@rcgna
Jaeyi’s heart had lurched with nostalgia and regret when she had caught sight of the ironborn ships pulling into the harbour at Dragonstone. She had left without saying goodbye to men and women who had been her family - some more than others of course - spurned to safety on Victarion’s horse with tears spilling down her cheeks. She had stayed away from the port thus far, keeping her distance perhaps out of cowardice as much as her duty to Margaery. However, with her lady’s family returned to her side, she found herself dismissed by the presence of her knightly brothers and drawn to the docks like a moth to a flame.
Her heart hammered inside her chest as she approached the longships, their makes and names familiar to her as ever - Kraken’s Kiss, Iron Victory, Sparrowhawk, Maiden’s Bane, Reaper’s Wind - they all reminded her of the time she had spent playing at being iron instead of azure. She halted in her tracks when she reached the end of the line and saw the ship of the Merlyns of Great Wyk - the Iron Kiss. She almost turned back, unequipped to weather the storm that no doubt had been brewing in the vessel’s new captain since Jaeyi disappeared during an attack by strange foreign ships without explanation - the oaths and pledges she had offered merely words whispered to the wind.
She had been forced to run then, but she would not run now.
Every glimpse of red out of the corner of her eye made Jaeyi’s toes curl, and though a cold sea wind tousled with her braids, she could feel her cheeks growing hot with guilt and something akin to fear, self-loathing and regret all rolled into one as she wandered closer to the ship, knowing that Ragna Pyke’s hawk-like gaze would fall upon her soon enough.