The wind was calm until the sparrow came. It was a small beast, but a peculiar one at that. It settled high above the tree and stared down at Irina. Its feathers were black, with specks of blue decorating its entire body. The beady eyes of the bird gazed down at the Vileblood before the faint smell of brimstone overcame her senses. Something was wrong. The bird flew down a few branches more, eventually perching itself once more upon a more naked branch. Ribbons of red flew off of it with the wind, which had strangely began to pick up when the bird descended. Blood? Was the bird wounded? And if so, how could it fly? Something was terribly wrong. Flapping its wings, it left a trail of black dust in the wake of its descent. The smell of brimstone got more powerful as the sparrow landed on the branch closest to Irina, still above her but only several feet away. Its features were defined now; tendons hung freely between its feathers, as if the bird was ripped apart and put back together with pieces of viscera still outside of its skin. It was not a black bird itself - all of their feathers were stained with soot and ash, which glowed with still burning blue embers. And for a single moment as it looked down at Irina, there was something in the reflection of its eye. Perhaps it was a mere trick of the light but within the jet black irises of the sparrow was a faint hint of gold tinged by a rusty layer of red... Almost like the helmet of a mad Executioner.