She had sailed to where the compass pointed. But she was alone this time, she couldn't afford to loose her entire crew on something that may not even be there.

It had been four days since she had ran away from that place. Her heart felt something like guilt and the moment she sailed she wanted to go back. But what was done, was done and she couldn't take it back.

At least now she had the opportunity to go back home. If there was even a home to return to, the only thing she had seen was water all around her, not a single sight of land.

She looked down at Nikolai's compass or her compass, even though it did not point north she knew to follow it.

Suddenly she vividly felt as the temperature got lower, making her breath visible in front of her as her ship entered a fog.

She couldn't see anything until the ship rocked harshly making her stumble and then it abruptly stopped.

Maybe she had reached land?

She exhaled worriedly and pocketed the compass in her coat. She managed to get off her ship and her feet touched sand as she jumped out. She kneeled on the floor and passed her fingers through the sand and brought it near her eyes.

The sand was not normal, it felt like sand but some of the tiny participles where black, like as if the sand was contaminated.

She cleaned her hands on her coat and kept walking forward, she had to put a hand in front of her because of the thick fog, she couldn't see anything.

Finally her hand collided with something, she raised it but there was more of whatever it was, it felt like a wall, she got on her toes and finally her reached the end. She jumped and finally got over the wall, as she turned around her eyes widen and the breath left her body.

It was Gaeliar.

Turned to stone.

Everything was turned to stone.

The buildings, the streets...the people. It was all frozen in time. Instead of the fold turning this place into nothing and the people into monsters, it turned everything to stone.

Deyanira walked through the ash covered streets. The earth crunching beneath her booths, there was not a single soul, it was pure silence the only to be heard was her breathing and her steps.

She looked up and in the highest point in the city was a big building covered in stone like everything else. She remembered it, the golden castle between two mountains, determined she walked to the building until she was standing g it what were once the golden hundred steps.

She climbed them, her hands brushing the darken railing, and when she arrived at the top, the heavy doors where already opened, they had been opened for hundreds of years, waiting for her to come back.

Without fear she entered the building, there was a big window that allowed light to entered. The castle looked beautiful in melancholic type of way.

She started walking forwards and it was as if her mind knew where to go because she arrived at a door. Her hand opened it, it creaked loudly and it was heavy.

Her expression turned into something like pain when she saw the lonely frozen figure in the middle of the room that was facing away from her. The light hit it just right for her to know it was a woman.

Her mother.

She stepped in front of the figure and frowned as she noticed, it was reaching for something. Deyanira looked at the throne, it was not turned to stone, it was rusty and dirty, and to the side a staff with a golden sun at the top, it was the same not stone only dirty.

It was curious.

She extended her hand out to it, and gasped when the staff brightened for a moment, she took away her hand and it was dim again.

The princess looked at her hand and back to the staff before taking it in her hand. Immediately the staff started shining and she had to cover her eyes for a moment because of the brightness.

She got used to the light soon enough, and took a deep breath before freeing more of her light.

As she looked around the walls of the room around her seemed to shine brighter. The stone was leaving?

More determined than ever she graded the staff with both of her hands and gasped as she gave all of her powers away to the staff.

The woman screamed in pain as if felt like something was burning inside of her as the light of the staff got so bright it filled the entire room.

She passed out and the light stopped. The blonde dropped to the floor with the staff besides her.

She didn't know how many times had passed when she opened her eyes, but she was no longer in the throne room. Frowning she felt the soft bed she was on. Opening her eyes fully, she sat on the bed but dizziness hit her as soon as she did making her groan in pain.

"What...?" She muttered looking down at herself, she was in some nightclothes, definitely fancier than the ones in Ravka. She stood up slowly and held into the post of the bed and grabbed her coat that was draped over a chair.

Deyanira opened her door and she was in a castle, a castle, suddenly like a punch to the face everything that had happened before she passed out came rushing back to her, ignoring the pain in her head she ran through the bow shiny halls, she didn't know where she was going, she just wanted to find someone.

She crashes against someone as she was rounding a corner, she went flying to the floor. Looking up, a guard was looking down at her, he had golden armor and a helmet just as shiny.

"Princess" the guard seemed to recognize her and bowed. Deyanira swallowed at the unexpected action. "I apologize, but the Queen ordered that when you've awoken, you'll be brought to her, immediately" he extended a hand to her to help her up, when she still stared at him in shock. "Princess? Do you feel, right?"

She took his hand wordlessly, and followed him when he nodded. She looked around wildly like a mad woman, and rubbed her eyes to see if she was dreaming, but she wasn't. It was all real.

The floor she was stepping on was real, the castle walls were real, the Gaeliar guard was real. They passed a series of windows, and Deyanira couldn't help but look out, she almost passed out again at the sight.

The ashen city she had seen when she entered was no more. No golden buildings shined in proudly below them, the thick fog that had once covered the dark sea was gone and the sea was the purest of blues.

They passed them and arrived at more doors. He opened them and stepped to the side.

It was a meeting room, there were men and women alike, all the men wore golden cloaks and the woman wore golden diadems that looked like leaves in the back of their heads. And at the head of the table, a blonde woman with a spiky crown.

"Nira..." the woman spoke. Even though for her mother it felt like she hadn't seen her daughter for some minutes, the woman knew it was much longer, with only seeing her daughter's older face, she knew it must have been way too long since she was home.

All of the people there stared at her with some kind off gratitude in their eyes, it was only a few, it seemed like a royal council.

"If you may leave us for a moment, please" the Queen said and everyone did as she said, as they were going out the people touched their fingers to their foreheads and extended their hands to her, a greeting, she realized.

When finally all of them where out, only her and her mother remained.

"Are you really my Nira" the woman asked with a hopeful yet nostalgic look. The Princess, remembered she had her coat in her hand and pulled out her compass, showing it to the Queen. The Queen looked at it and rounded the table until she was in front of her and gave her a teary smile before crushing her into a hug. "My daughter"

She was hesitant for a while once again thinking it was a dream and that as soon as she hugged her back she would disappear. But the aroma of her mother reached her, and she realized it was all very really, with welling tears she hugged her back.

Deyanira was finally home.

.・゜゜・☼・゜゜・．
She speaks!
Bet you didn't expect that huh, well you probably did. Anyways, I changed something, like the fight instead of being like some days after that meeting it's like a week later. If you want to know I kinda see Gaeliar like Ancient Greece.
Thank you to the ones that are still reading. 🫶🫶