The Blue Spirits

Chapter One

Jaime still wasn't certain that he wasn't dreaming, it surely had to be a dream? A falling star that had landed outside of the walls of the of the city, leaving a burning trail across flattened fields and a crofter's cottage which had been smashed in as the star had fallen across the sky, letting out a shrieking noise as it fell like sounded like a demon that had burst out of hell.

And then finding the star in the middle of a field, only it wasn't a star at all but some sort of metal vessel unlike any Jaime had ever seen before in his life and all around it, what he had to assume had been the vessel's passengers and they were as strange as the thing that had borne them through the sky. They were all of them blue, each a different shade with some looking to be the same blue as the sky that they had fallen out of while some were a closer shade to Lapis Lazuli or Aquamarine but all of them were blue, all of them had a crest on the back of their head, which looked like the tentacles of a squid had frozen in place at the back of their heads instead of hair.

When they had tried to speak to them they had not been able to understand what the others were saying and soon that lack of understanding lead to hostility, he was not truly sure if it had been one of the men who had followed him and Ser Barristan out from the Red Keep who had loosed a crossbow bolt first or if it had been one of the strange sky women who had raised their old weapons and let out a volley of...something at them, in truth it had all happened so fast that Jaime could not remember who had struck out first.

In the end he imagined it did not matter as soon enough all of them were in the battle, a guardsmen atop a horse tried to ride one of the women without one of the strange weapons down but she had simply stood to meet him and an aura of what looked like blue fire flaring up all around her and then with a wave of her hand some unseen force had thrown both horse and rider far across the field, both animal and man screaming in agony as they lay on the ground, with broken legs and a broken back among the pair of them.

They had some sort of magic, what else could it be? And how could they hope to fight it? Jaime would suffer no man to call him a coward but that did not mean that he was so much a fool as to think that he could beat someone with magic. Even if they did not have magic they did have other weapons in their hands and they seemed to be just as dangerous as magic.

They seemed like oddly shaped crossbows, they had a mechanism much like the one he had seen once on a Myrish crossbow but what they launched were not bolts and they threw them at a much faster rate in a way that it seemed almost endless. Two guardsmen fell to the weapon's blasts of light, bloody holes punching through their armor like they weren't even wearing them.

They had rode out with fifty men, and there had only been four and ten of the blue women. One of which had been laying on the ground, clearly dying from whatever injuries she had sustained when their...skyship? Had crashed into the ground and he could not lie and say that had not been a comforting sight as it meant that these strange women with impossible weapons and magical powers could be hurt and they could, hopefully, die as well.

But at the time it had seemed like they were all going to die before even the woman on the ground bled out, their weapons were better and their magic they had no counter to. Their weapons kept them at a distance and any fool who tried to get close soon found themselves being thrown through the air by some invisible hand as if they weighed nothing.

Of the fifty men they had ridden out with, only thirty still stood and the women had not lost a one of their number aside from the one that had already died. There had been plenty of calls to retreat, to make their way back to the city but Lannisters had a certain pride and it would not allow Jaime to fall back and if he had done, what would have happened? Fifty men had been whistled down to thirty in a matter of moments, with their power and their weapons they could burn all of King's Landing down to the ground.

And he was not the Lord Commander, it would be Ser Barristan who gave the call for them to retreat and he had not done that, even as he watched more and more of them men fall to them with a grim look on his face. Eventually, after a man was hit with some of that blue magic that caused his armor to melt into his flesh, screaming in agony all of the time, Ser Barristan set his fact into a firm mask and marched forward like a man without fear of death and Jaime hurried after him, his sword drawn.

They both might have died, the chances were that they would die quickly but none would say that Jaime Lannister would have shied away from his duty. They could call him Kingslayer as much as they liked but no man would ever call him a coward. Ser Barristan rushed over to what seemed to be the leader of the woman, a tall one dressed in strange red and gold armor with some sort of golden ornaments on her head which covered the rough area of where her eyebrows should have been but Jaime had taken a good look at their faces, and it seemed that none of them had eyebrows.

