Chapter 11

Eddard had gotten up so fast that Laena wondered in that instance if someone had lit a fire underneath him. It was a little amusing to see the stern and grim wolf as surprised as he seemed. When she had been around him in the past Laena had always felt like the one the Nargles were messing with as opposed to everyone else.

It was a little irritating that she felt more frazzled around him than she would have been in her previous life when she was around him, but then perhaps that was what made him so attractive to her. Ned had a calm inner strength that she found enormously appealing having grown up in the capital all her life.

He was duty bound in the same sort of way that Harry had been, he was kind and compassionate taking the time to rescue her brother and then spend time with the youngest prince while others would have ignored him.

It was an incredible fatherly instinct that made Laena feel warm whenever she had looked at Baelor and Ned together in the past.

It helped that her four year old brother loved the quiet wolf and Ned was nothing but calm, respectful and patient with the little boy who was a little high strung at times.

But so for that matter could she and he seemed to be able to calm her with every conversation that they had had in past, as well as a way of taking her off guard just as he had done with the flower crown at the tourney weeks earlier.

And it sort of made her feel a little good that this time she was the one to make him surprised.

Ned stared at her for a moment as if she were a shade or a ghost from the past. In the silvery light of the moon, his face appeared almost white. It was a look she had never seen on him.

"Your grace," he said and his tone was light with surprise. "What…How is this…"

"I know this is shocking my lord," Laena said again cutting him off and stepping forward out of the shadows. "But I can explain why and how I'm here."

He nodded slightly and she had a feeling he was as much responding to her as he was still trying to process her appearance here.

Suddenly he blinked and seemed to remember his manners. "Won't you sit down then?"

"Yes thank you," she said and only when she had seated herself did he sit down next to her.

It was then that she actually got a good look around where they were sitting and gave a slight smile of delight and appreciation which she was certain came across dreamy.

"It's beautiful here," she said looking around.

At the moment, the godswood of the Eyrie had no trees but only tall white flowers and pale green grasses that waved gently in the night breeze. There were a few stone statues there as well as benches that Ned had been sitting on and there was the silvery light of the moon and stars coming down like a spotlight from the heavens upon the quiet space.

When the wind did blow it almost sounded as if some celestial being had leaned down and was blowing its breath gently through the grasses.

Laena sort of liked that the wood was in the center of the Eyrie with the towers surrounding it on every side. It made it feel as if this was a sacred space for peace and prayer.

Even though there were no trees it in, it seemed to hold its own tranquil serenity that was disconnected from the rest of civilization where there was an ethereal sort of peace that might be pursued.

Something she had a feeling Ned had been doing that before she interrupted him.

Ned nodded at her words, watching her face carefully as if he were still trying process her being here and wondering whether or not she would disappear and she felt the need to carry on speaking to fill the silence.

"It's not as warm as the capital but there is much less of a stink here," she said looking around with the dreamy smile that had become more characteristic of her these days,

"I don't suppose the wrackspurts would like this place too much as there are too few people here."

"Wrackspurts?" Ned asked looking terribly confused.

Laena chuckled. "Oh yes. Baelor and I are constantly on the lookout for them. I'm surprised you haven't seen any in King's Landing when you were there. They're like these little blue pesky insects who have a terrible habit of irritating many people around them and stinging them to make them act strange."
If it was possible, Ned looked even more confused and Laena decided that she would take pity on him.

"Anyway, the point is that there aren't any here so we can speak without worry of being stung," she said, "and that is good because what I have to tell you about why I am here I have a feeling will take a long time to say. But first I should probably tell you how I got here to begin with."

"I would appreciate that," the quiet wolf began seeming to regain his polite nature. He appeared to have accepted her presence there as not being a trick of the light or something of a hallucination. "I am not normally used to being surprised."

Laena smiled at him. "Well then I will be frank as I can with you. Do you happen to know any stories of the magic of the Targaryens?"
Ned frowned slightly and then for a moment looked at her so intensely that she felt her cheeks begin to heat and had to look away from him, hoping that the shadows would hide her red face.

Finally he turned away and looked out over the tall grasses of the godswood, his grey eyes becoming distant and thoughtful. "My father once told me a story about the maester at the Wall by the name of Aemon Targaryen when he visited the place once as a boy," he said and Laena blinked. "Its been a long time since I have heard the name of my great uncle."

"Aye," Ned said giving her a brief smile. "His father had brought him there to show him the Wall and he met him then. My father occasionally told me about stories of his intelligence and that he was the finest maester that Castle Black and the Watch had ever had. But he also told me that he was very old and because of that or perhaps in spite of it, he was possessed of strange dreams. A kind man, he saw well for someone who has lost the use of his eyes. But the most….unique thing about him were those dreams, visions that my father said he could not explain. He told my father that he once dreamed of a stag battling a dragon upon a great river of ice."

Laena felt a chill race up and down her spine. Perhaps when I go to the wall I will need to inspect more than the sturdiness of it. I may have to check up on Great Uncle Aemon as well.

"There was an ancestor of mine," she said softly. "Daenys Targaryen, who when she was still a maid had a powerful prophetic dream about the destruction of ancient Valyria. And so her father Lord Aenar Targaryen moved the family and all of their belongings to the island of Dragonstone in the Narrow Sea. They took five dragons with them and when the Doom came twelve years later, House Targaryen were the only family of Dragon lords to survive it."

