A Tale of Blood and Monsters Ch. 8

Year 278 AC

Essos – Valyria

Upon returning to Valyria with my remaining forces and everything that could be stripped off the ruins of Volantis, I find quite the surprise waiting for me. I'm barely in the city's boundaries before being told that there was a prisoner who had constantly been asking for me. A mention of red hair and a jeweled broach catches my attention and I make my way over to the dungeon a certain female Red Priestess is being held in.

Stepping through the door to the cell, the woman on the floor pushes herself onto her feet at the sight of me, but as I look her over, despite the red hair and necklace broach, I find she looks nothing like the Melisandre I remember from the show. I'm pretty sure I know why, but still, best to play things safe, "I'm told that you asked for me and that you professed to be here to pledge your loyalty to me. Who are you?"

Appearing as regal as ever despite her current living conditions, the Red Priestess straightens her back in a way that presses her voluptuous chest out and upward, clearly meant to entice me. However as she responds, she keeps her eyes down from mine in clear supplication, "I am called Melisandre of Asshai. I have come far to speak with you my Lord."

"And did you get all dolled up just for me?" My comment catches her off guard and I catch a glimpse of uncertainty and confusion before she schools her features again.

"I don't understand my Lord."

Smiling thinly, I step closer to Melisandre, taking in every bit of her. I was becoming sure that she'd molded this appearance specifically to attract me. It certainly hit all of the right buttons, the appearance of a young twenty something with decent sized tits and shoulder length hair the color of freshly spilt blood. Her face was angelic and invoked the desire I'd always held to take and see such features twisted into a combination of pleasure and shame and humiliation.

Breathing in her scent, I find she even smells delectable to my nose. Honestly, I swear she's cheating somehow, I have no idea how she's managed to perfectly encapsulate the physical appearance of my perfect woman. Still, on the outside I'm as much a picture of calm as she is as I give a short reply, "I am not a lord."

She looks up now, eyes locking with mine even as I step to her side, causing them to track me to the side before she answers me with confidence, "No, you are Azor Ahai Reborn. You are the Prince Who Was Promised."

I blink languidly at her words, silence falling in the cell for a moment as I soak them in, before my hand is around her throat and I'm pushing her up against the nearest wall. Her composure cracks a bit further this time, her eyes wide and her hands coming up to scrabble uselessly against my wrist even as I tighten my grip just a bit, "P-please…"

Chuckling darkly, I stop choking her for a moment and instead lean in to take in her scent before locking eyes with her, "Do you think me a fool Priestess? I know the prophecies. I know the signs. I even know when all of the candidates for the position are likely to be born. So, if you wish to stay on my good side, you will refrain from FUCKING LYING TO ME!"

That last bit is shouted with full vamp face on, rows of fangs out and eyes pitch black with golden pupils. Melisandre rears back as she takes in my true face, pressing herself up against the stone behind her and beginning to hyperventilate, "D-demon…"

Allowing my true features to recede, I smile calmly, "Ah good, a more honest reaction. Yes that's what your fellows in Volantis said as well, before I spilled their blood in gallons across the city and left it a desolate ruin."

The Red Woman seems to be breaking down right in front of me, so I release her, watching as she drops to her knees, "B-but why… the f-flames… R'hllor spoke to me. The m-message has never been clearer. I… I was sent here to serve you."

Despite knowing what sort of a conniving and manipulative bitch Melisandre is, I detect truth in her current reaction. Reaching down, I grab her by her shoulders and bring her to her feet, grabbing her chin and forcing her eyes to meet mine, "Now, remove this disguise. Show me your truth face Priestess, or I will carve into your body with my bare hands until you can no longer maintain the act."

She shudders but does not protest, and a moment later I'm treated to the sight of the young beautiful woman who seemed to be made solely for my preferences transforming into a decrepit old crone. I let her go and she stumbles slightly before righting herself, though she's unable to stop the hunch in her step, unable to fully straighten up as she quails before my gaze.

