Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction, and all rights for characters, plots and settings belong to G.R.R. Martin and FromSoftware. I have no ownership.
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"Barriss remember this: Power wants to be used. It must be kept under constant vigil; else it will seduce and corrupt you. One moment you're swatting an annoying training toy; the next you're paralyzing an offending being's lungs and choking him to death. You do it because you can. It becomes an end in itself. As a Jedi, you live always on this edge. A single misstep, and you can fall to the dark side. It has happened to many, and it is always a tragedy. As with an addictive drug, it's too easy to say, 'I'll do it just this once.' That's not how it works. The only thing that stands between you and the dark side is your own will and discipline. Give in to your anger or your fear, your jealousy or your hate, and the dark side claims you for its own. If that happens," Master Unduli said, "you will become an enemy to all that the Jedi stand for—and an enemy of all Jedi who hold to the path of right.
"And have you ever given in to the dark side, Master?"
For a few seconds, there was silence. Then: "Yes. In a moment of weakness and pain, I did. It allowed me to survive when I might have perished otherwise, but that one taste was enough for me to realize I could never do it again. There may come a time when you experience this, Barriss. I hope not, but if ever it happens, you must recognize and resist it."
"It will feel evil?"
Master Unduli paused in her stretch. She regarded Barriss with what seemed to be great sadness in her eyes. "Oh, no. It will feel better than anything you have ever experienced, better than you would have thought anything could feel. It will feel empowering, fulfilling, satisfying. Worst of all, it will feel right. And therein lies the real danger."
Conversation between Barriss Offee and Luminara Unduli
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There is no ignorance; there is knowledge.
There is no fear; there is power.
I am the Heart of the Force.
I am the revealing fire of Light.
I am the mystery of Darkness
In balance with Chaos and Harmony,
Immortal in the Force
Je'daii Order Code
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King's Landing
Year 298 AC (After Aegon Conquest)
Raevan
The Royal Shipyards were filled with cries of terror and agony. The assassins, seeing their attack ineffective against him, their projectiles ricocheting off the invisible shield around him, turned their poisoned arrows and bolts on those around them.
Whether the attack was intended to provoke him into action or to create more confusion, he didn't know. Perhaps both. But if they wanted a reaction from him, they succeeded.
Among the dozen bodies around him, four assassins already lay dead, and judging by their cries of apology during the attack, it became clear to him which organization they belonged to.
Sorrowful Men. The assassins' guild of Qarth, arguably the second most famous assassin group after the Faceless Men. If all the attackers were theirs, then judging by their numbers here, someone must have mortgaged the entire kingdom to the Iron Bank to hire them.
However, the combined wealth of the Free Cities could easily have achieved this as well. Not to mention the shadowy Sith. However, Those Who Dwell in Shadows would likely send their own assassins.
Raevan reached out with Force, intercepting another volley of poisoned arrows in midair, though it was more troublesome than if they had all been aimed at him. Each one was heading in a different direction and at different targets.
A moment later, he located the archers and crossbowmen hiding on the rooftops and in the windows of buildings. Like invisible hands, Force moved toward them, closing around their throats, tightening just enough to render them unconscious.
He intended to extract from them exactly who had sent them and how many of them were still operating in the city.
Sensing no more hostile thoughts directed at him, he assumed that these 23 assassins were the entire force attacking him. To any other prince, lord, or even king, such a force would have been overkill, but not to Raevan.
He had encountered and defeated countless more dangerous opponents in his life and endured incomparably more dangerous situations to stand here now. A band of primitive yet well-trained assassins couldn't pose a threat to him.
The same couldn't be said for the Faceless Man, for he was certain they were present in the city, but he hadn't been able to detect them even with the Force. He didn't know what techniques they used to conceal themselves, but they were probably the best he'd seen in either life.
He kicked himself for not having gone to the House of Black and White sooner to experience their presence, or lack thereof, in the Force, to know what to look for.
However, it wasn't as culpable as it might seem, for just a few moons ago, he had been much weaker than he was now, and his mind was severely unstable due to the merging of his memories from both lives.
He had to return to Red Keep as quickly as possible, especially since he was concerned that he sensed nothing hostile there beyond the usual animosity of individuals towards his family.
He turned to one of his men, one of the Raevanchist captains. "Larence, take some of the remaining men and secure the unconscious men in the buildings and on the rooftops around us. I have burned my symbol into the ground next to each one. They will be the killers. The rest will not be able to control this chaos."
The man pressed a clenched fist to his chest. "As you command, my Prince." Then, without question, his men began to carry out his orders.
He then felt the Force fill his body, strengthening it repeatedly, and leaping in a single bound onto the roof of a nearby building, like a blur, he sped towards the Keep, leaping from rooftop to rooftop.
