[Arthur's POV]
In the realm of dreams, he sought out Edric. It took a little while... but he reached him eventually.
"You've been busy?" Arthur questioned.
"Ah, yeah," Edric chuckled, putting up three fingers. "I'm a father of three now."
"That's wonderful," Arthur smiled, nodding. "It seems that the blood magic curse wasn't much trouble for you, after all."
"Well, I wouldn't say that... Daenerys did have a couple of dances with death," Edric shook his head. "But, we got through it."
"Is it a prince or a princess?"
"Princess Victoria, with Visenya for a middle name," Edric replied, shrugging. "Daenerys wanted a more Targaryen name, so that was the compromise."
"Both are brilliant names," Arthur nodded. "I always did imagine one of your daughters to be someone like Visenya since you are the greatest warrior and conqueror of all time. It's definitely something to be inspired by, especially when such a person is your father."
"Fighting isn't exactly the most girly of occupations, eh?" Edric chuckled. "The name may very well be fitting in this case. Her magic seems to be destructive by nature... which points to a future possessing great strength, although how that strength will be used is another matter entirely."
"I wouldn't worry too much about that," Arthur shook his head. "She has a great father to guide her."
"Great father is a tad bit of an overstatement, but... I do intend to try my best. Anyway, how have you been?"
"Oh... well, not too long ago, we did find the city of Carcosa and brought down the sorcerer lord who claimed himself as the 69th Yellow Emperor."
"69th?" Edric chuckled. "What a nice number."
"... Yeah, there are far too many of these YiTish dynasties and lines. Before we could slay the sorceror, however, he orchestrated some sort of magic illusion where we were matched by a group of the exact same number in an arena. All of them were great warriors from the past, namely, your father, Ser Arthur Dayne, Daemon Blackfyre, Visenya Targaryen and Lo Bu."
"... Wow," Edric's eyes widened. "So, you had to fight them?"
"Yes... although, before we did, he made some mention of a silver lord who showed him the way."
"Oh..." Edric did not look all too surprised. "I may know this individual."
"... Who is it?"
"A god who likes to play a few games," Edric answered, shrugging. "Nothing you need to worry about."
"A true god?"
"Yes, and he's far above all the others. They may as well be mortal ants to him."
"... How am I not supposed to worry about an existence like that?" Arthur raised an eyebrow.
"He is neutral by nature. Mayhaps verges on a little benevolent or malevolent, depending on the situation. Those who possess great ambitions, seek them out, and triumph are further rewarded; however, it goes both ways. Failure digs an even deeper grave for those who are receivers of his gifts and subjects of interest. He is the reason I'm here."
"... Oh," Arthur stroked his chin. This was a monumental discovery. "That... explains a lot."
"I am the prime subject, and have been, from the very beginning... it's no small weight to carry," Edric shrugged. "But, I can only move forward."
The dots were all connecting.
"And he's the one who will bring Raiden to life, if you succeed?"
"Yes," Edric nodded. "It's our little contract."
"... It all makes sense now."
"Anyway, who'd you fight out of these five?" Edric changed the subject, looking curious.
"Uh... all of them. First, I was occupied with Ser Arthur, but I managed to finish Visenya off after sprinting away."
"You finished her off, eh?" Edric grinned slightly.
"... Not in that way. A sword to the back."
"A sword from the back, I see. So that's how you do it," Edric nodded.
"..." Arthur chuckled. "I realised that we couldn't win if we focused on individual fights, so I focused on playing the team game as much as possible. I managed to overcome Ser Arthur in single combat, then took Robert from Jaime and slew him after bringing news of your marriage. He was very well shocked..."
"Ahaha, if I were him, it'd kill me too..." Edric laughed. "However, beating your hero must've been a wonderful feeling."
"Ah, but it was a little overshadowed by what occurred next... see, this Daemon Blackfyre seemed entirely unstoppable. He managed to defeat both the Hound and Rhaerra at once. And then... he had me on the back foot too."
