Mondays Fall

Part I

An autumn breeze swept across the Secondary Realm the Architect had chosen for that final gathering. The world of choice was a place devoid of anything except vast and luxuriant fields of grass and lawn hidden by countless flowers of every color man can imagine. There, Her faithful servants the Morrow Days would gather. Out of Nothing She had wrought the Incomparable Gardens first, but the "Eternal Fields", as that particular world was called, came second. They were not special as such, She had merely decorated the place as she saw fit as Time went by, and for the last few centuries that world had been an haven of tranquility and flowery flagrance. The Architect liked to come here and ponder on whatever occupied Her mind at the required moment. Now, the Days were to gather in this place. Not even in the Gardens, no they were summoned in their Mistress' very private place. That had to be a very special occasion, so every Morrow Day selected their best clothes for the occasion.

They were all radiant with beauty and elegance. Even Thursday, who was a soldier who didn't particularly like ceremonious occasions, was outfitted with the ornate high ranking officer getup he despised so much. They talked a little among each other, but only for a very brief moment as the Architect rose and approached them. They all stood in line, Sunday being the closest naturally. But instead, She went straight to Monday, and without any explanation, with a loud and clear voice, she bellowed:

"Into the trust of my good Monday, I place the administration of the Lower House, until such a time as the Heir or the Heir's representative call upon Monday to relinquish any such offices, properties, rights and appurtenances as Monday holds in trust. "

Astonished and voiceless, Monday merely accepted the First Key and the Architect moved on to Tuesday, repeating the same lines as She did to the former, changing only a few words as to fit what would be given in trust to him. She finished with Sunday, granting him guard of the Incomparable Gardens until the Heir came to reclaim them. No one could see it, but there was something odd about Saturday as she was given the Sixth Key and trust over the Upper House. Why would they bother about who was entrusted with what? Surely enough the Heir would manifest himself or herself pretty quickly…

Or would they? What if they disobeyed?

That was out of the question. The Architect had left a Will, behind. A piece of heavy parchment, they could feel its power in the very air they breathed. And yet… they had the Seven Keys in their hands… They could destroy it…

The Morrow Days agreed. They pointed their Keys in the Will's direction and in chorus they chanted:

"From Nothing to Nothing!"

What followed was a chaos of light and destruction that words cannot describe. A good area, about a few miles in radius, of the Eternal Fields had been destroyed in a heartbeat and yet the Will was far from destroyed. It was shattered, but it was still there. Apparently, they could not outmatch the Architect's power with Her own tools, and what inherent powers they had were hardly equal to a single Key, let alone Seven that just failed badly at a task… It was decided that they would hide a part of the Will, specifically the part with the clauses concerning themselves. The moment they left to do that, their Tales began…

***

Monday liked the shape his Key had. The sword was a symbol of strength, nobility and only those with great vitality and energy ever wore swords. For a time, these qualities fit him perfectly. When he returned to the Lower House wielding the First Key, he merely had us all to resume business as usual. He would see to any business that required his newfound authority, which means quite a good deal of businesses. But of course it would not last. As much as he wanted, Monday's Tale was not meant to be one that ends well. Like any other story, it begins on a relatively good way, but unlike others, it doesn't end that way.

The Rightful Heir has his story. This Tale, is about the Trustee named Mister Monday. It's his Fall into Darkness. Behold this true Tale, brought by you by Monday's Noon, formerly Monday's Dusk. Behold Monday's Fall.

***

"I would recommend you do not do that, brother. The Original Law states…"

-"States what? Our Master authorized this little survey, Dusk. Do you not trust our Master?" replied Noon, his tone full of exasperation. "I'd like to remind you the Architect is gone and She left the wheel to the Morrow Days, one of which being our good Monday, our Master. What could happen? Anyway if you do anything stupid, like file a report to the Court of Days, Monday's going to take the blow along with me and YOU. You're as much under his service as I am. Are you looking for trouble, Dusk? Oh and weren't you coming, one way or another?"

I sighed.

