Red Keep ― Maegor's Holdfast…
Alicent spent the early morning tending to her sons. Raising three boys – Jaehaerys, Aegon, and Viserys – was exhausting. She usually required a lot of help from her handmaidens, especially from Talya, who quickly proved to be her most loyal lady-in-waiting. But whenever she got a moment to rest, Alicent routinely checked in on Rhaenyra and King Viserys to ensure both were feeling well. The Targaryens may be the ruling dynasty of the Seven Kingdoms, but to her, they were like a second family. And family meant everything to her. Alicent knew cracks were forming and she worked tirelessly to mend the rift and heal relations, but the progress proved more challenging for her at times. However, she would not give up until the family was made whole again, the very family she remembered growing up.
"Have you spoken to her?"
Viserys, looking back at his daughter-in-law holding a cup of freshly brewed tea for him, graciously accepted. "No," he admitted. "No, I'm afraid I didn't. It's… a lot to take in. Not simply as a king, but as a father. Still, the allegations don't make things any easier. I can't believe Rhaenyra and my brother would even do such a thing."
"I don't think it's in Rhaenyra's nature to be deceitful. At least, not to my knowledge. Though I'm afraid I cannot say the same for your brother, Your Grace," Alicent said.
"You believe he lied? Daemon might be… rash, arrogant, and even quarrelsome on more than one occasion for as long as I've known him. But how does confessing to such things serve him?"
"By reducing you, and your son."
Viserys sighed deeply. Hanging his head low, the king contemplated long and hard how it came down to this. Even if the allegations were dispelled, the rumors would still linger. "How is Aeonar taking it?" he asked.
Alicent shook her head. "He's looking into the matter personally," she told him. "Rhaenyra and I went to him and laid out everything that Rhaenyra told me, from her sneaking out of the castle at night with Daemon to her being left all alone at a pleasure house in the Street of Silk. It sounds crazy, Your Grace, I know, but instead of reprimanding her Aeonar just listened."
"That… does sound like him. I remember. I understand now it's what he did in his days as my Master of Whisperers, putting together all the pieces. If the connections were there, he wouldn't ignore or deny them. I just hope he finds something to quell the allegations. However, even so, whatever transpired, Rhaenyra is not innocent."
"Only because Daemon tried to corrupt her."
"They share the blood of the dragon."
"As do your grandchildren," Alicent reminded her father-in-law. "Rhaenyra swore to me that she remains a maiden. She swears she's innocent. And I believe her. Aeonar will find the proof we need."
Viserys wanted so desperately to believe that his daughter was innocent as Alicent claims. But the mounting pressure was just too much.
« House Velaryon wishes to reconcile with you. […] Lord Corlys has offered the hand of his daughter, the Lady Laena, in marriage. To unify the two great Valyrian houses in the Seven Kingdoms and demonstrate your reign's strongest days are ahead, not behind. Quite the offer, wouldn't you say? […] I understand your reservations. But should you choose to consent to the arrangement, it would mend the lingering rift caused by the Great Council and demonstrate your sincerity in retaining the crown's strongest ally. A betrothal with the Sea Snake's daughter would not formally begin until Laena comes of age; so, think of it as a long-term engagement. Besides, it would go a long way at home and abroad. »
« You want my honest opinion? Driftmark would make a far more valuable ally to have rather than a dangerous enemy. If you want a strategic advantage, then yes, I think you should wed Laena Velaryon. You are the King, and so, your first duty is to the realm. Mother would have understood this. Just as I do. »
« I fear nothing short of a direct line to the Iron Throne would satisfy him. You should also consider that we find ourselves on the precipice of war in the Stepstones. And the Sea Snake holds claim to nearly half the realm's ships. […] Driftmark makes for a better ally than it does an enemy. The Sea Snake has made a calculated reach, a fair play for a man of his position. But if you genuinely want my unencumbered opinion… […] You should wed Laena Velaryon, Your Grace. Sate Lord Corlys and fix him at your side, permanently, as an ally. »
