Arianne of Tarth
Her brother walked off toward the store, only leaving after calling back the guard to stand closer beside her. She watched as he ducked inside, and the bright golden aura that clung to him disappeared like a candle being extinguished after the door was closed. The pleasant heat that had been warming her despite the cloudy sky vanished with him.
Sighing, she nodded to the guard and went to sit on a bench by the fish pie stand. Soon, she had a pie of her own in hand and enough peace of mind that she could stop and think about everything that had been happening.
Growing up, Arianne had always known Galladon was special. No one else on the island ever shone to her senses like her brother did. He seemed to her eyes like a ball of light and warmth, radiating comfort and love wherever he went. Even her lord father and lady mother didn't glow like him.
But maybe that's what all big brothers seemed to their sisters, a figure larger than life. That's what she had told herself, at least, but she had confirmed it years ago that Alysanne did not see the world or Galladon like she did. And had the light that she could see shining around people been the only thing that made her special, that wouldn't have been so bad.
But she knew something wasn't right when the nightmares started a few years ago. She could hardly make sense of half of them; and the ones she could, she wished she hadn't. Her innocence had been chipped away night after night after witnessing both terrible and completely nonsensical things in her dreams.
Deformed men with green scales for skin performing sacrifices deep inside a thick jungle; ice demons with crystal-like skin wandering across a snowy wasteland; dragons incinerating men in their thousands in a battlefield. If she focused, she could still hear their agonized screams as they burned to death.
She wished she could be just a normal girl like her sister, but she knew that would be impossible. She knew too much, saw too much.
Her brother's light had been the only thing that could calm her after one of the nightmares, and for that, she thought the world of him. The most important person in her life—and if the intensity of his aura compared to everyone else's in Tarth meant anything, the most important person in the world!
Arianne had been wrong. Before this trip to the Westerlands—the first time her and her sister had ever traveled outside of Tarth—she had never seen anyone that could match Galladon's light. She'd thought no one else ever would. Now, she knew otherwise.
Here, amongst some of the most powerful and influential men and women in the kingdoms, there were dozens of people that stood out to her. She almost fainted the first time she walked inside the Rock's main hall during one of the feasts.
Colors washed over her vision like she was seeing the world from the inside of a rainbow. The world was too bright, too loud with feeling. Her mother had to walk her back to their apartments as her senses tingled like an overused muscle.
It was true that few could match the brightness and sheer intensity of her brother's aura, but they existed. Some, like the Prince and his violet-eyed guard, shone even brighter than Galladon. Their auras were a jumble of colors she couldn't make sense of.
Ser Barristan Selmy burned like a beacon of pure white light, cool and silvery like the moon, while the Lord of Casterly Rock, Tywin Lannister, wore his aura tightly wrapped around himself, as if kept under strict control. It pulsed with the deep red of a man's blood.
There were many more, men and women of all ages that she didn't know and couldn't name. But she knew this ability of hers was important. Knew there was something about these people that made them special. She wanted to tell her brother about it all, to finally let out the secret she kept her whole life. She was sure Galladon would know what to make of it.
But she could never bring herself to say the words. A paralyzing fear seemed to seize her whenever she gathered the courage to do it.
Would he think any differently of her? Would he see her as a freak? Her brother wasn't prone to cruelty, she knew, but beneath the golden-glow of his aura, beneath the light and the warmth, there was a streak of stormy gray there, something sharp and wicked and unbending like steel.
The possibility of having that turned in her direction terrified her.
In the end, she couldn't do it, couldn't risk the only light in her life. When her brother and sister came out of the store a few minutes later, Arianne stayed silent.
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AN: Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed the chapter. If you did, consider throwing a few Power Stones my way, as they help more than I can easily put into words. Comments and reviews are just as welcome, whether you want to talk about a scene you liked, a character that stood out, or where you think things might be headed. Even a brief comment goes a long way. Your feedback and support genuinely help keep the story moving, and they're always appreciated.