Chapter 54: Inevitable (Patreon)

Fifth Moon, 115 AC

Laena Velaryon

“I was thinking Laena. Mother and Father said that they’ve summoned Jace and Luke back home to High Tide. We should go and greet them when they return,” Daeron said excitedly as he walked into her room.

“Wasn’t that a given little brother?” Laena retorted with a raised eyebrow. “Especially since Jace was sick, I think we’re all a little anxious to see for ourselves that he is well. Still it is a bit premature for us to discuss this don’t you think? It will be at least two months before they reach Driftmark, longer still if their detour in the Summer Islands delays them overly much.”

Daeron’s smile faded. “Perhaps not that premature,” he said darkly as he sat down on her bed. “Aegon’s ultimatum expires in a few days. For the second time.”

Laena sighed. “Daeron…”

“He’s supposed to be our friend Laena. My brother and best friend. Your lover. He promised us, he promised you that he would marry you, with or without his parents’ approval. Now one year after his promised ultimatum and that marriage seems to be nowhere in sight. It feels farther away than ever and all we have to show for it are yet more promises Aegon has made to us and broken. When we asked him why the ultimatum hadn’t gone through, he told us that he was going to wait another year because of the divisions in his family. Does that sound right to you? After how long you’ve waited already? What if he postpones it again? How long will you wait for him?”

“Our mother and father will decide that I suppose,” Laena said. In truth, some part of her told her that it was time to let go.

It had hurt when Aegon had broken his promise to her. They had waited for so many years already, to the point that she had lost hope.

He had told her proudly that he would marry her after his twentieth nameday, with or without his parents’ approval. It hadn’t happened. Instead, when that day had come, he’d apologized and told her he had to delay it further because of the tensions in his family. Aegon had given her back hope that they could still be together and then he had taken it away as easily as he had given it.

It was only because they had known and loved each other for so long that Laena had decided to give him another chance after that. It was a close thing however. It had hurt knowing Aegon had chosen his family over her, had prioritized the quibbling and uncertainties of his parents and aunt and uncle over the love he claimed to have for her.

He hadn’t said the reason, but Daeron and her both knew. The Targaryens grew wary and suspicious of Jace’s motives. And Laena had heard from his own mouth exactly what they were, if she was being honest with herself, maybe they were right to be. Jace dreamed of an empire for their house, for more lands, gold, and glory than she had thought they could possibly attain, and he was succeeding.

Gogossos and the Basilisk Isles had been an unimaginably massive windfall for their house. It had cemented their control over the trade lanes going east to Yi Ti, increased their liquid wealth by a third, given them a huge repository of magical knowledge and artifacts and perhaps most incredibly of all, the largest collection of Valyrian Steel the world would ever hear of.

The news had spread like wildfire, people talked and five months was more than long enough for news to reach Westeros. Her cousin Daemon had all but raged when he had learned just how much steel her brothers had retrieved from Gogossos. That kind of success brought jealousy and fear.

The Targaryens were growing insecure about their place at the top, afraid of her family’s growing power. With that came increasing hostility, a hostility that Aegon as the future King was all too sensitive to. It felt like he was getting further and further away from her and nothing she did could bring him back and yet… she didn’t know if she was strong enough to let him go.

She had waited for Aegon for years. She had loved him deeply since they were young, feeling drawn to everything about him, his smile, his kindness, his love for his dragon, his love for her. Aegon had fallen in love with her first and his lovesick antics had slowly but surely endeared him to her. Her father had once joked that Aegon had fallen first but she had fallen harder. It seemed all too true.

“Do you still consider him your friend Daeron?” she asked her brother, curious to know what he thought.

Daeron was quick to answer. “Of course! He’s an indecisive prick who’s hurting you with his inability to commit, but he’s still my friend, like a brother to me. I just wish he’d pull his head out of the clouds and truly understand what he has.”

He looked at her when he said the last words and though he did his best to hide it, she knew that he meant more than what he said. Laena turned her eyes away. She had become aware quite some time ago of Daeron’s feelings for her. Feelings that she did not return. She loved him as a brother, and they had been raised as siblings, but somewhere along the way, Daeron’s love for her had turned from that of a brother for a sister to a man’s for a woman.

Laena had always known that if her marriage to Aegon didn’t work out, she would marry one of her brothers instead. For many years she had wondered if she might marry Jace or Luke but as her relationship with Aegon had developed and as they had been betrothed and then married, that possibility was locked away. There was only man that she could marry now if not Aegon.

