Chapter 79: Interlude: Daena IIINotes:
Before we begin, I will mention that my Dad and brothers have been marathoning Stranger Things and all sorts of horror movies for the whole of October, so I might have gone a bit The Shining while writing this chapter.
I normally have a few rules and limits as to what I write, to keep the story relatively believable. Well for this chapter, I basically threw all those limits out of the window.
Enjoy!
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
"If you were waiting for the opportune moment; that was it."
-Iron King Theon Drumm, the Surprisingly Successful,
112 AC, Qarth
"Three years. Three bloody years." Lord Jonas said with relish. "But here we are, at last. Qarth, the Queen O Cities."
"Yes, I almost thought that we'd never arrive." Daena agreed, leaning on the poop deck railing. "Gods but that took fucking forever."
Daena had honestly expected to be back in Westeros the last year, but as she'd acutely learnt, the Gold Fleet was a slow and lumbering beast. Still, they'd finally made it.
The famed triple walls of Qarth loomed tall, encircling a massive city the size of both halves of Volantis. Buildings were a riot of colour, coloured stones and metal, interspersed with jewellery, but much of the colour was paint.
Seven Gods just how fucking rich were the Qartheen, that they could afford to paint entire buildings?
Even the Lannisters couldn't afford to paint the far smaller Lannisport.
"Dyes and paint are cheaper here." Jaehaerys Junior informed Daena, stepping up to her side.
"I didn't even say anything." Daena teasingly smiled.
"I could read your expression, Milady." The handsome man smiled. "You are an open book to me."
"And do you like what you read?"
"Most certainly, you are by far the most engrossing read I've ever had the pleasure of enjoying."
"Bah, go take your flirting somewhere else." Lord Jonas complained in faux disgust, waving his hands in a shooing gesture. "Or better yet, don't do it at all."
Giggling, the two lovers obliged, though not before making the requisite amount of complaints about prudish old men.
———
In sunset, Qarth seemed to be made of molten gold. A great hoard of treasure, sprawling out across the red lands around them.
As Lord and Lady Blacktyde, alongside the rest of the Gold Fleet's most prominent captains, were invited into Qarth by a ceremonial parade, Daena and Caraxes flew circles around the grand city. Crowds of people, tens of thousands strong, all flocked to the streets and rooftops to see the Blood Wyrm.
And it was not just the milk-skinned Qartheen that flocked to see Daena's dragon. The streets were filled with honey-skinned Yi-Ti, amber-skinned Ghiscari, masked Asshai'i Dothraki with braids that stretched behind them like tails, Summer Island sailors, traders from the Free Cities, of Andal and Valyrian stock. These and more. People from places Daena could scarcely recall. Muscular women with rubies in their cheeks, men with strange pointed heads, atop horses of black and white, hairy men that stood an entire head shorter than normal men, but twice as broad.
Daena had read that near six in ten of Qarth's population were foreigners. Transients most of them, but there were many whom had set up their own permanent communities in the city. The Yi-Ti in particular, appeared to have their own section of the city, with buildings that very well might have been imported all the way from their homeland.
As the dragonrider moved into her next orbit, she spotted something. Something that hadn't been there the last time she flew over the city.
That was strike one.
It was strange sight which didn't fit into this spicy and lively city. Like a blot of ink, marring a colourful oil painting. It seemed to drink all the colour and light out of the world around it, reducing it to a dull monochrome.
A bare stone building, standing apart from the rest of the city. There was none of the wealth or splendour of Qarth on display here, no fancy architecture or lavish decor. Just brutalist stone, rising up like a grey snake, sprawling across the barren lands, atop which no life save strange black-barked trees seemed to grow.
That was strike two.
And even from as high up in the sky as Daena was, she could still feel the ebbs and flows of magical power in the air, like a circulatory system, with that queer building as the heart.
That was strike three.
"Bingpot." Daena smiled.
———
112 AC, House of the Undying
The crescent moon hung in the sky, like a silver grin looking down onto the world in darkness. Not even the stars seemed to be alight tonight, as dark and shadowy clouds billowed across the night sky. There was a breeze, but the fluttering of the leaves on the black-barked trees was nearly nonexistent. Nary more than a whisper, like even the wind treaded quietly here.
It was to this picturesque scene that the silent night was disturbed by the flapping of wings.
While the rich and powerful of Qarth—the Pureborn, the Thirteen, the Tourmaline Brotherhood, the Spicer Guild and more—feasted the Gold Fleet in a grand and riotous celebration that made Qarth glow like a grand bonfire, shining proudly and defiantly against the darkness. Daena and her companions had begged off, citing weariness from the long journey.
But the truth was that all five of them were fully rested and ready, and before the grey stone building surrounded by black-barked trees, Caraxes landed with a muted thud.
Five pairs of feet landed on the ground.
As they trekked up the hill to the great stone building, Daena took in her companions. They'd come garbed for war.
Over her thick aketon of oiled linen, the eldest Dragonseed wore her full suit of scale armour. A full hauberk of black scales that stretched from neck to knees, though thinned around the arms to give her full range of movement to draw her bowstring back. Her legs were covered in black steel greaves, with an articulation at the knee. Daena wore no gauntlets, opting instead for leather archery gloves and steel vambraces instead. And atop her head was Rhaenyra's old helmet as usual, her hair melding with the newly-repaired plume seamlessly.
Daena's dragonbone double-recurve was slung over her back, with the two halves of her spear dangling off of her left hip. She carried two quivers. One filled with mundane arrows, strapped to her right hip, while a second one, bearing her enchanted arrows, rested on her back. Both of them were secured with red leather belts and straps, with smaller pouches and knife sheathes dangling off of them.
Jaehaerys Junior was similarly armed and armoured. He wore an elegant brigandine embroidered with his mother's personal heraldry; the naked lady of Lys, dancing among flowers and fire, gold on black. Interestingly enough, he wore what could only be described as a pair of brigandine trousers as well. Long black wool trousers that stretched from ankle to waist. Padded to blunt saddlesore and durable enough to withstand rough use, while hiding the strips of metal armour sewn into the underside. His helmet was an elegant bascinet, with gold engravings that rose up to form small horns.
He bore a saber and a series of parrying daggers on his belt, and held a heater shield with his mother's heraldry painted onto it.
Gapeth had loudly mocked Jaehaerys, asking if he was headed to a ballroom or a battlefield, but Daena's boyfriend had countered that for some people, they were one and the same.
And speaking of tall, dark and violent, Gapeth Eelskin's near seven feet of taut muscle and tanned skin was covered by a full suit of scale armour, with a cloak made of eelskins the only decoration on his otherwise unadorned gear. He bore his Valyrian steel sword Nightfall, though that remained strapped on his hip, for today he'd busted out a great battleaxe, a monster of a weapon that was near half as tall as himself.
His steel, though covered with old dents and scratches, was well-oiled and rust free, but there was no polish or decoration on them. Gapeth Eelskin was a sober and practical killer, and his gear reflected that.
Melisandre, on the other hand, seemed dressed to impress. Fiery and flamboyant, she wore a full dress of bloodred fabric, with a long trailing hem, and billowy sleeves. A shawl of red silk covered her head. It seemed an outfit more fit for the ballroom, though a careful eye could discern that Melisandre had hidden a shirt of bronze—the iron in steel messed with a good amount of magic— lamellar under the dress.
