Page 59 of Of Iron and Moonlight

She studied him uncertainly, then tried another path. “Did you always celebrate Goldfire with the Council? Even when you were young?”

“Always,” Duncan said, grateful for the change. “With their families. And their jests.”

“And Isander?”

“He used to,” he said. “Now he mostly keeps to himself on moon days.”

She tilted her head, a gesture he had begun to recognize and find mildly amusing. “He does not follow the faith?”

Duncan brushed an imaginary speck from his sleeve. “Something like that.”

She accepted the answer without pressing. They stood a while watching the lights and the smoke curling along the ramparts toward the faint violet glow of Selvarath’s ascent.

“Do you think the moons really listen to us?” Koraleise asked softly.

Duncan hesitated. Then he decided he had no strength remaining tonight for polite half-truths. “No,” he said. “I think they are only moons.”

Her eyes widened, less at the answer than the tone. “You sound very certain.”

“I am.” He paused. “I have seen too much not to be.”

She turned back toward Emberglade. “That is what makes belief difficult,” she said after a moment. “Cruel things still happen, as though the moons ignore our pleas.” She fell silent, considering. “Or perhaps they hear everyone,” she said slowly, “and answering is not the same as intervening. Maybe—”

“And why should they decide who deserves an answer?” Duncan cut in, sharper than he intended. “We give them reverence without ever knowing whether they have spared us a single thought.”

“Maybe that is not what they are for,” she said calmly. “Maybe they are simply the order that holds the world together. Without them, we would not know where to begin.”

Duncan laughed softly, incredulous. “Forgive me if I do not need moons to teach me how to live.” The thought gathered force, emboldened by the edge of conviction he usually kept buried. “Is keeping your word only meaningful because someone watches? Or does it matter more when you choose decency without reward?” He ran a hand through his hair. “And how are we meant to follow their will if they have never spoken it?”

Koraleise flinched slightly.

“I am sorry,” he said at once, drawing a breath. “That was not meant for you.”

He flexed his hand against the stone and glanced at her.

She was smiling. “I must admit, I agree with you.”

Duncan blinked.

“My nursemaid Yaoaya calls the Spectrum a comfort for fools,” she continued, amused. She lowered her voice into a rough imitation, “‘If the moons are so wise, let them sweep the hearth instead of staring down at us all night.’”

The tension broke cleanly. Duncan laughed. She joined him, hesitant at first, then bright with relief. Firelight caught the curve of her cheek and a loose strand of hair. Without thinking, he lifted a hand to brush it back, then remembered himself and let it fall to the stone instead.

“Do not let Rensaya hear you say that,” he said. “She plans her life by their rotations as though Oraith might collapse without them.”

Koraleise smiled and looked up at the sky. “Whether the moons hold power or not,” she said, “some good comes of them.”

“How so?”

“Goldfire, for instance. The idea that we can begin again. That a single shared flame can change how the world feels, even for one night. That seems worth keeping.”

She looked at the scattered lights below and smiled a private smile. “Even if the moons are not listening, even if their light does not cleanse, it still reveals. It shows what needs mending. Where to place your hands when you begin.”

Duncan regarded her in silence. Unexpectedly, her words stirred a reluctant loosening in his chest. Perhaps it wasn’t the moons that failed to lift his grief, but himself holding too tightly when Goldfire offered the chance to burn some of it away.

“I also like that Goldfire renews vows,” she said more softly, turning fully toward him. There was clear thought behind her eyes. “New beginnings. It feels fitting. For me. For us.” She hesitated, studying him. “I thought we could renew ours tonight. Or rather, make them anew.”

“Oh?” Duncan lifted a brow.