I'm surprised of course. I shouldn't have been, in hindsight it seems obvious now that the Melisandre I remember would also be an illusion, an act, perhaps one specifically designed to tempt Stannis Baratheon, but still, I am surprised. After a moment I wave a hand at her, "Alright, change back, that's just depressing to look at."

She does as I instruct, and my reaction seems to give her the chance to regain some of her aplomb, as her youthful appearance flows back over her and she straightens up once more pushing her chest out at me, "Prophecy be damned. The Red God spoke to me directly. I know you to be Azor Ahai. Darkness will flee before you and the Great Other's servants will fall to your strength."

That brings a slight smile to my face as I once more step up to her, this time more intimately than threatening. My hand reaches up and caresses one of her breasts. She doesn't reject my advances, even pushing her chest into my grip as a seductive and sultry smile comes to her lush red lips. My free hand closes around her throat a bit more gently this time as I work to replace the image of her true form with the beauty currently before me in my mind's eye. Sometimes, a perfect memory has its downsides.

"I suppose I shouldn't be surprised at how real your little disguise feels." Chuckling, I lock eyes with her and shake my head slowly, "Your god sent you here as a sacrificial lamb Melisandre of Asshai. I wonder if you will feel used or accepting when you finally realize that. Still, I have a use for you, if your claim of loyalty is as true as you would have me believe."

Melisandre inclines her head, "I am at your disposal Azor Ahai."

Grinning widely, I release her and turn away, stepping towards the door and making my desire for her to follow quite clear even as I throw back over my shoulder, "Call me Master. After all, as follower of the Red God, you are nothing more than a slave yes?"

She thinks she's hiding it, but I catch the flash of anger hidden in her tone as she replies with a falsely meek, "Yes Master."

As I lead her out of the dungeons, she pipes up with a question, "If I may ask, what use do you have for me Master?"

I can only imagine she's imagining the worst, so I'm not surprised by how easily I shock her with my answer, "Why, you're going to help me hatch some dragon eggs of course."

XxScenebreakxX

A couple of hours later everything is prepared. I'm not entirely sure this is going to work, but I figure it has a good enough chance. In an open field, everything has been prepared. A funeral pyre has been built, two petrified dragon eggs have been acquired from a rather large stock of the things collected from all around Valyria, Moqorro stands ready to obey my every last command, and the last son of Triarch Malaquo Maegyr is standing nearby but out of hearing range.

Melisandre stands off to the side, seeming unsure what I wish her to do. That's fine, I haven't actually told her anything specific yet. Surrounding us in a large loose ring are my Blessed, just to make sure there are no complications. Stepping up alongside Melisandre, I glance at her, "I assume you have an understanding of the Blood of Kings and its many uses?"

A blink and a visible straightening from her shows she has at least some, "Yes Master."

Smiling, I nod and continue on, "Good. Then tell me, when attempting to hatch dragon eggs, do you recommend a full sacrifice or do you believe a nonfatal amount of spilt blood would do?"

Now her ever so slightly shifting eyes betray her nervousness as she swallows and answers me, "I… I would imagine that a full sacrifice would be necessary for such a feat to be achieved."

I turn to her fully and cup her chin in my hand, "Don't do that anymore. Don't use I to address yourself. When speaking to me, you should address yourself as 'your slave' and when speaking to anyone else, you should address yourself as 'this slave'. Understood?"

She shudders but eventually nods, "Yes Master, your slave understands and obeys."

Grinning, I pat her cheek, "Good girl. It's about time we get this show on the road though I think."

Leaving Melisandre where she stands, I gesture to Moqorro, who's currently holding the dragon eggs, "Put them on the pyre Priest."

He does so, setting them so that they lean against each other in the center of the wood nest. Then, I step to the young man who I've had brought out here. He turns me to seeming a bit bewildered, clearly not having heard my conversation with Melisandre in its entirety and utterly confused on why he's here. Smiling at him, I place a reassuring hand on his shoulder and he gives me a tentative smile in return.

Then, my other hand lashes out and plunges into his chest, taking hold of his beating heart. As he stares at me wide eyed, choking up blood, I lift his light body up into the air and carry him to the pyre. There are things I could say here, both comforting and cruel, but I say none of them, staying silent instead and finally ripping his heart free from his chest.