Were Daena not a mage, she might have missed the arcane patterns embroidered into the fabric. The protective enchantments woven across the silk, and the hidden jewels holding concentrated magical power. The heart of her protection was the red ruby choker Daena had never seen Melisandre remove, from which all others radiated out from, like a blood vessels branching out from a heart.
Ezraa too, was layered in similar protection. She too, wore a set of bronze lamellar beneath her blue tokar, which had been washed of it's bloodstains. The tokar had been modified twice between New Ghis and Qarth. First and less obvious, Lady Sayan Blacktyde had restitched the dress, making it more form-fitting and practical, while restoring the fraying fringes, adding beads, looted from the robes of the Warlocks whom had kidnapped her. Secondly, red runes now trailed down the hem of the garment, courtesy of Melisandre.
Both mages didn't appear to be armed with anything more than a knife, but Daena knew better to think them harmless.
Her thoughts came to a close as they reached the threshold of the House of the Undying, standing before the oval doors, which were set most disturbingly to look like the mouth of some demented face.
"So, any idea what's inside there?" Daena Fyre idly asked, looking up at the grey stone building looming high above them all.
"Nothing good." Jaehaerys Junior replied, his face seemed as calm and serene as the king whom was his namesake, but Daena could feel her boyfriend's unease bubbling beneath the surface.
"This place feels wrong. Like a wound in the world." Ezraa of New Ghis shivered, holding her blue robes tighter around herself.
"Yeah, I don't normally shy from a fight, but this feels bad, even to me." Gapeth grunted, rolling his shoulder, the scarred pirate's cloak of eel leather rippling like the sea.
"Your opinion?" Daena asked, turning to face the last member of their group.
"Do not expect to leave, should you enter." Melisandre of Asshai gravely told Daena, the other three members of their group stiffening in response. "This is a place where even death treads lightly."
"Well if that isn't fucking ominous as hell." Daena dryly remarked, turning back to face the building. "Ah well, it's not like I've made many good decisions in my life."
And on that happy note, Jaehaerys and Gapeth pushed the doors open, and they all walked inside.
A shrivelled husk of a man stood inside. He had pale, milk-like skin. So pale, that his blood vessels beneath them were visible, spreading across his skin like some cobalt cobweb, from his pale blue lips down to his bare feet. He wore the beaded robes of a Warlock, though unlike all they'd previously faced, his arms were above his head in a gesture of supplication.
He stood alone in the room, which itself bore no doors nor stairs. Just an antechamber that was a dead end.
"Speak." Daena ordered, Jaehaerys and Gapeth moving to flank her, looming over the skeletal man.
"I am Pyat Pree, humble servant of the Undying Ones." The warlock rasped, bowing politely. "I bear you no harm today."
"So you say." Melisandre glared. "What would the likes of the Undying Ones have to say?"
"They offer friendship, and guidance." Pyat Pree all but whispered, his voice a hiss. "They would show you the truth of their cause. Of their great purpose and design, and offer to share the burden and glory involved."
He clapped his hands, and a tiny rat-faced dwarf servitor approached, stepping out of a shadow as though it were a door, bearing a goblet full of a strange blue drink.
"Drink, and ascend." The warlock hissed. "There can be no other way."
"There's only one cup." Ezraa scathingly noted. "Are we expected to share, like barbarians?"
"Only the rider can ascend." The warlock rasped. "None others are invited to share audience."
"Yeah, that's not gonna happen." Gapeth growled, hefting his axe threateningly.
"The doors shall not open, unless you drink." Pyat Pree hissed, undeterred. "Drink, and then and only then, shall you be able to behold the truths of this House."
"And after I drink, what should I do?" Daena asked, raising a hand to silence the rest of her band.
"Ascend." The man gravely told her. "Rise and only rise. Take no step back or to the left. There shall be myriad rooms, with sights from past, present and future within. Enter none, and take only the right. The first door to the right."
"I see, I see." Daena smiled, taking the goblet from the malevolently grinning dwarf. A knife immediately shot out of her wrist into her hands and buried itself deep into his eye socket.
Down the goblin went, still leering, black blood spilling onto the floor.
Pyat Pree opened his mouth to protest, but Gapeth separated his head from his shoulders in a single swing of his axe. The decapitated corpse struck the flood with a dull thud, and the five of them turned to contemplate the antechamber.
"There's nothing in here." Gapeth noted, poking at the shadow the dwarf emerged from with his axe.
"No I wouldn't expect there to be." Melisandre frowned, taking the goblet and swirling it's contents around. "He spoke truth when he said that the House would not let us past, without first drinking the Shade of the Evening."
"What even is in there?" Ezraa asked, waving her hands over the drink. "I can't tell. My spells just keep giving me erroneous readings."
"Nothing good, I imagine." Jaehaerys frowned. "Mother always warned me never to associate with blue-lipped men. She claimed that they only had one foot on the ground with the rest of us, and their minds high up in the clouds."
"It is so." Melisandre agreed, swirling the Shade once more. "This is a drink that allows a mage to pull back the veil of the world. To peek behind the shrouds of mystery laid by the gods. It walks the line between the known and the unknown, the void between dreams and reality, the border between life and death. And one does not gaze upon such truths, without going even the slightest bit mad."
There was a ripple of dread among the four other members of their band.
"My brother Rhaegar has been pretty blunt about what happens when people imbibe dubious substances." Daena paused, frowning to remember. "The skinchangers up north have a similar drug. A paste made from Weirwood seeds. It supposedly helps skinchangers awaken their gifts, but insanity is the most common outcome."
"Did he say anything else about said paste?" Ezraa curiously asked.
"Unfortunately, his research on the subject got sidetracked." Daena sighed. "There are all sorts of alchemical projects that Rhaenyra requires him to handle, like brewing poisons, fertility drugs, berserker tonics and wildfire. The paste got shoved onto the backburner."
"So don't drink it." Gapeth grunted, eyeing the cup warily as though it were a snake about to pounce.
"No." Melisandre frowned. "I am confident, that should we limit our intake, we can minimise the side effects while still getting the results we desire."
"One sip each then." Daena decided. "Split the dose five ways."
"Five ways." Ezraa agreed, moving to take a sip.
"Do not swallow." Melisandre warned. "Wait for everyone to have taken it in their mouths first."
Ezraa winced as she held the drink in her mouth, gesturing frantically with her hands.
Melisandre took the next sip, followed by Daena. Almost immediately, the Dragonseed was assaulted by the horrid taste of ink and rotten flesh. No wonder why Ezraa looked like she was swallowing poison.
Jaehaerys took the next sip, face not even betraying discomfort as he held the goblet up to Gapeth.
The scarred pirate looked reluctant, but drank nonetheless. Wincing and clearly resisting the urge to spit, he handed the cup back to Melisandre, whom poured the remainder onto the floor.
The Red Priestess raised three slender fingers, and pointed to her mouth with the other. Nodding, the five of them held the foul drink in their mouths, only swallowing when Melisandre's last finger fell.
