I skipped over a slick, algae-covered boulder and landed smoothly on the opposite jagged ledge, my boots finding instant traction on the wet stone before I turned my body around to look back.
Behind me, Alyssa Velaryon stood perched precariously atop a salt-crusted rock, looking up at me with a helpless, breathtaking smile that could have melted a glacier.
The sea wind whipped her silver-gold hair across her pale face.
The moonlight cast it’s glow agaisnt her gown of sheer, sapphire-blue Myrish silk.
The fabric clung to every single contour of her figure like a second skin, molded tight around her curves.
The silky folds of her skirts fell in waves around her legs.
Honestly, she looked like a ghost to me, like the girl had crawled out of the sea with her ethereal glow to take me under the waves or some bullshit like that.
Alyssa gathered the trailing edges of her heavy skirts in her hands, attempting to take a cautious step forward across the slippery gap, only for her foot to catch on a wet patch of sea-moss.
She let out a sharp, delicate gasp as her balance failed completely, tumbling forward and landing squarely on her knees upon the cold, hard stone.
Man, why in the hell would anyone wear a gown like that out into the wild like this?
That piece of clothing probably made basic walking an Olympic sport, let alone navigating a jagged coastline.
Then again, we had both just slipped out of the fort after I had found her while wandering in the halls to catch a breath of fresh air.
On a mutual whim, we had decided to slip past the sleeping guards and head straight down to a secret spot: the dark, isolated cliffs framing Blackwater Bay.
Looking out at the black water chittering against the shore, I realized it was a damn good thing the high tide hadn’t come rolling in yet, or we would be royally fucked, trapped against the sheer cliff face with nowhere to climb.
Did anyone in this medieval fantasy world actually know how to read lunar tide charts, or were they all just raw-dogging ocean currents and hoping for the best?
Before I could get completely derailed by that train of thought, I quickly stepped back across the gap, leaned over Alyssa, and lifted her straight off the hard ground by grabbing her firmly under her armpits.
The moment my hands made contact with her ribs, the Velaryon girl twisted uncomfortably in my grip, her body thrashing lightly as she squirmed against my hands, trying desperately to suppress a sudden urge to giggle because she was ticklish.
“Easy there,” I muttered with a laugh, holding her steady above the rocks.
Just as I was about to remove my hands from her arms and take a step backward to give her space, Alyssa unexpectedly leaned her entire weight directly into my chest.
Her warm, sweet breath tickled the sensitive skin of my collarbone.
“Ouch,” she whimpered softly, her voice trailing off into a gentle murmur.
“I think…
I think I might have sprained my ankle, Maegor.” She avoided my eyes as I leaned my head back to look at her.
Instead, she wrapped her long, slender arms tightly around my neck, burying her face deep into the warm hollow between my shoulder and throat, her soft chest pressing flat against my chest.
“I should have known better than to bring a highborn lady out to the cliffs when she is dressed like a siren,” I said, letting out a heavy sigh as her sweet fragrance filled my senses, I almost got lost in thought wondering if sirens existed in this world before righting myself.
“Forgive me, my lady.” Alyssa did not pull away.
Her grip on my neck tightened, her full lips brushing lightly against my pulse point as she whispered, “Do not say that.
It was as much my decision to come down here as yours.” Sighing again, I shifted my footing on the slick rock, reached one arm behind her back, slid the other beneath the smooth curve of her knees, and lifted her cleanly off the ground in a classic bridal carry.
Alyssa was surprisingly light in my arms, though it was hard to tell if she was truly weightless or if my relentless, grueling physical workouts over the past few years had simply turned me into a human forklift.
Her golden-silver hair tickled the tip of my nose as she buried her face deeper into my neck, her hands clutching at the leather of my doublet for security.
I could feel the incredible warmth of her body seeping through my clothes, the soft, plush flesh of her thighs resting securely against my right forearm.
I hummed a quiet, noncommittal response before taking a deep breath and leaping from the rock I was standing on straight onto another narrow ledge three feet away.
I like larping as an elf right now.
A dark, hyper-agile elf knight straight out of a fantasy novel.
Yes, absolutely.
I had the pale silver hair, the striking Valyrian looks, the knightly vows, and the superhuman physical strength to back it up.