« This is an absurdity! My house is Valyrian, the greatest power in the realm. How dare you insult us like this! »
« You fucking idiot. A ruler needs a good head and a true heart. Poor judgment is not an essential characteristic. […] Consider this my resignation. »
« If it was for an advantage, you would have wed Laena Velaryon! »
« It would seem to me the best match for Rhaenyra is the son of the Sea Snake, Ser Laenor Velaryon. Some years ago, Prince Aeonar and I counseled you to take his sister to wife. My reasoning remains the same. Laenor is of pure Valyrian descent. He shares blood with your cousin, Princess Rhaenys. And he is the heir to the wealthiest house in the realm. The breach between your houses has not narrowed since I last spoke of it. It would do much to assuage Lord Corlys of any slights real… or imagined. Since they've returned from the fighting in the Stepstones, Laenor has a well-earned reputation as a capable military commander, is a man of honor, and rose to command by your son's side as his second. »
« Even though it's been more than a year since the war in the Stepstones came to an end, what should have been a momentous victory for the realm, it would seem we have traded a crabfeeder for a sea snake over the past few days. »
« This is clearly a rebuke for passing over Lady Laena for Queen Beatrice. »
« The Sea Snake is an over-proud man, to be sure, Your Grace. That pride has been injured. Perhaps we can salve the wound? »
« Lord Corlys is said to have engaged in negotiations with the Sealord of Braavos. He plans to wed his daughter Laena to the Sealord's son. If House Velaryon enters into an alliance with the Free Cities, then we would have to seek our own marriage pact. »
No, not again! Viserys shook his head to rid his mind of any lingering doubts as the memories of his past actions came back to haunt him. No, he wouldn't make the same mistake again. Viserys would have to settle the matter personally. Not as a father, but as a king. Viserys was now more than determined to make things right. "Alicent," he spoke.
"Yes, father-in-law?" Alicent replied.
"How would you and your sons like to accompany me on a trip tomorrow morning?"
"Are you… sure?"
"Yes, I'm sure. I can have Otto manage things in my stead until we get back. Shouldn't be more than a few days. Besides, I think it'll be quite an opportunity for all of us to spend time together as a family. You, me, Aeonar, Rhaenyra, and the children. What do you say?"
"I… I would be delighted. I'm sure the children would like it too. If you don't mind me asking, Your Grace, what location do you have in mind?" Maybe this will trip would help Viserys and Aeonar to at least start talking to each other again. Please, Aeonar, your father is trying so hard to make amends. Please don't make him feel worse than he already is. Father-in-law, there's still good in him. I know it. I know the part you've always seen him is still buried beneath the surface.
"I hadn't thought of it, but now that you think of it, have you ever been to Driftmark?"
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Rhaenyra hated this. This… feeling of being confined. Isolated. She felt like a caged animal. Ever since the rumors about her began to spread throughout the Red Keep, the princess felt her actions being monitored with every move she made. It made Rhaenyra feel anxious, tense, and frustrated. Sure, she felt assured that her brother looking into the source of these allegations about her would prove her innocence, but Rhaenyra also despised the fact that Aeonar placed her under house arrest until the investigation reached its conclusion.
So here she was. In her room, assigned as a mere babysitter to her young nephews.
While the twins Aegon and Viserys fussed as the servants tried to put them to sleep, Jaehaerys held onto one of his toys in his left hand and turned the page of one of his books with the right. The loud whining of the twins, however, annoyed her – Seven hells, they were loud! Even so, Rhaenyra silently admitted that of the three, her eldest nephew was surprisingly the most well-behaved for a three-year-old. Another children's book, but it was one of Jaehaerys's favorites.
"How many times does that make it? Thirteen? Fourteen? You read that book so many times I've lost track," Rhaenyra inquired.
