Hey everyone. Wow that was long I spent every single day working on this chapter since I last updated. So I hope you enjoy it. I do not own RWBY or Game of Thrones those belong to their respective owners. I just own my OCs and FIRE and BLOOD belong to George RR Martin Enjoy.
FIRE and BLOOD in Remnant
Targaryen History Part 3
The moon shined in the night sky over Remnant and at Mount Glenn all seemed peaceful except for it to be ruined by the large clusters of Grimm growling a howling in the night. Even though many were defeated by the huntsman and huntresses when they attacked Vale, it didn't take long for the ruined city to be crawling with Grimm again.
In the distance a small creature was flying around and couldn't be made out to the naked eye because it was dark. However, the creature flew up in front of the moon and its shape became easily recognized.
Drogon dived down at great speed and on his back Draegon held on to him but felt a little pain from the spikes on his Dragons back and started to think that even though Drogon hates saddles maybe he could make it right just enough so that he can hold on better and doesn't have to worry about his balls getting poked to death. Draegon shook his head deciding to worry about it later. He saw a large group of Grimm in the ruins but Drogon remained silent so they could sneak up on them. Some Grimm did notice them and before they could sound the alarm Draegon gave the command.
"Dracarys," Draegon said and Drogon unleashed a torrent of flames burning all Grimm in the area. Drogon made a few more passes as he burned to kill any stragglers that might have dodged his fires or tried to escape. When the slaughter was over an hour later Draegon motioned for Drogon to return to Beacon. Even though he felt good for getting rid of the Grimm he felt more frustrated because more will eventually come and they're getting closer and closer to the city.
Once Drogon landed at his nest Draegon slid off of him and gave his brother a soothing pat on the snout before he headed to Beacon's cafeteria for an early breakfast. Once he was inside, he saw a light in the kitchens on and saw that it was Ren starting to make Pancakes. Draegon knocked on the door getting Ren's attention.
"Oh, Draegon good morning." He waved.
"Morning, you're up early," Draegon stated and Ren nodded.
"Yes, I thought it would be nice to make breakfast for both of our teams since their going to be in the singles tonight." He replied and Draegon nodded.
"You want some help, I was coming to make some eggs for myself but I could make it for everyone," Draegon offered and Ren nodded happy to have his help. Draegon took off his jacket and went over to the stove to make some delicious scrambled eggs and bacon while Ren went back to making Pancakes.
The sun was rising nicely especially in the morning. Beacon Academy was teaming with people from the other academies for the Vytal Festival but a lot of them decided to sleep in today. However, our hero's teams RWBY and JNPR were up bright and early all sitting at a table except for two. Those two happen to be Draegon who was walking out of Beacons kitchen followed by Ren each carrying big plates of breakfast they woke them up telling them of the nice meal prepared for them all. Draegon was carrying scrambled eggs, bacon, fruits and toast while Ren carried Pancakes and some small stacks of waffles he was experimenting on. Once all the food was laid on the table everyone started digging in but Draegon spoke up before Nora could eat all the food.
"To Yang and Pyrrha who are moving on into the finals," he said and raised a glass of milk and everyone raised their own beverage agreeing but he saw Pyrrha looked a little upset about something when everyone else began eating she was barely touching her food.
"Are you okay Pyrrha?" Draegon asked and everyone looked at her also curious. Pyrrha shook her head and smiled.
"Yes, I'm sorry I just had some trouble sleeping is all," she answered and began eating slowly but Draegon felt she was lying.
Nora who kept eating noticed a plate of eggs and pancakes next to Draegon but wasn't his own. "Hey…mngh…whose…plate is that?" Nora asked as she reached for the plate to get the pancakes when Ren smacked her hand with his spoon.
"That plate is for another guest that Draegon invited today," Ren said which got everyone's attention.
"Who did you invite?" Jaune asked, and as he said it the doors open and the person in question walked in. Alysanne walked into the cafeteria and looked around before she saw Draegon and the others and smiled.
"Sorry I'm late, Ironwood had me working a bit late so I woke up slowly." She said sheepishly and Draegon smiled and gestured for her to sit which she complied.
"Everyone some of you may know her but I'll introduce her again. This is Alysanne of House Velaryon, descendant of Valyria the same as me." Draegon introduced and most were surprise except for Ruby and Weiss who already met her.
"Wow I never thought we'd meet someone else from Westeros, especially another Valyrian like Draegon," Blake said slightly surprised as Alysanne took a bite out of her food in a normal manner.
"Yes, it was a happy moment for me to know that I wasn't alone here in Remnant. Meeting Draegon made me feel like a great burden was taken off my chest." Alysanne said happily and placed her hand on her chest which moved slightly and that made Weiss, Blake, Yang, Jaune, Ren, and Nora noticed was on the larger size than all the present girls even Yang felt like she was beaten and this was Alysanne with her clothes on. Some became curious of how big she was without the clothes on. Pyrrha was still in a glum mood and Ruby was ignorant as ever. Draegon saw everyone with weird looks before he narrowed his eyes.
"Ok I don't know what your all thinking but cut it out it's creepy looking at Alysanne like that." Draegon accused and raised an eyebrow while everyone looked away sheepishly. Alysanne was a bit confused but then realized what he meant and blushed a little bit of him defending her since no one at Atlas would usually do it. They would all just act like perverts.
"So Alysanne are you a full fledge licensed Huntress? What type of weapon do you use?" Ruby asked out of curiosity and breaking the silence still not getting what Draegon meant but had a slight suspicion.
"In a way, since I'm 20 this is my last year but because I'm doing so well, General Ironwood decided to graduate me early so that I can help him out more in the field." Alysanne replied. She then stood up and pulled out an item behind her and unfurled in to a sentinel spear. Alysanne shows off by twirling it at high
"Wow," team RWBY plus Jaune all said impressed at the speed. Draegon whistled a little because he too was impressed.
"It's a shame your predecessor couldn't wield a spear like you do but she had many other great qualities," Draegon complimented and Alysanne smiled at that.
"Well from the one story I heard about her husband/brother you share some similarities with him as well and I'm surprised you're not named after him." Alysanne replied.
"Oh, my mom thought about it but wanted something original." Draegon replied. Everyone else though seemed a little confused even Pyrrha.
"Hello! Care to fill us in on what you love birds are talking about." Yang said with a slight grin but added some annoyed sarcasm and Draegon smacked his head and Alysanne giggle a little. Ruby and Weiss looked surprised at Yang's statement all of a sudden and Blake smiled a little because it did sound funny.
"I was talking about my ancestors King Jaehaerys Targaryen the wise and the good Queen Alysanne Targaryen, youngest son and daughter of King Aenys Targaryen. You probably forgot about them due to what King Maegor was doing." Draegon explained and everyone nodded wishing they could forget about that monster.
"Anyway, that was going to be another present for today for our teams, I was wondering if you all would like to continue reading about my family's history," Draegon offered and everyone nodded excitedly. "Well then I will go get my book and call Professor Ozpin to see if he would like to continue to listen while you all finish your breakfast. Alysanne, would you care to join us so you can learn not only the full story of my ancestors but yours as well," Draegon offered and Alysanne smiled and nodded happily. Draegon smiled and left to go get the book and Alysanne turned to look at Draegon teammates.
"Out of curiosity are any of you girls dating him?" She asks simply and all four team members of RWBY flinched a little.
"Well, he is nice and I do love how he helps people," Ruby blushed a little not sure what to say.
"He understands common sense and logic of things," Weiss said torn a little between deciding on him or Neptune.
"He's honest and puts our needs ahead of his own and faces the consequences," Blake admired him for telling who he really was but didn't know if a relationship would work since Blake felt like they were so different and not just the human and Faunus factor.
"He has a really nice singing voice and cares deeply for his family," Yang said wishing her mom could be like that.
Alysanne looked at them all before she giggled a little before speaking, "So, the way you all said that means none of you have confessed to him yet. Which means he's still up for grabs," she said and both teams looked at her confused while RWBY frowned a little because they felt like they couldn't confess to him.
"Sorry to say this but as soon as I saw him it was love at first sight so no hard feelings but now, I want him," Alysanne said with a smirk and team RWBY all blushed and had alarms going off in their heads. Nora was laughing a little while Jaune and Ren looked a little jealous and Pyrrha smiled finally thinking Draegon was in trouble. Everyone ate quickly so they could go meet at the usual spot by the tree.
Draegon, Ozpin and the four Dragons were present when everyone else arrived and all sat down. Ozpin smiled deciding to take a break and the dragons were also all lying down but looking at Draegon eager to hear what happens next. Draegon opened the book and began to read.
"Jaehaerys I Targaryen ascended the Iron Throne in 48 AC at the age of fourteen and would rule the Seven Kingdoms for the next fifty-five years, until his death of natural causes in 103 AC. In the later years of his reign, and during the reign of his successor, he was called the Old King, for obvious reasons, but Jaehaerys was a young and vigorous man for far longer than he was an aged and feeble one, and more thoughtful scholars speak of him reverently as "the Conciliator." Archmaester Umbert, writing a century later, famously declared that Aegon the Dragon and his sisters conquered the Seven Kingdoms (six of them, at least), but it was Jaehaerys the Conciliator who truly made them one." "He holds the record of sitting on the Iron throne the longest," Draegon said and everyone nodded and began thinking this was going to be a long section of the story.
"His was no easy task, for his immediate predecessors had undone much of what the Conqueror had built, Aenys through weakness and indecision, Maegor with his bloodlust and cruelty. The realm that Jaehaerys inherited was impoverished, war-torn, lawless, and riven with division and mistrust, whilst the new king himself was a green boy with no experience of rule. Even his claim to the Iron Throne was not wholly beyond question. Although Jaehaerys was the only surviving son of King Aenys I, his older brother Aegon had claimed the kingship before him. Aegon the Uncrowned had died at the Battle Beneath the Gods Eye whilst trying to unseat his uncle Maegor, but not before taking to wife his sister Rhaena and siring two daughters, the twins Aerea and Rhaella. If Maegor the Cruel were accounted only a usurper with no right to rule, as certain maesters argued, then Prince Aegon had been the true king, and the succession by rights should pass to his elder daughter, Aerea, not his younger brother." "I get the feeling that people wouldn't like a girl to rule," Weiss said disappointed. Draegon shrugged his shoulders. "Different times back then but they made the right choice in choosing Jaehaerys." He defended.
"The sex of the twins weighed against them, however, as did their age; the girls were but six at Maegor's death. Furthermore, accounts left us by contemporaries suggest that Princess Aerea was a timid child when young, much given to tears and bed-wetting, whilst Rhaella, the bolder and more robust of the pair, was a novice serving at the Starry Sept and promised to the Faith. Neither seemed to have the makings of a queen; their own mother, Queen Rhaena, conceded as much when she agreed that the crown should go to her brother Jaehaerys rather than her daughters. Some suggested that Rhaena herself might have the strongest claim to the crown, as the firstborn child of King Aenys and Queen Alyssa. There were even some who whispered that it was Queen Rhaena who had somehow contrived to free the realm from Maegor the Cruel, though by what means she might have arranged his death after fleeing King's Landing on her dragon, Dreamfyre, has never been successfully established. Her sex told against her, however. "This is not Dorne," Lord Rogar Baratheon said when the notion was put to him, "and Rhaena is not Nymeria." Moreover, the twice-widowed queen had come to loathe King's Landing and the court, and wished only to return to Fair Isle, where she had found a measure of peace before her uncle had made her one of his Black Brides." "A leader isn't chosen through their gender or their inheritance, but through their deeds to prove themselves," Alysanne said wisely and Ozpin nodded agreeing with her as did the others.
"Prince Jaehaerys was still a year and a half shy of manhood when he first ascended the Iron Throne. Thus, it was determined that his mother, the Dowager Queen Alyssa, would act as regent for him, whilst Lord Rogar served as his Hand and the Protector of the Realm. Let it not be thought, however, that Jaehaerys was merely a figurehead. Right from the first, the boy king insisted upon having a voice in all decisions made in his name. Even as the mortal remains of Maegor I Targaryen were consigned to a funeral pyre; his young successor faced his first crucial decision: how to deal with his uncle's remaining supporters. By the time Maegor was found dead upon the Iron Throne, most of the great houses of the realm and many lesser lords had abandoned him…but most is not all. Many of those whose lands and castles were near King's Landing and the crownlands had stood with Maegor until the very hour of his death, amongst them the Lords Rosby and Towers, the last men to see the king alive. Others who had rallied to his banners included the Lords Stokeworth, Massey, Harte, Bywater, Darklyn, Rollingford, Mallery, Bar Emmon, Byrch, Staunton, and Buckwell." "I kind of like his determination," Blake smiled and Yang and Ruby nodded since right now he was younger than Ruby when he starts out as king.
"In the chaos that had followed the discovery of Maegor's body, Lord Rosby drank a cup of hemlock to join his king in death. Buckwell and Rollingford took ship for Pentos, whilst most of the others fled to their own castles and strongholds. Only Darklyn and Staunton had the courage to remain with Lord Towers to yield up the Red Keep when Prince Jaehaerys and his sisters, Rhaena and Alysanne, descended upon the castle on their dragons. The court chronicles tell us that as the young prince slid from the back of Vermithor, these "three leal lords" bent their knees before him to lay their swords at his feet, hailing him as king. "You come late to the feast," Prince Jaehaerys reportedly told them, though in a mild tone, "and these same blades helped slay my brother Aegon beneath the Gods Eye." At his command, the three were immediately put in chains, though some of the prince's party called for them to be executed on the spot. In the black cells they were soon joined by the King's Justice, the Lord Confessor, the Chief Gaoler, the Commander of the City Watch, and the four knights of the Kingsguard who had remained beside King Maegor. A fortnight later, Lord Rogar Baratheon and Queen Alyssa arrived at King's Landing with their host, and hundreds more were seized and imprisoned. Be they knights, squires, stewards, septons, or serving men, the charge against them was the same; they were accused of having aided and abetted Maegor Targaryen in usurping the Iron Throne and in all the crimes, cruelties, and misrule that followed. Not even women were exempt; those ladies of noble birth who had attended the Black Brides were arrested as well, together with a score of lowborn trulls named as Maegor's whores." "Everyone seems to be thorough," Jaune said impressed. "That's a key to being a great leader you can't overlook anything or it could cost you in the future," Alysanne warned and Draegon raised an eyebrow at her wondering what she was referring to but kept reading.
