Nocturne

☾ Chapter Twenty-Three ~ Nocturne ☽

There was no window in their cell, no way of know the time, but when the guards came and bound their hands, Nocturne knew the day had finally come.

They were dragged out of the dungeon, not roughly, but carelessly. When they re-entered the world the sun had not yet risen, and stars were just beginning to fade from the sky. They would be executed at dawn, to herald a new day with blood and merriment.

But there was no merriment in the faces of the wisps of crowd already beginning to gather. Perhaps it was the early hour, but Nocturne saw dissent and disillusionment breeding among the gathered people, largely people closer to the edges of the age spectrum. Young and old gathered before dawn to witness the falling of the moon, Her last heartbeats headless and bleeding onto the earth.

Nocturne felt a sinking pain in her chest. She would die here, she knew as she and Asa were forced to their knees and the distant sky was turning angry red in the distance. And worse than that, she would stay dead. Not just this incarnation, but she knew, she knew, with the agony that only comes from the truth, but all of them.

They would never remember.

Not Neoma, not Coro, not Xifos, not Riley, not Adrieanna or Brangwen or Hesperus or Orpheus or Amaya or Isra or even Artemis. Even the first, the unnamed during her lifetime, but called Nyx before the Forgetting.

All forgotten, left behind, shadows that flee at the first whisper of light.

They would not see the problem. The crowd gathering before her might never know what they had lost, and the royal family- well, they would only think of the the final death of darkness as a final victory of light.

But what the cost?

They were linked, the twin two. Never one without the other- surely they had learned this by now. Without Nocturne, no Aurora. Without Orpheus, no Cybelline. Without Nyx, no Hemera.

And without Luna, there could be no Sol.

Did they understand? Nocturne wondered. Did they know what they would destroy?

No. Of course they didn't.

They never did.

The world was painful to Nocturne's raw and open heart. The wind was frozen and gusting, even as it stilled to an uncomfortably stagnant wait. Asa's concerned eyes, so clear of blame or rage, cut through her with the sharp knife leveled upon betrayers.

"Wake up," Asa whispered fervently. She was promptly punished with a hard slap to the cheek, but the damage was done.

Nocturne blinked and stared up at the fiery sky, red as blood and rage. A hint of white light was visible over the horizon as the sun began to rise.

Another pair of guards let Aurora onto the small wooden platform. The boy wouldn't meet Aurora's eyes, but the girl stared at Nocturne, occasionally flicking to Asa and the crowd. Aurora searched for Nocturne's eyes and stopped a moment at the front of the stage to make eye contact.

Her normally glowing burnished skin was sallow and taut, looking as afraid and defeated as Nocturne felt. But still she found it in her to smile before being pushed away to the chair set up for her.

Nocturne had been too distracted by Aurora to notice the royal family ascending behind them, the King and Queen settling behind the two Lunars, and Prince Aelius striding forward to the spot where he would read their sentence, a gilded sword swinging at his hip.

He looked out over the crowd.

And the Sun rose.