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123 AC, King's Landing
Jacaerys Velaryon ran out into the depths of the Red Keep, his eyes burning with tears, and his heart beating loudly. When he had snuck out of his room and followed the Rogue Prince around, while wearing a servant's garments. It was funny how one could become invisible while pretending to be a servant. No one stopped him or asked him who he was. No one even recognised him. He had thought himself clever for that little trick.
He had been angry at Daemon; the man had refused to let them speak with their mother, despite the fact that he would see her, himself. He had only seen her with the rest of the realm in the Throne Room when the King had removed her status as his heir, and she had looked terrible. He wished to comfort her. After all, it hadn't been her fault that a witch put her under a spell, had it? She was not to blame for what happened, and the King's punishment had been cruel and unnecessary.
It was only after he snuck into the room next to them that he realised that he was wrong. His mother… His mother had chosen to ally herself with the witch. She had tried to kill her own half-sister and killed Otto Hightower. But worse, when Daemon called Jace and his brothers bastards that no lord would choose to sit on the Iron Throne, she did not deny his words.
Jace had been told since the day he was born by both his mother and grandfather that he would be King. Jacaerys had been told that he would be king for all his life, that he would sit on the Iron Throne and rule justly. He had dedicated his life to being his mother's perfect heir. He focused as well as he could during the lesson and dedicated much of his time to training to be a warrior under the Rogue Prince, and for it all to be a lie…
But the ache he felt at the realisation that he would not be King paled compared to the truth of his parentage.
Jace had always suspected it, hadn't he? He remembered Ser Harwin, his mother's sworn shield. He remembered his proud face as he taught Jace in the yard. He remembered the pang of sorrow he had felt when he perished in that fire in Harrenhal. He remembered that his mother had been completely and utterly inconsolable.
Jace had heard the whispers. Neither he nor his siblings looked like Laenor Velaryon, though they loved him as their father, and he loved them. However, the way that Grandmother had always remained detached, at least compared to how she treated Baela and Rhaena. Jace was young, but he was not foolish.
However, it was different when his mother had all but confirmed his true parentage. He had run away unseen, his vision blurring, his chest heaving, wanting to let it all go. And as he ran, he found himself tripping and colliding with someone, sending them over.
Jace opened his mouth to apologise, only to freeze up as he looked up and saw Harry Potter's frame slowly getting up, "Ow… Oh, hello there, young Jace. How are you doing?"
The young Dragonrider refused to meet the man's eyes. He did not know the full truth, but his mother had insisted during his conversation with Daemon that the man was a threat, though the Rogue Prince had denied it, and claimed that her obsession with the Potters was the reason for many of her recent choices.
The man gave him a gentle smile and patted some of the dust from his clothes. He tilted Jace's teary face up, and his face softened even further, "Of course, you're not doing well, given all that happened… You know, whenever I feel sad or overwhelmed, I like to go on a walk somewhere no one would bother me. It helps me clear my mind, you see. Care to join me in one?"
Jacaerys shook but gave him a faint nod. The man's smile widened, and he clapped his hands. After a blink of an eye, the young boy realised that the world around him had changed. It started with a sudden burst of heat, a realisation that he stood on sand, as opposed to the Red Keep's floors, and that he looked at a pearly calm beach before him.
He gasped and asked, "What is this place?"
"The Summer Isles, specifically, the island of Walano. beautiful, huh?"
Jacaerys nodded absentmindedly, slowly realising that they had gone outside the Seven Kingdoms altogether in just the blink of an eye, "How?"
"I like to think that I'm a good magic user."
Jacaerys wouldn't say that he knew anything about magic, but it was the only explanation for what he had just experienced. He had heard rumours that the Potters used magic in some way, but he hadn't truly seen anything really unusual other than the gifts that he had given them moons prior. His father had always told him that most magicians were nothing more than charlatans and tricksters, but now he wasn't so sure. Magic seemed to be the only thing that made sense, and it would explain why his mother had been so wary of them.
"Can everyone who uses magic do this?" Jace asked, feeling curious.
"No," the man answered with an amused glint in his eyes, before starting to walk alongside the beach and motioning Jace to join him, "But never mind magic, right now. Look around you, Jace. It's nice, isn't it? Walking around in a place where no one would know who you are, no one would judge you for anything that you have done or could do? I always found it to be quite liberating. So, that said, do you care to tell me why a young prince of the realm would run around while dressed like a servant and crying his eyes out?"
