Fire's essence

"What is your goal in the city?" Naruto asked her, two days after he had left her to think about the questions he wanted to ask. Quaithe had expected him to come yesterday, but he had not shown up and she had spent the evening on working through parts of her newly acquired reading material.

Now, he was here, arrived early in the day, cleaned up and in new clothing and his manacles removed. Looking like that, she reconsidered her judgement of his age slightly. He was definitely no older than twenty, though battle-hardened and lean. Still, it begged the question when he had started learning aeromancy, to already have the proficiency he had displayed. Well, she'd find out soon. All in due time.

"My goal?" she echoed. "I wished to know if the warlocks of Qarth were responsible for an event I witnessed and came here to investigate. After seeing the damage to their house, I wanted to find the one responsible and stumbled upon you. Sadly, it seems my suspicions were unfounded. Whatever the warlocks have been doing is unconnected to my own investigation and of no further concern to me."

That of course left her with the question of who really was responsible, but she could not simply abandon such potent magical potential. Standing in Naruto's presence alone had an effect on her own magic, strengthening her in a way she had never experienced before.

"I have already inquired into a ship heading for Volantis and will be leaving the city in four days."

'If I should play my cards correctly, you will join me on that ship,' she added in her head. The red priests in the great temple of Volantis were her next best guess but she had no great hope of finding them to be responsible.

"What was the event?" he asked, after thinking for a few seconds.

"My glass candles flickered, blazing for a moment as they have not since the time of Old Valyria, and then winking out as if it had never been. I have not been able to make sense of it yet," she answered honestly. He was a sorcerer as much as she was and if she wanted his tutelage, she needed to get him on her side and soon. Though she would have to be somewhat careful as well. She did not doubt her chances against common men, with Valyrian steel and shadowbinding if need be, but Naruto was in no way a common man.

He schooled his expression, arms crossed in front of his chest, but did not dig any more. They were sitting at her table, but he had declined her offer of wine. She did not particularly care for the vintages common in Qarth herself, but she had never intended to partake any way, for that would mean lifting her mask. He had noticed the glamour at a glance, whether that meant he could see the face underneath she did not know, but that secret she would keep.

"Could you teach me?" he blurted out. It was queer, to hear the question she had thought of asking herself come from his lips, but he asked it nonetheless, his eyes flickering to her many books for a moment.

"Teach you what?"

"Many things. Languages for one, some history would probably be necessary too. There is a lot I don't know," he elaborated, completely serious.

She was flabbergasted. Sellswords were not known for their knowledge, but he was a trained sorcerer. How was that the case if he had not received an ordinary education? Had she been mistaken? Had that moment on the docks only been a fluke? A simple trick of the mind?

No. No, that could not be. Quaithe had felt the magic answer to his will. Could feel the magic in his being, every moment she spent in his presence. She was not so easily tricked.

"I don't have much, only some gold to pay you with, but I would work for my keep," he added on hastily when she did not answer. That raised her suspicions. Would fortune favour her so? Surely, there was some trick here she was not seeing. Had he been planted by the warlocks? Some elaborate scheme to entrap her perhaps.

Quaithe could not see how it was possible. The warlocks could not have known of her arrival to the city beforehand and Naruto seemed the only possible explanation for the damage to the House of the Undying. There was also the why to consider. She had never meddled with the affairs of warlocks, much preferring the opportunities found elsewhere, and she could imagine no scenario that would have attracted their attention to her.

Maybe not her specifically then? Her garb marked her as a shadowbinder to many eyes and that news would have found the ears of one of the warlocks shortly after her arrival without doubt.

It seemed too intricate a scheme to be real, and there were many holes in it besides.

So, trust the man in front of her to be true to his words or risk losing such a golden opportunity? Risking herself had never been her nature, but there was a price to be paid for the knowledge she sought. She had not balked at travelling up the river Ash to Stygai for the sake of knowing and she would not do so now.

"I have no need of your gold, but I would accept different payment," she said. "Tutelage for tutelage seems as fair a deal as any. I will teach you what you want to know, and you will instruct me in turn."

"Instruct you? In what?" Naruto sounded honestly confused, but she could not decide if he was just a skilled mummer playing at honesty.

"Aeromancy, among others."

"Aeromancy?" he repeated, baffled. The word was clearly foreign to him.

She had seen his deft ability with the wind on the dock, so perhaps it was only the term he was not used to. Certainly, there were different names for the various fields of sorcery in the world, but she would have expected him to know the names of his own field of expertise at least.

