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Maisie Williams, Liam Cunningham, and Carice Van Houten at the Game of Thrones Exhibition in Amsterdam
it would humble you if you for one time stood by something stronger than yourself.
Out of thirty, only five survived the trip across the great sea to follow visions of a new land, one of magic, where they could prosper.
Silas.
His brother, Dain.
The great witch, Qetsiyah.
Their vala*, Olga.
And Aud.
Their number was few, but they were strong together. Silas, Dain, and Qetsiyah harnessed the magic of the land, creating a settlement where they could prosper, while Olga warned them of the dangers of this new place, and Aud cared for them all.
But such peace could not last forever, as it is not in the nature of man nor woman to be satisfied with their own happiness for long.
The trouble began with the birth of Olga’s babe, almost twelve moons to the day of their arrival. The birth was difficult, the baby turned the wrong way, and it brought Aud and Qetsiyah to the brink of exhaustion along with Olga. When all was done, both babe and mother survived, but no matter how many times the women asked, Olga would not reveal which brother had fathered her daughter. “Vala have no fathers,” Olga declared, never speaking of it again.
She was called Ingrid and her dark hair and dark eyes gave nothing away.
The girl flourished, doted on by her mother, and by the others, as they had no children of their own, but her birth brought with it the darkness of distrust and the haze of secrets. The five began to keep the truth of their hearts to themselves, though they had founded their settlement upon the pillar of honesty.
As little Ingrid grew, the brothers and the women began to yearn for children and families of their own.
These desires and the secrets the remaining five kept allowed the true darkness to take hold.
Silas, the younger brother, had always loved Aud. He had admired her beauty, her strength, and her kindness since his boyhood. She was his great love.
But he was not hers.
When Silas went to her and offered her his love, she only smiled sadly and placed her palm over her rounding stomach, already growing with his brother’s child.
For as long as Silas’s heart belonged to Aud, Aud’s heart belonged to Dain.
The knowledge drove Silas to madness and in his grief, he called to himself the darkest of magic. He fashioned a curse, to punish his brother for taking Aud for himself. Fueled by the moon and Olga’s vala blood, Silas created immortality for himself.
Reborn, transformed into something only dwelt in the darkest of nightmares, he terrorized them. He used his gifts to make Dain and Aud see what he wished, to share his pain among them, and tear them apart. When they were separated, and Aud left alone, Silas went to her, to doom her to immortality with him so that she might be his and be his brother’s no longer.
She begged him to leave her be, to leave them all be, telling him that if his love for her were ever true, he would let her and Dain live in peace with their child.
Silas was beyond reason.
In the moment when he forced his blood down Aud’s throat and prepared to bring her into immortal life, Dain returned with Qetsiyah. Together they brought Silas to his knees, preserving the life of Aud and the life of the child.
Their victory was not without a price.
Dain took his brother’s blood within himself and took a fatal blow in Qetsiyah’s stead. Silas was turned to stone, vanquished but left with a cure to his immortality, and Dain was doomed to walk the world forever, as a drinker of the blood, his brother’s first and only childe.
Qetsiyah, clever as she was, took it upon herself to make sure that Silas could never harm Aud again. She created a veil between the worlds of the living and the dead, so that Aud could be free of Silas even after her mortal death. Though she would also be eternally separated from Dain, Aud was grateful.
The three locked Silas away and Qetsiyah taught Aud, and later her daughter, Kára, the ways of magic, and when she passed, Kára and Ingrid followed her instructions to create the bloodstone that would seal Silas away forever.
Kára’s children found lifemates among the First Peoples, bringing them magic and taking the Gift of the Moon into their blood. Ingrid kept the secret of her strong vala blood from her own children, never wanting it to be used against them as it had been used against her mother. Generations passed and Dain walked the Earth alone, grieving for the wife and child he lost to mortality.
The truth of the tale of Silas was forgotten.
But nature will have balance.
What once was, shall be again.
*Vala - the anglicanization of the Norse word for ‘seer’.
Since her fate was left ambiguous, we should probably show the CW how much we want Thea back next season.
Tag your posts/tweets with #SpeedyforS2 and #Arrow. Let’s see if we can trend!
…Me neither.
