23
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294 AC
Braavos - Temple of R'hllor
Eragon Targaryen
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"Where do you think she is?" I ask my companions as we walk around the large hall filled with braziers with flames flickering.
"How are we supposed to know Eragon?" Danny hisses a snarky response as she is very unhappy with coming here. She was not happy with Melisandre or her Lord of light after they made my eyes bleed.
"Well, I don't see anyone except that man so let's ask him." Rhaenyra points out a man in a red robe who is poking at the wood in a Brazier.
We walk toward him and it seems to take forever with how massive the room is, much bigger than the sept for the seven we passed by to get to here. The man looks over his shoulder once but quickly turns around to continue to look into the flames.
"Hello, how do we find someone specific around here?" I step forward and ask the man and notice marks on his arms, his wrists look like they were shackled for a long time with the way the skin has been scarred. The man side-eyes me and I see a feral light in his eyes that dies down when a piece of wood in the fire crackles.
"Who are you looking for boy?" His voice is raspy and sounds pained.
"Melisandre, red eyes and hair and has pale skin." he nods and set his fire poker to the side with a grunt.
"Follow me, she should be around here somewhere." He walks with a limp and we walk slowly behind him as he leads us to a door on the side.
On the other side of the door is a hallway with lots of different paintings on the walls. Some are of flaming hearts and others of different things on fire or beautiful fields of plants and animals.
One, in particular, catches my eye as we pass it, a sword with flames running along its blade. Rhaenyra bumps into my back as I stop and look at the blade, its handle makes it almost look like a two-handed sword but the blade doesn't look long enough. The guard is simple and looks ordinary, overall an average sword. But the flames on it make me a bit excited, can I learn to do that?
"Lightbringer the sword of Azor Ahai, at least one of its many different artworks. Almost everyone paints it differently and some even say that it wasn't actually a sword at all." I take one more look at the flaming sword and wonder how many people can light swords on fire. I heard Cynthia talk about someone doing it before, it might be more common in other parts of Essos where Lord of light has more followers.
We continue down the hall and head up a staircase until we are in an area with lots of people walking around. Everyone is in the usual red priest's robes and we stick out like a sore thumb.
"She should be in here." The man points at a door and I nod.
"Thank you for leading us here." He grunts in response and limps off.
I knock on the door after I look at everyone else and make sure they are ok so far. The door opens slowly and reveals who we are looking for, she steps to the side when she sees us and motions for us to enter her room.
"We came here to find out more about what we saw." I speak up, a little nervous to enter the room. I can see a few chests and a bookshelf but other than that there is only a fireplace that has a blazing flame going in it. It's weird to see since it's warm outside and a fireplace shouldn't be lit but I guess it makes sense to use one of these in a closed room instead of a brazier. The chimney will let the smoke leave the room conveniently.
"I know, I didn't expect you to show up to tell me you weren't interested. You can come in, I have a lot to talk about and it is better to do it in a private setting." I didn't come all this way into the temple just to get spooked at the last point so I walk into the room. After me, the others quickly come through the doorway and look around.
"Alright I am sure you have many questions but let's first start somewhere simple, what can you tell me of the vision you saw in the flames? I assume most of your questions are about the vision anyway and knowing it will help me answer them." Looking around I see the others are hesitant to share and I decide to go first and get it over with.
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"Very interesting, it was two very different events and in both, you were in the perspective of a person. whether that person is you and these events are going to happen is difficult to say but let's start with the first." She sees we are a little awkward and decides to pull the chest out and have us sit on them. She remains standing and paces around in thought, after gathering her thoughts she stops pacing and looks back at me. "I have a pretty good idea of what is happening in the first half because I have had a vision similar. I saw many fights with people using primitive weapons of stone axes and spears and slings. Your guess of them being summer islanders should be correct as well because it is a custom to settle disputes in 'wars' that are fought with primitive tools. No bows only slings and no metal weapons only stone, everything from conquests of lands to settling insults to character can be fought in this way. The ceremonial dressed man should be the judge and the fights last less than a day." I am surprised to hear this and ponder why I would have seen it though.
"That's what happened to my dad, he lost a war and was killed during the fighting. He would have been exiled for losing but instead, he died, we left because we would have been harshly treated as a loser's family. We weren't exiled but instead choose to leave... for now." Nata speaks up but murmurs the last part, I barely heard her.
A strange look appears on Melisandre's face as she looks at Nata.
"Nata, is there something you want to say? Maybe something that could shed some light on Eragons vision and help him better understand what it is he saw?" She bites her lips and looks at me with hesitation.
"You will believe me won't you?" She asks but instantly looks like she regrets it. "We haven't known each other long but I find it strange you also saw something to do with potentially my home." The others in the room look back and forth between us with interest in their eyes. I can't say I fully trust her but I don't think she would outright lie unless it was very important to her.
"I will do my best to believe you but as you said we haven't known each other very long so it depends on what you say." She slowly nods and begins to tell us the vision she had.
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"Both of your visions are so serious and people dying and burning stuff down, mine was just a little embarrassing." Shiera quietly comments.
"Mine only showed some people sitting, I feel like I got cheated out of something cool." Rhaenyra crosses her arms over her chest.
"Mine also showed someone burning to death." Danny tries to help our situation and gets a weird look from the two complaining girls.
