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Rating:
Teen And Up Audiences
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Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Categories:
F/MF/F
Fandoms:
Game of Thrones (TV)House of the Dragon (TV)A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. MartinA Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms
Relationships:
Rhaenyra Targaryen/Laenor VelaryonRhaenyra Targaryen & Daenerys TargaryenAlicent Hightower & Rhaenyra TargaryenHelaena Targaryen & Rhaenyra TargaryenLaena Velaryon/Daemon Targaryen/Daenerys TargaryenAegon II Targaryen & Rhaenyra TargaryenAemond "One-Eye" Targaryen & Daemon TargaryenJon Snow & Daemon TargaryenDaemon Targaryen/Daenerys TargaryenJon Snow & Daenerys Targaryen
Characters:
Laenor VelaryonRhaenys Targaryen VelaryonLucerys Velaryon (Son of Rhaenyra)Jacaerys VelaryonDaenerys TargaryenDrogon | Daenerys Targaryen's DragonAlicent HightowerDaemon TargaryenAegon II TargaryenAemond "One-Eye" TargaryenVhagar (ASoIaF)Rhaenyra TargaryenHelaena TargaryenLaena Velaryon (Daughter of Corlys)Caraxes | Daemon Targaryen's DragonVermithor | Jaehaerys I Targaryen's DragonJon SnowGhost | Jon Snow's DirewolfMelisandre (A Song of Ice and Fire)
Additional Tags:
Time TravelTime Travel Fix-ItDragon POV - FreeformWhite Walkers (A Song of Ice and Fire)ProphecyDreamsDance of the DragonsReconciliationPoliticsAlternate Universe - Canon DivergenceSome RomanceFamilyRhaegal livesGood Sibling Rhaenyra TargaryenHelaena Targaryen Joins Team BlackAemond does not lose an eyeSome angstHurt/Comfortsiblings bondingTime ShenanigansBlood MagicThe Long Night (A Song of Ice and Fire)One-Sided Jon Snow/Daenerys TargaryenJealous Jon Snow
Language:
English
Series:
Part 1 of The Wings of Time Next Work →
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🌑 𝑫𝒂𝒓𝒌 𝑴𝒂𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒓 🌑
Stats:
Published:2023-09-27Updated:2026-07-08Words:479,849Chapters:115/130Comments:6,122Kudos:9,244Bookmarks:1,865Hits:519,728
Dragons, Dreams, and Second Chances
BearlyMadeIt
Chapter 9
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
"You have to fly to Harrenhall," Rhaenyra said at last, turning to her husband.
Laenor frowned. "What? Why?"
"She said there would be a fire. Lyonel will die."
"She has lots of dreams, does she?" It didn't sound right. The girl played them, surely.
Rhaenyra smiled weakly. "Humor me. I just… want to be sure. We both know who will be hand if Strong dies."
Well, yes. Fucking Otto.
"Will you come with?" Laenor asked.
Rhaenyra shook her head. "I cannot be gone when my father arrives."
He nodded. "Right now?" She had sent Rhaenys right now as well.
"Yes."
Laenor didn't move. "What changed your mind on her?"
"She knows something only I can know."
"What was it?"
But Rhaenyra again shook her head. "There is a good chance the rest she says will be true as well."
"Rhaenyra."
She turned to look at him. Laenor saw her face for the first time tonight. In the flickering fire of the torches, she looked worried, she looked scared.
"I will tell you when you return."
He nodded solemnly and kissed her forehead. "Does it mean I will die too?" The girl had said that as well.
Rhaenyra smiled thinly. "We will avoid it if we can. If you rescue Lyonel from the fire…"
Their chances seemed better, simply based on merit. Laenor turned to the closest guard. "Get me my travel cloak and provisions." He hesitated for a second, the guard already turning away. "My sword as well."
---
Watching Seasmoke take flight, Rhaenyra felt uneasy, felt fully alone for the first time. She shivered ever so lightly. Somehow, she feared it was already done, that all those things had happened, that they were facts. Daenerys had said… she said she thought the fire had happened already.
Hopefully… hopefully Daenerys sources erred on a few days. Because they would only need a few days to save them all. Deep down she didn't believe it, though. She knew Lyonel would be dead. Harwin would be dead. Laena would be dead too. Just like that, a full strike for the greens. She managed to walk halfway down to the beach, all alone except for the black dragon, who raised his head to look at her, before she burst into tears.
