Chapter 45: The Turn of Tides, The Serpent's Strike, and the Shadow's Grim Tally (Dance of the Dragons: Part 4)
The fall of King's Landing to Rhaenyra Targaryen had been a fleeting, pyrrhic victory. Her brief, tumultuous reign in the capital, marked by paranoia, high taxes, and the growing discontent of a starving populace, had ended as ignominiously as it began – not with a climactic battle, but with the desperate fury of the common folk in the Storming of the Dragonpit, and her subsequent flight as Green armies closed in. From his eternal vigil within Mount Skatus, Aelyx Velaryon watched these events unfold, not with surprise, but with the grim satisfaction of a prophet whose direst predictions were being meticulously validated. The Dance of the Dragons was accelerating its descent into a suicidal frenzy, and each Targaryen misstep, each fallen dragon, was a nail in the coffin of their undisputed aerial supremacy.
Publicly, Skagos, under the wise and steady hand of Lord Torrhen III Volmark (Aelyx's great-great-great-grandson, now a man respected throughout the North for his quiet strength and the continued, almost miraculous prosperity of his island domain), maintained its scrupulous neutrality. The North, under its Stark Warden, had initially been inclined towards Rhaenyra due to the oaths sworn to her by the previous generation. However, news of her increasingly erratic behavior in King's Landing, the murder of young Prince Lucerys by Aemond One-Eye (an act which, while brutal, had also demonstrated the Greens' terrifying resolve), and the sheer, bloody chaos engulfing the south had cooled Winterfell's ardor. Lord Volmark, echoing his father's counsel during the Great Council, consistently advised Lord Stark to prioritize Northern stability and avoid entanglement in the southern inferno. Skagosi ships continued to trade peacefully with Northern ports, the "Heir's Hoard" gold ensuring that the North, at least, remained well-supplied and insulated from the worst of the war's economic fallout. This further solidified House Volmark's indispensable role.
Within the sanctuary, however, the atmosphere was one of intense observation and ceaseless activity. The seventeen Targaryen dragon eggs, rescued in Aelyx's audacious heists, were now all hatched, a vibrant new generation of drakes and she-dragons with legendary bloodlines coursing through their veins. Aenar, with his teams of house-elf dragonologists, meticulously documented their growth, their temperament, their unique magical affinities. These "Targaryen-Skagosi" dragons, as Aelyx privately termed them, were already being integrated into his complex breeding programs, their genes destined to further enhance the potency and diversity of his own vast, hidden dragon legions.
The main focus of Aelyx's attention, however, remained the self-immolation of House Targaryen. Lyra and Daenys, their greensight honed by decades of practice and strained by the sheer volume of carnage, provided a near constant stream of visions. Tibbit's agents, operating with unparalleled stealth in a realm tearing itself apart, filled in the gruesome details.
Rhaenyra, a fugitive queen, her spirit broken by the loss of King's Landing, the deaths of three of her sons (Jacaerys, Lucerys, and young Joffrey during the Storming of the Dragonpit), and the slaughter of her dragon Syrax, became a hunted, increasingly desperate figure. She fled from one dwindling loyalist stronghold to another, her paranoia deepening, her pronouncements growing ever harsher.
Meanwhile, the Greens, though also suffering grievous losses, began to consolidate their power. King Aegon II, still recovering from the terrible burns he had sustained at Rook's Rest, was eventually smuggled back into King's Landing after Rhaenyra's flight, his return marked by brutal reprisals against her remaining supporters. His brother, Prince Aemond One-Eye, astride the colossal Vhagar, became the Greens' most terrifying weapon, a veritable god of destruction laying waste to Black strongholds in the Riverlands with impunity. Lord Larys Strong, the Clubfoot, Master of Whisperers, wove his intricate webs of intrigue, his spies and assassins ensuring that Green dominance was cemented through fear and betrayal. Aelyx found Larys Strong a particularly fascinating study – a man who wielded immense power without a dragon, without overt martial prowess, relying solely on cunning, information, and the manipulation of human weakness.
A pivotal moment in the war, one that Aelyx analyzed with particular interest, was the Second Battle of Tumbleton. Here, the Blacks suffered a catastrophic defeat, not just through force of arms, but through treachery. Two of the dragonseeds Rhaenyra had so desperately empowered – Hugh Hammer, rider of the ancient Vermithor, and Ulf the White, who had claimed Silverwing – betrayed her cause, turning their mighty dragons against their former allies in exchange for promises of lordship from the Greens. The battle was a bloodbath, resulting in the death of Lord Ormund Hightower and his cousin Ser Bryndon Hightower, but the treachery of the "Two Betrayers" shattered the morale of the remaining Black forces in the Reach and handed the Greens a decisive victory.
"Observe, my children," Aelyx instructed his own dragonriding descendants, as illusions of the battle, reconstructed from greensight and spy reports, flickered in the Obsidian Council Chamber. "Power granted without the binding chains of absolute loyalty, without the deep indoctrination of shared blood and purpose, is a weapon that can easily turn in one's hand. These dragonseeds, baseborn and driven by greed, possessed no true allegiance. Rhaenyra, in her desperation, armed them with dragons. Now, their treachery bites her. Let this be a lesson: our own strength lies not just in the number of our dragons, but in the unshakeable, magically reinforced loyalty of those who ride them – our own kin, bound to our eternal destiny."
