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(EM Vol. 2: A Wandering Melody) Chapter 11: The Price of Fire
🕑 Added 2025-06-03 14:00:09 +0000 UTCChapter 11: The Price of Fire
123 AC, Dragonstone
Rhaena couldn’t help but feel smaller underneath that gaze, but she steeled herself and nodded silently. Lord Harry gave her a wide smile. “So, Rhaena, what do you feel about going on a little adventure?”
Rhaena followed Lord Harry and Lady Daphne as they left the safety and comfort of their manse and walked along the beach. They were going on an adventure, which she had to admit she had no idea about. She’d been excited to be part of it at first, to spend time with her hosts and maybe even see something that she would brag to Baela about.
Lord Harry had said something about a Targaryen witnessing the act. Had they found some sort of Dragonlord secret left behind by her ancestors? She had no idea. There were always stories about the island and how Queen Visenya hid her treasures when she ruled it. Rhaena wasn’t sure, but she was excited to see it.
However, after what felt like hours walking around the island, her enthusiasm had faded slightly. Lord Harry and Lady Daphne had been walking as if they were on a romantic trip on the beach, and Rhaena couldn’t help but complain, “Are we close yet? We’ve been walking for so long.”
Lady Daphne rolled her eyes at her, “Rhaena, it’s barely been ten minutes.”
The young girl blushed and looked away. Perhaps she had been exaggerating a bit about the time, “Perhaps if you told me where we’re going, I wouldn’t complain as much,” she muttered, trying to sound annoyed rather than sheepish.
Lord Harry just chuckled, the sound far too amused for her liking. “Don’t worry, we’re here.”
He motioned to a small, narrow cave in the Dragonmont, and she took a sigh of relief. She was tired of all this walking. Lord Harry waved his hand, and the entrance started to grow wide enough for them to fit inside it. Rhaena couldn’t help but marvel at the sight of the magic.
There wasn’t any ritual, blood sacrifices, or even long incantations, just a wave of a hand, and reality shifting. A part of her wanted to beg Lord Harry and Lady Daphne to teach her magic, but she didn’t want to ask for too much. They’d already all but given her a dragon, after all.
Nevertheless, they walked calmly into the cave, which was illuminated by a small ball of light that Lady Daphne created, and Rhaena gasped as she saw what was inside.
It was far bigger than she expected, given the small entrance, which had shrunk down after they entered. And yet, it was the paintings on the cave’s walls, of men with swords and what looked like children, that took her breath away. They looked very old and held some sort of significance that just made her blood sing. And yet, it seemed that time did not wither its shapes or colours. She couldn’t help but ask, “What is this?”
“I forgot that you didn’t know about the paintings,” Lord Harry replied, “Before Valyria ever existed, before the Andals even came to Westeros, the First Men landed here and fought against the Children of the Forest. It was a bloody war indeed, one that ended with a stalemate, as they gained a new enemy.”
He moved away and allowed her to see a large group of men made of ice, whose eyes seemed to glow despite being paintings. The man continued, “The Others, the White Walkers, whatever you want to call them, became the enemy of all life, and the two enemies worked together to fight back against them. Normally, that would be it, a nice story, but there are too many things that don’t add up. For one, there is often mention of Dragonsteel being used, and yet, by all accounts, dragons only appeared thousands of years later in what would later become Valyria. Valyrian Steel shouldn’t have even existed at the time. This place, this island, is just too convenient. The Dragonglass is also unnatural. One can make obsidian easily enough, but it shouldn’t have the ability to channel magic like the one in Dragonstone does. These are all things I want to answer.”
“And you think that there are answers in this cave?”
“Not really, but I think that this will help a bit.”
The man snapped his finger, and what seemed to be a crack in the wall started to slowly move and widen, until it showed another section of the cave on the other side. He let out a wide grin, “Sneaky, isn’t it? I think that this is meant to be used by the Children of the Forest. They were said to sing the Earth into moving.”
