The coronation of Viserys Targaryen, Second of His Name, ruler of the Seven Kingdoms, was appointed for the fourteenth day of the eighth month of the one hundred and fourth year After the Conquest of Aegon. The previous ceremony took place nigh on fifty-six years ago, when the then High Septon—"His High Lickspittle," as the chronicles remembered him—anointed the Old King to reign. Now the Young King, the Spring King, had arrived in Oldtown to undergo the rite performed over his grandfather, great-grandfather, and great-great-grandfather. Over a hundred years of Targaryen rule had already left their deep mark on Westeros, and the beginning of a new reign was to mark a new era of prosperity for the Seven Kingdoms under the rule of dragonlords—and this had to be demonstrated.
Heralds, masters of ceremonies, and the Lord Chamberlain of the Household arrived a month earlier than the royal train to lead the final stage of preparations for the celebration and festivities, having on hand a ready plan of the entire ceremony, differing only slightly from the coronation of Jaehaerys I, where every step of every guest was accounted for. They did not foresee only that Aegon would appear in Oldtown before them and reshape everything that had already been conceived.
Strictly speaking, no one asked him to do this; the morning after his visit to Uncle Vaegon, the Prince received an audience with the High Septon and offered him his version of the coronation service; naturally, he did not encroach upon the dogmas and liturgical canon of the Starry Sept: Aegon merely presented a version of chants, hymns, and prayers set to music by him, sounding in every sept from Dorne to the Neck. The Council of the Most Devout immediately accused him of sacrilege, to which the Prince objected that he composed this by divine inspiration for the glory of the Faith. Then the High Septon, a man not yet entirely old and, by all appearances, capable of thinking for the day after tomorrow, suggested the choir of the Starry Sept perform the Prince's works and only then judge them.
All the next day the Starry Sept stood closed to believers, and behind closed doors Septons, Septas, and heads of the six orders listened and conferred. By evening Aegon brought all the scores as a gift to the Faith, and the High Septon, struck by the beauty and majesty of the chants, blessed their use.
"Tell me, my son," the Shepherd of the Faithful asked at the end. "For the sake of what do you do this?"
"For the sake of my brother," Aegon answered seriously. "He has taken upon himself a burden which no one has the right to share with him. Hardly will my music help him, but at least it will serve him and you in good stead."
"Demonstrating the union of the Iron Throne and the Faith," the High Septon nodded understandingly. He definitely understood the essence of what was happening and his place in it; Aegon thought how lucky he was to meet pragmatists among Septons, known for their bigotry—first Barth, then the High Shepherd.
Therefore, when Lord Rosby requested a meeting with the primate of the Faith to discuss the details of the coronation, a concerted position of the Prince and the High Septon awaited him. In the end, he had to yield, and the ceremony was almost completely rewritten: guests were swapped, ceremonial clothes were unpicked and resewn, the route of the royal train through the streets was corrected. With Viserys's arrival in Oldtown, the organizational madness acquired an unprecedented scale and nearly drove Aegon, who suddenly became one of the masters of ceremonies, mad.
But lo, the cherished day arrived. Clad in a simple black-and-red doublet, the bareheaded Viserys together with Aemma, in the same modest red dress, were seated in an open carriage and driven through the streets of Oldtown from the Hightower, where they stayed as guests of Lord Hightower, to the Starry Sept, where the guests had already gathered.
Scarce had the royal couple stepped beneath the vaults of the holy place when the choir, drilled by Aegon over weeks of waiting, thundered "Rejoice!", which could be taken both on account of the crowned ones and on account of the Seven. Aegon himself and Daemon, suffering terrible torments from being beside his dearest Rhea Royce, who had managed to catch up with the royal train after all, stood in the first row, immediately before the Great Lords of the realm, and therefore bowed their heads last at their brother's approach. Viserys, knowing only the dry sequence of actions, if he was surprised by the unusual reception, gave no sign and seemed fully concentrated on the figure of the High Septon standing exactly under the Crystal Star.
Kneeling before the Shepherd, the King and Queen received the first blessing from him, after which two of the Most Devout and two Kingsguard helped them rise. The High Septon proclaimed in a deep, well-placed voice:
"Now I present to you Viserys of House Targaryen, who is our lawful and undisputed King. Are you ready to show him fitting reverence and serve him faithfully now and henceforth?"
