Fajr

Chapter 1: The Problem

Now, having a virtue is a wonderful thing. You are filled with all that the virtue embodies. A virtue is easy for a human to obtain and lose, but for the Others, it was another thing altogether. The Others' personalities and sanity was dependent on their virtues, so when the Darkness stole them they began the painful process of losing themselves.

Sun POV

I knew the exact moment that my virtue, Wisdom, was stolen from me.

It was the Darkness who took it. I could feel it as he wrapped his slimy fingers around it and swept it away. It was like losing consciousness, but I was wide awake. Cotton had been stuffed in my ears, only my pulse was audible.

I'm pretty sure I stumbled a few times before suddenly, everything was in hyper focus. I could see the dirt on the tiles beneath me and the dust in the air. There wasn't anything to smell really, but I could hear the heartbeats of everyone in the wing I was in.

I found myself sprinting down the halls, desperate to find either Darkness or the Others before anything else happened. A few creatures nearly tripped over themselves in an attempt to get out of my way as fast as possible, seeing the fear in my eyes. The white halls turned blue and green before I finally found the Others.

Moon was comforting Earth, who seemed to be oblivious to the outside world, gasping and darted his eyes around the room. His adrenaline faded a bit when he noticed Moon and I.

"Wh-What was that?" Earth tried to regain his breath while getting up, using Moon as a handhold. His knees shook like a newborn deer, I had no doubts that I looked almost as bad.

"I'm not 100% sure, but I think that Darkness took our virtues." My voice echoed a little bit in irritation. The urge to smite that little snake was growing stronger with each breath. "How did he even take the virtues in the first place? They aren't physical objects..."

"Calm down, Sun. I know you're feeling on edge, I am too, but we need to come up with a plan before we lose all sense." Moon was always pretty sensible, even more so now that my thoughts were muddled. I took a deep breath in an attempt to reorganize.

"Okay, he's Darkness. If he was still here we would know, which means-"

"He likely fled to Fajr-"

"Taking the virtues with him." Earth panted.

"Exactly. We should convene in the Viewer to weed out places that he would have gone." It pleased me that they could finish my sentences, but today it seemed to irritate me, getting on my nerves immensely.

Moon and I helped Earth regain his balance while we made our way back to the white halls. The chaos I'd caused in my mad scramble had been cleaned up, and all the creatures we passed seemed to be on edge. They likely knew something was up, we weren't being very subtle about it. They tried not to make it obvious that they were hugging the walls, but the look in their eyes gave them away. The Viewer room archway seemed to revive Moon, who tried to speed us up to get there faster, almost losing her grip on Earth before shaking her head and slowing down.

The Viewer room was massive. There was a central path that led to the other end of the room which branched off into smaller paths which led to raised pools of water that shimmered and quivered. Sometimes they flickered to show a forest, or the beach, or a bustling city square, but they generally faded from one view of the stars to another. We settled down near the closest pool, setting Earth down on the step that circled the pool so he could watch, while Moon wandered over to the flat control panel facing the main path. She swiped the panel a few times before a 3D view of Fajr appeared over the pool, glimmering and moving with realistic accuracy.

"Where should we begin our search?" Moon didn't look up from the panel.

"If I was Darkness, I-I'd stick with the darkest places I could find. Maybe a fo-forest or s-something." Earth managed to choke out while shivering. 

Moon's focus on the panel never wavered, but she did jab at it a bit aggressively before the planet faded into a list of forests. As the list scrolled, I mentally debated each location before giving up.

"None of these sounds like somewhere he'd go, either as Darkness or the fairness virtue! Let's try somewhere else. Maybe a shady city or somewhere with a high criminal count." My voice came out with a slight growl and I tried to shake off my irritation. Moon and Earth hadn't done anything.

"I'll see what I can find. Do you think he'd go to a human city or a serpent pit?"

"A city. He's a snake so he'd know we'd search the pits first, whether we had our virtues or not."

"Alright." Moon shifted the list to cities instead. The forest list looked like a kitten next to the city list. I could feel the blood drain from my face. There was no way we could find him. Not on our own.

"Shit."

Was that Earth? No, he doesn't curse like that, it must've been Moon.

"Sun?"

"What?"

"You never curse..." Earth's gentle voice filtered into my ears. "D-do you think we even have a chance?"

I couldn't tell him what I was thinking. No way.

"Maybe. I hate to admit it, but we might need someone outside ourselves to help."

Moon let out a vicious growl at that. The list flickered violently before glitching out of existence. I looked to Moon. She had punched the panel. Her face was scrunched in anger and looked almost feral while her neck veins bulged. A small voice in the back of my mind said, 'Oh shit. Maybe that was a bad thing to mention in our current state.' I couldn't help but agree with it.