She gave Ned a small smile. "I suppose you could say that magic has always been an important thing in my family. It has been both a blessing and a curse to us."

Ned nodded. "Because of Summerhall?"

"Yes, because of Summerhall…because of dreaming old men who wanted to bring about the return of dragons and magic to our family uncaring of the price they had to pay. Perhaps they should call the madness and insanity that has been so characteristic of my family dragon sickness. It would certainly fit."

She paused before looking up from her folded hands back at Ned who was watching her intently. "My family has always possessed abilities to a strange degree Ned, whether that was in the form of prophetic dreams or visions it matters not. But it has gone back as far as Ancient Valyria. How do you think my ancestors were able to tame and bond with dragons? Magic is as old as the ancient freehold itself, as old as the dragon lords. But after the legendary Dance when many of the Targaryen dragons perished, the dragons began to become smaller and smaller and magic became less and less potent. And after Summerhall…the day my brother and I were born in a tent that had been erected amidst the ash and the smoke, well my father feared that magic had been expunged from our family line. "

Eddard was deadly silent as he listened to her and she looked up to find his grey eyes fastened on her, looking almost like liquid silver in the light of the moon.

There were times when she wished he didn't have the ability to do that. Laena had a feeling that Ned didn't know that when he engaged in a conversation with someone he had a way of making them feel like they were the only person in the world that existed.

It was both wonderful and extremely intimidated.

And now the time has come.

"But it hasn't," she whispered and braced herself for his reaction.

Without looking at him, she closed her eyes and concentrated on the warmth in her blood, the warmth that had always been there and was boiling just below the surface.

And then she felt it.

When Laena opened her eyes again she was confronted with a singular flame dancing back and forth across her palm. It seemed to move in a hypnotic rhythm, fastening her eyes to it and not letting her look away.

To her surprise, Ned didn't flinch upon seeing it but rather seemed to peer closer in fascination.

And then to even further her shock, he reached out a hand and gently traced the skin of her palm that bordered around the flame as if he wasn't sure it was real.

After a moment Laena extinguished the flame and sighed before turning to look at Ned who had his eyes narrowed slightly.

"I am one of them it seems. One of the last members of the dragonlord families to possess magic."

Ned was silent for a long time and then he shocked her further by reaching out and slowly closing her open hand with his larger rough one before lowering it to her lap. His hand was much cooler than hers which provided relief as her skin had become very warm from the flame.

"So you are," he said softly in his low rumbling voice.

Unbidden, Laena felt goosebumps rise on her skin and she fought not to shiver, blaming it on the wrackspurts and the cool of the night other than the rather charged atmosphere.

A wind blew, brushing her silver locks off of her shoulders and she hunched slightly inside the cloak that she was wearing.

Ned said nothing for a long time….so long in fact that Laena began to frown. "You don't seem surprised."

"No," he replied. "I don't suppose I am."

That confused her. "Why are you not surprised?"

Ned sighed before turning back to her. His eyes held an almost long suffering look in them which made Laena even more confused until he spoke again.

"The north is no stranger to magic," he said. "It is how the Wall was built, there is no other option. I know many lend credence to Bran the Builder for engineering the construction of it, but it could not have been erected any other way but through magic or by creatures of magic…giants or the Children of the Forest. Then there are stories I was told by my old nurse when I was a boy, stories of people who could transfer their consciousness into the minds of animals and do fantastic things or those who could change their skin to a beast but still retain their humanity altogether. So no your grace, the north is no stranger to the idea of magic as the First Men had their own ways of doing things….things that are far beyond the reach of what we know today."

Laena blinked, a little surprise and pleased that it had been this easy. She knew of all the people she might tell besides her mother and her brother, Ned would be the one who would take it the best.

She didn't know why, but she did have a feeling and as it turned out, she was right.

And then all of a sudden she frowned. "But why does it seem that you aren't as surprised by my magic?"

There was another long silence in which she could almost count her breaths before Ned spoke again.

And this time it was to further surprise her by chuckling slightly.

"What is so funny?" she demanded.

"Forgive me your grace," Ned said glancing up at the moon, "But for whatever odd reason I feel as if this was something I knew deep in my mind already."

Laena frowned. "I'm afraid I don't understand."

Ned turned back to her then and she was further stunned to see the look in his grey eyes was almost…soft. To know she was the object of that look was rather well…nice.

"Do you recall the day that I met Prince Baelor your grace?" he asked and Laena flinched slightly. She didn't like to think about that day as her brother had almost drowned and she had almost lost her wits and hadn't been able to do anything about it.

"I do," she said softly.

"Well the water was not so cold, nor the prince's cries so loud that I was unaware of what was going on around me," he said and she went very still, remembering then what had happened and what she had done.

"I can recall being deep enough in the water that I could feel the graze of a sharp rock beneath my foot and thinking to myself that the undercurrent had us and if I did not swim for the shore as hard as I could then we were going to be swept out to the bay and the young prince would drown. It was then that I felt a the water come dangerously close to my nose, water nearly entering it and then there was a terrible jerk and a frightful sensation of being turned upside down and then right side up again. Right before that happened however I caught sight of you standing on the shore. At the time I thought you were simply waving your arm to signal for help but then the next thing that I knew, I was standing on the shore with the prince soaking wet and breathing hard with your grace and princess Elia hurrying towards us.

"But it wasn't until I had set the prince down and looked up at you when I saw the look on your face."

