#as usual i am bad at the micro part of this meme :P

[blackjackkent]

49 nightfall and Hector for the meme!

(Send me a number and I’ll write a micro story using the word or phrase)

49. Nightfall

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Shadowheart watches from her tent as the sun begins to set over Baldur's Gate and, with its departure, the pale glow of the full moon begins to take its place.

She should feel comfort from it, she knows. She has renounced Shar, and the Moonmaiden's daughter has placed the Spear of Night into her hands, newly glowing with Selune's light. She has sworn herself to no new faith, not yet, but still there should be some peace that comes with the glow of moonlight at nightfall.

Shouldn't there?

She sighs and gets to her feet restlessly. She isn't quite sure where she's going, but her pacing steps take her slowly out of the camp, down towards the riverbank a little down the nearby slope - where she finds Hector seated on the pier.

He's sitting completely still in the moonlight, eyes half-closed and wrists resting on his knees, cross-legged. He doesn't move at the sound of her footsteps, but after a moment he does speak. "Hello, Shadowheart."

"You've a good ear," she says softly, coming to a halt a little behind him.

"Or a talent for guessing," he says; she can hear the gentle smile in his voice. "Who else might be looking to join me in prayer on such a moonlit night?"

"I would think Karlach would be the more likely candidate," she says dryly. "Although I'm not sure prayer would be what she'd have in mind..." A slight pause. "Is that what I'm here for, then? To pray?"

"Isn't it?" he asks mildly.

"I don't know," she admits. "I feel as if I ought to do something, but I'm not sure what..."

"Come sit down." He does stir now, scooting a little to the side to make room for her among the discarded ropes and broken equipment.

When she's seated herself next to him, he resumes his meditative posture and closes his eyes. "There are many prayers I could teach you," he goes on thoughtfully, "but I don't think you need them. Sometimes one prays most fruitfully with a certain amount of candor." He opens one eye again and catches her looking at him with some perplexity. "Say what you wish the Moonmaiden to hear," he clarifies. "Not what you think you ought to say."

She smiles crookedly. "I am not sure she would be pleased to hear all of it."

He chuckles. "Surely you have learned, in traveling with me, that a Selunite's first tenet is honesty."

She considers that in silence for a moment, then peers up at the moon. "I don't know what to do," she admits softly - and she's not sure if she's talking to Hector or to the goddess he serves. "I keep waiting for a path to show itself out of the dark. I miss the certainty, even if it came from all the doubt being beaten out of me. Is that wrong?"

"Wrong? No," Hector says quietly. A slight pause. "I felt the same, after the Nautiloid took me - not for the same reasons, of course, but the same feeling. Nothing seemed clear. Everything shrouded and dim, terrifying. But I have found a path, our path, in time. And so will you."

She looks sideways at him. Yes - he was very afraid when she first met him, very lost, a far cry from the quiet contemplation she sees in him now. Perhaps there is hope for her yet. "Perhaps I ought to spend more nights here in the moonlight with you," she says.

"It has been a long time since I prayed with anyone," he answers. "I would welcome the company."