Ch.8 Tower of Joy

The two men caught up to the group but were a little late as they saw Theo Wull, Martyn Cassel, and Ethan Glover lying dead on the ground with nasty wounds on either their necks or chest.

Lord William Dustin, a tall, and imposing man, with brown hair and a beard, was fighting a losing battle against the Lord Commander of the Kingsguard, Ser Gerold Hightower, but the two men had open wounds on their extremities and chest, Lord Dustin had a gnashing wound on his left shoulder.

Ser Mark Ryswell, a stout man of black hair was fighting Ser Oswell Whent of the Kingsguard, the northerner had a bloody smile on his face while he traded injuries with the Kingsguard, and the Kingsguard couldn't do anything about it, because, the knight of The Rills didn't care for his life anymore and tried to receive a blow to give another one even stronger.

"Dareon, you take on Gerold Hightower, the one on the left, fighting the brown-haired man," Sylas said while unsheathing his sword and moving toward Oswell Whent. "I'll take it from here, old man, back off and tend to your wounds, stop the bleeding at all costs or you'll die" Sylas pushed the man with his shoulder and stopped Ser Oswell's sword that was moving at the head of the distracted knight. "And here I thought that the Kingsguard were noble fighters." With a wicked smile, Sylas stepped forward and started abusing his unused stamina and strength against the now-tired knight.

Dareon, on the other hand, took on the tallest and stronger opponent, but he was a good match because of his agility-based swordsmanship.

Strike after strike, parry after parry, Dareon couldn't find an opening to strike his opponent, but he knew that every strike was making him improve his swordsmanship, what would've taken him years of dedication, was cut short by Sylas and now, it was cut short again as he managed to find a highly decorated training partner.

As for Sylas himself, he matched the Whent's strength, and his agility was superior, but the Kingsguard had more reach than him, so Sylas had to fight closing distances and focus on using his sidearm since he didn't have a shield, he was using a dagger on his left hand, and this dagger was lethal for a heavily armored opponent such as the Kingsguard, and his left arm already had a taste of the ambidextrous squire in front of him, but it didn't diminish the knight's fighting prowess, but it slowed him long enough for Sylas to find more openings, and with three stabs on the gaps of his armor, the Kngsguard was on the ground, panting and bleeding out.

Sylas raised his head and saw Dareon slowly getting the upper hand on Ser Gerold, Lord Eddard Stark, and Howland Reed gasping for air, Lord Dustin and Mark Ryswell were lying on the ground, frantically tending to their wounds.

Sylas gave mercy to his opponent and sliced his neck open when he saw that he couldn't stand up. Although Sylas wasn't in pristine condition, he had enough stamina to keep fighting, so he moved toward Ser Arthur Dayne. "Lord Eddard, Crannogmen, tend to your wounds and your companions, I'll take him."

"Big words for a young man," Arthur said sternly, looking straight at Sylas while Eddard and Howland disengaged and stepped back.

"Lord Eddard, take them to the tower, they need to cauterize some wounds or they'll bleed out, on my horse there is a bag on the right side of her, take it, it has medical supplies," Sylas said, completely ignoring Arthur and adopting a defensive stance.

Arthur didn't say anything else and he stepped forward and tried to cleave Sylas' head, but Sylas was looking at Arthur all the time, so he raised his sword horizontally and grabbed it with little strength, along with a side step towards Arthur's left, he entered in close quarters, where he used his dagger dexterously and stabbed the Kingsguard left armpit.

The two men backed a bit, but Arthur ignored his wound and started keeping his distance and started abusing the reach of his height and the length of his sword, as for Sylas, he steadily parried Arthur's blade without putting any strength into it, since any kind of sword clash would break his sword.

After minutes of swordplay, Sylas stepped back when he heard a loud yell to his left, Dareon was able to cut Ser Gerold Hightower's sword hand and the man was on his knees, yelling his lungs out. "Execute the man, take a breath, and join me, when my knight joins, Lord Eddard, rush for the tower, you must save your companions," Sylas said, now trying to squeeze as much stamina as he could since fighting to the death with the best sword of Westeros wasn't easy for a thirteen namedays brat.

Although Sylas has been practicing with his sword since he was a kid, he has never been in a war, or a skirmish against someone so skilled, he just had the experience of killing some smallfolk bandits thanks to Oberyn. Right now, his lack of experience was showing as he couldn't stop defending, he was being easily overwhelmed, but he wasn't broken yet, as the Kingsguard wasn't able to capitalize on the young squire's incapability.

Thankfully, Dareon joined the fray and was able to relieve Sylas, who at this point was extremely fatigued after fighting against the best sword of the seven kingdoms for almost ten minutes.

Dareon didn't expand his stamina as quickly as he was able to parry and dodge better than Sylas, but he also couldn't find an opening on Arthur's stance, but since now Arthur was against two skilled swordsmen, he couldn't stop Eddard Stark, and Howland Reed, who were carrying on their back Lord Dustin and the knight from The Rills.

Seeing that there wasn't anyone around but corpses, Sylas Asked while breathing roughly. "What, haa, what did Rhaegar promise you? Huff, you still have a family, Lord Eddard Stark is a good person he'll take care of the baby, why must you kill yourself?"

"How do you know all of that?" Arthur clenched his sword and stood on guard, but stopped attacking.

"Your oath was broken the day Rhaegar died, haa, you uphold a promise to a dead man, and even so, you did everything you could, if Rhaegar was your true friend, he wouldn't give your life away for a mere premonition or a fucking stupid dream, his Targaryen bloodline is so diluted that even a drop of Aegon's blood in the sea will have more magical properties. Lyanna will be alright with Eddard, the child has nothing to do with you, you are dead, Arthur Dayne, you should've died today, I stopped that, if you want to continue an oath then swear to me, together we'll protect your sister from everything is to come, the winter is coming, just like the Starks say." Sylas said, moving slowly to face Arthur along with Dareon.