"No, Noon, I am not looking for trouble, and it's because I want to PREVENT trouble from happening that I'm coming with you." I replied, as calmly as I always did. "I suppose a simple "survey" doesn't do any harm but you always manage to intervene with mortals, and you know our presence doesn't do them much good in the first place."

-"Our presence? Not good? Pfff. Their superstitious ways keep us from severely traumatizing any of them. Remember that old woman who thought I was an angel?"

-"I distinctly remember you jumping at a petty thief out of some feeling of self-righteous justice. Not to mention…"

-"You're no fun at all, Dusk!" angrily replied Noon. "Look, you're my little brother even if I'm older by what, a fraction of a second? It still pretty much means I'm the wiser one. And know this, Dusk. All work no play makes you a boring boy. You don't want to be a boring boy, don't you Dusk? Besides, as I said, I'll be only sightseeing."

I sighed again and massaged my temples while my brother kept making adjustments to the Seven Dials. These seven grandfather clocks, if they were all adjusted correctly, could allow you to see a good deal of places and even visit them. Noon had grown increasingly keen into visiting the Secondary Realms and not just their present, as set by House Time, but also their past and interference in the past usually lead to numerous paradoxes in Creation. These errors in Time were compensated for via the input of otherworldly phenomenon as to never break the continuity of Time; such was the superiority of the Architect's work. But the effects on population were rather unpredictable and destructive at times, and these "compensations" occurred on all levels of visitations, may it be in the past or the present, may it be by moving a pebble or killing a king...

"I do not think whether I am boring or not is relevant to this argument, Noon." I finally replied. "Besides, if you're only sightseeing as you say, you may just adjust the Dials consequently, no need to visit then."

-"Dusk," finally said Noon, with finality. "You're the one who insisted into coming with me, even outside your allotted time. Mister Monday was kind enough to authorize it and I don't know why and how, but he got the Upper House to keep its eyes shut for the duration of the exploration, not to mention the Court of Days.

But hey, if you like to spoil presents, go ahead and stay behind."

With that, he stepped in the circle made with the Seven Dials and into the shining, white mist inside and disappeared into it.

"Red-headed reckless idiot…" I muttered before I followed suit…

***

When the thick, glowing white mist of the passage through the dials suddenly receded, a forest full of dark and tall coniferous trees appeared right in front of us. That place didn't ring any bell to me and Noon either didn't seem to know where we were. He confirmed this by saying:

"Talk about a boring place. Where are we anyway?"

-"Somewhere absolutely not fascinating, let's turn back now." I replied, annoyed already.

-"Yeah right, Dusk, we have about twelve hours leave left; we might as well put them to good use. I suppose you'll want to walk to explore a bit. Pity, because I'll be flying. Catch you later!"

All in a rush, Noon's wings burst from his back and he was sky-high in a matter of seconds. I grunted of exasperation and was about to draw my own wings when I noticed my brother had dropped a scroll in his haste. I picked it up and read it. Apparently, it was Noon's and I authorization to wander in the Realms as we saw fit. Most paragraphs involved me and my Right of Visit, as I had a sight less prerogatives than my sibling. Monday used Noon and Dawn much more than me, and as such I was relatively free of any responsibilities, but that meant I also had a good deal less powers than one or the other, alone. That pretty much meant a lot more paperwork was involved whenever I needed Mister Monday's authorization to go out of my line of duty.

I sighed, folded the scroll and tucked it into my sleeve. Then I summoned my night-black wings and flew high up in the blink of an eye, hellbent on catching up with Noon before he stuffed his nose where he should not. After a few hundred miles of flight and what seemed like an eternity of forest, I finally caught sight of a town of some sort. Judging by the peculiar architecture, Noon and I had landed somewhere on Earth, more specifically in Asia. Probably Japan or China or other. Things changed so quickly in the Secondary Realms, there had never been but little point into studying them and their cultures too extensively.

I figured Noon was down there. If he wasn't, I was ready to give up the chase; he could be anywhere, else.

