Sansa
On the ninth morning after they came for her father, Sansa finally mustered up the courage to use the device Lady Jade had entrusted her with. She pulled the magic box from where she'd hidden it all those turns ago, opened the gold filigree lid and pressed the blue button, just like the sorceress had said. The box chirped like a little bird, then fell silent. Holding the box close for fear of the guards hearing, she whispered, "Lady Jade? Are you there? Everything's gone wrong and I don't know what to do."
The box remained silent, and for a long moment Sansa despaired, afraid the magic had worn off or that Lady Jade had betrayed her too, just like her prince, before the blue button flashed with light and the sorceress's voice came back, strong and full of concern. "Sansa? What's wrong, sweetie?"
Sansa almost sobbed with relief. "Oh, my lady," she said frantically. "King Robert went out hunting and then he came back hurt and now he's dead and Joffrey's been crowned and the Queen said Father was a traitor and there was so much fighting and now Father's in the black cells and I don't know what's going on and Joffrey refuses to speak to me and I need your help!"
The little box exploded with noise, then a sharp whistle came and the noise vanished. "Not now, dammit," Lady Jade ordered whoever else was listening. "Sansa, what happened to King Robert?"
"I don't know!" she wailed. "He went hunting for a white stag not long after you left, and he came back hurt not a fortnight ago. The castle maids said the stag turned on him and gored him, but one of Father's men said that it was an accident with a spear. Father never told me what truly happened before—" she choked off. "He died two days after coming back to the keep," she finished.
The box was silent. "Well, hell," Lady Jade said. "What happened next?"
"Father went to the Queen about something, it was about Joffrey I think. I... I don't know what happened there, but all of a sudden the Queen's guards and the city watch were at our doors declaring Father was a traitor and we were all under arrest." Sansa shivered. There were so many of them, all in red and gold, surrounding the manse. Father's men tried to fend them off long enough for Sansa and the others to escape. It hadn't worked. She saw brave, brave and poor Jory Cassel fall to Sandor Clegane's monstrous figure. The Lannister men poured into the manse, dragging her away from Septa Mordane. She heard the screams every night since. "They... they locked me away in Maegor's Holdfast. The Queen came to me, she said Father had committed treason against the Iron Throne, that she wanted to know if I truly loved Joffrey, if I'd testify against him. She said if I told her what I knew she'd release Father from the black cells. But I don't know anything!" She was crying now, the tears rolling hot down her cheeks. "I begged Joffrey to release him, that Father couldn't be a traitor. He loved King Robert like a brother! But he doesn't say anything, he just smiles at me when I beg. What kind of man smiles like that at a crying maiden?"
"I'm sorry, Sansa," Lady Jade said through the magic box. "I'm so, so sorry you're going through this. Now, I need you to do three things. First, I need you to push the little green button on the box, okay?" Sansa sniffled and did so. The button glowed a bright, cheery green. "Okay, next you need to keep the box on you at all times. Stick it in a pocket where it won't be seen, just keep it in your hand or as close to your hand, even if they take you out of your room. As long as it's on you I'll be able to hear what happens, even if I'm not talking to you."
"I will," Sansa vowed. Her gown had plenty of concealed pockets, it wouldn't be difficult to stick the box in one. She stroked the enamel box carefully.
"Third, I need you to keep your back straight and your hopes up, just for a little while longer. I'm coming to get you, kid."
Sansa blinked. "Truly?"
"That's a promise, Sansa. And people from Ulthos always keep their word." There was something sharp and bright in the sorceress's voice, like a knife being drawn or fangs being bared. "It won't be very long now, just keep an eye out."
Sarella
"So, what now?" Sarella voiced the unspoken question as the Stark girl's voice faded from the main speaker.
"Now we go rescue the princess," Lady Jade replied. "I suppose we can pick up her dad while we're at it. It's the neighborly thing to do."
"Just like that," Sarella replied flatly. The sorceress shrugged.
"Well no, not 'just like that.' But! We do have some time to get into position and draw up a plan first." She turned to the ship's controls and tapped out a command. Horns sounded and the ship rose from its berth outside Castle Black and turned southwards. "Victory: access mapping array, get me a weather report for King's Landing." An image of the crownlands beset by clouds appeared in a window in front of her. "Oh, nice and cloudy. Excellent."
Thoros eyed the picture. "Use the clouds to obscure our approach," he mused. "That would work. Have to silence the engines to get in closer, though. Every man, woman and child in the crownlands knows what this ship sounds like when it gets close."