"So Nata saw trouble brewing in the summer isles for the place she used to live and that she and her family would go to help the people fight off the threat. She also said she saw Eragon there and in Eragons vision he saw potentially himself preparing to fight in the summer islands in a war. The odd thing is Eragons fight was a traditional fight and Nata's fighting would be against invaders." I frown at the way she is explaining it because it sounds like she knows something but is withholding it.
"It is weird, does it mean that those people are going to attack though? I asked my mom this morning if she thought there would be people invading our old home and she said it was unlikely but possible. Ebonhead is one of the biggest trading ports in summer isles and pirates usually stay away because the swan ships that protect the waters with Goldenheart bow wielders are easily able to shoot them." Melisandre looks like she wants to say something but chooses not to at the last moment.
"I don't know, I can look in the flames for you but at the end of the day, you would have to wait for any proof before actually trying to do something. You said everyone you recognized looked older so it's supposed to happen in the future anyway." Melisandre finally speaks but it sounds like it isn't all she wants to, Nata only nods but looks unsatisfied.
"What about the second half of my vision? If the first half is potentially something that will happen on the summer isles in the near future then what about a dragon rider burning ships? The dragons are dead and gone so is it a dream from the past?" A smile spreads across her face at my question.
"That might be the case, for now, I have seen in the flames and read ancient prophecy. When the red star bleeds and the darkness gathers, Azor Ahai shall be born again amidst smoke and salt to wake dragons out of stone." Danny's hand grips mine but no one seems to notice. "I have reason to believe that I have found the location where he will be born, there are also stone dragons at that location. I just need to make sure that everything goes according to plan." She drifts off and looks toward the fire almost like a habit and silence fills the room.
I glance toward Danny and she looks very worried and I think about what we just heard to see what caused this. Red stars bleeding or darkness gathering is too grand to cause this and smoke and salt aren't likely the cause. Dragons waking from stone is my go-to, the eggs we know mother has are stone, maybe she thinks it's possible to hatch them?
"Sorry, I got carried away and lost myself. Is there anything else you guys would like to bring up about the visions? I don't know who it was riding the dragon or what dragon it was but it very well could have been the past or a possible future." No one speaks about their visions anymore and we already know Rhaenyras was too vague so that only left Danny and Shiera anyway. I can ask them in private later, they likely don't want to say it Infront of Melisandre.
"They probably want some time to think about what they have seen and heard." I pause as she nods in understanding, I gather my courage and ask the question that has been eating at my mind. "Do you know other magics, or have you heard of other magics?" She stiffens before nodding again even slower than before.
"I know a few things, I picked them up while I was at Asshai." All of our eyes widen when we hear such a foreign location.
"You have been to Asshai? What was it like and did you learn the Language?" Shiera begins to get excited, she reads a lot about different places and loves to learn new Languages so it makes sense her excitement.
"I did learn it, it is critical for learning many different magics that are used there. One of the more difficult is shadow binding, it can be very difficult to learn and even more dangerous to use. I can tell you about Asshai if you are interested." We all eagerly nod and she straightens her back. "Well first it is likely the biggest city in the world, some speculate it was the capital of the Great Empire of the dawn before the long night fell onto the world. You could take the five biggest city's in the world and combine them and place them inside the walls of Asshai. Yet only a small market-sized area is all that is used for the residence, not enough food for people to live and the water is toxic to normal people." Everyone is entranced as she talks about the great Blackstone city as I look around at them. I will ask about magic on a different day when not everyone is here.
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"I can't believe she let me borrow some of her books, I can't wait to try and figure out this new Language." Shiera clutches the books to her breasts as if they are her babies and takes careful steps back to the house. When we dropped off Nata she whispered to me that she wanted to talk alone about what we saw and I agreed to come by tomorrow or the next day.
"How are you going to learn something from them if they are just scribbles to you now as they are? It's not like you have a teacher to show you what they mean." Rhaenyra looks at the books curiously.
"I have learned three languages without a teacher and I might not speak them the best because I don't have anyone to talk in them with but it shouldn't be a problem. She wrote out some helping notes on a sheet that is tucked inside for when she was teaching someone else. I can take it from there to at least get a starting point and I can go back to her for help in the future." That was probably Melisandre's goal when she gave you the books, but I planned to go back anyway to learn more about the world and magic.
"Don't go without me, I am being serious. She might be nice now but she could change at the drop of a coin." Shieras enthusiasm plummets and she glares at me.
"I know, I am just excited." She soon changes to a smile and I raise an eyebrow at her mood swings. "Thanks for looking out for me Eragon, I will ask you to go with me if I decide to go back." I look back toward the road and nod my head, she has to go back to give the books back unless she wants to piss off the red woman.
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"Where is it you all keep running off to?" Mother asks much to my fear as we enter the house secretly. She was bound to catch on eventually when all of us leave at once for long periods multiple times in a row.
"We were just going out." I answer to the best of my abilities without lying, it's not wrong that we went out. She frowns and crosses her arms over her chest and narrows her eyes at me.
"Ok, going out where?" I begin to think of a good explanation that doesn't involve ritual-sacrificing maniacs and can't find one. I begin to spin a lie as the last resort but Viserys interjects from the side as he lies on his back eating some grapes.
"Might be going to that whorehouse to see that whore that Eragon started to fancy." My jaw drops and I don't even have time to respond before I feel a hand grab my shoulder and shake me.
"Eragon! I raised you better than to run off and do that kind of stuff so young, and you dare to involve the girls?!" I grit my teeth and swear to beat Viserys down when I get a chance as he leans up just enough to show me a dazzling smile.