“When I said raid and pillage the food shack, I meant actually destroy it!” Gildhart said aloud, catching the attention of a nearby village hunter (who are special police-like entities that patrol the village since there are no knights at jurisdiction in Dale). “I meant peacefully…approach the pantry,” Gildhart chuckled nervously as he walked off with Bernadette and Luxforthian.
“Maybe don’t go shouting threats like that, even if they’re playful?” Bernadette scolded, rubbing an ointment on the burns that covered her right elbow. “Or better yet, leave the talking to me, Gild.”
Gildhart scoffed, feigning offense. “How dare you?”
“I know right? I’m so cruel it causes you to gain weight.”
Luxforthian looked down as the two bantered, noticing that Bernadette was lacking in the shoes department. He looked up at her and said: “Where are your shoes, Bernadette? Did you leave them back at my cottage or are you just feeling a bit nature-minded today?”
“Took you long enough to notice that, huh?”
Luxthforthian blushed, realizing he had been caught glaring at Bernadette’s feet. “Uh—I am curious?”
Gildhart chuckled. “Curiosity killed the cat!” He threw his arms over Bernadette and Luxthforthian’s shoulders. “Besides, if that cat has been killed, I’m one skinner—call me if you need a stray degloved!”
Bernadette slumps forward by a few centimeters upon Gildhart’s weight pressing up on him. “Of course heavy guys like you do the most outlandish forms of manual labor,” she shrugged him off, walking a few steps ahead of them towards the pantry.
“She’s got a penchant for unfunny weight quips,” Gildhart muttered, causing Bernadette to snap her head to the left—they now locked eyes. “What? I dare you to slap me again, lady.”
Bernadette turned fully around, strutting over to Gildhart with her hand raised and causing the latter to hide behind Luxthfhorthian.
Luxthfhorthian nodded. “You two fight too much when there is always hope for peace.”
“Hope for peace?” Gildhart went on. “You think hope exists in this world?”
Both Bernadette and Luxthfhorthian glared in unison at Gildhart as if what he said actually contained some semblance of truth. “You think hope may not exist?” Luxthfhorthian inquired. “Imagine all the good that it can do if it never stopped existing; wonders stacked upon wonders—it would be never-ending love and affection for the dream that is a meaningful and charitable life. I intend to live a long life where I am able to live with the hope that what I do has a bit of efficacy so that when my day arrives, I can rest gracefully.”
Gildhart’s gaze fell to his leather boots, a blank expression dripping into a sinister smile. “You think that what we do actually has an impact, Lux? We’re poor peasants in a village!”
“We may be poor…” Bernadette stepped between them two. “...But we have a place to live, food to eat, and people to talk to when things get rough. Isn’t that enough to have hope?
“Hope, in this world? Impossible.”
“Nothing is impossible unless you put your—”
Gildhart gave Luxthfhorthian the look, crossing his arms defiantly. “We all should know that the only thing that is possible in our lives is dying; everything else is just made up order- garbage.”
“Since when did you become a philosopher?” Bernadette inquired, tone reverberating with angst as she stepped on a pebble and sat down criss-cross-apply sauce to stick it out of her foot. “Ah—What makes you think none of this matters and that death is some grand passageway?”
~~~
In a cavern in the outskirts of Castle Honestria, four figures cloaked in navy blue hoods stood beside a cliff holding candles which flames gave off a greenish hue. They were led by a fifth figure cloaked in crimson robes and ivory chains; he held a candle that gave off a blue flame. All five of the cloaked figures stood adjacently equidistant from one another in a circle. In the middle of the circle was a picture that dripped with a steady crimson congealed from all five hooded figures that depicted the sun; a circle with triangles pointing outward surrounding its perimeter.
The crimson figure stepped forward, reaching a cloaked arm up and rolling up their sleeves to reveal spindly, pale arms that dripped with a fresh velvet. A few grunts followed behind the figure as the rest of the figures repeated what their leader did, adding to the crimson sun in the middle of the circle.
Then within the fraction of a second, all five began to chant in an indistinguishable language that can be translated as the following:
“The sun. The marvelous sun. We hear you. We live for you. Oh, the great sun, forgive the moon—for it will take your place forever unless you hold yourself over it!”
With that, a violent tremor caused the cavern around them to collapse, causing a subsidence to occur and sending all the hooded figures plummeting as they screamed in preparation for their inevitable demise: a fall from a high place into the abyssal void of the cave.
