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“My dearest January, you exist far

beyond your undoing”

 

These are the words that ricocheted off her ears from another life time. January was bathing in the cold moonlight of her domain. The wind made the treetops bow like the waves over a smooth stone beach. The seeds of dandelions were like embers in the air borrowing their light from the moon. This light was nothing compared to the cold fire withheld in January’s eyes. The seed alighted in January’s palm becoming full bloom in an instant. This was January’s work as the ignition of beings; however, January did not see the life she created, she was only fixated on the undoing that follows all lives. This was the source of the fire responsible for engulfing January. No wind or voices could move her, and the sprouted dandelion had already blown away, ultimately becoming ashes. 

 

Two acolytes of the Melancholy made her aware of an artifact left behind by December on their way to make a ritualistic offering. January hated most angels like December. The knight who persistently threatened her domain and others on his callus crusade. December held a grudge against January and February swearing to “bring it back to how it once was, and always should have been.” The Melancholy made sure to direct her to the twisting stump where the intrusion lay and then hurried away to their homes high in the mountains, she envied the simplicity of their lives. 

 

January did not walk the rift alone, but she felt alone. Behind, January’s gift was so powerful, green would push through where there was snow. Herds of animals would follow for a time and then struggle to keep up. January would not stop moving as she could not stop thinking, wandering her domain lost in thought, watching the grass grow. She felt like a liar wandering the world claiming to bring life. The Morning star taught her to hate liars, as so did any interaction with February who was always envious and always stalking the stars.

 

On the last night of her domain, the moon was thin and January felt like the vast world around her was becoming a hole growing deeper and deeper. However, she found a light within herself along with the courage to finally ask the moon to be in her presence. It was the Moon alone who had the power to shine light in the dark, something all the stars and angels coveted. She ascended towards the sky, in a light so radiant it reached into February’s domain fixating his eyes. January alighted on the opalescent lunar court she was escorted hurriedly to the Moon’s chambers.

 

“January, my beautiful treasure, I’ve seen you coming from afar. What is it you seek from me?” The Moon yawned. Filled with hope, January begged the moon to take away her burden as the Ignition. The fiery tangents of all lives existed in the arms of January, the power to make life bloom. But all January could see was the fire slowly dying out. “The end is assured for all things that I create. I march all things to their death. Please take this burden away from me, it clouds my vision and chokes my thoughts. Let me serve by your side and make me whole!” January pleaded. The Moon’s fatigue turned into heartbreak for she could not soothe the fire in January’s eyes.

“My beautiful darling January, your bloom is so much more than a death. A single stone is not a fortress, your story can never be great without an ending, and your nothing will never only be a nothing.”  The Moon told January. Upon hearing this, January could no longer support herself and fell to her knees in the Moon's warm embrace. The pearly tears of gold finally extinguished the fire in January's eyes. 

 

The Moon did her best to illuminate January’s return to earth, but her light dimmed as she succumbed to her sleep. January’s sight was still blurry with tears, and February’s had not moved from the path of the star’s descent. And so it was that January met her end, swallowed whole into the Chimera’s maw.