Nocturne

☾ Chapter One ~ Diurne ☽

The Sun was bright the day the Moon began to wake again.

Day dawned innocently enough, without a single cloud in the sky. Only birds, their wings glinting as dark shadows across the pristine blue. The clouds would come later, hiding the golden sun when it was at its peak.

As many things do, it started with a child. With a girl. But not the girl you're thinking of, not yet. Her time will come, though. Sit patiently, and I'll tell you the story.

The gold-encrusted balcony was cold underneath her palms as she pulled herself up. She stroked it fondly. It was garish and showy, sure, but underneath the gold plating and intricate lattice-work was a steel heart- literally.

Technically, she was supposed to be practicing push-ups. When her parents had found out she was as close as she was to failing the Academy's training as she was, they had doubled down on their insistence that she work harder.

"You waste so much time on those silly stories! Books won't make you strong!"

"If you want to make us proud, you have to actually practice!"

"Aurora doesn't skip out on exercise!"

She sighed and turned away from the white paving stones far below to gaze up at the sky. Dark purple eyes skipped past the bright and glamorous Sun to the shy and pale circle drifting across the sky. Luna.

Diurne smiled softly without even realizing it, but inside her stomach was twisting and her heart squeezing into sharp knots inside of her, writhing as if longing to escape the conflicted terrors of the young girl's mind, buried so deeply even she didn't know they were there. Except at night, where they emerged, anxieties and hurts attempting to tug her down to join them in the emptiness.

The girl shook her head free of unwanted thoughts as a dog would water and turned back towards the house, two stories tall and composed of solid white blocks, with arcing windows spreading all across the face. Light spilled in fractures sharper than any blade through the stained glass that adorned the mantels above every door, some falling into precious glimmering half-moon shapes, but most red as blood and golden as glory in bright triangles and circles.

She caught her lips twitching upwards at the image of the moon, and shuddered, clenching the balcony tighter, the curls and leaves digging into her fingers. Usually, Diurne tried not to think of the blasphemy that Dark comfort represented.

But it didn't matter. Her strange purple eyes had branded her a blasphemer and a monster since the moment she'd opened them. A monster cursed by the cruel Luna, just as Aurora, her greatest and only friend, was marked as special, blessed, chosen as the champion of Light by the mighty Sol.

Diurne leaned back as far as she could, stretching out along the sun-warmed gold. Clear sky lay open for as far as the eye could see. Beneath that eternal blue Apollo sprawled out, all powerfully built white stone homes two to four stories high, adorned with gold and banners, separated by cobbled roads lined with neat rows of flowers. Haphazard-seeming wood and steel constructions attempted to improve the original design and add space to each building.

To the East, Diurne knew, the Palace lay, where the mighty King Arun reigned. To the North, there was the Academy, teaching everything from fencing to farming to nutrition to the children of Apollo- anyone under the age of 16. A small arena was in frequent use nearby.

To the West, the Brazier stood in a ring of ancient forest- the Brazier was the primary temple to the god Sol, who blessed their crops, aided their strength, and fueled their forges. The House of the New, where 16-18 year-olds stayed while they attempted to determine their life-path and obtain training, was in that quadrant, as well as a small hospital that had been intended to be makeshift and temporary but in actuality no one knew enough to expand or replace. It was always overflowing.