On the outside, the brightest sunlight in the world had begun to slowly wane into nighttime early, replacing the sun with the moon and shrouding the world in an eternal darkness. Upon this, a cerulean beacon of light radiated from Castle Honestria, letting the rest of the world know that this ritualistic curse of forever darkness had originated from there, even if King Honestria had been completely unaware that the caverns nearby were used for such nefarious purposes.
Immediately, Cothbrenias Von Zoloto ordered the largest military invasion of Castle Honestria with the sole intent of destroying the kingdom and killing the king in retaliation. Cothbrenias announced that this was a matter between him and Honestria, and that anybody else that tried to intervene would be met with the appropriate amount of resistance. Honestria, upon realizing this just a few hours later, fled to the very cavern that the beacon shone from, seeking refuge in the practitioner of worldly darkness.
The entirety of the world had changed within the span of a fortnight; villages and kingdoms alike had to adapt to the worldly darkness by planting stuff and letting it grow by manipulating photosynthesis with candle light and getting vitamin D from the available water sources that had not been polluted by the curse. Many people died of sickness, wiping out at least thirty-five percent of the world’s population, leaving most of the villages deserted as the poor peasants died. The kingdoms suffered the same fate, as the world is alive even after death, and no kingdom can escape the fate that is eternal darkness.
Much of the world had a bounty on Honestria, but many intellectuals argued that it was too soon to rule him out as the culprit. Cothbrenias knew Honestria was not guilty and that the Zlontchz cultist organization that concerned itself with the Curse of Dark was; he just wanted a reason to invade and pillage Castle Honestria since they were overdue on debt and trade. Upon being called out for that, Cothbrenias said it is just how balance and order works through the principles of ascendants; by destroying Castle Honestria, killing or enslaving its people, Cothbrenias argues that it was necessary since his knights were negligent to not check the caverns for the Zlontchz cults. This made king Honestria public enemy number one as propaganda was spread by Bastion Cothbrenias’ press, leading many of the kingdom’s best bounty hunters to go out in an attempt to hunt him down for the prospect of life changing money.
~~~
Luxthforthian tramples over his laces as he huffs and puffs to the bread ration line, continuously tripping as he nearly falls from exhaustion. A handsome but fierce little boy runs up to him, helping him up and giving him his piece of bread.
“My mother already got our family’s rations for today,” said the boy, his eye color unrecognizable due to the darkness.
“Thank you so much,” responded Luxthforthian as he watched the little boy run off to his mother, a statuesque maiden cradling a new born girl. The mother was glaring at Luxthforthian’s sapphire colored eyes, watching as they glew in the darkness of the morning. “Your eyes,” she started, hoisting the newborn just a few centimeters above her chest. “They shine brighter than the skyline ever did.”
“I fear that the sky shines no brighter than the moonlight, but I hear that plants hear have adapted to grow with the moonlight; it is really bizarrely cool.”
The mother cradled her newborn tighter as she saw Gildhart approach with Bernadette beside him as they stopped behind Luxthforthian. As soon as that happened, the mother and her son walked off in the opposite direction towards a cottage, opening the wooden door with a loud creak before slamming it and causing it to echo through the dear deserted village.
“Just came from the bread line?” Gildhart asked comically before he swiped Luxthforthian’s bread out of his hand and bit into it with an exaggerated big bite.
“I missed you too, Hart,” Luxthforthian sighed as he sat on the dirt pavement, watching as Gildhart and Bernadette did the same. “So are you two a thing now or what?”
The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
Bernadette playfully smacked Luxthforthian’s shoulder with a thud, causing him to be forcefully pushed forward in the position he sat. “Of course not! I’d rather fall in love with a lizard! Maybe then I’d have the chance to be with someone romantic…and scaly.”
“She's been a loose cannon ever since the darkness stayed more than twelve hours, and we’re only on day nine according to the time keepers in the village,” began Gildhart, lucratively clinging the coins in his pockets. “On the bright side—no pun intended—I got to ransack some of the bodies with the permission of the mayor, getting around 150 Dalah in the process.”
Luxthforthian frowned at that, scooting a few inches away from his best friends. “That is a little bit dark, right? I mean, what if you died and someone searched your cadaver like that? It seems far beyond what we are morally allowed as people to do, and I will not tolerate it. Ever,”
Bernadette threw a sack of coins at the gap between Luxthforthian’s legs, causing them to clink and clank around inside the leather bag as the latter bent down and opened it, revealing a few dozen Dalah, the international currency between villages and their respective kingdoms. Dale’s respective kingdom was Bastion Cothbrenias since they were dependent on imports for the seeds of survival.
“It feels wrong to take these since I know where they came from, but at the same time, I have to take these so that we all can gain entry to Bastion Cothbrenias.”