Rhaena was about to speak, only for the older woman to interrupt her, “Now, Rhaena, we’re in completely uncharted territory. That means that you’ll need to be extremely careful from now on and especially don’t touch anything.”
They walked forward and realised that what they were seeing was a small corridor leading them down, until they found themselves in a large cave, with what seemed to be a wall made of smooth black stone as one of the walls.
There was some writing on the wall. Rhaena immediately recognised it as a variant of High Valyrian. And yet, it was odd. She knew her Valyrian very well, but this looked somewhat crude. No, not crude. It was more poetic. She could barely make sense of it.
“Let this blackened stone stand as witness, that even the brightest flame may gutter when kindled in blindness.”
She hadn’t even realised that she had muttered this, and yet the moment she did, she felt the air shift slightly, as if it was both colder and warmer, something that Lady Daphne seemed to notice as well, given the odd look in her eyes.
This was the first time Rhaena had seen the woman look anything but the odd mixture of strictness and kindness. It reminded her of a Maester studying a book or trying to figure out which ointment to make. She could finally see the similarity with Lord Harry, who had the same look whenever he spoke of magic.
Speaking of Lord Harry, he was staring at the words in the off Valyrian dialect, and she heard him mutter, “Fascinating. This was written in blood. The magic is still there, the intent. Whoever wrote this was afraid. Very, very afraid.”
He stepped forward, brushing his fingers along the smooth surface. The moment he touched it, the glyphs glowed brighter, and the cave seemed to hum with power. Rhaena instinctively took a step back, though she couldn’t bring herself to look away. The stone around the words shifted, disappeared without any issues, and in its place was a smooth black wall. Surprisingly, the words written in blood still remained on it.
Lord Harry stared at it but didn’t say anything. It was Lady Daphne who broke up the silence, “Not just afraid. He was dying.”
They peered to where the woman was looking and saw a skeleton who hadn’t been there before, looking oddly clean for being hundreds of years old at the very least. The blonde knelt down and carefully took out a dagger from inside it, “Sacrificial magic, very crude, but I can’t deny that it was effective. If I had to guess, he used it to enhance the wall. I read about it. Valyrian Stone, I think, said to be stronger than diamond.”
Rhaena was the one who spoke up, “I thought that you were travellers. How do you know so much about Old Valyria?”
“I don’t know much,” Harry muttered, “The library on Dragonstone had some books on Old Valyria, even if it was sparse.”
“You stole my family’s books,” she asked dryly.
“Not really, I just copied them. Magic can be nifty like that. And to be honest, there weren’t that many books in the first place, just a couple thousand at best. If you want to see a proper library, I’ll let you see ours.”
Lady Daphne cleared her throat. “I’ll make sure there’s a section that isn’t dangerous.”
Rhaena had no idea why a library could be dangerous and, to be honest, she didn’t truly want to know. And instead, she looked at the skeleton and asked, “You believe that he killed himself to create the wall?”
“Yes. Was he a man? Yes, definitely a man. I can feel it in his magic. The man was probably already injured, and he used his life force to create a wall separating what’s behind, probably something dangerous, from going to the surface. He was in a hurry. His bones are too well-preserved. He accidentally overpowered the spell to affect his body as well instead of reinforcing the wall.”
“Could he have lived?” the young girl asked.
“Likely yes. He died from a lack of life force, which he used for the ritual, instead of his injuries. He could have probably lived a couple of more years if he’d healed himself with the extra energy instead. But there’s a much more important question to ask. The man was scared, terrified, even. So, what could be on the other side of this wall that scared a man enough to sacrifice himself?”
Before she could answer, the black wall immediately crumbled into nothingness, and with it, the skeleton turned to ash. Lady Daphne gave her husband a look, and he grinned sheepishly, “What? You can’t say you’re not curious, can you?”
