There was something wrong with the pair, and the shadow knight knew it as he watched them from afar as he always did. They flew apart, going different directions but always returning to their walls together. Day after day he watched, until he could bear no longer.  
  Their walls began to crumble, peppered from the outside by the monarchs of their world, decayed by their neglect. He offered his services to them, patching their walls, unable to build any of his own, relentless in his pursuit of their happiness. His red laced their flight for many nights, tethering them to one another when they flew too far.
  One night, his wispy tethers broke, and the blue and black separated. The black winged one remained a creature of the stars, refusing to enter into her radiantly colored daylight. The blue girl followed, but was beaten back into the daylight, clutching her raven winged boy in her arms. The blue girl fell, letting go, and the shadow knight ran to catch her just in time as the boy with the black wings crashed, his landing softened by his own hardened feathers.
  The blue was alright, undamaged, but frightened and the red one set her upright again as he ran to bind the boys wounds. The pair would survive, tethered this time by stronger cords, safe in their flight through the sky.
  But the girl was still frightened, she sometimes flew on her own, her blue streaking the daylight, always sure to stay tethered, but curious at what the future held. The boy often stayed behind, once again beginning to tend to his walls now laced with red, always keeping an eye on his end of the red tether.
  Upon a return from one of her greatest adventures, she noticed his wings were smaller. He spent more time tending his great white walls than he did in the air. He had lost his lofty purpose. The one who tended the cord became nervous, the red knight foresaw but refused. The girl was saddened and became distant, flitting back to her castle of blue, gently smoothing over the shadow knights rough repairs.
  They continued on for a time, the black boy’s wings shrinking slowly as the shadowy one strove to maintain his silken red cords. The blue girl began to realize what the shadow knight foresaw, and the boy with the black wings had known.
  The red cords broke again. Suffering every moment, she tore into him. Feathers flew between the pair as she agitated him into doing the one thing he had never done for her.
  Something for himself.
  The boy and girl retreated to their castles, bricking up their once open doors. The boy had seen another color, a girl of indigo, and they shut themselves inside his great white keep. The girl kept her windows open, and colors unimaginable could be seen flitting silently in and out, some leaving their mark on her blue, others merely passing through.
  The red knight, the shadow knight remained, traveling the increasing distance between the blue and white castles, his cords in tatters, but his intentions pure as he did what he could. The white walls were closed to him for a time, cold and impenetrable, and he retreated to guard the colorful, villa of blue. He still watched the white walls, and eventually, the black winged boy emerged, silent and waiting, the indigo one close behind. His doors opened slowly again, as the blue girl began to fly once more.
  The shadow knight still continues to ride, back and forth between the two castles, but also out from that place, carrying his tattered, red cords, hoping someday to tether himself to someone, never forgetting what he learned from the winged ones.
  His only wish was that someday, they would find, and fly, home.