Instead of waking up to the sound of Evann sharpening his swords, quiet whisperings invaded Aero's dreams and roused her from sleep. She had kicked the covers off of herself sometime in the middle of the night and she turned to find Bet's spot in the bed empty. Bet had taken to sleeping in the bed with Aero since that first night. In the beginning, Aero found it a little unnerving. Even the idea of having a girl friend was unnerving to Aero as she had never been particularly interested in things that interested other girls. But Bet was different. Bet didn't like to talk about things like court gossip or dresses or men. She liked to talk about ideas and the books she had read.

The second night that Bet stayed with Aero, Bet had pulled a candle to set on the nightstand so that she could read her book in bed. The third night, Aero was feeling particularly agitated—with whom or with what, she couldn't even remember. Bet offered to read aloud to her. With very little convincing, Aero retrieved a book that she had brought with her from Eryatheia from one of her trunks. It was a book of poetry and stories from ancient Eryos, the name of Eryatheia before the men from the West came and conquered the nomadic tribes. It was the book her mother read to her before bed when she was very little.

That night, Aero rested her head in Bet's lap as the blond girl read to her. The cadence and softness of her voice relaxed Aero's muscles and before Bet had made it through the first few pages, Aero was already asleep. Aero didn't know, but Bet stayed awake a little longer that night watching over her new sister, petting the baby hairs at Aero's temple.

Rolling over the feather mattress and out of bed this morning was different. The whispering that had brought her out of her dreams stopped when she stirred. Evann and Bet sat quietly sipping tea at the table next to the fireplace. Thinking nothing of it, Aero stretched in her thin nightshirt and with a yawn, joined them at the table, propping her feet on Evann's knee and helping herself to the small plate of biscuits next to the tea pot.

"You look like hell," Evann chirped cheerfully, pouring her a cup of tea. Bet kicked him underneath the table. "Well, she does," he defended. "You smell like hell, too."

"I'll call for your bath," Bet interrupted before Evann could comment any more on Aero's hygiene. Bet stood from the table and left to fetch the women that normally bring bathwater for the queen, leaving Evann and Aero contentedly sipping their tea.

"Back to the forge today?" Evann asked, leaning back and biting into a biscuit. The crumbs caught in the sparse blond beard he was attempting to grow out. At the moment, the hair was growing in patches instead of a consistent coverage.

"Back to the forge," she nodded.

"And the blacksmith?" he raised his eyebrows questioningly.

"Mott is a good mentor," Aero shrugged.

Evann sighed. "You know I meant the young one—Gendry."

"Gendry has become a good friend."

"I meant is he keeping his hands to himself like I told him to?" he asked, pressing his finger and his thumb to the bridge of his nose. He felt a headache coming on already, and the spot right between his eyes always seemed to hurt when Aero was being particularly hard headed. "Bet was telling me that you came in late last night. And several nights."

"Did she?" Aero's complete nonchalance did nothing but annoy him more.

"Or maybe you're not with the blacksmith all night. Maybe you're sneaking around with Jaime Lannister."

Aero gritted her teeth, willing herself not to kick her best friend. "I'm not sneaking around with anyone. And this obsession you have with Jaime Lannister is getting old."

Bet cautiously opened the door expecting the two to be in another screaming match. She supposed that's what siblings do when they've grown as close as Evann and Aero had. Before, Bet had been jealous of the relationship that they had. But the more she observed, the more she saw how Evann never looked at Aero with lust in his eyes. More often, it was annoyance and protectiveness. And always with love. She understood now that Evann saw Aero as a sister. His best friend and his sister. And it made watching them together endlessly entertaining.

"Am I interrupting?" Bet asked as she pushed the door the rest of the way open for the women carrying buckets of heated water for Aero's bath.

"She won't tell me if the blacksmith is getting handsy," Evann grunted with his arms crossed.

"He's being insufferable," Aero countered.

Bet smiled. Gods help her, she already loved them both.

Bet helped Aero get washed up, letting the young queen lounge in the hot water a bit longer to help her still-sore muscles. Evann sat companionably at the table with his back turned to them sharpening his swords. As Bet pulled a clean pair of trousers out of Aero's clothes chest, a small package fell out from between the folds of the black pants. Looking closer, Bet saw that they were dozens of hiltless black daggers rolled up and secured in a black canvas pouch. Just another of the oddities that Aero's trunks contained. Only yesterday while she was cleaning, Bet found the most magnificent crown tucked in a box underneath several cloaks. It was long, thin shards of onyx, obsidian, and blood red garnet layered to look like four crossed feathers at the front and in among the black shards was laced with white gold so that the feathers looked like they had veins running through them. Bet quickly looked around to make sure no one else had seen her discovery and tucked it back in its hiding spot much the same way she did with the daggers she had just found. While Aero and Evann were enjoying arguing with one another, Bet quietly picked up the daggers, wrapped them up, and placed them back in the chest.

With Aero dressed and sword belt on, Bet sent the young queen and Evann on their way before she climbed the tower to the library where she settled into her favorite dusty old armchair next to the window to start another book.


Aero made an excuse to shake Evann before she reached Mott's. She knew that, if given the opportunity, Evann would try to pry into their business. And until the swords were spelled and finished with no one the wiser, Evann's life wasn't a risk she was willing to take even if she did trust him completely. She didn't, however, trust whoever else might be lurking around.

