[RQ] Beneath the Frozen Silence

Noah

the truth is what remains
the truth is what you save from the fire

Ravenna broke away from him and his breath caught, mind pulling backward to Cordelia, to fire and wings and the way loss carved itself into his spine. For a heartbeat, the world around him dulled. The wind muffled, frost shimmered like heat haze. He stood still, heart thudding like a war drum in his ribs.

Noah sighed and shook his head, grounding himself in the weight of the cold, in the scent of snow and stone. He rolled his shoulders as Venna stepped away.  The others had kept moving, Venna and Elizabeth dedicated to the task at hand. He was glad for that. Grief had its place—but not here. Not now.

He flexed his fingers and returned to the rocks with deliberate focus. Each shard he picked up glinted faintly with starlight, as if Safrin’s presence lingered in the veins of the earth. It helped. The rhythm steadied him.

There would be time to reckon with ghosts. But today was for service, for purpose. And so he bowed his head and kept collecting what the goddess had asked of him.

But his ears stayed sharp, open, keen.

you fight for what you love, don't matter if it hurts
you find out what it's worth and you let the rest burn