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King's Landing
Year 298 AC (After Aegon Conquest)
Shiera
The day promised to be like all the others, though the tension had subsided somewhat compared to the first days after Raevan's execution of the High Septon and the revelation of his power.
Red Keep, like the entire city, was preparing for war. Forges, sewing workshops, and all other places producing war-essential items were operating at maximum capacity.
Her sudden appearance among the living and her youthful appearance didn't even cause the sensation it should have. Of course, the court and servants gossiped about it for a day or two, but then the specter of war turned their thoughts to more grim matters.
The areas beyond the city walls became a training ground for the Targaryen standing army, secretly being formed by Raevan. The Raevanchists, as they called themselves, were officially supposed to number around three hundred men and constitute simply the new palace guard in the future.
As it turned out, however, Raevan rotated his staff and sent them on missions, constantly recruiting more from his own funds, which rivaled even the king's, to conceal his expenses.
The same applied to the equipment produced by the new forges on Dragonstone, which, contrary to tradition, the king entrusted to Raevan instead of Aegon, the Crown Prince.
Something many lords, including Shiera herself, interpreted as a sign that Rhaegar Targaryen was eyeing his younger son for the Iron Throne. Although privately, Raevan assured her this wasn't true, as he had no time for politics.
Shiera, however, had her doubts, knowing that Raevan, while he hated politics, was exceptionally good at it, mastering the most important skill of any politician: manipulation.
When she arrived here, she hadn't expected to encounter anyone more dangerous than her former Master. Raevan, however, was all that and more.
From the snippets of information she managed to glean about his past, it appeared that he was not only a terrifyingly powerful Force wielder but also an outstanding commander and strategist, a gifted politician, and a brilliant inventor and mechanic. Whatever that meant.
With each passing day, she felt more and more certain that she had chosen the right path, especially since she now had more freedom than in decades past, when she had had to be wary of the Council or fellow apprentices at every turn.
A sudden warning in the Force tore her from these thoughts. It wasn't anything specific, but she knew one thing: The enemy had to be close. In Red Keep, or perhaps even in Maegor's Holdfast.
Having previously made her way to the chamber where the queens and the twins, Daeron and Visenya, were staying, she quickened her pace, reaching her destination in a matter of seconds.
Three Kingsguards, The Bold, White Bat and White Sun guarded the door, and besides them, a dozen Raevanchists were in the corridor.
"Ser Barristan, Ser Oswell, Ser Lewyn" she greeted them, and they nodded in return, welcoming her.
"Princess Shiera."
"Princess."
"Be vigilant," she said to them. "I sense some danger. The enemy may already be within the fortress."
Both immediately grew serious at her words, their eyes scanning the corridor. The Raevanchist around them did the same.
Leaving them more alert, she opened the door to the chamber and entered, finding more people than she expected.
Not only were Rhaella, Rhaenys, and Daenerys present inside, but also Margaery, Arianne Martell, and several of the ladies-in-waiting. Only the twins she had expected to be inside were missing. Shiera stopped in her tracks, frowning.
Something was wrong, and only now did she realize that the Force in the chamber was behaving strangely, as if something were disrupting its flow. Like stones in a stream that must flow around, there were voids within the Force within the chamber.
But this seemed impossible. How could anything exist without the Force? It flowed through all living beings without exception. She tried to sense these anomalies in the chamber, but the Force within was so disturbed that it was impossible.
"Ah, Shiera, dear. "Good to have you here," Rhaella greeted her with a smile. Shiera, however, did not respond, worried. Instead, she reached out with Force, reaching out to each person inside, one by one. However, when she reached Lady Jenny Massey, Lord Conrad's daughter, she felt nothing.
It was as if where the woman should have been, there was nothing, an emptiness. Force, in that moment, seemed to be screaming a warning.
She reached out and, accompanied by the cries of the women inside, hurled Jenny Massey directly into the wall opposite.
Not a second later, she felt something strike her side with great force, sending her to the ground. Shiera, however, was no ordinary opponent. For decades, she had studied not only the Force but also combat techniques, both with and without weapons.
She deftly rolled over and used the pain to draw even deeper into Force. Rising, she glanced at what was happening.
Jenny Massey, or rather the man who had been in her place, was rising from the ground, while Lady Elisabeth Swann stood where Shiera had been, and it was she who had clearly attacked her.
The woman also seemed to not exist in the Force; all Shiera felt was a simple emptiness in her place.
Shiera had seen women many times in the past three weeks, and they always looked like any other person in the Force. Therefore, what was in their place couldn't be them. They weren't members of her former Order either, as they themselves would have considered these beings before her abominations.
The answer was obvious: Faceless Men. An order of assassins serving the Many-Faced God. Raevan had expected their attack, but they hadn't been able to detect them until now. Now she knew why.
