Trials of the Moonlight

Datter av Mørket

"Eww. Don't call me that."

"Too formal?" He chortled. Just as Sophie was about to open her door, something overcame him and he gave her a hug. She was confused. Jack said, "I love you, you rugrat."

"I know!" She pushed him away. "Good night, weirdo." They both chuckled, but Jack had needed to remind her. Part of him wanted to sleep outside her door to make sure nothing came for her. Maybe he'd feel better once he talked to the guardians... Elsa certainly thought so, for she was already standing behind him, ready to make their trip back to the woods.

Already on cue, golden sand began to sweep into the castle bedrooms.

...

The woods felt more foreboding after what they'd been through, but with Sandy's sleep-sand lighting up the area, the two felt a sense of security. When they approached the headstone, Sandman appeared before them in his physical form. He gave them both very pleased looks.

"We've freed the spirits just as the parchment told us." Elsa explained. "And this!" She pulled the key out from her dress pocket. "They gave this to me." She'd assumed the guardians would want it, but Sandy gently pushed it back. Keep it. He was saying.

"You'll be needing that in your next test." North came out of hiding.

Jack stepped forward. He'd had so many questions. "I need to ask you something about today." North raised a brow to indicate he was listening. "That witch that was mentioned during our trial. Who was she? She made me think something was hurting my sister, and– and she controlled the shadows around her to come after me!" Elsa was dumbfounded. Why didn't he tell her earlier? "The way she used them, it was like–"

"–Pitch Black?"

Just hearing that name for the first time in years made Jack's heart sink. The Sandman glowered at the name.

"So you did know him!" Jack accused.

Toothiana appeared from her tree. "We knew of him." She clarified. "But he wasn't one of us... he was more like you; a mortal who became immortal."

Elsa saw all the stress this was causing Jack. "Why didn't you tell us from the beginning?" She demanded.

"You did not ask." North replied. "Besides, it should've been obvious—one of the main reasons we discovered that the fifth guardian was somewhere around here was because you defeated him."

Jack looked surprised. "What? No, no. You've got it all wrong, I didn't kill Pitch." He could still feel the ache in his heart like it happened yesterday. "He sacrificed himself for me." The guardians exchanged looks. "He stood in front of me to save me from his own powers. I froze him trying to save Elsa's..." He saw her wearing a guilty expression and he changed the topic. "When I was alone up in the mountains, he found me and gave me food and blankets to sleep in... he taught me how to control my powers the best he could. He was all I had when I was up there."

Somehow, the guardians didn't look all that confused. North, rather, nodded his head, saying, "Must've been some of that fatherly instinct he still had left in him."

Tooth said, "I knew all of him couldn't have been lost." Currently, it was Jack who was lost. He had no idea what they were talking about. Even Elsa was left without a clue. "Before he was Pitch Black, he was a mortal called Kozmotis Pitchiner."

"I knew that." Jack interrupted to show he wasn't that oblivious.

"But what you don't know is he had a family." Tooth was right, Jack never knew this... in fact, he was certain that Pitch must not have known either! "He had a wife, and a daughter named Amelia. Kozmotis dabbled in black magic, so they were shunned by others. His wife absolutely detested his work, but Amelia had a twisted fascination with it and tried to follow in his footsteps... but he refused, since he started to believe his wife was right about what he did. Kozmotis then tried to redeem himself by instead capturing hateful spirits called Fearlings and imprisoning them so that they could cause no more destruction. He kept vigil for years, forced to listen to the prisoners' constant whispering and pleading. He hoped Amelia would be inspired by this and outgrow her fixation with the dark arts... but one day, the prisoners imitated her voice and hypnotized Kozmotis to believe she was being held inside with them. He was so panicked that he opened the doors to release her, but instead, he was possessed by ten thousand Fearlings... the moment his heart stood still, he was Pitch Black, Lord of Fear and Darkness. He lost all his memories of his old life."