Tale of a Nocturnal Sojourn- Chapter 1

 An Heiress Hath Arrived

In the kingdom of eternal night, hath born a fair child…

The moonless sky shimmering with the cold light of a million stars shone like a great stretch of lapis lazuli hitched to the distant horizon. The wind poked her crisp sensual fingers into all that responded to her chilling overtures. Tiny lights of the fireflies danced to an inaudible music, creating and recreating wondrous designs in the air. The formations looked as though they had turned into fairy lights, strung with invisible strings to the thick shadow of the forest around. The black mountains stood smoking wisps of moist clouds that rose from the rugged body of the robust giants, like fly-away bits of torn cotton. A luminous scarlet haze lingered about the peaks like enticing harlots who dally around the charming young stranger that walks the shameless dark alleys in the afterhours of midnight. The rabid water of a nearby brook sped along in soft rumbling swifts, as though it were rushing away from this grim stillness, for an amorous rendezvous with its secret love. Such were the elements under which I was born.

To see the face of the womb that had birthed me was not the way of life here. I was the daughter of the Darkness and that was the only identity I was to ever have. The grim shadows of the palace maids hovered around, as she was carried away from me. Forever.

Steady hands of the dark eunuchs bathed me in the cold milk of a black ewe, perfumed with chamomile and rose petals. I was to be presented to my father, the Lord of Darkness, for his first glimpse of me; his daughter- the heiress to the throne of Eternal Night.

Seated upon the glorious diamond throne of the dark kingdom, he was a fantastic figure of grave solemnity. The towering personage of the lord filled the enormous royal court with an air of invincible supremacy as I was presented to him.

His mighty arms received my tiny newborn life with the bemused hesitance of a new sire. As though for only a moment, or so it seemed, the severe silver of his grey eyes softened before they turned icy again. Perhaps I did hear a missed beat of his heart while he nestled me against his broad chest before it was all silent once more… his touch had a faint warmth of care under the cold smoothness of his palms as he held me in his arms; tenderness that I would never know again.

My tongue had tasted the freezing dew of the winter night before it could taste the calming milk that flows from a mother’s warm breast. The icy black onyx of my father’s diamond studded throne was my first seat even before I was laid in my velvet cradle. The spark of those brilliant diamonds in the throne remained inlaid in my raven eyes forever. I was crowned with the frosted crest of diamonds, sapphires, opals and rubies before my naked newborn skin knew the cosy succor of my regal garments. I was to be the cold and ruthless princess of the obsidian empire. I was the heiress to the throne of Eternal Night.