Nocturne

☾ Chapter Thirteen ~ Nocturne ☽

Warmth.

Darkness.

She opened her eyes into a glade surrounded by silver birch, with a sky strewn with infinite constellations.

There was a pool in the centre of the glade, and beside it stood a woman.

She cast no reflection on the starlit surface, but Diurne could see the moon shining quietly just where the lady's face would be, though there was no moon in the rippling dark blue sky.

The woman turned as Diurne approached, revealing a pale face that was as gentle and fey as the moon itself. As She turned, the moon in the water changed, flowing from full to dark in a heartbeat.

Diurne bowed deeply. The Goddess only laughed, a noise as quiet and mystical as the rest of Her. "I need no such gestures, little one, especially not from you." She smiled. "But it is appreciated."

Diurne had to make a conscious effort not to bow again. "My lady."

"Sit," Luna said as She crossed her legs in the grass, running a hand through void-black hair that drifted as if gliding through water. Diurne was surprised by how emotional Luna was. Excitement, happiness- even worry was displayed in the goddess's tilted black eyes, though artfully hidden. It was that muddle of emotion that finally convinced Diurne that this was real.

Diurne sat. She looked away, and then back at the goddess, who was studying her, watching over her like a favoured blossom, regrown from disease, or perhaps like a mother bird watches her hatchling poke its head from its shell after long wait.

"Luna?" Diurne asked, voice hesitant as Autumn's first frost. Luna smiled and tilted Her head, indicating for Diurne to continue.

"Am I- am I dead?"

The Wise Goddess of Darkness and Moonlight snorted.

"No, my child. In the Mortal World whence you came, you are merely unconscious, and being cared for by my dryad handmaidens and their sylph caretakers. You are in perfectly safe hands." Her smile faded. "Your counterpart... Aurora... on the other hand..."

Diurne's eyes widened. "Aurora!? Is she okay?" She began to scramble to her feet, desperately scanning the lush glade.

Luna shook her head. "She's fine. She simply does not have the people around her that could tell her what will happen when she claims Χρυσός, as you claimed Ασήμι from the lake."

Diurne sat back down, embarrassed, but still anxious. "Asimi?"

Luna nodded. "Yes. When you were created, my brother and I realized that you would need help. So we gave you three gifts- A book of your past: Child of Night and Warrior of Light, respectively; A sword for your present, Ασήμι and Χρυσός; and magic for you shape your future. You have each found the first, are in the process of claiming the second, and do not yet know the third's ways."

The goddess smiled again. "I believe you are a little further in terms of the sword, but Aurora is beginning to understand her magic better already."

"Can you teach me?" asked Diurne, looking up at the taller woman.

Luna sighed. "I'm afraid I cannot. Of all of your gifts, the third is the one you have the most control over, and therefore the one where I have the least. You alone can decide your future. I have taught you your past, and offered you your present to claim, but I cannot interfere in how great your future may become- though it will be great, I assure you, in one way or another.

"All I can say is this: You can make and remake yourself infinitely. Your identity is fluid, though immortal. Remember that."

The world began to fade, darkness swirling in around her.

The young woman smiled, the skies of two worlds blurring into one, streaking with the red and gold of a bright new dawn.

"My name..." she whispered, still floating in that dark anti-void between dream and reality, "is Nocturne!"