After the veil of Ningula was torn, her husband Noilos came forth, serene and radiant, twin to Ninurtos. He bore in one hand a staff carved with runes of old, which swayed the tides of the sea and the hearts of men. In the other he held a shard of moonfire, pale and silver, never quenched, never dimmed. His priests cried out, saying: “Behold the eternal flame, the guide of night, the keeper of secrets. Who can stand against the Lord of the Moon, who silences even the sun in his eclipse?”
So Noilos set forth his challenge. He commanded the sea to swell, and the waves rose like mountains; he commanded the hearts of men to falter, and their tongues whispered secrets not their own. He drew forth the shadow of the moon and veiled the day, saying: “See, even the sun bows to my dominion. What light remains now to your nameless God?”
But Gamasiel prayed, and the Forgotten God answered not with silence, nor with shadow, but with truth. For where Noilos compelled confession by force, the Spirit of the One drew forth confession freely, and the people unburdened their souls with joy. Where the sea swelled in wrath, the waves fell calm before the peace of His word. And though Noilos dimmed the sun in eclipse, the faithful beheld a greater wonder: a brightness that shone within their hearts, unbound by moon or star, a light no shadow could master.
Then the people said: “This is no pale reflection nor silver shard, but the living flame of truth, brighter than the sun, gentler than the moon. Noilos is but a lamp in the night; the Forgotten God is the Day itself.”
Thus Noilos was defeated in the fifth contest, his mystery unveiled and his dominion overturned by the light that endures unborrowed.
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