The Downfall of House Dayne (PRP-ASOIAF)

[Nyx Queen of Darkness]

Arthur's Cert will be done here


 

[Nyx Queen of Darkness]

Chapter 1: Ashara

Ashara Dayne looked into the vastness of the sea as she tried to still her mind. Arthur was dead. The foal was dead. Myles was dead. The Princess and her children, the future of the only world she had ever known--dead. The ravens had flown. The litany in her head did not stop. Dead. Dead. Dead.


She wondered if as he lay dying, the last sound Myles heard had been the toiling of the bells? They made a clangor in her head, on and on they went deep into the night until she was inevitably drawn again and again to the Palestone Cliff. To stand and gaze and watch the crashing, relentless sea below.

The news had come like a storm, all bright lights and electricity and turmoil. Nothing could weather it, nothing when they told her that he was dead. It all rose to a fever pitch in her mind, there was no relenting. Her sobs tore through her body like physical pain, rending everything in it's path. She did not know how long it was until she realized that this wasn't the pain of grief, but something much more devastating. The light inside her flickered until it was smothered.


She did not leave her bed for days. She did not eat or drink that she could recall, but somehow she lived. She was a pale empty vessel devoid of anything but the sounds of the bells who had stolen her happiness from her. Ashara could not bear to look at the empty baskets, set away to be used later--to never be used now. She did not even have the strength to smash them to pieces like her shattered heart.

Ashara did not know how long it had been when she finally pushed the empty basket into the sea, all hope of her future adrift, lifeless.  

[Nyx Queen of Darkness]

Chapter 2: Arthur

He was damned to the seven hells. He could feel the heat of it burning through his skin, hotter than the Dornish sun. He’d grown up in that sun, he’d trained in that sun. He would die in that sun.

The false spring had come and with it promises and troths. Thoughts had gone to the future instead of focusing on winter. The wine flowed freely as the tournament began and each stallion in turn tried to prove himself the best of all. Flowers bloomed in riotious glory as did the young mares in their youth. Even his sister Ashara glowed as though lit from within. Love was in the air as much as weapons, or glasses. Hearts and lances were broken with almost as much frequency. Hardships were ending and there would soon be plenty again, everyone had believed. Even he had believed it then. How foolish they had been, but who could not feel the sweet scent of spring? The promise of new birth and life, instead of frozen hearts and hearths? Old Harlan had died so that even the Kingsguard was being imbued with a new brother of blood and oath. He would knight the young stallion,himself, soon.

Ser Jaime.

But winter had not been over then. It was spring that died it’s little death with the giving of a last winter rose and allowed the winter winds to sweep back in for a time. All the smiles died then too, but it was not because of winter. It was all for a small blue rose.  

[Nyx Queen of Darkness]

Chapter 3: Ashara

It took awhile to realize that someone was trying to get her attention, the sounds of the bells were too deafening. Concentrating, Ashara was able to dim them enough to hear the mare's words. She was ashen and she sobbed and she spoke. She could not believe the things the mare said to her, but she knew that she was not a liar.

For the first time since her encompassing grief, she thought of her friend, her Princess Elia and she prepared to go to her. But the ravens came. Dark wings, dark words.


She was unmoored, anchorless as she stood there looking out into that vast ocean with a hollow heart and mind. The litany went on. It had all been too much to bear. She had left her Princess at her urging. Elia had begged her to leave, to not stay as the King forced Elia to. Arthur had been urging her to leave too, and Myles. She gave into them because she had the foal to think about. She had gone to the home of her youth, of her ancestors. Ashara Dayne had gone home to Starfall

And now Myles was dead. Elia was....Elia was....she couldn't even say the words in her mind for what had happened to her friend, to her children. They made no sense, no sense at all.


She found herself wading into the ocean without thinking about it, without remembering that she had even gone there. The waves lapped at her feet like blood and the litany of the bells rang on.  

[Nyx Queen of Darkness]

Chapter 4: Arthur

He was not to judge, he had learned that long ago. Aerys was the King, but Rhaegar was his King.

The prince had had been his friend, the one that had knighted him. Long had he watched Rhaeghar try to become the prince and one day the king, he needed to be. No one spoke the words, but everyone on the King's Guard knew that Aerys was going completely mad.

For the most part though, he had been assigned to Rhaegar. It had been against his advice that Rhaegar had donned the mail and chestplate of a mystery knight. If only he had known then how that would change things. He might have spoken up though it was not his place. Would it have made a difference? Would it have changed things?

Arthur had watched that "mystery" knight fall in love with Lyanna Stark. But that mystery knight was his friend, his prince.

At the tournament he had watched it happen as though in slow motion, a moment that he wished to stop but never could. Barristan lost the joust and Rhaegar had ridden past all the world to hand those blue roses to Lyanna. That was how it had begun and how it would end.

Roses were just that though. But letters flew on black wings back and forth to Winterfell. The seed that had been planted was watered and grew. The moment came though that words must be actions and when Rhaeghar had told him the he need not follow him to Winterfell and Lyanna, he still did. He followed his Prince.