"We'll be at altitude when we get close," Jade replied. "I don't want anybody to glance up and see Victory before we're ready."
"That still leaves us outside the castle, on the edge of the city unless we want to land on any number of these buildings," Thoros said. "Getting into the Red Keep... even if we can make a stealthy approach, it's likely that the goldcloaks would be at our usual berth and the city gates waiting to stop us or seize us. We'd have to fight all the way across the city to the keep."
Jade smiled faintly. "Getting in will be the easy part," she said. "Getting out might be a bit trickier, but if we do this right it's just a matter of timing." She tapped the controls, and in the space between them and the outside window a perfect image of the Red Keep sprang into being.
"This castle is pretty amazing," she noted. "Especially the number of secret passages in between all of the buildings. Somebody could pretty much walk from the throne room to the king's chambers and back again without ever being seen if they knew where they were going. And thanks to the couple months we spent cooling our heels, we've got a map."
"Gods be damned," Sarella muttered. All the secrets of Maegor's castle were laid out before them, an intelligence windfall unlike anything she'd ever seen. Immediately she set to committing as much of the map to memory as possible.
"Victory: lock onto signal Tracker-1 and display on map," Jade commanded. Instantly a small green light bloomed in the upper reaches of Maegor's Holdfast. "That's where Sansa is right now," she said. "I'll keep an eye on that, it's likely she's moved before we start moving. She said that Stark's being held in the black cells," she tapped a spot down beneath the castle. "So that would be here, I think. Pretty sure they're not going to move him any time soon."
"We'll have to split up," Thoros said. "One group rescues Lord Stark, the other group rescues the girl."
"One other thing we need to do, though," Jade said. "We—or at least I—still need to report to the king about what we found."
Sarella and Thoros both stared at the sorceress. "You what?" Sarella said.
"First of all, whatever bullshit's going on between Stark and Cersei the Others take priority," replied Jade. "Just because Cersei's apparently lost her shit doesn't mean that we can just forget to warn the king. Second, it'll give me a good chance to gauge how the new administration is going to react to events." She paused. "Joffrey... I've got some bad vibes about that kid, and his mother definitely isn't one of my biggest fans. I need to meet with them, see which direction they jump so I can plan accordingly. Third, meeting with the king will keep everybody's eyes on me while the two of you go get Stark."
Thoros nodded. "And since the girl is Joffrey's betrothed she'll be close at hand when the meeting's over. Clever."
"That's the idea, anyway. Might not work out that cleanly, but that's life."
"So how do we get in?" asked Sarella. "Wait until nightfall, then fly into the courtyard?"
Jade smiled again, this time a little sharper. "Come with me," she said.
They climbed from the main deck up to the smaller deck where the ship's engines lay. To one side was a door that had been closed ever since they'd first seen it. Jade touched the door control, and it slid open to reveal a small niches, like open closets or cubbyholes big enough for a man to stand in.
"This, my friends," the sorceress said, gesturing to the niche, "is the transporter. It is probably the single biggest miracle my people ever devised. Using the transporter we can leave the ship for any point within a thousand kilometers instantly and quietly."
Sarella stared. The niche didn't look like much, but that was the way of Lady Jade's science, when one got to studying it. All the clever magic was too squeezed into a space too small to see with the naked eye and covered in lacquer to boot. "I'm sensing a 'however' in that statement," she said dryly.
"You sense correctly," Jade replied with a wry and somewhat sheepish smile. "The transporter only really works in one direction, otherwise I'd just use this to find and pluck Sansa and Stark out of the castle from a distance. Once we leave, we have to make it back to the ship the harder way." She called up the image of the Red Keep again, a little smaller to accommodate the slightly more cramped conditions of the transporter.
"So once we've got what we came for, we meet up somewhere we can barricade long enough for the ship to come get us," Sarella said. Thoros nodded approvingly at her logic.
"Aye, that'd be the smart move," he said. "Maegor's Holdfast would be my choice, it's the strongest part of the castle, easiest to defend against anybody who wants in."
"True, but there aren't any passages leading from the cells to the keep," Sarella argued. "We'd have to move in the open with Lord Stark. Any fool could raise the alarm."
"Tower of the Hand," Jade said, tapping the image of the tower. "There's a straight path from the dungeon all the way to the top of the tower, and there's plenty of routes that converge on the tower. If Sansa's still in the main keep, that might make things a little more difficult but if we need to go loud..." she shrugged. "We'll burn that bridge when we get there."
