Do not gentle into that good night,

rage, rage, against the dying of the light

(Dylan Thomas)

1.

He watched her go gently into the end of night and something in her figure forced him to change him mind about following her. As she removed her red necklace, he almost unconsciously put aways his sword.

She kept walking, slowly and regally, as a queen standing stoically after refusing the crown. As a goddess finally becoming human.

Davos could not do anything but stare almost hypnotized, almost as if he were under a spell. He kept following her, only with the eyes, until he saw her figure become more and more little and more and more unstable, and most of all her burning red hair turn into grey.

That change, instead of paralyzying him even more, quite the contrary shook him from his contemplation and pushed him to move quicker toward her. He had no idea himself of what he wanted to do to her - maybe finish her for ever or maybe just understand the ending of that long witch life that he had witnessed for only a little part. His intentions had no matter though, because while he was making his way through the dead bodies of the fallen heroes of the war, his foot hit something. A metallic sound attracted his attention and he somehow recognized the object from the sound even before looking at it. It was the well known red necklace that belonged to the Red Woman. Without hesitance, filled with an unexplainable rush, he picked it up. At the simple contact between his hands and the gold, cold against cold, the ruby at the centre suddenly lit up.

The brilliant red nearly blinded him, but instead of throwing the object away, he found hismelf grabbing it harder. He was so enchanted by that light that he was almost compelled. Was it maybe the Red Woman's last enchantment, before going to die?

But the sound of a sequence of light steps made him look up. Melisandre was standing now in front of him. Beautiful and young as ever, still bursting of life, exception made for the look in her eyes.

The dark night was over but the terror was now painted on her face.

"What is happening?" Davos asked, taking instinctively a step back, but still holding his grip on the necklace.

"You should tell me, Ser davos" she replied, for the first time without answeres to give and confused as well as him.

She moved one of her hands, not to touch him but to take the necklace back. In spite of his hrip, feeling the woman's accidental touch on the back of his hand, he left the object immediately. But as soon as the object returned into her hands, the ruby died out and a pain filled her, distorting her face.

"What is happening? What is happening to you?" Davos asked again, with a new worry.

Ageing and death were now back on her face and were showing through white hair, wrinkles and most of the light fading in her blue eyes. As for a last desire of life, Melisandre almost threw the necklace in his hands and as soon as the ruby started to shine again, she was shining back as well.

"I was going to die, I thought my days were over after a three hundreds years long life but… For some reason, you are keeping me alive. You among all people, Ser Davos"

The terror on her face wasn't gone as she said that sort of explanation, but at the end of it, an ironic smile appeared on her lips.

"It ws the necklace keeping me young and beautiful… The light of the necklace was finally dying but you lit it up"

Incredulous, the man swallowed hard and moved his eyes from the woman to the jewel. It was actually a last enchantment, after all, but he was mistaken: he was the one to perform it somehow, without wanting it, without believing it and even without having any power.

"What should I do?"

Despite his diffidence and his hate, she was still the one he was asking to. She looked confused and scared, but surely she must have known better than him. That woman had given him another problem and now she had to tell him what to do to solve it. But what could the solution be, if he did not even fully understand the nature of the problem? He had only grasped that he had to keep the damned necklace in his hands and that the woman had not stopped hunting him yet.

Melisandre's sudden laugh took him by surprise even more. It was a weak, sad, almost pathetic laugh.

"Oh, Ser Davos, i think that you should really throw that necklace far away. You really don't get it?" she said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

And actually it was. Now he did get it.

Keeping the necklace and keeping her alive were a problem only if he wanted to keep her alive. The life of the witch was litterally in his hands: releasing his palms from the object would have been sufficient to watch her disappear. To make justice for Shireen. What he had wanted to obtain, asking Jon for an execution and then thinking to follow her just a couple of minutes before, was now there for him on a silver plate.

Actually, on a golden and ruby necklace.

And yet he hesitated. He could not tell why, maybe it was for the same reason why he had let the gates open for her during the battle, letting her in. Then, he had understood that she could have been useful. Now he knew that she had been indie. That she had done some good, even if it costed him a great deal to admit it.

Now he knew that Melisandre of Asshai was the light and the darkness.

She was the light full of terrors.

The tiny line between the good night and the dying of the light.

"I promised you that I would have died before dawn. I should have known that it would have been you. So, do it, kill me"

She urged him, with resignation more than desperation, waiting for death and accepting that change of plan just as an ironic delay.

He still hesitated. He could kill her and he also should have, but suddenly it was like he did not want to do that anymore. He had dreamt of killing her with his bare hands for so long, even before finding out about Shireen. But he did not want to kill her, only the witch that he had always seen and not the fragile woman he was seeing now.

He remained still and in silence for a while, uncertain between the past, the present and the future he could have allow her to live. Until, suddenly, he moved, far from her but not from the necklace.

"Where are you going, Ser Davos?"

He looked back, only to find her almost angry and disappointed. That reaction made him smile for the first time. Did she really want to die? He would have condemned her to live, then.

"I need Gendry's help. Don't go anywhere, Red Woman"

And he headed back to the survived castle, with the necklace remembering him that the night could be gentle but he had been called to keep fighting against the dying of the light.

I know I have another long-fic about them to finish, but I couldn't get this idea out of my mind. The plan is to explore Davos's feelings and thoughts about Melisandre and let him gradually find a way to forgive her - also thanks to other characters (a whole defense squad for the Red Woman is coming!). Gendry and Arya are coming next chapter. I know it is hard to make them work as a couple not deleting Shireen's death, but I plan to do just that and to ake it as believable as possible lol

Comments are really appreciated - even just to tell me if I'm crazy or not.