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"For if the world was to end. It would surely end by Night."

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[KAYOS ADREN PRIME]

My eyes opened slowly, and yet it was as if they were still closed. No light to reveal if it was day, but I needed no light to know that.

Darkness of the blackest kind filled the throne room, and the throne itself felt as cold as ice beneath me, my fingers stiff around the arm of the iron throne. I had spent a night on the throne as I had done so many times before. My body felt stiff, but I relished the pain.

I could feel shadows around me, whispering things that made me shut my eyes once more, reaching out for the darkness around me.

Despair is what I felt, and despair was what poisoned the air, what manifested as the darkness around me and cursed the sun from shining, and yet I had to confess there was a certain peace in this despair.

I took in a deep breath, relinquishing the air from between my lips, and the shadows around me fought for that breath of life.

A shadow crept up my arm, and I gingerly turned as Alchest perched by the high of my throne.

"What is it you wish to say?" I asked lazily, feeling the shadow move to right above my shoulder, where he perched once more.

"Ressst, massster," he hissed softly.

I hummed at this, closing my eyes for a bit. I turned my head forward to where I knew the doors that opened to the throne room faced, though there was nothing I could see in the darkness, typically because there was nothing to see but darkness.

"I rested a full night and now I have brought the night with me to the day." I replied in a low whisper, "perhaps it should stay for another, and another....and another."

My wolf growled within me showing its frustration. I gritted my teeth trying to reel him in as I have done many times, my eyes heating beneath my skin and I knew they were glowing their deadly embers.

My wolf argued within me. A taunt of mockery. Of weakness.

"I can not stop it. It will happen." I urged, gritting my teeth.

My wolf growled within me and a streak of lightning flashed in the night sky illuminating the empty throne room for a flash of a second, shadows scampering to the corner.

I groaned out loud as I felt him wish to tear me apart, throwing myself forward, my fingers stiff against the arm of the throne.

"You think I wish this?" I gritted, my teeth clenched, "To mate with another? We have no hope-"

My wolf would simply see no reason. Only heating the battle within me. I jutted forward, gripping the throne tighter, determined to grip him in, but his anger could not be quenched this time, and I moved off the throne, hunched over, my body heavy for my feet.

"Masssster," Alchest hissed, as I grunted, trying to stop my transformation in time.

"Stay!" I growled back at him, stopping his approach. He scampered backward, whilst I stumbled into the middle of the throne room.

If I turned in this castle, chaos would reign. I was not a pup that would merely damage a room anymore, the spikes on my back were deadlier, my wolf larger and his anger and thirst for blood unquenchable.

Darkness gathered from all corners of the throne and I fell to my knees as my wolf fought to be loose. The doors of the throne room remained shut and I could only hear heartbeats a few halls away, scampering in the opposite direction, moving farther.

No one wished to be near me whilst the Night inside me formed.

The darkness gathered in the middle of the room as I grunted and howled in agony, the shadows reaching up to the stoned roof, a beam of shadow in the center of the throne room.

With a last agonizing push, I managed to stumble through the shadow, my feet crunching against the leaves of the forest, and I staggered against a tree. The darkest night formed above me, manifesting as I transformed.

Lightning flashed and the storm began to pour as the Night raged on. I was a wolf the image of night, wearing the very stroke of midnight as my fur. My spikes quivered in the roaring wind, heartbeats scampering every which way as the animals began their race to freedom.

Shadows moved with me as I hunted through the forest, the storm beating down my back, cold giving only more power beneath my paws.

It was easy to kill. Easier than ever in this form. Perhaps too easy.

I was faster than any animal in this forest. I was the predator to predators.

I hunted the bear for only it could somewhat appease my hunger. I was quick and the shadows were my allies. Nothing could escape me, and the rain that beat down my back only refreshed me. The fog soon loomed with the forest as I found my prey.

There wasn't much of a fight to remember, even when I heard a second growl of the beasts mate and it the next fall.

My memories often sunk into the dark place when my wolf was laced with anger and hunger.

Images came in glimpses, and I understood I was losing the will to return.

I could stay in the endless, allow my wolf to lead, lone and feral, and with him an Ever Night.

I would never have to worry about despair again.

It was what he deserved after all, freedom after my failures.

The world was farther than it had been a second ago, and I felt my hold on it loosen between my fingers. I did so willingly as I watched the world through a narrowing window in the endless.

Glimpses of the world before it could fully fade.

Bloodstained against my midnight fur, spikes quivering in the wind, the smell of death in the air as my teeth ripped into the hard flesh, muzzled shadows hiding from the death in my fangs. Yet eager to live in a world with no sunlight forever.

Glimpses only, fading slowly.

It was calmer here.

The sounds of the forest around me became less audible and replacing it was the silence of the endless.