It was curious, though, that she showed up at Mott's shop to find that the doors were closed and barred. It didn't occur to her to knock. That would have been too easy. Instead, Aero turned the corner to investigate down the alley beside the building where Gendry had taken the mare to shoe. A metal gate blocked her path, but it was easy enough to climb. No one on the street even gave her a second glance as she pulled herself over the wrought iron gate. She approached the makeshift shoeing corral and noticed a rather large wet spot in the red dirt and an overturned half barrel that she recognized as one that Mott used to collect rain water. A dull thud sounded from the window above her like something heavy had been knocked over. A grunt followed and Aero's stomach dropped. Gendry lived above the shop. Someone could be attacking him. Without a thought other than 'Danger!' Aero pulled the thin hiltless dagger she kept in her boot and used it to unlatch the lock on the inside of the side door.

She shut the door soundlessly behind her and locked the door back. The boards above her head creaked under the weight of someone on the second floor. A large someone, by the sound of it. It could be Gendry, she thought. But that didn't explain the grunt or the thud. Her heart leapt in her throat worried that something could be wrong—that he could be hurt. Gendry was always the one to open the shop and light the fires, after all. If the shop wasn't open it must mean something had kept him from opening it. She slipped the small dagger back into her boot and pulled another, more formidable, dagger from her belt—a gift from Oberyn. A dagger is a better choice of weapon in close quarters, he reminded her.

As softly as she could, she ascended the stairs to the second floor, staying as close to the wall as possible so the wood wouldn't creak as badly. The stairs led to landing that branched off into two doors. The one on the right was closed with no light visible underneath the door. The one on the left was slightly ajar and she could see flashes, quick glimpses of someone pacing and what looked like someone lying on the floor.

Aero struggled to control her wildly drumming heart as she crept closer to the door. Before she could talk herself out of it, and still seeing Gendry hurt or worse, she flung the door open and leapt into the room.

Gendry let out a very unmanly yelp and dove for the other side of the room. His heart racing, and his breath coming in quick, ragged gasps, he and Aero stood opposite one another, both incredibly confused especially as Gendry was very nearly naked.

Gendry's hair was disheveled and still dripping from his thorough wash in the water basin downstairs. Not expecting anyone, he opted to enjoy the breeze and only bothered to pull on his smallclothes while he tried to tidy up his room, as evidenced by the pile of dirty clothing on the floor in front of the door.

"I- I'm so sorry," Aero immediately began to apologize as she sheathed her dagger. "The door was locked and I heard a crash and I thought someone was trying to break in or someone was trying to hurt you so I came in the side door and I'm so sorry," she explained all in one breath. Only just realizing that Gendry was in his smallclothes, she quickly turned her back to him so that he could pull on a pair of trousers. "Sorry," she said again.

"It's-um-It's fine," Gendry sputtered as he fumbled for clean pants and pulled them on, not bothering to tie the string. He was more concerned at the mess of dirty clothes he had left on the floor and the state of his room in general. If he knew she would be in his sleeping quarters, he would have cleaned better. He moved to pick up the pile of clothes on the floor next to Aero's feet and she bent to help him.

"Sorry the shirts smell like sweat," he mumbled, embarrassed as he took the clothes from her and tossed them into a chest, slamming the lid shut.

"It's no problem," she shrugged. "If you're a blacksmith and you don't sweat, you would be very bad at your job. Sorry, again, for sneaking up on you."

"How do you always manage to sneak up on me?" he asked, tightening the strings of his trousers. "I'm not usually such easy prey."

With Gendry's pants on, Aero felt comfortable enough to make herself at home and sit on the edge of his bed. "I'm a trained killer, remember?" she joked and patted her sword for validation. "If I wasn't stealthy, I'd be very bad at my job."

Gendry remembered the first time he saw her, seeing the wildness in her and the sword at her hip, he suspected she had killed before. But getting to know her had pushed the idea out of his head. Gendry scoffed and shook his head with a smile. "You've never killed anyone."

Aero's smiling eyes lost their humor and dropped to the floor. Gendry noticed her response and immediately regretted his assumption. "You've killed someone?" he asked with traces of shock and awe in his voice. As he thought about it, it made sense again. Aero was kind and affectionate, but he forgot that her dedication to her loved ones also meant that she would do anything to protect them.

Aero shrugged and fidgeted with her fingers as Gendry leaned against a small table he apparently had been using as a desk directly across from her. "It comes with keeping the peace. I'm not proud of it. It is what it is." Gendry's silence stabbed into her and it took a long moment before she could look up at him. His jaw was set the way she noticed it always was when he was thinking and he stared off into space, his eyes dark and thoughtful. "You look disappointed in me," she said when the quiet had grown too heavy to bear.

Gendry shook his head. "I'm not. Just trying to picture it, I guess." He looked at her, but she could see that his mind was somewhere else. "I never thought about it before—your duties, what you do outside of the forge. It never occurred to me to assume it was anything other than parties and wine and fancy clothes."

"Sometimes it is parties and wine and fancy clothes. But not always. Being a fair ruler gets…messy sometimes." She scooted farther back onto Gendry's bed until her back was resting against the wall and only her feet dangled off the straw mattress. "It's easy to give an order to kill someone when you sit on a throne. It's harder when you're the one that has to do the killing. You respect life more."