"With the dungeons of the Red Keep full to bursting, the question arose as to what should be done with the prisoners. If Maegor were to be counted as usurper, then his entire reign was unlawful and those who had supported him were guilty of treason and must needs be put to death. Such was the course urged by Queen Alyssa. The Dowager Queen had lost two sons to Maegor's cruelty and was of no mind to grant the men who had carried out his edicts even the dignity of a trial. "When my boy Viserys was tortured and slain, these men stood by silently and spoke no word of protest," she said. "Why should we listen to them now?" Against her fury stood Lord Rogar Baratheon, Hand of the King and Protector of the Realm. Whilst his lordship agreed that Maegor's men were surely deserving of punishment, he pointed out that should their captives be executed, the usurper's remaining loyalists would be disinclined to bend the knee. Lord Rogar would have no choice but to march on their castles one by one and winkle each man out of his stronghold with steel and fire. "It can be done, but at what cost?" he asked. "It would be a bloody business, one that might harden hearts against us." Let Maegor's men stand trial and confess their treason, the Protector urged. Those found guilty of the worst crimes could be put to death; for the remainder, let them tender hostages to ensure their future loyalty, and surrender some of their lands and castles." "It's sad when family kills their own blood so justice should be answered," Pyrrha said agreeing with Alyssa and not Rogar.
"The wisdom of Lord Rogar's approach was plain to most of the young king's other supporters, yet his views might not have prevailed had not Jaehaerys himself taken a hand. Though only ten-and-four, the boy king proved from the first that he would not be content to sit by meekly whilst others ruled in his name. With his maester, his sister Alysanne, and a handful of young knights by his side, Jaehaerys climbed the Iron Throne and summoned his lords to attend him. "There will be no trials, no torture, and no executions," he announced to them. "The realm must see that I am not my uncle. I shall not begin my reign by bathing in blood. Some came to my banners early, some late. Let the rest come now." Jaehaerys as yet had neither been crowned nor anointed, and was still shy of his majority; his pronouncement therefore had no legal force, nor did he have the authority to overrule his council and regent. Yet such was the power of his words, and the determination he displayed as he sat looking down upon them all from the Iron Throne, that Lords Baratheon and Velaryon at once gave the prince their support, and the rest soon followed. Only his sister Rhaena dared say him nay. "They will cheer you as the crown is placed upon your head," she said, "as once they cheered our uncle, and before him our father." In the end, the question rested with the regent…and whilst Queen Alyssa desired vengeance for her own sake, she was loath to go against her son's wishes. "It would make him seem weak," she is reported to have said to Lord Rogar, "and he must never seem weak. That was his father's downfall." And thus, it was that most of Maegor's men were spared." "Justice should always be answered even by taking lives of other killers but there are some who are just following orders so that they don't taste Dragon fire or Valyrian steel," Ren stated and the others agreed but some were unsure since they haven't killed yet.
"In the days that followed, the dungeons of King's Landing were emptied. After being given food and drink and clean raiment, the captives were escorted to the throne room seven at a time. There, before the eyes of gods and men, they renounced their allegiance to Maegor and did homage to his nephew Jaehaerys from their knees, whereupon the young king bade each man rise, granted him pardon, and restored his lands and titles. It must not be thought that the accused escaped without punishment, however. Lords and knights alike were compelled to send a son to court to serve the king and stand as hostages; from those who had no sons, a daughter was required. The wealthiest of Maegor's lords surrendered certain lands as well, Towers, Darklyn, and Staunton amongst them. Others purchased their pardons with gold. The royal clemency did not extend to all. Maegor's headsman, gaolers, and confessors were all adjudged to be guilty of abetting Tyanna of the Tower in the torture and death of Prince Viserys, who had so briefly been Maegor's heir and hostage. Their heads were delivered to Queen Alyssa, together with the hands they had dared raise against the blood of the dragon. Her Grace pronounced herself "well pleased" with the tokens." "To be honest if I had a brother who was tortured to death, I would cut their hands off then let Drogon burn them to death." Draegon stated. "I would do the same if they did that to Ruby," Yang smiled and Ruby hugged her and muttered "I love you to."
"One other man also lost his head: Ser Maladon Moore, a Kingsguard knight, who was accused of having held Ceryse Hightower, Maegor's first queen, whilst his Sworn Brother, Ser Owen Bush, removed her tongue, during which Her Grace's struggles caused the blade to slip, bringing about her death. (Ser Maladon, it should be noted, insisted the whole tale was a fabrication, and said Queen Ceryse died of "shrewishness." He did, however, admit to delivering Tyanna of the Tower to King Maegor's hands and standing witness as he slew her, so he had a queen's blood on his hands regardless.) Five of Maegor's Seven yet survived. Two of those, Ser Olyver Bracken and Ser Raymund Mallery, had played a part in the late king's fall by turning their cloaks and going over to Jaehaerys, but the boy king observed rightly that in doing so they had broken their vows to defend the king's life with their own. "I will have no oathbreakers at my court," he proclaimed. All five Kingsguard were therefore sentenced to death…but at the urging of Princess Alysanne, it was agreed that they might be spared if they would exchange their white cloaks for black by joining the Night's Watch. Four of the five accepted this clemency and departed for the Wall; along with Ser Olyver and Ser Raymund, the turncloaks, went Ser Jon Tollett and Ser Symond Crayne. The fifth Kingsguard, Ser Harrold Langward, demanded a trial by battle. Jaehaerys granted his wish and offered to face Ser Harrold himself in single combat, but in this he was overruled by the Queen Regent. Instead, a young knight from the stormlands was sent forth as the Crown's champion. Ser Gyles Morrigen, the man chosen, was a nephew to Damon the Devout, the Grand Captain of the Warrior's Sons, who had led them in their Trial of Seven against Maegor. Eager to prove his house's loyalty to the new king, Ser Gyles made short work of the elderly Ser Harrold, and was named Lord Commander of Jaehaerys's Kingsguard soon after." "Wow," Jaune said still admiring the Kingsgaurd.
"Meanwhile, word of the prince's clemency spread throughout the realm. One by one, the remainder of King Maegor's adherents dismissed their hosts, left their castles, and made the journey to King's Landing to swear fealty. Some did so reluctantly, fearing that Jaehaerys might prove to be as weak and feckless a king as his father…but as Maegor had left no heirs of the body, there was no plausible rival around whom opposition might gather. Even the most fervent of Maegor's supporters were won over once they met Jaehaerys, for he was all a prince should be; fair-spoken, open-handed, and as chivalrous as he was courageous. Grand Maester Benifer (newly returned from his self-imposed exile in Pentos) wrote that he was "learned as a maester and pious as a septon," and whilst some of that may be discounted as flattery, there was truth to it as well. Even his mother, Queen Alyssa, is reported to have called Jaehaerys "the best of my three sons." It must not be thought that the reconciliation of the lords brought peace to Westeros overnight. King Maegor's efforts to exterminate the Poor Fellows and the Warrior's Sons had set many pious men and women against him, and against House Targaryen. Whilst he had collected the heads of hundreds of Stars and Swords, hundreds more remained at large, and tens of thousands of lesser lords, landed knights, and smallfolk sheltered them, fed them, and gave them aid and comfort wherever they could. Ragged Silas and Dennis the Lame commanded roving bands of Poor Fellows who came and went like wraiths, vanishing into the greenwood whenever threatened. North of the Golden Tooth, the Red Dog of the Hills, Ser Joffrey Doggett, moved between the westerlands and riverlands at will, with the support and connivance of Lady Lucinda, the pious wife of the Lord of Riverrun. Ser Joffrey, who had taken upon himself the mantle of the Grand Captain of the Warrior's Sons, had announced his intention to restore that once-proud order to its former glory, and was recruiting knights to its banners." "Rebuilding will take a long time but I have to admit, Jaehaerys is off to a good start," Weiss admitted starting to wish she had someone like that in her family besides Winter.
"Yet the greatest threat was in the south, where Septon Moon and his followers camped beneath the walls of Oldtown, defended by Lord Oakheart and Lord Rowan and their knights. A massive hulk of a man, Moon had been blessed with a thunderous voice and an imposing physical presence. Though his Poor Fellows had proclaimed him "the true High Septon," this septon (if indeed he was such) was no picture of piety. He boasted proudly that The Seven-Pointed Star was the only book he had ever read, and many questioned even that, for he had never been known to quote from that holy tome, and no man had ever seen him read nor write. Barefoot, bearded, and possessed of immense fervor, the "Poorest Fellow" could speak for hours, and often did…and what he spoke about was sin. "I am a sinner," were the words with which Septon Moon began every sermon, and so he was. A creature of immense appetites, a glutton and a drunkard renowned for his lechery, Moon lay each night with a different woman, impregnating so many of them that his acolytes began to say that his seed could make a barren woman fertile. Such was the ignorance and folly of his followers that this tale became widely believed; husbands began to offer him their wives and mothers their daughters. Septon Moon never refused such offers, and after a time some of the hedge knights and men-at-arms amongst his rabble began to paint images of the "Cock o' the Moon" on their shields, and a brisk trade grew up in clubs, pendants, and staffs carved to resemble Moon's member. A touch with the head of these talismans was believed to bestow prosperity and good fortune." Draegon paused and everyone including Ozpin looked a bit weirded out and disgusted. "Lets just keep reading," Draegon offered and they all nodded.
"Every day Septon Moon went forth to denounce the sins of House Targaryen and the Lickspittle who permitted their abominations, whilst inside Oldtown the true Father of the Faithful had become a virtual prisoner in his own palace, unable to set forth outside the confines of the Starry Sept. Though Lord Hightower had closed his gates against Septon Moon and his followers and refused to allow them entrance to his city, he showed no eagerness to take up arms against them, despite repeated entreaties from His High Holiness. When pressed for reasons, his lordship cited a distaste for shedding pious blood, but many claimed the real reason was his unwillingness to offer battle to Lords Oakheart and Rowan, who had granted Moon their protection. His reluctance earned him the name Lord Donnel the Delayer from the maesters of the Citadel. The long conflict between King Maegor and the Faith had made it imperative that Jaehaerys be anointed king by the High Septon, Lord Rogar and the Queen Regent agreed. Before that could happen, however, Septon Moon and his ragged horde must needs be dealt with, so the prince could travel safely to Oldtown. It had been hoped that the news of Maegor's death would be sufficient to persuade Moon's followers to disperse, and some had done just that…but no more than a few hundred in a host that numbered close to five thousand. "What can the death of one dragon matter when another rises up to take its place?" Septon Moon declared to his throng. "Westeros will not be clean again until all the Targaryens have been slain or driven back into the sea." Every day he preached anew, calling upon Lord Hightower to deliver Oldtown to him, calling upon the High Lickspittle to leave the Starry Sept and face the wroth of the Poor Fellows he had betrayed, calling upon the smallfolk of the realm to rise up. (And every night he sinned anew.)" "People still only respected your ancestor Aegon, huh. Aenys, Maegor, and even Aegon the uncrowned turned into disappointments to all of the people," Ruby stated and Draegon nodded.
"Across the realm in King's Landing, Jaehaerys and his counselors considered how to rid the realm of this scourge. The boy king and his sisters, Rhaena and Alysanne, all had dragons, and some felt the best way to deal with Septon Moon was the way Aegon the Conqueror and his sisters had dealt with the Two Kings on the Field of Fire. Jaehaerys had no taste for such slaughter, however, and his mother, Queen Alyssa, flatly forbade it, reminding them of the fate of Rhaenys Targaryen and her dragon in Dorne. Lord Rogar, the King's Hand, said, with some reluctance, that he would lead his own host across the Reach and disperse Moon's men by force of arms…though it would mean pitting his stormlanders, and whatever other forces he might gather, against Lords Rowan and Oakheart and their knights and men-at-arms, as well as the Poor Fellows. "Like as not, we will win," the Protector said, "but not without cost." Mayhaps the gods were listening, for even as the king and council argued in King's Landing the problem was resolved in a most unexpected way. Dusk was falling outside of Oldtown when Septon Moon retired to his tent for his evening meal, exhausted by a day of preaching. As always, he was guarded by his Poor Fellows, huge strapping axemen with unshorn beards, but when a comely young woman presented herself at the septon's tent with a flagon of wine that she wished to give to His Holiness in return for his help, they admitted her at once. They knew what sort of help the woman required; the sort that would put a babe inside her belly." "Wow, you know I feel like your guy's home continent is only about Violence and Sex," Nora spoke out flatly. "Can't argue with you there," Alysanne said and shrugged her shoulders.
