52 Project #40: Angel of Darkness, Demon of Light (Patreon)

Tala par Kyleth, Darkchild, had been on the road for 12 nights, heading home. There had been no unpleasant incidents thus far, and she fervently hoped things would stay that way. Tonight, however, was a warm, moonless night, the kind the creatures of the night liked best, and the stink of demon was on the air. She would be extremely fortunate to make it through the night without having to deal with some sort of disaster.

The best thing to do, she decided, was to find the demons first, and get rid of them, before she was forced to show herself to anyone. Tala was a warrior-- she didn't like fighting, but she could hardly avoid it, being what she was. What she couldavoid was undue notice. She had to go out of her way to help people, but she didn't have to let them know about her-- and being a Darkchild, she craved invisibility more than anything else. So she drew a handful of demon darts and walked the forest in her shadow form. Neither human nor demon nor any other living creature would sense her presence in the deeper shadows of the forest until it was too late.

Then the forest's quiet was shattered by earsplitting shrieks. Tala cursed quietly-- so much for being anonymous. People's lives were at stake now. As she ran toward the source of the cries, she felt annoyance for another reason--what sort of idiots would be out on a warm moonless night? Didn't they know the danger? Still, not even idiots deserved to be demon meat. She focused her darksight until she could see what was going on.

There were four or five travelers and some children being beset by demons. Two men and a woman were laying about themselves with swords, flintlocks, anything they had, trying to destroy the demons. Another woman crouched in the center of the triangle the others formed, with two children by her, maybe more-- the firelight in the center hurt Tala's eyes too much to look directly at it. The demons were ignoring the fighters, and heading straight for the children-- only logical, since they always preferred child-meat, when they could get it.

Tala shifted out of shadow form and flung the darts at the demons nearest the children. She yelled, "Don't fire! I'm here to help you!" The woman with the gun, panicking, almost fired anyway. Tala was used to this sort of thing-- to frightened travelers, a strange woman's voice coming out of the darkness could easily be another demon's. Human flintlocks could hurt Tala considerably more than they could hurt demons, however, so she needed to take immediate steps to keep the woman from hitting her. She flung another of the darts at the woman, striking the arm with the flintlock. Since the woman wasn't a demon, all this could do was sting and make her drop her gun. By that time, Tala had her blade out and had begun to slaughter the demons.

Even demons needed some light to see by. Tala didn't. She swept the blade in a circle, generating a sphere of darkness, and then popped it with the point. Every light-- even the fire, even the starlight-- was extinguished in a wide radius, encompassing Tala, the travelers, and the demons. The darkness that Tala brought extended to all other senses as well, and plunged travelers and demons both into a soundless, scentless, empty world. The only one left able to sense anything was Tala, with the darksight that was not exactly sight, sound, or anything else, but something combining aspects of all the senses it negated.

The demons, unable to see, smell, hear or even feel the ground under their feet, charged confusedly at where they thought Tala might conceivably be. Of course, since her darkvision was at its clearest, she saw them coming with no difficulty, and easily dispatched them. Her Lightbrother Haren would be horrified, she thought to herself, smiling. It was the ultimate in unfair fighting to kill things that were blind in all senses. But then, the concept of being fair to an enemy was a Light thing; to the Dark, if you’d decided to fight, you’d fight to win.

Disposing of the last of them, she wiped her sword clean and sheathed it. Instantly the light came back, and the fire's brilliance stabbed her eyes cruelly. Quickly she shifted her vision, dulling it so the light was not as painful.

"You-- who are you?" one of the men asked, staring at Tala with the usual surprise in his face. Dark-skinned people were a rarity this far north to begin with, and Tala was darker than any normal human these people could have met. Her features matched no known specific racial type, making her appearance somewhat unusual even if one overlooked her odd color. Then there was the fact that she was a woman, adventuring alone, at night, which while not exactly unheard-of was terribly rare. Add to that the fact that she had just decimated a troop of demons, and it was easy to understand why they were so leery of her. By now, Tala was used to it.

