Wife of the Wolf, Husband of the Sun
Chapter Thirteen.
Elia walked down the corridors of the palace of Sunspear, trying not mind all the snakes that slithered around on the floor as they fled from the great green blaze that burned in on the rooms. There was thick black smoke colouring the air but she had no difficulty in breathing it.
What was she doing here again? Where was Ned?
She needed to find Doran, he would know what to do.
Eight snakes, large than any of the others and coloured yellow followed behind her. Elia felt no fear, she had walked among vipers her entire life and not a one had bit her. They followed her loyally, like a pack.
As she approached Doran's solar she looked down when she a rough tongue licking at her fingers, she looked down and saw a large grey wolf with solemn eyes looking up at her. Elia raised her hand and gently petted it's head and the wolf let out a contented growl.
She pushed open the door of the solar and stepped in, the wolf and the snakes disappeared and she gasped when she who was sitting in the chair behind the table.
It wasn't Doran.
It was her mother.
She didn't seem to notice or even care that the chair she was sitting on was made of hundreds of snakes that slithered all around, nor did she seem to care about the giant wolf and the large that were fighting a large red spider with seven legs in the corner of the room.
All she did was take one look at Elia and smiled, she climbed out of her throne of serpents and walked over to her daughter and held her at arms length. "Hello my love, how beautiful you have become. I remember a sickly little girl who used to hide behind my skirts, where has she gone?"
"She hasn't gone anywhere. I still feel like a little girl, I wish I could say that I felt like a grown woman but I don't." Elia said with tears in her eyes, the last time she had seen her was at the end of her life, lying weakly in her bed. She had not been a young woman when Elia was born and no matter how strong you were no one could withstand the ravages of time.
"You never feel as through you have grown up, my sweet girl." Her mother whispered as gently pushed her hair behind her ears and cupped her face gently. "You are never really ready to face the world, what is important is that you always do the best that you can and that you be strong for the ones you love and when you need them to be they are strong for you."
"This is a dream, isn't it?" Elia whispered.
"Is it?" Her mother asked with amused grin on her face. "Perhaps, but the question is, whose dream is it?" She gently took her daughter's hand and lead her out on to the balcony. There was no sign of Sandspear, all that the balcony overlooked was an endless desert of red sand.
In the sky there was a large silver dragon flying high, it's wings beating almost lazily. Far beneath it in the red sand were a lioness and a she-wolf, circling around one another.
"There are many trials to come my love, you must be ready if you and those who you love are to surive." Her mother said as stared off into the distance, her eyes seeming far away. "I wish I could do more but I am beyond your reach, just know that no matter what I shall love you. From this day until your last."
"Mother...I am afraid." Elia admitted tearfully.
"What can I tell you to make it better?" Her mother asked her quietly.
"Tell me that you won't leave me." Elia pleaded, she couldn't do this without her. She was stranded far away from people who loved her unconditionally, she was fond of her husband, perhaps she even loved him, and Ashara was a massive help but it wasn't the same as being around people who she knew would die for her.
Her mother said nothing, simply looked at her with a look of sadness in her dark eyes. She had never seen her mother look at her like that. Elia reached out with her hand to touch her mother but as soon as her fingers brushed against her mother's shoulder she vanished, dissolving like mist in the bright sun.
"No! Mother! Don't leave me here! I don't want to be on my own!" Elia shouted, she quickly wiped her head around to see if she could see any sign of her but there was no sign, it was like she had never been there at all.
It was suddenly too much and Elia collapsed to the ground and sobbed, she honestly thought that she wouldn't be able to stop herself but she stopped when she felt something encircling her arms and the sound of paws padding against the floor.
She looked up and saw the quite wolf standing in front of her with the large wolf, the she wolf and two other wolves standing behind him. Two serpents, one red and on green encircle her arms and gazed upon her face and eight yellow snakes slithered around her in a circle as two little green snakes slithered into her lap and felt herself being bathed in the light of brightest star in the heavens.
She wasn't alone. She had never been alone in her entire life.