To his credit, Daeron had never once acted on his feelings. He had done everything he could to bury them and hide them behind brotherly affection, striving to not let them color his judgement or try and sway her against Aegon in any way. To Daeron who had always prided himself on his dutiful nature and his care for their family and for Aegon as a friend, that was unthinkable.

From what she could tell, his feelings for her had only changed sometime in the past few years, long after he had built up a strong sibling bond with her and a close friendship with Aegon that took precedent before them. Daeron and her had always been closer to each other due to their proximity in age than they were to the twins, who of course, acted like each other’s other half. When they had met Aegon, they had taken him under their wing and their duo had become a trio that had been as thick as thieves.

Daeron had taken Aegon breaking his promise so seriously not because he saw it as his chance to marry her instead, but because he saw it as an insult to her and their house. She knew her brother enough to know that he would bury his feelings forever and happily watch them wed if that future was still destined come to pass.

They only slipped out in moments like this. In the frustration he felt whenever he saw Aegon wasting his chance to be with her when they both loved her. The looks he gave her when he thought she wasn’t looking.

Her little brother thought that he was so clever but she could see right through him. In truth, she did not mind. While it was odd at first, it had not taken her long to reconcile it with herself. Her own mother had been born from siblings, such practices were in their blood, in the creed they preached to their people. Laena didn’t love Daeron in that way not because he was her brother but because her heart had been stolen by someone else long ago.

Daeron was a fine man, kind, loyal, daring, and dutiful, and certainly as handsome as she was beautiful (and they called her the Pearl). Any woman would be lucky to marry him and if she was to be that woman, Laena would have no complaints whatsoever. He just wasn’t her first choice. He wasn’t the man that she had wanted for years, the man who now seemed unsure if he wanted her.

A knock on the door interrupted her thoughts. Daeron rose to his feet from her bed.

“Yes?” Laena called out.

“Prince Aegon has asked to see you my lady,” her loyal Tide Guard replied.

She turned to Daeron and they nodded to each other. Their frustrations with Aegon regardless, he was still their friend, her love. They would not turn him away if he came to speak with them.

It was not long before Aegon walked into her room, and even now Laena could not deny that she was in love with him. Her heart still skipped a beat excitedly at the sight of him, but she could not help but frown a little. He wore a smile on his handsome and chiseled face that did not reach his beautiful and pale violet eyes.

Daeron clasped hands with Aegon and embraced him tightly before they broke it and Aegon gave her a chaste kiss but she knew there was trouble when she saw the serious look on his face.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

“Your brothers,” he replied matter-of-factly.

She winced. That was not a good start at all. “What about them?”

“They annexed the Basilisk Isles. Walked away from it with a ludicrous amount of wealth and Valyrian steel that forever puts everything House Targaryen could dream of to shame. And yet I distinctly remember you two being very evasive whenever I asked you what Jacaerys and Lucerys were up to,” he said.

“We are not our brothers’ keepers,” Daeron said defensively.

“No. But you are their younger siblings and I know for a fact that your entire family is exceedingly close-knit. There is no way that the two of you didn’t know what Jacaerys was doing there and yet you refused to be frank with me? Why?”

Daeron glanced at her briefly, they had sworn to Jace years ago that they would not speak of his ambitions to Aegon. Him telling them had been a symbol of his trust in them as their older brother and that was something neither of them had ever broken. It was a quick glance but Aegon caught it and grew even more upset.

“You’re in on it aren’t you? Both of you. Or keeping quiet out of loyalty at the very least. All these grabs for more power, more wealth, more lands, more everything that your parents and brothers seem to hunger for… I try you know, I try to be understanding and forgiving, I try to rationalize some other explanation only to be brutally reminded every time just how power hungry and opportunistic your family is and the two of you just follow along and keep silent like sheep!” Aegon said angrily.

“And what about you Aegon?” Daeron challenged, his own voice raising. “Don’t you do the same with yours? You broke your promise, your word, to Laena just because your family wished for it. Don’t you dare lecture us.”

Aegon glared at Daeron and Laena felt the need to step in and mediate before things got too heated. Daeron and Aegon hadn’t truly fought in years and Laena had no wish to see them start now.

“Enough Aegon,” she said. “I didn’t hold you breaking your promise to me against you because I made the same decision to back my family. We are all creatures of duty at the end of the day and our loyalties to our houses come first. You understand this, I know you do.”

Aegon did not reply to her words. Instead he seemed to pause to take a deep breath and compose himself before he continued in a dead and aggrieved tone. “My mother has ordered me to marry Helaena.”