Apparently, I wasn't mistaken. The people's appearance, their clothing and language was definitely Asian. I couldn't tell what era it was, though, assuming we'd landed into the past. I definitely hoped it was NOT the past...

I glanced around a little, looking for my red-headed brother and surely enough he was standing by a stall on which were laid some sort of merchandise. I came closer and saw it was actually tea.

"Heh... I suppose I might as well buy some myself too... This will probably all count as one and the same paradox..." I thought, and took a step forward, just next to my brother, some gold coins in hand.

"Thought you didn't want to intervene, Dusk." said Noon, acting overly surprised.

-"Thought I'd let you have all the imported tea?" I replied.

-"You're not so boring, after all. That's good!"

We kept visiting the town for a few hours. Indeed, that visit proved to be quite worthwhile. It may be so that human culture changes about every century, but there was so many things about their culture and their art that were worth seeing in the flesh, so to speak. So much creativity, and yet, their lifespan was very limited. Could it be possible that the source of their creativity was their mortality? With so little time, did humans feel driven to accomplish as much as they could, even though Time would invariably ravage their work? The very impermanence of their artifacts was always the very reason why I would usually accompany Noon in his peregrinations into the Secondary Realms, paradox or not. How could we afford for so much Time to be merely Recorded and not witnessed for real? And yet... by visiting, we were destroying it all...

My thoughts were suddenly interrupted as an unlikely scene unfolded right in front of us. Four men, soldiers apparently, were standing in circle around what seemed to be a simple peasant and were taking turns at beating him with branch of some sorts. I frowned and prepared to walk away, but Noon clenched his teeth and took a step forward.

"Noon..." I warned. But of course he wouldn't listen and he took another step toward the soldiers.

"Noon, we cannot interfere so drastically. Back down."

-"You would allow this, brother?"

Usually, when we Denizens visit a Secondary Realm, we have to bring proper gear as to be as innocuous as possible. Superior Denizens, like Noon and me, do not need to do so because our power and authority magically cloaks us. But at that moment, probably owing to Noon's loss of focus, it wasn't working at all and whatever illusion had been woven around him failed. The soldiers probably saw him change and that draw their attention.

Unfortunately, Noon saw that too and decided to use it to his advantage even though he was already a thousand times stronger than these humans. His white wings burst from his back and stretched them far and wide for impression's sake. Then he flexed his fingers and summoned his longsword into his hand. The blade was of steel and the hilt of gold, but the weapon was entirely coated into Architectural fire.

To these poor soldiers, Noon probably looked something like an avenging angel. And then he slew them, shielding himself from the bloodshed with his wings.

I was utterly shocked. Four dead in the Secondary Realms in an unknown era. That was not bad, that was much worse than that. When I finally came back to my senses, I rummaged in my coat's pockets, looking for my watch. I drew it and looked at is many numerals and hands, looking the one indicating what Time it was here, relatively to the House.

Meanwhile, the mortal Noon had saved was staring sheepishly at us.

Unfortunately we were in the past. That meant pretty bad paradoxes and if that man was allowed to live, it would only make things worst. I put my watch back in its pocket and drew a black glove in its stead. It was a Nightmare glove. It was pretty nasty but I thought it'd leave a little less traces than chopping the man's head off.

I merely grazed the peasant's face and he dropped dead, slain on the spot by his worst nightmares. It was Noon's turn to be shocked and when he looked at me, accusation in his eyes, the only thing his gaze met were my own cold and equally accusative eyes.

"We leave. Now."

We returned to the House by Transfer. To that end, we merely had to tear up our Authorization scroll. We were back into Monday's Dayroom in one of the many reading salon. My brother and I hadn't moved at all and we were still staring at each other.

"You knew I would have to do this, Noon. To say you acted foolishly would barely even describe it."

-"Don't you even dare judge me. You understand so little of our place in the House, let alone what it means to our place in the Secondary Realms. Such a waste."

How had we come to this?

I watched as my sibling then walked away calmly, coolly, trying to look as if he was unaffected by my lecture but he knew too well I was right. Or did he? Or... did I know how wrong I was about him. And everything else.