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Hanuvh motioned for his minions to stay behind and followed Jayara into the basement. He kept a respectful distance and watched. As for the man, he seemed too tired or too drugged to care what was going on around him.

I care not. It is your heart you are renewing, after all. Should you decide to walk away I will just let it flutter and fall still, as it should have without my intervention. Do what you will - you hold your own life right now.

The basement was filled with wind, rushing past in a great circle and spiraling into the middle. For a moment all light was sucked inward and then it spread back out, as if something had just let out a deep breath. And in the middle was the Black Swan, as large as a person, wings folded, eyes red, and a shuddering human heart bound to its breast. It walked fowards, unfolding one wing and draping the leather skin and feathers around Jay.

Not as easy as it was when we first made our bargain, hmm? But a bargain it is... and you have yet another year.

He scooped up the man's heart, pulling it out with his beak, and draped it across his own feathered chest. It melted into the swan's body and the heart's beating grew steady and strong once again. Another year.

"My... my lord," Hanuvh said weakly, falling to his knees, "I... I had always hoped... if I may ask..."

He wishes for a blessing. This man has no heirs and fears for the safety of those he has taken into his cult. The striplings. Some he even fathered.... though they do not know it. Would you give him a blessing, my prodigy, despite knowing the lives he has taken in so many years of service?

Hanuvh looked relieved to be able to address Jay. It was obvious he was in terror - and awe - of the Swan. At least by talking to someone... relatively human... it was easier.

"There have been," he said tentatively, "Other cults. In other cities. And I've seen many fall apart at the turn of leadership, either routed out by the city officials or torn to pieces from within. I will not see what I've built fall apart. I ask... for protection... for my successor. If the Swan... or the Swan's servant, could name the next leader... no one would dare question it."

"I... yes, I think I do." He nodded and then turned his gaze to the Swan and seemed to lose the ability to speak again.

Mortals. The Swan sounded amused. Your games amuse me. Allow me to assist... three feathers. Death - instant - irrevocable - will be contained within them. I will be interested to see how they will be used.

And the Swan pulled three feathers from his wing, letting them drop to the floor between him and Hanuvh. He turned, pulling his wings close and away from the ranger.

Until this time next year, little one. A word of advice - start using your wings more. You may need them. My... enemy... has a champion as well.

And the Swan retreated into the shadows of the basement, the dark areas covering him from sight and although Hanuvh seemed too stunned to notice anything, it felt like the Swan was still watching, apparently still amused enough to stay and see what happened.

Trembling, Hanuvh reached out and took them. The first feather touched his palm and instantly dissolved into dust. Hanuvh sucked in a breath, stared at Jay with eyes impossibly large, and collapsed to the floor. The two remaining feathers fluttered to the ground next to him. He did not move.

In the darkness, something chuckled.

Death. Instant. Irrevocable.

The Lord Hanuvh was the first to receive this particular gift from the Swan.

Maybe there was a god smiling down on Otiian that made him so very late to the happenings of the night. The meeting with the mysterious woman wound up going nowhere but late and he was irritated because of it. He strode into Hanuvh's house briskly and looked around expecting to see people around to mock his tardiness. The house was silent though. Not like a usual ritual night at all. His sharp eyes scanned the stairs before he called out. "Hello?"

Jay opened her mouth to shout something, but there was nothing but an emptiness left behind in the shadows where she once felt the Swan reside. Filling the silence was another voice, one from up the stairs and past the door in the main room.

She looked back down upon Hanuvh's face, eyes still wide open, and shivered.

Slowly her hand crossed over his eyes as she whispered words of passing -ones she hadn't uttered for some time- by those once taught in ways of Narktu's fold.

"I'm... sorry," she said, finally giving in and accepting some of the blame for what had been his fate. "I... may not be the god of the hunt to usher you to the other side, and I may not have been what you expected for a Revenant..." She laid Hanuvh out on the floor in a more presentable fashion and crossed his arms over his chest. "I wish I'd known who you picked."

She shook herself off and then realized she had one more passing to attend, looking up and seeing what had been the first casualty. Quiet chanting followed a second time, though she left the man sitting so as not to lie in the pool of red beside him.

As she walked back toward the stairs to deal with those left behind, she spotted the feathers and dagger on the floor. The dagger she wiped on the sleeve already stained and put it away. The feathers she scooped up in her hand and looked over, twisting them in her fingers, what lights had not gone out playing upon their glossy reflection.

To one of these remaining lights, Jay walked over and lifted the glass cover, holding out both feathers over the fire.

"If I want to kill someone, I want it to be by my own hand. Not by some accident," she said, knowing what chances she could be burning away with the feathers, assuming they would burn at all.