Laena felt like her heart had been shredded with needles. It wasn’t truly unexpected at this point and yet… it still hurt.

Daeron wasn’t ready to give up however. “She doesn’t have that authority. What about Uncle Aemon? And Uncle Baelon?”

Aegon’s reply was visceral. “Even they have no opposition to it anymore Daeron. They were supportive of your house but they are Targaryens first and foremost. Nobody, no one at all in my family, not even Grandmother Alyssa, likes or is supportive of what your house has done in the Basilisk Isles. Whether you were allowed to or not, expanding again and using Baela and Rhaena to do it as well so we can’t even say anything about it… it makes it seem like you were negotiating in bad faith.”

At that even Laena had to reply. “We’re the ones negotiating in bad faith Aegon? House Targaryen has promised us so much over and over again and refused to honor its promise almost every time. We are hardly the ones negotiating in bad faith.”

Aegon scoffed at her words. “Your family wants the Stepstones! You want to have all these concessions and privileges. You want Targaryen princesses. You want to have a queen.You put so many obstacles in the way of our marriage, obstacles that never needed to be there at all! Regardless of what House Targaryen did or didn’t do in the past, the least that you could have done if you wanted that much from us was act in good faith.”

“I never wanted to be Queen. I only wanted you,” Laena said sadly.

He replied bitterly. “I know. But that’s not what it looks like to everyone else does it?”

Being the Queen of Westeros had never really appealed to Laena. She had never told Aegon because she hadn’t wanted to offend him, but the Red Keep and Dragonstone had never been able to compare to High Tide or Zaldilaros Palace in the Black Fortress in her heart. King’s Landing had always seemed so lacking before the tragic and empty beauty of Spicetown or the glory of the Queen of Cities at the height of her power.

Everything the Targaryens did, their mindsets, their methods, their ways of thinking and doing things, the lack of luxuries, amenities, and advancements they had in their cities and castles, it had all seemed backwards and inadequate for someone like her who had grown up as the only daughter of the richest family in the world.

If anything, being the Lady of the Tides had always appealed to her more, for she so loved her house and family, and so wished to be like her mother Viserra, whom she idolized and was the spitting image of. The idea of trading in everything that she was used to as a lady of House Velaryon to become a Targaryen princess instead had kept her from admitting her love for Aegon for a few years before she had succumbed. Raising up House Targaryen to the standards that she was used to at home and leading her house by birth and her house by marriage into a reforged and strong new alliance had been the dream that she had clung to to reconcile her feelings for Aegon and her loyalty to her own house and preference for its traditions.

Because unlike everyone else who had ever lusted for Aegon and sought to pursue him, she loved Aegon for who he was, not because he was the future king. She was the closest to an equal that he had. She didn’t need him to uplift her own status and pride, she had more than enough of her own. Instead she had fallen for him and him alone, Aegon Targaryen, not Prince Aegon, the second in line to the Iron Throne.

But they hadn’t lived in a world where simply wanting each other was a good enough reason to marry. Both of them had had duties to fulfill to their families, families who had stringent requirements before they gave their blessing for their marriage, requirements that had contradicted each other.

“Would that I had eloped with you years ago and maybe this would never have happened,” Aegon said regretfully.

“Would that you had.” Laena’s smile was just as regretful.

In her heart she cursed her grandfather again. Jaehaerys Targaryen, the arrogant and foolish man who had thought that he had known everything, that his every plan was a work of genius. He who had started everything, who had dripped his poison to the next generation and doomed their families to be at odds. She cursed her Aunt Gael, her cousins Daemon, Viserys, and Rhaenys, for continuing her grandfather’s accursed work.

Because of the five of them, Aegon and her had to choose between love and duty to their families. Some might wonder why they hadn’t just eloped years ago if they had claimed to love each other so. It was because they were too dutiful by half to have ever done something so drastic without the approval of the parents they so loved. How could they?

She knew Aegon had always loved and adored his parents and she felt just the same way for her own. Her mother and father were the best that she could have asked for and betraying them or disappointing them had always been unthinkable. Not just for her she knew but for all of her brothers. Each and every one of them had grown up in the shadow of Corlys the Sea Snake and Viserra the Sea Dragon.

Other children of fame might have chafed in that shadow, sought to rebel against it out of spite and a lack of parental attention, but for Laena and her siblings who had been raised and lavished with such love and adoration, there was never any other way it could have gone. Instead of rebelling against the shadow of their parents, it sometimes felt like they were too obsessive in how much they sought to live up to and embody that shadow. Jace even sought to surpass it and bring further glory to House Velaryon.