To which the whole Starry Sept answered: "Long live the King!", Viserys nodded majestically and the choir sang "I was glad to walk in righteous paths." Septons led Viserys by the arms to the altar of the Father, where the primate began to serve the first of seven liturgies; while the Shepherd, falling to the very edge of the white marble slab, whispered secret prayers, seven of the Most Devout read seven passages from the Book of the Father in turn, called to instruct the King in justice and wisdom. In conclusion, to the hymn "Father, bless, Father have mercy," Viserys was handed a coal-black Scepter with the Dragon. Made of dragonbone, it was crowned with a golden figurine of a three-headed dragon with ruby eyes and symbolized the King's power over his own house and over all the Seven Kingdoms.
Then came the turn of the Warrior's altar, beside which the Lord Commander of the Kingsguard, Ser Ryam Redwyne, girded the King with Blackfyre—thus the King became the Protector of the Realm. At the Mother's altar, the Scepter with the Star was placed in his right hand as a sign of union with the Faith and a symbol of mercy. At the Smith's altar, the Lord Chamberlain threw a black long-skirted mantle embroidered with golden threads and small rubies depicting fire-breathing dragons over the King's shoulders—a symbol of all riches hidden in the earth of Westeros and in the King's subjects. From the Maiden, Viserys received a ruby signet ring—the Heavenly Queen of Beauty presented it to the King of the Seven Kingdoms as a sign of her love and favor to him. From the Crone—a chain of yellow gold with a large piece of rock crystal in the center; the light reflected in the consecrated crystal symbolized the light of the Crone's Lantern, called to indicate the only true path.
Usually, followers of the Seven offered a prayer to the Stranger once a year, at the end of the Holy Week, when they commemorated all deceased relatives, and therefore no one save the Septons expected the procession to stop at his altar. Hearing the murmur rising among the guests, Aegon smiled contentedly—that was his plan. The High Septon proclaimed:
"In the day of your triumph and in every day after, remember that you are mortal, as is any of your people, for the Stranger knocks at every door, and there is for him neither peasant's house nor royal castle," and, turning to the dark granite statue in a hood, bowed his head in the crystal tiara. For a moment deafening silence stood, and a solitary singer from the choir loft under the very roof began to sing one of the ancient prayers dedicated to the Stranger, unearthed by Aegon with the greatest difficulty:
"In the evergreen garden and at the bottom of the sea you will not hide from him, and beyond the edge of the earth he will overtake you," a high voice warned of the futility of fleeing death; his recitative sounded loudly and clearly under the high vaults of the sept, approaching the climax: "...and considering yourself saved, you will look back, but he will come!"
"But who will come?" the Shepherd asked in a singsong bass, and in answer to him with all the power of seventy-seven voices the choir thundered:
"The Stranger will come! The Stranger will come! The Stranger will come!"
Imperceptibly glancing at those standing around him, Aegon remained pleased with the impression produced: on the face of the aged Lord Tyrell, whom the Stranger was about to visit as a guest, a feeling of inevitability was imprinted, and the Dowager Lady Lannister openly wiped tears with a golden handkerchief; even the Warden of the North Rickon Stark, first among the followers of the Old Gods, seemed impressed.
Meanwhile, the general prayer was finished, and the High Septon with Viserys returned under the canopy of the Crystal Star. Two Kingsguard placed a lush cushion of scarlet velvet with black trim before the King; Viserys obediently knelt, and the Shepherd anointed him with seven oils, after which he accepted the Iron Crown of the Conqueror presented by Ser Ryam and said:
"Accept this crown as a symbol of your power, to which all is subject, and be a faithful son of the Faith and a just sovereign and father to all and each of your subjects, equally great and small. Let your mind turn from vile and unrighteous thoughts, let your sword protect all the weak and innocent. In the name of the preservation and increase of peace in the Seven Kingdoms, I name you their lawful King and ruler!"
With these words, a wide circlet of Valyrian steel with rubies set in it descended on Viserys's brow, and the choir sang a hymn which Aegon found in no Book of Holy Prayers, new or old, but which he had dreamt of since Grandfather died:
"And the High Septon, and the Council of the Faith proclaimed Viserys King! And all the people rejoiced, rejoiced and cried: 'Gods, save the King! Long years to the King! Glory! Glory!'"
Viserys, Second of His Name, rose from his knees with a face so inspired and majestic that Aegon, sinking to his knees before the sovereign together with everyone, could not suppress a triumphant smile.
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