THE GREAT STARGARYEN / DANARYA ROUND ROBIN CHALLENGE #1

Clearing her throat and pressing her palms together in an effort to warm them and stop them from quaking, Missandei mumbled, “um… I could call for a Maester, you know.”

Stormy eyes looked over at the young Naathi woman as deadly hands stilled. Silence settled heavily between the two as No One raised a brow, questioning.

Missandei felt her cheeks heat under the intensity of the assassin’s gaze. “Your arm,” she said, clearing her throat and gesturing gracefully toward the laceration she’d acquired in the Queen’s bloody service. “It looks like it needs stitching.”

Unkempt bangs fell across No One’s face as she tilted her head to look down at the wound, as if only noticing it for the first time. “I’ve had worse,” she said after a cursory inspection, then began to pull the sharpening stone down the length of her blade once again. “But thank you.” The low voice added a moment later, little more than a whisper alongside the rhythmic rasp of steel.

The note of gratitude was unexpected, and it was enough to start setting Missandei at ease. She reminded herself that in the years she’d spent with the Mother of Dragons, she’d broken bread with countless soldiers, sellswords, and Khals. They were all murderers, each and every one, yet she'd always been kept safe. A Faceless Man was no different.

....and yet she was.

“You can relax,” the assassin said as she set aside the roughened stone and pulled out an oiled rag. “I’m not going to hurt you.”

The scribe stiffened, straightening her back and lifting her chin in a well-practiced imitation of her defiant Queen. “I’m not afraid of you.”

“Yes you are.” The slickened cloth was pulled across the blade with a tenderness that was at striking odds with who No One was, and the purpose of the god she served. “As is Daenerys.”

“My Queen,” Missandei countered, emphasizing her liege’s title, “does not play host to fear. She’s just...”

Missandei looked over her shoulder as the Breaker of Chains stepped into the soft penumbra of light from the campfire.

The Queen was dressed in her favorite light blue royal gown. Over her shoulders a fur lined cape was draped its long length had the hem whispering over the ground. The cape dark purple denoting royalty. The purple perfectly complementing the Queen’s lilac eyes that took in her environs. She regarded the Faceless Man coolly. She then turned her gaze upon her most trusted advisor.

The Queen smiled softly at her dearest friend.

Missandei felt the familiar rush thrill through her body. Any time Dany gave her interpreter a smile the young woman from Naathi felt her body tingle. She was no longer a little girl.

The Queen turned to look at the assassin. They stared at the each other gauging and judging.

“You equated yourself very well today on the field of battle. My Bloodriders would have dispatched those miscreants.”

“I am sure they would have. It was merely their time to meet the Many-Faced God of the House of Black and White.”

“I see.”

Missandei could feel the challenge between the two women. There was more here going on than met the eye. What was the connection between these two strangers? Why the antagonism?” What hadn’t the Queen told her? Why? Wasn’t she the Queen’s most trusted advisor?

It hurt her that Dany would not fully confide her plans to her. Missandei had come to long for so much more from her Queen.

“I would sit with you two if I may?”

“Of course my Queen. Please sit with me—I mean with us.”

“I would have thought the Queen of Dragons would not need the heat of a small camp fire” the Faceless man spoke blandly.

“Excuse me?” the Queen asked with rising ire in her voice. Missandei wondered if the Faceless Man deliberately courted death.

“I have heard it said the Queen is heated to her core from the fires that burn within her” the servant of Black and White said glancing at Daenerys Targaryen’s groin area.

“The insolence” the Queen softly intoned seething.

“Merely an observation.”

“Your rapier is a sharp and dangerous thing I have discovered assassin.”

“You have observed correctly.”

“From your speech you must think your tongue is also a Bravo rapier capable of great damage and rue.”

The assassin titled her head in acknowledgement. Her actions showed her acceptance of the Queen’s words as fact.

The Queen tapped her chin with a long elegant index finger.

“I find your tongue to be a clumsy, rust ridden, dull thing assassin. It is not a rapier but a hoax. I have heard Silent Sisters with more wit and jocular acumen.”

The Faceless Man stared hard at the Queen refusing to acknowledge the deadly riposte.

Missandei decided to blush fiercely for the No One who would not.

For long seconds the two combatants stared at each other as Missandei fretted.

Finally, the assassin spoke. In a quiet sepulcher tone “You treat me most unfairly considering you hired the House of Black and White to …

The assassin watched as violet eyes widened slightly at the indecent implication, then quickly narrowed. “Your reflexes were impressive, I’ll grant you that.”

The smirk never left No One’s lips. “It’s not only my instincts that please you, your Grace.”

Daenerys parried the verbal strike with a regal quirk of her brow and a glance at the blade slung at the killer’s hip. “Don’t flatter yourself, assassin – I’ve been beneath sellswords with blades far larger than yours.”

No One took a step closer, undaunted. “Then I’m sure you already know that it’s not the size of the sword, but more importantly the wielder’s skill and experience in using it.”

Cool grey eyes noted the subtle rise of tension in the Queen’s body at that, revealing the truth of her strike before her lips could form around a denial. “Keep in mind an agreement was struck. You serve me now,” she said, words sharp as Valyrian steel cutting through their banter. “For better or worse.”

“It’ll likely be worse.”

“I knew that much the moment I laid eyes on you.” She countered quickly, her tone softening just enough to disarm the snarky servant of the Many-Faced God.

No One raked a hand through her hair, granting herself a brief reprieve from the heated gaze she now fell under. “Does anyone else know?” She asked finally, smoothly changing the subject as she tugged at her torn sleeve, revealing the jagged laceration the onyx claw had left on her skin beneath the abused stitching. “Do any of them have any idea that the Mother of Dragons can’t really control her children? And that you were nearly killed in the attempt to change that earlier today?”

They were already past the edge of Qarth, skirting the City of Serpents, which the Dragon Queen had never set foot or seen during her first few years as a younger ruler. She knew there was a danger to these unknown lands, and Daenerys had enough insight to consider bringing someone who had traveled places no man had gone before, no matter how infuriating their character seemed to be. But despite her confidence for the mysterious agent, who had - countless of times - saved their little band from roaming bandits hidden in the desert sands, Dany knew No One was just one woman.

They held still for a moment, feeling the assassin's breath on her neck. Slowly, No One let her wrist slip away, sending a sharp look at Daenerys's direction.

Stay here.

Dany felt the assassin stand up slowly from behind her, needing to choke a curious fluttering of her heart when she felt the rasp of skin and fine sand against her as they brushed against one another. They walked slowly under the palm trees, hackles raised, with quiet and agile feet. It was as though the assassin had teleported herself away from Dany with the blink of an eye.