In Avisland, all citizens wear a sash on their arms. If they are not pleased with their lot in life, they may remove the sash. Their arms will grow feathers, the color and pattern of which determine where they may be permitted to go migrate to. At other times, it will tell them where they're to find a true calling or a lifestyle they will enjoy. But all tribes of Avisland fear Tribe Raben. Rabenites practice, the brutal and unpleasant: harrowing. It's a season of conscription and often out right abduction. Wren was one of the unlucky. Before her ceremony to leave her farming caste, her arms are revealed to contain the Raben's Mark. She flees to the town square revealing slick and black feathers. She pleads to the lands police, the Roostmen, for aid at the mercies of Goldfuast: the protector of her lands, her childhood friend, and local hero. None who suffer the Raben Mark ever reach a ceremony, nor do they escape their captures. One who receives a Raben Mark is doomed to become a Rabenite or Rabenitess.
19 parts