Chapter Text
The moons are out.
Jode gleams high and watchful. Jone hides behind thin cloud, peering through when the wind allows.
Ra’zirr walks alone.
The trail winds along a ridgeline north of the hold, stone beneath his paws, frost in the grass. Trees rise on either side, tall and quiet. No birds. No crack of branch. Just the sound of breath and movement and the faint hum of his own heartbeat.
The silence is cleaner here. Fewer memories in the dirt. No sugar in the air.
He does not carry a torch.
Khajiit do not need one.
His eyes catch silver where others would see black. The world is made of shadow and outline, and he has walked worse in worse light.
The skooma is long gone from his blood. But the craving still waits, coiled low and patient. It always does.
He doesn’t trust it. Never did. But tonight, it is quiet.
That is enough.
Behind him, high on the slope, a shape lingers, half-hidden, unmoving.
Maybe it’s the same man. Maybe not. Ra’zirr does not stop. He does not look back. He walks forward.
This one is still called Ash-Step. And the path ahead still smolders. But he walks it anyway.