It felt like fire lanced through her body, spreading from her stomach up throughout her limbs. Daena gasped as the finest of all tastes graced her tongue. Her mother's milk, the food of the Red Keep, Rhae's cooking in the Disputed Lands, wine with her sisters and grog with the Ironborn. Everything she'd ever tasted, and yet none of them.
Eventually, the world spooled back into clarity all around her, and Daena opened eyes she didn't remember closing. There were doors in the room now. Four of them, now. The first one she entered from, and three all around them.
All around her, her companions were returning to the world of the sane as well. Melisandre and Ezraa seemed more clear-headed than Daena was, while both Jaehaerys and Gapeth were stone-still, staring straight ahead with blank vacant expressions, Gapeth moreso than Daena's boyfriend.
Ezraa slapped both men, the shock snapping them back to reality.
"Where to now?" Jaehaerys asked, taking in the doors. "I get the feeling that that Pyat Pree was lying when he said to go right and up."
"I know not." Melisandre admitted. "The Lord of Light's gaze does not extend into this blighted place."
"Left and down, then." Daena decided.
There was a round of nods and the fivesome opened the door/
/only to find it slamming shut behind them. They hadn't even taken a single step past the threshold, yet found themselves in the room anyway.
Though calling it a room might have been generous.
The five of them now stood on a spit of rock, floating alone in the sky. There were no walls or roof, just an endless expanse of swirling darkness, storms and stars and clouds of light drifting endlessly in this void. It was beautiful, it was a horror, it was neither and both.
The only things that stood on the barren stone were four doors, each a different colour. They stood alone, surrounding the fivesome, one in each cardinal direction.
"This defies all explanation." Jaehaerys whispered, awestruck. His voice seemed strangely muted yet echoey, as though sound did not work properly in this strange plane of existence. "We no longer stand on earth now, but between the realms of heaven and hell."
"This house… it is something else." Ezraa agreed. "No mere ruin or mage tower, clearly."
"I can't sense Caraxes." Daena frowned. "No, I can, but he's not behind that door."
She jerked a thumb at the door behind them, ostensibly the one that they'd just come through.
"Which door, then?" Gapeth asked, now looking somewhat panicked. "I don't want to be trapped in this… maze."
Daena said nothing, but pointed at the door straight ahead of them.
"Well it's not like we've got any better options." Ezraa shrugged. "My senses are not working here."
A round of shrugging later, and Daena put her hand on the doorknob, only to scream as the world twisted around her. It felt like she was being squeezed down a very long and narrow/
/tube.
Gasping from the disorientation, Daena forced down the bile in her throat and turned to contemplate her surroundings.
The eldest Dragonseed stood atop one of the tallest towers of Harrenhal.
A beautiful and pregnant woman stood not twenty feet away from her. A mage, Daena could feel, with long black hair that cascaded down from her scalp like a river of black silk. She looked young, in her twenties, but then so did Melisandre. This woman was not as old as the Red Priestess, but she was at least three decades older than her apparent age.
A loud and most familiar roar shook the world. Atop them both, in the skies above the ruined castle, two dragons crashed into each other. Deafening screeches and cries filled the air, as waves of scorching air washed down onto the world below. Birds and bats took to the skies en masse in utter terror, the gale force winds battered the surroundings, pieces of stone and mortar chipping off Harrenhal as the God's Eye lake rippled and shuddered. Trees ignited, be they from the falling flames or simply spontaneously combusting from the mere proximity.
The surrounding air was choked with ash and smoke, fire and brimstone. The two dragons slammed and clawed at each other, every strike reverberating like a thunder crack. It was sunset, but there was light enough that one might have been forgiven for assuming it midday.
It felt like the end of the world, Ragnarok, Gehenna, Armageddon.
Daena's breath caught in her throat as she took the dragons in, her enhanced eyesight allowing her to see them clearly despite all the fire and the dark clouds swirling above them.
Caraxes slammed into Vhagar, both dragons larger than she could remember. Her faithful mount's jaws closed on the titan's neck, but Vhagar was undeterred, ripping the smaller dragon apart. Red wings were torn off by titanic jaws, boiling blood burst from it's torso as Caraxes' belly was ripped open by massive claws.
The two dragons began plummeting down at breakneck speed, toppling towards the lake.
Atop Caraxes, the rider leaped straight off. He wore no helmet, silver-white hair flapping in the wind like a pennant. Daena's first thought was that the man was Shaeterys, but he was old, too old. In his hands was Dark Sister, rippled steel dark as night coming down and stabbing the other dragonrider through the eyeslit of his helmet.
A heartbeat later, all four of them slammed into the lake with a crash louder than any sound Daena had ever heard.
Boiling hot water, veined with crimson, shot into the air like a volcanic eruption, rising higher and higher, until it surpassed the height of the tower Daena stood upon. Steam billowed out, the great geyser having been shot into the air at such speed and force that sheer friction made the water boil as it rose. Higher and higher, the water vapour rose, until it found cooler air and begun to condense once more, forming a great mushroom cloud that shrouded the entire lake. Water and boiling blood alike fell like rain, dousing the entire castle.
Frozen in horror, Daena could only stare as a twisted and mangled heap of burnt flesh crawled out of the lake, only a handful of bloodred scales marking out just what it was.
"Caraxes!" Daena yelled out in horror, finally regaining her wits from the terrible spectacle she'd just witnessed.
Uncaring of appearances, Daena vaulted straight off the battlements of the tower, heading straight for her mount. She didn't come close, for there was a ripple/
/ and Daena stood alone atop the battlements of a grand castle. Atop a high and tall crenellated seawall two hundred feet tall, and nearly half as wide.
At first, the Dragonseed thought that she'd returned to the Red Keep, but this was not the seat of House Targaryen. The castle here was not made from red sandstone, but crimson bauxite. The surroundings were far warmer and more humid, and this was more fortress than castle.
Most tellingly however, was the long causeway that stretched out from the back of the fortress. A massive construction, straight as a sword, splitting the sea and reaching out to connect the shore which she stood upon to another island in the distance.
"Bloodstone." Daena realised, turning around to see the castle proper.
Gods but this was a fucking fortress. This wasn't a solitary citadel, but four of them, all interlocked and layered together for greater strength and impregnability. The Dragonseed had once thought New Ghis the greatest fortress that she'd ever seen, but clearly Rhaenyra must have taken that as a challenge.
Seven hells below and everburning, but she could not see how any invading army could breach this monstrosity.
The western side alone boasted two layers of hundred-foot-high walls of reinforced concrete, warded to the heavens and crowned by dozens of watchtowers and bastions with overlapping lines of fire. And this was the less defended side. Practically a sweet summer dream compared to the nightmare of siege engines, killing avenues and sweeping battlements that was the eastern side. The Dragonqueen had clearly put her back into designing a fortress capable of withstanding any and everything Essos could throw at her.
Looking around, the Dragonseed noticed a lone figure standing contemplatively by the bastion that connected the battlements to the fortress below.
Daena waited a few heartbeats, but none of her companions appeared around her, and there was no door at her back. The only way down from the battlements atop which she stood appeared to be the archway leading to the rest of the castle… behind the lone figure.
Seeing no other doors in sight, Daena squared her shoulders and drew her spear, keeping an eye on the figure as she approached cautiously.
"Hello there." Daena called out. "I don't suppose you could give me some directions."
The tall figure said nothing, turning around to face her.