Her usual inclination was to disappear into the night and answer no questions, but she wanted to find out why precisely these people were out in the forest at night, with children, even. It seemed to her that either they were absolute idiots, or they were under some extreme form of pressure. And if it was some kind of pressure, it was Tala's duty to find out what, and deal with it if she could. So she put her hands up, and stepped into the firelight so that they could see she meant them no harm. "Tala par Kyleth, Darkchild, called the Dark Angel," she said. They all looked horrified, and cringed from her. The woman she'd struck dove for her gun again. Inside, Tala winced. Giving her parentname had probably not been the smartest thing she could have done. She had a brother and sister who were, to put it mildly, not nice people, and from the reaction to her name, she guessed these people had met one of them. Offhand, she would think Maru-- her Darkbrother was similar in appearance to her, had identical powers, and was obviously also a par Kyleth. Unlike Tala, however, he was sadistic and power-hungry, which generally translated into committing evil. Perhaps they had been chased out here by him?... But that didn't make any sense-- the worst place to go to escape a Darkchild would have to be a darkened forest at night. Sighing, Tala set herself to assuage their fears, never a task she was very good at. "I'm not going to hurt you," she said acerbically. "If I served evil, I'd've left you to the demons. Speaking of which, don't you know better than to go out on a moonless night, away from the city's wards? You could all have been demon meat."

The man who hadn't yet spoken said bitterly, "You speak as if we had a choice, Darkchild, but you must know better. You call yourself par Kyleth, and you wear our tormentor's face, but you pretend not to know our reasons for fleeing the City of Light. I ask you again, who are you?"

"I'm not your tormentor, that much you should know," she said. "Did he give his name as Maru par Kyleth, by any chance?"

"There's anotherof you?" one of the women asked, frightened. The other one was attempting to reach her gun. Tala sighed.

"Perhaps you should tell me why you left your city, and who the par Kyleth who's been bothering you is. I may be able to help." On the other hand, considering who she was beginning to suspect their tormentor was, perhaps not. She turned to the woman who had loaded her flintlock again. "And you can put that thing down," Tala told her. "I just defeated a score of demons. Do you think your weapons mean anything to me?" The truth was, Tala was quite human enough for the gun to have power over her. But when she had to reveal herself to people, she liked to project an otherworldly mystique. That way she wouldn't be asked unnecessary questions or feel compelled to answer such.

The woman put the flintlock down, but left it within easy reach, as the man said levelly, "We braved the possibility of demons to save our children from certain death, at the hand of a woman named Shien par Kyleth. A woman whose features are so like yours, except for her color, she could be your twin sister-- and whose parentname is the same as yours. And you tell me, Darkchild, you tell me you know nothingof this?"

So it was Shien, her Lightsister, after all. Tala had thought she knew Shien well, and the depths to which she would sink, but apparently she was wrong. If they were fleeing Shien, it did make sense to head into the night-- Shien was a Lightchild, and couldn't bear the darkness. But there were other aspects in which the story didn't make sense. Shocked, Tala said, "Shien, making human sacrifices? I don't disbelieve you, but—Shien draws her power from light, and human sacrifice is typically a practice of the dark.” Light was more than pleased to set its enemies on fire, but it generally justified itself by claiming its enemies were evil. Light loved the truth, but hated ambiguity and nuance. “I'd expect sacrifices out of my brother, but Shien? You have to tell me more. When did this happen?"

They all looked at Tala with hard eyes. "What's your connection to Shien par Kyleth, the Lightbringer?" the woman with the gun asked harshly.

She was Tala's twin sister-- that was why they looked so much alike-- but Tala didn't think it prudent to state that quite so bluntly. "She is... my mirror. Everything I am, she is not." This was, at best, an oversimplification-- they were quadruplets, and each of them had an opposite in sex, source of power and personality, but Tala was not about to complicate the situation by mentioning her brothers. "It's my job to stop her, if she's doing evil again. Tell me what she's doing, and I'll be able to help you."

They proceeded to tell her the following story:

Shien had set up her encampment in a glass city, a marvel constructed by wizardry, with a reflecting crystal dome over it. Since she had arrived, night had never fallen. Because she was weakened by the lack of sunlight, just as Tala was by its presence, her motive was obviously to create a place where there would always be sunlight. Of course, she could generate sunlight herself, as Tala could absorb light to create darkness, and from what the refugees told her, Tala guessed that that was exactly what she was doing-- but then, why was she sacrificing people?

