Dream time

She clambered onto the parapet wall and looked down, eighty, ninety feet, to shadowed stone. She took a deep breath, and jumped. Oh shit I'm falling I'm going to die! Her body clenched from groin to throat. She couldn't breathe. She couldn't throw up. I did it wrong why did I trust him I'm sorry I'm so sorry help me oh God please help me--

And then her wings opened and caught the wind.

Thank you, thank you....wow.

She tossed her head back and thought Up! and the wings beat, lifting her. She thought about landing on the roof she'd just jumped from, at least long enough to steady herself--she was still shaking, and nauseous--but the owl man cried "No, don't land! Rise up, rise up!" She rose, suddenly weary, and followed him.
As they floated over the city's towers, he named them for her. The one that looked like a half-melted white candle was the Tower of Art. The slim brown one, atop which sat a man with a long sword laid flat across his wrists, was the Pillar of Autumn Mandolins. Soldiers paced on the dark square walls of the Fortress of Night.