Full Summary: King Endymion, ruler of the doomed throne of Elysion, has spent his entire life searching for a way to escape the eternal night cursing his land—a place where the light doesn't shine and the hope of spring is but a distant dream. No matter his desperation, he would rather live forever in darkness than taint his soul with the solution foretold: claiming the daughter of the Enchantress who first doomed the land as his stolen bride.
"...I've been sleeping so long in a 20-year dark night
And now I see daylight, I only see daylight..."
—"Daylight" by Taylor Swift
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.:Serenity:.
The shadows that were my only concept of darkness had hovered along the garden's edge for as long as I could remember, lurking but never broaching the secure enchanted border. From the clues I'd carefully gathered over the years, darkness was the substance that filled night, an event that supposedly occurred daily beyond the garden's border. Such an anomaly didn't exist within my world aglow with eternal day.
I often sat encircled within the cocoon of branches of my favorite alcove of apricot trees, tucked away along the garden's edge. I paused in weaving a fresh crown of daffodils to lean against the trunk and stare up at the leafy canopy to watch sunlight's gentle waltz, mesmerized by its beauty.
As I brushed back a sun-warmed strand of hair and settled the crown carefully on my head, a shrill sound from directly above startled me, causing the coronet to slide sideways, landing at a crooked angle to tickle one of my ears. I laughed as I straightened the delicate blossoms.
A bright black eye gleamed at me from the nearest branch. I beckoned coaxingly, and in a flash of gold the small canary fluttered down to land on my skirt and peer up at me inquisitively. With a smile I reached in my pocket and pulled out a tiny cake I'd saved from tea and tore off a few crumbs. The bird eagerly pecked at the treat; when the crumbs were gone, he tipped back his head and rewarded me with his usual cheerful trill, a habit that had earned his name of Sunbeam.
I nestled comfortably against the tree trunk again to watch Sunbeam flutter through the garden, his soft feathers gleaming in the sunshine. The bright rays perpetually lit my garden seemed especially beautiful as they caressed my diminutive friend. I frowned thoughtfully up at the bright cerulean sky.
Does this night I've heard whispers about really possess the power to eclipse the light?
The thought both terrified and fascinated me, compelling me to study the shadows I occasionally caught glimpses of yet, which always remained just on the other side of the wall—the very fortification I'd never broached, preventing me from exploring the world that lay beyond.
I stared at the shadows dancing just out of reach, wisps of mist that the golden sunshine never touched. Idly at first, I watched the movements, but my curiosity grew the longer I looked. I was just beginning to wonder what it'd be like to touch this foggy substance when I first met...him.
I sensed him before I saw him, a presence that seemed to seep from the shadows before they suddenly stirred to form a dark silhouette. My breath caught but I couldn't look away, mesmerized by the sinister dance of the grey light and curious what seemed o be forming within it.
The shadows eventually stilled in the form of a man, one I realized stood not outside the garden—enchanted by Mother to keep all intruders out—but within the secure walls.
My floral crown tumbled from my lap as I hastened to my feet, causing several petals to break off. I stared at them in stunned silence before slowly lifting my gaze to the unexpected intruder. A strange emotion stiffened my limbs, one I surmised to be fear urging my to escape. Yet, I remain frozen, my gaze riveted to the stranger. Shadows shrouded his face so I couldn't clearly see his features, yet I caught enough fleeting glimpses of his well-set jaw and midnight blue, soulful eyes to discern he was handsome.
I'd never met a man before; to be more precise, I'd never met anyone. This was my first interaction with the outside world, a momentous occasion in my peaceful, yet rather uneventful, life.
For a moment, silence reigned between us. I searched the shadows cloaking the stranger, as if by looking hard enough I could peel back their layers to reveal the person hidden beneath. He seemed to be studying me just as intently, even though there wasn't anything particularly interesting about a girl who had spent her entire life within a garden.
I pushed against the icy coils threatening to encase my heart and lifted my chin. "Hello."
The stranger didn't answer. I waited what I hoped was a polite amount of time before speaking again, this time forcing each word past my dry throat. "My name is Serenity. Might I inquire as to who you are and what you're doing in my garden?"