Glimpses. Foggy trees. The storm, Corpses of eaten bears, the darkness that hung in the sky,

Glimpses

A last look at my home. The Night Court, ancient and bold against the ruling wind of the storm, lightning flashing. My mother would miss me but she has lost and survived before.

Glimpses.

The tower....

I blinked, noting a small glow through its singular window, against the beating of the rain.

It was hope then?
The keffer- the trial.

A dying hope but nevertheless, hope.

I reached out for it, unsure, and I grunted, throwing myself through the sliver of a window in the endless, finding my naked body in the river of blood between carcasses left by my wolf.

I gasped for air, breathing harshly against the wind. The storm still raged above me, rain running through my blood-stained hair and bear fur that clung to my skin.

Dragging myself out of the pit of bones, blood, fur, and mud, I staggered to my feet. Barefooted against fallen branches and wild bushes I limped forward in the darkness, a shadow scampering out of sight.

I paused, gaze following it, and watched as Alchest perched against a low branch, right above a dark robe that hung loosely from a branch.

My eyes narrowed on the creature, "I commanded you to stay."

I scoffed, grabbing the coat.

My body was still weak as I draped the coat over me, my bloody scratched hands healing as they felt the trunk of the tree for support. My gaze lifted past the tree, the Night Court barely visible in the heavy fog.

In the mirror of my eyes the echo of that single flame in the highest tower.

The shadows gathered behind me and I turned, limping through the shadow.

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Lay weeping,
Begging to the moon,

For a heart to rest his soul

My head rolled back in the darkness, leaning softly against a wooden shelf, hidden discreetly in the darkness. Seated on the floor, only the dark robe draped around me to shield my blood-stained body, I sat on the floor of the darkness listening to the soft singing.

The Keffer moved only a few shelves behind me, and though I could not see her, her scent, her heartbeat, and her voice were all around me, warmth seeping into my skin in the torch-lit library.

She moved with heavy books in her arms, humming as she dusted. I could hear every wipe of the cloth in her hands, every breath that brushed against her lips, but I knew she did not know of my existence.

Without her wolf, she could not sense me barely a few feet away.

It was in her favor and mine. I did not wish to explain why I was drenched, water dripping from the curls that clung to my face. Blood stains on every inch of my body, the taste of death on my lips.

If she was scared whenever I first spoke, I could not imagine what would happen if she was to see me in this state.

No- her ignorance was certainly best.

I scoffed lowly when I realized I had stopped wasting in the endless and now, and instead, I was thinking of how unlucky and lucky the keffer only a few feet away from me was.

Her humming continued, and I sensed her move to the next row. She came close once, had she not turned she would have seen me. Part of me wished she had. She was the only one who was able to see me- see me truly.

I shut my eyes, letting out a loose breath as her soft hums filled me. I should not be this wanting. She was a trial I was sure, a trial I would fail if I let her slip too close.

My eyebrows arched when the soft hum stopped and instead soft grunts were replaced. I turned slightly watching as she pushed the ladder toward the window.

She began to talk and for a second I thought she had seen me, but she did not look in my direction. Not even once.

I staggered to my feet, as Alchest crossed the shadows perching on my shoulders.

Peeking past the shelves I watched the curious girl, speak again to what seemed like the shadows. My eyebrows arched, until I heard another heartbeat, my gaze narrowing to the shadows beside her.

"I have to see it, Diane, tell me the fog has cleared," she breathed anxiously and my eyebrows arched as something fluttered above her perching on the window sill.

It was a raven, with a strange aura, cawing loudly back at her, hoping by the ledge. I stood beside the shadows of the shelves camouflaged slightly, the firelight only lightly illuminating me as I studied the keffer curiously.

"Truly?" she asked with a wide grin moving up the ladder. She peered out of the window, sitting by the ledge beside the strange bird.

She took a paper from a hidden space underneath her skirt, looking out into the vastness of Night Court.

I knew what she could see from that height. I had gazed upon it myself.

The court, the maze, the forest, and the land beyond that occupied my territory.

I watched as her face fell, glancing down at the bird beside her that refused to take flight, looking down at the view.

"The storm and the fog are gone but it is still too dark to see." her tone sounded disappointed as she let out a loose breath.

I watched as she stared at the view for a few more moments before a small smile spread across her face, "Nevertheless it is beautiful. Even with so much darkness."

The bird cawed as if in approval. And she grinned down at it. Her gaze traded to the paper in her hand, "we will draw another time. Perhaps the sun will return tomorrow."

With that, she slowly climbed down the ladder and I stepped back into the shadows, as the bird flew over the length of my sanctuary.

My gaze narrowed on it, turning slightly to Alchest, a short pause between a breath.

"Bring him to me."

"Yessss master."

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