They would all die. Harwin and Laena. Laenor soon after. Her children too, as well as Daemon and even fucking Aegon and Helaena and…
Beating wings came closer. Syrax landed beside her and draped her wing over her. She growled, low and sad. Her poor little one.
---
She stood in the Dragon Pit, listening to Otto's endless palaver. She had heard it all before. The gold cloaks formed a way through the crowd of commoners. Music started playing. And then Aegon walked along them, swords lowered behind him as he walked on.
Again, Helaena watched on as he was anointed by the High Septon. As he was crowned king. Criston Cole, the man who always walked with her mother, placed the conqueror's crown on his head. No one cheered for Aegon. The smallfolk only whispered and Helaena knew why. He should not be King; she should not be Queen. Rhaenyra should be crowned, not them.
After came the blood, how it always did. Rivers and rivers full of it. Dragons falling from the sky, turning to thread. Helaena whimpered and threw herself around in her bed. It would be over soon. Just a moment longer and she could wake up and…
But today she didn't. The dream went on. For the first time, she watched Aegon take seat on the Iron Throne, staring down at them darkly. And then she flew. Wings beat beneath her in the night. Dreamfyre. She was on Dreamfyre. Cold wind cut through her, chilling her to the bone. As the sun rose, slow and red as blood, she watched a black dragon fly towards them. The last one. House Targaryen started with a black dragon, and it ended with a black dragon. Snow shifted far below them. Its rider would be a Queen, she knew suddenly. Just like she knew Aegon would be crowned king, like she knew Aemond would ride the biggest dragon in the world.
Before she could lay eyes on the woman Dreamfyre dove suddenly, and Helaena screamed. It wasn't snow beneath them. They were dead. They were all dead. As far as the eye could see, from horizon to horizon. And the dead were walking.
Helaena sat upright in her bed and screamed. Screamed, again and again, jumping up in a blind panic to hide in the corner of her room as if it could protect her. The dead would walk.
Only a few moments later, which felt like forever, which felt like years and years, a servant came running into her room, trying to calm her down, asking what had happened, that it only had been a dream. But Helaena didn't calm down, she went on screaming and crying and trashing.
---
Once she calmed down, Rhaenyra flew Syrax back to the Dragonmount. Watching her walk back into the caves, she smiled weakly. She had come to cheer her up.
"Can I have your cloak?" She asked one of her guards. She probably shouldn't walk around in only her nightgown. With a warm cloak wrapped around her, she slowly walked back to the castle, taking her sweet time.
How should she tell them? What should she tell them? What should Daenerys tell them, most of all? Dreams seemed to be a good route, but she sure couldn't claim all those things as dreams. She had seen the parchment, skimmed over it. There were lots and lots of things. No one could dragon dream that much, in excoriating detail at some points. The fire, sure, Laena dying, yes. But all the rest? How the battle of Tumbleton would go down? No way.
Which only left the truth, which was insane in itself. Tell them the girl had… what? Rhaenyra still hadn't thought of the what. Because the what was insane.
She must be from the future. 284 and some more. Nothing but madness. But it was what it was. She had a dragon, she knew of the song. Telling the truth, it was then… Laughable. They would think she was insane. She would think she was insane. Crazy and crazy teaming up. Alicent would use it against her, would claim she had lost her mind. Unfit to rule. Aegon had to be named heir to save the realm.
Rhaenyra screamed in frustration. All because… All because Aegon had a dream and took flight to bend the kingdoms to his will. All because of Otto. All because her father wanted to secure their power. All because… All because Laenor couldn't produce heirs. If her children at least looked like them, Alicent would have so much less to use against her. Not that she wouldn't find something else anyway, but it would be harder. All because… she hesitated but thought it anyway. All because her father didn't put an end to it, always avoiding strife. All because…
Again, she calmed. Returning to the castle, her mind ran in circles. Tell the truth, not tell the truth. She couldn't tell the truth. But if she lied it would surely catch up with her before long. Back in her private chambers, away from prying eyes, she lit a few candles and unfolded the parchment. She would read it again, unhurried and calm this time. Not skipping entire lines because the one further down was so much more ludicrous. And it all just got worse and worse. Rhaenyra got sick to her stomach. Daemon and she had one of Aegon and Helaena's sons killed, or so rumors claimed, in revenge for Luke. Kinslayer. The taking of Kings Landing by her, torturing the insufferable Lannister, but torturing, nonetheless. Otto beheaded – okay, anyone could see that coming. Aemond burned down the Riverlands. Some of the dragonseeds turned on her… and ever after, she saw betrayal everywhere, even accusing Corlys. Helaena threw herself off the Red Keep, which sparked the turmoil and the fall of the Dragon Pit.