"Your wind sorceries. You used it on the dock," she clarified, mimicking the twist of his hand he had used that time to summon a small breeze.

He understood her then, but she could see a question in his eyes even before he opened his mouth.

"You know your chakra nature?" The word was unfamiliar to her and did not sound Yitish either. Thousands of pages of text, read over many decades, came to her mind but nothing she could remember resembled the word.

"Chakra?" Quaithe asked, hoping for some sort of explanation. It was not often that she encountered entirely foreign concepts when it came to magic and sorcery.

"Your…magical energy I suppose. I was taught that every person has a natural alignment, an element that suits them best," he explained, though the words did not clarify things for her. She had never heard of some intrinsic link to certain elements among sorcerers. Any person may show talents towards a particular discipline, but you learnt what your teacher knew and taught.

Quaithe had learned the barest basics of fire magic over a decade ago, but that teacher had not been particularly knowledgeable herself, unable to do much more than throw sparks.

The stormsingers of Valyria were no more, their art lost but for a rare few tomes that had survived the Doom, and the water magic of the Rhoynar was not accessible to outsiders, if it even still existed.

"No, I do not know," she said. The trip to Volantis alone would take more than month, there was enough time to figure things out once he had agreed. "It makes no matter at the moment. I take it you accept?"

He did not have to think for long.

"Yes. I accept and I will join you on your ship too." For the second time they shook hands, and the feeling was the same as before. Never before had the magic been so obvious in another person.

"Do you have other matters to attend to today? Or are you free to begin right away?"

"We can start right now if you want," he answered.

Quaithe stood up satisfied and beckoned him to follow her.

She took the stairs upwards and entered a small, mostly empty room, a curtain blocking the only window. Sorcery, especially untrained application, could be unintentionally destructive and she had no wish to risk any of the rare tomes and materials in the other rooms.

His eyes flickered to the curtain and then around the room before settling on her again. He sat down cross-legged in a single movement, and she joined him on the floor, taking a small cushion for herself instead of the hard floor.

"We had a special paper to test for an affinity, but I don't have any and I don't think you can get it in this city, so we'll have to try something else." She nodded, paying careful attention to every word, and filed the mention of special paper away for later. There would be a time for questions after he had finished explaining. "Give me your hand."

He held out his own, palm facing upwards, and she laid hers on top.

"I want you to channel as much of your, magic I suppose, as you can. I will try to determine your affinity." He grimaced slightly. "I have never done it like this though, so it may take a few tries." He closed his eyes then, to focus, she thought.

Quaithe had never thought of sorcery and magic as something she just channelled. There were always movements or artefacts, or materials involved in her sorceries. Even throwing sparks, by itself not much more than a parlour trick, was done by coaxing the existing flame from obsidian, where the fire slumbered.

There was some similarity to the descriptions of the skinchanging powers of the blood of the First Men she had heard and read, but that was a practice of the mind alone.

She closed her eyes and turned her focus inwards. There was magic in her body all the time, fortifying her constitution, and if she wished reducing her need for sleep and sustenance, but grasping it the way Naruto seemed to expect was still foreign.

There was only so much energy that she could channel. Were she to lift her glamour and focus only on the task at hand, there would be more but even with the mask in place she would not do it. Quaithe imagined that, were this age not dead to magic, this would all be much simpler, but there was no point in regret.

She imagined a building canal along her arm, allowing magic to flow like blood in her body. It took almost a minute, but Naruto did not make a noise complaint, simply sitting with his eyes closed.

Her hand tingled and the path from her centre through that arm seemed warmer than usual, but it was a false sensation. To Naruto there would be no change in temperature to detect, though he likely felt the flow of magic in some other way.

After a few seconds, Quaithe opened her eyes and felt the strain of the exercise on her body. Two, maybe three more times, before she would need to rest. If she were not in Naruto's presence it would be even less. It galled her, that for all her efforts she was still limited so, but that was an old grievance, and she was well practiced in ignoring it in favour of more important things.

Naruto was frowning, though his eyes remained closed, but she could not say what exactly troubled him.

"Again."

The same image came to mind and the same sensation followed. Once the magic pooled in her hand, she gained an impression of the magic in Naruto's own. He matched her own quantity and his magic ventured outwards in small tendrils, mingling with hers at the point of contact between their hands. Echoes, formless and vague, appeared in her mind's eye but she could not make sense of the impression she got, except that they were a reflection of the person in front of her. It was a surprisingly intimate sensation.