Jacaerys looked away and muttered, "I wasn't crying."
The sorcerer gave him a blank look before shrugging, "I wasn't one for tears either. I used to think when I was your age that crying made you lesser, in some way. It took me some time to realise that I got it quite wrong. A man who never cried is a man who never felt sadness, who never felt grief, or a pain so deep that it feels like you're being ripped apart, and so cannot conceive of these things in others. Wouldn't that make such a man lesser, I wonder?"
Jace nodded his head, seeing the logic in the man's words, who continued, "Never feel ashamed of your tears, young man. They shall serve you well in the future."
The young boy remained silent, and the sorcerer continued, "You know, I don't particularly like your mother, even before… all this mess she made in King's Landing. It's her inability to accept her mistakes or learn from them, I think, that is primarily the reason for it. However, I have to admit that she did a great job raising you."
Given what he had heard back in the Red Keep, Jace couldn't argue with the man's words despite wishing to defend his mother, though that last part took him by surprise, "Truly?"
"Absolutely. We sort of got rid of the whole 'feudalism thing' back home, but people with old and wealthy heritages tended to act snobbish and like spoiled brats. For a prince, I have to say that I expected much worse from you."
"What about you?" Jace couldn't help but ask.
The man's smile slipped slightly, and he looked into the sea as he answered, "Oh, I grew up an orphan. My family were attacked when I was very young. We were at war, a magical war, and my family fought them off, but they were overwhelmed. My mother used a ritual that would destroy everything around our home, innocent and attacker alike, with only me being the survivor. Countless people died, so that I could live, though I never heard of any of this until I was much older."
The young man looked away, realising that the sorcerer had told him something private, and he felt the urge to do the same. He didn't even realise as his mouth opened and blurted out, "I'm a bastard."
A huge weight seemed to have dropped from his shoulders at the confession, and he looked at the sorcerer's face in trepidation, only to realise that the man's expression was utterly blank, "And…"
"And I am a bastard. Everyone said that I would be king. Mother, Grandfather…"
"I never really understood people's fascination with sitting on the Iron Throne. So far, I've never seen any king be happy while sitting on the damn thing. But that's not the reason you're angry. I can tell."
Jace swallowed and muttered, "Laenor Velaryon was never my father."
Here, he had said, the words that had been occupying his mind, roaming restlessly inside his head. His brothers didn't remember much of their father, at least not as Jace had claimed that he was older. Luke may have remembered small fragments of his presence, having seen only four namedays when he died, but that was all. They didn't remember the kindness in his eyes, how he taught Jace how to swing a sword alongside Ser Harwin, how he told him stories of the Sea Snake's deeds during his Great Journeys, how he put aside time just to take Jacaerys sailing across the Blackwater.
To his surprise, the sorcerer gently put his arms on Jace's shoulders and asked, "Tell me, Jacaerys, was Laenor ever resentful of your birth? Did he ignore you, or treat you any differently than he would a son?"
Jace blinked, taken aback by the simplicity of the question. "No… never." His voice came out small. "He loved to spend time with me. He… he was always proud of me."
"Did you take him for a man who did not know about the truth of your birth?"
The young man shook his head, and he continued, "Then he was your father. In a way, the fact that you are a bastard is proof that he loved you, because I can't think of any other reason a lord would treat you like his own child, while knowing that he was not the one who sired you. You may not have shared his blood, but you and your siblings were the family that he chose, and he kept choosing you every single day since your birth to his death."
Jace sniffed while doing his best to restrain his tears. He wiped at his face angrily, as though ashamed of the show of emotion, but the sorcerer only squeezed his shoulders once, in comfort and seconds later, he had two cups of a brown hot liquid in his hands. He handed one to Jacaerys, which he grabbed without really thinking about it.
He took a sip, only for his eyes to widen as he remembered it, "You gave me a cup of this drink before in Dragonstone, just before the King left. I don't remember the name."
"Chocolate. You can't go wrong drinking a cup of hot chocolate when you're feeling down," the older man answered with a chuckle. "Did you know, this island is the only place I found with Cocoa Beans, which are the main ingredient in creating chocolate? There are also Coffee beans here. It's one of the reasons why I love coming to this place."
"What are the other reasons?" Jacaerys asked, the strange drink making him feel calmer.
