𝐆𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐓𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐬 || 𝑾𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝑾𝒐𝒍𝒗𝒆𝒔 𝑪𝒓𝒚 𝑶𝒖𝒕

𝑷𝒓𝒐𝒍𝒐𝒈𝒖𝒆 𝑰𝑰𝑰 𝒐𝒇 𝑨𝒄𝒕 𝑽

꧁꧁~~~𝑴𝒆𝒍𝒊𝒔𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒓𝒆~~~꧂꧂
꧁꧁~~~300 𝑨𝒇𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝑪𝒐𝒏𝒒𝒖𝒆𝒔𝒕~~~꧂꧂

꧁Melisandre did wonder. All the time. Every waking moment, any spare chance, the Red Priestess from Asshai stared into the glorious flames her ever more glorious Lord provided, and wondered, thought. About the expanding influence of her Lord, His power turning the nonbelievers to worshippers at just the mere sight of it. It was always captivating to her, and yet still, she wondered.

She wondered about a great deal of things. She wondered why when she looked into the flames, she did not see her King, Stannis. It has been some time since she realized he no longer appeared in the images R'hollor conjured in the fires, no matter the King's Blood she spilled from Stannis. Melisandre once more stood in the courtyard of Castle Black, the same as she had the night previous. Barely a week has past since the battle, and still, they gathered bodies.

The vast majority were already burnt, and to her annoyance, Stannis had let the Watch preform their customs of burning their dead. It wasn't that she was annoyed by the method, but the fact those bodies and souls were not sacrificed to her Lord, and instead were given to nothing, their light extinguished and cast out into darkness. Melisandre at least would have put them to use.

Her night fires burned bright and tall, with smoke shooting towards the sky in a blazing glory, the flames licked red and orange and a fiery yellow, consuming her in warmth as she stood close, unharmed, unburnt and unbothered by the heat. Already a week at the Watch, and Melisandre had been able to conform nonbelievers into believers, turned sinners to repenters. It was progress.

The Black Brothers of the Night's Watch seemed to easily flock to her God of Light and Fire, of Love and Wisdom. Their souls were cold, just as their bodies were, but now, they stood around the roaring fires, warm and safe in R'hollor's embrace.

Melisandre closed her eyes as she breathed in deep, able to smell the flesh of the Wildlings that had been rounded up, the remaining ones from the tunnel massacre. When the Queensmen, the sellswords, and the King's family entered through the gates of Castle Black, Melisandre had seen the look of horror on their faces. Disgust shown just as clear as they stepped over seemingly countless bodies, their boots never able to be rid of the stain of crimson on their soles again. But Melisandre thought glory when others thought death and disgust. She was able to turn their worthless lives into something more: a chance to see.

"Āeksio.."
("Lord..")

Melisandre began to whisper in High Valyrian, the tongue of Asshai, of the Red God. She closed her eyes tight, her powers drawing the flames closer to her as she felt its tongues of slick fire lick at her outstretched fingers.

"Urnēptre zirȳla naejot nyke, oh Āeksio.  Urnēptre nyke ñuha dārys, urnēptre nyke Aōha Kosh."
("Show him to me, oh Lord. Show me my king, show me Your Champion.")

The flames grew brighter, and like whips cracking hard on beasts of burden, the fires snapped and roared, and Melisandre tilted her head to the sky, snapping her crimson eyes open. And there, her Lord of Light showed her everything. But she was confused. Where is he?- she thought. Where is Stannis? But the Baratheon who would be King of the Seven Kingdoms was not there in the darkness of the sky.

She looked everywhere, looking from east to west, from north to sou..south, she saw something. Hanging in the sky in the South was a star that bled. The fires were tall and flickered in her eye line, but the star of crimson was so well visible that Melisandre wondered if the others could surely see it as well. The star was bleeding. It was the same as the Red Comet the years previous, she compared, but this star that bled the same was different. If it were possible, the star by comparison looked sad and angry. It was not a star showing the birth of dragons, but the death of them.

"Āeksiot Ōño, urnēptre nyke se chosen mēre, se wielder hen Ōñosmaghare, e Bringer hen Ñāqes
Azōr Ahaī. Urnēptre nyke Azōr Ahaī."
("Show me the Chosen One, the Wielder of Lightbringer, the Bringer of Dawn, the Azor Ahai. Show me Azor Ahai."

She begged her Lord His attention, an answer from Him in any way. A sign in the stars—a literal star—wasn't clear to her the meaning. She couldn't make sense of it. But as Melsandre looked at the bleeding star one last time, she felt the fires behind her die down, causing her to turn sharply to look at them. Almost in an instant, the fires had died down, burning low as if it were but a regular fire.

Melisandre quickly turned to look South to the sky, but to her shock and annoyance, the bleeding star was no longer in the sky. It was gone.

Sighing with frustration, Melisandre began to look back to the ground. But her eyes caught on a pair that seemed to glow from the darkness. Holding the gaze of violet with her crimson, Melisandre peered into the eyes of Benget Stark, staring at him as he watched her from across the courtyard up on the ramparts of the castle. He leaned against the rail, and he must've been there for over an hour as her fires long burned into the night. How did she not notice him before?

There was something in his eyes that so clearly showed he did not trust her. She was foreign to him, of course. But with the stories even she had heard of the Stark-Dayne, Melisandre wasn't so sure a Fire Priestess was so strange to him.

But for one reason or another, despite how obvious his disdain and distrust of her was, Melisandre felt drawn to him like a moth to a flame. Within him, she felt power, a power that he refused to give in to. There was suspicion, there was patience, and there was a deep rooted plan beneath the glowing violets of Benget Stark, and as the Red Prietess of Asshai stared into them, into him, Melisandre did wonder what it was.

꧁~~~A/N~~~꧂

So it seems, just by me looking at the reviews and stuff, the A option won out, so I will he releasing this right now as I type this out. So with this prologue chapter done, the next chapter will officially start Act V!

Let me know what yall think!