cw / explicit descriptions of pain, blood, and injury; intrusive thoughts


Her reputation preceded her.

"My brother saw you at High Anura. Please, you have to help us."

The woman, who had introduced herself as Jozefina, looked at her with pleading eyes.

"Do not worry," Elle said. "I will not leave you to deal with this alone. But a magic sect?"

"I swear it is the truth! They took my daughter and they want to sacrifice her to their heathen god-"

"Alright, alright," she interrupted the woman. "Calm down. I believe you."

Elle took a deep breath.

The woman, along with the rest of her family, stared at her. Some in desperation, some in anger, some in hope.

"I will bring your daughter back to you. But I need you to tell me everything you know about this… sect."


Trekking through the forest in the dark, she wished once again for a horse. Perhaps she should have asked the villagers for one.

Jozefine had told her of the people who had kidnapped her daughter.

Allegedly, they were a group of heretics who had forsworn the Seven to worship a god long forgotten in Westeros. And now they desired to resurrect him by enacting a ritual involving blood magic.

She had heard weirder shit.

They had made their camp in an abandoned fortress near Sallydance, which had been reclaimed by the forest around it. This was where they took Jozefine's daughter. And this was where she was headed now.

She was glad for the full moon this night. Not just for the light it provided her on her journey, but because it meant she could sleep safely for the coming weeks. Safe from any nightmares. Safe from herself.

The ruin stood proudly atop a cliff. Light shone through the damaged roof and multiple windows, though the rushing of the river at its bottom toned out any sound she could have made out from the distance.

Luckily, the greenery at the bottom did not include any thorns, so she could wade through it to the foot of the castle wall. The vines even helped in her climb.

When she finally reached one of the windows, she gripped the sill and slowly pulled herself upwards, peeking over the edge, fully prepared to drop herself.

Which hadn't been necessary, as it turns out, as the window sat below the ceiling of a massive hall, where no one could possibly spot her. Especially due to the walkway beneath it.

She swung herself through the window and landed with a small thud on the wooden platform. It creaked below her feet, swirling up a century of dust. Hopefully it would not break while she was on it.

Creeping towards the railing, she carefully looked through in between the half-rotted wooden pillars and down on the main floor.

People in black robes stood around a table in a spiral-like pattern. Seven torches were alight around them, bathing the area around the tied-down girl in a golden light, so very different from the silver moonshine Elle had to rely on on her platform.

She looked around the wooden pathway for a way to get to the floor as quickly and as quietly as possible. A narrow staircase nestled against the wall to her left seemed like the best option, even though as she inspected it she noticed the gaps in the wood. Most likely termites.

Best be extra careful, then.

Even through the wall she could hear the singing start. Chanting, more like it. She sped up her steps, desperate to get down before something happened she could not reverse.

The stairs lay in complete darkness, the meagre light from the moon not reaching her, so it was only a matter of time until she stumbled, or broke a board, or fell.

None of those happened.

Instead, when she skipped a step, she found no footing, the stair already missing. She fell forward, the wooden boards creaking and squeaking underneath her feet as they threatened to break fully. Even though she managed to pull herself together and not scream out, she could not suppress her loud intake of breath. Desperately, she tried to cling to the walls, which only led to her scraping her right hand over something sharp, again forcing her to pull herself together and not give her location away. If she had not already done so.

Luckily, she managed to catch herself quickly, pressing against the wall she had crashed into.

She mentally went through her entire body, the way Oberyn had thaught her, starting from the bottom and going to the top, analysing if her pain was actually something to be concerned about or if she could ignore it in good conscience.

Almost everything - her bruised knee, the pounding in her foot - she could brush aside. Except for…

Her hand fucking hurt. Hurt like the seven hells, and she could only pray that it was nothing serious. The blood quelling down her arm and soaking her sleeve did not give her a lot of courage in that regard, however.

She cursed as she closed her left hand around the wrist of her right to try and stop it from moving. Pressing both against her chest, she continued her descent downwards.

Once she had reached the bottom, the light of the torches finally reached far enough that she was able to see where she put her feet, though not far enough for the zealots to spot her. Hopefully.

Their chanting had become somewhat comprehensible. She tried to decipher their words as she snuck closer.