"Again."

She could only hold that moment of concentration for a few seconds at a time and the strain was considerable. Sweat was gathering beneath her mask and robes, making the clothing stick uncomfortably to her skin. Even so she did not complain.

"Again."

Quaithe felt so weak and her mind rebelled at the idea of doing any more today and her mouth was so dry that some water seemed more valuable than any gold. She would need to rest as soon as possible.

She made to take her hand back, but Naruto held it with a firm but gentle grip. If she wanted, she could escape his hold on her, but she waited with that. He had opened his eyes to meet her own.

"Again," he insisted.

The impulse to complain rose within her. He was just a boy, barely a man grown. What could he really know of magic and sorcery? One misstep and you could find yourself broken by the same powers you had been trying to wield. Sorcery beyond your abilities was lethal. Believing otherwise was placing your head in the jaws of a dragon hoping that it would not bite down because you did not want it to.

"Trust me," Naruto said with a confident grin before she could voice her objections.

Trust him. What a ridiculous notion. How could she trust someone she didn't even know? Reason and logic dictated that exposing herself in this way could mean abuse or even death. Admittedly he did not seem the type, but he would not be the first to put on a friendly face to lure in others and take advantage.

And yet his magic reflected his sincerity. She had never been in contact with another's magic for so long at a time, but it was hard to imagine that anyone would be able to fake the feel of their own magic.

That energy was the result of mind and body. For many, like her, it was the history of generations upon generations of magical lineage dating back centuries reflected in blood and power. In a way that feeling had to be truer to a person's nature than anything else could be.

A part of her revolted at being even the slightest bit open to the suggestion. She had survived many decades by being careful, not by trusting every random man that crossed her path.

Quaithe breathed deeply and reached inside for whatever magic she could gather. Her free hand went for the dagger hidden under her robe. She kept her eyes open this time and saw Naruto's eyes flicker to the place she was reaching for, but he did not react otherwise, only lightly holding her hand.

He had already been aware of the weapon's existence from the first time they had met after all.

Quaithe unsheathed the dagger in a practiced motion, the spell-forged steel leaving the sheath with a clear sound. He wore steel chain under his clothes, but Valyrian steel could penetrate even the best mail. It didn't matter either way, if he betrayed her, she had strength enough to drive the tip into his unprotected throat.

Even having a blade levelled at him did not seem to disturb him much. Naruto simply sat and waited for her to try again. His nonchalance was starting to slightly irritate her.

"If this a trick of some kind, I will not hesitate," Quaithe said. He nodded and closed his eyes again, waiting.

Now she pictured the canal again, flowing along her arm and to her hand. Her mind instinctively rebelled at the effort it took but she pushed onwards. She had to dig deep, deeper than she had ever done before and her body did not want to relinquish its hold on the remaining energy.

Quaithe strained and fought her own limits until finally magic answered again, the canal along her arm filling and flowing like a small stream.

The exhaustion was bone deep now and her vision was beginning to swim. Her arms shook with the strain of holding them up and the dagger felt heavier than an anvil in her hand. Even if she wanted nothing but to collapse to the ground and pass out, she held onto consciousness with an iron will. She would drive that blade home if need be.

Naruto slowly opened his eyes again but made no move to disarm her.

"I'll get you something to drink," he said eventually, just as the hand holding the knife to his throat was starting to dip. He moved slowly, like she was a wild animal that he did not want to agitate but a few moments later he was up and out of the room, leaving the door open. Quaithe heard him descend the steps, the footfalls receding until she could barely hear them anymore.

She wanted to collapse, desperately, but she still had her dignity. Standing up was out of the question but if she had to remain seated, to avoid simply collapsing to the floor, she would at least do so against a wall.

The room was small, but half-crawling, half-pulling herself to the wall still seemed to take hours, though in truth not even a minute had passed by the time she reached the stone surface and propped herself up against it.

Quaithe was breathing heavily, and her robes had turned into a second skin, so close were they sticking to her. Even if she had barely moved her body the exercise took a physical toll, nonetheless. For now, she remained awake and as alert as possible. She could collapse as soon as Naruto was gone for the day. In her state she would not get anything else done.

She debated sheathing the dagger but left it in easy reach for now, though she used both hands to keep herself upright.

He was coming up the steps again and entered the room a moment later, a pitcher with water and a smaller cup in hand. As soon as he had filled the cup with water and pressed it into her hands, she greedily drank it down, her mask held at a slight angle so that she could reach her mouth without revealing too much.

