From Morning to Night Webtoon Launch Week Day 6

From Goddesses to missing children, JiEun Son's From Morning to Night has a lot to unpack in the three chapters I read.

From Morning to Night is a fantasy story about a country with two goddesses fighting for power. Mane, and Nox Twilight seem to be in the center of a power struggle between the two beliefs.

Mane at the age of twelve, and Nox at the age of nine, are siblings from the Town of Night. The Town of Night is going under renovations, and is evicting nearly everyone out of the town to make a temple for the goddess Obscurity, The goddess of Night. The siblings decide to live with their uncle Eclipse in the Town of Morning and decide to live in their mother's old house together. Their uncle will be next door if they need anything.

Mane in Latin means morning, and Nox roughly translates to night in Latin. Their name goes great with their last name of Twilight meaning dual light. I don't normally go into peoples' names and translation meanings, but when the main characters are essentially Morning and Night, I just had to explain.

Asa Clare, daughter to the head of Morning decides to talk with Eclipse. Eclipse introduces her to the siblings and hopes that they can be good friends. She pokes Nox because she think's that Nox is so cute. Nox looks at her angrily Asa realizes that Nox doesn't like being touched and apologizes by giving them an apple sapling, a gift from Lumiere, goddess of Light's temple. Since Morning is the closes tow to Lumiere's Temple, she graces Morning with gifts quite often.

Asa and Eclipse deliver their supplies in a horse drawn wagon. Along the way, they talk about Lumiere and Obscurity. Eclipse explains that Night has a good welfare system that could keep the kids safe without their mom, as well as family that lived nearby. Night evacuated the town to build a temple for Obscurity. The days are becoming unnaturally long due to the Curse of Obscurity. Asa says that since she's a daughter of Morning she knows the story of their country Aube, French for "Dawn at Daybreak"

Aube is protected by two goddesses, Lumiere, Goddess of Light, and Obscurity, Goddess of Darkness reigning with balance and harmony. However, there is only one temple, and it's reserved for Lumiere. Eclipse explains that Lumiere bibles say that Obscurity refused to have a temple built to herself, but that was an excuse by greedy middlemen who wanted to keep all the funds in one temple for themselves. Due to all the money exported, there's almost not enough money to build a temple for Obscurity. They can't put Obscurity in the other temple because it's considered disrespectful to put two goddesses in the same temple.

Lumiere was chosen for the temple since Morning is a farming town. Farmers needed more time in the sun for their crops, so even if they prefered Obscurity over Lumiere, they needed light more than darkness. to this day, people take darkness for granted. Angered, Obscurity is slowly removing the darkness of nighttime until there is only daylight left.

A festival was started later that night. Mane and Nox try to formally introduce themselves to Asa's friends. Nox sees something and begins to walk into the forest of trees outside the town. Asa warns them that they shouldn't go into the forest after sunset, or they might get whisked off to the cursed Blue Mansion in the woods. They head back to the town, but Nox is still looking out into the forest.

Due to the cute bow on Mane's head, Asa's friends Mattina (Spanish for Morning) and Manyana (Spanish for Tomorrow) call Mane Adorable. They start asking Mane random questions like blood type, and if Mane has a boyfriend. Asa asks about the apple sapling. Mane tells her that Mane and Nox made sure to plant it in their yard. Mane asks since they're from Lumiere's temple if it was okay to give the sapling away for free?

Manyana tells her that it's customary for all young girls to be granted a sapling as a sign of joy and welcoming. Mattina explains The plant drives out evil forces, and grows so quickly that it bears fruit within fifty days of planting. Everything from the crunch, and the size of the apples are divine. Once the girl grows up to be an adult, however the apple tree will disappear making it a short, but sweet privilege of the gifts of Lumiere..

Then comes another secret to the apple trees. A rumor that hasn't fully been proven, but highly believed. Once the apple tree bears fruit, a letter arrives at your house. "I shall borrow a child for 48 days in exchange for the apple tree." The child will disappear for 48 days like that letter says, but all of the townspeople including their family completely forget who the child is for 48 days. After 48 days, the child will reappear, and everyone's memory will return. The Child will forget what happened to them after 48 days.

The children consider this a blessing of Lumiere more than a curse. It heals more than it endangers. Two years ago, Manyana couldn't see due to a fever that takes away eyesight, but after being "borrowed" she can happily see everyone. Concerned about Nox, Mane realizes that Nox has run off to the forest again. The girls and Mane begin to search for Nox, and Mane disappears into the forest to look for Nox

Mane remembers their mother Brilliante (Showy and sparkling in style) telling Mane "You're Nox's one and only trustworthy brother, you can protect her, right." This is the first time that the readers are told Mane and Nox's gender. Mane, though he dresses as a girl, is a boy, and Nox who dresses as a guy is actually a girl. This causes a lot of confusion, but when girls are opening up to you better because you wear a bow, and they think you're a girl, it changes how people talk to you and puts them at ease.

Mane finds Nox in the forest. Nox is mute, so she doesn't say anything, but she can still blow her whistle to let Mane know where she is. Concerned for his sister Mane asks, "Do you know how worried I was about you? Of course you don't! that's why you... Why you... Never mind, let's go, everyone must be worried." maybe in the past Nox did something that made her mute previously. Mane and Nox head back to the town, and everyone is relieved.

