Posted originally on the Archive of Our Own at https://archiveofourown.org/works/14907074.

Rating: Explicit
Archive Warning: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Category: F/M
Fandom: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, A Song of Ice and Fire
& Related Fandoms, Game of Thrones (TV)
Relationship: Jon Snow/Daenerys Targaryen, Jon Snow & Daenerys Targaryen,
Jaime Lannister/Brienne of Tarth
Character: Daenerys Targaryen, Jon Snow (Jaehaerys Targaryen), Ghost
(ASoIaF), Arya Stark, Arthur Dayne, Oswell Whent, Original
Characters, Ned Stark, Maester Aemon, Jaime Lannister, Brienne of
Tarth, Barristan Selmy, Viserys Targaryen, Illyrio Mopatis, Original
House Blackfyre Character(s), Wyman Manderly, Maege Mormont,
Howland Reed, Euron Greyjoy, Willam Dustin, Kinvara (Game of
Thrones)
Additional Tags: R plus L equals J, Jon Snow knows something, and plays no games,
No Beta, Jonerys, Ned Stark Lives, no Rickon, Essos, Further East,
Beyond the Bone Mountains, two-handed Jaime, Dragons, Fluff &
Gore, Wars, and then more Wars, essence, Magic, Lore?, The Old
Gods (ASoIaF), New Gods, Warging, Alternate Universe - Canon
Divergence, Mass Death, Destruction, magic heavy, Fantasy
Series: Part 2 of Ice and Fire Universe
Stats: Published: 2018-06-11 Updated: 2018-10-19 Chapters: 5/? Words:
73634

Ice and Fire

by Jujux

Summary

The magic is back in the world and terrible things come with it.

Wars as old as time. Old versus New. Light fighting Darkness. Ice against Fire.

And the realm of men trying to survive in the middle of it all.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Jaehaerys Targaryen is born a few days earlier and he's raised by the Kingsguard.

Notes
Ok, so first I would like to say that I chose the Explicit rating mainly because of
swearing(there is going to be a lot of it!) and violence. I haven't decided on smut, I might
write some, surely it can't be worse than "Fat Pink Mast".

My Jon/Jaehaerys is based mainly on the book Jon, I also decided to give him Rhaegar's
eyes, just so people won't doubt his parentage. He's also no white knight.

I know the title sucks, but it fits really well, as you will find out when the story unfolds, so
I decided to go with it.

PLEASE BE ADVISED THAT IN THIS UNIVERSE ESSOS IS BEHIND

WESTEROS A FEW YEARS. BASICALLY DANY AND VISERYS ARE ON
THE RUN A FEW MORE YEARS BEFORE ILLYRIO FINDS THEM.
 Let them see us

THE INVISIBLE WOLF - CASTLE BLACK

It was another useless day at Castle Black. Cold and colorless, just like his cursed life. This was a
fate worse than death, to know that because of him all his family was dead and he was stuck in
this useless place.

He deserved it, the Old Gods take him, he deserved it all. It all happened because of him because
he decided to leave Winterfell and go South even if everybody knew that wolves didn't do well
below The Neck.

Actually, it all started 20 years ago, when he insisted his beautiful and wild sister to wed his great
friend Robert.

When he was younger he was always the child that nobody paid any attention to, the Invisible
Wolf they called him. Brandon was the heir, everybody loved him, the wolf blood was strong in
him, wild and living his life at it’s fullest, but never making time for him.

Lyanna was the jewel of Winterfell, wild and untamed, always doing what she thought was best,
practicing swordplay with Brandon and Benjen, riding through the Wolfswood, once they even
caught her joining one of his father’s hunts in disguise.

There was also Benjen, with 1 year between them, he and Lya were thick as thieves, it was like
there were twins. Always getting into some mischief or another. Once their mother almost had a
heart attack catching them climbing on the Broken Tower. Little Lyanna looked confused at her
mother’s scolding, she nonchalantly told Lady Lyarra that they were playing “Spiders”, and
spiders never fall.

And then there was him, he had nothing special, he didn’t have Brandon’s love for life or Lya and
Benjen’s sense of adventure. He was just plain old Ned, an old child, always brooding, rarely
talking, too shy to say anything, so at some point people just started ignoring him. It’s like he
became part of Winterfell’s furniture, people just forgot he was there. The Invisible Wolf indeed.

Then his father decided to foster him at the Vale, under Jon Arryn, the Warden of the East himself
and everything changed. He met Robert Baratheon, heir to the Stormlands. A cheery fellow, in
many ways he reminded him of his brother Brandon, a man that liked to live his life. A man who,
for some reason, considered Ned his best friend. So under Robert’s wing, the Invisible Wolf
suddenly was in the heart of every party, everybody loved Robert and his cheerful disposition and
by extension they loved him. He even developed a less gloomy personality. He finally got the
attention that he hasn't realized he was wanting.

Of course, now that his head was finally out of his arse, he realized that people didn’t care about
him, they just acted friendly towards him to get in Robert’s good graces, the Stormlands heir, and
the King’s cousin.

He was a stupid child, who grew up to be an even more stupid man.

When his father came to visit Lord Arryn and brought Lyanna with him, Robert, like every man
with two working eyes quickly fell in love with her.
Then the idea struck him: what would be better than his best friend being married to his sister, they
would be true brothers then. When he told his father, he quickly agreed, although Starks rarely
married outside the North. And after that, he announced Brandon’s betrothal to Catelyn. He hasn't
realized it then, since he was too happy that Robert would be his brother, but now it’s easy to see
that his father, Hoster Tully and Lord Arryn were preparing for a rebellion. And they brought Lya
to the Vale, to throw her in Robert’s path and also get the Stormlands on their side.

If he was a different man, he would have probably admired their plan, with these moves they
managed to tie four of the seven kingdoms together.

And then there were the Westerlands, and everybody knew Tywin’s hatred towards the Mad King
after he took away his heir and he rejected his daughter for Queen. So they could count on Tywin
at least staying away from the fighting, if not joining them.

Of course, young stupid Ned was very happy with this, his sister marrying his best friend and
being the lady of the Stormlands even after Lyanna told him repeatedly that she didn’t want to
marry Robert, who was, even back then, well known for his carousing and whoring. But he
assured her that she would come to love him, after all, how could anybody not love Robert?

And then it all went to shit.

Lyanna being Lyanna and seeing that nobody listened to her, decided to take her fate in her own
hands and ran away. Everybody thought that she was kidnapped, they were all enraged. He
couldn’t even remember who started the rumor, maybe it was his father, ashamed by his
daughter's disappearance, maybe it was Robert angry at her rejection. Benjen repeatedly tried
telling everyone that Lya was not a woman to be taken against her will by any man, Crown Prince
or not, but the hot head that was Brandon quickly rode to King’s Landing to demand justice
against Rhaegar, sealing his and his father’s fate.

After that it was out of their hands and the rebellion happened. Almost a year of constant fighting,
tens of thousands of lives lost. And for what, to swap a mad King for a useless one.

The war ended with Brandon and his father dead, but he still had hopes of finding Lyanna, Lord
Varys told him she might be in Dorne, at the Tower of Joy. With Robert hurt in the war and their
friendship hanging a thin thread after the murder of Princess Elia and her children, he decided to
go alone with his men to find his sister and take her home and promised himself never to see the
cursed South again.

When he got to the Tower, it was burned down, he still remembered the huge relief he felt when
there were no bodies in the ruins.

But his world came crashing down when he got to Winterfell after a few moons and found Lya’s
body waiting for him.

It truly broke him, he spent his first week in the cripts in front of her tomb, the only thing that
came out of his mouth was “I’m sorry” over and over, poor Catelyn probably thought she married
a madman. Eventually, his beloved Cat managed to bring him back by bringing Robb to the cripts
and showing him that he still had reasons to live.

His little brother took it even worse, he stopped talking altogether. A couple of moons after that he
went missing one morning, all they found was one letter saying that he would join the Night
Watch.

They questioned the men that brought Lya’s body back, of course, and all they got was that they
were paid handsomely by some men to bring her to Winterfell, they said it was her wish to be
buried in the cripts with her family. She was the only woman to be buried there.

After that he went back to being the Invisible Wolf, but since he was a Lord now, people couldn’t
call him that anymore, so they called him the Quiet Wolf.

And did he keep his promise never to go South? Of course not! And now his family was all dead
or lost and he was stuck in this God forsaken place, the Old Gods didn’t even find him worthy to
grant him death so he could finally rest in peace.

Castle Black was a particular place, nothing like he imagined. He used to think it was a proud
castle, one that could resist any siege from the other side of the Wall, filled with honorable people
with one purpose in mind - to protect the realm.

But the truth was that it was a crumbling castle, old and soulless, just like the people that inhabited
it. It was a place that sucked all the joy and light from your life. In a way, when you had to choose
between death and the Night Watch, you didn’t know it then, but you chose between the death of
your body and the death of your soul.

He knew what he would choose now if he had another chance.

The only solace he could find in this place were his talks with Maester Aemon. The master was a
fountain of knowledge and good advice. He tried to make time every evening, after his duties
were done, to read to him from the rich Castle Black library. The irony didn’t escape him, a
Targaryen and a Stark stuck together in a crumbling castle at the end of the world. It was more
likely to be some tasteless mummer’s play than his current reality, but here he was.

The sound of a horn shook him out of his usual musing. Grenn, one of the guys there, who
seemed to see himself as his personal steward let him know that a supply caravan was there. It was
weird, after Old Bear’s Mormont death, everybody seemed to have some kind of a silent
agreement that he was their leader, well, everybody except him. But he couldn’t turn them down
since he was the most suited for the position, so, until the next elections, he found himself stuck in
the unofficial position of Lord of Castle Black.

Grenn told him that the Old Bear used to send letters to the Lords for aid when the provisions
were low, but not many responded. He remembered these letters well, and the Starks historically
always donated to The Watch, since they founded it, but now he realized that whatever he sent
here, wasn’t nearly enough, especially since the other Lords were reluctant to send supplies.

He’s been here for almost six moons and he hasn’t sent any letters and he doubted any of the men
did, so who could be sending provisions? Since the Boltons were now Wardens of the North, was
it them? It could only be them. A feeling of shame washed over him, even the backstabbing
Boltons showed more compassion to these men than he did.

But as the main gate opened, it wasn’t a Bolton man the came in ahead of the caravan. This man
was unlike any other man he ever saw, a little man, maybe around 5 feet tall, with small eyes,
furled in so many furs that he looked round. And on his head, he had a funny looking fur hat with
what appeared to be a tail at its back.

Even in his confusion he couldn’t help noticing the mood in the castle was considerably lighter
and it looked as if everyone bar blind Master Aeomon was in the yard. Did they knew this man?
In a high pitched voice and a light eastern accent the man said: “I see you bastards are still lazy as
ever!”

“Fuck off, Wheng!” he heard Ser Allister shout from the back, with something that he was sure
was an attempt of a smile on his face but ended being more of a grimace. The man was not made
for smiles, it was a horrific sight. Maybe when the Night King would attack, they could put
Thorne in front of The Wall and make him laugh. If one of his smiles looked like that, a full laugh
would send the wights running for another 8000 years at least.

Their guest seemed to have also noticed this so-called smile.

“Is that a smile on your face, Ser Allister, or is my mind playing tricks on me from all this cursed
cold? Don’t play games with me, Ser, if I tell the King that I saw you smile, he might have my
head for lying to my monarch!” a wave of laughter filled the yard.

“How is the King?” Allister asked. King? What king? Did the Lannisters send this man? He
doubted that, with Thorne’s well know hatred for them.

“He’s fine, Ser, come, help me unload all this, my men are frozen!” looking behind Wheng he
saw that there were around 50 men around the 10 carts in the yard now, all of them clad in fur,
like their leader. They must be guarding the convoy because all of them wore swords and spears.
The front cart had a few barrels on it and the others were filled with what it looked like sacks of
flour. Whatever it was, it was more than welcome. Whoever the fuck this King was, he had his
gratitude.

“You know, I sailed the Shivering Sea to the Lands of Ice once, and it wasn’t half as cold and this
fucking place. Where is Lord Mormont?”

Grenn answered before anybody else “He died, Lord Stark is in charge now.”. The little man
looked confused so he stepped forward, he wasn’t officially in charge, but there was no point
denying it, somebody had to take responsibility.

“I am sorry to hear about the Old Bear, he was a great man. It’s nice to meet you, Lord Stark, I
don’t remember seeing you here before,” the man said, offering his hand.

“I joined only 6 moons back.”

“What about Master Aemon, is he well? Lord Stark, I am here with supplies for the Watch from
my King, who is the good Master’s nephew.”. Viserys? Well, the man in front of him finally made
sense, he was some kind of Essosi native. But why would Viserys send supplies to the Watch?
The rumors in King’s Landing was that Viserys was as mad as his father, or was that also a rouse?
Did Varys and the other spies only said it only to make Robert angrier, or to force him to send
assassins? Surely a madman wouldn’t bother sending provisions to the end of the world. He
would have to talk with Aemon later.

“Hey, Wheng, what’s in those barrels?” one of the men shouted from the top of the stairs.

“You know, some of that orange sweet wine Maester Aemon likes so much...” the disappointment
in the yard was palpable, what did these guys expect? Arbor fucking Gold? He could barely stop
himself from rolling his eyes.

The man they called Wheng couldn’t stop his laugh, though. “Ah, I forgot to say that that’s only
one barrel, the other three are filled with fire-water, to get some heat in those miserable bones of
yours”. The men’s cheer was ridiculous, he hasn’t heard such a loud cheer since they won the
rebellion. Fire-water, he remembered Robert receiving a small barrel as a gift from Braavos once,
he was drunk for one whole week. He didn’t want to share a single drop with anybody, that was
some expensive drink, Viserys must have been very rich to afford such a gift. This only confused
him more, in King’s Landing they used to call him the Beggar King. Beggar my arse!

“My king only asks for one thing. Don’t drink it on top of the wall, he said that it’s impossible to
find a man as lazy as you bastards from Castle Black to Asshai, to replace you if you fall.”

As expected, all he got in response was a choir of groans and “Fuck off, Wheng!”.

“Lord Stark, I would appreciate some warm rooms for me and my men, we are going to rest today
and leave tomorrow at first light.”

“Of course! Grenn, find these men some rooms!” Grenn was only too happy to comply.

THE DRAGON - PENTOS

Daenerys loved mornings. Sitting here, on her soft fluffy bed with the Pentos rays of sunshine
making their way gently through her window was one of the few times she actually felt like a
Princess. She and her brother have been here for almost a year now and this was the most content
she's been since their house with the red door in Braavos.

But, like every day, her reality slowly crept over her. She was to be married in less than two
weeks to Khal Drogo, some horselord that would give her brother Viserys an army in return, to
help him win back his throne in Westeros.

Viserys. She still couldn't figure out what happened to him. From the sweet brother who used to
bring her favorite strawberry cakes every time he went to the market when they lived in Braavos,
the brother that didn't eat for days when they were on the run, because there wasn't enough food
for both of them and he didn't want her to be hungry, to this unstable man who complains about
everything, acts like he's owned the world and sells his only sister to some savage rapist and
pillager.

She didn't know him anymore, the more she thought about it, the more she realized that the old
Viserys was long gone, all that was left was this man who could only be described as mad. Well,
it seemed only fitting, considering that people always liked to whisper around them that
Targaryens always danced a little too close to madness, whatever that meant.

Only thing Viserys cared about these days was to be King. King in a place from where they ran
17 years ago to save their lives. He wanted it so much that he was sending his only living kin to
marry and live among the savages for the rest of her life.

But what could she do, she was just a girl, a stupid, short and ugly girl and nobody else would
want her, like Viserys always liked to remind her. If she was more beautiful maybe some Lord
from Westeros would have wanted her and she could go home and didn’t have to marry that
Dothraki.

But, at the end of the day Viserys was her King and if he decided she would go to the horselord,
there was nothing she could do but obey.
She tried to beg him not to send her away, but the only thing she got in return was a swollen lip,
so she learned to keep her thoughts to herself. The last thing Dany wanted was to wake the
Dragon in her brother.

With a sigh she went out on her balcony for a little more peace and quiet before the usual
breakfast with her brother and Illyrio, where no doubt she'd have a sore neck from nodding to all
of her brother's stories. The same old stories of what he would do once he was King and how he
would punish the Usurper and his dogs...

He seemed to be more unstable every day and it's gotten much worse since a big army and a fleet
appeared outside of Pentos a few days ago. Everybody was talking about it, from the Prince of
Penthos himself to the last scullery maid.

Everyone in the manse was on the edge. Dany didn't know much about war, but even she realized
that they could easily sack the city. Myr was sacked a few moons back by sellswords and Pentos
didn't even have an army, the only protection they had were the Unsullied and the sellswords
hired by the Magisters for personal protection. And they would be no match for a full-scale army.

Daenerys was not unused to violence, for many years she and her brother were running from the
Usurper’s assassins, hiding in shady places, it was inevitable to come across some violence, but a
war, that wasn't something she cared to see. Dany heard that when cities were sacked, women are
either raped or sold into slavery. Compared to that, even living among the Dothraki, eating horse
meat and drinking fermented horse milk for the rest of her life looked like a better option.
Although not by much, if she was being honest.

She has been trying lately to find any good things about her future marriage and the only thing she
could think of was that she would get away from Viserys. But was it an improvement to belong to
a savage horselord than to belong to Viserys? She didn’t know, although both options made the
bile in her throat rise.

Sitting on her balcony she saw Illirio enjoying the morning in the garden beneath her.

He was a weird one, for almost a year he didn't get involved between her and her brother, every
time he hit her he just looked the other way. The cheesemonger always pretended nothing was
wrong when she had a black eye or a split lip.

But in the last few days, he always stepped in when he saw Viserys' temper flaring and whenever
he wasn't around there would always be one of his guards in her proximity ready to intervene.
Most likely he just didn't want to send her to the Dothraki with a black eye. She must not appear
weak in front of the Dothraki, because it’s unlikely that such savages would want a weak wife.

As she was considering all this, a large man, almost as fat as Illyrio, entered the garden. He was
dressed in bright silks and had a long yellow oiled beard. Daenerys recognized him as one of the
guests that sometimes came for dinner, he was the Prince of Pentos.

She leaned in to hear better.

"I met him today, he will be coming soon,” the Prince said "you know what he wants”
"Did he make any threats?”

The Prince looked uneasy: "No, but he made it clear that he will take her, no matter what. I was
also strongly advised not to help and to discourage any plan you might have to smuggle her out of
the city, his army is checking every one leaving, so that would have been fruitless in any case.

"I don't care about your business, but you need to give her up. I don't want to see this city burned
to the ground and I certainly don't want to have my throat slit to appease the Gods. I assume she is
still here?”

"Yes,” Illyrio answered with a sigh.

"And she is unharmed? Because I am pretty sure that he wouldn't take it lightly if she was hurt in
any way?” the Prince sounded uneasy, almost scared.

"You're the one to talk, didn't you want her as your Maid of the Seas this year?” she could hear
Illyrio’s annoyance in his voice.

"Yes, and thank the Gods I didn’t have her. I hope, for your own good that she is unharmed?”
The prince asked.

"Of course she is unharmed, I watched over her...”

A maid came at this time and told her they were ready to break their fast so she couldn't listen
anymore. She wondered who this woman was. She must have been quite a woman if someone
was prepared to sack a city for her.

Some time back, she dreamed of handsome Knights and Princes coming and taking her away to
their castle, saving her from Viserys, but those were stupid girly dreams that only happened in
those books she liked to sneak in her room and read when she was alone. She learned the hard
way that real life was not rainbows and sunshine.

THE INVISIBLE WOLF - CASTLE BLACK

He didn’t have time to talk with the Essosi or with Maester Aemon because he was on watch duty
on top of the Wall, but at least he had time to think.

Not for the first time he realized that he knew nothing, he lived in a world of his own making that
had nothing in common with the real world and it all came down on him. He supposed he should
not be surprised that things were not how he thought, Viserys, a man that Westeros knew as the
Beggar King and as mad as his father did more for the Watch than the whole Seven Kingdoms
combined and he was over the fucking Narrow Sea.

And Beggar King? He couldn’t help releasing a snort, no Beggar King could afford to send all
those supplies. Rice and coals, even strong drink so that the Black Brothers could warm
themselves. The evening meal was the best he had in some time, boiled rice with some beans
called soy that tasted like meat. And some fire-water to wash it down and warm his frozen bones.
That was a meal worthy of a Lord, not a brother of The Watch.
Would Viserys be a good King? Surely he couldn’t be worse than whatever Lannister sat on the
Iron Throne now. And the Targaryen certainly had more claim than some Lannister bastard.

He finally finished his duties and had time to get some more information. Unfortunately, the
Essosi traders were already gone by then, so he made his way to the Maester’s tower.

He found Maester Aemon in a cheery disposition, sipping some of that orange wine he apparently
liked so much.

“I see you’re enjoying some of that sweet wine your nephew sent you, good Maester!”

Aemon didn’t seem surprised to hear him come in. “Ah, Lord Stark, I was wondering when you
will come. I have to say that I do enjoy this wine. We old people are nothing more than children
with wrinkled skin and bad knees, the older we get, the more we enjoy the little pleasures of life.

“I’m lucky to still have somebody out there who cares about me enough to sent me these little
treats. What can I do for you, my Lord?”

He didn’t know how to start this conversation, how could he tell this man, who obviously loved
his nephew, that he sat there in Robert’s council, listened to them plan on killing him and his sister
and he didn’t do anything about it?

He decided to start safely: “So, judging by the reaction of the Black Brothers, this isn’t the first
food shipment your nephew sent?”

For some reason the Maester seemed to frown at his question. “My nephew… yes. He visited here
a few years back and since then every year or so, we get one of these shipments,” he answered in
an awed voice.

He couldn’t hide the surprise from his voice. “He visited Castle Black?” That was quite a risk to
take with an army of assassins on his trail. It was quite funny in a way, Robert searching for them
all over Essos and they were here, under his nose.

Aemon couldn’t stop a yellow-toothed smile. “If you are shocked, imagine my surprise. I’ll be
honest with you, Ned, I was ready to go, I was approaching my hundredth name day, I thought
my family was all gone!” A well-known feeling of deep shame washed over him like every time
he thought of the Targaryens, he could only think of the pleased face Robert made when Tywin
presented the bodies of the royal children in front of the court. “And then this boy comes and tells
me he’s my nephew and that he came from the end of the world just to meet me.

“I just couldn’t speak for Gods know how long, then I started crying, the poor boy probably
thought that he crossed the world for a mute and blind old fool!” A chuckle escaped the Maester’s
lips.

“I made a decision then, I would help him in every way I can. Three times I had my duty
questioned and all three times I decided to keep my vows and last time it nearly killed me, I
thought my whole family was gone and I was the last Targaryen left. I was sure the Gods were
just taking their revenge over the centuries we ignored them, all Targaryens dead, except me, the
most useless of all.

"But now I was given another chance and I’m not going to waste it, no matter what it will cost
me,” he stopped to take a breath. “And by the time I have spent with him, I am certain that our
nephew will be one of best Kings that ever lived!” that yellow-toothed smile was back on his face.
Judging by all this new information he had, the old Maester could be right. “You know, Maester
Aemon, in King’s Landing they call him the Beggar King and they say he is mad like his father.”

A look of confusion washed over the old man’s face. “Beggar King?”

“Yes, they say he and his sister were hiding in the Free Cities, begging for food.” Aemon still
looked confused.

“His sister?”

“Yes, Princess Daenerys. Was she here too?” now it was his turn to be confused, but
understanding seemed to settle on the old man’s features.

“Oh, I am pleased to hear that they are still alive, but the supplies came from our mutual nephew,”
his heart must have stopped for sure.

“What?”

“Jaehaerys, your sister’s son,” Aemon said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“What?” Surely he heard it wrong, or maybe all Targaryens were indeed mad.

“You’re starting to sound like Lord Mormont’s crow Lord Stark, if you keep this up you’ll be
asking for corn soon. Jaehaerys Targaryen, the son of Lady Lyanna and Prince Rhaegar.” With a
frown he said: ”Well, I suppose she was a Princess at the end, or maybe even a Queen.”

“What?” He just couldn’t say anything else, thank the Old Gods for the chair near him, because
his legs couldn’t hold him anymore. Lya had a son? Jaehaerys Targaryen, Queen at the end? They
were married.

He must have said it out loud because now Aemon looked really confused. “You didn’t know?”
He could only shake his head, which was not very useful, considering’s Aemon’s condition, be he
couldn’t find his voice.

The old man seemed to understand anyway: “The supplies came from King Jaehaerys, the son of
Rheagar and his second wife Lyanna.”

He couldn’t stop his tears: “So, my father and brother died over a misunderstanding, Benjen told
us and we didn’t listen, he told us that nobody could take her against her will...”

He spent the rest of the day with Aemon, trying to absorb every information he had about his
newfound nephew who might as well be the last of his family. He learned that he was raised in
Essos by Ser Arthur Dayne himself and that he looked very much like his father, only with the
typical Stark long face and Lya’s dark brown hair.

He learned that Jeor Mormont himself gave him his ancestral family sword Longclaw after he
saved his life, if he had any misgivings over his character, that would have erased every one of
them, Jeor was one of the most honorable men he ever met, he would never give his sword to
someone unworthy.

A pang of jealousy rushed through him, it should have been him the one who gave him Ice, to
carry on his ancestors’ legacy. With all his sons dead, what could be better than Lya’s son
wielding Ice? But, like everything dear to him, Ice was lost too.

He also learned other things he had difficulties to believe, but if they were true or not, it didn’t
matter for him, his course was set.
That night, when he got back to his chambers, he promised himself that he would do anything in
his power to help Jaehaerys, not only for his sister but for himself too. He’d rather die a hundred
times, break a thousand vows and shit on his honor in front of the whole world, then let his family
down again!

THE DRAGON - PENTOS

After the maid helped her with the preparations, Dany went out in the courtyard to meet Illyrio
and her brother for breakfast.

The place where they had breakfast every day was her favorite place in the estate. It had a massive
white marble table, surrounded by tall poplar trees that sheltered it from the famous Pentos salty
sea winds. The trees also offered shade at any time of the day, protecting the people sitting at the
table from the hot Pentos sun. Although it didn’t seem to help the Magister that much, he was still
sweating like a boar in heat all the time.

She never saw trees so tall, Illyrio told her brother once that he brought them from Westeros. They
easily reached 50 feet in height. Illyrio’s servants gave these trees sweet water a few times per day.
The trees were Illiryo's pride, he told everyone who listened how he was the only one to have
these kinds of trees in the Free Cities. Dany didn’t know much about trees, but even she couldn’t
help noticing how great they looked and how they inspired awe in every guest Illyrio brought into
this courtyard.

The other thing Illyrio was proud of was his Rainbow Diamond that he always wore around his
neck. These rocks were extremely rare and expensive and became a symbol of prosperity around
Essos. Only the richest of the rich could afford them.

The Rainbow Diamonds had the ability to capture the sunlight in a unique way, making them
sparkle like nothing Daenerys has seen before, it was like having your own personal star. Dany
was sure she has never seen anything so wonderful. .

Illyrio had a red one, the size of a raven egg. She heard that they came in many colors, that’s why
they were named Rainbow Diamonds. It is said they were mined in the Further East, in the lands
of Lizard People, a hundred men losing their lives every day protecting the miners from their
attacks. When in his cups, Viserys liked to tell everyone that when he would get his throne back,
he would only buy Rainbow Diamonds that were larger than a fist.

As expected, only the Magister was seated at the table when she got there, her brother was always
late, he told her that Kings always needed to make an entrance, to allow their subjects to admire
them. Dany thought that was disrespectful to their host, but Illyrio appeared to bore it well enough,
although judging by his size, the Magister wasn’t a man that enjoyed waiting for his food more
than was necessary.
After a few more minutes of awkward silence, her brother finally showed up, sporting a huge grin
on his face. That can’t be good. A feeling of dread washed over her, did the Dothraki come
sooner than expected? Was her brother happy that he was finally getting his army?

Viserys’ shrill voice snapped her out of her musings: “I just heard the most wonderful news!” At
Illiryo’s confused look he continued: “It appears that this army camped outside the city is sporting
the tree headed dragon banners, Targaryen banners!” She was shocked to hear it. What did it
mean?

Viserys appeared to be reading her mind, or maybe she just said it out loud: “It means, of course,
that they came to swear allegiance to their true King!”

Could it be true? Did someone truly raise an army to help them take back their throne? A small
glimmer of hope crept into her hart, if they had an army, maybe she didn’t have to marry Drogo
anymore!

Her hopes were quickly crushed by her brother: “With this army and the army of savages my
sweet sister will get for me, I will have the strongest force in Essos!” he looked more pleased than
Dany ever saw him. It almost sounded too good to be true.

Then she remembered the conversation she overheard before coming to breakfast, that didn’t
sound like they came to help Viserys. Looking at the Magister face and pinched lips, it was clear
that he knew more than he led on.

But why did they have Targaryen banners? Maybe there were some old Valyrian houses in Essos
with similar banners and her brother mistook them for their house’s banners.

“After we finish eating I shall go to them and accept their fealty!”

Illyrio didn’t seem pleased. “Perhaps it’s better to wait for them to come to you. If you are their
King, let them come to you, as all vassals should.”

Viserys seemed pleased with this. “Of course, of course, I am their King after all. Let them come!”

One of the servants appeared from behind the trees, looking out of breath: “Magister, the guests
you expected are here.”

“How many are there?” the cheesemonger asked.

“Five of them came in, but they have a large host at the gates, I would say around two hundred
men.”

An uneasiness settled over Illyrio’s features, Dany could swear that his usual fat red cheeks turned
white. “Of course, of course, bring them here,” he ordered on a shaky voice.

These guests were a weird lot to be sure, there was one Unsullied, dressed in a light leather armor
with the Targaryen seal, another one was the tallest man Dany has ever seen, he looked like a
Dothraki, but had small golden eyes and wore an armor similar to the Unsullied soldier. Fear
consumed her, Were all Dothrakis like this?

Then there was a woman, who looked around 40 name days, tall and slender, still very beautiful,
with olive skin, dark hair and dark eyes. Maybe from Myr or Dorne, she guessed.

There were two more men with them. One with long blond hair and purple eyes, he wore a light
steel armor engraved with the Targaryen seal and a white cloak. He had a greatsword with a big
ruby pommel strapped on his back.
The last man was probably the most beautiful man Dany has ever seen. Tall and lean, dark
shoulder length hair and dark eyes, dressed all in black, except a dark crimson cloak that was fixed
with 2 pins: a white one that looked like a wolf, and white gold dragon pin. He had a long sword
at his hip with a very unusual pommel. A pommel that had a white wolf head with red eyes
opposite to a dragon with blue eyes.

But the thing that attracted Dany’s eyes to him the most was the way he conducted himself, he
walked with purpose and with a quiet confidence that you couldn’t help but admire. That’s how a
King should look like, she couldn’t help thinking.

She couldn’t take her eyes off him and he seemed to have the same problem, his dark eyes boring
into hers, making her flush from head to toe. Luckily a choir of screams pulled her back to earth
before her thoughts sunk into dangerous territory.

From behind the trees, a silent white wolf with red eyes made his appearance. He was the size of a
horse, no wonder that the people in the mansion were scared shitless. The beast paid them no
mind and just strode gracefully towards them, its stark white fur and red eyes that shone like rubies
made him quite a sight. Dany knew she should have been terrified, especially since the beast
seemed to be looking straight at her, but the only thing she felt was awe. It was the most beautiful
animal she has ever seen. How could something look so beautiful and so terrifying at the same
time? It was just unnatural.

The beast strode gracefully to them and settled down at the feet of the leader, who after helping
the lady with her chair, took a seat at their table. She must have missed Illyrio asking them to take
a seat while watching the wolf. She should pay more attention, also she must stop staring at the
dark haired man, before her brother noticed, the last thing she needed was to wake the dragon or
to be sent to her rooms. She found herself having an unnatural curiosity to know these people.
Especially their leader, a small voice said in her head, but she ignored it.

They all looked at their leader, but he seemed only focused on her. After some uncomfortable
silent moments and when it was obvious that the dark haired man won’t say anything, the lady of
the group decided to start talking, looking straight at her: “Princess Daenerys, Prince Viserys,” her
brother scowled at the title but said nothing, he was probably just as curious as her, “Magister
Illyrio, my name is Lady Carmella Whent of Myr, my companions are:” she pointed towards the
huge Dothraki: “Leg of Leng Ma,” her eyes went to the Unsullied: “Greyworm, Commander of
the Unsullied,” then pointing to the Knight with the white cloak: “this is Ser Arthur Dayne,” each
of them gave her a polite nod but paid no attention to her brother, she could see the dragon started
to wake.

The Sword of the Morning? That can’t be true, can it? Everybody thought he was dead. Maybe it
was true, maybe this army truly came to swear allegiance to Viserys. Her brother must have had
the same thought because he didn’t wait for the last member of the party to be introduced. “Arthur,
it’s good to see you again!” he got a polite nod in return: “My Prince.”

“That’s 'My King', Ser, but I forgive you for now since you brought me an army.” Ser Arthur’s
showed no emotion whatsoever, similar to the faces of the Unsullied Commander and the dark-
haired man.

“We’re here for Princess Daenerys, My Prince,” the Knight said calmly. For her, what did he
mean for her???

Viserys looked confused for a second, then his vision cleared up. “Ah, I see, you want her for the
army,” he gave a shallow laugh. “Unfortunately, I already sold her to the Dothraki, but when they
are done with her you can have her too!” Fear shot through her, she dared to look at the leader,
and the rage on his face was unmistakable.

“Viserys, I can’t...” she whimpered.

Her brother caught her hand harshly: “Shut up, slut, you will do as you King commands! You will
fuck all of those men camped outside the city if it means I will have my army!”

Before anyone else could react, the white wolf rose from under the table with unnatural speed and
positioned himself straight in front of her brother, snarling at him. Because they were sitting down,
the wolf was taller than them and if she thought that the beast was scary before, now, seeing it
angry, it looked like it came straight from the Seven Hells. Viserys instantly let her hand go,
turning all possible colors until his face settled on white. And judging by the smell, he also soiled
his breeches. She couldn’t blame him, though, the beast was absolutely terrifying.

The dark-haired man looked straight at Viserys and said in a cold voice that could have probably
made Viserys wet himself if he didn’t already: “If you ever touch the Princess against her will
again, my friend Ghost here,” he pointed towards the wolf, who gave a snarl in acceptance, “is
going to rip your hand off. Am I clear?” He looked at Viserys with such rage, that only thing her
brother could do was to nod.

She was very confused now, why did he defend her?

Usually she would have been scared of what would happen to her when she would be left alone
with Viserys, but now she didn’t care. Seeing her brother scared to death and soiling himself she
realized that he was nothing, just a madman taking advantage of a little sister that couldn’t defend
herself.

Viserys didn’t dare even to look at her again but he couldn’t keep his mouth shut: “Ser Arthur,
you are siding with this bastard over your best friend’s brother and your true King? What would
Rhaegar say it he was alive?”

At the same time the white beast, content that Viserys wasn’t a threat anymore, moved over to her
side and started sniffing her hair. Illyrio, who was sitting close to her, looked positively sick with
fear, she knew that she should be scared too, but the only thing she could feel was wonder.

The wolf seemed to decide that he liked her and gave her a long lick on the face. She couldn’t
stop a giggle from coming out and hugged the beast’s massive neck. Everybody looked at her
with wide eyes, even the servants, who all seemed to have found some work close to them, no
doubt trying to fish for some gossip. And then she remembered herself, she was afraid she
overstepped, but when she looked at the wolf’s master she only saw him looking at her with soft
eyes and the faintest of smiles on his lips.

By all the Gods, his eyes, they were not black, they were a dark shade of violet. Indigo. Such
unique eyes, only one man was ever known to her to have such eyes, her brother Rhaegar, could
it be?

Then she heard Ser Arthur speak: “If you didn’t interrupt the introductions, you would find out
that I was already serving the King,” he nodded towards their leader: “This is King Jaehaerys III
Targaryen, son of Prince Raehgar and Princess Lyanna.”

Viserys must have opened and closed his mouth ten times at least and she couldn’t blame him, she
was also stunned. Could it be true, could she have another family member? She studied him while
stroking Ghost’s massive head who seemed to have found a home in her lap. He had dark hair and
a long face, which must have been from his mother, but his other features, the soft facial features,
his straight nose, his pouty lips and those eyes that you could get lost in…
Now everything made sense. The banners of the army, his cloak pins, the dragon pin for his father
and the wolf pin for his mother, his beast, which now she was certain it was a Direwolf, which it
was a wonder itself, as she read that they were extinct even longer than Dragons. She was so
happy, she didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

Viserys seemed to finally snap out of his daze: “Is this some kind of joke?”

Arthur answered “Indeed not, I was there when Prince Rhaegar married Lyanna. I was also there
when His Grace was born. There are papers at the Citadel to support all this, the marriage and his
naming ceremony.”

“What do you mean you came for me?” she couldn’t help asking. She was usually so shy and
rarely spoke when in company so that she wouldn’t annoy Viserys, once one of Illyrio’s guests
even asked if she’s a mute, but now she wanted to know everything. She didn’t know what it was,
maybe finally seeing Viserys for the coward he really was, maybe she got some confidence from
the giant wolf resting his head on her lap, maybe the fact that she had another family member to
turn to, but she just couldn’t reign her excitement. Her excitement must have been noticeable,
because Jaehaerys, her nephew, gave her such a soft smile that made her dizzy and warm all over.

“I would like you to come with us, Daenerys. I know we just met and you have no reason to trust
me, but I promise you that you would never want for anything and I will never force you to do
anything you don’t want to.” He looked so sincere that she couldn’t help trusting him. Maybe she
was a bit naive, but she was sure that Jaehaerys could never hurt her like Viserys.

Illyrio seemed to have found his voice after just standing there and trying not to draw attention to
himself throughout all this. “My Lo… Your Grace, Princess Daenerys already has a betrothed, he
should be here soon.”

The anger was back in Jaehaerys’s eyes and the fat Magister was squirming under his hot glare:
“Daenerys will not be marrying that Dothraki. She is a Targaryen Princess, she is made for
greatness, not to be a broodmare for some savage horselord!”

He fixed his indigo eyes on Viserys: “What were you even thinking, trying to sell your only
family to a fucking Dothraki? Ser Arthur told me you resembled your father a bit too much when
you were little, I was hoping that you grew out of it, but it appears that’s not the case!” the disgust
was clear in his voice. What did he mean by that?

Viserys went red as a beetroot. “Of course I’m like my father, I’m his son!”

“Your father was a madman and was that main reason why there are so few Targaryens left in the
world!” Surely that’s not true Viserys said that he was a great King.

Jaehaerys must have seen the confusion on her face and said softly: “He wasn’t called the Mad
King for nothing, Daenerys. He was well known for his passion to burn people alive.” A feeling
of dread washed over her. “My father was planning to force him to step down before the rebellion
broke.” She was speechless.

Sir Arthur chipped in “It’s true, Princess, he was planning to speak to the Lords at the Harrenthal
tourney, but King Aerys somehow found out and also attended the tourney to keep an eye on
Prince Rhaegar and the Lords.”

Now she knew why people always talked about madness behind their back.

“Countless lives would have been saved if Ser Barristan wouldn’t have saved my grandfather in
Duskendale, I wonder how many lives would be saved if I take both of your lives here?” her
nephew looked at her brother and at the Magister, who looked like he was gonna faint.

Maybe Viserys deserved it, but he was still her brother. “Your Grace, he might not be the best of
men, but he is my brother and while I might not recognize the person he is now, when I was little
he kept me alive, I would have been dead without him. And the Magister took us in when we had
nowhere else to go, I don’t know what his plan is, but he kept us safe and fed.”

Jaehaerys gave a short nod: “As you say, Princess Daenerys.” She was sure Illyrio’s release of his
held breath could be heard from Braavos.

“What were you thinking anyway, Viserys? Surely you’re not so simple to believe that you could
conquer Westeros with an army of raping and pillaging savages? Even the ones who hate the
current rulers and might have some love for the Targaryens will band against you if you bring
Dothrakis into their lands.” Dread washed over her, her own brother would have sacrificed her for
nothing?

Viserys gave a snort and said with a smug look on his face “When our army will reach Westeros
everybody will tremble in fear and we will destroy everyone who stands in our way!”

We? Who is we?

Jaehaerys also picked up on it “We? So you found yourself an ally…” there was a short moment
of silence ”You allied yourself with Altheea.” It was not a question.

Altheea, who was Altheea? Her astute nephew picked up on her confusion too and explained:
“She’s the one who sacked Myr. The Dothraki screamers he hoped to get by selling you were
probably a wedding present for her.” Surely that’s not true! But the look on Viserys’ face told her
everything she needed to know. The rage consumed her, she felt like her blood was on fire, like
something in her blood just woke up.

Viserys went into a fit of rage: “Fuck you, bastard! You come here, before your rightful King and
pretend to be a Targaryen, with this purple eyed cunt pretending to be The Sword of the
Morning...” Jaehaerys wasn’t paying any attention to her brother, he just looked straight at her.
Her blood was almost boiling now, she was starting to get scared, what was happening to her?

“Can you feel him?” he asked. She could only nod, now she felt hot too. She was a little relieved
that Jaehaerys was feeling it too, she was not going mad, or at least she wasn’t going mad alone.

“What is it?” she asked, he just gave her another soft smile and pointed his finger up, without
taking his eyes of her.

And then she saw him. By the Gods! She had to blink a few times to make sure that she wasn’t
imagining things, but it was true. Just above the trees, there was a massive red Dragon, his molten
eyes boring into hers. The heat he was radiating was palpable, he was like a flying furnace.

She looked at her brother, surely he felt him too? But no, Viserys was still busy throwing insults at
Jaehaerys. Leg looked like he wanted to throttle him and she was in a mind to let him, after all the
things she found out.

“R’hllor help us!” Viserys’ tirade was stopped by the scream, one of the servants must have
noticed the Dragon. Dany couldn’t take her eyes off him and the Dragon was still looking at her,
with his big molten eyes, he was bright red, with massive wings beating slowly, just enough to
keep him steady in the air. She could clearly see bright molten veins on his wings looking like
they were filled with fire. This beast was fire made flesh.