The person was tall and slender, with a lithe dancer's build. A long cloak of crimson dragonskin fell from his shoulders, under which he wore a suit of armour made from black steel, every single inch of it engraved with lidless eyes. A hundred of them, each with a ruby in the center, every staring out in baleful glare.
His helm bore two dragon wings, rising up from his temples. It concealed his face, revealing only indigo eyes as the only splash of colour, but Daena noticed none of that, for her eyes were fixed on the scabbard on his belt.
"Where did you get that sword?" Daena demanded, drawing and stringing her bow in one smooth movement.
Dark Sister left the scabbard with a smooth hiss, the hundred-eyed black knight settling into a combat stance. There was a shiver through the world as a pulse of magic rippled out of the man. He closed his indigo eyes, and when they opened, all that was left was blue. Even the whites were just more blue, a horrible dark colour with no humanity in them.
Above him, a silhouette rippled into existence. A translucent ghost, shining blue, wrapping it's ghastly arms lovingly around the shoulders of the hundred-eyed knight. One of the Undying Ones, Daena somehow knew. Possessing this knight. Riding it like a man atop a horse.
"It was always mine." The knight coldly declared. "Now, en garde, child."
If Daena weren't boosting her reflexes, Dark Sister would have taken her head off in a single swing as the man closed the distance in half a heartbeat, crimson dust thrown up in his wake.
As it was, the eldest Dragonseed was barely able to throw herself aside in time. Daena jumped backwards, smoothly drawing and firing half a dozen arrows in half as many seconds.
Without even looking, the black knight swept his cloak, the fabric brushing aside half the arrows even as he sidestepped the other half, turning to face her in the same movement.
Two arrows left Daena's bow, the black knight sidestepping them both as expected, but the homing arrows looped around right as Daena fired a bloodforged slayer's arrow at the man's left eye.
Dark Sister swept out, the man spinning on one heel to cut down all three arrows in a single slash. Daena did not even have time to exclaim in disbelief before his other foot slammed onto the earth, magic lancing down his leg and transforming into kinetic force, and propelling him forward in a spray of shattered bauxite.
Daena somersaulted right over the charging man, drawing her short spear and stabbing out while she was still upside down, only for their wrist to be caught. The man's left arm had shot out like a viper, even as he slightly shifted his body to dodge the spear blow. Once again without even looking.
With a grunt, the hundred-eyed knight threw his hip and pulled the eldest Dragonseed out of the air, slamming her into the hard bauxite right in front of him. Daena screamed as she felt her right arm dislocate from the throw, and lashed out blindly with the bow in her left hand, which saved her life, for Dark Sister stabbed down half a second later, and would have taken Daena in the throat had she not been able to knock it aside with the bow, Valyrian steel sinking two feet into the stone.
Undeterred, the man released his grip from the sword, and his arm came down in a quick jab straight into Daena's throat. Even through she was wearing armour, the force was transmitted through the scales clearly, and Daena's scream of pain was cut shot as her windpipe was crushed.
Choking, dying, the eldest Dragonseed could only watch as the man flicked his wrist, producing a stiletto thinner than her pinky finger, little more than a butter knife.
Down it went, but it never took Daena in the eye, for a great telekinetic blow slammed into the hundred-eyed knight. He was thrown back, tossed right off the edge of the battlements.
Indistinct figures were crowding her swimming vision as and motes of blackness began coalescing around the edges of her vision. She couldn't breath, she was dying, but then she felt sweet oxygen flood her lungs once more as her windpipe painfully uncrushed itself.
Vision restoring itself, Daena saw Ezraa looming over her, glowing hands over her throat.
The other three members of her band were looking over the edge concernedly.
"He's still alive?" Gapeth demanded incredulously. "How the fuck did he survive that drop?"
Forcing herself for her feet, Daena limped over to the edge of the battlements.
The drop was easily two-hundred feet, with the blue sea below. The bottom half of the wall was made of solid concrete, with not a single handhold or murderhole to break it up. Just a solid wall of unbroken stone, most likely to keep the seawater out.
The black knight glared up at them, Dark Sister embedded to the hilt in the wall. He pulled himself up, a dagger that was little more than a spike of steel in his other hand. He stabbed it into the wall, finding purchase, before yanking out Dark Sister and impaling it three feet up. A flick of the wrist sent his dagger out of the wall and another few feet up.
Seven hells, he'd climbed twenty feet in two seconds, and was rapidly gaining on them. Sooner rather than later, he'd reach the upper half of the wall, which bore countless murderholes to use as handholds, and however fast he currently was, he'd be an entire magnitude quicker once he reached them.
Daena pressed her bow into her boyfriend's hands, and he proceeded to shoot a few arrows down, and Gapeth found a barrel to hurl over the edge, but to her distaste, the knight casually dodged the descending arrows, swinging himself to one side or the other, holding onto the wall with one hand only.
Then the barrel came down, and distaste turned into disbelief as he leapt up onto the barrel, using it as a foothold to leap even higher and grab onto the first murderhole. With proper hand and footholds now, the hundred-eyed knight shimmied up at incredible speed, nearly as fast as a person running on land.
Unable to speak yet, Daena had little choice but to tug Jaehaerys and gesture at the archway behind her. Thankfully, her boyfriend seemed to get the message, and all five of them hightailed it through the archway just as the black knight vaulted atop the crenelations. Sky and sea/
/turned into stone and darkness, as the five of them appeared in a long stone corridor that stretched as far as the eye could see, with many doorways but no doors on it's sides.
"What, the fuck, was up with that guy?" Gapeth demanded, turning around to glare only to find that the door that they had come through had vanished, leaving behind only a T-junction of corridors twenty feet behind them.
"An apparition, possessed by the Undying Ones." Melisandre theorised. "See his blue eyes? The ghost atop his shoulder? Such are the hallmarks of their corruption. He was neither the first, nor the last that we shall encounter in this world between worlds."
"I think Eelskin here was asking what magic that knight used to be so… enduring." Jaehaerys interceded, Gapeth pointing empathically at Daena's boyfriend.
"I… I don't know." Melisandre admitted. "I didn't get a good enough glimpse of him to see what sorceries he wielded."
Their conversation was cut short as Daena began coughing, spitting out blood and phlegm as Ezraa finally mended her throat enough to speak.
"Where… where were you guys?" The Dragonseed rasped.
"We got separated." Jaehaerys informed her, passing her dragonbone bow back. "We ran in after you got nabbed, but wound up inside a sheltered tiltyard, where this possessed falcon knight on a shadow horse nearly killed us all."
"Afterwards we wound up inside a bunch of underground warrens and get lost for about fifteen minutes." Ezraa added.
"Then a strange desert, then the ruins of Pyke." Gapeth grunted. "We've been wandering around for about two hours before we found you."
"Two hours?" Daena asked, sitting back up as Ezraa started work on her dislocated arm. "I couldn't have been gone for more than twenty minutes."
"The laws of time and space run particularly thin here." Melisandre gravely said. "Much of this realm lies in the border between realities. We could spend years in here only to find out that mere minutes have passed outside, or vice versa."
"Well fuck me." The Dragonseed grunted, looking around them. The five of them now stood in a long stone corridor, one with many doorframes but no doors, stretching onward as far as the eye could see. "What happened to the falcon knight?"
