ᴍᴇᴇᴛ ᴍᴇ ɪɴ ᴛʜᴇ ᴅᴀʀᴋ, ᴋɪꜱꜱ ᴍᴇ ɪɴ ᴛʜᴇ ᴍᴏᴏɴʟɪɢʜᴛ

x. the crone

┌─── ∘°❉°∘ ───┐

"Do you know where Elle is?"

The man, Ben, looked at Jon with furrowed eyebrows.

"The sept prolly, at this time o' day."

At this time of day? What did he mean by that? It was only early morning.

"Thank you."

Ghost diligently beside him, Jon walked with quick steps up the stairs, faster than necessarily needed to avoid the questioning he was certain would have come. He would ask too if he were Ben.

He had to mentally go through the entirety of Castle Black before he remembered where the sept was. He never thought he would ever need to know its location, but he supposed there was a first time for everything.

The sept bordered the eastern wall of Castle Black, nestled firmly in between the barracks and a small hall, and built out of a different stone than either of them. It, much like the sept at Winterfell, had probably been a later addition to the castle.

Jon did not know if he wanted to go inside. He had never been in the one back at his home and didn't know what to expect.

Not home, he reminded himself. Winterfell was not his home anymore. This was. And he'd better get used to that thought.

He wondered again what Elle could possibly be doing here. Perhaps the Lord Commander had sent her to bring a message to the septon or to repair something. He didn't know how badly the sept had been damaged by the storm, but that couldn't have been on anyone's mind a few days ago.

"Wait here," he told Ghost.

He pushed against the wooden door and entered.

The first thing he noted was the sun shining into his face. The window at the other side of the room was placed to capture the morning light, leading to the sept being bathed in a golden light.

The second thing he noticed was Elle. She knelt in front of one of the statues, eyes closed and hands interlaced. A cloth covered her hair, the icy blue fabric reminding Jon of the Wall that loomed over them day and night. A lone candle burnt in front of her.

Jon shifted uncomfortably. He shouldn't be here. A sept was no place for a Northerner. And besides that, he felt like he was intruding on an intimate moment.

He turned to leave when Elle suddenly spoke up.

"Do not worry," she said quietly. "I am already finished."

Jon turned his head back to her and watched her slowly rise to her feet. She looked back at the statue for a moment before walking towards him.

He opened his mouth but Elle spoke quicker.

"Let us talk outside." Again in that quiet voice.

He opened the door for her and followed her outside.

Ghost sat beside a wall, staring at it intently, not even noticing them.

Elle tugged the ends of her scarf out of her tunic and removed the cloth. Jon got a look at some of the stitching as she folded it together; the suns were easy to decipher, but as to what the others were meant to represent was a mystery to him. The shapes lead him to believe they might be animals, but which ones he could not say, for that the stichting was too ugly.

"So," Elle said, "what did you want to tell me?"

The necklace Jon had seen several times before showed its chain again, most likely tugged out of its resting place by the scarf.

He shook his head. "Maester Aemon told me he has need of you."

She pressed her lips together for a moment, before her smile appeared again.

"Well, thank you for letting me know." She raised her brows. "Anything else?"

Jon knew he shouldn't ask, but he needed to know.

"Why were you praying?"

Elle blinked.

"Why do we sleep? Why do we collect flowers and decorate our halls will them? Why do we fall in love? Because we need it from time to time."

"And why would you need to pray?" Jon wasn't able to keep the disparaging tone out of his voice.

Elle laughed darkly. "Mayhaps I have made a mistake I was never able to apologise for." She looked at him and cocked her head. "But that is only part of it."

She turnt to leave him and walk away, when she suddenly stopped in her tracks.

"About last time," Elle began carefully. She looked back at him. "I am sorry you had to see that side of me. Sometimes I lose myself." Her gaze lowered. "I just wanted to let you know that I would have never killed him. I would never kill anyone for that matter. That is not a boundary I am willing to cross."

Jon nodded. "I understand."

It still sometimes sent a shiver down his back when he thought back to the sparks in her eyes. But he knew she would never direct that look at him.

Elle nodded as well and turnt to leave for good. When she passed Ghost she patted his head. The wolf looked up at her for a moment before returning its stare to the wall.

Jon wanted to leave as well, but he needed to ask one last thing.

"What statue were you praying to?"

Elle's laugh sounded off the walls. She turned around and walked backwards away from him.

"Please." He didn't even know why this was so important to him. But with the dream he had a few nights past...

"The Mother," Elle said across the distance and disappeared around a corner.

└─── °∘❉∘° ───┘