Happy Decem-ber!
(Surviving Mariah Carey)
DECEMBER IS HERE! (Time to grab your blanket, beanie, and credit card)
We made it. We’ve crossed the threshold of November (the month of pure laziness, coffee, and public confession for those who put up their Christmas tree in October). And now, friends, we are officially in the month that forces you to be happy, eat until you burst, and realize that the year is not only ending but is also going to ask you what you’ve accomplished. Welcome to the Festival of Fiber Optics, Food, and Family Judgment!
If November was for snuggling in, December is for launching out. We fill the streets with lights, our closets with ugly sweaters, and our stomachs with turrón (nougat). This is the season when we set healthy goals that will last exactly 48 hours on January 1st.
Writers’ Corner (And the Name Game)
As you know, we are fully immersed in getting Ashes & Starlight out into the world (sometime in 2026, hopefully). The original Spanish version will be the first to see the light, but the English version is already cooking in our heads, and with it comes a small detail: sometimes, a name sounds great in one language, but in another... not so much. Or, you simply want to add a flair that elevates the lore.
In our work, love and literature intertwine in a very special way, and Domini is the main culprit. When he names certain beings, his mind operates in “Dramatic Poetry Mode,” and this translates into different names depending on the language he uses. El Señor Sombra (The Lord Shadow) is a being he lives with for a time—one that appears to accompany or punish him. For reasons you will discover in due course, in the English version, he will become something more dramatic and classical: Lord Tenebra.
Another change involves one of our characters’ dogs: Capitán (Captain) in Spanish, but in English, he will be called Capitão (yes, in Portuguese). Elías’ family has Portuguese roots, and especially in the English version, you’ll get to enjoy our dark-haired lead speaking more of this language.
Will there be more changes? Possibly, but if we tell you everything, it won’t be fun, will it?
Nyx and Seika’s Gift
To celebrate surviving another year, we leave you a very special bonus track.
This is our reinterpretation of the encounter between Elías and Domini, veiled in a dark fairytale. Enjoy!
The Knight of Ashes and the Prince of Starlight
Legend tells of a cursed kingdom whose light had been extinguished. Far from sinking into lamentation, the kingdom had been blinded, completely obnubilated by the magic of a beautiful witch whose presence thoroughly bewitched them. She seduced the benevolent king and dethroned the former queen to take her place; after all, had she not done so much more for the people?
Despite the existence of a Regent Prince whom all adored, the Queen gave birth to a beautiful scion who radiated his own light. He was so special, so treasured by the new monarch, that she decided to keep him sequestered from the world. To ensure his confinement, the monarchs had convinced him that he suffered from a terrible illness that precluded any contact with the outside.
One might have expected him to be the most fortunate child in the world, mightn’t one?
His father was a benevolent king, admired by all, endowed with healing arts which he employed to cure all who needed him. His mother, the queen, was the most beautiful woman who had ever existed, so charming and talented that she entertained everyone, helping them forget their sorrows. And his elder brother, nicknamed the Dark Prince, was a dedicated, protective hero who sheltered the most vulnerable under his aegis.
All would have yearned to celebrate the arrival of the newborn; yet, his existence was subtracted from the world, confined to the deepest depths of the palace’s luxuries. He was so loved, so adored by the queen, that she conceived of no other way to love him but by keeping him apart from the outside world.
While the monarchs and the Regent Prince were bathed in the love of their people, the small boy knew nothing of the world’s goodness or its miseries. He grew up by the light of candles, a friend to the darkness of night, submerged in his books and the poetry that so profoundly moved him. Solitude became his closest relative: his father, too busy healing others; his mother, engrossed in the court’s attention; and his brother, lost in the game of being the perfect hero.
In those depths, his memories had become muddled. Days, months, years passed without the young prince being fully aware of their passage. He barely managed to grasp how much he had grown when the longing for something he could only permit himself to dream of stabbed his heart: would he die confined without ever knowing the true meaning of loving and being loved?
He was no longer a child, and fantasies, although welcome in his small world, were no longer sufficient. He had grown up convinced that kings were liars, queens were witches, and princes were false heroes abandoned to debauchery. All of them devoured their victims behind smiles and simulated kindness. He supposed, then, that if he was not to be condemned to eternal solitude, he would one day end up married to some equally evil hero, to a ruthless king, or to some beautiful witch who would bewitch him into living a pleasant lie.