"Still out there, like blackie behind us." Gapeth grunted. "We had to cut and run. But he's not the only thing in this house that's out to kill us."
The scarred pirate suddenly shivered.
"You will not believe the amount of fucked-up stuff we've run into." He fearfully told her. "Including the—"
Daena tuned out the rest of what he said, for she felt every single hackle she had rise. The overwhelming need to run as danger was right behind them.
"Is that what you meant?" She asked, pointing a finger at the tall shape that just came out from the corner behind them.
It was nearly eight feet tall, slender, with leathery grey skin and digitigrade feet. A scaly tail flicked back and forth as it's faceless head contemplated them.
"Demon!" Gapeth screamed, and the demon screamed back, head opening up like a flower to reveal five lamprey-like jaws, covered with more teeth than flesh and surrounding a horrible mouth the size of a fist.
More and more demons emerged from the shadows, smaller than the first, and running on all fours like dogs, but bearing the same grey skin and horrifying flower-mouths
"Lord of Light, protect us!" Melisandre shouted in a panic, throwing a great ball of flame into the horde.
With terrible shrieks, the dog-devils died burning, screaming as fire consumed them. The larger demon waded through the flames, less affected than it's lesser kin.
It swung a tendril-like hand, Gapeth grunting as he caught the blow with his thick armour. Jaehaerys, wielding Nightfall, swung the Valyrian steel sword down and severed the appendage.
The demon shrieked in pain, mouth launching out to chomp Gapeth, but the Eelskin tackled the creature, ramming it into a wall, and holding it still long enough for Jaehaerys to plunge the Valyrian steel sword deep into the neck. The creature was still flailing, even with what would have been a spine-severing blow on a normal human, so Gapeth further wrestled it down for Jaehaerys to properly decapitate.
"What, the fuck, was that?" Daena demanded.
"We don't know." Melisandre frowned. "But they've been hunting us in packs for a while now."
"They're freakishly strong. Fire harms them, but only decapitation seems to put the big ones down for good." Jaehaerys glared at the corpse. "One of these monsters shattered my shield and another crow-monster melted my sword."
Ah, that explained why he was using Nightfall.
Now that he mentioned it, the rest of her band bore signs of a running battle. Ezraa's robes were bloodstained once more, Melisandre's jewels glowed with far less lustre than before, Gapeth's armour bore quite a few more dents and Jaehaerys' brigandine was torn in several places, revealing the steel sheets below.
"The good news is that we've found out some things about this place." Ezraa informed her. "Going right seems to take us to relative safety, going left sends us somewhere strange. Forwards leads into danger, and backwards into worse. Down is bad, up is good."
"But not to the Undying Ones." Daena grumbled.
"No. We've run into monsters aplenty, but no warlocks at all." Jaehaerys mused. "Something is off. This is the sanctum of their power. Why do they not have anyone guarding the place?"
Daena frowned, and tugged on the bond between herself and Caraxes. It was dull, muted now.
"Ah, I see." The Dragonseed nodded. "While we were lost traipsing around in here, their mages went out to kidnap Caraxes again."
"Then we better get back and rescue that overgrown lizard." Gapeth declared.
"No no, that's a good thing, you see. They're going to bring Caraxes to their masters." Daena grinned. "Which means…"
"Follow the dragon, and we find the Undying Ones." Ezraa grinned as well.
"Come on then." The Dragonseed smiled, hopping to her feet. "Let's go kill some leeches."
———
They walked through the House, following Caraxes like a compass.
They walked through ballrooms and battlefields, scaled cliffs and castle walls, strode atop open ocean and endless skies. Twice they went through regions where gravity and geometry went insane, walking up walls, climbing down floors and vaulting up only to go sideways.
All the way, the five of them were hounded by demons. Most of the grey flower-mouthed variety, but several hordes of blue-eyed dead and a few ghoul-monsters made of melted meat and flesh with way too many fangs. Once, they walked through a town square packed with people only for slender men made of darkness to burst out from the shadows and try stab them.
Thankfully, with both Ezraa and Melisandre, most wounds sustained weren't enough to slow them down. The five of them held hands as much as possible, with ropes around their waists when otherwise unable to, for the House seemed to take any opportunity it could to split the five of them up.
Thrice the band had to detour to rescue a stranded member.
Once from a giant shark the size of a whale, in a tropical sea full of metal boats.
Another from a strange three-headed skull monster in a land made completely out of blocks, with even the trees and sky being yet more cubes, buildings and chunks of land floating in the sky, defiant of gravity.
The third time saw them enter an armoury stocked with a bewildering array of weapons, including jewels shining with stored magical power. There was no trap in this room, and the five of them took the opportunity to rest and restock on weapons, but Daena couldn't help but feel as though this was their Last Supper. One last moment of peace, before tragedy.
Now though, the five of them strode atop a thin strip of auroral light, beneath a sky festooned with stars. Caraxes was so close Daena could almost feel his heart beat, his lungs inhale and exhale.
He was but a door or two away from them, and with him, the Undying Ones, the long-awaited goal of their entire journey.
"This is it." Daena declared, as they stood before a door which had no door, being little more than a halo of rainbow light, floating alone in the void, with only utter blackness within the ring. "This is either the last or the second last door."
"I feel something behind it." Melisandre frowned. "Something powerful."
"The Undying Ones?" Gapeth asked, hefting the new shield he'd stolen from the armoury.
"Yes, and no…" The Red Priestess paused contemplatively. "This House does not belong to the Undying, not truly. They cannot control this labyrinth, but they can… guide it."
"I feel it too." Ezraa nodded. "They seem to have invested a good amount of their power into what's beyond this door."
Now that they mentioned it, Daena could feel it as well. Sickly and fetid power infecting the void beyond them. If this labyrinth was as an ever-shifting jigsaw puzzle, then the Undying Ones had put their backs into summoning this particular jigsaw piece into their path.
"Well, there's nothing we can do about it." The Dragonseed sighed. "Just have to do it."
"Once more into the breach." Jaehaerys agreed, squaring his shoulders./
/ Of all realities that could have laid beyond the door, the Starry Sept was probably the last thing any of them expected.
A lone woman was knelt in prayer, in the center of the seven statues, her back to the five of them. She wore the robes and habit of a septa, all roughspun robes of white wool.
And Daena could not smell a single more of magic emanating from the septa, which was a glaring red flag in this world between worlds.
"I don't suppose you'll let us pass if we sing a few hymns." The eldest Dragonseed tried.
"I am beyond prayer, sister." The septa mourned, rising to her feet and turning to face them.
For one disbelieving moment, Daena refused to believe her eyes as her breath caught in her throat. But there was no mistaking those features. And moreover, those eyes. Those unique bottle-green eyes.
"Naerys." Daena whispered, looking straight at her younger sister.
The last time Daena had seen her sister, Naerys was a child of eight, but the woman before Daena was at least eighteen. But her change in age paled dramatically in comparison to the light in her green eyes. Where they'd previously shone with innocence and passion, they were now dull with sorrow and pain.
"Daena." Naerys greeted, nodding politely.
"What has happened to you?" Daena asked. "What have they done to you?"
"This apparition is not your sister." Melisandre warned. "She is just a trap set by the Undying Ones."
