Pre-Chapter A/N: Here we go with another chapter, coming in right on time. Next four chapters on my patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga)— same username as here and link in bio.
XXXX- LAENOR VELARYON, MAEGOR'S HOLDFAST 120 AC
I should probably have just left the city after the assassination attempt. Every day since then had been a pain. For one, there was Viserys assigning a small army to follow me whenever I needed to leave the Red Keep, and then there was having to deal with Alicent and her less than subtle insinuations that it would be better for Aegon to be left in the Keep when I left for Bloodstone because of the number of enemies I had. She made it seem like the Stepstones were an active war zone.
Only the fact that I could somewhat sympathise with her as a parent made me entertain it for longer than a few seconds. Of course, there was no world where I left my Squire behind. Aegon had been a gift I did not want, but could otherwise not afford to refuse, and even a year ago I would have jumped at the chance to bring an end to our time together, but the little nuisance had somehow grown on me. Whether it was saving Romulus on Atlantis all those moons ago, or just the many hours I'd invested into training him, the brat had somehow managed to worm his way into my heart. So much so that sometimes I regretted the plan that I had hatched when his Squireship had been decided.
A knock came from the wall next to my fireplace, and I went over to it, moving the hefty chair I'd placed right against it out of the way before allowing the passageway to open for a cloaked figure to walk in.
Her hood snapped back to reveal the brown hair, brown eyes, and heart-shaped face that allowed so many gazes to slide over her like she wasn't even there most of the time.
"What do you have for me, Mesilla?" I asked.
"The Lord Hand truly does not know who tried to have you killed. I was able to listen to a meeting between him and Lord Darklyn and he seemed cross with Lord Darklyn for not catching word of it. He was also in conversation with the commander of the goldcloaks. Threatened to have him sacked for the failure," she said. I nodded, but said nothing about how that would be exactly what he would do if he were guilty.
"And Lord Lannister?"
"I have listened to several conversations between Lord and Ser Lannister. They scarcely mention the attempt on your life," she said. That was also another useful piece of information. Not talking about it was just what they'd do if they were guilty. It also could be what they'd do if they were innocent and trying to avoid arousing suspicion as well.
"And the Princess Rhaenyra?"
"One of the other maids, Josey, heard her sound quite cross that the attack failed. She did not sound like she had known about it, though. Just cross that it did not succeed," she said.
"Yeah, that sounds about right," I said.
"And the King?"
"I have not been able to listen in on any of his conversations. Lord Darklyn's most loyal are always watching him," she said.
I nodded. Not like I had expected anything more from her, to be honest. If she had given me any information on the King that was more than what was publicly known then that would have been cause for concern. She'd either have been lying to me, or Darklyn was shit at his job. And while I didn't like the man, I knew he wasn't shit at his job.
There was a knock on my door, and I gestured for Mesilla to leave, handing her a small pouch as I did so. She hid that one in her cloak, and then I handed her a larger pouch with a nod.
The smaller pouch was hers. The larger one was for her to pay all the other informants that she was managing to recruit in the keep. It was filled with stags, and stars, and groats. One didn't just go around handing dragons to gardeners. Spending like that was bound to get noticed. Once she'd entered the tunnel and I closed it, I went over to open the door. Two of my men were there, and in front of them, a young Helaena Targaryen.
"Lord Velaryon," she said in greeting, dropping into a curtsy that could do with some improving.
"Princess." I gave her a bow and gestured for her to come in. She took a seat at the corner where I had two tables and where I'd sat with her brother not too long ago.
"Tea?" I offered.
"Juice, if it pleases you, my Lord," she said. I nodded, not asking how she knew what I had. I poured her some apple juice made with apples sent all the way from Fossoway lands and poured myself a glass as well. Glass drinkware was one of those privileges that only House Velaryon could truly enjoy. Prices had come down some, but it was still prohibitively expensive.
She took a sip, and then a long gulp.
"While it is always a pleasure to host a Princess, to what do I owe the pleasure?" I asked.
"You are to be my good father one day," she said.
The marriages had been announced. Hers and Daeron's. Aegon's was agreed but an announcement would wait a while considering all the specifics. At least that was what Otto had said. He would probably be looking for a way to get out of the agreement without pissing me off until the very last second, but that suited me just fine. Because if he was focused on this, then he wouldn't focus on anything else.
"I am," I said with a nod.
"But are you though?" she asked, almost distantly.
"The betrothal is formalised," I said.
