[Chapter Size: 2800 Words.]
Third Person POV.
Crownlands
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...
The army soon began to advance. As they approached King's Landing, Daemon received an unexpected letter from Bran, delivered directly by a raven that had followed him there.
Daemon extended his arm as the raven landed on it. He couldn't help but smile as they continued their march, riding his horse at the front of the army alongside the other commanders.
He was satisfied with Bran's performance; he seemed to be growing stronger and stronger with his magical abilities.
"Who is the raven from, your majesty?" Lord Stark asked Daemon, while the other lords also looked on curiously, marching beside the king.
"It's from Bran, of Winterfell." Daemon replied, while the two Starks present couldn't help but raise an eyebrow.
Daemon ignored their questioning looks. It was clear that Daemon had more affinity with Bran than with either of them. He took out not just one, but 3 papers.... opened the first one, which was from Bran to him, and began to read.
They were reports from Winterfell, and there was even a second and third parchment behind the first, one being a letter from his wife, with a few words also from Lucis, his other lover. The third parchment was from Bran to his father and brother.
'Well, it seems the new shipment of food has arrived in the North directly from the Iron Bank.' Daemon was pleased with the information. He would give orders later.
The rest of the news he already knew. Keeping Ghost in Winterfell along with some other birds to keep an eye on things in the North, he was aware of what was happening... He even had eyes on the Wall or in the city created by the free folk.
"Anything concerning in Winterfell?" Lord Stark couldn't help but ask.
Daemon shook his head. "Just the matter of food arriving in the North, but Bran is handling the administration of Winterfell well." Lord Stark still seemed dissatisfied.
"Lord Cerwyn is somewhat unhappy about remaining in the North and ended up returning to his lands. Lady Baratheon, as always, is bitter..."
He took the other letter and began to read his wife's message, once again smiling. She spoke of her days in Winterfell, the longing she felt, how her pregnancy was going, and also made a somewhat selfish request for Daemon to return someday to see her.
Daemon sighed, thinking that he might be able to spare a day away before the conquest of King's Landing, and perhaps stopping by Winterfell would be good.
In any case, right there he pulled a parchment from his dimensional pocket and began to write, placing the letter on another one of his own ravens, since he suspected Bran would keep the previous one to keep an eye on them.
Daemon looked at Lord Stark, who was staring at him along with Robb. They wanted to know more, and Daemon sighed.
"Bran is starting to walk. He still can't run or have full motor coordination to return to the training yard, but he's progressing quite a lot. He'll be fine very soon. Arya is training every day in the yard, and that seems to have calmed her adventures, while Rickon is also studying with the maester and beginning to train," Daemon explained.
Both nodded, but Daemon wasn't finished. Daemon looked at Bran's raven, seeing that it was now watching them, and then turned his gaze back to his uncle.
"There is this letter he sent to you, it will tell more details and, Bran is in the raven's mind at this moment. You can speak directly to him." Daemon opened an invisible space between himself and the Starks as he approached Lord Stark, muffling the sound so it wouldn't spread among the other lords who were watching the conversation. He didn't want that warg ability to be spoken of openly, even though Mance and the others of the free folk already knew very well how it worked and understood that Bran's raven reaching Daemon meant exactly that same magic.
They stopped to make camp for the night in an open area, already entering the Crownlands. Meanwhile, Daemon gathered with the leaders, receiving a parchment from Stannis with his position and a report.
"Stannis is ahead of us. We will join him and then move down to King's Landing. I was thinking of attacking through two different gates, but we will only use one. They are building scorpions and also using wildfire to try to destroy us, as they did in the Battle of the Blackwater against Stannis himself," Daemon said calmly, while the lords seemed uneasy upon hearing about wildfire.
"Do not worry about that. The scorpions will be dealt with first. Then I will deal with the wildfire. I will not send any men before neutralizing that flaming liquid. In any case, the conquest of King's Landing will be quite easy. I will only have to be away for a few days before we begin the attack," Daemon said.
"Does this have anything to do with the news from Storm's End?" Brynden Tully asked, from the end of the table.
Obviously, the news of Aegon Targaryen with three dragons had finally spread through the nearby regions. They arrived that very night, brought by a rider coming from a castle, informing them of the events in the Stormlands, though still very limited.
Since then, the lords had been looking at Daemon, waiting to hear his opinion about a supposed living brother with three dragons. Meanwhile, Daemon acted as if nothing had happened. He didn't care. The lords whispered among themselves, but he simply ignored them. Now, all the leaders were watching him, waiting for an answer.
