Ficlet: Asshai (Melisandre)
Title: Asshai
Fandom: A Song of Ice and Fire
Rating: R
Character(s): Melisandre
Word Count: 499
Summary: Melisandre comes to be a woman and finds her God.
Warning: Some of this backstory is pretty squicky.
Note: Written a while back for curtana in a ficlet exchange.
Asshai is a hard land. Some years the same crops that were good to eat last year either don't come back at all or sprout up corrupted, poisonous, and inedible. The beasts are savage; livestock wither or are slaughtered in the night, the fish of the sea are blubbery, tough, and often full of venom. Asshai is a perverse place, and this makes its inhabitants strong and strange. It is a place of nightmares and twisted fantasy come to life. It is a place strong in destiny.
The Temple of the Shadow is no exception. Melisandre is eleven at her mother's death. Eleven and flowering for the first time. She tries not to choke on her own mother's blood as it is poured down her throat. She is the heirophant then, replacing her. She looks into the eyes of the High Priest, chosen of the Shadow Lord, as he anoints her face in gore and wants to cry but knows better. She's always known better, even as she was learning to walk and skinned her knees. You do not show weakness before him. She refuses to cry, even when he is heavy upon her and she can barely breathe for being crushed.
The shadow births are terrifying; he tells her that they will go out and purge the world of evils, but somehow she doubts. It is very late one night, when she decides. She will follow one. Past the temple gates she follows, stepping past her prison for the first time in all her life. Part of her knows what she will find, but it is worse than she could imagine. Crops wither and animals turn strange in the wake of what has come from her. Alone, she cries for the first time she can remember.
She cannot bring herself to creep back, and so she sits as the sun starts to light up the sky slowly from behind the gloom. Wiping her mouth with her hand, she notices that a man has come to sit beside her. He is clothed in red and when their eyes meet Melisandre immediately knows she does not want to run from him. Somehow, the story of her young life comes pouring out and yet he does not shy away from her. As she finishes, he puts his hand to her forehead and she feels a warmth flowing through her body, changing her, purifying. They lie together in the ruined field, like peasants and gods.
Wrapped in his scarlet cloak, she makes her way with him to his temple. At the gate, they ask her why she has come to the Temple of Light, here in the land of shadows. R'hllor, she tells them, he has brought me here. She looks behind for her companion, but he is not there. The street is empty. Melisandre turns back to the devout and finds they are kneeling. She clutches the cloak around her and finds faith for the first time in her life.
Fandom: A Song of Ice and Fire
Rating: R
Character(s): Melisandre
Word Count: 499
Summary: Melisandre comes to be a woman and finds her God.
Warning: Some of this backstory is pretty squicky.
Note: Written a while back for curtana in a ficlet exchange.
Asshai is a hard land. Some years the same crops that were good to eat last year either don't come back at all or sprout up corrupted, poisonous, and inedible. The beasts are savage; livestock wither or are slaughtered in the night, the fish of the sea are blubbery, tough, and often full of venom. Asshai is a perverse place, and this makes its inhabitants strong and strange. It is a place of nightmares and twisted fantasy come to life. It is a place strong in destiny.
The Temple of the Shadow is no exception. Melisandre is eleven at her mother's death. Eleven and flowering for the first time. She tries not to choke on her own mother's blood as it is poured down her throat. She is the heirophant then, replacing her. She looks into the eyes of the High Priest, chosen of the Shadow Lord, as he anoints her face in gore and wants to cry but knows better. She's always known better, even as she was learning to walk and skinned her knees. You do not show weakness before him. She refuses to cry, even when he is heavy upon her and she can barely breathe for being crushed.
The shadow births are terrifying; he tells her that they will go out and purge the world of evils, but somehow she doubts. It is very late one night, when she decides. She will follow one. Past the temple gates she follows, stepping past her prison for the first time in all her life. Part of her knows what she will find, but it is worse than she could imagine. Crops wither and animals turn strange in the wake of what has come from her. Alone, she cries for the first time she can remember.
She cannot bring herself to creep back, and so she sits as the sun starts to light up the sky slowly from behind the gloom. Wiping her mouth with her hand, she notices that a man has come to sit beside her. He is clothed in red and when their eyes meet Melisandre immediately knows she does not want to run from him. Somehow, the story of her young life comes pouring out and yet he does not shy away from her. As she finishes, he puts his hand to her forehead and she feels a warmth flowing through her body, changing her, purifying. They lie together in the ruined field, like peasants and gods.
Wrapped in his scarlet cloak, she makes her way with him to his temple. At the gate, they ask her why she has come to the Temple of Light, here in the land of shadows. R'hllor, she tells them, he has brought me here. She looks behind for her companion, but he is not there. The street is empty. Melisandre turns back to the devout and finds they are kneeling. She clutches the cloak around her and finds faith for the first time in her life.