A moonless night augured the strange things that would happen. In Annamat, a little city lost inside the vast country of Kal-shalà, the cold wind blew, rustling the old autumn leaves of the trees, carrying some of them distance away.

In the outskirts of the Kong manor, where the mortal servants lived, a woman was reclined on an old table dressed with linen. Her face was red, flushed with sweat. Besides her, a stern-looking midwife cleaned the fluids. The woman was giving birth.

“It’s a boy,” said the midwife as the little newborn was out in the world, then she slapped the little baby’s bottom and he whimpered with a rather soft cry. “It’s a little frail, but he will live. Congratulations, Lin. Come, come, carry your child,” she finally judged as she cut the umbilical cord and cauterized the two parts. She then gave the crying child to his mother, that smiled fulfilledly, and hummed a little tune for him. She was too tired to even sing.

“Hey, hey, hello little baby.” she said, but suddenly she called, “Agatha! Come, carry the child, I’m feeling weak...”

Agatha, as a veteran midwife, was aware of the minute changes in the woman. The next second she was again carrying the little newborn. Lin, the mother, fainted.

“Hey, you!” Agatha called the servant, “pass me some orange-blossom water. Yes, that bottle. Hurry!”

With one hand she expertly soaked some cloth with the water and lightly tapped Lin’s face, and she woke up.

“Come on, wake up. There’s work tomorrow. The masters have the celebration of little lord Xiang’s birth coming.”

As Lin woke up, she heard this, and her eyes opened and her livid face filled with worry,

“You’re right, we have work to do. But I feel so drowsy… And where’s my husband?”

“That man? He’s in the alchemy labs, working, as always. Come, stand up, you haven’t lost much blood.”

“Sure, come on. Give me my son. You, little one, let’s wait for your dad to give you a name, yes?”

She was feeling quite weak, but she carried her son.

“Well, Agatha, thank you. Yimu will pay the remaining spirit water when he’s back from work, alright?”

“Yes, Lin. You, servant, accompany her to her house.”

The servant moved, but Lin firmly rejected.

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“I’m a strong woman. I’ll be fine. Bye, Agatha. Thank you, Leilei,” she waved, her little son snuggled up on her arms.

As they went outside, the moonless night and the faint glow of the stars made that night a specially strange night. Luckily, multitude of torches and glowing stones illuminated, albeit badly, the streets.

“Come on, we’ll go home.”

She then went, her legs a bit weak, in the direction of her house.

“The stars are so pretty tonight. I hope your father earns some extra spirit water tonight. I’d like to eat some roasted meat. Maybe a banquet, you know?” she eyed her little son that softly breathed on her clothes. “Like young lord Xiang’s, but for you.” And she smiled, while some tears flowed from her eyes. She felt lonely.

She was young. Her parents had died many years ago and she had married early into her husband’s family. She was now nearing her nineteenth birthday, and was a servant to the Kong manor, one of the multiple kitchen helpers, while her husband was an errand boy for one of the lowest leveled alchemists that worked for the clan.

Lin felt something strange as she was walking. Sometimes, when the exhaustion was about to engulf her, a refreshing, little stream of energy nurtured her almost outside her notice, and she could keep walking. Soon, she arrived in her home, a little shack even more remote than that of the midwife, and even smaller. The door creaked when she opened it. When she entered, she saw a lonely figure seated on one of the only two rustic wooden chairs they had, it was Yimu, her husband, and was drinking some liquor with strong scent.

“Yimu! Husband! What are you doing so early-

“They kicked me out.” Interrupted Yimu, eyeing his wife. “I...”

But he did not know how to continue. Yin, knowingly, approached,

“Who was it, dear?” And seated with their son on her arms, on his husband lap.

“Wei Hua.”

Lin’s spirit fell, but she endured, and forcing a smile she looked for something. She showed proudly the little baby she held in her arms.

“This is your son, Yimu. Your first son. Give him a name.”

Yimu eyed sadly at his firstborn son. Profound despair washed inside him.

“Sorry, I’ll pay Agatha. And sorry I couldn’t be there to be with you-”

“Don’t worry, yes? I’m a strong woman. We will be fine.”

Yimu’s lips trembled a little. But inside his mind thrum. “I’m a man. And this is my wife and my first child. I must endure.”

“Hello, son. Have you been obedient to your mother?” he finally greeted, smiling. Looking at the peaceful face of his son gave him some sense of peace, and some sense of pressure. “Today is a dark, moonless night, the night of your birth. As dark are the days you were born into, son. But let this darkness give you strength, see? Then, you’ll be named Yin. Yin of the moonless night.”

Lin looked at her husband with shining eyes. When she had met him, he was a young servant with glittering eyes, rambling valiantly. “I’m going to be the best alchemist in the Kong clan!” he declared.

She fell in love with his scholarly aura. He sent her letters with poems that made her laugh, and some that made her cry, and soon they married. Years later, they celebrated when he was admitted as a helper to Master Ili ben Ayub, and moved to the little house they lived now.

“I’ve never understood why you never tried the scholarly life. Your words are always so pretty.”

Yimu, a bit happier, laughed.

“I am going to be the best alchemist in the Kong clan, you know? I don’t have time for those endeavors!”

He hugged his wife and his son. Inside him, his heart ached, as ached his wife’s.

“Go, rest in bed, I’ll prepare you some soup. A bit more onion and a little less ginger, right?” offered Yimu.

“True, true” playfully assented Lin, and left for their room, where a little lamp was lit. She rested there, observing her little son. In the kitchen, Yimu prepared some soup for his wife in silence, looking sometimes to the distant stars, more visible by the lack of the moon, thinking thoughts and smiling sadly.

“Will you be like us, little Yin? The moonless night shows the stars behind it...”