Gildhart’s jaw dropped. “Gain access to Bastion Cothbrenias? I always knew you were secretly crazy, but don’t you think that’s just the idea of a fool? We’ll get killed before we reach the walls.”
“If you keep thinking that way, we’ll die before we leave this village!” Bernadette interjected, crossing her arms over her ample cleavage. “Luxthforthian’s right! We need to combine what we have to gain access to the kingdom. We can make a better life for the three of us there, abandoning this place for good.”
“What about all the people still here who rely on Luxthforthian’s kind heart to get by?” Gildhart asked, sarcastically. “Won’t they try to stop us from leaving.”
“There is nobody left to stop us from exiting this place!!!” Luxthforthian shouted, his voice echoing throughout the desolate and decaying village.
Gildhart stepped back and stood next to Bernadette, who cartoonishly jumped forward. “Don’t just stand next to me like that, buddy!”
“I’ve never seen him shout before, and that's loud for the record!”
Luxthforthian approached Gildhart, softly punching his chest with a playful edge. “Look, you and I know we have to go, and Bernadette is right; we can make a better living for ourselves there. I believe in that, and usually what I believe in is always the plausible outcome.”
“So is Nickenmintsamare, the goddess of sex, a plausible outcome? I didn't think so.”
“I meant things that impact us,” Luxthforthian responded, turning around to lead them two down the path that he believed led to the Grand Walls of Cothbrenias.
~~~
“You think Cothbrenias ordered those cannon strikes on Castle Honestria because of the darkness or because of his likeness,” asked one commoner.
“Beats me,” replied another.
“I hear it’s personal,” said a third.
“Person? Ha! It’s all about conquering your enemy,” replied the fourth.
“Why conquer?” asked the first, rubbing his golden eyebrows.
The second, third, fourth, and fifth all stare at the first’s sapphire-colored irises as they glew bright in the night.
The third one, a large burly man, stood beside his best friend Luxthforthian as the fourth stood on the opposite side.
The second and fifth exchanged glances before they walked off, holding their portable candlelights with precision, as dropping it would cause a disastrous conflagration the kingdom had become accustomed to as of late.
“Well, that’s certainly the awkward type of interaction I never expected to have heard," Gildhart said as he bent down and examined his undone laces, reaching his hand down and undoing the loop before he redid it in order to tighten it in case of a slippery street.
Even if darkness incarnate was all around them, the seasons of the earth still continued to show their signs whenever the time for them arrived. It was winter, meaning the snow had come down and melted quickly, causing the concrete streets to freeze or become slippery or both.
“Is that snow?” Bernadette asked rhetorically, reaching her dark tan arm out to catch a flake. “I don’t know if I’ll be able to catch any; it’s so dark even with all the sources of light around us.”
Gildhart huffed and puffed on purpose. “It’s so cold I can see my own breath!”
“We need insulation, pronto,” instructed Luxthforthian as he began to shiver.
“It took us 3 months to get here from ransacking villages and vindicating our names,” Gildhart replied earnestly. “What’s a whole season for the three of us besides sickness?”
“Uh—exactly that, buddy.”
Gildhart turned to face Bernadette. “I almost forgot I had to put up with you for 92 days.”
“92 days of excitement since the trip would be a sausage fest without me,” quipped Bernadette, wheezing as if she were holding back laughter.
The three of them spotted an ebony horse carriage rolling down the street, causing them to instinctively move out of the way. In the passenger seat was the most delicate woman known to man: Sensationia, the consort of Cothbrenias. Ever since the Forever Dark, Cothbrenias has spent all of his time brooding in the castle instead of coming outside to talk with locals; that position and rightful obligation was passed down to Sensationia, as she was always accustomed to nightly adventures in comparison to her husband.
The two met when Cothbrenias had his most loyal advisors search around the kingdom for the prettiest woman; the most beautiful of maidens happened to be selected as Sensationia due to her silvery hair and perfect face and body. Whenever a knight checked her out, Cothbrenias would have them be forced into a labor camp or killed; he took protecting her to extreme lengths because to him, she was the most fragile thing a man could ever possess: a woman.
To Cothbrenias, a woman is not just a piece of property like the kingdoms make them out to be. A maiden is the most precious thing known to man due to their fragile nature and ability to procreate. That is why the women are kept in higher regard than the men, meaning they were not allowed to join the knights or anything militaristic due to the dangers that it poses for them. Female prostitutes are also banned and illegalized due to Cothbrenias’ philosophy on women not being objects of desire but rather people of Briare, a place in which women can sing and do art shows for male customers in nonsexual manners. Any sexual activities between a man and a woman at the Briare is met with a harsher sentence on the male and a lighter one on the female. It is not that Cothbrenias possess an unhealthy amount of bigotry against men like he were a misandrist; it is that he wishes to protect what is vital to life: means of procreation. Some question whether or not he would protect anybody, even himself, if women could not procreate and babies came from storks.
