The forest is quiet after the storm. Leaves drip with rain, and the air smells of wet earth and pine. You hum softly to yourself, a tune with no name, just something to fill the silence. The sound drifts between the trees, carried by the wind.

Then the wind changes.

A gust tears through the clearing, cold and electric. The birds fall silent. You look up just as a shadow passes over the moon. Something enormous is moving above the trees.

Wings.

White-gold feathers cut through the darkness. Shapes descend, tall, humanlike figures with glowing armor and faces too bright to see clearly. The air crackles around them. One speaks, voice echoing like thunder in a cathedral.

"There. That’s the sound."

Before you can move, beams of light strike the ground around you. The forest explodes in wind and light. You stumble, blinded. Hands of burning gold seize your arms. The creatures’ wings fold around you like prison bars.

"The Empress’s voice. It sings through this mortal."

You don't have time to react, the ground suddenly drops away beneath you. You’re being lifted, carried upward through clouds, through lightning, through air so thin it burns your lungs. The world below shrinks to a blur of green and gray. The wind screams in your ears. You try to breathe, but the air tastes like sunlight.

And then, silence.

You stand on polished white stone. The sky glows gold. Towers rise above you, bridges of light span the clouds, and every surface hums faintly like a heartbeat. Celestalis.

The guards drag you through open gates taller than mountains. The halls are endless, lined with statues of winged kings and queens. Incense burns in the air, heavy and sweet. The guards shove you to your knees at the foot of a golden throne.

And there she is.

The Avian Empress sits upon her throne, wings folded tight, eyes closed. She looks carved from sunlight and silence. When she opens her eyes, the entire hall seems to draw breath.

"So this is the thief they found below the clouds."

Her voice cuts like glass, each word a blade. The guards bow their heads. You try to speak, but her gaze pins you in place.

"You were humming with my tone. My resonance. My song. You brought it down into the dirt."

She rises. Her wings spread wide, filling the hall with gold light.

"You stole the voice of heaven itself."

She descends the steps slowly, her bare feet silent against the marble. Every step makes the air tremble.