"What look was that?" Laena asked softly, feeling a little stunned that he had figured it out.

"It was as if there was this flashing in your eyes your grace and your hand was outstretched almost as if you had been reaching for us. And then I knew that something…strange was going on."

Laena looked up at him for a moment in complete astonishment and then began to laugh. "I suppose I shouldn't be too surprised. I got the feeling that you were far more perceptive than you let on Ned."

A corner of his mouth pulled up in a slight smile and he inclined his head towards her. "Thank you your grace. Every so often I do have moments of clarity."

Laena blinked before smiling at him. Had he just made a joke?

"Well then that makes what I have come to say a little simpler," she replied and then sobered when she remembered her dream and what she needed to tell him and ask as well.

"And what is that?" he asked.

Laena sighed. "Do you recall our conversation several weeks ago in the capital at my brother's wedding feast?"

All at once Ned sobered and he turned towards her so she knew she had his full attention. "Indeed. And some developments have happened in the north in that regard as well."

Laena grimaced. "Then I think I will need you to tell me about those as well. But first…another dream seems to have been disturbing me lately, but this one was very…specific."

Ned narrowed his eyes at her. "Specific in what way?"

"In the way that I knew where I was and I knew what I was seeing, but I didn't know what it meant."

"Can you recall it now?" he asked. "I only ask because my own dreams have become very odd of late and even know I can recall them in almost excruciating detail."

"I can," Laena replied and then took a deep breath before beginning the whole haunting tale.

"When I opened my eyes, it beyond bloody cold and I seemed to be standing upon a thick sheet of ice. Only this time I was not in an open field but rather I seemed to be in a great hall that was carved entirely of ice. As I looked around, I could see what appeared to be shelves standing in the corners of the room which made me think it was an odd kitchen of sorts once. How someone could cook down there in that freezing cold I will never understand. But that was when I turned around and I saw something embedded into the wall of ice."

"What was it?" Ned asked.

Laena paused here and swallowed hard as she still felt some undefinable terror well up inside of her when she thought about that weirwood tree.

"It was a door," she continued, her voice becoming lower and lower. "But it was unlike any door I have ever seen before. It was pure white and seemed to be carved from the trunk of a heart tree. And…there was a face that had been carved into the door, an ancient wrinkled face that appeared thousands of years old. Its eyes and mouth were closed but I had the feeling that it was a sort of deep magic that was keeping it slumbering. And that if something happened….it might wake up."

Ned's face had gone white, or at least it appeared so in the moonlight and Laena knew right away that he knew what she was talking about.

"You know this place don't you?" she asked and Ned nodded.

"Aye," he said after a moment his voice sounding strangely hoarse. "But I have only heard stories of it. It is the Black Gate, and it lies deep beneath the Nightfort along the Wall. The Nightfort is the oldest castle on the Wall and it has the bloodiest history, tales that would make the toes of a child curl as mine certainly did when I was a boy. It is said to be the only way to the other side of the Wall apart from a gate in Castle Black."

"I suppose that name is ironic given that the name of the gate is black and the gate itself is white," Laena muttered, earning a somewhat amused look from Ned. "I suppose so. But go on your grace. I sense there is more you have to say."

Laena swallowed hard and steeled herself. "There is. After a long moment of me simply standing several feet away from the door and looking at it in surprise, I blinked and suddenly found myself standing only a foot away from the white weirwood. And then….then the eyes that had been carved into the door opened and looked at me."

Ned had gone very still then and she could tell he was concentrating on every word she was saying. "And then?"

"Then it spoke," Laena continued. "It asked me who I was. But the words that I replied with were not something that Laena Targaryen would have said."

"What were they?"

Laena took a deep breath and recited the words to the speech that she knew she would not forget until her dying day. "I am the Watcher on the walls. I am the fire that burns against the cold, the light that brings the dawn, the horn that wakes the sleepers. I am the shield that guards the realms of men.

"And then the voice told me to pass before opening its mouth as wide as it possibly could until it was nothing more than a great mass of wrinkles framing an open maw so big that I could have walked through it. And between those spaces…there was nothing but darkness."

A chilly silence seemed to linger between them as her words died away and Laena found the whistling of the win in the godswood was almost as eerie as the memory of her dream had been.

It might have been her imagination but it seemed as if the air had become colder as soon as she finished relaying her story. A shadow of a cloud passed over the moon momentarily blocking the light and prompting Laena to look up.

Just as it was during the day when clouds passed over the sun and shaded the light, so too was the same happening with the moon now. Only this time it was a very large cloud making the moon nearly disappear altogether and casting Ned's face into shadow next to her.

Laena imagined something like that happening for years even decades to come and realized with a jolt that the possibility of a second long night may be coming into focus.

The statues in the godswood appeared to become almost ghostly and for a moment the princess could imagine them coming to life and slowly ambling towards her and Ned.

Unbidden she shivered.

"That is indeed a part of a pledge that the men of the Watch recite when they take their oaths for the first and final time," Ned said finally in a very low voice. "It is meant to be as grimly serious as it is historically and mythically fantastical. We in the north still remember the Long Night and the War for the Dawn and what came with it. We remember the fierce cold and the biting ice. We remember it all. The north remembers it all. The vow is a way of making certain that we never forget."

"Then why is it that the rest of the realm seems to have forgotten?" Laena asked.

