Crepuscular

It was quiet. Dawn washed the dishes from the dinner she and Noctus had. There was a lantern lit on the table, but her eyes were better than a human’s.

           She went through the mail. For this, she did stand close to the lantern. The only mail for her was from her brother, wondering how to find her.

           Dawn smirked. I live near the big Pit. How hard is that to find? she wondered.

           Well, it was spring. Daylight was lasting longer. She should move about while she could.

           First, she sat down and prayed to the God Eoron, and the deity of night. Then she headed outside to pick some plants from their yard.

           The moon and stars shone down, casting the yard in a faint white light. Blue roses pointed towards the moonlight, fully opened and blooming nicely in it. Dawn smiled faintly as she passed them. Blue roses were created by shadow elves. As such, unlike almost any other plant, they were designed to thrive at night.

           Dawn grabbed some lavender leaves. She found a garlic bulb, and a single ripe tomato. There was a fungus in the corner of the yard. She realized that was edible too, and took some inside.

           She went to the nearest well and got water. Some she used to water the plants, some she drank, and some she left in jugs inside.

           A faint breeze blew by as she worked, just enough to shift her hair. Fireflies drifted around, occasionally glowing before the light faded again.

           Finally, she could open her shop for herbs and medical services. It was just a small room at the front of the house, originally part of the main room. She hung herbs on the wall to save space, and had a seat and cabinets for treating patients.

           Dawn couldn’t call herself a doctor by any stretch. But she knew the basics of bandages and splints. And she knew what her herbs could be used for. The lavender she’d gotten, for example, could be used for small wounds or burns, decreasing stress, and even helped with the blisters shadow elves could get from the sun.

           There arguably weren’t enough healers for the number of injured people in this town, so Dawn did what she could. She was also the only shadow elf who offered medical services. The others would be willing to help any time, but Dawn was the only one who wanted people to come at night.

           She hung a lantern in the window, to let people know she was open, and got two customers.

           She recognized them. There was Akvor, another shadow elf, and buff explorer. And there was his human assistant, a wizard named Erris.

           Akvor had gotten his arm bloodied up (again). Erris didn’t seem hurt, but she was tired after all the magic use. Dawn got her some tea.

           “I’m telling you Dawn, we’re close to the bottom,” Akvor insisted as she rubbed ointment on his arm. “We reached a floor where there’s no echo, and everything seemed still. That’s a change from the other layers.”

           Erris took a sip or tea, staring at the mug like it had all the answers of the universe.

           Dawn couldn’t entirely blame her.

           Those two made a career out of exploring the Pit in town. It went down layer after layer, with seeming no end. And it must be magical. What you’d find in some layers simply couldn’t exist underground without magic. There was no other location like it on the continent. Lots of treasure hunters went down to find gold, jewels, and magical artifacts. It was a good way to get rich quick if you could survive.

Dawn and Nocust had originally come to the town with the same idea. Unfortunately, it did not seem like they could survive. They didn't have the skills. At least they’d figured this out without experiencing Pit death.

“So what happened?” Dawn asked. She started wrapping his arm.

Akvor’s smile dipped, and he slumped a little. “Well, these giant snakes with bat wings came out and started attacking us, after only about five steps in. One of them did that to my arm with just its tail. So, we had to leave.”

Dawn frowned. Dying in the Pit wasn’t exactly uncommon, but she hoped it didn’t happen to these two. She liked them.

“I want to keep going,” Akvor insisted. “I feel like we’re doing something good, you know?”

“We’re making money,” Erris corrected.

“Well yes, that too. But the Pit is the only part of the continent that’s unexplored. We’re finding more of the world. Isn’t that great?”

***

Dawn wasn’t sure what time it was. There was a sundial out on the street, but that didn’t help much now.

She did, however, think it would be a good time for lunch, in a sense. She grabbed a slice of bread and butter, put some of the tomato on it, and ate on the roof.

The nearest houses were owned by humans, and they were dark. But she could see other lights dotting the town from here, especially from the closest inn. She could still hear music coming from there, and bobbed along with it. If she was lucky, she’d get to see an owl.

She had nothing against day time hours. It was warmer and brighter, and it was nice when more things were open. The night life was mostly inns and bars. But she was a shadow elf.

