Ashes and Moonlight

(...)

 Finally, Nox exhaled slowly through his nose. “Thalric hated the cold.” His mouth twitched faintly, but there was no humor in it. “Used to complain every winter like the world was personally attacking him.”

Elayne turned her head slightly toward him but stayed quiet, letting him speak at his own pace.

Nox rubbed absentmindedly at the dried blood staining his hands. “He taught me how to hold a blade.” His voice lowered, quieter now. “Taught me the basics of my magic before I was even old enough to understand what any of it meant.” He swallowed once, hard. “He was…”

(...)

“The only one who actually made time for me when I was younger,” he finished roughly.

Elayne felt a strange, tight ache in her chest. "Your father...?"

Nox gave a quiet, humorless huff, his eyes never leaving the burning pyre below. “My father was always occupied.” The bitterness beneath the words was subtle but deeply felt. “There was always something more important that needed his attention.”

The wind howled softly through the valley.

“But Thalric…” Nox’s voice cracked slightly before he forced it steady again. “Thalric always showed up.”

Elayne watched the firelight flicker across his face, catching the exhaustion carved deep beneath his eyes.

“And I brought him here to die.”

The words landed hard.

Nox stared down at his bloodstained palms with open disgust, flexing his fingers once like he could still feel Thalric’s life slipping through them.

“They follow me, Elayne.” His voice dropped lower. Rougher. “They listen to my orders. They trust me to lead them.” A hollow laugh escaped him. “And then they die for it.”

Elayne’s throat tightened.

Nox shook his head faintly, eyes dark and distant. “I keep wondering… how many graves are enough before this stops being a rebellion and becomes a massacre. Before I am just the monster leading them to their slaughter.”

The raw self-loathing in his voice startled her more than anger ever could.

Elayne watched him in silence, and suddenly the shadows around him no longer looked intimidating.

They looked heavy.

Not the infuriating male who taunted her across card tables with arrogant smirks.

Not the impatient, dangerous commander wrapped in shadows and secrets.

She saw the boy who had been left behind—the male carrying the weight of an entire fractured people across his shoulders until it threatened to break his spine.

“They don’t follow you blindly, Nox,” Elayne said softly.

He didn’t respond, but she saw the slight shift in his expression.

“People still choose to follow you.” Her voice remained calm and steady despite the emotion tightening her chest. “Thalric chose to fight beside you. You didn’t force him to cross worlds just to bring you that warning or take that fatal blow.”

Nox’s breathing slowed slightly.

“You think carrying every death entirely alone honors them,” she continued. “But it doesn’t.” She shook her head faintly. “It just destroys you piece by piece until there’s nothing left of the person they believed in to begin with.”

Silence.

The wind curled between them, carrying sparks high into the stars.

Slowly, Nox turned toward her.

And for the first time since she had known him, there was no armor left in his eyes.

(...)

He looked at her as if he couldn’t quite understand how someone so young—someone who had lost so much herself—could still speak with that kind of gentleness instead of bitterness.

Elayne suddenly became acutely aware of how close they were sitting. How silver his eyes looked beneath the moonlight. How exhausted he seemed.

Something warm and painful twisted low in her chest.

Without fully thinking about it, she reached toward him.

Her fingers hesitated briefly before settling over his bloodstained hand.

(...)

Nox went completely still.

Elayne gently tightened her hold, offering no empty promises. No grand speeches. Just presence. Just quiet understanding.

Nox stared down at their joined hands.

He didn’t pull away.

For one dangerous second, his fingers twitched beneath hers like he wanted to hold on tighter.

But he restrained himself.

“You should go back inside, Elayne,” he murmured again, softer this time. Weaker somehow. “It’s late.”

She shifted slightly beside him, pulling her cloak tighter against the cold before looking back toward the burning pyre.

“No,” she said simply.

A slow breath escaped him, silver mist curling into the freezing air.

When Nox looked back toward the flames, he didn’t argue again.

Side by side beneath the endless dark sky, they remained there together in silence, watching the sparks from Thalric’s pyre drift upward like dying stars—rising higher and higher until the night finally swallowed them whole.

From Chap19-part 4 -final

I might turn that excerpt into a dramatized audio version. 😎

Of the three scenes, the second was the most difficult. For several reasons: camera angle, pose, distance...

Nox’s black wolf, Onyx, is right there near the gates’ entrance.

👉️Daz Studio + AI + photoshop

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