Chapter 29: The Dragonbane's Reign, A Hidden Draconic Hegemony
The fires of the Dance of the Dragons had burned themselves out by 131 AC, leaving behind a realm scarred, a royal house decimated, and a profound, aching void where the thunder of Targaryen wings had once dominated the skies. Aegon III, the Dragonbane, a boy king haunted by the horrors he had witnessed, ascended a throne of ash and sorrow. For the immortal guardians of the North, the decades that followed were a period of intense, quiet consolidation, a time to observe the shifting tides of a Westeros struggling to redefine itself in the sudden absence of its most potent symbols of power.
King Brandon II Stark, the Greenseer, his public reign now stretching into its fourth decade (by the year 150 AC), was seen by the North, and indeed by the distant Iron Throne, as a paragon of steadfast wisdom and Northern resilience. He had navigated the Dance with masterful neutrality, preserving his kingdom's strength while the South tore itself asunder. His son, young Kaelen Stark – great-great-great-grandson of Kaelen the Elder – was now a man of forty, his youthful appearance maintained by the Elixir he had received upon his own majority. His magical training under his namesake ancestor had been exhaustive, his intellect sharp, his temperament a blend of Stark pragmatism and a Flamel-esque curiosity for the arcane.
The North, under the long peace enforced by Jaehaerys I and the subsequent self-inflicted weakness of the Targaryens, had thrived. The scars of the "Great Winter" – their secret Long Night – had largely healed from the land, though not from the memories of the immortal council. The population grew, granaries remained full, and the quiet, pervasive influence of Kaelen the Elder's subtle enchantments, fueled by the Philosopher's Stone, ensured a level of prosperity and resilience unmatched in the war-weary South.
Within Dragon's Maw, the Hidden Council – Kaelen, his spectral sons Torrhen and Rickard (Brandon Senior now a silent, watchful presence within the Heart Tree of the sacred valley), his son Eddard, Lyra, Arya, and King Brandon II – observed the slow, agonizing death of the last Targaryen dragons with a mixture of strategic interest and a strange, almost melancholic understanding. Morning, the last of the southern dragons, perished in 153 AC. The skies over King's Landing were empty. This monumental shift in the balance of power made the Starks' secret – their eight magnificent, immortal dragons – an asset of almost unimaginable significance.
"They have forgotten the feel of dragonfire, the true meaning of Valyrian might," Brandon Sr.'s essence whispered through the weirwood net to King Brandon II during one of his greenseeing communions with the Heart Tree. "They will grow complacent, their understanding of power confined to armies and gold. This makes our vigil both more crucial, and more perilous if ever discovered."
It was during this era that Kaelen the Elder deemed young Kaelen Stark ready to claim his own dragon. The choice fell to Sylvan, the sturdy, forest-green drake whose temperament was as steadfast and resilient as the ancient Northern woods. Kaelen the Elder still rode Nocturne, his bond with the colossal shadowflame dragon absolute, and Solara, the golden queen, remained his second, often accompanying him on his most vital solo expeditions or serving as a mount for one of the elder shadow kings when a physical presence was required.
The bonding of young Kaelen and Sylvan was guided by Kaelen the Elder himself, not with grand ritual, but with quiet communion in a secluded part of Dragon's Maw. Young Kaelen, his mind already disciplined by years of alchemical and ward-craft training, approached Sylvan with respect and an offering of shared purpose. The green dragon, ancient and wise in his own right, regarded the young Stark with intelligent, moss-green eyes, sensing the potent lineage and the familiar magic. The bond formed gradually, a deep, resonant understanding that spoke of shared earth-magic affinity and a mutual, steadfast nature. Young Kaelen Stark, scholar and alchemist, was now also a dragonlord, the newest link in their unbroken chain.
His role within the Hidden Council began to solidify. While King Brandon II managed the public face of the North and its mundane governance, young Kaelen became the primary apprentice to Kaelen the Elder in the deepest mysteries of Flamel's legacy and the Philosopher's Stone. He possessed a remarkable aptitude for the intricate mathematics and metaphysical principles that underpinned high alchemy. Together, they delved into applications of the Stone that went far beyond the Elixir of Life and the transmutation of gold.
Drawing upon Flamel's most esoteric notes, they began to experiment with large-scale land rejuvenation. In the most blighted, remote regions of the North – lands still bearing the scars of the true Long Night or areas where the soil was thin and infertile – Kaelen the Elder, with young Kaelen assisting in the precise calculations and channeling of energies, would subtly infuse the earth with life force drawn from the Stone. This was not an overt display of magic, but a slow, patient quickening, encouraging the growth of hardy Northern flora, improving soil fertility over decades, subtly expanding the arable land and strengthening the ecosystem of their vast domain.
