The Ceremony of Broken Wings
The temple stones wept black tears as Payune knelt before the "Dragonrend," a sword forged from the still-beating heart of a fallen sky god. Its jagged edge pulsed like a living thing, veins of crimson light throbbing beneath its obsidian surface.
"Take it," rasped the High Priest, his skeletal fingers trembling. "And prove your cursed blood has purpose."
Payune's dragon-marked eyes flickered. She grasped the hilt.
PAIN.
The visions came:
Her mother's corpse, strung up like a banner after the failed rebellion.
Hayuni, age six, stitched closed Payune's wounds with shaking hands.
Their father's voice: "Useless. Both of them."
"You are ruin," the sword whispered. "Just like her."
Payune screamed, muscles tearing as she wrenched the blade free.
BOOM.
A shockwave of black lightning shattered the altar. The High Priest flew backward, his ceremonial mask cracking to reveal rotten flesh beneath.
From the shadows, the Dragonlord watched, his mechanical left eye whirring as it calculated her power.
"...Fascinating," he murmured.
Hayuni lounged in her blood-red bath, steam curling around her exposed curves. The water shimmered with dissolved pearls each one a trapped soul she'd collected.
"Mistress," whispered her fox spirit, materializing as a blue flame. "They're coming."
She sighed, stretching lazily. Every movement was a performance:
Golden chains draped between her thighs, just barely preserving modesty.
Living tattoos of foxes chased each other up her bare waist.
A collar of shattered mirrors reflected every angle of the room—no blind spots for assassins.
The doors burst open.
"Father's orders," sneered Veyl, his cyber-augmented arm crackling with energy. "You're to be chained like the beast you "
Hayuni moved.
Water splashed as she pinned him against the wall, her dagger pressing into his groin.
"Oh, Veyl," she purred, her breath hot on his lips. "You've been dreaming of this, haven't you?"
His pupils dilated. " I ..."
She sank the blade in just enough to draw blood. "Tell Father I'll come when I please."
The sisters met in the Chamber of Whispers, where the walls bled black sap.
Payune's new sword wept oily tears. "It's happening," she growled. "The Purge begins at dawn."
Hayuni toyed with a ribbon that slithered like a snake around her fingers. "Then we give them a show they'll never forget."
A beat of silence. Then
"Do you remember Mother's last words?" Payune whispered.
Hayuni went very still. "She said... 'The moon will weep when the daughters rise.'"
BOOM.
The temple bells began to toll the death knell for dragon-blooded.
Payune's grip on Dragonrend turned her knuckles white. "They'll regret this."
Hayuni's smile was all teeth. "Oh, little dragon... We'll make sure of it."
The Eye Opens
As the first Inquisitor fell, his body dissolving in Hayuni's foxfire, the ground split open.
Not just Earth reality itself tore.
From the fissure rose a figure wrapped in funeral shrouds, its face a void with seven screaming mouths.
"AT LAST," it breathed, and the sky shattered like glass.
Behind it, thousands of identical figures began to crawl forth.
Payune's sword screamed in terror.
Hayuni's ribbons twisted into defensive spikes.
And from the ruins, their father's laugh echoed joyful for the first time in years.