Luminescence

Normally, we all think it started with darkness, but what if it was light? What if light was as old as time itself?

What if, what if, what if.

So many speculations.

Now what if I took those theories and turned them into laws?

This isn’t something science can prove, so why should I bother? We all believe in science now anyways. 

Where did the magic go?

It has been washed away. Pushed to the side and labeled as foolish imaginings. 

After all, fey cannot exist. Nor can pixies, nor can multiple deities, or even deities at all.

Or can they?

Magic is one of those things that requires faith. We must know it is there in order to see it. Magic is the thing that will show you that it started with light; not darkness. Science can’t prove this.

So let me tell you a story. One as old as time, one that begins with light.

For in the beginning, there was magic. There was Light, and there was Darkness.

Light bloomed across our vision like a radiant daydream. The rays kissing our cheeks with its everlasting love. She was a beautiful woman, living her days out in a paradise, by herself.

She sat at the border of her lands, singing to the flowers, humming a melody that promised of better days. A tune that swore she would find another being.

And then the darkness came. She wished him into existence.

The forest was no longer covered in serenity and light, but now was split in half.

Luminescence. 

Tenebrous.

The two sides were separated, leaving one to dwell alone. Darkness treasured his lonely days, while Light wept in her hollow. Her paradise had been corrupted by this shadowy place, and it was her fault.

Darkness was fascinated with his fears. And he feared light most of all. He watched her. 

He watched with prying eyes. He studied her. Whenever she met his eyes she smiled. But he glared back at her. 

Afraid.

Fear corrupts man most of all.

But Darkness is no man, nor woman.

He is the second being of the universe.

And fear tortures him most of all, making him almost human, eating away at his dark, fearful, bitter mind.

When she looks at him, she smiles. Light is always like that. But this last time she looked at him differently. An expression of curiosity. 

They danced around the border of their lands. Never daring to cross the boundaries.

His eyes trailed down her lithe body, watching her auburn curls fall to her waist, tickling her shoulders and brushing against her thighs as she let it run wild in the wind.

Who are you? Her eyes seemed to say, as they studied his dark armor, his pale skin, and his long white hair.

Something tugged at her in her chest. What was it she felt?

Light looked up at him, from her flower patch. Her voice halted, and this time when he looked at her, there was still indifference, but also a hint of inquisitiveness. For what is as outlandish as the one you fear most? 

Curiosity pulled at them both. Tugging their heartstrings to the other end of the forest. 

But each had forbidden themselves from stepping into the other’s land. Darkness could not touch the lustrous, bountiful forest in which Light lived, for fear of destroying it. And Light could not purposely envelop herself in the ashy tones of his home either.

Every day, each camp to the border when the sun was at its highest peak in the bright azure sky.

Today, Light waited for her silent, foreboding friend, but Darkness did not come that day. She waited. And waited. But still he did not come.

Light battled in her mind, she could not go to him, but she must.

Light took a step. Then another.

Her toes crossed into the barren wasteland Darkness would always brood about.

He had not come to the border today. To watch. To study. This worried her.

Light's only friend, if she could even call him that, did not come.

Her feet plunged into the black sand and when she drew her foot up, a flower came underneath it. She took another step, farther and farther into his territory. More petals and grass bloomed.

Light wandered the expanse of dead, burnt trees and black sand, leaving a trail of life behind her, a stark and startling contrast to the grey. Even the trees seemed curious. Who was this sunbeam no one had laid eyes on?

Darkness stalked through the ash colored woods. He could not go to her today.

He mustn't. If he continuously watched her, he would be eaten away by his thirst. His hunger.

Then Darkness noticed a flower. A brilliant red rose.

What would a rose be doing in his desolate woods?

He picked it, and it shriveled away. it’s petals became black in his hand. His eyes filled a trail of green footsteps.

She was here.

She had come to him.

Darkness followed this trail to the girl. 

He hid behind a tree and watched as she knelt and sang. It seemed that the branches lifted a little higher, and tried to grow as well.

Darkness quietly whispered the words to her song, but as soon as the breath left his lungs, the forest drooped once more.

Light had halted her tune, and when she turned, her eyes met his, and at the sight of him, she fled, flowers blooming in her wake.

Back at the border she collapsed and wept. Darkness had followed her and watched as he always did.

How was it that tears spilled from her eyes? What troubled her?

Darkness had to know. He longed for knowledge, for it to be poured down his throat to quench this undeniable thirst.

He stepped across the border and she screamed. Another step and her voice crept into his bones and chilled his soul. He dropped to his knees next to her and put his large hand on her bare, delicate back. He traced the outline of the dead rose with his finger, in the center where her green dress dipped to the small of her back, making the perfect space to sketch.

He placed the rose in front of her as she continued to sob.

Light reached out and touched it, shivering as he drew his hand away from her. Instantly, it bloomed again. She lifted the rose up and handed it to Darkness. Together they held the rose. Their fingers entangled around it’s green, yet lifeless stem. The base of the petals a vibrant red, and it’s tips fading to black. A perfect balance.

Light and Darkness, Darkness and Light.

Fear corrupted darkness. It haunts a man, but what haunts a woman?

Loneliness.

Light hated the endless days by herself, alone in her paradise. 

So loneliness shrouds light.

Both sides had mixed.

Light and Darkness, Darkness and Light.

Light was the first one. She crossed the border first, and Darkness followed. 

She is still his fear, but now he is terrified in a different way. He watches her, constantly astounded by her alluring inculpability. 

And Light watched him in turn, daunted by the impending catastrophe that would befall them if she let him nearer. But Light couldn’t stop this. Sometimes destruction was a good thing. Ripped down to be built back up. Be remodeled.

At this very moment, Light dreamt of being torn to shreds. It meant he could piece her back together, and she craved that.

Darkness leaned forward, and let his fear enrapture him. Consume him. And Light leaned into Darkness, and let the annihilation destroy her.

This was the moment we all turned to science. When darkness and light could no longer be discerned. This is when we started to speculate, to change our beginning. This is when we lost our magic.

When Light and Darkness were fearful and lonely. When they crossed over, our magic washed away.

And our world was covered in Darkness, for he drank in the light, and left nothing for the world, covering us in darkness.