He didn't impart his own identity, deepening the mystery shrouding him, but my proper introduction at least earned a response not given in words but a curious tilt of his head, as if something about me intrigued him.
The longer the silence extended, the more I began to doubt this was a man at all; perhaps he was nothing more than the creation of an imagination desperate to abate the acute loneliness as prevalent as the sunlight adorning my home. I knew little about the darkness or night, so I had no way of knowing whether deceiving the senses was their common pastime.
My gaze lowered from what I'd thought was the stranger's face to watch the shadows around the soles of his riding boots in swaths of dark, slithery fog. My curiosity compelled me to venture a few steps forward and extend a tentative hand outward. Just one touch...
At my movement, the stranger finally responded, hastening back several steps. "Don't touch it."
My eyebrows lifted. "So you can speak. I wasn't sure whether you were real, or merely a trick of the light."
Heedless of his warning, my hand lifted almost hypnotically, yearning to touch the strange shadows that, until today, had never ventured into my sanctuary. One couldn't touch light directly, though it's warmth could be felt. What of darkness?
The stranger withdrew from my reach until he'd nearly pressed himself against the ivy-encrusted stone. "Don't touch it."
This time his words penetrated the seductive pull overcoming my movements. My hand lowered.
"You seem rather fascinated by the shadows." The stranger's deep voice was gentler than his previous urgent command.
"Forgive me, I've just never seen anything quite like it."
Though the darkness masked his features, I sensed his surprise. "Never?"
I shook my head as my gaze once more succumbed to the shadows' stranger pull. I studied them with a puckered brow, clasping my fingers so I could better resist the impulse of reaching for the vapory substance. Though I could no longer see the stranger's eyes, I sensed him watching me, felt his own curiosity as tangible as the substance surrounding him.
"Many rumors abound this enchanted garden, including that no darkness exists within these walls."
I shrugged. "None that I've ever seen."
He stared up at the sky with a sigh, taking in the sunshine bathing us in its glistening pools. "It's been so long since I've seen the light that I'd almost forgotten what it looks like."
My heart flared as the meaning of his words settled over me. I hastily withdrew, increasing the distance between us until my back pressed against a magnolia, where I watched him warily. "Are you from Elysion?"
He hesitated. "...I am."
"Then that darkness..." No longer did its foreignness make it a thing of curiosity and wonder; I shrank from it in horror at the realization that the sinister force I'd been repeatedly warned against had infiltrated my sanctuary. I stared at tit, expecting it to stretch itself across the lawn to taint everything it touched. "You brought such a thing to this garden—?" The one place free from the night... At least, until this mysterious man had singlehandedly destroyed it.
"Don't be afraid, it won't spread," he assured me. "This isn't ordinary darkness, but magic that allows to me venture from my home."
Even with his assurances my heart continued to pound and I didn't avert my mistrustful guard that kept the darkness at bay. "What could have possibly compelled you to take such a risk by venturing from Elysion?"
From the stories I'd heard, no one ever entered the kingdom trapped in eternal night...and no one ever left, giving me every reason to be suspicious of this stranger's presence.
Night had consumed Elysion for as long as I could remember, beginning its reign long before my birth. No one knew what magic had stolen its daylight; whispered speculations were almost as frequent as those surrounding the inhabitants of the doomed kingdom said to be a place not only of darkness, but of destruction, despair, and death; where all souls dwelled when life ceased.
My garden resided in the Borderlands, an area tucked between all of the kingdoms where, unlike Elysion, darkness never descended. Though night eclipsed half the day in the surrounding kingdoms, so far they'd managed to protect their lands from Elysion's eternal darkness. For all the other political divides between the kingdoms, they agreed upon one truth: whatever force had robbed Elysion's light was contagious; should it breach their borders, it would spread until it'd consume everything in its path.
I continued to anxiously watch the shadows surrounding the mysterious stranger, expecting them to trickle over the garden to rob it of its color and beauty, before plunging my world into a concept I still didn't understand, nor did I want to.
The shadows stirred almost tauntingly, yet remained obediently at the stranger's side, as if a part of him. To think in a brief moment of insanity I'd wanted to touch the sinister, twisting strands.
