#virbrisk

Mori sometimes could still remember when the night sky didn't have any stars. She remembered the emptiness of it all. The long time that nothing occupied it the way the sun did for the day. The darkness that filled the land, making it near impossible to see. Something was missing but she never knew what. It pestered her as she stared into the void of the sky. Stared as it changed colors into her beautiful morning, colors she created filled her eyes. Every night she watched, waited for her solution to cross her mind on why it felt wrong. Surely her day sky wasn't this empty?

She can't remember when it happened, but eventually, there was light one night. A soft, light, gentle, it almost rocked her to sleep with how calming it was. It was comforting, just enough dark to encourage rest, and just enough light to bring a sense of safety.

Sitting in the grass fields that swayed at her very breath, she stared off into the distance. The horizon line went on for miles.watching as the grass formed waves among itself. To one side lay a warm figure in the cool, crisp air. Damir, She could see the soft light that emitted from his eyes faded under his lashes. The middle of his back pressed against her hip as she sat. Her knees pulled up to her chest. The fabric of her dress bunched up with goosebumps across her arms.

She remembers Damir always seeming so peaceful during the night. Instead of the furrowed brows and crossed arms, he lay relaxed. All tension gone, his face becoming soft and tranquil. Something that she only saw of him when he thought neither she nor Suwon were looking. She smiled at that, a warm memory of its own.

But it was at this moment she realized that her vision of him was much clearer than before. What was once only a small portion of his face illuminated from his own light was now nearly his entire side. With shadows that hid away from something. Something from above her. In quick realization, she looked up, but this time, something stared back. It was pale and quite round. It emitted such a soft glow. Near impossible to look away from, and yet she felt that she didn't want to.

månsken is what she called it, Lunae lumen even later on in her life.

In her opinion, it was beautiful, and even thousands of years later, she finds herself gazing at it. Highlighting the white snow caps of her mountain.

The memory of being sad when it finally lowered was one she could remember clearly. The rise of Damir telling her that the night was officially over. It would have been a shame if not for the fact that just lightly, she could still see it. Faded behind a translucent curtain of soft blue. It didn't leave, and she hoped it'd stay like that forever.

That next night was when she finally saw Suwon again. He sat beside her as Mori watched her Luna, or måne at the time.

Suwon was a cold creature, chilling to the touch but thrumming with life and magic under his thin skin. He looked a little different than her or Damir, but in her opinion, it was just as delightful. His face was long, parts of it hollow, instead of eyelids and lashes his eyes were sunken. The only thing visible was a small dot that moved around in its dark cavity. His hands were different, but so were Damir's. While she had rounded fingertips with what she dubbed nails that stayed transparent to a degree, Suwon had pointed ends, a hard nail thicker by three times her own. His hands were thinner, quite elegant compared to Damir's strong and wide ones. Damir nails layer like her own, just on top of boxy fingertips. But his nails are a solid black color. they matched Suwon and her hair almost perfectly.

They felt familial in a way,she knows they've always been there, can't even remember a moment where it was just her in the lonesome space of void and matter. Even long before, there was a ground to stand on.

A soft nudged to her shoulder cause Mori to look at her brother (she doesn't remember when she started calling him brother)

"Do.. you like it…?"

His voice was soft, filled with a sense of worry. She could feel the buzzing of his head as he waited anxiously for her response. She couldn't help but smile at him, a full joyous grin of teeth, her eyes squinting close as she looked at him.

"She is lovely, I don't think I could go back to existing without her again"

The hard line of Suwon's back dropped almost immediately, Mori could feel the energy of his nerves come off him in massive waves. He hadn't misjudged her desires, and for that, he allowed himself to relax.

As Mori turned to look back at her Luna, she could see Suwon reach behind her, and a gentle hum from her other side was made. Damir didn't care much for the sky the way that she and Suwon did. His developing domain resided underneath hundreds of layers of vegetation and rock. At first she thought he was strange for this, but as she visited his home, she understood why he chose it. While not completely comparable to her sky, the caverns had their own beauty. The way the water flowed down the cliff like edges, past layers of colorful stone. Strange but vibrant plants filled out areas. It was nice, exciting sometimes, so Mori never judged his disinterest in her sky.

Ignoring the small movements from both behind her and to her other side, she turned back to Suwon. Damir let out a small huff as he gently sat up himself. His long limbs were not quite sure what to do with themselves. He also turned to Suwon.

Suwon’s magic was always strong, Mori could feel it even as he simply sat next to her. And it was clear he wished to show them both something.

"I was thinking about how to fill out the sky within my domain and I discovered something" As Suwon talked his hands started squeezing the air, at first he did it carefully but then as he pressed his palms together a small surge of energy was created. He began squeezing harder before a small ball of light was formed. It grew until it was just smaller than his palm.

