King's Landing, a month after the Great Spring Sickness ended. A new king stood on the Iron Throne and a new Hand of the King ruled beside him. Aerys I was not prepared to be King of the Andals. His brother, Baelor Breakspear was a great Hand and the ruler everyone wanted. However, he died by the hand of his brother, Maekar. The Sickness also took the lives of Baelor's sons, Valarr and Matarys, leaving Aerys as his father's heir. After Daeron II himself died, the bookish Aerys found himself king, with no idea about how to lead his people. Sure, he was a very intelligent and cultured individual but he had no training in effectively ruling a kingdom. This is why, as his first act as King of the Andals, the Rhoynar and the First Men, he decided to name his uncle, Brynden Rivers, Hand of the King.

The relationship between Brynden and Aerys was unique. Aerys was Brynden's favorite nephew, as he was very intellectual and attracted to the arcane arts, like him. Likewise, Aerys enjoyed Brynden and the books he would show him, such as spell tomes from across the Narrow Sea or legends about the Others. However, with his new position as King, Aerys had less and less time for reading, as his position was extremely demanding.

In the Small Council room, a meeting was in place, to discuss the end of the Sickness and the restoration of order in the realm.

"With all due respect, Lord Hand, but I don't think that your decision to force the smallfolk to return is justified. The draught is as bad as it is; we don't need malcontents so close to our gates."

Lord Dormund Estermont, the Master of Laws, was a small, bald old man who usually sported a green robe. He was a good lawmaker but not very compassionate about people in general. Brynden Rivers retorted:

"And you prefer to starve, Lord Estermont? If the smallfolk don't work the land, you and all of us will die of hunger. Unless you have a vault full of wheat and barley we don't know about? I guess not, since you are thin as a straw."

The other Council members laughed, except Lord Estermont.

"There is no need for insults, Lord Hand. Everyone at this table agrees with the fact that the smallfolk will revolt. Many of them will become brigands. There will be robberies, murders, rapes!"

"Nobody will rape you, Lord Estermont. Who in his right mind wants to fuck an old fart whose only concern is his own hide?"

The jest of the Master of Ships, Lord Rickard Manderly, was too much for Estermont to bear.

"I will not be your subject of mockery! I am a Lord from an old House! The blood of the Storm Kings runs within my veins! Take back your words, Lord Manderly, or it will end with blood!"

The northern lord laughed:

"Fuck you, Estermont. You are a fool and a shit eating prick. You do not realize that we will starve! The power of the Iron Throne is shabby at best. We need to consolidate. We need to restart the commerce with the Free Cities now that the plague ended. We need to rebuild our agriculture. The fields will be worked by the smallfolk, unless you want to work them yourself, seeing as you are so afraid of peasants. We need to show the realm that the King is taking care of things!"

"He is right, Estermont. Shut up. We have other matters to attend to."

The Master of Coin, Lord Thaddeus Brax, was an imposing individual, very rich and very powerful. He was the cousin of the Lord of Casterly Rock, Tybolt Lannister, as his mother, Lady Cerissa, was Brax's aunt. Thaddeus Brax was not a man to be trifled with as he was handpicked by Brynden Rivers to serve in the Small Council.

"My lords, my decision is clear. The smallfolk will be forced to return to their lands. If in two months' time won't rain, I will summon builders from Braavos to build canals all across the Crownlands. The Blackwater Rush will source the water for those canals so I think we will manage to provide enough of it to the fields around King's Landing."

A daring plan that made even the skeptical Lord Estermont end his tirade, this idea was revolutionary for Westeros.

"We have another pressing matter on our hands. The King won't procreate. He doesn't want to touch his wife in order to give her his seed. We all know that a king needs heirs to have a stable reign. If Aerys will die without sons, Prince Maekar will become King…"

"A dreadful perspective for us, my lords."