The golden-haired woman rolled her eyes and walked up to Rhaena, giving her the dagger she’d taken from the corpse. The young girl immediately noticed the familiar ripples on the blade. After all, she’d seen it on her father’s sword, “This is Valyrian Steel.”
Lady Daphne nodded, “Yes. Keep it close, just in case.”
Whatever retort Rhaena had died in her throat, as he recognised the woman’s tone. She immediately knew that she wouldn’t accept any refusal. And so, she simply nodded silently and followed after them as they walked past the rubble where the Valyrian Stone used to be. Instead, there was a tunnel that seemed to go downward into the very heart of the Dragonmont.
The first thing she felt as she moved past the barrier where the wall had stood was the heat. It wasn’t the comfortable kind that came from a hearth or the sun on a summer morning. No, this was dry and suffocating, pressing against her skin like a heavy cloak. It smelled of stone, of ash, and something else, something that reminded her of old tombs and burnt bones.
The walls pulsed faintly with veins of red light, not quite flame, not quite stone, which somehow illuminated the tunnel, but enough to see past a few yards forward. Then something illuminated the tunnel. There was some rumbling, and then, blue flames soared from the bottom of the tunnel going towards them.
Rhaena screamed, shielding herself with her arms, knowing that it would achieve nothing, only for the familiar circle of magic to appear in front of them, stopping the flames dead. For the first time since the start of their adventures, Lord Harry didn’t look amused. He didn’t look angry. He looked serious, especially as the circle of magic started to fade slightly.
Instead, he released a beam of red energy that seemed to make the flames collapse onto themselves. Rhaena heard a loud shriek in the distance, more akin to a hiss than anything, which quickly stopped as the last of the flames dissipated. He and his wife shared a look and nodded to one another before continuing their walk down the tunnel.
She couldn’t help but ask, “What was that?”
“This was a flame, one that is alive, in a way. Things that stay near high concentrations of magic can be affected over the years. This likely started as a simple fire and started to feed on magic, enough to learn to seek it out in hunger when it developed a consciousness.”
There was magic in the Dragonmont. Rhaena did already know that, as there was some kind of Valyrian sorcerer who had died to stop whatever was inside but seeing it in person was different.
Thankfully, no other magical living flames tried to attack them in the tunnel, not anymore. After some time, they finally exited the tunnel and found themselves in a large cave. It was filled with some sort of grey fog that seemed to move around.
Before anything could happen, Lady Daphne raised her hand, and the entire fog disappeared, and with it, shrieks, similar to the ones she heard when the living flames perished, spread all over the cavern. She gave her companions a questioning look, and the woman explained, “The fog was toxic, and it moved too suddenly.”
With the fog gone, Rhaena noticed a few glowing items all around the cavern. She knelt down and grabbed one. It was a ring, with dragons carved into it. It was also made of Valyrian Steel, “The man above didn’t come alone, did he?”
“Very good, Rhaena,” Lord Harry complimented her with a wide smile, “It’s very unlikely that a single person came to explore this place. An expedition would have been far more likely. The question is, why did they come here in the first place? This was before the Doom, centuries before, at the very least. After the paintings that the Children of the Forest made, that’s for sure, but still before your family came to this place. This place is too far from Valyria for them to explore randomly. They were looking for something here, and they knew exactly what it was. Given the Valyrian Steel, the expedition was well-funded, and there were wealthy members. Either way, they didn’t get what they wanted and had to seal the entrance.”
There was a change in attitude now. Lord Harry didn’t look as carefree as before. Sure, he was still kind, but there was a seriousness in every step he took that hadn’t been there before, even when he’d come to speak with her father and stepmother.
She understood why the Potters didn’t seem truly apprehensive of her family’s actions. Someone who delved into volcanoes and fought living fire and fog, just out of curiosity rather than anything, wouldn’t fear someone wearing a crown.
