Ch23. Dorne 1

They spent a week in Tyrosh when the trades were concluded and it was time to go home.

Irene and Thomas apparated straight to the Iron Islands while Bella and Pietra boarded the ship, heading to Dorne.

Bellatrix was quite down due to the separation from Thomas but she didn't grumble about it. Her coming to negotiate the alliance with Dorne was her own idea, after all.

At the time when she was persuading her lovers to let her go, she thought they would accompany her! Instead, she had to go alone. She was not a happy camper at the moment. Not at all.

The longer the cruise took, the worse mood Bella was in and every pirate daring to come closer to the ship felt her rage in full.

Even the ever cold Pietra was starting to actually pity the pirates as she saw her Goddess wipe them out of existence.

...

The second Bellatrix's foot left the Blue Pearl, she is greeted by a tall slender man with sharp facial features and black hair and eyes.

"Hello, Lady Black. I am Oberyn Martell and this," He pointed at a woman next to him, "is my love Ellaria. I was currently tasked with escorting you to the castle." He slightly bowed in a show of courtesy and with a boyish smile asked. "If you will?"

Bella didn't respond, instead, she stared at the man with appraising eye as she discerned he is of the agile sort on the battlefield all the while Pietra leaned closer towards Bella, and not-so-quietly 'whispered' the identity of the man in front of them.

The smile on Oberyn cracked when he saw Bella roll her eyes at him as she got to know he is a Prince.

After a while ,she politely smiled at him, not minding the disbelieving stares of the dornishmen around, and introduced herself.

"Prince Oberyn, a pleasure to finally meet you." She uttered pleasantly as Oberyn's eye twitched due to knowing full well she was just told his identity but is acting as if she wanted to meet him for ages. "My name is Bellatrix Black and I am one of the Ladies of House Cair, rulers of the Iron Islands."

Both parties, the crew of the Blue Pearl and the dornishmen who came to greet them stared at each other awkwardly, not knowing what to do as ravens, those that Bella made during the cruise, started cawing, increasing the awkwardness.

"Uh, so, wanna see the city?" Oberyn tried to get the conversation flowing but Bella was currently watching her creations flying around, thinking about improvements. When he heard his voice, she turned back to him.

"Did you perhaps say something?" She asked, completely calmly.

The more they interacted the more Ellaria's eyes shadowed at the disrespect shown to her man and she wanted to rip the insolent bitch in front of her apart!

Oberyn rubbed the back of his head, not nearly as annoyed as his beloved woman. He was impressed though. He always knew ironborn are barbarians and pirates but this was a new one. She came into their country for negotiation they initiated and had the guts to completely disregard the prince and even outright ignore him! He had to admit, he was starting to like the woman.

"I asked if you wanted to fight." He smirked, hoping she is that type of ironborn female.

"Oh? Such a hurry to enter an early grave, I see..." Bellatrix impassively said as a raven landed on her outstretched hand and she started stroking its head. Before the prince could give a further reaction, she nodded. "Yes, I will oblige."

"Good." Oberyn said, noting the pitying look the woman in a black robe standing next to his esteemed 'guest' gave him. She clearly thought him a goner which in fact excited him even more and ignited his fighting spirit.

He led the two ironborn... 'ladies', he snorted at the notion that anything ironborn could be ladylike, through the city straight towards the arena. Observing the women, he noticed the self-assured way they carried themselves with, not even an ounce of nervousness appearing on their faces.

They finally reached the arena and Oberyn found himself standing opposite of Bellatrix who was yawning while still playing with her raven. He spun his spear around himself, getting ready for the fight as he watched the unarmed woman in front of him, still baffled she refused any sort of weapon.

By now, he was not sure if she was that sure of herself or that stupid. Neither proved good for the upcoming negotiation though.

He sprang into action, closing the distance and with almost inhuman speed rammed the spear in the direction of her midsection. He had her, he was sure of it. There was just no way she would be able to evade. Not at such close proximity. A pang of guilt at wounding the woman ran through his heart as he watched the tip of the spear closing on her. The closer it got, the more disappointment Oberyn felt. And he was so sure she was not all talk when he looked into her eyes. They had certain steel in them but now... he was not sure anymore.

The spear was a few centimeters away from Bella when she suddenly sidestepped to the left, avoiding the spear by an inch and promptly clenched the shaft in vice-grip. In the real show of what inhuman speed means, she ripped the spear from Oberyn's hold, throwing it away as she snap-kicked the astonished man into the stomach, sending him rolling on the ground.

"Poison... how cute." She sighed as she commented on her observations. "Did you really think coating the tip in such stuff would work?" She slowly closed the distance to the groaning man who couldn't believe the strength of the small woman in front of him. "For a poison to work, you need to hit your target first. That's elementary." Bella said as she crouched down next to him, her hand reaching for him.

In that moment, Oberyn disregarded the pain and his hand grabbed Bella's outstretched arm, yanking it towards himself in an attempt to make her lose balance. Alas, it was not to be.

Bella watched the man trying to push her forward as her eyebrow rose in bemusement.

"Ya know, two years ago I had one really hard close-ranged fight." She started explaining in drawl to the horrified dornishman in front of her as he was just unable to even move her hand an inch. "I found out I am weak. I don't like being weak. Weakness is a sin. Do you know what I did?"

Oberyn, sitting on his ass, still watched the calmly speaking woman as he rubbed his aching belly and gave up. For the first time in his life, he deemed something too much effort to bother. He used his entire strength but she didn't even budge.

He knew when to accept a defeat. She was just too fast and strong, clearly knowing he used poisons. Even if he was not currently rolling in the dust without a weapon... what could he actually do against that?

"You got stronger." He lazily replied, smiling, getting a knowing smile in return.

"Get stronger, Prince Oberyn. Maybe next time you will actually make me use more than one hand."

While her words were harsh Oberyn took them as they were meant to be. A challenge. He liked challenges! Oh, he will make sure to make her eat those words someday!

Bella stood up and reached her hand towards him. He smirked, clasping it as she pulled him up.

"I like you." He told her bluntly.

"Forget it, you have no chance. You proved to be a good anti-stress exercise though." Bella mocked childishly, fully aware he didn't mean it that way. Before he was able to retort, she continued. "Lead us to the castle now, Prince. It is time for our little tug-of-words."