Everybody was looking up with their mouths open, gasps and screams were heard all over the
estate. The heat the dragon was giving out was incredible, everyone was sweating and becoming
uncomfortable from both the heat and from fear, everyone except her and her nephew, who was
still looking at her with a pleased look.

Viserys finally found his voice, it sounded screechier than usual: “That’s a Dragon! A flying
Dragon. It’s alive!”

She could see his mind working, trying to make sense of it. He then realized that the Dragon came
with Jaehaerys.

“Bring him here, I am his King, blood of the Dragon! I shall ride him and breath fire over our
enemies! Nobody could stand in our way, I will be Aegon the Conqueror come again!”

The Dragon finally took his eyes off her, looked at her brother for a few moments, then huffed
some hot hair from his nostrils disgusted and flew away leaving behind the trees' top half scorched
by his intense heat. Poor Illyrio looked like he was going to cry, seeing the state of his beloved
poplar trees, she was struggling to hold her laugh so that she wouldn’t offend the Magister.

Leg had no such issues, a loud, boisterous laugh coming from the huge man, Ser Arthur was
struggling to keep his face blank, even Lady Whent had to raise her hand to her mouth to keep
from laughing. She wasn’t sure if it was because of the trees or because of Viserys’ rant.

Only the Unsullied Commander and Jaehaerys showed no mirth.

“Zaldrīzes buzdari iksos daor, Prince Viserys” A dragon is not a slave. Jaehaerys looked straight
at her “He is not a slave to a King, he is not a slave to a Targaryen, not even to his rider and he’s
certainly not a slave to his brother,” his indigo eyes bore into hers with such intensity that it felt
like he was looking straight into the deepest part of her soul. “Tell me, Daenerys Stormborn, are
you a Dragon?”

When she went to pack her things with Leg and Ghost in tow for protection and with Lady
Whent, or Lady Mella, how she liked to be called, Dany realized that she didn’t have any
possessions that were important to her except her mother’s ring. She only had a few light dresses
gifted by Illyrio or her brother, who probably also got them from Illyrio.

Lady Mella noticed her uneasiness: ”Don’t worry about it, Little One. We will stop in Braavos for
supplies and we will buy whatever things you need from there. Pentos clothes are not fit for the
Further East weather anyway. I can’t wait to help you out, I love buying things. And if there’s one
thing better than buying things, is buying things with the King’s purse,” she gave her a wink and a
grin.

“I don’t want to be a bother,” she was a little uncertain.

“Pish posh, you’re his family, you can never be a bother. He’s been looking for you forever!”

Warmth spread through her: “Did he?”

Lady Mella looked at her like she was simple: “Of course he did! I met them when His Grace was
no older than five name days, they were traveling around the Free Cities in hope of finding you.
And we never stopped since. These days we have our duties in the East, but hired men are still out
there looking, even when all of us thought you might be dead, King Jaehaerys refused to believe
it.” Happiness settled into her heart, even at their worst, there was somebody out there caring and
looking for them. That’s what real family was.

If she had any doubts about her choice before, putting her life in the hands of these people she just
met, now she had none.

When she went back in the yard, her small bag carried by Leg, her brother, who no doubt was in
his cups by now, was cursing Jaehaerys: “Do you think she will go with you, bastard? I won’t
allow it. I am her King, she will do as I say!”

She wanted to say something to Illyrio, but he didn’t seem to pay any attention to her, he was just
looking up, probably still shocked to see his beloved trees half scorched.

Then she took a deep breath: “Viserys, thank you for everything, I hope you find some
happiness.”

“You’re not going anywhere, you slut! Your King demands it! You are going to stay here and
wait for the Khal and suck his and all of his 40000 rider’s cocks until I get my fucking army!” He
was positively rabid now.

Leg seemed to have lost all patience with him and pulled out his bone whip to teach him a lesson,
but she grabbed him by the hand before he could do something: “Leave him be, he’s not worth it.”
The big man looked at her surprised, but he just nodded and walked towards the exit.

She walked side by side with her nephew, excited to start her new life. And although she felt a
little guilty by it, she couldn’t deny that she was more than a little pleased to get away from
Viserys.

Outside the gates of the manse, a small army was waiting for them. In front, there was a man with
dark short hair, dressed very similar to Ser Arthur, with the same white cloak on his shoulders. He
also had a steel helmet under his arm with a big black bat painted on it.

“Daenerys, this is Ser Oswell Whent of the Kingsguard, he is Lady Mella’s husband,” Jae
introduced him.

“I’m pleased to finally meet you, Your Grace,” the Knight gave her a short bow and a small smile.

“It’s a pleasure, Ser.”

“I know what you are thinking, Daenerys,” Jaehaerys interrupted before she had the chance to
give him one of her poorly trained courtesies. ”How can a man like that marry such a wonderful
woman? Believe me, we also wondered the same thing. We even made some wagers before the
wedding: Leg here said that she only accepted him because he held a knife to her throat, Arthur is
sure that she was drunk when she said yes and she is too much of a Lady to take her word back
now, and I am sure that nothing short of dark magic would have made her agree to marry him.”
First, she was confused, as he talked in his usual serious voice, but then a giggle escaped her when
she saw the glint in his eyes. She just realized that while his face rarely betrayed anything, his eyes
showed her everything.

“Jealousy doesn’t suit you, my King!” Ser Oswell answered with a wide grin, making a show of
giving a deep bow to his wife and giving her hand a long kiss.

Ser Arthur interrupted Ser Oswell’s mummery: “You know, my Lady, His Grace can easily annul
your marriage, no need to throw away your life because you had too much fire-water one night!”

“Do you know he calls himself the Batman in training?” Leg added causing an explosion of mirth
all around them.

“Ignore them, Princess, they are just jealous that I captured the brightest jewel in the world.” Ser
Oswell said, and then bent down to her ear, whispering loud enough for everyone to hear: “She
never stood a chance against the Batman!”

Lady Whent rolled her eyes: “Men!” and everybody was laughing, she swore that even
Greyworm’s lips were turned up.

There was a litter and 2 tall horses in the middle of the soldiers waiting for them. “Can you ride,
Daenerys? Or you prefer to take the litter, with Lady Whent?”

She loved riding, but she rarely had the chance to do it these days. “I would like to ride, Your
Grace!” she answered.

“I would be pleased if you would call me Jaehaerys, or Jae, Daenerys. Everybody else calls me
Your Grace, I’m afraid I will forget my own name soon.” He gave her his soft smile, the one that,
for some reason that she didn’t want to think of, she really enjoyed.

“Of course, Jae, I would be pleased to.” She looked at the two horses, one stark white and one all
black, she didn’t have to ask to know which one was Jae’s.

“These are Silverbright,” he pointed to the white horse “and Midnight,” the black one.

“I never saw horses so big.”

“They are from Leng Ma, Leg’s family breeds them and trades them on the mainland,” he told
her. “Believe it or not, most of the people there are as tall as him, so they breed these big horses.”
He stroked their snouts gently: “These two are a pair, they were always inseparable, I only wanted
to buy Midnight, but I had to buy both of them after seeing them together. He would have
probably thrown me off the first chance he got if I didn’t,” she giggled, she could believe that, the
horses were standing very close to each other, even rubbing their heads together.

“Silverbright in now yours, take good care of her and she won’t let you down.” She was taken
back, nobody ever gave her such a gift before.

She wanted to refuse, it was too much, but Lady Mella caught her eyes from the back and shook
her head.

“Thank you, I will treat her well,” she promised.

“Come, let’s go.” As he helped her on the horse, her skin tingled at the hips, where his hands
were, she could feel through the light dress she wore over her breaches that his skin was slightly
colder than normal. Her skin was always hotter. A perfect match, she couldn’t help thinking.

While riding through Pentos it seemed that every single person was on the street and was looking
at them, a feeling of uneasiness washed over her, maybe she should have worn a scarf to hide her
hair? They were always hiding their hair when she and Viserys went into the markets.

“Is everything all right?” Jae asked with concern.

“Yes... no, I was thinking, should I not wear a scarf?”

At his confused frown she continued: “When I and Viserys went out, we always covered our hair
with scarfs.” She saw his frown disappearing as understanding hit him.
“We are blood and seed of Aegon the Conqueror, Little Dragon, let them watch, Targaryens are
not made for the shadows.”

She couldn’t stop the pride washing over her, just like she couldn’t help sitting straighter in the
saddle and lifting her chin higher.

I am a dragon, let them all see it!

 We are who we are

THE DRAGON - THE NARROW SEA

They’ve been sailing for a few days now. Unfortunately, she didn’t have the chance to talk to Jae
much, because he was busy most of the time, someone always wanted his attention. She supposed
that’s what being King was like, your time was rarely your own. Everybody wanted a piece of
him, just like her.

But it was a good few days, everybody was treating her well, and while the King was busy she
spent time with the rest of the crew, trying to know them better.

She also liked to spend time with Silverbright and Midnight, taking care of them. Every morning
when she went to visit they were well and brushed, their caretaker told her that the King came
every morning before sunrise to brush and feed them. So they made a silent agreement, Jae was
taking care of them in the morning, she was doing it in the evening.

Dany couldn’t help noticing how much Jae’s people cared about each other, they were like a
weird little family and she was more than pleased to see that they were all trying to include her
too. If she’s being honest, she felt more connected to this group after a few days than she felt to
Viserys in their lasy years together.

It was quite a thing to see, how such different people could fit in so well.

There was Leg, who looked like the scariest man in the world when she first laid her eyes on him
in Illyrio’s manse, but he was a very kind man, always making time for her, even showing her
how to take care of the horses. He taught her to brush them with circular movements, starting with
the croup and the muscles. Leg owned one of these big horses himself, a white horse with big
brown spots. She also learned from him that the horses needed more care now because they didn’t
have space to move around on the ship.

He told her about his family and his home Leng Ma. She was ashamed to admit that she didn’t
know where that was, but the big man shrugged it off and explained that it was on the Leng island
in the Jade Sea.

He spoke to her about his parents. People of Leng Ma rarely ventured outside the island, but his
parents wanted to see the world, so they decided to trade horses on the mainland.

She tried to make a joke about how she thought he was a Dothraki, but when he coldly told her
that he wasn’t, she let it go and made a note to herself never to bring it up again.

Then there was Ser Oswell, he seemed like the group’s jester. He always had a smile or a joke for
her. She was curious about how he was married because she thought that the Kingsguard were
forbidden to take wives, so he told her that the King changed that rule, saying that everyone
deserved happiness. Although, he joked, Jae told him that he wasn’t that sure it was right to make
the world suffer another Ser Oswell.
His wife, Lady Whent, was the mother hen of the group - always fussing around them, looking
after everyone, and setting them straight when they were out of line.

She laughed herself to tears when the Lady told her why everybody was calling her Mella,
apparently, a 6-year-old Jae told her that her name was too long, and Kings should not waste their
precious time with long names, so he declared she will be called Lady Mella from now on. Since
then nobody called her on her full name again. She also learned that he used to call Ser Oswell
Osy and Ser Arthur Artie when he was little. “I am quite sure he only befriended Leg because he
had a short name,” Lady Mella told her between laughs.

Lady Whent also told her with a grin that now the King only calls people by their formal title and
that Dany was the only one that he called by her first name in many years, making her blush
scarlet.

Mella explained that her family had a nice house in Myr, but they died of grey scale and she was
the only one not infected. People in their neighborhood were afraid the disease would spread and
they burned their house down with all their belongings in it and she was left with nothing.

Some even wanted to burn her alive to make sure she wasn’t spreading any disease and when she
was running for her life she bumped into a 5-year-old Jaehaerys and they saved her life. When
they found out that she spoke 10 languages and she was accomplished in mathematics, they took
her in as the King was at an age where he needed a tutor and “those two oafs Oswell and Arthur
only knew how to wield swords and kill people” she told her fondly.

Now she understood how the King spoke perfect Valyrian, she also learned that he spoke many
other languages like YiTish and even Dothraki. When Lady Mella offered to teach her some new
languages, she quickly agreed, she loved learning!

She even spent some time with Greyworm. While he was still a little bit closed off, she was
pleased that he wasn’t reluctant to stay and talk to her. After spending one year in Illyrio’s manse,
she never heard any of his Unsullied speak, she knew they were cut and she assumed they cut
their tongues too.

Greyworm told her how Jae bought them from Astapor and then decided to free them and pay
them like he paid his other soldiers. He also explained to her that he was the Commander of all the
Unsullied under Jae’s command, then there was a commander for every 1000 men and then
another commander for every century. To increase their efficiency, the Unsullied were the heart of
this army, he told her proudly.

Another constant presence by her side was Ghost, who seemed to be bored with the King’s
meetings and every time he was in one, which was most of the time, the wolf spent his time
following her around.

She noticed that everybody gave Ghost a wide berth around the ship, she didn’t understand why,
she loved the fluffy white beast!
The only ones that she didn’t get to spend time with were Ser Arthur and Jae, which was expected
since Ser Arthur was the King’s shadow, wherever the King went, he went.

Arthur was always stern looking, but always polite, asking if she needed anything. And the King,
while he seemed aloof from afar, she knew better, he never failed to give her one of his soft smiles
when they met, which in return never failed to turn her cheeks pink, and he always tried to talk to
her, but his attention was usually needed somewhere else.

The chance to talk to Jae finally came one night when she couldn’t sleep and decided to go out of
her cabin to get some air, when she heard a beautiful harp song coming from the back of the ship.
Without realizing it, she moved towards the sound, like she was pulled by an invisible force.

When she almost reached the place the sound came from, Ghost appeared in front of her and gave
her a long lick on her cheek. “Can’t sleep, Daenerys?” she heard from the back of the ship. How
did he know it was her? She made no sound and he certainly couldn’t see her from where he was.

“Hey Jae, all this boat moving doesn’t help one sleep, does it?” He was sitting down on the floor
at the back of the ship, leaning in on the edge.

“True, have a seat, Dany,” he said, pointing to the empty deck close to him. Unfortunately calling
her Dany brought back some bad memories and she couldn’t stop flinching.

Jae, as observant as ever, quickly noticed it: “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you feel
uncomfortable.”

She took a deep breath: “It’s ok, it just brought back bad memories, Viserys used to call me that
way when I woke the dragon.” He looked confused for a heartbeat then understanding and anger
washed over him. She swore she heard him say in a low voice under his breath: “I should have
killed him.”

She took a seat on the floor, close to him. A little too close, if she was being honest, but she didn’t
care, she just wanted to be close to him and he didn’t see to mind. Ghost moved into his favorite
position with his head on her lap as soon as she sat down.

“Look, Daenerys, I won’t call you that again if you don’t like it,” he started slowly, “but you
should never let anyone take the things you love from you, you are much stronger than that. If you
have bad memories with Viserys calling you Dany, we’ll make new ones. Better ones.”

She actually liked it when he called her that, but she made a show of thinking it through, touching
her lips with her index finger repeatedly. “Well, I do like it when you call me that, and after all,
you did decree that the King has no time for long names. And the last thing I want is to go against
my King’s wishes,” she said with a grin.

He released an exaggerated groan: “They told you that, did they?” Even in the night, she could
see his ears go red: ”The traitors, sharing their King’s secrets!” he continued, trying to look and
sound stern and failing. She released a tinkling laugh, which seemed to please him.

She looked at the harp, it was made of gold, with dragons engraved all over it. She was
mesmerized by his long fingers massaging its silver strings: “I didn’t know you played the harp.”

He moved his hand slightly, allowing her to see the harp better, it was exquisite. “It’s one of the
few things I have left from my father,” he answered sadly, “and it appears that I also inherited his
love for playing it.” He gave her a small, wistful smile: “Although it can’t be said the same about
his beautiful voice. Ser Oswell tells me that I sound like a horny auroch.”
She couldn’t stop the wave of laughter escaping her lips. “Well, maybe I can sing while you play,
I used to love to sing when I was little.”

“I would love that,” he gave her a small smile and her hand a gentle squeeze. She noticed again
how his skin was colder than normal, just like hers was hotter than normal.

“I couldn’t help noticing how your skin is colder than normal...” she couldn’t stop herself from
saying, blushing a little at her boldness.

Jae seemed to think a little before answering: “My father used to believe that in every generation
of Targaryens a true dragon was born, one that could rule the fire,” he looked pointedly at her.
“Neither my father or Viserys were these true dragons, my father thought that maybe he was
wrong, but he didn’t know that another would be born after he died. And I couldn’t help noticing
that you were unaffected by Syrax’s heat.”

For some reason she felt a little self-conscious, she never told anyone her secret. Could she really
be this true dragon? She decided to make light of things, to release some of her anxiety “Well, the
most affected by it was Illyrio, those trees were his pride and joy.”

A full laugh bubbled out of Jaehaerys, the first she ever heard from him, even Ghost seemed
surprised and lifted his head from her lap to look at Jae, as if he wasn’t convinced that that weird
sound came from his master. She wanted to bottle that laugh, to keep it with her always.

“Well, Syrax always knew how to make an entrance!” he gave her a grin. “Ser Arthur says that he
always wants to be seen, Ser Oswell likes to call him an attention whore,” she chuckled, that
sounds like something Ser Oswell would say.

Jae gave a deep sigh and continued: “But none of them understand, the truth is that he is just
lonely. I am the only one who can get close to him, and even I can’t stay that long, because of his
heat.” Another sigh: “Dragons are not made to be alone, there is a reason why they always
bonded with humans,” her heart broke for this Dragon, then it hit her, if she was unburnt and the
dragon was too hot for anyone else to get near, did it mean that he was meant for her?

As if he heard her the red Dragon suddenly appeared above her, the now familiar sensation of her
blood catching fire swamped her. The red Dragon gave a loud roar that woke everybody on the
ship for sure and lit the sky with a bright red streak of Dragonfire. It was breathtaking.

Jae pointed to the sky and mouthed: “Attention whore.” The joke hit the target and a full-blown
laugh left her lips.

The dragon seemed to sense that they were making fun of him, so he huffed and turned his head
the other way for a few moments, then flew away. They both laughed to tears, she couldn’t
remember ever laughing so hard.

After they finally stopped laughing Jae asked: “Tell me about your life.”

She started telling him about her life, leaving out some of the worst details, she told him about the
house with the red door in Braavos, she was surprised to hear that they also found that house, but
she and Viserys already left it when they did, so they couldn’t track them. She told him about
them being on the run, sleeping under the bridges and on the roofs, selling all their possessions
and then begging for food. She also told him how they were found by Illyrio’s men just before
they thought of selling her mother’s ring, which was the only thing of value they had left.
“I’m sorry you had to go through all of this,” he put his hand around her shoulder, she wanted to
give him a hug, but she couldn’t move Ghost’s head out of her lap, who looked like he was
sleeping.

“But you don’t have to go through this again.” He then continued with a grin: “We are rich!”

They both started laughing. She was sure that these laughs she got out of him made this one of the
best nights of her life.

“I had it easier than you,” he started slowly, sounding a little guilty. She quickly gave his hand a
gentle squeeze. “My father left me a lot of money and a Dragon egg at the Iron Bank, so we never
had to worry about going hungry,” he said, pointing towards the sky, “it was a red Dragon egg,
Syrax hatched from it.

“As soon as I grew enough to be able to travel, we started traveling all over the Free Cities to look
for you, but with no luck,” he continued. “After years and years of traveling everywhere with no
luck, we decided to leave men to keep searching the Free Cities for you and we went Further East,
to search for a way to hatch the Dragon egg

“We traveled from Nefer to Jinqi and Asshai,” he said, “we didn’t find what we were looking for,
but we found a few good friends along the way and even a place to call home. We also started to
add to our army, first we bought some Unsullied and then started hiring sellswords, and as we
reached a certain size, people started joining us wherever we went, some for the money, some to
feed their families, some because they had nothing better to do.”

He now looked at her: “Do you know that there is another Targaryen alive?”

She was so surprised that she could only shake her head.

“His name is Aemon and he is a Maester in the Night Watch,” he said. “He is blind as a bat and
the oldest man I ever met, over one hundred name days for sure,” he grinned, “but he is also the
wisest person I know. He was the brother of Aegon the Unlikely.”

She gave a soft smile trying to imagine their great uncle. How did a man over a hundred look
anyway?

Jae seemed to sense her curiosity: “Don’t worry, I made him promise to hold on until we go back
home,” he said with another grin.

She chuckled: “I hope he will, I can’t wait to meet him!”

“When I first met him he was so shocked, he couldn’t speak for ten minutes, he thought he was
the last Targaryen left. Whenever I was near him, he always held my hand or touched me in some
way, I think it was to make sure I was real and his mind didn’t just make me up.”

Her heart broke for old Aemon, sitting alone at the end of the world, thinking he was the last one
left. She didn't have it easy either, but at least she had her brother.

“Visiting him was the best thing I could do. In the first night, I went behind the Wall to witness the
new recruits taking their vows and I came back with sleepy head over here,” he pointed towards
Ghost who was still sleeping in her lap, “and a very knowledgeable steward who pretty much
made me rich.”

His face became grim: “I also seen things that made me realize that the war for the Iron Throne is
nothing in the grand scheme of things.” He took a breath, while she kept hers: “I saw dead people
coming back to life with bright blue eyes, I saw a man who had roots growing through his body
and claimed that he can see the past and the present, I saw the last of the Children of the Forest, a
little woman called Leaf, sacrificing herself to help birth two dragons,” he must have seen the
horror on her face. “That’s how you birth dragons, Dany,” he said sadly, “by sacrificing magic
blood.”

“You said two dragons. Is there another? I thought you said you only had one egg?” she asked
confused.

“Indeed, I told you Maester Aemon was ancient.." she nodded. "When he was born our ancestors
still had dragon eggs to give to the royal children,” he explained. “He took his egg with him at the
Wall and it was taken by another of our ancestors Brynden Rivers, who ended out being this
Three Eye Crow, the man that had roots grow out of him”.

He took a deep breath and continued: “He used the egg to draw power from it for his magic and
ended up sucking out all the heat. They said it was useless, just a frozen egg, but I could feel the
life in it and I decided to put it in the fire alongside the egg from my father and Sonax and Syrax
were hatched,” he finished.

“That’s quite a lot to take in,” she said, a little overwhelmed.

“It is, but the dead are coming sooner or later and we must do our duty. Do you know the titles of
the King and Queen of the Seven Kingdoms?” he asked.

“Of course!” she heard them a million times from Viserys. “King and Queen of the Andals, the
Rhyonar, and the First Men, Lord and Lady of the Seven Kingdoms and Protectors of the Realm.”

“That’s right”, he said with a smile, “and Protectors of the Realm always comes first.” She just
nodded at his words, it was true, the duty was to their people first and foremost.

He shook his head and that seemed to snap him out of his dark mood and gave her a soft smile.

After giving her shoulder a gentle squeeze, he pulled his harp between his legs: “I bored you
enough with my stories, let me play something for you”.

She couldn’t stop the full smile that stretched her face. “I would like that.”

He started a slow song that she never heard before, but she was sure that it was the most
wonderful sound she ever heard.

Dany rested her head on his shoulder and slowly stroked Ghost’s head. Jae's fingers were dancing
on the strings with unnatural dexterity, summoning a rain of godly sounds from the heavens that
washed over Dany, soaking her skin, her heart, her soul in a feeling of contentment she never felt
before.

She didn’t know what to think about walking dead men, tree men, and children of the forest. But
one thing she knew for sure.

She could get used to this.

THE PRETENDER - MYR

Altheea woke up startled, her heart beating wildly in her chest, she needed some time to focus on
the room around her and see where she was. Her breathing slowly returned to normal when she
remembered that she was in her villa in Myr.

She hated all these paintings and lace on the walls, she couldn’t even see the walls color because
of them. They also brought back memories of a place she never wanted to remember again.

She would never be weak again.

Her handmaiden came in, hearing her wake up. “Good morning, Your Grace!” Ada said in her
usual cheery voice. She was a Pentosi girl, given to her by Illyrio a lifetime ago. She might be the
only person she knows that she likes, or to be perfectly honest, that she doesn’t dislike.

“Have some men come here and throw away all this crap of my walls, I don’t want to see any
paintings or lace left in this villa!” she ordered.

“As you wish, Your Grace. Kinvara is here to see you.” Talk about people she disliked.

“Let her wait in the solar until I’m ready,” she said, more than a little annoyed. Don’t these fuckers
ever sleep? “Bring me something to eat, I will do it in my rooms. I might throw up if I eat with
Kinvara and she starts preaching her usual Red God or Prince that was Promised crap.”

While breaking her fast she thought of Kinvara and her Red God followers. They were a weird lot
for sure.

One day, when she was still living with Illyrio in Pentos, Kinvara came to the manse, dropped on
her knees in front of her and declared that she was the Princess that was Promised.

She was sure that this redhead was mad, or at least in her cups. When she wanted to throw her out
she started saying how she saw her in the fires on a dragon raining fire over the army of the dead.
Well, that got her attention. Altheea of course told her that dragons were extinct for 150 years. But
all she got in return was: “I can help you bring them back.”

Kinvara has been with her ever since. She even brought a thousand soldiers with her, the Fiery
Hand they were called. Slave soldiers, but Altheea was not the one to be picky. A large portion of
her army was made out of slaves anyway.

When the noble houses behind the Black Walls in Volantis heard that she wanted to invade The
Triarchy, they couldn’t offer their help fast enough. 20000 soldiers and one of their own will be
chosen to govern the three cities for her after she sailed for Westeros. It was a good deal.

She finished her food and went to her solar to meet the Red Priestess.

Kinvara got up when she walked in and gave a small courtesy. “My Queen.”

“Priestess” she returned her greeting with a lazy nod. “What does the Lord of Light want from me
so early in the morning?” she asked.
“I’ve seen it in the fires last night, there is a new enemy rising from the East.” Altheea left out a
sigh.

“And who is this new enemy?” she was starting to get bored with these prophecies, no wonder
her ancestors never cared about Gods and sorcerers.

But she had to admit that these Red followers had their uses. The Lord of Light was the most
followed God in the Free Cities, including Myr, and the native people here were more open to an
invading army when it had the backing of the Red Priests and its leader was declared the
Champion of Light by them.

“I don’t know yet, I only know that they bring destruction in their path and they come from the
East.” Altheea couldn’t help rolling her eyes, most of the time these prophecies were as useful as a
sharp rock in one's boot.

“What about what you promised me, Priestess?” she asked rather impatiently.

“We still need a hundred people with Valyrian dragon blood, my Queen,” she answered.

“That better work, Kinvara, you don’t want to test me,” she couldn’t help saying.

“I serve you, my Queen, it will work, the fires never lie,” said the Red priestess with a confidence
that was both reassuring and disturbing.

“Well, there is not much we can do now but wait, let Lys and Tyrosh wager war against
themselves and wait for a good time to invade. There is more than enough Valyrian blood there,
we can trace the noble blood easy enough,” she said bored. “Leave me.”

“As you say, Your Grace!” after a courtesy, the priestess left her solar. Thank the Gods.

Altheea went to the window and looked down at the city.

She lived in the biggest villa in the city, that had seven tall towers, the one her chambers were in
was the tallest, at least two hundred feet. Her solar was at the top of the tower and had glass
instead of walls. It was her favorite place in Myr, it allowed her to see the whole city. When the
Red Keep would be hers, the first thing she would do was to build one of these glass towers.

She focused her vision on the streets below, she could clearly see the golden cloaks of the Golden
Company patrolling the streets and the Red Priests preaching at every corner, no doubt about that
Long Night or that Princess that Was Promised crap.

Altheea snorted every time she heard of the Long Night or this Army of the Dead that apparently
killed everyone in its path and resurrected them as undead soldiers with blue eyes. It was the most
ridiculous thing she ever heard, but as long as it kept the Red Priests and their army with her, she
could bear their crazy talk well enough.

Also the small-folk seemed to like it and believe it, and Gods know they needed something to
focus on.

After the sacking of the city, she killed every Magister in Myr. It made her rich, but killing the
Magisters also created huge unrest among the Myrish people. Nobody felt safe anymore and riots
were always ready to break, she had to send patrols through the city at all times to keep the people
in check.
Now, after a few moons, people were finally settled and she knew that it was mainly due to the
Red Priests.

Invading Myr made her a rich woman, with the Magisters out of the way, she took over their
shops and now she held the monopoly over the glass and lace trade over the Narrow Sea.

After she would add Lys and Tyrosh to her building empire, she would be able to pick up their
slave-trading routes, and start selling slaves herself, which would bring in a lot of money.
Especially the Lyseni slaves, who were renowned around the world for their beauty.

Soon she would be able to afford to hire every man that can hold a weapon in Essos.

Her thoughts went to Pentos, what was happening there? Did Daenerys marry the Khal? The
wedding should be happening around this time.

When Illyrio came with the proposition, she wasn’t sure about it. Can she ally herself with those
who destroyed her family and have taken their rightful place? It wasn’t an easy thing to do, her
instincts told her to kill them all, yet her head said otherwise.

In the end, she decided that taking her families rightful place back was more important than their
squabble and they were kin, after all.

There were also good things that would come from this union, the ones who would still challenge
her birthright would be silenced if she wedded a true Targaryen. Also, her children would have
more Dragon blood if they were sired by Viserys, her line was already soiled with useless blood,
from their many years in exile, it would do good to inject some pureblood in it. And the 40000
Dothraki earned by wedding Daenerys to the Khal would almost double her forces.

Illyrio thought it well.

Illyrio, now that was an enigma if she ever saw one. What was his motivation in all this? Every
time she asked why, he said that he wanted to be Master of Coin after she took the Seven
Kingdoms, which was easy enough for her to promise. But he seemed to be doing a lot for such a
small prize, others in his place would have asked for a kingdom or two to call their own.

She still remembered when the Magister’s men found her on the streets of Lys. She was thrown
out of the pillow house when her mother died. Altheea lived there her entire life and they threw
her away like she had greyscale, they said she was too young to work and they had no need of
her.

She promised herself that the first thing she would do after she conquered Lys was to burn that
pillow house to the ground, with every one of those who threw her out and didn’t care when her
mother got sick and died in it.

No doubt Kinvara would be delighted with the new offerings to her Red God.

The day Illyrio found her, she was at her lowest and she would always be grateful to the Magister
for taking her in, although she was sure he didn’t do it from the kindness of his heart. It was not
easy to trust him, being the slippery man that he was, yet she still had grown to rely on his council.
He never let her down until now. She supposed that as long as they both had the same objectives,
it didn’t matter much why he was helping her.

When she came of age, Illyrio brought her the Golden Company’s leaders, who swore to serve her
and help her get back what was rightfully hers without much thought. She knew that they always
fought for her ancestors, her grandfather Maelys was the Company’s leader when he was
murdered by Ser Barristan.

She was very disappointed to hear of Barristan’s dismissal from the Kingsguard and his
disappearance from King’s Landing. Now that was a man she would enjoy killing.

Altheea heard that in Volantis the masters liked to skin the disobedient slaves alive and then
sprinkle sea salt on their bare flesh. All while having strong spices under their nose so that they
won’t fain and feel it all. She thought that was the least Barristan deserved for killing his rightful
King. Maybe she would skin him herself, she thought, patting her thigh, where her Valyrian steel
dagger was strapped, as always.

She was considering going into the yard, to practice with her sword, when she heard a knock and
Ada came in: “Your Grace, Captain Strickland is here.”

She couldn’t stop rolling her eyes, it wasn’t even midday and her patience was already wearing
thin. This Harry Strickland was quite a sight, a short and portly man, how in R’hllor’s name he
was made Captain of the Golden Company she didn’t know. The elephants he loved so much
were more agile than him.

He was also probably the biggest coward she knew. It funny how life was, a coward leading the
best army money could buy.

“You Grace,” Harry came in and gave a shallow bow, which was borderline disrespecting, but
she couldn’t hold it over him, she doubted he could bend lower due to his sizeable belly.

“To what do I owe this pleasure, Captain?” she couldn’t quite hold the sarcasm out of her voice.

The Captain gave her one of those hungry looks that make her bile rise in her throat: “I am just
here to report that things seem to have settled in the city,” he said. “My men are reporting that
there were no problems in the last two days, the people seem to have accepted you fully, Your
Grace.”

“I see, is that all?” she was trying to cut this meeting short before she asked one of her guards to
throw him of this tower. Maybe his fat belly could absorb the fall, she remembered that when she
was little she liked to tie pillows around her waist and jump from the bed without hurting herself.
Perhaps his huge belly worked the same. She would love to find out.

He looked a little disappointed but he continued: “Prince Viserys and Magister Illyrio also sent
word that they will be here soon.”

“That’s good,” she cut him when she noticed he was trying to speak again. “Leave me, I need to
prepare!” He looked at her like he wanted to help her prepare, but he must have noticed her anger
and quickly excused himself with another half-arsed bow and left.

After taking a bath, she went in front of her looking glass to check herself out. Long silver hair,
dark blue eyes that looked almost purple, tall and lean frame, she was slightly more muscled than
it was considered fashionable for a woman these days, no doubt due to her years of training, but
her future husband should be pleased. The men around her liked to call her the most beautiful
woman in the world, but they would probably call any Queen that, as long as she didn’t look like
a frog.

Illyrio told her that her future husband had the usual Targaryen look, he should be comely enough
so that them coupling for an heir would not seem like a punishment. She should probably be
thankful that she didn’t have to marry some fat, sweaty man like Illyrio.

In another life maybe she would have been just a normal girl, with no duties, living in a little
house, in the middle of some forest, not in this fucking heat, with a nice man at her side and some
children to run around the house.

But she was not a normal girl.

She was a Queen, and a Queen’s life was never her own. And she had over 100 years of anger
that ran through her veins, 100 years of anger that she would rain down on her enemies, big and
small until none of them were left.

After her handmaiden finished preparing her, one of the guards came in and announced that Illyrio
and Viserys were waiting for her

When she entered her solar, Illyrio and a Valyrian looking man who could only be Viserys were
at the table, having some refreshments. Illyrio immediately stood up and gave her a deep bow, but
Viserys didn’t even bother to rise from the table, he just gave her a curious look and kept eating.

Well, he was is Prince Charming, that’s for sure!

“My Queen, my heart feels lighter to see you well!” said Illyrio, groveling as usual. “May I
present King Viserys?”

Her betrothed finally stood up and gave her a leering look and a short bow. Illyrio made the
introductions: “Your Grace, this is Queen Altheea,” she gave one of her heavy practiced perfect
courtesies.

They were all standing up now: “I am surprised to see you here so soon, I am assuming that the
Khal came sooner for his bride?” she started.

They both looked at each other uneasy “Well, you see, My Queen, Princess Daenerys didn’t
marry the Khal”

She was confused now. “What do you mean? Is she here with you?”

Illyrio looked a little sick now, This can’t be good, “She left from under my protection.”

“What do you mean she left? You knew that she was important. How did you two idiots lose
her?” this was definitely not a good day.

Viserys turned red: “How dare you call me an idiot, I am your King!”

After the day she had, she just snapped, before Viserys could even blink, her small fist went
straight into his throat, her Braavosi fighting master would have no doubt been proud.
The only sounds Viserys could make now were coughs and gulps for air. She briefly considered
drawing her dagger from her thigh and putting it through his left eye socket, but she knew it
would only create more problems than it would solve. And she probably still had to marry him.

The Targaryen was on his knees, struggling for air, Altheea picked a handful of his hair and made
him look at her: “If you ever raise your voice at me again, I will have your tongue! Do you
understand?” She looked him straight in the eyes. “Nod if you do.” Viserys gave about ten fast
nods in a couple of heartbeats and she turned her attention to Illyrio: “Explain!” she demanded,
with barely restrained anger.

“A man claiming he was Prince Rhaegar and Lady Lyanna Stark’s trueborn son came with a big
army and took her away,” Illyrio explained.

This was not what she expected to hear. Another Targaryen?

“Do you think he’s real?” she asked the fat magister.

“I know not, Your Grace. But the Sword of the Morning himself was with him claiming that they
have papers to prove it.” He cleared his throat a few times: “He also had a Dragon.” Illyrio said in
a voice so low that she didn’t know if she heard it right.

“Did you just say he had a Dragon?” That sounded impossible, how could anyone have a Dragon
and keep him hidden?

“Indeed, My Queen,” the magister said, and then he continued in a mourning voice: “He burned
my trees.”

It took every ounce of self-control she had not to start laughing so hard that they could hear her
from Castle Black. The fucking trees, she doubted Illyrio loved anything more in this life than
those fucking trees.

She already liked this new Targaryen, she wondered if he did it on purpose. Maybe she should
marry him instead of this idiot in front of her. She looked at Viserys with disgust, he was still
holding his neck and coughing, his face color now matched his violet eyes. Maybe she should call
a Maester before he expires in front of her.

But no, no point of changing her plans now, a bird in hand is worth two in the bush. The other
Targaryen might not be interested in marrying her and a man with a Dragon does as he pleases.

“How big was that dragon?” she asked.

“A few years old, he was almost ready to ride.” Hmm, so they were already years behind, they
must move faster with their plans.

“What about the Khal?”

“He sent word that his arrival will be delayed 2 more moons, but he expects a bride when he
comes,” Illyrio answered somewhat wary.

She turned towards Viserys: “My King, we shall wed in 3 days. After the wedding celebrations I
shall come to Pentos to have talks with the Khal,” she said with finality.

“Now leave me, I don’t want to see any of you until the wedding day.” She then pointed towards
her handmaiden: ”Ada will show you to your rooms, if you need anything, ask her.”
After they left, she went to her chambers and reached under the bed and pulled out a long wooden
box where she kept her most prized possessions.

She pulled out the biggest of the three petrified objects, drawing strength from its heat. It was
black as night with scarlet ripples and swirls.

“Soon, my babies. Soon.”

NO-ONE - BRAAVOS

Cersei Lannister, The Mountain, Walder Frey... Cersei Lannister, The Mountain, Walder Frey...
Cersei Lannister, The Mountain, Walder Frey...

This fucking list was all she had. All she had left of Arya Stark. These days she repeated it all the
time, afraid to lose herself for good. The training with at the House of Black and White made her
lose herself more and more until the only thing she had to remember her previous life was this
fucking list.

She was ashamed to admit it, but she didn’t use to care if she lost herself, she only wanted to be
one of these Faceless Men. What else was left for her? All her family was dead, there was nothing
to go back to. Nobody would care if Arya Stark would disappear. Hells, probably everybody
already thought her dead anyway.

But that all changed one day when posing as a street urchin to gather information, she found out
that her father was still alive. Sent to The Wall, but still alive.

Cersei Lannister, The Mountain, Walder Frey... Cersei Lannister, The Mountain, Walder Frey...
Cersei Lannister, The Mountain, Walder Frey...

Growing up at Winterfell she’s always been an outsider. Every one of her siblings had the Tully
coloring, red hair with blue eyes, she was the only one to have inherited the coloring and looks of
the Kings of Winter.

But that was not the only reason she felt out of place, she just didn’t care to be a lady. While her
sister Sansa and her friends were the perfect ladies, she just wanted to be out, ride, learn how to
fight, shoot arrows and do other things high born ladies should not be doing.

She used to drive her Septa mad, but she just didn’t care. Why did they need a Septa anyway?
They were Starks of the North, they followed the Old Gods and the Old Ways. Not that she
believed in any Gods, what did the Gods ever do for her anyway?

Arya was loved, but she never felt like she belonged. She wasn’t an ordinary girl and she didn’t
want to be.

It was no surprise that her favorite place in Winterfell was the crypts. That was where she went
when she was sad, that was where she went when she was angry, that was where she went when
she just wanted to get away and hide from everyone.
Cersei Lannister, The Mountain, Walder Frey... Cersei Lannister, The Mountain, Walder Frey...
Cersei Lannister, The Mountain, Walder Frey...

It all started when Old Nan told her that she was the spitting image of her aunt Lyanna, both in
looks and in temperament.

After that she started asking anyone who was old enough to know about her aunt. She started with
her father and was very disappointed when he snapped at her and told her that he won’t talk about
his dead sister.

But she was Arya Stark, she wasn’t going to quit until she found out everything. So she nagged
everybody who was old enough to know until they cracked.

Old Ser Rodrik told her that he trained Lyanna with a sword himself and she was as good as any
of the Stark boys. He told her that she even had a thin Valyrian steel sword that she called Needle,
because her mother, Lady Lyarra, always complained that she was not good with a needle as all
ladies should be.

Rodrik told her that she got if from a Myrish Magister who came to Winterfell to trade glass for
coal, saw her aunt training in the yard and took a liking to the little wild girl. So, with the last
shipment of glass came a thin Valyrian steel sword with a note that said: “For the She-Wolf of
Winterfell – Stick them with the pointy end!”.

She found out from the stable master that she was the best rider in the whole North, people around
Winterfell used to call her a centaur - half human, half horse. Before that Arya didn’t ride much,
because her sister Sansa and her friends used to laugh at her and called her Arya Horseface and
she didn’t want to fuel their jests, but after that there wasn’t a day that Arya didn’t take her horse
riding in the Wolfswood or around Winterfell.

Cersei Lannister, The Mountain, Walder Frey... Cersei Lannister, The Mountain, Walder Frey...
Cersei Lannister, The Mountain, Walder Frey...

Arya also found out from Old Nan that while Lyanna was wild and untamed, just like she was,
she was still capable of acting like a Lady, and it didn’t make her look weaker. So, after that, she
decided to give up some of her less ladylike pursuits, like throwing food at Sansa during dinner
and smearing mud all over her sister’s new dresses. And that was one of the best decisions she
could ever make, because her mother, after seeing her starting to behave better, decided to look the
other way when she was training and didn’t insist that much for her to attend her lessons with the
Septa.

Her father, on the other hand, seemed to avoid her even more. Once he asked her mother why did
her father hate her and Catelyn just gave her a tight hug and told her that he doesn’t hate her, it’s
just hard for him because she looked and acted so much like his sister Lyanna.

She should have been angry that her father was avoiding her on purpose, but maybe she was just
used to it and she was also very pleased to know that the one who knew her hero best thought that
they were very much alike.

Catelyn must have given her father quite a scolding because after that he tried to get closer to her,
but she always saw the pain in his eyes when he looked at her. But he was trying and Arya
appreciated that. Probably that was the reason why he took her to King’s Landing alongside
Sansa.

