Darkness Has No Name

 Far out on the sea of Yblisi there are two islands connected by a river. That’s right, a freshwater river that comes from an enormous spring on the first island flows across the ocean’s surface a short distance becoming an inflowing stream on the second island. This is because the change in elevation is greater than the curvature of the sea itself; the first settlers released the spring from the high mountains and constructed a dam that keeps the tide out but allows the freshwater to leave. Millions of fish and seabirds are attracted to the channel which arrives at the second island through floodgates that deliver electricity, drinking water and all the requirements of living.

The thing is, everyone who lives on the island of Uo works for someone on the island of Kittemaran. It even has an ugly name, Uo (“second”). Both islands get along very well; the people of Kittemaran have the best wives, the most beautiful children and make smart decisions that free up their time for leisure. The Uonians live off of the sea, surrounded by wildlife and hard work that gives them the satisfaction of providing for their community. Kittemar children are taught in school how the people of Uo all donated their shoes and went barefoot to overcome a catastrophic flood, and thus books teach them responsibility and heroism. The word work itself has a different meaning on Kittemaran where they say “that looks like work” than in the Uonian language, “I found good work”. And this is not because one island is better in any way, the one with the spring was just named first and that continues to this day.

Every child knows the story of the man from Uo who finds a golden conch washed up on the shore and thinks by circumstance he is now a rich man. So he sells it to buy some land, not knowing the work land requires to maintain. After a while the soil shrinks and becomes barren; he asks if he can just buy more water but his friends who all work for a living start to desert him thinking the land is suffering from his reputation. You see on Uo no one feels pity for a man who refuses to work because he found a seashell.

After selling the land for half its value he decides the best way to be successful on Uo is to invest in the fishing industry, so he starts talking to fishermen about chartering boats. Instead they ask him “why don’t you do the fishing yourself?” and when he tries to explain they find his story absurd. Rumors of his foolishness now spread across the harbor. He is forced to buy his own boat, but after a successful day of fishing he returns to port and realizes no one on the island will give him drinking water.

He is told he has been acting like a Kittemar, which is to say acting superior for no reason. It wouldn’t matter if he found gold or platinum, it’s just an object if a man has no friends. So this gives the foolish man the idea of buying back the golden conch and taking it to Kittemaran to see if anyone there would give him something of value for it.

Now Uonians are welcome on the first island, they commute every day for housecleaning and logging. So the foolish man arrived at Kittemaran and marveled at the glittering streets before him. The people there were very tall and fair-skinned, and when he told the story of how his own people had ostracized him it amused them, unconcerned that he would find anyone on the island to sell the conch to.

Eventually the man was sitting on a street corner knowing he would have to return to his own island or he would starve. Finally he met an old man who told him there was no pleasure they didn't already have that he could possibly give them. So he asked what should he have done and the man said he should have cast it back into the sea and impressed the people of both islands with his wisdom. The moral is that honesty steers a man down a particular path and if he tries to cheat that path it tempts him to cheat his friends, his neighbors and his betters. The man traded the conch for a used float to take him back to Uo. To this day whenever a servant or worker says that they want something on Kittemaran they say he is "looking for his golden conch".

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Part 1

Yblisi has two suns which are always together in the sky. As a result there is always ambient light on every surface from the mountains to the open-air houses of Kittemaran. If one puts up an awning to block the yellow tones of the larger sun there is a lovely bluish hue that feels refreshing in the summer, which is why the second sun is called Dormu, "sleeping light". The color blue is a synonym for feeling morose and even the rich soil on Kittemaran is no darker than this.

But then something appeared in the sky that was neither a sun nor a planet. It was a tiny point of light that grew a long tail as it became larger each day. It was decided that it was an object from some far-off place whose course would lead it blazing into the sea, an event so rare and spectacular it was something both islands could share in a celebration of friendship that would be remembered for generations to come. The Uonians could bring their finest crafts, seafood and baked goods and the Kittemar would allow them to use their land. There was talk of coloring the channel and a regatta of parade floats for their journey back.

This was all that twelve-year old Mia knew about it. There was an observatory high in the mountains where her class would be witnessing it, and she knew there was a major celebration coming the likes of which she might never see again in her lifetime.