The woman had turned to face him and raised a single clenched fist, all around her was that aura of burning blue light and Jaime had to wonder what she would do to Ser Barristan, perhaps she would turn him into a toad. Barristan stood in front of her for a moment and quickly feel to his knees in front of her, throwing his sword at her feet.

Suddenly, there was silence as the world turned still, the weapons of the strange women stopped making their awful noise as everyone turned to watch what happened next. The tall blue woman stared down at the sword like she barely understood what it was and then held out her hand down towards Ser Barristan.

Jaime had watched in disbelief as Ser Barristan took the hand and allowed the tall blue woman, with the deepest blue eyes that Jaime had ever seen in his life, to help him on to his feet. "We yield, my Lady."

The blue woman stared at him, her head tilted at the side for a few long moments before she called over one of her companions, this one was not so tall as the woman who accepted Ser Barristan's yield but she was still fairly tall for a woman, and spoke to her in a tongue that Jaime had never heard before and made him tilt his head. It sounded somewhat vaguely like Rhoynish, long with an almost musical note to the words and the accent somewhat catching on certain words.

The woman that had been summoned summoned listened to the other's words for a few moments and then nodded. She lifted her arm, and Jaime felt himself getting ready to rush forward and run the woman through with his own blade before she could summon up her magic, but the fiery blue aura did not come. Instead, an outline of orange light encircled her arm.

The woman's fingers danced over the orange light for a few long moments and then said something to the woman in the red armor who nodded her head at her and the shorter woman attended to the orange light again while the taller woman approached Ser Barristan and began to speak to him, her voice gentle while she gestured at his mouth.

"I...am sorry, my Lady. I cannot understand you." Ser Barristan had said, a narrowing of his own eyes as he stared passed the taller woman while looking at the shorter once.

"I..am sorry, my Lady. I cannot understand you." Ser Barristan said again, he had not spoken, his lips had not moved but it had been his voice. Ser Barristan took a step backward and Jaime could understand why, hovering above the orange light around the woman's arm was a tiny copy of the old knight, speaking the same words as he had just said.

The woman with the orange light nodded and then the same orange light appeared over all of the other woman's arms, and Jaime noticed as he got slightly closer that that light actually seemed to have a shape to it, it almost reminded him of a gauntlet and all of the women set to rolling their fingers over it, a soft chime coming up into the air, followed by another and another.

Once all of the chimes had died, the tall woman spoke again and this time, Jaime could understand her. Barely, her voice was still heavily accented and some of the words were strange in their use, but he could understand what she meant to say. "We are very apologize, we did not mean for that to occur. I am bringer of law Samara. We are of the one who is all people, our ship suffered massive failure and fell from the heavens, we mean no harm."

Ser Barristan had stared at her for a long moment before he cleared his throat to speak. "Well met, my lady. I am Ser Barristan Selmy, Lord Commander of his Grace King Robert's Kingsguard, I swear to you as well that we meant no harm either."

Meaning no harm surely did not stop harm from being caused however, the bodies of several men on the ground was surely proof enough of that. Jaime wondered if the people waiting for them to come back would accept that no harm had been meant as a good enough reason as to why they never came back. Though, the amount of time the lowborn had been called on by their lords to march off to war and die, maybe they had learned by now to stop asking.

The woman nodded and glanced around at her own party, a frown appeared on her face when she saw the body of one of her own on the ground. She called out something to one of her women who spoke back, their words Jaime did not understand as he did have to wonder what sort of magic the woman had weaved that he could understand some of the words but not the rest of them, and the woman that Samara had spoken too knelt next to the dead woman on the ground, as he got a closer look he had seen that the blood that stained the ground around her was violet.

The woman's orange gauntlet of light appeared over her arm again and her fingers danced it over and suddenly a shrill tone went up into the air and Jaime had not been able to stop a wince running through him at the suddenness of the sound. The woman kneeling over the other stood and shook head at Samara who stood there silently for a moment before tilting her head in a grim nod before turning back to face them.

