Many years ago, the Toad Witch once spoke a prophecy to the maiden Cersei in her youth: One day, you will rule as queen over all… until the arrival of another woman.
She will be younger than you and more beautiful than you. She will overthrow you and take away everything you hold dear.
The True Dragon Alliance was established. Aegon married Sansa, and after the wedding, Aegon announced his legitimate claim to the Iron Throne, proclaiming himself Aegon VI. His wife was crowned queen, and King Aegon led armies on two fronts, north and south, marching on King's Landing.
Upon receiving this news, Cersei finally felt fear. And within that fear, she discovered the truth: the woman from the prophecy was neither Margaery, whom she had long feared deeply, nor the Dragon Queen she constantly thought of yet had never truly confronted. It was her former little tagalong, Sansa Stark!
"So it was her. So it was her. That little bitch. I should have dealt with her back then…"
Inside Maegor's Holdfast in the Red Keep, Cersei's eyes burned like two small lanterns of hatred. She spun around the room like a top, wringing her hands and muttering madly.
Although Euron did not understand what madness had seized his wife, he sensed her fear and helplessness. He spoke gently, "My dear, I swear I will defend your crown to the death. Aegon will only enter King's Landing by stepping over my corpse!"
After that, he received Queen Cersei's authorization to secretly contact the allied forces. In exchange for a dragon egg and a dragon horn, he would rent a wyvern squad from them.
Note carefully: Euron was renting a wyvern squad, not joining the alliance, much less uniting with them under the banner of opposing the Dragon Queen in order to attack her great nephew.
Once the wyvern squad arrived, he made his position clear at the Small Council: "We are only targeting Aegon Targaryen, the one who provoked civil war and destroyed peace. Renting the allied wyvern squad is purely a commercial transaction."
In fact, that was exactly what he had written in his request for assistance to the alliance.
But everyone understood that this was merely a small trick, a way to avoid retaliation from the Dragon Queen. The alliance received the dragon egg and the horn, and even conveniently netted King Aegon as well. They did not mind Euron sitting on the fence.
Cersei was dissatisfied, believing this behavior to be far too cowardly.
"I am not afraid of Daenerys!" she loudly declared to all the councillors at the Small Council.
But the councillors, and even the Lannisters who controlled the lion's armies, did not want to clash head-on with the Dragon Queen before the outcome of the fighting in Slaver's Bay was clear.
They all let out long sighs of relief, gladly accepted the wyvern mercenaries, and sent a letter to Dragonstone to explain the situation to the Dragon Queen.
However, the allied wyvern squad was no pushover. On the surface, they agreed to Euron's terms and acted as obedient mercenaries, but in secret they repeatedly flew to Dragonstone to drop wildfire bombs. While destroying the core of the magical network, they also intended to force the Iron Throne into a desperate position.
Euron, the so-called outlaw hero, held the letter sent from Dragonstone, his expression frozen.
After discovering Maester Theomore's special identity in White Harbor, Euron gave him his first task: to incite Jon Stark to send a plea for help to Sansa, and to draw as much of Aegon's strength as possible toward Winterfell.
At that time, Aegon was advancing on King's Landing with armies on two fronts. Anyone with half a brain could see that if he diverted some of his focus to the North, things would become much easier for the Iron Throne.
Letting Aegon meet the Second Stag would also provoke them into fighting each other first. This would eliminate the Second Stag, who had latched onto the Iron Bank, while further tying down Aegon's forces.
Well, although the Second Stag had Mel at his side in the short term and the Iron Bank granting him an endless money buff from afar, Euron, like everyone else, believed he was nothing more than a grasshopper in autumn, with only a few days left to hop around.
After all, the Second Stag had nearly died at the hands of the Bastard of Bolton before.
Surely Aegon was stronger than the Bastard of Bolton, right?
Before Maester Theomore could even speak, Jon had already arranged for Meiji and Gubert to go to the Twins to find Sansa.
Euron then assigned Maester Theomore a new task in order to make the Second Stag hold out a little longer: to inform him of the current developments within the True Dragon Alliance.
Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will never be defeated.
All right, at that time, Euron did not expect the Second Stag to win.
He only hoped that the stumbling block would be harder and larger, so that Aegon would take a nasty fall.
Ideally, Aegon would be forced to fight on two fronts for a long time: battling the Second Stag in the North and the Iron Throne at King's Landing.
As the commander, Aegon would have to fly back and forth between north and south frequently. This would not only exhaust him but also provide opportunities for the hired squad to ambush him.
Euron also knew that Aegon traveled by night and hid by day, deliberately guarding against the possible appearance of allied wyvern riders.
No one could have imagined that the Second Stag would manage to capture King Aegon.
When Euron received the letter from Maester Theomore, he nearly dropped his jaw in shock.
As for Cersei—
"Wahahahaha! I have been praying to the Mother every single day, and finally, the Mother has begun to favor me!Everything has gone so smoothly lately. Whatever I want just comes to pass. We did not even need to persuade her. That stupid little bitch Sansa dragged the fake dragon off to the North all by herself. And we did not need to help at all. Stannis took care of Aegon on his own.
If this is not the Mother's blessing, then what is?"
At the Small Council meeting, Queen Cersei was high-spirited and radiant. With her left hand on her hip and her right hand waving the letter announcing Aegon's capture, she looked as if she were brandishing a banner of victory.
Then, before the Second Stag could send people to take over command of the True Dragon Alliance, King's Landing made a great show of spreading the news that Aegon had been defeated and killed, delivering it to the Vale and the Golden Company.
