Kuro: A Land in Eternal Night

Chapter 1.1: Taiyou-Shi, City of the Sun

Fala gazed at the black sky above. In Kuro, the one constant factor was the sky. No matter what the hour, through rain or snow, it remained pitch-black, an eternal presence. Ever since the Sun Goddess, Amaterasu-ōmikami, had disappeared under mysterious circumstances a thousand years ago, or so the story went, there had been no Day. Only the spectral light of the Aurora remained, its shifting hues casting a faint, even light over the land; one of the few visible reminders to the people of Kuro that the Goddess had even existed.

It was comforting, in a way, to have such an unchanging sky to count on. People went about their business in Kuro, keeping track of time in twenty-four hours. For people in Kuro, "Day" was myth. No one had seen "Day" in over ten centuries.

Fala was outside at this very moment, sitting atop a hill in Taiyou-Shi, City of the Sun and capital of the nation of Taiyou. From her vantage point, the sprawling city went on and on. Light spires shone brightly throughout, providing citizens with synthetic light. Giant screens dotted the landscape, a jumbled morass of shifting images and disjointed messages, casting moving shadows against the backdrop of tall buildings and twisting highways, where light-mobiles sped along their pre-determined mag-rails, encroaching upon each other in the darkness.

All this had been made possible by the discovery that the Goddess Essence, residual energy left behind when Amaterasu disappeared, could be harnessed and used for the good of mankind.

In the distance, the beautiful SunFlare building, headquarters of the behemoth Diskarma Corporation – stood out amidst other brightly lit monoliths. Artificial sunlight glinted off its glass windows, reflected not from the outside, but from the inside. It gave the building an odd, almost comical appearance against the dark sky. On its roof, tiny black globes the size of fists, Kurokyuu Orbs, were evenly distributed, gathering up the Goddess Essence and distributing power to the building. Diskarma had successfully privatized the process of mining the Goddess Essence with the Kurokyuu technology.

Fala took out her communicator and put it on her lap. The light screen popped out, a shimmering, rectangular holographic image nine inches long, seven inches wide. It hung suspended in the air. Fala made a few hasty swipes with her hand as the screens followed along. An article on the news today interested her. It contained information regarding the mining expedition Diskarma was conducting far to the North, in the desert empire of Yin. Increased demand for the Goddess Essence from other nations had prompted mining expeditions in an effort to locate additional sources. The Goddess Essence was becoming increasingly difficult to find outside of Taiyou. Diskarma had been hemorrhaging funds in the last two years, trying to find more Troves to tap into.

Solar energy had been peaking. Was the Goddess Essence running out? The nations of Kuro were advancing at a rapid rate.With Diskarma's tech at the forefront, the nations of Kuro had industrialized and brought many improvements to its constituents. Quality of life was at an all-time high.

All this would change if the Goddess Essence dried up. The article cited growing pressure from special interest groups. Academics and members of Taiyou-Shi's elite, along with dignitaries from other nations, lent their voices to the growing clamor. Mathematical calculations and theses were put forward arguing that the Goddess Essence had to be finite, but even then, common sense told them the only way for energy to be renewed was for the source to be alive. And they were well aware the Goddess was no longer in Kuro.

A chill wind blew. It was early spring, and the breeze was fresh with the dew of the still-young year. The people of Kuro were thankful that despite the absence of the Sun Goddess, the seasons continued to occur, a phenomenon that was yet to be fully understood. Fala turned off her communicator's light screen and lay down on the grassy hill. One of the things that had amazed her as a child was how grass grew on this hill. It was as if their will to survive was greater than nature's laws. Evolution at work. In the all-pervasive darkness, nature had found ways to adapt, and grass was one of the things that had absolutely no problem growing without the aid of sunlight.

Fala glanced at her watch. It was almost time. She was meeting one of the Sun Watchers here. Over the last few months, the shortages had led to allegations that Diskarma had been less than forthcoming regarding its output for the year. Demand had increased significantly for GEUs, especially from the desert empire of Yin and the mountain federation of Shin-Shi. Of Kuro's nations, only the island kingdom of Mystika had no need of the Goddess Essence. However, Mystika's secrets remained an enigmatic riddle, for the island nation had closed its doors centuries ago, disavowing contact with the outside world. There was talk of an impending invasion. Some of the greedier nations, Yin in particular, might be taking more than a passing interest in finding alternative forms of energy to the Goddess Essence.