Holding the organ over the dragon eggs in one hand as my other holds the boy's body aloft, I squeeze slowly and carefully, and paint every last inch of the petrified shells with the dead child's heart blood. Once they're fully covered, I let the corpse drop to one side of the eggs and the heart to the other side. Then I look to Moqorro, "Start the fire and sit amongst the flames. I give you leave to die Slave of R'hllor."

He does so, and the roaring cackle grows around us as I make no move to leave the blaze. Once again my clothes catch aflame, but I don't even notice, my body not even feeling the heat as it consumes Moqorro and the boy's corpse and the blood-covered eggs. All the while I stand before those eggs, staring down at them with the closest thing to hope I've felt in a very long time.

XxScenebreakxX

On another plane of existence

"What the fuck is he doing now? Is he seriously simulating Dany's little egg hatching scene as a test? Well, I'll give him points for sheer audacity alone."

"… Alright my dear Messenger, have your dragons. Where's the fun in Planetos without them right?"

XxScenebreakxX

I hear the crack at the exact same moment that I see it appear in the shell, the blaze having reached its peak and beginning to decline and leave mostly charred corpses and ash behind. The only things not damaged by the flames are my naked body and the eggs which had begun to shake almost an hour ago. Now one of the eggs has cracked open and I can hear the cries of a newborn within it, even as its brother finally begins to break free as well.

Stepping forward, I fall to my knees before the hatching eggs and watch raptly as the baby dragons inside of them slowly break free of their confinement and view the world for the first time. The first to get out sees me immediately and manages to creep over on unsteady legs as it looks up at me with small beady eyes. I reach down slowly and grin as it promptly tries to nip at my fingers. I let it gnaw on one with teeth that would probably remove the fingers off a normal human, but given I'm made of hardier stock, barely leave an indentation in my flesh.

Reaching out with my other hand, I rest it against the back of the creature's head and connect my mind to it. I'm not surprised to find that the creature is not sapient, merely sentient, but I am slightly disappointed. Mind walking it is as easy as expected of a newborn creature, and implanting loyalty and devotion is easier still. Since it wasn't already there and the hatchling's only established view of me had been to consider me a threat, I could only assume that I didn't get the free pass Daenerys got, for the simple fact that I really didn't have any magical Valyrian Blood in me.

No, my blood may be a different type of magic, and just as bullshit, but apparently it wasn't dragon imprinting material. It seemed I could easily fake it though, as the hatchling gnawing on my finger immediately let go after I influenced its mind and instead climbed my arm to settle on my shoulder. The other hatchling was out of its shell now, so I quickly made contact with its tiny head as well and changed its view of me. A moment later I had matching baby dragons on my shoulders.

Standing up, I make my way to the edge of the dying blaze and step through the remaining bits of fire to stand before a waiting Melisandre, still surrounded by my Blessed. Sparing a glance for my two new friends, I look to Melisandre and grin wickedly, "Well my darling pet that certainly went well. I suppose I'll keep you around for now."

Swallowing her pride, the priestess bows her head and responds with, "Your slave is happy to have pleased you with her service Master."

I chuckle and trust her to follow as I walk away from the pyre with my two newest acquisitions.

XxScenebreakxX

On another plane of existence

"You know I can see you now, right?"

A moment later a portal tinged in orange flames opens up and a large horned creature is pulled kicking and screaming through it. Once fully pulled through, it's released and immediately tries to escape, only to have the portal close right in its face. Slowly, the creature turns to face, for lack of a better word, the overwhelming presence that dominates the higher plane it is now trapped on.

"Hiding amongst the mortal's flames to try to escape my notice was quite ingenious, though to be fair the only reason it worked for so long was because I just didn't care. But then you couldn't resist, you just had to sneak into the ritual and suck all of that delicious magic afterglow from the egg hatching ritual. That was the big mistake, putting yourself in the flames that were trying, and failing, to burn my chosen champion. Might as well have put a giant neon sign around your neck saying 'I'm Right Here!' heh."