And yet… perhaps if Aegon and her had been a little less dutiful and obedient to their parents, if they had allowed themselves to be selfish, maybe they could have been happy. And perhaps in the process they could have forced their families into an uneasy peace. But that was never something the two of them were willing to do. Before their love for each other, Aegon Targaryen and Laena Velaryon were creatures of duty and paragons of their houses, and perhaps if they hadn’t been they might have averted this tragic ending for their love.

“Maybe it’s not still too late,” Aegon said suddenly.

“What?” Laena looked up.

“Marry me. Tonight. We stop caring about our duties to our families, about the split loyalties distracting us from our love, the chains holding us back. Just fuck it all. You and I, together as we were always meant to be, married as we should have been six years ago. Daeron can be our witness,” Aegon said with a bright smile.

Laena was so confused. Her mind was struggling to make sense of everything. “What about our families? Even if we marry what would it even do at this point? The relationship between our houses is a mess. It would be a scandal beyond imagination.”

“You’ve always said your parents cared for you. Would they really deny you the chance to seek out your own love? I don’t think so. Not the people I grew up knowing. And even though you never wanted the position of Queen itself, your parents do Laena. They would be pleased. As for my own family, they’re a right bunch of pricks but I think I know how to appease them. They’re so worried about House Velaryon’s growing power, so why don’t we split it?” he said, looking meaningfully at Daeron as he spoke the last sentence.

“We can have the Iron Throne name you as the heir of Driftmark Daeron and convince your parents to confirm it. I could even get Grandfather to throw in the Stepstones to sweeten the deal or do it myself when I’m King if he won’t. Just think about it, the three of us, together as we always should have been. Myself as King, Laena as Queen, and you as our Hand Daeron, as the Lord of Driftmark, the Hook, and the Stepstones. You could even marry Helaena in my stead, she’s a more than fine bride for you.”

It was a tantalizing future… for Aegon. Laena found herself feeling horrified by it. “What about Jace and Luke? What you’re suggesting breaks all the laws of inheritance Aegon! It would cause chaos and turmoil!”

He dismissed her words. “Don’t exaggerate. It’s not unprecedented for inheritances to be divided in this way and if both the Iron Throne and your parents confirm it, Jacaerys and Lucerys can’t do anything about it. Besides, how sure are you that they’ll really mind? We all know they’ve never really cared for Driftmark, not like Daeron and you do.

“This deal works out for everyone don’t you see? It appeases my family by dividing up the seemingly all-powerful and dangerous House Velaryon. It placates your parents, returns the long lost Stepstones they desire so much to them and rights that old wrong, makes their daughter queen,” Aegon said passionately.

He turned to her brother. “Daeron, you don’t have to be a third son who won’t inherit anything of true worth anymore. You would have vast lands, you would have power and esteem in your own right, and a Targaryen Princess to take as wife. You would be the Hand of the King. You could have everything and it doesn’t even have to be against your family’s interests either because you are still a Velaryon and by doing this you gain the Stepstones back for your family!

“Laena,” he said as he turned to her, pleading. “My love. We could be together. We would have defied all the odds and married after all. With our marriage and that of our cousins to your brothers, we could make a lasting peace between our houses. A harmonious coexistence where we agree to not interfere with each other’s domains.”

“It’s even good for Jace and Luke too! It lets them be independent! Run roughshod over Essos conquering as they please as they so clearly want to. We’ll all be better off without the legal limbo that is having Driftmark and Tyrosh held by the same person.”

Aegon’s voice had become increasingly desperate by now. Laena wanted to be convinced, she really did, but she couldn’t. What he was describing, it sounded like he only saw the best possible outcome.

There was no way Aegon’s family would let Jace and Luke be wholly independent in Essos, it would be tantamount to recognizing them as equals and allowing them to expand and conquer as they pleased without restraint. That was not something House Targaryen could ever accept. It was not improbable that that scenario could lead to war and Laena would be trapped on the wrong side just as she had feared for years.

In defense of her children and husband, she’d be forced to ride her dragon against her mother and older brothers in the skies. The ships she burns would be proud ships of the Velaryon Navy, commanded by her father and uncle and cousins. Tyrosh, the city that so proudly called her its pearl, would be an enemy fortress to conquer and burn. It repulsed her more than she even thought possible. Laena was a proud Velaryon, with salt and fire in her blood. The idea of tearing down everything she had grown up loving disgusted her.