Perhaps that last part was a bit of an exaggeration in my own head, but as far as I was concerned, I was close enough to Legolas to count it.
Besides, it was the sacred duty of a noble knight to rescue a beautiful damsel in distress, it is known.
Unfortunately, my arrogant, ridiculous train of thought almost cost us both our lives.
My left boot clipped the wet edge of a mossy stone, sending my footing sliding sideways.
I let out a sharp curse, my heart leaping straight into my throat as I frantically shifted my balance, clutching Alyssa tightly to my chest and digging my heels into a dry crevice at the very last microsecond before we both went tumbling into the dark sea below.
Whew.
That was way too close.
If I had gotten us injured down here on the sharp barnacles, both of us would have been forced to sit on a cold rock waiting for the midnight tide to sweep in, leaving us with no choice but to swim a mile back to the harbor in pitch-black darkness when the tide came.
Slipping out of the castle without a single Kingsguard or personal man-at-arms late at night was definitely not the brightest idea I had ever come up with, but here I was anyway.
Pushing forward with renewed focus, I reached my intended destination much sooner than expected: a secluded, ancient sea cave embedded deep into the base of the towering rock cliffs.
The interior was shrouded in deep, dramatic shadows, but the pale, silver moonlight reflecting off the surface of the bay provided just enough light for us to navigate the smooth stone floor inside.
I walked deep into the sanctuary of the cave and gently lowered Alyssa back down onto her feet, though she took her sweet time withdrawing her face from my neck.
She slowly leaned back, resting her hands against my chest as she looked up at me.
It was difficult to read her exact expressions in the gloom, as the deep shadows obscured her features, but the moonlight caught her eyes, making her bright, luminous amethyst irises glow like burning gems in the dark.
“Thank you for carrying me, Maegor,” she murmured softly, her voice echoing gently off the damp cave walls.
She paused for a long, thoughtful moment, her eyes searching my face before she added, “You have grown remarkably strong since I last saw you.” “Hard work, heavy lifting, and eating every scrap of good food I can lay my hands on,” I replied with an easy shrug, leaning my back against the rough, damp stone wall of the cave and regarding her with genuine curiosity.
Over the past several years, despite the immense physical distance separating Dragonstone, Driftmark, and King’s Landing, the two of us had managed to maintain a remarkably close friendship through a constant stream of private letters and secret meetings whenever our families happened to be in the same castle.
We were practically childhood best friends at this point.
A comfortable, tranquil silence settled over the small cavern.
Alyssa smoothed her ruined silk skirts beneath her and drew her knees up close to her chest, resting her chin upon her arms as she listened to the rhythmic, thunderous crashing of the ocean waves against the rocks outside.
I began humming a quiet, familiar tune under my breath, feeling the heavy exhaustion of the day finally catching up to my muscles.
Today had been an absurdly productive day.
Between winning the tourney, thinking about my engineering of dry-card compasses, and dodging gold-digging noble maidens at the feast, I really ought to have been fast asleep in my feather bed by now, dreaming sweet dreams.
To keep my heavy eyelids from closing entirely, I turned my head toward her and asked, “Alyssa, what is your dream in life?” The Velaryon maiden did not move or answer right away, remaining so still that I briefly wondered if she had even heard my voice over the sound of the surf.
After a long, lingering silence, she slowly turned her head toward me, her violet eyes flashing in the pale moonlight.
“My dream?” she repeated softly, her palms folding neatly in her lap as she contemplated the question.
“I…
I truly do not know.” She let out a quiet, bitter chuckle at her own expense, shaking her head softly.
“That sounds utterly pathetic, does it not?
When I was a little girl, I thought my purpose was simple: make my lord father proud, bring honor to House Velaryon, eventually marry a grand lord, and bear him a nursery full of healthy children.
But now that I am older…
I am not certain I want any of those things.
I am not certain of anything at all.” A subtle note of desperation crept into her voice at the end, her composure cracking just enough to reveal the anxiety.
She let out a long sigh, turning her gaze back toward me.
“You will probably figure it out sooner or later,” I offered helpfully, blinking rapidly to stave off the creeping drowsiness.