The creature doesn't really have any response to that. The first part was altogether true and in the end its own greed had led to this downfall. The second part didn't make a lick of sense though.

"Ah so many references are so lost on you narrow minded limited godlings. Very well, moving on. So, you are the one they call R'hllor. Your followers call you the Red God or the Lord of Light… has anyone ever told you that you look like a demon?"

More confusion comes from the creature now correctly identified as R'hllor. Demons are obviously of ice and the north. It looks nothing like an Other and was a bit insulted that it had been compared to the servants of its greatest enemy.

"Ah, is that how it works then? I'd have already known that, but I'm keeping myself blind to a lot of this information so things stay interesting. After all, I sent my champion to your world in the first place to see what amusement we could get out of it. I haven't even ransacked the minds of my newest pets so that I don't accidentally hit spoilers. I'm sure you recognize them."

The Lord of Light did. The perpetually terrified goddess with sixteen tits was from the Summer Isles Pantheon if he recalled correctly. That Pantheon had never really concerned him. Their entire cosmic power was barely equal to his despite their numbers and really, that was just sad. And then there were the four harpies perched on seemingly nothing. While he didn't originally recognize them, not that he focused on them, he could feel traces of the Old Ghiscari Pantheon that had long sat on their laurels while the world moved on without them.

"Oh you can? Whoops, didn't mean to leave traces, I guess I was a bit lazy there. Let me fix that."

Well, the feeling he'd gotten a moment ago was gone so whatever the presence had done had been successful, and wasn't that just terrifying. If R'hllor could sweat, he would be doing so profusely right now.

"Now now, don't fret so much. Yes, there will be some changes you'll have to get used to, but I've decided that there is in fact a way I'm willing to keep you around!"

Anything. The Lord of Light is willing to do anything to avoid complete erasure. This went beyond his eternal conflict with the Great Other. It didn't matter that both he and the world that had been his battleground for so long were nothing more than playthings for this new entity. No, what mattered was survival, in whatever form that took.

"Wonderful! So good to know you're so willing to change to accommodate me. Because this… this is going to feel weird~"

It probably could have been done in an instant, but instead it happened slowly, as R'hllor, a God who was a dead ringer for the more popular illustrations of Earth's Satan, was transformed from a hulking manly red horned goat man, to the just as popular depiction of a purple horned succubus. The being once known as R'hllor couldn't help herself, her first act in her new body was to reach up and heft her huge breasts with her long nailed hands, blinking as she looks down at herself.

"That's much better. Out with the old and in with the new! To that end, I'm thinking a name change is in order. R'hllor is a bit too manly. Lord of Light is definitely too manly and so is Red God. Hmm, what to change it to though?"

The newly made succubus had no suggestions, keeping an ear on the voice of the presence that had so easily remade her, but focusing most of her attention on her new body and the way it felt so good under her hands.

"I mean, I could just go with Lilith but cmon, that's just lazy. Lazy can be good though… maybe just go with the obvious answer. Your name is now R'hllya, Lady of Illumination, the Purple Goddess."

The newly christened R'hllya merely moaned in response as one of her hands finally dipped below her waistline and into her honeypot.

"Oh my, someone is feeling frisky. That's nice and all, but before you get into that, you best send a message to all of your followers about the change in management. My champion has places to be, I don't want him having anymore run ins with Red Priests. Though Purple Priestesses… yeah, yeah that could be fun. And hot. Make it so!"

XxScenebreakxX

In the small room she'd been given, Melisandre of Asshai stared into the flames looking for guidance. This… this monster could not truly be Azor Ahai could he? There had to be a mistake. She would look to the Lord of Light and he would show her whether or not she should continue on this path or divert.

Only, guidance of the kind Melisandre was looking for was not what she found. After staring into the crackling flames for a seemingly endless amount of time, the Red Woman tore herself away from the fire and screamed loud enough to alert Blessed for a hundred miles around, her hands coming up to claw at her face and her eyes as her mind tried to assimilate what she'd been shown and largely failed.

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