Trials and Tribulations of the Oathkeeper

Chapter 168: End of an Era

King's Landing — Eel Alley...

By midday, it was done.

Smoke and huge flakes of ash, filthy soot and snow continue to waft through the air. At the Old Inn, Sansa coughed and pushed herself up—her body covered in debris. Lyonel and Cassana wiggled their way out while holding their baby brother Torrhen as he wailed. High Septa Rosyn and her clergy had managed to survive, as did the others. Myrcella and Tommen had remained by Daveth's side; the Young Stag's chest rising and falling. He was sound asleep.

"Mama!" the twins coughed.

"*Cough, cough!* My... my babies. Oh, my babies!" Sansa embraced them – an act they immediately reciprocated. Feeling them in her arms, she was overjoyed to see her family was safe – aside from the hellish nightmare they endured. Both Lyonel and Cassana were relatively unharmed, albeit covered in dust and ash from the debris.

"Sansa! Are you alright?" Robb called out to her, clearing the rubble.

"I'm here, Robb!" she answers.

"Uncle Wobb! Auntie Aiya!"

"Ooooh... is everyone here?" Jaime called out.

"So far, present and accounted for," Lucius replied. "We've got some wounded, but the worst cases didn't make it due to the shock. Sorry bastards, the fear of death might've accelerated their already worsened states."

Ariyana swatted the debris out of her hair. "Everyone else is... a bit shaken up. Seven hells, it was a close call. Those dragons missed us by a long shot."

"How's the King?"

"Our brother's alive, but he's sleeping," Myrcella answered. "Whatever magic that red lady used before she died, Daveth might be out cold for quite a while now."

"All that matters to us is that he's alive," Tommen agreed.

"*Cough, cough!* By the Seven," Rosyn coughed before brushing herself off. "By the Gods, it's a miracle."

Determining the danger had momentarily passed, the Wolf Queen stands up on her shaky legs. Her ears were still ringing. She takes a moment to take in her surroundings. Stepping outside, the decimated streets of King's Landing looked like a scene of utter chaos nearly similar to a brutal sacking. Aside from a few distant shouts and curses, the nearby buildings were demolished during the fighting – leaving melted steel, crumbled wood and stone, piles of brick and broken beams were laid out across the ground; fires burned everywhere with the streets stretching from Eel Alley, Street of Steel, Street of Sisters to the Street of Silk being littered with a large number of residents nearby hunched over—wounded, dead or dying.

There is no score to soften the horror. But the crater before her... a large crater had left a trail leading to the Red Keep – demolishing the front gates of the massive castle. Sansa glanced behind her to see a large chunk of the Great Sept of Baelor had been destroyed – presumably as a result of Rhaegal and Drogon crashing through the holy structure before plowing straight into the ground.

"We have to find Jon," Arya mentioned.

"I... I know."

Sansa remembered that Jon was on Rhaegal's back. If both dragons had gone down, there had to be a chance that her cousin had survived the crash. It was a relatively long distance to the Red Keep from her current location, but her family were a tough bunch – like a pack of wolves, the Starks thrive when they're together. Aside from a few distant shouts and screams, the sounds grew increasingly louder just when a large group of civilians started rushing through the streets bunching up against each other. "Wha... what's going on?" she pondered. "You there! What's happening?"