They sat deep within the earth. The darkness a well-beloved shroud that hid their ugliness from themselves. The only light was a pale blue flame that burnt without oxygen in the middle of the cavern.
Twelve black stone carved thrones stood, yet only eleven shriven and emancipated forms were present. A pale lip cracked open for the first time in centuries.
"one is missing" his voice was as raspy as he looked. The blue robbed man that spoke was more gaudily dressed than the rest, his eyes completely milky and stature even frailer than the remaining ten, but anybody with a shred of magic in their blood would be shiver at his sheer presence.
"It matters not. How goes the… discussions with the savage dragon blooded" pale film covered eyes moved to the furthermost man. The man tried to mind speak but was cut off by the elder warlock. "speak with your tongue, lest I deprive you of it permanently"
The aforementioned warlock took a few seconds to get his voice and unused vocal cords into working order. "he would not break, nor spill his secrets. I have fed him enough shade of the evening to kill any mortal twice over from its toxicity alone and yet his mind stands strong, as he instinctively retreats into it. A towering wall of a strange type of stone I know not of and a red-eyed raven that watches from above"
The frail elder warlock tilted his head, "solid untrained mental defense and an entity with a foothold within his mind already" the frail warlock rested his chin on his palm while his second hand tapped his chair in a pattern that forced the warlocks to cringe and shiver.
"so, be it then" he continued "and the acquisition of the second dragon blooded?"
Another warlock moved to speak "she's in the city at the moment"
The frail warlock finally closed in eyes and rested his head with a final word "let it be done"
Daenerys Targaryen
Her entrance into Quarth was more dramatic than she expected. The thirteen were high strung and more skittish than she would have thought, and the thrill and rage of threatening the thirteen was something she was getting used to.
Looking to her side she observed her savior. A member of the thirteen and a summer lander with an exotic skin, a darker shade than she had ever seen. Her eyes drifted to the gates and widened at the sight of dried blood on the gates and the ground. Jorah moved to stand beside her grip tight on his sword as his eyes also noticed the bloodstains.
"They thirteen are… highly strung and rightfully so" The summer lander spoke in a low baritone. As they got into the city completely, she noticed the lack of people on the streets and even more bloodstains on the ground. The few people she met were skittish and turned away the moment they caught sight of her eyes.
"What happened here?" she forced her voice to remain calm as her eyes tracked the almost artistic flair of red, spread on the stones.
"There was an incident a few days ago," his voice slipped even lower "red-haired angry berserker broke into the city and carved a bloody path straight for the house of the undying. Blades did not stop him, neither did shields. According to witness either brave or stupid enough to watch him, his eyes glowed purple, were silted and he seemingly healed from the blood of the soldiers that tried to stop him. Some say he's a scion of Valyria, others whisper he's the doom given flesh."
He ended his explanation with a pointed look at her eyes and the cage that held her children.
"What happened to him?" she asked as her curiosity was pricked, what would vex a man to try fighting a city alone?
"he was supposedly captured at the gates of the house of the undying, three warlocks came to subdue him and yet only two left with his body. The man with the painted lips, corpses like skin and a scar that almost bisects his ugly face was one of them"
She turned her head slightly and noticed the warlock staring at her with a hunger she would have mistaken as lust if she had not seen it on Drogon's face whenever he looked at sheep.
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Hundreds of miles away, something better left asleep begins to steer for the second time in months. The only signs of its annoyance are the brighter glow of its slit pupils and its low growl that sailors meters away would mistake for a coming storm.
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She was rejected. It was not completely surprising if everything Xaro Xhoan told her was true. When they realized how weak she truly was, the formerly fearful thirteen turned to greedy wolves. She almost resented the red-haired man that contributed to all of this, but then the thought always came back to her head, what would make a man so angry that he would face a city alone?
She was pulled out of her thoughts and forced to get up from her stupidly-comfortable bed by a knock on the door.
Jorah waited for a few seconds before coming in. the night had been good on the banished knight and for the first time, he looked well-groomed. The look on his face brought chills down and spine and his words drove away thoughts of the berserker and her loyal knight.
"Your dragons are missing!"