All too suddenly however the light was gone, being blocked out by a large, looming shadow. Elia looked onto the balcony and she felt her breath catch in her throat as she gazed upon what was casting the long reaching shadow.
A dragon, far larger than the silver one that had been flying through the sky a moment ago yet it still some how managed to perch itself on the ledge. Elia couldn't tell what colour it was due to how dark it had suddenly gotten but she could tell one thing about the dragon immediately.
It had three heads.
The middle head of the dragon screamed and two streams of fire shot out of the left and right head and Elia-
-Woke up screaming in bed, Ned and Ashara jumping back in surprise.
She kept screaming and couldn't breath, Ned quickly rushed to her and held her close. "My lady! You are all right, please be calm." He gently kissed the top of her head. "You were only dreaming."
"I'll go and fetch the maester." Ashara said as she left the room but not before casting one last look back at her friend.
After a few moments Elia managed to calm down as she realised that she was safe, there was no dragon here. All the dragons were long dead. "I'm sorry Ned, I know I was only dreaming but it was...very real, it seemed like I was truly there."
"May I ask what it was about, Elia?" Ned asked as he gently stroked her back, he didn't want to press her as she had only just woken up.
"I...I dreamed that I saw my mother." Elia admitted. "She did several years ago, she was not a young woman she had me and I was still rather young."
"I am very sorry Elia." Ned said while gently holding her close. "We did hear about your mother, if it helps I do know how you feel. My mother died a few years ago as well, I dream of her sometimes as well."
Elia said nothing and simply let her husband speak, gently stroking his arm. "I'm sorry Ned."
Ned cleared his throat and nodded. "I was worried about you." He said changing topics rather quickly. "We all were."
"I am touched." Elia said, meaning every word. "And I am honestly fine, such a thing like this can happen when I exert myself. I do hope I didn't scare you two badly, how long have I been asleep?"
"Nearly a day and a half." Ned said and then his eyes widen and he pulled away. "You must be hungry, forgive me for not realising sooner I will go and fetch you some food."
Ned was already getting off of the bed but stopped when Elia placed her arm on her husband's arm.
"No, please don't leave me. Not yet." Elia asked with a small tremor in her voice. "When ever something like this happens Doran or Oberyn, they always stay with me. Make sure that I am not alone, I do not wish to be on my own."
"Of course my Lady." Ned said as he returned to his original position, holding Elia again when she asked him too. "If I may ask, I know you were sick but...why did you not tell me like things like this could happen, I am your husband if you could faint or you feel unwell then I must know."
"I always feel unwell." Elia admitted and then sighed as her husband looked at her with worry burning in his grey eyes and Elia sighed greatly. "I was born very small and nearly a moon's turn before I should've been, my mother has always had trouble conceiving children and she had several miscarriages and before I and Oberyn were born she had two other sons, both of them died when they were babes."
Brothers she never knew, Mors and Olyvar, she often found herself wondering what they would be like if they had lived longer, would they've been adventures like Oberyn? Scholars like Doran? Would they have been neither? Instead becoming artists or mercenaries or perhaps even runaway to join the Night's watch?
She would never know, and that saddened her beyond measure.
"My mother was told that I would likely not live long, I was smaller than any of her other babes and our Maester said it would be a gift from the gods if I lived for a full moon's turn, but live I did." Elia said with a smile. "My mother said that I would live and I did, my little heart just kept on beating."
"However I was still a small babe and I was often very sick, you've heard of how warm it is in Dorne? Well my mother would still have me bundled in blankets regardless, even on the hottest of days when steel threatened to melt." Elia said as she recalled one of earliest memories, sitting with her mother as she watched children jump and splash in the water while she sat with her mother fully dressed.
"I often have deep aches in my bones, it never stops actually but I've learned to hide it." Ned opened his mouth to speak but Elia held up her hand to stop him. "If you are about to say that you wish to tell the Maester then I will not stop you but I must tell you that there is no point, our Maester examined me and told me that he could fine no cause for the pain. It is simply something I have to live with."
