Fire and Shadow

Blackburn Castle, Midnight Two Days before the Autumnal Equinox

"No... Don't go. Please don't leave me. Stop... I need you... No ... No! Athuriyel!" Daimeyen's shout echoed off the stone walls of his room in Blackburn castle as he shot up fighting the sweat dampened sheets that threatened to strangle him. The nightmares were so much worse now that the equinox loomed. Every year at the spring and fall equinox, he experienced dreams, but this year, nightmares plagued him. Daimeyen shrugged off his bedclothes and sat on the edge of his four-poster bed. The shadows in his room stared daggers at him. Their chill did nothing to cool his fevered skin or dispel the vivid images of his brain.

Athuriyel was beauty incarnate; her skin, ice white, her eyes, like diamond shards surrounding a black pearl, and her hair a sheet of white blonde that molded to her back like a second skin. Her image haunted his waking hours for as long as he could remember and yet he had never seen her likeness anywhere in their country of Adversetty. The visions had started at puberty, with her eyes, and now he could see her in her entirety. She was waif-like thin and her melodious voice sent shivers down his spine. She was a pure white flame, soft like candlelight in a dark room. She was the exact opposite to his shadowy demeanor.

Daimeyen was Athuriyel's opposite in every way. Where she was light incarnate, he was the epitome of darkness personified. His black locks twisted like snakes around his head. His skin was also black like charcoal but smooth. Daimeyen's eyes burned hot like black obsidian stones from the volcanic glass that made up his father's castle; volcanic glass that surrounded a perfect white pearl. He had no one to compare himself to for he looked like no one he had ever met and yet for all that Athuriyel was his opposite, she drew him to her like a moth to a flame.

He could see his eyes shining bright in the darkness across the room as he gazed at himself in the glassy wall, trying to clear his head of the vision of Athuriyel in distress. Knowing that sleep would never come, Daimeyen got up and dressed quickly in the darkness, then stalked from his room to seek out his father.

The upper hallways of the castle were empty. The servants slumbered below in their beds. Daimeyen never saw his father on his birthday, the day the world was completely in balanced. At first, Daimeyen was confused by his father's rejection, then hurt, then angry. Finally, he was complacent. After all, his father was the supreme ruler of Adversetty. He had more on his agenda than planning parties to placate a young boy.

Now as Daimeyen's 21st birthday approached, he sought out his father. They had once had a conversation about his odd dreams. It was three years ago when he turned 18. They had been sitting at the dinner table and Daimeyen told his father about the girl he saw in his dreams around the time of his birthday.

"She's so beautiful," he said. "Her skin white as candle glow. Yet I've never seen anyone like her in or around the village. I feel compelled to find her—"

"Stop this nonsense!" Zuriyel's harsh whisper slashed out like a sharp blade cutting into his heart. "She's just a figment of your fevered brain," he barked as he ate. "She is not real. And I don't' want to hear this again. Do not pursue this dream fantasy. We have more pressing matters to attend. The window of change is upon us and we must prepare for the balancing ritual. I need your total focus. Leave your dream girls in your dreams."

Zuriyel had stalked from the table at that point and Daimeyen was left feeling empty. His dream girl had been the only thing that kept him going on those lonely nights when his father was distant and dark like the shadows that always surrounded him. The dream girl, Athuriyel, burned bright in his consciousness. Only her presence kept his world right. His father required a specific service from him in his bid to rule Adversetty with an iron fist. Daimeyen was his enforcer. His very presence put fear into the hearts of the villagers of Freyfrettte as there was no one who looked as he did. When he walked among the townsfolk they whispered words like demon and devil under their breathe and crossed themselves with fear.