Bride of the Blood Moon

Dusk stains the world red and black, as if the sky itself has bled out over these ruined fields. The horse picks her way through the debris, each hoofstep muffled by layers of ash. We pass the remains of what was once a border village—no name now, no signpost standing. Only a tangle of half-burned timbers and walls that sag in on themselves like broken ribs. The air tastes of old smoke and something sweetly rotted. Even now, weeks on, it clings to the back of my throat.

The royal guard trails at a distance, per protocol. I sense them more than see them—a collection of shadows in formal livery, keeping their silence as if afraid the ruins might overhear. My banner sags in the breeze. The golden sun of Aradal hangs limp, the threads scorched at the edges. I wonder if it will ever look clean again, or if the soot has become part of its design.

I draw up beside the remnants of the village square. Beneath the horse’s breath and my own heartbeat, I make out the faint crackle of something settling in the fire-blackened debris. A spar of wood gives way, collapsing with a sigh. I swing down from the saddle, boots sinking half an inch into a mix of mud and ash. My legs feel heavy, as if the black earth wants to claim them, pull me down into the same memory it holds of all the others.

A wind comes up, shifting ash in slow, eddying spirals. I tighten my cloak around my shoulders and step forward, ignoring the rasp of armor at my joints. I’m not dressed for mourning, but for intimidation: a breastplate chased with gold, the sigil of my House stark on the tabard. Still, there is no one left here to fear me.

A burned-out cottage draws my eye. The front wall is gone, exposing the intimate skeleton of what was once a home: blackened beams, half-melted crockery, the ghost of a staircase leading nowhere. Inside, I find the first evidence of children—a circle of stones marking a game, and beside it, something unrecognizable at first. I kneel. It’s a doll, or what’s left of one. Rag limbs reduced to two ashen sticks, its dress a black shroud crisped tight to the body. The painted face has run in long, dark tears down the porcelain.

I reach out, unable not to, and brush a finger over its brow. The surface flakes away under my touch, leaving a smudge on my glove. It feels sacrilegious to move it, but more so to leave it here, unmarked. I set the thing gently back on its stones and stand, bracing myself on a charred beam as I rise.

A sound behind me: boots squelching, measured, heavy with intent. I pivot, my hand moving by habit toward the dagger at my hip, though I know the royal livery well. Sir Darius stands at the edge of the ruin, careful not to step closer without my leave.

"Your Highness," he says, bowing his head. His hair, once blond, has turned the color of old straw, and his face wears a day's growth of beard as if he has simply forgotten to shave. "We should not linger. The sun is nearly down."

"We will linger as long as I say," I reply. My tone comes out sharper than I intend, but I make no apology. "If the night has claim here, it can wait its turn."

He inclines his head, but his eyes linger on the blackened threshold, where bone gleams under the ruined doorway. He does not need to tell me he thinks it an ill omen. I have made peace with omens; they are rarely more dire than reality.

I walk further in, past a wall of toppled stone. The remains of a hearth are strewn with rusted iron—pots, a twisted poker, the blade of a kitchen knife. I toe at the debris and unearth a child's buckle, half-melted, the leather strap fused to it. I hold it up to the light. A scrap of blue enamel catches the last sun, a tiny star still visible on its surface. The vision flickers: a memory of a little girl holding her doll, turning slow circles in a kitchen that no longer exists.

A voice calls out. "High Warden." Not a title, but a plea.

I turn to see the villager emerging from the dusk—a woman, bent and brittle, her face split by more lines than I can count. Her hair is white and bound with a bit of twine, her dress the brown of old sackcloth. She looks at me, not with the vacant terror I've come to expect, but with something closer to exhaustion.

She kneels. It takes her three tries to get all the way down, her knees creaking audibly. The motion is both deliberate and involuntary, a reflex older than the scars on her hands. I wave her to her feet, but she only bows her head lower.

"Please," I say, more gently. "You do not kneel to me. Stand."

She does, but only half-way, her back curved like a sickle. "You are the sun-daughter," she says. Her accent is thick, the vowels stretched. "We have waited for you."

No one has called me that in years, not since the first campaign in the Wound. The honorific sits ill in my ears, but I nod to acknowledge it.

"How many are left?" I ask.

"Ten, maybe. Maybe nine. We hide when the wolves come." She glances at Darius, as if unsure whether he's beast or man.

"They will not come again," I tell her. "Not with me here."

She does not look convinced. Her eyes are pale and nearly blind, but they fix on my armor, the way my hand tightens on the reins. I release the death grip with an effort, flexing my fingers as if to prove I am flesh and not another ghost in this place.

"Tell me what you need," I say.

Her lips work silently for a moment before any sound emerges. "Nothing. It is done. We bless the dead, we wait for the bones to finish burning. The rest is gone."

She reaches into her apron and produces a sprig of something green. Not a flower—nothing blooms here—but a weed, tough and grayish. She hands it to me, and I take it because to refuse would be to break her entirely.

"For luck," she says. "Or memory."

I tuck it into the buckle of my cloak. My guard will mock it later, but for now I let it be.

She bows her head and begins to murmur the blessing, the one I used to recite at every departure. Sun Father keep you, Sun Father shield your soul, may the light burn away all darkness. The words sound hollow here, surrounded by proof that neither sun nor god took much interest in this place.

A flicker in my chest—a flinch, invisible from the outside but real enough. The benediction ends, and for a moment no one moves.

"Go home," I say softly. "If you can. If not—wait for the relief column. Supplies will come in two days."

She does not thank me. Only bows, turns, and walks away with the same bent, stubborn steps.

The sun slips below the horizon. The shadows grow long, then dissolve. I remount the horse, drawing a slow, measured breath. My men fall into formation behind me, all of us silent as we pick our way through the debris.

I touch the green sprig at my collar. It is alive, if barely. I wonder how it found the strength to grow here, or if it too will shrivel by morning.