Aetheria in darkness
The air felt off these days. The ones shining streets of Aetheria were starting to flicker and succumb to darkness. It started small.
Nobody panicked when they saw a few fliers dotted around the plaza. They told of a small event taking place just after midnight, a small fair being held just outside the capital. The fliers promised fun and revelry, feats of magic and delicious treats. Of course, that got some people curious.
Michael knew better than to mess with such things. A fair being held at such a late hour, on the new moon no less, might sell itself as "exclusive" to someone stupid, but to him, they screamed "highway robbery". But, like all people, he was curious about what would happen next. So, at midnight, he found himself a perch on the roof of a nearby shack, which, like his own, was slowly sinking down into the swamp below. And he watched. And, like clockwork, a few minutes after the people arrived, all the lights turned off. "Feats of magic indeed" he thought, then scrambled off to get some sleep.
But it didn't end there.
More fliers showed up. Another event, another theme, but the same shady hours of the night. And, to his surprise, people were praising these events. Said it "changed their lives" and other such nonsense. Michael wasn't buying it. And after the first events, people were starting to sober up. Or maybe the town had run dry of all the stupid people it had.
The crazy people were dubbed Mooners and ignored by the other passers-by and that was that.
That's when the lights started fading out. Maybe he noticed first. Or maybe it was just coincidence that he saw an old man scratching some runes on a nearby wall. And the moment that last scratch was in place, all the streetlights in 100 paces went out all at once. He backed away through the shadows and followed where the darkness led him, hoping to find an end. He wouldn't admit it, then and there, not even under the threat of torture, but his body betrayed him: heart beating fast, face pale, eyes wide, his mind incapable of saying anything but "run run run". He was scared.
Because there was no end. He whirled around the darkened streets, and after what felt like an agonizingly long time, he found light! The plaza leading to the Academy was as bright as ever. But everywhere else around the empty plaza, like an insurmountable wall, was darkness. And it wasn't just darkness. All around the plaza, he could hear screams, which all suddenly stopped.
Frozen in fear, he spun around the empty plaza, waiting for whatever was out inside the darkness to come for him too. He did this for a good few minutes, which dragged so long they felt like hours, before he remembered his family might be in danger. All care forgotten, he melted once more in the shadows, their once pleasant cold touch freezing his veins.
And he reached his home, panting and out of breath.
In the corner, his smaller siblings slept, his mother close by. The baby slept in the crib as well. His older sister wasn't at home yet. He prayed that she wasn't out in the streets, that she was just working a longer shift. He plopped down on the matress he shared with her and tried to fall asleep. He was sleeping soundly by the time she arrived home.
----
The next day, all the light people in the city and all the charm knowledgeable people were out and about, fixing the damage of the sudden attack.
All the posters of the Mooners had been replaced with something much more ominous: a black paper with fluorescent text saying "Did you like our little lights-out? Don't worry, more will come soon!" A pair of eyes peered from behind the letters, an ominous bright red.
Rachel grabbed one of the posters and crumpled it up.
"What a bunch of nonsense!" She complained. "Some people decide they want to wreck the city and now we have to clean up their mess."
"Now, darling" Mrs. White put a hand on her daughter's shoulder. "I know you're upset, but we should be considerate how we act in public. We are people with status, after all, and we should pay attention, as our actions have a much bigger impact than you'd think."
She must have said that speech a thousand times, but Rachel knew that when her mother brought it up, there would be no way to argue.
"Yes, mother." Rachel responded half-heartedly.
They wandered around the city, in what their mother considered helping, but she knew it was also for making face. After all, her and her father, being earths, wouldn't be useful at all, and yet here they were.
Yuna, as gracious as always, helped verify the charms, and relighting the fairy lights around the city. Rachel just followed her around, chatting and making jokes, anything to lift her mood.
Rachel could tell Yuna was trying hard not to look scared. She faintly remembered Yuna mentioning unlit streets in her vision, which could mean that the events might unfold any day now. Pesky visions, why couldn't they just leave her sister alone?
She already had enough to deal with anyway.
By noon, they headed home for a well deserved break. And by nightfall, the city was bright once again.
At the very least, for a few hours. Until again, the streets were plunged into darkness.
They wandered the streets next morning too, handing out kind words and care baskets. This time, lighting up the streets wasn't as easy as before. The charms snuffing out the lights were more complicated, and they met a few carrying subtle jinxes in them. It wasn't just a case of scratching them up to make them non-functional. The charm breakers had to carefully weave around them, lest they want to be cursed with some terrible thing. This slowed things down quite a bit and they didn't manage to cover all the city this time around.
And the darkness fell again. And again. And again.
The people of the city were also getting restless and cold. With them going around town every day, bit by bit, she started noticing them acting different. Less and less people wandered the streets. Less and less opened up their doors when they came by to give their care baskets. And those that were still out and about? They were absolutely frigid. They smiled and nodded at her mother's kind words, but after they left, she could see them stare at her family with such hatred that it felt like her heart skipped a beat. What did they do to deserve that? They were fixing the city day in and day out and it wasn't their fault that whatever plagued Aetheria was getting harder and harder to deal with.
Rachel felt like they were trapped in a bubble at the bottom of the sea, slowly leaking water inside and no matter how many cracks they fixed, more and more would appear and expand. Until they would all drown. But she kept her head high. Yuna was as exhausted as her, maybe even more so, and she needed Rachel's help.
---
"Hey, are you alright?" Yuna asked one dark night, already knowing the answer. She had come to Rachel's room in her nightgown, trembling. It must have been ridiculously late and Rachel knew tomorrow would be another day of "fixing the cracks", but she couldn't sleep. And apparently, her sister couldn't sleep either. Despite all that, Rachel managed a chuckle.
"Same as you, I'd wager." She answered.
Yuna frowned at that, crossing her arms, but with the trembling and thin nightgown, it looked more like she was trying to warm herself up.
"Get in the bed, sis. You're going to freeze to death." Rachel said, then yawned.
Yuna looked at her, a little lost for a second, or maybe still processing it in her sleepy, addled mind. Then she climbed into Rachel's bed, pulling the blanket over her.
After that, it all turned fuzzy. She was numbly aware of her sister's arm over her and the sudden cold touch of her feet. Rachel closed her eyes and drifted off for a few more hours of sleep before the endless useless task that awaited them in the morning.
-
Edit: Hey guys! I know this one is a bit shorter than the usual, I just wanted a bit of exposition of the city crumbling under Shadows influence, because I felt the description at the end of the last chapter was not interesting enough. I hope you enjoy a bit of a different point of view on the action!