Chapter Text
Through the bond that had links their minds, hearts, and souls together, Lucera could feel Arrax's fear. She couldn't blame him. Lucera was fucking terrified herself.
And no one could blame them, with a murderous Aemond and fucking Vhagar hunting them. Not a chase. Aemond might think this was just a chase. But Lucera had grown up around dragons. She and Arrax had interacted with other dragons long enough to know the difference between a chase and a hunt.
This was a hunt.
Cursing her qȳbor, Lucera urged Arrax onward. "Faster, faster! Skori īlon māzigon Zaldrīzesdōron, kessa jikagon" she yelled, but the wind stole away her words. But her dragon brother heard her. Arrax's wings beat faster, his opalescent white wings, identical to his scales, beating harder. His fear flooded her and she reflected it, a negative feedback look. She gritted her teeth.
I have to be brave now. Lucera told herself.
She dragged out determination and bravery and gave it to Arrax. His fear subsided, his strength and perseverance grew, but he let out a fear filled trill. Vhagar, above them in the clouds, roared, a declaration of hunting. Aemond's laughter echoed through the storm.
She refused to be scared. Arrax needed her. We got this idaña. she thought. Her lilac purple eyes, identical to her late Kepa's eyes, rapidly scanned the area. The rain made it hard to see and soaked her to the bone, but she spotted a narrow valley of sea stacks. It was to big for Vhagar, but Arrax was small enough to slip through. "Konīr! sōvegon rȳ konīr! kesi ojughagon zirȳ konīr!"
Arrax roared and flew over to the sea stacks. Just in time, as dragon fire rained down from Vhagar exactly where they had been. Ñuha gods. she thought. Arrax began to twist and turn, the sea below them rough and choppy.
She swallowed thickly. "If someone falls from a great height into water, they'll die just like if you fall from a great height to the earth below you." her grandfather had told her once, when she, at thirteen, had almost fallen from Arrax when flying over the waters of Blackwater Bay. Remembering this, Lucera instinctively gripped her reins harder as Arrax twisted around a sea stack.
There was a sudden boom. Lucera's head snapped back to see that Vhagar had flown right through the sea stacks. The stone fell into the ocean in a rain of rocks. "THIS ISN'T A FUCKING GAME AEMOND!" Lucera screamed uselessly at her once best friend. The raging winds stole her words but she didn't care.
What the fuck are you doing, Aemond? You said it yourself, it was a fair fucking exchange! And I didn't fucking mean to take your fucking eye! she screamed internally.
Arrax shot up higher, aiming for the clouds. We'll hide among them. Lucera thought in relief. They made it into the clouds, Arrax's wings slicing through them before leveling out. A soft sigh escaped Lucera. Abruptly her cradle brother suddenly twisted and swerved. As if to shield her. The Velaryon princess got just one glimpse of Vhagar surging up from below, her great jaw opening wide.
Then half of Arrax's body suddenly vanished in a spray of red mist and gore, splattering her face and body.
For one second Lucera couldn't comprehend what had just happened.
Then she screamed.
Not because she was now plummeting to the sea, hundreds of feet below.
But because the soul-bond that linked her and Arrax, that had lived in her soul, tucked around her heart and embedded in her mind, that she had for her entire life, had snapped and vanished. Torn out from the roots, taking part of her soul with it.
"ARRAX!" Lucera screamed against the heavens, the tides, the earth. Screamed with agony and disbelief and sheer anguish. Screamed with the pain of someone who had just lost their other half.
Then she hit the water.
Gelid. Shock. Piercing.
The warmth was stolen from her bones and the air ripped from her lungs. Lucera frantically got herself unchained from the saddle and swam for the surface. The salt burned her eyes. She burst up, desperately inhaling air before a wave crashed onto her, forcing her below.
Daughter of the tides. the water seemed to say mockingly as she fought her way back to the surface. The water was turbulent and contradicting, buffeting her constantly. Throwing her this and that way. You've come home. the ocean seemed to whisper.