Ah, Sansa, she used to hate her guts, but now she would give anything to hear her and her friends
call her Arya Horseface one more time.
Once Theon told her that her aunt Lyanna was kidnapped and raped by Prince Rhaegar, she hit
him with her training sword straight between his legs and after he bent down in pain she kneed
him straight in the mouth, chipping one of his teeth. Arya had to clean the stables for two weeks
after that, but she wasn’t sorry, her aunt Lyanna wasn’t a woman to be taken against her will, not
even by the future King, she was sure of it! She probably just ran away because she didn’t want to
marry King Robert. She even took her sword with her. And after meeting that fat fool, she was
sure she would have done the same!

After that Arya found herself in the crypts in front of her aunt Lyanna’s statue more and more,
sharing her dreams and her sorrows to someone who she knew would have never have judged her
and would have accepted her for who she was. She also made sure to always bring her a blue
winter rose every time she visited. The gardener would have probably thrown a fit if he knew she
was the one who stole them, but she didn’t care, they were her aunt’s favorite flowers.

Cersei Lannister, The Mountain, Walder Frey... Cersei Lannister, The Mountain, Walder Frey...
Cersei Lannister, The Mountain, Walder Frey...

Ah, how she wished she was in the crypts of Winterfell now, her best thinking was made there,
talking to her aunt Lyanna.

She should have never agreed to dedicate her life to the Many-Faced God, she was the last
remaining blood of the old Kings of Winter, not some bloody religious fanatic. She should have
found another way to kill the people on her list that didn’t involve her throwing her life away.

Well, the good thing was that she was a very good fighter now, she just had to find a way to run
from the House of Black and White and go back where she belonged. She was a wolf, the wolf
belonged with his pack, and these fuckers were certainly not her pack.

And now she was stuck on the harbor all day, selling shellfish and spying on her target. “The thin
man” they called him - he was just an old man who sold ship insurance - he didn’t even seem like
the bad type, but who knew what these fuckers were really up to.

She fucking hated the smell of fish, she was sure that after this assignment was over, she won’t
ever eat fish again. And she couldn’t get information anyway, the only thing everybody was
talking was the Targaryen fleet coming their way.

They said it was led by King Jaehaerys and Queen Daenerys. That was weird, she heard that
Daenerys’ brother was called Viserys. But maybe there was another Targaryen because people
were saying this one had dark hair. She never heard of a dark-haired Targaryen so it might be only
stupid gossip.

People were also saying that this King had a white dog as big as a horse with red ruby eyes. That
she wanted to see, it sounded like a beautiful creature, she wondered if it was bigger than a
Direwolf, bigger than her Nymeria. She tried to push down the wave of sadness washing through
her, no point of thinking of her now, she would go to the Riverlands and look for her when she
reached home, but she must find a way out of her current predicament first.

Some were even saying that the Targaryens had a huge red Dragon that burned down some
magister’s house in Pentos, but she could only roll her eyes at this, everybody knew that Dragons
were gone for more than 100 years.

Cersei Lannister, The Mountain, Walder Frey... Cersei Lannister, The Mountain, Walder Frey...
Cersei Lannister, The Mountain, Walder Frey...
After a few more hours of moving her shellfish cart around she noticed that everyone was looking
out to the sea. A massive fleet was slowly moving towards the harbor. She could see the three-
headed Dragon sails. The Targaryens. They were here.

The Sealord of Bravoos himself came to the harbor earlier and told everyone not to be afraid
because they asked permission to dock and get supplies from Braavos.

She wondered how would these Targaryens be: brave and Godlike like Aegon, Visenya, and
Rhaenys, or mad like King Aerys?

Everybody was awed. No doubt, just like her they never thought they would see a Targaryen coat
of arms ever again. That fleet was huge, there must have been over a hundred ships there!

And there was a massive red Dragon flying above the ships. Fuck! She couldn’t stop staring! The
way she was gaping, she was sure her jaw would hit the ground soon.

It looked like everybody slowly started realizing what that was and they all started gasping and
screaming. The Dragon looked like it heard them and suddenly started flying towards them
planing low, just above the crowd. He was so low that she could touch him if she raised her hands
above her head. The heat he was releasing was palpable. After he passed them, he flew high in the
air and shot a jet of beautiful bright red Dragonfire that lit up the sky.

People all around her forgot about their scare and started cheering like it was some mummer’s
play, not a huge fucking Dragon that could burn everyone there in a heartbeat. This only
strengthened her opinion that people were really stupid.

Maybe she was imagining things, but the Dragon actually seemed to enjoy the attention, he lit the
sky with another jet of Dragonfire then flew away in people’s cheers. Idiots.

Cersei Lannister, The Mountain, Walder Frey... Cersei Lannister, The Mountain, Walder Frey...
Cersei Lannister, The Mountain, Walder Frey...

The Targaryens finally docked and she pushed herself in the front line so that she could see them.
A huge Dothraki and a tall blond Knight came first and behind them there they were.

She was surprised to see that the Targaryen Queen was just as small as her, but she was no
fucking Horseface, that was for sure. She looked like a Goddess, the image of Old Valyria, she
never saw a woman so beautiful. And the King matched her in beauty inch by inch. But he was
her complete opposite: the Queen was fair, he was dark, she had silver hair, he had dark brown
hair, she had light violet eyes, he had dark indigo eyes. She wasn’t usually interested in these
kinds of things, but she couldn’t help it - she was mesmerized. Arya couldn't help thinking that if
Sansa was here she would have probably fainted.

As she was admiring the Targaryens, she noticed that the White Knight was looking straight at
her, maybe he was from Westeros and he recognized her? She needed to leave, but before she
could turn, she saw him, she first thought that she smelled too much fish and her mind was playing
tricks on her, but he was there. Stark white fur with red ruby eyes and the size of a horse.

It was a fucking direwolf!

 THE SWORD OF THE MORNING - BRAAVOS

Arthur was pleased to see that they finally reached Braavos. He was no seaman that’s for sure and
unfortunately the next few months would be spent on sea, like they spent their previous few
months, but looking at the front of the ship, where Daenerys stood flanked by Jaehaerys and
Ghost, he couldn’t help thinking that it was well worth it.

This slip of a girl was everything they hoped for. And much more.

And judging by the looks the King was giving her, she would make a wonderful Queen.

He couldn’t believe that they only met her one week ago. The trembling, shy girl from their first
meeting was almost gone now, this girl in front of him was a Queen if he ever saw one.

These Targaryens always were very fast learners. He remembered Jaehaerys was barely a year old
when he started talking in full sentences and started walking when he was barely six moons old.
Lady Mella was shocked at how fast he picked up her learnings, he picked up the languages she
was teaching him in half the time normal people did.

Mella might have been shocked, but Arthur wasn’t, he still remembered Jae’s father, his best
friend Rhaegar. In his early years, he used to be a bookish sort of guy, taking no interest
whatsoever in swordplay or any kind of fighting. Until one morning, when he presented himself in
the training yard and asked for a sword and shield. In a few years of training he nearly matched
his skill with a sword, he who has been training since he learned to walk. He was a very
determined and single-minded man, and his son was the same.

And so was his sister, apparently.

Of course, that didn’t mean that all Targaryens were the same. There were useless Targaryens too,
he remembered Viserys was around three when he finally started talking and of course, his father
was mad as a box of frogs.

He remembered what Maester Aemon once told him, when he visited him at the Wall with
Rhaegar, that every time a Targaryen was born, the Gods toss a coin, and the world holds its
breath. That seemed quite fitting.

Arthur looked back at Daenerys, who was calmly petting Ghost’s head and couldn’t help noticing
how much she resembled her late mother. Queen Rhaella was one of Arthur’s greatest failings. He
still had nightmares with her screaming when the Mad King used to go to her chambers after he
burned someone. He raped and beat her and they were forced to stand outside the door and
pretend that nothing was wrong.

He remembered one of his talks with Ser Gerold Hightower, the Lord Commander of the
Kingsguard when they were guarding the Queen’s rooms while Aerys raped her:

“Isn’t our duty to protect her?”

“Not from him, Arthur. Not from him.”

But even after all she’s been through, the former Queen still made time to care for her people,
many times you could find her visiting an orphanage, a sick house or even Flea Bottom trying to
help the people there.

And she always had a kind smile for everyone, from servants to Knights and Lords. Although he
was sure that none of the Knights in the Kingsguard could look her in the eye.

Even now, after almost twenty years, the guilt still came back and consumed him from time to
time. He hasn’t talked about it with Oswell, but he knew that he felt the same. It was hard not to
notice the wistful looks he gave the Princess, no doubt he saw this opportunity a second chance of
redemption, just like him.

Queen Rhaella was probably the strongest person he ever knew. People always thought about big
muscles or how well you could wield a sword when they thought of strength, but true strength
was having life throw every shit possible at you and not letting it break you or change who you
are.

He was pleased to see the same strength and determination in Daenerys. He was sure that if they
didn’t make it in time and she would have wed the Dothraki Khal, she would have endured, and
she would have made the best of it without letting it break her.

Arthur thought back at the time when she met Ghost.

The wolf was a beast from the Seven Hells, as far as he was concerned. The King’s Dragons were
scary for sure, but the white wolf was the scariest.

And it wasn’t the fact that he was the size of a fucking horse, or because his ruby eyes sank so
deep of your soul that they brought all your fears to surface. It wasn’t even the fact that he could
fit your whole head between his jaws, or because of his unnatural speed.

No, it was the fact that it never made a fucking sound! Arthur considered himself a very observant
man, a skill he perfected in his many years as a Kingsguard, but he couldn’t even remember how
many times his heart nearly stopped when the beast sneaked up on him. A thing that deadly
shouldn’t be so fucking silent!

The wolf liked no one except the King, yet this small girl only had awe in her eyes when he
sniffed her, she even put her hands around the wolf’s neck and hugged him. The same beast that
made her brother piss himself only a few heartbeats before. Arthur was sure then. She was as mad
as her father! Maybe madder!

And yet, the white-haired girl and the white wolf are best of friends now. Every time Jae was
busy, Ghost went to Daenerys and spent time with her. Arthur was awed every time he saw them.

A lot of their people, including him and Ser Oswell knew Ghost since he was a little pup and
some of them even tried to befriend him. But the wolf showed no interest in them. Hell, he’s pretty
sure he disliked most of them. Ser Oswell even had this rule - “The Ten Feet Rule” he called it - it
meant that never, ever, under any circumstances he would go closer than ten feet from Ghost. The
King rolled his eyes when he told him, but he accepted his conditions.

And then this girl came and in a few heartbeats, she had Ghost’s head in her lap. Literally.

Wonders never ceased.

They were close to the pier now, he could see all the people gathered on the shore, no doubt to get
a look at the Targaryens and their Dragon. For their own good, Arthur hoped they will only see
the red Dragon.

As always, Syrax was soaking the attention. He couldn’t help rolling his eyes, most of the time
that Dragon acted more like a giant flying cat than a deadly fire-breathing monster. No wonder
Oswell called him an attention whore, he would never agree with him out loud, but in his head, he
thought the description was oddly fitting.

Their ship finally docked, so he and Leg took their positions in front of Jaehaerys and Daenerys.
As always, he surveyed the crowd for any threats when his eyes fell on a small girl.

Surely he thought too much of the past these last few days and his mind must be playing tricks on
him. That girl was the spitting image of Lyanna. He shook his head then closed and opened his
eyes, just to make sure he’s not imagining things, but the girl was still there, staring in awe at the
King and the Princess.

He didn’t know what to do. Jae noticed his hesitation and pulled Daenerys behind him
protectively. “Ser Arthur, is everything all right?”

He was thinking how to explain it to him without sounding mad when Ghost came into view. The
girl’s reaction to the wolf told him that he was right. She didn’t look at him with fear or awe, she
looked at him in shock, like she knew what he was and couldn’t believe there was a Direwolf in
Braavos.

“That girl right there, my King,” he gave a little nod in the girl’s direction, casual enough not to
attract attention, “she is the spitting image of your mother”.

The King frowned like he wasn’t sure what to think about this so Arthur continued: “She also
recognized Ghost, I am sure of it.”

He could clearly see the surprise on Jaehaerys’ face, now he was looking straight at the girl. The
Princess stepped forward from behind the King, took his hand and started walking towards the girl
dragging him after her. “Come, Jae, let’s meet her. She might be one of your mother’s kin!” she
said excitedly.

The girl was still looking at Ghost who strolled silently to her. He sniffed her a little then he bent
his head to allow the girl to pet him. He knew right there that this girl was of Stark blood, Sansa or
Arya, or maybe some Stark bastard. What in the Seven Hells was she doing in Braavos?

Dany and Jae reached the girl, who was startled, she probably didn’t see them coming as she was
focused on Ghost. She gave a poorly executed courtesy: “Your Graces.”

Daenerys looked at the King, waiting for him to say something, but he was too shocked to do so.
He must have reached the same conclusion as him, after Ghost’s behavior.

So the Princess decided to introduce herself: “Good day, my Lady, I am Daenerys Targaryen, this
is King Jaehaerys Targaryen.”

The Princess continued: “What’s your na….”

The King seemed to have snapped out of his shock and interrupted her: “I am the son of Prince
Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark.” The girl's eyes were wide as saucers now. “What’s your
name, little one?” Jae asked kindly.

The girl started trembling now and her eyes were teary, Ghost sensing her vulnerability, gave her
a long lick on her face, causing the girl to release a teary chuckle.

Then she looked at the King, hands shaking: “I am Arya Stark of Winterfell, Your Grace.” A
huge grin broke free on Jae’s face. “Are you truly aunt Lyanna’s son?” Arya asked in awe.

“Indeed I am, little one!” he barely finished his sentence and Arya was in his arms, hugging him
with all her strength. The King released a loud, uncharacteristic laugh.

After Arya released him, to everyone’s surprise, she went and gave Daenerys a similar hug, who
was only too happy to return it and gave the girl a blinding smile.

As the King still seemed a little overwhelmed by his newfound kin, Daenerys asked: “How are
you in Braavos, Lady Arya?”

“Just Arya, Your Grace. It’s a long story.”

“Then you must call me Daenerys, if you are Jae’s family, you are mine too,” said the Princess
with some excitement. Arthur had to chuckle, she seemed as excited as Jaehaerys, maybe even
more.

The King finally found his voice: “Are you here alone?” he asked in concern.

“Yes,” she replied hesitantly. “I am staying at House of Black and White.”

With the Faceless Men? What in the Stranger’s name was she doing there?

Arya must have seen the surprise and confusion on everybody’s faces: “I didn’t have anywhere
else to go, I thought all my family is dead,” she said in a shaky voice.

It was surprisingly Daenerys that spoke next, in a fierce tone that broke no opposition: “You are
coming with us.”

Jaehaerys turned towards Grey Worm: “Where are our lodgings?”

“At the Golden Cock, My King,” he answered, “We let the whole inn.”

“Good, summon a hundred Unsullied to come with us and send the rest of our people to the inn,”
the King ordered.

“At once, My king!”

The House of Black and White was a strange building, it was located just outside of Braavos, built
on a rocky knoll and had no windows that Arthur could see, just a massive two-piece door, ebony
on one side and what it looked to be weirwood on the other.

They had a huge following now, most of the people from the harbor decided to follow them there.
They stationed the Unsullied outside and he, the King, Princess Daenerys - who absolutely
refused to go to the inn, Arya and Ghost went in.

A skinny woman dressed in a robe, half black, half white welcomed them in.

“We are here to see the Kindly Man,” Arya told her. The woman gave Ghost a wary look, then
looked at them for a long moment and nodded. She signaled them to follow.

They reached an inner courtyard, which had a pool around ten feet wide in the middle. On the
edge of the pool sat a man dressed in a robe similar to the skinny woman, his face covered with a
hood.

The King stepped forward: “I am Jaehaerys Targaryen,” he pointed towards the Princess and him:
“these are Daenerys Targaryen and Ser Arthur Dayne.” The priest got up and walked towards
them, “We are here to buy back Arya Stark’s life.”

“Arya Stark’s life belongs to the Many-Faced God now,” the priest said.

“Then we shall buy it from him,” Jaehaerys pulled out a blue Rainbow Diamond as big as a fist
from his purse and showed it to the priest. “You can buy a small town with this,” he said.

The priest pulled down his hood and beneath it was a yellow skull with scraps of skin hanging
from it and a worm in his eye socket.

Neither the King nor the Princess showed any reaction to the gruesome sight.

“Our God cares nothing of riches,” the priest said after some moments of uncomfortable silence.
Most likely the man expected some kind of reaction at his reveal. Arthur wanted to laugh, after the
things they've seen...

The Princess stepped forward, he eyes shooting fire: “We came here to release Arya and we will
do it!” she said fiercely. “We’re Targeryens, the blood of Dragons runs through our veins, we
don’t care about your Gods or your magic tricks,” she pointed towards his head. “If you don’t
accept riches, then we will bring our army here and raze this temple to the ground, and all that
would be left of your precious Gods will be a pile of rubble.”

The King couldn’t stop the awe on his face when he looked at Daenerys, even if he tried, Seven
Hells, he must have had a similar look, he’s pretty sure that even Ghost was impressed! Arya
looked at her like she hung the moon.

The priest seemed a little taken back by Daenerys’ speech, but he recovered fast enough: “Do you
think you’re the first to threaten us, girl?” he spat.

Arthur looked at the King, his awed look was now replaced with barely contained anger.

Shit!

“We’ve been here for thousands of years, kingdoms and armies more impressive than yours tried
to take us on and they all ended the same way. Offerings to The Many-Faced God,” the priest said
with venom. ”Maybe you will receive The Gift too, that will teach you to disrespect our God in
his house!”

He didn’t need to look at Jaehaerys to know what will happen next. The King’s right hand was at
the priest’s neck in a flash lifting him so high that his feet no longer touched the ground and he
was struggling to breathe. His skull face changed into the face of an old man.
In the same time the skinny girl tried to pull a knife from her robe, Arthur quickly pulled Dawn to
strike her down, but Arya was faster stepping between the woman and Jaehaerys and pulling a
dagger, ready to defend the King. Ghost beat them both, though, he just saw a flash of white
moving with blinding speed in front of him and next thing he knew the woman’s head was in
Ghost’s mouth, cracking like an egg under the pressure of the wolfs strong jaws. Her body went
limp in a heartbeat.

He looked around to see if anyone else was coming, and when he was sure it was safe he turned
towards the King, who was enraged now.

“Don’t. Ever. Threaten. Her.” his words sounded more like a growl. The priest was now
struggling for air.

“Do you think your God can protect you?” he asked in a similar growling voice. “Do you want to
see a God?”

Shit!

He threw the priest on the floor and the Many-Faced God servant started coughing, trying to fill
his lungs with air.

“I’ll show you a God!” The King’s eyes went milky white.

Shit!

Suddenly an earth-splitting roar was heard from above. The people gathered outside started
screaming and praying to their Gods.

Arthur wasn’t surprised to see the huge Ice Dragon landing on the building with a loud thud, the
roof struggling to hold his weight. He was much larger than Syrax. This Dragon was a bit of a
loner and Arthur rarely saw him, but the King assured him that he was always close.

The priest's face took the yellow color of the skull he was trying to scare them with, his limbs
were trembling so hard he couldn’t get up from the floor.

Arthur suddenly saw Jaehaerys pull Daenerys behind him, and raised his forearm in front of his
eyes, he took the cue from his King and pushed Arya behind him and raised his hand in front of
his eyes.

After another loud roar, Sonax released his frozen breath straight on the fountain in the middle,
making it explode into a million small pieces of ice all over the yard.

The Many-Faced God servant had his face on the ground, his hands covering his head. When he
looked up, Jaehaerys offered him the Rainbow Diamond again without a word.

The priest took it as fast as he could with his trembling hands: “Yes, yes, not all are fit to serve the
Many-Faced God. I see that now.”

Sonax gave another roar, a softer one this time and took flight, looking pleased with his work, half
of the building’s inner wall collapsed under the Dragon's weight when his legs pushed him up in
the air. To Arthur’s horror, human faces were scattered between the rocks, all over the inner
courtyard.

The King took Daenerys’ hand and started moving towards the exit, shards of ice cracking under
their boots, Ghost following on their trail. Just before leaving the courtyard he turned around
towards the priest: “This better be the last time we see each other!” he said in a threatening tone.
When they left the temple they noticed that all the people that came with them from the harbor
scattered, no doubt fearing the Dragon.

Arya was bouncing in excitement. “That was so cool!” she told Daenerys, “how you stood up to
him and threaten to raze the temple to the ground!”

“She’s quite a spitfire, isn’t she?” Jaehaerys said with awe and pride in his voice and to Arthur’s
surprise he leaned over and gave Daenerys a soft kiss on the temple.

If Arthur was surprised, Jaehaerys looked shocked by his own boldness, both he and Daenerys
went red as a beetroot.

Luckily for them, Arya didn’t notice and continued gushing over them.

“And that Dragon! What’s his name? Where did you get him? Can he breathe fire or only ice?
What does he eat? Can you ride him?...”

Arthur was walking behind the Targaryens and he couldn’t see their faces, but he could almost
hear their eyes rolling.

He could also hear the King’s next words:

“Hey Dany, do you think is too late to send her back?”

 You know nothing, Jaehaerys Targaryen
Chapter Notes

For those asking/wondering the plot in King's Landing is pretty much canon, Joff and
Tywin are dead. It's not important at this time, but I also left in vague on purpose, as I
might need certain characters in the future.

Arya is 15 here, I know she should be 12, but it's a bit creepy so I decided to make
her 15. At 15 she's considered a woman grown in this universe.

The POV's are not all happening at the same time if you didn't realize by now. They
are in chronological order, but the difference between some might be bigger than the
difference between some others. Although there should be hints in every chapter on
its timing, I will try to write their timing in the endnotes, for those of you who missed
them.

I also changed Altheea's tag from Black Dragon to Pretender, so that people won't
think that she is some sort of canon Dany, which she is definitely not. Dany's Tag
will change to Queen sooner or later, anyway.

See the end of the chapter for more notes

THE KING - THE SHIVERING SEA

They were back to sailing for a few days now and they were still many moons away from their
home away from home. He knew that his people didn’t like sailing, but he didn’t mind it much.
Jae was a land creature, just like his people, but he found a certain calmness in the Shivering Sea.
He often found himself on the deck, just absorbing this calmness and ordering his thoughts. Ser
Oswell liked to call it his “Daily Brood”.

When they sailed towards Pentos he was scared that they wouldn’t get there in time and Daenerys
would be already claimed the Dothraki, so he forced his people to sail as fast as possible, without
any stop, they only used their scouting ships for provisions.

He knew that his people were tired and frustrated before they got to Pentos, most of them were
land people, people that barely suffered the seas on short trips, but sailing for moons without
stepping on land must have been really hard. But they suffered in silence and trusted him, his
people were never the ones to complain.

Jaehaerys had no choice, anyway, if Dany would have been hurt because they took breaks that
they didn’t have to and didn’t get there in time, he would have never forgiven himself. Even now,
thinking of someone hurting her made his usually cold blood burn like wildfire.

But it all ended well, they got there just in time and managed to convince Dany to put her faith in
them. And if it was one thing Jaehaerys knew for sure, it was that he will never ever let her down.
This young woman who never stopped amazing them since the day they met her.
He remembered one of their last days in Braavos, they were invited to dinner by the Sealord
himself.

Jaehaerys didn’t think much of it, he was used to being invited to the most powerful people’s
houses, no matter where he went, also this Sealord was known to be a lover of unique animals and
there was no animal more unique in this world than Ghost. Direwolves were extinct for over 200
years, longer than even Dragons, and never in history were recordings of an albino Direwolf to
ever exist. Until now, of course. So it was no wonder that this Sealord wanted to see him from up
close.

He didn’t like parading Ghost, or himself for that matter, around so he didn’t want to go, but Dany
convinced him that it’s good to have friends, and it was the least they could do after they attacked
the House of Black and White.

She even convinced him to get the Sealord a present, to thank him for letting their fleet dock in
Braavos. So many ships were not easy to fit there and it definitely slowed down the trading in the
islands.

Jae still chuckled when he remembered Dany’s face after he spread the Rainbow Diamonds they
had with them on the table to pick one for the Sealord. He forgot to tell her that they mined them.
They eventually chose a beautiful green diamond, not too big to look like they were fawning over
the Sealord, yet not too small to make them look ungrateful. The Sealord seemed ecstatic with the
diamond, the green ones were quite rare.

The Rainbow Diamonds created quite a cult in Essoss, they were basically a symbol of people's
wealth, the bigger and rarer they were, the wealthier the owner was. But in this part of the world,
you rarely saw any other than the most common red color. It was no wonder, the rare colors were
always instantly snatched by the hundreds of YiTish Kings, Princes, Warlords, Generals, and
Brigands as soon as they hit the markets in Trader Town.

He could understand the Sealord’s enthusiasm, it’s unlikely that anyone in the Free Cities had a
similar one. The man was usually wearing a red one, like all the Magisters and other rich people
he met in Pentos and Braavos.

The dinner went better than he expected, and it was all down to Dany. If it was just him, he would
have probably sat at the table, eat and just give some short one-word non-committal answers to
their questions. Maybe brood a little and wait for a reasonable time to pass, so he could leave. But
thankfully Daenerys managed to draw him out a little, so he told the Sealord of their Fort in the
Further East, his trip to the Wall and even their mining operation. And when he started falling into
his old habits, retreating into himself and starting to brood too much a grape promptly hit him in
the head and brought him out of it.

At the end of the evening, he felt that they had developed a good relationship with the Sealord,
and they might even be good allies in the future.

The only thing he didn’t like that evening was the Sealord’s son throwing lustful looks to Dany.
His anger must have been noticeable because after the boy looked at him, he never looked
towards Daenerys all evening.

He also couldn’t miss Arthur’s eye roll from the back, where he was staying vigilant as always.
Others take him for seeing that! It could have been worse, he thought, if it would have been Ser
Oswell the one to see it, he would have never heard the end of it. Fortunately, with Ghost taking
part, Oswell stayed at the inn, Jae was never more thankful for the Ten Feet Rule than he was
then.
He told himself that he got angry because it was his job to protect her, but that excuse fell short
even to his ears.

As they were in Braavos, he also took the opportunity to visit the Iron Bank. He decided to take
Dany with him, because she was his heir, after all, if anything were to happen to him she should
know of his dealings.

They managed to reach an agreement with the bankers, they were to take over the debt of the
Seven Kingdoms, in exchange for the Bank’s promise to not support whoever is ruling the Seven
Kingdoms or Altheea Blackfyre.

They got in a bit of a predicament when the Bank asked for them to agree to use the dragons in
the bank’s interest in the future. Dany hotly told them that the Dragons were not slaves and they
won’t be used as such. She looked a little ashamed of her outburst, he was sure that the words
were out of her mouth before she realized it, but when he told the bankers that her word is as good
as his, the biggest smile he ever saw split her face.

The bankers were forced to drop that condition, especially after Syrax made its presence known
around the same time.

If before going to Braavos he had any doubts, after that he was sure that Daenerys will make a
perfect Queen. She complemented him perfectly.

But he didn’t free Daenerys from the unwanted marriage with Drogo to throw her into an
unwanted marriage with him. After what happened to his mother, there were few things he hated
more in his life than forcing a woman to marry against her will.

He didn’t want her to feel obligated to accept him just because he saved her, he wanted her to
want him as much as he wanted her.

He wanted to woo her like she deserved. But what did he know about wooing women?

Nothing. You know nothing, Jaehaerys Targaryen!

He thought that he was doing well, she seemed pleased with him, but that all changed when they
set sail. These days she was always crossed with him, he hasn’t seen her smile at him for a few
days now. He wouldn’t admit it to anyone, but he missed her smile. Terribly.

Dany seemed to be particularly angry with him when he went in the mornings to see Arya train.
First, he was concerned that she hates Arya, but they got along great, almost like sisters, only
when he was around he would see Daenerys narrowing her eyes and looking between him and
Arya.

Others take him, he would never understand women! He needed some advice, but who could he
ask?

Leg would probably tell him to hit her in the head, throw her over his shoulder and carry her to his
cabin, Arthur showed as much interest in women as he did before meeting Dany, and that was
none, that only left him with…
Oh, no!

That would definitely be his last resort.

Lost in his musings, his steps took him, as most mornings, in the back of the ship where Arya was
training and he took a seat on the bench across from her.

She was well trained, it was obvious, but she had a weird fighting style, a style made of twirls,
spins, dodges, and jumps. A very acrobatic style, Arthur told him it was called water dancing and
it was used by some of the greatest warriors in Braavos, the First Sword of Braavos among them.

It was a style that was nice to look at, but Jae didn’t like it that much. No doubt it would be a very
strong style in duels, but in war, when enemies came at you from every direction, it would be
impossible to dodge them all, there you had to stand your ground most of the time.

He made a mental note to tell Arthur to train her, maybe he and Oswell could train both Arya and
Dany at the same time.

He remembered when he asked Dany to start training with a sword, they will have many wars to
fight and he needed everyone to be able to protect themselves. He didn’t know what her reaction
would be so he had this long speech prepared to convince her, but he barely finished asking her
that she enthusiastically accepted.

She was awkward in the beginning, but she learned really fast. Whenever Arthur told him about
how some Targaryens were very fast learners and how his father learned to fight almost as well as
Arthur only after a couple of years of training, he always rolled his eyes but seeing Daenerys
improving at incredible speed every day made him think that maybe there was something in that.
And it only made sense that if some Targaryens were special, Dany was one of them, every man
and his dog could see that.

But it was not only natural talent, she was a hard worker too, she spent hours everyday training.
He knew that her muscles were sore, but she still continued her training, just as determined. Jae
wanted to offer to massage her sore muscles, but considering how annoyed she was with him
these days, she would have probably thrown him overboard if he did.

As if his thoughts summoned her, Dany appeared there too, stopping when she saw him and
giving him the usual narrow-eyed look and looking between him and Arya.

“Have a seat, Dany,” he said with a sigh, pointing towards the bench he was sitting on.

She seemed to think about it for a few heartbeats, then decided to sit. As far from him as possible.
And it looked like she made a point to never look in his direction.

The silence was heavy between them, so he decided to break it: “Arthur tells me that Arya is the
spitting image of my mother, both in looks and in character.”

She showed no sign of hearing him or that she wanted to say anything so he just decided to
continue: “I come to see her training when I have time because I like to imagine how my mother
would have looked when she was her age, training in Winterfell maybe.”

This seemed to have captured her attention for some reason, she turned sharply towards him, her
eyes wide: “That’s why you always watch her train with that wistful look in your eyes and that
smile on your face?” she asked a little uncertain, searching his eyes for something. For what, he
didn't know.
He just nodded and gave her a soft smile.

A huge real smile split her face and made him dizzy. Others take him, how he missed her smiles!
She even came and sat closer to him.

He had no idea what he said or did to make her not be angry at him anymore, but the relief he felt
was embarrassing.

Jaehaerys will never understand women. Maybe it’s time to swallow his pride and ask for some
advice before he fucked it up again. Time for the last resort. He cringed just by thinking of it.

He noticed her rubbing her hands together. There was a jar of salve on the bench, probably
Arya’s.

“Do your palms hurt?” he asked in low, uncertain voice, as if he didn’t want to scare her away.

She looked at him with her bright violet eyes and just nodded, the walls she built against him in
the last days were all gone, to Jae’s immense relief.

He took her small hands in his and slowly applied salve on her palms. Few things felt better in this
world than touching her. He never wanted to stop touching her, her hot skin was a perfect match
to his cold one.

When he looked up, he noticed that her eyes were brighter than usual and they were focused on
him, not on their hands. He saw something there that he couldn’t describe, something that made
his heart flip.

He vowed to do anything in his power not to mess this up again.

“You two should go and get yourself a cabin.” Arya, who seemed to have finished her training,
said with exaggerated fake disgust.

“Did you finish your training, Lady Stark?” he asked, knowing that there were few things she
hated more than being called a Lady.

“Fuck off!” came the expected response, and Arya turned around and left. Dany couldn’t stop her
giggles.

“That’s Fuck off, Your Grace to you, Lady Stark!” he shouted after her.

They could only hear her load groan over Dany’s tinkling laugh.

He was in the cabin he claimed as his office. It was a small cabin, with only a desk, two chairs
bolted to the floor and a man-sized looking glass in it. He was surprised to see the looking glass
here at first, but he decided to keep it anyway, he supposed it was some kind of changing room
before they made it into his office. The main reason he chose this room was that it had the biggest
window from all the cabins, so it allowed enough light to read and write most of the day.

It was only him and Ghost, who was sprawled next to him, behind his desk.

Jae was waiting anxiously for Ser Oswell to come. This was probably going to be the most
uncomfortable talk he ever had.

“Come in.” he said after he heard the dreaded knock.

Ser Oswell stepped in “You asked to see me, My King?”

“Yes, yes, take a seat, Ser.” he said.

“Kingsguard always stands, Your Grace” he answered, “What can I do for you?”

He didn’t know how to start this talk, so he just spouted the first thing that came to him: “You are
a man, Ser Oswell, right?”

The Knight looked stunned for a heartbeat there, but he recovered just as fast “That’s what my
wife seems to think, My King” a gleam appeared in his eyes, to Jae’s chagrin.

“Good, good, that’s what I wanted to talk about...” he managed to stupidly say.

Oswell could barely contain his smirk now “Do you seek confirmation from my wife that you are
a man, Your Grace?” he asked in the most innocent tone possible.

Curse him, he’s not going to make this easy!

“No, no, of course not.” he quickly denied it, to Oswell’s amusement. “I mean, you are married...”

“Indeed, My King, you need to get married to have a wife...” he didn’t even bother to conceal his
smirk now.

Others take him!

“No, what I meant to ask was how does one woo a woman?” Jae said now, his awkwardness
replaced with annoyance.

The Knight released a snort that he poorly tried to cover with a cough.

“Did one of the servant girls caught your eye, My King?” the Ser said, with poorly faked curiosity
“You know, you are their King, you just have to ask, there is no need to bother wooing them.
Most of them are quite fond of this brooding pretty boy look you have going on...” Ser Oswell
was the picture of innocence now.

But Jae had enough: “You know, Ser, after visiting the Sealord in Braavos and seeing how much
interest Ghost draws, I realized that they might be people, people who are obsessed with very rare
animals, that might try to steal him.” Oswell was no longer smirking now. The King continued
“We can’t risk that, of course.” he pointed at him, with his brows raised expectedly.

“Of course,” said the Knight in a high pitched voice, after a nervous swallow.

“And, of course,” Jae continued, “I told myself, with Ghost being a part of me, it’s only normal to
have the Kingsguards guard him too.” Ghost chose this time to get up from behind the desk, Ser
Oswell’s face went so white that it matched the great wolf’s fur, in his glee the Knight must have
missed the fact that he was here.

Jaehaerys decide to beat the iron while it’s hot “Now, everybody knows that Ser Arthur is
attached to me like a leech so that only leaves one man. My fearless Batman.” Ghost was standing
now face to face with Oswell, who was sweating like a pig.

“Ok, ok, you made your point, Your Grace.” the Knight said in a panicked voice. So much for the
“Ok, ok, you made your point, Your Grace.” the Knight said in a panicked voice. So much for the
fearless Batman... “I think the Princess finished her training, maybe you can let Ghost go to her so
we can continue our previous discussion.” he whimpered.

“Go.” Jae said to the wolf who ran out of the door.

The Knight relief was hilarious, but Jae couldn’t blame him for being afraid, Ghost had that effect
on people. He felt a little guilty for taking it so far, but Oswell was looking for it.

He gave the knight a few moments to pull himself together then said: “The reason why I asked
you, my good Ser, is that you managed to convince that wonderful woman to marry you with that
ugly mug of yours, so I figured you must be some kind of Wooing God for sure.”

The Knight's grin was back of his face: “You are not wrong there, My King.” then he said in a
serious voice “I see how you look at her, Your Grace, like she’s the most wonderful thing you
ever saw.” he thought a little, perhaps thinking how to explain “Just be honest with her, and tell
her how she looks through your eyes.”

“Well, you are right, she is the most wonderful thing I ever saw.” he wasn’t sure if he said that out
loud or not, or if he wanted to “Thank you for your advice, it was surprisingly helpful.” Jae gave
the Knight a pointed look: “…once I managed to get it out of you.”

“That was not nice, My King. And totally against the Ten Foot Rule, might I add.”

“You broke your own rule, Ser, Ghost was already in the cabin when you came in.” he said
matter-of-factly.

A few moments after Oswell left, Arthur came in: “My King” he gave a bow “I walked past Ser
Oswell when I came in, he looked like he has seen a ghost.” he said with his usual stoic face, but
the mirth was unmistakable in his eyes.

“Was that a joke, Arthur? Careful, good Ser, if I tell people you have a sense of humor, they will
think me as mad as my grandfather Aerys.” the King said and Arthur gave a small snort. “Did our
scouting ships come back?”

Arthur nodded and gave him a piece of paper: “Here are the news and gossip they managed to
gather.”

He looked through the news to see if there was something important and then he saw it.

“Others take him!” at Arthur’s questioning look he gave him the paper. After he waited for Arthur
to catch up, he said: “We should have killed him when we had the chance.”

“He is an idiot, My King, but he’s still your blood” Arthur reminded him.

“I guess. I’m surprised Altheea married him without the Dothraki.” the King said.

“He still strengthens Altheea’s claim.” the Sword of the Morning pointed out “They might start the
invasion on Westeros sooner than we anticipated” he also said.

Jaehaerys groaned “There is nothing we can do now, our main focus is the Army of the Dead. We
don’t have time to fight Blackfyres, mad Targaryens, and Lannisters. We were planning to start
North anyway, I guess we’ll just have to close off now and let these fuckers fight themselves
while we fight the dead. After that, we can fight them, hopefully not with blue eyes.” Arthur
nodded.
“How is Dany’s training going?” he asked after a short pause.

“Very well, My King, she’s a very fast learner.” Arthur answered and gave him a pointed look.
“She even does well with Ser Oswell’s neck punching and groin kicking training.” the knight said
with glee.

He snorted “That sounds like something Ser Oswell would teach, it doesn’t hurt her learning it, I
guess.” he conceded. “Does she have Dragon strength?” he asked.

“I think so, My King, it sometimes comes out when she is cornered. I think she might not know
her true strength yet, or she is hiding it” Arthur said.

“Who knows... I must teach her to control it, anyway” he thought a little “she always changes the
subject when I ask about her fire resistance”

“Are you sure she’s unburnt?”

“Yes, and I think Syrax is already responding to her strong emotions. But we’ll know for sure
when we dock and she can meet the Dragon properly.” he said rubbing his chin.

Arthur only nodded.

“Summon her if she’s available, I must tell her about her brother’s wedding.” Jae said with a sigh.

“Of course, My King.” Arthur nodded and left.

It didn’t take long for Dany to come, Ghost trailing after her.

She looked worried “Is everything ok, Jae?”

“Everything’s fine, Dany, have a seat.” She sat on one of the chairs, Ghost taking his usual place
with his head in her lap. It always warmed his heart seeing these two getting along so well.

He got up from his desk and stood in front of her “Our scouting ships are back with news from the
mainland”. He gave her the paper and waited patiently for her to read.

“He married the Blackfyre,” she said with a frown. “Why would she marry him without the
Dothraki?” she asked. “She needs him to strengthen her claim,” she answered her own question.

She read more: “It says here that she is considered the most beautiful woman in the world” he
gave a loud snort that got her attention and curiosity “Do you know her?” she asked confused.

“No, but I know for sure that she isn’t the most beautiful woman in the world” seeing her
furrowing brow he took a deep breath and continued “I have already met the most beautiful
woman in the world.”

She looked down and asked in a low voice “Who was she?”

He held out his hand for her to take it “Come, let me show you.” She seemed surprised by his
request, but she put her small hand into his and he tried to help her up. Ghost wouldn’t have any
of it, though, and he was refusing to move his head from her lap, making Dany giggle.

“Let her go, you oaf! Find your own woman!” Ghost finally let her go after giving him a
disgusted huff. Only when he saw the blush in Daenerys’ cheeks he realized what he said.
Way to go, idiot!

He guided her in front of the looking glass. Standing behind her, his hands resting on her hips, he
looked straight into her eyes through the mirror and he said: “Let me tell you about the most
beautiful woman in the world

“She is only a sip of a girl, but her shadow could cover the world. She has long white hair, that
glows like the moon on a cloudless night. She has pink plumped lips that mesmerize me every
time she talks. She has a face so beautiful that makes even a Goddess envious. And she has these
big beautiful light violet eyes that make me weak in the knees every time I look into them, I can’t
decide when I like them best, when they sparkle with happiness or when they flare with anger.”
he noticed her eyes getting watery.

That’s what I get for listening to the fucking Batman!

He continued anyway “And you know what I love the most about her?” she shook her head, her
beautiful eyes glowing like Rainbow Diamonds now “Her big heart. She has the biggest, kindest
heart I ever saw, she wants to help everybody, even those who don’t deserve it, and she makes
everyone happy around her. Rumor has it that she even made the grim King laugh, but I doubt it,
everybody knows that that fucker doesn’t know how to laugh.”

Jaehaerys thought he heard a quiet chuckle, but he must have imagined it because she was looking
down now.

“My people only know her for a few weeks now, and they already like her better than me. I even
have to fight with Ghost for her attention.”

When she said nothing for some time, he was sure he messed it up again and he was thinking if it
was better to throw Oswell overboard or to feed him to Ghost, when he felt her push her back
deeper into his chest, he couldn’t stop wrapping his hands over her stomach and hold her tightly
even if he wanted to. Then he saw her look up with shiny eyes glowing with happiness and she
asked in a quiet, shy voice “Do you really think I’m beautiful?”

He gave her the biggest smile he was capable of and said: “If Lady Mella wouldn’t have started
talking when we met, we would be still Pentos now, I would still be looking at you like a
mooncalf and you would still be thinking What in the Seven Hells is wrong with this idiot? Or
maybe I would have passed out, from not being able to breathe.

“You take my breath away, Dany.”

THE OLD KNIGHT - BRAAVOS

He was too old for this shit. He should have been long dead, like his brothers. If the Gods were
good they would have given him an honorable death at the Trident, and these last 20 years of his
life wouldn’t have happened.