"So… he lives up to the name."
"One of your favourites in history?"
"The most… amusing and tragic of them all," Edric clarified. "It's a shame he was facing one of the few people who saw the true value in the bow and possessed an elite guard of longbowmen. No matter how skilled you may be in arms, any trained archer could kill you with a good enough shot... let alone a unit of them upon a hill."
"You'd know that better than anyone."
"Of course," He nodded. "There's a few noticeable parallels between our lives as well."
"Oh?"
"Someone didn't read up on their history," Edric chuckled. "The youngest knight in history before me was the very same Daemon Blackfyre, who won in a squire's tourney at the age of two-and-ten. King Aegon the Unworthy, his father, would knight him and grant the sword Blackfyre upon him… does it sound familiar?"
"You were given Robert's Warhammer," Arthur's eyes widened slightly. "Although it was Ser Jaime who knighted you."
"Upon his deathbed, the King would then legitimise all of his children… well, I was legitimised a little sooner, and he had trueborn children to contend with, but the similarities are there. Oh, and I almost forgot, he supposedly loved the Daenerys of his time."
"Now the similarities are a little eerie. Are you certain that you're not the Baratheon alternative to Daemon?"
"History does not repeat itself directly, but it loves to rhyme," Edric replied, shrugging. "It's a little fascinating... anyway, did you beat him?"
"I was most certainly losing until Sandor and Rhaerra caught him off guard. We smothered him and that was the end of it. The experience was… quite humbling, in a sense. I saw room to improve. Although there was a strange remark he made. He said that I was the second greatest warrior he had faced… mentioning you, Edric Storm, as the greatest."
"Oh?" He looked surprised, then chuckled about it. "Yeah, Daemon and I go waaaay back to my first life. He was my first best friend, and we'd duel all the time. I even taught him a little something about winning and helped him with the first Blackfyre Rebellion…"
"... You wish," Arthur laughed.
"Indeed, it would've been a fun time. Two bastards shaking things up. Bloodraven and I could've had a little archery contest upon the Red Grass, too. I'd win, of course. But, no… I've never met a Daemon Blackfyre in my life. The closest we ever got was my week-long obsession with reading everything about his life."
"Are there other Edric Storms?" Arthur suddenly questioned. "If this God is so great… replicating you wouldn't be too difficult, no?"
"You'd be right. There are others and plenty of them, apparently. I am the original, and the very first, however."
"I see…"
That thought was strange, to be certain.
"What age do you truly come from then?"
"Oh, that's another matter altogether."
"You're not from here?" Arthur made an educated guess.
"You'd make a surprisingly great detective, Arthur," Edric laughed. "We were far more... advanced, so to speak. One day over there would blow your mind of what's truly possible. Sadly, I didn't come with the knowledge of how to replicate most of that technology. It's like... knowing about wildfire and even how to use it - but not having the recipe nor expertise to make it."
"That must be crushing."
"Well, it would be fun to pull up with a sniper rifle..."
"What are those?"
"A form of ranged weapon capable of killing from well over a couple thousand paces. In closer ranges, it wouldn't matter what kind of armour you were wearing... it would absolutely pierce you. You know those glass lenses from Myr? Yeah, they had something even better that could let anyone see just as far as I can naturally."
"... There's more, I reckon."
"Oh, far more. Weapons of mass destruction that could level cities dozens of times larger than King's Landing. Ways to communicate across the world, transport that could take you from King's Landing to Winterfell in probably less than four hours, medicine that could cure the majority of ailments, and we even had a moon landing..."
"..."
Indeed, these descriptions alone blew his mind. Seeing them in person would be even more bewildering.
"It's kinda crazy when I say it out loud," Edric laughed. "You take a lot of these things for granted... that's human nature, however. No matter how brilliant something might be, its continued presence leads to it becoming commonplace..."
"Is love the same?" Arthur questioned.
"... Sometimes, yes," Edric nodded. "It can be fickle, rising and falling like the tide."