It was not uncommon for the young man to vent his sorrows in the darkest corner of his luxurious chambers. And who knows for how many years he had been doing so. It was then that the shadow itself decided to take pity on him and fulfill his most fervent desire: it materialized into the silhouette of a tall man, a black knight, faceless, yet of definite contour, who would keep him company in that solitude.
Though the prince first knew fear upon seeing him, he soon learned to accept that strange figure who, roughly yet gently, offered him a hand, inviting him to be his companion. His touch was ethereal, neither cold nor warm, and he docilely returned every one of the prince’s embraces with just enough weight and strength to silently comfort him.
He named him Lord Tenebra, his companion from that moment on. And while his space became increasingly engulfed by the darkness to join him, nothing and no one would ever make him feel alone again. His family became a distant memory, eclipsed by the desire to spend time with the shadow.
How much time had elapsed since then? Had he left childhood behind? And adolescence?
Was he an adult yet?
Could he marry Lord Tenebra, then?
Could that be possible?
Perhaps if he wished it with all his strength, God would allow it.
After all, his beloved shadow had been born from a desire.
But at a wedding, a “yes” was a gift from one to the other, and Lord Tenebra did not speak. They could not marry in silence, and he wished that, if only for a few moments, the shadow could speak and give him the “yes” that would seal their union. Day after day he prayed to see his dream fulfilled, and that would be the sign that he could finally kiss him. He had always feared doing so, afraid that the figure would vanish, despite the desire that gnawed at his core and pushed him to defile the purity his family had so treasured.
But no impulse lasts forever, and his chest was so swollen with feeling that he had reached his limit. He told himself that if Lord Tenebra returned his kiss, that would be the “yes” he had been waiting for. He climbed his hands up the dark figure to wrap them around its neck, rising onto his tiptoes. The figure bent to bring its face close to the prince’s: no breath tickled his nose, but he knew he was there, beside him. He whispered his name before closing his eyelids and melting into a kiss.
However, before their lips even brushed, the heavy door of his chambers opened, letting in the light, and his beloved shadow vanished, taking with him the weight of his body and his arms from around the prince’s waist. The prince felt he was dying inside, fearful for a moment that he had destroyed the shadow because of his selfishness. He stared at his hands, his heart paused.
But when he lifted his gaze, oh, when he did!... the exterior light traced a familiar silhouette on the man standing in the doorway. His Lord Tenebra. Was he real? He was a man of flesh and blood; if he looked closely, he could see it. His complexion was dark, his hair jet black, and he could contemplate those intense blue eyes he could never have imagined in the void of his Lord Tenebra. The sharp knife he carried in his hand went completely unnoticed amid the joy and the pounding of his heart. It was more than he had ever imagined, and there he was, standing right in front of him!
He did not even hear the stranger’s words, absorbed in savoring the timbre of a voice he had only been able to dream of hearing. The heavy steps of the man drew closer, and as his heart hammered against his chest, the prince could not restrain himself.
—“Yes! Yes, I do!”—He hurried his steps toward him to wrap him tightly in his arms.
The prince, who had never existed for the kingdom he was born into, vanished forever. The monarchs, in silence, refused to publicize his loss or search for him, afraid of losing the people’s trust and their reputation after having concealed the presence of such a special prince of light for so many years. Not even his brother, the supposed hero, could do anything about it.
It is said that there was a knight who hated the queen for the public humiliations to which she had subjected him. There was no place for him in the kingdom without being pointed at with scorn, despite all he had done for the Crown. He had fought in vain and, crippled and covered in scars, he had returned only to be trampled by all instead of celebrated. That night he had intended to end the witch, and instead, he decided to seize her most precious treasure.
And with this story of love and shadows, we say goodbye for the year. Thank you for reading! We hope you have wonderful Holidays, filled with chocolate, books, and a little bit of that Christmas chaos we love so much.
P.S. Did anyone catch the other change we made between the English and Spanish versions of this post?
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
— Nyx and Seika (Buying lottery tickets and nougat)