Last-Light Moths
Last-Light Moths are the grey moths of the Ashen Wastes that come to the dying. They gather where a life is running out, a beast, an Ash-Walker, or a traveller, and settle on the body before the end. They do no harm, but no one on the plane is glad to see one land.
Appearance
A Last-Light Moth is the size of a thumbnail, with soft, broad wings the grey of old ash, dusted so finely that the dust comes off on a finger like soot. Its body is furred and dull, its antennae short and feathered, and its eyes give back no light at all. It flies slowly, in short, heavy drifts, because the air of the plane resists every movement, and it settles with its wings spread flat. A gathering of them makes no sound. Where they have been, a faint smell of cold ash lingers.
Habitat and Range
They live across the ash plains in small, scattered numbers and are seldom seen until something begins to die. Then they come from every direction, a few at first and later dozens.
Behaviour and Temperament
The moths feed on nothing anyone has seen them take. They are drawn to the last warmth and movement of a failing body, earlier than any scavenger and long before death is plain to the eye, and they settle on the skin and stay. If the dying recover, the moths lift and drift away. If not, they remain until the body is cold and then disperse. They ignore the living and well, and brushing them off only moves them a hand’s breadth.
Abilities
Their only gift is knowing. A moth will settle on a traveller who feels no worse than tired, and that traveller is dying: of the cold, of a wound gone bad, or of the slow exhaustion the plane brings.
Life Cycle
Their eggs are laid on the bodies they settle on, and the young hatch as the body cools. They are short-lived for things of this plane, and a dead moth crumbles to ash dust within days.
Uses and Dangers
The moths are a warning and nothing more. Experienced travellers check one another for settled moths morning and evening and turn back at the first one, and many lives have been saved that way. Their danger is fear: a party that sees moths settle on one of its number can break apart in panic.
Lore and Belief
Travellers believe that the moths hasten death, that they drink the last warmth and so draw the dying down, and some will kill every moth that lands. In truth the moths take nothing, and the hastening of what is already failing is the work of the Entropy-Seekers, which the moths are often found beside. The Ash-Walkers are said to leave a moth where it settles and to begin, quietly, dividing the dying one’s hoard (see Knowledge of the Cosmos).