Chapter Text
Chapter Four - Desert Rat
289 AC Twentieth Day of the Third Month
Low Town - Volantis
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There was no relief from the humidity, inside or outside in the city streets. Serenna frowned when she looked in her pouch. The soft leather held just three more silvers for the entire month and not one fucking inn would take less than four—for one night. She didn’t want to camp out at the docks again, so her only choice was to convince one of the innkeepers to take pity on her.
“Come on, Lyla…” Serenna leaned against the mahogany counter, giving the old woman a sultry smile. Serenna wiggled her eyebrows. Lyla rolled her eyes and pushed Serenna away with the open palm of her hand. “Come on! You know I’m good for it!”
“Fuck off,” Lyla said with a sweet flutter of her eyelashes. Her salt-and-pepper hair whipped Serenna in the face. “If you don’t have the coin, maybe you should just go home.”
A beat of her heart stilled her flirtatious twitch of lips. Serenna didn’t let the feeling linger and smiled wider, showing her teeth. “Valus—”
Lyla slammed her hands down on the wood of her desk. “Valus is dead,” she spat so firmly there was no room for Serenna to argue back. Slowly the old woman untensed her arms and looked Serenna in the eyes. “Or he ditched you here. Either way. Four silver or Brenda.” Lyla raised her open hand, fanning her fingers out, then grabbed the wicker broom from behind the counter.
“Robbery!” Serenna yelled as Lyla shoos her out, swiping at her with the broom. Waving her fist at her.
Nah… if the ship had wrecked then someone would have sent word back to Volantis. No news was good news.
Serenna hunched her shoulders and stepped her worn leather boot out into the summer night. She covered her hair with a dark hood, but nothing says ‘bother me’ like someone trying not to be seen, so she kept a careful hand on her dagger at her side.
Valus still hadn’t come back, and it was starting to look more and more like he wouldn’t. Serenna huffed and flicked her arm out of her cloak. It was too hot under there. The air in Volantis was hot and heavy; humidity clung to every bit of exposed skin. Serenna wiped the back of her hand across her face and sighed, flicking sweat off her fingers. Valus had been gone a year and twenty weeks. Everyone told her after a year of no word that he wasn’t going to sail in with his ship. Serenna had to accept that he wasn’t coming back. So… as the only thing close to family the old shit had, Serenna declared herself the official acquirer of his things. Including and especially his liquor cabinet.
Serenna ducked into the market. There wasn’t much bread or dried fish left—most things were snatched up by midafternoon—and the moon was already high. She was able to get a skin of white wine, a wedge of cheese, and a loaf of saffron bread. Breshta, the baker, looked at her with a raised eyebrow. “Finally going to get off the streets, girl?” he asked with a gruff groan. He used to work in the mines. Married a baker's girl. Became the baker but never lost the cough.
She didn’t answer at first, ripping off a piece of bread and taking a bite. He’d added a bit of chili to the dough, she noted. She swallowed. “I guess… he really isn’t coming back,” Serenna finally said with a twitch of her mouth. “He ordered me to wait here for him but…” Serenna waved her hand toward the sea, where she had last seen her teacher. “Then off he goes.” It crossed her mind that maybe he’d found some treasure somewhere and was the new king of a lost tribe. “I’m going to go back home. It’s just gonna take me a few days on foot.”
The man coughed and cocked his head to the side, spitting black phlegm into the dirt. “So you’re leaving, leaving…” Breshta nodded and gave her change for her silver coin: 98 coppers. “Well,” he chuckled at her, “wherever you go, don’t wave that coin you carry around. Got it?”
Serenna waved him off and plucked the coin out of his hand. She wasn’t going to lose it. “Money is fake and also stupid,” she told him. She dropped the rest of her silver on his table and Breshta rolled his black eyes at her. “It’s been good knowing you this last year, baker man.”
Breshta huffed. “Aye, now fuck off,” he said, gesturing to the city gate with his chin. He put his hand on the silver, just in case she changed her mind. His hand tightened. “Don’t get yourself murdered.” He smiled uneasily at her.
“Not a chance,” Serenna winked at him and went on her way.