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her journey to the house of undying went by in a blur, her heart pounded with anger while her blood ran hot in her veins. It was a sensation she had been getting used to ever since the birth of her children. Her single-minded determination to get them back blurred her vision until she found herself inside the castle.
With neither Jorah at her side nor her bloodrider. The thought of going further brought chills down her spine, but the heat that flowed through her washed the feeling off. She observed the room she found herself in. the inner walls were made of the same black stone she was vaguely aware the tower was also made off, her only source of light was a torch that hung off the wall.
The screech of her dragons were the last things she hears before a heavy smog appears from behind her smothering the torch and knocking her unconscious.
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The air was hard to breathe, is the first thing her sluggish mind reveals to her as she wakes. She forces herself to her feet, a feeble torch her only source of light. She chokes in a cry as she looks at the 'room', she found herself in.
Corpses hang mid-air bound by solid chains that spread their hands apart. Desiccated corpses with surprising intact forms, expressions of pain, and fear branded on their faces.
They lined the walls. Of all the figures that lined the walls the one that mediately drew her attention after the macabre reveal was the red-haired man. of height and stature with her dearly departed moon and stars, and with a similar braided hair.
His eyes were half-lidded, but even halfway open she could see his slit pupils and the purple glow of his eyes.
"I can see you've met our latest… guest"
The voice came from behind her and she spun to face it. she recognized him immediately, the warlock she met at the gates of Quarth.
He continued speaking as he walked around the room moving to where the red-haired man hung with his silk black robes trailing behind him like they were alive.
"a scion of Old Valyria that somehow found a way to bind a dragon to himself once more" The pale warlock stopes in front of his red-haired captive and lovingly caresses his face.
"well he did not so much as bind the dragon, the dragon bound him to itself. Yet he cannot call the beast" the angle she stands at gives her a clear view of what the warlock does next.
He uses his hands to force the red-haired man's mouth open before shoving a vial he removed from his cloak down his throat.
"Centuries of experiments, magical breeding and interbreeding with creatures better left forgotten, and what do they produce?" he answers his question as the red-haired man begins to spasm, jaws locked tight and strangling any scream of pain that should have left his mouth.
His formerly half-lidded eyes are wide open now, glowing with power, madness, and rage as he stares down the warlock.
The flippant warlock takes a step back as the man snaps his head forward, blood-stained teeth aiming for his jugular. He had gone past the stage of forming words and the only thing he lets out are growls as he tries to murder the warlock with his eyes only.
"A brute, a highly talented one, yes. But still a brute. Sorceries that could have been used to rip out the life essence from his enemies and impart it in himself thereby living a long life, and what does he do? He uses it only as a stop-gap to heal himself and instinctually at that!"
The warlock almost seemed offended as he stared at the red-haired man. She took a step back as her eyes drifted away, looking for the entrance the warlock must have used to come in, and yet she found none.
A hand grabbed her from behind before she could turn to confront the person, the unmistakable feeling of chains around her wrist made her frantic.
She pushed the person off and realized it was the same warlock. "How" she choked out as she looked and beheld the warlock still beside the red-haired man, looking at her with a sick smile on his face.
"I can't have my prized guest wandering about" the warlock turned to her and smiled, ignorant of the red-haired berserker's continual struggles to rip the chains out of the wall. His wrists were bruised and bleeding, yet he was making progress.
"As we speak my coven is experiencing the wonders of magic straight from a dragon, and I can assure you, it is intoxicating… for us at least".
Like a curtain had been lifted, she heard her dragons screech again this time with pain and anger.
And suddenly she wasn't so scared again. No, she was furious. Rising to her complete height of 5ft8, she looked the warlock dead in the eye, "you will die. you will all die I promise you that." She said it with such certainty she wondered where the assurance came from.
The warlock took a step back. That same moment a roar loud enough to shake the heavens was let out as something huge and malevolent landed on the tower of the undying. The impact shook the whole building, shaking some stones loose. Some other things came loose too as well.
A mad deranged laugh drew the warlock's attention back to the red-haired berserker that was 'standing' on his feet just a few steps away. chains coiled around bloodied wrists and fists, head tilted to the side, slitted eyes dilated, and blood-stained teeth on complete display.
