Delilah awoke in darkness.
Complete, total darkness. More than that, it was penetrating, consuming. She could feel it holding her, reaching into her, keeping her down, keeping her silent, keeping her asleep.
But…
Why was she awake?
All alone in the Darkness, Delilah lay there. For a long time, she was left with just that question. Why?
Why was she awake? For her failure to taunt her?
Why had it all gone wrong? She’d reached the Key, her sisters had, too, they’d all turned the Key of the World, their one and only hope…
And now…
Why?
Deep in the darkest of nights, Delilah lay awake, all alone. She tried to fall back asleep. What point was there to waking in this? Everything was gone. Light was defeated. Sal had won.
But…
She was awake. And when she tried to fall back asleep, there was something that pulled her back to waking. Like a soft pulse, a sensation in her heart, tugging her back to waking. She ignored it, at first, but that proved untenable. The pulse, gentle but firm, struck through her heart once again.
So there was no sleeping, not for her, not here in the Dark.
She tried to move. And she could. She twisted one way, then the other, her stomach turning at the disgusting sensation of this consuming Darkness all around her. She raised her hand, pulling it free from the muck. Then her other hand, and she felt on that hand a strange echo, a lingering sensation. Like she was holding onto something, but… what?
With an effort, she sat up.
Why? Why was she here, all alone? Left to walk this empty world, forever?
She thought about lying back. Even awake, it was better to do nothing. What was there to do, even if she stood up, even if she walked around? She couldn’t see. She couldn’t speak, even as she tried again. She could move her mouth, but no noise came out.
All was silent and dark. All-consuming. No sound could be in this place. No light could be in this place.
But Delilah was here. Alive. Awake. Did that… mean something?
The pulse shot through her heart once more, and her fingers tingled slightly. The sensation passed almost as soon as it came, but it was enough to keep her going forward.
Slowly, she pushed herself to her feet. One step, then another, pulling her feet free of the mire. The Darkness that had coated her gave her a tiny bit of space, and whenever she moved, it moved with her, no longer embracing, suffocating her. The Darkness that had made its way into her fled through her pores.
She was free, but…
Where did that leave her? Alone in the dark, tired but unable to sleep. Hungry, but with no food. Thirsty, but with nothing to drink.
One step after another. Mechanically, doing it just because it was the only thing she could do, she trudged onward. Pick a direction and go. What would it matter? The fight was over. The night had won.
She’d given everything she had to this quest. She’d begged to be put somewhere that she could do some real good, to end up where she belonged. She’d ended up with Solla, helped free her and Lunos, met Alice and formed a friendship, gained a sister, that she’d never expected. She’d become a Paladin, and found out about the Key of the World, and fought against naysayers and doubters and those who feared its power to see it used to stop Sal’s wicked plot.
She’d come so far. She’d overcome so many trials.
So… why?
Why, at the end of it all, was there nothing to show for it?
On and on, through the Darkness, she walked ever onward.
After time immeasurable, she stopped. Standing in the midst of the Endless Night, she thought of hope. For a moment, she thought of what she might be able to do. Here, alone in the dark, she was awake. Surely there was some fight left to give. Surely this was the moment to turn the tables.
But…
She crouched down, hugging her knees, bowing her head.
She’d turned the Key of the World. That was the fight. That was the ultimate goal.
She’d done it.
If that wasn’t enough, there couldn’t be any more fight to give.
She tried to cry. But the tears wouldn’t come, and no matter how she sobbed, no sound came out.
What was the point of this? Why was she awake?
The pulse shot through her heart again, left her fingers tingling for a moment. In the midst of this ever-present, all-consuming Night, that little pulse was a tiny memory of light.
Slowly, Delilah stood up. One foot in front of the other, she walked on again. If she walked long enough, maybe she’d finally get tired. Maybe she’d finally be allowed to sleep.
After all she’d fought for, she was very tired. When she finally could, she’d welcome sleep.
But for now…
For now, all she could do was walk. And, deep inside her heart, she carried that tiny memory of light. Maybe, just maybe, there was some reason it stayed with her, held onto her heart, kept her awake and moving forward.
Where was she? She’d been beneath the Fallen Bastion, but now, no matter how far she walked, she reached no walls. She didn’t come across stairs, or hills to climb or descend, or sudden cliffs to drop off into an abyss. The expanse was flat, empty, endless.
Had even the fortress of Darkness, the Fallen Bastion itself, been wiped away?
And what had… what had happened to her friends? To her siblings? To her parents?