Rheana found herself feeling useless in front of the mighty couple. She wanted to help. She wanted them to acknowledge her usefulness for some reason, and yet, she knew that what they were doing were beyond her.
As if to prove her point, the man raised his hand once more, and a pulse of Light appeared, seemingly fighting against invisible creatures, made of shadows, creatures that Rhaena hadn’t even noticed. They looked more akin to the demons that her Septa liked to harm about, and yet, the man seemingly turned them to ash with barely any effort.
She hadn’t even noticed the shadows until they were gone, hadn’t seen their approach, hadn’t felt their presence. They had simply… been there, waiting, and Lord Harry had snuffed them out like candles in the wind. And then, just as casually, he turned back around and kept walking, as if what he’d done meant nothing at all. Rhaena followed, her grip tightening around the Valyrian steel dagger at her side.
They kept walking in silence, each step heavier than the last. Rhaena felt like there was something pressing on her shoulders as they walked forward, and Lord Harry seemed to know where they were going somehow. She didn’t dare ask.
They finally stopped in front of a small entrance that Lord Harry widened with his magic somehow. She gaped as she saw what was on the other side.
It was a cavern so vast that it defied reason. It was a hollowed mountain, taller than any sept, wider than any building in Dragonstone or Pentos, a place that should not exist, and yet here it was, hidden beneath her family’s ancestral home all this time. They were perched on a ledge near the top, one of many entrances carved into the stone, high above the ground below.
Rivers of magma crisscrossed the stone floor far beneath them, flowing like molten veins, pulsing and alive. The walls themselves wept fire, red light trickling down like blood. And at the very heart of it all, untouched by flame or ruin, stood something that made her breath catch.
A nest.
A nest of weirwood trees, impossibly alive in this furnace, their pale bark unburnt, their red leaves fluttering gently in air that should have scorched them to ash. They were in a circle, and at the centre of it all, resting atop a bed of pale roots and molten stone, was an egg.
Not the kind she was used to seeing. No dragon egg of House Targaryen looked like this. It was massive, easily the size of a tower’s foundation, and shimmered in colours that seemed to shift with every heartbeat, crimson and gold, sapphire and violet, green and silver.
It was thrumming with so much power that she could taste it on her tongue.
She didn’t need to be told what it was. Some truths required no explanation. She simply knew.
She didn’t know how, but she knew. Down in the heart of the Dragonmont, resting in fire and shadow, was a dragon egg.
Lord Harry let out a low whistle, lips quirking upward, “Well,” he murmured, eyes locked on the impossible relic below. “This just got interesting.”
AN: Well, that’s the first part of the adventure on Dragonstone. Like I said, I had a few ideas for the lore, and I hope that this would give you a taste of what it would be like. I don't think that I have done anything like this before, at least as far as I remember, so I don’t know if you’ll like this or not. I'm also sorry if it feels unpolished; I have to go to a funeral and I didn't have time to proofread it properly. However, I don’t mind rewriting it depending on your feedback. As usual, please let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions.
Comments
athass_prkr
Yes I meant that. Thanks for lettting me know. It should be fixed now.
Papa Chizmadia
Where you wrote "seek it out in hunger when it developed a conscience.” Did you mean "consciousness?"
Marius Petrauskas
nice
athass_prkr
Maybe. I haven't decided yet which universe to go to next. It would be interesting to include magic in SW, if anything.
Luci alarri
Star Wars universe?
Krazo
So the big question is: would ASOIAF main story turn out the same in this AU with changes being hidden without ingerence of Harry Potter, or was the potential future of this story be wastly different than the original too? Like back in the previous word without the SI happening Neville would try to defeat Voldemort but would probably become sacrificed by Dumbledore for prophecy power to strengthen his grasp over magical world.
Abe 7
Harry gets a new pet? And Hedwig gets to play the mother hen to the new dragon.
Garri Sarkisov
Very interesting
TypistTyphon
Good chapter