"Why do you have to be the one?" The one that kills, he wanted to say.

"Because when a ruler sentences a man or woman to death, they should be the one to execute the person. Otherwise, death loses its meaning. I look at the face of the person I sentence to death so that I know my decision isn't made lightly. My family has taken this burden on themselves for over a thousand years." She plucked at a cuticle. "Does it scare you? That I've killed men?"

"No," he answered immediately, without hesitation. His eyes focused on her then, his mind no longer lost in his thoughts. "You're one of the best people I've met. I reckon if you killed someone, they probably deserved it." He shrugged and crossed his arms over his chest.

Aero looked around, hoping to change the subject and while her eyes wandered the small room, they kept coming back to Gendry. He was lost in his own head again, still leaning against his desk. She had seen men without their shirts and in their smallclothes before. She and Evann had even swam naked in Bluebear Lake on several occasions. Her councilors had told her that modesty was much more of a concern for the people of Westeros than in Eryatheia. Never being particularly modest, herself, the idea was strange to her.

She had turned her back when she first entered the room, but with Gendry's attention occupied by something else, she took the opportunity to study his body. His wide shoulders had identical dimples where the muscles were pulled taunt and his broad chest was lightly dusted in dark hair that grew thicker in a line from his belly button that disappeared into his trousers. She enjoyed the way the light from the window haloed around him and the dramatic shadows it cast around the curve of his strong arms. It was a body built by hard work instead of vanity and it showed. A few small superfluous burn marks were scattered across his arms, chest, and abdomen and she held back a smile at the thought of a young Gendry being too stubborn to wear his leather apron. She had a couple of those burn marks as well.

Finally tearing her eyes away from Gendry, Aero explored the rest of the room. It was mostly bare but for a few essentials. A plain table and chair in the opposite corner underneath the window that he used as a desk and his eating table. Pieces of parchment were strewn across it at the moment, though she couldn't see what was on them from her spot on Gendry's small straw bed. Beside the desk were a couple of shelves with what she assumed was his meager food supply of wrapped up bread, cheese, and some dried meat. There were a few personal items, rolled up parchment, and what looked like a couple of clean shirts stacked on the shelves as well. Underneath was the chest he had shoved his dirty clothes into.

"So," Aero began pulling him out of his thoughts. "Why is the shop closed today?"

"I sent a message up to the Keep…that you didn't get, it seems. Since you broke into the shop anyway and scared half my life out of me." She gave him and apologetic smile while he continued. "Master Mott sent word early this morning that he was called down to the tourney grounds and we should rest today."

"Why was he needed at the tourney grounds?" she asked, thinking it was odd he would be pulled away from his work.

Gendry shrugged. "He didn't say." He leaned away from the table and bent down next to his clothing chest. He was digging for socks when Aero pushed herself off Gendry's bed and moved over to the table, vaguely interested at the parchments. She assumed it was letters, but when she saw that the parchments were actually full of drawings and designs for weapons and armor, she couldn't help but pick them up and flip through the pages.

"Are these yours?" she inquired, though she already knew the answer was yes.

Gendry had just pulled on the second sock when he looked up at what Aero had in her hands. "They're not finished yet," he protested and made to grab them from her. She held them out of his reach, his chest pushing against her in his effort to reclaim the papers.

He made another desperate grab for the papers, but Aero put her hand on his chest and held him off.

"They're beautiful," she breathed, dropping the pages back down to the table top as she kicked out the chair to sit in and study them more thoroughly. There were designs for armor that looked like dragon scales, swords, and spear heads. But the designs weren't just drawings, they had notations and measurements and ideas for embellishments with views from various angles. She also had pages like these in her workshop, though with not quite so much detail. She was enamored with the way he seemed to prefer the design of curved blades instead of longswords and the exquisite detail he put into embellishments of the armor.

"I do what Master Mott says while I'm here, but when I open my own shop, I want to design my own weapons," he explained. He hovered over her as she kept turning over page after page of beautiful weapons when he stopped her by holding a finger down to a particular piece. It was a quad bladed spear head she had noticed earlier. "I'm still trying to work this one out. It looks doable, but the angle is going to be difficult to hold when the steel is heated."

"I can do that!" she exclaimed, picturing the exact tool she needed. She stood suddenly, almost crashing into him from where he was leaning over her. "We can do that! I can show you; I have the tools. All you need is…" Her face fell, remembering that she was still in a strange land far away from the comfort of her own forge. "My tools are in my forge. In Eryatheia."

He read the disappointment on her face and felt guilty for even having a small part in putting it there. "It's just an idea. It doesn't matter, really," he assured her, collecting the pages in pile.

She dismissed the excitement and sudden disappointment she felt knowing that if she let herself think on it, her stomach would ache from missing Eryatheia and her family. "What are your plans for the day?" she asked Gendry, hoping he could spare the time for a day of frivolity.

"Stay here, I suppose." He narrowed his eyes at her, suddenly suspicious. "Why?" When she smiled with that mischievous twinkle in her eye, he had learned it was hardly ever a good thing where he was concerned.

"Or you could come with me to the Kingswood," she suggested. "You'll need a shirt, though."