"Are you sure, Melisandre?" Naerys asked. "I think you of all people should know that just because something is in a person's head, does not mean that it any less real."
"Remember what Pree said." Jaehaerys reminded them. "This House will show scenes of the past, present and possible futures. She is but one of those visions."
"Am I?" Naerys looked into the ceiling contemplatively. "I suppose I am a ghost of sorts. A revenant haunting this sinful world long after my passing."
There was a ripple of power through this world-that-was-not-a-world, and a blue ghost appeared around the septa's shoulders, smiling cruelly as Naerys' lips and eyes dyed themselves blue. She raised a hand, and a Weirwood staff topped with a crystal seven-pointed-star slapped itself into her hand.
"Unfortunately, I cannot let any of you pass." The Undying One and Naerys Fyre spoke in unison, voice echoing out. The possessed Dragonseed brought her staff onto the ground with a resounding clang. There was a great shuddering of stone as the seven massive marble statues on the altars began to rise. "Pray to the gods for mercy, for I shall not grant you any."
Melisandre thrust out her hand, only for nothing to happen. Not even the faintest spark shot out of her fingers.
"Your gods holds no power in this sanctum of the Seven." The septa proclaimed, swinging her staff and firing a rainbow beam of light at them.
"Hers does!" Daena yelled as the fivesome scattered to dodge the scintillating light. The beam sliced though the air, slicing straight through several heavy pillars instantly.
"Then we do this the old-fashioned way!" Gapeth shouted, hefting his axe before barreling straight for the septa. The Warrior and Smith leapt in his path, but colossal statues shielding Naerys from the blows.
Two wildfire arrows left Daena's bow, blowing off the Warrior's sword arm and the Smith's leg as Ezraa threw a cloud of ruinous rot. Entropy, made into biting curse. The cloud enveloped the two statues, and solid stone became weak and brittle, like chalkstone.The Smith collapsed into great clouds of dust when it fell onto the floor, unable to balance on one leg.
Roaring furiously, Gapeth began hacking away at the Warrior, chipping entire chunks of weakened stone off in great clouds of dust until he'd severed it at the knee joint. Down it went, joining the Smith on the ground, and causing the dust clouds to practically explode, filling the air with countless motes of white power, hiding all from view.
Boosting her agility, Daena dashed straight towards the nearest pillar. She leapt ten feet into the air, kicked off the pillar to change direction and gain another seven feet, before landing atop the Father's head, arrow nocked in her bow.
The was great sucking sound, and all the dust was vacuumed up by a vortex of wind, just what she was waiting for.
As soon as Naerys casted the wind magic, Daena fired her arrow, banking that her sister was only capable of casting one spell at a time. Unfortunately, Naerys managed to spot the arrow and bat it aside with her staff, having clearly been passively boosting her reflexes.
The wind magic guttered out, and panes of shielding spells burst into existence around the younger Dragonseed, preventing repeated arrowfire from getting through.
Daena nocked and fired a holy arrow at Naerys, only for it to deflect harmlessly off of her shield.
"You wield holy weapons against one of the clergy." The younger Dragonseed mocked. "Did you truly expect it to work?"
The septa brought down her staff, and Daena immediately leapt off the Father to land on what had once been the pedestal the Crone had stood upon. Just in time too, for Naerys' spell came down in a pillar of blinding light, mercilessly smiting the statue into dust.
"No, but it was a great distraction." The eldest Dragonseed grinned, and only half lying.
Behind them, Ezraa laid a hand on the Mother, and acid spread out from where she'd touched, devouring straight through stone like it was paper. Gapeth then tackled the overbalancing statue, shoving it down right on top of the Stranger, which Jaehaerys had lured underneath the path of the falling Mother.
There was a great crash as both marble statues broke, shattered irreparably by each other.
There were a pair of brilliant flashes of light, and both the Maiden and Crone stopped moving, animation spells shredded. Reduced back to mere statues.
Melisandre strode forwards, new runes traced of blood on her robes.
"Not true divinity, what you wield." The Red Priestess mocked. "Just a subtle anti-sorcery ward and animating spells. No match for one whom wields the radiance of the Lord of Light."
"Surrender." Jaehaerys called out, levelling Nightfall at her. "It's five on one now, and Melisandre has regained her magic."
Naerys sighed, dropping her staff and raising her hands in surrender. Only to lift her head back out. Eyes shining brilliant blue, she suddenly stomped her foot, sorcery rippling out from where she'd struck the ground.
And with a great shattering sound, the roof of the Starry Sept was ripped straight off. But it was not the blue sky which was revealed, but another room. An endless field of ashes, suspended upside down perfectly above them all, like a mirror image in the sky. Gravity seemed to have been unaffected, for the ashes did not fall, remaining perfectly still on the ground they lay upon.
But something else did.
A massive shape slammed into the middle of the great cathedral with a resounding crash, striking the ground so hard that a tremor rippled through the room, knocking them all off of their feet. The marble floor, upon which they stood, shattered. Massive cracks spiderwebbing through the stone as dust and shrapnel was thrown into the air.
Daena was no magical sensor, like Melisandre or Ezraa, but even she could feel the sheer power rippling off of the… thing that had landed in the Starry Sept. If Melisandre were a torch, burning long and bright, than this was an inferno, blazing hot and strong without fear of burning out. A ridiculous magical output that rivalled even a dragon.
Naerys waved her staff, and the smoke was swept up and dispersed, revealing a monster. Rising to it's feet from where it had struck the ground, slowly plodding towards the five of them.
Tromp, tromp, tromp. The monster's footsteps were a rhythmic pounding, like the beat of some great drum. Every sound punctuated by a localised tremor of the ground and air.
A great beast, nine feet tall and with shoulders over four feet broad. It lumbered forwards unhurriedly, covered in layer upon layer of steel. Entire slabs of scarred and dented metal, creaking and scraping against one another, hiding all flesh from sight. The helmet was some sort of snarling monster, vaguely draconic, but also boasting leonine and lupine features, like some fearsome cross between dragon, lion and direwolf. There were no eyes visible in the eyeholes of the helm, with dark glass shielding them from view.
The monster was hefting the single largest sword that Daena had ever seen. A monstrous blade ten feet long and an entire foot wide. A solid hunk of steel that it carried one-handedly like it weighed no more than a dagger.
It was also garbed from head-to-toe in Kingsguard white. A long mantle of white wool cascaded down from it's paudrons, flapping wildly as though in a gale from the vast amount of magic being radiated by the monster in order to move and see and breathe through it's sealed armour.
A savagely grinning ghost rode the monster's shoulders, shining brilliant blue.
Distracted though Daena was, she caught sight of Naerys moving in her peripheral vision and was able to dodge the beam of radiant light that the septa tossed at her, but that was bait, for while she was in mid-leap, the younger Dragonseed hit the eldest with a blast of concussive force, throwing her to the back of the room, crashing straight into Gapeth in an ungainly sprawl.
"Lead us from the darkness, O my Lord. Fill our hearts with fire, so we may walk your shining path." Melisandre prayed, voice high and clear. "R'hllor, you are the light in our eyes, the fire in our hearts, the heat in our loins. Yours is the sun that warms our days, yours the stars that guard us in the dark of night."
