40°49'37.0"N 47°42'45.1"E

  Q?b?l? International Airport

  20.05.2024 – 23.40 UTC +04.00

  I let R??id’s mind free, and he fell on his knees, only once the path was completely gone, and the last of us had entered a plane out in the airport. Far from the crossfire and Curses, yet far from safe and sound.

  “May you never recover from this,” I said and spat at him.

  “I can see why you worked for Starling,” he said, panting, “you are spiteful like the rest of those witches. Birds of pain.”

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

  Ramin, R??id, 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 including myself, 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 pleaded. 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 the 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 had all hidden behind their seats, and they peeked scared as we got in. They were clueless to what was happening in the airport, probably having just boarded themselves before the starlings’ landfall.

  I really had to remind myself that this was an international airport just thirty minutes ago. Knowing the two 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, we had to deal with the shock of the crew.

  “There is no way we can fly this thing,” the man who had previously denied us entry said categorically. His eyes jumped between us, 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 to a flight. Also, I had no whisper left in me. I could at most ward myself to rest. The complex Hex we had crafted, including my newfound Insight, had exhausted any energy I could possibly muster.

  I nodded negatively. There was 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 I 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.

  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.”

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  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 rolling away from the main building. 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.

  “Where is this plane going, bird?”

  His eyes were closed, and I could notice how his lips looked pale and chuffed from dehydration.

  I strapped my seatbelt. “How does it feel for once? Not knowing what is happening. That is my life the past days. Because of you.”

  R??id chuckled. He tried to flutter his eyes open, and he looked for the seatbelt around him. I saw him flail around, failing to sit properly.

  “Where did you have me send my whisper? That night in the cabin.” I asked. Everything turned quieter, and I heard his soft voice.

  “Wouldn’t you like to know…”

  He gave up on the seat belt after struggling enough. He shuffled again, assuming a more comfortable position and turned to me.

  “Aridaria. Western Sahara.” He turned his head on the seat’s pillow; his long braid now partially unraveled like a lion’s mane after all the shuffling.

  “Aridaria? What is there?”

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

  “It does not matter,” he said grunting, “others tend to those matters. We have to worry about this airplane right now. Don’t you feel us drifting in the direction of the Domains?”

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

  Ramin exited the cockpit as the airplane stabilized in the air.

  “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 Bak?.”

  “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 Bak? 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 trees like you. Not for me.”

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

  I felt sweat forming on my forehead. I had gone through a lot the last twenty-four hours, but it was the first time I really felt trapped. In panic, I searched for my matchbox. I put my hands in my pockets – it must have been somewhere in there.

  All I needed was to at least get the pilot to change this plane’s course to anywhere but there. I could use my ward once more and…

  “Looking for these, sister?” Ramin said in a serious tone, holding the match box with his index and thumb. He showed it off. “No more tricks. You got me here, and I am grateful. My purpose is not your demise, a starling who broke me out of my cage. We reach Bak?, and I promise I will find a way to safely let you run away.”

  I looked at Ramin. His expression had now stiffened, as he held a gun, my matches, and this airplane. The rest of the people on board were saved, but I was now his hostage.

  “What about going to the Red Sea? Finding another cross to Africa?” He knew my intentions to follow my Farsight. Something was happening further in the West. The vision the night R??id attacked me, the vision in the safehouse in K?rimli. None of them pointed to Bak?.

  “Maybe this plane could have enough fuel to even get us there? Ari-whatever is called?” I turned next to me to R??id, the one who had put all these events in motion. He did not respond or react. I turned back, pleading Ramin: “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 you,” Ramin pointed angrily to me and the man of Adil, “people in war need someone to finish the fight. This half-breed Shadow can be that someone.”

  His confidence bent with the last words, as he choked by the weight of his argument.

  “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 by Starling. The Domain in Bak? existed all these years, unyielding, an area forbidden for other Cursed. How?

  “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.

  “Hold on to your seats,” Ramin yelled at the crowd, “the storm is not over yet.”