STORMERE
Season 1, Episode 16: "Daylight" (Season Finale)
FADE IN:
EXT. KRYSTAL SANDS – BATTLEFIELD – DAWN
Daylight breaks.
Not warm. Not hopeful.
Just light revealing the damage of the war that just passed.
Bodies pilled up onto the crystalline dunes. Broken weapons glint uselessly. Smoke drifts low across the sand.
Lyra walks slowly through the aftermath, blood on her hands. Her eyes are empty.
Ariadne kneels beside fallen soldiers, checking for life, finding none.
Soren sits where the fighting ended, staring at the ground. Hunter’s blade lies besides him.
Unclaimed. Unavenged.
A long silence.
Lyra finally collapses to her knees.
LYRA (hoarse): We didn’t stop him. We lost.
Ariadne turns away, ashamed.
ARIADNE: Stormfall… it's his. He has the wish.
Soren grips Hunter’s blade.
SOREN (quiet, breaking): Then what the hell did my brother die for?
No one answers.
EXT. STORMFALL – RUINED STEPS – LATER
The structure is quiet now. Dormant. Hollow.
Aleric stands at the base of the steps.
Not bound. Not threatened. Just… distant.
Ariadne spots his in the distance and approaches cautiously.
ARIADNE: You don’t have to stay with him.
ALERIC (soft, conflicted): I want to stay with he... him. He's not forcing me.
The rest of the group approaches.
LYRA (bitter): He killed Hunter.
ALERIC (pained): I know. But... I'm still gonna stand by his side. I promise you'll understand me one day.
A beat.
LYRA (bitter): Never. You're as good as dead to me.
She leaves.
ALERIC: I'm sorry.
Soren snaps.
SOREN: You think that saying sorry makes it this right?! You think it's gonna bring Hunter back?
ALERIC (voice breaking): It won't... but...
SOREN (filled with rage): But NOTHING! Leave. And never come back...
Silence.
Aleric rises and heads towards the side of the hills where Nox "should be".
Then, a sound.
A deep, resonant pulse.
Stormfall is near again.
EXT. STORMFALL – SUMMIT – CONTINUOUS
Nox stands at the center. The artifact floats before him: blinding, ancient, absolute.
Power coils around his body like living fire.
The sky darkens. The wind howls. The survivors watch from below, powerless.
ARIADNE (whispering, terrified): He’s making the wish… It's happening... This is the end...
Soren stands, eyes burning.
SOREN: I’ll kill him before he can do it.
He takes one step forward.
And stops.
Reality itself pushes back.
ARIADNE (whispering, terrified): You can't... it's inevitable now.
Nox raises his hand.
NOX (calm, certain): I wish for a world without Stormfall. Where no more wishes are granted...
The artifact reacts violently.
NOX (continues): A world where I control the wars... the kingdoms... the world. A world of pure and absolute... peace.
The ground fractures.
Time screams.
LYRA (shouting): STOP!
NOX (final): A new order. May the age of Nox begin...
A blinding surge of light engulfs everything.
CUT TO WHITE.
Silence.
Then...
DAYLIGHT.
EXT. UNKNOWN CITY – DAY
Clean streets. Orderly crowds. Crimson banners fly proudly on every house, every road... everywhere.
No ruins. No war scars.
Statues of Nox stand tall... not monstrous, but revered.
Peaceful.
Controlled.
INT. THRONE CHAMBER – DAY
Nox sits on a grand throne of stone and light.
Calm. Regal. Victorious.
The Blood Queen stands beside him.
Aleric kneels below.
Nox surveys his kingdom.
Satisfied.
NOX (soft smile): At last. Absolute order.
He sits on his throne.
The Age of Nox has begun.
FADE TO BLACK.
END OF ACT THREE- "THE WAR OF STORMFALL"
END OF SEASON ONE.