Prism Harrier

Field account

The Harrier lived in the chapel windows for nine days. Parishioners saw only a missing patch of blue in Saint Michael's robe and blamed a careless glazier. At sunset that color detached, crossed the nave, and took a swallow without breaking the glass. We baited it with mirrors along the rood screen. The creature appeared by fractions: a hooked beak in amber, one wing in green, talons bending through violet. It waited until we followed the brightest piece, then came from the dull red reflected behind us. Its strike cast seven shadows from one body. Elian saved me by throwing soot across the floor. With no clean color to occupy, the Harrier became a lean, featherless thing of crystal quills. It fled through the rose window, leaving every saint colorless until morning.

Observed behavior

The Harrier observes which colors a target treats as background, then nests portions of itself inside those neglected hues. It attacks only when the eye follows a brighter decoy. During pursuit, its spectral pieces take different angles before converging at impact. Mud, soot, fog, and flat gray cloth force the body together and make it anxious. It is fiercely territorial around stained glass but may be lured by a rotating prism. Broken mirrors do not repel it; regular repeated reflections give it more places to hide. Randomly moving color is safer than beautiful symmetry.