The guards of Low Town looked her over wearily, one slapping his compatriot on the shoulder when they saw her pass. Serenna huffed—of course they’d be glad to see the back of her. She winked at them and they glared. She’d stolen their britches once or twice, not that they could prove anything. Serenna swept her arm dramatically over her head and bowed.
“Farewell, Volantis!” she called, and out into the desert night she went. It was better to travel under the moon. Where the instinct might be to cross the Red Waste by day so you weren’t robbed and murdered, the truth was the sun would kill you slower than a bandit. Take your chances with the sand snakes.
Serenna faced the humid wastelands with gumption. She’d need to head northwest toward the disputed lands—luckily nowhere in the middle of a war zone. Just a lonely overgrown shack with a lake. It wasn’t anything special, but that’s where Varys had left her when she’d appeared in that world—to grow up. Then he’d disappeared and she hadn’t heard from him since.
Sometimes, Serenna wondered if he’d forgotten about her. Or if meeting him had been a dream. She’d never talked about her arrival in that world. What if it had all been a dream? Maybe Varys wasn’t even real. Maybe she wasn’t real. She whined a bit, trying to shake off the existential dread.
Valus had been a hard taskmaster. She did all of the ‘women’s work’ like the laundry. Then there were endless lessons: books on history, math, ‘science’, music. Anything. He also taught her… less savory skills. He was the quintessential hermit. Then one day he’d packed up. “I’m off to Old Valyria!” he’d said. “Wait for me in Volantis!” Never to be seen again. He’d waved goodbye to her from the docks of the Capristia—a Barvosi vessel bound for an expedition to the old world. But it had been a year and twenty weeks and not one word. Valus, everyone told her, was dead.
Their shack looked the same. Serenna held her hand out and the wards recognized her, giving her no trouble as she passed through. Her worn leather boots crunched in the sand. Serenna paused before she put her hand on the door, her eyes narrowing. It was… just a bit ajar. She was sure when she left a year ago she had locked it. Serenna ducked under the only window, wrapping her cloak around her shoulders. The curtains were still drawn; the scrap of sun-bleached yellow fabric obscured her—but also anyone hiding inside.
Serenna’s eyes slid shut and she listened. Inside, there was just the softest ‘clink, clink, clink.’ Someone was inside. Or an animal. Serenna’s hand flew to the dagger on her belt. With a quick pull, the steel glinted under the moonlight. Serenna’s shoulders tensed. She couldn’t hear much else besides the soft tapping. But the shack wasn’t large enough to hold a large force of bandits. But she wasn’t ready to go back to The Tower.
She hesitated too long.
The door opened and the choice was made for her. The intruder’s black leather boot stepped into the light. Serenna swung her dagger toward the intruder and they easily grabbed her wrist, twisting it around. The dagger fell into the sand and she gasped.
A hand squeezed her cheeks and she struggled in her captor's hold.
“I sent you here to mature,” a familiar high slow voice said. Varys spun her around. “And it seems you're the same girl I met in the woods.”
At first she was confused. The round bald man let her go, his blue silk robes outlined with small rose stitches. It only took her a second to recognize him. “Varys!” Serenna couldn’t believe it. She never thought she’d see him again. She wrapped her arms around his neck, almost jumping into his arms. He gently patted her back and she pulled away from him. “Varys!” She remembered they had been friends. That’s why Varys had left her with Valus, right? Or they were contacts. Maybe he hadn’t heard anything and he was worried. “Valus is—”
Varys hummed and dipped his head to her. He placed a hand on her shoulder and squeezed once. “Gone, I know, my dear…I’m so sorry.” Varys looked at her and gestured down at the table. He’d set up a very nice tea spread. “Have a seat, it’s time for you to learn to fly, little bird.”
Serenna grabbed her dagger from the floor and stepped inside the shack. She looked and saw that Varys had set up shop in her house. A spare pair of boots by the door, his pack hung on the hooks next to Valus’s red hood.
“Squatting, huh?”
Serenna sat in one of the old rickety chairs. She pressed the dagger back into the sheath and looked at the set up: lemon cakes, small and very hard to obtain. She’d only had one since she’d been in that world. Pecan pies, little bite-sized ones. And a sweet rose-scented tea.
