The study in the Hand's Tower was quiet in the afternoon, filled only with the soft scratch of a quill gliding over parchment.
Otto Hightower was bent over his desk, signing document after document.
When Queen Alicent pushed the door open and entered, Otto did not look up. He merely raised a hand, signaling for her to wait.
After a moment, Otto finished the final line of his signature, pressed his seal, and only then lifted his head to look at his daughter.
"Isn't Aemond's name day sometime around now?"
Alicent paused slightly, then nodded. "Three days from now. You still remember."
"Aemond's name day—of course I remember."
"It's just that next week I must meet the envoys of the Three Daughters Alliance on the Stepstones. I'm afraid I won't be able to return in time to attend his name day."
"Please convey my apologies for me."
The Hand pointed toward a small round table set against the wall on the other side of the study. "I prepared a gift for him. It's placed there—give it to him on my behalf."
Alicent inclined her head and walked toward the table.
There was only a single item upon it: a dark gray wooden box without any ornamentation.
Alicent opened the lid, and when she saw what lay inside, a hint of surprise crossed her face.
It was a ring.
The band was a dull gray, set with no gemstones, its design rough to the point of austerity.
Yet carved into the face of the ring were sharp, clearly etched words in High Valyrian: Blood as fire, trueborn child of the dragon.
"This was a gift Queen Dowager Visenya once gave to Maegor the First." Otto's voice came from behind her. At some point, he had risen from his seat and was now walking toward his daughter.
"More precisely, it was a coming-of-age gift. Queen Dowager Visenya commissioned craftsmen from Qohor to forge it for him out of Valyrian steel."
Alicent turned around, her green eyes fixed tightly on her father. "What is the meaning of this?"
"Why give something that belonged to Maegor as a gift?"
Otto did not answer the question. Instead, he asked one of his own.
"Alicent, tell me—who was Visenya Targaryen?"
Alicent thought for a moment before replying.
"She was one of the founding queens of the Targaryen dynasty. She helped her husband, Aegon the First, conquer the Crownlands and the Vale."
"The Kingsguard was also founded by her for Aegon."
"After Queen Rhaenys, her sister, died, Aegon ruled the Seven Kingdoms together with her…"
Alicent finished speaking with some hesitation and looked toward Otto.
Otto spoke quietly.
"But in her later years, Queen Dowager Visenya Targaryen chose to support her only son, Maegor…"
"Even though that meant standing as an enemy to the entire family and the realm."
"If not for Queen Dowager Visenya's support and endorsement."
"If not for her riding Vhagar across the Seven Kingdoms to stand behind Maegor, if not for her using her prestige to cow those wavering lords."
"Then even if Maegor had won the Trial of Seven, he would still not have been able to seize his nephew Aegon's throne."
He walked back toward the desk at an unhurried pace, his fingers tapping against its surface as he looked at his daughter.
"Visenya was the Conqueror Aegon's sister and wife, the woman who ruled the Seven Kingdoms together with him."
"But her younger sister, Queen Rhaenys, bore the first eldest son, Aenys, while Visenya had only Maegor."
"And her prestige… was far beyond anything Rhaenys's descendants could compare to."
"You are referring to Aemond?" Alicent asked softly.
Otto did not answer her directly, but continued.
"Queen Dowager Visenya helped her son win the war against the Faith, forcing the High Septon to recognize the legality of Targaryen incest and polygamy."
"The supporters Maegor possessed in his early years—the majority of the houses of the Crownlands and the nobles of the Vale."
"All of them were nobles who had submitted to Visenya Targaryen during the Conquest of the Seven Kingdoms."
He paused briefly.
"Even though Maegor was infamous for his brutality, even though he killed his own nephews, even though he slaughtered tens of thousands of followers of the Seven…"
"So long as Visenya still lived, these nobles remained loyal to him."
"Because to be loyal to Maegor was to be loyal to Visenya."
Alicent picked up the ring of steel.
"But after Visenya died?" Otto let out a sigh. "Those nobles no longer supported Maegor."
"In the end, Maegor was abandoned by all. Not a single Targaryen or noble stood at his side."
"Maegor killed every possible rival—and also killed every possible ally."
"The nobles of the realm treated this king with cold indifference, outwardly obeying while secretly defying his commands."
"Until Aenys I's surviving third son… Jaehaerys, rose in rebellion in the Stormlands."
The study fell silent.
"And when Maegor called for the loyalist host, only a handful of nobles answered the summons."
Otto stepped before his daughter, his gaze falling upon the ring in her hand. "Even the most loyal of them—the Lord of House Harroway—knelt before the Iron Throne, weeping as he urged Maegor to abdicate."
Alicent listened in silence.
"Maegor beheaded him in a fury. And after that night…"
Otto shook his head. "People discovered that the king had died upon the Iron Throne, his body pierced through by its blades."
"No one knows who did it. Perhaps it was a guardsman, perhaps an assassin sent by some noble, or perhaps the Iron Throne itself rejected its brutal master."
He reached out, took the ring back from his daughter's hand, and held it up to the light by the window. A cold gleam flashed across the steel.
"Even though Maegor possessed the mightiest dragon of all—Balerion the Black Dread—even though he was acknowledged across the Seven Kingdoms as the strongest man alive."
"The songs called him a warrior made flesh, able to face a hundred men alone."
"And yet, in the end, he still died an unexplained death upon the Iron Throne, with no one at his side."
Otto placed the ring back into the wooden box and closed the lid. The soft click sounded especially clear in the silent study.
"Alicent, Targaryens resemble gods only when mounted on their dragons. Once they set foot on the ground, they are no different from ordinary men."
"So long as they are human, they can be wounded, they can be betrayed, and they can die."
"Dragonfire can burn castles and strike fear into the world, but it cannot burn loyalty into being—much less devotion."
Otto handed the wooden box back to his daughter, Alicent.
"After Maegor's death, Visenya's line was completely extinguished."
"Of the Conqueror Aegon's two wives—his elder sister Visenya and his younger sister Rhaenys—only Rhaenys's bloodline endures to this day."
"Even men as powerful as 'the Conqueror' Aegon, or Maegor the First, were unable to truly command the entirety of the Seven Kingdoms."
Otto went on, "Do you know why?"
Alicent shook her head.
"Because the Targaryens are outsiders."
Otto said gravely, "They possess little in the way of a native power base, and their family numbers are few."
"If they do not choose to cooperate with the noble houses of Westeros, whose lineages have endured for thousands of years, the Targaryens cannot rule the Seven Kingdoms—even if they have dragons…"
"They still cannot."
Alicent clutched the wooden box and asked hoarsely, "Are you worried that Aemond will be like Maegor… disregarding all rules?"
"He has that potential." Otto sank back into his high-backed chair and rubbed his brow in weariness. "He is intelligent and composed, but he is also arrogant, vengeful, and extreme."
As he spoke, Otto let out a relieved smile and looked at Alicent.
"He has all the traits the Targaryens are known for."
"Aemond does not like me. I can feel it."
Otto pointed toward Alicent.
"But you—and Helaena—can influence him."
"What exactly do you want me to do?" Alicent asked.
"Do what you must, Alicent."
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