“Oh fuck me,” I cursed. “Fuck me, fuck me, fuck me.”

Jaime—no, she gave me an airy laugh. “I believe we have already been through that, my prince.”

I scuttled away on the dusty ground, my mouth screwing up in distaste. “Don’t say that. Don’t fucking say that.” I picked Lightbringer from where I’d dropped it and kept the sword between me and her.

Immediately, Jaime’s eyes lit up like red stars with awe and reverence. His right hand, the one who I was sure was made of gilded steel not a minute ago, reached tentatively, but I took another step back. “My apologies,” she said easily. It was Jaime’s voice alright, but it came out… smoother, more polished, with a drawl to it that told the truth of the matter. “It is just… it is truly it—the Red Sword of Heroes.”

I found myself growling. “Enough about the stupid sword. How are you here? I put a sword through your heart. I saw you turn to dust and ash. How…”

Her smile returned, all suggestions and no certainty. “You seemed well acquainted with the Lord’s Ruby when you were inside me, my prince.”

I winced. “Stop! Stop saying that when you’re in this body,” I said, trying to find the composure I must have lost when I started swallowing fire like an idiot. I stood up straighter. “Now tell me, if I’m truly your prince. How are you alive? Just… how?”

“It is as I said. The ruby is powerful, my prince, a priceless relic of age’s past. As far as I know, only three were made—forged with fire and blood in the bowels of the first red temple. If one knows how, it can be used to achieve great feats of power and magic. I have used it, as have many of my order before me. But to put it on your sword without being a priest of the Lord... I didn’t think anyone could be so bold, though I suppose ignorance often makes up for that.”

I grimaced. Perhaps that hadn’t been my brightest idea. “I didn’t think it was a bloody horcrux,” I muttered, and though I hated to admit it, it did sound a terrible lot like whining.

One blond eyebrow rose. “A what?”

I shook my head. Focus, damn it. “It doesn’t matter. So your… consciousness, or soul or spirit or whatever—it was within the ruby. That is what gave it power? Why the sword took to flames when I fed blood to it?”

Another easy laugh escaped her. “Oh, my soul was the least powerful aspect of my Lord’s Ruby, my prince. Its great power was the reason I could attach the core of my being to it, like an anchor keeping me from moving past the world of the living.” She looked at the sword again, her eyes focused on the ruby, and suddenly it was as if a flood of wonder washed over her. Jaime’s whole body shivered, and his face was lit up with emotion.

“But it doesn’t matter,” she trilled. “The ruby does only what R’hllor allows and wishes. It could have twisted your mind as it wished, or broken you until you were left a puppet with its strings cut, drool leaking out of your mouth. Only… only it didn’t.” At once, Jaime slid out of the table and fell to his knees. “You truly are the prince who was promised, Tommen Baratheon. Azor Ahai come again. The Lord’s Chosen.”

There was a patch of silence in the room, and I swallowed the dryness in my mouth. The Azor Ahai part seemed simple enough, as I had gone to great pains to butt my way into the prophecies. But for all I knew from the books and show, Melisandre’s ruby was a focus to her power, or a simple gem holding the magic that kept her youthful body charm up in place. And souls… I’d never heard of souls being mentioned as anything more than religious allegory in this world. To think that it was a real thing, that it held real power...

“You talked of souls, just now,” I said, clearing my throat. This had suddenly sparked a question in my mind—a question about myself. “What is it? Does it have any use? Explain it to me.”

“What do you think powered the spell to anchor my soul to this new body?” she asked rhetorically. “There’s no power in the flesh and bones of men, my prince. The outlaws you offered to the flames tonight, it was their souls my lord took as payment.”

“And could a soul be placed in a body, like I did yours with Jaime’s?”

Jaime found his feet again, and Melisandre seemed to consider the question for a moment. “Those are not unasked questions, my prince, but they are unanswered,” she said after a while. “However, it is believed the soul can only be changed or manipulated with the true God’s influence… it is not something men alone can deal with.”

I frowned, feeling Lightbringer weighing down my already exhausted arms. That only raised more questions in my mind. Did it mean a god had brought me to this world? And which one? Was it the Red God specifically? He was the one giving me power, apparently, so it would make sense. But for what purpose? Thinking about it brought a bitter taste to my mouth. R’hllor was supposedly in an eternal conflict with the Great Other, which meant I would be stuck in a tug of war between entities beyond my comprehension.

This feeling of impotent anger was like a punch to the gut, and I had to take a breath to calm myself. I had no wish to be the plaything of gods, and a thousand questions for the witch sprang to mind. But they could wait. For now, I had the favored heir of my Hand to inquire about.

“I see,” I said, putting the sword away. I didn’t wish to antagonize her before getting all my answers. “Tell me, Lady Melisandre. Is he… is Jaime still there?”

Before I could get a word out of her, Jaime slumped back on the table, his muscles completely relaxing. My hand went to the pommel of the sword I’d just sheathed. As soon as he was gone though, he was back. Jaime jumped to his feet, gulping air like a dying man. His hands flew up and started desperately touching his hair and nose and mouth.

“Jaime?” I tried.

When he looked at me, his eyes were green as jade stones. “It really happened,” he breathed out, seeming to calm down. He held both hands in front of him, clenching and unclenching fingers.

I watched him carefully. “So it did,” I said. Qyburn had already created a vampire with his crazy experiments, I didn’t want to add on with some kind of fire-bending zombie. I kept one hand close to Lightbringer.

On the table, Jaime’s mind seemed to be a thousand miles away before he suddenly asked, “What’s this about you fucking her?” He looked at me as if I was crazy. “Do you even know how old she is? The bitch is ancient.”

I snorted. That was the first thing he asked me after coming back from the dead? “And you fucked your own sister,” I said. “So I think we’re quite even. Besides, there was a purpose for it, too. How do you think I was able to pull this off?”

“Pure luck, I’d guess, given the conversation you just had,” said Jaime, lips twitching up into a cat-like smirk.

That was a Lannister smirk if I’d ever seen one. I doubted even someone like Melisandre could pick up his mannerisms this quickly. “You can listen in on her?” I asked. If he could, then so could she.

Jaime made a pained expression. “It’s… strange. We share the body, and the mind as well. I can listen to her thoughts, jumbled as they are in my end. And she can hear mine too.”

That was good. Jaime wouldn’t betray me, and he would’ve known if Melisandre was lying when she called me her prince. “Can you talk with her right now?”

“I—” he paused for a moment, scowling. “Yes, it seems I can.”

I nodded. That could come to be useful. “Well… It’s good to have you back, ser. I’m just glad I won’t have to face Tywin Lannister without his precious baby boy.”

Jaime laughed humorlessly. “Aye, he might’ve just become the second Lannister kingslayer.”

We shared another hollow laugh at the stupid joke, and the room soon turned quiet again. Jaime just sat there, looking down at the ground. And I didn’t blame him. Death took a toll on a man.

Outside, I heard a horse’s clip-clop hoofbeats pass near the window. Night was fully upon us by now, and I had a city to go back to. And that meant...

“Perhaps we can start making use of Lady Melisandre’s vast experience, dear father,” I said, and Jaime perked up. “Because we will soon have to figure out how to explain your return to life to some thirty men who just watched you die.”