"Cross that bridge," Sarella corrected absently. "It's 'cross that bridge when we get there.'"
"Yeah, that too."
"So, Alleras and I take this magic transport to the black cells, then to the Hand's quarters," Thoros said. "From there the ship retrieves us."
Jade nodded, then whistled. "You'll take about a third of the drones with you for backup," she said. "The rest of the boys go with me when I see the king."
"Sounds fair."
"Well!" Lady Jade clapped her hands. "We've got a couple hours to get ready, let's not waste them!"
Sarella went back to her quarters and collected a few things of minor import, knives of various shapes and sizes that might be useful should things get bloody. On impulse she stopped at the ship's apothecary and collected a portable medicine kit. The black cells were notorious, and if Lord Stark had spent enough time in them then he might need the medicine just to move under his own power.
The rest of the time she spent composing a letter to her father and uncle. She outlined what she'd found on her journey, and what she was about to do. It was madness, especially once she put it all down in maester's black on the blank pages. She'd been abducted by a sorceress from beyond the fixed stars, along with a Myrish priest-turned-sellsword and another sorceress from Asshai, taken beyond the Wall and seen the ancient evils of the First Men with her own eyes. And now she was about to venture into the Targaryen's stronghold in search of a northern lord. Madness, madness and treason.
Father would be so proud as to burst, she thought with savage pride.
When the ship was in position, they reconvened in the transporter chamber. Sarella stood in the niche alongside Thoros, surrounded by a half-dozen of the lady's familiars. Lady Jade stood in front of them at a control desk.
Thoros eyed the room nervously. "Are you sure this is safe, my lady?" he asked.
"Oh sure, did this thousands of times as a kid," Lady Jade replied flippantly. "Safest way of travel. It can feel a little weird though, if you're not used to it."
"R'hllor guide your hands, my lady," Thoros said.
"Gods watch over us all," she added.
Lady Jade grinned. "Clear skies, guys," she said. "Energizing."
Magic hummed all around them. The world turned blue and yellow. Sarella realized that the sorceress was right: it did feel a little weird.
The Ranger
For the first time in what seemed like forever, Jade Hasegawa was completely alone aboard Carefree Victory. She set a mental timer; thirty minutes seemed like enough lead time for Sarella and Thoros to spring Stark and get him moving. Hopefully he was in good enough condition to move under his own power, if not that would just add to the issue.
There's still time to call this off, a treasonous part of her brain said. She ignored it, busying herself with checking her equipment. Her blaster was fully charged and set for the maximum non-lethal setting. A moment's pause and she dialed it up to full lethal; the drones and her repulsor gauntlet would work for non-lethal options. Better to be ready for all contingencies.
You've got more important things to worry about than a simple dynastic dispute. Jade checked the wight's containment system. The ad hoc cooling system was working correctly, well enough that the head ought to last a year or two more so long as nobody broke containment. The transparent aluminum case was nice and clear of frost. What used to be Waymar Royce's head glared at her from behind the panels.
She blew it a kiss. "Now now, Sparky," she said. "No need to be salty, today's your big day!" After a moment's thought she grabbed a spare pillowcase from storage and draped it over the case. A little bit of theatricality never hurt anybody, and the extra psychological shock might be useful.
The alert she'd set on Sansa's communicator blared in her ear. Her HUD lit up with a display of the Red Keep, the little blue dot that marked the girl's location started moving. Well, that's a wrinkle. Jade summoned her drones, picked up the wight and went to the transporter. Judging by the way Sansa's tracker was moving, she was en route to the throne room. That was almost too good to be true, two birds with one stone.
You can still walk away, Jadey, she thought as she set the coordinates. Jade decided to give it a few more minutes, to make sure Sansa was inside the throne room before she transported out. The Unbidden are a galactic level threat. You heard them, you know what they want to do. A squabbling pack of dirt-scrounging nobles aren't important compared to that. Just let them kill each other back down to sustainable levels and focus on the main problem. Walk away, Jade.
Everything slot into place. Sansa was in the throne room, approaching the big lump of pointy metal they called a throne. There wouldn't be a better time to do this. Captain Hasegawa sighed. "Y'know," she said to the empty room. "I can't walk away. I never really could have."
She took a deep breath. "Let's do this. Energize."
*/ "Victory" Neal Acree & Derek Duke Overwatch: Collector's Edition Soundtrack (2016) /*