Jaehaerys still skimmed the pages, his eyes glued to the pictures.
"You like it that much that you won't talk to your favorite aunt?"
"Mmm… Rwanie."
Rhaenyra rolled her eyes. "Oh, we're going to go there again, aren't we? I told you, Jay, it's Rhaenyra. Not Rwanie, not Raenwa. Ray-KNEE-ruh. Rhae. Ny. Ra," she repeated.
"Rhae… Rhae…"
"Come on." Oh, who am I kidding? He's only three. He won't get it anyway.
"Rhae… ny… ra."
Rhaenyra's ears perked at the sound and quickly spun her head to face her nephew. "W-What did you say?" she inquired almost eagerly. "Can we say it again? Come on, Jay. What's my name?"
"Rhae… nyra," Jaehaerys babbled, struggling slowly to form the correct words. "Auntie… Rhae… Rhaenyra."
The princess felt her cheeks blush. Her nephew finally pronounced her name correctly! He finally got it right! Rhaenyra felt a sense of pride when Jaehaerys kept calling her name. "That's it," she stretched her arms out. "Come on, Jay. Come to auntie Rhaenyra," she beckoned.
Jaehaerys, moving to stand up, slowly waddled over to Rhaenyra who then scooped up her nephew to set him down on her lap. Although she did not attempt to bond with her half-siblings, Rhaenyra did at least try with her brother's and sister-in-law's children. So, when she felt Jaehaerys snuggling against her bosom, the princess couldn't help but smile and gently stroke her nephew's smooth Valyrian silver hair the way she did when he was a baby. Before long, Rhaenyra felt her nephew go limp, followed by the feeling of his chest rising with each silent breath.
"Ah, out like a light already, hmm?" Rhaenyra rose from her seat, still carrying a sleeping Jaehaerys in her arms, and gently placed him in his bed – hoping his younger brothers don't wake him up. "Time for your aunt to get some sleep herself, tresy (nephew). I'll swing by to check on you in the morning, okay?" She glanced next to his bed at the brazier that once contained his dragon egg. Since his birth, the egg she had chosen for him still hadn't hatched. To her disappointment, despite taking all the necessary precautions, the Dragonkeepers later determined the egg was nonviable. You will have a dragon one day, Jay. Perhaps when you least expect it. But you'll get one.
When the doors slowly creaked open, Rhaenyra turned to see who it was and demanded they quiet themselves to not awaken her sleeping nephews – but to her surprise, she saw two Kingsguard knights enter: Ser Criston and Ser Lorent Marbrand. Ordinarily, the princess wouldn't have minded Criston, but for Lorent to be here as well? Something serious must have happened.
"Forgive us, princess," Criston stammered an apology. "T-The king has…"
"His Grace has requested your presence at once," Lorent finished.
"What for?" Rhaenyra inquired.
"He didn't say, princess, but only that the matter was serious – especially since your brother is with him as well. They told us they needed a word with you. Now."
Rhaenyra felt tensed up if both her father and brother demanded her presence. Normally they wouldn't have been in the same room together, but for them to call for her simultaneously must have meant that something serious was happening or is already happening. The princess couldn't help but suspect it might have had something to do with the rumors about her. Did they find something? No, that couldn't be it. Aeonar would have informed her already. How much more embarrassment and humiliation must she endure already before she can be released from her confinement already? Not wanting to waste any more valuable time, Rhaenyra merely complied and followed Criston and Lorent to her father's private chambers.
Upon turning the corner throughout Maegor's Holdfast, Rhaenyra noticed Lord Commander Harrold Westerling standing guard at the king's door. Ser Harrold stood aside to allow Criston and Lorent to push open the door. Criston glanced awkwardly at Rhaenyra, not saying a word. Rhaenyra, meanwhile, composed herself and stepped into the room. Once the doors closed behind her, she noticed the Valyrian steel dagger buried into the burning coals of the brazier, its smooth black hilt comprised of dragonbone and dragonglass. Rhaenyra remembered the same dagger Aeonar showed her at Balerion's shrine many years ago after their mother died.
