## **Chapter 6: The Curse's Slow Claim**
**20th Day of the 7th Moon, 284 AC**
**Roadside Camp, Northern Wolfswood**
Firelight clawed at the dark, casting Vaelen's shadow long and jagged across the pine-needled earth. His breath rasped shorter now than last summer's endless days—each inhale a labored pull against ribs that felt like splintered oak. Kneeling by the dying campfire, he watched embers pulse like dying stars. Black veins snaked faint up his forearms, **Solvarin curse etched in flesh**—roots of old blood pushed too far. The crimson shard hung cool and heavy beneath his tunic, **family sentinel** that would blaze red only when true horrors stirred.
One year since Jaime's blade kissed Mad King's spine. Robert's "peace" rang hollow here—Riverlands refugees clogged trails like clotting blood, Ironborn axes flashing coastal nightmares. Wolfswood wolves howled closer nightly, starvation twisting them feral. Solvarin wagons ground north through it all, mending broken crofts, but Vaelen's body screamed the cost: **Dance footwork**, their blood-born gift of lightning reflexes and iron endurance, carved payment in black veins.
**Last night burned fresh.** Frostbrook's twin stream glittered moon-silver when three shadowcats ghosted from pines—skeletal flanks heaving, eyes like cursed jade. They'd circled a refugee family's fire: mother shielding twin daughters, father coughing blood-fever. Vaelen exploded from shadows—**Solvarin speed turning boots to whispers**, sword a silver blur. First cat's throat opened mid-pounce; second fled yelping, third mauled his calf before dagger found spine. Camp saved, but dawn revealed fresh vein-forks creeping wrist-to-elbow.
Mara's warning echoed: *"Old blood calls old darkness.*" The crofter witch-woman had thrust nettle-poultice into his palm three moons past, eyes hard as flint. *"Rest that Dance, wanderer. Or it'll plant you permanent 'neath Wolfswood roots."*
Raen split kindling nearby—**ten winters carved lean muscle from road-stone.** Hatchet bit clean through pine, chips flying like startled birds. War's shadow hardened him: Elia's murdered babes, Stark banners blood-crusted home. No more throne-talk; only survival: *"Wolves quarter-mile west?"* *"Salt pork feeds twenty refugees?"* Vaelen watched axe-rise, axe-fall—**chest knifed by time's theft**, not curse.
**"Lad."** Gravel-voice cracked fire's snap. Raen dropped hatchet mid-swing, blade biting earth. Three strides closed gap, eyes hawk-sharp.
"Father?" Knelt close. Sweat gleamed boy's brow despite frostbite air; scanned Vaelen's ashen face, unnatural sheen.
Vaelen yanked sleeve. Black veins forked forearm like lightning-cracks in marble. **"Curse payment for Dance. Our blood moves faster than men—Solvarins fought Long Night so. Push limits..."** Pressed Raen's palm to chest—**shard cool as river-stone.** *"Speed costs. Time runs dry."* Rib-stab hitched breath. **"Teach faster."** [1]
Raen's fist knotted bone-white. Fire spat ember onto his knuckles—unnoticed. **"Beat it. Like shadowcats."**
Vaelen's laugh scraped pain-raw. **"Some shadows bite back. Steel first. *Control* blood."**
**Hoofbeats *thundered* pines**—three riders burst clearing, ponies foam-flecked. Mara's kin: salt-beard leader, two axe-scarred brothers. *"Vaelen! Ironborn butchered White Harbor trail! Refugees marooned Frostbrook ford—swollen red, wolves ripping wounded! Women cradling dead babes!"*
Raen snatched practice sword. Vaelen lurched upright, branch cracking under grip. **"Wheels. *Now.* Lead."**
**Chaos ignited.** Raen hitched mules blur-fast; wagons groaned alive. Crofters flanked torch-bright, plunging moonless trail. Vaelen white-knuckled rails—**veins throbbed jolt-to-jolt**, blood shrieking *rest*. But smallfolk screams clawed mind: Ironborn axes thirsting. Wolfswood clawed back—branches lashed, mud sucked wheels. Moonrise crowned Frostbrook's roar.
**Ford bled murder.** Torrent foamed crimson, mud-island cradling fifteen souls—sodden, hollow-eyed. Ironborn floated facedown, axes tangled limbs like iron seaweed. Opposite bank: **three wildling wolves**, monstrous—blue eyes *wrong*, skinchanger-claimed. Woman rocked bleeding boy; elder's prayers drowned in sobs. [2]
**"Raen—*left flank! Torch blaze!"** Vaelen waded ice-death current, sword high. Wolves *launched*—**fur-shadows, fangs starlight.**
Raen skidded bank-right, ripped crofter torch. **"Our blood *holds*!"** Swept low—first wolf *shrieking*, fur inferno. Second exploded from water at Vaelen—**claws shredded cursed arm, black-red spray.**
*White agony detonated.* Vision tunneled. Vaelen twisted mid-fall—**Dance footwork steel-measured**, jaw cleaved to spine. Third bolted, tail flame.
Refugees chain-linked shallows, crofter-fire guiding. Boy's leg tourniquet-tight; woman collapsed bank-sobbing. **"Wanderers... gods wept you came."*
Vaelen sagged wheel-hub, breath forge-bellows. Veins clawed elbow—no further. **Discipline held curse leashed.** Raen shouldered close, face ghost-pale. **"Father—"
**"Clean work,"** Vaelen steel-snapped. **"Dance measured—no wild blood-rage. *That's* control."*
**Dawn wagons growled north**, refugee-string trailing safe. Vaelen fur-wrapped wagon-bottom, fever-sleep fractured by wolf-howls. Raen reins iron-steady, scanning every pine-slit shadow. Veins stalled collarbone; breath steadied.
**Noon thicket-halt.** Vaelen hauled upright, death-grip on boy's arm. *"Hear this."* Shard drawn—crimson dull, inert. **"I fall—you take it. Hide deep. Dance runs *blood-to-blood*."*
Raen eyes brimmed fury. **"Won't. *Teach everything.*"**
**"Now."** Grip bruised. **"Sword shields flesh. Blood shields dawn. Long Night hunts *all*—protect hearths first. Smallfolk birth the prince."*
Crofter-elder shuffled bread-fish tribute. *"Skinchanger wolves? Haunted Forest whispers: ice-dead *walk*."*
Vaelen faint-nod. **"Shadows muster. Steel first."*
**Night clawed cold.** Vaelen hacked rag-clear—no blood mercy. Raen fire-vigil: arrow-whittling hands steady, replaying fight—torch-arc, claw-rake, father's killing twist. Rhaenys' ghost-laughter mingled Lira's grave-wind.
**Two years. Maybe one.** Curse crawled slow when chained. **Solvarin fire leaped father-son—shadows *denied*.**
**Wagons devoured dark.** Wolfswood hissed defiance. [1][2]
***