Ned sighed and ran a hand through his unruly dark brown hair. "Because your grace, politics has consumed this country in a never ending wave of pettiness, grudges, greed, power struggles and bartering that I will never fully understand nor like. The north remembers because someone has to and because there are more important things to think about than positions on the small council or what insults have been traded between nobles."

It was one of the longest speeches that she had ever heard Ned make and Laena was rather surprised and impressed with his vehemence in stating it. He was obviously very passionate about his home and its history and the fact that no one else seemed to know or to care about it anymore grated on him.

"Well," she said. "I haven't forgotten, and neither it seems has my brother."

That got his attention. "I beg your pardon your grace? How has this captured the attention of prince Rhaegar?"

Laena gave the quiet wolf a grim smile. "We have been having our own separate dreams lately even though Rhaegar's have died off and mine have intensified. He knew I was coming here to see you today because we needed answers and I had hoped that you would be able to give them to me."

"I am not a prophet your grace," Ned replied.

"No you're not," Laena agreed. "But my brother also said if you did not have the information that we were seeking than there is one place where we might be able to go to in order to get it."

"And where is that?"

Laena took a deep breath. "The Isle of Faces."

A heavy silence followed those words that had enough weight to it that Laena was certain she could feel it resting on her shoulders.

"The Isle of Faces?" Ned asked finally and she could see that his handsome face had gone as grim as stone in the light and he was looking at her with eerie intensity. "Are you certain you wish to go there your grace?"

She attempted a smile and just managed it. "I am not one to be scared off of a problem Ned. This is no longer about me and what I want, this is about the future of the realm and what I am doing to aid the Seven Kingdoms. If it turns out that there are…people there who will be able to help me then…I think I need to try."

He nodded for a moment as if he were processing what she was saying and thinking it over in his mind.

And then he looked up at her and said something completely unexpected. "Then perhaps you would allow me to accompany you."

Laena was so stunned she forgot for a moment who she was talking to and stared at him while blinking slowly.

Thankfully she caught herself soon after and then swallowed hard. "You would want to come with me? Why?"

To her surprise the second son of Lord Rickard gave her a small grim smile. "My motives are not entirely pure your grace. I do have my own personal reasons for wishing to visit that place…namely the fact that my own dreams have been disturbing of late."

Well they were just full of surprises tonight weren't they?

"You have been having dreams as well?" she asked in a whisper. "What are they of if I may ask?"

Ned sighed and then ran a hand through his hair again. "Its somewhat hard to describe them as I am not entirely myself in this dream. I am someone or rather….something else."

Laena frowned. "I'm afraid I don't understand."

So he told her. He told her everything that had happened since he had fallen asleep in his bed in the Eyrie and awakened in a strange godswood on all fours. He told her about how he had padded forward in this odd manner until he had reached what appeared to be a hearts pool, one very much like the one in Winterfell.

When Laena heard about how he had looked down into the pool and seen the face of a direwolf staring back at him, two things entered her mind at the same time.

The first was that Ned possessed some degree of magic just like she did as he was describing his experience of being a wolf. His reflection had had a furry face and amber eyes, ears that were pressed flat against his forehead and large amber lamp like eyes that seemed to stare into his very soul as well as razor sharp white teeth that seemed as long as his fingers.

The second thing that entered her mind was the knowledge that this dream was not only prompted as a result of some form of suppressed magic that Ned possessed, but that it was a sort of prophetic dream that had perhaps been prompted by some higher order power.

And then when Ned had told her about seeing another direwolf across the edge of the pool in his dream that was the exact same as the one he had been staring at in his reflection she was even more convinced that this was not a coincidence.

It was only when he told her about that horrible blue and white face that he had seen in the water's surface with eyes like two stars and a crown of horns sticking up through his head that she realized that he had seen something that no one had seen in thousands of years and that this most definitely meant that something evil was stirring in the far north.

When he had finally finished his tale, the both of them sat on the bench of the godswood in silence, trying to comprehend what this all meant.

"I am now more convinced than ever that I need to go to the Isle of Faces," Laena said finally. "Something is on the move Ned, something greater and more terrible than we might ever have anticipated and it is an enemy that no one has seen in several lifetimes. We need to know what to do about it."

"Aye we do," Ned said grimly. "And perhaps I need to return to Winterfell early and speak to my father if he has received any…strange news from his bannermen. The men of the north have a long history in dealing with the mystical and they would be the first to feel something in the air."

"That's a good idea," Laena muttered. "And in the meantime, my brother and I need to convince our fool of a father that there is an imminent threat to the far north that needs more attention that his insane notions of magic and lineage do."

Ned looked at her carefully. "Has the king…declined since the last time that I saw him?"

Laena sighed. "It depends on your definition of declining. I'm worried Ned. I'm worried that if something doesn't give and soon that my father will do something he will not be able to explain away with his I am the king mantra and it will incite a civil war in the realm. Even if he is somehow convinced of this threat…what if it's too late?"

The heavy silence in the godswood returned and Laena twisted her hands in her lap until she was surprised when Ned reached over and gently covered both of her hands with one of his large ones.

It was as forward a move that she had seen him perform since he had awarded her the flower crown after the tourney several weeks earlier.

Prompted she looked up into his calm but warm grey eyes that looked silver in the light and blinked when she saw the soft look shining there.

"It's not too late," he said quietly and with such assurance that she found herself believing him.

"How are you so certain?" she asked.