« There's something else you should know. It might be difficult for you to understand, but this is a secret father told me many years ago. […] It's been passed down from king to heir since Aegon's time. Look closely at the blade. »
Rhaenyra exhaled shakily. Yes, Aeonar. I still remember what you told me back then. 'From my blood come The Prince That Was Promised, and his will be the Song of Ice and Fire.' Before she could grasp the hilt, she quickly pulled away when she heard voices calling out to her.
"You're late," Aeonar emerged from the shadows.
Rhaenyra nearly jumped. She didn't even see or hear him!
"That dagger once belonged to Aegon the Conqueror," Viserys also stepped into the room. "It was Aenar's before that. And before that… Well, it is difficult to know."
"So much of our history was lost when the Doom destroyed Old Valyria. Fortunately for us, the Lykirī Mēre preserved whatever records they could over the centuries. You can thank Grand Master Azdez mo Dharozn for that."
"Father? Brother?" Rhaenyra felt cornered.
Viserys approached the brazier. Aeonar, on the other hand, remained with his back leaning against the pillar with his arms crossed, watching both closely. The king grasped the hilt, gently pulling the Valyrian steel dagger out. "Before Aegon's death, the last of the Valyrian pyromancers hid his song in the steel," he continued. The Valyrian steel was heated red-hot, revealing the hidden message etched onto it.
"The responsibility passed on to me 11 years ago. It's a burden few can even imagine," Aeonar mentioned.
"The burden of this knowledge is larger than the throne, the king."
"Larger than yourself or your own selfish desires. You can't run from it; you can't hide from it. We all have a place in this world… but we don't get to choose our destinies. No, they're chosen for us instead. Because that is the way of things."
Viserys stared at his daughter. I should have done this a long time ago. "Your great-grandfather Jaehaerys, the Old King… he would've disinherited you a long time ago," he said sternly. He was in no mood for any pushback from Rhaenyra. No, tonight he was going to put his foot down and intervene as the ruling monarch.
"For a lie?" Rhaenyra inquired. "You've yet to ask me for the truth of what happened."
Aeonar raised his hand up, instructing his sister to remain silent. "Be silent, Rhaenyra. You're on thin ice as it is, so unless you intend to put yourself in an even worse position than you already have, you will hold your tongue."
"The truth does not matter, Rhaenyra. Only perception," Viserys interjected. "You have exposed yourself. Now we all must suffer the consequences."
"Consequences caused by your actions, your mistakes. Enough people have already heard the gossip that you were at least sighted in a brothel with Daemon, and until the inquiry is finished, they are willing to entertain the rumor that you actually fucked him there."
Rhaenyra shook her head. "I don't believe that, and neither do you," she said defiantly. "Were I born a man, I could bed whomever I wanted. I could father a dozen bastards, and no one in your court would even dare so much as blink an eye. So, when you do it, it's fine. But when I do it, then suddenly you say that's entirely unacceptable? Pffft! You do know how hypocritical you sound."
"ENOUGH!" Viserys shouted. "You are right… but you were born a woman. And you can't change that no matter how hard you try."
"You know the truth. Nothing is fair," Aeonar pointed out. "Not life, not death… not fate."
"If I could strip you of all your titles and protections the crown provides, I would. But it is my responsibility to hold the realm together, not sow it with further division. It's a mistake on my part I acknowledge and own up to. Now it's time for you to do the same. Your courtship is at an end."
"We gave you so many chances, Rhaenyra, one I never had. But since you decided to throw it all away, you leave us with no choice."
"You will wed Ser Laenor Velaryon, and you will do so without protest."
Rhaenyra looked at her father, then to her brother expecting support – but Aeonar said nothing. Instead, she saw him give a slow nod in confirmation. Aeonar supported the idea of marrying his sister off to the heir of Driftmark. "The son of the Sea Snake," she gritted through her teeth. "So I can be a remedy for your political headaches."