He should have been in Heavens with his brothers. His true brothers, not these useless wankers
that wore the White Cloak these days. He should have been sparring with Ser Arthur Dayne. He
should have been sharing tales with Ser Gerold Hightower. He should have been laughing at Ser
Oswell Whent’s jokes. He should have been listening to Prince Lewyn’s advice. He should have
been enchanted by Prince Rhaegar harp.

But, no, the Gods hated him and cursed him and left him alive to serve shit Kings, as always.
Kings that burned people alive, that beat and raped their wives. Kings that were only interested in
fucking, drinking and hunting. Kings that liked to beat little girls and torture people.

Even Viserys turned out to be a disappointment and he hasn’t even met him yet. But the way
people talked about him in Pentos didn’t fill him with the confidence that the Seven Kingdoms
would finally have a good King.

When he was released from the Kingsguard by the boy King Joffrey, he was seething at first. He
gave his life to the Kingsguard and this boy came and threw him out. But his rage was quickly
subdued when he realized that it was a good opportunity to do what he should have done 20 years
ago, seek and serve his true King.

So he traveled to Pentos where King Viserys and Princess Daenerys were last seen. Only to find
out that Viserys was in Myr, and he married a Blackfyre pretender.

Again, one of his heroic deeds came back to bite him on his ass, just like the Defiance of
Duskendale, where he saved a King and doomed a Kingdom.

He was the one who slew the last Blackfyre pretender at the Stepstones, Maelys the Monstrous,
and now the true King married his granddaughter. There was no way he could offer his services
without losing his head.

Just when Barristan was considering taking a different name and joining some sellsword company
so he could at least earn himself an honorable death in battle, the story of Princess Daenerys and
the so called Targaryen King reached his ears.

He knew for sure that that King wasn’t a Targaryen, the only marriage outside of the family in 3
generations that Targaryens made was Prince Rhaegar’s marriage to Elia Martell, and their son
was dead. Even if by some miracle he would have escaped, it wasn’t him because the child had
silver hair.

But it didn’t matter who this Targaryen pretender was, Princess Daenerys was with him, and she
was a true Targaryen that he could serve and die for.

He tried to get some more information but he only got some ridiculous stories, like this King had a
white dog with burning eyes as big as a horse, some even said that they saw a red Dragon burning
down some Magister’s manse. He scoffed just by thinking of it.

But he also learned that they sailed for Braavos, so here he was.

He was looking for an inn to get some information when a group of barefooted children ran past
him. He looked at them amused, the youngest was a little girl with golden hair and big blue eyes
that that surely was no more than five name days while the oldest child might have been ten or
eleven.
“Let’s play The Dragons and The Dothraki” he heard one child say and saw them split into two
groups, around half a dozen children in each group. Most of them armed themselves with sticks.
Barristan found himself intrigued by this game for some reason.

“I am the Winter King!” one small boy with a stick in his hand screamed.

“I am the Batman!” screamed another, the old Knight couldn’t help but chuckle. He knew a
Batman once.

“I am the Sword of the Morning!” declared a taller child, to Barristan’s shock. How did these
children know of a man long gone?

The little girl pulled the tallest child’s hand and asked in a shy voice “Brother, can I be Queen
Daenerys?”

The tall child gave her a big grin “Of course, little one!” he said “And I shall be the red Dragon,
you can ride me!” he said excitedly. He bent down to allow the little girl on his back then started
running around causing the girl to scream and giggle.

“Dawn shall strike you down, you savages!” said the boy pretending to be Arthur.

Then a group, who Barristan guessed were pretending to be Dothraki, ran towards the other group
who pretended to defend with their sticks, the little girl climbed on the back of her brother
pretending to be Daenerys riding a Dragon was screaming “Dracarys! Dracarys! Dracarys!”
between giggles.

When the children took a break from their playing, Barristan approached the boy pretending to be
Arthur “Lad, how did you hear about The Sword of the Morning”?

The boy looked offended “He stopped to talk to us one morning” the others around him all
nodded their heads “He even showed us his sword” he told him excitedly. “I never saw such a
sword, white like milk. Do you know it was made from one of the stars that we see at night in the
sky?”

Barristan’s heart was beating out of his chest now, last time he was so excited was probably
during the Rebellion.

“Is he still here? Can you take me to him?” he asked in a voice that he didn’t recognize.

“Oh, they left.” the boy said. He must have seen the disappointment on his face because he
continued “They stayed at the Golden Cock” he told him, pointing to an inn with a big golden
rooster sign hanging over its double wooden doors “Maybe they know where they went”.

He gave the boy a coin, which earned him a huge smile in return and started walking towards the
inn.

Could it really be true? Could Arthur be alive? He just realized that one of the children pretended
to be the Batman. Oswell? Could he be alive too? The thought of them being alive was
overwhelming.

He always wondered what happened to them. Arthur, Oswell, and Gerold were all missing.
Everybody just assumed that they were slain in one of the many battles of the Rebellion. He
thought that maybe some Essossi sellsword took Dawn because there was no way that anybody in
Westeros could wield that sword without being recognized. It was the best sword ever made, and
everybody knew it, it was even better than Valyrian Steel.

It didn’t matter anyway, he would find information at the inn and he would follow them to the end
of the world, and if the Princess would let him, he would serve her and maybe even die for her, if
he was lucky.

The Gods owed him at least this much.

THE KINGSLAYER - KING'S LANDING

The fat Dothraki put aside his knife to unsheathe a huge curved arakh, the wickedly sharp scythe-
sword the horselords loved.

They mean to scare me. The fool hopped on Jaime's back, giggling, as the Dothraki swaggered
toward him. The goat wants me to piss my breeches and beg his mercy, but he'll never have that
pleasure. He was a Lannister of Casterly Rock, Lord Commander of the Kingsguard; no
sellsword would make him scream.

Sunlight ran silver along the edge of the arakh as it came shivering down, almost too fast to see.

And Jaime screamed.

Panic filled him, his rapid shallow breathing could barely fill his lungs with air. He looked at his
right hand. His little finger missing, but the hand was still there.

It was a dream, just a dream. He opened and closed his fist, burying his fingernails in his palm on
the process, just to fell, to make sure it was still there and that it was only a nightmare.

After he finally got his breathing under control, he got up in a sitting position and poured himself
some water, his throat feeling drier than the Red Waste.

Thank the Gods for Brienne. If she didn’t throw herself into the Dothraki, he would have been a
handless Jaime Lannister, not only a fingerless Jaime, like he is now.

And what was Jamie Lannister without his sword hand? Nothing, he was nothing without his
sword hand.

This troubled him lately. Is that all he was?

A pretty boy that was good with a sword?

A man that few liked and even fewer respected?

A man that was given fake smiles when people had his attention, and snickers when he wasn’t
looking?

A man that was called Ser Jaime to his face and Kingslayer behind his back?
He couldn’t help thinking back at the time when the court came to Castely Rock after the death of
his grandfather, he must have been no more than ten name days, it was the first time he laid his
eyes on the Kingsguard. He still remembers the awe he felt standing in front of Ser Gerold
Hightower, Ser Barristan the Bold, Prince Lewyn Martell, Ser Oswell Whent and his favorite Ser
Arthur Dayne. Aerys must have been one of the shittiest Kings in Targaryen history, but that
Kingsguard was the best ever assembled.

His father wanted to groom him as the Lord of Castely Rock, but he knew then, looking at those
men that that was what he wanted to do. He was no fucking Lord.

When he told the Knights that he wanted to join them, they all laughed, saying that Tywin would
rather cut off one of his hands that let his heir join the Kingsguard.

His disappointment was great until Ser Oswell told him that if he took good care of his horse, he
will put him in a sack and smuggle him out of Castely Rock with the food carts, without his father
knowing.

He still chuckled every time he remembered that. Fucking Oswell! Never has been a horse more
loved and cared for than Oswell’s brown steed during the court’s stay at The Rock.

A year after that Tywin sent him to squire for Lord Sumner Crakehall.

After 4 years as Lord Sumner’s squire, he finally got his chance for greatness when the
Kingsguard was called to dispose of a band of bandits called the Kingswood Brotherhood. One of
those men was, what Jaime liked to call his youth’s Gregor Clegane, the Smiling Knight, they
called him. He wasn’t as big as Ser Gregor, but he was twice as mad, and one of the best
swordsmen Jaime ever saw.

The young Jaime actually managed to hold his own against the Smiling Knight that day, before
Ser Arthur came and slain him.

After that, he was knighted right there on the battlefield by his hero, Ser Arthur. I was the best day
of Jaime’s life.

Thank the Gods Arthur is not alive to see what he became, he probably won’t say much, as was
his wont, but the disappointment in his eyes would have probably crushed him.

The Sword of the Morning even defended him when his new brothers of the Kingsguard said he
was too young, too green, and how did he repay him? He dreamed of becoming Ser Arthur
Dayne, and somewhere along the way, he became the Smiling Knight.

After becoming a Knight, he traveled to King”s Landing to see his sister. There Cersei told him
that his father intended to marry him to Lysa Tully and propose that he should join the Kingsguard
to escape from that marriage. He wasn’t sure, as it was obvious that Tywin will not approve, but
after a night of passionate fucking, he gave his consent.

Now that he thinks about it, he took a lot of important decisions after fucking Cersei. No wonder
everybody called him the dumbest Lannister. At that time he thought that Cersei proposed him to
join the Kingsguard because she knew he didn’t want to marry Lysa and she cared about his
happiness, but now he realized that she just didn’t want to share her toy with someone else and
wanted to keep her lapdog close.

Cersei… When did all go wrong? When did his love for her change from the purest thing in his
life to a poison that was slowly rotting away his soul?

Maybe it was when he agreed to join the Kingsguard, or maybe when he slit Aerys’ throat, or
maybe when he continued his affair with Cersei even after she married, or perhaps it was when he
pushed that little boy from the tower after he caught them fucking…

Whenever it was, he should have gotten out sooner. He always saw Cersei as his biggest gift, but
the truth is that she was his curse. What could he do, you don’t get to choose who you love…
Couldn’t he fall in love with a nice, good woman, like normal people? Big beautiful blue eyes
were instantly on his mind.

Get it together, Jaime!

He couldn’t help thinking how different Cersei and Brienne were, though. Like night and day.

One was the most beautiful and graceful woman he ever saw, the other one big and awkward.

One had cold, calculating green eyes, the other had big, kind, beautiful blue eyes.

One was selfish and uncaring, the other was kind and honorable.

One was beautiful on the outside but rotten on the inside, the other wasn’t much to look at, but she
had the most beautiful and kind heart.

Jaime couldn’t help thinking that this new way of seeing things was not only because he almost
lost his hand. A big part of it were his countless discussions with Brienne. They had a lot of time
to fill only with each other’s company in the dungeons of Harrenhal before Ser Gregor came and
freed them.

He told her things he never told anyone, he expected her to be disgusted with him, but she wasn’t,
for some reason she was confident that there still was good in him. Jaime thought she was mad for
sure, all that time in captivity finally got to her head. He even told her that, but her answer was that
even if some mistakes can never be fixed or forgiven, he can at least make sure that he will do
better in the future and won’t make those mistakes again.

Could it be true? Could an empty carcass like him actually change and do some good for a
change?

Jaime couldn’t deny that Brienne also reminded him what a true Knight should be like.
Somewhere along the way, he forgot, but lately, he found himself overwhelmed by memories of
things that were long forgotten, things that meant the world to him at one time, but he hasn’t given
them a thought in countless years. He remembered Arthur’s sense of duty and justice, he
remembered the White Bull’s wise advice, he remembered Oswell’s sense of humor and he
remembered of Prince Rhaegar’s kindness.
That was the true age of Knights. Today... he can’t even think of a Knight that he can admire after
the Rebellion, himself included. Being a Knight meant nothing these days.

Even the great Ser Barristan, who was always acting all high and mighty, and he was probably the
most soiled of them all. Everything Barristan had was because of the Targaryens, and he couldn’t
bend the knee fast enough to Robert, a man who was delighted with the butchering of the royal
children. Even his nickname “The Bold” was given to him by Prince Duncan himself when the
Knight was nothing but a child. And he stood there in the small council meetings, guarding Robert
while he ordered the assassination of Prince Viserys and Princess Daenerys.

Thinking of the Targaryens inevitably made him think about his life’s defining moment. The day
when he slit Aerys’ throat.

It was one of the big ironies in life how his greatest deed brought him the scorn of an entire realm.

He still has nightmares with that day Burn them all! Burn them all! Burn them all! In his
nightmares, he’s always too slow and they always ended surrounded by green fire.

Even these days, after almost 20 years, Jaime could still see the people on the streets of King’s
Landing looking at him disgusted. He supposed it was because Robert was such a shit king, Aerys
might have been mad as a box of frogs and liked to burn people alive for sport, but the realm’s
coffers were flooding with gold and the people were well fed.

The funny thing was that they hated him for saving their lives. If he wouldn’t have killed Aerys,
he would have wiped King’s Landing from the map and all its people with it.

He found it funny at first, people hating him for saving them, it was like his inner joke, but it
quickly got old and started chipping his armor bit by bit, so he did the only thing he knew, he
locked himself inside and didn’t pay attention to what others thought and said about him. He had a
lot of practice with keeping things out of his head, after being forced to watch Aerys’ countless
executions by fire.

The worst thing is that somewhere along the way he started caring so little, that he actually
became the man everyone else thought he was.

Not for the first time he thought if it wouldn’t have been better to tell people why he did it… But it
was unlikely to change people’s opinion. He saw the accusation and disgust in Eddard Stark’s
eyes when he first came into the throne room. Also, with his father sacking the city and butchering
the royal children, nobody would have believed him anyway.

The royal children… While killing Aerys was his grandest deed, failing to protect Rhaenys and
Aegon was his biggest fail. That was the only thing Rhaegar ever asked him and he failed him.

At least Armory Lorch is now dead by the bear that tried to kill Brienne, and Gregor Clegane is
close to meeting his Gods, after being poisoned by Oberyn.

He got up and started to dress, he wanted to go and spend some time with Brienne, like he did
every day. After Harrenhal, she became an important part of his life.
He could see that she was getting more agitated every day, she wanted to leave and find the Stark
girls like she promised Lady Catelyn, Jaime was running out of excuses to keep her here.

Jaime wouldn’t admit it to anyone but he was afraid, he was afraid that when Brienne left he will
lose himself again and he wanted to hold to this new found goodness with all he had. And
Brienne was his anchor, she was the one who brought the best out of him, she was the one who
reminded him every day how a true Knight should be.

But he couldn’t stand in her way, he knew that he needed to let her go for her to do her duty. He
hoped she could find Sansa and Arya.

They were both shocked when they found out about the Red Wedding. That was the most
disgusting thing Jaime ever heard. War was always bloody, and nobody knew that better than
Jaime, but to kill your allies under guest rights at a wedding, that was unheard of. Guest rights
stood for thousands of years and they helped countless wars to end without spilling more blood
than necessary, and his father and his allies destroyed all that. Nobody would be trusting guest
rights anymore after what happened at the Twins.

He supposed that the Gods paid his father in full for that, being killed on the privy by his least
favorite person in the world, his son Tyrion.

Jaime didn’t know what to think about that, he was his father after all, but he couldn’t help feeling
betrayed by Tyrion. Although Tyrion’s betrayal was nothing to his.

Well, he hoped that Brienne could find the girls and keep them safe, now that they didn’t have
anywhere to go. Maybe she could bring them to the Wall to their father, he was their last living
family, but the Wall was no place for young girls.

Anyway, she must find them first, Brienne was spending her days asking people around King’s
Landing and the docks about the girls. No success so far, Jaime suspected that at least the younger
girl, Arya, was dead, she hasn’t been seen in years. Although there is a mummery in play, where
some northern girl was sent to the Boltons, pretending she was Arya Stark.

The truth was that there was a big chance that both of them were dead.

When he got up to leave, a servant appeared at the door: “Ser Jaime, the Queen requests your
presence in the throne room.”

Jaime couldn’t hide his frustration. Instead of spending a nice quiet morning with Brienne, he is
forced to spend it with Cersei, listening to whatever imaginary plots she would think of now.

After Joffrey and their father’s death, and Tyrion’s escape, she was getting more and more
paranoid every day. In a way, she reminded him of the Mad King. Also, you could rarely see her
without a glass of wine in her hand these days.

When he got to the throne room, the usual hangers were already there and his sister was sitting on
the throne, acting as Tommen’s regent.
There were two men in the middle of the room dressed like Braavosi merchants.

“You can share your information now that Ser Jaime is here.” Cersei ordered.

One of them started speaking: “I am Argilac of Myr, Your Grace. I come with news from Essoss,
where Queen Altheea Blackfire sacked Myr, Tyrosh, and Lys. She also controls the Disputed
Lands.” he took a deep breath and continued “Rumor is that she is hiring every sell sword
available and is planning to invade Westeros. She recently married Viserys Targaryen who has the
same ambition as her. Everyone in Myr heard him say that he will burn alive every one of
Usurper’s dogs when he returns to Westeros.”

Jaime couldn’t help but flinch, he sounded just like his father. A madman.

Cersei laughed “A pretender whore and a madman, let them try!”

He heard Randyll Tarly’s grave voice: “This might work well for us, Your Grace. Sunspear is the
closest to their location and it’s very likely that their possible invasion might start there, so both of
our enemies will weaken themselves.”

Cersei seemed pleased with this information “Good, good, then we shall wait them out and kill
whatever is left.”

“What about you?” the Queen regent looked at the other man.

“I come from Braavos, Your Grace, and also have information that might interest you.” the man
said.

“Speak, and if the information will be good, you shall be handsomely rewarded” Cersei ordered.

“Of course, Your Grace!” the man gave a smile ”A few moons back a Targaryen fleet docked in
Braavos”

This got Jaime’s attention “A fleet, you say?”

“Yes, My Lord, there were around 100 ships” Jaime was surprised now. If Viserys already had a
big army and allied himself with Altheea, the invasion was coming sooner than they thought.

“What was Viserys doing in Braavos?” he pointed to the other man “This man here just said that
he was in Myr, married to the Blackfire.”

The man cleared his throat “It wasn’t Viserys my lord. They called themselves King Jaehaerys
and Queen Daenerys” Daenerys? That was Viserys sister. But who was this Jaehaerys?

Lord Tarly must have thought the same thing “We heard of Daenerys, but never of this Jaehaerys,
who is he?” he asked curiously.

“He’s a Targaryen, although he had dark hair. The small folk call him the King of Winter.” the
man answered.

Cersei snorted “King of Winter? The Kings of Winter are gone for a long time. There is no
Targaryen with dark hair that we know of.”

The man looked a bit uncertain “He’s a Targaryen alright, who else would have Dragons?”

Loud gasps were heard all along the throne room. Followed by laughs and snorts.

Mace Tyrell was the one who talked: “Surely you jest, my Lord.”
Mace Tyrell was the one who talked: “Surely you jest, my Lord.”

“I do not jest, My Lord, I saw him myself, bright red with burning eyes, flew just over my head,
so close that I felt his heat.” Mace Tyrell was left speechless, so the man continued “As many as a
thousand people also saw another dragon, this one made of ice, that destroyed half of the House of
Black and White, the assassin cult” he stopped to swallow “This King is no joking matter, my
Lord.”

Jaime was gaping like a fish, this was not good, if this Jaehaerys was allied with Viserys and the
Blackfire they will be hard to stop, maybe even impossible if they trully had dragons.

It was his turn to ask “Why did they destroy the House of Black and White, they don’t seem like
people that you would want as your enemies?”

“To release his cousin, who was serving the Many-Faced God. They serve for life.”

“Cousin? Who is this cousin, another fucking Targaryen? They pop up like mushrooms after the
rain these days.” Cersei asked lividly.

“No, Your Grace, I heard her say that her name was Arya Stark.” gasps were heard all over the
throne room, people started talking over each other, you couldn’t understand anything.

“Lies” one Lord Jaime couldn’t recognize said, “Arya Stark is in the North, married to the Lord of
Winterfell”

“That’s what the girl said her name was, My Lords, she even looked a little like the Winter King,
same hair, and long face.”

Then it hit Jaime like a hammer in the head. Arya was said to be the copy of Lyanna Stark, this
King was Lyanna’s a Rhaegar’s son.

Look after my family, Ser Jaime.

How did the boy survive? Was it possible that he had some of his brothers with him?

“Who else was with him?” he asked

“He had a huge Dothraki guarding him and two Knights in white” Jaime’s heart leaped into his
throat now.

“The Knights, how did they look like?” he asked in a shaky voice.

“One has short dark hair and a helmet with a big black bat on it” It can’t be! Oswell! “And the
other was tall and blonde, with purple eyes” Jaime was absolutely shaking now, “I forgot his
name, but they called him The Sword of the Morning.”

Outraged voices were heard all around them “Lies! Ser Arthur Dayne is long dead!”

Jaime grabbed him by the collar “If you are lying I will open your stomach and have you eat your
intestines, right here in front of everyone!” he growled.

The poor man was white now “No indeed My Lord, That’s how they called him, he had a great
sword like no sword I saw before. It had a big ruby pommel and a milky white blade.”

By the Gods, it was him!

Everybody was frantic, they must have realized that if Arthur was with the boy, he was legit.
“When do you leave back for Braavos?” he asked so that only the sailor could hear him.

“Tomorrow, My Lord.”

“Save me a cabin, I will send payment later.” he said.

The man seemed to have recovered some color on his face, now that he has seen that Jaime
calmed down. “Of course, My Lord.”

He then turned around and left, leaving the throne room into chaos, he thought he heard Cersei
screaming after him, but he couldn’t make himself to care.

When he exited the throne room he looked left and right, not knowing what to do. He still
couldn’t process it all. Alive, at least two of his brothers were alive. Ser Arthur was alive.

And Rhaegar’s son.

Look after my family, Ser Jaime.

Brienne! He had to tell Brienne!

When he got to Brienne’s rooms, he didn’t even bother to knock, he just went straight in. Brienne
was looking like she was packing the few things she had.

“What are you doing, wench? Leaving without saying goodbye?” he smirked seeing her startle.

“I need to leave, Jaime! I can’t wait any more time! The longer I wait, the slimmer the chances of
finding them are! And I don’t even know where to start!” she said a bit frustrated.

“What would you do without me, wench? I have some information for you, we found Arya!” he
gave her a smile.

“Don’t joke with me, Jaime!” she stated exasperatedly.

“No joke, she’s with her cousin in Braavos.” he said with a serious face.

“Her cousin, which cousin?” she asked.

“Rhaegar’s and Lyanna Stark’s son apparently.” he said enjoying the shock on her face.

“I must go to her then, I made an oath.” she said firmly

He gave her a smile, he always admired her sense of duty. She must have seen the admiration in
his eyes because a becoming blush stretched on her face.

“Way ahead of you, wench. I bought you a cabin on a Braavos bound ship, you leave tomorrow.”
he said with a grin.

“Thank you, Jaime!” he gave him an unexpected hug, which stirred something in his heart that he
was not ready to think of.

She went red as a lobster after the hug and an awkward silence settled between them.
He pulled a purse of gold and threw it on the table: “For your trip, wench.” When she started to
refuse it, he held his hand up “I also promised Lady Catelyn to help her daughters, this is my way
of doing it.”

That seemed to have worked and she accepted the money.

Then an idea came to him, he unbuckled his sword and gave it to her. She looked at him
uncertainly and slowly pulled the sword out of its sheath, her eyes went big as saucers. “This is
Valyrian Steel, I can’t take this!” Brienne said, almost panicked. She tried to give the sword back.

Jaime ignored her “It’s called Oathkeeper, made from the sword of House Stark, Ice. What better
use for it than to help you keep your oath to the Starks and protect Arya Stark with it?”

She didn’t seem convinced “You could buy an army with this.”

“It’s made from Stark steel, so it should be used to help the Starks” he said with finality.

Brienne still looked uncertain but realized that Jaime won’t budge, so she just gave him a small
nod.

“Be at the docks tomorrow morning, the ship will be waiting.” he said and turned to leave.

“Jaime, I...” Brienne said in a quiet voice.

He turned surprised by her tone, when he looked at her, the emotion he saw in her big eyes
overwhelmed him. He needed to leave before he would do or say something stupid.

“Don’t get sappy on me, wench!” he said giving her what he hoped was his trademark smirk and
left.

He was pacing in his rooms for what it felt like hours.

What should he do?

By the Gods, Ser Arthur and Ser Oswell were alive. And they were protecting Rhaegar’s son.
Jaime had no doubt the boy was legitimate if Arthur and Oswell were with him.

What should he do?

Look after my family, Ser Jaime.

And Arya Stark, she was also alive. He promised her mother he would send her home. Although
the girl doesn’t have a home anymore.

What should he do?

Brienne was going to Braavos.

Look after my family, Ser Jaime.

It was time to act like the man he wanted to be, not like the man people expected him to be.
When he reached the King’s rooms, Ser Boros Blunt was sitting outside, guarding. Ser Boros was
the perfect example of how low the Kingsguard have fallen. Once filled with the best and most
loyal Knights in all the realm, and now filled with creatures like Boros the Belly here. No wonder
he was made food taster for the King, the man swallowed everything he could get his hands on.

He gave Blunt a sharp nod and entered the chambers. Tommen was at his desk, drawing.

“Uncle Jaime!” the child's eyes lit up when he saw him.

“How are you, Tommen?” he gave him a true smile. “I need you to place your stamp on this.” he
put the papers in front of the king.

“Of course!” he said happily. Jaime was a bit worried, this kid likeed to stamp documents a bit too
much.

He saw him frown “Are you well, Tommen?”

“Do you think I will be a good King, uncle?” the boy asked.

Jaime was surprised by the question “I think you are a good lad, with a big heart and people will
love for it.” he said.

Tommen seemed pleased with his answer, and gave him a big smile “Thank you, uncle!”

“Take care, my boy.” Jaime gave Tommen a kiss on his forehead and left.

The next morning he was at the docks, Widow Wail strapped on his belt. He decided to take it
with him, he might as well put it on good use, maybe even give it to the Lyanna’s son or to Arya
Stark, it belonged to the Starks after all. He needed to change its shitty name, though.

Brienne was surprised to see him. “What are you doing here, Jaime?”

“I decided to take a trip to Braavos” he said nonchalantly “I hear the Titan is quite a sight!”

“But your oath to the Kingsguard...” she said confused.

“I was released from my oaths by King Tommen himself yesterday” she looked surprised.

“Did you think you could get away from me so easily, wench?”

THE PRETENDER - LYS

It was finally time, after all she’s been through she would finally get her Dragons. It was only
fitting that the sacrifices were made in the place she called home when she was a little child. The
pillow house her mother used to work before she died. It was time to put that part of her life
behind her, and what better way to do it than this.

The house hasn’t changed much, same 3 stories pink building, the same bell at the door,
announcing new clients, same walls dripping in lace.

And, to her delight, same people working there. She made sure they had a good place to see the
fire. Right in the middle of it. Kinvara was always pleased with the extra sacrifices to her God.

A week ago she finally conquered Lys, it was even easier then she thought after the Tyroshi and
Lyseni armies butchered themselves in the great battle of the Disputed Lands, on the coast to
Tyrosh. Both Tyrosh and Lys were counting on her to help them, but she just waited for them to
kill each other, then she moved her army and her newly acquired Dothraki and massacred
everyone who was left standing. Of course, she spared the ones with Valyrian blood to give them
to the fires. They stood no chance.

After that, there was only the matter of sailing her army to Lys and Tyrosh and sack both cities.
They were defenseless.

Altheea was quite impressed with the Dothraki, they made a short job of the remaining soldiers.
They were not very disciplined, but they were vicious and experienced warriors, warriors that few
could match on an open field. They would do very well in Westeros, and she intended to let them
loose on the Reach and Riverlands to keep her enemies occupied, while she sacked every
important city.

It was ridiculously easy to make them join her. Those savages only want three things: to fight, to
earn riches and to fuck. Well, the first two she could offer in abundance. Maybe she would give
the Khal even the third, he looked and acted like a real man, not like her idiot, scrawny husband.

Khal Drogo was livid when he found out that someone else took his bride to be. He swore on all
the horses and whatever other fucking Gods these savages prayed to that he would kill the fake
King and get his bride back.

And that went right into Altheea’s plans, because if there was one thing she knew for sure, it was
that they would meet the Targaryens in Westeros and anger was a powerful motivator. The Khal
wanted to do it, but his Dothraki were still afraid of crossing the Narrow Sea.

Just when she was starting to lose her patience, Kinvara started telling the Dothraki about the War
for the Dawn and how the best warriors in the world would fight it and people would sing songs
about their bravery for thousands of years. To her surprise, the savages were very excited to hear
this and agreed to cross the sea with her when the time will come.

Yes, her plans were shaping in well. Now, for the most important part...

The sacrifices were ready, they didn’t manage to track many people of Dragonlord descent, many
Valyrians, for sure, but not many who had true Dragon blood in them. The Valyrian houses who
had Dragons rarely left Valyria.

So, she ordered Kinvara to burn twice as many, to compensate.

Kinvara came and gave a deep courtesy “We are ready, My Queen.”

Finally!

“This better work, priestess, or the next sacrifice will be you. And you won’t be as lucky as these
people to be burned alive. Your death will be slower than a snail.” she made sure that the priestess
will be motivated.

“Of course, Your Grace. It will work, the fires never lie.” Kinvara said confidently.

“Good, we’re already behind the other Targaryens who have Dragons ready to ride. We can’t
afford more delays.”

“R’hlorr will help them grow faster if we give him more sacrifices, Your Grace.” she nodded, she
would let the Red Priests burn half of Essos if it would make her Dragons grow faster.

Altheea looked around, hundreds of people were spread around the pillow house now, crying and
asking her to free their loved ones. Her men were working hard to keep them away.

She couldn’t help rolling her eyes at these people’s cries.

Didn’t they understand? These people who were to be sacrificed have been chosen. They have
been saved from their normal, worthless lives and have been given a purpose. They will be part of
history, not some nobodies who lived and died for nothing. They should be thanking her, not
cursing her.

She took a last look at the whorehouse, flashbacks coming back against her will.

A big hairy man hitting a beautiful white-haired woman.

A little girl, that looked like the woman jumping on the man’s back, pulling his hair and
screaming for him to let her mother alone.

A sharp cold blade stabbing the little girl in her stomach.

Everything going black around the little girl.

Altheea rubbed her hand over the scar on her belly and looked at her husband.

He was sitting in a large chair, in the place with the best view, acting arrogant and cocky, as
always. She rarely saw a bigger fool than Viserys.

For the thousand time, she wondered if it wasn’t better to wait and offer a marriage alliance to the
other Targaryen instead… Surely he would have agreed, nobody could have offered him what she
did, and they had the same goal after all. Together they would have been unstoppable.

No to mention that, unlike her scrawny husband, the Targaryen was said to have an unnatural
dark beauty. A dark dragon, just like her. She doubted that she needed to drink a flagon of wine
every night to bed that Targaryen, like she has to do with this one.

But what was done was done, Viserys was her husband and she couldn’t start questioning her
decisions, she needed to stay focused on her goal

There were advantages to choosing Viserys too. Her husband was a man easy to bend to her will,
the fake King had taken on the Faceless Men and came ahead. It was very unlikely that she could
manipulate him as she did with Viserys.

When she heard about the attack on The House of Black and White, she quickly sent Illyrio to put
a contract on the Targaryen’s head. Altheea even expected a discount, since he was their common
enemy, but Illyrio was told that that under no circumstances the Many-Faced-God followers
would involve themselves in a war against the King of Winter. And they had no choice but to let it
go.

Also, her husband was full Targaryen, unlike the fake King, whose blood was half tainted. Their
children would have more Dragon blood.

Children. A pang went into her heart like every time she thought of children. They’ve been trying
for months now, every fucking night, and nothing.

Her hand went over her scar like it had a mind on its own. Could it be?

She took a last look at the pillow house she used to call home, it was time to leave the shadows in
her past behind. She took her eggs and brought them inside, where the Valyrian descendants were
tied, and set them at their feet. She took out her dagger and sliced the skin of her palm, dripping
three drops of blood on every one of her three eggs.

She looked at the tied people and saw the fear in their eyes, and heard their pleads and cries.

“You should rejoice, you were chosen to make history today. The Maesters will write and the
bards will sing about your sacrifices for thousands of years!” she told them, but they didn’t seem
appeased.

Small minds.

She went out and took her place next to her husband, she chose to stand, as she couldn’t sit from
all the excitement.

“Start, priestess!” she ordered Kinvara.

The Red priestess took a torch and set on fire all the kindlings spread around the house.

“Oh, Lord of Light, take our offering and breath life into these eggs, bring back the weapons that
will help end the Long Night and spread your fire through the world!” the fire was spreading fast
as lightning now, the priestess eyes glowing red now. Maybe there was more to this God than
Altheea thought.
Horrible screams could be heard from inside the building now, the smell of burned flesh heavy in
the air. But Altheea wouldn’t let that distract her from her goal, it just made her more impatient.

She is not sure how much time they sat there, looking at the fires. Fewer and fewer screams could
be heard until there was nothing but silence and sobs from the crowd.

She waited for a sign, for a screech, for anything, but nothing. It didn’t work, the fire was still
burning but nothing came from it.

She felt her rage taking control off her. She struggled to hold it together “What happened,
Priestess?” Kinvara looked at her confused. Good, ten Lords of Light couldn’t save her if she
disappoints her!

“I am not sure, Your Grace, I think there was not enough magic in their blood,” she said, “We
need more powerful blood.”

She was struggling to hold her anger to bay and think. Where would she get more magic blood
from? She looked at the Priestess, thinking of using her, but she remembered how she always said
that she was only a vessel, she had no magic on her own, and something told her that she would
gladly throw herself in the fires if she thought it would help. Fucking fanatics!

Maybe she could go and sack Volantis, the ones behind the Black Walls were all of Valyrian
blood, but there was no use of killing her allies and risk them being just as useless as the Lyseni.
She needed true Dragon blood, not the useless blood of Valyrian peasants like these Lyseni.

Then she heard her husband’s voice, who was standing up now and raging “Where are my
Dragons, Priestess?”

Kinvara seemed to be as calm as always, showing no emotion to Viaserys' screeching. She

couldn’t blame her, it was hard to take the man seriously. And the Red priestess had this eerie air
around her all the time, sometimes it unnerved even her.

But her husband surprised her “Seize her! Bring your whips and deliver her 100 lashes. Then we
will cut her limbs and feed them to the hogs, while she watches.” Kinvara's face showed no
emotion whatsoever.

“That will teach you to lie to your King, I am Targaryen, the blood of the Dragonlords, nobody
lies to me!” Viserys raged, spit coming out of his mouth like pouring rain when he screamed.

Then it hit her. She nearly started laughing. How could she not realize this before?

“Seize him!” she ordered, the men who were advancing towards the Red Woman turned around
and immobilized Viserys.

“What are you doing?” he screeched “I am your King, let me go or I’ll have all of you burned
alive!” he was positively rabid now, struggling to set himself free and screaming “I am Viserys III
Targaryen, nobody touches me without my consent! I shall have your lives for this!” he was no
match for the soldiers, though.

“Tie his hands behind his back!”

“What are you doing, Altheea?” his rage seems to have been replaced by panic now “Let me go,
I’m your lord husband!”

“Throw him in the fire!” she said in a cold voice.

 “Altheea, please! Please!”

His begging quickly turned into screaming, they could see the flesh on his face melting, his eyes
popping out of his head from all the heat.

She knew she should be feeling guilty, he was her husband after all, but she felt nothing, she just
hoped it will work. He was a small price to pay for 3 Dragons.

Then she heard it, a massive crack sound, and then another one. Then there was one more, this
one sounded like the world split in two.

Altheea stepped towards the now crumbled burned down building, when she heard screeches and
3 small dragons came out from the fire.

One cream and gold, one green and the biggest one black as night, with red wing membranes. The
black one quickly climbed on her and curled around her neck, while the other two curled around
her feet.

“You're finally here! I’ve been waiting for you!”

Chapter End Notes

Timing:

Jae - a couple of weeks after the last chapter

Barristan - a couple of weeks after Jae
Jaime - a few months after Barristan
Altheea - same as Jaime

For those who haven't realized, Jae and Dany are not sailing towards Westeros, they
are sailing East, to their Essosi base. Since my writing ability is limited and I doubt I
can describe their movements well enough for those who are not familiar with the
World of Ice and Fire, from next chapter or the one after that, I shall also upload a
map where people can track their movements easier.

As always I'm looking forward to your comments! Particularly those who stimulate
further discussion!

Thank you for reading!

 Wherever you go, I go
Chapter Notes

Hello boys and girls, you might want to keep your wine bottles and six packs close
because it's a long one. And I'm not even sorry.

Please be advised that in this universe Ned lost his stash of Big'Uns after Bran was
born, so there is no Rickon. Only 4 Stark kids.

Also, you might notice that I changed Dany's dragon name. Let's face it, "Zalagon"
sucked. When I picked it I thought it would grow on me, but it only annoyed me
more. So I changed it to Syrax. Of course, I chose Zalagon because I wanted
something linked to fire/heat/burn, now we know that Syrax was and old Valyrian
God, God of what I don't know, judging by my luck it was Good of Noodles or
something. So, since I am the God of Gods in this story, I promoted him to God of
Fire. Or, if that's taken, at least to God of Hot Noodles.

Syrax and Sonax, are the names too similar? I think it's fine. But I suppose I might
change if I would feel it will get confusing in the future.

Enjoy!

See the end of the chapter for more notes

THE LORD COMMANDER – CASTLE BLACK

Lord Commander. What a fucking joke, even after all these moons, he still couldn’t believe it. The
Old Gods were surely laughing at him, there was no other explanation.

He could see them now, waking up in the morning, all sleepy, sitting in their weirwood thrones,
around their round weirwood table, sipping ale from their weirwood mugs, thinking how were
they were going to amuse themselves, and then one of them coming with the brilliant idea: “Let’s
fuck Ned!”.

“But didn’t we do that yesterday?” another would ask, “It doesn’t matter, it never gets old!” and
they all would start laughing.

Others take him, he wasn’t supposed to be any kind of leader, he was just plain old Ned, he was
as much of a leader as an aurochs was a jig dancer. He was supposed to find a nice girl, settle
down somewhere in the North and be his brother’s bannerman. And maybe if the Old Gods
blessed him, he would have many children and none of them would inherit his gloomy
personality.

Well, he got that last part right, he did have four wonderful children, much more than he deserved,
and he lost them all. He failed them all, he failed his honorable and kind son Robb who, unlike
him, would have made a great leader. He failed his beautiful and trustful daughter Sansa, who
only wanted to find a handsome Lord or Knight, marry and be the perfect Lady, just like her
mother. He failed his adventurous son Bran, who dreamed of going South and becoming a
mother. He failed his adventurous son Bran, who dreamed of going South and becoming a
Kinght, brave and honorable like Arthur Dayne, or like his uncle The Blackfish.

But most of all he failed his special little girl, Arya.

It was her being the spitting image of Lyanna that doomed him. The guilt was killing him, looking
at Arya he could only see his sister, the sister that he failed. He remembered one time, when a
five-year-old Arya was learning to ride, she looked exactly like Lyanna when she first got up on a
horse, they looked so much alike that he felt he was taken back twenty years, he couldn’t make
the difference between present and past, his feet gave out and he somehow hit his head on the
porch when he fell. He was embarrassed to find half of Winterfell around him when his head
cleared. Ned had to make up some bullshit up about how he worked a lot and didn’t sleep to
explain his fall.

Since then, to his everlasting shame, he started avoiding his daughter as much as possible. He
remembered when Arya came to him to ask about Lyanna, in his surprise, he snapped at the girl
and sent her away. Catelyn gave him quite a bollocking after that and told him that Arya asked her
why does her father not love her?

He wanted the ground to open and swallow him whole. In his grief, he only thought of himself,
and how hard it was for him, he didn’t even once think about how Arya felt. Since then he sucked
it up and started spending more and more time with her. It was hard at first, but then she started
remembering him of the good things his sister has done. He knew parents should not have
favorites, but Arya definitely became his.

Now Ned wished he didn’t get so close to her because that’s why he took her to King’s Landing,
and look what happened...

Tears welled up in his eyes every time he thought of her, his wonderful, wild little girl, married to
that monster.

When he first heard that Arya was forced to marry Ramsey Bolton against her will, he packed up
his sword, shield and some food for the road and was determined to go to Winterfell. He wouldn’t
fail her again. He’d gladly lose his head for deserting the Night Watch if it meant he would save
his little girl.

He was lucky that Maester Aemon convinced him that that was not the best solution, it wouldn’t
help his daughter if he lost his life too, so they started thinking of something else.

Although he was not pleased to be elected Lord Commander it turned up to be a good thing.
When his people, the true Northerners, heard of his appointment, they flocked the Night Watch.
They had rather take the black than live under the Bolton rule, and he was grateful for each and
every one of them. Castle Balck wasn’t so well manned in hundreds of years. When he first came
here, there must have been a couple of hundred Black Brothers, now there were close to two
thousand.

They tried to take their oaths, but he wouldn’t let them, he was bound to this place, no reason to
tie them to the Wall too.

And he knew that things would change when his nephew came, and he will need good people
around him. Thinking of his nephew, he was never more grateful for the supplies he sent, if it
wasn’t for him, there was no way to keep all his people fed with the Boltons, now Wardens of the
North, forbidding every house to send aid to the Watch after they heard of his appointment. His
people were better fed here that they were in their own homes so that at least made him feel less
guilty for these men leaving their homes and coming to him.
An unexpected option opened to him when Stannis Baratheon came to The Wall, wielding some
fucking burning sword and declaring himself King of the Seven Kingdoms and Azor Ahai reborn.
He proposed to free him from his Night Watch wows and make him Warden of the North again if
he took his side. His plan was to use Ned to rally the Northerners to his side.

The old Ned would have done that in a heartbeat, he would have felt that he owed Stannis his
allegiance, and his honor wouldn’t let him do otherwise, but that old Ned was long gone.

This Ned almost laughed at that proposal, at this fool coming here and thinking that a fucking
burning sword would make him some kind of hero. Surely he knew the famous drunk, Thoros of
Myr, that guy had a burning sword in every fight he was in, he used to drive the blacksmiths crazy
by destroying their work constantly. Nobody wanted to see their work shat on, if it wasn’t for his
friendship with the King, he was sure that every blacksmith from Sunspear to Castle Black would
have refused to work for him. And that guy didn’t declare himself some fucking hero.

