Breakers of the Day

The flicker of the flame springing to life drew a stark contrast with the rooms early morning chill. Peter steadied his labored breath for fear of blowing out the candle. The ability to rise at a specific time had helped him be selected as a member of the Daybreak Order. The selection process was brutal, only the most disciplined and devout even had a chance at consideration. Despite having barely made it through the selection, since his appointment he’d ascended quickly to the role of Candle Lighter, the first to arise each day.

There were fail safes and backups but for sixty weeks straight they hadn’t been necessary. Peter was always up, before the alarms or backups. An unblemished record as Candle Lighter, a streak that hadn’t been seen in generations. The duties of the Order were too important to be left to any one person, without their rituals the Sun wouldn’t rise on a new day. Their order and secret temple had stuck to their rituals for generations, ensuring each day that the sun would rise.

For over a year, Peter had ensured they arose in time to complete those rituals. Though his fellow Daybreakers admired his consistency, if they knew his real trick, he wouldn’t just be cast out of the order. He’d surely be tried and convicted of treason and conspiracy, as well he should be. All that secrecy, and all the anxiety that his treachery might be discovered would be over soon. Today was the last day the Sun would rise. It was the last day for their order and the secret of their rituals would die along with them. His heav breathing finally returned to normal, he wiped the slight gleam of sweat from his face. The morning routine of waking the others began as normal one last time.

Despite having lived a double life for so long he was still surprised how calmly he could go about the morning preparations as if nothing was amiss. Slowly the temple sprung to life as more of the order and their servants rose, from the priests preparing for the rituals to cooks starting breakfast. As more and more lights were lit the temple began to gleam off the gold that adorned it all. From deathlike silence to the bustle of a small town in the span of a half hour. The temple was built around a stepped pyramid tucked in a tiny hidden vale that faced the sea to the east. It allowed a commanding view of where they bid the Sun to rise each morning.       

Peter woke the Old Father last, in his old age he’d earned a lie in. They all knew he’d turn the role over soon, only Peter and the vampires lying in wait knew just how soon. Old Father feigned as if he’d been awake for some time. Peter had found over the last few weeks that was more and more a performance, once the bustle would have roused him but now it took a concerted effort. Peter helped arraign him in the fine silk robes and golden crown, it weighed heavy on the old man’s head now. The Old Father’s reluctance to give up his position despite his waning strength is what had allowed Lyria and her fellow vampires to infiltrate the valley undetected. With the leadership of the Temple slipping so had things all down the line.

Soon the order was gathered along the steps taking their appointed positions, this side of the pyramid faced out to the sea. Its ancient marble had seen generations assemble to perform the prayers as the Sun King had taught them from the earliest histories. Each giant, perfectly white step was cut with a face gilt in golden etchings.

The hardest part for Peter had always been that the smells of the fine food from the kitchen always seems to begin wafting to this part of the temple just as they assembled. Delaying breakfast until after they had broken the dawn was one of the small prices they paid. In exchange for waking each morning to perform sunrise rituals they were gifted with a life of luxury. All that was asked was early rising and early bedtime, and to perform their secret ritual on an empty stomach.

It was almost time, with the solstice their full order was needed today, every step was full. To get the sun to rise for the longest day of the year required them at full strength. Every other day of the year, all but the Candle Lighter and the Sun Father would perform in shifts according to rank and station. In the depth of winter, they got down to skeleton crews as the steps were icy. It was all as it had been prescribed by the first Sun King and one had to ascend to the highest ranks of the order to learn all the intricacies needed to raise the Sun. They maintained their lifestyle with the common folk tithing to their temple, for fear of living perpetually in darkness as they had before history. The Sun King administered it all so that the temple and its secrets could remain hidden lest anyone seek to sabotage the rituals. But the Sun King had grown corrupt and the Sun Father had grown to be the Old Father. And today with every single member of the Daybreak Order aligned on the eastern steps for the solstice, deep in prayer and incantation, they were at their most vulnerable.

As they began the morning ritual, Peter’s mind drifted back to the first time he laid eyes on Lyria. He was a great talent from their small town and was sure to try for the Order, she was a foundling that worked the kitchens at the inn. On reflection, it was amazing she was able to escape the notice of so many. Peter found her alabaster skin and red hair to be irresistible. Like the rest of town, he assumed it was her early morning kitchen duties that kept her from seeming to ever be out during the day.

Before the ritual could even begin Peter knew she and her people would begin their work inside the temple with the servants and the library. Preventing an alarm from being raised or message sent to the Capital, and erasing all record of the ritual so it died for good today.

Peter had thought it an oddity at first that this beautiful kitchen girl had returned his affection but that she was so rigid in keeping their meetings to the night. It was meeting with her that had first trained his body to wake long before daybreak but well after the rest of town was asleep. He would sneak over to see her in the forest before she began her morning duties. Though he was a young man of such promise, he thought his life wouldn’t be perfect until he could join the order and make her his wife. No more sneaking around, no more hiding it. No one could say no once he was a Daybreaker.

She’d followed him to the capital when he’d finally gotten his appointment. It was the thought of finally being with her that had kept him motivated through the trials. While he had been the most promising young man in his small town, he was one of hundreds of applicants to the Order. He was upset when she’d chosen to continue as a kitchen aide, the capital offered so many other opportunities and their schedules still limited when they could be together. The deeper he got into training though he realized his odd hours were an advantage. When the other applicants were just rising, he’d been up for hours and had learned to function on so much less sleep. That allowed him to go from the middle of the applicants to receiving the very last appointment. And once he was in the order, he’d been able to ascend to Candle Lighter quickly. The trust that position afforded had allowed him access it would have taken years to get.