"A short time passed, during which the men outside the tent heard only occasional gusts of laughter from Septon Moon, inside. But then, suddenly, there was a groan, and a woman's shriek, followed by a bellow of rage. The tent flap was thrown open and the woman burst out, half-naked and barefoot, and dashed away wide-eyed and terrified before any of the Poor Fellows could think to stop her. Septon Moon himself followed a moment later, naked, roaring, and drenched in blood. He was holding his neck, and blood was leaking between his fingers and dripping down into his beard from where his throat had been slit open. It is said that Moon staggered through half the camp, lurching from campfire to campfire in pursuit of the doxy who had cut him. Finally, even his great strength failed him; he collapsed and died as his acolytes pressed around him, wailing their grief. Of his slayer there was no sign; she had vanished into the night, never to be seen again. Angry Poor Fellows tore the camp apart for a day and a night in search of her, knocking over tents, seizing dozens of women, and beating any man who tried to stand in their way…but the hunt came up empty. Septon Moon's own guards could not even agree on what his killer had looked like. The guards did recall that the woman had brought a flagon of wine with her as a gift for the septon. Half the wine still remained in the flagon when the tent was searched, and four of the Poor Fellows shared it as the sun was coming up, after carrying the corpse of their prophet back to his own bed. All four were dead before noon. The wine had been laced with poison." "That was a tough break but he got what he deserved, I already didn't like him," Pyrrha commented and the others nodded.
"In the aftermath of Moon's death, the ragged host that he had led to Oldtown began to disintegrate. Some of his followers had already slipped away when word of King Maegor's death and Prince Jaehaerys's ascension reached them. Now that trickle became a flood. Before the septon's corpse had even begun to stink, a dozen rivals had come forward to claim his mantle, and fights began to break out amongst their respective followers. It might have been thought that Moon's men would turn to the two lords amongst them for leadership, but nothing could be further from the truth. The Poor Fellows especially were no respectors of nobility…and the reluctance of Lords Rowan and Oakheart to commit their knights and men-at-arms to an assault on the walls of Oldtown had made them suspicious of the two lords. The possession of Moon's mortal remains became itself a bone of contention between two of his would-be successors, the Poor Fellow known as Rob the Starvling and a certain Lorcas, called Lorcas the Learned, who boasted of having committed all of The Seven-Pointed Star to memory. Lorcas claimed to have had a vision that Moon would yet deliver Oldtown into the hands of his followers, even after death. After seizing the septon's body from Rob the Starvling, this "learned" fool strapped it atop a destrier, naked, bloody, and rotting, to storm the gates of Oldtown." "Blame is placed on those who are leaders even when they have done nothing wrong." Ozpin said sagely.
"Fewer than a hundred men joined in the attack, however, and most of them died beneath a rain of arrows, spears, and stones before they got within a hundred yards of the city walls. Those who did reach the walls were drenched in boiling oil or set afire with burning pitch, Lorcas the Learned himself amongst them. When all his men were dead or dying, a dozen of Lord Hightower's boldest knights rode forth from a sally port, seized Septon Moon's body, and removed his head. Tanned and stuffed, it would later be presented to the High Septon in the Starry Sept as a gift. The abortive attack proved to be the last gasp of Septon Moon's crusade. Lord Rowan decamped within the hour, with all his knights and men-at-arms. Lord Oakheart followed the next day. The remainder of the host, hedge knights and Poor Fellows and camp followers and tradesmen, streamed away in all directions (looting and pillaging every farm, village, and holdfast in their path as they went). Fewer than four hundred remained of the five thousand that Septon Moon had brought to Oldtown when Lord Donnel the Delayer at last bestirred himself and rode forth in force to slaughter the stragglers." "Fighting is always gruesome as well isn't it," Blake asked and Draegon nodded.
"Moon's murder removed the last major obstacle to the accession of Jaehaerys Targaryen to the Iron Throne, but from that day to this, debate has raged as to who was responsible for his death. No one truly believed that the woman who attempted to poison the "sinful septon" and ended by cutting his throat was acting on her own. Plainly she was but a catspaw…but whose? Did the boy king himself send her forth, or was she mayhaps an agent of his Hand, Rogar Baratheon, or his mother, the Queen Regent? Some came to believe that the woman was one of the Faceless Men, the infamous guild of sorcerer-assassins from Braavos. In support of this claim, they cited her sudden disappearance, the way she seemed to "melt into the night" after the murder, and the fact that Septon Moon's guards could not agree on what she looked like. Wiser men and those more familiar with the ways of the Faceless Men give this theory little credence. The very clumsiness of Moon's murder speaks against it being their work, for the Faceless Men take great care to make their killings appear as natural deaths. It is a point of pride with them, the very cornerstone of their art. Slitting a man's throat and leaving him to stagger forth into the night screaming of murder is beneath them. Most scholars today believe that the killer was no more than a camp follower, acting at the behest of either Lord Rowan or Lord Oakheart, or mayhaps the both of them. Though neither dared desert Moon whilst he lived, the alacrity with which the two lords abandoned his cause after his death suggests that their grievance had been with Maegor, not with House Targaryen…and, indeed, both men would soon return to Oldtown, penitent and obedient, to bend the knee before Prince Jaehaerys at his coronation." "At least something good came out of it even though it was small," Blake said.
"With the way to Oldtown clear and safe once more, that coronation took place in the Starry Sept in the waning days of the 48th year After the Conquest. The High Septon—the High Lickspittle that Septon Moon had hoped to displace—anointed the young king himself, and placed his father Aenys's crown upon his head. Seven days of feasting followed, during which hundreds of lords great and small came to bend their knees and swear their swords to Jaehaerys. Amongst those in attendance were his sisters, Rhaena and Alysanne; his young nieces, Aerea and Rhaella; his mother, the Queen Regent Alyssa; the King's Hand, Rogar Baratheon; Ser Gyles Morrigen, the Lord Commander of the Kingsguard; Grand Maester Benifer; the assembled archmaesters of the Citadel…and one man no one could have expected to see: Ser Joffrey Doggett, the Red Dog of the Hills, self-proclaimed Grand Captain of the outlawed Warrior's Sons. Doggett had arrived in the company of Lord and Lady Tully of Riverrun…not in chains, as most might have expected, but with a safe conduct bearing the king's own seal. Grand Maester Benifer wrote afterward that the meeting between the boy king and the outlaw knight "set the table" for all of Jaehaerys's reign to follow. When Ser Joffrey and Lady Lucinda urged him to undo his uncle Maegor's decrees and reinstate the Swords and Stars, Jaehaerys refused firmly. "The Faith has no need of swords," he declared. "They have my protection. The protection of the Iron Throne." He did, however, rescind the bounties that Maegor had promised for the heads of Warrior's Sons and Poor Fellows. "I shall not wage war against my own people," he said, "but neither shall I tolerate treason and rebellion." "I'm admiring your ancestor Jaehaerys more and more," Weiss stated liking how smart he was and being younger than Ruby.
"I rose against your uncle just as you did," replied the Red Dog of the Hills, defiant. "You did," Jaehaerys allowed, "and you fought bravely, no man can deny. The Warrior's Sons are no more and your vows to them are at an end, but your service need not be. I have a place for you." And with these words, the young king shocked the court by offering Ser Joffrey a place by his side as a knight of the Kingsguard. A hush fell then, Grand Maester Benifer tells us, and when the Red Dog drew his longsword there were some who feared he might be about to attack the king with it…but instead the knight went to one knee, bowed his head, and laid his blade at Jaehaerys's feet. It is said that there were tears upon his cheeks." "Wow that was an inspiration of loyalty," Ruby said.
"Nine days after the coronation, the young king departed Oldtown for King's Landing. Most of his court traveled with him in what became a grand pageant across the Reach…but his sister Rhaena stayed with them only as far as Highgarden, where she mounted her dragon, Dreamfyre, to return to Fair Isle and Lord Farman's castle above the sea, taking her leave not only of the king, but of her daughters. Rhaella, a novice sworn to the Faith, had remained at the Starry Sept, whilst her twin, Aerea, continued on with the king to the Red Keep, where she was to serve as a cupbearer and companion to the Princess Alysanne. Yet a curious thing befell Queen Rhaena's girls after the king's coronation, it was observed. The twins had ever been mirror images of each other in appearance, but not in temperament. Whereas Rhaella was said to be a bold and willful child and a terror to the septas who had been given charge of her, Aerea had been known as a shy, timid creature, much given to tears and fears. "She is frightened of horses, dogs, boys with loud voices, men with beards, and dancing, and she is terrified of dragons," Grand Maester Benifer wrote when Aerea first came to court." "Why do I get the feeling their going to do a switcheroo," Yang said and Draegon shrugged his shoulders before smirking and continuing.
"That was before Maegor's fall and Jaehaerys's coronation, however. Afterward, the girl who remained at Oldtown devoted herself to prayer and study, and never again required chastisement, whereas the girl who returned to King's Landing proved to be lively, quick-witted, and adventurous, and was soon spending half her days in the kennels, the stables, and the dragon yards. Though nothing was ever proved, it was widely believed that someone—Queen Rhaena herself, mayhaps, or her mother, Queen Alyssa—had used the occasion of the king's coronation to switch the twins. If so, no one was inclined to question the deception, for until such time as Jaehaerys sired an heir of the body, Princess Aerea (or the girl who now bore that name) was the heir to the Iron Throne." "Called it, it because they don't want another Aenys am I right," Yang said. "Yep, you probably are," Alysanne agreed.
"All reports agree that the king's return from Oldtown to King's Landing was a triumph. Ser Joffrey rode by his side, and all along the route they were hailed by cheering throngs. Here and there Poor Fellows appeared, gaunt unwashed fellows with long beards and great axes, to beg for the same clemency that had been granted the Red Dog. This Jaehaerys granted them, on the condition that they agreed to journey north and join the Night's Watch at the Wall. Hundreds swore to do so, amongst them no less a personage than Rob the Starvling. "Within a moon's turn of being crowned," Grand Maester Benifer wrote, "King Jaehaerys had reconciled the Iron Throne to the Faith and put an end to the bloodshed that had troubled the reigns of his uncle and father." The 49th year after Aegon's Conquest gave the people of Westeros a welcome respite from the chaos and conflict that had gone before. It would be a year of peace, plenty, and marriage, remembered in the annals of the Seven Kingdoms as the Year of the Three Brides." "Oh, whose getting married this time," Nora asks excitedly.
"The new year was but a fortnight old when news of the first of the three weddings came out of the west, from Fair Isle by the Sunset Sea. There, in a small swift ceremony under the sky, Rhaena Targaryen wed Androw Farman, the second son of the Lord of Fair Isle. It was the groom's first marriage, the bride's third. Though twice widowed, Rhaena was but twenty-six. Her new husband, just ten-and-seven, was notably younger, a comely and amiable youth said to be utterly besotted with his new wife. Their wedding was presided over by the groom's father, Marq Farman, Lord of Fair Isle, and conducted by his own septon. Lyman Lannister, Lord of Casterly Rock, and his wife, Jocasta, were the only great lords in attendance. Two of Rhaena's former favorites, Samantha Stokeworth and Alayne Royce, made their way to Fair Isle in some haste to stand with the widowed queen, together with the groom's high-spirited sister, the Lady Elissa. The remainder of the guests were bannermen and household knights sworn to either House Farman or House Lannister. King and court remained entirely ignorant of the marriage until a raven from the Rock brought word, days after the wedding feast and the bedding that sealed the match." "Sigh, despite it being a little weird Rhaena would have been better off with Aegon," Draegon said sadly. "So, this guy is going to be a dirt bag isn't he," Yang stated and Draegon kept reading.
"Chroniclers in King's Landing report that Queen Alyssa was deeply offended by her exclusion from her daughter's wedding, and that relations between mother and child were never as warm afterward, whereas Lord Rogar Baratheon was furious that Rhaena had dared remarry without the Crown's leave…the Crown in this instance being himself, as the young king's Hand. Had leave been asked, however, there was no certainty it would have been granted, for Androw Farman, the second son of a minor lord, was thought by many to be far from worthy of the hand of a woman who had been twice a queen and remained the mother of the king's heir. (As it happened, the youngest of Lord Rogar's brothers remained unwed as of 49 AC, and his lordship had two nephews by another brother who were also of a suitable age and lineage to be considered potential mates for a Targaryen widow, facts which might well explain both the Hand's anger and the secrecy with which Queen Rhaena wed.) King Jaehaerys himself and his sister Alysanne rejoiced at the tidings, dispatching gifts and congratulations to Fair Isle and commanding that the Red Keep's bells be rung in celebration." "With all that she's suffered they should just be happy for her, at least her sibling supports her despite being on the young side," Weiss stated and everyone nodded their heads.
"Whilst Rhaena Targaryen was celebrating her marriage on Fair Isle, back in King's Landing King Jaehaerys and his mother, the Queen Regent, were busy selecting the councillors who would help them rule the realm for the next two years. Conciliation remained their guiding principle, for the divisions that had so recently torn Westeros apart were far from healed. Rewarding his own loyalists and excluding Maegor's men and the Faithful from power would only exacerbate the wounds and give rise to new grievances, the young king reasoned. His mother agreed. Accordingly, Jaehaerys reached out to the Lord of Claw Isle, Edwell Celtigar, who had been Hand of the King under Maegor, and recalled him to King's Landing to serve as lord treasurer and master of coin. For lord admiral and master of ships, the young king turned to his uncle Daemon Velaryon, Lord of the Tides, Queen Alyssa's brother and one of the first great lords to abandon Maegor the Cruel. Prentys Tully, Lord of Riverrun, was summoned to court to serve as master of laws; with him came his redoubtable wife, the Lady Lucinda, far famed for her piety. Command of the City Watch, the largest armed force in King's Landing, the king entrusted to Qarl Corbray, Lord of Heart's Home, who had fought beside Aegon the Uncrowned beneath the Gods Eye. Above them all stood Rogar Baratheon, Lord of Storm's End and Hand of the King." "Interesting Ms. Alysanne I am impressed how loyal your family the Velaryon's are to Draegons Targaryen family for the past three hundred years as is the Celtigars," Ozpin praised. "Thank you, Headmaster, but interesting fact to everyone is that I am half Celtigar on my mother's side but my uncle said I acted and mostly looked like a pure Velaryon. My skin is a mix of both Valyrian houses." Alysanne confessed and everyone was impressed at that she was pure Valyrian.
