The Children of the Day and the Children of the Night

The Children of the Day and the Children of the Night

Time constantly cycled in two distinct phases. The day, when all things were bright and vibrant, and the night, when everything was darkened, mysterious, and at peace. Likewise, the people were split up into two different factions. The Children of the Day, with their sun-yellow hair and sky-blue eyes, and the Children of the Night, with their hair as dark as darkness and their eyes silver like the moon.

The Children of the Day gained their power by the bright light of the sun, and the Children of the Night gained their power by the soft light of the moon. They were awake at different times, the Children of the Day being up when the sun was in the sky and the Children of the Night being up with the moon and stars.

The Children of the Day lived in great wealth, wearing fine clothes made of expensive fabrics, having jewels of all colours adorning their bodies. They had large, palatial houses and many fine things in those houses. False trees, false flowers, false birds and false insects all made of jewels. All glittering in the light. All made possible by the work of the Children of the Night.

The Children of the Night all crowded together in their tiny huts. Their shelters were freezing in the winters and overheating in the summers, but it was all they had. They had to work long nights, and into the day, making beautiful things for the Children of the Day to have. They sometimes went without food, and often had to drink polluted water.

This was because the Children of the Day had captured the North Star, and they held it in a magic bag in the middle of the great palace where they held their meetings. The bag was in a stone box which was part of the foundation of the palace. If the Children of the Night did anything against the wishes of the Children of the Day, they would kill the North Star by draining its light. This would lead to the nighttime becoming eradicated forever, just as the death of the sun would lead to the eradication of day itself.

Without the night time to give them power, the Children of the Night would all die. So they could not risk angering their overlords.

Now, the Children of the Day kept the box locked, and the lock could only be opened by the heartbeat of the King of the Day, echoing through the stone of the box. It was for this reason that none of the Children of the Night could open the box, for when one king died, the next king would come into power.

Now, there was a young girl named Kinah, and she was a Child of the Night. She was an exceptionally kind spirit, always trying to help her people and give them hope. She always tried to keep their spirits up and to keep them together, to keep them united as one. She always tried to make sure her people were helping each other and that they were holding on to every modicum of strength that they could.

She had two younger brothers, and a mother who was a seamstress for the Children of the Day. Her mother never had the time to take care of her or her siblings, as she was always busy working. That is why Kinah raised her two brothers herself. It was hard work, being a parent when you were but a child. But it was work that she had to do anyways, as all the adults in her community were always so busy.

Kinah also raised all the other children of the community too. Each and every child in her community she saw as her sibling, she saw as her child. She had to raise them, for all the adults were too busy working for the overclass. She raised all of them and she taught them to keep their spirits up, she taught them to always help each other, she taught them to have hope. She taught the children all that she knew, and she taught them how to take care of each other and themselves. She wanted, more than anything, for the children to have better lives than she did.

But it was not to be that she would be able to stay with her community. For the King of the Day had decided that he needed a new servant for his large palace. For, he had just gotten the palace renovated, and he needed someone to clean the added space. He looked out over at all the underclass and he thought that Kinah was a very hard worker, and would be a very good servant indeed.

So it came to be that on the day of her fourteenth birthday, she was made to bid goodbye to her friends, her family, her community. She was made to bid goodbye to all the children she had helped raise. She was made to bid goodbye to the only home she had ever known. And, with tears in her eyes, she set off towards the palace of the King, on the back of a chariot pulled by five hundred winged horses.

There was a lot of work to do in the King's palace. It was constant and grinding and soul-crushing. Each and every day she missed her loved ones and each and every day she missed the strands of childhood that she had been allowed to have before. She forced herself on, knowing that if she didn't obey, her people would all die.

It was also very jarring for her to be awake in the daytime and not the night. But this she got used to with time, and she stopped feeling so groggy and so tired. But still, she missed the darkness of the night and the coolness of the air and the silver lights in the sky. She missed it so much, as if she was missing a part of her soul. Because she was missing a part of her soul. She was missing a part of who she was.

What she wanted more than anything was to be free. But that was not to be.

Working in the palace, she was often around the great box. The box that held the key to her people's freedom, the key to her people's life. She longed to open the box and to steal the star inside. She longed for this with everything that she had. But she knew, that only the King with his heartbeat could open the box. And so, like every other want within herself, she pushed this longing down and she maintained a falsely cheery disposition.

For the King and all his people wanted the servants to look and act cheery, to be meek and humble and servile. They wanted the servants to know their place and to stay in their place with alacrity. They wanted them to be happy to serve. And so Kinah was forced to act happy. She was forced to pretend that she was content with the place that they made for her.

One day however, she made a mistake. She accidentally slipped, and broke a crystal chalice belonging to the King. She was beside herself with apologies, but none of it did anything to quell the rage of the King. He was fuming at the poor girl, who was trembling with fear. He did not see how scared she was, though, he only saw the mistake that she made.

He tied her to a stone table and he beat her. She screamed and cried for him to stop. But he did not stop. He kept going and kept going, leaving bruise after bruise after bruise after bruise on her young body. He beat her bloody. And he kept beating her, until at last she died.

The King did not feel responsible for this death. He did not feel responsible, as he blamed the girl for her carelessness and thought that he was doing what any reasonable master would do and reprimanding her. He knew that it would not be too much trouble to get a new servant. And he did not think the death of a Child of the Night as something tragical at all.