The refugees informed Tala that Shien was choosing children to be sacrificed in secret, and that really seemed uncharacteristic. Shien had been known to make an example of people by burning them publicly, but it wasn't like her to do anything in secret. Why was she sacrificing the children? What did she have to gain? Or was she sacrificing them? Perhaps it was something else she was doing... but what?

“They don’t know,” one of the women said bitterly, of her fellow citizens. “They worship her. They call her the Lightbringer and they think she’s responsible for everything good, everything benevolent. When she began the child sacrifice, she was claiming that our former leaders were the ones letting demons into the city, to kill our children… which is nonsense. How could demons be getting into the city, when Shien par Kyleth never allowed it to be nighttime, and demons only travel at night? Why would the leaderswe once followed before Shien came have any interest in doing such a thing? But they’re blind fools. They see that she’s beautiful and they see that she brings light and they won’t hear that she’s lying. They won’t believe there can be anything evil about her. She lies, and they believe it.”

That was especially odd. Shien was usually too arrogant to lie.

"Don't worry," Tala told them. "I'll lead you to a safe-house tonight. Tomorrow night I'll go to your city, and I'll free your people from Shien."

It was due to things like this that the legend of the Dark Angel tended to grow, despite all Tala's efforts to stay obscure.

***

In the heat and terrible light of the day, Tala slept in the forest, fitfully. She hated the summers-- they were too hot, and the days were far too long. Tala was too weak to travel much in daylight, but couldn't stay asleep all the hours of the summer day, leaving her to lie about weak and bored for the better part of the afternoon, able neither to sleep nor to continue her journey. As she rested in the trees' shade, she debated whether she should go to battle Shien, or if she should wait until she could talk to Haren. She was on her way home to the Place, anyway, and had been greatly looking forward to a chance to swap stories with her Lightbrother there, her ally in the service of humanity. Haren was maybe too focused on following rules, and fighting fair, and less on getting the job done, but his heart was in the right place and he strove, as she did, to protect and aid people. Maybe she should continue on home and drop this problem in his hands. As Shien's fellow Lightchild, possessing her powers, Haren was usually the one to fight her, as Tala was usually the one to fight Maru. And Tala really did not want to have to handle Shien all by herself.

She considered it further. Usually Shien and Haren battled in wide open places, where it didn't matter if they burned everything around. If they fought within an enclosed city, however, the chances were good that they would demolish it, and kill the people Haren had come to save. Light was a destroyer-- dark was far more passive. Dark could kill, but it killed cleanly and quietly-- light burned. Also, if Shien was performing human sacrifices, did Tala really have time to go get help?

No. No, she didn't. Shien's murder of children-- if she was in fact killing them-- could not be permitted to continue any longer than possible. With her powers, if Tala did defeat Shien, it would be a bloodless victory-- and although Shien could do quite a bit of damage to Tala, she couldn't actually kill her, not without disrupting the balance that gave them their power beyond repair, and perhaps killing herself and their brothers as well.

She had no choice-- she had to take on Shien herself.

When dusk fell, Tala par Kyleth got up and began heading for the city of Lumida.

***

Back when they were children, all the created children of the mage Kyleth were close, despite the usual sibling rivalries. In the Place, their father/mother's domain, where they were born and raised, there was neither night nor day, and so they could all sleep and wake at the same time. Maru and Tala played together a lot, due to the similari­ty of their temperaments, and Shien and Haren played together often as well. But the four of them played as a group, too. They had no idea, then, that they would split in the middle, becoming enemies.

In retrospect, she could see the seeds of what they became in the children they’d been. Maru was a silent, brooding boy who would explode in violence, a boy who enjoyed hunting and pulled the wings off bugs, and scaring people. And Shien was a spoiled brat who thought she was a princess, the most wonderful person in the world, and who threw tantrums when she didn't get her way. But they’d been children, then, and innocent, and although she'd loathed what Maru and Shien did sometimes, they were her siblings, and she'd loved them.