"It would be a mistake to underestimate the influence of Jaehaerys Targaryen himself during the years of his regency, for despite his youth the boy king had a seat at most every council (but not all, as will be told shortly) and was never shy about letting his voice be heard. In the end, however, the final authority throughout this period rested with his mother, the Queen Regent, and the Hand, a redoubtable man in his own right. Blue-eyed and black-bearded and muscled like a bull, Lord Rogar was the eldest of five brothers, all grandsons of Orys One-Hand, the first Baratheon Lord of Storm's End. Orys had been a bastard brother to Aegon the Conqueror and his most trusted commander. After slaying Argilac the Arrogant, last of the Durrandon, he had taken Argilac's daughter to wife. Lord Rogar could thus claim that both the blood of the dragon and that of the storm kings of old flowed in his veins. No swordsman, his lordship preferred to wield a double-bladed axe in battle…an axe, he oft said, "large and heavy enough to cleave through a dragon's skull." Those were dangerous words during the reign of Maegor the Cruel, but if Rogar Baratheon feared Maegor's wroth, he hid it well. Men who knew him were unsurprised when he gave shelter to Queen Alyssa and her children after their flight from King's Landing, and when he was the first to proclaim Prince Jaehaerys king. His own brother Borys was heard to say that Rogar dreamed of facing King Maegor in single combat and cutting him down with his axe." "Wow now that guy has pair on him especially claiming he can face a member of your family who was the greatest swordsman of his time," Yang praised. Draegon nodded.
"That dream fate denied him. Instead of a kingslayer, Lord Rogar became a kingmaker, delivering to Prince Jaehaerys the Iron Throne. Few questioned his right to take his place at the side of the young king as Hand; some went so far as to whisper that it would be Rogar Baratheon who ruled the realm henceforth, for Jaehaerys was a boy and the son of a weak father, whilst his mother was only a woman. And when it was announced that Lord Rogar and Queen Alyssa were to marry, the whispers grew louder…for what is a queen's lord husband, if not a king? Lord Rogar had been married once before, but his wife had died young, taken off by a fever less than a year after their wedding. The Queen Regent Alyssa was forty-two years old, and thought to be past her child-bearing years; the Lord of Storm's End, ten years her junior. Writing some years later, Septon Barth tells us that Jaehaerys was opposed to the marriage; the young king felt that his Hand was overreaching himself, motivated more by a desire for power and position than a true affection for his mother. He was angry that neither his mother nor her suitor had sought his leave as well, Barth said…but as he had raised no objections to his sister's marriage, the king did not believe he had the right to prevent his mother's. Jaehaerys thus held his tongue and gave no hint of his misgivings save to a few close confidants." "It's not easy to replace someone's father especially if you barely or never knew them," Alysanne said from experience and Draegon nodded agreeing with her.
"The Hand was admired for his courage, respected for his strength, feared for his military prowess and skill at arms. The Queen Regent was loved. So beautiful, so brave, so tragic, women said of her. Even such lords as might have balked at a woman ruling over them were willing to accept her as their liege, secure in the knowledge that she had Rogar Baratheon standing beside her, and the young king less than a year away from his sixteenth name day. She had been a beautiful child, all men agreed, the daughter of the mighty Aethan Velaryon, Lord of the Tides, and his lady wife Alarra of House Massey. Her line was ancient, proud, and rich, her mother esteemed as a great beauty, her grandsire amongst the oldest and closest friends of Aegon the Dragon and his queens. The gods blessed Alyssa herself with the deep purple eyes and shining silvery hair of Old Valyria, and gave her charm and wit and kindness as well, and as she grew suitors flocked around her from every corner of the realm. There was never any true question of whom she would wed, however. For a girl such as her, only royalty would suffice, and in the year 22 AC she married Prince Aenys Targaryen, the unquestioned heir to the Iron Throne." "Did your parents think about naming you Alyssa, because you have to admit despite all the suffering she endured, she pushed on," Pyrrha asked and Alysanne nodded. "Yes, even though she was the first Velaryon queen my parents preferred a Targaryen name," Alysanne said and smiled.
"Theirs was a happy and fruitful marriage. Prince Aenys was a gentle and attentive husband, warm-natured, generous, and never unfaithful. Alyssa bore him five strong, healthy children, two daughters and three sons (a sixth child, another daughter, died in her cradle shortly after birth), and when his sire died in 37 AC, the crown passed to Aenys, and Alyssa became his queen. In the years that followed, she saw her husband's reign crumble and turn to ash, as enemies rose up all around him. In 42 AC he died, a broken man and despised, only five-and-thirty years of age. The queen scarce had time to grieve for him before his brother seized the throne that rightly belonged to her eldest son. She saw her son rise up against his uncle and die, together with his dragon. A short while later, her second son followed him to the funeral pyre, tortured to death by Tyanna of the Tower. Together with her two youngest children, Alyssa was made a prisoner in all but name of the man who had brought about the death of her sons, and was made to bear witness when her eldest daughter was forced into marriage to that same monster. The game of thrones takes many a queer turn, however, and Maegor himself had fallen in turn, in no small part thanks to the courage of the widowed Queen Alyssa, and the boldness of Lord Rogar, who had befriended her and taken her in when no one else would. The gods had been good to them and granted them victory, and now the woman who had been Alyssa of House Velaryon was to be given a second chance at happiness with a new husband." "All of this for a throne which represents a great symbol of power," Ren said. "Yep! However, I'll say what I said before, to my knowledge the Iron Throne is no more. It has been destroyed." Draegon said and the others nodded in relief because they don't want to know what would happen to Draegon if he might get corrupted by that chair.
"The wedding of the King's Hand and the Queen Regent was to be as splendid as that of the widowed Queen Rhaena had been modest. The High Septon himself would perform the marriage rites, on the seventh day of the seventh moon of the new year. The site would be the half-completed Dragonpit, still open to the sky, whose rising tiers of stone benches would allow for tens of thousands to observe the nuptials. The celebrations would include a great tourney, seven days of feasts and frolics, and even a mock sea battle to be fought in the waters of Blackwater Bay. No wedding half so magnificent had been celebrated in Westeros in living memory, and lords great and small from throughout the Seven Kingdoms and beyond gathered to be part of it. Donnel Hightower came up from Oldtown with a hundred knights and seventy-seven of the Most Devout, escorting His High Holiness the High Septon, whilst Lyman Lannister brought three hundred knights from Casterly Rock. Brandon Stark, the ailing Lord of Winterfell, made the long journey down from the North with his sons Walton and Alaric, attended by a dozen fierce northern bannermen and thirty Sworn Brothers of the Night's Watch. Lords Arryn, Corbray, and Royce represented the Vale, Lords Selmy, Dondarrion, and Tarly the Dornish Marches. Even from beyond the borders of the realm the great and mighty came; the Prince of Dorne sent his sister, the Sealord of Braavos a son. The Archon of Tyrosh crossed the narrow sea himself with his maiden daughter, as did no fewer than twenty-two magisters from the Free City of Pentos. All brought handsome gifts to bestow on the Hand and Queen Regent; the most lavish came from those who had only lately been Maegor's men, and from Rickard Rowan and Torgen Oakheart, who had marched with Septon Moon." "I hope their marriage ends up ok," Jaune hoped.
"The wedding guests came ostensibly to celebrate the union of Rogar Baratheon and the Dowager Queen, but they had other reasons for attendance, it should not be doubted. Many wished to treat with the Hand, who was seen by many as the true power in the realm; others wished to take the measure of their new boy king. Nor did His Grace deny them that opportunity. Ser Gyles Morrigen, the king's champion and sworn shield, announced that Jaehaerys would be pleased to grant audience to any lord or landed knight who wished to meet with him, and sixscore accepted his invitation. Eschewing the great hall and the majesty of the Iron Throne, the young king entertained the lords in the intimacy of his solar, attended only by Ser Gyles, a maester, and a few servants. There, it is said, he encouraged each man to speak freely and share his views on the problems of the realm and how they might best be overcome. "He is not his father's son," Lord Royce told his maester afterward; grudging praise mayhaps, but praise all the same. Lord Vance of Wayfarer's Rest was heard to say, "He listens well, but says little." Rickard Rowan found Jaehaerys gentle and soft-spoken, Kyle Connington thought him witty and good-humored, Morton Caron cautious and shrewd. "He laughs often and freely, even at himself," Jon Mertyns said approvingly, but Alec Hunter thought him stern, and Torgen Oakheart grim. Lord Mallister pronounced him wise beyond his years, whilst Lord Darry said he promised to be "the sort of king any lord should be proud to kneel to." The most profound praise came from Brandon Stark, Lord of Winterfell, who said, "I see his grandsire in him." "I never thought I would agree with a Stark, but Jaehaerys is more like Aegon than Aenys and Maegor." Draegon said. "Do you not trust the Starks because of what I told you?" Alysanne asked. "No that's only part of it, when ever someone talks about a Stark, I feel like I'm unhappy and something else," Draegon said and Ozpin narrowed his eyes with suspicion.
"The King's Hand attended none of these audiences, but it should not be thought that Lord Rogar was an inattentive host. The hours his lordship spent with his guests were devoted to other pursuits, however. He hunted with them, hawked with them, gambled with them, feasted with them, and "drank the royal cellars dry." After the wedding, when the tourney began, Lord Rogar was present for every tilt and every melee, surrounded by a lively and oft drunken coterie of great lords and famous knights. The most notorious of his lordship's entertainments occurred two days before the ceremony, however. Though no record of it exists in any court chronicle, tales told by servants and repeated for many years thereafter amongst the smallfolk claim that Lord Rogar's brothers had brought seven virgins across the narrow sea from the finest pleasure houses of Lys. Queen Alyssa had surrendered her own maidenhood many years before to Aenys Targaryen, so there could be no question of Lord Rogar deflowering her on their wedding night. The Lysene maidens were meant to make up for that lack. If the whispers heard about court afterward were true, his lordship supposedly plucked the flowers of four of the girls before exhaustion and drink did him in; his brothers, nephews, and friends did for the other three, along with twoscore older beauties who had sailed with them from Lys." "Yang, Nora, don't say anything," Weiss accused and the two accused just looked at Weiss with annoyed expressions on what was she thinking they were going to say.
"Whilst the Hand roistered and King Jaehaerys sat in audience with the lords of the realm, his sister Princess Alysanne entertained the highborn women who had come with them to King's Landing. The king's elder sister, Rhaena, had chosen not to attend the nuptials, preferring to remain on Fair Isle with her own new husband and her court, and the Queen Regent Alyssa was busy with preparations for the wedding, so the task of playing hostess to the wives, daughters, and sisters of the great and mighty fell to Alysanne. Though she had only recently turned thirteen, the young princess rose to the challenge brilliantly, all agreed. For seven days and seven nights, she broke her fast with one group of highborn ladies, dined with a second, supped with a third. She showed them the wonders of the Red Keep, sailed with them on Blackwater Bay, and rode with them about the city. Alysanne Targaryen, the youngest child of King Aenys and Queen Alyssa, had been little known amongst the lords and ladies of the realm before then. Her childhood had been spent in the shadow of her brothers and her elder sister, Rhaena, and when she was spoken of at all it was as "the little maid" and "the other daughter." She was little, this was true; slim and slight of frame, Alysanne was oft described as pretty but seldom as beautiful, though she was born of a house renowned for beauty. Her eyes were blue rather than purple, her hair a mass of honey-colored curls. No man ever questioned her wits." "I'm liking her more and more I guess your folks picked a good name Alysanne," Ruby stated as she ate one of her cookies and Alysanne smiled and took a bite out of a cinnamon roll that was left over from breakfast.
"Later, it would be said of her that she learned to read before she was weaned, and the court fool would make japes about little Alysanne dribbling mother's milk on Valyrian scrolls as she tried to read whilst suckling at her wet nurse's teat. Had she been a boy she would surely have been sent to the Citadel to forge a maester's chain, Septon Barth would say of her…for that wise man esteemed her even more than her husband, whom he served for so long. That was far in the future, however; in 49 AC, Alysanne was but a girl of thirteen years, yet all the chronicles agree that she made a powerful impression on those who met her. When the day of the wedding finally arrived, more than forty thousand smallfolk ascended the Hill of Rhaenys to the Dragonpit to bear witness to the union of the Queen Regent and the Hand. (Some observers put the count even higher.) Thousands more cheered Lord Rogar and Queen Alyssa in the streets as their procession made its way across the city, attended by hundreds of knights on caparisoned palfreys, and columns of septas ringing bells. "Never has there been such a glory in all the annals of Westeros," wrote Grand Maester Benifer. Lord Rogar was clad head to heel in cloth-of-gold beneath an antlered halfhelm, whilst his bride wore a greatcloak sparkling with gemstones, with the three-headed dragon of House Targaryen and the silver seahorse of the Velaryons facing one another on a divided field." "Weddings are romantic," Blake said happily.