"I don't know how you know all of that, but this was a promise that I made and I won't break it." He said, but his face betrayed his words as it was filled with grief.

"Because, unlike the bastard that told you to die for his son, I'm a champion chosen by a superior entity, be it a god, deity, whatever you wish to believe, and that is not a promise, but a death sentence, even if the kid is left for you to care, what are you going to do? If you don't return to the Kingsguard you'll be hunted on the whole of Westeros, the baby will have to grow in Essos, you'll become a sellsword to feed him and what, you'll raise him to believe that you'll get him an army of sellswords and take back Westeros? Think about the future, I saved you right now, the only reason is that I love Ashara, I don't care about what you do with your insignificant life, but think about her, think slowly for a moment."

Arthur stood quietly without moving, allowing Sylas and Dareon to breathe but the three men were extremely tense.

"I can see what you are implying, but how can you tell that Eddard will take care of the child, there are three other people that can tell the tale to other people if Robert Baratheon discovers this child, the child will die," Arthur said while clenching his hands and teeth.

"You are Dornish, you've stayed way too long on King's Landing, remember that every kingdom has its own customs and culture, and the northerners are well known for their loyalty and their ability to keep secrets, and even if Robert finds out, he'll have to fight his best friend and the whole of The North, Riverlands and The Vale, as I said think slowly and you'll find out that you are killing yourself for absolutely no reason," Sylas said while extending his hand.

"Join me, Arthur, I don't have great ambitions, like being king or prince or whatever, I'll live my life, with my family and my friends close, now it's up to you, continue to be a Kingsguard and serve an alcoholic fornicator, run all over the world raising a child that's not yours or follow me, who will take you in many adventures and will allow you to make a family or join my own family, as my sworn brother, although, let me tell you, I'm into women so don't try to flirt with me, I'm already tired to heard flirting from my teacher," Sylas said with a toothy smile amidst his haggard breaths

"You said that you were chosen as well… explain," Arthur said, lowering his blade and looking at the ground.

"This world is much more than just Westeros, Shadowbinders of Asshai, water mages of the Rhoyne, fire mages and blood mages of Valyria, the children of the forest, giants, dragons, whatever you can think, they are or were real. In my case, I've been blessed by Mother Rhoyne and someone else, so I can use some blood magic and make myself and my people stronger, and we can heal and replenish our exhaustion with water from a river. Much like Targaryen's 'Dragon Dreams' I also had a dream, and the future looks bleak, let's say that while Robert Baratheon is alive, it is the most peaceful that Westeros will be in years." Sylas said while sheathing his sword and Dareon followed him, sheathing his sword as well, the latter was also hearing everything and trying to process it all.

"And why should I follow you?" Arthur said while shaking his head and also sheathing Dawn

"Because Ashara loves your sorry ass, and you are a good fighter and I respect the training that you've done to get to this point, although once you swear to me you'll want to puke blood comically, hehe." Sylas and Dareon started laughing rather loudly.

"I… I will place my trust in you." Arthur said softly.

"Why do you say it like I'm a bad choice, cunt." Sylas said with a smile while moving towards Arthur. "Now, Ser Arthur Dayne, I want you to protect me, my family, and my friends, but I also want you to be happy and get people that you love. In exchange, I promise to take care of you, your needs, and your stupid ass that can't make good decisions." Sylas smirked while extending his right hand.

Arthur shook hands with Sylas, but he fell on his knee. "I completely forgot that you injured me so badly." He said while taking off his armor.

"Dareon, bring me one canteen." Said Sylas while motioning to Dareon's horse. "Don't be a crybaby, a thirteen namedays kid almost killed you, you should be ashamed of yourself Hahaha!" Sylas said while helping Arthur to take his armor out.

"You are the champion of a goddess, I'm lucky I'm alive." He said sternly while breathing slightly roughly.

"Don't give me that bullshit, I didn't do anything special." Said Sylas while looking at his wounds, he had two stabs, one on his armpit and the other between his ribs. "I got you good, huh." He said with a smirk, Arthur just sighed.

"Here, my lord," Dareon said from behind.

Sylas received the canteen, he opened it and looked at Arthur. "I don't know the extent of the damage of the stabs, so I can heal you completely, but you'll lose the ability to betray me forever, but not your free will, or you can hopefully recover partially with my abilities as a physician, your choice."

"So, that's blood magic?" Arthur said, making Sylas nod to him. "Alright, let's do the first one, if Ashara finds out that you stabbed me, she'll kill you." He said with a smirk.

"I don't know who she'll kill, your dumb ass that wanted to kill himself, or her great and noble husband that made him see the world differently." Sylas laughed while he cut open his palm. With a small gasp, the blood started flowing out of his wound and he put his hand over Arthur. "Drink the blood and see the magic happen"

When Arthur drank a few drops of blood, the water of the canteen started pouring out of it and blue particles started leaving Sylas' and Arthur's bodies. Arthur looked at this with his mouth open, he saw the water move in the air and go directly to his wounds, the pain started fading slowly and after a few seconds he felt as if he never fought, not even a few injuries he had from all the training faded completely. Arthur was reborn under Sylas' house.

"Close your mouth, some sand will get in if you don't." Said Sylas with a smirk on his face and Dareon laughing in the background as he closed his mouth as well.

"I've never felt like this…" Arthur said slowly.

"Yeah, thank the goddess, now you can train all day long and drink some water from a river and then you will be completely healed," Sylas said, extending his hand.

"Let's go to the tower and see if nobody died from blood loss, it will be expensive to pay for a lord's funeral, you'll pay that shit, Arthur."

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