The crows of Alengale

I went into the courtyard and was immediately greeted by the caws of a hundred crows. I hurried back to my housing as twice as many red eyes filled with hunger turned to me. I locked the door with relief, but when I glanced at the window, the tree was bare, as if winter had come. And on the sill of the window left ajar, a single black feather.

Some says it's a legend crafted to scare the wealthy landlords who enjoy the luxury of private courtyard. Although the idea of a murder of crow enacting the vendetta of the lower class is appealing, the crows are as real as you and me. Far from vengeance spirit, they are kindred of misfortune and injustice, hitting the benevolent and innocent.

Murderous wings

The crows appear typically in courtyard, perched on many-branched trees. They are only visible to those close to death, who are drawn to the tree without knowing why. Others might hear the caws but are unable to detect where they come from. When the unfortunate set foot in the courtyard, it is already too late. With each victim they claim, another bird joins the flock until they become too numerous for the tree to hold them and they disperse in the Alengale. I haven't been able to ensure that the new bird is the unfortunate or merely a spawn of the energy they gain from the murder of the innocent, and cannot fathom what fate would be the worst.

Fine ingredients

The crows themselves are beings of pure occult, something that I would not dare deal directly with, given their origin. However, they occasionally shed feathers, which possess a significant part of this essence, however anchored in matter. This makes it easier to manipulate and proved to be of great help in various mixtures, especially when dealing with curses, unsurprisingly. These elixirs might tap in the power of one of the darkest mages of all history and are not without risk, but certainly my strongest recipes.

Even though I am far too guilty to be afraid of the crows, I refrain from going in their lair myself. I usually use a naive and pure proxy, paying them in full for some feathers. They are often quick to accept my request, in particular the young ones. I am more generous to them than I am to anyone else. It is not like this money will fly away, after all.

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by Rumengol with MSE

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What's in a name?

Alen is said to be a powerful mage with a knack for devious experiments involving the death of thousands. He is the creator of most ancient curses and father to countless mysteries. The Alengale is of them, a wind of bad omen bringing miser and woe in its wake. With Alen sealed away by his fellow mages and the Alengale blown down, the dread that went along took the form of crows and settled in London, where the malice of their creator found a suitable home.