"Yet for all the splendor of the bride and groom, it was the arrival of Alyssa's children that set King's Landing to talking for years to come. King Jaehaerys and Princess Alysanne were the last to appear, descending from a bright sky on their dragons, Vermithor and Silverwing (the Dragonpit still lacked the great dome that would be its crowning glory, it must be recalled), their great leathern wings stirring up clouds of sand as they came down side by side, to the awe and terror of the gathered multitudes. (The oft-told tale that the arrival of the dragons caused the aged High Septon to soil his robes is likely only a calumny.) Of the ceremony itself, and the feast and bedding that followed in due course, we need say little. The Red Keep's cavernous throne room hosted the greatest of the lords and the most distinguished of the visitors from across the sea; lesser lords, together with their knights and men-at-arms, celebrated in the yards and smaller halls of the castle, whilst the smallfolk of King's Landing made merry in a hundred inns, wine sinks, pot shops, and brothels. Notwithstanding his purported exertions two nights prior, it is reliably reported that Lord Rogar performed his husbandly duties with vigor, cheered on by his drunken brothers." "Wow now that's a party," Nora explained before looking at Draegon. "If I marry Ren, will you make an entrance on Drogon?" Nora asked and Ren choked on a beverage while everyone else grinned. Draegon smirked, "Maybe," he said before continuing.
"Seven days of tourney followed the wedding, and kept the gathered lords and the people of the city enthralled. The tilts were as hard-fought and thrilling as had been seen in Westeros in many a year, all agreed…but it was the battles fought afoot with sword and spear and axe that truly excited the passions of the crowd on this occasion, and for good reason. It will be recalled that three of the seven knights who served as Maegor the Cruel's Kingsguard were dead; the remaining four had been sent to the Wall to take the black. In their places, King Jaehaerys had thus far named only Ser Gyles Morrigen and Ser Joffrey Doggett. It was the Queen Regent, Alyssa, who first put forward the idea that the remaining five vacancies be filled through test of arms, and what better occasion for it than the wedding, when knights from all over the realm would gather? "Maegor had old men, lickspittles, cravens, and brutes about him," she declared. "I want the knights protecting my son to be the finest to be found anywhere in Westeros, true honest men whose loyalty and courage is unquestioned. Let them win their cloaks with deeds of arms, whilst all the realm looks on." King Jaehaerys was quick to second his mother's notion, but with a practical twist of his own. Sagely, the young king decreed that his would-be protectors should prove their prowess afoot, not in the joust. "Men who would do harm to their king seldom attack on horseback with lance in hand," His Grace declared. And so it was that the tilts that followed his mother's wedding yielded pride of place to the wild melees and bloody duels the maesters would dub the War for the White Cloaks." "Still interested in getting bloody to join the Kingsgaurd Jaune?" Draegon asked with a raised eyebrow. "Maybe, Yes," he said determined and Pyrrha smiled and nodded as did the rest of his team.
"With hundreds of knights eager to compete for the honor of serving in the Kingsguard, the combats lasted seven full days. Several of the more colorful competitors became favorites of the smallfolk, who cheered them raucously each time they fought. One such was the Drunken Knight, Ser Willam Stafford, a short, stout, big-bellied man who always appeared so intoxicated that it was a wonder he could stand, let alone fight. The commons named him "the Keg o' Ale," and sang "Hail, Hail, Keg o' Ale" whenever he took the field. Another favorite of the commons was the Bard of Flea Bottom, Tom the Strummer, who mocked his foes with ribald songs before each bout. The slender mystery knight known only as the Serpent in Scarlet also had a great following; when finally defeated and unmasked, "he" proved to be a woman, Jonquil Darke, a bastard daughter of the Lord of Duskendale. In the end, none of these would earn a white cloak. The knights who did, though less madcap, proved themselves second to none in valor, chivalry, and skill at arms. Only one was the scion of a lordly house; Ser Lorence Roxton, from the Reach. Two were sworn swords; Ser Victor the Valiant, from the household of Lord Royce of Runestone, and Ser Willam the Wasp, who served Lord Smallwood of Acorn Hall. The youngest champion, Pate the Woodcock, fought with a spear instead of a sword, and some questioned whether he was a knight at all, but he proved so skillful with his chosen weapon that Ser Joffrey Doggett settled the matter by dubbing the lad himself, whilst hundreds cheered. The eldest champion was a grizzled hedge knight named Samgood of Sour Hill, a scarred and battered man of three-and-sixty who claimed to have fought in a hundred battles "and never you mind on what side, that's for me and the gods to know." One-eyed, bald, and almost toothless, the knight called Sour Sam looked as gaunt as a fencepost, but in battle he displayed the quickness of a man half his age, and a vicious skill honed through long decades of battles great and small." "People had weird names," Weiss stated. "You do know that some people from Westeros would say it's unusual to be name after a color," Alysanne defended and Weiss nodded at her logic.
"Jaehaerys the Conciliator would sit the Iron Throne for fifty-five years, and many a knight would wear a white cloak in his service during that long reign, more than any other monarch could boast. But it was rightly said that never did any Targaryen possess a Kingsguard who could equal the boy king's first Seven. The War for the White Cloaks marked the end of the festivities of what soon became known as the Golden Wedding. As the visitors took their leaves to wend their way home to their own lands and keeps, all agreed that it had been a magnificent event. The young king had won the admiration and affection of many lords both great and small, and their sisters, wives, and daughters had only praise for the warmth shown them by Princess Alysanne. The smallfolk of King's Landing were pleased as well; their boy king seemed to have every sign of being a just, merciful, and chivalrous ruler, and his Hand, Lord Rogar, was as open-handed as he was bold in battle. Happiest of all were the city's innkeeps, taverners, brewers, merchants, cutpurses, whores, and brothel keepers, all of whom had profited mightily from the coin the visitors brought to the city." "It's all about the money," Yang said and Weiss quickly added her voice. "It's Business," she said.
"Yet though the Golden Wedding was the most lavish and far-famed of the nuptials of 49 AC, the third of the marriages made in that fateful year would prove to be the most significant. With their own wedding now safely behind them, the Queen Regent and the King's Hand next turned their attention to finding a suitable match for King Jaehaerys…and, to a lesser extent, for his sister Princess Alysanne. So long as the boy king remained unwed and without issue, the daughters of his sister Rhaena would remain his heirs…but Aerea and Rhaella were still children, and, it was felt by many, manifestly unfit for the crown. Moreover, Lord Rogar and Queen Alyssa both feared what might befall the realm should Rhaena Targaryen return from the west to act as regent for a daughter. Though none dared speak of it, it was plain that discord had arisen between the two queens, for the daughter had neither attended her mother's wedding nor invited her to her own. And there were some who went further and whispered that Rhaena was a sorceress, who had used the dark arts to murder Maegor upon the Iron Throne. Therefore, it was incumbent upon King Jaehaerys to marry and beget a son as soon as possible." "That's just harsh, cut her some slack," Ruby said and Draegon nodded agreeing with her.
"The question of who the young king might marry was less easily resolved. Lord Rogar, who was known to harbor thoughts of extending the power of the Iron Throne across the narrow sea to Essos, put forward the notion of forging an alliance with Tyrosh by wedding Jaehaerys to the Archon's daughter, a comely girl of fifteen years who had charmed all at the wedding with her wit, her flirtatious manner, and her blue-green hair. In this, however, his lordship found himself opposed by his own wife, Queen Alyssa. The smallfolk of Westeros would never accept a foreign girl with dyed tresses as their queen, she argued, no matter how delightful her accent. And the pious would oppose the girl bitterly, for it was known that the Tyroshi kept not the Seven, but worshipped Red R'hllor, the Patternmaker, three-headed Trios, and other queer gods. Her own preference was to look to the houses who had risen in support of Aegon the Uncrowned in the Battle Beneath the Gods Eye. Let Jaehaerys wed a Vance, a Corbray, a Westerling, or a Piper, she urged. Loyalty should be rewarded, and by making such a match the king would honor Aegon's memory, and the valor of those who fought and died for him." "He's not going to marry any of those choices since you spoiled who he's truly going to marry," Ren said and Draegon shrugged his shoulders. "Sorry," Draegon said simply and kept reading.
"It was Grand Maester Benifer who spoke loudest against such a course, pointing out that the sincerity of their commitment to peace and reconciliation might be doubted if they were seen to favor those who had fought for Aegon over those who had remained with Maegor. A better choice, he felt, would be a daughter of one of the great houses that had taken little or no part in the battles between uncle and nephew; a Tyrell, a Hightower, an Arryn. With the King's Hand, the Queen Regent, and the Grand Maester so divided, other councillors felt emboldened to put forward candidates of their own. Prentys Tully, the royal justiciar, nominated a younger sister of his own wife, Lucinda, famed for her piety. Such a choice would surely please the Faith. Daemon Velaryon, the lord admiral, suggested that Jaehaerys might marry the widowed Queen Elinor, of House Costayne. How better to show that Maegor's supporters had been forgiven than by taking one of his Black Brides to queen, mayhaps even adopting her three sons by her first marriage. Queen Elinor's proven fertility was another point in her favor, he argued. Lord Celtigar had two unwed daughters, and had famously offered Maegor his choice of them; now he offered the same girls again for Jaehaerys. Lord Baratheon was having none of it. "I have seen your daughters," Rogar said to Celtigar. "They have no chins, no teats, and no sense." "A little harsh don't you think," Pyrrha said. "Yes, it is known that Baratheon's have the most horrible mouth when they speak," Alysanne said hearing some stories of Robert Baratheon.
"The Queen Regent and her councillors discussed the question of the king's marriage time and time again over most of a moon's turn, but came no closer to reaching a consensus. Jaehaerys himself was not privy to these debates. On this Queen Alyssa and Lord Rogar agreed. Though Jaehaerys might well be wise beyond his years, he was still a boy, and ruled by a boy's desires, desires that on no account could be allowed to overrule the good of the realm. Queen Alyssa in particular had no doubt whatsoever about whom her son would choose to marry were the choice left to him: her youngest daughter, his sister the Princess Alysanne." "Romantic but I still don't support this Valyrian trait of your ancestors," Weiss said and Draegon nodded.
"The Targaryens had been marrying brother to sister for centuries, of course, and Jaehaerys and Alysanne had grown up expecting to wed, just as their elder siblings Aegon and Rhaena had. Morever, Alysanne was only two years younger than her brother, and the two children had always been close and strong in their affection and regard for one another. Their father, King Aenys, would certainly have wished for them to marry, and once that would have been their mother's wish as well…but the horrors she had witnessed since her husband's death had persuaded Queen Alyssa to think elsewise. Though the Warrior's Sons and Poor Fellows had been disbanded and outlawed, many former members of both orders remained at large in the realm and might well take up their swords again if provoked. The Queen Regent feared their wroth, for she had vivid memories of all that had befallen her son Aegon and her daughter Rhaena when their marriage was announced. "We dare not ride that road again," she is reported to have said, more than once." "They only reason they suffered is because you and Aenys kept them away from their Dragons, Targaryen's do better with their dragon's right pal," Draegon asked and Drogon growled before he moved his head over and Draegon petted him.
"In this resolve she was supported by the newest member of the court, Septon Mattheus of the Most Devout, who had remained in King's Landing when the High Septon and the rest of his brethren returned to Oldtown. A great whale of a man, as famed for his corpulence as for the magnificence of his robes, Mattheus claimed descent from the Gardener kings of old, who had once ruled the Reach from their seat at Highgarden. Many regarded him as a near certainty to be chosen as the next High Septon. The present occupant of that holy office, whom Septon Moon had derided as the High Lickspittle, was cautious and complaisant, so there was little to no danger of any marriage being denounced from Oldtown so long as he continued to speak for the Seven from his seat in the Starry Sept. The Father of the Faithful was not a young man, however; the journey to King's Landing to officiate at the Golden Wedding had almost been the end of him, men said. "If it should fall to me to don his mantle, His Grace of course would have my support in any choice he might make," Septon Mattheus assured the Queen Regent and her advisors, "but not all of my brethren are so inclined, and…dare I say…there are other Moons out there. Given all that has occurred, to marry brother to sister at this juncture would be seen as a grievous affront to the pious, and I fear for what might happen." Their queen's misgivings thus confirmed, Rogar Baratheon and the other lords put aside all consideration of Princess Alysanne as a bride for her brother Jaehaerys. The princess was three-and-ten years of age, and had recently celebrated her first flowering, so it was thought desirable to see her wed as soon as possible. Though still far apart as regarded a suitable match for the king, the council settled swiftly on a partner for the princess; she would be married on the seventh day of the new year, to Orryn Baratheon, the youngest of Lord Rogar's brothers." "Man, she younger than Ruby can't they wait still and just worry about Jaehaerys?" Jaune asked and Draegon shook his head as did Ruby since she hadn't worried about marriage thanks to her dad.
"Thus, it was settled by the Queen Regent and the King's Hand and their lords' councillors and advisors. But like many such arrangements through the ages, their plan was soon undone, for they had grievously underestimated the will and determination of Alysanne Targaryen herself, and her young king, Jaehaerys." "Here we go," Yang said.
"No announcement had yet been made of Alysanne's betrothal, so it is not known how word of the decision reached her ears. Grand Maester Benifer suspected a servant, for many such had come and gone whilst the lords debated in the queen's solar. Lord Rogar himself was suspicious of Daemon Velaryon, the lord admiral, a prideful man who might well have believed that the Baratheons were overreaching themselves in hopes of displacing the Lords of the Tide as the second house in the realm. Years later, when these events had passed into legend, the smallfolk would tell each other that "rats in the walls" had overheard the lords talking and rushed to the princess with the news. No record survives of what Alysanne Targaryen said or thought when first she learned that she was to be wed to a youth ten years her senior, whom she scarcely knew and (if rumor can be believed) did not like. We know only what she did. Another girl might have wept or raged or run pleading to her mother. In many a sad song, maidens forced to wed against their will throw themselves from tall towers to their deaths. Princess Alysanne did none of these things. Instead, she went directly to Jaehaerys." "Family should always look out for each other even if it's against their own," Ozpin said and Draegon wondered what that was a reference to.
