Harbingers of Change

Her kind was the pinnacle of evolution: natural flyers of the skies. She was part of a prominent family who held massive power over politics. Uvse could only curse her misfortune as she was the weakest of her clan. Consequently, said status resulted in her assignment to perform menial cleaning duties in the royal castle. Uvse wasn't even allowed to attend the meeting with the leader of Tempest, who was now the ultimate ruler of her kind.

Uvse slowly flew through the lower levels of the castle, scooping up the feathers occasionally dropped by other, more important harpies whilst polishing the glass windows to a mirror shine. Her wings carried her small and thin frame with ease through narrow corridors and high ceilings alike. In a sense, even her current situation was a blessing in disguise. Initially, her grandmother wanted to get rid of her altogether for shaming the bloodline by merely existing To put it bluntly, the older harpy despised her for being so weak. What saved her was a mother's love. After denouncing her family rights and officially becoming a servant to her oldest sister, she was permitted to exist, a privilege for those as weak as her.

Yet, there was hope. The murmurs of a new order had reached even her ears, low as they were. Tempest sought to dismantle the archaic traditions and replace them with a merit-based society, with only those at the very top being determined by raw power and capabilities. Even those without wings could now rise in society and gain positions of prestige and power if they were capable enough. Thanks to the mercy of her sisters she was educated, albeit done in secret, but that was enough of a foothold for her to get started.

Uvse watched her reflection disappear from the window with each movement of her hand as the cloth wiped away everything blocking the bright sun rays.

Only a few hundred more to go…

Satisfaction could be found even in the simplest of duties if the mind was attuned to living life for what it was, and she surely had learned to value her work, even if the highborn overlooked it. Work was still work that had to be done. It was either that or living in perpetual misery and self-lamenting.

Satisfied with the wiping, she flew to the next window, dipping the cloth in the bucket full of water that she carried. The dust-covered surface gave hints of her reflection as the fragmented face full of a sense of duty stared back, searching for a corner to start with.

As she worked, raising her rag, she heard a commotion and upon looking up saw her oldest sister emerge in the hall, moving towards her with powerful strokes of her wings.

"Lady Algiva, did you-"

"Get bags and go clean up the throne room! Ignore the one laying on the floor as she is stripped of name and removed from memory," Her sister barked an order, her wings shaking in visible agitation.

"As you wish." Uvse bowed her head and rushed over to the servant area of the castle to get everything she needed, dropping off the small bucket, and it came as no surprise that other servants were doing the same. Large linen bags, buckets with water, soap, and other cleaning supplies were given out by the castle's headmaid in a hurry.

'By the Queen, what happened?' Uvse's mind raced as she moved in tandem with older maids, wings beating as she picked up her large bucket of soapy water. Her best guess was that someone had tried to challenge the Supreme Overlord and either died or got seriously wounded, which was what they were being sent in to clean up.

She was no stranger when it came to seeing dead bodies and violence as duels for supremacy were a regular part of harpy life, even among the commoners. Siblings often fought to be in charge of family lines and such duels could easily be fatal. Out of her seven sisters, only five lived. At least she didn't have to worry about her daughters doing the same when she hopefully garnered enough favor with Lady Algive and got permission to use her older sister's lover to sire children. They would be preserved as servants at worst and could possibly elevate themselves even above her during the new regime at best.

The answer came soon enough, but she was unprepared for what she saw. For the sheer devastation of it all surpassed anything she had ever seen in her years working at the palace. The throne room floor was littered with bodies, splattered remains painting the entire floor and parts of the lower walls bloody red. The remains of at least a dozen noble harpies lay destroyed before Uvse, limbs broken, heads shattered and among them, a bound wingless figure laying on her side, her face frozen in a permanent expression of shock.

Uvse scanned the room in mute horror. It was her grandmother lying among the corpses, the older harpy's gaze still fixated on one of the broken corpses.

"Mother…" She gasped as her mind struggled to accept the reality. 'How did this happen?'

"So the nameless one caused all this. Serves her right," One of her peers spat as she grabbed one of the corpses and pushed it into a linen bag.

"Better keep your mouth shut! This is not your business." Another maid, a bit older, reprimanded the one who spoke up.

Perhaps in time, she would find out what happened to her mother and grandmother if one of her sisters decided to share the truth with her. For now, she could only do what was told and clear up the area. First, they put all the corpses in their bags and hauled them off for burial in the tree roots. Then came the truly tedious part: washing out all the blood, guts, and brains before the wooden floor absorbed the organic matter and gained a reddish-brown color permanently. It would be a long day ahead of her.

She wasn't supposed to become the clan leader anytime soon, but her grandmother's fatal mistake changed the trajectory of her career dramatically. Algiva, as the current strongest of the bloodline, knew she had to take the position of the clan matriarch ahead of her aunts, sisters, and even the two surviving great aunts, and it came at a time when five of her clan had been ruthlessly executed because Princess Luchia decided they were not worthy of existing. More blood would spill, and she would have to do it personally like how she had done to two other siblings and various other relatives.

Algiva knew a few things with absolute certainty. The first one was that she could not retaliate against Luchia in any manner whatsoever, as her lover was the third most influential person of the Tempest Hegemony, and she even had access to the Supreme Overlord's ear, whose absolute power she already tasted in the throne room. Feeling her life at the complete mercy of the absolute ruler of the new united domain was a nerve-racking experience. Even Harpy Queen Frey could only watch in silence as the harpies deemed unfit smashed against the floor, unable to even utter their dying screams as their souls departed for the heavens.

