The flock of crows descended on the palace's front courtyard, their wings beating in unison, their bodies dissolving mid-air from gigantic bird to beast.
Black feathers receded into skin, wings folding back into arms and shoulders, until what stood before the Emperor of Iondora was a retinue of half-beast corvids, their long black plumes still adorning their backs and arms like regalia.
Their sharp and glittering eyes scanned around, regarding the welcoming assembly at the front door.
And at their center, stepping forward gracefully, was Magnus Karas. He was almost human-like. More human than beast. His frame was tall and broad-shouldered, his posture straight without being stiff, his movements entirely fluid.
But where hair should have been, his head was crowned with a full, sweeping crest of white feathers. They rose from his scalp in a soft plume, cascading backward, pure white and impossibly smooth.