"The young king was as displeased as his sister at the news. "They will be making wedding plans for me as well, I do not doubt," he deduced at once. Like his sister, Jaehaerys did not waste time with reproaches, recriminations, or appeals. Instead, he acted. Summoning his Kingsguard, he instructed them to sail at once for Dragonstone, where he would meet them shortly. "You have sworn me your swords and your obedience," he reminded his Seven. "Remember those vows, and speak no word of my departure." That night, under cover of darkness, King Jaehaerys and Princess Alysanne mounted their dragons, Vermithor and Silverwing, and departed the Red Keep for the ancient Targaryen citadel below the Dragonmont. Reportedly the first words the young king spoke upon landing were, "I have need of a septon." The king, rightly, had no trust in Septon Mattheus, who would surely have betrayed their plans, but the sept on Dragonstone was tended by an old man named Oswyck, who had known Jaehaerys and Alysanne since their births, and instructed them in the mysteries of the Seven throughout their childhood. As a younger man, Septon Oswyck had ministered to King Aenys, and as a boy he had served as a novice in the court of Queen Rhaenys. He was more than familiar with the Targaryen tradition of sibling marriage, and when he heard the king's command, he assented at once." "Ah, Dragonstone. Your families safe haven," Jaune said and Draegon nodded. "I still sometimes dream of seeing it," he said sadly.
"The Kingsguard arrived from King's Landing by galley a few days later. The following morning, as the sun rose, Jaehaerys Targaryen, the First of His Name, took to wife his sister Alysanne in the great yard at Dragonstone, before the eyes of gods and men and dragons. Septon Oswyck performed the marriage rites; though the old man's voice was thin and tremulous, no part of the ceremony was neglected. The seven knights of the Kingsguard stood witness to the union, their white cloaks snapping in the wind. The castle's garrison and servants looked on as well, together with a good part of the smallfolk of the fishing village that huddled below Dragonstone's mighty curtain walls. A modest feast followed the ceremony, and many toasts were drunk to the health of the boy king and his new queen. Afterward Jaehaerys and Alysanne retired to the bedchamber where Aegon the Conqueror had once slept beside his sister Rhaenys, but in view of the bride's youth there was no bedding ceremony, and the marriage was not consummated." "At least they know there too young for this part," Blake said.
"That omission would prove to be of great importance when Lord Rogar and Queen Alyssa arrived belatedly from King's Landing in a war galley, accompanied by a dozen knights, forty men-at-arms, Septon Mattheus, and Grand Maester Benifer, whose letters give us the most complete accounting of what transpired. Jaehaerys and Alysanne met them inside the castle gates, holding hands. It is said that Queen Alyssa wept when she saw them. "You foolish children," she said. "You know not what you've done." Then up spoke Septon Mattheus, his voice thunderous as he berated the king and queen and prophesized that this abomination would once more plunge all of Westeros into war. "They shall curse your incest from the Dornish Marches to the Wall, and every pious son of the Mother and the Father shall denounce you as the sinners you are." The septon's face grew red and swollen as he raved, Benifer tells us, and spittle sprayed from his lips." "Targaryen's may sometimes pray to those gods but they don't answer to them," Draegon said and Ozpin raised an eyebrow feeling as if he knew someone else who sounded like him.
"Jaehaerys the Conciliator is rightly honored in the annals of the Seven Kingdoms for his calm demeanor and even temper, but let no man think that the fire of the Targaryens did not burn in his veins. He showed it then. When Septon Mattheus finally paused for a breath, the king said, "I will accept chastisement from Her Grace my mother, but not from you. Hold your tongue, fat man. If another word passes your lips, I will have them sewn shut." Septon Mattheus spoke no more." "Oh, I'm starting to fall for him, grrr," Yang said seductively causing Alysanne, Blake, Weiss and Ruby to giggle.
"Lord Rogar was not so easily cowed. Blunt and to the point, he asked only if the marriage had been consummated. "Tell me true, Your Grace. Was there a bedding? Did you claim her maidenhead?" "No," the king replied. "She is too young." At that Lord Rogar smiled. "Good. You are not wed." He turned to the knights who had accompanied him from King's Landing. "Separate these children, gently if you please. Escort the princess to Sea Dragon Tower and keep her there. His Grace shall accompany us back to the Red Keep." But as his men moved forward, the seven knights of Jaehaerys's Kingsguard stepped up and drew their swords. "Come no closer," warned Ser Gyles Morrigen. "Any man who lays a hand upon our king and queen shall die today." Lord Rogar was dismayed. "Sheath your steel and move aside," he commanded. "Have you forgotten? I am the King's Hand." "Aye," old Sour Sam answered, "but we're the Kingsguard, not the Hand's guard, and it's the lad who sits the chair, not you." Rogar Baratheon bristled at Ser Samgood's words, and answered, "You are seven. I have half a hundred swords behind me. A word from me and they will cut you to pieces." "They might kill us," replied young Pate the Woodcock, brandishing his spear, "but you will be the first to die, m'lord, you have my word upon that." "Is their going to be a fight?" Nora asked and Draegon kept reading.
"What might have happened next no man can say, had not Queen Alyssa chosen that moment to speak. "I have seen enough death," she said. "So have we all. Put up your swords, sers. What is done is done, and now we all must needs live with it. May the gods have mercy on the realm." She turned to her children. "We shall go in peace. Let no man speak of what happened here today." "As you command, Mother." King Jaehaerys pulled his sister closer and put his arm around her. "But do not think that you shall unmake this marriage. We are one now, and neither gods nor men shall part us." "Never," his bride affirmed. "Send me to the ends of the earth and wed me to the King of Mossovy or the Lord of the Grey Waste, Silverwing will always bring me back to Jaehaerys." And with that she raised herself onto her toes and lifted her face to the king, and he kissed her full upon the lips whilst all looked on." Draegon paused as he saw all the girls sigh dreamily and Ren and Jaune blushed a little. Ozpin smiled but remained neutral. "Don't suppose you could tell us about my mother's love life?" Draegon asked Drogon who glance at him but then turned his attention back to the three young Dragons who had fallen asleep and piled on top of each other.
"When the Hand and the Queen Regent had made their departure, the king and his young bride closed the castle gates and returned to their chambers. Dragonstone would remain their refuge and their residence for the remainder of Jaehaerys's minority. It is written that the young king and queen were seldom apart during that time, sharing every meal, talking late into the night of the green days of their childhood and the challenges ahead, fishing and hawking together, mingling with the island's smallfolk in dockside inns, reading to one another from dusty leatherbound tomes they found in the castle library, taking lessons together from Dragonstone's maesters ("for we still have much to learn," Alysanne is said to have reminded her husband), praying beside Septon Oswyck. They flew together as well, all around the Dragonmont and oft as far as Driftmark. If servants' tales may be believed, the king and his new queen slept naked and shared many long and lingering kisses, abed and at table and at many other times throughout the day, yet never consummated their union. Another year and a half would pass before Jaehaerys and Alysanne would finally join as man and woman." "You know when my mother read me this part, she said that she wished this happened to her and my father. That was the only time she ever referenced him," Draegon said as he looked through the paragraph again quickly to see if there was a hidden clue for him. Everyone remained quiet and let him have this moment to himself but Draegon shook his head and kept reading.
"Whenever lords and council members traveled to Dragonstone to consult with the young king, as they did from time to time, Jaehaerys received them in the Chamber of the Painted Table where his grandsire had once planned his conquest of Westeros, with Alysanne ever by his side. "Aegon had no secrets from Rhaenys and Visenya, and I have none from Alysanne," he said. Though it might well have been that there were no secrets between them during these bright days in the morning of the marriage, their union itself remained a secret to most of Westeros. Upon their return to King's Landing, Lord Rogar instructed all those who had accompanied them to Dragonstone to speak no word of what had transpired there, if they wished to keep their tongues. Nor was any announcement made to the realm at large. When Septon Mattheus attempted to send word of the match to the High Septon and Most Devout in Oldtown, Grand Maester Benifer burned his letter rather than dispatch a raven, on orders from the Hand. The Lord of Storm's End wanted time. Angry at the disrespect he felt the king had shown him and unaccustomed to defeat, Rogar Baratheon remained determined to find a way to part Jaehaerys and Alysanne. So long as their marriage remained unconsummated, he believed, a chance remained. Best then to keep the wedding secret, so it might be undone without anyone being the wiser." "You shouldn't try to suppress love it only means to feed fuel to the fire it's making," Blake stated and everyone nodded.
"Queen Alyssa wanted time as well, though for a different reason. What is done is done, she had said at the gates of Dragonstone, and so she believed…but memories of the bloodshed and chaos that had greeted the marriage of her other son and daughter still haunted her nights, and the Queen Regent was desperate to find some way to ascertain that history would not be repeated. Meanwhile, she and her lord husband still had a realm to rule for the best part of a year, until Jaehaerys attained his sixteenth nameday and took the power into his own hands. And so matters stood in Westeros as the Year of the Three Brides drew to an end, and gave way to a new year, the 50th since Aegon's Conquest." "It's hard to believe 50 years have gone by," said Alysanne impressed already enjoying the story despite reading it later than the others, she'll have to ask Draegon to read about Aegon, Aenys, and Maegor. "Here begins the next chapter," Draegon stated.
"All men are sinners; the Fathers of the Faith teach us. Even the noblest of kings and the most chivalrous of knights may find themselves overcome by rage and lust and envy, and commit acts that shame them and tarnish their good names. And the vilest of men and the wickedest of women likewise may do good from time to time, for love and compassion and pity may be found in even the blackest of hearts. "We are as the gods made us," wrote Septon Barth, the wisest man ever to serve as the Hand of the King, "strong and weak, good and bad, cruel and kind, heroic and selfish. Know that if you would rule over the kingdoms of men." Seldom was the truth of his words seen as clearly as during the 50th year after Aegon's Conquest. As the new year dawned, all across the realm plans were being made to mark a half century of Targaryen rule over Westeros with feasts, fairs, and tourneys. The horrors of King Maegor's rule were receding into the past, the Iron Throne and the Faith were reconciled, and the young King Jaehaerys I was the darling of smallfolk and great lords alike from Oldtown to the Wall. Yet unbeknownst to all but a few, storm clouds were gathering on the horizon, and faintly in the distance wise men could hear a rumble of thunder. A realm with two kings is like a man with two heads, the smallfolk are wont to say. In 50 AC, the realm of Westeros found itself blessed with one king, a Hand, and three queens, as in King Maegor's day…but whereas Maegor's queens had been consorts, subservient to his will, living and dying at his whim, each of the queens of the half-century was a power in her own right." "How very poetic," Blake said with a raised eyebrow and everyone nodded as the could see it was almost like a poem.
"In the Red Keep of King's Landing sat the Queen Regent Alyssa, widow of the late King Aenys, mother to his son Jaehaerys, and wife to the King's Hand, Rogar Baratheon. Just across Blackwater Bay on Dragonstone, a younger queen had arisen when Alyssa's daughter Alysanne, a maid of thirteen years, had pledged her troth to her brother King Jaehaerys, against the wishes of her mother and her mother's lord husband. And far to the west on Fair Isle, with the whole width of Westeros separating her from both mother and sister, was Alyssa's eldest daughter, the dragonrider Rhaena Targaryen, widow of Prince Aegon the Uncrowned. In the westerlands, riverlands, and parts of the Reach, men were already calling her the Queen in the West. Two sisters and a mother, the three queens were bound by blood and grief and suffering…and yet between them lay shadows old and new, growing darker by the day. The amity and unity of purpose that had enabled Jaehaerys, his sisters, and their mother to topple Maegor the Cruel had begun to fray, as long-simmering resentments and divisions made themselves felt. For the remainder of the regency the boy king and his little queen would find themselves deeply at odds with the King's Hand and the Queen Regent, in a rivalry that would continue into Jaehaerys's own reign and threaten to plunge the Seven Kingdoms back into war." "Yesterday's allies could become tomorrow's enemies," Ren said.
"The immediate cause of the tension was the king's sudden and secret marriage to his sister, which had taken the Hand and the Queen Regent unawares and thrown their own plans and schemes into disarray. It would be a mistake to believe that was the sole cause of the estrangement, however; the other weddings that had made 49 AC the Year of the Three Brides had also left scars. Lord Rogar had never asked Jaehaerys for leave to wed his mother, an omission the boy king took for a sign of disrespect. Moreover, His Grace did not approve of the match; as he would later confess to Septon Barth, he valued Lord Rogar as a counselor and friend, but he did not need a second father, and thought his own judgment, temperament, and intelligence to be superior to his Hand's. Jaehaerys also felt he should have been consulted about his sister Rhaena's marriage, though he felt that slight less keenly. Queen Alyssa, for her part, was deeply hurt that she had neither been advised of nor invited to Rhaena's wedding on Fair Isle." "I know the feeling," Draegon said as some people tried to marry his mother back in their village and Draegon did not approve. Luckily his mother Daenerys turned them all down.
