Nocturne

☾ Chapter Three ~ Diurne ☽

Diurne bit her lip as she watched Aurora and Asa walk away together. What was she thinking? Not even Diurne knew if she was wondering about Asa's act of courage, or watching Aurora, walking away from her with the sunlight making rainbows off honey skin and ruby hair.

Diurne thought of how Aurora would react if she knew the discontent stirring inside her own chest, awakening as if from a centuries-long slumber.

She needed time to think. Asa's words... Shame rose inside her, unbidden, but necessary to remind her of her place. A true citizen of Apollo does not wish to be anything else, nor supports those who do, and this inability to accept her birthright was a shame brought by the curse of her purple eyes. Knowing this, she should stop and accept herself, not think and overthink about some delusional child's rebellious phase.

Yet...

Diurne didn't know why, but she knew it in the depths of her soul: she shouldn't have let anyone else begin the change. She shouldn't have let anyone take the danger for her. And now she had to see it through. It was an instinctual thought, borne from some dark corner of her soul that she had never known existed.

Diurne's parents gave her a sympathetic (but suspicious?) look when the quiet girl told them she needed some space to think. They didn't understand why their daughter couldn't talk through her thoughts like normal people, but they weren't going to argue with her, especially not today. So she slipped away unnoticed into the deep woods surrounding the Brazier and let the shadows cover her.

Blue sky peered through the lacework of branches and she wandered in circles for a very long time. Sun sylphs darted by in yellow bursts and white light, and their carefree playing tugged at Diurne's heart and mind. Even a sunfox pair dashed across the soft forest floor. Yips of happiness radiated through the air, and Diurne smiled, though it hurt, deep in her heart. They were so happy. Why wasn't she?

The sun blinded her, but the faint moon called and soothed beyond the veil of sapphire sky and emerald leaves. Diurne was struck by a sense of emptiness, no, shallowness, stark and ringing, as if something was missing, something important. High above, the pure majesty of the moon was faded and waned, even though the silver-white orb was deep into its waxing phase.

Diurne lifted up a hand and cupped the fragile gibbous moon. "Oh Luna, if you can hear me, please. Tell me. Am I wrong? Are we wrong? Is what they say true, that you are weak and jealous and cruel? Inferior to your brother, and the cause of your beloved sibling's fall?

"Please, my lady. I don't know who I am anymore. I have less than a week! I don't know what to do! I don't want to be homeless and purposeless like Asa, but... how can I promise myself to a god when my heart is with another? What do I do?"

She was almost crying, choking on her heart as she prayed. She searched the sky for an answer, but the response echoed inside her soul instead. A soft smile and a gentle caress, a tear and a word, a melody weaving itself inside her mind and heart.

~Find your own purpose, my dear child.~

Needles and dirt clunch to her knees as Diurne pulled herself to her feet and she began to run, pushing through the stinging branches that whipped against her face and the brambles that scraped against her legs. She had made her choice. Now she knew what she needed to do.

She went home.

Diurne opened the door of her family's house to buzzing voices. They stopped the moment they heard the door creak.

The three people in the world Diurne loved most stared at her, each face crumpled by a different grief. Her father, blazing with righteous anger. Her mother, collapsed into a chair, disbelief writing over her heart. And Aurora, worry and fear radiating like tears from her eyes and light from her heart.

"Is it true?"

Diurne stopped in the doorway, letting the door lean against her arm. A quick exit, if she needed one. Her heart beat like a hummingbird's wings: moving so very fast, but going nowhere. "Is what true?" Her father growled, his mouth working like he was trying to swallow something disgusting.

"Now, Cyrus, calm down." Diurne's mother looked barely contained herself. Every aspect of her features was laden with fear and covered in sorrow. "Aurora came to us with the concern that you might be planning on disgracing this family, and betraying both yourself and our Lord Sol. Is that true?"

Diurne scanned the faces, memorizing every detail of that moment of pain and betrayal. Searching for support and finding none. She tried to speak but her words were lost to the desert of her throat and mouth. It seemed that her silence spoke for itself. Her father's mouth twisted. "You..." He stepped towards her, his fists clenched, the veins in his neck bursting. "You traitor!"

Diurne stepped back. The fading sunlight burned her neck and back. She scanned the room, searching for the words that would allow them to understand. Only Aurora held any compassion. Their eyes met, and for a heartbeat, they understood each other perfectly.

Then the moment broke, and with it their hearts.

"It's for your own good," Aurora said, and tears were pushing up at the edges of her eyes.

"I thought we promised not to lie to each other."

And the child of night ran.