A quiet huff before he spoke was made. "I discovered that I can make these, and that they can be made huge, even float extremely well once they become a certain size."

"They float?" Damir was the first to question, his body now leaning closer just over Mori's shoulder.

"Yes! It's what I did to create that!" In quick movement, Suwon pointed to Mori's Luna. He then continued his explanation.

"That is made of a solid rock, but this," he looked down at the ball of light in his hand. " It's like your sun, it would be called a stjärnor ,and instead of being super big and close they can be far away and-" The ball was pushed in the woman's hands as Suwon began to spin out a fine thread of magic. He then took one and wrapped it around the sphere in his sister's hands. "I discovered that if I attached it to another one I can make what I call consolations, the threads won't be visible but I saw that for the few that I placed my Valdarin started making shapes from them!"

Suwon seemed to almost shake with excitement. This explained where he had been for the past few days.

"They connected them?" Was Mori's question.

"Yes, yes! And then they started creating stories! Some of them even began using them to navigate the abyssal sea."

There was a pause. He seemed to remember he needed to tell them something.

"When I was figuring out how to make your måne I realized it would look lonely by itself, so I started coming up with other things" another small pause before he held up the thread with the ball of light on it.

"Once I realized that it would take a long time to fill both yours and my sky, I thought we all could do it together and make the shapes for our creatures to discover."

Suwon’s voice wobbled just a bit near the end of his sentence. It was clear he put much thought into this but was afraid of being shut down.

"I bet I can make better-looking consolations than you both can." Mori jabbed at her companions.

Damir jumped at the sudden excitement in his sister's voice. He looked between the both of them. They stared back at him with pleading gazes that he had joined them.

A puff of air left him as he chuckled at their antics, moving himself closer to the smaller man.

"You both and your skies are something else. Alright, show me again how you did that"

Mori pulled her hair to one side as she began mimicking Her middle brother's motions from before, listening to Damir's quiet exasperation of struggle, forcing his own magic to behave. Laughing out loud as she watched him use too much physical strength and completely crush his first attempt. Even Suwon had to turn away and giggle as their eldest sibling dusted the magic powder off his face.

Not even Damir could hide his own amusement at his goof up.

~~○~~~○~~~○~~~○~~~○~~~○~~~○~~~○~~~○~~~○~~

Thousands of centuries later, and their constellations still stand. Except now as Mori sits next to her window, a book lays on her desk filled to the brim of human stories about the stars. Across from her sits, a woman who she never thought would be willing to be this close to her.

Wendy.

She watched as the young woman tried her best to compress the air between her hands. The solid force that would just barely start forming would crumble mer seconds later and disperse into the air again.

Mori could feel the frustration building within Wendy, but what confused her was the feelings of sadness, fear, and guilt that came off in various waves. She did her best to remain positive as an attempt after an attempt failed. Each time, Wendy seemed to become more and more distressed.

"Wendy honey, it's okay. If you want, we can try again tomorrow. Maybe today is just a bad day for your magic."

Instead of calming down her guest, Mori's words seem to cause even more distress. In one last attempt, the girl started pressing the air, trying to concentrate her magic into it.

Finally, a small speck of light started forming. It grew very slowly, but it was enough that mori truly believed Wendy might actually make a star today.

Until her hands collapsed on it, and small sparkly dust went everywhere.

The emotions from Wendy hit Mori hard. When she expected anger, she was met with fear and guilt. It was when she noticed Wendy shaking as she kneeled on the floor. Her voice cracked as she tried to apologize to Her fellow goddess.

"I.. can do..i-it, I can..please.. I can….I-"

There were tears forming at Wendy's hollow eyes, her white pupils growing in sizes as she seemed to become fearful of her surroundings.

Mori got off her seat and knelt in front of Wendy. As she went to gently wipe tears away from her eyes, she froze.

Her guest had flinched almost aggressively, her ears pinned back, and her face turned away. As if she was expecting to be hit. Her pleas continued but much quieter.

It was then that Mori remembered something the eldest God told her about this young woman.

Changing her hand position to an open palm and holding it just a few inches from the younger goddess face. Mori waited gently, cooing Wendy into looking at her.

After a few minutes, Wendy finally did look at her, ear pensively pinned, eyes clearly searching for something that wasn't there. Mori felt her heart ache just a bit as she watched the goddess study her and then look down at herself, then the hand near her face. Her breathing labored, but still restrained, as she finally looked back at the elder goddess. The white dots of her eyes faded as she very carefully allowed her cheek to press into the offered hand.

The tears streamed almost non-stop, quiet whispers of I'm sorry and I'll do betters were lost to the rooms, books and carpets. Her body shook as a hand reached forward and grabbed Mori's dress.

Wendy's face was brought into the taller woman's neck. Her own face is framed by the tall antlers. Her other hand gently rubs the top of the girl's back as the girl's hands clutch and claw as the fabric between them.