In the form of a Crow of Death, Noctis returned to the hut atop a lone yellow star. Moving around as this particular crow granted Noctis an invisibility that only a Primordial would be able to crack, but that is, if they were paying attention to him.
He was about to fly through the opening on top of the roof when a formless pressure pushed him back as Sheba dryly rebuked him inside his consciousness,
"Go through the door, little crow, he is not in a good mood, and I donโt want to risk any further disruption in his mood by you taking the roof instead of the entire door in front of you!"
Noctis was speechless. What difference did it make if he came through any opening in the hut? Sheba was a unique higher-dimensional entity, and the appearance she was holding did not matter when she could shapeshift into anything.
In fact, Noctis believed that the yellow sun was the bulk of her mass, and that the tiny hut above could as well be a single strand of hair. ๐๐ง๐๐ฎ๐๐ฎ๐๐ฃ๐ธ๐๐๐.๐๐๐
He whispered in irritation, and he became even more annoyed when he realized that he was whispering, suggesting that he was being careful not to annoy a Rowan who was in a bad mood,
"You do know that he is just a guest in the long run. Now you are allowing him to waltz into our castle and take control of it. Some things should be sacred!"
The tinkling laughter of Sheba made Noctis grit his toothless beak, but not feeling the impact of that gesture, he created teeth inside his beak and gnashed them together.
"Say what you want, Noctis, but you have already acknowledged him as your master. I am here to ensure you donโt fuck it up, because you will fuck it up if it is left to you."
"You... you..." Rolling his eyes in irritation, Noctis knew that this argument would lead to nothing good, and he swerved around and flew through the door, and he swore he could hear Sheba muttering something about hard-headed birds and the teeth in his mouth were crushed into powder.
As he crossed the door, the interior of the hut, which should be small, had expanded into a space as vast as a small country. Noctis looked up and did not see any opening in the sky, but countless magnificent runes pulsing with the power of fire and light, and when he looked behind him, there was no doorway.
"Why does she want me to follow a door when it would not matter in the first place?!"
Grunting in frustration, the crow searched for the presence of Rowan while trying to decipher the changes in his surroundings. He was aware that all of these runes must be associated with the New Light; could it be that she was about to make a move?
Apart from consuming the nigh infinite essence of death that Rowan had been channeling into him, Noctis had been patrolling Reality, becoming the eyes and ears of Rowan inside the Primordial Domain.
Consuming all of the essence of death had evolved the power of Death in his tattoos, and Noctis was granted the form of a crow.
To take this form, a Death-Messenger, which was the sort of creature Noctis had become, would need to channel enough death essence that could cover all the deaths in a dozen Major Eras inside a Reality.
"Noctis, come to me." The voice of Rowan entered his soul, and the crow shivered, and Noctis felt a gentle force surround his body, and he was drawn to an unknown place inside the castle.
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