What Does the Night Want?

From Friðrós:

I do not usually have trouble sleeping. I always thought this was because I keep myself very busy most of the time. But over the past few weeks as I’ve been putting the details on the Book Forest, I’ve sometimes slept fitfully. And last night, I didn’t sleep at all.

I tried everything. I lay in bed imagining horses, counting sheep; I made cocoa; I even tried some of those deep breathing exercises TAC is always going on about, but nothing helped.

So, I finally decided the night wanted something, and I went outside to my little deck and climbed up on one of the rocks nearby. It was a great, full moon night, with enough cloud cover that everything was still blue-dark. And there on that rock, there was a key.

‘Who sent you, you big old key’? I wondered. ‘Lady Moon, do you have any thoughts on the matter’?

She remained silent.

I turned the key over in my hand. It was large, heavy, with an appealing sort of clover-leaf bow design. It had a long shaft, as with most old keys, and a large bit. Obviously not made with one of those premium cutting machines they use for keys out in the world.

I wondered if this was somehow a gift from the land itself, or if there was some door I was meant to open now. The key wasn’t talking, of course. If it had talked, I might have hurled it into the sea.

So I just sat with it for a while, wondering. I knew I’d keep it, put it on the shelf in my bedroom, and maybe one day, there’ll be a door it opens. Maybe.

It was made of a silvery metal, and in the moonlight it seemed to glow. but I didn’t think it was actively magical. It didn’t make my fingers tingle or anything, and it wasn’t pulling me toward anything. It felt comforting to put my fingers through the little holes, though; I could probably have sat there for hours, just holding it and touching it.

But soon after that, I began to feel my eyelids; that’s what my grandfather always says when he is feeling sleepy.

So the night wanted me to come out here and find this key: it’s answered a mystery with a mystery.

Just when I think I know all there is of Awenia, she gives me another secret, another story, another riddle. Pretty sure she knows I like riddles now.

I climbed down off the rock, slipped back into my little house, turned off the lights in the sitting room.

I left the fire going; we’re having chilly nights now.

It didn’t seem like the right thing to put the key into a box or something; in fact, I didn’t want to let go of it at all. So I crawled into my bed and held it. Sometime during the night, it fell onto the floor, but it was there waiting for me when I woke up the next morning.

I still don’t know what it’s for, or why the night wanted me to have it. For right now, I’m imagining it was a gift from the moon, and the purpose of the gift, well. Does a gift need a purpose? Maybe it doesn’t open anything. Maybe it’s something else entirely.

For once, I don’t think I need to know the answer right away. But now there’s a large key, almost as big as my hand, on my little jewellery dish next to my bed. It makes me smile to see it.

Notes & Credits:

Items from my lovely sponsors:

Friðrós’ freckled skin: Moth & Moon, Edie, in Tone 2. Available at the Moth & Moon Main Store
Friðrós’ eyeshadow: Hexumbra, Alexia. Available at The Darkness
Friðrós’ lipstick: Hexumbra, Ruthann. Available at the Hexumbra Main Store