He noticed my uneasy glances and sensed my lingering apprehension. "Don't be afraid."
I bit my lip. "It won't come near?"
"The darkness will never touch you or your world."
Even with this promise I didn't avert my gaze. I had no reason to believe him, considering I knew nothing about this man, save for the concerning act he came from the kingdom that was plunged in eternal darkness. Yet, kindness filled his tone...as well as sadness, two emotions that compelled me to extend my tentative trust.
"If you're not here to bring the darkness..."
"I would never willingly bring darkness to a place of such beauty and light," he interrupted fiercely. "I could never subject anyone to the prison sentence whose burden is crushing my kingdom and causing great suffering."
He tipped his head back, allowing the light penetrating the leafy canopy to caress his features enough to illuminate more of his face, as handsome as my other stolen glimpses.
"Experiencing the sun's golden warmth remind me of time so far distant as to seem but a dream. It seems impossible to return to a place beyond the reach of its gentle light."
For a moment, the horror of such a thought bound my words. "I can't imagine life without the light."
"As well as you shouldn't," he said. "Such things should only exist within the realm of imagination rather than reality, especially for someone as gentle as you."
The sincerity of his statement eased some of my rigid tension, drawing me a step closer. "What happened to Elysion's light?"
The countless whispered stories all seemed too fanatical to even remotely resemble the truth. Even if one gathered all the information scattered like a broken mirror, I doubted anyone could accurately assemble what was truly occurring within a kingdom where no one had ventured these past two decades.
Once more he hesitated. "...The reason does nothing to change the reality of what is. All that matters is what can be done to reverse it."
I felt a shift in the air between us, as subtle as if a cloud momentarily shrouded the sun. "How can one dispel a force strong enough to eclipse the day?"
He didn't answer; a silence escalated by the sudden chill that had descended around us. I shivered, unaccustomed to the unpleasant sensation prickling my skin. He made a motion as if to wrap his cloak around my shoulders, before seeming to think better of it.
Instead he took a step back, shifting uneasily. "I shouldn't be here."
"Please, don't leave yet," I pleaded, curiosity overcoming my fear of the darkness. "There's so much more I want to discover. I cannot imagine anything beyond the day. To think there is a place where light doesn't exist..." Such an impossible concept seemed like a nightmare outside the reality I'd already grown accustomed to.
"The darkness is so think and penetrating not even the stars can be found."
My brow puckered. "Stars?"
He jolted in surprise, the first visible reaction beyond the stoicism that had shrouded him since his mysterious arrival. "You don't know what stars are?"
A wave of defensiveness washed over me at my ignorance, an emotion as rare as the initial fear this stranger had stirred within my heart. "The only world I've never known is this garden."
I gestured to the picturesque surroundings—the flowers adorned in array of pastels, copses of blossoming trees, lush green lawn lined with ornate hedgerows, twisting streams, and cobblestone paths. Color and light extended as far as I could see, glistening off every surface like its own kind of magic, so beautiful it often left me speechless.
His eyes followed my motion before returning to me with a strange expression. "You've never left?"
I shook my head.
"Then I shall tell you about the stars...at least, what I can remember of them. They're pinpricks of glistening silver in the heavens that illuminate the night. If you study them closely, you can form pictures from their patterns. Some even believe starlight itself possesses magic, or that stars can reveal the future. They're countless eons away, yet their light extends across that vast distance to shine down on our land—rather, they once did."
I held my breath as I listened to his wondrous description that seemed straight out of a storybook. "I...never knew. They sound lovely." To think that even night could possess its own beauty with something as enchanting as starlight.
The man's responding sigh was rather wistful. "They were."
Were. My heart wrenched. To think Elysion was trapped within the confined of night without even stars to light their way.
He'd drawn closer during his recitation, but his proximity no longer made me afraid. I tried to search where his face should be. If only I could peel back the shadowy mask and clearly see whom I was speaking with. I could never like a force that hid things.
As if finally noticing how closely he now stood, he hastily backed away, pausing just short of running into a nearby crape myrtle tree. He frowned at the darkness hovering near the flowering branches and leaned away; wisps of shadow curled near the soft blossoms—their pink petals highlighted by the velvety purple foliage surrounding its base—but didn't quite touch.
