Chapter Two
There were flecks of gold in the stone and the scones of the torches had smooth, shining stones of amber in them. It was dark and then ever foot, there were orange-hued windows, streaming in light that was the color of fire, making her hair glow as she passed in it. The ceilings arches above them and through a few holes in it vines had come through, sticking and weaving toward the windows and spots of light. There were piles of ash against the walls and when Sansa saw her first skeleton she could not stifle her gasp.
Kinvara stopped, looking at the skeleton and it's moth-eaten clothing. The jewelry the person had been wearing was still intact and Sansa assumed the sex of the bones might have been a woman.
"You should brace yourself, for this will not be the first of them you see, Princess. The castles, towers and city or still littered with the remains of the Valyrian's who were trapped when the Doom came for them." Kinvara said before walking past.
"Do you know what the most terrible thing was about the Doom, princess?" Kinvara asked her over her shoulder.
Sansa thought. She wasn't sure what answer the woman hoped for, so instead she just shook her head.
"The Targaryen's knew the Doom was going to happen. You heard of Daenys the dreamer, haven't you? I am sure their were tales of her in some of your Westerosi history after Aegon the Conquerer claimed the kingdoms," that Sansa did know of.
"Yes, she had a dream of the Doom twelve years before it happened, that's how house Targaryen knew to take their family and relocate to Dragonstone." she said, wondering what the point of this conversation was.
Kinvara gave her a sad smile. "And they kept that knowledge to themselves. In Valyria, the Targaryen were not the richest, nor the most powerful of the Dragonlord's. When Daenys told her father, Aenar, and convinced him to leave Valyria he saw his chance to raise his family to the top without lifting a finger against the other Dragonlord families that were his competition to the top of the Valyrian hierarchy."
Sansa had not thought that deeply about the Targaryen's history. She had admired the Targaryen's in her youth, despite what Rhaegar had done to her aunt. He was just one man out of many, and the Targaryen's had been the rulers of Westeros for hundreds of years with as many songs and tales to be told about them to grow up on. She never let herself think long on the terrible ones.
"He left his people to die," Sansa said., feeling a great pity for the poor souls of Valyria.
"Yes," said Kinvara, "There were those of course that had not been present when it happened, such as Aurion who had declared himself Emperor of Valyria. He and his host disappeared during the attempt. His dragons included. The same fate befell all who tried after him. None ever to be seen again"
That didn't make any sense Sansa. If that was the case how was it that they were here in Valyria now? Supposedly unharmed. As if able to read her thoughts, Kinvara answered her unspoken question.
"This place, it is alive. It has been infused with magic, dark and bloody from the spells and potions that were unleashed during the Doom, corrupting everything, even the waters around the peninsula," she told Sansa, leading her around a turn and down a set of stairs. She continued to speak.
Disease infected everything, dark magic once contained now unleashed and hellish parasites and stone men making whats left of Valyria their home."
Sansa shuddered, more scared then ever to be in this dark, haunted place. She moved closer to Kinvara, barely keeping herself for reaching for her skirt like she did with her mother when she was frightened or shy when she was little. Was she trying to scare her and if so for what reason?
"Were you ever told of what befell Aerea Targaryen?" Kinvara enquired with a dark, terrible light in her eyes. Sansa shook her head and wanted to tell her she didn't want to know, for she feared what she would be told. Bran was the one who always liked the scary stories, not her.
"Aerea was made to live with her mother who she had little memory of on Dragonstone, a place she despised, preferring deeply the lively court of Kings Landing. She rebelled against her mother and became a terror. She eventually claimed Balerion the Black Dread and flew away with him, and was missing for over a year. Balerion eventually returned with the girl to Kings Landing, but something was terribly wrong with them both. In her pain and sickness, she managed to speak enough to disclose she had somehow made it to Valyria toward the end of her disappearance. Balerion was born in Valyria, and like all creatures felt the call home. But it was not the place it was when he was made to leave."
Sansa's skin was starting to crawl and her stomach churned uncomfortably with a sense of dread.
Valyria spurned Balerion and Aerea. The accursed creatures that had taken over attacked Balerion and infected Aerea. They made a home inside her, eating at her innards and boiling her from the inside out-"
"STOP IT!" Sansa screamed and came to a halt. She was shaking and she felt the burning of tears in her eyes brought on by her deep fear of what could happen to her in this place. "Why are you telling me all of this? If this is true than we shouldn't be here, we need to leave immediately,"
She was becoming panicked at this point. It was getting hard to breath and her heart felt like it would burst from her chest. Why did the dragon bring her to such a dangerous and cursed place?
Kinvara has stopped for her, turning around and taking a few steps up until she's just below Sansa. Her hands touch her elbows and she looks up at Sansa, "Apologies, Princess, but you have nothing to fear."
"But—"
"I told you all of this because I want you to know how far this place has come, what we've accomplished," she says.
Sansa furrows her brows. "What do you mean?"
