When the fifth note came, Andromeda was fourteen, and she was sparring with Hyperion, a regular thing. She had gotten quite good with an arrow with his help, and her sword work could use a little of that itself, but she was better than average. She only got better with time, and when her father would join in, she was humbled again.
Her fake sword clashed with her Hyperion's, who was looking down at her with a grin on his mouth. He thought he was going to win. She stepped on his toe and kicked his shin, effectively laying him on his back. She put her sword to his throat, and he was looking up at her in a way that was certainly not amused.
"You cheated," he said simply as he pushed himself up.
"No, I won." She said, smirking at him. "Again?"
"No, cheater!" He laughed. "Go find Father, I'm sure that the Dornish Viper would love to fight. Or maybe he'd rather you sing for him."
"Shut up, Hy." She remarked. "I'll find him, and I'll win again."
"You're mighty confident after ten lessons." He said, laughing as she took off to find their father.
Sadly, she ran into her mother before her father. She almost ran her over with her body because of her carelessness as she rang down the halls and sang an island tune, until she saw her body and the glint of her crown shining down, light beams hitting it nicely. "What are you doing, running around like that? You're a princess, child."
"The boys run around and you say nothing." Andromeda protested, and her mother bent down to her level slowly to grip her chin, something she never did unless she had something grave to say. And it was usually never to her.
"That's because men are lower than us." She said, a playful glint in her hard eyes, but her tone was still and serious. "You would be the queen before Hyperion would ever see the crown touch his head, do you know that?"
"Yes, Mother. It's what separates us from Westeros." Her mother frowned.
"Our gift, our politics, our way of life, and or honor sets us apart from Westeros." Her mother corrected. "Maybe if a woman sat on the Iron Throne, they would be like us."
"I don't want to sit on any throne." The young girl said wistfully. "I just want to be a princess for the rest of my life. I don't want responsibilities, I don't want to do anything that involves the people. That's too many lives in my hand."
Her mother suddenly got very serious. "You would do it if you needed to, correct?"
"Of course, Mother." She said, nodding her head slowly. "That's the duty of a true princess, of a true woman."
"Correct." The Queen of Ilta stood, and she gingerly touched her daughter's head. "I love you, my child. Never forget that." She walked away, leaving her confused.
§
"He's not marrying Myrcella Baratheon!" Almost everyone in their royal hall was woken up by it, but most decided to sleep it off. Except for the youngest, little Andromeda. Anytime her mother was yelling was certainly for a good reason. "Saros is a Vela. He is a Vela, and he will not marry a Baratheon. I don't care if Stannis threatens to ruin this castle in the name of his brother, I don't care!"
"Shirina, be rational!" King Otineo shouted. "If you don't want to sail to Kings Landing to swear fealty, then you must marry our houses. There is no other way, this will be seen as active treason!"
"No, no." She said, and Andromeda could tell that the queen was pacing. "A Baratheon will not live in this keep, we do not keep stags." She said.
"If you don't want to officially swear it, you must marry one of our children to theirs." Otineo said softer than his others words, but still at a mild shout.
"Fine." She said. "Andromeda. Andromeda can marry Joffrey."
"No." Her father said firmly. "Andromeda, not her. She's my child, the only one that looks anything like me, the only one who I have a real connection to. You can't send her away."
"I will." She said, her voice wavering slightly as the mentioned girl blinked. She choked a little.
"My daughter, my youngest daughter!" He exclaimed. "My songstress. She's my youngest, please. You need women in the castle, don't send her away."
"We have enough women to hold Ilta down. And your other daughters will make more." The queen spat. "She will fare fine in the capital. She will be a queen. Something she never wanted, but something she won't get here."
"Please, Shirina. Not her." He said to her, and Andromeda could see her poor father pleading.
"She was going to leave sooner or later, Otineo. Her time is soon." She said, and the daughter could hear rustling in the room as she waited around the bend, unseen by guards. "You will write a letter to Robert Baratheon about Andromeda and our proposal. My signature is already there, My King." She said in a mocking way, before Andromeda heard the door creak. She hid, and she went back to her room, crying.
