Clay

Of all the wealthy and eccentric collectors and weird and freaky congregations, Auclair liked the jobs from the Towers of the Dove the most. They were not even really a cult - just a bunch of very calm, very quite and very polite people who always read a lot, basically a book club. They would ask her to interpret some particularly twisted passage in some book or try to talk to the spirit of some rotten skull (there, usually, were no results and Auclair, feeling the need of her clients, honestly told them about that, instead of pretending to speak with someone) - simple and even relaxing.

One day, they offered her a more unusual job. Violet - kind old woman, very talented painter - wanted to conduct some ritual within the Orthos Wood - their source claimed that in the dawn times, the greatest tree, at the wood's black heart, served as perch for a great masked Crow. Auclair herself was interested in this - to be precise, in the chance to talk to such a spirit, or at least just to interact with it, or just to observe it. She knew the Towers for a long time - so she agreed to accompany them.

The pines grew thick as hairs on a dog's back. The airs of the inner wood were chokingly thick with resin and dust. Auclair's head was filled with pain and sound and her limbs were tied. Apparently, the cult already tried to find that great tree several times, to no avail. They hoped that Auclair would help them to find it, but she failed. So they resorted to Plan C - to divide her into nine parts in the right place, in the right time, in the rite of the Crow's Quenching. If even this will not show them the way... well, Auclair wasn't particularly interested in that, given that she would be divided into nine parts, but she heard some talks about turning her bones into dust and using them for some sort of elixir.

In the dark of the night, when every cultist was asleep and Auclair was contemplating the possibility of her escaping, she heard a quiet croak. It wasn't something remarkable - wild forest isn't quite, especially at night. But what was remarkable is a big raven (or crow - ornithology wasn't her strong point and still isn't), who descended down from the trees to her. It seemed that it watched cult procession through the woods and for some reason decided to free Auclair. Why did he do that? Maybe the ritual would have been a success, crow felt it and didn't want them to reach their destination. Maybe he wanted to stop any rituals in general. Maybe he just didn't like the Towers. Or maybe he liked Auclair. Whatever it was - his beak and claws helped her to free herself. Regretfully, not all cultists were sleeping - they were just, as always, very quiet.

They ran and ran and rand - until finally, they get away. It improved her situation - but not too much. She was still within the dense and choking territory of root and thorn, without any idea how to get out of here and get to the city and the cult was still looking for her. Hearing her pursuers behind every tree, she run until she found a great oak. Lightning had split it from head to heart, and the tree was charred and rotting. It squirmed with finger-length worms. She hidden within it - and waited.

Several days later, she finally got out of the forest. Hungry, cold, thirsty, dirty, in torn clothes - and with a raven on her shoulder. His name was Clay - and he rarely leaved her shoulder since.