"There's something important I wish to talk about regarding that... after we slew a dragon-"
"After you slew a dragon?"
"As it turns out, your words may have cursed us as we encountered one that was far larger than any of Daenerys' dragons. It was a hard battle, but we won."
"Mayhaps it left behind some gifts..." Edric looked thrilled. "Try tracking down its lair with your senses."
"I'll get on that..."
"And what is more monumental than slaying a dragon, exactly?" Edric chuckled.
"Rhaerra and I... we... had a deep embrace."
"You fucked?" Edric raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah... that is one way to put it."
"Well, well, well..." Edric clapped his hands.
"..." Arthur sighed, knowing his previous remarks had aged terribly.
"A 'deep embrace' certainly is a new one," Edric laughed. "Where did Ser 'I don't need a woman for every day of the week' go?"
"... Life was quite a bit simpler when the oaths were unchanged. Now... I don't know what is right or wrong, I feel conflicted."
"You're being a perfect example of the woes of freedom," Edric remarked, shaking his head. "Well, what do you truly want?"
"... I don't want to hurt Sansa," Arthur said the truth. "But Rhaerra... I don't want to close that door. The thought of choosing one over the other is heart-rending. I am torn... and mayhaps it's my fault most of all."
"No, Arthur, it's mine," Edric took responsibility. "I intentionally set you up once and unintentionally the next... I should've foreseen such a thing happening."
"It's... almost like a magic spell. You let even a whiff of it past your guard, and it falls completely..." Arthur remarked.
"Beauty and sweet words can very well be like that," Edric smiled, shrugging. "And it's not because it broke your guard, but rather... you let it intentionally. You wanted to have that 'deep embrace' because it felt right to you, no?"
"... You know me too well," Arthur smiled slightly, shaking his head. "I never felt so... alive. Yet so... awful afterwards. What am I even supposed to do?"
"As it turns out, I'm the finest therapist in the known world... entirely self-proclaimed, but it doesn't matter," Edric stroked his chin. "So, you like Sansa, correct? You've been building a bond of sorts..."
"Yes, I do..."
"And you like Rhaerra, evident by your 'deep embrace'..."
"Yes..."
"Rhaerra and Sansa don't hate each other?"
"Not to my knowledge..."
"You want both, they like you, and they tolerate each other... polyamory is the answer! Why choose when you can have both?"
"..." Arthur blinked. Edric made it sound so simple - why not have both? Mayhaps because it was against what everyone believed in. "Isn't such a practice sinful to the highest degree?"
"... And who's going to do anything about it? Aegon had two wives, Maegor married three in the same ceremony..."
"Maegor was actively warring against the Faith, slaughtering and burning down everything that went against him..."
"Well, mayhaps the Faith is due for a reformation?" Edric questioned, as if he had long since been contemplating the thought. "Besides, you don't need to marry both. Paramours and mistresses are most definitely a thing, simply ask almost all of the Dornish lords in the Realm. Marry Sansa and keep Rhaerra as a paramour, simple."
"... Simple," Arthur raised an eyebrow.
"Yes... if they're both happy with the arrangement, why not? Don't let judging eyes stop you from living life. Love isn't a game, it's a battle, and you have to fight for it if you truly want it."
Edric's words birthed new insight, clearing the clouds that had shadowed his mind.
"Then I'll fight..."
"I know you will," Edric smiled. "Go on, Ser, test the waters of polyamory for me. I'll need your experience in the future."
"... Hopefully your 'simple' solution works..."
"Er, there's no guarantee, but a chance is better than none at all."
"Speaking of... if it's so simple, why don't you have Margaery as your paramour?"
"Simply, I don't want to."
"... I see."
...
Tracking down the lair was simple yet difficult. The dragon had left quite a strong mark on its territory... one that Arthur could sense when he narrowed onto it. It was a huge cave beneath a mountain, filled with bones, scraps of meat, and even gold and treasures. Further on was the true prize - a dragon egg. Three of them, for that matter.
