Interlude 1

Mellisandre began the morning by praying to her god R'hllor, as has been her habit since she was sold as a slave to the red temple. The last few years had been good for her cause, as she was now held in full confidence by the wife of the man whom she suspected was Azor Ahai reborn. She was even slowly getting within the man's own confidence after years of telling him what she saw in the flames.

She looked into the flames again and saw the vision she had seen so often before. Ice and death came down from the north and were held at bay by a man with a flaming sword. The man in question, Azor Ahai, would be reborn amid smoke and salt, as had been prophesized. After much deliberation, she had decided that the place of smoke and salt must be Dragonstone and therefore Stannis Baratheon had to be Azor Ahai reborn.

As she was watching the flames, she felt something unnatural. At the same time, she saw the vision fading and be replaced by what could only be a rip in reality itself. The rip widened until it stabilized into a circular form. She could not see what was behind that rift, but it felt as if her god had no influence there. Soon, the vision of the rift faded, although she retained the feeling that something unnatural had happened to the world. She could even pinpoint the source of that feeling as being somewhere to the north-west.

Mellisandre was shocked by what happened. Her god had not warned her of this, and had apparently nothing to do with this distortion to reality. The unnaturalness also did not feel as something created by the Great Other, which was the only thing that comforted her. However, this distortion had destroyed her vision of Azor Ahai. No matter how much she focused, she could not see his battle against the Great Other in the flames anymore. All her plans for the only battle that matters were destroyed in one fell swoop by whomever caused that rift.

After she sat down in shock and thought over what she should do now, she decided to take one final look into the flames. This time she hoped to look for the influence of the distortion on the fight against the Great Other.

Mellisandre had seen a lot of visions, some very vague and some crystal clear. However, none of them prepared her for what she saw at that moment. She saw the ice and death controlled by the Great Other. However, something happened before it stated moving south. Enormous fiery explosions happened all over the place, stronger than the explosion of a cask of wildfire each. She saw objects dropping from flying pieces of metal, causing those explosions as they landed. Big tubes of metal flew through the sky, causing additional, bigger explosions when they impacted the ground. The vision ended when the sun rose in the North, accompanied by a mushroom made of smoke.

Mellisandre had no idea how to interpret this vision. It was one of the clearest visions she had ever seen, yet she had never heard of or seen anything even close to what happened within this vision. The only thing she could interpret from this vision was that the Great Other would not win the war that was to come. But Mellisandre did not know whether this vision implied that humanity would win, or that everyone would lose.

Mellisandre decided that she had to investigate this distortion. She needed to find out what her vision implied and knew that only the distortion could give her answers. She walked towards the chamber of the Painted Table, both to determine the possible locations of the distortion and to inform Stannis of her immediate departure.

As she entered the room, the first thing she saw was the table the room was named after. It was a table shaped in the perfect likeliness of Westeros. All the coastlines and mountain ranges and large rivers were shaped in unnatural detail. Next to the table, Stannis Baratheon, Lord of Dragonstone and true heir of the Iron Throne was talking with his favorite onion knight. Mellisandre respected the loyalty Ser Davos had for Stannis, but she could see the distrust in his eyes every time he looked at her.

"Lord Baratheon, can I have a moment of your time?" Mellisandre asked as she walked up to the two old friends.

Stannis stopped the conversation he was having with Davos Seaworth and looked at her. He answered "Say what you want Mellisandre, but be quick about it."

"A few minutes ago, I felt something unnatural appear in this world, somewhere to the north-west. It has scrambled most of the visions R'hllor send me and I plan to find out what it is."

Mellisandre then took a good look at the table. Using the unnatural feeling for directions, she came to a conclusion: "Judging from the map, I suspect that the distortion is located somewhere in the North, probably near the western coast. I plan to leave with the first ship to White Harbor to figure out what it is."

Davos Seaworth looked somewhat happy that she was leaving Dragonstone, although Mellisandre saw some specs of fear in his eyes for whatever could have startled the red priestess.

Stannis himself kept a blank face, though Mellisandre could see him thinking. After some time, Stannis decided his course of action.

"Mellisandre, your visions have proven useful, so I will not dismiss your claims out of hand. However, I will not have you travel to whatever disturbs your visions alone. Ser Davos and a small group of guards will sail with you to White Harbor and accompany you on your journey. Send me a raven from whatever Northern Keep is closest to inform me of your findings once you find out what has happened."

Mellisandre nodded, accepting Stannis' obvious ploy to let Ser Davos keep an eye on her. Davos Seaworth on the other hand did not look so happy with Stannis' decision, but he was too loyal to say anything else than "Yes, my Lord."

Stannis then dismissed her and the onion knight to let them prepare for the fortnight long journey to White Harbor and the even longer journey they would have to make through the enormous North.

When Melisandre entered her chambers again, she decided to take another look into the fire, this time focusing on the distortion. She saw a crippled wolf and a white dragon entering the circular rift she had seen earlier, but had no idea how to interpret that vision.

AN: To celebrate getting 100 favourites for this story, I made this bonus chapter. I will still continue to release one normal chapter per week, starting this weekend. I will respond to the reviews of both previous chapter and this interlude in the next normal chapter.