They also explored the Stone's potential to enhance other forms of magic. Kaelen the Elder theorized that it could amplify the innate power of weirwoods, turning key trees in their network into even more potent conduits for the Old Gods' magic, strengthening Brandon Senior's vigil and Brandon II's greenseeing. This involved dangerous, precise rituals, channeling the Stone's immense energies into the root systems of selected heart trees, a task that required the combined will of several immortal Starks and their dragons to stabilize.
While the Starks quietly nurtured their hidden power, the South mourned its lost dragons. Aegon III, the Dragonbane, never overcame the melancholy of his childhood trauma. His court was somber, his reign marked by a quiet desperation as the last vestiges of Targaryen dragonpower faded. Arya and Umbra, their intelligence network as efficient as ever, brought reports of the King's grief, of the failed attempts to hatch new dragon eggs, of the growing sentiment that the age of dragons in Westeros was truly over.
This prevailing belief in the South was, Kaelen knew, their greatest shield. The world believed dragons were extinct, or nearly so. This allowed the Starks to operate with a degree of freedom they would not have otherwise possessed. They could continue to develop their dragonriders, their magical defenses, and their understanding of draconic lore without the Targaryens viewing them as a rival power to be crushed. Kaelen even initiated a clandestine research project, headed by young Kaelen and Eddard, into dragon breeding within the magically controlled environment of Dragon's Maw. Their dragons were immortal, but ensuring the continuation of their line, perhaps even selectively breeding for traits that would be useful against the Others (like Erebus's shadowflame or Glacia's ice affinity), was a project for the long centuries ahead.
The Hiemal Vexillum also found new, subtle applications. While its primary purpose remained the coordination of their dragons and the bolstering of Northern defenses against the White Walkers, Kaelen discovered its resonances could be used for more nuanced tasks. By altering the pitch and rhythm of its call, attuned to specific ley lines, they found they could subtly influence weather patterns over limited regions of the North – prolonging growing seasons in sheltered valleys, or conversely, intensifying blizzards along the northernmost borders to deter unwanted incursions or mask their own movements beyond the Wall. It was a delicate art, requiring immense precision and an understanding of the land's deepest energies, but it gave them another tool to shape their domain.
Erebus, the wild crimson-black dragon, remained a law unto himself, yet his presence was a constant factor in their calculations. He continued his silent, self-appointed guardianship of the Heart Tree valley where Brandon Senior resided, his shadowflame a terrifying deterrent to any creature, mundane or magical, that might stumble upon that sacred, warded place. Young Kaelen, with his keen intellect and growing understanding of primal magic, began to study Erebus from afar, theorizing that the dragon's unique connection to both fire and shadow, born from the Doom's energies, might hold keys to understanding other forms of potent, chaotic magic.
The vigil against the Long Night, though the immediate threat was bound, remained the Hidden Council's ultimate focus. Regular, cloaked patrols by their dragonriders continued beyond the Wall, monitoring the Night King's prison, observing the slow, almost imperceptible shifts in the Lands of Always Winter. The soulfire weapons were carefully maintained, their numbers slowly increasing in the secret forges beneath Winterfell. Brandon II's greenseeing, though no longer consumed by visions of immediate apocalypse, still provided glimpses into the far future, reminding them that the Great Other's malice was eternal, its slumber merely a pause in an endless war.
As King Brandon II's public reign approached its own half-century mark, his eldest son, young Kaelen, was not only a dragonlord of Sylvan and a skilled alchemist, but also a married man, his wife a resilient Northern woman from House Reed, chosen for her own subtle connection to the magic of the crannogs and the Old Gods. Their first child, a daughter named Lyarra after Kaelen the Elder's own long-departed wife, already showed the faint, unmistakable Spark. The cycle of immortal guardianship, the passing of the torch from one generation of Stark to the next, was secure.
Kaelen the Elder, now existing for well over two centuries in his Stark incarnation, watched these developments with a profound, quiet satisfaction. The world outside continued its chaotic dance of power and politics. The Targaryen dynasty, shorn of its dragons, would face new challenges, new rebellions, new internal strife. But in the North, a hidden kingdom of true power, guided by wisdom, magic, and immortal purpose, stood ready. They were the silent guardians, the wolves of winter with hearts of fire and wings of shadow, their watch unending. The death of the southern dragons was not an ending, Kaelen knew, but merely the prelude to a new chapter in the long, secret history of Westeros, a chapter where the true dragons, the immortal dragons of the North, held the ultimate key to the future.