This was for a prompt where Aegon takes Sansa, who is till disguised as Alayne, as his lover. When he learns that Rickon Stark has returned to Winterfell Aegon declares he will make peace with the Starks. In private he calls Ned a traitor, Lyanna a slut, and Alayne stops talking to him and he doesn't know why. This is also part of the fanfiction writing month and is 2,099 words.
The fic is quite dialogue heavy.
Aegon Targaryen was sat in the Lord of the Vale's solar trying to work through his correspondence, but thoughts of his lover were plaguing his mind.
Alayne Stone was Lord Petyr Baelish's bastard daughter and she had banished from him from her bed for no apparent reason. He had gone over everything he had said to her that day and came up with nothing that she should have found offensive. They only thing that he had talked about was the Starks, but it couldn't possibly be that as she had never known them.
Aegon had been informed by Lord Royce earlier that day that Rickon Stark, the youngest son of Lord Eddard and Lady Catelyn, had been found on Skagos and had returned to Winterfell to take his rightful place as Lord. He had declared to his court that he would travel there next to make peace with them.
That night however, Aegon had told Alayne the truth of how he felt about the family.
Alayne was lying on her front with her arm draped over his waist and her head resting against his shoulder.
"I wish I hadn't said that I would go to Winterfell after here," Aegon lamented.
"Why not? I thought you wanted to make peace with the Starks?" Alayne asked puzzled as she traced a few of the scars on his chest.
"I don't want to make peace with them, but I have to if I'm to rule the Seven Kingdoms. Lyanna Stark was nothing but a whore who seduced my father and made the kingdom bleed for it, and Lord Eddard deserved a traitor's death for his part in killing my family. I cannot truly make peace with them when they tore my family apart," he said passionately.
"Haven't they suffered enough though? Rickon is the only Stark left now. All his other family are dead, or missing and presumed dead," she asked quietly.
"He has only had to go through what I did, and the Northern Lords have welcomed him home without making him work for it. I lost all my family too, but I have to raise an army to get back what is rightfully mine. It's not right."
After that they fell into silence and Alayne had turned away from him to sleep.
Aegon had to find a way to get her to talk to him, but every time he had tried looking for her he could not seem to find her. It was almost as if she had sensed he was trying to find her.
A knock on the door interrupted his thoughts.
"Come in."
The door opened to reveal Lord Baelish.
"This arrived for you, Your Grace," he said handing the letter over.
The direwolf seal of House Stark held the letter closed.
Taking a deep breath, Aegon opened it and read the letter.
...I would be honoured to host you in my hall…
...forgive any work that maybe going on. Winterfell needs to be restored…
...please send a raven when you leave the Vale. I would like to make sure that everything is in place in time for your arrival…
The letter showed that the new Lord of Winterfell seemed to want peace between their Houses, but Aegon would not take it at face value. He would have to meet the boy himself before he made any judgements.
"Good news, Your Grace?"
"Yes, Lord Rickon has no objections to me travelling to Winterfell. It seems he too wants to put the past behind us," he informed Baelish.
"I must go, Your Grace. There are certain things I must oversee."
"Can you inform Alayne I wish to see her at her earliest convenience?"
"Of course, Your Grace," he said bowing out of the room.
She cannot refuse a summons from the king! Why didn't I think of that earlier? Aegon thought shaking his head.
A little while later there was another knock at the door.
"Enter," he called.
This time Alayne entered dressed in a deep blue dress and had...red hair.
"You wished to see me, Your Grace." she said tonelessly.
Aegon winced.
He was about to ask what she had done to her hair, but thought that he should address the problem between them first.
"I want to know how I have offended you, my lady. I have been going over everything we talked about and I cannot fathom what it could have been," Aegon admitted.
"Do you want the truth?" she asked after a moment of silence.
"I do, my lady. If I do not know what I have done wrong, how can I fix it?"
"My true name is not really Alayne Stone," she stated.
"Then who are you?" he asked cautiously.
Aegon watched as the woman in front of him wrung her hands and shifted nervously. He couldn't tell if it was because she was uncomfortable, or if it was because she was about to lie.
"My true name is Sansa Stark. Lord Baelish arranged for me to flee the capital after Joffrey had been murdered and hid me here as his bastard daughter with him and my aunt, Lady Lysa Arryn. We started to dye my hair brown so people wouldn't suspect who I was and report it to the Lannister's. After a while of pretending to be Alayne, I started to believe I was her. When I heard my brother, Rickon was alive and in Winterfell, I remembered that I too was a Stark of Winterfell.
"When you said you wanted to make peace I was happy. I thought I could tell you who I was, but after what you said about my family, my father, I couldn't. I realised that you would never accept me and that there would always be a divide between our families no matter what was said or done. I wish that there would be peace as I have been more happy with you than I've ever been happy with anyone else," she confessed.