The second, and arguably more important thing, was that if she didn't take over the clan now, she would be killed as the largest threat to her aunt, who was the second candidate for leadership and would likely make moves to ensure that it was one of her daughters that succeeded her, not Algiva.

It was only three hours after the faithful meeting with Hegemony's leaders when all of her clan had gathered in their decorated spire to decide upon their future.

The main gathering hall was styled similarly to the royal court, with nests hanging in the air for the most important members of the clan and bars hanging for the less important ones and servants.

When Algiva arrived, servants in tow, she saw that her aunt was already sitting in the central nest as if she would lead the clan without any question or resistance. There was no time to wait as Algiva knew she needed to show both might and decisiveness, her claws already preemptively sharpened for this occasion.

With powerful strokes of her wings, she crashed into the nest and grabbed her aunt by the neck, digging in as deeply as she could.

"What are you-" The older harpy gargled, completely taken by surprise.

"Arrogance needs to be punished!" Algiva hissed back, her other hand turning into a razor-sharp claw that she slammed into her opponent's chest and gripped the heart of her competition. There were only two ways to quickly kill a harpy of notable power, well documented across history and personal experience. Either chop off her head or remove her heart, and she went with the second option so that her aunt could experience her demise without hope of regeneration. She would only have a few dozen seconds before dying anyway.

With a quick motion, she tore out the still-beating organ and presented it before her clan to remove any doubt of her claim for the matriarch's position. Her aunt let out dying gasps as Algiva finally let her go, letting her plummet toward the ground.

"Submit or join her!" Algiva shouted as she squeezed the heart, letting the blood drip down her arm and droplets splatter on her face. The life of harpies had always been bloody and ruthless and only the strongest could lead. It didn't matter that the society was ordered to move towards a more merit-based society for the weak. The strongest one was always the most capable one.

Her gaze was fixated on the cousins whose mother she had just murdered in cold blood. They weren't nearly as strong as her and all four combined could at best provide a decent challenge, albeit they would fall in the end. To her relief they lowered their heads, accepting her claim along with the rest of the clan.

Stifling the desire to sigh of relief she declared, "I want no plotting against the common masters of nearly all monsters! From this day onwards our clan will serve the high lords with dedication and loyalty. If any of you think of standing against Tempest, I will make your last moments as painful as possible!"

"We are already being watched. Do you think you can lead us back to the good graces of our new masters? You are still young and inexperienced, Algiva!" One of her great aunts retorted.

"I will do what's necessary to keep our clan alive and won't tolerate anyone acting out. Our only hope of thriving is to embrace the change and support Lady Frey! You saw what happens to those who don't." She declared firmly.

"You better be right. We might get removed even if we fall in line," One of her sisters cautioned.

"Tempest values merit, as long as we serve properly our wings won't be cut. Be sure to welcome their agents with open arms and drill into every one of us to forget that having wings makes us better." Algiva could only hope no one in her territories decided to sabotage her efforts by doing something that would anger the government forces; she had work to do to get the rest in line. Even doing something as little as snubbing a kobold merchant with an insult might now cause too much trouble.

Once the meeting was concluded she retreated to her private quarters, where her lover awaited her with a small, but specially tailored to her, feast. The harpy man who hadn't yet received a name knew how to lift her mood and was well aware of ongoing events, thus knowing she was now the matriarch.

Algiva plopped down on the sofa as her lover presented her with food and moved on to massage her upper back and wings, speaking, "You did well. I doubt anyone will try to usurp you."

"My sister told you?" She asked, curious how he found out.

"She always does. I think she's hoping you'll lend me to her." He chuckled.

"Perhaps I will when things calm down. Ugh, I wasn't ready for this one bit." She let out a frustrated groan. Her man was the only one who was permitted to see this side of her, nobody else.

"You'll do just fine. I have no doubt about that." His hands masterfully took away all tension from her tired wings, creasing out a cramp she felt forming from being tense for hours.

Algiva was about to reply when she felt a distinct change in the magical fields. There was another being present within their room. She waved for her lover to back off and jumped to her feet. "Show yourself!" She demanded with full authority behind her strained voice.

A dragonewt woman appeared before Algiva, her sharp gaze making the harpy nervous. One of Tempest's agents was before her and a powerful one at that, likely second only to Frey herself and more than enough to take her out.

"What do you want?" Algiva politely inquired, ready to fight for her life if need be.

"It seems you have the sense to fall in line without ulterior motives. Tell me, will all of your clan do the same?" The dragonewt asked with an air of intimidation.

"They will do as told or be removed," Algiva stated coldly.

"You will receive this warning only once. Lord Demiurge won't tolerate any betrayal or inner machinations. Make sure to remember that and you might have a future in Tempest." The dragonewt took a step forward, her presence only growing. This creature likely was powerful enough to slaughter her entire clan with ease and likely was permitted to do so by the infamous Tempest's minister of defense, one of the most cruel and conniving individuals in all the lands.

She was only vaguely aware of all the high lords and high executors, but if today's demonstration was any indication, angering any of them was an assured death sentence.

"I will serve with full loyalty. I don't need such a reminder!" Algiva hissed back, feathers on her wings puffing up.

"We'll see." Were the last words the dragonewt uttered before fading away into the shadows.

'One mistake and it's all over. Grandmother was beyond stupid for challenging the lords. I hope she suffers from it and doesn't get an easy death,' She cursed the harpy who had caused all this trouble, laying back down as her lover resumed his massaging.

Editing by aidan_lo.

Proofreading by Stac, clagan, Malguis, Sluethen, Alassandro, fvvck, IAMTHEPLOKOKIOPO, aidan_lo, Working_Stiff and CakeEight.

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