Ruler of the Night

Dear Sister Sun,

It is I, your humble brother Moon, writing from atop the throne of clouds in my Kingdom of Daylight. My rule over the blue expanse of the sky has been quite pleasant since the last time we spoke, but it is with an urgent matter of the heart that I now address you. I write to share a tale of love.

I will start from the beginning, when the great forces of the universe declared we must remain within our own dominions. Without our rule day and night would cease to exist. But I miss the days before we were grown, when we used to play as young stars together in a world where light and darkness were woven together in the fabric of the milky way. Do you remember dancing and laughing among the alternating glimmers of brilliance and bursts of twilight?

When the celestial bodies separated us as the rulers of day and night, I dearly missed the time we spent together. I longed each day to roam among the wonders of the universe as we did in the past, chasing nebulas and sneaking up on unsuspecting clouds. And being confined to the world of the light, I grew curious about your world of the dark. The people of earth would whisper about your majesty, Sister Sun, declaring how brilliant you appeared in the night sky.

My curiosity got the better of me at the beginning of the new year, and I had to see for myself the beauty of the night. On the first day of the moon cycle, waning as a thin crescent, I passed unnoticed into the black expanse of your Kingdom. I wished to visit you, but I feared the cosmic powers would be angry with me for leaving the world of daylight unattended.

As I slipped between the shadows, a dazzling star caught my attention. She was the brightest in the constellation Cygnus, the swan. I found myself drawn to her, and passion swelled in my heart as I gazed upon her radiance. I could see affection twinkling in her eyes as I introduced myself, and that night we fell in love.

For many months now I have been passing into your realm of darkness to be with my lover, the great star of Cygnus. I am only able to slip back and forth at the beginning and end of the moon cycle, for I shine too brightly during the other phases and would surely have been detected. But this is a secret I must now share with you, because I can no longer stand being apart from my dear Cygnus.

I know the rule in our dominions is well established, and I am crowned by the crystal jewel of day and you by the ebony jewel of night. But I now ask for the ultimate favor: to reverse our royalty for the sake of my love. I will give you the crown of day if you will let me wear the crown of night, and the balance of the universe will never falter. I am blinded by starry-eyed love, and I see only the night before me even as I rise to rule over the day. I, Moon, can survive no longer outside of the night.

Most Sincerely,

The One Who Wishes To Rule Among the Stars

Author's Note: This story is loosely based on a Cherokee myth. In the original, the Sun is a young woman and her brother is the Moon. The Sun has a lover who comes to them each night, although she never tells them her name and keeps her identity secret. One night, she dips her fingers into cinder before they come to her, and in the darkness she rubs her hands on their face, commenting that it is cold from the wind. The next evening when Moon rises, their face has spots on it, and the girl realizes it is her brother who has been coming to her as a lover. The brother is so ashamed that he keeps as far away from her as he can at the other end of the sky. Because I find the sister/brother relationship a bit unsettling, I decided to keep the Sun and Moon as brother and sister but change the Moon's love interest. I also decided to play around with the idea that the Sun was originally the one to rise at night and the Moon the one to rise during the day, and that it was the Moon's lovesickness that led to their changing roles in the sky.

Bibliography:

Mooney, James. (1900). "The Moon and the Thunders" in Myths of the Cherokee - Web Source

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