Star and Night

Once there was a girl, beautiful, bright and shining. Her eyes of jewel and voice of song, she captivated, mesmerized everyone; teachers, classmates, anyone. Every emotion tumbled across her kaleidoscope face and each were so strong; when she laughed, the world rejoiced; when she cried, lightning ripped the sky in two. She had a sister, dear sister, who she loved more than anybody had a right to. Just as she was light and shining, she was dark and silent. She was not bad, no; merely quiet, a subtle whisper where her sister was flowing song. She was calm and and stable, every emotion careful and measured and all equal. If her sister was the shining of the stars, she was the velvet night sky. They were everything opposite, but they were sister, bound and twined, each the other's world, Star and Night.

Star was a cherished soul and all clamored for her attention. But no matter how they plead, oh please Look what I've brought for you, its delicious, please sit with me? she sat always with her sister for lunch. Night did not have the hoard constantly surrounding her; always, she was alone but she never seemed lonely. Star had a fleeting thought (but only fleeting) 'How peaceful it must be to be my sister Night, if only, do I dare wish...?' but no no, she shook the bad thought away. Envy grows into something ugly and how could she taint her lovely sister that way? No right did she have, to think those thoughts. Star is Star and Night is Night.

One day, she saw the wetness in her dark night eyes, a testament of her pain. 'What's happened, please tell me my sister,' Star cried, feeling the pain twist itself into her as well.

'No, sister, no, there's no good you can do. You cannot remedy what is done,' her voice like ash, low where her sister's had shrieked.

'Please, who has hurt you?' her eyes were like summer rain, cloud grey but sparking bright with unshed tears. Even Night could not withstand her sister's power.

'Love, my dear, it is love.' she sighs, settling into her cold heart as the embers in her sister's eyes sparked into something bright and warm. Love! O love that stirred the calm into an instant frenzy, let her feel what it must be like to be her sister Star, so volatile and alive.

'O how wonderful! Tell me tell me, who it is!' She smiled so wide, so happy, golden radiance kissing Night's porcelain cold skin.

She sighs, a gentle Winter breeze. 'That boy there, do you see? With the chestnut hair and green gold eyes. He's stolen half my heart-' For, it would always be to Star at least half her heart would go. '-with nary a word. O, how I wish my heart were whole again.'

Star grins, a vision of a faerie queen, breathtaking and mischievous. 'Well then, we'll just have to go speak to him. To ask for your heart back, of course." And off she goes, trailing golden faerie dust in her wake that catches everyone's eye, makes them call after her. But she pays them no heed, intent on the boy who shook her sister's immovable ice.

Night looks on, feeling the frost shatter inside. No, precisely why she did not want to tell Star; for all her good intentions, Night knew she would only succeed in taking her love under her golden spell. And so she watches, rebuilding ice from the trickle of a stream that had managed to thaw within. Cold and invincible again.

The boy is shy, not meeting her sunshine eyes.

'Kind sir, how fares the day with you? My sister wishes you well,' Star says, while inwardly rejoicing, O my sister! The air shimmers in golden ribbons at her joy.

He looks only at her, caught in the spell she weaves with every breath she takes. She was like gravity, pulling, tugging everyone in to her and he could not resist, even if he had a wish to do so.

'I wish only to know that you are beautiful and thriving and that knowledge would do me well the rest of my life,' he replies, eyes to hers.

'Me? No, you are quite mistaken, it is my sister that inquires after you-'

'And yet it is you who has taken over my world.'

His eyes burned through her, his words cut her. This wasn't supposed to happen! Sister! She spins, shredding the golden ribbons of joy. The room seems just a bit darker than it did before.

Night sits, alone as usual, but this time there is sorrow, a dark halo buried deep. The balance between the two has broken.

'No!' Star screams and the skies rebel, clapping thunder in response. She run run runs past the boy who broke not one but two hearts in an instant, past the hands that reach like ravenous claws, always always reaching, runs through the doors and out into a night as black and cold as her sister.

Me. It is me that keeps her cold. All the joy, all the happiness leech away, fall away behind her pounding feet like dead skin. Me. She flees, shedding gold and faerie dust that turns to ash, ash like her sister's voice, O my sister, sorry so sorry, terrible terrible, the things I steal from you. My sister is in pain O how to stop the pain! Tree roots grab at her clothes, tear away bit by bit, like the reaching hands that never cease, sipping away at her little by little. O my sister, look what I've done, o wretched stars, burn out burn out, let the night shine for once!

And there she is, her shining Night, wrapping her arms around her cold starry sister.

'Easy, my dear, rest your mind. You are my Sister, my only, and my love for him will never compare to my love for you. Please don't hurt so.'

'No, yours is a love true love, I saw it but he came to me instead, I am wicked, I am sorry, O sister.'

I give you my light, my dark Night, my light, my heart, my sister, so that you can shine.

But you are the stars, sister! You are Star.

They will shine regardless. I am so weary, and you are no longer cold, take this light, take
my heart, my sister.

Night shone, the luminescence of the moon. Her eyes were silver, not gold, but magick all the same. She was warm, so warm, and she felt laughter for the first time, full violent beautiful loud laughter and it spiraled up and up where stars dazzled in the glowing night sky.

Star, no longer shining, burning, reveled in the silence and the cold, smiled and for once, no gold shimmered around her in a haze. She saw the world, the stark cold beauty, and felt no regret in the loss of her fire, the same fire that burned bright in Night's eyes as she experienced what it meant to feel alive for the very first time.