Blood and Dragons

Keep Moving Forward

Jace had spent most of the week in his chambers, he couldn't sleep and he would barely eat. He just sat on a chair looking out to the sea, his family were getting increasingly worried about him, especially his mother. Jace didn't really know what to do now, it was over, they had escaped Valyria 'Why don't I feel happy...' he thought to himself as he looked at the waves crashing against the rocks. When he had first woken up he was hysterical, he didn't truly remember what he said or did, but his mother had told him how he screamed to be taken back to Valyria. He gripped the handles of his chair as his memories started flashing to images of people being ripped apart by large pale men.

'I didn't deserve to escape...' he thought to himself as his eyes started to water. He stood up from his seat with a lot of difficulty, he pulled his tunic up and saw the bandages that had started to soak red with his blood; the maester had said that had he cut a couple centimetres more than he would've disembowelled himself and was lucky to be alive. He didn't feel lucky, he wanted to die with Valar, so he could make up for his mistakes. Now that he was alive he didn't know what to do, how could he move on when so many died because of his actions.

He hadn't seen Corlys or Daella at all in the week he'd been awake, he couldn't face them. Corlys lost men he had known for years because of him, some he knew because Jace was even born. Daella was a sweet and innocent girl who got thrust into hell because of his arrogance, he had no right to speak to any of them. He opened the doors to his balcony and walked out, the breeze coming from the narrow sea was pleasant on his skin, though the salt in the air stung the deep gash on his face. He ran his hand along the cut, it would scar, but he didn't really care about that, at least he would never forget the person who gave it to him.

*Knock*
*Knock*

Someone knocked at his door but Jace ignored it, he didn't feel like speaking. He didn't feel much like doing anything, he didn't know what he should do, Corlys and Daella were out of Valyria safely, he had done what he wanted to do. 'What can I do now when I plan to die,' he thought to himself pressing his hands against the balcony and looking over.

"I hope you don't plan on jumping, we did go through quite the effort to keep you alive," A voice said from behind him. Jace turned and saw his uncle Daemon walking through the balcony doors and standing next to him. He put his hand on Jace's shoulder and joined him in looking out into the narrow sea.

"You still not speaking?" He said as he looked down at his nephew, he squeezed his shoulder.

"I understand... sometimes there are just no words to say," he said sympathetically. His uncle was right, Jace didn't speak not because he couldn't, but because he had nothing to say. His uncle didn't say anything more and just kept him company.

Daemon still dreamt about the monster that Jace called Valar. He dreamt of how fast and strong the creature was, he had spent his whole life building himself up as a warrior just to be tossed around and defeated. It wore on his mind a lot, but what concerned him more was the fact that there could be other creatures such as that in the world they live in and Daemon didn't feel confident in fighting them.

"Your mother is worried about you," Daemon finally said breaking the silence between them.

"Many nights she weeps for you, she hopes you'll come back to her, we all do," he added.

He was about to open his mouth again but decided otherwise. Laena had been sick ever since she had come back from Valyria, it seemed that riding like that in her pregnant state had affected her quite badly. Daemon chose not to tell him as he could see that many things wore on Jace's mind, he didn't need this as well. In truth Jace looked terrible, his face was gaunt and his skin was sickly pale, his usually crystal blue eyes were dull and he had heavy bags under them; he looked nothing like the boy Daemon had seen barely a month ago.