40°49'37.0"N 47°42'45.1"E – Q?b?l? International Airport, Q?b?l? region

  20.05.2024 – 23.10 UTC +04.00

  The shock in the faces of the crew when the last of us arrived just outside the aircraft was not born only out of hope but also confusion.

  Ramin, R??id and myself, the father from that torn family, along with his son, the only of the surviving women and two of the young men, eight people in total, all physically unscathed, we had reached right in front of the grounded airplane’s boarding stairs.

  “What kind of work is this?” One of the men of the crew was blocking the entrance.

  “Please let us in,” I had plead. R??id stood soul-less next to me, only now emerging from the torture I had submitted him to.

  Another explosion at the far end of the airport revealed the extent of the battle, and the impossibility of eight mortal people surviving it to reach the aircraft.

  The man hesitated. “Are you one of them?” Another woman of the crew came nearby, her hand in mouth as she saw our group of survivors.

  “No,” one of the young men said, his eyes red wet, “there is nowhere else we can go.”

  The man couldn’t find how to respond, so he gave way to our company.

  It was a typical aircraft of an international line. Six seats per row, although most of them were empty. The few people in it have all hidden behind their seats, and they peeked scared as we got in. They were clueless.

  I had to remind myself that this was an operating airport just thirty minutes ago. Knowing these covens, the battle was only starting. But no one in this aircraft knew what was happening, besides perhaps that it involved terrifying violence.

  “I can see why you worked for Starling,” R??id said panting, once released by my ward’s hold, “you are spiteful like the rest of those witches. Birds of pain. Birds of pain and malice.”

  He walked towards a seat in the front and collapsed. Ramin looked at me confused, but I would not make him the favor of understanding. There was a more pressing topic.

  I turned to the crew, to tell them our plan.

  For the second time in five minutes, I had to deal with the shock of the crew.

  “There is no way we can fly this thing,” the man that had previously denied us entry said categorically. His eyes jumped between me and Ramin, as we made the request.

  “No pilot?” Ramin insisted.

  “No the pilot is here, but…”

  “For every but, there is a moment gone. We risk whatever is happening in there to reach us here. We are all in grave danger,” I explained.

  “Can’t you just,” Ramin said and pretended to light a match.

  I reeled in my anger. I needed to confront him, but only once he was confined in a flight. Also, I had no whisper left in me. I could at most ward myself to rest. The complex Hex we had crafted and my newfound Insight had exhausted any energy I could possibly muster.

  I nodded negatively. No way to convince them with Cursed means.

  “You don’t understand. Tower is down, comms are down. We can’t just lift off. Airplanes are waiting to evacuate civilians when the order is given by the military,” the man explained.

  “Evacuate… back to the airport?” I asked confused, and the man nodded.

  “You really have to listen,” I said as I grabbed a seat next to me. It felt like I was about to faint, and needed to hold on to something. The burden of going through all that was catching up to me.

  Before the man could respond, or I could finish the sentence, Ramin launched at him, fist landing from the side. Man was on the ground unconscious.

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  People in nearby front seats gasped audibly and one of the crew members, a young woman, shrieked. Ramin pulled out a firearm, undoubtedly found during our walk through the battlefield.

  “I am done,” Ramin said and aimed at us, “this plane is leaving. Whoever wants to stay and die, can stay.”

  Nobody moved. I inspected his new more violent face. Even if I wanted to react to his approach, I had no power left. I sat down on my seat. This was now his game to finish.

  “Good. You, lock the doors and prepare for lift off. I go to have a chat with the pilot.”

  In less than a minute the airplane started maneuvering. Some people cried, others mumbled as they tried to find a seat and put a seatbelt on. Some were on their cellphones, talking with their loved ones, knowing that soon they would lose all reception.

  The airplane was steered away and started driving away from the airport. It shook and lights flickered as the pilot had clearly chosen to expedite the lift off, motivated by whatever method Ramin had chosen to enforce.