"We have lost one of our own and you have lost many of yours, we would make that right if we could but we cannot." Samara turned then and looked back at the great metal vessel they had fallen from the skies in, it was burning in some places and Jaime wondered what would happen to it, a ship would burn to ashes but all the ships Jaime knew of were made of wood, would a ship made of metal melt? Metal melted when it reached hot enough temperatures, after all.

Samara turned back to face them and spoke. "I would recommend withdrawing to a safe distance, our vessel is heavily damaged. We will do what we can to limit the damage of the explosion but it will still be substantial, withdraw quickly."

Ser Barristan frowned and spoke again. "I...understand. But my Lady, how large will this explosion be?" Barristan glanced over his shoulder, over to the horizon and Jaime knew what he was thinking. King's Landing was less than five miles away, the ship did not seem that big so surely any explosion it caused would not be big enough to reach the city but at the same time a ship should not be able to soar through the sky like a bird either so it was unlikely that they would be able to trust logic when they were dealing with magic.

And even if it was not that massive of an exploitation, what were the chances they would be able to get to safety before the explosion occurred? What was the safe distance? Would the horses be able to carry them to it in time?

"I am not the one who sees to the condition of the vessel, but if the core of null energy breaches then...massive, again. We shall do what we can to limit the damage." Samara turned and began to shout orders and while some of the women seemed reluctant, they all began to move toward the vessel but before Samara could take a step Ser Barristan got her attention once again by reaching out and taking hold of her wrist.

The woman turned her head to look at the older night, her deep blue eyes narrowed into a fierce glare. She pulled her hand free from Ser Barristan's grasp with what barely seemed to be any effort on her part and spoke firmly. "Please, do not interfere. You do not understand what is happening here, we must get work before the core is breached."

"My lady is right that I do not understand, in truth I doubt that I could ever understand what is happening today but what I do understand is that something terrible could happen if something is not done quickly and I am a knight, sworn to protect those more helpless than myself, children and women. I would not walk away if you were to put yourself in danger to try and stop it, allow us to help in anyway we can."

"Bringer of law." Another of the women came to speak to her, this one's skin was a deep indigo in color and her eyes were green. "We must hurry, the core could breach at any moment. The crew in charge of repairing the ship is reduced, I will need more hands to try and contain the explosion, ,more hands if it was just us."

Samara was silent as she listened to the other woman's words, nodding her head after she had finished speaking before turning back to Barristan. "You may help us, however you must do as well tell you. One mistake could cause the explosion to occur quicker or make it worse. Do you agree to do as we say when say to do it?"

Jaime was about to speak out, it was only at their word that they had any sort of implication an explosion would occur at all, what if it was some sort of trap but once again, before he could say a single word Ser Barristan spoke again. "My lady, you have my word as a knight and as Lord Commander of King Robert's kingsguard that you will have our obedience until the danger has passed."

"Very well then, hurry." That seemed to be enough for the woman who turned and marched back to the ship, all the other women falling into line and marching after her likes ducks following after their mother and it seemed that they were to follow her as well. There was a ragged hole in the side of the vessel from which smoke was billowing out out, along with came an unpleasant smell. No scent of smoke was pleasant to endure, to be sure but this seemed that much more vile, it was hard for him to describe with words but it left a burning sensation in his nose and a metallic taste in the back of his throat.

"Do not breath so deeply." One of the women spoke but as they climbed into the hope, the smoke obscured his vision so that Jaime could not see which of them had spoken though it did not sound like it had been the Lady Samara. It was not something that Jaime felt that he needed to be told but the guards, some of them as thick as a castle wall, might have appreciated the warning. Though, some refused to step foot inside which Jaime would be more than glad to deal with when he got back out, if he got back out.

The inside of the vessel was like nothing Jaime had ever seen before. It's walls were metal just as outside and it was some of the smoothest metal that he had ever seen, even with the thick layer of smoke hanging in the air it was still smooth enough and still polished enough that Jaime could easily see his reflection in it. It had struck him then and there that whoever had made this vessel had to be a master of their craft and if such a thing like this could be made once, surely it could be remade again.