§
Word quickly got around the Andromeda was possibly going to be betrothed to the Crown Prince of Westeros. Andromeda locked herself in her room and hoped to the gods that the raven died mid-flight. She never planned on leaving the keep. The only way she would ever leave Ilta was if she took her father with her, and Andromeda doubted that. Her father actually loved their mother in a sick way, seeing that she wasn't too nice to him. Andromeda liked to believe that Shirina loved him back, because he deserved it.
For the next few days, Andromeda was trying to ignore the fact that she would be wed to Joffrey by doing practically anything. She read, she sewed, she danced, she sparred with Leo and Hyperion, she sang with her father, she played games with sweet Elara, she even did history with Ophelia and her Queen Mother. She was humming and practicing her writing with one torch on in the night's darkness when her door was nearly torn from the hinges.
"Baratheons." Her father muttered, immediately picking her up with his shaky hands and dragging her from her room. "Approaching the keep. You need to leave, all of your brothers and sisters need to leave."
"Father, no." She said. "What's going on?"
"They're coming to kill us." He said simply over the screams that were suddenly getting closer and louder. She was getting scared. "Stay here, I'll find your brothers and sisters, okay?"
"Am I the first one you found?" She asked, holding onto him.
He looked down at her for a second, anxious to get the others. When he answered, he sounded upset with himself. "Yes." And he ran, leaving the youngest princess standing behind a pillar alone. She stood there, listening to the thunder clapping every so often in the night sky, obviously her mother's doing as lightning touched down at what seemed to be everywhere at once. She could feel her mother's lightning and her fury, her passion to defend her children and her people as strong as the heat of her strikes that came down. Andromeda told herself that she would not cry, not until they were all together again.
After what seemed like hours of waiting out screams and waiting for her family to come, she never saw any of them. She pulled her hood up and ran through the keep, grabbing a dead man's sword as she ran through them all, no one interested in a small woman who seemed to be fleeing from the fight. She was running as she heard a familiar scream, a scream from a voice she had despised so much until that moment.
She turned to her left to peer down a corridor and saw a man standing over her beautiful sister Ophelia, the heir to the throne of Ilta. Ophelia had blood coming from her abdomen as her scream was no more, and Andromeda could do nothing but gag for a moment as she saw her sister be penetrated through the stomach. She gagged once, and ran to the man, her second gag stuck in her throat as she passionately swung at his neck, knocking him to the side bleeding. She beheaded him once his body was flat on the ground, and turned to Ophelia, who's glassy eyes could barely see.
"Elara is dead." She swallowed as another thunder clap sounded fiercely. The light of their mother's storm casted upon her, showing how her eyes were dying out. Andromeda cried then, hearing that one sister was dead and that the other was dying in her arms, waiting for it, making her final statement. In that moment, she felt inadequate. Ophelia wanted her mother there, and even in death, Andromeda couldn't fully satisfy her. "You and mother are the key to Ilta now. Save yourself." She touched her stomach as she wheezed once again. "I love you, sister. Run." Andromeda sobbed and while her mind refused to stand, her legs did. She shakily grabbed her sword and cast a look to her sister one last time, and ran again.
She didn't bother wiping her eyes as she ran with a sword in her hand, one thing her mother told her that she was never to do. She doubted that her mother would scold her for that now, but rather for not striking down every man with a stag on their backs or fronts. She never let her sword down, but she never anticipated someone attacking her from behind. She fell on her stomach, and she refused to cry. She struggled with the sword that was kicked away easily.
"This is the last of them, besides the lightning bitch and her husband." The man laughed, and more laughter followed. The last of us? Andromeda gagged again. How could they go from eight to two? How could they do that in once night? And how had she been so lucky as to be one of the last of the Velas? She felt something pointy stick into her back, and she bit her tongue down.