The defection of Vermithor and Silverwing to the Green cause was a severe blow, but the Dance was a relentless engine of draconic attrition. The Greens' triumph was short-lived, as Hugh Hammer and Ulf the White, arrogant in their newfound power, began to make their own ambitious demands, even aspiring to the Iron Throne itself. This internal Green discord was another factor Aelyx noted with grim satisfaction.
The most iconic, and perhaps most tragically Valyrian, confrontation of the war was yet to come: the duel above the Gods Eye. Prince Daemon Targaryen, Rhaenyra's husband, the Rogue Prince, one of the last great figures of her cause, sought out his hated nephew, Prince Aemond One-Eye. Mounted on their formidable dragons, Caraxes the Blood Wyrm and the ancient Vhagar, they met in a cataclysmic aerial battle that blotted out the sun with smoke and flame. It was a duel born of decades of rivalry and hatred, a spectacle of unmatched fury and skill. In the end, Daemon, knowing he could not overcome Vhagar's sheer size and power, reportedly leaped from Caraxes onto Vhagar's back, plunging his Valyrian steel sword, Dark Sister, through Aemond's remaining eye socket, even as Caraxes locked his jaws onto Vhagar's throat. All four – both princes and both dragons – crashed into the waters of the Gods Eye, consumed in a final, terrible embrace.
Aelyx received the news of this legendary duel with a profound sense of Valyrian melancholy mixed with strategic appreciation. "The last of the true Valyrian firebrands," he murmured, observing the magically reconstructed scene. "Daemon and Aemond… they embodied the pride, the fury, the reckless courage, and the self-destructive arrogance of our ancestors. Their mutual annihilation is a tragedy, yes, but also a cleansing. They have removed two of the most powerful dragons and two of the most unpredictable Targaryens from the board. The realm is poorer for their loss of martial spirit, but perhaps safer from their untamed ambitions." He made sure his own dragonriders studied every detail of this duel – the tactics, the desperation, the sheer waste of it all. Preserve the dragon, preserve the rider, that was the Skagosi doctrine, a stark contrast to the Targaryens' profligate expenditure of their most precious assets.
With Daemon and Aemond gone, and Rhaenyra a hunted fugitive, the war entered its grimmest phase. Rhaenyra, betrayed by her own men, eventually sought refuge on Dragonstone, believing it to be her last safe haven. She was wrong. Aegon II, having secretly recovered enough from his injuries to travel, had already taken Dragonstone, his own dragon Sunfyre (though terribly wounded and barely able to fly) with him.
The end for Rhaenyra Targaryen was swift and brutal. Aegon II, his heart hardened by war and his own terrible wounds, ordered his half-sister fed to Sunfyre. Before the horrified eyes of her last remaining son, Aegon the Younger (who had been captured with her), Rhaenyra Targaryen, Queen of the Seven Kingdoms for half a year, was devoured by her brother's dragon.
"A queen consumed by a dragon," Aelyx noted, when the news reached him. "A fittingly Valyrian end to her tragic reign. Aegon II believes he has triumphed. He has eliminated his chief rival. But he has also committed a deed that will stain his name forever, and he has sown dragon's teeth in the heart of his nephew, young Aegon, who will now become the focus of all remaining Black loyalties."
Aelyx did not believe for a moment that Rhaenyra's death signaled the end of the war. The Blacks still had armies in the field, particularly in the Riverlands and the Vale, and they now had a new, young king to rally around – Aegon the Younger, Rhaenyra's son. Moreover, the North, under Lord Cregan Stark (grandson of the King Torrhen who had bent the knee), was finally, belatedly, stirring. Having remained aloof for much of the conflict, the reports of Rhaenyra's brutal death and the continued Green atrocities had finally roused the wolves of Winterfell.
Throughout this period of escalating carnage, Aelyx's focus on Skagos remained absolute. The opportunity for further egg heists had largely passed. The Dragonpit was a ruin, its surviving dragons dead or dispersed. Dragonstone was a fortress contested by warring Targaryens, its nests likely barren or too fiercely guarded. Aelyx was content with the seventeen Targaryen eggs he had already secured. His priority now was the continued growth and fortification of his own hidden power, and the careful observation of the Targaryen dynasty's self-immolation.
The Skagosi dragons, now numbering close to three hundred, including the rapidly maturing Targaryen-Skagosi lines, were a force that could have swept aside either Green or Black faction with ease, had Aelyx chosen to intervene. But his goal was not to conquer Westeros, not yet. His goal was to build an eternal, unassailable sanctuary, a hidden empire of magic and dragonpower that would endure when all other kingdoms had turned to dust.
His grandchildren were now fully adult, many with their own children – Aelyx's great-great-grandchildren – beginning their magical training. The sanctuary was a thriving, multi-generational society of powerful sorcerers, dragonriders, loyal house-elves, and radiant phoenixes, all shielded from the madness of the outside world by layers of impenetrable magic and Aelyx's timeless, unwavering will.
He watched the news from the south with the cold detachment of a god. The Dance of the Dragons was entering its final, brutal act. Rhaenyra was dead, but her cause was not. Aegon II sat uneasily on a throne drenched in kinsman's blood, his own body broken, his dragon dying. The North was finally marching. The end was near, but it would be a bitter, bloody end, one that would leave the Targaryen dynasty, and their dragons, forever scarred. Aelyx Velaryon, the Shadow King, waited patiently in the wings, his own dragons dreaming of a future none in Westeros could yet imagine. The tally of Targaryen folly grew longer with each passing day, and with each entry, the silent, hidden strength of Skagos grew ever more profound in comparison.