⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯ °• ☼ CHAPTER TEN: DROPS OF FIRE FALLEN FROM THE SUN ☾ •°⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯

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NESSIE HAD BEEN right: it had only gotten worse since her brother went away. She knew he'd gone with Lyanna but she didn't know where he'd disappeared to. She hadn't seen him since she left him in the gardens. Claims of Rhaegar's abduction of Lyanna spread through the castle and to all the corners of Westeros, but Nessie knew Rhaegar had been telling the truth. If Rhaegar was going to abduct Lyanna, he wouldn't have told her about his plan. And Nessie had seen the way Lyanna and Rhaegar had interacted at the Harenhall Tourney; they were in love, as he'd said.

          But Aerys was enraged. With the loss of his eldest son and heir, his madness grew, until it was all he was. He was cruel and disastrous, hungry for war and executions. The bloodlust could be seen in his eyes.

          After finding bite marks and bruises on Rhaella's wrists, Nessie insisted on stealing her mother away during the night and keeping her in Nessie's room. While her father would be angry, it was nowhere near as bad as seeing the repercussions of her own mother's rape.

          Rhaella was hesitant at first, not wanting her daughter to get the brunt of Aerys' anger, but eventually she gave in. She was too weak to resist even her fourteen-year-old daughter's hands. Nesaela would not be hearing her mother's screams another night.

          She stole Viserys too, not wanting him to be victim of their father's rage. The three of them spent countless nights with their backs pressed to Nessie's sealed wooden door, trying to keep the bellowing king at bay. The madness would eat away at him, so he would forget it by morning. She often heard the Kingsguard murmuring about the incidents. Their loyalty to the king had grown worn. Nessie had overheard Jaimie Lannister telling another member that as Kingsguard they were sworn to protect the Queen and children as well—to which Ser Jon Darry replied, "We are, but not from him."

          Nessie made sure to keep all her arrows and bow on the set of her childhood drawers, now.

          The castle had grown quiet. Many of the noble families had left, or stayed indoors now. Everyone was frightened of being accused of treason; everyone was frightened of the Mad King. Even his family themselves. And now there was no Rhaegar to protect them, no golden son to step in front of his cruel behaviour, only a barred door.

         It was the dawn of a new day. Nesaela had given her bed to Rhaella and Viserys, and slept with a pillow at their feet. Though she was hopeless at fighting, she had a knife beside her fingertips. She hadn't slept that night, and the opal-eyed dragon hadn't come to her.

          She opened her tired eyes to yelling. Leaving her mother and brother asleep, Nessie moved to her wide window. Below, stood the fearsome but merciful Rickard Stark, calling out to Rhaegar, who wasn't here. "Come out and die!" he yelled, surrounded by his own faithful Northmen and his son Brandon. They were looking for Lyanna.

          It was noble, it was brave, it was honourable.

          The Northmen were slaughtered, and Rickard and Brandon captured. Nesaela closed the window drapes.

          Aerys II brought his family downstairs for the special occasion of the trials of the Northmen, though Nessie doubted it would be fair. Each of the men were sentenced to death, save for Lord Ethan Glover. She watched as Rickard Stark was doused with wildfire, and his son, Brandon—who had laughed at the Harrenhall feast in the seat next to Nessie and snuck her his dessert—strangled himself in the torture device trying to save his father. Nessie wanted to do nothing more than to run to the clearing as she had with Rhaegar or bury her face into her mother's shoulder and hide in her skirts like a child. But she couldn't. There were tears in her eyes as she watched the scene unfold, lip quivering. If her father saw her sympathy for such alleged traitors, she would be executed too. Her younger brother did push his face into Rhaella's skirts. Nesaela just held her mother's hand so tightly that the rings cut into Nessie's skin.

          After the execution, each of them were sent to their respective rooms, and barricaded in. Nesaela knew her father had started a war. Even before ravens with notes of their deaths had taken wing towards the North, she knew. Her brother's escapee with Lyanna stark was the tipping point for her family and soon they'd all fall into ruins.

          That night she'd dreamt of Rickard and Brandon Stark burning and herself standing amongst them. She didn't burn and instead stood by them as they screamed. Their faces crumpled inwards, falling to ash, and their eyes melted in their skulls, and the opal-eyed dragon didn't swoop in to save her from this. When she reached for Brandon he became bones in her hands and when she'd let go he'd disappeared into darkness.

          The things you do not yet know of in the world do not deserve you...

