The sun still burned high in the sky as Dany made her way back. The Broadhurst Tavern was in her sights, the small windows boarded up. She stepped up to the pane and peered through the space between the planks. The inside was dark. Dany could just make out the shape of a huge hearth and a raised platform.
There were two beams across the front door, so Dany went to the back. She squeezed through the narrow alley and found the back door unblocked. She tried the handle, but it wouldn't budge. There had to be another way around. But where?
Dany tried the door handle again before sighing. She leaned against the doorway, defeated, when the door opened and she fell onto the dirty floor of the tavern. A man looked down on her, the man she had bumped into earlier that morning in the marketplace.
"Who are you? What are you doing here?" he demanded.
"My name's Dany. I'm looking for Jon Snow, they say he can help me." Dany answered from the floor.
A large white dog stalked up to Dany and sniffed her headscarf. The animal's nose pushed it off her head, revealing her silver hair. The man looked at her with strange eyes. It wasn't the way that the patrons looked at her at Lord Baelish's, but something else that Dany couldn't place.
"Why are you looking at me like that?"
"Jon, what are you doing? Help the girl up!"
Another man hustled down the stairs and Jon extended his hand to help her up, "I'm sorry, it's just that you look an awful lot like- nevermind. You said you needed my help with something?"
"Yes, I'd like to go Braavos, but in order to do that I need the proper papers."
"I'm very sorry about that dear, but we've stopped production. It's too risky now with all the spies everywhere. I'm Davos, by the way." the other man stated.
"Oh …" Dany felt a strange, warm feeling wash over her. "I know that this is strange, but I saw a show here. Back before the rebellion there was a traveling band of actors. They had painted faces and elaborate costumes. You could tell they weren't from Westeros."
"What do you mean?" Jon shut the door as Dany wandered further into the old tavern.
"I was with my family."
"And what family do you belong to?"
"That's the thing. I don't remember. They said I was found by the side of the road, there were tracks all around, it had recently snowed. In the darkness and cold, with the wind in the trees. A girl with no name, and no memories, but these."
Dany righted an overturned chair and sat down, "Rain against a window sheets upon a bed. Terrifying nurses whispering overhead. Call the child Dany, give the child a hat. I don't know a thing before that."
It was the first time Dany had thought about that night in years. She could still hear the rain and feel the rough spun wool beneath her. The nurses didn't spend much time with Dany, they dressed her in sack and sent her on her way.
"Traveling the backroads, sleeping in the woods. Taking what I needed, working when I could. Keeping up my courage, foolish as it seems. At night all alone in my dreams."
Dany had spent years in odd jobs before Lord Baelish found her sweeping the streets. Though it was hard in the beginning days of the new reign. The crowned stag and his loyals were searching high and low for anyone who posed a threat to the crown. There were daily purges of loyalists who were unable to flee. That was when Lord Baelish made her cover her head when she left the brothel. He didn't want her to be mistaken for a Dayne or a Valeryon or any of the other loyalist families.
"In my dreams, shadows call. There's a light at the end of a hall. Then my dreams, fade away. But I know it all will come back one day."
Dany had strange dreams every night. Dark shadows, screams, bright flames that burned green instead of orange and red. They scared her so much that she when she woke, with heavy breathing and drenched in sweat. But sometimes the dreams were sweet, the terror melting away into golden light.
"I dream of a city beyond all compare is it Braavos? Braavos."
She had heard tales of Braavos from sailors and lords that came to the brothel. A city that floated on water, with wealthy men and women floating along on sleek boats and the most beautiful sunsets.
"A beautiful river, a bridge by the square and I hear a voice whisper, I'll meet you right there in Braavos! Braavos."
Dany touched her pendent. It was the only clue she had to who she was before. She heard it in her dreams too. A woman's voice said, "We'll be together in Braavos." Her voice was soothing. Something deep inside Dany felt connected to the voice.
"You don't know what it's like. Not to know who you are. To have lived in the shadows and traveled this far. I've seen flashes of fire, heard the echoes of screams, but I still have this faith in the truth of my dreams."
"In my dreams, it's all real. And my heart has to much to reveal. And my dreams, seem to say. Don't be afraid to go on. Don't give up hope, come what may! I know it all will come back. One Day!
"So, can you help me?"
"We would like to. Actually, we're going to Braavos as well. But we only have three scrolls made up. One for me, one for Jon and one for the Princess Daenerys."
"We're going to reunite the lost Princess with her brother." Jon affirmed.
"You do resemble her. The same lavender eyes."
"Targaryen eyes."
"Aerys' chin."
"Rhaella's smile."