Her parents and brothers that she loved so much, they would never forgive her. They would see it as a betrayal, it would especially be a slight against Jace who had given up his own love for the sake of their family. She knew he would judge her for not being willing to make the same sacrifice he did. It broke her heart just to even imagine the betrayal in his eyes when he learned what they had done. She looked over to Daeron and saw the pain and conflict in his own eyes and she knew that he felt the same way.

“Why can’t you just marry me?” Laena begged Aegon as a last resort. “All of these things with Daeron, it just needlessly complicates everything doesn’t it?”

Aegon refused. “My family won’t accept that Laena. I can’t accept that. I can’t have Jacaerys and Lucerys as my vassals. You and I both know they have clear desires for an empire and I can’t have such ambitious and power-hungry vassals. I would much rather have someone I trust,” he said as he looked to Daeron.

“You’re asking me to betray my brothers Aegon,” Daeron choked out, his voice filled with pain and grief.

“Am I not your brother as well?” Aegon pleaded.

Daeron did not answer, simply shaking his head as he looked to be on the brink of tears. Aegon turned to her, his pale eyes frantic with desperation now, looking almost mad with begging.

“Laena?”

She couldn’t hold back the tears anymore. “I’m sorry Aegon. I… I can’t.”

In that moment he looked like a kicked puppy. It was not long before his grief and despair began turning into anger however.

“I’ve offered to give up so much for you. To stop being the dutiful son, turn my back on my family and their wishes just to marry you. And you can’t even do the same for me? Do you even love me Laena?” he demanded.

“I do,” she shouted desperately. “I just… I…”

“Save it,” he cut her off. “I guess this is great for you then huh Daeron?” he said mockingly, every word dripping with venom.

Daeron froze, his tears wiped away as he stared Aegon in the eye. The two of them were of a height, both over six feet tall. The tension between them now was thick and deadly. “And what do you mean by that?”

“Let’s not mince words. You’re in love with Laena. You have been for years now. We can see it you know, see how your gaze always lingers on her, the lust in your eyes. Even Laena knows it too I suspect. You have ulterior motives for rejecting my offer. Don’t lie and pretend it’s for your family, that’s just a self-righteous excuse to justify your own selfishness and lust. You just want Laena.

“If Laena doesn’t marry me, who else could she marry but you? Hey, come to think of it. Maybe that’s why you both rejected me. For all I know you’ve been laughing at me behind my back while you fuck each other, just waiting for the day when you can finally marry and be rid of Aegon the interloper,” he said, his eyes mad with jealousy and cruelty.

Laena gasped at the accusation. Daeron did not gasp. His fist connected with Aegon’s face instead.

“AEGON!!!” he screamed as he pounded away at his erstwhile friend. Aegon retaliated and the two of them started wrestling, savagely punching and kicking at each other. Laena desperately called in the Tide Guard to intervene and they separated the two from each other, but not before they had both gotten bloody bruises for their trouble.

“Unhand me at once! I am your Prince!” Aegon demanded as the Tide Guard released Daeron almost immediately. Laena nodded to the Tide Guard who obeyed and released Aegon though they did so very reluctantly.

Both Daeron and Aegon turned to her then, as if wondering who she would go to first. Laena remembered her love for Aegon, the years they had spent together waiting and dreaming of the day they married. Then she remembered his cruel accusation, of how he had led her along this past year only to give her an impossible choice. She went to the brother that defended her honor instead, comforting him as she checked on his bruises.

When she made to check on Aegon after that however, his face was full of rage and betrayal, as if he had just realized that his worst fears were true. He slapped her hands away. Glancing over to the Tide Guard briefly, he spoke.

“This is the last time that I will ever be at a Velaryon’s mercy,” he spat. “Have fun Laena, Daeron. I wish you well in your marriage. I pray that you enjoy your time together,” he mocked. “Because I promise you, you will live to regret this.”

“And you’ll keep that promise like you kept the last one you made us?” Daeron taunted him back.

“Watch me,” he said maliciously before he stormed out. “Out of my way!” he screeched at the Tide Guard who parted to let him pass.

Despite his cruel words, Laena couldn’t just forget years of love so easily. Her heart shattered as she watched him leave, wondering; where had it all gone wrong? She wiped away her tears and turned to her brother.

“You shouldn’t have taunted him like that,” Laena rebuked him as she started tending to his wounds, her eyes still wet and blurry.

He winced at the sting. “He deserved it,” he retorted before his eyes widened with guilt and shame. “Laena, what he said about my feelings –“

“This isn’t the time for us to talk about that Daeron,” she brushed it off. “We have to leave King’s Landing. Today.”

