0.4 |you're a monster|
JASKIER WAS PULLED OUT OF HIS SLEEP AS SOMEONE VIOLENTLY SHOOK HIM. The yelp escaping his mouth, quickly shut off as Valeria covered his mouth. She signalled for him to be quiet. With wide eyes he obeyed, turning his head to the direction, the woman was pointing at. Wiscar was nowhere to be seen.
In the distance, lights could be seen and voices reached the bard's ears. Valeria pulled on his arm to help him up.
"Do you have a weapon on you?" she whispered.
He shook his head. With a sigh, she unsheathed her sword and gave it to him.
"I trust you know you're way around it a little bit?"
She turned her head to face him. "Stick them with the pointy end" she tried to joke.
Rolling his eyes, he accepted the weapon, nearly dropping it as he did not expect the weight. Valeria raised an eyebrow at the man beside her. "Don't you need a weapon. If one of us should be armed its you cause I'll probably be useless."
Shaking her head, she slowly stalked towards the people. "I don't actually need a weapon anymore to keep myself safe."
With a nod, Jaskier stayed safely behind Valeria. Watching from behind a tree, they waited for the unknown group of people to arrive. Jaskier's hand rested on Valeria's shoulder as he tried to spot anything. "Where's the flying man?"
Valeria's eyes were set on the bard's hand.
"Wiscar is up there" she pointed at the sky "Trying to spot whoever is coming up here."
Valeria crouched down and pulled Jaskier down with her as a man approached. Carrying a torch, his ears became visible. It was an elf. Valeria sighed as she saw the child in the man's arms. She walked backwards, trying to get out of their sight.
"Let's get out of here, no reason to stay here," she pulled Jaskier with her.
Trying to not alert the man, they stayed crouched as they got away. Valeria stopped in her tracks.
A woman stood behind them, gasping. Two children hiding behind her. Holding up her hands, the woman stepped backwards. The man came running towards them as well. Valeria stood up, her face stoic, as she looked a the unknown people.
"Princess Valeria," the woman gapsed again, "you're alive."
Valeria didn't react, simply staring at the woman with her lips pressed together in a thin line. The man set down his child and calmly explained. "We saw smoke and wanted to see what it was."
Wiscar landed behind the man staring at his queen. With a sigh, Valeria exclaimed "You should have stayed away."
She nodded and Wiscar sprung into action. His wings wrapping around the man while he snapped his neck. The child beside him screamed and Wiscar did the same to her.
Jaskier dropped the sword as he stared down at the two bodies. The woman behind them screamed out and leaped towards Valeria. The whitehaired woman spun around and directed the flames of the bonfire towards her, burning the grieving mother. The cries of pain soon stopped as the burning woman fell down and drew her last aching breath. Valeria stared down at the two remaining children, holding each other's hands. Clenching her jaw and balling her fists, she closed her eyes. Tears pricked behind her eyelids as she waited for them to disappear.
"I'm sorry, little ones" She whispered. Turning her head to Wiscar, she nodded and ordered
"Make it as quick and painless as possible."
Jaskier's hand stopped the winged man in his tracks. "No!"
He whipped around to face Valeria. He spit out "you can't do this!" Shaking her head she tried to explain "you don't understand, Jaskier. They saw me and I cannot risk the rumour going around that I am not dead."
He shook his head. "They are children! Innocent children!"
He gestured towards the crying elves. Walking forward, he put himself between Valeria and the little ones. "You have become a monster, Valeria, but I will not let you murder these children."
Tears welled in the woman's eyes as she spotted the venom in his voice. Casting her eyes to the ground with trembing lips she felt her nails digging into her palms. With a large sigh Valeria nodded. "Fine."
Avoiding Jaskier's glare she turned back to Wiscar.
"Take them back home and make sure Hawking does not hear a word of this," she ordered solemnly.
Not wanting to be around anyone else any longer the woman walked away from the distraught children.
Once she was far enough from anyone else, she allowed the tears to roll down her cheeks. Surpressing any sounds while biting down on her lips. Jaskier was right. What had she turned into?
...
Valeria had been with her saviours for three years now. After Isolde brought her back from the death, it took months for her to be able to actually function decently well. The mage oversaw every tiny thing in her healing process until she was back into her old self. She was grateful for king Solomon's hospitality.