Was she truly the only one awake, here at the end of it all?
It wasn’t fair. She wasn’t one to sulk or complain. She’d almost never decried something as unfair, even when it had been, even when she’d been cheated out of things she’d worked so hard for.
But this…
This wasn’t fair. Not one bit.
Delilah walked, and walked, and walked. Alone.
Why was she alone? There at the end, she’d been holding Alice so close, so tight. So why wasn’t Alice here with her? If they were both awake… if they could still hold onto each other, could maybe even bring their bracelets together…
But no. There was no fight left.
She’d turned the Key of the World. What more could be asked of her?
And yet here she was, awake, and alone, in the Endless Night, kept awake and walking by that little pulse, that tiny grip on her heart that wouldn’t let her go.
She thought about the night, about so many “night walks” that she’d been on with her siblings and her parents. Nighttime could be, and often was, one of the most beautiful times. The stars and moon shining high above, or even the ethereal twinklings of Dominion nights.
What was night without the light?
This was not night. This couldn’t be night. Night was not this dark, this drear, this cruel. Night was not this oppressive, this suffocating. Real nights were so beautiful.
The Endless Night had stolen even that away. Through the Endless Night, Delilah walked, but there was no joy to this, no calming comfort in this, no beauty in it.
But after walking, and walking, and walking alone so far, for so long, Delilah came to a stop.
Here in the silence, somewhere distant, but close enough to hear…
She heard crying.
Someone was crying!
Delilah turned, one way, then the other, trying to pinpoint the sound. Where was it coming from? What direction? She couldn’t see a thing, not even herself, here in this all-consuming darkness, but now that she could hear something, she had to find it, had to follow it, had to reach that person, whoever they were.
There! She started to run, but that run soon faded to a walk. She didn’t have the strength to hurry, even now that she wanted to. But each step brought her closer to the one who was crying. Each step made her feel less alone.
And then she stopped. The person who was crying was right in front of her, curled up on the ground, in the muck, sobbing. For a moment, Delilah paused. Was this some trick of the Darkness, some game the Night was playing on her?
But only for a moment did she doubt. The next, she was kneeling down, reaching out and touching a person, a real person! When she touched their shoulder, she knew in an instant who it was.
Shana.
She’d found her sister.
At her touch, Shana didn’t stop crying. She didn’t even seem to realize Delilah was there. Delilah shook her gently, and then realized that Shana was deep in the muck and mire of the Darkness. It was a wonder Delilah could hear her at all, when the Darkness, she found, was wrapped all around Shana’s head, covering her face, clogging her ears, keeping her from moving or hearing a thing.
Delilah reached her hands into the much, dug through it, pulled it away, and then, grabbing Shana with both arms, hauled her free. She fell back, and Shana fell on top of her. With a gasp, her crying ceased.
Shana touched Delilah’s face, and Delilah touched hers. They recognized each other, even though they couldn’t see, even though they couldn’t talk.
Suddenly, in the endless darkness, Delilah smiled.
The girls untangled themselves and stood. Hand in hand, they walked onward. If Delilah had found Shana, could they find the others? Here, finally, in this oppressive darkness, there was hope.
Where that hope would lead, Delilah didn’t know. She didn’t want to hope for too much.
If she could just find her family, here at the end of it all, maybe, just maybe, that would be enough.
They walked for a time before they came across someone else. They could feel his presence, somehow, like how Delilah had heard Shana’s crying, or known it was her just by that first touch. And it was a good thing, too, or they would have walked right over Shias.
Both girls knelt on either side of him, finding Shias asleep in the muck and mire. They dug into the Darkness, clawing out a space, and then grabbed Shias and hauled him up. Even when they had him sitting up, he was still asleep. Delilah shook him, and Shana shook him, and slowly, dazedly, he roused. Shias reached out to them, and them to him, touching each other’s faces, confirming what they already knew to be true.
They had found each other.
One had become two, and now three, and the three walked hand-in-hand through the Darkness. It didn’t just give way for Delilah now, but for Shana and Shias, too. It almost — almost — felt like one of the night walks Delilah had so enjoyed in the past.
If only this was a true night. If only there were true nights anymore, or ever would be again.
After a time, they heard someone. Faint, subtle. Not crying, but more… confused. Brief breaths, gasps, accompanied by shuffling steps in the mire, back and forth, lost and unsure.