"And yet I never dream of marrying your son. I dream a lot, my Lord. I dream of a grey dragon the colour of the clouds themselves, smiting a castle with a pale tower stretching towards the sky," she said. I tried not to let the shock I felt at her description of Starfall, the first target of my impending conquest of Dorne, show on my face, and she continued.
"I dream of the same pale dragon falling upon a city with a thousand rivers, and another city with a black wall in the middle, and shattering a massive edifice of stone that reaches up to the sky in the shape of a triangle. I dream of the dragon mounting the world. But never of me marrying the dragon's son. Instead, I see myself in the Great Sept of King's Landing, wedding my own brother. I see myself in the childbed, as I birth son after son for a man who never smiles on me. I see those sons as they die as well. I see myself as I die as well. And do you know what colour the dragon that kills me is?" she asked, speaking of her death with a surprising flippancy.
"Pale? You seem to dream of the pale dragon a lot," I said, trying not to let on how seriously I was taking her words. She sounded nothing like a child her age should have. She gave me a look that bordered on disappointed.
"It was bronze, and it was furious," she said. I tried not to chuckle at that very on-the-nose description.
"These are a lot of dreams you have," I said. I knew about Viserys' obsession with prophecy. If she told him any of this, I wondered how he would react. Would they manage to suss out my plans with her dreams?
'How do you prevent yourself from being scried with dragon dreams?' I asked Aurion, rousing him from his seventh rewatch of The Bear.
'Kill the dreamer,' he said, and then he was gone. How fucking helpful.
"Yes, my lord. But I tell no one about them," she said.
"No one other than me, it seems," I said.
"Yes. If I tell you, something tells me that things end up going worse for everyone. Me most of all," she said. I chuckled, but did not confirm or deny it.
"So why tell me this? What do you want?" I asked.
"I don't want to die," she said.
"Valar morghulis."
"But sometimes, we get to choose how we die. My dreams always come true. Except for two days ago when Aegon Targaryen the Second of his name was supposed to be hit by an arrow and poisoned. The poison would not kill him but it would leave him weakened and unable to continue his Squireship to the Lord Velaryon. However, that did not happen. You changed fate, my Lord. You changed the future," she said.
"And what makes you so sure of that?"
"Aegon told me about the arrow he never saw. The one that you pulled him out of the way of. For some reason, your fate can change where no one else's can. And I want you to change mine," she said.
"You want me to change your fate," I repeated her words and wondered if it was just a Targaryen thing—this precocious madness.
"Exactly, my lord. Nothing you haven't done before, I assure you," she said.
"I assume you would not have come here if you did not have some way in mind for me to change your fate," I said.
"When the time comes, I must be the one to marry Caesar," she said. The way she used my son's name more than anything else made me believe her. She used it with a familiarity that made no sense.
"You are betrothed to him, after all. It only makes sense," I said. She gave me a look again.
"I know, my Lord," she said.
"Know what?" I asked.
"I do not think you want me to say what it is I know within this castle," she said. I wondered if she knew the specifics of my plan. If she did, that made her a unique kind of threat. But then the ability to see the future made her a possible asset. But that only brought questions to my mind. Chief of all...
"You knew about the assassination attempt. So why did you not do anything to stop it?" I asked.
"I did. I convinced Aegon to enter the Squire's melee so you would be upset at him and not have him with you when you headed to your dragon after winning the joust. When that did not work, I had Aegon go to place the bet, and then had a serving girl slip some gold to some men at the camp grounds to get them to arrest him so he could be brought to your attention and then have you angered at the shame enough to send him back to the Keep," she said.
"Telling us would have worked better, I reckon," I said, not much impressed with the plans she thought up. Was it just a thing for people with future sight to be so convoluted with their plans?
"I did not think you would believe me so easily," she said. I shrugged at that.
"Then you should have tried regardless. But that matters little. If you know what you say you know, then why would you want to marry Caesar?" I said.
"Who does not want to be close to the sun?" she asked.
"You will bring a lot of chaos to the world, but by your side is the safest place to be," she continued.
I hummed, swirling my juice about the glass and looking down at it. To be honest, I wanted no ties to the Greens after I betrayed them when the time came. Having Helaena married to my son would run counter to that. Of course, this could be her own attempt to secure my loyalty for her side, but she seemed to know better than that.
"And Aegon and Aemond?" I asked.
"Their fates are theirs and theirs alone. If I am not in the picture, then there is a chance that it changes for the better," she said.
"But you are your own first priority," I said with a smirk.