Of course she expected he wanted something in return. What she was less grateful for, however, was this:
"Good morning, cousin," dragging out the last word Hawking stood waiting with a smirk.
His eye patch was gone, a blue sapphire in the place where his eye should be. Just as hers, his white locks were tightly woven in a braid.
"How good of you to finally join me for training."
Rolling her eyes, she started wrapping her hands in bandages. "It's not like I had much of a choice, Hawking."
The man simply hummed in response. Even after these three years she still had to get used to him. Of course one of their first meetings was even worse than this.
---
"I think I've heard of the name Hawking Blackfyre before. My father's sister, Rhaella, had a son not too long after I was born with the same name." The man's eye simply gazed at her with a bored expression.
"You mean to tell me one of my family members was alive all this time. Don't you know what this means? We're cousins!" Valeria sounded quite happy at the fact that she finally had the chance to meet someone who belonged to the same family as hers.
Someone who could understand how it felt to live hidden away in shame of what he rfather had done.
"I don't give a shit if you're my cousin." The woman's eyes grew wide at that comment.
Hawking continued "All that matters is that we share the same family name and who cares if that is a sister or a cousin."
With that he walked away, leaving a stunned Valeria behind.
---
She used to think he hated her but soon enough she learned he was like that with everyone. He refused to talk about how he got to this place and what he knew about the rest of their family's fate. All she knew was that he was angry.
Angry at those that killed his uncle and stole away all of their wealth. According to him that was a good thing for them, that anger. It was a source they could use.
Hawking was the perfect example of the dragon blood Blackfyre. Unlike Valeria he did not possess a dragon but he didn't need it. He could wield fire all by himself. When she had asked how, he grumpily explained how he used that anger to fuel his power.
That is when she realised that power resided in her aswell. All those times, she got angry and her sword caught on fire for no reason became clear now. Now that was the turning point for the Blackfyre boy. Insisting that he taught her, a long and tiresome journey began. Everyday Valeria trained to master the element of fire.
Even now, she still didn't manage to conjure up flames out of nothing like her cousing but who needed that when she had a dragon with her.
"Soon enough, you'll be ready, cousin." Hawking praised boredly after their training session.
"Ready for what?"
He stalked towards her, a knife casually twirling between his slender finger. "To get vengeance of course." Shaking her head, Valeria furrowed her brows.
"I don't understand. What exactly do you mean?"
He scoffed, throwing the knife away and crossing his hands behind his back.
"Obviously, you want to make Nilfgaard pay for they have done. Don't you want to see them all burn?" Turning away from him, she disagreed "No, I am done with that. They have shown me not to interfere with their business and I will obey. I do not want to pay the same price again."
Tears pricked her eyes. She could not risk having to lose any more people or another child again.
Hawking cocked his head.
"But that is the exact reason why they should suffer" he seethed.
Stepping forward until his chest was almost touching her back, he continued.
"Every single person that associates themselves with that shithole Nilfgaard should die a most agonising death. At least that is what I would do."
Valeria whipped around. "No! There are innocent people there, I won't turn into the same monster as Nilfgaard." Her cousin rested his hands on the side of her head and lowered himself so they were eye to eye.
"Don't you understand, cousin. If you want to defeat a monster, you must turn into one yourself. None of those fuckers were actually innocent."
She shook her head, pushing his hands away. Turning on her heels trying to avoid her cousin's glare.
She felt his breath on the back of her neck as he whispered in her ear "How are any of those people innocent if they stood by and allowed for your land to be taken? Your people to be slaughtered, your friend to get murdered and more importantly your own child shot down infront of your eyes."
Tears were streaming down her face by now.
"How are they innocent, cousin? They probably celebrated your downfall just like they did with your father. They praised the soldier who shot that arrow at you child. Do you not want to see those people pay for their sins?"
It started to make sense now. They all had a part to play in this war. Even if some people did nothing, that was an active choice. They could have warned her, if they truly cared. But no one did. All those people just stood by and watched as her entire world burned down. She wiped away the tears and nodded. Hawking held the side of her arms.
"You are a dragon, cousin. So, a dragon you must be. Show them what will happen if they wake one."