"You can see most of them right now," he said, while looking directly at something.
As he looked around, he realised that they had walked into the depths of the island and far from the beach. He hadn't noticed, given the fact that he was preoccupied. Around them was a forest made of thick and tall trees, but as he followed the sorcerer's gaze, he found himself looking at a village.
He had often seen ones in the Seven Kingdoms, and most villages were made up of farmers and smallfolk, who were doing their best to avoid starving to death. They always looked sullen, troubled, and afraid.
While the people in the village before him looked different, with darker skin than in Westeros and black hair, what truly amazed Jace was the way they acted, how the villagers laughed freely as they danced around a fire, how the children giggled in joy.
He looked at Potter, his question visible in his eyes, and the man answered them, "The Summer Islanders are people of love and peace. It is described in their very gods. Oh, they worship many, but the most important ones are the two gods of love. It is said that they were once one great god, but they were separated through the scheme of a trickster. And now, they have forever attempted to become one once more by spreading as much love as they could. They believe that every child is precious, a product of love and a gift of their gods, and thus are cared for, no matter what. Even their wars are ritualised, making them more akin to tourneys than anything, and rival claimants are simply banished from the Isles, and yet, the island itself is not particularly isolated from the rest of the world. Their archers are very famed as the greatest ones in the Known World, perhaps even greater than the Dothraki, though it is perhaps because bows made of Goldenheart wood are said to be matched only by ones made with Dragon bone."
Jace gave the man a dry look, "I feel as if you're trying to tell me something, that perhaps there are places that would accept a bastard in the world."
"Perhaps, I shouldn't have made it so obvious, but what I wanted to show you is that you have options, far more than even a prince had. You will likely never sit atop the Iron Throne or even be a lord of some great castle, but you're a Dragonrider, and that alone gives you more power than most of the lords in the Seven Kingdoms could only dream of, while also having the freedom to pursue other interests. You could travel atop your dragon and explore the world. You could go further than even the Sea Snake, and maybe even become wealthier. Never be ashamed of what you are, Jacaerys Velaryon."
The young prince nodded as the man got up and started to walk away. He followed the sorcerer and spoke up, "I worry about Mother."
"Ah, your mother was used as a pawn in a far larger game, though it was her choices that allowed that to happen."
"Will… Will she be better?" Jace asked.
"She will heal, eventually… But the question you should be asking is if she will change. And that is something that I confess to not knowing. I have found that change, true change, can only come from within. The world around us can help, of course, but only to give us insights, realisations, and understandings that we had lacked before. It is up to us to make that choice, as it will be up to your mother to see herself grow from her failings. In the end, what you can hope to do is just be a good son to her, not too indulgent, but empathetic, and then hope that things will change for the better."
"I will," the young prince vowed, before he looked up in confusion, "I thought that we were returning to the beach."
The sorcerer grinned, "I thought I would leave something behind, a little gift of appreciation. I suppose that you cannot see it. With the resurgence of magic, the spell has gotten stronger."
Before he could ask, the sorcerer's eyes glowed, and he touched Jace's hand. Immediately, the world around him changed, with the trees around him looking far larger than he ever thought possible, perhaps even taller than the Red Keep, and their shade darkened the world as if it were night, lit up only by the faint golden glow that they released. He gasped and opened his mouth, "What? How?"
"They're called the Talking Trees of the Summer Isles. They're something of a sacred place, a blessing of their gods. Most of the trees are reinforced, with the larger ones being probably as hard as stone. The Summer Islanders carve their history, their gods' commandments, everything in these trees. Outsiders are supposed to be confused by them, a consequence of the magic running through the trees, though the effect used to be much more subtle."
Jace stared up at the towering golden-lit trunks, awe briefly overwhelming everything else inside him. Harry let him take it in, then spoke again, voice low, almost conversational. "You've had a hard day today, Jacaerys, having heard harder truths. However, these truths don't decide you. You decide you." His gaze stayed on the glowing trees, but Jace felt the weight of the words settle squarely on him. "So, tell me, when the world knocks you down, something that I can almost guarantee will happen again, what will your legacy be? Will you stay fallen… or will you stand back up and rise like these wonders around you?"
The question struck him harder than any lesson from Maester Gerardys or any blow from Daemon in the training yard. He looked at the sorcerer with eyes filled with determination, "I will get back up."
The man gave him a proud look and commented, "You would have made a great king, Jacaerys."