Aegon was furious. Although he had been told the truth like he wanted - and he did believe it was the truth - the woman he loved had betrayed him.
"Would you have ever told me the truth if your brother hadn't of been found?" he asked angrily.
"I would have told you eventually, but I don't know when," Alayne - no - Sansa admitted.
"Would you have let me tell you that I loved you? That I wanted you by my side even after I married? Would you do what your aunt did and tear this kingdom apart again?"
"My aunt wasn't the only one to blame for that! There would have been no rebellion if your grandfather hadn't of killed my grandfather and my uncle! My father fought to get justice for them, not for his sister. He knew she went willingly, that the story Robert Baratheon believed was not true," Sansa exclaimed as her voice rose higher.
"Then why did he say nothing?" Aegon asked bitingly.
He couldn't believe the honourable Eddard Stark wouldn't have told anyone about this.
"Mayhaps because it was safer not to? Nearly everyone who knew the truth was dead and would you really want to risk the wrath of the new king who is also your brother in all but blood? Robert Baratheon would have told the story he believed no matter what my father told him," she pointed out to him.
She's right, a voice in his head said.
Jon Connington had told him how Robert Baratheon had painted his father as an abductor and a rapist when he was younger, and although he had been told that it was really Lyanna Stark's fault for seducing his father away from his mother, those who believed otherwise in the Seven Kingdoms would not say anything as it could be harmful for their House to express such views.
"I will give you that one," Aegon acknowledged grudgingly.
A silence fell between them as they both digested what the other had said.
"Did you know that my father argued and fell out with Robert over your mother and sister's deaths?" Sansa asked quietly.
Aegon shook his head.
He knew that there had been an argument of sorts between the two men but hadn't thought anything of it.
"He thought that their murders were unnecessary and that the people responsible should have been brought to justice. Robert disagreed and declared them casualties of war instead. Between that and saying that Jaime Lannister should be executed for breaking his oath they fell out. It was only through my aunt's death that their friendship healed."
Aegon didn't want to believe what she told him. It went against everything he knew of the man, but it was hard not to.
It seemed the more he learnt about the former Lord Stark the less he hated him. Stark was obviously had some honour as he didn't condone the killing of children.
"He shouldn't have died. I begged Joffrey to spare his life, to send him to the wall, but he cut off his head in front of me anyway. I was such a naive little girl that I believed him when he said that he would be merciful," Sansa said bitterly.
Aegon didn't know how to respond so he kept silent.
In some ways he was glad that he never got to know his family before they died. It meant that he didn't have to suffer the pain Sansa was obviously going through.
"When you go to Winterfell, I will go with you and stay there. My brother will need help running the castle if you intend to let him keep it as House Stark's seat," she said changing the topic of conversation abruptly.
"I am sure he will need you."
"Will you still make peace with him for the realm then?" Sansa asked eying him critically.
"I will make peace with House Stark and the North. I will not, however, say that my father was a kidnapper and a rapist. If your brother agrees we can say that we found evidence that they ran away together; that way both of our bannermen should be satisfied," Aegon suggested hoping that Sansa would agree with him.
"I will advise my brother to agree to the story. We will have to discuss just what this 'evidence' is that has been found and how we found it. I have no doubt that several Houses in the North and the south will want it to be verified."
"I didn't think about that," he admitted.
"Our word will only go so far in convincing them. We will need something to show them for them to believe that we're telling the truth. I am sure Lord Baelish will be able to help us when we have a plan in place," Sansa responded adamantly.
Aegon nodded.
He didn't like Lord Baelish and his instincts told him not to trust the Valeman. There was not a flicker of emotion in his eyes every time they met and he seemed to keep secrets everywhere he turned. The first was what side he was on. Over the past six years Baelish had seemed to have played almost every side of the war when it suited him. Aegon had learnt from Lord Royce that he had originally served the Lannister's and still seemed to serve them up until half a year ago when he returned from the capital, but during that time he had saved Sansa Stark from certain death, managed to wed the Lady of the Vale, and now supposedly served him.
I could always have him killed, Aegon thought.
"Was there anything else you wished to discuss, Your Grace?" Sansa said politely.
The ever changing demeanour of the woman in front of him confused Aegon. One moment he could see Alayne Stone, the woman he had fallen in love with, and the next she was Sansa Stark, courteous, emotional, and yet distant. He didn't know what to make of her or their situation, but what he did know was that making peace, even if it was only in name, should be his first priority.
"No, Sansa. There is nothing else I wish to discuss with you today. Perhaps we could talk again in the next few days about the evidence we need. I will send you a messenger with the time," he replied formally.
Sansa curtsied and left.
It was certainly going to be an interesting few months ahead, and Aegon was sure by the end of it he will have fallen in love with Sansa Stark as much as he had with Alayne Stone.