There was a great flash of light, but still the steel-clad monster approached, walking straight through the spell like it wasn't there.
"Melisandre, why isn't it stopping?" Ezraa uncertainly asked, backing away fearfully.
Daena nocked an arrow and fired it straight at the steel giant. The arrow struck it straight in the neck joint, exploding into green flames that licked hungrily at the white steel, only for runes to flare on the undersides of the armour plates. The Wildfire dripped off impotently, like water off of a duck's back, leaving perfectly unmarred steel behind.
"Oh that's not good." Daena muttered. "Enchantments to resist magic?"
"Worse." Melisandre grimly said. "Wards."
"So they're an order of magnitude tougher and stability is multiplied tenfold." Jaehaerys winced. "I thought that wards couldn't be laid onto anything smaller than a house."
"Well I think the answer is fucking obvious!" Gapeth retorted. "That motherfucker is the size of a bloody house!"
Their little debate was brought to an end as their backs met the back wall of the Starry Sept, retreat no longer possible. With a great scraping sound, the monster raised the massive steel sword, before bringing it down with surprising swiftness. Stone shattered as the massive greatsword cleaved straight through the wall like it was paper.
The five of them scattered, dodging the blow and moving to counterattack.
With a loud battlecry, Gapeth slammed his axe into the beast's left knee joint. Sparks flew, but the monster hardly seemed affected. It swung it's free hand in an almost lazy backhand. Eelskin's tower shield shattered instantly as the scarred pirate himself was swept off his feet and thrown a dozen feet backwards.
Daena and Jaehaerys cut in, both of them striking the beast's right knee joint, but the monster twisted out of the way with surprising agility, balancing on one foot. A heartbeat later, the airborne foot stomped back onto the ground, unleashing a tremor that shook the earth and threw them both into the air.
The pommel of the great sword slammed into Jaehaerys' heater shield, shattering it and both of his arms instantly. Jaehaerys was knocked aside, screaming in pain as the blade swung out at the eldest Dragonseed, aiming to bifurcate her while she was in midair and unable to dodge.
Wincing, Daena generated a pane of sorcery beneath her feet and kicked off of it, the massive blade missing her feet by less than three inches and cleaving a massive gash in the pillar behind her.
Reflexes boosted by sorcery, the eldest Dragonseed kicked off of the flat of the titanic blade and lunged straight at the beast's helm. Her speartip pierced straight through the dark glass and impaled the giant in it's left eye, but there was no feeling of flesh. Just a hollow eyehole with nothing inside.
A decoy! Daena realised, just in time to kick off the collarbone of the giant and backflip out of the way of it's left arm, moving to slap her. The beast struck it's own face, steel crashing against steel in a sonorous clang, reeling backwards slightly from the impact.
Concussive force slammed into Daena, swatting her down onto the ground hard enough that the Dragonseed's reinforcement spells faltered. Spitting out bile and blood from the impact, Daena attempted to rise only for air to come down in a stream, holding her onto the ground.
Staff raised, Naerys watched impassively as the steel giant raised a massive foot, moving to literally crush Daena underfoot.
Ropes of shadow burst into existence, Melisandre gesturing with her hands like a conductor. The bound shadows wound around the monster's limbs and torso, anchoring themselves to the pillars surrounding them, halting it in place before it could crush Daena.
The bindings were inviolable, unbreakable by the force of men, but the pillars weren't. There was a great shattering sound, and half a dozen pillars came down in a shower of elegant masonry and dust as the beast continued on after a heartbeat of opposition. But that heartbeat was life-saving for the eldest Dragonseed.
Shouting in rage and fear, Daena detonated her reinforcement spell, disrupting Naerys' hold upon her and buying herself just enough time to inelegantly throw herself out of the way of the descending foot.
A steel-clad fist came down half a second later, striking the floor so hard a small crater formed in the stone. Daena idly reflected that that would have been her ribcage had a small tendril of shadow not wrapped itself around her right ankle and tugged her out of the way.
"We can't fight that monster!" Jaehaerys yelled, arms freshly healed.
"No shit." Gapeth agreed without even contesting it, which was a glaring red flag for a man as combative as Gapeth Eelskin. "The beast is too strong, and your sister is making it very hard to fight it."
"Remember what we're here for." Ezraa reminded them. "They're just apparitions. Distractions. The real fight is beyond them."
"That may be so." Naerys called out, levelling her staff threateningly at them. "But thou shall not pass, not as long as we have something to say about it."
"Run." Daena declared. "Run!"
They split two ways, Gapeth, Jaehaerys and Ezraa going left as Daena and Melisandre went right, both of them circling the lumbering monster in their path.
Naerys brought her staff down, but Melisandre hit the spell with one of her own, both of them cancelling each other out.
Uncontested, Ezraa waved her hand, firing half a dozen balls of corrosive rot at the remaining pillars. While the front half of the grand cathedral had it's roof ripped off and replaced with that field of ashes, the back half of the great hall still bore a grand and ornate roof, held up by dozens of pillars. Those pillars broke, and without the load-bearing supports, the roof collapsed, burying the steel monster beneath several tons of stone.
Simultaneously, Daena waited patiently until Naerys moved to cast once more before firing at her sister.
There was a time delay during casting—whilst the mage shaped the spell formula—at which point they were most vulnerable. Unable to defend as they'd already committed into using a different spell. And Daena mercilessly exploited that gap.
Naerys was able to swing her staff fast enough to knock aside the arrow, only for the second arrow, hidden right behind the first, to take right her in the throat.
Or so it should have, had a thrown knife not struck it in midair, shattering it an inch before it killed Naerys.
A tall figure dropped down from the rafters, hundred-eyes burning red. He landed on his feet with cat-like grace, Dark Sister in hand. Standing between the five of them and the archway to the next room.
"You again." Daena snarled.
"Me again." The possessed knight agreed, magic rippling out once more.
Even as Naerys and Ezraa began trading volleys of radiant light and rotting curses, Jaehaerys and Gapeth rushed the hundred-eyed knight. But the knight easily sidestepped both their blows, manoeuvring himself between the two men. Dark Sister swept out, cleaving straight through the handle of Gapeth Eelskin's axe even as his cloak swept out and smacked Jaehaerys in the face.
Snarling, Jaehaerys swung his sword in a decapitating blow, only for the black knight to duck under the blade without even looking. Gapeth tried to grab the hundred-eyed knight, but he slipped through the man's fingers. Spinning around tall, dark and murderous, he swung Dark Sister, cleanly severing Gapeth's tendons at the back of his knees, slicing straight through the weakest points of the chainmail.
Down the scarred pirate went, and the hundred-eyed knight shoved him such that he nearly toppled onto Jaehaerys. Daena's boyfriend was able to sidestep the falling pirate, but that left him wide open to attack, his foe immediately lunging forwards aggressively.
Daena immediately shot an arrow at the black knight, forcing him to use his sword to parry the arrow instead of ramming it through Junior's throat. While unable to rise to his feet, Gapeth's hand still closed around the hundred-eyed knight's ankle. Holding him in place as Jaehaerys swung Nightfall at the knight, but the hundred-eyed man easily caught his wrist with his left hand.