"Though I'm certain the enchantment placed upon this garden will prevent the darkness from spreading, it would be prudent for me not to touch anything. It would be a shame to taint such beauty." His attention shifted back to me. "You mentioned you grew up here. Do you live alone?"
"In a sense," I answer, nodding. "Though Mother often visits."
Shadows swirled at my visitor's head as he nodded in understanding. "The Enchantress of the Borderlands."
My heartbeat escalated. Did the world beyond these walls know not only of my garden, but of Mother's extraordinary owners an all the wondrous treasures she'd created with them?
I narrowed my eyes and didn't answer, but the stranger didn't seem to need my confirmation.
Even though the shadows shrouding his face, I saw the corner of his mouth lift slightly. "Don't be alarmed, she is quite well-known amongst those in magical circles, though she'd different from the others enchanters, as if her magic."
He didn't elaborate further, which only deepened my curiosity, an emotion I rarely experienced when my world remained stagnant and each day was the same from when I rose in morning to when I went to sleep with the sun still risen in the sky. Such unfaltering familiarity gave me little opportunity to be curious, but I enjoyed the way the emotion tickled my senses, compelling me to explore, to ask questions, to discover.
My gaze drifted towards the wall surrounding my beautiful home, rising so high that even if I climbed the tallest tree I wouldn't be able to see over it. With the walls enclosing me on all sides and the sky stretching endlessly above me, I had little knowledge of the world that lay beyond. For the first time the walls no longer seemed like a protective fortress but an impenetrable barrier, keeping me from a world of wondrous discoveries.
This unsettling sensation mingled with my newly discovered curiosity, but rather than dismissing it as I'd previously done I instead embraced it, welcoming the reprieve from the ordinary. I turned back to the stranger with renewed purpose, eager for answers to the questions now tickling my mind.
"I want to know more about the world outside these walls."
"It is not my place to share that with you; I shouldn't have even come. I knew it was foolish and yet…" He heaved a sigh. "My initial purpose for my imprudent visit is no longer relevant. I shall take my leave and allow you to enjoy the remainder of your day in peace." He bowed as if he meant to depart…yet made no motion to do so, his eyes continuing to drift around my sunlit home as if yearning to stay in the light.
I wasn't ready for him to leave. I was certain it had little to do with the man himself but rather the fact that, for the first time I could remember, someone stood in my garden other than myself, Mother, or the invisible, enchanted servants who tended us.
Though this interaction had created unsolvable puzzles, it was too interesting to end prematurely. I still didn't know this stranger's identity or purpose in coming, but the mystery only stoked my newly discovered curiosity in desperate need of nourishment.
Even if he wasn't inclined to depart, the shadows cloaking him seemed to possess a mind of their own. They stirred to life and extended their inky black presence, as if reaching their cold, ethereal touch for me.
My sharp gasp was cut off by his curse. He hastily retreated, wrapping his fingers around the shadows and gripping tightly to hold them back, as if they were something more tangible than vapor as they appeared. They wriggled in his firm hold, fighting to break free, but eventually submitted and retreated to settle back around him like a dark aura.
I stared, my heart beating wildly against my ribs.
"I'm so sorry," he managed breathlessly. "I've never known the curse to do that. I should have left sooner. Forgive me, Serenity."
With a flustered bow of departure, he vanished without another look back—the shadows cloaking him encircled him, swallowing him up until he disappeared. Those that lingered slunk back to their place outside the wall, leaving behind no hint that anything other than the light had been there at all.
With a troubled frown, I slowly sank to the ground. Even the lilting tones of Sunbeam's birdsong as he settled on a branch above me failed to distract me as I stared at the flickering shadows dancing just outside my home.
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à suivre...
A/N: Hey all! I probably shouldn't start another fanfic, but I couldn't help myself. :)
This story is inspired by the legend of Persephone and Hades from Greek mythology. If you don't know the legend, I recommend reading up on it (it's so good!) but isn't necessary to follow/enjoy this story.
Please leave your feedback! I always look forward to hearing from you all!
P.S. I normally like picturing Serenity with white hair, but for this story she will be blonde.