Pure black, as if coated in darkness.
A beautiful blend of deep blue and green, like a summer sea.
Silver, with strands of purple. It was like a Targaryen in an egg.
The scales were not solid as rock... they were all living eggs from the same batch.
Such treasures were more priceless than any other.
"The dragon has three heads..." Arthur remarked. "If we're taking anything, it would be these eggs."
"No gift more fitting for Edric's own future hatchlings," Rhaerra noted.
"Treat them like your own."
~
[Edric's POV]
Little Victoria was full of energy... always. If I were a regular parent living in one bedroom, I'd never be able to catch any sleep with her. She didn't blow up any more of my eyes... and well, past that, she was just like any baby girl, albeit with a bit less crying. She was quite well put together for a newborn.
Now, while I was holding her, she came up with the brilliant idea of trying to bite my finger.
It wasn't going too well... I was quite thick-skinned. Although failure didn't deter her one bit. She was quite cute, I could admit.
"The new eye doesn't look so terrible," Daenerys remarked, giving it an inspection. "Golden, draconic... I dare say beautiful."
"It does feel terrible, however. My eyes see two almost completely different things. One is very grounded, capable of seeing far and wide with great detail while the other is... wider, more magically connected. I've had stronger control over prophetic dreams, both greenseer and dragon. I see more of what I want to see..."
"What of what you need to see?"
"No luck for that," I shook my head. "I had a little dream adventure in the age of the Conquest... as a spectator, of course. It was tempting to twist the past, but I was content enough with seeing it all unfold in person. I think Rhaenys Targaryen and I would've made a great couple..."
"..." Daenerys raised an eyebrow. "Oh, really?"
"She seemed like a fun, bright person..." I chuckled, shaking my head. "I'm just pulling your hair, of course. She was... quite close to one of those singers. A little too close, I'd say if, but... It's not my marriage. For a man who spent so much time with her, Aegon didn't really produce many heirs, did he?"
"... What are you suggesting?"
"Mayhaps the Targaryen line of today really descended from Rhaenys and some nameless singer," I smiled, shrugging. "It really does shine a light on the illusion of power. If people believed Aenys to be his son - how much does it truly matter if he wasn't? He was still nephew to Aegon, son of one of his sisterwives."
"... A lie so great had been covered up so well?" Daenerys didn't seem to believe it. "I've never heard anyone question such a thing."
"There are many more lies," I smiled, shaking my head. "But, in his shoes, Aegon did the best thing he could do. If you're entirely sterile, well... it doesn't leave you with many thrilling options."
"Fortunately, you don't have that problem at all," Daenerys smiled.
"... Not yet, at least," I touched the edges of my draconic right eye. "Mayhaps this little one is my last."
"That's not true..."
"Nothing is for certain," I took a deep breath. "Such are the consequences of the path that I've chosen. Each day, I seem to stray further from... normal."
"Nothing will happen until you try..."
I recognised that suggestive face.
"Aren't you tired after the pregnancy?" I raised an eyebrow.
I was beginning to realise that Targaryens truly were lustful, more so than average, at least. It must be the fire in their blood.
"A little... but, if it's as you say, then we don't have time to waste, do we? I'm not as fickle as I might look."
"Sturdy for a short and thin woman," I chuckled.
"Everyone is short and thin when compared to you... it doesn't really mean much, does it?"
"Fair..."
"Enough talking," Daenerys said. She took Victoria from me and gently put her down back in her crib. "We have a dynasty to secure."
"... That is one way to see it."
'To the breeding chamber we go... I mean bedchamber.'
Breeding chamber, indeed.
'How many future magical nukes do you really want to produce?'
As many as possible.
'... Didn't know this was a factory... hopefully it doesn't backfire.'
I'll make sure it doesn't.
'You can't do that if you die to the Night King, however...'
Who said I was going to die to him?
'It's only a possibility...'
One that will never happen.