After the second cup was emptied and refilled again, he did not immediately hand it back.

"Slowly now," he said and handed her back the cup. She obliged him, taking slower smaller sips of water instead of the gulps from before. His other hand went behind him to rummage through one of the pouches secured to his belt. In his hand he held a small bit of paper. He opened it to reveal two small brown pills inside.

"We call them soldier pills. It will replenish your strength faster than anything else can, though surviving on just this isn't a good idea. Half of one is probably enough."

Quaithe accepted one of the small pills and warily held it up for inspection. There didn't seem to be anything extraordinary about it, but the smell was foreign to her, some blend of multiple ingredients she had never encountered.

Despite her earlier actions the offer did not calm her doubts.

'If he wanted you dead, you could not stop him now,' she thought ruefully. Even with Valyrian steel in hand she would not be able to stop him successfully. For all her years of experience she was no match for him if it should come to a direct confrontation.

Still there could be a danger other than death hidden inside the strange balls.

Naruto seemed to notice her hesitation and held out a hand.

"It's not poison. Give me half and I'll eat it first." The suggestions suited her caution and his earlier estimate towards the effectiveness. He cut the pill into two halves with a queer dagger and handed one back to her. The pommel was a small ring and the blade long and thin, tapering to a sharp point. It was better suited to stabbing than cutting but did it the job, nonetheless.

He swallowed his half without complaint, and she could spot no signs of any adverse effects. When a minute passed without any reactions Quaithe put her own half in her mouth. There was a slight earthy flavour to the remedy, but it was mostly tasteless and she swallowed it without issue.

The effects were immediate. She was still exhausted and hungry, but it was much easier to push that aside now and her magic was rapidly regenerating itself, her strength increasing with every second.

It did not stop, quickly exceeding her limits.

Quaithe was a vessel for the energy and now she was fit to burst, her body straining to keep from being torn apart by the mass of magic that was being generated inside her. Yet it kept coming without an end in sight. Her body was pulling itself apart at the seams.

She collapsed to the floor mask-first, her muscles no longer answering her commands. Her whole body felt weighed down, like she was suddenly carrying five other people inside her skin, and she was growing feverishly hot. Her throat hurt but she could not say why. There were words being said but she could not understand them, her ears deafened by the outside world. There was a hand on her shoulder, shaking her but she could not turn.

Sight left her next. The room was darkening, as if it was drowning in shadow and then only darkness remained, and the world crushed her.

Betrayal. It should not have been a surprise, but it was.

The last thing she was aware of were strong arms picking her up.

Quaithe was adrift in an empty void. Thoughts came in small clumps of clarity, but she could make no sense of the timing, sometimes hours seemed to pass, sometimes only seconds.

A feverish haze was clouding her senses. There was warmth but it grew into excess only to be quenched by clear cool relief shortly afterwards. She could feel her own weakness and when it became too much there was the void again.

How long it went on she could not say but again and again came some clarity and then it left.

Suddenly reality snapped into sharp focus.

She stood, surrounded by snow and ice, but she was not truly cold. Instead of the horizon a great monolith of pale blue ice dominated the view, spanning from East to West as far as she could see. The Wall, she knew. Even if she had never seen it with her own eyes, nothing else could match the might of that ancient monstrosity.

Quaithe could not say on which side she stood and there were no landmarks that she could use to orient herself. She turned away from the wall and looked into darkness. A chill travelled down her back, but she could not say whether it was the feeling of trepidation or the harsh cold that suddenly assaulted her that was the cause of it.

Cra-crunch

Horror filled her and she turned back, only to see a great crack running along the face of the wall from top to bottom. White dust escaped from the cleft like the Wall had loosened a breath and ice broke, whole sheets, sometimes miles long and wide, sliding off and crashing to the ground.

From the split tendrils of blue light escaped into the air and for all its size the Wall suddenly seemed much lesser than it had been moments before.

A glowing dot appeared at the top, right at the apex of the damage, it's brightness a stark contrast to the encroaching dark behind her. At this distance it was no larger than her little finger, but she could see it waxing and waning, saw it flickering like a flame.

Everything stilled and the Wall itself suddenly glowed with the same bright light, as if ice had been replaced with fire, and stood as bulwark against the terror that wanted to come and consume everything.

Clarity left her from one moment to the next and once more she knew only the void.

Again and again, clarity came to her thoughts for seconds at a time and then it left her just as quickly. Something had happened to her, something expected and yet surprising. She could feel no wounds and yet she had been stabbed in the back.