"Away in the west, Rhaena Targaryen nursed her own grievances. As she confided to the old friends and favorites, she had gathered around her, Queen Rhaena neither understood nor shared her mother's affection for Rogar Baratheon. Though she honored him grudgingly for rising in support of her brother Jaehaerys against their uncle Maegor, his inaction when her own husband, Prince Aegon, faced Maegor in the Battle Beneath the Gods Eye was something she could neither forget nor forgive. Also, with the passage of time Queen Rhaena grew ever more resentful that her own claim to the Iron Throne, and that of her daughters, had been disregarded in favor of that of "my baby brother" (as she was wont to call Jaehaerys). She was the firstborn, she reminded those who would listen, and had been a dragonrider before any of her siblings, yet all of them and "even my own mother" had conspired to pass her over. Looking back now with the benefit of hindsight, it is easy to say that Jaehaerys and Alysanne had the right of it in the conflicts that arose during the last year of their mother's regency, and to cast Queen Alyssa and Lord Rogar as villains. That is how the singers tell the tale, certainly; the swift and sudden marriage of Jaehaerys and Alysanne was a romance unequaled since the days of Florian the Fool and his Jonquil, to hear them sing of it. And in songs, as ever, love conquers all. The truth, we submit, is a deal less simple. Queen Alyssa's misgivings about the match grew out of genuine concern for her children, the Targaryen dynasty, and the realm as a whole. Nor were her fears without foundation." "You know she has a point even if she suffered Rogar should have helped Aegon." Weiss said. "Well do you want to face the flames of Balerion the Black Dread?" Blake asked and Weiss zipped her lips. "Hey were is Balerion anyway?" Ruby asked. "After Maegor death he made his home in a cave on Dragonstone," Draegon stated and everyone nodded.
"Lord Rogar Baratheon's motives were less selfless. A proud man, he had been stunned and angered by the "ingratitude" of the boy king he had regarded as a son, and humiliated when forced to back down at the gates of Dragonstone before half a hundred of his men. A warrior to the bone, Rogar had once dreamed of facing Maegor the Cruel in single combat, and could not stomach being shamed by a lad of fifteen years. Lest we think too harshly of him, however, we would do well to remember Septon Barth's words. Though he would do some cruel, foolish, and evil things during his last year as Hand, he was not a cruel or evil man at heart, nor even a fool; he had been a hero once, and we must remember that even as we look at the darkest year of his life. In the immediate aftermath of his confrontation with Jaehaerys, Lord Rogar could think of little else but the humiliation he had suffered. His lordship's first impulse was to return to Dragonstone with more men, enough to overwhelm the castle garrison and resolve the situation by force. As for the Kingsguard, Lord Rogar reminded the council that the White Swords had sworn to lay down their lives for the king and "I shall be pleased to give them that honor." When Lord Tully pointed out that Jaehaerys could simply close the gates of Dragonstone against them, Lord Rogar was undeterred. "Let him. I can take the castle by storm if need be." In the end only Queen Alyssa could reach his lordship through his wroth and dissuade him from this folly. "My love," she said softly, "my children ride dragons, and we do not." "At least one of them is smart, you don't mess with a Dragon," Yang said and held out her hand and Draegon low fived it.
"The Queen Regent, no less than her husband, wished to have the king's rash marriage undone, for she was convinced that word of it would once again set the Faith against the Crown. Her fears were fanned by Septon Mattheus; once away from Jaehaerys, and secure in the knowledge that his lips would not be sewn shut, the septon found his tongue again, and spoke of little else but how "all decent folk" would condemn the king's incestuous union. Had Jaehaerys and Alysanne returned to King's Landing in time to celebrate the new year, as Queen Alyssa prayed ("They will come to their senses and repent this folly," she told the council), reconciliation might have been possible, but that did not happen. When a fortnight came and went and then another, and still the king did not reappear at court, Alyssa announced her intention to return to Dragonstone, this time alone, to beg her children to come home. Lord Rogar angrily forbade it. "If you go crawling back to him, the boy will never listen to you again," he said. "He has put his own desires ahead of the good of the realm, and that cannot be allowed. Do you want him to end as his father did?" And so the queen bent to his will and did not go." "That was kind of low if you ask me, to mention her first husband in comparison," Jaune said. "Despite being married to Rogar she still held love for Aenys," he continued and everyone nodded at Jaunes reasoning.
"That Queen Alyssa wished to do the right thing, no man should doubt," Septon Barth wrote years later. "Sad to say, however, she oft seemed at a loss as to what that thing might be. She desired above all to be loved, admired, and praised, a yearning she shared with King Aenys, her first husband. A ruler must sometimes do things that are necessary but unpopular, however, though he knows that opprobrium and censure must surely follow. These things Queen Alyssa could seldom bring herself to do." Days passed and turned to weeks and thence to fortnights, whilst hearts hardened and men grew more resolute on both sides of Blackwater Bay. The boy king and his little queen remained on Dragonstone, awaiting the day when Jaehaerys would take the rule of the Seven Kingdoms in his own hands. Queen Alyssa and Lord Rogar continued to hold the reins of power in King's Landing, searching for a way to undo the king's marriage and avert the calamity they were certain was to come. Aside from the council, they told no one of what had transpired on Dragonstone, and Lord Rogar commanded the men who had accompanied them to speak no word of what they had seen, at the penalty of losing their tongues. Once the marriage had been annulled, his lordship reasoned, it would be as if it had never happened so far as most of Westeros was concerned…so long as it remained secret. Until the union was consummated, it could still easily be set aside." "A smart move to wait it out until the boy comes of age to be allowed to make decisions on his own," Ozpin praised starting to wish he had advice of this Targaryen. He looked at Draegon and thought that maybe he should tell him the truth like Lester suggested.
"This would prove to be a vain hope, as we know now, but to Rogar Baratheon in 50 AC it seemed possible. For a time, he must surely have drawn encouragement from the king's own silence. Jaehaerys had moved swiftly to marry Alysanne, but having done the deed he seemed in no great haste to announce it. He certainly had the means to do so, had he so desired. Maester Culiper, still spry at eighty, had been serving since Queen Visenya's day, and was ably assisted by two younger maesters. Dragonstone had a full complement of ravens. At a word from Jaehaerys, his marriage could have been proclaimed from one end of the realm to the other. He did not speak that word. Scholars have debated ever since as to the reasons for his silence. Was he repenting a match made in haste, as Queen Alyssa would have wished? Had Alysanne somehow offended him? Had he grown fearful of the realm's response to the marriage, recalling all that had befallen Aegon and Rhaena? Was it possible that Septon Mattheus's dire prophecies had shaken him more than he cared to admit? Or was he simply a boy of fifteen who had acted rashly with no thought to the consequences, only to find himself now at a loss as to how to proceed?" "If you were in his position, what would you do Draegon?" Pyrrha asked and that had everyone's attention. "I would make sure I had countermeasures in place of those that disapprove of incest marriage before I arrogantly announce it to the world," Draegon said and everyone liked the idea to be prepared for any situation.
"Arguments can and have been made for all these explanations, but in light of what we know now about Jaehaerys I Targaryen, they ultimately ring hollow. Young or old, this was a king who never acted without thinking. To this writer it seems plain that Jaehaerys was not repenting his marriage and had no intention of undoing it. He had chosen the queen he wanted and would make the realm aware of that in due course, but at a time of his own choosing, in a manner best calculated to lead to acceptance: when he was a man grown and a king ruling in his own right, not a boy who had wed in defiance of his regent's wishes." "You didn't just say that to copy the next paragraph, did you?" Weiss asked and Draegon shook his head. "I thought of that when I first read this book and when I saw that Jaehaerys thought of it. I felt glad to be able to think like him." Draegon answered.
"The young king's absence from court did not go unnoticed for long. The ashes of the bonfires lit in celebration of the new year had scarce grown cold before the people of King's Landing began asking questions. To curtail the rumors, Queen Alyssa put out word that His Grace was resting and reflecting on Dragonstone, the ancient seat of his house…but as more time passed, with still no sign of Jaehaerys, lords and smallfolk alike began to wonder. Was the king ill? Had he been made a prisoner, for reasons yet unknown? The personable and handsome boy king had moved amongst the people of King's Landing so freely, seemingly delighting in mingling with them, that this sudden disappearance seemed unlike him. Queen Alysanne, for her part, was in no haste to return to court. "Here I have you to myself, day and night," she told Jaehaerys. "When we go back, I shall be fortunate to snatch an hour with you, for every man in Westeros will want a piece of you." For her, these days on Dragonstone were an idyll. "Many years from now when we are old and grey, we shall look back upon these days and smile, remembering how happy we were." "It's always happy to be able to be alone with the person you care about the most," Nora said sincerely for a change and Ren smiled at her.
"Jaehaerys himself no doubt shared some of these sentiments, but the young king had other reasons for remaining on Dragonstone. Unlike his uncle Maegor, he was not prone to bursts of rage, but he was more than capable of anger, and he would never forget nor forgive his deliberate exclusion from the council meetings wherein his marriage and that of his sister were being discussed. And whilst he would always remain grateful to Rogar Baratheon for helping him to the Iron Throne, Jaehaerys did not intend to be ruled by him. "I had one father," he said to Maester Culiper during those days on Dragonstone, "I do not require a second." The king recognized and appreciated the virtues of the Hand, but he was aware of his flaws as well, flaws that had become very apparent in the days leading up to the Golden Wedding, when Jaehaerys himself had sat in audience with the lords of the realm whilst Lord Rogar was hunting, drinking, and deflowering maidens." "Yeah, my family is stubborn on being told what do especially from someone who doesn't share our last name," Draegon said sympathizing with Jaehaerys.
"Jaehaerys was aware of his own shortcomings too—shortcomings he intended to rectify before he sat the Iron Throne. His father, King Aenys, had been slighted as weak, in part because he was not the warrior that his brother Maegor was. Jaehaerys was determined that no man would ever question his own courage or skill at arms. On Dragonstone he had Ser Merrell Bullock, commander of the castle garrison, his sons Ser Alyn and Ser Howard, a seasoned master-at-arms in Ser Elyas Scales, and his own Seven, the finest fighters in the realm. Every morning Jaehaerys trained with them in the castle yard, shouting at them to come at him harder, to press him, harry him, and attack him in every way they knew. From sunrise till noon he worked with them, honing his skills with sword and spear and mace and axe whilst his new queen looked on. It was a hard and brutal regimen. Each bout ended only when the king himself or his opponent declared him dead. Jaehaerys died so often that the men of the garrison made a game of it, shouting "The king is dead" every time he fell, and "Long live the king" when he struggled to his feet. His foes began a contest, wagering with one another to see which of them could kill the king the most. (The victor, we are told, was young Ser Pate the Woodcock, whose darting spear purportedly gave His Grace fits.) Jaehaerys was oft brusied and bloody by evening, to Alysanne's distress, but his prowess improved so markedly that near the end of his time on Dragonstone, old Ser Elyas himself told him, "Your Grace, you will never be a Kingsguard, but if by some sorcery your uncle Maegor himself were to rise from the grave, my coin would be on you." "I have noticed you sneaking out to train yourself as well Draegon to make yourself a better swordsman," Blake pointed out. "Why do you want to keep doing extra training, your tied with Pyrrha as the best in our school?" She asked. "Because no matter who I beat I always know there is someone stronger out there and I want to stand at the summit like a true Dragon," Draegon said determined which caused Alysanne to smile and remembered her Uncle Aurane wanting to do extra training.
"One evening, after a day in which Jaehaerys had been severely tested and battered, Maester Culiper said to him, "Your Grace, why do you punish yourself so harshly? The realm is at peace." The young king only smiled and replied, "The realm was at peace when my grandsire died, but scarcely had my father climbed onto the throne than foes rose up on every side. They were testing him, to learn if he was strong or weak. They will test me as well." He was not wrong, though his first trial, when it came, was to be of a very different nature, one that no amount of training in the yards of Dragonstone could possibly have prepared him for. For it was his worth as a man, and his love for his little queen, that were to be put to the test. We know very little about the childhood of Alysanne Targaryen; as the fifthborn child of King Aenys and Queen Alyssa, and a female, observers at court found her of less interest than her older siblings who stood higher in the line of succession. From what little has come down to us, Alysanne was a bright but unremarkable girl; small but never sickly, courteous, biddable, with a sweet smile and a pleasing voice. To the relief of her parents, she displayed none of the timidity that had afflicted her elder sister, Rhaena, as a small child. Neither did she exhibit the willful and stubborn temperament of Rhaena's daughter Aerea." "Alysanne were you timid like Rhaena or stubborn like Aerea?" Ruby asked and she shook her head, "Nope I feel I was exactly like the good queen Alysanne Targaryen," she replied.
"As a princess of the royal household, Alysanne would of course have had servants and companions from an early age. As an infant certainly she would have had a wet nurse; like most noble women, Queen Alyssa did not give suck to her own children. Later a maester would have taught her to read and write and do sums, and a septa would have instructed her in piety, deportment, and the mysteries of the Faith. Girls of common birth would have served as her maids, washing her clothing and emptying her chamberpot, and in good time she would certainly have taken ladies of a like age and noble blood as companions, to ride and play and sew with. Alysanne did not choose these companions for herself; they were selected for her by her mother, Queen Alyssa, and they came and went with some frequency, to ascertain that the princess did not grow too fond of any of them. Her sister Rhaena's penchant for showering an unseemly amount of affection and attention on a succession of favorites, some of whom were considered less than suitable, had been the source of much whispering at court, and the queen did not want Alysanne to be the subject of similar rumors." "I know the feeling," Weiss said as her father did the same to herself and Winter and Blake put her hand on her shoulder in comfort.