It had taken months of diligent work for him to get that position, but it allowed him to accelerate her appointment to the temple to join him. It was then, when he’d made a full commitment to her that he’d learned what had kept them to their night-time meetings. The last barrier to them being together forever. The sun wasn’t just harsh on her perfect marble skin it was deadly. She was a vampire, feared and hunted she’d been able to hide with Peter for so long, but she lived in constant fear. Then she told him of her plan to ensure they could always be together. If he were to end the Daybreak Order she and her people could roam freely at all times. They would be equal and no longer treated as monsters.

To Peter though the most important thing was that they could be together all the time and forever. In exchange for his betrayal, she would turn him to her kind. With the wealth of the Sun Temple liberated they could build a new, equal society. No longer would common folk live in fear of the Sun King and his threats to end their daylight. It all made sense, and for Peter it was a small price to pay to be with his love.

The ritual was reaching its crescendo and the sky had begun to lighten, sweat began to form on Peter’s brow again. He was exhausted from keeping up the lies and deceit and he’d already been up with Lyria for hours making final preparations. Where was she? Where were her people? What would happen if the ceremony was stopped while the sun was in the sky? For a horrifying moment he wondered if it would just come crashing straight down into the ocean if they stopped too late. He peeked up from his prayer and looked east, he was sure he could see the sky brightening now and felt his heart might beat out of his chest. Then he saw her emerge at the base of the temple, surrounded by cloaked figures and he relaxed for a moment.

Only for a moment, because in the next a volley of arrows was loosed into his order. He was the only one that saw it coming, the rest had their heads bowed deep in incantation as they reached the hardest part of the ceremony. They were interrupted as the lower rows cried out in pain and surprise. He could pick out the cries of old friends and bitter rivals. The Old Father was deep in prayer, sweat flowing down his brow, lost so completely in his rites he didn’t even seem to notice the attack.

Or did he? Peter noticed a nervous peek down the pyramid and the old man seemed to move even deeper in to prayer. The sky behind him continued to brighten. Lyria and her fellow vampires poured out of the temple and made their way up the great marble levels, felling priests of the order as they ascended. The cries reached a fervent pitch but the Old Father continued his ritual as the vampires made their way further up and fully exposed. Just a sliver of daylight would kill them in an instant.

They should have completed their work well before this, what had delayed their attack? Peter was supposed to be long gone, taking shelter past the peak of the pyramid by now, but as he watched the brightening sky and saw Lyria making her was up the steps his heart sank. Were they too late? What could he do? He cast about looking for something, anything he could do. His eyes fixed on a loose piece of mortar but did he have the strength to beat a man? Not just any man, but a man that had treated him as a son?

Desperate he tackled the Sun Father, of course he could overpower the frail old man. That would put an end to things but it made him a target. He got up as the vampires closed on the last lines of Sunbreakers and fled further up the pyramid as had been the plan. The Old father looked up at him with… confusion? Betrayal? Heartbreak? He’d never know as an arrow sprouted from the old man’s neck. Lyria barked a command and the attack stopped as several of her companions aimed at Peter. They lowered their bows and parted. She made the rest of the way up the Pyramid to meet him. The sky was light now, but the sun had not broken the horizon. She and her people were saved and they were free. He saw her for the first time in a twilight sky, not with the sharp contrasts of firelight and her white skin looked absolutely radiant. She smiled revealing full fangs but she was more lovely than ever.

“You did well my love, and now for your promised reward.”

He began to reply, “What took you…” but she’d already sunk her fangs into his neck, draining him of his mortal life.

She’d prepared him for this, how they made more of their kind. First they drank, then she’d share their comingled blood to reawaken him to a new life. He could not pass as a Daybreaker if she’d done it before. They’d had to wait until after and they could be together for the rest of time. It hurt more than he thought it would, he stared down the pyramid admiring the light shining from the gold gilt on the face of the marble. It looked lovely in the dawn light and his thoughts eased for a second before he began to panic once more.

The dawn light? Wait what was happening? The ritual had been stopped, there should be no light reflecting off the pyramid. He tried to warn Lyria but found he had no voice. Tried to warn the figures below as they busied themselves with disposing of their prey.

As Lyria finished, she dropped him and was bemused by the confusion on his face at first. But then her eyes followed his just as the Sun crested the horizon. She had just enough time to look back at him in horror, confusion, betrayal. The look was so similar to the last one the Old Father had given him, the two people he loved most had spent their last moment trying to understand his apparent betrayal. For the first and last time he saw her in Daylight and it was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen. But then just like that, she turned grey and crumpled to dust.

His heart broke and he found he still could not speak. He watched as level by level the daylight reached more of the vampires and they too turned to dust. As he lay, watching helpless, next to an ash pile that moments ago had been his true love he tried to understand what he was seeing. Lyria had drunk him nearly dry, far more than she’d said she needed. And before she saw the light she’d had a mischievous, no, cruel smile. Had she moved to her dagger to share their comingled blood and finish the ritual? He pushed the question out of his mind, convinced she’d just been distracted by her own impending doom. In the end had she thought there was something Peter hadn’t told them, was that her last thought.

They’d read even the most ancient of the Sun Texts. Books and scrolls thousands of years old back to the first Sun King inventing the ritual, and the temple, and the tithe structure needed to keep it all working. Even before she’d met Peter, Lyria and her people had learned all they could about the ritual before she even revealed her true self and approached him with their plan. Even if he had the strength he couldn’t consult the Sun Texts again, they’d be destroyed below, ensuring no one could even raise the sun again. But even as he struggled to understand why, the Sun continued its march up the sky. Maybe they didn’t understand the Daybreak at all, but the traditions invented around it had organized their whole society. A society that had given him so much but oppressed so many to do it. With the last of his strength he ran his hand through Lyria ashes, he’d thrown it all away for - this.

END