Darkness without light is the void. Light without darkness is blinding. They are intertwined, for one cannot see the truth without them. -- Anon Guest
Light and Dark are fundamental elements of reality. Without light, an observer cannot know what darkness is. Without dark, one cannot see at all. Without either, there is no way to tell what else might be lingering about. There's a reason why so many creation mythologies begin with the making of light.
Far, far too many wielders of elemental magics pick only one. Of course, with elements, people pick the oldest and most powerful to battle with. Of course, those who remember the legends think that light is the oldest of elements.
Darkness was always there first. Light can blind, but darkness renders any kind of vision obsolete. Light can burn, but darkness freezes. In a battle between light and dark, darkness has seniority, and thus is ahead by virtue of witnessing every trick.
This does not at all imply that darkness is evil. It is simply absence. It's no more inherently evil than fire. It just is.
The Light Mage Fuma had ignored this in their battle with the Dark Mage Ynkos. Light, they reasoned, was more powerful as it always defeated the darkness. Dark Mage Ynkos, on the other hand, knew that light could not defeat that which was truly eternal. The darkness would eventually swallow everything and light would no longer exist. Of course, eventually doesn't count when both combattants are mortals, so Ynkos had to settle for a continuous draw.
The battle was not continuous. Of course not. Mortal mages have mortal needs. They have other business. The war conducted itself not just in spectacular battle, but also in petty rivalry, pranking, credit theft, and so on. It raged at various levels for literal years.
It was a small town, near a cake shop, that the final tiebreaker occurred, and it was neither mage who used it, but rather the owner of the cake shop who was listening to the infinitieth round of their argument over which type of cake was clearly superior to the other.
Locals gained some entertainment with this since both cakes were nearly identical save for the colouring applied to the icing.
Clearly sick of this, Cake Master Vanille almost threw their orders at them and yelled, "Just kiss already!"
It would take a year for them to do that, and it did nothing to stop the conflict between the two. It just limited it to a very specific area.
[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / Inkoly]
If you like my stories, please Check out my blog and Follow me. Or share them with your friends!
Send me a prompt [89 remaining prompts!]