Actually, he was more of a hero than Stannis will ever be, the man was first in every battle and he
still drew breath, although his courage was probably drawn from drink, not from some sense of
duty or honor.

He respected the man Stannis was, he was a fair lord to his people and would probably make a
better King than his brother, but it didn’t matter, his allegiance was with his family.

Not to mention that he had some Red Priestess with him, preaching some Lord of Light shit, the
woman tried to convince his people to convert to the “true lord”. Even if he wanted to join him
and take his offer, the presence of this woman by his side would have made him question his
decision.

It was obvious that Stannis knew nothing of the North, the Northerners were resilient people, set
in their ways for thousands of years, they were not going to bend to the will of some petty Lord
with less than 2000 men, all of them Southern men and Essosi sellswords that wouldn’t last a
sennight in the North. Or to some crazy woman that liked to play with fire and talk shit.

He refused Stannis, told him in no uncertain terms that the Night Watch followed no King and
gave him the Nightfort to settle his men. He was not going to start using his supplies to feed the
Baratheon Lord’s men. He did offer to let his wife and daughter stay at Castle Black until they
made the Nightfort habitable, but they refused.

Ned was relieved when they left, there were already tensions rising between his men and the
Southerners, mainly due to the Red Witch, so it would only be a matter of time before a fight
started.

The decision to send Stannis and his fire worshipers away went really well with his men, even the
grumpy Alliser Thorne seemed to like him a little better these days. Now when he gives him an
order, he listens without complaining, and without even muttering his usual “northern cunt” or
“wolf fucker” under his breath.

But one good thing came from this Stannis mess, he realized that the Southern Lord had the right
idea, he could mobilize the North and save his daughter. His people were nothing if they weren’t
loyal.

How many men did the Boltons have? Four maybe five thousands? He could easily match that,
and even more.

He called for his old friend Willam Dustin, Lord of Barrowtown who had thousands of good
fighting men under his command, and the Winter Wolves of the Barrowlands were renowned for
their fighting prowess and courage.

He called for the mountain clans, who were fiercely loyal, and weren’t in the War of the Five
Kings. Their forces should be untouched, they could easily bring on 3000 men. He sent word to
Torghen Flint and his sons.

He called for Lord Manderly, who finally got his son and heir back from the Lannisters and he
was now free from the Bolton rule. Ned knew that some Lords saw the fat ruler of White Harbor
as a traitor, but he knew better, there weren’t many people more loyal to the Starks than the
Manderlys. Since they were thrown out from The Reach and his ancestors gave them protection
and settled them on the Wolf’s Den, they’ve been fiercely loyal, and he doubted that would
change as long as Starks and Manderlys existed. So, he called for Wyman Manderly who had at
least 4-5000 well-trained men available.

He also called for Howland Reed, his longtime friend from Greywater Watch and was surprised,
but pleased when the response came back and Howland told him he was coming with Lady
Mormont, the Lady of Bear Island, and Lord Garbart Glover who were his guests there. Ned
figured that these three combined would also bring several thousand men if asked.

And now he was standing on top of the Wall, finishing his rounds and waiting for all the Lords to
come. Only Lord Manderly was left, but his delay was to be expected as the man was so fat that
he couldn’t ride, he had to use a littler from Eastwatch to Castle Black.

Looking down at Castle Black he couldn’t help comparing its state now to its state when he first
joined. The gloominess that was present a year ago was all but gone. With the rush of activity
below him, one could almost say that people were happy to live here now, well happy was a
strong word, he doubted that anyone could be happy here at the end of the world, but some could
definitely be described as content.

With the new influx of people, they started making some repairs to the old Castle, Othell, his First
Builder, was always complaining over one building or another, and from what he heard he was
doing it for years.

But now they actually had the manpower to do it. So he sent people with wagons to Queensgate
and Oakenshield, the closest castles to Castle Black to collect cut stone from their crumbling
buildings. They used that stone to repair their own buildings.

The Lance, who was a slim tower over 200 feet in height, that looked ready to topple at the
slightest whiff of wind, was now repaired and sitting proud and solid, ready to receive its new
inhabitants.

They even managed to repair Hardin’s Tower battlement, who was crumbled for 100 years.

Even if Castle Black was a castle, it didn’t have the usual castle build, it only had one wall, and
that was the Great Ice Wall at the north, it had no walls whatsoever in the south, if someone was
to attack them from there they were defenseless.

It was said that the Night Watch castles were made this way after the rule of the Watch’s 13th
Lord Commander, the Night’s King they called him. He took over the Night Watch and ruled
them as a King, doing unspeakable things for 13 years, until one of his ancestors Brandon the
Breaker and the King Beyond the Wall Joramun united their forces and finally defeated him.
Some even claim that Joramun blew the legendary Horn of Winter, that apparently could bring
down the Wall and wake the giants from the earth.

But different times called for different measures and he was responsible for these people’s safety,
so he sent men behind the wall to cut down the Haunted Forrest that was growing too close to the
Wall, and with the timber they got from there, they started building a wall around the castle. They
also dug trenches in the frozen ground and built wooden spikes all around the walls. It was hard
work, but these were hard men, well used to hard labor and the cold.

So, now Castle Black actually looked habitable and safe. He could see the surprise on the Lords’
faces when they arrived, to see the castle in such a good state. It was a good feeling to actually
find himself useful again.

Another thing that changed was the frequency they heard the horn signaling visitors at the gates.
When he first joined it would pass even moons without hearing that horn, when they heard it they
were all in the yard, to see who is coming. These days his people were so used to it that none of
them gave the signal any attention.

He heard the horn just as he reached the ground, Lord Wyman Manderly was here. He hasn’t seen
him for many years, but it was impossible not to recognize him, the fat jolly lord was his usual
self, sitting on his litter and laughing at something one of his men said.

Lord Wyman was dressed in his usual green furred clothes, with a golden trident on his fat belly.

“Ned! My boy! How are you?” the Lord’s loud booming voice was heard in the yard when he
saw him. “you’re a sight for sore eyes!” he said, struggling to get out of the litter.

“Welcome to Castle Black, My Lord!” he said as he found himself crushed into a fierce bear hug.
“How is your son, Lord Wyman?”

The amusement disappeared from the Lord’s face “He’s well, Ned, he’s still healing.”

“I’m glad to hear it!”

“Manderly!” he heard from behind him. Willam Dustin must have been drawn by the horn.

“Dustin, you’re looking good! How did they convince you to come here? Ale or wine?” Lord
Manderly asked.

“Fire-water, actually” Willam answered with a grin. “You’re looking good, My Lord, my Lady
wife would be envious on those big teats you’re sporting!”

They both laughed and hugged like long lost brothers. No doubt their supplies of fire-water will
be in danger with these two around.

The White Harbor Lord turned towards Ned: “There was another convoy after us, Ned, I am not
sure who they were, but they didn’t look Westerosi.” the fat Lord said warily “They said they
were coming to Caste Black too, but they didn’t give my men much information. But watch out,
my boy, they have at least 500 spearmen with them.”

Who could they be? Was Wheng back so soon? He shouldn’t be here for a few more moons, from
what he understood from Maester Aemon. But he didn’t know anyone else from Essos. Or maybe
they were some sellswords hired by Stannis?

“Was their leader a small man, so fured that he looked round? Wearing a funny fur hat with a
tail?” he asked the White Harbor Lord.

“Indeed, do you know them?” he could see that Wyman became curious now.

“Yes, my friend, they are here with supplies.” the fat man couldn’t hide his surprise “I will tell all
about it after we get you and your men settled”

Just as they were talking, they heard the horn and the gates opened and Wheng walked in.

This time he seemed to have even more provisions with him, he must have brought easily 40-50
wagons filled with supplies with him. He also had more men. He had the men that he came with
last time and the 500 hundred spearmen Lord Wyman was talking about. They were some
impressive soldiers, maybe the most disciplined soldiers Ned has ever seen, they seemed to move
as one.

The little man’s small eyes fell on him “Lord Stak! It’s good to see you! I see you got yourself
some more help” Wheng said with a smile, shaking his hand.

“Lord Wheng, this is a surprise! I was under the impression that you only came once every year!”

“I’m no Lord, my friend.” Wheng said with a chuckle “I am the Captain of His Majesty’s ship,
‘The Frozen Wind’, so you can call me Captain if you insist on titles, but I prefer Wheng”

“Then you must call me Ned” he told him “This is Lord Wyman Manderly, Lord of White Harbor
and this is Lord Willam Dustin, Lord of Barrowtown” he said pointing to the fat Lord, and
towards Willam, who were both watching Wheng with undisguised curiosity.

“I am pleased to meet you, My Lords! Lord Manderly, your white city is well known even in the
Golden Empire” Wheng said offering his hand to the two men. “This is Blacksnail, he is the
Commander of the Unsullied” he pointed to one of the soldiers, who stepped forward.

Wyman looked as pleased as the cat who swallowed the canary “The pleasure is mine, Captain,
Commander”

“Wheng, you bastard, you are early!” Ned heard the annoying voice of Ser Alliser.

“Ser Alliser, still alive, I see. I was sure that that foul mouth of yours would get you killed by the
time I got back here.” Wheng jested.

“Ha, Ha, Ha” Thorne fake laughed “How is the King?”

“Good, he sends his regards, Ser!” Alliser was positively beaming. That was creepy.

Wheng looked at him “With your permission, I would like to visit with Maester Aemon, he made
me promise that the first thing I do whenever I come here is to find him and share whatever news I
have of the King.” he said “If you can find some accommodations for my men, I would be
grateful”

“Of course, I will help Lord Wyman and your men settle and join you in his chambers.” the little
man gave him a sharp nod and walked towards the Maester’s chambers.

Ned looked at the two Lords, who were brimming with curiosity “It’s a long and unbelievable
story, I will tell you and the other Lords after you get settled”.
After showing Wyman his rooms and assigning his steward Grenn to unload the supplies and find
accommodations for Wheng’s men, he hurried to Aemon’s chambers.

When he got inside, he saw that the old Maester had tears in his eyes, he panicked for a heartbeat
there, scared that something might have happened to Jaehaerys, but quickly calmed down when
he realized that they were happy tears. Wheng was reading him a letter.

“…dear uncle, Jae tells me that you are the kindest and wisest man he knows, so don’t even think
of not being there when we come to Westeros!” Wheng read.

“With love, Princess Daenerys Stormborn”

“I will be here, my dear.” Aemos whispered.

“I have letters for you too, Ned,” Wheng told him and handed him two letters.

“How come you returned so fast, Wheng?” he asked.

“I was lucky to meet the Royal Fleet in Braavos when I was returning home, and the King
assigned me here, when he heard you are in charge.” the little man told him. “he ordered me to be
at your disposal, he said he explained in his letter”

He took his letters and hurried to his rooms. Excitement and dread filled him at the same time.
What would his nephew say, would he hate him? From his discussions with Maester Aemon, he
got the impression that his nephew wasn’t too fond of him, and he couldn’t blame him. He could
only hope that he would not shut him out and he would have the chance to prove to him that he
was not a bad man, even after his costly mistakes from the past.

He opened the first letter with shaking hands:

Lord Stark,

I’m sitting here, at this desk in some Braavosi inn, and I ask myself what to write, or
maybe if I should write to you.

You know, until a week ago, in eighteen years, the only member of my family that I
met was Maester Aemon. And this week I meet three more. Of course, one of them
was… let’s say forgettable.

If I call Viserys forgettable, I wonder how should I call you?

How does one call a man who fights against his own good-brother?

How does one call a man who pushes his sister to marry a man known for his
whoring, a man that had more bastards that stray dogs have fleas?

How does one call a man that is best friends with a man who approves of killing the
children of his good-brother and raping Princesses?
 How does one call a man who accepts to be the hand to the said monster?

How does one call a man who betroths his daughter to an unstable and cruel boy,
just because he is the Crown Prince?

At least Viserys was broken by his hard life, not all of us have the strength required to
make it through the hard times, unfortunately. What is your excuse, My Lord?

But despite my misgivings, you have a champion here. Your daughter thinks you are
one of the best men that ever lived and she is certain there is some kind of
misunderstanding, that you would never take arms against your sister.

You know, Ser Arthur recognized her the moment he set his eyes on her, he says she
looks exactly like my mother. What were the odds to meet her here?

I often find myself just looking at her and imagining how my mother looked or acted
when she was Arya’s age.

Captain Wheng tells me that Uncle Aemon also thinks you are a good man, so I
decided to take a chance with you.

Don’t let me down, My Lord!

I sent more supplies with the Captain and, as you no doubt noticed, 500 men.

Wheng will be there to help you, he will make supply runs to Braavos and back
consistently to bring you anything you require. Of course, this is not a sustainable
plan when winter falls, so I need you to find some way for the people to feed
themselves.

My steward, Lord Tarly, tells me that the best way to grow food during winter is to
build glass gardens. He says that these gardens require hot water springs to work
when Winter is at its coldest, I know that Winterfell is build of one of those, are there
more in the North?

Arya tells me that the Northerners will always be loyal to the Starks, so if you find
more of these sources of heat around your loyal Lords castles, Wheng is going to
bring glass from Braavos, or even hire glassmiths, if you find many places to build.

Either way, we need to find ways to feed our people during the long winter. Buying
food is not sustainable on the long run, prices will go up and it will only be a matter
of time before nobody produces extra food to sell.

This sounded like a good plan, he will talk to the Lords this evening. He was sure that there are
many hot water springs throughout the North.

Gods, they might actually be able to feed their people in the winter if this plan works!

Unfortunately, the Others are not the only ones that have awoken these days, and I
find myself having duties in the Further East and I am not sure how long will it take
to reach Westeros, so I have also sent you 500 Unsullied soldiers to use for
 protection, or for whatever problems might arise. Their commander, Blacksnail, is a
seasoned soldier and commander, trust him on the battle field and he will never let
you down.

You won’t find better soldiers than the Unsullied, their focus and organization are
unmatched. Use them wisely and they will be unbeatable.

As you will notice, they will never complain or ask for anything, unfortunately, this
was beaten into them(literally) from a small age, so I need you and uncle Aemon to
look after them.

If they don’t complain about the cold, it doesn’t mean that they won’t get sick. If they
don’t complain about their injuries after a battle, it doesn’t mean that their injuries
will heal on their own.

I need you and uncle Aemon to check on them from time to time.

Look after my people, My Lord!

As I am sure you understand, any big decision you take that involves my people must
be approved by uncle Aemon.

You are at the Wall now, so you know what’s coming, Lord Stark. You must keep the
dead contained before we get there. And whatever you do, don’t give them more
dead to resurrect.

I know you want your home back, and I know you want revenge. While this is your
decision ultimately, I suggest you focus on facing winter and wait until we get there
to get your revenge. No need for more unnecessary deaths.

While I can’t pretend to understand your grief, I was also robbed of the chance to
meet my aunt and cousins, so I promise you, we will have our revenge!

But we must be smart about it, Lord Stark, many wars are coming, and we shouldn’t
risk our people's lives for nothing. I am not sure what information you have at The
Wall, but there is a Blackfyre pretender in Essos who has a massive army and she’s
sacking cities and no doubt plans to invade Westeros at some point.

Ser Oswell Whent likes to say that we are cursed to live in a time with so many wars.
But I think that we are chosen because we are the ones strong enough to handle it.

Don’t let me down, Lord Stark!

King Jaehaerys III Targaryen

Gods, his nephew thinks he was some kind of monster! But at least he gave him a chance. He
wasn’t sure about many things these days, but he was sure that he won’t let him down!

And Arya, could it be true? Could his little girl be in Essos? Or was this all some kind of a sick
jest? How could he know which Arya is real?

He remembered that he had another letter. He opened and all breath went out of his lungs when he
saw the careless handwriting. It was her, it was his little girl, she was safe.

Father,

You don’t know the relief I felt when I heard you were alive! I thought you were dead
I thought the Lannisters took your head!

I cut my hair and left King’s Landing with Yoren of the Night Watch. My lack of girly
manners came in handy for once so I had no trouble posing as a boy and a new
recruit.

After a long and not a particularly happy journey I ended up in Braavos where I’m
ashamed to say I forgot who I was.

It was the news that you were alive that reminded me that I am Arya Stark of
Winterfell. But at that time I was in quite a predicament sworn for life to a religious
cult. But my luck has finally changed and I met my two favorite people in the world
who helped me out.

You know how you always say Father ‘When the snow falls and the white wind
blows, the lone wolf dies and the pack survives’ Jae and Dany are my pack now and
we’re gonna look after each other.

So don’t worry about me, I will be fine!

Arya Stark of Winterfell

It was her! His little girl was alive and well, with her cousin! The relief he felt was immeasurable.
It was funny that only this morning he was thinking about how the Old Gods hated him, now he
knew that he was, in fact, their favorite follower. He decided that he will go later at the weirwood
beyond the Wall to say his thanks.

With Arya safe there was no reason to siege Winterfell, the Boltons could keep it, for now,
Jaehaerys was right, they needed to prepare for the winter. The Boltons only ruled Winterfell and
the Dreadfort, they had no power in the rest of the North, so they were just going to let them be,
for now, their time would come.

“Grenn!” he yelled. His steward Grenn was a good man, strong and hard working. Ned was
ashamed to think that at first he was annoyed with this boy following him around, but he grew
fond of him. Now, when he had time, he liked to spend it with him, teaching him letters and
swordsmanship.

Grenn also done something that no other man has done, he saw the Others. Grenn the Eagle Eye
they called him. He knew that most of the Black Brothers don’t believe him, and named him that
way to make fun of him, but Ned knew that the boy was telling the truth, he couldn’t lie to save
his life.
“You called, Lord Commander?” the said boy came in from his small room, who was connected
to the Lord Commander’s room through an old wooden door.

“Go summon the Lords and tell them to meet me in the Shieldhall” he ordered, “Also fetch
Maester Aemon, Captain Wheng, and Commander Blacksnail.”

“At once, My Lord!” Grenn quickly bowed and left.

When he got to the Shieldhall he could hear Lord Menderly’s boisterous voice from outside the
hall, and Willam’s laugh, the fat lord no doubt telling one of his ridiculous fishing stories. It was
no surprise that Lord Wyman’s favorite activity was the activity that required the least amount of
activity.

The Lords were all sitting around the table, Lady Mormont, Lord Glover, Lord Reed, Flint and his
son Artos on one side, Lord Dustin and Lord Manderly sitting on the other side, next to each other
and laughing. Each of them had an ale mug in front of them, except for Dustin and Manderly who
had countless empty mugs in front of them, as expected.

He took a seat at the head of the table, Maester Aemon to his right, Wheng to his left, and
Blacksnail standing behind them, with his hands behind his back.

“My Lords, thank you for coming!” Ned started.

“When the Ned calls, we answer!” he heard Flint’s booming voice and a choir and agreeing
“Ayes”.

“I am sure all of you are already suspecting why I called you here, but now I have some
information that I didn’t have before, so we might take other actions that the ones we initially
planned.” he said.

“I also have information that might be of use, Lord Stark” Lord Menderly said. “Essos is flooded
with stories of the return of the Targaryens” the fat lord looked around like he wasn’t sure he
should continue or not, “everyone says that they also brought back Dragons”

This information was received with snorts and puffs by every one of them, except Maester
Aemon, Wheng and Blacksnail.

He also found it hard to believe when Aemon told him that he went behind the Wall and returned
with Dragons, but that didn’t mean that he didn’t hope for it to be true. Dragons would be
invaluable in the wars to come.

“They said this Targaryen King had an Ice Dragon as big as a castle, and that he is so cold that the
air around him freezes.” The Lord of White Harbor continued, unfazed by Lord Dustin’s loud
snort. “He used it on those Faceless Men fuckers, the Assassin cult, they say that the Dragon’s
breath was so cold, that only rubble remained of their temple now.”

It hit him then: 'I was in quite a predicament, sworn for life to a religious cult.'

Jaehaerys did it to help Arya. He didn’t know much about these Faceless Men, only that their God
was Death and they were killers for hire. It made sense that it would be hard to get away once you
joined their cult.
He remembered that Robert tried to hire them to kill Daenerys and her brother, but with the realm
in debt, they couldn’t afford it. And now the same girl they were trying to kill saved his little Arya.
Gods!

“The funny thing is that people in Braavos call him the King of Winter” Wyman continued. The
hall exploded in laughter.

Willam Dustin yelled in an amused voice “Everybody wants to be a Stark! Even these Dragon
fuckers!” Everybody laughed and they started banging their ale mugs on the table.

He could barely stop himself from laughing, he waited for them to calm down and said: “I don’t
know about that, My Lords, but as it happens, this particular Targaryen is actually half Stark.”

Every Lord looked at him like he was mad. It was Lady Mormont who broke the silence first:
“Surely you jest, My Lord!”

“Have you ever heard me making a joke, My Lady?” he said, amused by their stunned
expressions. “King Jaehaerys is my sister’s son, with Prince Rhaegar.”

“Lady Lyanna’s son?” Howland Reed asked, in a shaky voice. But his voice went instantly hard,
and he could see his fists closed so tight that they went white “Is he the product of her being raped
by the Targaryen Prince?” He was not sure what happened between him and his sister, but
Howland was fiercely loyal to her since he met her at the Harrenhall tourney.

“No, My Lord, they were married. The boy is as legit as they come. Ser Arthur Dayne and Ser
Oswell Whent are with him and have been since the day he’s been born.” he said and everyone
looked at him with stupor.

“How do you know this, Lord Stark?” Wyman Manderly asked.

“He was here a few years back” Maester Aemon finally spoke.

“Here, at Castle Black?” Galbard Glover asked, stunned.

“Yes, My Lords, I only found out a few moons back about him too.” Ned told them.

“So, the Rebellion, all those deaths, they were all for nothing.” Maege Mormont said bitterly.

“You know better than that, Lady Mormont. That Rebellion was planned long before my sister
and Prince Rhaegar laid eyes on each other, it would have happened either way” he told them
matter-of-factly. “They just used that and my brother’s stupidity as an excuse, they would have
found something else if that didn’t happen” Ned continued.

He decided to give them all a moment to absorb this new information.

“So, what do we do now, Lord Stark?” Lord Manderly asked after some time.

“Well, let me introduce to these two men here” he pointed towards Wheng “This is Captain
Wheng of the Frozen Wind” and then nodded to the soldier “And this is Commander Blacksnail,
leader of the Unsullied

“They were sent by my nephew to help us out until he can come to Westeros.” he told them.

“Help us how, The Ned?” Torghen Flint asked warily.

“Wheng here is responsible for bringing supplies from Braavos,” Maester Aemon told them ”the
food you are eating now, and the fire-water you drank are from King Jaehaerys, he’s been sending
supplies for years” he continued in a proud voice. Ned couldn’t help be a little proud too.

“So, is he a good man, Lord Stark?” Maege Mormont asked. “I understand you want to help him
because he’s your family, but I don’t want to end up with another mad Aerys… If what Lord
Manderley says is true, he has a huge Dragon and already destroyed a cult that has been there for
thousands of years, how do we know he won’t do the same to us?”

“First, I am pretty sure that he did that to help my daughter Arya...”

Before he could finish Lord Wyman interrupted him: “Your daughter Arya is married to Ramsay
Snow, My Lord, I was there, at the wedding. I even gifted them three nice Frey pies.” the fat Lord
said with a grin. “Those were quite popular at the feast.”

“I don’t know who the unfortunate girl you saw there was, My Lord, but it was not my daughter.
My daughter Arya is in Essos. She is with King Jaehaerys and Queen Daenerys now, Captain
Wheng brought me a letter from her, there is no doubt it’s her” he explained “The Boltons must
have thought Arya to be dead and used another girl to impersonate her, to strengthen their ruling
over Winterfell”

“And Lady Mormont, to answer your question, I never met my nephew, but your own brother
gave Jaehaerys your ancestral sword Longclaw after he saved his life, do you trust his
judgement?”

Maege Mormont looked offended “Of course I trust his judgement, he was the best man I knew, if
he found this King worthy of our sword, I will follow him to the end of the world.” All the Lord
gave a determined “Aye!” after hearing her words.

“So, what should we do now, Lord Stark? Should we still try to retake Winterfell?”

“My nephew advises focussing on preparing for the long Winter so that our people won’t starve.
And I agree with him. The Boltons might hold Winterfell and the Dreadfort, but they have no
power outside of that” he explained “We keep an eye on them, we have many loyal people in
Winter Town, if they decide to attack any of you we can meet them on the field, where our
casualties will be much lower than after a siege.” he was pleased to see his people nod.

He then explained them his nephew’s idea.

Howland Reed said: “It’s a good idea if we can get glass. The Neck is filled with these hot water
springs.”

“Bear Island also has springs we can use if glass becomes available.” Maege Mormont said.

“I don’t have any of these springs around White Harbor, My Lord, but I am populating all
freshwater with fish like Walleye and Perches. They can live and breed under ice and we can do
some ice fishing when winter is at it’s worst.” Ned wanted to laugh, the fat Lord’s knowledge of
fishing will actually help to keep people fed.

“That’s a good idea, My Lord, we’ll send ravens to Torrhen’s Square and every other Keep that
has fresh water close.” he gave the White Harbor Lord a grateful smile. “Any other ideas?”

“Torrhen Square is squid infested, Ned” Lord Dustin told him “We need to get rid of them.”

Just when he was about to answer, a knock on the door was heard and his steward Grenn came in.
“Lord Commander, a girl requests an audience with you. She says her name is Alys Kastark” he
then looked at Lord Glover “My lord, a boy named Larence Snow is also here and asks to see
you.”

“He’s my ward” Galbard Glover explained.

“Send them both in!” Ned ordered.

He didn’t know what the girl wanted or what he will do with her, but his blood started boiling
these days every time he heard the name Kastark. He always saw them as one of his most loyal
bannermen, they were kin, after all, their house was founded by one of his ancestors, Karlon
Stark. But that didn’t stop them betraying his son.

The two young people came into the hall, he never met the Snow boy, but he could remember
Alys Kastark from when she was little and came to Winterfell with her father. He heard Lord
Rickard telling her to charm Robb, which was ridiculous, the girl couldn’t be more than six or
seven name days at that time.

“Lord Stark” Alys gave a deep courtesy “My Lords and Lady” she greeted the other people in the
room.

“Lady Kastark, this is a surprise, what can I do for you?” Ned said in an even voice. He couldn’t
help noticing the narrow-eyed looks his men were giving the girl.

“I am seeking your aid, My Lord.” she said, looking him straight in the eye.

“Is that so, and why don’t you seek Stannis’ help, My Lady? After all, your house is the only one
of the major houses who declared for him.” he spoke in a cold voice. He could see that the girl’s
courage was starting to falter, he felt bad about it, but he couldn’t help it.

Last thing he wanted was to judge this girl for her father’s sins, but it was hard to get rid of the
bitterness. All he could think was that this girl’s father betrayed his son. He needed to get his shit
together, and at least listen what she had to say. The girl and the people living in Karhold were
innocents. Ned drew a deep breath and said in what he hoped was a warmer voice “Tell us your
troubles, My Lady, and we’ll see what we can do.”

“As you know, most of our men went south with your son King Robb” Alys took a deep breath
and continued “without those men, there were few capable people left to work the fields, and the
harvest was way less than we expected. My people will starve, Lord Stark” the girl seemed to
summon some more courage and looked him straight in the eye again “You said that we declared
for Stannis, you know why my uncle Arnolf did that?” after he shook his head, she continued
“Because he is hoping that the Lannisters would kill my brother Harrion and make me heir. And
then marry me to his son, Cregan.” Anger washed through him, this time aimed at Arnolf Kastark.
He also couldn’t help admiring the girl, it took a lot of courage to run from home and come here,
after what happened between his son and her father.

Torghen Flint got up and said pointing towards his son Artos “My boy here needs a good brave
woman. And it took a lot of courage to come here, girly, he could do much worse than you. He’s
a good and honorable lad, hard working and strong, he will take care of you and your children.
We will take you in the mountains and look after you. We will even kill that Arnof cunt if you
want. What do you say, the Ned?” Ned looked at Flint's son, the huge lad who was blushing now
like a young maiden, he could barely stop himself from laughing.

“Lord Flint, I am reluctant to force people to marry each other after what happened to my sister
and to my beautiful daughter who was married to that Lannister monster. What do you say we
give them a few days to know each other, then we decide?” Ned said.

“Of course,” came the answer “this lass will see that he is the best of lads.” he gave his son a hard
pat on the back.

“What about your people, Torghen? How will they fare in the winter now that the Boltons have
Winterfell and your people won’t be received into Winter Town?”

“We always survive, Ned. Like we did for thousands of years.” Lord Flint said, but Ned couldn’t
miss the worry in his voice.

“What if you had a castle?” he asked.

Torghen looked offended “We are people of the mountain, and we are proud of it, we don’t need
no fucking castle!”

“My Lord, now is not the time for pride, now is the time for survival. You heard Lady Kastark,
they need more men. And if your son marries her, the castle will be his by right, since she is the
heir.” he explained. “You will be helping your people and lady Kastark’s people. They say it’s
gonna be the longest winter in history, your people will not survive in the mountains on their own,
is your pride more important that the survival of these people?”

“Of course not, my people come first!”

“Then think about it.” the mountain Lord answered with a nod.

Now looking at Alys Kastark, he realized how weak she looked, the poor girl must have ridden
for days.

“Grenn!” he called, and his steward opened the door in a heartbeat, almost falling over himself, he
was no doubt listening at the door “Find Lady Kastark some warm rooms and get her something
to eat”

“At once, Lord Commander”

Alys gave her thanks, and he saw Maege Mormont gently patting her back “You did good lassie,
your people will be safe.”

Seeing her go, he wished he would have betrothed this girl to Robb when they were young, his
son would have a brave Northern woman as a wife, worthy of being Lady of Winterfell and none
of that Frey shit would have happened.

Ned turned to Laurence Snow with a sigh “What about you, my Lord?”

“I also came for help, Lord Stark. Deepwood Motte was taking by the Ironmen, only 200 of them
remain now, led by Asha Greyjoy, the Kraken’s daughter herself. I wanted to ask for help to get it
back, I didn’t know Lord Glover was here” he said nodding to Lord Galbart.

“What do you say, Lord Glover? How many men do we need to take it back?” Ned asked.

“We shouldn’t need many men, it’s a poorly defended castle, it just has a ditch, an earthen dike
and a palisade of logs as defenses, I can go with the men and show them the weaker spots. We
should get in with no problem, we just have to defeat the 200 Ironborn.” lord Galbart said.
“Unsullied will take this Deepwood Motte in the name of King Jaehaerys.” Blacksnail said, to
everybody’s surprise.

“I could send some of my men too, under Blacksnail’s command. Maester Aemon, what do you
think?” Ned asked.

“It’s a good plan” the old Targaryen answered to Lord Glover’s relief.

“One more thing,” Laurence Snow said “they have Lord Robett’s children. Asha Greyjoy is
keeping them at the Ten Towers, in the Iron Islands”

“Unsullied take this Asha Greyjoy alive and we trade for children.” Blacksnail said again. Ned
was starting to realize that this soldier had a sharp mind, no wonder Jaehaerys gave him command
of the small army he sent here.

Lord Glover nodded thankful.

“Willam!” Ned was afraid that the Barrowtown Lord was too deep in his cups by now, but he was
relieved to see his eyes sharp and focused. He forgot that he drank like a duck. “I want you to call
your banners and march towards Torrhen Square, Commander Blacksnail’s men will come from
the North after they take Deepwater Motte and you will take the castle together. We need that
lake!” both men nodded.

“And Blacksnail” he looked at the Unsullied commander “We are going to find you a different
name, one that demands the respect you deserve. How about we address you as Black from now
on, Lord Black, since you are Lord Commander of the Unsullied?”

The man looked a little uncertain, but he nodded “As you say, Lord Stark!”

“Lord Reed and Lord Menderly, I want you to work together and take back Moat Cailin. It
shouldn’t be a problem if you attack from both ways.” both Lords gave determined nods. “And try
to repair whatever is possible until winter is here. If my nephew is right, there will be trouble in the
South too, and we can’t fight on two fronts, we need the Moat to keep those Southern fuckers
out.”

“Of course Lord Stark, you can count on us!” Wyman Manderly said, and Howland Reed gave a
sharp nod.

“If that’s all, My Lords, I will leave you to your food and drinks.” he got up and helped Aemon
out of his chair, Wheng also got up and Blacksanail followed them.

Before he opened the door to exit he turned and said: “You know, my nephew told me something
in his letter.” this got everyone’s attention. “He told me that the Gods left us to live in these harsh
times not because they hate us, they left us because they know we’re strong enough to survive.”
They all raised their mugs in a choir of “Ayes”

“We will stay together, help each other and we will persevere. No matter what comes our way, we
will prevail!”

“Aye!”
 THE DRAGON – PLAINS OF THE JOGOS NHAI

They finally reached land and it was good to be on a horse again. Silverbright was truly a pleasure
to ride, calm and sure-footed. Of course, her mare also had the advantage that she always kept
close to Jae’s horse, giving her an excuse to be close to Jae. And she wasn’t about to complain
about that.

She could feel the morale of their people shoot up now that they were on dry land, they hated
sailing. Dany enjoyed it if she was being honest. The ship that they were traveling on was a huge
war galley, “The Floating Caste” Ser Oswell liked to call it and she agreed with him.

Although she has never seen a castle, because she ran from Westeros when she was a few moons
old, and people in Essos rarely built castles, they preferred to settle in cities, towns or villages.
Perhaps that’s why the Dothraki ran wild on these shores, she doubted that any Khalasar would be
able to conquer Dragonstone or any Westerosi well-fortified Castle. Arthur told her in one of his
stories of the Rebellion that Storm’s End was besieged by a whole year by all the might of the
Reach and it still remained unconquered. And the Reach men no doubt had access to every kind
of siege weapons, they were not savages that rode horses and shot arrows.

But even if she hasn’t seen a real castle yet, she has seen drawings of Dragonstone in her book
about the Aegon Conquest. That book used to be her only possession alongside her mother’s ring.
It was given to her by ser William Darry when they were living in Braavos. She still remembers
that when they had to run from the house with the red door, her brother told her to take only
important things and she took her book. Viserys got mad when he saw that, it was the first time
when she “woke the Dragon”.

So, by her books standards, it was a good description of the ship they were on during their
voyage. A floating castle indeed.

And she enjoyed the trip, the ship was big enough to give people privacy if they wanted it and
was small enough to allow her to know everyone better.

She spent many hours talking and learning with Lady Mella, she taught her languages and
mathematics, she was now almost fluent in YiTish, Jae and Mella both insisted for her to learn,
since everybody spoke that language or a version of it in the East.

Dany also really enjoyed training with a sword. She still chuckled when she remembered Jae
coming to her and asking her to train. For her own safety, he said. She could see that he was
thinking that she would be uncomfortable fighting, but what he didn’t know and what she was a
little embarrassed to tell him was that after reading about the warrior queen Visenya in her book
about the Conquest, when they ran from city to city, living on rooftops or under bridges, every
time her brother left her alone to go and find food, she used to find herself a stick and pretend she
was Visenya, fighting all kinds of imaginary foes.

Giants, Krackens, Lions, evil Sorcerers, there wasn’t an imaginary evil creature that young
Daenerys hasn’t slain.

So she trained many hours every single day on the boat, she and Arya were always sparring. She
sparred with everyone: Greyworm with his steady and methodical style, Leg with his powerful
and vicious style, Ser Oswell with his unpredictable style and Arya with her water dancing. She
wasn’t ashamed to admit that she mostly lost, but she could feel herself improving every single
day and in the last moon on the sea, she actually started snatching some wins here and there.
The only ones she hasn’t sparred were Jae and Arthur, Oswell said that they always wake up very
early, before everybody else to spar. It was a habit that Arthur picked up when they were serving
as Kingsguards for Rhaegaer who they followed around all day and the only time to practice was
very early in the morning before he woke up.

He also said that they rarely train in people’s view because everybody stops whatever they’re
doing to watch them and most of them wager on the winner, squandering all their pay. As always,
it was hard to say when Oswell was jesting or not.

But even if Jae and Arthur didn’t spar with them, they always made time to watch them spar, give
advice and demonstrate how to do things. Sometimes they would stop their sparring just to move
their feet a little or ask them to change their grip or their posture. At first, she was quite frustrated,
how was she going to remember all these things, but Arthur told her that if she does them enough
times, she will get used to them and at some point, she will just do them without a thought.

Dany remembered one of the most important lessons. It was maybe in the first moon of her
training, she was sparring with Greyworm for the first time and was losing badly, and the
Unsullied Commander told her that she was losing because she was too aggressive.

It was Jae’s turn to watch over their training the next day and she didn’t want to look like a
hothead in front of him, so she tried to be less aggressive. He noticed the change immediately, at
first he was concerned that maybe she was sick or tired, but after she embarrassingly told him
about Greyworm’s advice he laughed and told her that Greyworm thinks that the Unsullied style is
a perfect style, but in truth, it was very predictable.

“We are who we are, Little Dragon,” he told her “we adapt our style to our personality, not the
other way around! You are a Dragon, don’t screech and claw like a cat. Be a Dragon, use the
fire in you!”

Jae… Their dynamic changed after he told her she was the most beautiful woman he ever saw. At
first, she was sure that he just said it to make her feel better. Her brother always told her that she
was small and ugly and nobody wanted her. But Jae always looked at her with admiration, and
she never heard him to tell a lie. So, maybe she was beautiful, in his eyes, at least. And that was
perfect since his eyes were the only ones that mattered to her.

The change between them was not big, but it was there, there were the little things, sitting closer,
touching more. Dany didn’t know if someone else noticed, probably Arthur did because he didn’t
miss a thing, but it was there.

But the change she liked the best was the hug they exchanged every evening before they went to
their cabins to sleep. She always hugged him tightly and buried her nose in his neck and just
breathed him in, filling her lungs with him. Dany loved the smell of the sea and sun on his skin,
but what she loved best was his unique smell, it was something that she could only describe as
fresh, something that was all Jae, something that made her feel warm, safe and light headed in the
same time.

Gods, if she could only bottle that smell and take it everywhere with her, maybe spray a little on
her pillow, she’s sure to sleep much better.

She often found herself getting closer than it was proper to him when nobody was looking, and
leaning in just to get a sniff of that smell she loved so much.

To her everlasting mortification, one of these times she heard a snort behind her, and when she
looked it was Ser Oswell looking at her with a smirk on his face and a raised eyebrow. Others
take him, her cheeks were on fire, she considered jumping in the sea just to cool them off. She was
sure he was never going to let that down as long as she lived.

But she was a Dragon, she was not going to give him the satisfaction. So Dany raised her chin
and looked him in the eye with the coldest look she could muster in her embarrassment and asked
him in an even voice if there is something wrong with his throat. She could see on his face that she
took him by surprise, her question attracted Jae’s attention too, who was looking at Oswell with a
frown.

With both of them looking at him, the Knight started to back off and said that he had something in
his throat and made a show of clearing his throat a few times. Jae sent him away to have
somebody look at his throat and told her “I wish I could say that you’ll get used to him after a
time, but that would be a lie,” making her giggle. That sounded about right.

She wondered where were she and Jae standing. She knew what she wanted and she was sure
that Jae wanted the same thing, she could see it every time he looked at her. Because of his aloof
personality, people saw him as devoid of any emotion, but she knew better, her habit of ogling
him all the time didn’t just earn her giggles, snorts, and eye-rolls from the crew, it also earned her
the ability to read him properly. And when she couldn’t read him, she just had to look him in the
eyes and it was all there.

But here they were, finally on land, their sea trip over. And as much as she enjoyed the voyage,
she couldn’t deny that it felt good to feel the steady ground under her feet. It took some time for
them to find their land legs, so they just camped in the bay for a few days, but now the wobbling
was gone from their legs and they started their journey through the Plains of Jogos Nhai.

These were strange lands, if she looked to her left there were only flatlands and pastures as far as
she could see. When she looked to her right, the view was exactly the opposite, right there she
could see the great natural wall that split Essos in two, the highest mountains in the world, the
Bone Mountains.

They were an awe-inspiring view, some of their peaks went so high in the sky that they were
stabbing the clouds.

They were riding ahead of their host, she was on Silverbright, Jae on his black steed Midnight and
Arya was riding a small brown mare from Jae’s herd. They didn’t have any more of these big
Lengii horses that she, Jae, Leg, and Arthur rode, so Arya picked another one.

The problem with normal horses was that they were always scared when they sensed Ghost close,
and Arya’s horse was not different. But somehow the wolf-girl managed to calm the horse and
now the mare was calm around the Direwolf. She was not sure how she managed that, she just
saw her take the horse’s head in her hands, and then Arya’s eyes went milky white, just like Jae’s
eyes did when he summoned Sonax in the House of Black and White, and next thing they knew,
the horse stopped being scared of Ghost.

Leg was riding alongside them, on his spotted steed, acting as their guide through these lands.

“When I was a young lad, I used to go all over Essos with my Mum and Paps, to trade horses.” he
told them “people that live here are called Jogos Nhai and they trade for a rare species of horses,
that only live in Leng. Those horses have white and black stripes all over them, they are not very
good for riding, but Jogos Nhai breed them with normal horses which results what they call
zorses, striped horses that are very resistant to these lands.” she wished she could see these zorses,
they seemed quite a wonder.

“These people are like Dothraki in a way, horselords, but while the Dothraki sea is capable of
feeding the Dothraki horses, lands here are very harsh, so they are using these zorses, who can go
on for many moons surviving only with weeds and devil-grass.” he explained.

“Unlike the Dothraki, who gather in Khalasars, these people band in small clans, connected by
blood. They are led by Jhats, and in time of war, all clans unite under one leader who they call
Jhattar.

“We’re sure to see some Jogos Nhai while we pass through their lands. They will try to raid us for
sure.” Leg said with a grin.

They made camp when the sun set. She will never not be impressed with the Unsullied ability to
raise tents in an orderly manner. If she didn’t know better she would have said that Lady Mella
cursed them with those geometry teachings, as she did with her.