Ashes to ashes, blood to blood. Let spring wane, let you take its place. Accept this chosen, take her sacrifice.

Something about their words seemed off, as if they were not truly speaking the common tongue. As if they spoke something older, something ancient.

But she had to be imagining it. She understood them, after all, and she only spoke the common tongue. Perhaps this place was making her go mad.

She blinked and took a silent breath, trying desperately to ignore the throbbing in her hand.

Focus.

One of the hooded figures stepped forward, raising his arms next to the girl. The others went silent.

"Tonight fate shall take its course! Tonight the prophecy shall come true! Tonight we shall witness His return!"

The girl on the table sobbed. "Please let me go!"

"Hush! You are lucky to have become part of something greater than yourself."

There had to be a way to get the girl out of here. Quickly, and without killing anyone. Quietly would not be possible.

She studied the torches standing around the table. They were not fixed to the ground, instead each standing on their own wooden stilts. And the ground was overgrown with plantlife. If she could somehow throw one of the torches down…

She did not like fire, but this seemed like her only option.

The man unsheathed a dagger from his hip and held it above the girl. She started thrashing in her restraints again.

"Let this knife herald Your return!"

Now or never.

Elle rushed forward, past one of the zealots, and jumped at the torch, kicking it to the ground. The fire spread almost instantly and would have surrounded her had she not immediately ran towards the girl.

Screams echoed around the grand hall. The man stared at her in shock, though not yet lowering the knife. The growing flames illuminated his face as his gaze flickered between her and the girl, knowing apparently quite well what Elle had come here to do - and why she was running at him like this.

The determination returned to his face as he tried to bring down the dagger on the screaming girl. But before he could succeed, Elle had crashed into him and brought them both to the ground.

She barely evaded the dagger as she tackled him, the heat of the blade next to her face sending a shiver down her back. The man tried to bring it up again, tried to cut her, to stab her, to fulfil the ancient prophecies of his religion. But she did not let him.

Kicking his right arm and punching his face, she jumped up and drew her dagger, managing to cut the rope around one of the girl's arms quickly. But as she went to cut another, the man grabbed her from behind, snaking his arm around her middle and pressing the dagger to her throat.

They must have warmed the blade in the flames beforehand, she could not explain its unbearable heat any other way. Even the rising flames around them did not compare.

Not her throat, she begged. Not there, not again-

"You cannot stop the inevitable," he hissed in her ear. "Just let it go, your life will be much happier for it."

Breathe, she had to remind herself. Breathe, stay calm.

Why had she come here on a full moon?

She grabbed the man's arm the moment she stamped down on his foot. He took in a sharp breath, trying to swipe the dagger across her throat, but she had it pressed away before he could even attempt so. The pain in her right hand flared up again, but she ignored it, the blood now soaking the man's sleeve. She quickly kicked him in between his legs, then in his stomach, and slammed his face down on her knee. He cried out, though she still heard the sound of his nose breaking.

No, no, no. She did not mean-

It did not matter right now. The full moon shone through the windows, and there was nothing she could do about it. She just needed to get out of here, then she could stay away from anyone for the coming day.

Grabbing the dagger he had dropped - it laying closer than her own, though it took a lot out of her to ignore the burning it did to her skin - she rushed to the girl again.

Who had not remained passive, having freed herself from one of the restraints even without the help of a dagger. Elle finished her work for her, cutting through the remaining two ropes without much trouble with the dark-bladed knife.

The girl had tear streaks on her face, and trembled as she climbed off the table. Elle threw the dagger into the flames and picked up her own, quickly sheathing it.

As she looked to the flames, already having spread throughout the hall and forced the hooded figures to flee, her eyes briefly interlocked with those of the man, still laying on the floor and clutching his bloody nose.

He looked at her in disgust. Anger. Recognition.

A shiver ran down her back.

She grabbed the girl's arm and pulled her after her, to the staircase. There was no way for them to reach the main entrance with the fire blocking their way, so this was their only chance.

The girl stumbled at several points, delaying their flight, and due to their interlocked hands almost making Elle fall over as well. She wanted to scream at her, curse her out, but realised that when she had been the girl's age she had not acted any differently.

How much could change in three years.