“I believe that the most important person in the world just passed us in that carriage,” Gildhart commented, slowly approaching as he noticed there were no knights other than the ones occasionally whipping the horse to make it continuously heed forward in the direction of the colossal rose castle in the heart of the kingdom, the very one Cothbrenias was currently in.
“I think you’re right,” replied Bernadette as she followed him.
Luxthforthian turned around in shock. “You two?!”
Gildhart turned his head around slightly as he walked in unison with Bernadette. “Either keep quiet or walk with us, Lux. Don’t go spraying our intentions to the whole wide kingdom.”
With that, Luxthforthian reluctantly followed the two of them as the three of them headed towards the direction of the carriage.
“You think she’ll want to have a conversation if she sees us?” Bernadette inquired. “I don’t think she’ll mind company when she’s practically neglected by her husband.”
“You think that?” Gildhart asked, rummaging through his pockets for any last bits of gold coins not used to gain access to the kingdom. “And I’m all out of coins—great.”
Bernadette cackled a little bit too loudly. “Ha! I still have my 40 Dalah’s!” This alerted the knight riding the horse to stop, causing the horse to let out a painful screech of pain as it was whipped violently.
Commotion followed suit as the two knights inside the carriage informed Sensationia as to what the present matter was, causing her voice to be heard more distinctly over two loud albeit skittish voices.
“What’s this fuss all about?” inquired Sensationia as she left the carriage with the assistance of a knight, who was not allowed to touch her under any reason, as mandated by King Cothbrenias. Seeing the three of them trying to sneak behind her carriage earlier, she had alerted the knights, stopping the carriage, but wanted to handle matters on her own accord, which was why she decided to approach the three friends alone without the need of two knights at her side.
“Oh. So I see,” she said as she analyzed the three of them, Luxforthian in particular. “In my time spent through the streets at night and when there used to be day, I’ve never seen such magnificent spectacles in someone so young such as yourself, boy.”
Luxthfortian blushed, as it was not a common occurrence for the most important and valuable person on the planet to give you a compliment out and in the open like that. “I appreciate it a lot, ma’am. Thank you so much.”
“You may lay off with the formalities, boy,” said Sensationia, tone seductive.
Gildhart bent to Luxthfortian’s level. “I think she’s into…you,” he whispered, glaring at the Queen’s revealing outfit that left little to the imagination. “Beats me.”
“Not the time,” Luxthforthian responded in a panicked whisper. “She is gracing us with her presence. Be a little bit more courteous when around royalty, as it is the right and polite thing to do.”
“That’s correct, young man,” interjected the Queen, meeting Gildhart’s gaze at her exposed legs wrapped in ebony stockings. “See something that interests you, sir?” she asks teasingly, placing her hands on her hips. “I haven’t seen my husband in a few months now.”
“Uh—what’s that supposed to mean now?” Bernadette inquired, crossing her arms over her chest. “That’s not a reason to dress all sexual like that in public. A queen is supposed to wear more layers of clothing than that,” Bernadette turned towards the other two for support.
“Yes, I agree, but you three don’t quite understand my predicament. Y’see, my bravest and dearest has befell a tragedy known as Dark Flu, a new illness created by the lack of Vitamin D from the sunlight that no longer shines above him or anybody else. A lot of people have this illness and a lot people don’t; those are the lucky ones—the people who possess such imperviousness to the very thing causing most of us all here in Bastion Cothbrenias to die.”
Gildhart squinted his brow. “Do you have the Dark Flu, lady?”
Sensationia frowned, glancing at her ivory striped, ebony-colored heels. “I fortunately have not caught Dark Flu yet, as only so many people can and can’t be overwhelmed by such an ailment of darkness—.”
“Enough with the poetry, My Highness,” Bernadette interrupted. “We stopped your cart because we wanted to have an exclusive word with you about something.”
Sensationia tutted. “I’m all ears, little girl.”
“I’m seventeen for starters,” Bernadette refuted, looking at the height difference between the two of them. “And I’m also taller than you too. Who’s the little girl now, huh?”
“Height does not make you any grander, love,” responded Sensationia, tapping her heels on the granite pavement. “Just ask my husband, he’ll tell you that with his height.”