They always left a wide space in the middle of the camp, where they would light a huge fire to
warm themselves in the cold nights. These plains were quite weird, hot in the day, cold at night, so
people liked standing around this huge fire every night. She loved it too, although her hot blood
didn’t allow her to go cold, but she wasn’t going to turn down the possibility of sitting near Jae
and leaning her head on his shoulder. Some nights, when they were in a good mood, the King
even played his harp for their people, sometimes she sang with him when he played a song she
knew.

This particular night she was sitting on a log, enjoying the heat and waiting for Jae when she
heard him call her.

“Dany, come and meet someone!”

She was curious, who could she meet at night, in the middle of nowhere? They walked side by
side towards the edge of the camp, just the two of them, not even Arthur or Ghost with them. She
wondered why did he want them to be alone, her cheeks growing warm at the possibilities.

But when they got close to the edge of the camp she felt her blood warming up, and she knew
who she’s going to meet. Dany might be embarrassed about her prior thoughts, but there was no
room for embarrassment with the excitement she felt now.

They walked in companionable silence for about a mile when she saw him sitting on the ground
with his huge head bowed and his molten eyes looking at them. Syrax was easy to spot, his red
scales were glowing even in the black of the night like fire was burning inside him, he was truly
fire-made flesh.

Her blood was boiling now, she felt more empowered the closer she got to him. About twenty
paces from the Dragon she felt Jae stopping and she looked at him confused.

“You should go alone, Dany,” he said.

“It is safe?” she asked, although the last thing she felt right now was fear.

“Yes, I think he is meant for you, you are the only one who can be around him. And I am certain
that he already responds to your stronger emotions” he told her. At her confused look he
continued “Remember when we met, you were angry at your brother when he came, also at the
Iron Bank, he was attracted to your anger.” She blushed a little, remembering how she argued
with the Bankers, luckily the dark night hid her blush from Jae.

“Aren’t you also immune?” she asked confused, remembering that he also wasn’t as affected by
the Dragon’s heat as the others in Pentos.

“Not to fire. Go!” he encouraged her, shushing her towards Syrax.

She walked slowly towards the Dragon, the great beast made no movement, but kept his huge
molten eyes on her. The closer she got, the more she felt fire running through her veins.

When Dany was in front of him, she reached her hand towards his great snout and started to
gently stroke him. The feeling was overwhelming, she felt everything. She felt his anger, she felt
his strength, but most of all she felt his loneliness.

Her blood felt like lava in her veins, she never felt so empowered.

Is this how Gods feel? she couldn’t help wondering.

She put her hands around Syrax’s great snout and rested her head on his nose

“You’ll never feel alone again. This I promise you.”

Daenerys was not sure how much time it passed by, but she knew it was time to return to camp.
Jae probably got bored of waiting for her and returned already.

When she returned to the spot she left him, she was pleased to see that he was still there. It looked
like he got bored and decided to train with his sword while he waited.

She stopped there, in the night, just admiring his movements, his Valyrian Steel sword whizzing
through the air with unnatural speed.

His movements were swift, focused and direct, just like he was. She remembered his advice
Mould your style around who you are.

He had such a unique style... While Arya’s style flowed beautifully and could be compared to
some form of art, her sword moving like a brush creating a new masterpiece, Jae’s style was
nothing like that.

There was no movement without a purpose. And its purpose was to kill. Every move ended with a
hit in a kill spot. Neck. Heart. Thigh. His movements were so well controlled that she could
practically see the invisible opponent he was fighting with.

Block, thigh, block, neck, block, block, neck, block, heart.

He applied different kind of hits, from above, from below, from the right, from the left, but every
one of them hit the exact same spots. She was sure that if she were to put a coin in each of these
three spots, the tip of his sword would hit it every time.

This was not fighting. This was spreading death.

He seemed to sense her then and stopped his training.

“How was it?” he asked turning towards her while sheathing his sword.

“Great, we became fast friends!” she said excitedly, trying not to notice how the exertion
brightened his beautiful eyes, or how his black shirt ended with one too many open buttons
showing off his chest. Or how his wild hair got free and he had to blow it out of his face with a
weirdly endearing gesture.

Or how his black breeches hugged his strong thighs. No, she definitely hadn’t noticed that! And
she definitely did not just lick her lips while ogling him!

Others take him! Half of her wanted to hug him, bury her nose in his neck and breathe him in, and
the other half wanted to smack him for always making her weak in the knees!

Days went by and they kept moving, it was the same every day, mountains to the right, plains to
the left, some days she swore that they made no progress whatsoever. But Leg assured them that
they were making good progress and they will reach the Steel Road soon.

After seeing Jae train the night she met Syrax, she decided that she was going to join him and
Arthur every morning to train. It was hard in the beginning because she loved her sleep, but she
was Daenerys Stormborn, she was going to get used to it.

And it was not like she had a choice, they rode all day and she spent her evenings with Syrax, just
like she promised him.

Dany quickly came to cherish their morning training anyway. Not one to be left behind, when
Arya heard about it she wasted no time and also joined, so there was the four of them every
morning. “The Swords of the Morning”, as Ser Oswell liked to call them. When she asked him
why he didn’t join them, he said that he needs his beauty sleep, and he’s more like a “The Sword
after the Afternoon Nap” type of man anyway.

What was better than to spend time with her favorite people and to learn some sword fighting at
the same time?

One night, when they were sitting around the fire, listening to Jae’s harp, their Unsullied guards
came and announced visitors.

Two of the weirdest men Daenerys has ever seen came before them. They were short, bowlegged
and had big, shaved, pointed heads. They were Jogos Nhai.

“Dragon King, Dragon Queen,” they said in broken YiTish. She couldn’t help noticing that again
Jae didn’t correct them calling her Queen. It was the same in Braavos, everyone assumed that she
was his wife, and called her Queen, and Jae never said otherwise.
Not that she was complaining.

The Jogos Nhai continued after she and Jae welcomed them around their fire. Leg explained that
welcoming someone to your fire in The Plains of Jogos Nhai was like offering guest rights in
Westeros.

“We are riders of the great Jhattar Mogus,” one of them said, “he would like to welcome the
Dragon King and his Queen to share his fire tomorrow when you pass by his camp.”

Jae looked at Leg, who gave him a discreet nod and answered: “We will be pleased to meet the
great Jhattar.”

They reached the Jogos Nhai camp around noon the next day.

It was what you would expect from a nomad clan: a large yurt in the middle, surrounded by
animal skin tents. From her estimation, there were no more than a couple of hundred people living
here.

Daenerys, Jae, Arya, Arthur, Leg, and Ghost entered the camp with a handful of Unsullied trailing
them.
She could see their famous zorses, they were beautiful animals, black and white stripes all over
their bodies, slightly shorter than a horse. She could see that they were restless horses, but maybe
that was because they were nervous around Ghost. Every one in the camp was gawking at the
wolf. Some with such awe in their eyes that she wouldn’t be surprised to see them drop down on
their knees and worship the great Direwof.

They were taken to the yurt in the middle of the camp, where one warrior and 4 women what
appeared to be some kind of priestesses were waiting for them, sitting with their legs beneath them
around a small fire.

The warrior stood up and moved his arm in a circle over the small fire: “I, Jhattar Mogus invite
you to share my fire.”

Jae bowed his head slightly “Thank you for having us” and he sat down by the fire, copying their
position. Her, Arya and Leg followed. Arthur stayed outside, guarding the entrance.

She saw their host’s eyes go wide and she knew that Ghost decided to join them. As, always, he
took his usual spot with his head on her lap. The Jhattar looked at her with awe, probably
impressed that she managed to tame such a beast.

Magus pointed towards the four women, all of them very old “These are the Elder Moonsingers,
they are here to tell you about the war.”

Leg was the one to talk first “I see you are named Jhattar, it’s not often that all the Jogos Nhai
clans unite.”

It was one of the Moonsingers that answered him “With the magic back in the world, the City of
Death has awakened. So all the Jhats got together and chose Mogus as Jhattar, to lead us in the
war against death. He is the blood of Zhea Zorseface”

When he heard that name Jae looked at Arya with a barely concealed grin earning himself a
narrow-eyed look from the wolf-girl. She couldn’t help rolling her eyes.

“The Gods have shown it to us, the Dragon Queen and the Dragon King shall lead the armies of
men against the green army who comes under the cloud of death. Jogos Nhai will fight against the
green death.” another Moonsinger said.

“The Gods shall be with us,” one of the two silent Moonsingers finally spoke, “we have seen it,
they will send rains of fire from the skies and winds so cold that they will freeze and shatter our
enemies.”

“We must survive!” the last Moonsinger said determinedly.

Green army? Cloud of death? Surely these people had too much fermented zorse milk or whatever
it is that they drank.

Just when she was about to say something about their ridiculous visions, Jae finally spoke:

“We welcome the help of the proud Jogos Nhai warriors.” he said without an ounce of amusement
in his voice, sending a cold shiver down her spine.
 THE GIRL KISSED BY FIRE - HARDHOME

They found it, she couldn’t believe it! And it was her group that did it! Now they had a way to
save their people. Hopefully, they wouldn’t have to use it, surely the Crows could be reasoned
with, nobody wanted to see the Wall fall. The safest place for everyone was behind the Wall,
Crow, Kneeler or Free Folk.

A year ago Mance, the King behind the Wall, sent out groups to look for the Horn of Joramun.
Groups of 20 people spread all over the North, from the Great Wall to the Thenn mountains, from
the Frostfangs to Hardhome. The Free Folk left no stone unturned.

And it was her group that found it! On the river they called the Antler, in a cave deep in the earth,
the burial place of Joramun, the most famous of the Kings Beyond the Wall. After they cleared the
stones under which he was buried, they found his body and the Horn. His body was still whole,
no wonder her people always burn their dead these days, how else would their dead bodies return
to the earth on this cold? Thousands of years and Juramun’s body was still whole. They burned it
themselves, one less soldier for the Others.

And the Horn, the Horn was the most beautiful this she ever saw. So beautiful that her hand shook
every time she touched it, as if she was afraid she would break it. But she doubted she could break
it even if she had ten times her strength. It was made from some kind of metal, the most beautiful
metal she ever saw, dark and rippled, shone in the light with a dark glow. It was like nothing she
ever saw. She went behind the wall many times, raiding the Kneelers, and stole many of their
Steel weapons, but none of them looked like this, it was also much lighter than the Steel Kneelers
made their swords from.

Since they found it she never let it out of her sight, she tied it with a leather cord around her neck,
she even slept with it.

And now they were close to Hardhome, their home.

Hundred of years ago, Hardhome was the only Free Folk settlement that resembled a Southern
town, until one night when it was completely destroyed, burned to the ground. The elders told
them how the fires burned so high, that the Free Folk thought that the sun was rising in the middle
of the night. They thought that the world would end.

But the end didn’t come. Just Hardhome’s end, and the end of Free Folk trying to build
settlements bigger than a village.

For hundreds and hundreds of years after Hardome’s destruction the people of the North avoided
it like grey scale. But in the last few years, with the cold growing more deadly each day and with
the Others pushing South, people were forced once again to settle there.

Most people lived in the cliff caves, but there were also many sealskin tents to be seen in
Hardhome. She and her little sister, Mya, lived in such a tent. Although her sister was 6 years
younger, they looked very much alike, same round face, same pug nose, and the same wild bright
red hair. Kissed by the fire, the Free Folk called them.

The closer they got to the settlement, the louder she could hear Mother Mole’s preaching. She was
a wood witch that seemed to have acquired the gift of prophecies in the last few years, Ygritte
didn’t know what to think about that, but she knew that many strange things started happening in
the last few years.

When they left in search of the Horn, Mother Mole’s preachings would only gather a handful of
people, but now that they got close to the old woman’s preaching spot, around the great weirwood
three, just outside Hardhome, she could see that she had many more followers now. Hundreds,
maybe even one thousand.

“They are coming!” she heard the wood witch preach “The Gods are coming to help us! The Old
Gods have shown me! One dark, one fair, one wielding an ice sword, one a fire sword, they will
come on their great flying beasts and fight the Great Other and his seven thralls! We need to
worship them, help them, start sacrificing…” The old woman’s voice got fainter and fainter as
they entered the settlement and was replaced by the noise made by the people of Hardhome.

”Ygritte! Ygritte!” her little sister came running excitedly. The girl jumped in her arms, Ygritte
gave her a huge smile, that showed all her crooked teeth and started spinning her around in
happiness drawing lots of giggles from her little sister.

“Did you miss me, Mya?” she asked dizzily.

“Of course! Did you find it?” the girl asked excitedly.

She didn’t say anything, just pulled the horn from under her furs and showed it to her sister.

“Whoa, it’s the most beautiful thing I have ever seen,” Mya said with ave, “What do you think it’s
made from? This doesn’t look like Kneeler Iron.” she continued, confusion in her voice.

“Who knows, some kind of magic, look at all the runes drawn on it. Some are in the Old Tongue,
some are Kneeler drawings and some I don’t know.” Ygritte said. She started talking again before
her curious sister will start with more questions. “Let’s go to our tent and get something to eat,
Mya!”

Later, when they went to sleep, Mya asked “Do you think that we can pass the Wall with the
Horn? Do you think we will be safe from the ice men?”

“I don’t know, little sister, I don’t know. But I know that the chances are much higher with the
Horn, the Crows must at least listen to us. Go to sleep, we have a long day tomorrow, and we
need our rest.”

Now that they had the Horn, the plan was to get all the people from Hardhome and meet with
Mance’s host at the Fist of the First men. And hope for the best.

She was awoken from her sleep by screams outside their tent. She covered Mya’s mouth with her
hand and drew her finger to her mouth, telling her to stay quiet.

She heard Kneelers talking outside “The King told us to look for red-haired wildlings with good
teeth. They worth their weight in gold to the Lys pillow houses.”
”Since the Blackfyre whore took over the slave trade, slaves are worth more than gold!” one said
with a sinister laugh. “Look, a red-headed one! Catch her!” Then she heard the snow squeaking
under their feet farther and farther.

“Don’t make a sound” she whispered towards her sister, “I’m gonna look to see if it’s safe”

Mya caught her hand and shook her head and mouthed “No!”. She could see the fear in her eyes,
but there was nothing she could do. If they stayed in the tent they will find them sooner or later,
better try and run.

She slowly parted the seal skin at the entrance of the tent and stuck her head out, to see if there
was someone around. As soon as she did it, pain exploded in her left cheek. The hit was so hard
that she fell down, luckily outside of her tent.

Ygritte looked up dizzily and she could see that her attacker wore iron gloves, no wonder that it
hurt so much. He was a huge man, with a big scar on his face, that went from under his left eye to
the right corner of his mouth. It looked like the one who gave him that scar also cut his nose In the
process.

It was weird that at this time when she will most likely be taken as a slave at best and killed at
worst, the only thing she could think of was how does this man breath on this cold without a nose.
His brain must be freezing, for sure.

She was harshly pulled to her feet by the big man when she noticed that the horn got out from
under her furs and was now in full view.

Before she could hide it back under her furs, she heard another man say “Hold her!” and the big
and ugly man locked his hands around her. She could barely breathe.

The other man was the opposite of the one who was holding her, pale and handsome, with dark
hair and beard, pale blue lips, he also wore a patch over his left eye. He took the horn in his hand
and with one swift movement ripped it from her neck.

“Where did you get this from, girl?” he asked in a cold voice.

She didn’t say anything.

He pulled a thin knife from his belt and held it loosely in his hand, pointed at her. He asked again,
this time in a voice so cold that sent shivers through her body “I’ll ask you one more time, where
did you get this horn?”

“I found it in the woods when I went to make water.” she lied.

“It’s good that you lied to me, I’m gonna enjoy getting it out of you, girl.” he said, to her dread.
But she wasn’t gonna show fear or talk, she is of the Free Folk, not some fucking Kneeler, she
was stronger than that.

But just when she was preparing for what was to come, Mya got out of the tent with her spear,
pointing it at the man with one eye: “Let her go!” she screamed. The man didn’t even flinch.

“And who might you be?” the man asked in a sickeningly sweet voice.

“Run, Mya!” she screamed.

“I’m not leaving without you, Ygritte, you’re my sister!” her little sister said bravely.
“Ah, so she is your sister...” the one-eyed man said in a pleased tone that made her insides freeze.
And then in one swift movement, he took the spear from Mya’s hand and pulled her to his chest,
his knife now on her sister’s cheek.

“So, Ygritte, it appears to me that we haven’t been introduced. Here’s what wee gonna do, I’m
gonna write my name with this knife on your pretty little sister’s face, what do you say?” he said
pointing the knife harder on Mya’s cheek. She could see a small drop of blood running down her
cheek.

She panicked, she couldn’t let him hurt her little sister “Stop, please, stop! I’ll tell you everything if
you let my sister go!” she begged, tears welling in her eyes.

“I’ll give you my word.” he said, loosening his grip on her sister.

“It’s called the Horn of Winter. I found it in Joramun’s tomb.” she told the one-eyed guy in a low
and shameful voice. “I told you everything, now let her go,” she begged.

“I am afraid I lied, my dear. They pay good money over the Narrow Sea for redheaded girls with
good teeth. The younger the better,” he said.

“No! You gave me your word!” she screeched, desperately trying to free herself from the big
man’s grip.

“Take the little girl.” the dark haired man ordered.

“What about this one?” the brute spoke for the first time nodding towards her.

“Get rid of her, she’s got bad teeth and she’s too much trouble.”

She felt herself pushed on the snow and then she felt the cold edge of an axe hitting the back of
her head.

And then there was nothing.

THE DRAGON - TRADER TOWN

She was relieved to see that they were finally approaching Trader Town. She didn’t mind all the
riding, but she could do with a good sleep in a normal bed for a change. They have been sleeping
in tents for many moons now and even before that they spent a lot of time on the ship, so it’s been
almost a year since she slept in a normal, unmoving bed. And she could see that everyone was
anxious to reach the city, not only her.

Well everyone except Arya, who was still beaming and enjoying riding the new zorse that Jae
traded for her with the Jogos Nhai. It was a beautiful animal, and she was sure that if it was up to
the small wolf-girl, they would be riding for another few moons.

She was pleased to see Arya happy, since they met she has become a little sister to both her and to
Jae, she was their family and there was nothing they wouldn’t do for her.
Only a year back Dany was in Pentos at her brother’s will, looking for a place where she would
belong. Her only value was her marrying some Lord to help her brother win his crown and take
them home. Wherever they went, she never felt like she belonged, but she always assumed that
she will finally fill that hole in her chest when they went to Westeros, when they went home.

But she knew now that Westeros wasn’t home. Home wasn’t a place. Home was Jae’s calm and
steady presence. Home was Arya’s mischievous smile. Home was the weight of Ghost’s head in
her lap. Home was Arthur’s protection. Home was Mella's motherly fussing. Home was Oswell’s
stupid jokes. Home was Syrax igniting the fire in her blood. Home wasn’t a place, home was
where her family was.

And Gods help the ones who tried to hurt her family.

She couldn’t help thinking at the one she called family a year back. Viserys. What was he
thinking, marrying the Blackfyre pretender? Was that stupid throne all that he was thinking about?

Dany knew that it was inevitable that they will clash with Altheea’s and Viserys’ forces at some
point. Maybe that should have concerned her. Maybe she should have second thoughts about
fighting against her own brother.

But she felt nothing like that. Maybe she was heartless, but she would cut Viserys down piece by
piece and feed him to Ghost or Syrax if he tried to hurt anyone she loves.

Without giving it a second thought.

Trader Town didn’t look much from the outside, it looked like a massive fort with high, thick
walls. She expected more splendor from a city that she was told was the biggest trading center in
Essos, maybe even in the known world.

When they were close to the city, she could see that there was a party waiting for them at one of
the gates. Most of them were soldiers dressed in dirty orange robes, in front of them there was a
plump man, riding a Lengii horse, just like them. He was dressed in bright orange clothes that
made him look ridiculous, not to mention that those colors made her eyes hurt. As if he wasn’t
ridiculous enough, he was also dripping in jewelry, she wondered how could he keep his neck
straight with all those gold chains around it. And each gold chain seemed to have some kind of
precious stone attached to it, even a couple of Rainbow Diamonds, one of them was orange or
maybe golden, and it sparkled like a small sun at his neck. She had to admit that it was quite a
sight.

“King Jaehaerys, Queen Daenerys” the man greeted “I am pleased to receive you in Trader
Town”

“We are pleased to be here, Your Majesty. Daenerys, this is the first Orange Emperor Pol Qo,
ruler of Trader Town” Jaehaerys introduced her, as always not correcting the man’s assumption
that she was his Queen. That explained the man’s obsession with orange.

“I am pleased to meet you, Your Majesty,” she said dipping her head slightly, just enough so that
she wouldn’t appear disrespectful.
“It’s good to see you back, Your Grace,” the so-called Emperor said to Jae “I hope you brought
some more merchandise” she swore that the man’s eyes were gleaming like his diamonds.

“We came from the West, Emperor Pol Qo, but the mining will be resumed as soon as we get
home.” Jae explained.

Pol Qo looked somewhat between disappointed and annoyed “Why was the mining stopped? Are
the Lizard People attacking?”. She didn’t like the tone of his voice.

“Indeed, they are getting bolder and my army was needed somewhere else. I didn’t want to risk
my miners’ lives” judging by his cold tone, Jaehaerys didn’t like being questioned either. “We will
restart the mining when we get home and we will see when and where to sell then.” he made a
show of accentuation the word “where”.

The golden fool seemed to remember himself at last and lost some of the colour from his cheeks
“You must sell in Trader Town, of course. The most important trading city in the world. Weren’t
we always good partners?”

“We’ll see.” came Jae’s non-committal answer, to the Emperor’s concern.

After having to suffer a few more minutes of useless conversation with his Orange Majesty, he
finally took his leave and they were able to get inside the city.

If from outside the city looked like a stern, lifeless place, the inside couldn’t be more different.

She has been to most of the Free Cities when she was younger and on the run, but none of them
could compare to this one. Countless people and all in a hurry. Nobody was standing, everybody
was busy and they were all moving, it reminded her of an ant colony. Here she saw the largest
variety of people she saw anywhere, even in Braavos. She saw YiTish people with their monkey
tail hats. She saw Pentoshi people with their oiled colorful beards. She saw Dothrakis with their
copper skin and long, dark hair. She saw Tyroshi with their bright colored hair. Even Westerosi
with their proud bearing, looking down at everyone. There were people from every corner of the
world here.

And then there were the buildings. Most of them were two stories buildings and almost every one
of them had some kind of shop at the first level. You could tell by the paintings of the doors and
outside walls what they were selling, it was quite a sight. Leg told them that the first level was for
the shops and the second for living and sleeping. Everybody sold something in Trader Town.

At every twenty shops or so there was one large dark building, which, judging by the spear and
shield painted on them were some kind of barracks.

People came to them and tried to sell them things at every step, from sweet worms to trained
basilisks, from rare silks to colored glass, whatever you needed, they claimed to have it.

It was like nothing she ever saw before. She was sure that the wonder on her face made her look
more like a silly girl than the Queen they were pretending her to be, but she couldn’t help it. This
place was amazing.

She looked at Jae to see if he was disappointed with her, but the only thing she saw when he
looked at her was an adoring look paired with a small and sweet smile that summoned all her
blood to her face.

They finally reached their inn, the Jade Rooster it was called. This building looked more like a
small palace than an inn. She would have admired it if it wasn’t for the fact that every single thing
in the inn was painted green. From the walls to the cups they were serving drinks in, everything
was a shade of green.

The Jade Rooster indeed.

They decided to get a good night rest and meet in the morning to visit the city and do some
trading.

She was a little concerned when she saw the glint in Lady Mella’s eyes when she heard of
shopping. Dany loved the woman to bits, but when it came to buying things Mella turned into a
ferocious beast that would put even Syrax to shame. By the Old Gods, she was about to throttle
some poor Braavosi merchant for asking one more iron coin that she was willing to pay for a few
yards of silk. And they were using Jae’s coins to buy things, she felt pity for the merchants who
had to trade with her when she was using her own money.

But at least this time they would have Jae with them. If things got rough in the shops, she could
always distract herself by engaging in her favorite pastime – ogling Jae.

Although she was a bit concerned when she saw Jae narrowing his eyes after he heard that Lady
Whent was coming with them.

She was going to throttle him! She was going to put her small hands around his neck and squeeze
until his face turned blue!

Others take him! She should have known that he will find a way not to come. That look on his
face when he heard Mella’s excitement should have told her everything.

Meeting with a potential customer and ally her arse!

He sent Ghost with Arthur and Leg to make his excuses. Both of them looking like they lost some
wager and their punishment was to spend time with them. She wouldn’t have been surprised if
that was true.

At least he said they will meet in a few hours.

She took a deep breath, this was ridiculous! She was Daenerys Stormborn, blood of the Dragon,
seed of Aegon the Conqueror, surely she could withstand a few hours of shopping with Lady
Mella!

“Look, silk!” she heard the woman screech.

Gods help her!

A few hours and a few dozen shops later she was reluctant to admit that she actually had fun. She
enjoyed it a lot, hells, she even argued with some merchants who, she believed, were trying to sell
them things at high prices.

Dany didn’t miss Mella’s proud motherly look when she managed to bargain for a price on some
cashmere wool that was one whole gold dragon lower than what the merchant wanted. And it
made her really pleased.

They stopped in front of a shop that had all kinds of flowers and herbs painted on its door and
exterior walls.

“Come, the King asked me to get you something.” Lady Mella said, pulling her in.

When they got in she looked around while Mella talked to the old man who appeared to be the
shop owner. Arthur took his usual spot by the door, from where he could see everything and
everyone.

She was expecting this shop to be a flower shop, but it was some kind of potions shop, the shelves
were filled with all kinds of potion bottles, all sizes and shapes.

The merchant gave them a round shaped purple bottle, Dany opened it and she noticed it had a
nice sharply sweet odor, it was pleasant enough, but nothing like the perfumes and oils she and
Mella bought in Braavos. She looked at the Lady confused, who chuckled, but it was the
shopkeeper who talked:

“It’s not a perfume, My Lady” he said.

“It’s Your Grace” Lady Whent said sharply, the old merchant looked at her for a few heartbeats,
then he looked at Arthur who was standing guard at the door and no doubt noticed the three-
headed dragon seal on his armor. His eyes went as big as saucers.

“I apologize, My Queen, I didn’t recognize you!” the shopkeeper said with undisguised awe in his
voice and, to her amusement, gave her a bow so low that she was afraid he would fall on his face.
“I never dreamed that the Dragon Queen herself would visit my humble shop” he continued.

“What’s the potion for, My Lord?” Dany asked, interrupting his groveling.

“It’s a blend of rare wildflowers called vygies, My Queen” the old man explained, “if you soak
your clothes in it, it won’t only make them smell nice, but it will also make them very hard to
burn.”

She was confused for a heartbeat there, why would Jae want her to have this when he knew she
can’t be hurt by fire? Then it hit her! Syrax. She could ride him without risking to have her clothes
burned down and end up naked. She couldn’t hide her huge grin: “Thank you, My Lord, we’ll
take all of it!”. She pulled out a bag of coins and paid what he asked. He was a nice man and she
didn’t want to let Lady Mella lose on him.

The shopkeeper was very pleased. “Is it true, Your Grace, do you really have a Dragon?” he
asked.

“Indeed, My Lord, I imagine you will see him before we leave. He does like attention.” she
answered and smiled seeing the old man’s eyes almost bulge out his head.
After they exited the shop Lady Mella asked in an uncharacteristic low voice: “So, how was it?
Did you enjoy our outing today?”

Dany looked at Mella and swore she was looking insecure, she never saw the buoyant Lady show
any kind of weakness since she met her.

“I had a great time!” she told her with a wide grin. Mella looked at her for a few heartbeats, as if to
decide if she was telling the truth or not. Judging by her relieved smile, she believed her to be
sincere.

“Good, good, because I have something to tell you.” she said. “It was me who asked the King to
leave us to shop alone.”

Dany couldn’t hide her surprise “What? Why did you do that?”

“You know, before we found you, I was always alone with the men. I love them to bits, and I
enjoy spending time with them, but sometimes is good to have a woman around.” she told her.
Dany was confused, why was she telling her this?

Lady Whent continued “So when we found you I was excited. Very excited.” she looked
pointedly at her. Daenerys still didn’t understand so Mella continued. “And I might have left my
excitement get the best of me when we were shopping in Braavos.”

Ohhhhh. Others take me, she noticed I was displeased to spend time with her!

Dany wanted the ground to open and swallow her whole. She didn’t know what to say, but the
blush on her cheeks said enough.

“It’s ok, Little One, I know I am a bit too fond of a good bargain. Even my husband calls me ‘The
Merchant’s Nightmare’.” they both chuckled “I don’t know if I should kiss or smack him.” she
said.

“Well, you were a bit too enthusiastic at times. That Braavosi silk trader looked like he was afraid
for his life.” they both laughed.

“At least we ended up with a good deal!” Mella said with a grin.

“No, really, I had a good time, I am glad we came alone.” Dany said and gave her a quick hug,
the older woman’s eyes getting a little wet.

“Come, let’s go and find His Grace before he sends his whole army to search for us. You know
he doesn’t like being away from you for too long. He broods twice as much when you are not
close.” Lady Whent said with a wink after getting herself together, making Dany blush.

“Ghost, take us to Jae!”

They slowly made way through the city, following Ghost. The streets were filled with people but
they split when they saw Ghost like the sea splits in front of a ship’s bow. And the ones who were
brave or drunk enough not to move, just needed the Direwolf to show them his long sharp teeth to
start running.
Ghost led them into a huge round public square, that must have been 200 feet wide, with food and
sweets shops all around it. The Direwolf walked towards a large group, at the edge of the plaza,
there must have been at least a hundred people gathered there for sure. Dany wondered what was
sold there that ignited so much interest.

But when they got close she heard a sound that she would recognize anywhere.

Jae’s harp.

Her eyes narrowed when she noticed that most of the people gathered there were women, and
most of them had a dreamy look on their faces, some were even crying.

A wave of possessiveness washed through her from head to toe, and before she knew what she
was doing she found herself moving in the clumped crowd towards the beautiful sound.

She heard someone screaming after her “Your Grace!” but in the heat of the moment, she wasn’t
even sure if it was Mella or Arthur. It might have been Ghost for all she cared, she just wanted to
get to Jae.

With great determination and a few well-placed elbows she finally made way to the front of the
crowd. Jae was sitting on the ground, with his eyes closed, his feet beneath him and his harp on
his lap. His fingers danced beautifully on the silver strings summoning heavenly sounds for the
gathered crowd.

She suddenly didn’t know what to do and was starting to feel stupid of her impulsiveness.
Fortunately, Jae seemed to sense her presence and opened his eyes which quickly found her. He
gave her a soft smile and offered his hand, encouraging her to join him.

She sat close to him, mirroring his position, Ghost quickly appeared and his head found his usual
spot in her lap. Dany rested her head on Jae’s shoulder, feeling so content that she even forgot
about the people gawking at them. At some point, Daenerys’ brain must have recognized the song
Jaehaerys played and she found herself singing without even realizing:

’I loved a maid as white as winter

with moonglow in her hair.’

After this verse she heard a huge collective sigh from the crowd that pulled her out of her reverie
and when she looked at Jae, he was looking at her with such adoration that it made her insides
turn to mush.

She found herself burying her face in his shoulder, uncharacteristically shy at his display of
affection in front of so many people.

At least now nobody doubted who he belonged to.

After some time Jae asked her to go with him to a bookshop to pick some books for his steward,
Lord Tarly. And she was happy to comply.

When they got up to leave, she noticed a wooden box next to them that was filled with all kind of
coins. At first, she was confused as to why did someone leave a box full of money on the street,
when it hit her, people gave them money when they sang. They earned that money. That made her
oddly proud.

Before they left, Jae called Oswell and gave him his harp and the money to find a charity to give it
to. The Knight didn’t need to be told twice, now that Ghost was with them, he was only too
happy to get away from the white Direwolf.

Leg led them through some narrow alleys, and just when she was about to ask if they were lost,
they found themselves in front of a small shop with all kind of books and tomes painted on its
exterior walls. It was a one-story building, maybe the first she saw since they came here, every
other shop she saw so far had two levels, one for the shop and one for the living quarters.

Leg must have seen her confusion “The original shop burned down, and my uncle only built this
small building in its stead. He sleeps in the back.”

“Your uncle? Does he own this shop?” she asked.

“Indeed, he’s my father’s brother,” he said proudly.

The man inside the shop looked nothing like she expected. Nothing like Leg. The only thing they
had in common was their height and their small golden eyes.

While Leg had copper skin, wide shoulders and a muscular build, his uncle was skinny, with light
skin and shoulders so narrow that Dany thought that he looked like a living stick.

He also wore one of those spectacles on one of his eyes. Daenerys heard about these, it was said
that they helped old men to see better. When they were in Braavos, shopping with Lady Mella,
she looked through the glass they were selling there, but she didn’t see any improvement in her
vision. Maybe her vision was not bad enough to feel a difference. She wondered if these
spectacles could help her blind uncle Aemon...

The shopkeeper’s eyes lit up when he saw them. “My boy! It’s good to see you!” He gave Leg a
warm hug. “I heard that you were in town, every man and its dog is talking about the Dragon
Queen and the Dragon King singing on the streets!”

He then turned towards Jae “My King, it’s a pleasure to see you, as always!” and then towards her
“My Queen, it’s a pleasure to finally meet you, these boys have looked for you for a long time! I
am Xao, Leg’s uncle.” he gave her a bow that reminded Daenerys of a fishing rod bending when
a heavy fish was caught in their hook.

“It’s a pleasure, My Lord!” Another significant difference that she noticed between Leg and his
uncle was that while Leg was silent and his words were half grunts, his uncle was quite open and
had a warm voice that would put everyone at ease every time he spoke.

“Did Lord Tarly tell you what books he needs?” Jae asked.

“Of course, My King, my friend Samuel wrote to me, I packed them in the wooden box over there
when I heard you were here.” he pointed to a big wooden crate. “Come on, nephew, put those big
muscles of yours to work,” he told Leg and gave her a wink. He only earned himself a grunt from
the big Lengii, before he picked up the crate with ease.
“I might also have another book that could interest you,” Xao said moving towards a high shelf
and pulling out a book “I acquired this book from a merchant from Nefer a few days ago”

She looked at the book in his hand and was surprised to see that it was written in Valyrian. “The
Legends of the Grey Waste” it was called.

“We’ll take it.” came Jae’s fast response. “This and every other old book about the Farther East or
Westeros you have.”

Xao looked around the shelves and picked up a few more books and gave them to Arthur, who
came inside after Leg left.

“Thank you, my friend, Ser Oswell will come later to settle the bill.” Jaehaerys said, shaking the
old man’s hand.

“It’s fine, Your Grace, as long as you don’t send his wife! I rather deal with his shitty jokes than
getting throttled for a coin!”

The next day, after their morning practice, she decided to stay in the room and do some reading.

She was excited to read “The Legends of the Grey Waste”, it’s been long since she spoke or read
anything in her mother tongue. Jae and Mella were both fluent in High Valyrian and she was sure
that Arthur and Oswell were competent too, since their duty as Kingsguards demanded it, but they
rarely spoke it.

Dany spent most of the voyage learning new languages, especially YiTish, and she was very
grateful for that because everybody spoke that language or some kind of dialect in this part of the
world.

She laid on her back on the huge bed in her rooms, admiring the intricate chandelier hanging from
the ceiling.

If you ignored the whole abundance of green, these rooms were really impressive, rooms fit for a
Queen. She was sure that these were rooms saved for Royalty and the richest customers. Dany
visited with Arya the other day and she had similar rooms, she wondered what rooms did Jae take.

Probably some simple rooms, not better than Arthur’s or Oswell’s rooms. She remembered on
their voyage that she was given the best cabin on the ship, while Jae had a simple room, with just
a bed and a small table.

He was definitely not what she expected from a King, every one of the important or rich people
she met before Jae was always trying to show their wealth, either by their gaudy clothes or by
showing off their jewelry.

Yet Jaehaerys was nothing like that, she never saw him wear any kind of jewelry, which was
funny because he owned diamonds that most people could only dream of. When he first showed
her their collection of Rainbow Diamonds, to pick one for the Braavosi Sealord, her jaw hit the
floor, she never saw so much richness in one place.

He also seemed to favor simple black clothing. He always wore similar things: black boots, black
breeches, and black simple shirts or, when he felt particularly fancy, a doublet, which was, of
course, simple and black. The only embroidment she ever saw on his clothes was the Targaryen
seal on his shirts, just over his heart.

The only thing that he wore that wasn’t black was his cape, and even that was a dark crimson.

Hells, even his Kingsguard wore more eye-catching clothing that him. Their pristine white capes
and beautifully engraved light armor always drew the eyes of the people around them wherever
they went. Dany was always impressed how they would keep their cloaks clean no matter what
and their armor always so shiny that you could use it as a looking glass.

Yet, even if he was pretty much the most simple dressed out of all of them, nobody ever doubted
who was the King. His quiet confidence, his regal bearing and the air of destiny that seemed to
float around him always drew the eye.

Well, that and the fact that he was more handsome than any living man had the right to be, in
Dany’s opinion.

She heard a scratch at the door and opened it for Ghost who quickly jumped in the bed next to
her.

Maybe her mind was playing tricks on her, but she was sure that she heard a content sigh from the
great Direwolf after he set his head on one of her fully big pillows. It looked like, unlike his
master, Ghost actually enjoyed nice things.

Dany arranged the remaining pillows so that she could support her back on them and started
reading.

At the edge of the Grey Waste, under the Black Cloud, lays the city of K’Dath.
Known as the City of Death, some claim that it’s the oldest city in the world.

The rumors say that it’s inhabited by sorcerers whose only goal is improving and
experimenting with their green essence.

It is said that these sorcerers could enslave humans and animals by giving them this
essence.

Remains of their failed experiments can still be found in the lands between K’Dath
and the Golden Empire. These creatures, who are presumed to have been men at
some point, have green-scaled skin and venomous claws and teeth and come out at
night and attack anyone who dares to cross their lands.

As she was reading, Ghost’s head somehow found her lap as usual.

It is unknown if these creatures fear the sun or prefer the night because they were
created in the darkness under the Black Cloud of K’Dath.

The legend says that when magic is strongest in the world, the Black Cloud of
K’Dath expands and the green armies move under it. Thousands of years ago, the
Black Cloud reached up to the Bone Mountains and the green slaves of K’Dath
butchered everything in their path.
 The realm of men united under the leadership of Hyrkoon the Hero, who slew the
God-sorcerer of K’Dath and without his power the cloud retreated back to the City
of Death, the green monsters became weaker without the Cloud over their heads,
allowing the people to slay them.

The Five Forts were built after that, to defend the realm of men against the armies of
K’Dath.

Out of nowhere Ghost jumped from her lap, making her drop the book on the floor.

“Ghost!” she yelled annoyed.

But the Direwolf paid her no attention and went straight to the door, scratching it as if he was
asking to go out and started whining.

Seeing Ghost’s distress, all her annoyance left her making room for dread.

“What is it boy, what’s going on?” Ghost looked at her, whining then went back to scratching the
door. “Is it Jae?” he asked, her voice panicked.

She moved fast to open the door and followed the white beast out.

Ser Oswell was at the door and looked like he wanted to say something to her, but she didn’t care,
the only thing she was focused on was following Ghost.

“Your Grace!” she heard the Knight yell, but she didn’t even think of stopping, afraid that she
would lose the Direwolf’s trail. She heard Oswell telling the Unsullied that usually guarded her
door to follow him.

When she reached the Inn’s lobby, Ghost was waiting for her at the front door. “Take me to him,
boy!” she told the great wolf, opening the door.

Fortunately it was easy to follow the white wolf in the sea of people, because everybody got out
of his way, leaving a free trail for her to follow.

She must have ran for five or ten minutes now, she wasn’t sure, she could barely breathe, but she
pushed forward, Jae might need her and she wasn’t going to let him down because her stupid legs
were aching.

Dany looked around her, not knowing for sure where she was, trusting Ghost to lead her, when
she recognized the huge plaza they sang in yesterday. Then she saw Ghost running towards a
burning building, dark smoke rising in the sky.

No, no! Please be fine! Please be fine!

When she finally reached the burning building, she was just in time to see Arthur exiting the front
door carrying a woman and a man, crying and coughing.

“My girl, my little girl is in there!” the woman screamed. She was trying to run in the burning
building, but the man held her down.

“She will be fine,” Arthur said between the coughs “The King will get her out.”

No, no, no! She must help him!

Arthur tried to get back in, but the fire had another plan engulfing the door fully. There was no
way for Arthur to get back in.

Ghost looked at her, pleading with his ruby eyes and she knew what to do.

She was Daenerys Stormborn! She was a Dragon! Fire didn’t hurt her! She was fire!

After taking a waterskin from one of the onlookers, she walked determinedly towards the burning
entrance when she felt somebody grabbing her hand.

“You Grace, please,” she heard Ser Oswell say “the King wouldn’t want you to risk your life.”

Just when she was about to tell off the Knight, Ghost was faster snapping at the Kingsguard
barely missing his hand. Oswell recoiled at least five paces back, his face went white, looking at
his hand, just to make sure that it was still there. Dany was sure that Ghost only wanted to scare
him, but after this no doubt the Knight will add another few feet to his “Ten Feet Rule”.

She quickly entered the burning building before anyone else tried to stop her.

“Jae! Jae!” she yelled, tearing her left shirt’s sleeve and after wetting it, she held it over her mouth
so that she won’t choke on the thick smoke.

She went to both rooms at the first level and no signs of Jae, she was starting to panic, her heart in
her throat, her arms and feet shaking so hard that she could barely move.

What if he got stuck somewhere and was burned alive, he said he wasn’t like her, the fire could
harm him. Then she remembered what she learned in her first day here, that the first level was the
shop and the second level for living quarters. If the missing girl was alive, she was surely there.

With new found hope she looked around, finally setting her eyes on some narrow stairs, that were
luckily not too touched by the fire and she went upstairs.

“Jae!” she yelled.

“In here!” the answer came. She felt so relieved when she heard his voice that her knees grew
weak, almost falling down. Luckily she managed to put her right hand on a table near her and find
her balance.

She cringed when she saw that the table she was leaning on was on fire, and now the sleeve of her
shirt was burning. Well, at least now it matched her other sleeve, she thought after she put the
small fire out.