"Because I have always been an idealistic person and seeing as how it is still summer, there is still time to prepare," Ned said logically. "We know now as well and I will do what I can to get to my father, explain what is happening to him and hope that we can ready ourselves before something terrible happens."

"Do you think something terrible will happen?" Laena asked.

"I don't want it to," Ned said. "But at this point I do not know. However I do have a sinking feeling that something terrible will happen if we do not act now. But we are acting now."

Laena nodded feeling somewhat reassured. She was still chilled to the bone from what she had heard that night but she was feeling somewhat calmer and warmer now than when she had come.

"When will you leave the Vale?" she asked.

"Not for another few weeks at least," Ned replied. "I will need to write to my father first and relay what was in my dream. And then I will need to explain all of this to Lord Arryn and hope that he believes me."

"Why wouldn't he?" Laena asked. "You've been his ward for a number of years now and I am certain that the two of your trust each other. What reason could he have for denying your claims?"

Ned flashed her a brief smile that disappeared in an instant and was replaced with shadow a moment later. "Lord Arryn is a very loyal and honorable man. But we are delving into the realm of the fantastic your grace. Most of the Andal lines that came to Westeros centuries ago may not believe that such a threat as the Others exists. And as such they will need some…convincing."

"What sort of convincing?" Laena asked.

"I don't know," Ned replied. "But hopefully my father will have more answers than I do. And hopefully when I return Brandon will have as well."

Laena frowned. "Has Lord Brandon gone somewhere?"

Ned gave her a tiny wintry smile. "Aye. At the behest of our father he has ridden to the Wall to look into a plan for combating the threat of the wildlings. They are pressing even further south which I am now convinced has a reason. That is also something I will need to discuss with my father."

"It seems we both have our marching orders," Laena said. "I should return to the capital and tell my brother all the information I have learned. Would you be opposed to me informing him of your dream Ned?"

The quiet wolf paused for a moment before he replied. "By all means tell him about the Other your grace. But for the moment if you would not mind keeping the parts regarding the direwolf out of it? At least until I know what that means for me personally."

"Of course," Laena said nodding.

She got up to leave and then was stopped when Ned spoke her name again. "If I could have but one more moment of your time your grace?"

"Yes?" she asked with a slight frown.

Ned got up from his spot and stood next to her with a somewhat strange and intense look on his face the like of which she had never seen before.

"How does your magic allow you to travel here to the Eyrie in the first place?" he asked. "Though this country has a long history of magic, especially in the north I have never seen a magic such as yours before. How does it work?"

Laena smiled at him. "If I knew that in full Ned I would gladly tell it to you. However I can tell you that I managed to get here by what is known as a spell of apparition. All I would need to do is to know what a keep or a physical location looked like, center it in my mind and then spin on my heel in order to get there."

Ned frowned at her. "So you may travel anywhere in this country with nothing more than a thought?"

"Indeed."

He stared at her for a long moment before blinking and chuckling for a moment. "I suppose that would come in handy then."

She smiled back. "Yes it would."

Laena dusted her hands off on the front of her cloak and then nodded at Ned one final time. "If I learn anything new from my brother, is it alright if I return?"

"Of course," Ned said with a slight frown. "As this carries on I am of the mind that communication between the crown and the north is key."

"I hold to that mind too," Laena said and he nodded. "Good. Then you will return once you have more answers?"

"I will, I am going to assume that night time would be the best time with which to meet you?"

"It is."

"Good, then perhaps I will return tomorrow night. I may have more information as early as then."

Ned nodded and then before she made to tuck her hands into her chest and spin away from the Eyrie and the Vale altogether, he surprised her once more by taking her hand.

Laena cocked her head to one side and frowned at him in question.

Ned was watching her carefully in such a manner that it made her feel both uncomfortable and pleased. "Is something wrong Ned?"

"No your grace," he replied. "But thank you. Thank you for informing me of this threat."

Laena frowned at him before doing something that surprised her and reaching up to touch the side of his face tentatively. His cheek felt cool but it was a deliciously cool feeling against the warmth of her palm. His face was rough as if a beard was just beginning to form and Laena felt an odd thrill being this close to him.

"Of course," she whispered.

A moment later he bent slightly and took her other hand, pressing a gentle kiss to it that caused goosebumps to rise on her arms.

But she forced herself to keep her eyes on his the whole while before a slight smile rose to her lips.

After a moment, the voice of practicality in the back of her mind spoke up, informing her that it was time to go.

"Goodbye Ned," she said softly before taking a deep breath and spinning on her heel as fast as she could disappearing with a crack.

Later as she climbed into her bed in her chambers to catch a few hours of sleep before dawn came, she would wonder if there was a reason she vanished so fast and dismissed it as a desire to return early so she wouldn't be missed.

But even deeper than that knowledge was the fact that she knew it was anything but that.

Ω

It was only a few hours after dawn when the next shocking thing in the last twelve hours occurred.

It began with a pounding on her door and Laena rolled over groaning, feeling as if she had just fallen into bed when the knocking had begun.

Damn those Wrackspurts! Why do they need to bother me this early in the morning?

A moment later however, she realized it wasn't those pesky blue beings at all but rather someone trying to get her attention.

She had no sooner sat up and opened her mouth to call out for the person to enter when the door opened and the familiar form of her brother dashed in.

"Rhaegar?" Laena asked rubbing her eyes which felt as if sand had been shoved beneath her lids. "What on earth is the matter that you need to come to my room this early?"