Naturally, the lords of the Vale, the Golden Company, the Dornish princess, and the nobles of the Stormlands did not believe the Iron Throne's lies. However, they would certainly send ravens to the Vale to inquire.
Afterward, morale within the True Dragon Alliance collapsed. The lords of the Vale hesitated and refused to advance, the Stormlands nobles retreated, and only the Golden Company and the Dornish remained holding the front line, south of the Blackwater outside King's Landing.
And the Iron Throne's targets were now only the Golden Company and Dorne.
With Aegon gone, the Golden Company and Dorne still regarded the Iron Throne as their enemy. With Aegon gone, the Stormlands nobles went straight home. The lords of the Vale lost their interests and demands and began to drift apart as well.
"Wahahahahaha! Bless the Maiden. The false dragon alliance has been shattered, the counterfeit prince has been exiled by Stannis. Stannis has betrayed the Seven and will be forever abandoned by the people of the Seven Kingdoms.
"The War of the Three Kings is over. I am the true chosen ruler of Westeros, the queen favored by the Seven!"
Beneath the colonnade before the Great Sept of Baelor, Cersei wore a crown and an elaborately patterned ceremonial gown. She held her head high, like a little hen that had just laid an egg, preening smugly and clucking triumphantly before the Great Sparrow, who could not lay eggs.
"Now I want you to ring the great bell at once and announce to the people of the Seven Kingdoms my status as Queen of the Andals, the Rhoynar, and the First Men."
"No!" The Great Sparrow shook his head firmly.
The smug pride on Cersei's face gradually twisted into something ferocious.
"For the Maiden's sake, I have tolerated you until today. Do not refuse a toast only to be forced to drink a forfeit!"
Like venom seeping from the fangs of a mamba, Cersei's killing intent was no longer concealed.
In truth, this was plain enough. Had she not feared the Maiden's miracles of raising the dead, Cersei would long ago have sent soldiers to slaughter the Great Sept and once again taken the Great Sparrow's head.
The High Septon furrowed his gaunt face and sighed. "By what right do you claim the throne? Robert Baratheon ended the Targaryens and founded the Baratheon dynasty.
"It is still the Baratheon dynasty now. You were merely Robert's wife, and you have since married another man.
"How could I possibly allow the matron of House Greyjoy to become the lawful heir of the Baratheon dynasty?"
"Then will you welcome Stannis back to King's Landing? If you truly wait for his return, I fear he will not need you to crown him. He has a red-robed priestess, and even…"
Cersei pointed at the towering halls of the surrounding temple complex and sneered. "This magnificent Great Sept of Baelor would be stained red and turned into a temple of R'hllor. Do you intend to help heretics profane the Seven?"
"Alas!" The bitterness on the Great Sparrow's face deepened.
This truly was an age of competing in wretchedness.
Aegon's identity was unclear, his bloodline suspect. Wretched.Worse still, he insisted on seizing the Faith's rights to taxation and arms. Utterly wretched.Cersei had committed every mistake a woman could make and had remarried, losing all moral legitimacy. Wretched beyond measure.
The second stag had converted to a false god, burned the statues of the Seven, and forced the faithful to convert to the Lord of Light. Nothing could be more wretched than that.
The Great Sparrow had it very hard indeed.
"Though you murdered most of Robert's bastards, not all of them," he said.
"What do you mean?" Cersei asked, startled and suspicious.
"Robert Baratheon and Delena Florent had a bastard son, Edric Storm. His bloodline is clear, his maternal house is noble, and his age is appropriate. He is qualified to be Tommen I's heir."
"Edric…" Cersei's pretty face twisted like that of a demon, the name almost forced out between her teeth.
"He is a bastard!" she snarled.
"He is of pure Baratheon blood. The people of the Seven Kingdoms all know this," the Great Sparrow said calmly.
"He vanished long ago. He is dead."
"He has always been guarded by loyal knights and is quite safe. After King Tommen's death, Edric Storm wrote to me, requesting that I restore his Baratheon status. I agreed."
If Edric Storm could become Edric Baratheon, his claim would immediately surpass that of the second stag.
Only Myrcella, as a legitimate daughter, could barely rank above Edric, a bastard deemed "not of noble birth."
"Bastard, bastard, I will…" Cersei clenched her fists, her nails nearly piercing her palms. "Where is he?"
"In a place where you cannot harm him," the Great Sparrow replied coldly.
"Heh heh," Cersei laughed nervously, as if seized by some sudden realization. "Just you wait. We shall see whether I can cut off his little head!"
"Prince Edric is not the only surviving bastard of King Robert. Queen Mother, accept the fate arranged by the Seven and obediently return to the Iron Islands!"
"Send word to Dragonstone and have the Dragon Queen return Myrcella!" Davon Lannister, leaning on his cane, went to Maegor's Holdfast to offer Cersei his counsel.
"Myrcella, my daughter…" Cersei's eyes instantly filled with tears.
Euron's gaze flickered. "Will Daenerys agree?"
"In theory, she will not refuse," Ser Davon said solemnly. "According to the traditions of the Seven Kingdoms, when a hostage must return home to inherit a parent's title, any upright guardian may not obstruct it and will instead protect the heir in completing the inheritance."
"Yes, yes!" Cersei's face blossomed into a frenzied smile as she spoke eagerly. "It is tradition. It is the rule. She has no reason to refuse. My Myrcella, my good daughter, she is still so young, yet she must struggle to survive under the Mother of Dragons. Wuwuwu…"
She cried out loudly, "Send word to Dragonstone at once. I want Myrcella. She is my only child. I must protect her well."
(End of chapter)
Want to read the chapters in Advance? Join my Patreon
https://patreon.com/Glimmer09