“Jae!” she screamed again.

“I’m in here!” she heard his answer from the other room.

When she entered the room, she was relieved to see that while there was smoke in this room, there
wasn’t much fire. Unfortunately, her relief was short-lived, the dread was back in her bones when
she noticed the burning ceiling.

Jaehaerys was on his knees, bent down, covered with his crimson cape, looking under the bed.
She could see the surprise and panic on his face when he saw her “Dany, what are you doing
here?”

“I’m here to help you!” she answered defiantly.

“Get out of here, the roof could crumble at any time!” just when he spoke a part of the roof fell on
the bed, igniting the feather bed in a heartbeat.

“I’m not leaving without you!” she yelled “Wherever you go, I go!” she said with finality.

Jae looked like he wanted to argue some more, but he thought better “Come and help me,” he
ordered “there is a girl under the bed, help me get her out!” he said between coughs.

She pulled her waterskin “Give me that rag!” she pointed towards the piece of clothing tied over
his mouth and nose. She threw water on it and gave it back to him.

Dany couldn’t help noticing that he also used his sleeve to cover his mouth, and a laugh escaped
her. By the Gods, the roof could fall over them at any moment and she was laughing over this silly
thing. No doubt her father the Mad King would be proud.

She mirrored Jae’s position and looked under the bed, and indeed, there was a little girl there. The
girl was hardly more than five name days and Dany could see that she was so scared that she
couldn’t move.

“Can you give me your hand, sweetheart?” she heard Jae say in a sweet voice, but the girl made
no move to show that she heard him. “You try it, Dany, everybody loves you, if there is anyone
who can convince her to move, it’s you!”

She swallowed down the pride she felt at his words, this was not the time to swoon, there was
enough time for that after they got out of here and she kicked the shit out of him for risking his
life.

“Can you give me your hand, little one?” she asked in the sweetest voice she could muster, she
saw the little girl move her right hand, but instead of giving it to her she just stuck her thumb in her
mouth.

Dany noticed that the fire on the bed engulfed even the wooden frame now, they had very little
time left to pull the girl out.

Jae seemed to draw the same conclusion “I’m gonna lift the bed and you pull her out!” She just
nodded.

Jaehaerys fixed his hands on the bed’s wooden frame and she heard a hissing sound and saw him
flinch, but he didn’t say anything, he just lifted up the bed.

Daenerys pulled the little girl from under the bed relieved, hugging her tightly.

Jae looked at them pleased, but still very alert. “We need to leave. Now!” he took the girl from his
arms and covered her with his cape and they went to the door.

The stairs handrail was now completely burned, but fortunately, the stairs still held their weight.
She went first so that they won’t put too much weight on them and Jae followed after, with the
girl.

When they got to the outside door, she spread water over her clothes and Jae’s cape. He covered
both him and the girl with his wet cape and jumped through the fire and she calmly followed him
out.

She wasn’t surprised to see hundreds of people on the other side.

Jae, after looking at her, to make sure that she came out alright, brought the little girl to her
parents.

“Thank you, My King, Thank you!” the girl’s mother said tearfully.

Just as she reached them she heard Jae say “It wasn’t me, Daenerys saved both of us, we couldn’t
have made it out without her.”

The woman kneeled in front of her, took her hand in both of hers and kissed it a few times “Thank
you, My Queen” she said between the sobs. “I would have died if something happened to my little
girl. Thank you!”

Dany gently caressed the woman’s head and said: “It’s ok, go to your girl, she needs you.”

The woman kissed her hand a few more times and rested her forehead on the back of her hand a
couple of heartbeats thanking her again, and then went to join her family.

After the woman left, the excitement drained from her body and it made way to the weariness. Her
knees started to wobble, and she could barely hold herself on her own two feet when she felt Jae’s
hand curling around her middle and steadying her.

She looked at him to thank him, but seeing the fatigue on his face she realized that she was
steadying him as much as he was steadying her.

Ghost came to them and looked at her with those bright red eyes and she swore she saw concern
there. Dany buried her fingers in his thick fur: “I’m fine, boy, just a little tired.” Her words seem to
satisfy the Direwolf, who gave her a long lick on her cheek, making her release a tired giggle,
seeing his tongue blackening from the soot that was covering her face. The wolf was not pleased.

“Come, Dany, let’s sit down,” Jae said, pointing towards a wooden bench, “I sent Ser Oswell to
bring a healer and Arthur to buy some treats, I figured you deserve it, after saving my sorry ass.”

“Don’t ever do that again!” she said with the most menacing growl she could muster. The only
answer she got in return was a soft smile.

There were a few people sitting on that bench, but one look from Ghost and it became free.

They sat on the bench, his hand still holding her middle, and she threw her hands around him
hugging him as tightly as she could, leaning her head on his chest, just to hear his heartbeat and
make sure he was really here, in one piece.

“I’m fine, Dany.” he told her softly and she was sure she felt his lips on her head.

She gave a nod and buried her face in his neck. Even with the strong smell of smoke on his skin
and clothes, she still could feel his unique smell, and calmness washed over her like always,
weariness draining from her body, and her heart finally settling on a normal rhythm.

Daenerys couldn’t help hearing the whispers all around them, people were calling her all kinds of
names like Fire Queen and The Unburnt. She didn’t care much about titles.

But I wouldn’t mind being called The Queen of Winter she thought.

When she looked at Jae, he gave her a beaming smile that took her breath away. Did she say that
out loud?

Arthur returned then with two bags, giving each of them one. When she looked at Jae, he
encouraged her: “Eat, you will love it, I promise!”
She wasn’t sure what those were, but they were round, as big as a coin, somewhat buttery. When
she shoved the first one in her mouth a loud moan escaped her on its own will, and everybody
was looking at her.

Gods! She was so embarrassed!

When she turned towards Jae, expecting to see him laugh at her, she only saw him looking at her
with eyes black as coal and with such intensity that she had to squeeze her thighs together.

Dany had to say something before she did something that really embarrassed her in front of all
these people: “What are these?”

Jae seemed to take a few heartbeats to snap out of his daze “Sweet chestnuts with butter and
cinnamon”

“I might even like them even better than my former favorite sweets: strawberry cakes!” she said
enthusiastically.

“I noticed.” he said with a grin. “Everybody did.”

Others take him! Her blush was just starting to fade and now she’s back being a walking beetroot.

Just then Ser Oswell returned with an old man and two young boys in tow.

“Your Graces, I am Zang, I am a healer. These two are my apprentices.” the old man said,
pointing towards the two young boys.

“I understand you’ve been in the fire, any burns?”

“Check her first.” Jae ordered.

She couldn’t hide the annoyance in her voice “You know I can’t burn, let him look at you.” she
said in the Common Tongue. Then she switched to YiTish and told the healer in a tone that broke
no argument “Him first.” Jae rolled his eyes but didn’t argue with her.

“Any burns?” the healer asked Jae.

Jaehaerys pushed his right hand forward and opened with his palm up. The skin in his palm was
burned and blistered. The idiot! He should have let her lift that bed if he saw it was burning, she
was stronger than she looked!

“Hmm, let me look at it.” the old man said.

“It’s fine, just give me some unguent for the burns and I’ll be fine.” Jae said stubbornly.

She lost it then: “Others take you, Jaehaerys Targaryen! Let the man look at your hand and stop
complaining! Or I’ll smack you over that empty head of yours, and then you’ll really have
something to complain about!” she said to him in the Common Tongue. The healer was looking at
them, not sure what was going on or what was he supposed to do.

When she looked at Jae, instead of seeing the stubbornness or the anger she expected, she only
saw a soft, adoring smile.

“What?” she huffed.

“I see that you already learned the Northern curses, Dany. You’ll make a great Queen of Winter!”
he told her with a grin.

Great, she was blushing again. At this rate, she might as well paint her face red. She wanted to
give him some witty retort, but her mind was blank.

And judging by the smug look on his face, the heat in her cheeks already told him everything he
needed to know.

Others take him!

“Jae! Jae!” she screamed.

These cursed stairs! The more she climbed the more appeared. But she wasn’t gonna give up, she
must save Jae.

“Jae!” she tried again.

“Dany! In here!” she heard from the top level, to her immense relief.

“I’m coming, Jae!”

She was climbing the stairs as fast as she could, but she was making no progress.

“Dany, help me!” his voice was very scared now.

“Jae, hold on!” She pushed forward, but still no progress, her legs getting more and more tired
now, her muscles were trembling from the effort.

“Dany, please!”

She tried to climb faster, but her legs gave out under her, and she found herself in her knees. But
she didn’t give up, she was still climbing using her hands and knees. She couldn’t lose him. She
couldn’t.

A horrible scream was heard from where Jae’s voice used to come from.

“Jae!” she screamed in despair.

“Jae!” but there was nothing.

“Jae!” she started sobbing, still trying to climb, her knees now bloody from the harsh wooden
stairs.

There was only silence.

“Jae!” she screamed from the top of her lungs.

She woke up, with her heart in her throat, she could barely breathe.

“Jae!” she sobbed. Her body was covered in cold sweat, sheets soaked.
It took some time for her to realize where she was.

The Jade Rooster. It was a dream. It was a dream. He’s all right. Sleeping in his room. He’s all
right.

She got up from her bed and started pacing around her lavish room.

He’s all right. Safe. He’s safe. Sleeping in his bed. He’s all right. Just a bad dream.

There was no way she was going back to sleep now. Her heart was still beating at a furious pace.

She needed to see him. Just to make sure he’s fine. Yes. Just for a moment. To see that he was
well and breathing.

Before she thought things through, she put on a robe and was out of the door, walking towards
Jae’s room. If the Unsullied guarding her door were surprised by her night walking, they showed
and said nothing, they just silently followed her towards Jaehaerys’ room.

Once she got there, she stopped in front of the door, where there were also two Unsullied
guarding it. She wondered if they might stop her, but they didn’t move, her own Unsullied took
their place next to their brothers as if they were expecting her to go in.

That gave her a bit of confidence, and she slowly opened the door and walked in.

There he was. Sleeping. His thin sheets covering him up to his waist, his naked chest moving up
and down. His fair skin was almost glowing in the moonlight. She has never seen a sight more
beautiful.

He was fine.

The relief she felt was so powerful that almost knocked her down. But even after seeing him, her
heart was still beating fast, still scared that he might be some kind of vision.

I just need to touch him. Feel his heartbeat. Make sure he is real. They I will go.

She slowly advanced towards the bed, careful not to wake him.

Dany wasn’t surprised to see that he was using a simple, small room. Compared to hers it looked
more like a shed. Just a bed and a small desk with a comfortable chair, on which his clothes were
carefully folded. His sword was leaned against his bed, within his reach.

It didn’t take more than five paces to find herself next to his bed.

She tried to touch his hand when he suddenly jerked awake, reaching for his sword. She moved
back, raising her hands in the air so that he won’t confuse her with someone that wanted to hurt
him, but his eyes became focused very fast, even before he could grab his sword.

“Dany?” his surprise turned quickly into concern. “Dany, are you ok?” he asked, now running his
eyes over her, from head to toe, no doubt looking for some kind of injury.

She suddenly felt very embarrassed. Here she was, standing in his room, in the middle of the
night.

“Dany, why are you crying? Did anyone hurt you?” he asked, now sounding a little panicked.

She touched her eyes with the back of her hand and felt them wet. Oh. She hasn’t even realized
she was crying.

“Dany?” he asked again, he looked like he was going to get out of bed and come to her for a
moment, but then he thought better. As if she was a frightened animal, and he was afraid she
would run if he moved closer.

“I’m sorry.” she finally found her voice, which sounded raspy and totally unfamiliar to her. “I just
wanted to make sure you were all right,” she said pathetically.

She saw his brows furrow for a few moments and then understanding washed over him. “I’m fine,
Dany. We got out.”

She must have still looked at him uncertainly because he gave her a small, sweet smile and raised
his sheets “Come here, my love.”

Dany considered it for half a heartbeat, but her need to make sure he was fine, to make sure he
was real was much stronger than her embarrassment.

She laid next to him stiffly, trying not to touch him, although there was nothing she would like to
do more. But Jae was having none of it, he pulled her to him, her body flushed against him.

He took her hand and put it above his heart. “Can you fell that, Dany? I’m fine, we got out.” he
told her in a slow voice, as if to allow her to take in his words easier “And because of you that
little girl got back to her parents, and can now grow up and live a long and happy life.”

Jae pulled her even closer, half of her body covering his now, their legs tangled, and her head
resting on his chest, listening to his steady heartbeat.

She never felt more content if her life.

“Is it true?”

“What is true?”

“Am I really your love?” she shyly asked.

He seemed to gather his thought for a few moments then said: “You know, since I can remember I
was never alone. I had Arthur who I admire and look up to, I had Lady Mella who was like a
mother to me in many ways, and I had Ser Oswell, who was… Well, you know Ser Oswell, it's
hard to find words to describe him.” she gave a chuckle, hugging him harder.

“And I love every one of them, I would die for them” her small fist hit his chest before she knew
what was happening, Jae released a low chuckle that she felt more than she heard.

“But, at the end of the day, with all the love they gave me and the one I gave back, they were not
my equals, I was still their King, there was still this gulf between us. So even with having them
around, there was still this loneliness, this hole in my chest that needed to be filled by something or
someone.” he said, giving her forehead a kiss.

“I was starting to make my peace with the fact that that hole would always be there when we went
to Pentos in search of my long lost family.” Her heart was beating like mad now, she was afraid it
will jump out of her chest.

“And I met there this slip of a girl, the most beautiful thing I ever saw. I was lost from the start.”
she felt her tears running down her cheeks now “But when Ghost went to her and loved her from
the start and the girl hugged him, I knew it right there, I knew that as long as I would have her
 with me, I will never feel alone again.”

She was hugging him hard now, her face buried in his neck, she wanted to crawl under his skin,
just to be closer to him.

“Marry me, Dany, I don’t want to be apart from you ever again.” she never heard sweeter words
in her life, and she doubted she ever will.

Dany was left speechless by his heartfelt declaration, so she looked him in the eye and nodded
over and over. She hoped he could see the love burning for him in her eyes, even with them
glistering with tears.

She got her answer when she heard him say softly “I love you too, Dany.”

She couldn’t stop her lips joining his even if she wanted too, his soft full lips were as
inexperienced as hers, the feeling was new and overwhelming, sending shivers down her spine.

She didn’t know how she lived without his kisses until now, but she knew for sure that those days
were over.

Chapter End Notes

Here is the map I promised: https://ibb.co/gvgeVp

Now, unless you have some hawk blood in your veins, I suggest you download it.

Initially, I had an Arya POV planned in this chapter too, but it kinda got away from
me and it ended up long as fuck and I didn't want to push my luck with another POV.
Hopefully, we'll see more interactions with her later.

I am looking forward to your comments, as always. I love comments and I got some
good ideas from the ones I got until now. So hit me with them, short or long, good or
bad, I like them all!

I particularly like long comments that stimulate further discussion!

Thanks for reading!

 Why would anybody want to be sane?
Chapter Notes

Many thanks to everyone who pointed out my mistakes in the comments. I edited the
previous chapters and they should read and look much better now.

If you notice any more mistakes, please do not hesitate to tell me!

THE FLAME OF TRUTH – MYR

The Red Temple of Myr was nothing like the great Temple of the Lord of Light in Volantis, but
this would have to do as long as they stayed here. Large or small, R’hllor made his presence felt in
every temple from every part of the world.

The temples felt like home to her, Kinvara has been serving the Temple of the Lord of Light in
Volantis as far as she could remember. It was her life, every waking moment she spent in prayer
and doing her duties as a follower of the Red God. And R’hllor rewarded her for it. His light
always shone brightest in her. And others didn’t fail to see it, so she rose through the ranks fast
and it didn’t take much time for her to take her rightful place as High Priestess of the Lord of
Light.

It was no wonder that she was the first to be shown what was to come, the first to spread the word
of the Great Other’s return, the word of the Great War.

A war as old as time between the Light and the Darkness, between the New and the Old.

It was said that when R’hllor first came to this world there was only darkness and cold.

Essos was under a blanket of darkness, every living thing corrupted by the Green Essence of the
Lion of the Night. But R’hllor came with his fires and pushed the Black Cloud behind the Bone
Mountains and brought light back to these shores. He then earned the name of Lord of Light.

The continent that was now called Westeros didn’t fare much better, the Old Gods of the Forrest
ruled there, the lands frozen, only their Weirwoods and their servants, the Children of the Forrest,
could live there.

So, the Lord of Light pushed the Ice back with his Fires in a fight that lasted for thousands of
years and that was still fought even now. The Old Gods summoned their champion, the Great
Other and his seven thralls to spread the cold and to enslave and destroy every living thing in this
world.

The Lord of Light responded by summoning his champion from the deep fires of the earth and
Firewyrms to serve him. After some of the Firewyrms were killed and enslaved by the Great
Other, R’hllor gave them wings, to keep them safe from the army of the dead.

The Great Other then summoned great ice storms that stopped the flying Firewyrms from flying
above them and from releasing fire on his armies.
Thousand of years later, the Valyrians with their unburnt skin forged in the Fourteen Flames and
their blood magic horns managed to enslave these beasts that were now freely roaming the earth,
ruling over sky and lands. The Valyrians named them Dragons.

It was a battle that lasted countless lifetimes, going back and forth, Ice and Fire fighting for this
world. The Great Other managed to defeat the Champion of Fire and push him back in the in the
deep fires of the earth, but after hundreds of years of darkness and cold, where generations of men
were born and died without knowing light or heat, R’hllor picked a champion from the people,
Azor Ahai, who ended the Long Night, bringing thousands of years of peace.

But the Great Other was back now, ready again to destroy every living thing and sink this world
under ice and darkness once again.

And only R’hllor and his champions could stop him.

Kinvara looked in the massive looking glass that was hanged in the main hall of the Red Temple.
Her red garbs were pristine, as always, her long red hair flowing freely over her shoulders, like it
always did, but what changed were her eyes.

Her usual sky blue eyes changed their color into a deep red, and they shone slightly into the dim lit
temple.

The power of the Lord of Light filled her more and more every day. She could feel it in her blood,
she hoped that R’hllor would give her enough power to split the earth and summon him.

But until then, she would help R’hllor’s human champion. It was no wonder that she was the first
to see her in the fires. She was the chosen one, the blessings of the Red God ran through her.

It was always the same vision:

A Valyrian woman riding a red Dragon and wielding a burning sword.

As soon as she was blessed by R’hllor with the vision of Azor Ahai reborn, she started scouting
the world for her. Fortunately, with the Targaryens pretty much extinct, there weren’t many
people that could control Dragons that were left in the world. She just had to find a Targaryen
descendent with Dragon eggs. Her searches led her to Pentos and since then she was helping
Altheea.

Kinvara doubted her visions for a time after she found out about the real Targaryens and their red
Dragon, but then she heard that they also had an Ice Dragon, she knew that there was no way they
were champions of R’hllor. They served the Great Other.

And visions were fickle things, not always very exact, Altheea’s bonded Dragon, Balerion,
although it was black, had red wing membrane. Probably that’s why she saw him red in the fires.

The evening was upon them now, it was time for their daily evening prayer. She went in front of
the Temple, where the large fire was burning with nothing to sustain it since they first came to
Myr, brighter and brighter every day, no wind or rain could extinguish it.

Well, that was not exactly true, they made constant sacrifices to the Lord of Light, giving a person
every three days to the fires and ten every turn of the moon. So that R’hllor can give them strength
and wisdom and so that the Dragons would grow faster.

R’hllor’s power was increasing every day.

Most of the city was now attending the prayer for the dawn. She wasn’t sure if it was because of
their faith, because of the fact that if they were recognized as followers of R’hllor they were less
likely to be chosen as sacrifices, or simply because of the free food they gave every evening.
Probably a bit of each, but she was pleased, as long as people gave the Lord of Light a chance,
she was convinced that he would make them believe.

Since Altheea has taken over Myr, she’s been milking it dry, she took over the most important
businesses and gave no thought to the small folk. It was a hard life that most of these people lived,
it was good to give them some relief.

There were also more and more soldiers attending every evening, at first there were only the Fiery
Hand soldiers and the slave soldiers from Volantis, but now after R’hllor helped with the birth of
the three Dragons, many more have turned their eyes to the Lord of Light.

Many of the Golden Company soldiers that followed no God before could be now seen around
the fires at night, she even saw some Dothraki watching them curiously. After Altheea’s deal with
Khal Drogo, some of his warriors decided to stay in the Three Cities and make use of Altheea’s
‘gifts’. While the small folk lived a hard life in the Queen’s cities, the soldiers lived like Lords,
always having drinks and whores available. The Blackfyre knew that the soldiers will get restless
without fighting, so she kept them busy with whores and wine. Kinvara only hoped that they
won’t get fat and lazy, they needed every man to be at his best when the Great War started.

It was a weird gathering, people from all over, speaking different languages, sitting around the fire
and listening to R’hllor’s preachings. That’s what the True Lord did, he brought different people
together to fight the common enemy.

Another person who changed her view on the Red God was the Queen herself. Since her Dragons
were born, she could be seen around the fire almost every evening.

Was it her faith that brought her here? It was hard to say. This Queen had a sharp mind, and she
rarely did anything that wouldn’t earn her or her cause something.

After she occupied the Triarchy she took over everything, from the slave trade to the glass shops,
and she made a lot of coin. But that also earned her the scorn of not only her small folk but also of
the nobles of Slaver Bay, who lost much gold with the increased price of slaves forced by
Altheea’s monopoly. The Astapori Masters even refused to do business with her, claiming that
they would rather slit the throats of every Unsullied soldier under their command than sell to her.
There were also rumors that the Slave Masters increased the number of Unsullied trained. If it was
for an attack on Altheea or just for extra protection, it was hard to say.

Kinvara found herself admiring this Blackfyre Queen, although she shouldn’t be surprised by it,
she was chosen by the Red God himself.
She knew very well that Altheea didn’t care about her and thought she was a bit crazy with her
‘Army of the Dead’ talk and she only suffered her because they have the same goals. But she
would see the true power of R’hllor, she started opening her eyes when the Dragons were born,
and in time, as she would see more of R’hllor’s miracles, she would accept him as the One True
God.

She was sure of it.

Lead us from the darkness, O my Lord.

Fill our hearts with fire, so we may walk your shining path.

R'hllor, you are the light in our eyes, the fire in our hearts, the heat in our loins.

Yours is the sun that warms our days, yours the stars that guard us in the dark of night.

Lord of Light, defend us. The night is dark and full of terrors. Lord of Light, protect us.

R'hllor who gave us breath, we thank you.

R'hllor who gave us day, we thank you.

We thank you for the sun that warms us.

We thank you for the stars that watch us.

We thank you for our hearths and for our torches, that keep the savage dark at bay.

She was pleased to see that everyone there knew the words. Yes, people were turning their eyes
towards R’hllor, it was only a matter of time until the whole world would see him for what he
was.

The One True God.

Rays of sunshine caressed her through the large window facing East in her small room in the
Temple of Light, blessing her with Light and Warmth enough for another glorious day.

It was morning already, she was surprised that she slept a few hours, usually she didn’t need much
sleep, the blessing of R’hllor kept her well rested without having to spend valuable time sleeping,
time that could be better used in prayer.

She heard the unmistakable sound of steel over steel and great cheers. It must have been later than
she thought.

Since the area in front of the Temple was the widest open area in the City, the soldiers have started
using it for training and sparring in the mornings.
Even Queen Altheea was known to come and spar with her warriors from time to time. And
judging by the loud cheers, she was there now.

Kinvara has yet to see the Blackfyre Queen lose in a spar. At first, she thought that her men were
taking it easy on her, but after a time she realized that she just was the best. Her Braavosi style
danced gracefully around the Volantenes spears, the Golden Company long swords and the
Dothraki arakhs.

She had complete trust in R’hllor’s choices, but she couldn’t deny that seeing the chosen one
being such a great warrior made her confidence in the Lord of Light’s choice grow even more.

She garbed her red robes and went out to watch the Queen train. As expected, the makeshift
sparing yard was full. Golden Company knights, Dothraki warriors, Volantenes spearmen,
sellswords from all over Essos, even her disciplined Fiery Hand soldiers, everybody was there.

All watching the Queen dancing around the arakh of a huge Dothraki warrior. She was surprised
to see the Queen using her curved Valyrian Sword and not the usual training sword.

Of course, nobody was watching closer than Harry Strickland, his lustful eyes never leaving
Altheea’s lean form. She doubted there was a soul in all of the Triarchy that didn’t notice the looks
he gave the Queen, it was a disgusting thing to see.

She once heard one of the sellswords saying that every time he visited a pillow house, the fat
captain always asked for someone who looks like Altheea.

It was a wonder that he was not yet made food for the Queen’s Dragons. Perhaps the Blackfyre
felt that she needed him to keep the Golden Company loyal.

But there was something different about Captain Strickland today. After the countless people she
gave to the fires lately, she could smell death. And she could smell it all over Harry.

She looked at him closely, was he sick? He didn’t look different, same fat belly, same red cheeks,
same soulless grey eyes and he was doing what he always did, watching Altheea and licking his
lips.

The Queen made quick work of the Dothraki, and looked around, with a displeased look.

“It seems that it’s hard to find a good sparring partner these days...” Kinvara heard her say.
“Perhaps I should try to fight one of the more famous warriors.” she continued, hitting her lips
with her finger and making a show of pretending to think.

“And who is more famous and celebrated than… ” she sharply turned towards Harry and pointed
the Valyrian Steel scimitar at him “the leader of the best army money can buy.”

Harry’s cheeks instantly lost their rosy color “Your Grace, I’m not much of a fighter...” he started
saying.

The Queen cut him of “Of course you are, no need to be humble, Captain.” she said with a sweet,
dangerous voice.

The smell made sense now.

“But, My Queen...” Harry was whimpering a little now.

“Pick up your sword!” Altheea ordered in a tone that broke no further arguments.

The men around Harry thought it was a good joke, so they stuck a sword in the Captain’s hand
and pushed him in front of Altheea.

“Good luck, Commander.” The Queen said and gave a short bow.

Strickland was quite scared at first, but Altheea took it easy on him, so he started relaxing. Soon
he was doing his best to win, Altheea’s face didn’t show much, but the disgust in her eyes was
clear.

As the fat Commander tried a loose strike from the right side, Altheea expertly spun around it and
before Harry knew what was going on, she thrust the sharp tip of her sword straight into his left
eye.

Strickland dropped his sword and started screaming “My eye, my eye!”

His men tried to help him, but they were stopped by Altheea: “Stay where you are!” then she
turned towards Harry who was now making the most pathetic sounds Kinvara has ever heard, and
she was no stranger to cries, she has burned countless people alive.

“Pick up your sword!” Altheea ordered coldly.

Harry looked at her like she was crazy, even his screaming had stopped in shock.

“Pick up your sword!” she said again, her black Dragon, Balerion, now as big as a pony, chose
this exact moment to land behind Altheea and give a thunderous roar.

Harry picked up his sword and as soon as he got into something that resembled a fighting position,
the Queen swiftly pierced his other eye too, to the shock of everybody watching.

The captain was rolling on the ground, holding his eyes and crying, some of the men around
looked scared and confused, but most started laughing at the fat man’s screams.

“Priestess,” she heard Altheea addressing her “How does your God feel about sacrifices in the
morning?” she asked.

“Sacrifices are always welcomed, My Queen, no matter of the time.” she couldn’t keep the
pleasure out of her voice, the Lord was always pleased with high ranked sacrifices.

“Then get to it!” Altheea ordered. After that, she turned towards Black Balaq, who was one of the
commanders of the Golden Company. “It appears that you have been promoted as leader of the
Golden Company, My Lord” after his initial shock passed, the large man gave the Queen a big
grin.

“Thank you, Your Grace!”

“I suggest you learn from your predecessor’s mistakes.” the Blackfyre said sharply.

“Of course, My Queen!” Balaq said with a low bow, the huge grin still on his face.

Kinvara turned towards some of her slave soldiers and ordered, pointing towards Strickland, who
was still rolling on the ground and screaming: “Give him to the Lord of Light!”

As she watched Harry being purified by the flames, visions started flashing before her eyes:
As she watched Harry being purified by the flames, visions started flashing before her eyes:

A black cloud covering the sun, the world becoming green instead of dark under it.

A Valyrian woman riding a red Dragon and wielding a burning sword.

A huge man with glowing green eyes swinging a hammer and hitting a lean man dressed in an
armor with the Targaryen seal in the chest.

A dark-haired man, dressed in black, wielding an ice sword.

A sound so sharp that made a massive piece of ice break and crumble.

A red castle being swallowed by the earth splitting under it.

A dark-haired man and a white-haired woman kneeling in front of a Weirwood tree.

A storm so strong that the Dragons flying around had to land.

Seven men made of ice with glowing blue eyes.

An ice sword parrying the swing of a sword made of fire.

Altheea must have noticed that she had another vision “What did the fires show you, Priestess?”
she asked, a surprising amount of curiosity creeping into her voice.

“What they always do, my Queen. You slaying the Great Other and bringing back the Light.”

THE SHE-WOLF – ON THE ROAD

Arya loved riding and she never thought she would get tired of it, but by the Old Gods, everybody
had their limits!

Except for the small stops here and there, it felt like they had been riding forever. Her ass and
thighs were not pleased.

Arya’s zorse gave a hurt nigh under her, feeling her irritation. “Not your fault, Edgy, you’re
amazing,” she whispered, gently stroking the black and white beast’s neck.

She knew everyone must have been as uncomfortable as her, but none of them showed it or
complained.

The Kingsguards were too proud to whine and Leg no doubt was born with a horse sewed to his
ass, so he didn’t count. And she could probably cut Greyworm’s hand off and he wouldn’t say
anything.

Then there was Dany who never complained about anything and nobody could read anything on
Jae’s brooding face. Well nobody except Daenerys, who always seemed to catch his moods. But
that was no wonder, considering that she was always ogling him, and him her. Since they decided
to marry, they weren’t even trying to hide it! When Arya moaned about it, she only got a sharp
“Get used to it, or look the other way!” in return.

Disgusting.

As a matter of fact, they were riding side by side and giving each other sweet looks now. Even
their fucking horses seemed to love each other.

She might puke.

Ser Oswell, riding just behind them, next to his wife, seemed to have the same thoughts as her and
was pretending to shove his finger down his throat and puke. Unfortunately for him, Lady Whent
noticed and, to Arya’s amusement, promptly and mercilessly slapped him on the back of his head.

The slap was so hard that the sound attracted Jae and Dany’s attention. At their inquiring looks,
Lady Mella just shrugged and said: “A mosquito, Your Graces, I wouldn’t want him to get bitten
and get some kind of disease.”

She wasn’t sure, but she thought she heard Jaehaerys mumble “If we would only be so lucky...”.

Her confirmation came with Dany’s slap. “These mosquitoes are everywhere.” Daenerys
declared.

She wondered about Dany, and why she never complained. She strongly suspected that it had
something to do with the time she spent with her brother. Her blood was boiling just by thinking
about it.

Jae and Dany didn’t talk much about Viserys, Leg once told her that he wanted to beat the shit out
of him, and Jaehaerys was ready to kill him, but Daenerys convinced them otherwise.

The woman was too kind for her own good sometimes. Few deserved her kindness.

She wished she’d get her hands on the Targaryen fucker, she learned some nice skills at the House
of Black and White that she would love to try on him.

Nobody was gonna hurt Dany or Jae while she was around, that’s for sure, she’d protect them.

Not that they needed it, Jae was always the best of them with a blade, only Arthur could keep up
with him, and Dany made incredible progress during their journey. She could take on most of
them on her day. Arya noticed that she was particularly hard to beat when she was overly
emotional, she always seemed stronger and faster then. Not to mention that she had Syrax and
Ghost always around.

Well, it didn’t matter that they could take care for themselves, an extra pair of eyes and a skilled
sword wouldn’t hurt. And who else to look after them if not their sister.

Their sister.

It was true, she was their sister. They were more siblings to her than her own siblings were. This
feeling of belonging, of acceptance, that she had with Jae and Dany she never had before, not in
Winterfell and not around her other family.
Thinking of her family always brought tears to her eyes, her brothers and mother dead, her father
stuck at the Wall for the rest of his life, and her sister married to that monster. She didn’t have
much love for Sansa, but she still wanted the best for her. She dreamed of handsome Princes and
ended up with an Imp.

She felt a gentle squeeze on her forearm and heard Dany asking in a concerned voice “Are you all
right, Arya?” She must have fazed out longer than she thought because she didn’t even notice Jae
and Dany moving next to her.

“I’m fine,” she said in a voice weaker than she intended.

“Maybe Lady Stark is sore and would like to ride the littler?” she heard Jae ask.

“Fuck off, Jae!” she flared “I’m Arya Stark of Winterfell, I don’t ride the fucking litter!”

“We won’t tell anyone.” he whispered loud enough for everyone to hear.

“Fuck off, Your Grace!” she urged her zorse forward until she couldn’t hear Dany’s tinkling
laughter anymore. Sometimes she wondered how she restrained herself from stabbing the fool.

It took her a few moments to realize that her sadness was all gone and she was back to cursing this
long road.

How could she not fucking love them to bits?

“You know that any spot you discover while riding ahead doesn’t count, right?” she heard Dany
yell.

Ah, her and Dany’s favorite game. “Brooding spots” they called it. Whoever discovers most spots
suitable for Jae to brood wins.

At first Jae seemed annoyed by it, but after he saw that she and Dany were having fun, he just
rolled his eyes every time he saw them playing it.

Sometimes he even got involved, claiming that a certain spot wasn’t high enough, or remote
enough, or its vision was impaired by one thing or another and it was not suitable for a successful
brood.

“Brooding is an art”, he liked to say in such a serious voice that she and Dany inevitably ended up
giggling. Fucking giggling. Arya Stark did not giggle.

Or at least that’s what she thought before she met these two.

She slowed down so that the others can catch up, to her zorse’s disappointment. Such a restless
animal, just like her, they were perfect for each other. So she chose a name that fit her, she named
her Edgy.

Sometimes she had to enter her mind just to calm her down. Arya often wondered if Jae also had
this gift, she once read in one of the books from the Winterfell library that it was called Warging.
She thought that he did it in the House of Black and White with Sonax, but she wasn’t sure. And
she was afraid that Jaehaerys would think she was mad.
She once asked her mother if she also felt the emotions of the animals around her, and she looked
at her like she was simple. She never talked with anyone about it after that.

She watched Jae and Dany slowly getting closer and she was hit by a sense of wonder like she
always did when she saw them side by side. There was something about those two, something
that she noticed the first time she saw them, that day a lifetime ago, on that pier in Braavos,
something that made them look like they didn’t belong to this world.

She thought that in time this wonder will disappear, that once she got used to them, the urge to
admire them will stop. But she was wrong.

And Arya wasn’t the only one, everywhere they went people were awestruck.

She couldn’t help comparing them to the only other King and Queen she ever met.

The fat King Robert was bawdy and loud, never refusing a drink or a woman, Jaehaerys was calm
and collected all the time, polite with everyone, but always formal.

While the Baratheon King didn’t care who he drank with or that he bedded a common whore or a
Lady, Jae always kept a certain distance between him and most people. He never forgot who he
was.

From what she noticed, Jaehaerys was only truly open with Dany, with her, and sometimes with
Arthur. And her heart was full with joy to know that he trusted her fully.

Also, King Robert was fat and red-faced, sweaty and smelled like a distillery all the time, if you
took away his fancy clothes and crown and you could easily mistake him with some fisherman.

Jaehaerys, on the other hand, was a man who didn’t need to wear a crown for people to see that
he was a King. His regal bearing and his quiet confidence always made him stand out in any
crowd.

The Queens, while both very beautiful, couldn’t be more different, just like Jae and Robert.

Cersei was always with her nose in the air, sneering and looking down at everyone, while
Daenerys was good-hearted and caring, she always had a kind word for everyone, no matter if
they were beggars or Emperors.

Sometimes Arya looked at Dany and couldn’t help being impressed on how much she had grown
in the year and a half since she met her. Gone was the shy and sometimes uncertain girl she met in
Bravoos.

In her place now there was this confident, fiery, stubborn woman, a woman that was not afraid to
stand up to anyone, even to the King when she felt she was right. It was quite a sight to see those
two mules knock heads, there were always great wagers around the camp on who would win
when they would argue. She always bet on Daenerys.

There was only one fitting word that could be used to describe Dany now: Queen.

Arya remembered that when she was younger she used to admire Queen Visenya, Princess
Nymeria, and her aunt Lyanna. Now the person she looked up to had a different name:

Daenerys Targaryen.

Jae and Dany finally reached her and Edgy fell into step next to Midnight and Silverbright.

She looked at the two people she loved the most in this world, two very different people, they
were like ice and fire, Jae’s cold and detached approach versus Dany’s warm and kind
personality.

Yet she could not imagine them not being together, two extraordinary people, each in their own
way, coming together to form a perfect whole.

These days they were even closer than they were before. After the fire in Trader Town, they even
slept together every night.

Lady Mella was not pleased with their sleeping arrangements and she made her displeasure well
known many times until Jae snapped and gave her a bollocking that the poor Lady was not likely
to forget as long as she lived.

The others didn’t understand why they were doing it, they probably thought that they were taking
pleasure from each other at night, but Arya understood.

In the first weeks after the fire she could barely sleep and it was more than once that she had to
restrain herself from going to their room and sleeping there too, just to make sure they were safe.

She and Daenerys were the same, both found long lost family in Jae, and their biggest fear was
that somehow they would lose him.

And her anguish might have been even worse than Dany’s, while the silver Princess was close
only to losing Jae, Arya almost lost them both.

So she barely slept for weeks, until Dany took her aside and put her hand in the fire, to show her
that she was in no danger of being burned, and told her that she would have saved Jae no matter
what, even if she had to hit him in that stubborn head of his until he passed out and drag him out
herself.

After that, although she wasn’t fully convinced, she managed to sleep better, but even now, after
all these moons, there was an unspoken agreement between her and Daenerys that one of them
always kept an eye on Jae.

She briefly wondered if there was someone out there for her too, someone who would embrace
and accept her for who she was, someone who would complete her like these two completed each
other… But, no, she was Arya Stark, she would never be a wife to some stupid Lordling, keep his
house and bore his children.

That wasn’t her.

To her relief, Lady Mella, who was now acting as their guide announced that they were close to
their base. The Onyx Fort they called it.

They were next to a river now, the Blood River, Mella explained, she thought it was a queer
name, that was until they got closer and saw that the waters were red.

To her embarrassment the first thing she asked was if there was blood in the water, Lady Whent
just laughed and explained that this river flowed from the Bleeding Sea. Apparently, the waters in
that sea were red, because of some blooming plant that grew there.

As they advanced, more and more flooded fields appeared around the river, most of them growing
rice. The people working the fields seemed to recognize them, well, not them as much as
Jaehaerys and kneeled when they passed, some right there in the water.

Their makeshift guide explained that this region was under Jaehaerys’ control and was named
“The rice bowl of the Golden Empire”. It was the most fertile land around and the rice grown here
was traded all over the Further East, from Yin to Nefer.

After they rode a few more hours, she saw them. Five monstrous buildings, bigger than anything
she ever saw before. They were so tall that they couldn’t see where they ended because of the
clouds covering their tips. They must have been 1000 feet tall.

She couldn’t keep her mouth closed at the sight.

She looked at Jae and Dany and saw that the Princess had the same problem. Jae gently pushed
his finger under her chin to close her mouth with an amused look on his face, earning himself a
slap on the shoulder from his future Queen.

Disgusting.

Arya looked at Oswell fully expecting for him to say or do something, but it only took a narrow-
eyed look from Lady Mella for the Knight to look somewhere else and pretend he didn’t see
anything.

Mella explained that only two of them were used, the most Southern one, which they called the
Onyx Fort and they used it as their main base, and the Northern one, which was used by the rice
farmers.

Before they came here, the Northern Fort was controlled by the remnants of an ancient cult, called
The Defenders of Light, which by Lady Whent’s words, were sworn to protect the Golden
Empire from the forces of the Lion of the Night. Arya thought they sounded a lot like the Night
Watch.

But that lot seemed to be less honorable, as many years ago their leader declared himself the
Prince of the Five Forts and the Rice Bowl and enslaved the farmers alongside the Blood River to
work for them. They also raided the shores of the Bleeding Sea for riches and slaves for their rice
farms, since many of their slave farmers died because of the exhausting work without much food
or rest.

And that all changed when Jae and his army came from Nefer, where they were searching for a
way to hatch the King’s Dragon egg and decided to help the people here.

So now they ruled over the Five Forts and the Rice Bowl.
 THE BEARER OF ESSENCE – K’DATH

He looked up, the Black Cloud covering K’Dath since the beginning of time was angrier and
angrier every day, ready to expand and cover the world.

It won’t be long now, he looked down from his terrace in the Tower of God, his glorious armies,
powered by his Green Essence itching to move, ready to destroy everything in their path.

Ready to take back what’s rightfully theirs.

Winged men, Bone men, long forgotten creatures from the Dry Deep, Bloodless men, all ready.
Ready to conquer, ready to spread the Essence all over the world.

The creatures of the world should be welcoming the Essence with open arms. Surely if they knew,
if they knew what was like to have the Essence of Gods inside them, they would come willingly.
They would beg to be bitten by anyone already blessed.

It was a glorious way to live.

No hunger.

No thirst.

No pain.

No emotions.

Just Essence.

Why would anyone want to live a useless life, struggling to find food, water, craving for the sun,
when they could be fueled by Essence, when they could be sheltered by the Black Cloud and
become stronger, faster, healthier than any man would hope to be. No disease would affect them
and their injuries would heal in the blink of an eye.

He looked again at the army gathered below the tower. His tower. The Tower of God. With the
Green Essence of the Gods running through them, each and every one of those creatures below
was part of him. Part God.

He was the chosen one, the Essence was stronger in him than in everyone combined.

He was Amurath, the bearer of Essence.

Was that the name of the vessel, or the name of the God?

He couldn’t remember.

Sometimes memories of his vessel came back to him from a long time ago. From thousands of
years back, maybe even more.

A tall man with golden eyes. Or maybe they were blue.