Her getting eaten in the end. Again, she stared at the line. Set the realm ablaze for what? A fucking crown. Well. No. In revenge for her sons. Not that it made it any better.
---
In the far distance, Rhaenys could see the few flickering lights of Pentos. Meleys was closing in, the city growing ever bigger. In the beginning, the winds had been against them, as if the world itself was determined to slow them down, but Meleys shot along over the water after, as if she was determined to make up time, faster than Rhaenys ever remembered her flying. She had turned desperate at some point over the black lapping of waves. Laenor had told her, more in jest than anything, that the girl had said Laena would die. That he would die. Rhaenyra believes she threw out any accusation she could think of, Laenor had told her with half a smile. The girl is insane, he had added.
Only Rhaenyra had changed her mind. And with even the winds slowing them down… She was not superstitious, not normally. She didn't even believe in the Seven. They were of the dragon. The faith of the seven was nothing to them. But watching her dragon creep along, fighting against nature itself, doubts had come. They cleared as they got closer, only a little nagging left behind. So, so close. Her daughter would not die, however it would come to pass. Rhaenys threw a glance behind her to check on her maester, who had grown suspiciously quiet. Either he had gotten used to it or he had screamed his voice away. Probably the latter.
"We will be descending," she informed him as a matter of courtesy. The man nodded, horror dancing on his face. Not another dive.
Meleys landed close to Vhagar and Caraxes, who greeted her with little growls. Rhaenys jumped off and ran towards the castle, her maester for now forgotten. She had to get to Laena. Daemon stood by the top of the stairs, hand on the hilt of Dark Sister, and stared at her with the ever-slightest frown.
"Why are you here?" He asked. Had his brother sent her? Sure, he had. Was he ordering them back again, by fucking royal command? Or… had he died? Had Rhaenyra died, maybe? She had been pregnant only a little ago. Maybe something had gone wrong. The frown disappeared while his face fell, expecting the worst.
"Where is my daughter?"
---
Harrenhall was ablaze. Laenor stared at it from afar, urging Seasmoke to fly faster. He did not bother circling. He landed in the yard and screamed at the panicked guards and servants, who futilely tried to put out the fire. What should buckets of water do against such heat?
"Where is Lord Lyonel's chamber?"
He did not get an immediate answer, so he grabbed one of the guards and yelled at him again. The man stared at him, stared at the dragon behind him, and stammered nothings.
"Answer me! Where is Lyonel Strong?!" Laenor screamed and shook him. Seasmoke was growling. If Harrenhall was burning, his sister would be dying.
"The tower." The guard pointed up, where the fire was slowly reaching, lapping at the stone, casting gruesome shadows around them. "Window on the left."
Laenor let go of him and jumped back on Seasmoke, who took flight on his command, aiming for the tower and the window to the left. Smoke was starting to pour out the window. Peering inside the chamber, with Seasmoke awkwardly trying to hold his position, Laenor saw Lyonel frantically trying to open the door. Obviously. Who in their right mind would check a window so high up for escape? Ever more smoke streamed in. Laenor coughed.
"Lord Strong!"
Lord Strong did not hear. Just tried to open the damn door.
"Lord Strong!"
Nothing. Seasmoke roared, but not even he could draw his attention. Lyonel hammered away at the door, ripped on the handle, tried to pry it open to no avail, screamed in sheer panic, listening to Harwin dying on the other side. The roaring of the flames approaching nearly sounded like dragons.
Laenor stared. Screw it. Screw it, screw it, screw it!
"Umbagon", he ordered Seasmoke and did the most stupid thing he could ever think of. Jumped through the window into the room. If he could save Lyonel, his sister could be saved as well.
Notes:
Here we are. They got to their destinations more or less in time. Next chapter will decide who survives. Should Laenor save Harwin as well? He sure as hell will try.
Really enjoyed Heleana's dream. Will so add more along the way.
I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Once again, thanks lots for all the comments and kudos. Always makes my day!
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