"Are you not much the same, my Lord?" she asked.
I didn't answer the question, instead resisting the urge to smile. Of course it must have seemed so to her. Someone who saw so much but also saw little. She had done a good job of making me wary of her for much of this conversation even if that was not her intent, but those words brought things into perspective now. Whatever she saw, she could not see my mind.
She could not see how little I mattered to myself when compared to Laena and my children. I would give my life a million times for them with no regret or hesitation at all.
"And what do I get in exchange?" I asked. It was implied with her words, but I preferred to have things out in the open.
"Whenever I see something that affects you, I will let you know," she said.
"A good offer, but one that could be better. I will save your life, Helaena Targaryen, but in exchange, I will own you essentially. Anything you see, no matter how insignificant, will be communicated to me as quickly as you can manage. I will take measures to ensure that you are able to reach out to me at any time," I said.
"I can agree to that, but I want something from you other than saving my life," she said.
"You don't have the room to bargain, Princess. You overplayed your hand. By telling me that your life is the thing that matters the most to you, and then telling me that I am the only one that can save it, you've given me enough leverage that I don't have anything to be gained from negotiating with you," I said to her, watching a scowl form on her face and split it in two. Scowls did not suit her.
"However, just because you have no room to bargain does not mean I will not listen to what you want. If it is not too much trouble for me, I will grant it, Cousin," I said with a smile. You get more bees with honey than vinegar, and if I was going to get her truly on my side, having her owe me her life was not enough.
"Dreamfyre. I need her. I see her in my dreams. But as I have no dragon, I am barred from the Dragonpit thanks to what Aegon and Aemond did. If you take me there under the pretext of seeing Igneel though, I can slip away and bond with her," she said. I shook my head. There was that need to overcomplicate things again. She looked disappointed at my reaction. I leaned forward and ruffled her hair.
"Stop scowling. I'll help you get your dragon. I was only shaking my head because your plan was stupid," I said.
"What?" she asked, but I was already pushing off from my seat. I walked over to where I had placed Riptide after Mesilla left and placed the sword belt around my waist.
"Instead of sneaking around like thieves, I will simply speak to your father. You are my son's betrothed, and you are at the age where you should have claimed a dragon of your own by now. I will offer to supervise the process with Igneel, and he will accept," I said.
"Truly?"
"Truly. He'd be a fool to say no. When next is he going to have a dragon larger than Dreamfyre with an experienced rider in the city to keep you safe while you bond with her in case anything goes wrong?" I asked.
----
I was right in the end. Viserys had not even needed to spend too much time thinking about it. The only reason it had taken us hours to leave the Castle was because of the guard detail that had to be assembled for the journey. It was like a small army of Knights were heading out to war, I thought as I rode in the middle of a column of Knights.
Two sets of riders had been sent ahead of us to secure the route before we began. This would probably represent a significant disturbance to the lives of the smallfolk of King's Landing, but when was the last time a Lord cared for the concerns of the smallfolk and their days or even lives?
We passed through streets that had been forcibly emptied and so made the journey to the Dragonpit in no time. The fact that something similar would have to happen on our way back did little for my mood though. Such a waste on my account. Not just mine, I thought, looking at the carriage that contained the young Princess, but still. King's Landing would have to be left soon.
We went into the Dragonpit alone, leaving the knights outside. In the massive monument to Targaryen excess and insanity, we were met by the Dragonkeepers, an order I was doing my best to replicate in my own lands, and I got a first-hand view of how far I still had to go in training my knock-off. They had already released Igneel from his own chamber, but that was the first part.
They moved with a quick efficiency as they led us to an inner chamber that was still massive. And then we heard the sound of singing—or at least I did at first, with Helaena not perceiving it until they were much closer. Igneel came forward, heeding my mental summons as we waited for the blue and silver she-dragon.
If I had expected a fight, I was proven wrong. The dragon was led to us with a trail of sheep that she roasted and ate as she came before she finally reached this chamber. And when she did so, she ignored the Dragonkeepers, and me, and even Igneel. Her eyes were only for Helaena, and that was the case with the girl as well.
She stretched a hand forward and Dreamfyre stalked over, raising some hackles, until she was pressing her head against the hand and nuzzling into her grip.
"It is good to meet you in person, Dreamfyre. Finally."
A/N: And another chappy bites the dust. I love Helaena in this. Love love love her. Next chapter comes on here by Sunday night. Next four chapters up on patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga) (same username as here and link in bio), support me there and read them early.