He and Cersei would have to send word to Father once Jaime had made it back to the city, if he made it back to the city. Father always wanted to keep an eye on any emerging power, to ensure that they could never pose any sort of threat to the rest of them. This group of blue witches that had fallen out of the sky, it was hard not to see them as a threat to the way that their world worked.

Jaime felt a cough burning at the bottom of his throat and Jaime was unable to hold it back, he had bent his head and hacked and as soon as he started to cough he found that he could not stop it. A hand clamped around his elbow and dragged him forward for a distance that Jaime was not certain how long it was but suddenly, he heard something shutting behind him and the floor shifted underneath his feet and soon the entire room seemed to be descending.

After a few moments, the air cleared up and his breathing was much easier and the cough spluttered out. He looked up and saw Ser Barristan standing in front of him, his eyes were slightly red and he was using his white cloak to cover his mouth and his nose and Jaime found himself irritated that he hadn't thought of that. He stood to his full height and looked to his side to see that the one called Samara had been the one to take hold of his arm to lead him and he pulled himself out of her grasp.

He quickly looked around to see that they were in a small room with no entrance or exit and only four walls, how had they gotten inside? The second thing that he had noticed about the room, was that it was moving down. It kept going down for what seemed to be an eternity until it finally came to a stop and one of the walls parted int the middle and both halves of it pulled away from each other.

The room that the traveling room opened up into was large and spacious, it could not compare to the throne room of the Red Keep or indeed even the Golden Gallery of Casterly Rock but it looked big enough to hold at least a hundred people. In the center of the room was a large podium atop which sat a large blue sphere that was glowing with bright blue light, perhaps Jaime's eyes were still adjusting due to the smoke but the sphere seemed to be getting brighter and brighter with each moment that passed.

"We haven't much time." The indigo colored witch spoke up as she stepped out of the travailing room and hurried over to a small table around the podium that was emitting the same soft orange light that the gauntlets they had all been able to summon was made of. "There is a massive build up of power in the core, containment shields are failing. I have to try and disengage the core from the main source."

"Do it then." Samara commanded but the other woman shook her head.

"It is not so simple as that Bringer of Law. The immediate shutdown is not listening to me, we will have to physically separate the core from the lines of power." The woman ducked underneath the table and crawled over to the podium, opening the hatch near the base of it rooting around inside of it for a moment before she closed the hatch once again and crawled out from underneath the table before getting to her feet.

"I've opened up access to the lines, we will have to cut them physically." The woman walked over to a small corner of the room and pressed on a section of the wall which slide away from the rest of the wall, revealing a hidden compartment inside. What looked like a bundle of thin wires that the maesters or the craftmen would always use was bundled inside. "I need something sharp."

"My lady?" Barristan stepped forward, unsheathing his sword and holding it out. The indigo witch looked at if for a moment before she nodded and beckoned the old knight to come forward. She gestured as to where she wanted him to cut and when the sharp steel cut through the first of the wires, a show of sparks and smoke shoot out and Barristan was forced to drop his sword, the metal smoking and charred black, reminding him of what a sword would look like once that fool of a priest from Myr got done with setting it alight with wildfire.

"I am sorry for that." The woman spoke from where she was kneeling before she got to her feet. "But, the line is now cut and more power cannot reach the core. I am afraid there is another set of lines that must be cut." She turned to glance at Jaime who in turned looked down at his own sword in his scabbard and did not try to stop a frown, the blade had been a nameday gift from Cersei.

But he was hardly able to say no, after all. The woman walked to the other side of the room and Jaime made himself follow her. She did all that she had been before, pressing on the wall and the section she pressed slid away and Jaime let out a sigh as he drew his sword and cut the lines that the witches directed him too, and then dropping his sword when the wall started to spark and smoke.

