Circinus

Many years ago, shortly after the fall of Astéria ...

Circinus heard his father jolt awake. His mother and his sister still soundly sleeping in the one big bed they shared. He opened his eyes, staring at the silks draped over the top and around the edges of the bedposts. He turned over to where his father normally laid, the bed still warm and smelling of that strange smell that his father often smelled like. He heard the faint sound of his father yelling at someone. Wrapping his bedrobe a tad tighter around him, he slid out of the bed to investigate. The balcony window was open, the wind danced through the loose fabric draped over the windows, barely obscuring the two faint figures that stood on the balcony. One was clearly his father, wings out and the faint form of a spear in his father’s hand. “You do know that they’ll find out eventually, and you know what they’ll do.” the stranger remarked. “I’ve heard it from one of your own, they won’t last a week. At least in my hands, they’ll be useful” they added. Their voice sent a shiver down Circinus’s spine, he had a bad feeling that the stranger was talking about him and his sister. “No, you’re not taking them. I know what you did to the others, Elistan.” his father remarked the name hissed through his teeth. Circinus crept forward even closer to the window hoping to get a better view of what was happening. The other figured huffed, “Fine then, I’ll give you another option” he saw them flourish their hand. “Give me your heart,” they continued “And I’ll keep your children a secret”. He watched his father hesitate, “How did you know about that?” he asked a hint of fear creeping into his voice.” let’s just say I heard if, from a few little birds”, they responded with a chuckle. Circinus had never seen his father even remotely scared, it was new to him watching his father flinch and back up a bit and for a second he could’ve sworn he’d seen a third figure looming over the stranger. Their face was a horrid smiling mask that seemed to notice Circinus standing behind the curtain. It terrified him. “Seems like we have a little eavesdropper,” the other man said after seemingly listening to someone whisper into his ear. He stared straight at Circinus, his amber eyes staring deep into his soul. His father hurriedly slid in front of him, his wings blocking Circinus’s view of the stranger. “Circinus,” his father told him, his voice sounding a tad shaky. “Go back to your mother and sister, don’t come out no matter what you hear” he warned. Circinus went to argue. “Don’t argue, just… go” his father told him, his massive crimson wings slowly pushing him back. Circinus began to back up before turning tail and running back to the bed. Shoving himself underneath the sheets and covering his ears, eventually falling back asleep to the rhythms of his mother and sister’s breathing.

His father was never the same after that night, they found him in the morning on the balcony leaned up against the wall breathing heavily. A new scar crossed his chest and the man from last night was nowhere to be seen. Over the next year, his father grew distant from them, almost as if avoiding the twins and their mother. One day he just never came home. Circinus’s mother seemed to know the reason but she never told either of them why.

Circinus never forgot though. The face of the man he was convinced took away his father haunted him every night. He kept training, part of it because he was afraid. Afraid that the man and whatever entity helped him that night would return either for the twins or their mother. The day his wings first appeared he decided to leave, much to his mother’s sadness. That evening he said goodbye to his mother, his sister, and the home he’d grown up in. For years he wandered from place to place doing odd jobs and mercenary work. After almost a century of doing this rumors began to spread about him. Rumors of a crimson winged warrior who’d kill anyone as long as he was paid enough. After the insurgence of these rumors, he started hiding more and more, even cutting the long red hair that he’d gotten from his father. Eventually, though he’d always come back out, whether it was to help some poor soul or to bring his wrath down on those who thought they could use him to hurt those he tried to protect. Eventually, those rumors morphed into the stories that are told of him today, the stories of a red-winged guardian angel who wasn’t the easiest to find.

Eventually, he made his way to the Starwood strand. Following the rumors of a demon taking souls and forcing dragons to work under him