Childe: 1. A vampire in relation to their sire, the individual who Embraced them. 2. It is also used as an insult to suggest that a vampire is inexperienced, foolish or naive.
A newly-Embraced childe, a fledgeling, remains under the guidance and dominion of their sire; consequently, the sire may be held accountable for their childe's actions during this time.
Beast, The: 1. The primal drives of a vampire that threaten to turn him into an uncontrollably ravenous and purely instict-driven being. 2. The drives and urges which prompt a vampire to become entirely a monster, forsaking all humanity.
-Entries on the Encyclopedia Vampirica, Forbidden Section, The Citadel of Oldtown
Danelle guided her out of the room where she gave birth and took her down a spiraling flight of the stairs, holding her as if she was a toddler.
Lyanna followed her in silence as they moved through the familiar corridors of the Tower of Joy. They were lit by the occasional torch, their light making Lyanna flinch reflexively, a voice deep within her making her stop and reconsider her choices. That's new too, she thought. As the voice receded, Lyanna's thoughts returned to the Tower which for a precious few months had lived up to its name. She would treasure those moments of merriment for the rest of her life?
Life? No, I am dead. This isn't life, she thought. Lyanna, who rarely cared about the proper way of addressing somebody or something was certainly looking forward to learning the correct name for her condition. It was one more thing that she would learn soon enough. She noticed far too late that the corridors they walked through were empty. Lyanna couldn't know if the rooms were occupied or not but the lack of any sound coming from within them made her lean towards the latter. "Where is everybody?", she spoke up, breaking the silence.
"Your brother is on his way to Daynes in order to deliver their ancestral sword and then I suspect that he'll return to Winterfell with what he believes are your bones. I was fortunate enough to arrive as he finished preparing the graves of his followers and made the necessary revisions to his memory", Danelle said, referring to the alteration of her brother's memories as if she was correcting a mistake in her ledgers. "Your son is safely with him as well", she added quickly, no doubt in order to preempt any questions about him.
"I had no doubt about that. Ned promised me", Lyanna said. Danelle snickered momentarily but didn't speak up. "What was that?", the She Wolf quickly added, her tone changing swiftly.
Danelle seemed to once again preempt her thoughts as she turned to fully face her. Her expression was unchanged, still kind and understanding. "The only promises that matter in this world are those between you and me. Everything else is a potential lie. In all matters you should trust in the interests of men, my dear, not their hearts, certainly not what they profess to be their duty".
"So you are lying to me already?", Lyanna retorted, prompting a double take from her mother-in-darkness. "You are a person, aren't you?" A smile slowly spread across Danelle's face as her free hand rose to cup her face. Lyanna drew her face backwards, trying to escape her touch before being jerked forwards by her other hand, a clear reminder of whom was the stronger individual.
"Good. You're learning already", the older woman replied, her touch lingering for a second more than it would have made her comfortable. Then she turned and continued guiding her down the winding stairs. "As you'll come to understand I have a vested interest in your success, just like any parent. The existence you will lead will reflect on me and my teachings", she explained just before they reached a door. Danelle pushed it in, allowing them passage.
Just like the torches, the fire that burned within the fireplace on the far side of the room made her flinch. Danelle didn't seem to be as adversely affected by it, belying the fact that there was some way to at least suppress the impulse.
After shedding her soiled nightgown, Danelle eased her into the steaming hot water. Lyanna eased herself against the rim of the bathtub, closing her eyes. Her cold, tigthened and dead muscles relaxed and her mind traveled to Winterfell's hot springs for a brief moment.
She could hear the clacking of Danelle's boots as she moved behind her, arranging and placing things around. Lyanna would have turned to look immediately but comfort seemed to get the better of curiosity. A few minutes passed before she heard an armchair being placed next to the bathtub and a person sitting on it. The sound of a variety of straps being unlatched followed. "Now, let's start from the beginning, shall we?", Danelle asked rhetorically, the armor covering her arms already coming off. "Gods, even what we're called is complicated", she continued, shaking her head about as she removed the other covering, tutting, thinking. "Let's go with Kindred. It's the more proper, dignified name. Now Kindred, you and me and others have been brought back to the world by our Sire. The process is very simple. I drained your blood and then replaced it with some of my own".
