Kat Frayer (age 14)

Years ago, in the faraway lands of eternal darkness, lay Blackwood, a country inhabited by Shifters who had never seen the light of day in thousands of years.

It was only twenty years after the Battle for Obsidian Blood, the battle that had turned Entities and Shifters into enemies. Blackwood was still recovering.

Manipulators from the land of the Shadow Forest had soon begun to migrate to Blackwood. Their once peaceful forest had caused them to leave as too many were mysteriously disappearing. The Manipulator who had led this escape mission was Kenlon Arune, a very powerful, highly-respected man, but also a dangerous power.

Manipulators were welcomed into Blackwood, King Liron happy to welcome them in…if they helped with repairs to the city. Kenlon, seeing he had no other choice, accepted the deal. They needed somewhere to stay, didn’t they?

The Manipulators from the Energy Tribe were helping the Shifters rebuild their cities. During this period, the two nations lived in peace. They saw that this peace was a positive sign from the gods. But that peace would not last long… one Manipulator’s fatal choice would cause a major dispute between the gods…

Davien Arune had never liked the dark. He was used to the day and night cycle of the Shadow Forest, but not the eternal darkness of Blackwood, and he wanted to change that. Oblivious to the fact that Shifters could object to his orders, as some Shifter bloodlines were more powerful than his, Davien simply put his plan into action. He was going to use his power, One Chance Manipulation.

The Arune bloodline had a power called One Chance Manipulation. As the name suggests, this power is a single-use power that can be used to change anything. But it comes with a deadly consequence that Davien would soon discover…

But his powers caused a disturbance between the gods. The gods of light and darkness, Ikarson and Htsvu, who were once at peace, began to turn against each other. Htsvu, the god of light, thought that Davien’s idea was brilliant, Blackwood could have a day and night cycle, as it had thousands of years ago. But Ikarson disagreed. He saw that Htsvu’s idea was a break in their years-old Agreement of Eternal Night. An agreement that meant that, after the War of Eternal Shadow, Blackwood would be plunged darkness for the rest of its days.

Htsvu asked the time god, Korslyv, whether he could incorporate daytime for Blackwood. Korslyv was unsure at first; he didn’t want to break the Agreement of Eternal Night. However, he soon accepted, knowing that Htsvu would continue to ask if he declined.

As the sun rose in the morning, the Shifters were in a state of confusion, not knowing why it was day. Shifters saw this as the Manipulators’ fault, and a declaration of war.

Little did they know that the Manipulators were just as confused. Only the Shadow Forest had days, not Blackwood. They had never even thought it possible for Blackwood to have any form of day. They certainly didn’t see it as their fault.

Only Davien saw it as a victory. He had got what he had wanted all along. But it had been too easy…

Meanwhile, Ikarson felt betrayed. Htsvu had broken the agreement. Ikarson confronted Htsvu and told him that this was not a good idea. Htsvu, however, said that it was not his fault and placed the blame on to Korslyv. Ikarson wouldn’t buy it. He well knew Htsvu’s deceptive ways.

Well aware of this, Htsvu simply said that if Korslyv hadn’t been a fan of the idea, he would never have agreed to it. Ikarson knew that this couldn’t be a lie. It was true. Why would Korslyv agree to bring back day if he disliked the idea? So Ikarson confronted Korslyv.

Korslyv denied the accusation and explained that he had been pushed into it, but Ikarson grew suspicious of Korslyv. He also knew that Korslyv would never break the agreement. Still, no matter how much he asked, he couldn’t get a different answer out of him. So, he went back to confront Htsvu.

***

King Liron had lost his trust in the Manipulators. He called on his armies to fight them and drive them away. But the Manipulators were strong. They used their powers of manipulation to turn the Shifters against each other instead of them.

Seeing that he had caused this, Davien went into hiding, knowing that he would be hunted down when they eventually found out.

***

Htsvu refused confess to what he had done. He continued to say that it was Korslyv’s choice to allow days to return to Blackwood. Eventually, Ikarson grew tired of Htsvu’s lies: he knew it was Htsvu’s fault. Htsvu and Ikarson soon broke out into a fight. A fight to control time.

During these battles, time would grow unstable. Sometimes, it would be daytime for a while. Sometimes, nighttime. It was unpredictable. Manipulators were stronger in the day, while Shifters were stronger at night. As a result, the outcome of the battles between the Shifters and Manipulators soon became unpredictable.

As the two gods continued to fight, this only got worse. Ikarson was fighting to finally get Htsvu to admit the truth; Htsvu was fighting to keep the truth hidden. Some parts of Blackwood plunged back into eternal night, others into eternal day. That’s when Korslyv knew he had made a fatal mistake.

Searching for a way to undo his mistakes, he frantically looked for the territory god, Wrytion, knowing that he would be able to help. Wrytion was easy to find. He was in his usual place, observing the living. Korslyv told Wrytion that the chaos was all his fault and that he needed his help.

Wrytion was not sure whether to help – he normally stayed out of others’ business, but he knew this was bad and that he needed to do something. Therefore, he agreed to help, knowing there was no other solution.

***

King Liron soon started to see the battles as pointless. The Manipulators were too strong, but he knew Kenlon would not be open to negotiations about leaving. He had to think of something, but knew the majority of Shifters would disapprove of any peace plan.

Meanwhile, Kenlon was starting to find the battles annoying. He had come to the Shifters for refuge, not fights. He was starting to wonder whether going to the Entities would’ve been a better idea. But he knew that the Manipulators had to fight to stay. Their own home had been destroyed, and they needed to stay in Blackwood, no matter what.

Davien knew he had to stop the battles. It was all going too far, but he no longer had his One Chance Manipulation power. That didn’t matter. His magic was strong enough, right?

He tried to use manipulation to stop the battles, but was unsuccessful. He didn’t have enough magic. He began to panic as he felt his insides begin to burn. He soon collapsed. Numbness seeped through his entire body as consciousness was slipping away from him.

If someone tries to do a spell which exceeds their monthly amount of magic, it often results in death or insanity. For Davien, it was death. And he was not on his way to his ancestors in the Spirits.

***

Korslyv told Wrytion that he needed help to stop Htsvu and Ikarson from fighting. Wrytion, very cautiously, agreed to help.

Being a god with Manipulator origins, Wrytion was easily able to stop the two, but it came at a cost. What he didn’t know was that stopping the two gods would cause Blackwood and its citizens to split into two – a light half and a dark half, with the light half in eternal day and the dark half in eternal night.

Htsvu instantly left to go to the light half, knowing that being in the dark half would be pointless.

Seeing what he had done, Wrytion knew that was why he never interacted with the other gods. Each time he did, it caused mass chaos. He left the dark half gods to go to another, small patch of territory where some lone Manipulators lived.

***

In the living world, the two halves lived in their own territory as if nothing had ever happened. There were no more fights. Manipulators began to manipulate their appearance to appear more Shifter-like to reduce suspicions about them.

All the two halves knew about the other was that they shouldn’t cross over to the other half of the territory because it was dangerous. And they were right. The two halves were more connected than they would think.

If someone was on the wrong half for too long, they would fade out of existence – meaning that the memories others had of them would also fade away, as would their other half.

If someone were to interact with their other half, they would fade out of existence.

If one half got injured or sick, the other would too.

The same applied to death, scars, disabilities and diseases.

This often resulted in multiple random disappearances or injuries when someone’s other half was killed or injured. But the two halves got used to this quite quickly, soon accepting it as a normal part of their lives.