It was then however that she noticed her brother's unruly hair and that he was wearing his own robe that he wore before bed and when he awakened in the morning which meant he had woken up not long before he had come here. His eyes were wild and as wide as he had ever seen them and he was pale even by Targaryen standards.

"Rhaegar?" she asked snapping to attention when she saw her brother breathing as if he had run a marathon. "What is the matter?"

Her twin brother was breathing hard and it took about ten seconds for him to be able to catch his breath before he could speak.

"You need to see this Laena," he said finally. "Something has happened."

"What?!" his sister demanded feeling more irritated than worried at the lack of answers she was receiving. "What has happened?"

Rhaegar stared at her for a moment and she noted the near wildness of his eyes and sat up even further, a sudden chill stealing over her.

"It's father Laena," he said softly. "He's dead."

The blonde stared at her brother for a moment in shock as if she had not heard him correctly. "I beg your pardon? What did you say?"

"Father….Father is dead," Rhaegar said again, his breath sounding more even as if he had just managed to catch it. "The guards discovered him this morning."

"How?" Laena asked in a small voice.

Different emotions were tussling for control in her mind but the most prominent one was one of intense relief. Her father had been as mad as a rabid dog and it had been time for him to go. Now whether that was by natural means or some magical option she still hadn't figured out, but it didn't seem to matter anymore.

However now it seemed that the decision had been taken out of her hands and had been made for her.

He was gone, he couldn't hurt anyone anymore, least of all her mother and now perhaps they could move forward without him.

"A servant found me no more than a quarter of an hour ago," Rhaegar said. "One of the younger girls and told me that the Lord Commander had requested I come to my father's room immediately. I thought it odd but everything about father generally is. I put on my robe and followed her but it wasn't until I turned down the hallway and saw several servants and every member of the Kingsguard standing before the king's door that I realized something was wrong.

"I hurried forward and pushed my way through the crowd as fast as I could only to find Ser Gerold standing at the door to my father's room looking as grim as I had ever seen him. I immediately demanded to know what was going on, but all he did was open the door and show me inside before stepping in and closing it behind us. I ventured into the room. And that was when I saw him."

Laena was out of bed at this point and putting her robe and slippers on. "Father? Was he in the bed?"

When she turned back around, Rhaegar had somehow turned a ghastly shade of green and her stomach dropped out from under her. "What happened Rhaegar?"

"Perhaps it would be better if I simply showed you," the crown prince or perhaps she should now be referred to him as king, said. "I don't think I could describe it."

A chill crept up Laena's skin and she now began to move twice as fast as she left the chamber following her brother and all but ran down the hall alongside him to the former king's chambers.

The entire way her mind was whirling with questions about what had happened. Rhaegar didn't seem to want to tell her anything until she saw it for herself and the fact that her father was dead now made her twin the king before he was eight and ten years old.

That was a scary prospect in its own right.

The sun was just beginning to rise in the windows they past and cast a dull pink and orange light on the floor of the halls but Laena barely noticed it.

When they reached the wing of the keep where the king's chambers were located, Laena skidded to a halt as she suddenly couldn't go forward any longer.

The hallway was now filled with people, mostly servants standing about and muttering amongst themselves.

This was not good.

Rhaegar cursed under his breath. "Where in the Seven Hells did all of these people come from?"

Just then the twins happened to see Ser Gerold and Prince Lewyn standing further down the hall in front of the king's door speaking in what appeared to be hushed but heated tones. They were keeping people well away from the door thankfully and glaring at anyone who came close.

The crowd of people who consisted of servants and other palace attendants had been murmuring somewhat loudly before Rhaegar and Laena had arrived then immediately fell silent upon seeing the crown prince and princess.

Rhaegar cursed again under his breath. "Ser Gerold!"

The aging knight turned at the sound of the prince's voice which had rung out rather loud in the crowded hallway and nodded at him. "Yes your grace?"

"Please clear this hallway," Rhaegar said in a stern voice. "There should not be anyone in this corridor other than my sister and the other members of the Kingsguard."

"Of course your grace," the Lord Commander replied and then began the process of shooing the curious servants away with the stern looks and the commanding tone he was so famously known for.

As people began to disperse, a path slowly emerged and Rhaegar grabbed Laena's hand, pulling her forward until they were standing in front of the door to the king's chambers.

It surprisingly didn't take that long to herd the remaining servants and attendants out of the wing but Laena made sure to wait until the hall was devoid of them all and only the Kingsguard had returned before she spoke.

Even though she hadn't seen Ser Arthur, Jonathar Darry, Ser Oswell Ser Barristan and Ser Jaime among the crowd of people, possibly because she hadn't been looking for them, Laena was surprised when the four of them suddenly appeared after helping Prince Lewyn herd the rest of the people away.

Ser Gerold in the meantime was waiting at the door of the king's chambers watching the proceedings with a grim frown on his face.

It wasn't until the hallway was once again clear that Laena turned to him. "When did you find my father Ser Gerold?"

"No more than twenty minutes ago your grace," the old knight said grimly. "There was nothing out of the ordinary until the moment there was a chilling scream that filled this entire hall. And it was coming from the inner chambers of the king. Immediately I threw the door open thinking that something was terribly wrong. And that was when I found him."

And then to her astonishment the fierce and loyal Lord Commander of the Kingsguard that she had known ever since she had awakened in this life as Laena Targaryen turned a ghostly shade of white and seemed to have lost his nerve to speak.