"He is not a Targaryen," Daemon replied naturally. "He is a Blackfyre, born in Essos and planned together with Varys to take the Throne. It's a long story, but did you know that Varys is a Blackfyre by blood? And that his sister married an important merchant of Pentos, Illyrio Mopatis, the same magistrate of Pentos who tried to sell Daenerys, and married to Varys's sister... They produced that boy, pretending he was my dead brother."
He paused briefly before continuing.
"Well, he managed to deceive both the Reach and Dorne, but do not worry. He will be dealt with in the future and will pay for passing himself off as my dead brother. And I say this not only because I want the Throne, but because the gods showed me what really happened before I returned here. They showed me my dead brother. How could I not feel anger at that fool pretending to be a Targaryen? He and Varys will pay for all of this," Daemon said in a threatening tone.
For the first time, he spoke openly about Aegon Targaryen, but he was not finished yet.
"Furthermore, he and his advisers sent assassins to Winterfell, the same ones who were planning to kill my wife, but Bran Stark located them and discovered their plans before they could attempt anything... Thanks to suspicions from my wife, who shared her opinion with Bran the moment she laid eyes on the group..." Daemon concluded, while the northerners spat on the ground, filled with indignation upon hearing that.
"Blackfyre? Are you saying that Varys is a Blackfyre?" Brynden couldn't help but look stunned by that, as did many lords of the North and the Riverlands. The free folk didn't seem to care much; only Mance showed curiosity among them.
"Are you asking me if the entire male line had been killed, with the last member executed by Ser Barristan himself? Yes, but he was not the last of that blood. There was a woman who survived, an unknown daughter of Maelys Blackfyre. She gave birth to Varys and a sister. However, Essos was not at all kind to them. The woman was killed at some point and her children were sold. Varys was handed over to a sorcerer who castrated him, and the girl was sold to a future prostitute; later, Illyrio met Varys and bought his sister, whom he married and sired Aegon with. You can imagine what that led to."
"Varys infiltrated the court of Westeros and began to play his own game. He must have conspired countless times to weaken the realm. He probably even had his hand in Robert's Rebellion, turning everyone against the Targaryens. His plan worked very well. Now Westeros believes that there truly is a surviving Aegon Targaryen, at least part of it believes so."
"They have three dragons, your majesty. You only have one. Is it possible to defeat them?" a lord of the Riverlands asked cautiously.
"Do not worry about that, my lord." Daemon smiled as if he were unconcerned. "I have already said that I dealt with certain plagues in another world I was in." He made that clear. The lords of the Riverlands certainly had not heard it directly from him, but they must have already heard rumors. Daemon had said it openly in Winterfell to the Lords of the North.
"I dealt with dragons and killed more than fifty of them. Dragons more powerful than those of this world, I tell you. So dealing with three will be like a game to me. As for the soldiers they are gathering, they will be dealt with as well. First, we will destroy their greatest source of confidence. Then we will deal with the armies. Later, with the very ruling families of both kingdoms that are against us, and even with some lords of the Stormlands who are conspiring together with the Blackfyre against us and Stannis."
"And what will happen to the Tyrells and the Martells?" Lord Stark couldn't help but ask, now that Daemon had touched on the subject.
"You will know at the right moment, but I tell you it will not be an easy end. Do not worry about the three dragons. I will deal with them myself. We need to destroy the armies of the two kingdoms, and I want you to be confident in that. We can deal with them easily," Daemon said, while the men nodded.
He continued speaking a bit about the North and the Wall, also mentioning the thousands of prisoners captured throughout the military campaign, who were being housed with the Night's Watch and taking the oath.
The Watch was also reinforced together with the free folk, while moving many groups to help deal with the new members, making it very clear that the objective now was to fight the dead. There were conflicts here and there among the crows, free folk, Bolton soldiers, and ironborn all gathered in the same place. Something normal; thousands of years of history filled with conflicts and feuds would not be erased in just a few moons, but things were going well. Jeor Mormont was handling all of it well in his own way.
The days passed, and Daemon finally crossed paths with Stannis's army, which was waiting for them. King's Landing was not very far at that point, and they moved south after a few meetings, reworking their strategies.
When the city finally came into view, they saw some scorpions atop the walls, while most were still being desperately rebuilt by the Lannisters. There was not a single soul outside the walls.