"You are my political headache!" Viserys reprimanded her.
"You're BOTH political headaches!" Aeonar scolded them both, catching Viserys's and Rhaenyra's attention. "You," he turned to his father, "although the decision is commendable and you're finally getting your head on straight – hopefully – don't forget that it was your foolish mistakes three years ago that broke our family." He turned to his sister. "And you," he said to Rhaenyra, "you've been nothing but a spoiled little girl causing trouble with no repercussions on your part. And with the allegations spreading like wildfire, I don't think you're in any position to be making demands. So, you will do as the crown has instructed and you will marry Ser Laenor Velaryon – and put an end to these disgusting rumors about you once and for all."
Viserys sighed, walking around the table, and contemplating his past mistakes. Yeah… he's still not letting that one go. "Your wedding to Ser Laenor Velaryon will unite the two most powerful houses in the realm," he told his daughter. "With the combined strength of our shared dragons and naval fleets, no one would dare to stand against us. The House of the Dragon will stand as one for a further generation." He turned to his son. "Will Lord Corlys answer the call?"
"He'll be more receptive if the letter comes from me," Aeonar informed him.
"And your oversight of the investigation will not be hampered in any way shape or form if you're to come with us to Driftmark?"
"No, it will not. Whether at home or across the Narrow Sea, I have eyes and ears everywhere."
"Good. See to it that you get us the proof we need to determine Rhaenyra's innocence."
"I always get the job done. No secret can remain hidden for long." Aeonar turned to his sister. "I've already gathered as much information, and so far, the evidence seems to confirm much of what you've told me… almost."
"Almost?" Viserys inquired.
"Since Rhaenyra came asking for my help, she's been behaving rather strangely while telling me her side of the story. She wouldn't look me in the eye, her tone changed more than once, and her posture shifted in a pattern indicating signs of discomfort." Aeonar again turned to Rhaenyra, his eyes narrowing with suspicion. "You wouldn't happen to know more than what you already told us, do you, Rhaenyra? You wouldn't dare lie to your own brother, would you? Because it would be a shame for me to discover that you lied to me. So now because of that, I'll have to dig a little deeper – which again takes time."
Aeonar turned to leave the room, leaving Viserys and Rhaenyra alone for further talks. As he shut the door behind him, he could hear the faint sniffling of his sister from the other side. The Young Dragon had a hunch about his suspicions; he knew his sister all too well to know whether she was hiding something from him or not. If Rhaenyra had been honest from the beginning, then his reports would have been more than enough to prove her innocence. But Aeonar knew there was something Rhaenyra was not telling him. And he'd find out eventually. He felt the nerves in his head tugging and twitching again, causing him to let out a small gasp in discomfort – massaging his temples in a circular motion. Aeonar wanted to give Rhaenyra the benefit of the doubt, he really did, but there were certain pieces of the puzzle that were still missing.
"I-It's done, my prince," the street urchin slowly approached with his head lowered. He held out his hand to give him a new batch of documents the Lykirī Mēre seized from the thief they assassinated earlier.
Aeonar took the message and traced each word closely. He recognized this familiar handwriting. "Good. You're much more cooperative this time," he handed the urchin 100 silver stags as payment.
"T-Then… you'll keep your word? I-If I agree to serve you… if I spy for you… y-you'll protect us?"
"Yes, you have my protection. Return to the White Worm and report any interesting findings you come across. Just know that if you even think of betraying me, I'll have your head. Otherwise, you're safe. Few ever get a second chance."
"I-I swear I won't make that mistake! T-Thank you!"
Aeonar watched the street urchin hurriedly leaving the Red Keep for the safety of the city. He again looked down at the parchment in his hands, the letters in almost perfect penmanship. "Spying on the royal family… Don't think I'll overlook this."