MALDAENA II

"Viserys was practically fuming by the time he found her in the lower common room of the castle. Her husband was angry, no doubt after the meeting.

She wondered what Stannis had said now. But it was something else, she soon felt. Something more than that... He seemed upfraught. Nervous.

He barely had time to explain anything before he pulled her with him to go outside. Hesta helped her on with her leather boots, and then they were outside of the castle.

She saw a red shape that was Lady Melisandre standing waiting for them as Viserys almost dragged her along. She feared for the state of mind of her husband, but her arms were not numb to the way that he was pinching them, dragging them, dragging all of her, as if she were his cattle towards the goal in mind.

She hoped that this would be the last time his madness was in him like this. She hoped that it was something terrible in truth, so that she knew that Viserys would never treat her this roughly elsewise. But she did see in Melisandre's red eyes that perhaps it was just so. The red witch.

"She wants to show me something in her flames", Viserys spat out the words with contempt. "It is her last resort so that I do not behead her and Stannis both for treason toward me."

"Treason?" Maldaena exlaimed. "Viserys, you are scaring me."

"Just come along. It will be fine.", Viserys said, as he urged her to come along with his arm around her waist. He let go after a short while, giving a sudden jerk of his head, a twist, shuddering before his own madness, but still urging her on with his words at least.

"Come on, come along... Just... It's just... "

He was not feeling well, she could see for all the world.

"Viserys, you need not go to her. Simply tell her to leave us be. Tell her to leave the island altogether if so be."

"I can't, she...- She knows about the-... " He was about to speak, but changed his mind.

"Yes. I will", he said. "I will ban her from the island, from all of Blackwater Bay, as soon as I have just seen her idiotic tricks. That is all. Then we will scourge her out, the witch."

"You do not need to let her", she insisted. "Please, Viserys. Just stay with me. Come here. We will go back inside."

"I must, I-... I... I made a promise.", he only said, keeping his gaze away from her.

He is ashamed already for what he has done, she realized. He is afraid. The red witch has sunk her claws into him already. I must be there for him now. I must save him, and weather this out with him.

And so, relucantly, she followed her husband as he showed her the way to the red woman's lair.

...

"Your husband doubts me", the red lady Melisandre explained. "He does not believe in my powers to be any more than simple tricks to scare children with. I will show him otherwise."

"Show him what? What are you speaking of, my lady?"

Melisandre motioned to Viserys, moving her hand up and down across his figure with intent.

"Look at him. He is your husband. And yet he is so much more. Do you see what I see before you?"

"What? What is this trickery? What do you want with him? This is his castle! Our castle!" She cried out, whisking away the red witch's fingers from Viserys and taking a close hold of him to protect him from whatever spell the red woman was laying on her poor husband.

"Do not make him mad! He does not need this! He does not need your evil tricks!" She shouted. "Leave us be, or tell us quickly what it is you want with him!"

"I want to serve him", Melisandre said. "I want to lead him." She edged closer once again, letting her red eyes burn brighter with their terrifying, maddening red colour of flame inside of them.

She is making him mad, she realized. She is spellbinding him.

"I want to help him", Melisandre finished. "To help him bring out the fire inside of him that for too long has been at rest in cinders and only a faint burning light. The fire needs help to grow stronger."

"You do not help him!" Maldaena said. "You are only driving him mad with your talk! Leave us be!"

She grabbed ahold of Viserys by his side of his doublet, but he seemed to be almost transfixed on the red witch whether he wanted to or not, as she tried her best to desperately make him go back inside the castle, away from Melisandre's evil words and tricks.

Where were the guards? She noticed as well, first and only now. Where was the captain? Where was captain Jate Blackberry?

"Relax. I do not wish to hurt your husband. I only mean to show him the power of the lord of light, so that he may see it for himself. Please, my lady..."

Her voice was like red honey, and yet as fiery as a burning flame licking the very air that it consumed. "... Come with."

A red flame shot up from her hand where recently had been only a small semble of red beads. It shot up, flaming and burning, roaring in the air in front of hear, covering her pale face, the bright yellow flames froaring and fuming so high that for an instant, Maldaena thought she could see the shape of a mountain top in them.