A guttural scream sounded in the air and echoed off of the stone walls of the castle, and she flinched, awaiting her death until a familiar and comforting voice spoke. "And the eldest son." She was pulled up by her arm after he killed the second man, and she was met with Hyperion Vela. "I thought I taught you how to wield a sword?"
"Where are the twins?" She asked, no time for his bad humor. The hallway was empty, except for sounds of approaching screams coming from their back, back from where she came from. The chaos was too much, and it was making her want to throw her sword down and bend the knee herself.
"Leonardo is dead." He said, looking away from her, not able to see her heart broken reaction. "Saros fell first." Andromeda fought the feeling to weep into Hyperion's arms, but the battle was nowhere near over. "The girls?"
"Ophelia..." she trailed off, shaking like a leaf as the screams and steps got louder. "In my arms. Elara is gone." Tears fell. "Hyperion, we are the last. What do we do?" He shook his head sadly at her in the bare hallway, and simply looked at her. He took her hand and ran with it, bringing her along with him as the Baratheon soldiers caught up with him.
"The boats." She yelled. "We need to get to the small boats." The small boats fit three at best, and they were the most uncomfortable thing known to man. But they had to survive. He tugged her unwilling body in the direction of the boats, the air and screams and heat of lightning hitting her body like the stone of the castle itself. She sniffled once and ran to the boats, barely aware of the fact that her once two full hands had been emptied one, and it was Hyperion's hand. He stood behind her, sword raised high as he faced the three men after his sister, now the only true heir to Ilta.
She took in a rough breath. "Hyperion!" Her voice was ragged as she screamed. "No!" They were so close to the small boats. "You don't have to be the hero!"
Hyperion was always meant to be a knight. And she watched him die like one.
She screamed standing still as she unknowingly basked in her mother's light, barely seeing her form atop of the castle, lighting the Baratheon fleet afire. That was the last time she would see her mother. A harsh arm gripped her and pulled her towards the small boats as she watched her brother be cut down and stabbed to pieces. She thrashed and kicked, screamed and cried, until she was turned around harshly. She met the eyes of King Otenio, who had another woman in tow. She hardly recognized her in the moment.
"Father!" She hugged him, a quick and deep hug that was ripped away from her.
"Go!" He yelled at her. "Get out of here! Get on the boat!" She stood there, still as ever, the shock finally hitting her. Everyone was dead. She heard a distant scream from higher up, and she saw the night sky become much darker without the lightning. The men were approaching again. She couldn't breathe anymore.
"Father, don't leave me." He grunted and threw her over his shoulder, running with her as the woman ran beside him. "Father!" She screamed as she was placed in a boat, the woman following suit. She watched her father turn from her. "Where are you going? Come with me!"
"There isn't enough room on the boat for two Velas, my love." He said, brandishing his sword. Other boats were already leaving, some long gone.
"Father! I command you onto this boat!" She yelled, her eyes overflowing again, a never ending faucet that night. He would sit on the damn boat and float away with her, if it was the last thing she would ever live to see. Otineo Martell Vela would escape with her. "I command it!"
He only smiled sadly, the stars giving her a good look at it. "My Songbird, go."
"No!" She screamed, watching them finish off her brother and come towards them menacingly. He grabbed her face tenderly, the stars granting her wish to see his face one last time before he would only reside in her memory. The brightest star, the one who had been previously covered by her mother's thundercloud, came out and shone on the King of Ilta. His tan skin looked pale in the starlight, and she cried even more when she saw tears pool in his own eyes. Her father never cried.
"To Dorne, My Songbird." He pushed her boat away just far enough to get her off shore and had his back to the enemies approaching. Otineo watched the woman restrain his terrified, screaming daughter while they floated away. He felt the swords plunge into his back and fell on his knees, knowing that the pain his daughter had to have been feeling was much more. Swords were nothing compared to loneliness, the loneliness she would certainly be feeling after that night. Before falling into his eternal resting position, he whispered five small words. "Take care of her, brother."
******
alright so yikes, this is the first battle scene i have ever written, if you can call it that. if you miraculously liked this, please leave a comment or something!