She stepped out the door of her parents' estate with the mile-high Kittemar mountains filling the view behind the terrace, waterfalls gushing from the glittering peaks down to lush tropical groves and fruited hillsides. Then as she entered the main bungalow she saw in the corner a small person hiding behind the spiral stairs.

His skin was a color they called dun and he was very gaunt with dark hair hanging in his face. His clothes were so strange they would have laughed at him in school.

The boy turned and to his horror there was a girl his own age standing in the doorway staring at him. She was the fattest child he had ever seen, dressed in an outfit there was no word for in his language, and yet at the same time she had the most beautiful face, surrounded by a tall white collar that framed her head like a lily.

"Are you a boy from Uo?" her curiosity was almost breathless.

He nodded slightly and they did what adults do; he bowed to kiss her hand and she accepted. The boy explained that their housekeeper was his mother.

"Well what are you doing here?" Mia demanded next.

He explained there was a house fire in his neighborhood and they had to evacuate. There was nowhere for him to stay except to go to work with her.

“Don’t you have sprayers that come out of the ground?” she asked him.

“We do have pumps that bring in seawater but I live in a vadra.” he said. (tenement)

“Oh you mean a nerthus.” she replied. (condominium) “Can’t my family send you water rations to put out the fire since you work for us?”

“That would be great…” his dark eyes brightened at this idea, but he laid a hand on the plaster scrollwork and Mia shouted “That doesn’t belong to you!” and lashed out with her chubby hand like a whip.

“I’m sorry.” Usum pulled back from her.

Mia looked down at her hand in surprise and said quietly “Did I hurt you?”. Usum shook his head no.

“Do you want to help me do things?” she asked after a long silence.

He nodded that he would like that very much. Mia skipped to her bedchamber dragging Usum along by the hand, his face silent.

Mia’s bedroom would have slept five children on Uo. She delighted in telling him what to do and he was happy to do it. Back home he was responsible for his own chores but here there were no such responsibilities. They started cutting out cloth streamers for the festival which brought up the subject of the comet.

“They say it's traveled a thousand years.” she informed him. “When it crashes into the sea we’ll both be there to see it, and our islands will be friends forever.”

“I wish I could go to the observatory and see it from there.” Usum replied.

“Ha, you are looking for your golden conch!” Mia laughed and clapped him a little too hard on the back. “How am I supposed to explain that I need a servant on a field trip?”

Usum sighed. He had always been interested in science, but there was something he didn’t understand. If the comet hit the sea there could be a fludtsana and if it hit land the explosion might throw up so much dirt into the air it could block out the suns.

"That's ridiculous." Mia propped up on her elbows. "Besides it wouldn't matter because you would still have the light that comes up from the ground." She demonstrated by holding out her hand and the ambient glow on her palm.

"It doesn't come from the ground, it's like a mirror." Usum explained, wondering why they hadn't told her this in class.

"If you were so smart you wouldn't be living on Uo." she crossed her arms.

"But I was born there, I can't just move to here." he answered innocently.

"That's right because you're not smart enough." she chided him, but there was half a doubt in her mind which made her voice trail away. "I mean if a Uonian was smart we would reward him of course."

"So what if he was the smartest person who ever lived, and invented something that saved everybody's lives?" Usum countered her.

"Then he would be rewarded." she answered.

"But what if we invented something that... makes seawater into fresh water?" he posed. "Something that lets us reward ourselves?"

Her eyes narrowed at him.

"What are you talking about?" she demanded. "We're about to celebrate a hundred years of friendship and you want to destroy it? Do you want to tear down our homes so you can have better ones, flip everything beni-beni so you can be in charge?”

She was right, things would be just as bad if they were reversed. He would never want to put her or her family to physical work, he couldn't imagine her doing it anyway.

When it was time for Usum to go home they each waved as he got onto the boat. The parents of both children discussed their being playmates and decided in the spirit of the festival it should continue.

-

Part 2

The festival was a time of special magnificence for both islands. Mia and Usum toured the exhibitions together, Usum happily carrying Mia’s purchases wherever she went. The Kittemar were amazed at the creativity of the Uonian performances, and Mia learned many things about their culture.

When the time came for the comet to make contact every single person, Kittemar and Uonian alike, adorned the wharfs and beaches of the island and in that moment were all brothers with no one caring which was which. Mia lie propped up in the grass but Usum was not looking out to sea he was looking at the hem rising up over her fat stomach.