A few days later, Eclipse, and his wife delivers an apple pie to Mane and Nox. They ask how the siblings are holding up? Mane says that Asa and her pals check up on them, and take good care of them. He then asks about the 48 day ritual letter. Their aunt didn't want to make them feel uneasy and didn't tell them about it until they got accustomed. She says the same things Asa, and her friends told her, and is kept a secret to all outsiders. She also feels that nothing bad has come from the letter, and if anything there's only been good. The Women of Morning are blessed with healthy bodies and live very long lives. Nox could possibly be able to speak after the ritual

Mane asks if their mom also went through the ritual. Eclipse reluctantly tells him that Brilliante was the only girl who never disappeared from the town. He feels that the bullying and being called a witch and a "Heretic who never got blessed by our Goddess" made her an outcast in Morning, is the real reason she moved away to Night. He wanted to go further but their aunt demanded him not do do so. He only heard about it from the townspeople when they prepared a search party for Nox. Had he known about the rumors, he wouldn't have brought them there in the first place, and is starting to regret his decision by making sure that they don't get bullied while living in the town. They just thought she'd left town just to be with Mane's father.

Their aunt almost breaks down realizing why they bullied her, and tells Mane that she just watched because she was scared of what they might do to her. She realizes that she was an accomplice through the saying "Silence is Violence" And can never forgive herself for it. Eclipse is more concerned about what will happen if Nox never gets the letter. Mane says that he'll protect her whether she gets the letter or not. Eclipse tells their aunt "I do hope they'll both receive our goddess's blessing."

A few days later, Mane wakes up to a ritual letter on Nox's side of the bed, but he still remembers who Nox is, and hasn't forgotten her. He tells Eclipse that someone tried to copy the ritual letter and steal Nox. Eclipse asks Mane, "So Mane, You're saying a child named Nox has been kidnapped?" Eclipse and Asa have no recollection of Nox in the first place. Mane shows Asa and Eclipse the letter. Asa says that since you're a girl, and you only have one tree in your household, then why would your sibling disappear instead of you? Mane says he's not a girl, he's a boy surprising Asa.

Eclipse tells Asa that Mane probably looks like a girl because he got pretty-boy looks from his mom, and that he hasn't reached puberty yet, so a few people still mix him up. Mane demands answers on why He can still remember Nox, and nobody else in the town cannot. Asa tells him this is the first time we've ever had anyone who could remember a child who disappeared. Eclipse recommends they wait out Lumiere's ritual before Mane panics.

Mane waits patiently for Nox to return, but on the 49th day, all of the apple trees in the town disappear again, and Nox has never returned.

Mane is considered the crazy kid by the townsfolk, and is spiralling into being an outcast of the town. Eclipse looks for him in the forest. Mane tells his uncle everything he told Him about his mother. A conversation that started because of Nox's search party. Now, Nox's search party never existed in the townsfolk's mind, Eclipse doesn't remember realizing the town rumor of the witch. Mane thinks that Eclipse is pretending to forget, but he genuinely has no recollection of telling him about his mom being bullied. Eclipse still believes that Brilliante moved to Night just to be closer to Mane's father.

Mane starts begging for someone to bring Nox back. Eclipse says that he should be the one begging for Mane to pull himself together or else he might have to send him to the Blue Mansion. Grasping at straws, Mane realizes that the last place he didn't look for answers in is the Blue Mansion, and starts running off into the forest to look for the blue mansion. "Everyone told us to avoid this place! The secrets of this town are hidden away in that mansion!"

Arriving to the mansion, he bangs desperately on the door for someone to open up. Hellena answers the door annoyed that anyone from Morning would ever knock on their door. Helena, whos probably only 15-17 asks the little brat what "she" wants? Mane says to Helena that his younger sister has gone missing, and was hoping that the blue mansion would know something about it. That's why the townspeople tell the kids not to come to the mansion. Helena reluctantly allows "her" in saying that they have too many scones so Mane might as well have some since "she's" here

Mane is invited to a table of girls having tea. Kepri (Emerging Sun) i notices that Mane has never met Lumiere, nor gone through the ritual yet. Mane tells her that they thought the Goddess of Light was just some fabricated myth. How could Mane meet someone who's not real? Helena gets angered by this, and the other girls have to calm her down. They recommend "she" waits for Solar to come back in 36 days. Mane feels that that would be too long, and Nox might be in some danger.

Mane keeps asking questions about Solar's whereabouts until Helena gets angry and yells to "Just Leave!" Helena is tired of Mane. "It's your fault you couldn't keep an eye on your sister, so What makes you think you can barge in and force us to help you? I Let you in out of sympathy, but now you're trying my patience! And who knows? Maybe your sister is just like us forgotten on purpose because she'd rather not come back!" Mane realizes what Helena is saying and starts to ask more about what she said.

Mane asks what "Forgotten on purpose" means. Kepri explains that after the 48 day ritual, the girls at the table never wanted to go back to their families. "To them... We've been completely forgotten." They choose not to go back because according to Helena, "Being a lonely orphan is way better than going back to a crappy home! There are people out there treated worse by their families than by strangers, far worse than you can imagine! Do you know how it feels to be born into a family that doesn't want you? If even my parents aren't on my side, then who am I supposed to trust out there? We abandoned our families and came here because we despised our own homes."

After the girls calm Helena down a second time, she lets Mane in on a fun secret, "After the 48 day ritual, you're given two choices, you can erase your memory of those days and return to your town... or you can keep your memory and be forgotten by everyone else." She snidely smiles "I bet your sister chose the latter! That's probably why no one remembers her! Actually, I'm sure of it. Your sister chose to abandon you and keep her memory of those 48 days." Shocking Mane.

So far the Dialogue around the apple trees and the goddesses really intrigues me in this series. I enjoy the care that Mane has for his sister, and I want to know where Nox is. It's a highly intriguing read That I need more chapters of.