He threw Kinah's body outside the walls of the palace, to be eaten by the birds that survived in the worn-down landscape. He threw her body out and thought nothing of it. He thought that it would decompose and he would not have to think of it again. And he was right. Kinah's body did decompose. The birds picked at it and tore pieces of flesh from her eyes, from her face, from her arms and legs and torso.

But nighttime came. And with the night, there also came the healing force that it brought. It seeped into Kinah's corpse and it brought back her soul. It healed her soul from the brink of death, bringing it back into the world of the living. The black darkness all around seeped into her soul and guided it away from death, guiding it towards life. The night filled her soul with strength and healing and vital power.

Kinah's soul was healed, was alive, but her body was not. And so she climbed out of her body and drifted through the world as a spirit. She saw the shacks of her people and the large houses of the masters. And she felt a great rage in her heart. She resolved to do whatever it took to free her people from bondage, and to return the North Star to the night sky.

She went to the horizon, for the horizon was the point that united night and day. It presided over the change between night and day, and it was the place of change, of renewal, of revolution. She went to the horizon and learned the many lessons it taught her. And she learned how to hide herself in the folds of the overclass.

She changed shape, and took the form of a beautiful light-haired, blue-eyed woman. She created for herself a beautiful dress made of thousands of tiny gems. And she went out to the dancing party hosted by the King. She danced with calculated grace and precision. There, she was the prettiest girl of all, and she drew the attention of the King.

The King lead her to a private chamber, a room which she knew very well because of all the times she had to clean it. Still, she pretended to be impressed rather than scared of all its marvel and grandeur. The King spoke to her, and she pretended to be impressed by his words, and painted her pale cheeks with a blush. When the King held out his hand, she reached out to take it in her own.

The moment their hands touched, Kinah's soul fled her false form and rushed inside the body of the King. Inside the King's body, Kinah's soul and the King's soul waged a long and brutal battle, each seeking to overpower the other. They attacked each other and leached each other's strength and vitality. Each soul tried with all their strength to push the other down, until Kinah and the King were both exhausted.

The King's soul was powerful. It was very powerful, because of all the mastery it had over the people and the lands. But Kinah's soul was more powerful yet. She had been to the lands of the dead and back. She had been to the horizon and learned from the horizon. She had been with her people and learned from her people. And she had learned from and drawn strength from the night itself. And thus she was the most powerful of the two.

After a long, brutal battle, Kinah won control of the King's body. She pushed his soul down, down, down, until it was trapped deep beneath her. And she moved the body as if it was her own. She smiled mischievously to herself, making sure that no-one could see. And she walked out of the chamber mimicking the same haughty gait that the King always walked with.

The party had long since died down, and the attendees had gone to their own houses to sleep, riding their chariots drawn by many winged horses. The halls were darkened and quiet when Kinah walked down them. It was nighttime. It was nighttime. And she was in her element, she was in her power. Though the King's body could draw no strength from the darkness, Kinah's soul could.

She felt the King's heart beating within her. It was a heart that was completely devoid of love. Sure, it had false love alright. False love for the King's own people, for the Children of the Day. But it held no love for all the people in the land, it held only apathy and greed towards the Children of the Night. And therefore it did not have any love, for love that is only extended to certain people is not truly love.

Kinah hated the King in turn, and her hatred was justified.

Kinah felt the King's metal-laden, calcified heart. But she felt his heart beating as if it were her own. And she knew what to do. She went to the very centre of the palace, where the box was kept. The stone box that was built into the floor of the palace, that held the bag that held the North Star. She put both of the King's hands on the box, and commanded it to open. She kept the King's heart beating slowly, beating steadily. She kept it from panicking, though it wanted to. Kinah was the one in control.

The box listened to the King's heartbeat through his hands, and determined that the King had laid his hands on the box to call it to be opened. So thus the box opened itself, and Kinah could see the brightly glowing leather bag within.

She was amazed to see the glowing of the bag. She was not even seeing the North Star. Not yet. But even a fraction of its glow was enough to completely mesmerize her. But she knew she could not stand there and gawk. She had a task to do. Any moment now, the King could regain control of his own body. Any moment now, he could close the box. Or worse, he could kill the star within.

So Kinah took the bag in both hands, and she hurried outside. It was nighttime, and the moon and stars were all out. It was beautiful. She looked up and she was amazed by the beauty. She opened the bag, and out flew the North Star. It was so bright that it hurt to look at. It was so bright that it burned the eyes Kinah was seeing through.

The North Star flew up and up and up and up, higher and higher and higher and higher in the sky, until it reached its stalwart place in the sky, shining brightly for all to see.

All the Children of the Night saw the North Star return to the sky. The children who were out playing saw it, and they all cheered and cried out in elation. They rushed into the huts to tell the adults of what had happened, and the adults all came out to see the sky. They also cried out in elation, and they hugged the children and the children hugged them back.

All the Children of the Night began singing together, in one voice made of many, many different voices. The Children of the Day heard this loud singing and woke up. When they saw that the North Star had returned to its place, they were overcome with deep fear.

Kinah saw that her work on this earth was done. So she left the King's body. Her soul floated up and up and up and up. Higher and higher and higher and higher. It floated all the way to the North Star, and it wrapped itself around the North Star, protecting it so that the North Star would shine forever and no-one could ever take it from the sky again.







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