Everybody turned their heads towards the speaker. A woman, tall and lean, with a beautiful necklace of sapphires and emeralds, matching her strangely colored eyes, one blue and one green rose from her chair and spoke again, with a silky voice.

"We certainly agree that Prince Maekar is not the kindest man in the realm and he can be quite… antagonistic towards the regime we try to create over here. All of us had spats with him in the past. As much as I care about my beloved nephew, I really don't think he will make a good king."

The woman was Shiera, the Mistress of Whispers. A woman known all across the world for her beauty, promiscuousness and intelligence, as she would be more than happy to fuck anyone anywhere and anytime in order to find out the man (or woman)'s secrets.

"Exactly! You see, my lords, my sister has a point. With my nephew Maekar as king, I don't think that any of us has a future in King's Landing. We need to solve the problem of the smallfolk, and we will do it but the problem of a prince from Aerys' seed is paramount. And I shall see that the king will do his duty. We don't need hatred from House Penrose."

After the Small Council meeting, Brynden entered his room in the Tower of the Hand. He undressed and entered a large bathtub filled with hot water. After a few minutes, Shiera joined her brother in the tub, savoring a glass of wine at the same time.

"That Estermont… Always trying to block me in those meetings."

"He hates me too… I guess it's because we are bastards? Or he may be jealous that I don't want to fuck him as I fuck you?"

Brynden smiled and touched Shiera's breasts. He then planted a kiss on her lips.

"Listen, about Aerys. How would you try to make him do his job as a husband? Will you take his cock and force-shove it inside Queen Aelinor's cunt? If you plan to do this, please, invite me too. It would make me so wet to see you work on our beloved nephew's prick while that wife of his probably will pray to her Seven!"

"Hmm… I heard that she prays every day at the Sept of Baelor for a son."

"She needs not to pray, but a cock. Her husband's cock. Nothing more, nothing less!"

"Yes, a cock Aerys doesn't want to give her."

Shiera put her head on Brynden's chest, while touching the Hand's privates. Bloodraven clearly liked every moment of it.

"I will talk to him. He respects me and listens to my advices, perhaps he would see it my way. But honestly, it will be very hard to coerce him into doing it."

"That Aerys… He does not understand that furthering his bloodline is what matters? Our bloodline? The Blackfyres are still out there. And if House Targaryen is to survive, our nephew's line must continue!"

"Speaking of lines… Shiera, for so many years I wanted you, not just to fuck you, but as my wife. We were both acknowledged by our wretched father, we can start a new cadet branch of the Targaryens together, a dynasty! Marry me, please, and we will be even stronger, we will protect House Targaryen even better! There are dark times ahead of us. We must be together if we are to survive them!"

Shiera laughed. She kissed Bloodraven and left the bathtub. Her wet, naked body was perfect. The evening's rays, which entered in the room, fall upon her, giving her the aspect of a goddess. Brynden was smitten.

"I don't wish to be bound by anyone, not even you, my love. I want to be free, to live my life as I see fit, and while it's lovely to be in your arms, they are also like a cage for me… a gilded cage, but a cage nonetheless."

Brynden's face darkened. His red eye glimmered with anger, but he knew that this was the only answer Shiera ever gave him since the first time he proposed to her. He decided to let her be, maybe next time, she will accept.

"You need to figure out a way to make Aerys consummate his marriage. I can help you, if you wish!"

"How?"

"Well, a fortnight ago I found out some old books. They belonged to my mother, Lady Serenei. I found some recipes over there, love potions and rituals that would make even the meekest of men fuck like a bull in heat. I planned to use some of them, to make fun of you, but you are smart, so you would have noticed it. I decided then to try them on old Estermont but now, I see there is no point to waste them on him."

"I don't know, Shiera. Using blood magic to make Aerys copulate… We don't know how the child could be affected, so no. We will use them as only a last resort, nothing more."

"Fine, do your thing. I am here, if you need me!"

Brynden left the tub too. He dressed with a black cloak and matching pants and, after putting on his boots, left his room.