. "Are you smoking Kurari, boy?" A mocking smile then slipped free. "I told you to stay away from such substances..." She pointed to her head. "It messes with the mind."

That burst the tension in the air as those gathered started to chuckle, assuming he was on this ’Kurari.’

"No, I have not," Vulcan clipped icily, his composure not cracking under the mockery but his eyes flashing angrily at his mother.

Ixana sighed, shaking her head as she slowly stepped down from her throne. "There is an order to the way we do things for a reason..."

"Once she is my Nokari, things will change. We can be greater than the other tribes; we’ll be unstoppable, and I-"

Ixana flew forward in a burst of blurring speed. Vulcan knocked Nova to the side, out of his mother’s reach. Nova gasped, eyes wide as she stared at Ixana, who was mid-air, wings flapping, nails outstretched towards her, almost scraping Nova’s face. Vulcan held her by her feet, his arms taut, body leaning backwards as he fought to keep Ixana from taking her.

Nova scrambled backwards, ignoring the splinters slicing into the bottom of her thighs as she stared, wide-eyed, at Ixana’s furious expression. Then, with a sickening crack, Ixana’s breastbone snapped her body jolting, quickly followed by the sound of another bone cracking. She was transforming into her eagle form.

With a grunt, Vulcan swung her away from Nova, hurling her like a discus. No one dared move at what they had just witnessed. The air crackled as Ixana’s back slammed into another tree. She balanced her feet and hands against it, glaring at her son.

Vulcan’s wings flared slightly behind him, not for balance but for dominance. He looked out over the crowd, to his mother, then to a random spot in a tree, and finally to Nova. She stared at what Vulcan had been looking at, but his voice made her jump, and her attention was back on him.

"She is mine. This throne is mine, and I will claim it right now," his voice cracked like thunder.

Before Nova could even fathom what the hell would happen next, Vulcan lifted her as though she weighed noting, her feet now balanced on his as his hand swept through her hair, gripping and angled her head, holding her in place. He moved aside the feathers at her shoulder with no hesitation, exposing bare skin to the cold air and the eyes of the entire flock.

"Wait! What are you doing?" Nova gasped, panic gripped her heart like a vice. A burning sensation flared beneath her ribs, searing up her throat—something deep and instinctive screamed that what Vulcan was about to do was wrong.

It felt wrong. It was wrong. Completely wrong.

She wasn’t his.

She wasn’t his.

She. Was. Not. His!

It was like her soul recoiled, thrashing against something it couldn’t name.

Somehow, Nova understood and didn’t understand what was about to happen. Even if it was futile, doing nothing wasn’t an option. She fought blindly, clawing at his chest, trying to shove him back, but Vulcan caught her wrists in a single, unyielding grip. Her breath hitched as he held her still as if he could silence the storm inside her by force alone.

"Vulcan, don’t!" A scream tore from the deepest part of her being. Her voice cracked, begging him, with everything she had, not to do whatever this was.

Nova’s protests were cut off the moment his head dipped.

His teeth sank into the spot just below her collarbone. It wasn’t deep enough to maim but enough to break skin. Enough to bleed. Nova gasped, half in pain, half in shock. It was unlike any pain she’d ever felt before. It was like a new blade being forged in fire, broken and beaten, steel forced to yield to its maker’s will. Her skin felt scorched and feverish, her body reshaped by an agony like heartache.

Around them, whispers erupted like crackling fire. Ixana screamed and pushed off the tree, shifting into her giant eagle form, wings denting smaller branches from each powerful flap.

Vulcan straightened, his lips red, glancing at Ixana, and calmly reached for a small ceremonial jar that one of the women who’d bathed Nova before had brought forward. With two fingers, he dipped into the black paint and dragged it across the fresh bite, drawing a sweeping symbol that looked almost like a wing curling over a flame.

"It is done," he said, voice low and final. "She is my Nokari."

The crowd stood frozen. Some were in awe, others in outrage, while Nova trembled in his arms, still processing what had just happened, her chest burning and aching.

But it wasn’t over.

Vulcan shoved her behind him, shifting too late. Ixana slammed into him mid-shift, talons tearing across his chest, her beak lunging straight for his eyes. The crack of impact echoed like thunder.

They crashed to the ground in a blur of feathers and fury, rolling violently across the bark, tearing into each other with savage screeches.

Nova hit the ground hard, ribs jarring as she rolled to the side.

Claws slashed past her face. She gasped, scrambling away after narrowly avoiding a cut to the face or much worse. She crawled away, panting, spitting away the feathers near her lips from her outfit.

The ground trembled as the two giants smashed into each other again, talons gouging bark and tearing flesh. A wing smashed down inches from her skull, the force knocking her onto her back. She didn’t know where to go, but if she didn’t move fast enough, she’d be flattened like prey caught between two gods at war.

Vulcan’s Nokari wouldn’t be useful then, huh.

The crowds had all but forgotten about Nova as they watched eagerly to see who would come out on top. They drew closer to the violence, barely parting for Nova. A few tripped on her and glared at her like it was her fault!

Nova scrambled to her feet, using her small size to weave around people, making a run for it. Blood roared in her eyes as she tried to control her breaths and not let panic and fear take root over this opportunity. She made it to the other side of Skyhold, sneaking behind the throne and feeling a strange pecking sensation on her collarbone.

Nova ignored the strange feeling and kept moving until she passed the crib, and it intensified.

It wasn’t painful, exactly, but it felt like something was pecking at her persistently, like a bird attacking grain or...

A sharp breath escaped her lips as she spun around. At the same time, Vulcan’s head snapped up, his eyes immediately locking onto hers.

Was that pecking sensation... a tracker?!

Horror surged through her, cold and suffocating, as Ixana’s gaze followed his. Then suddenly, every eye on Skyhold turned on her.