To be honest, Gendry had forgotten he wasn't wearing a shirt. He reached over to the shelves and grabbed a clean shirt, pulling it over his head as wondered aloud "Are we allowed? Am I allowed?"

She smiled dangerously. "Do you think anyone will argue with me if I say you are?"

He chuckled, imagining it. "I'd like to watch if they did."

"Good man," she nodded and kicked the boots that were tucked underneath the desk toward him. "Come on. We'll get some food for lunch on the way."

They stopped in the market for food. Aero was a foreigner and she didn't understand that the merchants prices were always inflated. She was about to pay for a handful of plums and several apples at a ridiculously high price when Gendry stopped her, talking the man down to a much more reasonable charge. Letting Gendry take the lead, Aero chose the food but let Gendry speak to the merchants. She thought that it should have bothered her, but she was never one argue when she knew she was wrong. And Gendry was much better at haggling that she was.

With the food tucked into a bag that Gendry insisted on carrying, they began the trek down to the Mud Gate where the ferry would take them across Blackwater Rush.

They stepped off of the ferry and strolled past a few houses down The Kingsroad before the sunny road was enveloped by trees. Gendry was more awed at the trees than she expected. He stared up at them, smaller trees nearer to the road, but as Aero led them down a small footpath, the trees grew bigger and so thick that the sunlight only managed to shine through in small slivers, dancing on the forest floor with the movement of the leaves in the wind. "I've never even been outside the city walls except to watch the tournaments," he confessed.

They walked companionably down the narrow footpath for a while. Gendry told her about growing up working for Mott, though he left out the not-so-great parts where he developed his overzealous work ethic to distract him from the crippling loneliness. He let Aero hold more of the conversation. She had seen and done so many more things than he had. Granted she was a few years older than he was, but he knew he'd never have the means to live as she did. It didn't overly bother him, though. He was perfectly content in a forge and making weapons for great knights that would go on to do great things. He didn't need more than that. The only time that he particularly felt jealous of her was when she started speaking about her family.

"Wait. You have how many brothers?"

"Three." Aero held up three fingers and ticked them off on each fingertip. "Gentian is the oldest. Then Alder. And Pyrus is a year older than me."

"Are you close with all of them?"

"Moreso with Gentian. He would inherit the throne if something were to happen to me or if I decided to abdicate so he understands the pressures of our family. Alder is the scholar. And Pyrus likes women. A lot of women." Gendry quirked an eyebrow at her and she shrugged. "His bedchamber is next to mine. I hear things I'm not supposed to."

Gendry smiled and shook his head. "It seems you have a lot of people to worry after you. But you don't walk with a guard."

"Never wanted one."

Gendry looked up, noticing that the trees had started to thin again and the sunlight streamed down in wide beams now. "King Joffrey walks with a guard. A great many of them."

Aero scoffed. "From what I've heard, all of King's Landing could fall into the sea and King Joffrey would only mourn the loss of his throne of melted swords. It seems to me that a ruler afraid to walk amongst their own people is doing a poor job governing those people." She sighed and slowed her pace. "No. I won't have men die for me."

"I think Evann would die for you," he said cautiously.

That earned a smile from her. "Noble idiot," she laughed. "He would die to protect me. But then, I would do the same for him. I call it love. He calls it me being stupid."

"You think of him like a brother, don't you?"

"I do," she nodded, sneaking a curious glance at him. "Everyone else assumes we're lovers. How did you know?"

"I dunno," Gendry offered with another shrug. "I imagine if I had a sister and I was to leave her in a strange city with a man I didn't know, I would probably threaten him, too. And he doesn't look at you how I expect a lover would," he added. Genry knew this because he was very aware of the way he looked at her. "He watches you like… I don't know how to explain it. It's different from how Ser Jaime looks at you."

She laughed and gave Gendry a pitying look as if he had gone insane. "Jaime doesn't look at me."

"If you say so, Your Grace," he nodded obediently with a cheeky smile and chuckled when she glared at him.

"It's nice that you have your brothers. And Evann," he decided. "Even if he is a little intense."

Gendry saw that they were nearing a meadow in the forest, the bright sun leading them through the dense underbrush. They were now so deep into the forest that the footpath had almost completely grown over from disuse. "How is it that you became a blacksmith?" he questioned, genuinely curious how a queen decides to wake up and want to spend her days in the sweltering heat making weapons.

"It's tradition. Eryatheian rulers have learned a trade even before the Vysrane line began," she explained. "I like working with my hands and everything else seemed very boring to me. I had always been close with Evann's family and he and I would sit with his father, Ilando, in the forge at night and watch the fires burn down. The polished swords on the walls would catch the glow and make the entire room shimmer. I thought it was all rather beautiful." She smiled up at Gendry as they had to step over a fallen tree in the narrowing path. "My father tried so hard to get me to apprentice with Evann's mother making dresses instead. It obviously didn't work out."

Gendry felt himself smile at the thought of Aero with a dainty embroidery needle. Even as he tried to imagine it, the image of Aero sitting quietly without fidgeting and sewing something was absurd to him.

"Did you always want to be a blacksmith?" she asked. The clearing was just ahead.

"I didn't really have a choice," Gendry replied. "It was either this or live in the streets. But I'm good at it. I like the work. It keeps me busy."