Then the fire burned down again, just as soon as it had come. Melisandre's smiling face remained behind it, however. But the red beads in her hands were gone. There was no smoke, no cinders, only the shocking memory of the fire which had been there a mere blinking moment ago.

Maldaena opened and closed her eyes, looking to Viserys to see how he was. He did not blink, but only stared, still as hypnotized at the red woman in front of them both. She became scared now truthfully.

She tried her best to grapple Viserys's legs from the ground, and to drag him away from the witch and back towards the gate of the castle again, but his boots were as if sunk down in the soil by some force of otherworldly nature, his gaze transfixed on the red woman in front of them, her hypnotizing red eyes, and her poor husband's body gone stiff with fear. Please, Viserys, wake up... Listen to me.

…

She did not recall how she came down to the strand. Perhaps Melisandre must have bewitched her as well. It felt as though a dream later, but there they were, still standing beside one another, as the demonous howls of her red sisters and brothers in the flame contulery sang high and morosely.

The great nightfire was alight already, even though it was only the early afternoon, if even that. Or had it changed while they walked there? She was not certain. The world around them seemed so dark, so threatening and different suddenly, just as if the red witch had made it be so for them to see. Yes, she realised. For them both to see, and for them both to fear...

The shadows stretched long and dark against the white greyish sands of the beach, and the fiery apostles around them all continued singing their terrible, dreadful roaring fiery song, a song of death and destruction and doom, a song for the end of days and the time of demons, Maldaena felt it, even though she understood not a single one of the words.

Yay, by the way, one she did recognize, one word which was repeated over and over again throughout the maddening singing, and one word that was the same here across the known world as it had been in the terror markets and shadowbinding huts of Asshai in the far east: The word that was the lord of light. R'hllor.

...

[[[[

"Look into the fire, my prince", she said to Viserys, "and you shall see what I saw. You will see your own heart, or any other memories, if you so desire. The flames will show you all there is."

"You truly believe that you can escape beheading by making me stare into a brazier, don't you?" Viserys said with scorn. "I suppose that you have burned up all your books, along with common sense, over in Asshai."

"I told you that I would make you see. I trust and believe in your fair judgement, my prince. But you cannot make your judgement as to the honesty of my word for one moment unless you take the time to see my proof for yourself. … Here it is. Look into the flames, my prince, and you will see what I did."

Viserys looked at Maldaena, as if to ask her if she heard this nonsense.

"Let us just go back, Viserys.", she told him, trying to take a hand around his arm.

"He will not go back", Melisandre said. "He is a Targaryen. His line has never before turned a blind eye towards their power. He will look, and he will see."

Viserys stood staring for a long time, weighing his hand on the hilt of his belt, but there was no longer his blade. Maldaena saw that the red witch had taken it off him somehow.

"Viserys... Your sword!"

"Yes, my sword, what of it?" He lashed out. "She is a bloody witch, can you not see it?"

"Then you should not trust her. Come, my love, let us go back."

"She may be a witch", Viserys said, "but she did not come about the knowledge of hers by her fire-sights. She has been spying on me, and so have the others. I will prove it."

No, please Viserys, please my love, do not... Do not do this, Viserys, please...

But it was too late. Her husband's stubborn nature led him to walk straight up to the red lady Melisandre's brazier, grip his sword back from her side, without so much as a protest from her, sheath it next to him, and give a hard stare back at the red charlatresse before him.

"Just you wait, witch. I will have your head as soon as I have stared into your little fire. By my word. Upon my honour. You will get your judgement, for treason, along with Stannis, and that shrew-like cunt Selyse."

"I trust that you will do what you must, if there are enemies against your rule. But first... Look."

Viserys snuffed out his breath at her, fnysing, frusting, before finally clearing his throat and allowing himself to walk into the red woman's trap by looking into the brazier.

"Viserys, don't!" She once again heard herself saying.

"Don't worry, it's just a regular bloody fire", he said dismissively. "In the daytime, no less."

Her husband walked up the last final two or three steps, made sure that the red woman was on an appropraite distance away from him and the fire, and leaned foward slightly to look with an unimpressed look at the flames.

He was silent for a couple of moments.

"Flames. How very pretty. Thankyou, my lady. Now I will take your head."

"Look closer, my prince", Melisandre said, completely calm. "Give it time."