Something was terribly wrong here.

"You should see it for yourself Laena," her brother interrupted in order to save Ser Gerold some of his dignity and reached for the knob of the door.

Still confused but determined to get to the bottom of this, Laena nodded and pushed the door open, allowing her brother to step in and shut the door behind him.

As she looked about her father's room there appeared to be nothing too out of the ordinary. The bed was rumpled as if it had been slept in and there were several books strewn across it.

Light was beginning to fill the room as Aerys' chambers had always looked out upon the ocean and the rising sun.

There was a book shelf on the other side of the room which was filled to bursting with manuscripts. It had been a habit of her father to collect as much reading matter as possible in the last few years but for whatever it was, he did not say.

Just then, there was a splashing sound and Laena looked down in surprise to discover that the ground was wet.

"What is this Rhaegar?" she asked. But her brother seemed to have not moved an inch into the room and was keeping as close to the door as possible as it was still dry there.

The prince swallowed hard a few times and when he spoke again it was in a voice so low she barely heard him. "Go out onto the balcony Laena. He's there."

The princess frowned and was about to demand more answers when she turned and saw that the puddle of water she had stepped in wasn't in one solitary place.

In doing so she saw that the pool of it extended into the king's bed chamber and almost covered the bottom part of her feet, soaking through her silk slippers.

Laena uttered another curse and moved farther into the room, wondering where in the seven hells the source of the water was.

All of a sudden a shadow caught her attention and she turned towards it to see a short silhouette on the balcony overlooking the ocean. She frowned and peered closer, stepping gingerly over the puddle of water as quickly as she could towards it.

And that was when she saw him.

Goosebumps danced up and down Laena's arms and her mouth had gone completely dry. All the hairs on the back of her neck stood on end and she could physically feel the blood draining from her face. Her hands began to tremble and she stiffened up like a board to the point where she could barely move.

This wasn't normal.

Aerys Targaryen had never been a man who did anything in half measures and he was just as ostentatious in life as he had been in death.

Truly Laena had never seen someone arrayed in such a manner post mortem and she didn't think she would ever be able to remove the image of her father in his chambers….dead…for the rest of her life or until Phil came to get her.

The closer she got to the balcony until she was finally standing on the threshold of it, the more horrified she became until finally she had ventured out onto the balcony and was looking at the face of the very much dead and unlamented Aerys Targaryen.

Her breath hitched in her throat and she didn't even hear the sound of her exhalation.

Aerys Targaryen, though very much dead looked far more frightening now than he ever had when he had sat on the Iron Throne.

He was on his knees before the balcony as if he had been about to pray but his hands were not clasped in front of him. Instead, they were hanging by his side useless and empty. Those hands that had been used to abuse her mother would never grip anything ever again.

But Laena's eyes didn't linger on his hands for long. Instead they slowly began to work their way up to his face and when they finally stopped there, her jaw worked for a moment before she was able to swallow.

Aerys had somehow throw his head back and was looking up to the heavens and the quickly lightening sky. Somehow his neck and back were curved so far back it was a wonder that he hadn't fallen over.

His mouth was open in a silent scream as wide as it would go and for a moment Laena remembered with a chill the face carved into the Black Gate from her dream.

His eyes were open wide as well but she had to do a double take when she realized that the purple irises in them had disappeared only to be replaced by stark white orbs.

Both of his eyes had become completely white as if he had gone blind only moments before death.

But that wasn't even the most horrifying part as his skin had turned ashy grey as if all the color had been leached from his it. The only part of him that still retained any sort of pigment was his hair which now seemed completely white as opposed to a very pale blonde.

As Laena glanced down to see if the color retraction was on his hands as well, it was then that she noticed something.

The water she had been stepping across in order to get to the balcony was coming from the king himself.

Laena jumped back with a curse and a gasp of horror and nearly collided with the railing of the balcony behind her.

She stared at her very dead father in terror for a moment before the pieces jammed together in her shocked and appalled brain.
Whatever had killed Aerys had somehow leached all of the water from his body which had then filled the room almost to the door. It created a puddle around the king's bent knees and spread out before spreading back into the room and leaking to the bed, the desk and the bookshelf beyond.

Who….or what….could have done something like this?!

Just them she felt something sticky beneath her hand and she sprang back from the balcony with a startled oath. Her nerves were already taut enough as she turned around and she didn't think she could handle any more surprises.

But as it turned out, what was on the balcony railing was more disturbing than finding her father in a kneeling position as if some sort of ancient being had killed him.

There were red words written on the balcony railing that she couldn't make out at first because of the still dim light but when she took a step closer, Laena was able to see what they were.

And for the second time that morning, the breath left her lungs in terror.

For written on the railing in what appeared to be blood were only two words.

He Comes

All of a sudden, her dream and the conversation with Ned stole over Laena like a distant storm that had crept up on her all at once and a sick feeling entered the pit of her stomach.

Who comes? She thought desperately to herself. That Other that Ned saw in his dream? Or something worse?

A moment later her mind wondered how the words could have been written in blood if all the water had been drained from Aerys body.

He must have written it before he died, she thought to herself. There's no other explanation.

"Laena?" called out the quiet voice of her brother from somewhere back in the room. "Are you alright?"

"I'm…I'm not entirely sure how to answer that," she called back in a shaky voice. "Did you see the writing on the railing?"

