Both "the Endless Night" and "the Eternal Night" refer to the same period of time before the creation of the Sun. There is no doubt that this is one of the least known and understood times in our history. Only those such as the Companions, the Oracle, and one known as the Submerged Leviathan have experienced it, and they rarely speak of it.
When we asked the Red Emperor, he only replied:
"All know the legend, few remember the nightmare."
It is concerning that those who bore witness to these times collectively refuse to speak of it. And so we are left to piece together what we can from the ancient murals and fragments we can find that survived the ages.
This compilation features our understanding of the conditions in which our ancestors lived when demons roamed the lands.
We begin with the time before a great spirit granted them fire, known as the age of Darkness. It is perhaps the earliest record we have.
— Excerpt from A Night With No End, by Head Scholar Panmoru of the Fallen Star Pavilion
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Martial Arena, ZhiXia City
Primrose clapped politely as the latest challenger walked off the stage to the cheering of the crowd, having won his fight against the Mirror's echo. The man had been introduced as Aster, the current leader of the Sharks, a group responsible for enforcing ZhiXia City's laws.
While most of the crowd had found it an exhilarating match to watch two dagger users fight in close-ranged combat, Primrose doubted they had truly understood the intricate dance that had actually occurred on stage. Aster had also grown up in HuaLang Chamber and was the one responsible for teaching the art of small blades to Primrose's generation. The summoned echo had used twin blades while Aster utilized one, using his free hand to grab and strike at unpredictable angles. The duel had ended when the echo extended a stab too far, allowing Aster to grip its wrist and twist its blade back into the echo's chest.
"One can only jump in puddles after the rain," Martyker observed nearby, stroking his beard. "How did you find that fight, pretty flower lady? You're a dagger user too, no?"
"What makes you say that?" Primrose asked, mentally checking the location of each dagger on her body. Did he know? Had she let it slip? No, she had been very thorough in her preparations this morning, particularly so given her expected close proximity to others. Martyker should not have seen the imprint of a single blade.
He held up his hand and made a tugging motion with his finger. When her concealed blades twitched, Primrose forced herself to stay calm and not react, but flared her Sight. Silver threads of aura spread from his finger to each of the daggers strapped in their sheathes on her body.
"I saw a rose and found her thorns." The black man smiled behind his bushy beard and allowed the threads to dissipate.
Primrose narrowed her eyes. "You would do well to remember not to pry into a lady's secrets." It was the first time she met an aura user who attuned to metal. She didn't let her Sight go, ready to act if he tried that again. The thought of her blades being under someone else's control gave her anxiety that needed to be quelled. "I suppose that's why Flangel the Wise had you help him with the SunFlower."
"How astute, how curious, how won-der-ful!" Martyker placed his hand on his heart. "Light shines and the leaves cannot help but dance!"
Before Primrose could begin to understand what the man meant, Nettie tugged on Primrose's sleeve, pointing excitedly down at the Arena. "Look! It's Shurra."
Primrose tore her eyes away from the one-armed man to look back down to the stage. Shurra stood out from the other challengers with her short-cropped blonde hair and relatively large stature. Bryce and the previous challenger had looked absolutely small when standing next to Master Ji, but Shurra looked… normal-sized.
Seeing Shurra's deep-green aura reminded Primrose to relax her eyes as Master Ji and Shurra exchanged a few words. Moments later, Master Ji pointed to the short sword on Shurra's hip, and Shurra nodded. The Priestess responsible for announcing the event then stood forward.
"Our next challenger is a Northern Warrior! Her name is Shurra, and she's on her journey for a story worthy of the HeartHomes of Hjornheim!"
Master Ji gestured, and Shurra walked up to the Sage's Mirror to place a hand on it. The green wispy aura running through the Mirror's black mist crackled and shone, then Shurra leapt backwards and took a neutral stance as a green echo stepped out of the Mirror.
Shurra drew her sword. Primrose hadn't noticed it earlier, but Shurra wore clothes in the traditional style for duels in the Northern Tribes. A fur-lined brown leather vest covered Shurra's short-sleeved white shirt, with a pair of dark blue fisherman pants and sturdy brown boots.
Her opponent solidified into a slightly transparent woman, equally large in stature and dressed in similar garb. Several tattoos lined the woman's exposed arms, telling stories of her battles.
Primrose heard quiet mutterings in the room, and though she didn't say anything they all seemed similar to her own thoughts.
"Another Northern Warrior?"
"How many of them have touched the Sage's Mirror?"
"The last time was almost eight years ago, wasn't it?"
"Does anyone recognize this one?"
"By the Seven," an older man stood up, squinting down at the stage. "That face. Those tattoos. Exactly how I remembered seeing her. She fought some thirty odd years ago." He frowned. "Roxxa EarthCaller, from the White Bear Tribe."