She understood. It's easy to like the work if you're good at it. And a land at war would never have too many good swords. "Would you be something else if you could?" she asked.

The question caught Gendry off guard. He had never considered anything other than being a blacksmith. "I can't imagine doing anything else. I don't have the patience to really sell things. Mott handles that part. I can't stand the smell of fish," he winced. "I don't like hunting. I don't have the convictions to be a holy man." He paused to contemplate all the things he liked about being a smith. "I like the smell of hot steel. I never had the money to try other things, but I never really wanted to. I know steel. I know how it's made and I know how to work it. It's not complicated like so many other things are. You keep it hot, and you hammer it down. Again and again and again. I like being able to take my frustrations and make them into something solid. I don't think I would want to be anything else."

They broke free of the forest and into the flood of sunlight. The meadow felt perfectly untouched with wildflowers and soft green grass that Gendry yearned to feel between his toes. Even a small stream just big enough to wade in wound its way from the trees to their right and disappeared back into the forest across the meadow. It was a far cry from the red city dirt he usually had to dump out of his boot. Aero was already ahead of him as he had stopped to take in the beauty. As usual, she dove right into it. Her arms were open as she walked through a patch of tall straw colored grass, her fingertips grazing the tops of the plants as she walked. The breeze was warm and inviting as it whistled through the trees smelling strongly of flowers and moss. It gathered Aero's long hair and tossed it around her. Gendry felt his stomach flutter at the sight.

He followed her farther into the clearing away from the trees. It was more than he had hoped for when she asked him to come with her. Perhaps maybe he could understand why others would enjoy the outdoors instead of working next to a furnace all day.

Aero looked at him over her shoulder, again with that mischievous glint in her eye. She brought her fingers up to her lips and let out a long loud whistle that echoed into the trees.

Gendry just looked at her, confused. "What was that for?"

"Just wait," she told him, looking toward the sky.

"For what?" he asked after a few quiet moments had passed.

"Wait," insisted.

The breeze around them began to pick up again and he could hear… something. And then he saw it. A horse the size of small house began to descend into the clearing. The sound he heard was from the horse's massive wings that beat the wind with a force almost strong enough to knock him to the ground. Aero put a hand on his arm to steady him when she saw him waver. He had overheard some men exclaim about a giant flying horse, but he never expected it to be real.

The great black mare landed lightly in front of them and folded its wings to its side. Gendry was too stunned to move, but Aero strode up to the giant animal and greeted it with a hug to its ridiculously massive nose. The mare bent her head down low so that Aero could actually reach it.

"There's my pretty girl," Aero cooed at the horse. She scratched the underside of the mare's neck and then pulled back, clenching each of her hands to make her fingers look like claws.

"I'm gonna get you!" she exclaimed. The mare whinnied and took off running into the open field, Aero chasing playfully after her.

Ovid would toy with Aero in the progress of their game, letting the human get just close enough and then quickly darting away. She did this several times and Gendry lifted himself up onto a tall tree stump and watched. Every now and then, Aero would turn to make sure he was still there and smile at him. Gendry fell in love with her then, watching this woman he could never have dressed in scuffed boots and an oversize shirt coming untucked from her trousers playing a game of 'catch me' with a winged horse. It was easy to see that she thoroughly enjoyed the chase. She would laugh every time as Ovid slipped away, too quick to catch. Gendry laughed, too, watching them.

Breathing heavy, Aero collapsed into a spray of wildflowers underneath a shade tree with a sigh. The mare, recognizing the end of the game, trotted to where Aero lay and folded her legs and shifted her wings to lay beside the human, resting her enormous head halfway on Aero's torso.

"That's my girl," Aero tutted at the animal brushing out its mane with her fingers and running her hand down its long forehead.

"Gendry?" she called out, lifting her head just enough to search him out.

"I'm here," he replied still sitting on the tree stump watching them.

"Come lie down beside me."

He walked past the massive creature, its eye watching him as he moved to lie down on Aero's right side, Ovid taking up all of the left. Aero tucked her right arm behind her head to use as a pillow. The grass was soft underneath them, and Gendry shifted onto his side and propped himself up on his elbow to look down at Aero and the great horse breathing deeply beside her.

"You can pet her if you like." Aero's blue eyes reflected the sky above them as she used them to gesture toward Ovid's head.

It didn't escape him that this was an intimate moment he was sharing with her. Perhaps it didn't mean the same thing to her as it did to him, her having grown up with brothers and Evann. But as he leaned over her to run a palm down Ovid's great nose, he felt his heart swell. Aero closed her eyes, completely at ease with him and it touched him deeply. He smiled to himself and continued to scratch Ovid along her mane, what he could reach, anyway. She seemed to like it.

It was a while before Ovid grew tired of lying down and moved off of Aero's stomach. At some point, Aero had turned her head toward Gendry. She didn't smile, but just watched him as he watched her, forging an unspoken connection. The fleeting moment was disrupted when the mare rose and shifted its wings, shaking out the stillness.

"Ready to fly, then?" Aero asked, sitting up and squinting at Ovid in the sunlight. The horse extended her massive wings in agreement.

When Aero stood, she reached down to take Gendry's hand and pulled him to his feet. When he was upright, he was surprised that she didn't let go. She tugged him along with her to stand in front of Ovid. He and Aero only barely reached the height of the horse's stomach.