No. This is not my home Lucera thought frantically. Air bubbles escaped her lungs. A current slammed into her, knocking her away from the surface. At least I told everyone that I loved them. Lucera lamented as she swam. She got a glimpse of something white at the sea floor out of the corner of her eye. She couldn't help but look.
She should not have looked.
Among the wrecks of hundreds of ships, bones as white as the moon lay scattered along the seabed floor. First Men, Andals, Rhonyar, Valyrians, Stormlanders, Dornish, Essosi, Ironborn, Reachmen, Westerlanders, Crownlanders, Valemen, Northerns, and Summer Islanders. Nobles, merchants, the common people. Men, woman, children, elderly.
That will not be me! Lucera screamed, and she swam for the surface. She fought against the currents and-
Someone speaks to her, his voice deep and old and Valyrian.
"Don't you see little one? This war could be the death of your family?"
"You must see."
Caraxes? Lucera thinks in hysterics, calling for the dragon-god that ruled the sea.
Visions burn into her mind.
— It's her and Arrax, flying through the storm. They get above the clouds. But they both die at Vhagar's hand —
— Her grandmother fights Vhagar and Sunfyre. Her grandmother and Meleys fight, and they die —
— Jacaerys dies in the Gullet, shot down by arrows as he tries to swim for safety. Vermax is shot down as well, the pear green dragon death screams echoing for miles —
— Sunfyre and Moondancer clash above Dragonstone —
— Kepa Daemon and Caraxes fight Aemond and Vhagar above God's Eye. Kepa Daemon leaps from Caraxes, Dark Sister in hand —
— Her mother is dragged before Sunfyre, all of her strength, compassion, and resilience gone. Little Aelyx struggles and screams against the guards that hold him back as Sunfyre burns and eats their mother alive —
— Aelyx, older, harder, and exhausted to his soul, watches as the last dragons die and the eggs turn to stone —
— White Walkers and their army of the dead move out from the Lands of Always Winter and begin gathering strength —
— A young Valyrian boy marches through Dorne —
— Two dragons, one black and one red, lead armies and clash above a field of red grass. An albino man shoots a young boy. A man dies over the boy, and another boy takes his sword (Blackfyre?) and dies from arrows as well —
— As fourteen men fight, two knights clash, and the larger rams his mace down against the skull of the other —
— A palace in the Dornish marches burns with wildfire, as a young Valyrian girl births her son admits the flames. A massive knight gets her and her newborn out of the flames before returning to the castle —
— A dragon crowns a wolf with a crown of winter roses —
— A man in armor is burned alive as his son strangles himself to death in a bid to rescue him —
— The stag and the dragon clash at a ford. The dragon's chest is cleaved in, rubies falling form his armor, a name (Lyanna?) falling from his lips —
— "Promise me." a young maid breathes as she dies in a bed of her own blood, clutching a baby in her arms. Her brother holds her hand. "Promise me Ned." —
— "The things I do for love." a golden hair man says, before pushing a boy out of a window —
— Direwolves split up, the pack separating and leaving their castle of winter —
— On the steps of a Sept, a Stark lord loses his head —
— It's a wedding, and Northerns die in the halls of the Twins as guest right is broke. A man with auburn curls and blue eyes is stabbed in the heart by his own as his mother screams in tortured agony —
— A dead man wakes, dark eyes snapping open —
— The Others break through the Wall, bringing winter. They are defeat, narrowly, as a Stark girl uses her family's dagger to end the Night King —
— The dragon queen dies at her lover's hand. Her bonded burns the Iron Throne and vanishes with her body —
Lucera bursted to the surface, grabbing a piece of driftwood as she inhaled the salt tanged air. The waves slammed against her and the sea was wrathful and kept her constantly moving, but she gripped the piece of driftwood even harder. Gasping, she looked up just in time to see a titanic wave bearing down on her.