"The priests of R'hllor, my god, gave the Valyrian's their magic and taught them how to bind dragons when they were but simple sheepherders. It's is the Lord of Lights will we use our magic to help them once more and cleanse Old Valyria to prepare for the rebirth." as Kinvara spoke, Sansa felt the pounding she had when she first woke return. She felt so very confused and overwhelmed by what was being said. "There is still much to be done, but we are making progress. You will see,"
She smiles, and it's a large, sincere and beautiful thing that makes Sansa think of a child but this woman is no child. There is something old in Kinvara's eyes even if it does not translate to her face. Sansa continues to follow her down another hall, glancing at small statues of sphinxes in little niches, and passing broken in or opened doors to chambers. Many seemed to be bed chambers the décor covered in a layer of thick ash and dust.
"Then why am I here, I have not Valyrian blood. I am a Stark of Winterfell." she rubbed at her arms, the skin rising as she felt a hot breeze down her spine like something was breathing down her neck. She turned sharply around but there was no one, just an empty hall.
She realized she was falling behind and rushed to catch up with Kinvara. The woman glanced over her shoulder, a dark and knowing look in her dark stare her painted lips a thin line.
"There is an evil, cold darkness coming to claim us all. A threat in which your ancestors faced before when the Valyrian's were still minding their sheep. But now, Ice and Fire must come together. The magic of Valyria and the North need to unite to defeat what is rising beyond your Wall." Kinvara said with a seriousness that made Sansa's belly quiver. It sounded like one of Old Nan's stories.
"You have been told stories of the Others to scare you when you were a child, and they are true, as true as the tales of the Targaryen's and the dragons," she said as if she could read her thoughts. "The stories are true, they were not tales but the history of your people and history tends to repeat itself," she said with a tone of regret.
They went down a much longer, winding set of stairs, almost feeling endless. Sansa took the time to contemplate everything that she had been told. Finally, they entered a wide, open ceiling hall. It seemed they had reached the ground level of the castle. She stared up at the open ceiling. The sky was a purplish bruised color, the stars dully twinkling through. Sansa gasped when the two dragons from before swooped overhead, circling in the sky. The way they maneuvered around each other, so close without touching, it was like a dance.
Sansa took a deep breath and tried to calm her heart before straightening her spine and turning her stare to Kinvara. She had learned with Petyr how to read people, try and work out their intentions and desires. The priestess seemed to clearly believe in what she was saying, and when dragons flew over their head, proof of magic and ancient beasts still being able to exists, it was hard to argue that the Others weren't real. What if they were?
"Why did the dragon bring me here, Lady Kinvara?" she looked to the woman, hardening her own stare, steadying her voice as she straightened her spine and called on her courage and pride as a lady and a Stark.
"I am not a warrior, and I am not a scholar with secret knowledge that can help you, just a young woman raised to be a lady, a wife, once perhaps even a queen but that was a delusion. All I've wanted for so long now is to go home and you have brought me to this decrepit place. And for what purpose?" she continued to keep an air of new composure and acceptance, even when Sansa felt helpless and bewildered. She was also becoming hot under her skin.
It was warmer now with the open ceiling. She was beginning to sweat a little.
It was like the opposite of Winterfell where the Castle kept you warm from the cold outside, but this place seemed to lock in the cool and protect from the scalding heat and humidity of the outside. Was it magic, or some clever innovation like the pipes in the walls at Winterfell?
"You are more important, more special then you could ever imagine, Princess." their was a frightening belief in those words that shook Sansa to the core. "You have eight thousand years of magic in your blood, though you have yet to experience it for yourself, I sense it in you. The dragon chose you and brought you here for a reason."
Kinvara took her hand and pulled her along, pushing open a set of large double doors at the end of the hall. They exited into a garden of lush green, tropical vegetation. It covered almost everything, bright and living. There were bright flowers coming up through the ash and hardened soil.
"Everything was dead, nothing no matter how we tried or what magic we used, would grow. Until the dragon brought you." the red priestess explained but Sansa had her doubts. What proof did she have that Kinvara didn't plant these herself before she woke to try and trick her into believing her tall tales.
Sansa stepped forward on her own, going deeper into the garden. It was like no garden she had ever seen before. It was not very large, and not open but residing in more like a small, marbled courtyard with the entry into another part of the building just across from where they had previously come out. There were balcony's with golden rails to look down from, tattered and burnt canopy's hung from bronze rods and the blue tiles fo the walls were cracked and smudged. There were tiered planter boxes on some of the walls with large, lush green ferns. There was a dried-up fountain in the middle set in the floor where one might have been able to dip in and wash their feet.
"I understand you may not believe me from this alone, but there is more for you to see. And someone to meet, someone from your past," Kinvara walked past her, to the other side and through the archway into the other building. Sansa followed.
"Who do you speak of?!" Sansa asked her sharply, tired of these games. She wanted more concrete and clear explanations.
Kinvara paused, turned, and looked deep into Sansa's eyes. "The man who your blood shall bring back from death, who will wake dragons from stone and lead us in battle against the true enemy, who will take the seven kingdoms as their true king. Azor Ahai. Or as you once knew him, Jon Snow."
So we are starting to get some explanations with some history lessons.
The garden at the end of this chapter is based on the set for the Garden's of Babylon in the film Alexander the Great.
Also, oh my gosh, thank you to everyone that has commented. You have no idea how much your words encourage me. It made my day every time I saw a new comment. Please continue to share your thoughts and let me know your enjoying things so far. We don't get paid to write fanfic, so comments are pretty much like payroll for me, it's an incentive to keep going and makes writing worth it on the worst days when I am doubting myself.
Sending so much love to my readers.