"Scratch her at the base of her neck," Aero urged, pushing him forward. "She likes that."

He stepped closer and did as she said, scratching Ovid where her long neck met her chest. The horse lowered its head and nosed at his back in appreciation. He moved back to stand beside Aero, lifting his hand to block the sun from his eyes as she was doing.

"So, what do you think?" Aero asked Ovid nodding her head toward Gendry. "Do we like him enough to let him fly with us?"

Gendry's stomach clenched. Did she just say 'fly'?

Ovid lowered her large head again and Gendry stayed very still as the great horse nibbled gently at his shoulder. His legs were shaking with adrenaline. He was all at once terrified and exhilarated at the idea of flying. He couldn't decide whether he was hoping the shoulder nibble meant yes or no. He was about to ask when he saw Aero pulling her hair back away from her face and quickly plaiting it in a long braid over her shoulder. She secured the end with a leather string tied around her wrist.

"I think so, too," Aero responded to the horse's wordless approval.

Aero took Gendry by the hand again, pulling him over to the tall tree stump he had been sitting on as he watched them play.

"Normally she would bend down," Aero explained. "But I think this should be tall enough."

Aero leapt onto the tree stump with relative ease and pulled Gendry with her. Ovid took position beside them and crouched slightly.

Aero was first. She grabbed at the base of Ovid's wing and pulled herself up, swinging a leg over the side and coming to sit just behind Ovid's wing joints. Leaning down to hold a hand out to pull Gendry up, Aero suddenly sensed his hesitancy. "It's safe," she assured him, meeting his eyes. "Trust me."

Gendry did trust her. But there was a difference between working with her to spell the Stark swords, for which he might be put to death if anyone found out, and intentionally mounting a flying horse where he could potentially fall and die. He didn't know what the difference was, but he was sure there was one. In the end, it came down to pride. He knew he would look like a coward if he declined and insisted on keeping his feet on the ground. And the very last thing he wanted was for Aero to see him as a coward. Despite his doubts, he reached for Aero's hand. She pulled him high enough that he could push himself up onto Ovid's back and settle behind her, the sheath of her sword resting over his thigh. He felt the horse's muscles move beneath him as it stretched out its great wings. He felt the pit of his stomach drop, his doubt returning with greater force.

"Closer," Aero instructed, reaching behind her to find his hands and pull them around her waist. He shifted forward slightly, still hesitant at touching her. He had never been so close to a woman before. He was so close he could smell the lavender in her hair and the wildflowers from the meadow on her clothes and skin. "Now keep your knees tight and hold on."

With a flick of its wings, the horse shot upward. The clearing became a small patch of green in a wide sea of darker green trees as he tightened his grip around Aero, effectively pulling himself forward so that his chest pressed into her back and he tried to bury his face in the space between her neck and shoulder. His hesitancy at touching her disappeared when the dread and anxiety took hold. When they leveled out, he found his stomach again and slightly released the death grip he had around Aero, muttering an apology. Lifting his face from Aero's shoulder, he finally opened his eyes for the first time since he'd been in the air.

"Whoa," he breathed, taking in the view. He could see all of King's Landing and then some. The tension in his stomach was still there, but now there was also wonder and excitement. It was also colder than he expected. "You do this all the time?" he asked, now looking to the South over the Kingswood that stretched as far as he could see.

"As often as I can manage which hasn't been nearly often enough lately." She turned her head just enough to look over her shoulder and their noses almost touched. "When I saw you with the horse at Mott's, I thought you might enjoy this."

The wind whipped around them in a pleasant breeze; Ovid lazily flapped her wings just enough to keep them aloft. Testing his courage, Aero slowly pulled Gendry's hands from her waist and stretched their arms out beside them letting the wind take over their senses.

Confident in the knowledge that Aero was right there, Gendry allowed himself to let go of the anxiety and just enjoy this feeling. It occurred to him just how few people would ever get a chance like this. He certainly never thought anything like this could ever happen to him.

Aero let him bask in the warm sun and cool breeze for a time. But she was excited to show him more. They were flying over King's Landing, looking nothing more than a city of red brick and thatched roofs beneath them when she pulled his hands around her waist again and called over her shoulder for him to hang on.

"Dive," she urged Ovid, tucking her knees in a little tighter. The horse obliged and folded her wings until the ground looked like it was rushing up to meet them. Gendry held tight but he didn't close his eyes this time. Ovid angled her wings away from the city and over the bay. They were falling so fast, Gendry was sure they would end up in the water. But just as quickly as Ovid had made them drop, she angled her wings again into a smooth glide that left them feet above the water. They were far enough out in the bay that there were no boats near them allowing Ovid enough space to spiral around a few times before steadily ascending back into the sky. Gendry let out a laugh that he didn't know he had been holding.


It was past midday when Ovid had had enough flying and brought them back to the meadow in the forest. Gendry threw his leg over and jumped down first trying to be gentlemanly and helped Aero down. She didn't need help, but she allowed him to catch her by the waist when she slid over the horse's side anyway. Aero was an affectionate person and she missed the feeling of being close to people in this odd kingdom she would never understand. She gripped his shoulders as his large hands tightened around her ribcage and he set her lightly in the grass.