He nodded. “I concur. I think we will soon find that it is no longer welcome to us.”

____________________________________________

Viserra

A thousand ships were anchored in the queen’s embrace. Legions of fanatics worshipped at the foot of a metal woman with broken chains at her feet and a torch in her hand. They cheered eagerly as the metal woman presented her babes to them, wailing and crying as they were held aloft. The zealots took up their weapons, waving silver sea-green banners as they marched onward to glory and war. ‘Victory!’ they cried as they boarded their ships.

It all turned to ash as the fires consumed everything. The banners faded into embers, the ships into cinders, and the metal woman into dust. The wailing of her babes became the thunderous roars of a hundred dragons, tearing through the sky as easily as their teeth and claws tore each other apart.

The clouds burned and bathed with the fire and fury of the dragons. Reds, blues, greens, yellows, silvers, golds, bronzes, browns, every color imaginable could be seen in their scales and flames. A palette of an infinite myriad. The ground shook and trembled beneath the dragons’ roars, it scorched beneath their desolation.

The pale fortress burned, her splendor ignited into flame, her silver towers melted into the rising tide, blazing like the wicks of a candle in the dark night. The fires continued to burn, consuming that proud old fortress until naught but ash and rubble remained. The pale fortress burned, and the world would never see her like again.

Viserra’s eyes snapped open with a shudder. The dream was already fading away. Desperately she scrambled out of bed to her dresser, pulling out a piece of paper and a quill and inkpot to quickly write down what she could remember from her dream before she forgot.

She’d had dreams like this before, years ago. They had always been foggy and cryptic, so much so that she’d almost dismissed them entirely and all but forgotten about them. And yet this time, the dream was clearer and more vivid than it had ever been before. And one image had seared itself into her mind, one image that had always been constant in all her previous dreams in those long gone years and had returned once more. The pale fortress burned.

Viserra’s eyes turned to the pale white marble walls of her chambers and her eyes widened in horror. ‘No!’ she screamed in her head, unable and unwilling to accept that portent, that future. She washed her face at the vanity before changing. She looked back at her bed and glared at it, wishing that she’d never taken that nap now.

It was not often that Viserra took naps. Sleeping was for nighttime or so she had always said. She had stayed up late doing some work yesterday however and when she had almost fallen asleep during a meeting after lunch, Corlys had gently advised her to rest for a while.

Corlys… she had to speak with her husband immediately. If anyone knew what to make of her dream, it would be him. She folded and pocketed her note before she all but ran through the corridors to her husband’s solar. She was frantic and unkempt, uncaring for once about how undignified she must look to all the servants and guards she ran past. The Tide Guard who had stood guard faithfully outside her door rushed to follow her desperately as she ran.

“My lady! Please slow down!” one shouted but she did not heed their words.

When she finally arrived at Corlys’ solar, the ever faithful Ser Jaremy stood guard at the door. The moment he saw her, he bowed and opened the door. Corlys and her had told the Tide Guard years ago that unless instructed otherwise, they were always willing to see each other immediately. There was no need for knocking or permission. They were each other’s first priority.

When she entered into the room however, she was surprised to find that Corlys was not alone. Her youngest two children were seated in front of his desk. They turned to see her and Viserra’s heart froze at the expression on their faces. It was filled with grief and anguish. Daeron looked like he had been in a fistfight with someone and looked angry enough to throw things around, and Laena’s eyes were bloodshot, like she had been crying.

Laena left her seat and rushed to her, hugging her tightly. “Oh what happened my dear? Who did this to you?” she asked as she held her tighter. Laena was trying hard to control her emotions but it seemed seeing her had brought out a few more tears.

Getting no answers from her daughter, she turned to her son. “It was Aegon,” he answered grimly.

Aegon? The bright-eyed young man who had been her son’s best friend and her daughter’s beloved? The future King of Westeros… Unbidden the image of the pale fortress afire came to mind. Her grip on her daughter tightened and she began to protest at how firmly she held her. “Laena, Daeron, tell me everything,” she demanded, anxious.

So they did, repeating everything that they had told to their father. They spoke of how Aegon had met with them and told them that he had been ordered to marry Helaena, how even Uncle Aemon and Baelon and Aunt Alyssa had no opposition to the match anymore after what Jace and Luke had achieved in the Basilisk Isles, how much they had gained for their house. Then they told her of Aegon’s offer, how he had suggested eloping with Laena and giving Daeron Driftmark and the Stepstones, what they had both realized the offer meant and how they had rejected him, leading to Daeron and him having an altercation when he had insulted them.

