The Night's Broken Daughter

[S. Stormy]

I AM PROUD TO ANNOUNCE:

(oh, also, I went back and made it so Dahlien came with on my Google Doc, so he's with her now. You should know that.)

Chapter Fourteen - Yours 

Nya and the Night

Spoiler

Nya stared at the ground. A meadow sprouted from the ground on a precise line. It was… unnatural. 

You can’t miss it, he had said. Well, he wasn’t wrong. She raised her eyes, and was forced to lower them nearly immediately, confronted as she was with LIGHT.

The light was blinding. So deeply bright that she had to look away…

And yet, her eyes were drawn to it. She lifted her face toward the garish, bright light of the Day. Her eyes watered, but she couldn’t look away. The light continued to burn her eyes… but she could almost… make out…

A shape. A figure. 

A person. He stared at her, intensely glowing, white eyes seeming to pierce her and see her darkness and her intent.

WHY ARE YOU HERE?

“Why am I here?” Nya asked. “I’m here to do… nothing. Nothing.” Dahlien stared at the ground, uncomfortable.

Lies.

She sank to her knees.

My Night needs this.

Nya stared at him, and he stared back. His voice shrank, and he looked away, seeming like a small child.

Can you help me? Please?

Nya shook her head at him, then raised the Inktorch. His eyes widened and he shook his head, backing away. Stunned. 

Please. No, she could almost hear him say.

“Forgive me,” she said softly.

* * *

The Night poured…

Everything into her drive. Pain sliced at her being, but she didn’t care. She stretched her senses out, trying so very hard to find her daughter.  Her love. 

Because she loved Nya. More than anything, more than she had hated the Keepers and the Broken Ones and more than she felt the pain of the light tearing at her, slowly leeching her strength, even her life force. 

So on she went. Until she finally reached her Daughter, or until there was nothing left of her.

* * *

Nya pointed her torch towards the Day.

I don’t think it will kill Him, she thought, hoping, pleading.

I need this, Nya, a memory of her Night whispered. 

He will simply dodge anyway, she thought. 

And that excuse echoed in her mind as she stabbed toward the Day with all her strength. No… 

Horror filled her as He simply… stayed. Letting her break Him. 

And in his eyes was… nothing but sadness. The light was expelled, pushed away from her torch, and He spoke:

I thought you could help me.

* * *

Night felt Herself dissolving. Still she pressed onward. 

* * *

I thought you could help me…

Nya could feel His soul, somehow. In Him, she saw her own pain, her own loneliness.

She watched in horror, her weapon removed from Him, trying to undo her darkness. 

But it was too late. He continued to lose the glow, the air warping as He was destroyed. 

“No,” she said. “No! I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to…” 

The words were fake. She had known exactly what she was doing. She was a fool, a weakling. Broken was what she was. The scar marring her face was simply a symbol of all that she was. Broken, broken, broken…

Nya sensed.

The Night was here. 

Her hard, bitter, bitter, anger wouldn’t stop. Of course it wouldn’t. Because Nya was weak. She had been too weak to stop her desire for her Night. Too weak to save the Day from her own need. Too weak to heed the voice that had told her, so long ago it seemed, to hold back on saving Dahlien. No one could love Nya. For she was broken. Now she saw, truly. What she was.

The Night wrapped Nya as she had done before. As she had always done on the cold days, Night surrounded her. What was left of her Night did, anyway. 

I’m sorry, Nya thought.

Oh, Nya, her Night said, Her voice horribly weak. You are mine. I am yours. I could never hate you. For you are whole, and you are wonderful. I was always yours, and you were always mine. 

“Mother?”

* * *

Yes, Nya. Let me be yours again. 

Her words were… soft. Her essence was destroyed, and she was leaving. She could feel her essence leaking away.

Goodbye, Nya. I never hated you.