  One of the women from our Hex, she sat in the row across to me, in the next seat over the aisle.

  “I am sorry for what you had to go through,” I said to her. I really was, although I did not know of another possible course of action.

  “Prayers don’t matter anymore, do they? Only Curses. And you Cursed us to salvation,” she said to me.

  “I am afraid so,” I said as the airplane accelerated enough to rise gradually.

  In the past, I was always under Starling’s curses, capable of assuming a starling form, never needing to fly by conventional means or fear of heights. But I knew there was no chance I could summon that curse now, being out of her protection or Domain. I held on to my seat as my fragility sunk in.

  R??id shuffled, in the seat next to me. Everything turned quieter, and I heard his quiet voice.

  “Where is this plane going, bird?”

  “I don’t know. Where did you have me send my whisper?” I responded to him.

  “Aridaria. Western Sahara. That would be nice… but I don’t think so.” He turned his head on the seat’s pillow, his long braid now partially unraveled like a lion’s mane.

  I felt the airplane tilting, as if taking a turn, and everything turned louder again, R??id relinquishing his hold over sound once more.

  “Aridaria? What is there?”

  “It does not matter,” he said grunting. Ramin exited the cockpit as the airplane stabilized in the air. “Don’t you feel us drifting in the direction of the Domains?” R??id asked me.

  I wondered myself. I felt the intention of our motion was going deeper into the Domain War than I had ever been.

  “There is a change of plans. This plane was supposed to head to Paris – I am sorry everyone, but we will take a small detour.” Ramin looked at me, with a clarity on his eyes and said confidently. “We are going to Baku.”

  “No, Ramin, sorry, this is crazy,” I tried to take off my seatbelt and get up, as he approached me. He did not wave his firearm in my direction, but him holding it had the same effect. “Ramin, I told you Baku is not safe. It is even worse than here.”

  He kept eye contact with me.

  “No. It is even worse than here, for birds and platans like you. Not for me.”

  R??id started laughing weakly, interchangeably with coughing.

  In panic, I searched for my matchbox. It must have been somewhere in my pockets. I needed to at least get the pilot to change this plane’s course to anywhere but there.

  “Looking for these, sister?” Ramin said, mockingly holding the match box. He put it back in his pocket. “No more tricks. You got me here, and I am grateful. My purpose is not your demise, a bird who pulled me out of my cage. We reach Baku, and I find a way to safely let you run away.”

  I looked at Ramin and the way he held a gun, my matches, and this airplane. I might have had my own intentions to follow my visions, but now it is clear he was always scheming for another goal. But for what?

  “What about going to the Red Sea? Finding another cross to Africa? Or maybe this plane could have enough fuel to even get us there? Ari-whatever is called? What about us solving my vision together?”

  I was desperate.

  “You might have seen a path to salvation with your Hex bird, but you know what I saw? Us cowering from a fight, and people dying because of this. People in war need someone to finish the fight,” Ramin retorted angrily.

  “You are stupid if you think this is going to go your way,” R??id said, “they are already expecting you.”

  “Who are you?” I asked eventually. I thought about the last day that I knew him. He was a half-Shadow, and he was imprisoned for eight years, that much I knew. R??id planted me in the enchanted house in K?rimli, to get him free. Starling sought him, enough to prompt an all-out war. I thought he had no one, like me.

  People in war need someone to finish the fight were his words, and these could not belong to someone without anyone to fight for.

  “I just need to take back my domain, and end this madness my way,” he said eventually.

  I could not utter a word. He was referring to the Shadow Domain as his.

  “But you were…” I stuttered. He was trapped. The Domain in Baku existed all these years, unyielding, an area forbidden for Cursed.

  “Na?ve,” R??id said to me, “for freeing him. And I was stupid.”

  The sign above him lit up to wear seatbelts and remain seated.

  “Wear your seatbelts,” Ramin yelled at the crowd, “there is a storm ahead.”