The three followed the sounds, and soon they found someone. Fae. She was pacing back and forth, swaying this way and that, half-asleep on her feet. When Delilah touched her, she felt the filth of the Darkness all around her, and she worked to scrub it away with her hands. Shana and Shias joined her, gently washing Fae clean. When the Darkness had fallen away from her, she stopped stumbling to and fro. For a moment she just stood there, just barely touching Delilah and Shana.
And then, shocking them all, Fae pulled Delilah, Shana, and Shias into a warm embrace.
One alone and lost had become four found, and those four walked on through the Endless Night. This may be all there was now, but at least they had each other.
They couldn’t see, but they could feel a way forward. Or maybe only Delilah could. She had Shana’s hand and Fae’s, and Shana held Shias’ hand, but all three of them trailed slightly behind Delilah, letting her take the lead. Delilah didn’t need sight to feel the Darkness parting before her, wider than before, more intentionally than before. Was she being led somewhere? Or was she forging the path herself?
She stopped, feeling the Darkness part much wider than it had been. There in the open space, she didn’t hear anything, but she could feel.
Two hearts, wandering, searching. Two hearts, aching for each other, reaching for each other, but not finding each other.
Fae, Shana, and Shias felt them, too. Together, they went towards the closest: Caleb. Pulled at by the Darkness, dragged down by it, he still fought forward, reaching, grasping, searching. Where was Chelsea? And so close, close enough that as they went to free Caleb, they split up to free them both, was Chelsea, reaching just the same. How many times had they passed each other, just inches from each other, not even knowing the other was there? Delilah and Shana cleaned Caleb’s face and freed him from the rest, while Shias and Fae rescued Chelsea. When they’d freed them, Caleb and Chelsea didn’t even acknowledge their rescuers.
The first thing they did was reach for each other, clasp hands, and pull each other into a tight, loving embrace.
Delilah smiled, touching Caleb and Chelsea’s faces. And then Chelsea reached out, touched Delilah’s face, and then pulled her into that embrace. Caleb pulled in Shana, and Shana pulled in Shias and Fae.
The six of them, united at last. Here in the darkness, a tiny little light twinkled into being, blossoming inside Delilah’s heart.
And then Delilah looked up. And she blinked, staring, her heart skipping a beat.
A light was here. Faint, distant, but impossible to ignore after wandering in the deepest darkness for so long. There, on the horizon, was a thin line of pale golden light. Delilah reached for her siblings and Chelsea, drew their attention to it, and then realized…
She could see them.
Just faint shadows, that’s all they were now, but it was so much more than they had been. They looked at each other, just barely making out the details of each other’s faces, and all of them smiled.
Hand in hand, Delilah in the lead, they marched towards the light.
Each step was easier. Soon the ground changed from the sticky mire of Darkness to something shifting, coarse, and warm.
Sand.
And as they set foot on the sand, a sound reached Delilah’s ears. Water. In and out, in and out went the distant tide, calling them forward. They walked across the sand, and the horizon grew a little bit lighter. A pale, golden glow spread, sparkling lightly on an endless ocean.
The six of them reached the edge of the beach, and the water came in, washing over their feet. Delilah smiled, enjoying the mix of the warm sand and the cool tide. Had their walk through Darkness really led to this?
The six of them laughed, and ran a bit in the water, kicking up sparkling spray. They ran back and forth, in and out, sometimes tagging each other, sometimes just laughing and smiling with each other. They ran until they started to get tired, and then they found a spot a little bit back from the water, and sat on the beach to watch the sun rise.
As they watched, someone appeared in the water. Out, far enough out that he was standing nearly knee-deep in the ocean, was a man. He turned to them, and they all knew who he was.
Sal.
Sal stood in the ocean, his back to the brightening horizon. He gazed at the six of them with a strange look. There was astonishment there, confusion, disbelief. He looked lost.
And then Sal flickered. A moment later, it wasn’t Sal standing there, but Alexander, the child, chest-deep in the water. He gazed at the six, and he smiled, a bright, beautiful smile. He waved at them, and then turned away, walking further out into the water.
A moment later, the air beside him flickered, and Sal was walking with him. The little boy held his hand, leading Sal out towards the horizon.
The tide came in, higher than usual this time, and Delilah lost sight of the pair.
When the tide went out, they were gone.
Side-by-side, the six of them sat together and watched the sun rise. Delilah’s heart brightened with the coming dawn, and in the distance, she thought she heard a bell tolling. Not the hollow, haunting sound of the bell that had tolled for the Endless Night. This was a bright, beautiful, clear ringing in the air.
A lightbaring peal, to tell the world the time was nigh.
Daybreak had arrived.