Chapter Fifteen - Rise

the Night & the Day

Spoiler

Nya felt it in her bones. Felt her mother’s essence slip away, and she bowed her head, crushed. Crushed by her sin. Her sin and her grief.

A hand fell on her shoulder, and she jumped, jerking her head up. She had forgotten about Dahlien. 

“Was that… Her?” he asked softly.

She nodded.
“She was beautiful.”

She nodded again. And she was so caught up in it allーso caught up that she nearly missed the shimmering around her. The child lying on the ground where she had broken Him. 

Until she felt… Day. She felt it, coming to her and infusing her, becoming one with her. Daygiven came to her, and she felt its hunger, its power, its emptiness after losing its Minder. So it hungered for someone new, someone unfamiliar with the normal ways of humans, someone different.

Someone Broken.

It searched, and it found Nya. 

And she found, within herself, that she understood it. That, while she was afraid, and that it would be painful, she was ready. Ready to Mind the Day. 

She accepted.

* * *

Dahlien watched as Nya reached out, shimmering. She was glowing, and She was beautiful. He was so entranced he almost ignored the Darkness surrounding him, searching for someone with darkness, and someone with light. Someone with brightness and joy and hope. The Nightgiven searched for someone opposite it, someone with the light to counter its darkness. 

It searched, and it found Dahlien.

“I can’t,” he said to it. “I’m just… me. Just a fool, just a boy. I can’t do this.”

But the Nightgiven didn’t care. It didn’t care if he was afraid. It knew what it wanted, what it needed. And so it chose him. 

Feeling its need, Dahlien found he could not refuse it.

And he accepted.

He rose, becoming Night. Becoming Minder. And He came to Day, and She found Him good. She found Him… not perfect. But good enough for Her. 

Epilogue - Heal

Watcher

Spoiler

While Night and Day rejoiced, a little boy that had been alone for far, far, too long found a young girl’s body on the ground. A girl that, somehow, he knew. He saw her, and he knew that she was sister to him. He ran to her, tears starting in his eyes and he pulled her close to him. Linae was dead, and he knew it. Knew it as well as he knew the lonely, cold, stone room he’d spent his entire life in. Knew her as well as he knew that between the day he’d met her and now, time had passed.

Was it years? Was it days?

Somehow, he felt it was years. But he didn’t know, for he had forgotten the years of Minding, and knew only grief for the small child on the ground. His sister.

Above, the fledgling Night and the fledgling Day saw the lonely boy cradling his sister, and they found that she was still warm, she still had a spark of life in her empty body. Day reached down, and gave Linae a little piece of Her being.

But it wasn’t enough.

SheーDayーNyaーwhateverーhad failed.

And so Night reached down, gave Linae a little piece of His essence. 

And Linae gasped in a breath. 

She sat up, and her eyes found the boy. She remembered only him, and her parents. She remembered nothing of her fifty years of Minding. He saw her move, saw her living, and knew only joy. They held each other, and she spoke. “What’s your name?”

“I don’t know.”

So she held him close, and whispered in her brother’s ear a name. One that told him she loved him. One that told him she would never let him be lonely again.

The Night, known until now as Dahlien, led the two to His home. The Day, known until now as Nya, followed. Knowing that She was loved.

This is the story of the Night’s Broken Daughter. And now? 

This is the story of the Day.

The End

@Shadowed @Cinnamon @CalanoCorvus

[Medium]

*claps furiously*

YEA YEA YES

OH MY GOSH WHAT A SAGA I LOVED IT SO MUCH THAT WAS INCREDIBLE AGSHDBSISHDHEGEHE

[S. Stormy]

THANK YOU!!! I'M SO PROUD OF THIS. I'm very happy.

[Shadowed]

AHH YESSS :applauseapplause:

this was epicccc!! i loved it ahhhhhh

you should be so proud of it because it’s awesomeeeee

[S. Stormy]

THANK YOU SHADOWED THIS WAS SO FUN!!!

Do y'all think the ending is rushed?