The Nobility of Night (pt. 2 of the Argentum Chronicles)

A shadows retreat at first sign of light, the balefire slowly regains its glow,
By the arrogance of another, so again burns the pride
Once more I ride!
“Be for me and only me”
Was what she said unto thee.
“No go forth and saddle beast…
For tonight we strike!”
Like the pull…of the moon…. to the flow of the tide
So I again… feel her call….to meet those who would try
Flashes of the fleshy cumulus as all is made ready
Time is time and in its stream
The paths of those long gone
Cease to mark the others fall
As sapience fades away
Like the pull…of the moon…. to the flow of the tide
Others try… to lay claim….led by her elusive lure
Shadows of my former self before I championed night
Forces “en masse”…
Forces unmasked
Unmasked in the black yet star-bleached sky, without grace of her guide
In the southern pass beyond the barrier foothills forging the claystone divide
A foolish party, enrapt to she, would seek to claim her spoils
Delectation for the one, as this scene in time unfolds.
From the north we move as three
In motion under one
One third to lay the channeled net, one third to flush them out
One third to block any escape or return them into route.
A wider entrance with narrowed neck closing in the gap
With me alone at gantlet’s head to lead in the attack!
And so it begins again.
As vessel to her will!
”…Oh, the splendor of the machine
Fueled by flesh of the fallen
Moving ever forward with gauntlets raised
Into the night…”
The final vociferations, as the last falls.
Decaying murmurs in melee’s end, silence in the pale
Moonlight!