The weight on her body had lightened marginally and when the clarity returned it seemed clearer than the last time.

This time there were only flashes, like she was looking at moving paintings in a book while someone else was rapidly flipping the pages.

A man armoured in dark ice, standing vigil in the snow with a blade of fire in his hands. Men fighting in a field, dying in a field, and then a roar filled the sky and a great shadow passed overhead. A city raised on three hills, King's Landing she realised, engulfed in flames. A blue rose growing from a small crack in the Wall. A blonde man, shouldering a mass that threatened to crush everything around him, while nine shadow tendrils moved behind him. Ships dotting the sea, completely filling her view, and then sea roared and raged, and something rose from the depths.

Finally, there was smoke and ash. This image remained for a while and after a moment the wind shifted, clearing the sky slightly and allowing her to see the islands underneath. The Fourteen Flames were easily identifiable and dominated the view completely. Lava still flowed thick about the peninsula today but here whole parts were swallowed in the waves of molten rock and fire. Towers and bridges were collapsing as she watched and the anguished screams of the dead and dying filled the air.

Her vision was dimming as the red and orange wave swept over the fringes of Old Valyria, consuming an empire.

This time no void awaited her.

She was warm and weak and lying on a soft surface and her head was pounding, despite the wet cloth placed on her forehead. Her first instinct was to sit up, but her body protested the movement, a small groan escaping her lips.

Something moved next to her.

Quaithe turned bleary eyes towards the motion, but the room was rather dark and she could only make out a collection of colours. Orange and yellow and two dots of blue. She wanted to speak but her mouth and tongue were too dry for words. A hand was helping her up then, and a cup of cool water was being held to her lips, allowing her to take slow refreshing sips.

The water brought some clarity to her thoughts and helped cool her body somewhat. It was a fever's heat and weakness that afflicted her, she knew, and only recently broken, from the sluggishness in her limbs.

"Do you feel any better?" a voice asked, after she had emptied the cup. Quaithe had to wait a few moments for her eyes to adjust and her vision to clear but she had already expected what she would see.

Naruto sat next to her bed, a basin, a pitcher of water and a steaming wooden bowl placed on a small table within easy reach, right next to her dagger and mask. That was concerning but only slightly, she could feel that her glamour was in still in place. The room was dark, but she recognized her own bedchamber.

She was not bound, there was a weapon within easy reach, and she had been cared for. This had not been betrayal.

"Slightly. How long?" Her voice was hoarse, and her throat felt raw, even after the water, but she needed to know.

"You were out for two whole days," he answered. "It's almost midnight right now."

Two days. She had not missed the ship then.

"You must be hungry." He stood up and helped her seat herself against the wall before handing her the bowl and a spoon. Quaithe only realised how hungry she was after getting a first whiff of the soup inside and quickly attacked the meal in front of her. Even holding the spoon was difficult and eating with it even more so but admitting that would mean being fed and that was one step too far for her.

After she had finished the soup and exchanged the bowl for another cup of water they sat in silence for a bit. Naruto was the one to break the silence.

"Sorry about the mask." He sounded honestly apologetic, and she didn't harbour him any ill will for it. There hadn't been much of a choice after she had collapsed. She couldn't remember it very well; the dreams were far clearer in her mind, but her magic still felt raw and overwhelming in a way it never had before.

"What exactly happened?"

"After taking the soldier pill you passed out screaming. You were losing control of your chakra for some reason, and it only stabilized again a few hours ago. I have never seen them have that effect on someone," Naruto explained, though his words didn't make much clear.

Well, it seemed like they would have to find out together.

Chapter 9 took me quite a bit and I don't even know why. Hopefully I will be back to finishing a chapter every week after this again, but no promises.

As for this chapter, there are some more clues towards my interpretation of magic in the world of ASoIaF for this fic and Quaithe's identity. I'm sure some of you already know but until Naruto finds out that information won't be revealed in the tags. Some more development of the magical side and some visions and our next destination. Quaithe is obviously still working under the assumption that something else happened to flash her candles and that Naruto is just a particularly powerful sorcerer she got lucky in meeting.

On the topic of affinities: We don't really know anything about chakra paper except that the tree grows while exposed to chakra every day. You channel chakra into it and it reacts according to your affinity. That means that your chakra in neutral always carries that information it's just hard to detect. Naruto's control may not be perfect in my view but after achieving perfect Sage Mode he is pretty sensitive to the exact make up of chakra. It still takes him a few tries though.