“People change as they grow up, and so do their ideals and interests.
It is completely normal not to have your whole life mapped out at sixteen.” Alyssa stared at me intensely through the darkness, her luminous eyes searching my face before a small, melancholic smile formed on her lips.
“I suppose I envy your conviction, Maegor.
No matter what the people say about you, no matter what obstacles stand in your path, you never stray from your direction.” Another stretch of quiet descended upon the cave, during which I was actively fighting off internal demons just to stay awake and keep my eyes open.
Finally, Alyssa rescued me from my slipping consciousness as she shifted her position on the stone floor, sliding closer to me until her legs were resting directly against mine, the heat of her skin radiating through her sheer silk dress.
I turned my head to look at her, staring through the dark gloom to make out the subtle shifts in her facial expression.
She seemed to be locked in a desperate, internal battle with herself, her breath coming in short, uneven hitches.
Finally, after what felt like an eternity of silence, she looked straight into my eyes and confessed in a trembling whisper, “I do not want to be betrothed to Prince Aenys.” That single sentence acted like a bucket of ice water dumped straight over my head, snapping me instantly out of my sleepy haze.
It turned out I possessed some ancient, gossip-hungry auntie genetics buried deep within my DNA, because my brain immediately sat up straight, eager to hear every single bit of juicy drama.
Wrapping her long arms tightly around her waist as if she were suddenly freezing cold, Alyssa continued in a raw, mournful tone.
“I do not know what to do, Maegor.
I truly do not.
Aenys is kind, gentle, and polite.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with him as a man…
yet I cannot bring myself to feel a single spark of affection for him.
Am I a terrible person for feeling this way?
Should I hate myself for being so ungrateful?” I kept my mouth shut, remaining completely silent as the heavy waves crashed against the cliff rocks outside, giving her all the time and space she needed to let the buried poison out of her system.
“My lord father told me privately before the feast that our formal betrothal will likely be announced before the end of the year,” she choked out, her head dropping helplessly toward her knees as tears welled in her eyes.
“I do not want it!
I do not want any of it!
I do not want to be handed away like a piece of property to secure a political alliance!” Suddenly, Alyssa lifted her head, a sudden, wild fire igniting deep within her violet eyes that I had never seen before.
“For once in my life, I want to have control over my own destiny.” Before I could even open my mouth to offer a comforting word or a piece of modern advice, Alyssa unwrapped her arms from around her waist and looked deeply, dangerously into my eyes.
She pulled her long legs back beneath her, rising onto her hands and knees until her body was suspended right above the smooth cavern floor.
“You are my closest friend in this entire wretched world, Maegor,” she whispered, her voice laced with an intoxicating mixture of desperation, rebellion, and passion.
“Only you can save me from this fate.” Her body moved sinuously through the dark shadows like a hunting panther, crawling slowly toward me across the flat stone.
The moonlit silk of her gown clung tightly to her back as she arched her spine, revealing the deep, dramatic curve of her rear and the plunging, low-cut front of her bodice that threatened to spill her full, firm breasts into the open air with every breath she took.
She crawled right between my legs, reaching out with one delicate hand to rest her palm high upon my inner thigh, her fingers digging firmly into the muscle.
She used her other hand to grab my shoulder, anchoring herself to me, and in that instant, I realized with a sudden jolt of electricity that the girl had never sprained her ankle in the first place.
Pulling my head forward until our faces were barely an inch apart, she breathed her sweet, hot, berry-scented air directly across my lips, her heart hammering wildly against her ribs.
“Ruin me,” Alyssa whispered, her voice a dark, hypnotic spell echoing off the ancient stone.
“Defile me right here on these cold rocks and make me yours forever.
Make it so that no king, no lord, and no brother can ever take me away from you.” Before my brain could even process the absolute madness of her proposition, she closed the remaining distance and pressed her soft, burning lips directly against mine.
The kiss was wild, and completely uninhibited.
Her mouth parted against mine, her tongue sliding forward as she wrapped her arms tightly around my neck, pulling my body up into hers as the roar of the dark ocean echoed all around us.
…
This is actually the 24th chapter, but the 23rd one was basically about building a compass and I thought people would get bored so decided to skip it.
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Word Count: 2579.