Ned seemed extremely upset at this revelation but it also seemed like he realised that there was nothing he could to stop his wife's pain so he simply nodded and beckoned her to continue.
"When I do get sick I am often bed-ridden for months, I also sometimes get very light headed." Elia said as looked up at Ned. "I do not faint very often, I can count the number of times that it has happened on one hand and I do not vomit often and it only really happens when I do a lot all at once."
"And I...I." Elia sighed, this was what she had been dreading for a very long time. She was almost certain that Doran had informed Lord Rickard but she wasn't sure how much Ned had been made aware. "According to my maester, it will be very difficult for me to conceive a child."
The room was silent and Elia looked down quickly, she couldn't bare to see the look of disappointment. She did not think that Ned would hate her, he was too good a man for that but what in the world was worse than the disappointment of a good person?
Elia gently felt Ned cup her chin and he gently turned it so he could look her in the eye, his eyes were full of understanding and compassion and something that she would like to hope was love. He gently leaned in and kissed her.
They stayed like that for a long moment, kissing and holding one another. It was Elia who eventually broke the kiss and she did so with great reluctance but she had to ask a question. "Where is Lyanna?"
Ned's soft grey eyes suddenly harden. "She's been confined to her room and she only comes out for meals, Father is furious with her. I am furious with her."
"I get the feeling that you being furious with her is something of an uncommon occurrence." Elia observed and Ned nodded.
"I honestly thought that there was nothing she could do to make me angry with her, to make me..." He didn't finish the sentence but Elia knew how he was going to finish it. "But...when I saw you faint I...I was so angry with her because, my lady I think I-"
Before Ned could finish the door opened and Ashara and Maester Cussul walked into the room and Ned and Elia both let out a sigh of annoyance.
"Forgive me for intruding my Lord but when Lady Ashara that told me that the princess was awake I thought that I had best come as soon as possible." Cussul said with a small bow.
"You needn't apologise wise Maester, you did the right thing." Ned got off of the bed so the Maester could get closer to examine Elia.
"How do you feel Princess?" The Maester asked as he took Elia's wrist and felt her pulse, nodding with a small frown when he noticed that it was a little faster than he would've liked.
"Quite alright Maester, this is not the first time that such a thing has happened." Elia said as he sat down next to her.
"And when it did happen, what did your Maester recommend?" Cussul asked.
"That I was confined to bed rest and have all my meals brought to me and I avoid anything that might cause me distress." Elia said as she remembered one of the many times the cranky old Maester back at Sunspear had confined her to her bed.
"Well, I am afraid I must agree." Cussul said as he stood up, groaning as he did. "I would also recommend a little milk of the poppy mixed into a glass of water before you go to bed but we can discus that later, I would recommend that we leave the Princess to rest my Lord, my Lady."
Both Ned and Ashara nodded but before they left Ashara went over and hugged her friend and kissed her forehead, Ned kissed her on the lips and both were about to leave the room with the Maester when Elia called out. "Ned, would mind staying with me? Just until I fall asleep."
Ned looked back at his wife and nodded with a smile, Ashara left the room with the Cussul and shut the door behind them.
Elia and Ned laid down on the bed and rested their head on the pillows, wrapping their arms around one another. "What were you going to say to me when Ashara and the Maester walked in?" She asked with eyes already closed.
"Do I need to say it? Do you truly not already know?" Ned asked as he gently stroked her face.
"I may already know but I would like to here it just the same." Elia said with a contented hum as Ned stroked her face.
"Very well then, I love you Elia. I love you so much." Ned whispered as he rested her forehead against Elia's.
"And I love you Ned." Elia said opening her eyes and kissing her husband.
And there the two of them stayed, their arms wrapped around one another and kissing and repeating their declarations until they fell asleep.
End of Chapter Thirteen.
And there we go! I guess you could call this an end to the first...act of this story, I hope everyone is enjoying this story and I would like everyone to know how much I appreciate every single review, negative or not.
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