She didn't love them anymore.

But it seemed much more Maru's style to perform human sacrifices. Maru was the sadist, the one who enjoyed hurting people for its own sake; Shien simply wanted everyone to fall at her feet and worship her. When they didn't, then she hurt them. There was no reason Tala could think of why she should be sacrificing children. Also, Shien was generally not a liar. Tala lied to protect people and to protect secrets; Maru lied to hurt people; but Haren never lied, on principle, and Shien didn't lie because she couldn't be bothered. She was too arrogant, and also, Tala thought, like Haren, she believed there was something inherently wonderful about the Truth. Maybe there was, for a Lightchild whose existence was based on openness and brightness.

Shien sacrificing children in secrecy? Shien lying about it? Those were not consistent with her identity as the Light, and Tala couldn't see her motive. But those refugees had believed it, strongly enough that they’d fled into the darkness of the night, risking demon attack. And if Shien was really claiming that demons were stealing children away, when she had filled a city with light… obviously that had to be a lie. Demons needed darkness to operate.

But she would find out soon enough, she knew. Shien was no good at keeping secrets, either. Not from Tala, at any rate.

***

She reached Lumida in two nights. The city's glow lit up the forest for miles, at least to Tala's oversensitive eyes. In a city of such brilliant light, she would burn-- her skin was black, but it didn't protect her from the sun the way dark brown skin protected normal people. She could even be blinded. Once again, she thought of going for help-- Haren would be strengthened by this light.

But there was no time. She pulled the hood of her cloak to shadow her face as much as it could, and drew the clasps tight, so it fell around her body, protecting her arms and legs. Then she concentrated on swallowing the light.

When she was very young, Tala had intuitively understood that dark was the absence of light, the natural state of things and not truly an entity of itself. Her darkvision was the ability to perceive things in their natural state, without the illusions light could cast. Her ability to create a sphere of darkness was actually the ability to make a magical hole that sucked in all sensation. And she also possessed the power to swallow light into herself, negating it with the sheer vastness of the darkness within her. But the more light she absorbed, the more full with light she would become, and it would begin to corrode her very essence. Still, for a time the technique would protect her from being seared. So as she approached the city of light, she swallowed the light into herself. To those who saw her, she would have been a dark, fathomless nothing­ness-- they might have taken her for a shadow, if they didn't notice she moved on her own, or for an evil spirit.

The city of light was protected by burning slender beams placed across the entrances. They were powerful enough to burn their way through a human being. In her lighteating form, however, Tala's body absorbed them, and they did no damage to her.

There were plants everywhere in the city of light, dying plants brown and blackened. For a while, it seemed, the light had encouraged their growth, but eventually light had been true to its destructive nature and killed them. There was no shade-- the light was everywhere. It was blinding, brilliant enough to hurt even ordinary people's eyes. Tala was virtually blind to ordinary light, and her darkvision became more ineffective the more light there was. The pain the light caused her eyes was agonizing, even in her lighteating form. She intensified her light absorption until she could no longer see any light, and she could make full use of her darksight for vision. Even then, it was blurred and wavery.

There were replica-paintings and statues of Shien everywhere.

There was no sign that it was night outside the walls-- a large number of people were up and about. They wore sunglasses or shades, and many of them carried flowers, which they would lay down in front of the paintings and statues. She wondered if the light intensified during the true daytime, when Shien would have the sun to draw from. She also wondered where Shien was getting this kind of power from. Shien had the ability to turn night to day, if she so chose, but not for a whole night. The Lightchild drew her energy from sunlight-- as far as Tala knew, she could not possibly generate the full spectrum of daylight for the 8 hours or so of a summer night. She simply didn't have the strength. But from the refugees' reports, that was exactly what she was doing. How?

The longer Tala stayed here, the weaker she would become. She had to find and defeat Shien before she lost all her power. So she headed purposefully through the city, knowing Shien, with her ego, would be near the center.

