(2026-01-02) Return to Duty
Details
Author: Alli
Summary: Celaven contemplates the new year and the work it may hold.
Rating: T for Teen
Celaven

Mother moon, see my heart.

Celaven kneels in the Darnassus temple at night, his silky purple hair falling forward over both shoulders, and his spotless white robes pooling around his feet. The gleaming waters of the temple’s moonwell are concealed beyond his closed eyes – he sees only the content of his mind. A rustling, whispering darkness.

Moon goddess, I kneel beneath you in the night, waiting for your light.

The whispers calm, fade away, each a worry he allows to flow through his mind without resistance, accepting them. About his family, his friends, his colleagues that are becoming something of a mix of both. Slowly, the darkness recedes, and a beam of moonlight coalesces around him. It intensifies with each breath, gently pushing the darker shadows away.

Each breath. There’s another breath, together with his. Another form, just behind him. A shadow – his shadow? The light falters, and there’s the rustling again, unruly thoughts rising like troubled dreams.

Mother moon, guide your child in the darkness.

The White Lady turns above him, the bright face of Elune eclipsing to a thin ring of fire around a circle of black. The shadows flow in, as close as his skin, even closer. He can smell the scent of woodsmoke, of a forest burning. He can hear, you are not enough.

His hand rises, in his mind and in the world, to touch a charm hung around his neck. A silver clasp, a stormcrow feather. His hand rests there for a long moment, a steadying touch.

Celaven accepts the shadows as a part of him. Light and darkness, in balance. He breathes quietly, letting the rustling settle again, holding love as the center around which everything that he is flows.

It is nearly time for his expeditionary unit to return to the field. They will certainly be needed, given the news from Pandaria and its mysterious sha, as well as the ongoing war against the Horde. He will be ready. He will carry with him the moon goddess’s peace as well as her strength. He opens his eyes.

“Mother moon, please guide my hands,” Celaven says aloud. “Bless my work, in the days to come.”

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