Rivers of Fire and Blood

Rodden I

Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to the Ice and Fire Novels, Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon TV shows. However, I decided to have a little play around with the characters. I do not earn any money from writing these stories, it is for my entertainment and is something I like to share.

For the second time in his life, Rodden had done something which would prove life-changing at best, stupid and deadly at the worst. The first time had been when he fell in love and gotten married, although now he knew it wasn't exactly what he thought that was. The second time was forty eight hours ago when he left the so called marriage. The reason he left was because the day after his wife married yet another, this time a King, he had forgotten to take part in his nightly ritual of drinking the special wine his wife left for him, her gift which made him feel strong and happy and clearly in love. The effects wore off slowly, but the first one was the feeling of love towards his wife, he didn't feel antagonistic towards her, they'd had some wonderful times together, but his feelings weren't as strong. Then memories began to return, of his life before he met her, what he was, where he lived. As far back as he'd known, he was from Lys, like Serenei was, except within almost a day of not drinking the wine, he knew he was from Braavos. Curiosity led him to throw his wine away the next night, more memories returned, as did a wave of unhappiness, except when he was out in the practice yard with Brienne and Little Sam, where he seemed to be able to blow off steam. His strength had probably disappeared with the ring, although he hadn't had the opportunity to test it properly. Whilst rowing he hadn't noticed anything in particular, but it could have been one which diminished over time, like his love for the Queen. The only thing he had left from her was his sword and he'd managed to take out every jewel in the hilt, leaving an almost bare sword with a leather hilt and pommel.

Rodden and Brienne had been taking it in turns to row the small boat until they were able to sail out to sea. Now that Rodden had his memories back, which had returned to him with such clarity, it seemed as if he'd only just stepped out of his old life, he could remember his days sailing with his father, learning how to read the stars and understand prevailing winds to allow him to sail faster at night. The only problem was he wasn't overly familiar with the location of Dragonstone. All he knew was to follow the north eastern coastline until he saw an island to the south, which would be Driftmark, which belonged to House Velaryon, the next island after that was Dragonstone. As the sky began to turn grey in the east of the second day, Brienne joined him at the helm, ready to take over.

"We made good time last night." Rodden told her. "The winds were fast and in the right direction, hopefully we should arrive before sunset."

"I thought it would take at least two days." Brienne looked at him in surprise.

"So did I." Rodden told her. "But the winds have been in our favour. We passed what looked like Duskendale around an hour ago, if what you say is correct, we should see Driftmark any time soon."

"Do you want to go and sleep?" Brienne asked. "I'll wake you up if Dragonstone comes into view." she said.

Rodden yawned and nodded. "Let's hope we are enough to take on Aelon and Jaemon to save Sam." he added as he climbed to the other end of the boat and closed his eyes and swiftly fell asleep.

Dreams came to him quickly, the same dream he had experienced the last few nights. The first time he had seen the most beautiful woman in the world, or so he thought. He had been a young man then, only fourteen years of age, he'd only ever had one goal, to be the First Sword of Braavos, despite his father's protestations, who just wanted him to be a fisherman like him. Serenei had offered him more, to be her husband, her champion, her knight, her Silverwing. She had wrapped her mouth around his cock, which was always a good way to persuade a fourteen year old green boy, then she had fully seduced him. Before long he was married and his family were deeply unhappy. Serenei said she could could create such a good disguise, that his family would never find. By this point he was already drinking the wine and would do anything she asked. She put the ring on his finger and his face changed, to look more like hers. Once he had changed, she never slept with him again, but he was happy as she always came to him in his dreams, making love to him, telling him how much she loved him and that the others were her brothers. Over twenty years later, he now knew different, she had made him her slave with her magic, used him and abused him, but now he was free of her, and Brienne had been a key part of it. However his dreams of his first night with Serenei haunted him, how could he have not seen she was using him? A woman much older than him and so beautiful seducing a boy of fourteen, it made him sick to the stomach, yet the memories of how it felt that night made him hard, meaning it had been uncomfortable when he woke the morning before. Now he was dreaming about her again, but in it her face turned to that of an evil old crone and there was no feeling of sexual arousal, instead it was a nightmare. He woke suddenly and saw the sun breaking through the clouds. Rodden stretched and joined Brienne at the helm, while Gilly was keeping the children quiet telling them the tales of Dunk and Egg.