For the first time he spoke, voice low and hoarse from all his screaming "why, you shouldn't have done that"
The warlock took three frightened steps back, every step produced a clone that charged the red-haired berserker, and brought the warlock closer to her, she held her chains tight and looked for the best way to wrangle his skinny neck. He should never have touched her children.
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YGRITTE
Qarth was burning. She sat saddled outside the destroyed gates and watched the city burn as people tried to escape the destroyed city.
The reason, the dreaded beast of myth. Even the free folks knew of dragons, and what she was looking at could not be mistaken for anything else.
The backblast from the humongous monster's roar pushed her hair back and would have scared her horse off if she wasn't the one in control. That could not be said for the rest of her group as the Thormir and the rest were forced to put their horses under control.
rage on their faces as they stared at the city that stole their chief.
They planned a two-prong attack when they discovered Angrod's destination. Half by sea and half my land.
It seemed the dragon had done most of the work for them, she sighed. What was with Angrod and attracting ridiculous situations.
SER BARRISTAN
He had been tracking the Mother of Dragons ever since his dismissal from court, And his investigations had led him here. The black scaled dragon barely drew his attention as he charged into the city looking for her. Last he heard her dragon was the size of cats, not a creature with a size comparable to a castle ad sky bloating wings. Its attack and destruction of the city were indiscriminate, although he seemed focused more on a specific structure of black stone.
riding past scared civilians and confused soldiers, he spied a familiar face. "Jorah!"
the disgraced and banished knight turned to him, eyes wide in shock, either from the dragon's presence or his, he did not care to ask.
Ignoring the presence of the Dothraki that stood with him he highlighted from his horse.
"where is she? Where is Rhaeger's sister?"
The bewildered knight pointed to the half-destroyed Black tower. The dragon was perched ontop it and tried its best to put as much flames and magma into the tower as he could.
Of course, she would be there. He was old, but his battlefield senses were still alert, that's why he caught sight of the fur-clad barbarians entering the city by gate and by sea. Cutting down anybody unfortunate enough to hold a weapon with extreme prejudice and hate in their eyes. He felt like he was only aware of one part of a puzzle.
Mounting his horse again, he charged the black tower.
DAENERYS TARGARYEN
"Do not wake the dragon"
That was something Viserys loved to say. She never took it seriously and only saw it as a sign of his ever-growing madness. Now she had a vague idea of what he meant.
Everything and everybody in 'their' way was either dead or dying.
She walked ten steps behind him as he wreaked destruction in the castle. For some reason, his eyes always washed over her as he sought out the next dead man walking. She rounded a corner and watched him stomp a warlocks head till his brains were splayed on the floor. she would have thrown up, but she had nothing left in her stomach.
He moved off again, slamming a chain covered fist into another unlucky warlock's face. Hard enough to pulp his face and send the unlucky man to the ground.
The house of Undying originally had no doors, now there were numerous ways to exit and enter. They moved forward, stepping out into the apocalyptic hellscape.
Qarth was burning and yet the man kept on walking, ignorant to the destruction going on. Ignorant to his blood-soaked form. Ignorant to his ash caked form. Ignorant to the mad wide-eyed grin on his face that chased away the few people stupid enough to be close to the center of this apocalypse. maybe not ignorant, just uncaring.
"Nidhogg" he screamed to the sky.
The dragon, for what else could it be. Possessing Heavy overlapping scales covering a reptilian body with a serpentine neck, eyes that glowed sulfuric yellow and gold, bearing a huge jaw that dripped magma, answered with a resounding roar that sent her to the floor, as well as the few building still standing.
The only person still standing was the red-haired berserker staring into the sky. where the Monstrous dragon ruled, along with three tiny shapes flying around his head she recognized as her children.
NOTE: If this chapter seems rushed, that's because it was rushed. finally had a few hours to myself today, so I whipped out this chapter. I'm personally not satisfied with it, but i don't know when else I would have time to write.
The next chapter is going to be POV's (if I write it) then after that the next arc. enjoy. thanks for sticking with me this far, through horrible grammar and numerous misspelled words. love and light.