snow and stars| jon snow

iv : the lone star

Andromeda woke to the sound of water being moved slowly, as if the oar itself was tired. She felt the floor under body being moved gently, and instantly she knew she was on the sea. She sat up, a movement that was intended to be quick and alert, but could only manage to rise up with a lack of urgency. She locked eyes with Ramona, and when she did, she remembered everything from the last time she was awake.

   "Shhh, shh." Ramona hushed her. "You're okay, Andromeda." She didn't move her hands off of the oars, but there wasn't much she could do.

    Andromeda's hands rose to her face, and in the broad daylight, she could see the dried blood on her hands. "Oh," she said softly, choking on the singular word. If she hadn't seen the blood on her hands, she could have been in denial, she could have been passing it off as her worst nightmare. When she saw it, she couldn't anymore. "No."

    "Andromeda," Ramona said, shaking her head softly. "Please, my dear."

     The princess shook her head, slowly at first, and then fast with realization. "Ramona, tell me it's not real." She said, already beginning to cry. "God, no!" She yelled, clutching the torn fabric around her chest with her red hands. "My family," She sobbed. "They're all gone."

    "Yes." Ramona said, barely halting her rowing. "And we must get to Dorne."

      "To Dorne, My Songbird." The Princess of Ilta remembered. She remembered the way her father looked, the sadness in his eyes as he pushed the boat away, the determination to get her away from the falling fortress of Ilta. She remembered the tone of his voice when he told her to leave him, and most of all, she remembered the swords being driven through his back as he collapsed.

She remembered Ophelia, too young to die at twenty years old, and in her youngest sibling's arms. Andromeda remembered that Ophelia had told her that her sweet Elara was dead, and in turn that she would never see her beacon of light again. She remembered the way Ophelia had told her that she loved her, and the way she told her to run and leave her behind. The way Ophelia's once pretentious and self righteous personality had been snuffed our by a sword was something that would haunt her for the rest of her life. She could barely feel the rowing of the boat anymore as she was drowning in her memories.

Andromeda remembered most vividly the way Hyperion saved her life and took her hand to run with him. She would never forget the way he tugged her limp body with all his might, all of his will. She would never forget how he told her that her brothers died, and how Saros, the brightest star they had, was the first to fall out of them all. The thing that would stick with her most was Hyperion pushing her forward as he bravely brandished his own sword to defend her as men ran to him and cut him down before he could get two swings with a sword in.

She came back to reality on the boat, realizing that Ramona had stopped rowing and that the boat was leisurely floating, staying in one place on the water. She looked around her, surrounded by nothing but water, water that was too calm and too still to be a part of her life. If her life was so tumultuous, there was no reason the water got to be so calm. She hyperventilated with shallow breaths, and she screamed once with her eyes shut. The bright day suddenly turned to a cloudy one, one with the bright sun visible until storm clouds rolled in, and until thunder and lightning began to dance with each other in the sky. She screamed again, holding her chest as she felt all of her family's pain and all of her anger.

And that's when she remembered her mother. The last lightning strike, her body falling from the top of the castle to the ground, no doubt mutilated by now. She stopped her screams of pain and woe, and she sat up straight. New lightning was hitting the water now, dancing in the thick clouds of the night.

"Oh, my god." Andromeda barely heard the exclamation from the woman who had been serving her since the age of nine. Instead, she was in her own little world, and she made lightning in it. She crossed her arms against her chest in an 'x' formation, and with one long, last scream, she pushed her arms outwards, and the loudest clap of thunder that had ever sounded made it way down to all the human ears of both Westeros and Essos, and in the middle of the day, night took over. From Winterfell to Dorne to Braavos, day changed to night. The moon replaced the sun and the stars replaced the clouds, and lightning was lighting up the sky as if it were the sun itself.

"Fuck!" Andromeda yelled, clenching her fist as she let all the pain go outwards, causing the biggest storm that had been seen in years, and she had yet to realize that it was her.

"Andromeda!" Ramona yelled. "Andromeda." The girl's eyes were whipped in the direction of her kind maid, who's face she could see only because of the crackling lightning that shamed the moon. "You are the Night Queen." She dropped the oars completely on the floor of the unmoving boat in the darkness. There was movement on the boat, and Andromeda realized that Ramona was kneeling the best she could in the small quarters. "My Queen."

Lightning was still striking, and the girl of fourteen was still angry. For a moment she sat there and said nothing as the woman she had come to love kneeled at her feet, not quite accepting it. She was not the Night Queen, it was Ophelia. It was always Ophelia. She didn't smile at the revelation, but took the responsibility as her mother had once implored her to do if she had to. At that moment, she had to. She was the lone star, and she was the heiress to a now-destroyed kingdom. "You may Rise, Ramona." She said, her tone empty. She wanted the Baratheons to die, every single one. She was angry, she was sad, and she wanted revenge. Thunder was a daunting sound to Ramona, but not Andromeda. She looked to the twin stars that her family had named after Leonardo and Saros, and she was reminded of a conversation that had happened many years ago.

"I'm sorry that I am not Elara, and especially sorry that I am not Ophelia." She said, her voice rough and low as she found comfort in the stars for the first time in her life. Lightning struck near the boat, but she wasn't scared. "But I will take my place on Ilta's Throne, one day. You will be avenged."

"The Queen of the Night." Ramona said, pledging loyalty to the girl she had served. "Forever and always."

For a moment, Andromeda said nothing. "Do you know how to make it to Dorne in the darkness?"

"You won't turn the day back, My Queen?" Ramona asked.

"There will be seven days of darkness." She said, her tone final. "One for each fallen member of the House Vela. On the eighth, I will bring the sun back."

"Yes, My Queen." Ramona answered. "I can make it to Dorne in darkness. It is a straight shot."

"I will suffer in darkness for the rest of my life without my family, the world can suffer seven days of it with me."

                                      ****

  7/29/19