Page 27 of Daughter of the Dark Sun
The two women picked their way through rivulets of lava carving their way across the barren rocky surface of the mountain’s base. Laisha said the black mountain slept for many thousands of years after the Discordance and devastation of Eás. But now, over the slow passage of time, the doom that claimed the world once before started rising again. The winds shifted, filled with ancient whispers and screams of the dead long gone.
What is buried will always rise, as the saying went in Av Madhira.
Over the long month together, Laisha shared how the shadowy slavers came to the black ruins for something they called firestone. A cool, black glass-like stone, it filled Apattar with a dread she could not begin to describe, a feeling so overwhelming the world turned to ash. Where once her heart would thrum with the music of the world, an empty silence took its place. Firestone was a manifestation of Death as it first came to the undying Eldest Children. Apattar’s skin crawled even at the thought of the thing.
Laisha called the gold chain Apattar found anishfasnith,a creation used to sever the natural harmonic powers of those who wore it. Laisha claimed theishfasnithonce aimed to save the world from the gods. Apattar sensed Laisha’s people lost their aim long ago, warped over the long years of conflict and sorrow. Now, they shackled men into servitude, most—or so Laisha claimed—kinslayers and their descendants from ancient wars all but forgotten to time.
Apattar found the idea of slavery easier to accept than she thought it should be. Perhaps it was growing up in a society heavily segregated by caste, or perhaps it was a lifetime of torture and dreaming of doing anything to get her revenge. Whatever drove her heart, Apattar vowed she would take whatever path necessary to save herself. And, if that failed, she would make the world feel the same hurt she had for twenty long, arduous years.
Though Laisha did not often speak about her home, she would share tales of life before doom and sorrow claimed its people. How once the children of the Night Goddess delighted to live in the shadows and silver moonlight. Far in the west, away from their kin, they lived in peace.
Yet, Death came for the Eldest Children, a strange corruption of the First Harmonic. When the consort of the Dark Goddess passed into the realm of silence, the heart of her eldest turned bitter with sorrow. The black-haired son lead his people east in search of answers, only to find himself already made into a monster in the minds of his long-sundered kin.
Apattar knew the feeling all too well. How, after the slow turn of time, all transform into the creation of others—willingly or not. Had she not already leaned into the darkness eating at her heart? Revenge found in the form of shadowy hands around the neck of a woman she wanted to kill. Washappyto kill.
What would her nine-year-old self think of Apattar now? Would she recoil in fear or see this as an inevitable future? A…fate, perhaps?
The word that once tormented the woman now became impossible to ignore. Anevranenithwith the celestial blood of the gods. Apattar wondered if destiny truly guided her life or, if given enough time, anyevranenithwould survive. Nothing about her felt particularly special—years of neglect and starvation for a kind touch instilled the feeling. Apattar’s world had been a confusing mix of emotions since Laisha appeared in her life. Feeling worthy was an entirely unknown concept, welcoming and petrifying at the same time. Was she so broken that only strife and heartache felt normal?
“Shain’sa, watch out!” Laisha’s musical voice pulled Apattar out of her thoughts in time to stop her from stepping into a thick ooze of lava. She stumbled backward, catching her balance on the pale woman’s outstretched arm. “Deep in thought, are we?”
“Sorry, sorry,” Apattar mumbled, the heat of embarrassment at her awkward behavior flushing her face. “I-I, it’s a lot, all of this. I don’t know what to make of it all. Why me? Why not the baby boy slain by his father? Even with his death, I could not bring justice to the lives he ended.” Her voice cracked with pain.
Laisha sighed. “I wish I had a simple answer to ease your mind. But I don’t know. Not about you, and not about any otherevranenith. Life is cruel and senseless. This much has not changed during my long life. Would it ease your mind to think this all random chance?”
Apattar mulled the question over in her head. She thought of Ninann, tried to picture her beautiful dove leading a life starved of love in her stead, but it would not come. Radiant as the new sun greeting her birth, Ninann was indeed a daughter of light and life.
Where Ninann belonged to the sun, Apattar knew deep in her heart she belonged to the shadows of Night. She had always imagined herself alongside Ninann from a young age, but it never felt like her life. If she wanted to create a future for those doomed to the dark, Apattar would have to choose: her sister or her own life. Always she envied Ninann, coveted all the younger sister had, but most of all, craved their father’s love.
A sigh escaped her lips. “I always thought destiny meant I had no choice, meant accepting I’m a monster who will end the world. But you say I do have a choice, a choice fate brought to me: fade to void or heal the world. It cannot bring the little ones lost to memory their rightful life.”
Apattar paused, thinking again of the little boy murdered by his father.
I see I was foolish, and now I must finish what I started those many years ago.
Her father’s voice assaulted her senses, overwhelming her mind until it was the only thing she could focus on. Rage flooded through her body. She tightened her grip around the dagger’s silver hilt, squeezing until her fingers tingled with pain. The void rose within, head pounding with hot blood. She took a breath and forced the darkness back down, cooling the whispers calling for blood.
“I think I rather like the idea of destiny if I can heal the world,” she whispered at last.
“You will change the world for the better, Apattar.”
Laisha reached out and took Apattar’s hand, guiding the young woman the rest of the way to their portal beyond the snaking rivers of lava and smoking fumaroles.
The two stepped through the shimmering mirage. They emerged back in the black ruins where they met, cool air a welcome reprieve from the stifling hot volcanic wasteland. The smell of kelp was almost sweet in comparison to the rotten stench of sulfur.
“Where are you takingme?” Apattar asked, breaking the silence between the two as Laisha gathered supplies into two packs.
“This is where we part ways, for now. You will return home. There is someone you must find. He is… hard to miss.”
Excitement and dread swirled inside Apattar. Her sister, her dove! How her body yearned for the twin’s comforting embrace.
Ninann… Father!
Apattar shuddered. Their last exchange flashed through her mind. Did he even care that she ran away? Would he kill her, cast her out, imprison her forever? Her heartbeat quickened. The grip of those invisible hands she had mercifully not felt for the long month returned, squeezing the air out of her lungs.
“Home? No, no, I can’t go home! Father will kill me, or I will kill him!” The words tumbled out of her mouth in a panic.
Laisha put down the pack and took one of Apattar’s deep brown hands in her milky white ones. The grip at her throat evaporated.