A young Aeromancer studying in the magic schools of Asshai. Or maybe it was in Stygai.
Whether it was Asshai or Stygai he wasn’t sure, but he remembered the darkness. The darkness
that followed him everywhere.

No wonder he was chosen.

He was special.

A man chosen to become a God.

How else would you call someone who had the blood of the Lion of the Night flowing freely
through him?

How else would you call someone who could spread the gift of Essence?

How else would you call someone who had the ability to control every creature blessed with the
Green Essence?

He remembered when he was thrown in the Pool of Life, under the Tower of God, countless
years back, when he absorbed the True Essence, the blood of Gods, after the previous vessel was
too weak and was slain by a man.

A man with a burning sword.

The memory was vivid in the Essence, the hot metal cutting through his neck, separating his head
from his body. Not even the fast healing of the Essence could save him.

It was the greatest battle ever fought, at the base of the high mountains that split the continent in
two, the armies of men and the blessed armies fought for the world.

The bones of the slain men and beasts left after that colossal battle gave those mountains their
name. The Bone Mountains.

When he was chosen as vessel, he was already one of the blessed ones, Essence ran through him.

But when he stepped in the glowing green Pool of Life and his body accepted the blood of the
Lion of the Night, from one of many he became The One.

From a soldier he became a God.

And he swore he wouldn’t be weak and unworthy like the previous vessel was.

He was Amurath, and he will be God, not only over K’Dath, but over this whole world.

Burning sword or not, no man will slay him.

The previous vessel thought that his strength made him invincible. And he was defeated.

He still felt his surprise, his shock when he was slain. It was still imprinted in the Essence.

But Amurath trained with his hammer every day. For thousands of years.

Even if someone out there would match his strength, they would never match his skill.
He would slay everyone who would stand in his way. Man, demon or God.

He would bring this world to its knees. He had to. The Pool of Life under the Tower of God was
empty. There was no more True Essence to create another one like him. He was the last.

The last True God.

The Black Cloud would once again cover everything and every living creature will receive the
green blessing, every creature would be part of him, his Essence would spread everywhere again.
And the world would be better for it.

The Great Battle was just one of the countless memories held by the Essence, some of them as old
as time.

The whole world sunk in darkness.

The blessed armies pushing back Ice demons that were killing and enslaving everyone.

A fire demon burning everything in his path with the help of giant flying fire-breathing beasts.

And many other things

There would always be wars until someone will conquer the whole world.

And he intended to be that someone.

Soon, the war for the world would start.

And he would win.

The Essence was too strong.

And it grew stronger every day.

Before, it took hours for the Essence to corrupt its new host after a bite, but now, with its
increased power, it spread in a few heartbeats. Healing was much faster too.

Every single one of his blessed followers was a little God on their own. No army could stand in
their way. He was sure of it.

His powers were also growing every day. His eyes shone like two green stars, the True Essence
flowing through him has never been stronger.

It wouldn’t be long now until he would be able to expand and control the Black Cloud, and the
blessed armies would move under it.

The sun would never shine over this world again.

The preparations were almost ready, his armies were growing every day. It was hard to move his
forces only at night, and even the night didn’t allow his army to function at their full strength as
the Black Cloud did, but it was enough. It was enough to conquer and infuse with Essence the
cannibals around the Grey Waste, the people of Bonetown, the creatures of the Dry Deep, the
Cities of Bloodless Men and the City of the Winged Men.

Only the shapechangers of Mossovy were left to conquer now and after that, his army would be
unbeatable.

The realm of men won’t know what hit them.

Soon he would take his rightful place.

As the One True God.

THE DRAGONS’ SISTER – THE ONYX FORT

Fucking name day!

Arya looked around to make sure that nobody could see her, but it was safe, she was well hidden
behind a large pillar, and she was positioned well enough to see the Unsullied train in the yard
below.

She was lucky that this Fort was huge and it was unlikely that someone was going to find her. It
definitely wasn’t what she expected when she saw it from the outside.

It was basically a black, 1000 feet high, and 200 feet thick wall that was built in a circle.

She expected to see some sort of castle in the middle, something that this thick wall protected, but
no, there was nothing, just a huge, wide training yard.

Arya was really confused at first, where were the rooms if this monstrosity was just a big wall?
Where would they live?

But then she realized that the rooms were built in the wall, countless rooms, everywhere as high as
the building, Lady Mella told them that it could easy host 10000 people. Terraces and balconies
every level, some so high that she felt sick just by looking at them.

And here she was, on one of these terraces, about 100 feet from the ground hiding from everyone
and watching the Unsullied train in the yard, trying to remember their routine.

Jae has decreed that everyone had to train with the Unsullied at least twice every week, and they
have to learn their formations. Even her and Dany. He said that many wars are coming and a
formation is as strong as its weakest link.

Well, she was Arya Stark of Winterfell, and she wasn’t going to be a fucking weak link, so she
trained with them every day, Dany joining her every time she was free too, and they were both
determined to do so until they will learn their routine so well that they will even remember it in
their sleep.

Gods, she hated her name day!

She made the mistake of telling Dany when it was last year, and the traitor told everyone. Then
she had to stay there and suffer through all the congratulations, Lady Mella even started singing a
birthday song, the poor Lady had no idea how close she came to being stabbed in the neck.

She hasn’t heard anyone say anything about it in these past few days, but she wasn’t going to take
a chance. Jaehaerys never forgot a thing. The fucker. He was sure to do something to embarrass
her.

And Dany the Traitor was probably asking Lady Mella to sing for her at this very moment.

But they won’t find her, she was sure. She was well hidden and the rooms connected to this
terrace were only used by roaches and rats.

She barely finished her thought when she felt a wet nose on the back of her neck.

Fuck! Please be Dany! Please be Dany! Please be Dany!

And because the Old Gods hated her, she heard: “Who are you hiding from, Zhea?”

Maybe she should make her own present for her name day, and few things would feel more
rewarding than stabbing this fucker: “Fuck off, Jae!” When she turned around, Ghost gave her a
long lick on the face “Do you think I will forgive you so easily, traitor?” she told the white beast.

The Direwolf promptly gave a hurt puppy red-eyed look that instantly broke through her
annoyance.

“Others take you, Ghost! I can never stay angry with you. You’re the size of a fucking horse, you
shouldn’t be so cute and fluffy!” she said frustrated while combing her fingers through his thick
fur.

“Why so angry? Poor Ghost just wanted to come with me to give you our present...” Jaehaerys
said, pretending to be hurt.

“If he wants to give me a nice present, he could always eat his master. That would be the best
present ever,” she huffed.

“Pfffff... I came here to give you a nice present and this is what I get in return? You try to turn
poor Ghost against me... Maybe I should give my present to someone else...”

For the first time she noticed that he had something in his hand, long as a stick and covered in a
piece of cloth. At first, she hoped that it might be a sword, but it was too thin to be one. Maybe
some arrows, those would be nice too.

“Wait,” she said, noticing that whatever was under that cloth had a Direwolf pommel, maybe it
was some nice dagger “if you climbed all this way, it would not be nice of me not to accept it”.
She tried not to appear too excited.

Judging by Jae’s amused look, she wasn’t as successful as she hoped. She wouldn’t be surprised
to find out that the fucker revealed the pommel on purpose.
“That’s good to hear, because our seamstress, Lady Mimau has worked hard on that dress.”
Jaehaerys said in a voice with no trace of amusement.

“Dress?” she asked confused.

“Yes, she made a nice pink fluffy dress just for you! You can wear it at the wedding. Lady Mimau
assured me that if you do, you’ll get at least 3 offers of marriage, nobody could resist you in that
dress” he explained.

She looked shocked at him, was he joking? His face didn’t betray anything.

But then she saw it. The glint in his eye.

Others take him!

“You know, I’m really going to stab you one of these days!” she threatened him, but it sounded
half arsed even to her ears.

“No you won’t!” he said with an annoying amount of confidence in his voice “I’m your favorite
person in the world!”

“You wish!” she huffed. ”Dany is my favorite!”

“Nice try, but Dany doesn’t count, she’s everybody’s favorite!” he said matter-of-factly.

She rolled her eyes then she saw him offering her the clothed dagger.

“Here you go, Little Wolf.”

Arya eagerly removed the cloth, expecting to see some kind of dagger, but she was surprised to
see a slim sword.

Her eyes nearly popped out of her head when she pulled it out of its scabbard and she saw the
rippled patterns and the foggy color. Valyrian Steel.

She looked at Jae, she tried to ask something but nothing came out of her mouth.

“It’s called Needle.” he said.

Needle?

“Your mother’s sword?” she asked, her voice sounded like someone had their hands wrapped
tightly around her throat.

He just nodded with a smile.

“Shouldn’t you give it to Dany?” she asked, although she already felt quite possessive of the
blade. But Dany would be his wife, it should go to her.

“Don’t worry about her. This blade was meant for you. I have no doubt my mother would have
wanted you to have it.” he said with a smile.

Before she knew what she was doing, she found herself hugging Jae tightly, and whispering a
“Thank you!” that sounded way too tearful for her taste.

Aunt Lyanna’s sword!

She was not sure for how long she admired the sword, but she was surprised to see that Jae was
still there, resting his elbows on the balustrade, with a faraway look in his eyes.

“Are you all right?” she asked concerned.

“I was just thinking about the wedding,” Jae said.

“What about it? Did Dany finally realize that you’re a fool and she changed her mind?” she
grinned.

“Not yet, I am hoping that when she does realize it, we would already be married and there will be
nothing she could do about it.” he jested in return.

“I was thinking that she has no one to stand up with her,” Jaehaerys said, this time in a serious
voice.

“What do you mean?” she didn’t understand.

“There is a Weirwood tree just outside the Fort, we will marry there. I want our wedding day to be
the best day of her life, but I realized that she has no one to stand on her side of the three,
everybody will be on my side.” he said, sounding concerned.

She thought for a few heartbeats and then it hit her: “What do you mean she has no one?”

At Jaehaerys’ confused look, she proudly declared:

“She has her sister, stupid!”

“Come in!” she heard after her second knock. She pushed the heavy door and entered. Before she
realized what was going on, she found herself with Dany’s arms around her, wrapped in a tight
hug. She couldn’t do anything else but return it.

“Happy name day, Arya!” Daenerys said excitedly.

Arya couldn’t help looking around the room, it was very similar to her own but larger. And most
importantly empty. She couldn’t help releasing a relieved breath. Jae said that it was only Dany
when he told her to come here, but she wouldn’t put it past him to trick her. It wouldn’t have been
the first time.

Dany seemed to realize what she was thinking and released a warm laugh: “It’s just you and me,
Little Wolf. We didn’t tell anyone.” At Arya’s narrow look, the Princess continued with a grin
“This year.” Then she continued in a serious voice: ”I don’t know if any of the others remember
the date from last year”

She just sighed: “It’s ok, Jae said that there are many Brooding Spots in this Fort and he will loan
me one of them where nobody can find me, if I get too much attention and it makes me
uncomfortable,” Arya said with a smile.

“This Fort is like a brooding heaven, no wonder Jae decided to settle here!” the Princess giggled
and she couldn’t stop herself from doing the same. Others take her! “Where is he, anyway?”
Dany asked.
“He stopped to greet Leg’s parents.” As the wedding was getting closer and closer, more and
more guests came. Most of them were rulers from the neighboring regions: Princes, Brigands,
Warlords or Generals, all came to see the Dragons getting married.

But there were some friends too, people that Jae and the others met in their travels, Leg’s parents
among them.

“That’s good,” she heard Dany say, “It just leaves more for us!” The silver-haired woman went to
a wardrobe in the back of the room, and after a few moments of fussing around came back with a
package wrapped in some green leaves.

“Here is my present to you!” Daenerys said with a grin. “Although, you must share!”

When the Princess opened the package she couldn’t stop her delight: “Sweet chestnuts! How did
you get them? I thought you can only get them in Trader Town!”

Dany answered with a grin: “They are from Trader Town,” at her surprised look, the Targaryen
continued “Lady Mella showed me these leaves” she pointed towards one of the leaves that were
wrapped around the chestnuts “that keep them from spoiling for a long time. I was saving them for
a special occasion. And what occasion more special than the name day of my hāedar?”

“What does that mean?” she asked.

“That’s for you to find out, Little Wolf! Come on! I even let you pick first since it’s your name
day!” Dany said excitedly. “Eat fast, before his Royal Broodiness comes back and we’ll have to
split them 3 way!”

Fuck! She was giggling again!

Later, the chestnuts were all gone and they were both lying on their backs on the large bed, bellies
full and arms crossed over their chests.

“Are you scared about the wedding?” Arya heard herself ask.

“Of course not!” Daenerys said without hesitation. “He was always meant to be mine. I have no
doubt that we would have ended together even if we both grew in King’s Landing.”

“Do you think there is someone out there for me too?” again her mouth acted faster than her brain,
to her embarrassment.

“Yes, I do!” Dany quickly answered. “But you’re a very special girl, and you need someone
equally special.”

“And a little mad.” the future Queen continued with a grin.

“What?!?” Arya stood up on her elbows and looked at Dany with wide eyes.

“Well, yes, a man must be a little mad to ask Jae for your hand.” Dany couldn’t stop her laugh
while she was explaining: ”I can see him now, Sonax at his left, Ghost at his right and him
sharpening his sword and giving that poor man a look so cold that it could freeze the Seven
Hells.”

They both dissolved into a fit of giggles that only stopped when they noticed that Jae entered the
room.
In her embarrassment, Arya got up and headed to the door.

“What were you two talking about?” Jae asked.

“About me getting married!” she said over her shoulder and then left the room.

She heard Dany’s laugh through the door, and Jae’s shout:

“WHAT!?!!?”

THE KING – THE ONYX FORT

As he woke up, his brain slowly started working and the first thing he felt, like every morning,
was the soft, warm body of his future wife flushed against him. Next, it was the soft hair tickling
his nose and then his senses were flooded by the strawberry smell that he has come to associate
with her.

How does one make their hair smell like strawberries anyway? Must be one of those oils she and
Lady Mella always bought. Whatever it was, he wouldn’t change it for the world.

As he was fully awake now, looking down at his small clothes, Jaehaerys realized that something
else was fully awake.

He seemed to be in a state of perpetual arousal around her these days.

And it was all because of that fucking book.

His dreams were now full of him doing unspeakable things to Dany, and her to him. No wonder
he woke up hard as a rock every time.

But, if he was being honest with himself, he was this way every morning even before he started
reading that damn book. And how could he not be? He looked at Dany sleeping peacefully next
to him, her soft body pressed against him, he felt every curve of her body through their thin night
clothes.

They seemed to be wearing fewer and fewer clothes when they slept. They told themselves that it
was because they weren’t cold. And that might even be true, her hot blood always kept Dany
warm, and he didn’t feel the cold at all.

Some mornings he wasn’t even sure if he was awake or not. Perhaps she was just some creature
that escaped from one of his dreams. She was breathtaking.

Morning Dany was his favorite version of Dany. She had not a care in the world and it was the
only time of day she let herself be fully relaxed and vulnerable and Jaehaerys felt blessed that he
was the one she trusted to see her that way.

The first night they slept together after the fire in Trader Town, they woke up with his arousal
rubbing against her inner thigh. They both were so embarrassed that they couldn't look each other
in the eye. But in time they got used to it, it was just something that was there.

While he was always struggling for control when he was in bed next to her, Dany seemed to make
it her business to make it hard for him, teasing him more and more as time went by and they got
more comfortable with each other.

That fucking wedding couldn’t come fast enough!

He looked down at her beautiful face and couldn’t help burying his nose in her hair, filling his
lungs with her strawberry scent, hoping that it will last all day.

This seemed to wake her up, and her soft, wet lips were on his chin, giving him small kisses.

Next thing he knew she threw a leg over his middle and she was straddling him. Her mouth now
possesive over his, licking and sucking.

His control was slipping, they needed to stop this.

Jae ordered his hands to gently get her off him, but, in what was surely the biggest betrayal since
the Rebellion, his hands decided to ignore his brain, and he found himself squeezing her perfect
ass instead.

As if this wasn’t enough, his damn hands gently pushed her down, until her center was over his
hardness. The moans they both released in each other’s mouths at the contact were sounds that he
doubted any living creature known to man had made before.

They both stopped as soon as they realized what happened, Dany, with her face buried in his
neck, was now panting hard. And he wasn’t doing much better.

Just as he was about to take back control of his body, Daenerys started moving, rubbing her heat
gently up and down his hard shaft.

Fuck!

It was only his many years of brooding that kept him from spilling himself in his small clothes.

He somehow managed to find some strength to lift her from him, her disappointed whimper nearly
made him lose his head again.

Jae turned them over, and was now on top of her “We need to stop, my love, I’m hanging by a
thread.”

She put on an exaggerated disappointed look on her face, her distracting pouting bottom lip
making him lose his line of thought for a moment there.

He turned on his back and after taking a few deep breaths to calm himself, he nodded towards the
small door leading to their changing room: “You go first, my love, I need time to cool off.” he said
pointing to his still hard cock.

Dany got up in a sitting position and gave him a sweet kiss on the lips “My poor King,” she
cooed, gently patting the tent made by his hard shaft in his small clothes.

He lost it then, but before he could grab her, throw her under him and damn the consequences, she
ran in their changing room giggling, slamming the door behind her, only a trace of her strawberry
smell left behind her.
Fuck!

Others take this wedding! He should have married her the day he asked her, straight there in
Trader Town.

Fuck!

He briefly considered taking Dany to the Weirwood tree and getting married right now. What did
he care that some fucking self-proclaimed Prince from the coast of the Bleeding Sea wasn’t there?

But he could see his future wife now, hands on her hips and a scolding look on her face:
‘Jaehaerys Targaryen, don’t even think about it! It’s better to make friends than enemies!’

Fucking friends!

He buried his face in his pillow, to cover his loud groan.

He obviously didn’t do a good enough job, because he heard Dany from the changing room
saying in an amused voice: “My love, what was that sound? Are you pleasuring yourself?
Because if you do, you know I want to watch!”

Fuck!

His problem was just softening and now it was back in full force. He let out another groan that
triggered a new round of giggles from his future Queen.

And now he couldn’t get this image of Dany out of his head, biting her lower lip and fixing her
beautiful eyes on him while he…

Fuck!

She’s going to be the death of him, he was sure of it!

But what a glorious death that would be!

Mud splashed under Midnight’s hooves as they rode silently though Dragon Town, Ser Arthur,
and Lord Samwell Tarly, his steward, riding beside him.

His steward was a little weird, a fat boy always babbling about some thing or another. Jae first met
him at the Wall where Samwell was sent by his father to take the Black. Apparently, he wasn’t fit
enough to be his heir.

When he saw him in the training yard struggling to hold a sword, he was sure that he wouldn’t last
a moon there.

Jae didn’t give him much thought until his uncle Aemon asked him to take the boy with him,
otherwise he would die for sure. He wasn’t sure at first, Tarly didn’t look like he could keep up
with them, it’s not like they lived an easy life either. Would he not just be trading a death on the
Wall with a death in Essos?

But ultimately Jaehaerys agreed with his uncle’s request, whether to please the old man or because
he felt sorry for the fat boy, he wasn’t sure. He figured that if Samwell couldn’t keep up with all
the traveling, he would leave him in one of the Free Cities and give him some coin to start a new
life. It would still be better than freezing to death.

But Samwell proved himself invaluable. The boy was a genius. He was the one to discover the
Rainbow Diamonds mines, he was the one who he left in charge when he went after Dany. And
the improvements he made to the Onyx Fort while he was gone and the growth of Dragon Town
were impressive.

He wondered what Sam’s father was thinking. Surely he knew that his son was very smart? He
heard that the old Tarly was one of the best military tacticians in the Seven Kingdoms, surely a
man like that would recognize the value of a genius like his son?

He didn’t know much about the Tarly seat, Horn Hill, except that it was in the Reach, but he had
no doubt that Sam would have improved it tremendously if he became Lord.

Well, Randall Tarly’s loss was their gain. Hopefully he would be there when the old man would
find out that his son will be his and Daenerys’ Hand. That should raise Samwell in father’s eyes a
step or two.

Looking around, he was impressed with his steward’s work. When he left, more than two years
ago, there were barely a couple of hundred houses in Dragon Town, most of them belonging to
the miners working in the diamond mines and their families.

But now there were thousands. Elevated houses everywhere he looked.

People were coming from all over looking for work and for safety. The once glorious Golden
Empire was in a sad state these days. Split into hundreds of small Kingdoms, ruled by Princes,
brigands, priest-kings, sorcerers, warlords or Generals always waging war against each other. And
the ones that were suffering the most were the normal hard working people.

So it was no wonder that people were coming here, searching for work in the rice fields or in the
mines and for protection.

Because nobody dared to anger the Dragons and attack their lands.

Midnight made a displeased sound when he stepped into a deep puddle. He must have had a
displeased look on his face too, because Lord Tarly quickly assured them that plans were made for
stone roads to be built through the town, but they were on hold for now, as most available workers
worked hard to clean up and repair the Onyx Fort in time for the wedding.

“Have you read the books we brought you from Leg’s uncle?” he asked Samwell.

“Most of them, Your Grace.” the steward answered with a bright smile. There was nothing the
boy loved more than books.

“Any useful information?”

“Yes, some. It appears that the Shrykes are actually creatures that were enslaved by the Essence
and somehow freed themselves.” Lord Tarly said.

“That answers the question of how they move without the Black Cloud above their heads.” he
said thoughtfully.

“So, there probably is something inside them that helped them reject the Essence. If we manage to
catch one, I might be able to make some kind of antidote to save our people if they get bitten.”
Tarly explained.

“Dany would kill me even if I even think about going in the Land of Shrykes to capture one of
those things.” both Samwell and Arthur laughed at that, knowing well that it was the
understatement of the century. ”We’ll find a solution after the wedding,” he told them.

“Of course, Your Grace.”

They finally reached the jeweler shop. The Unsullied they left yesterday to guard it were still there
and didn’t look like they moved a muscle all day, they were like statues.

“My King” the jeweler gave a deep bow from behind his work table when he saw him enter.

“Is it ready?” Jae asked.

“Of course your grace!” the man said and opened the large strongbox that he had in the back of
the shop and pulled out a pendant necklace that had a teardrop-shaped violet Rainbow Diamond,
around 1 and a half inch in length, attached to a white gold chain.

He looked at it, the work was exquisite, as always. The jeweler, Jung Bu, came all the way from
Jinqi to work with the Rainbow Diamonds. He was the only one that Jae trusted to work on the
rarest of diamonds. And this violet Rainbow Diamond was the rarest of them all, the only one of
its kind.

When he brought it here yesterday, he thought that Jung Bu’s eyes would pop out of his head.
And he couldn’t blame him.

The first thing he came to his mind when he saw it was that it looked like Dany’s eyes sparkling
with happiness. He knew that it was meant for her.

He would be forever grateful to Lord Tarly for not sending it somewhere to be sold.

“I never saw a rock so beautiful, My King, thank you for trusting me with it.” the jeweler said.

“You’ve done an excellent job, as always, Lord Jung” he shook the man’s hand to the jeweler’s
surprise and delight “Lord Tarly here will settle the bill.”

“No need, Your Grace, it’s my gift to you and Her Grace for your wedding.”

“I thank you, My Lord.”

Dany and Arya had some kind of agreement, he was sure of it. An agreement to always keep an
eye on him, when one was not present, the other one was.

He found it amusing.
What did they think he would do? Grow cold feet and run to the Thousand Islands and become a
pirate?

He did not mind it, he loved having them around, but it made reading the damn book quite hard.
The only time when he found himself alone was when they both trained.

This fucking book, where people really capable of bending that way? Reading it always made his
face burn like a furnace, but he had to do it, their wedding night was quickly approaching and the
last thing he wanted was to disappoint Dany, or even worse, to hurt her somehow.

He was coming from one of these reads now, with Ghost trailing after him, his face surely looking
as red as a ripe tomato, when he spotted Dany and Arya still in the yard, training in formation with
the Unsullied under Greyworm’s command.

He leaned his shoulder on one of the thick pillars supporting the first level terraces and admired his
future wife’s graceful movements. Her silver hair was standing out in the sea of Unsullied, but she
moved like she was one of their own. She didn’t miss a step.

Unfortunately, as he was entranced with his future wife, he missed the fact that Ser Oswell was
leaning in a similar position on the other side of the pillar.

“My King,” he heard and he sighed, he was already frustrated with the diamond burning in his
pocket and his inability to find a good way to give it to Daenerys, he wasn’t in the mood for
Oswell’s shit. The Knight knew exactly what he was doing, he gave him the book after all.

“I hope you ‘handled’ your problem in a satisfying way, Your Grace.” he didn’t miss the Knight’s
emphasize on ‘handled’. He swore that if he didn’t already know the state of his late grandfather’s
mind, he would easily know that he was mad as a box of frogs just from the fact that he allowed
Oswell in the Kingsguard.

He didn’t say anything, but Ghost made his presence known and bared his teeth at Oswell, who
must have missed seeing the wolf from behind the pillar, and the Knight face turned white as it
always did when he was close to the Direwolf.

Jaehaerys wasn’t sure what happened in Trader Town, but since then Oswell was even warier of
Ghost than usual, he even asked that his usual “Ten Feet Rule” to be changed into a “Twenty Feet
Rule”.

Ghost also seemed to have also changed his perception of the Knight from indifferent to annoyed.

He thought it was better not to mention that to Ser Oswell.

“Your Grace, now that you are here, maybe it’s better for me to take a break,” the Kingsguard
said in a voice that had no business coming out of a brave Knight’s mouth.

“Maybe it is.” he dismissed him, “Send Greyworm here”.

“My King” Greyworm said with a bow.

“How are the girls doing, Commander?”

“Very good, Your Grace. They worked very hard, and they are now very knowledgeable of our
tactics.” Greyworm told him.
“Are they ready? Would you be comfortable with having them watch your back?” he asked.

“Indeed, Your Grace, they are both as good as any of my men, maybe even better in some ways.”
he was pleased to hear that. And coming from Greyworm, he knew it was true, he never lied or
exaggerated.

At that time Dany and Arya seemed to notice him, his future wife’s eyes lit up and she gave him a
blinding smile that made him dizzy, while Arya gave him a mock courtesy and turned to the
closest training dummy, no doubt to improve her skill with Needle.

“Greyworm tells me that you did very well in training,” he told Dany, who gave him a large grin.
“He says that you are as good as any of his men, maybe even better.” that seemed to draw a blush
in her cheeks.

Well, this was a good time as any...

Jae drew a deep breath and said: “Well, I suppose it’s only fair for you to be rewarded for it.” At
Dany frown he pulled out the violet diamond and held it for her to see it.

Daenerys' violet eyes went as big as saucers, yet she didn’t move. The only thing that moved was
her eyes, from the diamond to his face and back. He was starting to doubt himself now, maybe she
hated it. He just realized that he never saw her wear any kind of necklace, maybe she hated
wearing things around her neck...

Before he had a chance to apologize and assure her that she didn’t have to wear it, she jumped on
him, hands around his neck and legs wrapped around him. He was thankful for the large pillar
behind him, or he would have fallen on his arse for sure.

He couldn’t say anything, as her mouth was hot on his. Jae was afraid that his knees will give out
under him, not from her weight, but from her kiss.

“Disgusting!” Arya’s scream seemed to have reminded them both where they were. He gently set
her down, and she embarrassingly buried her face in his chest.

After she calmed down, she asked him to help her with the pendant. Jae gently clasped it around
her slender neck, barely restraining himself from combing his fingers through her silver hair, or
from touching that spot behind her ear that always made her moan.

“It’s the exact color of your eyes. And like you, it’s one of a kind.” he told her lovingly.

“I shall wear it always,” she said “it’s the best gift anyone has ever given me” her eyes were
sparkling in happiness, as bright as the diamond.

“You know, it’s a present for me too,” he told her, at her raised eyebrow he continued “it will
remind me every day to make you so happy that your eyes will be as sparkling as the diamond at
your neck”.

Arya slapped his hands “Stop fidgeting, stupid!”

“I’m not fidgeting!” he hissed.

He was fidgeting.

The wedding day was finally here. They were standing around the Weirwood, waiting for Dany.
And he was nervous. Nervous that he will fuck it up somehow. He wanted it to be perfect for her.

They decided on a ceremony similar to those in the North. Neither he nor Dany cared about any
Gods, but since they already had a Weirwood tree, they decided to honor his mother and marry in
front of the Old Gods, rather than The Seven.

The ceremony was also much simpler and didn’t require a Septon.

They kept the ceremony small, only their closest friends being present. Everybody was on the left
side, his side, except Arya who was standing proudly on the right, dressed In her new dark grey
doublet, with a small snarling Direwolf sewed over her heart, and Needle at her hip. She never
went anywhere without her sword.

Both Dragons were there too, flying circles high above the Weirwood tree.

He was trying to figure out how to make his hands stop fidgeting when he heard everybody gasp.
And when he looked up he saw her.

A vision in white with Ghost silently walking next to her. Her long dress and gracious moves
made her look like she was floating.

Jae was again hit by that irrational fear. That she wasn’t real. Surely someone as perfect as her
didn’t exist? Maybe he just invented her in his head. Maybe he was as mad as his grandfather and
he was the only one that could see her.

But if that was what it meant to be mad, why would anyone want to be sane?

Dany first looked at Arya, surprised to see her on her side, but he could see she was very happy.
Dany gave the Wolf Girl a huge smile, her eyes becoming a little misty when she saw that Ghost
also went next to Arya.

Then she looked at him, her beautiful violet eyes filled with love, with the torches that were
everywhere around the Weirwood reflected in them, they were so bright that they put even the
violet diamond adorning her neck to shame. As soon as their eyes locked, all his fears and
insecurities were instantly forgotten.

She was real.

And she was his as he was hers.

He took her small hand in his, their eyes still locked together, nobody else mattered but them. It
was like that tunnel in the mines that led outside, you couldn’t see anything around you, except the
light at the end.

And she was his light.

He must have lost himself in her eyes because the next thing he knew he heard her say:

“Daenerys Stormborn, of House Targaryen, comes here to be wed. A woman grown, trueborn
and noble.”
“Who comes to claim her?” Lord Tarly, who was presenting the ceremony asked.

“Jaehaerys, of House Targaryen, Heir to the Seven Kingdoms, King of the Five Forts and the
Rice Bowl.”

“Princess Daenerys, do you take this man?”

“I take this man.” He heard Dany say, to his relief. Both Dragons above them gave thunderous
approving roars.

Then, as Lord Tarly instructed, they kneeled before the Weirwood tree and bowed their heads in
prayer.

He hoped that whatever Gods were out there, they would let him give her everything she
deserved. What did he have to offer anyway? Some claim over a Kingdom at the other side of the
world and a promise of countless wars?

She deserved better than that, and he would do anything in his power to make her happy.

This he swore in front of every fucking God who was listening.

They were given permission to kiss after that and their lips only touched briefly, a little self-
conscious because of all the people there. They shared countless kisses before this, but he swore
that this small kiss was the sweetest of all.

Jae put a hand under her knees and picked her in his arms, ready to take her to the feast, and gave
another silent thanks for finding her before they left.

Finally the last of their well-wishers was gone and he could finally enjoy some time with his wife.
It felt like every man on the continent was here to wish them happiness.

They would probably need to use one of the empty Forts just to store all the gifts they got. Gold,
gems, food, all kind of animals.

But, knowing his wife, she would probably donate most of it to the people of Dragon Town. She
liked to visit there on every opportunity, to help people wherever it was possible.

Sometimes she helped Lady Mella who was teaching children at the newly built school.

And sometimes she just walked around, seeing what was needed and where she could help. She
even convinced Arya to join her.

Arthur, who usually accompanied them, said that the people were calling them “The Queen and
the Princess”. Jae bet Arya loved it. He might go with them, just to see the look on the Stark girl’s
face as she was being called “Princess”. He was surprised that she didn’t stab anyone yet.

Jaehaerys looked around and was pleased to see that everyone was enjoying themselves.

Of course, no one was enjoying the celebrations more than Ser Oswell, who was holding court at
his table. The man was already in his cups, judging by the displeased look on Lady Mella’s face
and the fact that Arthur, who was sitting at the same table, looked like he was going to throttle
him. He was starting to regret ordering them to have fun, Arthur was not enjoying it and Oswell
was enjoying it too much.

It was only a matter of time until the Batman did or said something stupid, he was sure of it.

As if he heard him, he saw the Knight get up on his feet and drawing everyone’s attention.

He couldn’t help releasing a loud sigh, at Daenerys’ inquiring look, he just nodded towards
Oswell. His wife rolled her eyes, amused.

“I swear it, Dany, that the worst thing Aerys did was not burning people alive or almost
destroying the Targaryen dynasty. It was allowing Ser Oswell to join the Kingsguard.” He was
pleased to hear her tinkling laugh.

“Can I get your attention?” they heard Oswell say, hitting his mug on the table. “I am pleased to
congratulate our King and Queen, I rarely saw two people more right for each other than these
two.” most of the guests seemed to agree with him and made their opinion known.

“I also have to say that I am very relieved that the King finally found himself a wife.” he took a
mouthful of whatever it was in that mug “me and Arthur here” he pointed towards the Dornish
Knight, who looked like he wanted the earth to open and swallow him whole, “never saw the
King pay attention to any woman before” Jaehaerys gave out another long sigh “so we always
thought that on his wedding night we’ll have to stuff him full of fermented crabs and push his ass
ourselves in order to produce an heir.”

Most of the room started laughing, even his wife.

“Ser Oswell,” he said in a serious voice, loud enough to draw everyone’s attention, the Knight
raised his mug in salute and took a deep drink “do you often think of touching your King’s ass?”
he felt Dany’s half-arsed slap on his shoulder, while the crowd exploded in laughter, even Arthur
was laughing.

Oswell’s drink came out of his nose in shock: “Of course not, My King, I’m married… I
wouldn’t… I’m not… I was just jesting...” he stuttered.

He was trying to keep a straight face, but it was hard with Dany’s face buried in his shoulder,
shaking with laughter.

Jae raised his wife’s chin and gave her a deep kiss, that earned a loud cheer from everyone there:
“Come, my love, let’s go before someone asks for a bedding ceremony. It wouldn’t be right to
start killing people on our wedding night.”

Fuck, he was nervous. He couldn’t even remember the last time he was this nervous. His hand
might even have been shaking, he wasn’t sure.

He was standing in front of the bed, looking down at his wife, she looked even more nervous than
him. She was just lying on her back, fidgeting with her hands.

That was not good, usually, she was the most adventurous of the two of them.

“Dany, you know we don’t have to do this now if you’re not comfortable...” he tried to tell her,
but she wouldn’t hear it.

“No, I want us to be together in every way.” she said, but her behavior didn’t match the
confidence of her words.

He wondered where the comfort they felt when they were sleeping next to each other every day
went. He supposed that they got more nervous now because they were actually thinking about it.
There was always a limit to their fooling around before, which wasn’t there now.

It didn’t matter, he had to make her more comfortable somehow. She looked like a rabbit trapped
in a snare, ready to bolt.

“Are you sure?” he asked again. She just nodded.

So he did the only thing he could think of to make her more confident. “Can I take my clothes
off?” he asked, trying to sound confident, but confidence was the last thing he felt.

Again she just nodded, looking uncharacteristically shy.

He took off his shirt, grateful that the cloth hid the shake of his hand. And then his breeches. His
small clothes were next and he was naked as the day he was born now.

A wave of self-consciousness hit him so hard that it nearly knocked him off his feet. What if she
doesn’t like how he looked without his clothes on? He knew that she liked him with his clothes
on, but she never saw him naked before.

He was starting to get really uncomfortable now, the drop of confidence he had was now long
gone, he was about to take his clothes and run out of the room in embarrassment when he saw a
small smile appearing on his wife’s face, the shy look she wore until now quickly changing in
something else. Something that he saw every morning in her eyes. Love and want.

The relief he felt made him light-headed. It was good to see the confident woman back.

Her next words removed any trace of doubt he had left: “Turn around, husband, you’re mine now,
I want to see all of you.”

Seeing her back to her normal self, made him much more relaxed too and he gave a slow spin so
she could see his back too.

“Well, husband,” she said in a mischievous voice ”seeing your behind in all its glory, I can’t
blame Oswell for wanting to touch it.” he couldn’t stop a chuckle escape his lips.

When he turned around, her beautiful eyes were focused on his manhood who was now receiving
shipments of blood from all over his body. And when her pink tongue made an appearance to wet
her full lips, he nearly jumped on her right there.

“Come here, my love.” she said reaching her hand for him.

He slowly climbed over her, careful to keep part of his weight on himself and gave her a small
kiss on her nose. She wasn’t having any of it and her tongue quickly found its way in his mouth
licking and sucking.

After some more kissing, he gently lifted her nightshirt, he stopped and waited for her to give him
permission, and when she did, he lifted it over her head, leaving her naked.

Jae raised himself on his knees to take her all in. She was perfect, skin as white as milk, pert
breasts, flat stomach, thick thighs formed after so much riding.

He could see that she struggled to keep her hands at her sides and not cover herself up, and her
face was showing all the self-consciousness she felt.

He gave her a soft kiss on the lips and told her: “You’re the most beautiful thing I ever saw. You
are breathtaking, wife.” he heard her release the breath she was holding and felt her body starting
to relax.

From her lips, Jae’s mouth dropped to her neck, licking and sucking. Then to her breasts, while
licking and sucking one’s nipple, giving attention to the other with his fingers.

Just like in the book.

After that he trailed a line of gentle kisses from between her breasts to her navel, then below her
navel. He saw her then raising herself on her elbows and looking at him with wide eyes.

“Is this all right?” he asked, concerned by her reaction.

“Yes, I thought that you were going to put your mouth… there” she said with a deep blush.

“It’s all right, my love, just tell me if I’m doing something wrong” at her nod, he continued his trip
south with his mouth, but decided to give some attention to her inner thighs, first the left and then
the right.

And when his mouth finally closed around her mound, the moan she released nearly made him
spill his seed right there.

He quickly discovered her bundle of pleasure and started sucking and licking it gently. He used
his tongue all over her. Tasting her. Testing her. Learning her. And loving her sweet musky taste.
He looked up, to see if she’s all right, her eyes were closed in pleasure, a small frown formed
between her eyebrows.

That gave him a little more confidence and as he was gently sucking on her button, he inserted
one of his fingers inside her. He could feel her muscles tensing. He lifted his head in concern “Are
you all right?” The only answer he got was her hand pushing his head back where she needed him
most. He was happy to comply.

After some time of pleasuring her with his finger and mouth and felling her more and more tense,
he remembered to curl his finger up. The response was instant, he felt her pulsating around his
finger as her whole body went stiff. He heard a muffled scream and when he looked up he saw
that she covered her face with a pillow.

Jae was a little concerned at first, but feeling her body relaxing, he realized that everything was all
right.

Jaehaerys climbed up next to her, he wasn’t sure if she wanted him to kiss her after that, but he got
his answer when she pulled him down for a long deep kiss.

“Was that all right?” he asked.

“More than all right.” she told him, her eyes bright and face flushed.

“Do you want to do more, or we should leave it for another time?” he asked, even if he was
desperate for his own release.
“I want to be yours in every way.” she told him without hesitation.

He found a comfortable position atop of her and gently pushed himself inside her. Her heat and
tightness almost made him lose it, he had to close his eyes in his struggle for control.

When Jaehaerys finally managed to get himself under control, he opened his eyes, the
uncomfortable look on his wife’s face made him forget all about his struggles.

“Should I stop?” he asked worriedly.

“No, my love, it's supposed to feel uncomfortable at first. It will get better, let’s keep going.”

He wasn’t convinced, his quest for pleasure long forgotten. “Are you sure? We can do it another
time, there is no rush, Dany. We have our whole lives ahead of us.”

“I am sure, I want you now.” she said determinedly “Please.”

He nodded and started moving slowly inside of her, he gave her a deep kiss, hoping that it will
distract her from her discomfort and to his relief, he saw her relaxing and even start moaning
gently.

Unfortunately those moans were the beginning of the end for him, and he felt himself losing
control, his movements growing faster and more erratic now. His nose was buried in Dany’s neck,
he couldn’t hold it anymore and spilled himself deep inside her.

He stayed like that for a few moments, with Dany gently stroking his hair, waiting for his wits to
return.

“Are you all right, Dany? Did you get any pleasure from it?” he asked concerned.

“Not like when you did the other thing, but I loved having you inside me. It made me feel
complete.” she told him with a smile.

“Do you want me to do that thing with my mouth again?”

“No, my love, just hold me tight,” she said. “Where did you learn that anyway?”

His face started burning “You don’t wanna know.” he said. When he looked at her, expecting to
see amusement, he only saw hurt.

Jaehaerys Targaryen, you’re the biggest idiot from Asshai to Castle Black!

He took her face in his hands and made her look straight into his eyes: “That’s not what I mean,
my love, I learned it from a book...”

To his relief a smile broke on her face: “A book? What kind of books are you reading, dear
husband?”

He rolled his eyes: “Oswell gave it to me, I'd been reading it when you and Arya were out
training...” he admitted.

“That’s why your face was always red when we finished our training? You looked like you were
the one who trained, not us.” she told him.

He sheepishly nodded.

“You realize that I want to read that book too, right husband?” she said with a grin.
“I expect nothing less from you, wife!”

He woke up like he always did, with Daenerys' body flushed against him.

Not Daenerys. His wife. His Queen.

Jaehaerys couldn’t remember the last time he slept so well. He looked out the window, the sun
was up in the sky.

Fuck!

It looked like it was at least noon!

He missed his morning training. And he never missed his morning training.

Fuck!

He tried to get his wife off him, but instead of letting him go, she seemed to cling to him more.

As he was thinking of a way to get off the bed without disturbing her, she sleepily opened her
eyes. “What are you doing?” she asked.

“I need to go and train, it’s noon and I never miss my practice.” he told her, gently trying to
remove himself from her arms.

“No.” was the only thing she said and wrapped herself tighter around him.

“My love, Arthur is surely waiting for me...” he tried to reason with her.

“No. Let him find his own husband.” she said stubbornly.

Well, it was the day after his wedding, after all, he could probably miss a training. He moved them
both on his pillow, to make them more comfortable, gave her a soft kiss on her forehead and
prepared to go back to sleep.

“You’re mine.” he heard her mumble.

“Always.”

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