always and forever is forever young
your shadow on the pavement, the dark side of the sun
Seeing Morgana cry was unsettling for two reasons: firstly, because he never expected it to happen; and secondly, because he should have seen it before now. If they’d been given a real chance – if he’d known her when she was young – been a real father – they’d have gotten past these first tearful hugs long ago.

Dreams could be upsetting, but they were only dreams. Mallos thought it prudent not to mention that. The only time he woke up in such a state of distress was when his dreams were old memories replaying. That felt more justified than abstract concepts like ‘the end of the world’. Then again… he did have one recurring nightmare which felt painfully close to what Morgana described. When she mentioned the walls closing in, a brief vision of a dark, underground cave littered with screeching bat-creatures interrupted his mind. He shook it off, figuratively, but felt a touch more empathy than he had only a moment before.

That glimmer of understanding was, unfortunately, interrupted again when she called him dad. His arm slackened slightly for a moment, but very swiftly found renewed energy. He shifted from a squatting position to a sitting one, his back against the wall, and gently took her fist in his free hand.

“Once, Darkness and Light saw the lives of people and they thought they could improve it,” he said softly. “They had already divided time between them. Now they divided happiness. Light took adventure, and Darkness took peace. During Light’s daytime, the people undertook all kinds of fantastical adventures, both physically and through the books they read and the arts they were inspired by; and in Darkness’s night, they slept peacefully and would awake rejuvenated.

“But Light could not see the point of sleep. He believed that the time given to Darkness was being wasted, and that there was no reason why people could not adventure in their sleep. So Light invented dreams in order to bring them excitement as they slept.

“Darkness, when she found out, was furious. She accused Light of stealing time from her. Out of spite, Darkness sunk into the people’s dreams just as they were waking and dragged the dreams away with her, so that the people would forget them. Light accused Darkness of taking away the people’s happiness. In retaliation, Light twisted the dreams of Darkness’s favourite people and turned them into nightmares. Now Darkness had to work doubly hard to drag the nightmares away as well as the dreams, so her people would forget them.

“After a time, the other elements grew weary of this. Earth and Space called a council of war, in which they agreed to force Light and Darkness to desist. Darkness agreed, but Light admitted that he could not destroy what he had created. The dreams and nightmares, now unleashed into the fairy world, were there to stay. Eventually the elements decided that Darkness should continue to snatch away people’s dreams and nightmares as they awoke, and in return Light had to give Darkness some of her daytime. Begrudgingly, Light gave Darkness shadows. Now every dawn, Darkness sweeps through the sleeping minds of her favourite people, and takes their terrors away from them. If you’ve ever woken up and forgotten a nightmare,” he squeezed her hand gently, “it’s because Darkness likes you, and wants to give you her peace.”

The story, which Mallos had just made up on the spot, didn’t matter so much as the tone it set. He kept his voice soft and reassuring, like a parent telling a bedtime story to a frightened child, or a horseman soothing a highly strung steed. When a person was upset, it didn’t actually matter much what anyone said to them; what mattered was making a connection. In this case, Mallos used his body language and his tone of voice to forge that connection, rather than the words.

“If you want to go back to bed, you can have mine,” he pushed her hair back with his free hand and kissed her on her forehead. “Or if you want to go out, I know the best place to watch the sunrise.”


i can feel you in the silence saying, “let forever be,
love, and only love, will set you free.”