Queen of Ashes [ASOIAF]

―amina.

          𝓐mina sat in the maegi's tent, across from the dark-skinned woman. She prayed the gods would have answers for her. The thing she'd noticed first upon entering were the books, piles and piles of them. The second was the luxury, crystals and tapestries and scented candles. Some was surely taken from her former master's manse when the seer was freed. But the woman sat comfortably amongst it as if it were something she was used to.

          "The green dreams come as they will, and often with symbols and sounds I can hardly explain," Kaeshai told her. "But I have studied the books of old Valyria, the blood magic of the maegis, the stories of the Undying, and with the spellsingers of Asshai. The Masters of Astapor may have been cruel, but they spared no expense to satiate their appetites."

          "You speak the Common Tongue impeccably," Amina noted. Perhaps it came with training, surely one must speak many languages to be taught by so many people.

          Kaeshai smiled softly. "My mother was from your lands. A village near Oldcastle, if I remember correctly." Amina recognized the seat of House Locke but had never been there herself. "She was a child when her father could not pay his debts, and she was sold to a slaver from the Three Sisters. My father bought her freedom in Tyrosh, but she died when I was a girl." She did not offer any explanation as to how she had found herself in chains, so Amina did not press.

          "In the House of the Undying, I saw things I can't explain," Amina said to explain the reason for her visit. "But one such memory still haunts me. I saw my husband's death, and it was familiar. I need to know how it happens, I must to stop it."

          Kaeshai shifted in her seat, her springy brown curls bouncing around her face as she did. "It's best I do not see his death in a green dream, for those are inevitable. The House of the Undying was made of magic, and magic has a mind of its own. Perhaps it only showed your fears, not your futures. But I cannot say for certain, nor can I tell your husband's fate. I cannot look into a man's future without a drop of his blood, and you cannot bring it to me in a dragon dream."

          The girl held out a hand, and beckoned Amina forward. "But perhaps your future will give you some of the answers you seek." Amina placed her hand in Kaeshai's. The girl looked at her palm for a moment, before reaching for a needle. "I offered your sister this service, but she said no. Perhaps it is wise. Magic was not meant for mortal hands."

          "I am not doing this for me, I am doing it for him," Amina said firmly. "I must know."

          Kaeshai wasted no time in pressing the needle into Amina's finger. She watched the blood well up, one red drop. Then the seer swiped her own finger across it, swiped the blood across her forehead and closed her eyes. For a moment, nothing happened, then Kaeshai's eyes opened. Only they weren't brown, they were white and unseeing. Her head twitched and her eyes went back and forth. She was looking at something far outside the confines of the tent.

          "Blood on grey," Kaeshai whispered. "The golden hand will push through the shadows." Her head turned unnaturally to the other side. "No, don't go into the caves." Amina stared, unsure whether or not to interrupt. "Beware the mummer's dragon." The seer's face contorted in pain. "White, and red, red, red." The blood on her forehead had dried, and tears were welling up in her unseeing eyes. "The light will save him." She pressed her fingers to her eyes and let out a cry. "The light."

          Kaeshai collapsed, leaning back in the chair, head falling limp on one shoulder. It was several long minutes before she came back to herself. When Kaeshai looked at Amina, she seemed unsettled. "Your future moves like shifting sands, there and gone."