"It seems they relocated the entire Lannister-Bolton army inside King's Landing. I wonder how long the city will last like this. They no longer have much food, not even the Tyrells to resupply them," Daemon mocked from atop his horse.
There were one hundred and twenty thousand men marching to besiege the city. It must have been a terrifying sight for those watching from the walls, seeing that immense army approaching.
"As we discussed, we won't camp too close. The scorpions have a dangerous range, so we'll stay around here," Daemon said to Stannis Baratheon, Brynden Tully, Lord Stark, and Mance. These were the main commanders. They nodded and began organizing the camp.
Daemon pulled his enormous tent out of the dimensional space, as he always did, as well as the main command tent, much larger, which was easier to set up every time they had to stop. He already took it out ready and organized, not failing to think about how alteration magic made his life easier.
That night, there was yet another meeting among the leaders.
"I will leave starting tomorrow. In fact, I'll be gone for three days," Daemon announced, while the lords and commanders looked at him curiously.
Seeing everyone's gaze, Daemon sighed. "I didn't answer last time, since we had touched on the subject of the Blackfyre further south."
"To begin with, there are two fugitives who escaped from King's Landing toward Essos. They are heading to Braavos on a ship, and one of them is Jaime Lannister, forced by his own father to flee. The man still wants to preserve his legacy; even if the name is destroyed here in Westeros, the blood must survive, so he forces his own son against his will and puts him on the ship. I must admit, it's quite poetic," Daemon mocked, but soon his face hardened. "The other… the other is a bastard I intend to kill. The coward realized he's going to die and fled as well, hidden on the same ship without Tywin's knowledge," he growled.
"And who would that be, your majesty?" Lord Manderly asked cautiously, seeing Daemon's anger.
"You know well the man who stabbed a three-year-old girl fifty times. That little girl was my sister. The worm ran away with his tail between his legs now that he saw the Lannisters have no chance. I intend to go to Essos to get him, along with Jaime Lannister, with Winter. I will not let the Lannisters escape like this."
He paused briefly before continuing.
"And the lion's son doesn't know it, but I already have my eyes on all of their meetings. All of their strategies are already known to me. After that, I will go to Winterfell. I intend to spend one day there and return the next day. When I come back, King's Landing will be ours," Daemon said, while everyone nodded.
Daemon returned to the tent with Val when someone called at the entrance.
"Your majesty."
The voice made Daemon turn around. He assessed Robb Stark with some caution, as if he still didn't quite know how to deal with him.
"Lord Stark, what can I do for you, my lord?" Daemon asked, polite, but with no warmth in his voice, only a hint of curiosity.
"I wanted to know if you'd like to have a drink," Robb said, bringing a bottle of Arbor Gold. "I wanted to ask your opinion about… you know… Jeyne," he said carefully, clearly wanting to talk to Daemon.
"Go talk to him," Val said behind Daemon, touching his back. "You're far too stubborn." She knew him well and murmured that with a slight smile. Daemon always avoided talking much with the two Starks in the army.
Daemon shot a serious look at his wife and then turned back to Robb.
"You know that nothing will change my opinion or my decision to send your father to the Wall after everything is over, right?" Daemon asked calmly.
Robb nodded firmly. "I understand. I'm not here to try to change your decisions, your majesty. I just wanted to talk. We're family, aren't we? I know that, as a child, I was cruel and valued a traitor like Theon more than you, who share my blood. Influenced by my mother, but still my fault. I just want to change things, you understand?" he said, a little embarrassed.
He seemed far more open than that broken Robb Daemon had found in Winterfell, begging him to spare his siblings — something Daemon had never intended not to do. He would never kill the Stark children; his problem had always been with the elders.
Val turned and began to walk away.
"Have fun. Just come back soon. I'll be waiting for you in our bed," she said in a provocative tone.
Daemon turned back to Robb and nodded. "Alright. I hope this is a good vintage of Arbor." That was all he said before approaching his cousin, feeling satisfied as Daemon nodded and went off to drink somewhere.
Raccoon Here:
I think a good relationship should start here with the future Lord of Winterfell. Robb was a silly and proud boy in this story, but he was much better than the one from Daemon Arctic's story. He just didn't like being around Jon Snow because his mother made that quite rigid, and Lord Stark was a fool here; he would have changed his behavior as he grew older.
Sorry for not adding the images now, I'll have to include them later. A personal issue came up here and I need to deal with it urgently.
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