“Thank you…”
He knew. Is that why he’d come back? To tell her Valus was dead. But he’d brought snacks to soften the blow. Serenna smiled at Varys who smiled back. They picked up the cups and clinked them together. Serenna took a drink and her eyes widened. The smell and taste of rose wafted in her mouth, soft and creamy with a little milk. It was really fancy—
Serenna paused before she put her hand on the door, her eyebrows scrunching together. It was… just a bit ajar. She was sure… when she left a year ago she had locked it…
Serenna gasped and stepped back. Her hands shook and she wasn’t sure why she couldn’t scream. Her throat was tight like she had been strangled. She grabbed her neck. There was no cup in her hand. No rosy perfume choking her nose and throat. She felt a sword break through her ribs. Serenna grabbed her chest but there were no swordsmen. No attackers with black clothes. Had she… Serenna’s hands dropped to her side and she looked around at the small lake next to her home. She’d been inside. Varys made tea… did she die? Why did she die? If she died, why wasn’t she back at the Tower? Why was she… outside the shack? She died… she was sure of it, swallowing feeling the residual closing of her throat.
Serenna tightened her hand into a fist. Did Varys kill her? She kicked her foot out at the door and knocked it open, almost off the hinges. Varys was stirring something into the cup he’d meant for her. He looked up when the door opened and a bit of regret crossed his face.
“Serenna…” he said with a thin smile. “It’s good to see you dear, would you come and have tea with me?”
Her eyes zeroed in on the fancy china cup, red and gold around the rim. His hand, the bottle still clutched in his hand. Serenna shook her head at him and stepped back. “You killed me?”
Varys raised his hands, setting the bottle down on the table. “Forgive me the trickery,” he said softly. “I needed to test a theory I had about your abilities.”
Serenna swallowed and licked her lips. She watched him and he switched their cups around. He unscrewed a small vial and upended the milky substance into the teacup. Then he drank it.
“There… poison neutralized.” His sleeves swept around the table and he held a lemon treat out to her. “I just… needed to see it with my own eyes.”
“See me die?”
He slowly turned his head side to side. “I had a theory and it seems I was correct.” He smiled and didn’t elaborate when she asked. Gesturing to the chair she had sat in before, Varys went around the driftwood table and sat down. “It’s time for you to learn to fly, little bird,” he said.
“What does that mean?” Serenna demanded lowly. She flinched and looked down at the teacup, the steam from the rose tea welcoming her to take a drink, the finger of the Stranger itching her to just brush her lips against the beautiful red and gold rim. A faint shimmer rippled over the top of the liquid. She slid the tea toward Varys.
“Drink it, or no deal.”
Varys chuckled and took the cup without hesitation. He toasted her and took a drink. He didn’t die, so Serenna picked it up. She drank it. Still very nice, but she’d hate the taste and smell of roses forever.
“There, now…” Varys whispered, his eyelids lowering a bit. “Now that we have the unpleasantness out of the way—”
“Your business?” Serenna demanded, cocking her head to the side. She put her cups down a little harder than necessary. Why was he here? Why had he just abandoned her in the wilderness? What did he want?
Varys held his hand up. Slipping his hand into his sleeve, he handed a slip of paper over to her. “What if I told you there was an organization that dealt in matters that no soul should? That there was nothing too low?”
Serenna looked at the small yellowed piece of parchment.
Eldrin Shadeveil
Seraphon Blacktide
Mornna Slinton
Serenna shook her head. “Eldrin Shadeveil—what kind of fucking name is that?!”
She raised an eyebrow and looked at Varys, but… he was gone? Not a footfall or a shimmer. His bag by the door was gone. It was like he’d vanished.
In his place was a single golden key. Serenna snatched it off the table. She turned it over and found six numbers on the stem: 734651.
Serenna’s mouth fell open. “What?!” She rose in her chair, slamming her hands down on the driftwood table. It tilted, breaking the gold teapot, spilling rose tea and snacks all over the floor. Serenna grabbed the treats before the tea soaked them. He was gone? Just like that?
The bottle of poison rolled onto the floor and stopped against the side of Serenna’s boot. She knelt down and held it up in the moonlight. Small pearlescent balls. Serenna looked at the tea and back at the bottle of poison. She picked up the bottle and uncapped it, flinching back and gagging, covering her mouth when she smelled the roses. Serenna capped and pocketed the glass bottle, wondering how many tablets it would take to kill.