Throughout the story "Embers of Moonlight", the moon changes from a grand, shining figure to dying, and becoming a crumbled pile of embers. Two moments at which this process is apparent in the story is when the narrator describes the moon as fading and becoming more transparent in the middle of the story, and at the end of the story, when the narrator looks down at what is left of the moon, which is just a shimmering pile of dust.