The closer she came to the center, the more the light began to seem like a physical barrier, pressing her back. From her experience with physical barriers, Tala kept feeling that she could get through by shifting to her shadow form-- but rationally she knew that was suicide. Her shadow form was insubstantial-- she could pass through any solid object-- but light would burn it, and destroy her. Light was filling her, reaching the limits of her tolerance, and slowly she began to feel the burning begin, the closer she approached.

She decided not to put up with this. Maintaining secrecy would be of no use to her if she burned to death before she got where she was going. Shien, theoretically, had no more power than Tala-- though Shien could generate light, Tala could cause darkness. She drew her sword, so black it, too, swallowed light. Then she sliced it through the air, ripping the fabric of space to let out all the light. This made great patches of darkness. Swiftly the patches filled in again, but they were dimmer, as was all the light. She swung her sword in a circle, creating a sphere of darkness, and with the tip she popped the sphere. Light poured in, vanishing, along with all sensation, and there was total darkness.

Tala carried the darkness with her further, toward the center of the city. She entered a plaza, with a fountain in the center, and a palace of white marble and gold in front of her. Then there was a sudden gleam of light in the darkness she had made. It was all the warning she had-- she shifted from darksight to her weak normal vision, and yet the explosion of light that followed still blinded her for several seconds. She heard a familiar giggling, breaking the silence her darkness had brought, and when she could see again, Shien stood before her.

Anyone looking at them would have known instantly they were twins, or rather more than twins, since no ordinary twins could be colored as differently as were Shien and Tala par Kyleth. They were not tall, nor built to look strong, nor did they have the large breasts and hips thought to be beautiful among human women in this part of the world. Their eyes were almond-shaped, and a deep hazel. These provided the only color in Shien's pale face, and the only light spot in Tala's dark one. Both had long hair-- Shien's white and fine, much finer than Tala's coarse black hair, but the same length. Both seemed somehow otherworld­ly, and neither precisely fit any known racial category, but despite the fact that they were identically featured and identically built, Shien was usually thought to be far more delicate and ethereal, even more beautiful, than dark Tala, probably due to the fact that all the fragile noble beauties were pale, here in the north.

Tala had never seen herself-- her darksight was not reflected in mirrors, and her normal vision was too weak. All throughout her childhood, she had used Shien as her pale mirror. Viewing Shien as like herself, she had never fallen for Shien's illusion of fragility, and had always known that, however she might appear to normal people, Shien was not delicate, not fragile, in the slightest. Her powers had far more purely destructive potential than Tala's, and so it could perhaps have been said that she was stronger.

But she wasn't supposed to be stronger in any real sense-- Shien and Tala were supposed to have exactly the same amount of energy to draw on, and so Tala was shocked. After this kind of output of energy, Shien ought to be utterly drained. Tala should be able to defeat her with ease. But here she was, giggling-- and that meant that somehow, she had access to more power than Tala did.

Tala began to be truly afraid.

"I'm so pleasedto see you, Tala! Such a surprise! You should have told me you were dropping by; I could have arranged so many things for us to do together!"

"The balance must be restored, Shien," Tala said quietly.

Shien looked irritated. "What can't you Darkchildren ever come out and say what you mean? Don't spout that nonsense about balance; I've been hearing more than I want to from Kyleth."

Kyleth? Tala thought, surprised. Kyleth was the mage who created them all, their father/mother. Haren and Tala had always assumed that Kyleth was on their side, and had broken contact with their twins, since Maru and Shien had become dedicated to fulfilling their worst desires regardless of cost. She hid her surprise. "Why are you sacrificing children?"

Shien looked startled. "Who told you that?"

Tala smiled. "I thought that would get a reaction out of you. Something else is killing those children, or making them disappear. What are you really doing?"

Shien's laugh was chilling. "Oh, no, no, you've misunderstood me," she said sweetly. "I certainly am killing the children-- I just wondered who told you. I tell my people it’s the demons snatching them away, and if I increase the light, the demons will flee… and they all believe me!” She giggled again. “So I’m very surprised that any of them figured out it was me!”

Tala told herself silently that darkness was calm, darkness was cold. To rage, to burn, was to play into light's hands. So she stared her sister down coldly and asked, "Why?"

"Did Kyleth ever teach you any of the Life Magics?"