Viserra felt her rage boiling against the Targaryens and especially Aegon. How dare they?? They had tried to steal her eldest sons’ birthrights from them, again. They had tried to split her house and its power in twain, tried to turn her children against each other! And Aegon? How dare he cast aspersions on her children’s honor? She felt her rage threatening to consume all in its path, felt the growing temptation to turn Dreamfyre upon Rhaenys’ arrogant brat and incinerate him for what he had done to her children.

“Are you angry with me Mother?” Daeron asked uncertainly.

“Why would I be angry with you?” Viserra asked, feeling utterly confused.

“Because you look furious. And I thought that you might be upset that I hit Aegon and ruined everything,” he confessed uncertainly. “Like you were at Jace.”

“You should have hit him harder,” Viserra told Daeron vindictively.

Despite his anguish at his broken friendship, Daeron could not help but smile a little at her words.

“Rest assured my sweet son. My wrath is not for you,” she continued. “It is all reserved for the Targaryens… Damn them! Damn them all!”

“Mother… what are we going to do now?” Laena asked her. She sounded so lost Viserra’s heart broke a little on her behalf.

Her daughter had loved Aegon for so many years and now one of the fundamental truths that she had built her worldview on, that she loved Aegon and he loved her, had been shattered forever. Even the memory of the love they once shared had been poisoned forever by his cruel words.

“You don’t have to worry about anything else today alright?” Viserra consoled her. “Neither of you do. I just wanted to tell you that I am so, so proud of you both. I would have loved you regardless which choice you both chose but I cannot lie and say that I am not immeasurably happy you both chose to return to our side,” she said as she pulled Laena closer yet again.

“Neither can I,” Corlys said suddenly, having gotten up from his seat. He was standing behind Daeron now and pulled their youngest son into a tight embrace. Before long, Laena left her arms to replace Daeron in their father’s, drawing comfort from his embrace like she had so many times before. Viserra could not help but smile at the heartwarming sight despite the ill tidings that hung over them.

When Laena was done hugging her father, Viserra sent her and Daeron to rest. Both of them were hungry and tired. They had had a very, very, long day. They had fallen out with Aegon only that morning and then had skipped lunch to hurriedly leave the capital with their dragons and all their baggage and guards in case the Targaryens had gotten any… ideas. Their Tide Guard and baggage was still sailing over Blackwater Bay but both of them had flown back to High Tide, desperately seeking the safety of home and the comforts of family.

It made Viserra even prouder to know just how smart and rational her children were. Even with their anguish so fresh and raw, so potent, they had been aware enough of their surroundings to know that King’s Landing was not safe for them anymore. It would not be safe for any Velaryon ever again. Maybe it never had been.

Once Daeron and Laena had left, Viserra closed the door behind them and locked it shut. She turned back to Corlys. He had returned to his seat and his face was in his palms.

“We miscalculated,” he said. “I told Jace years ago that the Targaryens shouldn’t care too much about the Basilisk Isles. We took all the precautions. The twins married Baela and Rhaena first. Everything should have been fine and yet, and yet!”

Viserra consoled him, placing her hand on his. “We could not have known. The fortune that Jace and Luke found in Gogossos shocked everyone.”

“But we did. Even if not Gogossos… after Tyrosh we should have known better than to think the Targaryens would take well to us expanding ever again. It doesn’t matter anymore what reasons or justifications we have. It never did. All they care about is that we grow stronger. They fear our power, they fear our rise, and one day, they will seek to destroy us for it. We’re caught in Thucydides’ Trap, and we can’t escape.”

Viserra still didn’t know who Thucydides was, but Corlys had told her what his trap was years ago. The dominant power would seek to crush the rising power before they are surpassed by them. It was a trap born from the failure of diplomacy, the lack of trust between the two powers, and the overabundance of fear and paranoia in them both. They and the Targaryens now fulfilled every condition for the trap. Maybe they already did years ago.

“We are the rising power,” she said, trying to console him. “One day we’ll be strong enough to fight the Targaryens on even terms.”

“If they even letus get to that point Viserra. We might be rising but it’s just not fast enough. We’re outnumbered ten to five, at most Baela and Rhaena will stay neutral until they have children with the twins. At any moment the Targaryens could wipe us out and only the swiftly fraying ties of kinship stay their hand. One day, Aemon and Baelon will perish, and when that time comes, the die will be cast.”

Silence followed Corlys’ words as they both tried to absorb the realization they had come to. Soon Corlys broke down. “This is all my fault. All those years ago, when I took Tyrosh, I set our houses on a path to conflict and I was too proud to escape it before it was too late,” he said bitterly.

