– The Celestial Saga – Syzygy –
Solaria stood barefoot on the scorching dunes, looking out across the vast expanse of desert that surrounded her. White sand and drusy crystal blew in the dry winds, chased about her ankles in chaffing spirals. The dunes shifted and changed, making the desert appear as if it was a living creature breathing in and out with every gust. From time to time she passed through ruins of white marble; remnants of the great cities of human-kind, left behind from the time before the desert had claimed much of the lands of Aearth. They slowly eroded, crumbled away, becoming part of the sands in which they now lay; shattered fragments of the Old World in decay.
Ahead of her, a faint glow of indigo twilight spread out across the eastern horizon, marking her destination. At her back, the rich golden rays of the setting sun in the west cast her shadow at length across the dunes. There were no roads here, no paths that remained to mark the distance. She followed the echoes of footprints long since faded, with only the memory of their direction to guide her.
The terrain of the StarSand Desert was harsh, and journeys into its farthest reaches were rarely made by human-kind. Solaria however was of the Celestials, an ancient race of ethereal beings that maintained the critical balances of the universe in motion. She carried within her the heart of the Sun itself. Its workings were her sacred responsibility, rising in the east each morning to watch over the Aearth, until she lowered herself to rest each night in the western sky.
Although Celestials were primarily beings of the Aether, they could take on corporeal form and walk openly upon the earth. Few ever did, as it was a great risk should they become wounded or ill in that corporeal form. Yet Solaria took this risk, for it was only in her human form that she could travel against the pull of her nature, against that gravity which held her astral body to its circadian cycle.
She stopped as she reached a vast chasm that spanned across the horizon as far as the eye could see; The Horizon’s Edge, as HumanKind had come to call it. It was here that Solaria had come to reach her lover and eternal counterpart; The Lord of Night, the Keeper of The Moon. It was he who watched over the Aearth in darkness, he who watched over the dreams of mortals, lest those dreams break free from their bonds and become living nightmares which would plague the waking world.
She cast aside her tattered pilgrims wraps, revealing her celestial form; She was like a supernova, her bare skin glowing a radiant gold and covered with spiralling patterns of tiny crystals that refracted every colour of the spectrum. She gathered her energies, taking in the last of the light from the sun as it slipped below the western horizon behind her. She was now fully separated from the gravity of her astral body, and she could cross at will into the realm of night.
She stepped forward to the edge of the chasm, and with one fluid motion, she jumped from the edge, passing beyond the threshold of the horizon and into the void-space between the Aearthly and celestial realms. The void-space was a barrier that no human could pass through. It was only by her power that she did not crash to the rocky bottom of the chasm, only by her power that she could navigate it safely to reach her destination on the other side.
For a long moment, she was free falling, down and down through the impermeable darkness. She stretched out her arms, casting threads of golden light out into the darkness. Those threads caught at the fabric of the void, slowed her descent, and she landed gently on her feet.
She looked around, getting her bearings. Night’s realm was like a planet shattered, with fragments of black obsidian of various sizes slowly orbiting the centre. The atmosphere was bathed by the soft indigo hue of permanent twilight, and in the centre of this rocky constellation, seated upon his throne, was The Lord of Night.
His throne was made of the same black obsidian as the fragments that orbited amidst the plane, and marked by runes which pulsed in vibrant hues of indigo-blue, shifting and changing with the reflection of his thoughts and emotions. Wrapped loosely around his naked body was a cloak woven from the fabric of the night itself. An aura of silver moonglow radiated from his pale skin, softly disrupting his form into a phasing refraction. His hair was long and dark, running in soft waves over his shoulders and down his back. His eyes were as black as the obsidian of his throne, but they flashed silver with the reflection of moonglow as his gaze fell upon her.
The fragment of rock which she stood upon was at the most distant point from him, still brushing along the edges of the void-space. She advanced towards him, moving with light steps in the low gravity, taking small leaps between the floating stones until she reached the core fragment upon which sat his throne. He leaned back, patiently waiting as she approached, sitting comfortably askew with one leg crossed up over his lap. When she reached him, she knelt down at his feet;
“My Lord Of Night, I have travelled here against my gravity, passing beyond the Aearthly realms to reach you.”
He smiled at her as he replied,
“My beloved Daystar; “
His voice was a polyphonic echo that reverberated through the essence of the aether,
“I welcome you into my realm. As always, I have longed for our time of Syzygy…”
She rose and opened her arms to him, the golden glow of her sunlight skin illuminating the space around her, illuminating him in reflection as he stood and removed his cloak. He was forever captivated by her vibrance, humbled by that light which she reflected upon him.
He stepped down from his throne to meet her embrace. Their celestial bodies joined and entwined as they began to ascend together. They left a trail of ethereal light in their wake, a sparkling cascade of silver and blue and gold, pushing back the darkness as they passed upward through the void-space.
When they reached the cusp of the horizon, they held each other tightly, savouring the last of their embrace. For as the cycles of their celestial nature demanded, their moments together were fleeting, each one pulled by the gravities which defined their balance.
“May my light follow you, always.”
She ran her hand across his face, the rays of her golden light dancing across his skin with her touch. He kissed her tenderly, leaving his mark in moonlight silver upon her lips.
“Until our paths cross once more, my wandering star…”
He turned from her to continue his ascent into the night sky, slowly shifting his form into that of his celestial body. She watched him until he had become the moon, full and bright above her. She would wait there at the Horizon’s Edge, until she in her turn would rise at the breaking dawn.
Eternally, in this way, they follow each other across the heavens. Each day and each night, they rise alone, watching over the mortal world, her light seeking his darkness, and his darkness seeking her light, each awaiting the time of syzygy where night and day might merge.