"It is just a regular stupid fire!" He lashed out, suddenly. "It cannot speak, nor show me anything other than itself. You have built your own grave around treason agaisnt me, and around a lie."

"My prince, I promise you that the last thing I would do is betray you. For you are my prince, my leader, my king, the lord of light's chosen one. It is all in your blood, my prince. And I am a servant to the sacred line of the lord of light. That is why I can see you so clearly, hear your thoughts, feel your dreams...

If I am lying about it, you may chop my head clean off and toss me into the ocean where the Great Other dwells, but please, my prince... Look closer first. Give the flames a chance."

Viserys snarled, and thrust out with disdainfully with his mouth yet again. He was clearly feeling insulted for her thinking that she could fool him by simple flattery alone.

But he did at last heed her words, to Maldaena's surprise. Her lord husband lowered his gaze, for a few more moments, and stared into the fire to see...

...

At first there was not much special.

"I don't see anything", he said with scorn. "It's just... flames. Flames of different shapes. No more."

"Different shapes, my prince, yes... Look closer... What shapes are there?" Melisandre enticed.

Viserys sighed, moving closer with his eyes.

"I don't know... Tall flames... Nothing... "

He strained closer, as Maldaena saw the gaze shift strangely in her husband's eyes, gradually, slowly, as he grew intangled in the patterns and swirling shapes of the fire.

"There's... Some blades... Perhaps... Mountain tops... No, trees... Trees, and a forest... A great deal of forests... Somewhere far away..."

He kept staring, as Maldaena looked around herself again to wonder where the guards were.

Melisandre walked a step or two closer to the brazier, as Viserys continued looking into the fire.

"Forests... A forest... Woods... It gleasens up into a glent... A clearing... And there's a river... "

"Viserys, you do not see all of this", she tried. "Don't listen to her."

"Hush, young lady. Do not disturb the induced one while he is looking. You are most welcome to step forth and see for yourself as well", Melisandre said.

"No thankyou", Maldanea said, in a decided tone, as she put her elbows together and grew restless. "Viserys, we should leave now."

"Wait, there's more...!" Her husband said suddenly. "There's... It's the Red Fork... Lord Harroway's Town... It is just like on the map... And then there's... Riverrun... No... No, it can't be..."

He stared up from the flames.

"How did you do this?"

"Yes, how! Have you put poison in him?" Maldaena agreed, as she stared the red woman accusingly. "There is nothing in those fires." ]]]]]]

"Already there is truth in them. And soon..."

She snatched up something from her red robes and stuck it to Viserys' arm before he had a chance to react.

"-...there will be power as well. The power of king's blood."

"Viserys!" Maldaena called out.

She did not see what it was at first. But then she turned forward, got closer to her husband, still transfixed by the allure of the firesight as he was, and she saw what it was... A dark, oblong shape sucking itself to her husband's arm. A leech.

But the red woman did not let her distasteful critter dangle long on Viserys' arm, but only held it there for a few moments longer, all the while stroking him on his back, stroking him on his arm, while Viserys kept on mumbling about his visions.

"Lord Hoster Tully is the one your heart directs its fires towards. The Old Trout will get what is coming to him. Merely speak his name, my Prince... Speak his name, and it will soon be done..."

"His name..." Viserys said, dully, as his lilac eyes flickered in the light of the fire.

"Lord Hoster Tully", Melisandre motioned towards the visions inside the flames.

"Lord Hoster Tully...", Viserys repeated, spellbound to her strange alluring voice. It was as if time had stopped all around them. The whole world seemed aflame.

"Now... Toss it onto the fire."

"Toss it..." Viserys mumbled.

"Take it, my prince, speak his name, and toss a small part of your own king's blood into the fire. In turn, your enemy shall die. Blood for blood..."

...

"Yes... I see it now..." Viserys said.

"My love, no!" Maldaena called out one final time, trying desperately to save her husband from the fate of the fire, the madness, that his father had fallen to.

But alas, it was too late. As Viserys took a slaundered grip on and around the slick grey slingering body of the leech on his arm, and dragged it up and tossed it onto the fire, he spoke the name, with a sudden fervour, with a sudden ire, seething into the shapes of the fire.

"Lord Hoster Tully."

And the flames roared up from the brazier with a terrible sound.