Editing The Black

{{Character|title1=The Black|image1=Hurlers star.png|caption1=The Black|location=Not Applicable|allegiance=Not Applicable|relationships=[[The Anchoress]]}}<font color="b3e4ff"><blockquote>'''''no monarch screams – no monarch with two tongues, two mouths, two crowns whose laws are void, stricken from life, stricken from death, knocked from the board, bound, banished, forgotten – listen to me – listen – but no one can hear –'''''<ref name = "discor">{{Citation|https://fallenlondon.wiki/wiki/Discordant_Studies_(Storylet)|Discordant Studies (Storylet)|Fallen London|}}</ref></blockquote></font>

Once upon a time (relatively speaking), two [[Judgements]] joined together in a binary pair, described as a monarch with two mouths, two tongues, and two crowns.<ref>{{Citation|https://fallenlondon.wiki/wiki/Discordant_Studies_(Storylet)|Discordant Studies (Storylet)|Fallen London|}} ''"[...] Light twinkles through the holes. The holes are not stars, but you can pretend. Two holes, pricked close together, are a double star. No light twinkles through them. [...] "I saw the absence. Now you see it too.""''</ref><ref name=":0">{{Citation|https://fallenlondon.wiki/wiki/Discordant_Studies_(Storylet)|Discordant Studies (Storylet)|Fallen London|}} ''"no monarch screams – no monarch with two tongues, two mouths, two crowns whose laws are void [...] listen to me [...] but no one can hear – heavy with shackles [...] tightening forever around a terror whose cries would cut this world apart [...]"''</ref> The monarch managed to "rise high,"<ref>{{Citation|https://fallenlondon.wiki/wiki/Discordant_Studies_(Storylet)|Discordant Studies (Storylet)|Fallen London|}} ''"Now you can see nothing, and nothing can see you. [...] You have risen to such heights that they have cast you down [...]"''</ref> and its courtiers entertained the court with games of Hurly-Burly.<ref name=":1">{{Citation|https://fallenlondon.wiki/wiki/Discordant_Studies_(Storylet)|Discordant Studies (Storylet)|Fallen London|}} ''"Shadows [...] along the walls. [...] they might have horns. They might have hooves. [...] "Not every courtier suffered the same fate," [...] "Some are different now, yet still the same. They entertained the court. They played a game." Their shadows still play [...] passing a round silhouette [...]"''</ref> Unfortunately, the monarch was later "cast down."<ref name=":2">{{Citation|https://fallenlondon.wiki/wiki/Discordant_Studies_(Storylet)|Discordant Studies (Storylet)|Fallen London|}} ''"You haven't been cast down [...] blotted from all things that are, and were, and that will be."''</ref> The other Judgements brought the monarch to trial for treason, and "shackled" it with the [[Great Chain of Being]].<ref>{{Citation|https://fallenlondon.wiki/wiki/Discordant_Studies_(Storylet)|Discordant Studies (Storylet)|Fallen London|}} ''"You are not on trial. What could you say [...] Nothing, not even with your double-tongue. Kings are not deposed in this manner. [...] Myrmidons, more myrmidons than there are stars assembled, could not shackle a traitor with the Chain as you have been – because you have not been."''</ref> Its laws were all voided, and it was erased from reality and history.<ref>{{Citation|https://fallenlondon.wiki/wiki/Discordant_Studies_(Storylet)|Discordant Studies (Storylet)|Fallen London|}} ''"no monarch screams – no monarch with two tongues, two mouths, two crowns whose laws are void, stricken from life, stricken from death [...] forgotten"''</ref><ref name=":2" />

All records of the monarch were erased, meaning it effectively never existed.<ref>{{Citation|https://fallenlondon.wiki/wiki/Discordant_Studies_(Storylet)|Discordant Studies (Storylet)|Fallen London|}} ''"This word isn't the first word in a story that's censored. You could not uncensor that story without [...] exposing an absence that shrieks with silent language to be understood."''</ref><ref name=":2"/> The Black was left chained to suffer forever, always screaming but unable to be heard.<ref name=":0" /> Its courtrooms, now called the <font color="b3e4ff">'''Black Castle'''</font>, were left deserted, and its heraldry was censored.<ref>{{Citation|https://fallenlondon.wiki/wiki/Discordant_Studies_(Storylet)|Discordant Studies (Storylet)|Fallen London|}} ''"The Black Castle [...] No court is in residence. All the chambers have been abandoned. Tattered black standards hang in the windless air."''</ref> It is implied that some of the Black's courtiers, who are now known as [[Goat-Demons|goat-demons]], were transformed into the [[The Hurlers#The Standing Stones|Standing Stones]] of the [[Hurlers]],<ref>{{Citation|https://fallenlondon.wiki/wiki/Discordant_Studies_(Storylet)|Discordant Studies (Storylet)|Fallen London|}} ''"This is a game that never ends, just as it never began. [...] Because these are the Hurlers. [...] there is no difference between the standing stones atop the hill, and these goat-demons."''</ref><ref>{{Citation|https://fallenlondon.wiki/wiki/Discordant_Studies_(Storylet)|Discordant Studies (Storylet)|Fallen London|}} ''"[...] walking toward the standing stones and their screaming sigils. They tower in the courtyard, on the playing field, atop the hill."''</ref> though their "shadows" still play their game.<ref name=":1" />