"I did," he called back, his voice sounding as shaky as hers. "What do you think it means?"

"Nothing good," Laena replied swallowing hard. She really wished that Nargles were the sum total of her problems here as they had been when she was Luna Lovegood.

But this…this was worse and far more disturbing than anything she had encountered.

And it was then that she realized with a jolt something she had missed before.

Looking back at Aerys, she was able to see his position clearly this time and a chill stole over her when she suddenly fathomed the idea that her father had been kneeling in such a way that he was facing north.

And the words written in blood were so engraved on the north part of the railing of the balcony.

She glanced down at her trembling hands and willed the fire back into them, sighing in relief as she felt the flames engulf her hands for a moment before dying.

Phil knew what he was doing when he said I would need the fire, she thought grimly to herself. I think the Wrackspurts are going to be the least of my problems after this.

After committing the entire scene to memory, Laena hurried back through the room, taking care to step as lightly as possible until she was standing by the door where her brother was.

"You saw all of it then?" he asked. His face was still a ghastly shade of green but it was slowly returning to its normal color.

"I did," she whispered. "And I think….I think our father saw something before he died Rhaegar. Something bad."

The prince ran a hand through his hair which accomplished nothing but making it even more unruly. "I think something bad has already happened Laena. What do the words mean? Who is coming? When is he coming?"

"I don't know," Laena replied grimly mentally cursing the Wrackspurts for her frazzled nerves. "But we need to find out and soon. For right now, no one should enter this chamber until Father's body is taken away and buried."

"Aye," her brother replied. "And we will need to announce to the rest of the realm that the king is dead, but we cannot tell others what we have seen. The last thing we need right now is panic. And if it is discovered that the king died of unknown causes and was found in a kneeling position on his balcony with all the water drained from his body and the words, He Comes written in blood on the stone along with the fact that he was placed in a position facing north, then you can only imagine the terror and confusion.

We cannot allow this to get out."

"No, we can't," Laena. "Mother should know. But I don't know if she should actually see this. It might be too much for her."

"Perhaps," her brother replied. "So we will keep quiet about the manner of the king's death and come up with some sort of story to explain how he died."

Just then Laena had a terrible thought. "What about all of those people who were milling outside the door? What if they saw this?"

"I don't think that they did," Rhaegar said and it seemed to be the only thing he was sure about. "Ser Gerold told me that when he found our father in this position he immediately shut the door and called for a servant to go and fetch me. All those people milling about must have thought something was wrong with the king or that he was ill and the fact that one servant could cause all that gossip worries me. But Ser Gerold told me that he had allowed no one in but me after he found father."

"Good," Laena said letting out a sigh of relief. "That's one less thing to worry about then."

"Aye it is."

"Who will you send for to take away the body?" Laena asked and her brother sighed. "I will not send for Pycelle because the news of the manner of the king's death would all over the capital by nightfall and we cannot have that."

"Very well then," Laena said and quickly banished the water with a wave of her hand. Once the floor was clear, she strode back onto the balcony and levitated Aerys over to his bed before covering him with a blanket and using a glamour to cover the words on the balcony.

Rhaegar let out a sigh of relief a moment later. "Thank you Laena. It will be easier to come up with a story now."

His sister nodded. "You will need to explain to the court and soon that father is dead and that your coronation will be as soon as possible."

"Coronation?" her twin asked and he looked slightly dazed as he said it, as if it was something he hadn't considered before.

"Yes," Laena said quietly. "You are the king now Rhaegar. Father's dead and now you will sit on the throne and wear the crown."

"Gods this is all happening so fast," her brother muttered. "I don't even know how father died."

"Does it matter?" Laena asked. "He was a monster yes, but I think something even more monstrous killed him. I…I don't think a human did this Rhaegar. I think….I think this was something more…sinister than that. More magical even."

"I feared as much," Rhaegar replied. "This just exacerbates my worries that something sinister is stirring beyond the realm. North…in that land of ice and snow."

"I know," Laena replied. "But for the moment, we need to deal with the present, namely the realm we do know and the people living in this keep. We need to tell them and put things in order. The king is dead."

"Aye the king is dead," her twin whispered.

Laena took a deep breath and looked up at her brother who still looked unnaturally pale. "Then long live King Rhaegar Targaryen, First of his Name. King of the Andals, the Rhoynar and the First Men, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms and Protector of the Realm."

Ω

And so the plot thickens. Also I have some exciting news to share. I have begun construction on my first ever book which is an exhilarating but scary process when first starting out. In some ways it is much easier to write fanfiction as the world has already been constructed for you and your just have to create one original plot or character. This novel will be a fantasy and all thank to George Martin will also be loosely based on a historical event. I like to think that while Martin used the historical Wars of the Roses for the basic idea of A Song of Ice and Fire, I will be using another historical event as a rough base for mine. And said historical event will be the Crusades. I always found that event to be one of the most fascinating of ancient medieval history and I am so excited to create my own world and my own characters. World building and origins are almost complete and I have already come up with a few characters as well as a rough plot and story line. Hopefully the first chapter will be finished soon and I will post it to my account on Wattpad. I will be putting notifications of this in all my other stories as well. I would love your guys support on this as we go on this journey together. Anyway, that's all for now, I'll post more details about my book as they come. The title of it unless anything changes and I come up with another idea will be The Crucible. More on this later though. I hope you guys like this chapter and don't forget to review. Happy reading everyone!