It was easy to lose track of time in the meadow. They ate lunch in the wildflower bed underneath the shade tree. The plums Aero bought were for her and Gendry, but the apples they picked up at the market were for Ovid. Aero halved the apples with her dagger and showed Gendry how to keep his palm flat when he fed Ovid so the horse wouldn't accidentally nip his fingers with its massive teeth. Then Ovid grazed in the meadow, taking a particular interest in the tall straw colored grass while Aero and Gendry lay in the grass talking and enjoying the soothing sound of the nearby stream.

"And then Evann bet Pyrus that he couldn't run the ramparts around the Great Dome naked without being seen," Aero laughed as she told Gendry stories from her childhood.

Gendry smirked and pulled at a blade of grass. "He got caught, didn't he?"

Aero nodded. "Oh, yes. By our grandmother who had been looking for us for over an hour. She grabbed him by the ear and he cried."

Gendry laughed heartily and lay back down in the grass tucking his arm behind his head.

"I like it when you laugh," Aero said offhandedly and lay next to him on her side.

"I laugh. Sometimes," he disputed, defending himself.

Aero shook her head. "You're always so serious." He knew she was right so he didn't bother arguing with her. He let the sound of the forest settle around them, happy that she wasn't one of those people that needed to fill every quiet space with useless chatter. She rolled over onto her stomach and he closed his eyes, but he could still feel her looking at him.

It was a while before she spoke again. "Gendry?"

"Hmm?" he hummed, his eyes still closed.

"We're friends, right?"

Gendry opened his eyes and narrowed his eyebrows at her question. He turned on his side to see that she still lay on her stomach, her head turned toward him and resting on her outstretched arm. Some of her hair had escaped her loose braid and fell around her face. There wasn't much space between them. He could hear her breathing if he tried hard enough. "If you say we're friends, then I guess we're friends," he replied, not wanting to assume.

"Don't do that," she sighed, blowing pieces of hair out of her face. "If I wasn't… what I am, would you consider us friends?" He thought about it. If she were a normal girl and he spent this much time with her, he would likely be courting her. But Aero was, by no means, a normal girl. "I ask," she continued when he didn't answer her straight away, "because if we were friends, you might find it in you to consider coming home with me. To Eryatheia."

"We're friends," he nodded trying to exude a calm he didn't feel. Surely it was normal that a person's heart would beat wildly if another person asked them to pick up their entire life and move to a different country.

"You don't have to answer right now," she promised. "I know it's selfish of me to even ask. I just don't want to leave you here." She rolled over onto her back and stretched her arms out in the grass. "You could use my forge, if you wanted. It's small, but it's enough. Or you could take over as the castle smith. Ilando wants to retire soon and his apprentices are too young." She sat up and propped her elbows on her knees staring off into the meadow. "I'm not trying to bribe you. I just want you to know you have options."

He sat up, too crossing his legs under him and picked at the dirt on his boot. "I know you're a nice person," he began. "I know it's not fake and I know you don't have some agenda. But I guess I just still don't understand why you would be so nice to me."

Aero looked back at him and crawled the short distance to sit beside him. It surprised him when she took the liberty of resting her head on his shoulder. No one had ever done that before. "Because we're friends," she replied, simply.

"Thank you. For today," Gendry said shyly as Aero walked with him back to Mott's shop.

"It was nothing," she responded, aware that something had subtly changed in their relationship when she asked him to come to Eryatheia with her. Like with Bet, she had grown attached and couldn't stand to leave him behind when he could be much more than just a blacksmith's apprentice in Cylix.

He shook his head. "It wasn't nothing. I don't- I don't have an answer yet, but…" He held out a purple flower that he had picked in the meadow. "Thank you." She took the flower and smiled down at it. It was such a simple, sweet gesture. No one had ever given her a flower.

"You're welcome."

She turned away so he wouldn't see the way she bit her lip and closed her eyes in a smile. Aero tucked the flower in the bag she had bought at the market to carry food and started East. The day replayed in her head on her walk back to the Red Keep. Over and over, she thought about the way he tried so hard not to look frightened when she pulled him onto Ovid's back. And when he gripped her so tight she could barely breathe when Ovid took off. The light smell of smoke still clinging to his skin even though he had just taken a bath. His laugh. She wanted to remember every moment.


There was a commotion when she reached the Keep. People were darting this way and that in the corridors. "What is it? What's going on?" she asked one of the women hurrying along the hallway.

"King Joffrey and Lady Stark, Your Grace," the woman replied quickly as she looked around, anxious to be gone.

Aero's heart sank. "Where?"

"The throne room," the woman squeaked, clearly wanting to run.

"Go," Aero demanded. "Be safe."

The woman curtsied and was out of sight within moments. Aero gripped her sword so it wouldn't sway as she ran, dodging people, toward the throne room. She knew that whatever was happening, it wasn't good. Aero flew through the open doors of the throne room and shoved people aside to make her way to the front of the crowd. Sansa's whimpers echoed through the hall. Her pleas were met with the sound of a sword swooping through the air. Aero pushed her way to the front to witness the horrifying scene herself.

"Come see, Aero!" Joffrey called gleefully. "Your necklace really does work!" With a laugh, Joffrey heaved his sword at Sansa, but because of the necklace that Aero spelled for the girl, the blows came close to hitting her but glanced away at the very last moment. Sansa flinched and tried to step away, but Ser Meryn Trant pushed her back toward the sadistic king.