<blockquote>''"I prayed. I met a king. Not truly a king. Nothing true has a name. But without light, there is darkness. If there is the White, then there is also the Black."''<ref name = "discor">{{Citation|https://fallenlondon.wiki/wiki/Discordant_Studies_(Storylet)|Discordant Studies (Storylet)|Fallen London|}}</ref></blockquote>

<font color="b3e4ff"><blockquote>'''''and you will never be alone – and we will never be alone – come closer, closer – be not afraid – by our decree, you shall still be yourself – and be yourself – and be yourself –'''''<ref name = "discor">{{Citation|https://fallenlondon.wiki/wiki/Discordant_Studies_(Storylet)|Discordant Studies (Storylet)|Fallen London|}}</ref></blockquote></font>

In its nonexistent state, the Black learned to speak the [[Discordance]], the frozen language of absence.<ref>{{Citation|https://fallenlondon.wiki/wiki/Discordant_Studies_(Storylet)|Discordant Studies (Storylet)|Fallen London|}} ''"You have risen to such heights that they have cast you down, but you have learnt to speak even without a voice. [...] called out by not calling, [...] beckoned with no sceptre, worn no crown, and written nothing in [...] ink-black pages [...]"''</ref> The [[The Anchoress|Anchoress]] saw a vision of the [[Hurlers]], and read and understood the Discordant sigils written upon them.<ref>{{Citation|https://fallenlondon.wiki/wiki/Discordant_Studies_(Storylet)|Discordant Studies (Storylet)|Fallen London|}} ''"In the dark, the darkness comes to you. Stay at your little window [...] and read the night-steeped text that rises with the stones atop the hill outside. [...] "Anyone would've agreed to read the stones. But not everyone would have tried to understand them.""''</ref> She was brought into contact with the Black,<ref>{{Citation|https://fallenlondon.wiki/wiki/Discordant_Studies_(Storylet)|Discordant Studies (Storylet)|Fallen London|}} ''""I prayed," says the Anchoress. "I met a king." [...] "Not truly a king. [...] But without light, there is darkness. If there is the White, then there is also the Black."''</ref> who beckoned her closer. The Black used the Discordance to decree that neither she nor itself would ever be alone,<ref name=":3">{{Citation|https://fallenlondon.wiki/wiki/Discordant_Studies_(Storylet)|Discordant Studies (Storylet)|Fallen London|}} ''"The Discordant Law [...] and you will never be alone – and we will never be alone – come closer [...] the Anchoress does come closer, walking toward the standing stones [...]"''</ref> and that the Anchoress would always be herself. And so the Anchoress became herself: the nonexistent [[Adulterine Castle]], as she comforted the Black in its chained and shivering state.<ref>{{Citation|https://fallenlondon.wiki/wiki/Discordant_Studies_(Storylet)|Discordant Studies (Storylet)|Fallen London|}} ''"The Discordant Law [...] by our decree, you shall still be yourself [...] and be yourself [...] she becomes herself [...] until she herself is the castle, and the castle has become herself. [...] she cradles no frozen king whose body, shrieking soundlessly, still chained, shivers in her embrace."''</ref> The Black's not-voice still permeates Adulterine, but can only be "heard" in the deepest silence.<ref>{{Citation|https://fallenlondon.wiki/wiki/Discordant_Studies_(Storylet)|Discordant Studies (Storylet)|Fallen London|}} ''"Listen closely to a Night-Whisper [...] Silence has many meanings [...] The particular silence you hear under the ice, when nothing stirs in the castle, is what nothing might say if it could speak to you right now. [...]  Another tongue is speaking. It isn't a ninth tongue. It doesn't exist. [...] you hear a silence that means: a chain has ceased to rattle."''</ref> And its cries may yet tear the world itself apart.<ref name=":0" />