The black knight grunted, then threw his hip, casually flipping Jaehaerys over his shoulder and throwing him painfully down right on top of Gapeth, freeing himself in the process.
Daena shot three more arrows at the man, while his back was turned from the throw, but once again he casually parried all three arrows without even looking. Dark Sister's flat coming up to narrowly swat the arrows aside before they could skewer him.
With a great grinding of stone, the Maiden and Crone began to move, both of them shining bright with incandescent magic. Bringing her hands down, Melisandre sent the two massive statues to attack Naerys and her black knight.
Undaunted, the hundred-eyed knight threw a pair of throwing knives with unerring accuracy, but Daena shot them both out of the air before they could skewer the red priestess.
The Crone descended upon the black knight, massive stone foot coming down to crush him. He sidestepped the blow by a razor-thin margin, Dark Sister slashing out to carve a gash in the back of its knee. Daena fired a pair of arrows at the man's back, but the knight swept his cloak again, using the fabric to sweep the arrows out of the air.
Melisandre waved a hand, and the Maiden swept up Gapeth and Jaehaerys in her arms, quickly depositing them beside Ezraa before moving to battle Naerys.
The hundred-eyed knight was slippery. His movements were efficient and measured, landing precise sledgehammer blows on weak points even as he narrowly evaded his opponent's attacks.
Daena's initial idea that he was using some form of reflex booster was off. Well, obviously he was, but even boosted reflexes could never account for just how good he was. It was as though he had eyes in the back of his head, allowing him to measure every angle without any blind spots…
Maybe that really was the case. Daena mused as the man once again sidestepped a blow from the statue, gashing the stone once more in the exact same spot, expanding the wound that he'd carved. He was after all, a hundred-eyed knight.
Slowly but surely, a plan of action took shape within the eldest Dragonseed's mind.
The hundred-eyed knight cut the gash he'd made once more, and the leg broke, no longer able to withstand the weight of the statue. Down the Crone went, toppling right onto the Maiden right as it raised a foot to stomp the septa. Like a pair of dominos both statues were brought crashing down onto the ground.
"Melisandre! Hold down Naerys!" Daena yelled, not even bothering to check if the Red Priestess obeyed her order before firing her last Wildfire arrow at the black knight. He dodged it—as expected—but Daena shot a second homing arrow to hit the glass bulb of the first arrow, detonating it in a blast of green flame.
The hundred-eyed knight spun with the explosion, like a martial artist rolling with a blow, spreading out the damage with his rotation, using his cloak to shield his body. He absorbed the force of the blow, using it to push himself towards the periphery of the explosion, all the while spinning like a top.
Ezraa flung a curse at the spinning black knight, but he caught the attack on his cloak as smoothly discarded it, red dragonskin immediately shrivelling black and rotten.
Another ripple of magic pulsed out of him, but this time Daena was ready for it. She detonated a whole bunch of her passive strengthening spells, throwing as much wild mana out as she could.
"A hundred eyes." The eldest Dragonseed smirked as the raw magic broke the spell the black knight cast. "That's your gimmick. A hundred hidden eyes made of magic, looking at any and everything around you in a radius."
A series of homing arrows left the dragonbone bow, all headed straight towards the hundred-eyed knight.
"But that's not all, you have some sort of enhancement spell running. Precognition, or super-perception." As Daena spoke, her opponent parried the arrows, even as they swerved and curved in all sorts of strange trajectories, but his offence had been dulled. His omnidirectional vision was gone now, leaving him to rely solely on his own two eyes.
Eyes she removed from him when her glass candle burned, shining brilliant light onto the hundred-eyed knight and blinding him, turning his own enhanced senses against him. The eldest Dragonseed herself was unaffected, for she'd preemptively blinded herself from the light.
Naerys and the black knight both went down, clutching their eyes in pain, and the five of them moved in mercilessly. Nightfall came down in a glittering arc, Jaehaerys decapitating the hundred-eyed knight instantly before throwing the sword. It flew—spinning end over end almost gently—over to Gapeth, whom snatched it out of the air and promptly used it decapitate the septa as well.
"Whew, that was a rough—" Gapeth began, only for magic to flare behind them.
A steel fist burst out of the pile of shattered stone.
"Oh no way." Ezraa cussed. "No no no way."
With a great roar, the beastly Kingsguard burst out of the rubble like a breaching whale, great pieces of solid stone sliding off of it like droplets of water. The steel giant took two lumbering steps forward, then struck it's arm elbow deep into the rubble, as though it were no more than a pile of sand. When it withdrew it's arm, the greatsword came with it, slightly bent and dull, but given the sheer mass of the thing it'd probably still be a very effective bludgeon.
"Just what is it gonna take to put that thing down?" Daena demanded incredulously, nocking another arrow.
"Run!" Jaehaerys shouted, beckoning them towards the archway. "Run! We can't fight that mons—"
The man whom so resembled the Old King never finished his sentence, for he was nearly decapitated by a sword. Jaehaerys was quick on his feet though, and was able to sidestep the blow, but the horseman swung his sword once more, and concussive force rang out, bodily throwing Jaehaerys back away from the archway.
Another possessed apparition had appeared.
This one was a second knight as tall and slender as the first, and similarly dressed from head-to-toe in steel plate. But where the hundred-eyed knight wore matte black, with dragon wings rising from his helm, this knight wore silvered steel, with a pair of falcon wings on his helmet. His cape was blue wool, clasped by a falcon pin, and his armour enamelled with beautiful fluer-de-lis scrollwork.
He bore a Valyrian steel sword in his right arm, a slender and almost delicate blade whose silver hilt was made from a sapphire-eyed falcon and dragon standing back-to-back, their spread wings forming the crossguard of the sword while the dragon's tail curled down around the knurled handle to form a grip for the fingers, ending in a pommel which was a great moonstone. In his left arm was a heater shield with the Arryn falcon quartered with the black dragon of the Dragonseeds.
But for all that, it was his mount which was the most distinctive, for it was made completely out of shadows. Like the slender men which had assaulted Daena previously, or some of the shadow creatures Melisandre could birth, this mount was made completely out of tendrils of darkness. Sinewy and almost oil-like, gleaming around the edges yet with flesh so dark it seemed to drink in the light.
A third possessed figure dropped out of the sky, flying in from one of the stained glass windows. They wore a ragged hooded cloak made completely out of black feathers, shrouding a tall and thin body clad in boiled leather and furs. Maester chains looped around their body. But most surprising was their face, which was covered by a long and sharp mask shaped like some vicious bird's beak.
Three eyes glowed upon it's mask. All shining blue from possession. A vicious bird of carrion, some three-eyed-crow that reeked of death.
They wielded a long staff of Fyrewood and Weirwood, twisted together in a double helix that ended in a pair of carved dragon heads, looped around a dragonglass sphere, almost like a caduceus.
Unlike the other four, this one didn't seem bound by gravity, casually hovering six feet above the ground, with absolutely nothing beneath their feet.
"The knight with the shadow horse?" Daena asked, warily backing away.
"And the crow-monster that melted my sword." Jaehaerys morosely agreed, getting to his feet.
It all went downhill from there.
Notes:
Also, just a reminder that November 8 is tomorrow, and that everyone eligible should go out and vote. Remember, Democracy is on the ballet, and only together, can we prevent it from falling.