The long, white tail of the comet descended into the ocean. Mia and Usum held hands (which under any other circumstances would be unacceptable) and then it was over. The next day the regatta set sail with the biggest, most colorful sails and flags they could manage.

A couple of days after the comet splashed down something very strange happened. The second sun Dormu seemed to be lower in the sky, dropping a little bit more each day leaving the golden sun Onos by itself. As it grew closer to the horizon it became clear that it was going to disappear. People began to concern and gathered on the east side of the island to watch it, until Dormu was a pinkish-blue orb sitting directly on the ocean. Then it began to sink, and then it was gone completely.

Mia and Usum now lived under the yellow light of only one sun and it wasn’t long before Onos itself began to descend in the sky as well. And as people left their palisades to see what was going on, at the same time something for which there is no word began creeping out of the hollows below the mountains to the West.

The light of the remaining sun became increasingly garish and lower in the sky. Then one day a woman came running frantically from the docks and to Mia’s surprise there was something on the ground following her which she couldn’t quite make out.

Whatever it was stayed right on her heels and she could not outrun it. The woman continuously looked back kicking at it which seemed not to affect it at all. The something was as flat as a sheet of paper and very dim, following her over curbs and steps anywhere she went. As Mia looked at it more closely the creature seemed to have short, flailing limbs of its own which were constantly reaching out to grab the woman’s feet!

As Mia rushed home she noticed more of these things had attached themselves to anything they could find, then she shrieked at the sight of a group of them moving on their own like a formation of seabirds across the pavement and disappearing into a wall as if they had gone right through it.

Usum was due to arrive with his mother and Mia’s plump legs moved faster than they had ever moved to meet him.

“Tell me what they are and save me from them!” she grabbed him forcefully by the neck. She dragged him around to the west side of the house where they could see the gilded streetcorners below.

Mia pointed out the dim shapes stretching across the ground which seemed to be longer and dimmer than they were just an hour ago. A Uonian servant was trying to fight one off with a sweeper. They had not yet come near the house however which absorbed the glow from the mountains.

“WHAT ARE THEY?!” Mia roared and shook her fists.

“I’m not sure…” Usum wanted to get a closer look but Mia pulled him back. They could see adults whispering to each other and increasingly making their way to the east side of the island. He and Mia retreated to the safety of her bedroom, where she stopped and turned toward the wall opposite the window and let out a scream.

“Don’t come any closer!” she shouted as Usum rushed to defend her, stopping obediently in the doorway. Mia stood flat against the wall with her arms spread like a fat burglar.

“There’s a… a person over there!” she tried to say, pointing at the opposite corner.

Usum bent down and picked up a sweeper handle, then crept forward into the bedroom like a hunter. His head turned slowly to the left, then as he crossed the room something also moved along the wall, a figure his own height, and as he froze in place it stopped as well.

It was a faceless human shape with a head, neck and shoulders which were not unlike his own. What caught him off-guard was that it came from the doorway entering the room just as he did, so where had it been before now? Usum remained stock-still, raising his hand in greeting and the apparition did the same.

“Is it a glaist?” Mia demanded.

“No it’s a qliphth.” Usum answered her.

“What is a ‘klifth’?” she struggled to pronounce it.

“Something Uonian miners talk about.” he explained. “They must have come out of hiding from underground.”

Usum stepped closer and reached out to touch it, but he felt only the surface of the wall.

“They don’t seem to be hurting anything.” he thought aloud. “If we can’t do anything to them I suppose they could live peacefully among us…”

“But I don’t want it here, this is my sleeping room!” Mia rolled her eyes.

The next day as the sun Onos dropped to within a few fingers of the horizon they stood together looking down and marveling at how the “shades” were taking the form of anything they wished, and how an ever-increasing number of people were starting to panic and move toward the coast.

When Usum looked back at the mountains which were an increasing shade of orange with dark cracks forming between them, he stopped thinking about how harmless the shades seemed to be.

“Oh no…” he realized, looking back over his shoulder at the sun. “Do you realize what’s going to happen?”

“What?” Mia wasn’t used to the frantic tone in his voice.

“The sun is the only source of light on this island.” he said to her. “When it goes down, a great shade will come over those mountains. The ones we’ve seen so far are only the sentries! Without sunlight there will be qliphths everywhere, no worse than that! We won’t be able to see what is real from what isn’t, not even ourselves!”