          She was running and her bare feet left bloody footprints behind in the dirt. There was Rhaegar, in the shallow waters of the Trident, but he was not playing in the river or waving for Nessie to join him, but floating on the surface with his face towards the sky. His hair rippled around him in pools of silver, his face pale, his lips red, not with the flush of life but with blood, and it covered him like a blanket. Where his chest was torn open like the ruined remains of a poppy flower, rubies from his chest-plate scattered across the water's surface, shimmering like drops of fire fallen from the sun. He looked like the kind of painting which would hang in the castle library, except he was not a painting, he was her brother, and he had skin and a heart and he was dead. And the common-folk scrabbled for the rubies amongst his blood.

          The things you do not yet know of in the world do not deserve you...

          She saw a boat travelling on an ocean, sail devoid of a sigil, floating unidentified between two lands. There was a woman crying out in pain, a voice painfully familiar. Nesaela heard the cry of a baby; saw purple eyes like amethyst, like lavender. Salty tears met an even saltier sea, sinking into the murky depths. The boat on the open ocean rocked.

          The sky turned red and it began to rain blood.

          The things you do not yet know of in the world...

          Nesaela raced through the empty halls of Kings Landing; the stone freezing against her feet, and the shadows chased her in a frenzy. Every door she tried was locked, forcing her down the inevitable hallway, darkness lapping at her heels. There were wolves and wyverns and wildcats in the shadows, and they screamed at her with voices that sounded human, telling her to not run, that she was safe here, that she was safe here with her father.

          The hallway stretched for eons, doors passing her in a blur. No matter how fast she ran, the corridor kept going, and the shadows did not fall behind. "You're safe here," they told her, and the lies that left their mouths turned to moths. She did not look back to see if they looked human. There was no one there to save her, or haul her into their arms and defend her from the shadows. She knocked over a marble bust of Viserys, and it shattered on the floor around the crown of his head.

          She ran deeper into darkness, lights dimming, as if she was running down the throat of a great dragon. The blackness enveloped her. The air was cold and crisp, her eyes blind as she ran stumbling, faster and faster. She was afraid, so afraid, that it constricted her heart and choked her throat. What was she afraid of? "What are you running from?" the shadows asked her, voices sharp and twisted, as if their tongues were tied in knots. "What are you running from?"

          Nessie stepped forward and she realised there was no floor there, only a ledge plummeting into a deep dark abyss. Her hand reached out to grasp onto something but she was already falling into the black nothingness. She plunged through Rhaegar and Elia's empty tower.

          And she fell, and fell, and fell.

          The things you do not yet know of in the world...

          Nesaela was alone. She looked around for her home but her home wasn't there. She'd never had a home and it had all been a lie. When she glanced in the ocean's reflection she saw her mother staring back at her. As she'd watched, blood fell from her eyes and nose and curled the water with its ripples.

          ... you do not yet know of in the world...

         And then Nessie's hands were covered in blood, and she was shoving a blade into the stomach of a woman she didn't know. The woman's skin was black like the night sky and hair white like the moon. But her eyes were slitted like a cat's and her fingernails claws, and there was blood on her face, her hair, her tongue. When the woman opened her mouth, birds and spiders emerged from her lips and her eyes had turned black like dragonglass.

          ... you do not yet know of...

          Nessie woke with tears on her face and a sense of dread rising in her.

          When she'd wiped away her tears and opened her door, she saw Tylan waiting outside. His face was grim and his hands tight around his sheathed sword. "What's happened?" Nesaela asked him, at his expression.

          "The Baratheons have taken up their banners, the Starks and Arryns too." Nesaela swallowed, it was no surprise. Those houses loved their families. There would be no stopping them after the leaders of their houses had been killed. Tylan looked around, checking for watching eyes, and then gently took her arm and walked them back into her room. "I've heard the Kingsguard talking. The King has a plan. He intends to burn down Kings Landing and everyone inside, including your family, rather than let Robert Baratheon sieze it. The wildfire is being set up in reserves around the city as we speak." He paused as a look of horror overcame the girl's face. "We should leave now, Nesaela. Before it becomes too late." His eyes were kind and uncharacteristically afraid.

          Princess Nesaela thought it over for just a moment. "And what of my mother and Viserys?" she asked finally, eyes looking at him earnestly.

          Tylan avoided her gaze. "I can't guarantee their safety."

          Nessie seemed to think, gaze flickering across the expanse of her room: across the pair of twin horses on her desk with broken legs; and finally came to rest on the blue dragon egg. Her gaze emptied as it turned to him. "Then I can't leave."

          If Tylan wanted to argue with her, he didn't show it. Instead, he nodded his head in understanding, and left the room. Nessie new he would spend all day and night posted outside her door to guarantee her safety. Nesaela didn't leave her room that day, or sleep either. She spent the evening and night writing the last of her poetry collection, stashing them in a bag. She prepared for her death. And by the morning, there were twelve thousand Lannister soldiers being led into the city.

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you have no idea how much i love writing this story.

1,980 words

08.02.2019.