Shadow elves weren’t going to burst into flame the second the sun touched them, contrary to a certain myth. But direct sun was always painful, and at best left blisters on the exposed skin. It was nice to be outside without worrying about that. It stopped her from feeling imprisoned.

Well, her meal was almost done. She hadn’t seen any owls, but a few bats had flown by. She’d watch her shop a little longer, and then maybe she’d look for herbs growing in the wild, instead of her yard.

***

The sun was rising. It wasn’t coming through the window yet, but Dawn could see it on the horizon. Everything became easier to see. There was a clear line between where the first rays were hitting, and where the world was still in shadow.

Dawn lit a fire in the hearth, and got some water boiling over it. She made sure the living area and kitchen looked relatively clean. She snuffed out the lanterns and wrote a note for Noctus. Most of it was just an impersonal note, listing funds and supplies and such. But she did change that up at the end.

‘Do not make any impulse buys today. If you make any impulse buys, I will kill you, so help me God.’

She had just set the note on the counter when Noctus came out of the bedroom, eyes closed as he yawned.

Noctus was a reptilian. He was covered in blue scales, his hands were more like claws, and his face was round and long like a lizard. But he wasn’t as tall or sharp as some reptilians.

Dawn smiled. “Gooood morning Noctus!” Dawn greeted. She put her arm around his shoulder and smiled like she hadn’t been up for hours, and wasn’t tired herself. “Ready to greet the day?”

Noctus opened his eyes and gave her an unimpressed look. “I’m not sure you can call this day yet,” he pointed out.

“Well, I made you some tea. Would that help?”

Noctus instantly brightened, clasping his hands together. “Oh! Tea!”

While Dawn finished making the tea, Noctus stood by the window. His arms were spread dramatically, as he soaked up the sun’s rays.

Then they both sat down at the table, and talked about nothing while they drank the tea, more morning light steadily seeping in. The books they liked, Noctus’ weird dreams, their favorite color. Those were the things to talk about in the early morning, when they were both tired.

And when Dawn’s tea was finished, it was time to go to bed.

***

Noctus stacked the dishes, but didn’t wash them. He was good at cooking, and did most of it. So Dawn could do the cleanup, unless he had a lot of free time.

He read her note, eyebrows going up near the end. (Well, he didn’t have hairy eyebrows, but he did have ridged scales that gave the same effect.)

It looked like he needed to buy fish and soap. They lived near the ocean, so the former would be no problem. And they lived near the capital, so there’d be some variety with the latter as well.

Noctus went outside. It was spring. Flowers were blooming, bees were buzzing. Dew on the leaves was fading in the morning sun.

Noctus started down the street towards the center of town, weaving around other people. Sometimes someone on the street, or in a yard, would wave or say hello. He always replied in kind. He passed the now dark inn. He and Dawn had danced to the music that filtered through their window last night.

He was getting close to the center of town now, and the Pit. For a bottomless pit with several large layers to explore, it had a pretty small opening. But it was big enough to notice, and easily big enough to fall in if you weren’t careful. There was a railing around it, but the railing was low. It wouldn’t help too much.

He swerved as it became mandatory to do so.

He could hear someone arguing with a merchant about the jacket he was selling. Supposedly, it would offer some protection against the creatures down there, but the adventurer thought it looked like a regular leather jacket, and didn’t believe him.

Noctus thought “some” was pulling a lot of weight in the merchant’s statement. It would technically be better than going with nothing, but that might be all. Then again, in fairness, if you wanted better protection, you’d probably have to invest in metal armor.

“Noctus! Hey Noctus!” the merchant called out.

Oh no. He was not getting caught up in this. Noctus started walking faster.

The merchant cursed to himself. “I was just warning you! It’s going to rain!”

Noctus looked over his shoulder.

“It’s going to rain later today. You know that change comes in fast. I just thought you’d like to know.” Noctus was still kind of far away, and the merchant was still kind of shouting.

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome!”

Noctus did appreciate it, but probably not as much as the human merchant was thinking. Noctus was not a mammal. He certainly appreciated heat and sunlight more than them. But he wasn’t so fragile that he’d be ruined by some rain. He would just want to get out of it, because most people didn’t like getting rained on. You didn’t get to be one of the three sentient species on the continent if you were stopped by rain.

