Prologue
In the beginning, Mina thinks that the darkness is frightening. Death swirls around her creations and she watches as the brightly blooming petals of a rose crumbles at its edges with age. She creates more and more and more to escape from its wretched grasp.
She never succeeds.
In the beginning, Mina hates death, and in turn loathes the being responsible for it.
She has heard tales of the god of death. Tales spun and woven with the nymphs’ golden words speak of great evil and destruction, and Mina brings herself to despise even the night sky, with its lights and stars resting eons away, for its inky darkness that dares swallow the light of the sun.
In the beginning, Mina believes that the god of death is a man by the name of Hades.
So when she meets the gentle girl who kneels in the fields, clothes as black as coal, Mina doesn’t think twice to approach her.
“Hello,” she says, softly. “Who are you?”
And the girl turns around and stands and Mina almost stumbles back, hands grasping at the simple flower crown behind her back.
The girl’s eyes are black and endless of the same shade of darkness that Mina was sure she hated with her very being but suddenly feels so very lost in.
Mina is lost in the gentle way the girl smiles at her, the sombre look in her eyes, in the way the girl takes a step back, and Mina doesn’t think, doesn’t stop to take a second to comprehend what is going on, only knows that she needs this girl close to her. Close enough to touch. Close enough to whisper all her secrets to.
“Why are you here in my fields?” She tries again, but the girl stays quiet. “I’ve never seen you before.”
The girl stares at her, facial features unmoving and Mina feels a guilt in her throat, almost speaks again, to apologise for being too forward, but then the girl opens her mouth.
“Jeongyeon.” Her voice is soft, almost commanding in its tone but gentle all the same. Mina feels the pleasant hum crawl up her skin. “My name is Jeongyeon.”
In the beginning, Mina finds a friend in Jeongyeon, the Girl in the Night, not Jeongyeon, or rather, Hades, goddessof the underworld.