Melisandre's words seemed to lower the temperature of the entire room by several degrees.
Stannis stared at her, his gloomy eyes filled with confusion and suppressed fury.
"Flames?"
"I've already sacrificed Shireen! What more do you want?!"
He had already made the greatest sacrifice he could!
He had offered his only daughter, that poor child, as a sacrifice!
And this woman still wasn't satisfied!
"That was merely the spark."
Melisandre shook her head.
Her face held the pity of someone who saw through mortal ignorance.
"Prince Shireen's life flame merely lit the candle of the miracle."
"But the power that will truly make the flames burn, turning them into an inferno that consumes everything, comes from you, my lord."
She took a step toward Stannis, fanaticism burning in her red eyes.
"I need your life flame."
"The king's seed."
Stannis froze.
The king's seed?
He was no fool. Of course he understood what those words meant.
For the first time, his rigid face twisted with shock.
He instinctively stepped back, as though the woman before him were some venomous fiend.
"You want me to... with you?"
His voice was filled with incredulous disgust.
He might have believed in her dark magic, but that didn't mean he could accept bedding this woman of unknown origins!
"No."
Melisandre's expression did not change.
Her body belonged only to the true prince foretold in the Lord of Light's prophecy.
Unfortunately, Stannis was not that prince.
"My king, you misunderstand."
"Not with me."
As though she had seen through his thoughts, Melisandre continued.
"For the miracle to descend, a body must serve as a furnace."
"A furnace that can hold the king's fire and nurture it into form."
She turned toward the stern-faced woman at the door, whose eyes blazed with fanaticism.
"Queen Selyse is