They finally reached the top and Elle pulled her down the walkway, towards a window at the opposite end of it.

"Why didn't you kill them?!"

Elle almost fell over her own feet.

Why had she not killed them? Because she did not kill, simple as that, she wanted to answer. Because taking a life is a sin. Because they had not yet taken a life themselves. Because, because, because…

Oh, she had wanted to kill them. To rip out the throats of each and every single one of them on her own, and see their blood soak the earth beneath her feet. There had been no innocent in that hall, as far as she was concerned. Anyone who took that name in their mouth deserved nothing less than the most painful and fear-inducing-

Stop! She screamed at herself to stop, just stop. This was not her! She knew she should have never done this on a full moon. Why they had insisted on performing their-

"I am not here to enact justice on them." Elle skittered to a halt before the window. "I was sent to rescue you and that is what I am doing right now."

She climbed onto the sill and looked down into the dark, the distant rushing sound the only giveaway of what laid at the bottom.

"We need to jump."

"What?!" the girl cried out, jumping back a step. "This will kill us!"

"There is a river at the bottom, deep enough to save us." She reached out her left hand. "Please, this is our only way."

The girl seemed like she would rather do anything else, but one short glance at the fire behind her reminded her of their situation. She hesitantly came closer, pulling her skirt up slightly, and climbed up beside Elle.

"Can you swim?"

She hesitated. "A bit."

Elle took ahold of her hand. "Just hold on to me, I will get us to safety." She looked down again. "We jump on three, alright?"

The girl nodded.

She took a breath herself, then started counting down.

"One." She did it. "Two." She did not lose control. "Three!"

She pushed herself off and disappeared into the night.


She was soaked to the bone as she stumbled onto shore, the sun crawling over the horizon behind her and slowly bathing the forest in a soft, golden light. Her arms hurt, her legs hurt, and if she did not soon find someone to look at her hand she might go fucking mad with worry. But she did it.

The girl laid on the grass, eyes closed and breathing deeply. Elle sat down beside her and stared out at the Red Fork.

She already felt the headache approaching. Perhaps this time it would not be as intense considering she had been awake the whole night and distracted herself properly. She just had to wait and see. Hopefully bringing the girl home would not take much time.

Elle looked over at her.

The girl had curled up on her side, blonde hair sticking to her body, blue eyes open and staring at her.

"I never asked for your name," Elle said quietly.

"Cerelia." She slowly sat up. "What's yours?"

"Elle."

"Thank you for saving me, I suppose." Cerelia wrung out her hair and started combing her fingers through it. "Though it could have gone quicker. And I don't understand why you had to set the place aflame considering it blocked our escape."

"I tried my best." She truly was not in the mood for a discussion. "I was alone and had little time. We can be glad we got out with all of our limbs intact."

"Who are you, anyways? Some sort of… hedge knight?"

Who was she? That was an interesting question. She had pretended to be so many different people all of her life, sometimes there was no telling anymore. Cerelle the princess. Elle the bastard. The orphan. The ranger. Saviour. Criminal.

"No one special. I am merely travelling through the lands, trying to help wherever I can."

"Sounds like a hedge knight to me."

"If I could be a knight, I would be. But there is too much stopping me."

"Mayhaps you should cut your hair, then." She rested her chin on her hands, clearly mistaking her apprehension. "I mean, I almost mistook you for a man back there."

Cerelia's voice was grating on her brain, and she did not know if it was the girl or merely her own headache.

"What did those people want from you?" she diverted. Best not entertain these ideas in her current state.

"My blood, my life, my body. I am not quite certain." She went back to playing with her hair. "They came in the night, bound and gagged me, and brought me to that castle. Their leader was rambling about the signs having been right, that some prophecy was about to become true." She shrugged. "Apparently he was wrong. Thanks to you."

Elle thought back to the man lying on the ground, beaten and bleeding, staring at her.

She almost jumped up from the ground.

"That does not matter now. Let us bring you back to your family, and we can all forget this nightmare."

Cerelia grumbled about being tired and wanting to rest, but she rose as well and started following her.

The sun started shining more brightly with every step they took, golden rays breaking through the forest canopy and lighting up their path.

Everything would be alright. She had survived this night, and she would survive this day as well. Even though the fog was already settling on her mind.