The blade was ruined, twisted and blackened and the steel was even slightly melted but it that they had managed to do whatever it was that they had intended as the light emitting from the core began to die down and the entire room began to darken. "Is it done?" He found himself asking the witch.

"No, that was the easy part." The witch gestured and all of the other women stepped forward and began to take positions around the podium and in unison all of them raised their arms and the aura of burning blue magic appeared around all of them and a shimmering blue light began to appear around the core. "The barrier will keep the core in check, the rest of you will come with me."

The woman lead them deeper into the room and to a large wall with several hatches in it, the witch set to opening them all before turning to them. "Watch me closely." She reached into one of the hatches and pulled out a what looked like a large block of metal with a four large wires connecting it back into the hatch. The witch began to unscrew the wires from the box and then once that was done turned to face them.

"Please help me with the others." And then he, Barristan and the other guardsmen who had managed to find enough courage to come in with them all opened a hatch and copied what the witch had done, by the time that they were done over fifty of the metal blocks were on the floor and it seemed that with each they had pulled out, the room had gotten dimmer and dimmer until they were working almost entirely in darkness with only the blue glow of the witches magic for them to see by.

"Has that seen it done?" Jaime asked as he tried to see his hand in front of his face, wondering how they would be able to get out of here? A bright light suddenly shone into his face and Jaime had to shut his eyes and turn his head away from it. He looked back and saw that it was the indigo woman, her orange gauntlet was back around her arm with a bright white light shinning out of it.

"No power has been found, the core is disconnected." The woman nodded and then walked over to where the Lady Samara was standing and said something to her that Jaime had not been able to hear. Samara nodded and waved her arms and the fiery blue aura vanished from around and all of the other women followed her lead and soon all of their auras had vanished, to be quickly replaced with orange glow and bright white lights of the gauntlets.

"We have killed the core and ended the power, I believe that we have managed to avert a breach." She let out a heavy sigh then glanced around the room for a moment with a look in her eyes that reminded Jaime of the look that his fat fool of a goodbrother would often get in his eyes when he had too much wine to drink and his thoughts had turned to the memory of the Stark girl and how she had ended.

Thankfully, unlike his goodbrother, the woman did not seem inclined to share what bothered her at that moment and so she pulled away from Jaime and walked over to Samara. "The core is dead, the chance of a breach is lessened now but if we have no power then we shall have no ability to lift the ship back into the skies. Repair servants will not be attentive to our summons with no power."

"I understand." Lady Samara said with a nod before she turned her attention on to Ser Barristan. "The ship is safe for now, no damage will be done to your world. But, it seems unlikely that we will be able to leave for some time. Under most circumstances we would ask you to leave now and inform whoever rules in your world to not bother us while we remain her. Sadly, the structure of our vessel is compromised and some of the ship is still sadly on fire and none of our systems to suppress it are working. We would ask you for sanctuary then, until we devise a way to either contact our people or to fix our vessel."

Jaime would have told them know, he would have said that it was an insane idea. A group of blue women that fell from the sky being carted back to King's Landing? It was going to cause a riot. But he was not the Lord Commander and the final decision was not his to make. Ser Barristan waited for a moment and then nodded.

"We shall take you back to the capital, the King and the Grand Maester I imagine both will be very pleased to meet you."

End of Chapter One


Another chapter done and dusted.

If anyone thinks that the dialogue of the Asari is a little weird and stilted, there's a reason for that. They basically ran a translation program to translate their language into the common tongue but while the program is smart, it's very hard to translate a language into a new one that you have no frame of reference for. The dialogue will be less stilted going forward as said program is still running and will allow for a smoother translation when it hears more words.

And, this stilted dialogue will only occur in chapters from a character from Westeros, chapters from an Asari POV will not have this problem. It might sound like an odd concept as first but is the common tongue of Westeros, or any tongue in the ASOIAF world, going to have words that can perfectly translate high energy transfer or mass effect field generation?

Anywho, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and will consider leaving a review, constructive criticism is always welcome and valued as well as maybe leaving me a favorite and a follow.

With much love and gratitude,

DiscordantSymphony