Shiera reached out with her Force to grab the person impersonating Elisabeth, but the woman seemed to slip from her grasp and lunged at her again.
At the same time, she heard the sounds of fighting and the clash of swords from outside, and bells began to toll in the distance. She realized that more places had been attacked.
This made it even more difficult for her to deal with the enemies. Most of the women and the twins retreated toward the wall behind Shiera, while Rhaenys drew her dagger, and Lyanna reached for a short sword from the wall.
They both moved toward Jenny Massey. "No, retreat. They're too dangerous," Shiera shouted, blocking her opponent's forearm, which held a dagger, with her hand.
She placed her other hand on her opponent's chest, putting all her skill into the telekinetic thrust. Her opponent was lifted from the ground as if struck by a giant's club. The woman's chest caved in, and she hit the wall with a crash of shattered bones, her head bursting like a melon.
Those few seconds, however, were enough for Lyanna and Rhaenys to lose their fight. Their opponent not only disarmed them both but also struck Lyanna in the shoulder with his dagger, leaving a bleeding, hand-width-long wound.
Shiera wasted no time in rushing towards her attacker, from whom Jenna Massey's face began to slide. The Faceless Man's silhouette also began to distort, then grow taller and more massive.
Before Shiera reached him, a well-built man with a hazel complexion and cool grey eyes, devoid of any emotion, stood before her. His gaze was as lively as his presence in the Force.
The assassin's eyes, however, widened slightly as Shiera extended her hand using the Dark Side of the Force technique, taught to her not by her former masters, but by Raevan.
An arc of blue lightning shot from her hand, striking the assassin with force, filling the chamber with the smell of ozone and burnt flesh.
The man slammed into the wall, held against it by the lightning bolts emanating from her fingers, his skin turning black before her eyes. A moment later, an agonized scream that couldn't have been human tore from the man's throat, and a strange black smoke billowed from his mouth, dissipating into thin air.
A moment later, the shattered body of the second assassin suddenly began to convulse and met the same fate.
After ascertaining that both opponents were dead, Shiera moved toward the wounded Lyanna, around whom the other women had already gathered. Rhaella and Ellia tried to stop the bleeding by tearing at the sleeve of her dress.
Even before Shiera saw the state of the wound, she heard gasps of terror from many mouths and when she looked at Raevan's mother's exposed arm, she understood their reaction.
Her entire left arm was covered with swollen black veins, which also clearly reached her torso. Furthermore, Shiera's Force-accented eyes saw small blood vessels beginning to blacken.
The blade was poisoned, and the poison was powerful enough to have already reached her face, meaning it had already reached her heart and likely her brain.
Shiera fell to her knees before the heavily breathing queen, placing her hands on her, trying to reach out with the Force and do something.
But this was far beyond her abilities. Such advanced healing required true mastery of the Light Side of the Force, which she didn't possess. Perhaps, in a few years under Raevan's care, she would succeed.
She tried to reach out with the Force, but she couldn't locate it. Something was blocking her, similar clusters of emptiness in the Force to those here. Probably another Faceless Man.
Lyanna was breathing heavily, the veins in her face beginning to bulge, much like those in her arm. The woman tried to speak clearly, only to breathe her last a few seconds later.
The chamber was filled with sobs, and she felt a weight crushing her. If only she had been faster, or if she hadn't attacked the assassins without a second thought, perhaps the queen would still be alive.
Although she wanted to rush outside, she knew she couldn't leave the chamber now, knowing that without her, all those women were defenseless.
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King's Landing
Year 298 AC (After Aegon Conquest)
Raevan
He felt it the moment he reached Maegor's Holdfast. Through the Force, he saw the familiar flame of life extinguished before his eyes. No, it was impossible. Not her. Not his mother.
Anger flared within him on a scale he had never experienced before in this life. The Dark Side tried to break free of its bonds, whispering provocations, filling his veins with fire.
He tried to control it, but it was harder than he could ever remember, for the pain he felt only fueled it.
He wanted to rush toward her and try to do something, even try to bring her back to life.
But he sensed his father and brother also fighting for their lives, and his younger siblings were with them near their father's study, so he knew that was where he had to go. And though rationality prevailed, the fury burning within him did not diminish in the slightest, and the whispers of the Dark Side only intensified.
Not wanting to waste time, he leaped high into the air and, enveloping himself in a Force barrier, smashed through a second-story window, the quickest way to reach that part of Maegor's Holdfast.
Then he shot through the corridors like a bolt fired from a crossbow, finally bursting into the small dining chamber off his father's study. The corridor before him was strewn with bodies.
Nearly a dozen of his Raevanchists lay dead on the ground, including Ser Gerold's body, his throat slit, and the body of a man dressed in gray robes, likely an assassin.