Dany had heard enough. "Are you trying to tell me that you think that I am Daenerys."
Jon assessed her once more, while Davos smiled with hope.
"I knew you were crazy from the beginning, but now I think you're both mad."
"Why? You don't remember what happened to you." Jon stated.
"No one knows what happened to her." Davos added.
"You're looking for family in Braavos."
"Her family is in Braavos."
"Ever thought about the possibility?"
"What, that I could be royalty?" Dany crossed her arms over her chest.
Both men nodded.
"Well I don't know. The Targaryens were evil and they're enemies of the crown. Even just uttering their name is treason. Pretending to be one would bring worse things … but I guess every lonely girl would hope she's a princess."
Dany fiddled with her necklace as she chewed her lip.
"And somewhere… one little girl is." Davos stated.
"If I don't remember who I am …"
Dany knew to choose her next words with care, they were powerful.
"Then who's to say I'm not the lost princess. And if I'm not, the Prince will know right away and it's all an honest mistake."
"But if you are, then you'll finally know who you are and have your family back!" Davos cheered.
"Either way, it gets you to Braavos."
"Then it's a deal! When do we begin?"
"Be here tomorrow morning and we'll begin training." Davos confirmed.
Dany, filled with excitement, picked up her basket and headed out the door.
The streets were calm, not as many people now that midday had passed. Dany made her way back to Lord Baelish's Brothel trying to conceal the excitement in her gait. She wanted to skip and smile and sing, but that was suspicious behavior. Normal people didn't skip and smile on their way home from the market.
Business at the brothel was picking up when Dany returned through the backdoor. The scents and sounds of sex filled the air. Dany set her basket down in the kitchen so the servants could take care of the things she bought. She hid her book behind her back.
"Well, there she is! Where in the seven hells have you been?" one of the whores gossiped.
"I was just getting the things Lord Baelish asked for."
"Took ya an awful long time."
"The lines were long."
The whores snickered and elbowed each other as they took slices of cheese from the basket. Someone snatched Dany's book from her hands. She whipped around to see Ros holding it hostage. Dany reached for it, but she raised her arm higher.
"I think this is what's held her up for so long."
Dany lowered her head.
"Come with me." Ros gripped Dany's arm and dragged her through the hallways up to Dany's little room.
"Whether you like it or not, this is your future. Get your head of these stories, these fantasies. We're the pleasures of the night time, that fade at dawn. Selling treasures of the night time, till night is gone."
Ros sat the book on the crate that served as Dany's table. She placed her hands on Dany's shoulders.
"And then when the party's over, everybody's gone away. We stare at an empty day. What is there to do or say."
"Night time is where we live. Night is when we give everything we have to give. Most lovers can rejoice we don't have a choice, we just know we have to give. That's why the day can never be bright for the girls of the night."
Dany shook off her hands and walked toward the window. The burning sun sat low in the sky, turning the brilliant blue to shades of red and purple.
"Somewhere I know there's a someday that just for me. Everybody has a someday, so why not me."
"Dany, do you really need to fill your heart with empty dreams."
Ros turned Dany's shoulders to look at her.
"You'll always be what you are. Stop chasing that distant star. Night time is when we live, night is when we give, everything we have to give."
Ros had always been a caring figure to Dany, but right then she didn't understand Dany at all.
"I have dreams."
"Most lovers can rejoice, we don't have a choice, we just know we have to give." Ros continued.
"I have a choice." Dany insisted.
"That's why the day can never be bright, for the girls of the night."
"Fly away, fly away, let me find wings." Dan went to her window and spread her arms out as if she were about to take fight. "Let me be the girl I want to be."
She could feel the breeze under her arms, brushing the loose tendrils of her hair from her face.
"I'm afraid to fly away. For all I have is here." Ros stood next Dany at the window.
Dany took her hand, "I have my hopes."
"I have a child. And children must be fed. Forget your hopes, or you will be misled."
Ros looked out the window to the dark sky. The place where the sun greeted Dany every morning, "With the dawn, we disappear."
"Then why am I still here?" Dany asked.
The two sat down on the ledge of the window, holding each other's hands.
"Ask me to share your fantasies dear, but don't ask me where tomorrow is. Don't ask me where to find happiness, though I know for sure where sorrow is."
"Sorrow is where the dark meets the light." Ros lamented.
"Some day I pray my fears will take flight." Dany looked to the window again, where stars peeked through. They twinkled their hopeful light at Dany, beckoning her to join them. Maybe one day.
"Sorrow is where all hope fades from sight, for the girls of the night."
"We're the girls of the night. Just the girls of the night."