"Did Kyleth teach you?" The prospect filled her with fear and unease. Kyleth was a Duality Magician, drawing power from the tension of opposites. The Life Magics were properly called the Magics of Life and Death, and were an integral part of Duality Magic. She could see no reason why Kyleth would teach them to Shien-- they were deadly, powerful magics, and Kyleth was on herside. Her fear intensified as Shien smiled, and answered.

"You sound so shockedat the prospect, dear sister. Yes, in fact Kyleth has taught me the Life Magics-- which should really be called Death Magics if you have to use a short form, actually. I've learned how to use the power of murder to increase my power. Why are you so surprised? Kyleth always loved me the most, you know. Always."

Tala's mouth was dry. "I don't believe you. Kyleth's on our side. The side of good. Kyleth would never--"

"Are you really so sure?" Shien giggled. “You’re so ridiculous. ‘Good’ and ‘Evil’ like those are actually sides. I expect that kind of talk from Haren, but I thought you were smarter than that.”

Suddenly light blasted her. Tala had been steadily darkening the area-- but now the light returned, burning, destroying her. She screamed, and flung up her sword, enveloping herself in blessed darkness-- but the light intensified, reaching in deeper and deeper. She clung to the sword for life itself, trying to summon all the darkness she could-- to no avail. Weak beyond the ability to stand, she collapsed to the ground. Terror whipped at her, and she understood that if Shien continued, she would die.

But that would disrupt the fragile balance that kept them all alive, and apparently Shien knew better to do that. She stopped, and regarded her helpless sister with a self-satisfied smile on her face.

"Was I ever so much more powerful than you before, Tala?" she said. "I get my new power from the energy of life. Sunlight is energy, after all. Weakness is all right for darkness, but light is the source of all energy-- light should alwaysbe strong. So." She clasped her hands in front of her. "The life of a child is filled with so much potential. When I kill a child, I acquire that potential and transmute it into light. For every night my sunshine burns, someone dies." At Tala's expression, she giggled again. "Does that really bother you so much, Tala? But listen! Life feeds on life. Children die, but I thrive. Who's to say a human's life is worth more than mine?"

Kyleth, Tala thought bitterly, tears stinging her face. Her mother, her father, her creator-- she'd always assumed, because Kyleth helped her and Haren against their twins, that Kyleth supported her side. She should have known better.

Haren had once asked Kyleth, a long time ago, why Kyleth had created him and Tala if it meant unleashing the evil two. Kyleth had replied, "You persist in thinking I'm good, Haren. I'll tell you what I told the city council-- just because I don't seek to kill and enslave everybody doesn't mean I'm nice. Good and evil are social constructs, and they change depending on your point of view. I’m not some sort of ‘good’ mage. I'm duality."

To Tala, Kyleth had said privately that the issue wasn’t honestly of good and evil at all. Kyleth had intended to create children of opposite sexes and opposite sources of power. The fact that it had worked out that two of them wanted to be heroes and save people, and two of them wanted to be selfish monsters… that was an accidental side effect of Duality Magic, most likely.

She should have known Kyleth couldn't solely support her side, the righteous side-- Kyleth was far too complicated to do that. But why, why had Kyleth given an advantage to Shien? The one thing they could always be sure of, when they were children, was that Kyleth was always fair, incapable of favoring one of them over another. The balance had to be maintained.

So why had Kyleth given Shien such a tremendous advantage? The only explanation Tala could think of ripped her to shreds inside. Kyleth was a mage, dedicated to duality, but Kyleth was also a human being and a parent-- and what if the parent didlove Shien more?

"How?" she asked weakly. "You can't store energy..."

Shien giggled. "That's right. I can't. But this city was built to be the City of Light. There are banks and banks of crystals for storing light." She flung out her hand in an expansive gesture. "I don't know how they work, exactly, but I can store the energy of life in them, as brilliant sunlight. Would you like to watch me do it?"

"Shien. No!!" All the blood drained from Tala's face, and she felt suddenly sick and dizzy with rage and helplessness. She tried to summon the power to stop her sister, but Shien blasted her with light again, and she lost consciousness.