When he entered the dining hall, the first thing he saw was more bodies. Uncle Benjen lay wounded, leaning against a shattered table. On the opposite side of the room, in the corner, his father, Arthur, and Jamie were fending off four attackers, defending the twins, who were hiding in the corner, and Aegon, whose right arm ended just behind his shoulder, bleeding heavily.
He saw three more bodies on the floor, and on the floor next to their faces lay what looked like melted masks of human faces.
Faceless Man. So it was as he had feared. However, the fact that they had attacked in such numbers was terrifying, to say the least. He reached out to the living attackers with the Force, realizing that they seemed to cease to exist within it. Like a wound in the Force.
But this novelty only stopped him for a moment. He couldn't see them in the Force, but he had them in his sight, so he grabbed the air around them, crushing them inside with pure telekinetic power, letting out a howl of fury, pain, and frustration.
He felt the surge of the Dark Side, but he grabbed it again like a muzzle and held it in check. The last thing he needed now was a loss of control. As if it weren't enough that his arrogance had cost his mother her life, he couldn't bear for his fury to endanger the rest of his family.
Raevan took a deep breath, then quickly walked to his uncle, who was closest, and placed his hand on him, pouring the Force into him and directing it to heal.
He looked at his father and the Kingsguard, who were clearly breathing a sigh of relief. "Where is Aegon's hand?" he asked, but silence answered him. Instead, his Arthur glanced at a spot nearby, and there, Raevan saw what remained of his brother's hand.
The entire hand was swollen and bulging with thick black veins, and instead of blood, black goo flowed from the severed area.
Having finished mending his uncle's fractured skull, he quickly approached Aegon, beginning to heal him while examining the severed hand. The wound was remarkably smooth, smoother than ordinary steel would allow. The hand must have been severed with either Valyrian steel or...
Raevan glanced at Dawn in Arthur's hand, then at the severed hand. The Kingsguard had likely saved Aegon's life by acting so quickly.
After a few seconds, the bleeding stopped, and the stump healed, leaving smooth skin. Color also returned to his brother's face, who smiled faintly.
"You will live, Egg," Raevan said. "I have no intention of sitting in this ugly chair and wasting time."
Then, still on one knee, he opened his arms wide to the twins, who fell sobbing into his arms. Hugging them tightly, he felt tears streaming down his face as well. He didn't even want to think about their mother's death and how devastating it would be for his brother and sister when they found out.
He looked at his father with a heavy heart, sending a telepathic thought directly into his mind. "Muna's dead. They killed her."
His father looked at him with wide eyes, then staggered as if struck, clutching his heart. Arthur immediately moved to steady him.
"No, no... it's impossible. Not Lyanna," his father whispered desperately, leaning heavily against Arthur, whose face suddenly filled with understanding. He looked at Raevan questioningly, and Raevan only nodded, and the knight's face also turned into a mask of pain.
A few moments later, he led the small funeral procession toward his mother's chambers, holding Daeron and Visenya in his arms, who had fallen asleep from the excitement. Thank the Force for this.
The corridor outside his mother's chamber was also littered with bodies. Lewyn lay dead, along with most of the Ravenchist guards. Three assassins lay nearby.
Barristan stood alone guarding the door, while Raevan sensed Oswell's presence within, along with most of their family. Even Arienne and Margaery were present.
Barristan lowered his head in shame at the sight of them, but Raevan placed a hand on his shoulder. "It's my fault, Ser. No one else. My shortsightedness and arrogance killed my mother and all those good men who served us," he said, sensing, however, that his words failed to convince the old knight.
His father and Uncle Benjen followed him wordlessly, both in mourning. As they entered the chamber, Ellia and Rhaenys rushed to Rhaegar's side, while Daenerys and Arienne moved to take the sleeping twins from him.
Raevan nodded gratefully, smiling weakly. But before he could take a step toward his mother's body, his father's pained cry echoed through the chamber, reaching her first even though Ellia and Rhae tried to stop him.
And the sight was horrific. His Muna's body was bloated, and black fluid leaked from every possible orifice. She fell to her knees beside her father, staring at her mother's gruesome corpse, anger burning in her gut.
He had forgotten that this world was no different from the entire galaxy. Only absolute strength and control could guarantee your safety. The rest had to rely on the mercy of those stronger than themselves.
Everyone loved his mother; even the Martells had warmed to her, though it was a hard for them. Her death was not only a blow to the House of Dragon, but to this kingdom as well.
But he swore that it would be their enemies who would feel her death the most. He will reduce the House of White and Gold to ruins and exterminate the Faceless Men forever, doing the same to the Sorrowful Men and all others who had anything to do with this attack.
He will declare a war so devastating against the Free Cities that the next hundred generations will remember it with horror. The fire of his fury will spread across Asshai, ensuring that not a shadow will remain. Only ruin and absolute desolation.
This he swore by the Force.