Bismarck's (attempts at) Dailies

Cold winds raked over Hera's face as she pressed through the pass. Her cloak was so worn that it did little to keep the wind out now; her armour protected her body, but her face was exposed. A particularly strong gust blew her back a step and she gritted her teeth and braced herself.

"A knight does not yield to meager winds." she growled, pressing onward. The Aerie wasn't far now. Her boot hit a patch of ice hidden beneath the snow and she faltered, falling to one knee and planting a hand on the earth to steady herself. She righted herself after a moment and went forward.

Beyond the pass was a large valley, and at the far edge stood the crumbling towers of the Aerie, Hera's makeshift home whenever Custodian patrols weren't scouring the old stones for Orridian scouting parties. After three thousand years, the skeleton of the Aerie still stood strong. The Custodians had never reclaimed it; they had never even tried. It was a monument to the Archlich's legacy. If they would not take it back, Hera would. She pressed on in silence. As she walked a memory drifted to her unbidden, of the first time she had ever seen the Aerie.

"There it is. The Aerie." Ziva pointed. Hera squinted.
"Why is it abandoned?"
"It is law. It's a monument." said Ziva. She was barely ten and Hera seven, and already Ziva talked like she knew everything.
"But why? It still stands. We could take it."
"We can't." said Ziva bluntly.
"But why?" Hera repeated. Ziva had no answer for her.
"It's a monument to our arrogance." said Kaja. The eldest at twelve, she often played peacemaker between Ziva and Hera. "The Aerie was the greatest fortress built aside from the Citadel of Solace, and still it felt to the Archlich."
"You sound like mother." Hera huffed. "We could take it back. I could take it."
"You're seven, Hera." said Ziva pointedly.
"I didn't mean-"
"Ziva, don't be mean. Let's go back to father now, before the sun goes down and it starts getting cold." Kaja offered Hera her hand.

"And where are you now? Huddled in Solace while I took the Aerie." said Hera to herself. "I told you I would." The boast rang hollow in her own ears. Blind was master of the Aerie, she merely enjoyed his good graces. The old wyvern came and went as he pleased, but the Aerie was a preferred place to roost, and he enjoyed her stories. But he had gone north and would not return for many days if not weeks, and the fortress was a lonely home for one umbra. She ascended the steps to what had once been a grand gateway, the main entrance to the Aerie. The doors were long gone, and carvings around the archway weathered and scarred. She ran her hand over the cold stones as she entered the fortress, her footfalls ringing in the silence. They alone followed her inside, as she ascended winding stairs to the room she had made her home in the higher levels. She leaned her spear against the wall and started a fire in the old hearth, moving to sit in the floor-length window that dominated one wall and gazing out over the Shadows. She knew the window faced south, towards Solace.

Towards home.

A home she had disavowed, a home she had fled from on a cold night many years ago. An order that had constrained her and berated her, clinging to false honour and outdated tradition. A family that had shamed her, disassociated with her, cast her out.
"But I took the Aerie." she said softly. Hera sighed deeply. High in the dark heavens, the Rings of Eris glittered with pale light.