***

When she woke up, she was in a vast chamber full of glowing cubes of light. She was bound to a pillar, in shadow-- obviously Shien wanted her alive and mostly unhurt. But the light just around her was brilliant enough to give her pain, far too brilliant for her to risk shifting to her shadow form and escaping.

In the brightness, she could barely make out the form of Shien. "Do you always sleep so late? It's time for me to renew my light, and you nearly missed it. And that would have been such a shame, wouldn't it?" The light faded, just a little, until Tala could see a little boy, staring mesmerized at Shien, in between the glowing storage cells.

Dark must maintain control, Tala told herself. She held her tongue as Shien, gloating, began the ritual. There had to be a way to defeat her. Kyleth's actions never had just one result. The balance needed to be restored.

Balance-- balance! she thought suddenly. She hadn't the power to simply break free and save the little boy-- and if she did, Shien would just kill another. But if Shien could draw energy from death... everything was balance. It took energy both to take a life, and to save it. Therefore, there had to be a way to gain energy, or at least an advantage, from saving a life...

When Shien linked the boy to the crystals, Tala enveloped him with her mind and her darkness. Not so deeply as to quiet his heart and kill him, but enough that the searing light Shien poured upon him didn't harm him. Unreplenished, their light bleeding away into Tala's darkness, the light cells shut down. All went dark-- a blessed balm to Tala after the burning light. She slipped into her shadow form, came free of her bonds, and attacked Shien.

Without the stored energy of light to give her power, Shien had only as much strength as Tala-- and after so long in the light, she couldn't readjust her eyes even to dimness, let alone the darkness Tala saw best in. Shien fought back with flares of light, but Tala grabbed her and enveloped her with darkness, swallowing her light, until she felt her sister turn limp.

As he came free of Shien's spell, the boy began to scream. "It's dark! Mommy, mommy, I'm scared, it's dark..."

"I'll bring you to your mommy," Tala told him. "Take the hem of my cloak and follow me." She put the hem into his hand, and carried Shien outside, walking slowly enough that the boy holding her cloak could keep up.

For the first time in weeks, it was nighttime in the City of Light; but the people were thrown into panic and terror, not realizing that their tormentor had been overthrown. Most not even realizing she had been their tormentor at all. Maybe the refugees had been the only ones to know the truth, and all the rest mistakenly believed Shien to be their savior. To them, Tala supposed, the death of the light must mean something terrible must be in store. It was a thankless job, being an angel of darkness.

She led the boy to his family, who were overjoyed, and she told them the truth about the darkness. "This is the natural nighttime of the world,” she said. “Shien par Kyleth, the Lightbringer, is gone."

Dark could hide and dark could blur. They didn’t recognize the woman Tala carried in her arms, because Tala’s magic blocked the clarity of recognition. Yet it was the power of Light that had tricked all of these people, making them believe a woman who murdered their children was a benevolent and caring ruler even as the light had brought famine and the children had continued to vanish.

They wailed in grief, believing Shien was dead.

Would it could be that simple.

She went outside and carried Shien until her arms were too weary to continue. She laid her sister down under a tree, and made a web of dark confusion about her, to sink into her sleeping brain so that she could never find her way back to Lumida. The web would also keep demons and other creatures of the night from finding her.

Tala looked down at Shien's beautiful pale face. It would be so much easier if she could kill her. How many more people would burn, because she let Shien live? But to destroy her would upset the balance, and would probably destroy Tala and her brothers. Perhaps that was the solution-- perhaps Tala and Haren should willingly yield themselves to death, and take their evil twins with them-- but Tala, for one, was not yet willing to die. There were other ways to deal with Shien and Maru. There had to be.

She was still furious with Kyleth, for teaching Shien the Life Magics. She knew now that Kyleth had been seeking balance yet again; just as Shien had learned to draw power from death, Tala would learn to draw power from life. There would be no unfair advantage. But she didn't feel it was necessary to escalate the battle in such a way. And now she knew consciously, as she'd always known deep in her heart but never wished to acknowledge, that Kyleth was not on her "side." Kyleth would help her enemies as much as her. It was a bitter thing to know, of her only parent.

Tala turned and headed home, less eager than she had been.