“Our fault Corlys,” she reminded him. “I was there right beside you every step of the way. And we did everything we could. We swallowed all our pride, all but begged the Targaryens to make peace with us!”

“Did we?” he asked, haunted. “How much of our pride did we really swallow? If we had been truly serious about making peace no matter the cost, we would have submitted Tyrosh long ago, stopped demanding such extreme concessions. Deep down in our hearts however, pride had already rooted and we couldn’t uproot it.”

“We couldn’t truly submit Corlys. Not like you describe. It would have cost us everything. There would have been no guarantee the Targaryens would keep their word to us, and we would have betrayed everyone who had sacrificed so much for us, spat on the loyalty of those we rule.”

“The trap was always inescapable then,” Corlys said in despair. “We just deluded ourselves into thinking otherwise. With both of our houses too proud to bend and too dependent on the image of strength and power to rule with legitimacy to submit, this could have only ever ended one way.”

The pale fortress burned, Viserra remembered with a start. She pulled the paper out of her pocket so fast she almost ripped it before she unfolded it and placed it before Corlys. “I just remembered I had this,” she said.

Confused, Corlys quickly read through the notes she had taken of her vision and as he read every line, Viserra could watch as despair crept further and further into his indigo eyes. It was a sight she had once prayed she never had to see again, the eyes of a man who had given up all hope and accepted defeat. The last time she had seen that look in Corlys’ eyes, the Morghon rioters had been at the gates of the Black Fortress.

“What is this?” he demanded, hoping to any god that existed that what he read wasn’t true.

“My dream,” Viserra whispered. “It woke me up from that nap you told me to take, not half an hour ago. I scribbled this down desperately before the details faded from my memory and rushed here to tell you about it before I got distracted by our children’s grief.”

Corlys sighed in defeat. “Their grief and your dream are connected. What are the chances that you would have a dream like this on the very same day that they fall out with the future King of House Targaryen? We should never take dragon dreams lightly and this is perhaps the clearest they will ever be.”

“This pale fortress… it keeps showing up in my dreams. Three times now I think I’ve dreamed of this same scene, the one constant in every dream that has never changed. The pale fortress burns. What do you think it means?” she begged him, praying desperately that he had come to a different conclusion than she had.

“What do you think it means?” he asked her back.

Viserra shook her head in tears, still unable to admit it aloud because she feared it would make it real. “It could be the Eyrie. It could be Evenfall Hall…”

“Now you’re just in denial Viserra. Anxiously grasping at straws, hoping desperately that you’re wrong, that your dream refers to any other pale fortress but our own. Wake up and look around you! Everything about this castle fits your dream perfectly! The walls are made of marble, they’re as pale as stone can be! The towers are crowned with silver and the tides rise to separate us from the rest of Driftmark! There are dragons in this castle, dragons that are doomed to fight and die in its defense!”

Corlys squeezed his eyes shut in grief and despair. “My life’s work, this castle that I built from the ground up with my grandfather and brothers… its time is ticking away. The tide will fall one day. High Tide is destined to burn.”

Viserra was sobbing openly now, despair consuming her as her worst fears were confirmed once and for all. Her children would fight and die on the frontlines of a war that would shake the world. The home that she and her husband so loved would burn to the ground. Everything that she had ever accomplished would be ground down to dust.

Corlys suddenly looked out the window in his solar and Viserra followed her gaze. As they both watched, the sun turned a reddish-orange as it dipped below the horizon. Darkness began to creep into the world as the sun’s light receded.

Viserra wiped her tears away, feeling a spirit of hope and defiance come back to life in her soul. The future might be grim, but she’d be damned if they didn’t go into it fighting with everything they had.

“The sun has set on our house before. Dawn always came eventually,” she told Corlys, trying desperately to believe her own words.

Corlys scoffed bitterly. His words were haunted and hopeless. “Rhaekar’s death, the riot, everything we went through in Tyrosh, everything we have endured these past twenty-five years Viserra, it was all trivial in hindsight. Little stumbles we thought were the end of everything until we overcame them. This though… this is something else entirely. It will not be tomorrow, it may not even be ten years from now, but it can no longer be averted or prevented. A full-scale war between dragonlords is coming. A dance of dragons that is now inevitable.”

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Author’s Note: Your actions will always have consequences and this was a long time coming. Hope you guys liked this chapter and please let me know your thoughts in the comments! Stay tuned to see where the storyline leads now that the Dance has been confirmed!