He'd even gone out at night with Dawn before. They sat on the roof and she pointed out constellations. She told him the story behind them, and how to find your way with them.

He liked the night. He’d been born during it, which was where he’d gotten his name. He originally thought that was where Dawn got her name too.

“No. My parents just think they’re funny.” That’s what she’d said, when he brought it up.

Unfortunately, between being up all day and having no sunlight at that moment, he’d been very sluggish. He was pretty sure Dawn stopped him from falling off the roof at one point. The only time the two of them could ever comfortably spend together were those hours while the sun was rising or setting.

That was another reason it would’ve been nice to explore the Pit. He liked Dawn. If they’d been able to explore the Pit, they could’ve spent more time together. It wouldn’t have mattered what time of day it was. It was all underground.

He would need some way to keep warm, like a magic heating stone. But with the money people made from the Pit, he could afford a magic heating stone.

A sharp wind blew by. Noctus looked up. It was still sunny above him, the only clouds white and puffy. But in the distance, he could see gray clouds.

Well, it seemed the merchant was right. He should go ahead and finish shopping. There were stalls and stores all around this part of town.

Noctus found and bought fish with no problem. Then the woman selling soap was also selling candles. Noctus pressed his lips together. Dawn said no impulse purchases. But he liked candles. And they were useful at night, so was it really an impulse? But she had seemed very upset about this. . .

He got the candles.

***

Noctus closed the door. The whistling wind and chirping birds didn’t go away, thankfully, but they became muffled.

He put everything away from his shopping trip, and cracked the bedroom door open to check on Dawn. They only had the one bedroom, but since they never slept at the same time, that worked out.

Dawn was still sleeping, belly on the bed, sheet covering most of her. Shadow elves had pointy ears, and purple skin. In her case, it was dark purple. Her eyes were gray when they were open. He’d thought at first, that her hair was white. After seeing it in better lighting, he was pretty sure it was an extremely light shade of purple. Such a pale color was still rare for shadow elves, and Noctus thought that was the real reason her parents named her Dawn. But what did he know?

Noctus went back to the living area. He did repairs around town. Boats and fishing equipment were common, but he could also do things with carts, doors, furniture. That kind of thing. Usually, people came to him if they wanted something. But it couldn’t hurt to grab a raincoat, loop around town, and. . .

Say wait. Hadn’t dark clouds been rolling in when he walked inside? So why was there a bright light behind him? It was too bright to be a lantern or candle, and even if the sun had come back out, the light was coming from the wrong direction.

Noctus turned around, and could’ve swallowed his tongue. There was a figure in their living room, glowing such a bright yellow it was hard to make out the details.

“You-you’re-”

“Greetings Noctus.”

Noctus swallowed. “You’re the day deity, aren’t you?”

The figure nodded. “My wife and I have been watching your house.”

His wife had to be the deity of night. Noctus didn’t know too much about the greater powers in this world, not like Dawn might. He did know that deities weren’t as powerful as the Gods, but were nothing to sneeze at either. They were powerful in a way that was hard for mortals to understand. And they didn’t usually make house calls like this.

“Why?” Noctus asked.

The deity sat on the edge of the table. That should’ve tipped the table, or burned it. And yet, it didn’t.

“My wife and I were looking for mortals to bestow some magic on, in return for doing a bit of work for us. You’ve heard of the concept?” Noctus nodded. “We’d like it to be you two. And don’t worry, my wife is talking to Dawn as we speak.”

That could be huge, actually. With magic from a higher being, he and Dawn might be powerful enough to explore the Pit. Magic powers might make it easier for them to be up at the wrong time of day in general. But Noctus had two questions.

“Why us?”

The deity tilted his head. “I suppose you are unique. It’s good to appreciate the time of day when you’re awake, but anyone can do that. For two thirds of the population, it’s basically a requirement. But you two? You live together, and you’re not obligated to, like family might be. You live together because you actually like each other, and like each other’s time of day. We’ve contacted mortals before, but they’ve never been connected like you two. It would be a welcome change.”

Oh. That . . . that was great. Noctus still had to ask what they’d be doing for the deities, but this could be big. It could, maybe, mark a positive change in their lives. And maybe Dawn would be so caught up in this, she wouldn’t notice the impulse candles.