Trepidation flooded Primrose. Roxxa? Shurra had summoned an echo of Roxxa the OutCast? No, Primrose calmed herself down. The echo was merely mimicking each challenger's strength from when they challenged the Sage's Mirror, and Roxxa had made her challenge decades ago, before the Northern Tribes had given her an additional Title.
Roxxa the Traitor. The defector and disgrace of the Northern Tribes.
***
Shurra was stunned upon recognizing the Traitor's echo. Every child of the White Bear Tribe heard of the Traitor's tattoo markings. The blue kirin horn shining brilliantly on the woman's left shoulder. The scars from giant claws on her right forearm, cleverly tattooed by someone with an idea to draw between the scars, giving it a look as though the claws cleaved through the artwork itself. The Blue Rose at the peak of Hjornheim prominently displayed on the woman's neck, chronicling her feat of conquering the glacial mountain on her sixteenth Name Day.
Roxxa the Traitor.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
Shurra's only aunt.
The facial features she shared with Shurra's mother were too similar to ignore. Even if every child of the White Bears hadn't been taught about Roxxa's tattoos, Shurra could not mistake those angular cheeks and thin nose, even sharing her mother's full lips. The being in front of her smiled as it looked around, taking in its surroundings.
Memories surfaced of growing up and listening to the elders talk about their disappointment with the Traitor. The snide comments from the other Tribes questioning their honor, particularly from the Black Oxen and the Yellow Wolves. Late nights seeing her mother field complaints from the Free Cities and denying the White Bears' involvement when the Traitor caused death and destruction at the Empire's request.
Anger pumped in her veins and the steady beating of her heart pounded in her eardrums. The next two breaths accompanied the roar of her heartbeat, sounding almost like the wind one would hear at the edge of a cliff.
Control your anger, Shurra. Let it fuel you, but never let it drive you. For some reason, the words her sword master drilled into her surfaced in her mother's voice.
On the third breath, Shurra held it intentionally to rein in her anger. Her swordmaster would never approve of Shurra giving in to her emotions, and certainly not such a misdirected one. The one in front of her was merely an echo, long before she had lost her duel to the Prince of the Empire and became his subordinate. When she was still known as Roxxa EarthCaller, the pride of the White Bear Tribe.
Shurra exhaled, forcing herself to keep it steady as she felt her heartbeat fade into the background against the crowd's noise. Calm. Relaxed but at the ready.
She noticed the echo-Roxxa dressed in the same manner as herself and couldn't help but smile. So back then, Roxxa had made the same decision she did. The matching style of traditional vest and fisherman pants seemed very appropriate for their duel.
Shurra's grip tightened around the handle of her sword as the echo held out its hand. Condensed aura began forming into the echo's weapon, and Shurra took her stance.
***
Primrose couldn't help but be fascinated. The aura-formed weapon had taken on the form of an axe with a protruding tip on its backside. Having never fought against a weapon like that before, Primrose decided this would be a good chance to observe the fighting style. She imagined the weapon served double-duty; the axe-head served for cleaving strikes and the sharp tip could be used for penetrating blows.
"A one-handed poleaxe." Martyker observed. "And so the ground meets the sky. Does your friend have a Domain?"
"No," Nettie chirped. "Titled Ones aren't allowed to participate, remember, Uncle Marty?"
"Hush," Primrose petted Nettie's head. She turned her tone slyly. "No need to remind him what makes for a Titled One."
"I didn't mean Titled One. Just even a small Domain." Martyker laughed, a deep chuckle. He didn't rise to her provocation. "But do you know why that rule was instigated? It is always harder to clean up than it is to prevent. If the Mirror always summons an equal, then two Titled Ones would end up fighting. Should you deprive yourself of morning dew just to move a mountain?"
Primrose looked towards Nettie with a raised eyebrow, looking for an explanation. The girl shrugged back and Primrose felt better about not understanding the man's words if even the Prodigy couldn't understand that one. But what she did understand unsettled her. Why had he asked, anyway?
"Wait." Realization dawned. Primrose closed her eyes, then opened them again with the Sight. The Whale of ZhiXia's blue Domain covered the audience from the stage still, but a green dome covered the stage itself.
"I see you See it," Martyker side-eyed her. "In fact, she was the reason Sanctuary added that rule. The day people began calling her Roxxa EarthCaller, her first Title."
Primrose felt her lips press together in worry.
"Very green," Nettie said. Primrose looked down, wondering if the girl could See as well, but no. She was peering through a small glass piece, the same one Primrose had seen Kalle use. "What does this mean? Echoes can have Domains?"
"They can. It also means your Northerner friend — Shurra, yes? — is going to have a very hard fight."
"Net—" the girl paused, then seemed to correct herself with great difficulty, "—I don't understand why Domain makes it harder," the little girl confessed.