"What are you doing?" Aero screeched, rushing forward.

"Just getting in a little practice." Joffrey propped his elbow on the pommel of his sword, the sword's tip crunching against the stone floor. "She can't be harmed, after all," he said, pleased with himself.

"So you terrify her instead?" Aero took Sansa's hand and pulled her in a hug. Still shaking, the girl breathed a sigh of relief into Aero's shoulder. Aero pulled Sansa's face away from her shoulder and brushed the hair out of her face to make sure that Sansa was okay. Sansa nodded and let Aero hand her a bag to hold and step in front of her to face Joffrey. Ser Meryn gripped his sword, ready to step in at the king's command.

"What do I care for the feelings of a traitor's daughter?" Joffrey asked without compassion. "She deserves to be punished."

"What has she done to you?" Aero countered. "What imaginary slight to your ego is her fault?"

Joffrey narrowed his eyes at her furiously. "Her traitor's blood will rain from the skies if I command it! I don't need a reason to punish a traitor's daughter. I am the king!"

"And a mighty king indeed, scaring a defenseless girl for your own amusement." Aero set her face in a look that made Joffrey take a step back. "You will never get to harm her again."

"You are not ruler here." Joffrey lowered his voice, but it wavered and gave away his fear. "You don't give me commands."

Keeping Sansa behind her, she walked steadily toward him, never taking her eyes away from his. "That's a beautiful sword, King Joffrey." She recognized the work as Mott's "Have you ever had the chance to use it?"

Joffrey's neck stiffened, his chin in the air. "I killed many men at the Battle of Blackwater. Hearteater has seen more blood than you ever will." He looked her up and down and grimaced at her trousers and scuffed up boots. "A woman with a sword," he scoffed. "You look ridiculous."

"Tyrion killed men," she challenged, taking another step forward. "You hid like a coward at the Battle of Blackwater."

Aero's palm began to glow as it did when she restored Jaime's hand. Still moving toward Joffrey, Ser Meryn and Ser Boros intervened and stepped in front of their king.

"Kill her!" Joffrey screamed, seeing the glow of her palm. "She's going to hurt me! Kill her!" In an instant, Ser Meryn and Ser Boros bore down upon her, but she dodged their swords. As Ser Meryn took another swing, she reached out for his hand, overpowered him, and used his hand, still holding his sword, to cut a deep line across the inside of Ser Boros' thigh, severing the femoral artery. Ser Boros screamed and collapsed, dropping his sword to try to staunch the flow of blood from his leg. Ser Meryn tried to subdue her by pulling at her shirt, ripping it up the side. Aero fought back and twisted his wrist with enough force that it snapped. He shouted as she twisted his arm behind him and pressed her glowing palm to the side of his face. She wasn't sure what was going to happen. She had never used her magic to fight before. She had never been angry enough. But she felt the tingle in her palm grow stronger the more Joffrey spoke until she couldn't control it. It wasn't intentional. And that scared her greatly.

Ser Meryn screamed in agony as the smell of burning flesh filled the room. Her palm had seared his skin so deep that it looked like a hand print had been branded onto the side of his face, though no blood ran. The heat had cauterized the blood vessels. Aero let him fall to the floor as he clutched his face with the hand she hadn't broken, cries still arising from his crumpled figure.

Joffrey stared down at the two men of his Kingsguard, horrified.

Aero closed in, standing over him, the boy king that liked to hurt girls. Her insides raged. "I cut through your men like they were nothing without even drawing my sword," she seethed. "Imagine what I could do to the likes of you."

Joffrey's fear didn't surpass his arrogance. His chest heaved and he waited for her to turn her back before he responded. "You can't speak to me that way! I am the king!" He lifted his sword toward her. She looked down at it, unconcerned.

"You are a monster," she spat. "And I genuinely hope that someone has the good sense to kill you before you irreparably bring all of Westeros into ruin. But if you die, it will not be my doing. Because no matter how many men I've killed, you are not worth the effort it would take to get the blood stains out of my clothes."

With nothing more, she intertwined her fingers with Sansa's and led the girl from the room. The crowd parted to make way, staring after them. She walked Sansa to her door, asking again if she was okay. Sansa, still so afraid to show fear, only nodded and thanked Aero. Aero kissed the girl's forehead and Sansa lowered her eyes to the floor. "My mother used to kiss my forehead," she said meekly.

"Mine did, too," Aero confided, kissing the girl's forehead one more time.

When Aero made it back to her chambers, the room was empty. Safe knowing that Bet was with Evann, Aero peeled off her boots and her clothes and climbed into bed without bothering to pull on her night shirt. The sun hadn't even fully dipped below the horizon, but she was exhausted, wondering how the day could have gone from being so wonderful to so wretchedly horrible. Aero suddenly remembered the flower Gendry had given her. Groaning, she pulled herself out of bed to retrieve the flower from the bag she dropped in the doorway. This time, she actually did take time to find her nightshirt and pull it over her head. She even bothered to pour some water from the pitcher on the table into a shallow washing basin and dragged a wet cloth over her face. She placed the flower in a small cup of water and took care to set it on the small bedside table. It would certainly be a beautiful thing to wake up to in this wretched city.