Lyanna leaned towards Danelle, gently placing her hands and head on the rim of the bathtub close to her as if she was a little girl again, listening to Old Nan's stories. Both women spoke of similar, macabre things. She had never given that much stock to the servant's tales, not like Benjen who she was sure still remained in fear snarks and grimpkins. In contrast, the things that her Sire told her were tangible, existing things that she would have to know and get used to. Danelle went on about the more mundane, if anybody could call them that, aspects of their existence. Wonderful details like how her organs would wither away, how the sun would burn her to a crisp, how all her humors would be replaced by blood and how she could use that blood for a variety of purposes. To enhance her physical attributes, making her stronger, faster or more perceptive or how she could call upon it to perform feats that could be tantamount to magic. "In the next few nights you'll start manifesting some of these abilities, those that are ingrained in my blood. You'll be able to influence people more easily or outright order them about while your skin will begin to harden, making you more resilient to attacks. With time and training, you'll hone them to more potent forms".
"That doesn't sound so bad", Lyanna said, squinting her eyes. "It's certainly something that I can get used to".
"There's always a price, my dear. You'll have to feed from people that you considered your kind all your life. That you'll get used to eventually. But there are other, more intangible threats you'll have to manage every night. You are a predator now, more akin to that direwolf on your family's sigil and your mind will always remind you of that. When you are hungry, angry or fearful, your actions might not be your own. We call that predatory impulse, that voice within your head, the Beast", her Sire explained. "I think you met it tonight". Lyanna nodded. I met it and I couldn't resist it. "It will test you continuously and if it finds you wanting, you will permanently lose control to it, becoming a mindless killer with no purpose other than pure instinct". Her Sire's tone became more grim and serious, her eyes piercing her, not really looking at her but lost somewhere behind her. There was no doubt that she had faced such a creature, lost to its on infernal urges and didn't look forward to doing it again. Her unease radiated outwards, touching Lyanna and making her uncomfortable in turn. There was silence for a moment before Danelle shaked her head, reassuming control of herself. "Let's talk about something else, shall we? I suspect that you have questions of your own".
"Yes", Lyanna said, following her Sire's que. "You said that others will try to deceive me. How many… Kindred", she continued, pausing for a moment to make sure that she had used the correct term, "are there? Why would they try to deceive me?"
Danelle shifted on her seat in order to fully remove her tight-fitted chest plate before placing it neatly next to her, easing back into her seat afterwards. "Because fundamentally, we're still people. We merely fight for different things. Feeding rights, bragging rights, the right to be at the top. As I understand it from the beginning, our kind sought to establish some sort of hierarchy wherever they went. It's no different in Westeros".
The Game of Thrones by Night, Lyanna thought, her head slightly falling downwards. She seemed unable to escape intrigue and bloodshed even in death, taken from one complicated world and dropped into another one that seemed to be as complicated, convoluted and deadly. She would have screamed and protested but she suspected that it wouldn't change anything. "Can you leave me where you found me?", she said giving voice to her thoughts. Death, true Death, not this imitation of life would be much more final and uncomplicated.
"A wise person once said that Death is boring while life is full of opportunities", Danelle said. "While it doesn't apply word for word to your condition, my dear, the spirit of it is what you should hold onto". Her Sire briefly rose from her seat and kneeled next to her. "I'll be blunt. Look at me…", she said softly but firmly, velvet hiding steel. Lyanna jerked away from her touch before her Sire decided not to remain gentle. She turned her face harshly with Lyanna keeping her eyes closed in defiance. She was tired of being handled like a toy. "Open your eyes, Lyanna", Danelle ordered again, doing away with the velvet.
The She Wolf slowly opened her eyes. The blue icicles of her Sire looked back at her harshly, the amount of leniency for the newly embraced sharply decreasing. "Good. Now let's consider the following. Even if everything went your way, if your Prince won…", Lyanna winced as she mentioned Rheagar, "if she pardoned your brothers which I highly doubt by the way, and all that, what do you think your position in life would be?"
Lyanna opened her mouth to speak but remained there. "Ah…", she mussed as she looked for a decent answer. She couldn't find one, the fact that she hadn't thought what her endgame would be becoming shamefully hard to deny. "Ah…", she mussed again and averted her eyes, her usual sharp wit having disappeared.
"Would he make you his Queen?", Danelle proposed. "Certainly not. You are beautiful, my dear perhaps the preeminent beauty of your age, as much as that label is not to your liking but you would have added to his strength… What exactly? Do you have an army between those legs perhaps?", her Sire nodded towards her lower regions. Lyanna waved her head in the negative, her gaze still averted. "His wife had, a thirty thousand strong one. Where does that leave you then? A King's concubine? The mother of a bastard? The sister of a traitor? Nothing at all? Which one of those?", Danelle pushed her point for all it was worth.
How can she talk to us like that?, the small voice within her head that now had a name snarled at her. Lyanna wanted to heed its call for a mere moment before she decided to bury her anger. She didn't have the strength to act on it. She chose the option that was the least honorable. With a swift move, she fully immersed herself within the bathtub. Her dead lungs didn't protest nor did she reflexively sought to move to the surface. There was no danger of drowning. She half expected that her Sire would simply grab her by the hair and draw her out but as the minutes passed, nothing followed her into the water. She only heard two taps on the bathtub's side and then nothing.