"Hush now, little one." Martyker leaned over the railing, looking down at the fight with a gleam in his eyes. "Watch the fight and you'll see."
***
Shurra tensed as she felt the foreign Domain seize the stage. Echoes can have Domains?
Unlike Master Ji, whose aura bore her no ill-intent, the echo's Domain carried a sort of… malevolent curiosity. Determined, Shurra focused her breathing, remembering her time training with Master Ji. Though she couldn't See, Shurra felt the echo's aura inspect her as it approached. She could never become accustomed to the sensation of a potentially hostile Domain; it felt as though she was being watched from all angles while naked and vulnerable.
From the corner of her eye, she saw the announcing Priestess — Shurra had forgotten her name — hurry over to Master Ji, the Priestess speaking in hurried tones and the Whale responding in curt answers. But Shurra could spare little attention to their conversation as the echo stalked towards her, the poleaxe twirling in its hand. A shift of her own balance put Shurra in a guarded stance, one that would allow her to block an incoming attack or evade to either side.
The echo stopped just outside of Shurra's range, bringing her forward foot to the ground with a firm stomp.
The ground under Shurra's feet cracked — she leapt backwards before she lost her footing and the echo was on top of her, the sharp end of the poleaxe slicing towards her head. Planting her back foot firmly down onto the ground, Shurra raised her left arm and blocked the shaft, barely stopping the blade from piercing her head. She twisted her wrist, trying in vain to grasp the shaft as the echo's kick came in from the same side, using the counter-momentum to pull the shaft right out of Shurra's reach. The offensive knee met a defensive elbow, then a pivot of the legs found their respective weapons clashing with their entire weight behind it. If the opponent's weapon wasn't made of aura, Shurra would have expected sparks to fly.
Shurra's wrist strained against the hilt of her sword; an eerie sensation. Even back in the Tribe, few could block an attack from her if she put her full weight behind it. The echo seemed equally surprised, and the two of them slackened their grip almost at the same time to throw an elbow at each other. Shurra leaned into her blow but the echo did not, shifting its weight downwards to stamp down on Shurra's foot.
Both strikes collided; Shurra's elbow crashed right past the echo's shoulder even as she roared from the pain in her toes. A defensive wide swing with her sword missed the echo as it retreated several paces, a hand feeling at its injured neck. Shurra barely had time to process that it could also feel pain as she leaned on one leg, awkwardly trying to take her weight off her injured foot. Several of her toes throbbed; it felt worse than stubbing them all against a wall. She hoped they weren't broken, gingerly lowering her foot again to test her balance on her heel.
No sooner had Shurra regained her balance did the echo lunge forward again, surprising her with its swift recovery. Though her elbow had bounced off the echo's shoulder before grazing the neck, the glancing blow should have made it impossible to breathe for at least — right, Shurra reminded herself. The echo might not need to breathe. Or maybe her blow had been shallower than she expected.
The thought slipped her mind as she parried, blocked, and dodged the flurry of blows. A jab, thrown in here and there to be blocked or even as a feint, kept Shurra on her toes and she winced when her injured foot complained at her forced movement.
Shurra dropped onto the knee of her injured side and swept her sword forward, slicing into air once again as the echo dodged backwards. The echo's free hand clenched and the ground behind it raised slightly; planting its back foot onto the raised earth, the echo pushed right back towards Shurra, drawing a cleaving arc towards Shurra's head with the poleaxe. Lowering her head, Shurra leaned straight under the echo's guard as the attack swiped past harmlessly, stabbing forward with her sword only to meet nothing.
How? Shurra looked up to see the echo retreating backwards and to the side. She had timed the attack so that her stab would be hidden underneath the echo's own attack, its arm blocking its eyes. Master Ji's warning resounded in her mind.
The most basic use for a Domain is knowing everything that happens within it. If you ever fight in another's Domain, it is best to assume they see every single attack and have no blind spots.
Shurra groaned, standing up on both feet as she tested her toes. They complained, but functioned. More pressing was the fact that Shurra had no idea what to do to gain an edge in this duel. The echo matched her strength, could manipulate the earth, and apparently had no blind spots to exploit.
She searched for Master Ji in her peripheral vision without looking away from the echo. If Master Ji hadn't intervened yet, it meant he intended for the match to continue. Part of her hoped that he would say something, maybe even give her a piece of advice.
But no. The Whale of ZhiXia stood next to the Sage's Mirror, arms folded, looking solemnly at the two of them in silent repose.
The echo shifted its stance and Shurra's attention snapped back into focus. Of course. The Traitor stood in front of her; an echo, for sure, but the shame of the White Bears. It seemed silly of her to even think of wanting to back out of this fight. If she couldn't even defeat the Traitor's echo, how could she hope to enact her tribe's revenge on the person itself?
And yet the question remained:
What could she do to win?