Jace felt his cheeks heat up by the compliment; whatever reply he had was swallowed as the man knelt down and buried what seemed to be a golden seed in the ground. It might have been his imagination, but he felt shapes all around the Talking trees around him, almost glow for a fraction of a second, "What was that?"
"Oh, that was just a little gift I'm leaving behind," the sorcerer replied, brushing soil from his fingers as he rose, "A thanks, really. This island has been kind to Daphne and me. I noticed that we tend to be… loud whenever we go travelling. It isn't common that we feel so welcomed anywhere. It was a nice change of pace."
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The Rise of the Sea Dragon Trading Company and the Summer Isles
by Archmaester Willem of Highgarden
Most today know of the Sea Dragon Company as one of the most successful enterprises in the history of the Seven Kingdoms, though few realise that it was a natural successor built on the consequences of the trade routes established by Corlys Velaryon, the Sea Snake. Fewer even realise the role that the Summer Islands played in securing their supremacy over the Summer Sea.
Historians to this day still wonder as to how relations between the Summer Islands and House Velaryon came to be, only that Prince Jacaerys Velaryon, a controversial figure due to the rumours of his parentage at the time, often ventured to these islands even before his majority, atop his dragon, Vermax. Of course, now the world knows him as the Wandering Dragon, whose journeys across the Known World alongside his wife are the subject of many songs.
It is said that the primary reason the Wandering Dragon valued these islands was for their Cocoa Beans, which are a primary ingredient in the making of chocolates, which were not well-known at the time. Most accounts claim that the prince had tasted the delicacy there and grew to love it enough that he wished to bring it to the Seven Kingdoms.
The Summer Islands themselves were known to be a very peaceful nation, though it was plagued with many slave raids originating from Slaver's Bay. However, since the Wandering Dragon's trips, the reported number of raids had decreased dramatically, making him something of a heroic figure to the Summer Islanders.
Of course, many debate this fact, given that to this day, Summer Islands have suffered very few attacks despite reported plans to attack the wealthy settlements during the Second Century of Blood, after the rediscovery of Old Valyria in 192 AC, given the strategic position of the Islands. Storms sank most attacking fleets, with the survivors being shipwrecked on the islands and taken prisoner. Curiously, expeditions to Naath suffered the same fate, though most were never seen again. To this day, no attacking force has ever reached the Summer Islands or Naath, at least not in the last few centuries.
To facilitate trade with the Summer Islands, Jacaerys Velaryon, joined by his younger brother, Lucerys Velaryon, gained the blessing of the Crown to wipe away the growing influence of the Triarchy in the Stepstones in 138 AC and successfully achieved their tasks in 140 AC, starting a clear trade route with Driftmark, which even allowed Jacaerys Velaryon to purchase a few of their infamous Swan Ships in 145 AC, which were made of their Goldenheart wood. To this day, rumours of their ability to survive any storm are known in every port in the Known World, though most consider it nothing more than sailors' superstitions. However, no one doubts that the speed of their Swan Ships remains unmatched to this day.
But perhaps these superstitions held some substance, for the Sea Dragon Trading Company truly grew to prosperity during the Second Century of Blood, because of their unprecedented success during their journeys to Yi-Ti and Leng, while most of Essos was at war, enriching not only House Velaryon, but the Summer Islands, which had replaced Slaver's Bay as a hub of commerce and safety in the Summer Sea, and home to one of the greatest wonders of the world, the Great Mother Tree, the greatest of all Talking Trees, in the island of Walano.
It truly does cause disbelief to think that one of the most influential entities in the Seven Kingdoms was born because the Wandering Dragon had liked to bring chocolate and wished to bring it to his home.
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AN: Phew, that chapter got away from me. I sort of forgot that I wanted to add a historical section near the end. I had planned a bit of a Summer Islands arc, but I scrapped it a few months ago since it felt lacking and a bit repetitive. Anyway, the idea is for Harry to be a bit of a motivator of Jacaerys, and in the end, he added a seed that would grow into a great tree, which protects the island. It also blesses the wood there, hence why their ships do so well. I hope you liked this chapter. As usual, please let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions.
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If you want to support me, check out my patréon at https://www.patréon.com/athassprkr
I tend to upload drafts of early chapters on there to get people's opinions on them, so you can read up to 20 chapters ahead as a bonus.
Thank you guys for your support in these hard times.