She was left alone to stew within her thoughts. If I meant nothing to him, then what did he want with me?, she thought. Rheagar frequently spoke to her of prophecy, of a savior born of Ice and Fire. Did he merely need a womb to bring that child forth? Was she merely a tool? And if she was merely a tool meant to fulfill a certain purpose, why did he speak to her with such gentleness when they were alone, why did he whisper such sweet nothings into her ears? Merely to drag you in, make you a willing participant, she suspected that her Sire would say. And as Lyanna began to see her point of view, red tears began forming in her eyes. They floated to the surface of the water, crafting a red halo over where her head was supposed to be.
"I see that you have reached a conclusion", her Sire spoke as her head emerged from the water. Danelle had set her legs on the rim of the bathtub, one above the other, as if she was in lounging at an inn. Lyanna neither spoke nor faced her, throwing water on her face to wash away the tears.
"I would have been nothing", she replied flatly. "I was nothing. Nothing more than a dalliance that is".
Danelle nodded just a Maester whose pupil gave the correct answer. "Precisely. A deadly dalliance but a dalliance nonetheless". As Lyanna began her ascent from the now cold water, her Sire rose as well. She went towards the bed in the room, retrieving towels for her. She fully rose up from the water and the She Wolf received them quickly and drapped them around her. "From now on, you have the chance to be what you want to be. You are not a woman anymore, my dear. You are sexless, merely one person amongst hundreds of overs. A Kindred doesn't care what you have between your legs. It only cares about results".
The thought held a certain appeal, Lyanna had to admit. She loathed her former position in society, trapped in trivialities and handiwork. She was luckier than most to be allowed to train with Benjen but she always knew that it was on an understanding, that being that it would end as soon as she was to be married. The thought that she could be more, do more. It was tantalizing.
I will make the effort, she decided then and there and nodded her understanding. She walked out of the bathtub, her feet touching the cold stone floor.
Later, they were outside the Tower. They thankfully didn't need a torch, moonlight providing ample illumination. Lyanna was dressed in riding clothes, a pair of leather pants and doublet. A fur trimmed cloak cover her shoulders while a hood covered her head. She and her Sire looked upon their retainers. They had arrived a few minutes ago, three of them. One was reattaching a horse onto the carriage. It was the one that her Sire had used, rushing forward from her men as soon as the sun was gone, intent to not lose her due to lateness. It was a peculiar creature, it and its cohort. Lyanna knew horses and these too were far more aggressive and strong then the ones she had used in the past. Can an animal be Kindred?, she thought, the idea being strangely appaling. The other two transported their master's armor to the carriage in silence.
Danelle had introduced her to them and they bowed just like her father's bannermen when they saw her, the difference being that while the warm men did so out of respect, Lyanna could see that the three men did so out of almost religious supplication. She merely nodded, unsure of what to say and they went on their way. She mentioned what she saw to her Sire. "They know their place", Danelle merely said. "And they have my blood in them. I shall explain while we travel", the pale woman added, gently touching her on her back and urging her towards the carriage.
"Where are we going?", Lyanna asked.
"Harrenhal eventually. But first, we will stop at King's Landing", Danelle replied, while opening the door of the carriage and entering, leaving enough space for her Childe to do the same. "The members of our...", Danelle paused, scratching her chin. "...family are meeting to discuss the end of the War and how can we best take advantage of it".
She couldn't believe her ears. "Don't you think that they'll have some strong opinions about striding in with the cause of the War in hand?", she asked the obvious, surprised at how someone however smart or stupid couldn't see the issue.
"They will, my dear. They will be jealous that they didn't think of it first", her Sire said, a predatory smile carving itself on her face.
Author's Note:
-This was a somewhat difficult chapter to write. At first I thought that the premise was a good idea but it troubled me immensely. I hope that you folks like it.
-redbleik, while I am a fan of the game, I was not specifically referencing it. Vampires killing people that were kind to them in life seems to be a common trope. I personally like it, cause it quickly establishes the unnatural thirsts of the creatures of the night and it is somewhat shocking, to reader and character both.
-FieldMarshal1915, thank you for your kind words.
-I wanted to explore Lyanna's character a bit more, pull the veil so to speak. People usually paint her as sharing the blame with Rheagar for what happened. While not completely blameless, I believe that those people never were sixteen in their lives or if they were, people didn't speak to them because whenever they asked them to do something they went into a deep analysis of the political and dynastic implications of their actions. In short, teens will teen.
-As always, feedback is appreciated.
-Till we meet again.