"All this changed when King Aenys died on Dragonstone and his brother, Maegor, returned from across the narrow sea to seize the Iron Throne. The new king had little love and less trust for any of his brother's children, and he had his mother, the Dowager Queen Visenya, to enforce his will. Queen Alyssa's household knights and servants were dismissed, together with the servants and companions of her children, and Jaehaerys and Alysanne were made wards of their great-aunt, the fearsome Visenya. Hostages in all but name, they spent their uncle's reign being shuttled between Driftmark, Dragonstone, and King's Landing at the will of others, until Visenya's death in 44 AC offered Queen Alyssa an opportunity to escape, a chance she seized with alacrity, fleeing Dragonstone with Jaehaerys, Alysanne, and the blade Dark Sister. No reliable accounts of Princess Alysanne's life after the escape survive to this day. She does not appear again in the annals of the realm until the final days of Maegor's bloody reign, when her mother and Lord Rogar rode forth from Storm's End at the head of an army, whilst Alysanne, Jaehaerys, and their sister, Rhaena, descended on King's Landing with their dragons." "People seem to pay more attention to adults when they should take a closer look at the next generation, they might learn something," Ozpin said and Draegon nodded in his reasoning.
"Undoubtedly Princess Alysanne had handmaids and companions in the days that followed Maegor's death. Their names and particulars have not come down to us, unfortunately. We do know that none of them came with the princess when she and Jaehaerys fled the Red Keep on their dragons. Aside from the seven knights of the Kingsguard and the castle garrison, cooks, stablehands, and other servants, the king and his bride were unattended on Dragonstone. That was hardly proper for a princess, let alone for a queen. Alysanne must have her household, and in that her mother, Alyssa, saw an opportunity to undermine, and mayhaps undo, her marriage. The Queen Regent resolved to dispatch to Dragonstone a carefully selected company of companions and servants to see to the young queen's needs. The plan, Grand Maester Benifer assures us, was Queen Alyssa's…but it was one that Lord Rogar assented to gladly, for he saw at once a way to twist it to his own ends. The aged Septon Oswyck, who had performed the wedding rites for Jaehaerys and Alysanne, kept the sept on Dragonstone, but a young lady of royal birth required one of her own sex to see to her religious instruction. Queen Alyssa sent three; the formidable Septa Ysabel, and two wellborn novices of Alysanne's own age, Lyra and Edyth. To take charge of the serving girls and maids of Alysanne's household, she dispatched Lady Lucinda Tully, the wife of the Lord of Riverrun, whose fierce piety was renowned through all the land. With her came her younger sister, Ella of House Broome, a modest maid whose name had briefly been offered as a match for Jaehaerys. Lord Celtigar's daughters, so recently scorned by the Hand as being chinless, breastless, and witless, were included as well. ("We had as well get some use of them," Lord Rogar supposedly told their father.) Three other girls of noble birth made up the remainder of the company, one each from the Vale, the stormlands, and the Reach: Jennis of House Templeton, Coryanne of House Wylde, and Rosamund of House Ball." "Those girls are going to try and seduce Jaehaerys aren't they?" Yang asked and Alysanne nodded figuring it out as well. Draegon kept reading.
"Queen Alyssa wanted her daughter attended by suitable companions of her own age and station, no doubt, but that was not her sole motivation in sending these ladies to Dragonstone. Septa Ysabel, the novices Edyth and Lyra, and the deeply pious Lady Lucinda and her sister had a further charge. It was the hope of the Queen Regent that these fiercely righteous women might impress upon Alysanne, and mayhaps even Jaehaerys, that for brother to lie with sister was an abomination in the eyes of the Faith. "The children" (as Alyssa persisted in calling the king and queen) were not evil, only young and willful; suitably instructed, they might see the error of their ways and repent their marriage before it tore the realm apart. Or so she prayed. Lord Rogar's motives were baser. Unable to rely on the loyalty of the castle garrison or the knights of the Kingsguard, the Hand needed eyes and ears on Dragonstone. All that Jaehaerys and Alysanne said and did was to be reported back to him, he made clear to Lady Lucinda and the others. He was especially anxious to learn if and when the king and queen intended on consummating their marriage. That, he stressed, must be prevented. And mayhaps there was more." "It would appear that everyone has an ulterior motive in Westeros," Ren stated. "I can't argue with you their Ren, because even I sometimes have ulterior motives but nothing bad or distrust," Draegon said but thought about some secrets he kept from his friends that would be better if they didn't know so it wouldn't hurt them.
"And now unfortunately we must give some consideration to a certain distasteful book that first appeared in the Seven Kingdoms some forty years after the events presently being discussed. Copies of this book still pass from hand to hand in the low places of Westeros, and may oft be found in certain brothels (those catering to patrons able to read) and the libraries of men of low morals, where they are best kept under lock and key, hidden from the eyes of maidens, goodwives, children, and the chaste and pious. The book in question is known under various titles, amongst them Sins of the Flesh, The High and the Low, A Wanton's Tale, and The Wickedness of Men, but all versions bear the subtitle A Caution for Young Girls. It purports to be the testimony of a young maid of noble birth who surrendered her virtue to a groom in her lord father's castle, gave birth to a child out of wedlock, and thereafter found herself partaking of every sort of wickedness imaginable during a long life of sin, suffering, and slavery. If the author's tale is true (parts of it strain credulity), during the course of her life she found herself a handmaid to a queen, the paramour of a young knight, a camp follower in the Disputed Lands of Essos, a serving wench in Myr, a mummer in Tyrosh, the plaything of a corsair queen in the Basilisk Isles, a slave in Old Volantis (where she was tattooed, pierced, and ringed), the handmaid of a Qartheen warlock, and finally the mistress of a pleasure house in Lys…before ultimately returning to Oldtown and the Faith. Purportedly she ended her life as a septa in the Starry Sept, where she set down this story of her life to warn other young maids not to do as she had done. The lascivious details of the author's erotic adventures need not concern us here. Our only interest is in the early part of her sordid tale, the story of her youth…for the alleged author of A Caution for Young Girls is none other than Coryanne Wylde, one of the girls sent to Dragonstone as a companion to the little queen." "Books always have good references to the past even if some are fiction," Blake stated as she had some experience and was the book nerd in the group.
"We have no way to ascertain the veracity of her story, nor even whether she was in truth the author of this infamous book (some argue plausibly that the text is the product of several hands, for the style of the prose varies greatly from episode to episode). Lady Coryanne's early history, however, is confirmed in the accounts of the maester who served at the Rain House during her youth. At the age of thirteen, he records, Lord Wylde's younger daughter was indeed seduced and deflowered by a "surly lad" from the stables. In A Caution for Young Girls, this lad is described as a handsome boy her own age, but the maester's account differs, painting the seducer as a pox-scarred varlet of thirty years distinguished only by a "male member as stout as a stallion's." Whatever the truth, the "surly lad" was gelded and sent to the Wall as soon as his deed was known, whilst Lady Coryanne was confined to her chambers to give birth to his baseborn son. The boy was sent away soon after birth, to Storm's End, where he would be fostered by one of the castle stewards and his barren wife. The bastard boy was born in 48 AC, according to the maester's journals. Lady Coryanne was carefully watched afterward, but few beyond the walls of the Rain House knew of her shame. When the raven came to summon her to King's Landing, her lady mother told her sternly that she was never to speak of her child or her sin. "In the Red Keep, they will take you for a maiden." But as the girl made her way to the city, escorted by her father and a brother, they stopped for the night at an inn on the south bank of the Blackwater Rush, beside the ferry landing. There she found a certain great lord awaiting her arrival." "Is this meant to warn people about what Young love can do to you," Pyrrha asked and Draegon nodded. "Yeah the Maester wrote this as a reference when he was taking over his predecessor in making this Targaryen history book," Draegon said.
And here the tale grows even more tangled, for the identity of the man at the inn is a matter of some dispute, even amongst those who accept A Caution for Young Girls to contain a modicum of truth. Over the years and centuries, as the book was copied and recopied, many changes and emendations crept into the text. The maesters who labor at the Citadel copying books are rigorously trained to reproduce the original word for word, but few mundane scribes are so disciplined. Such septons, septas, and holy sisters as copy and illuminate books for the Faith oft strike out or alter any passages they believe to be offensive, obscene, or theologically unsound. As virtually the whole of A Caution for Young Girls is obscene, it was not like to have been transcribed by either maesters or septons. Given the number of copies known to exist (hundreds, though as many more were burned by Baelor the Blessed), the scribes responsible were most likely septons expelled from the Faith for drunkenness, theft, or fornication, failed students who left the Citadel without a chain, hired quills from the Free Cities, or mummers (the worst of all). Lacking the rigor of maesters, such scribes oft feel free to "improve" on the texts they are copying. (Mummers in particular are prone to this.) In the case of A Caution for Young Girls, such "improvements" largely consisted of adding ever more episodes of depravity and changing the existing episodes to make them even more disturbing and lascivious. As alteration followed alteration over the years, it became ever more difficult to ascertain which was the original text, to the extent that even maesters at the Citadel cannot agree as to the title of the book, as has been noted. The identity of the man who met Coryanne Wylde in the inn by the ferry, if indeed such a meeting ever took place, is another matter of contention. In the copies entitled Sins of the Flesh and The High and the Low (which tend to be the older versions, and the shortest), the man at the inn is indentified as Ser Borys Baratheon, eldest of Lord Rogar's four brothers. In A Wanton's Tale and The Wickedness of Men, however, the man is Lord Rogar himself." "Wow, another reason that makes me like the Baratheon's less and less," Weiss said since despite the good Rogar and his brother have done he is canceling it out by playing around with too many girls even when he has a wife.
"All these versions agree on what happened next. Dismissing Lady Coryanne's father and brother, the lord commanded the girl to disrobe so he might inspect her. "He ran his hands over every part of me," she wrote, "and bade me turn this way and that and bend and stretch and open my legs to his gaze, until at last he pronounced himself satisfied." Only then did the man reveal the purpose of the summons that had brought her to King's Landing. She was to be sent to Dragonstone, a supposed maid, to serve as one of Queen Alysanne's companions, but once there she was to use her wiles and her body to beguile the king into bed." "No, I don't want that happen, even if marrying siblings is wrong, I want Alysanne and Jaehaerys to be together forever," Ruby shouted all mad like shocking everyone at how quickly Ruby admired them.
"Jaehaerys is a man-maid like as not, and besotted with his sister," this man supposedly told her, "but Alysanne is but a child and you are a woman any man would want. Once His Grace tastes your charms he may come to his senses and abandon this folly of a marriage. He may even choose to keep you afterward, who can say? There can be no question of marriage, of course, but you would have jewels, servants, whatever you might want. There are rich rewards in being a king's bedwarmer. If Alysanne should discover you abed together, so much the better. She is a prideful girl and would be quick to abandon an unfaithful spouse. And if you should get with child again, you and the babe would be well taken care of, and your father and mother will be richly rewarded for your service to the Crown." Can we put any credence in this tale? At this late date, so far removed from the events in question, with all the principals long dead, there is no way to be certain. Beyond the testimony of the girl herself, we have no source to verify that this meeting by the ferry ever took place. And if some Baratheon did indeed meet privily with Coryanne Wylde before she reached King's Landing, we cannot know what words he might have spoken to her. He could as easily have simply been instructing her in her duties as a spy and tattle, as the other girls had been instructed. Archmaester Crey, writing at the Citadel in the last years of King Jaehaerys's long reign, believed that the meeting at the inn was a clumsy calumny intended to blacken the name of Lord Rogar, and went so far as to attribute the lie to Ser Borys Baratheon himself, who quarreled bitterly with his brother in later life. Other scholars, including Maester Ryben, the Citadel's foremost expert on banned, forbidden, fraudulent, and obscene texts, put the story down as no more than a bawdy tale of the sort known to excite the lust of young boys, bastards, whores, and the men who partake of their favors. "Amongst the smallfolk there are always men of a lascivious character who delight in tales of great lords and noble knights despoiling maidens," Ryben wrote, "for this persuades them that their betters share their own base lusts." Mayhaps. Yet there are certain things that we do know beyond a doubt that may allow us to draw our own conclusions. We do know that the younger daughter of Morgan Wylde, Lord of the Rain House, was deflowered at an early age and gave birth to a bastard boy. We can be reasonably certain that Lord Rogar knew of her shame; not only was he Lord Morgan's liege, but the child was placed in his own household. We know that Coryanne Wylde was amongst the maids who were sent to Dragonstone as companions for Queen Alysanne…a singularly curious choice, if a lady-in-waiting was all she was meant to be, for scores of other young girls of noble birth and suitable age were also available, girls whose maidenheads were intact and whose virtue was beyond reproach. "Why her?" many have asked in the years since. Did she have some special gift, some particular charm? If so, no one remarked on it at the time. Could Lord Rogar or Queen Alyssa have been indebted to her lord father or lady mother for some past favor or kindness? We have no record of it. No plausible explanation for the selection of Coryanne Wylde has ever been offered, save for the simple, ugly answer proferred by A Caution for Young Girls: she was sent to Dragonstone not for Alysanne, but for Jaehaerys." "Called it," Yang said as Draegon took a deep breath from all the reading and drank some water. "Yes Yang, you did," Draegon said getting his voice back before continuing.
"Court records indicate that Septa Ysabel, Lady Lucinda, and the other women chosen for Alysanne Targaryen's household boarded the trading galley Wise Woman at dawn on the seventh day of the second moon of 50 AC, and left for Dragonstone on the morning tide. Queen Alyssa had sent word of their coming ahead by raven, yet even so she had some concern that the Wise Women, as they became known from that day forth, would find the gates of Dragonstone closed to them. Her fears were unfounded. The little queen and two Kingsguard met them at the harbor as they disembarked, and Alysanne welcomed each of them with glad smiles and gifts." "At least Alysanne is kind enough to accept them but I have this suspicion she knows the real reason they're on Dragonstone and what her mother and Rogar are planning," Alysanne stated and Blake nodded thinking Alysanne is also smart despite her young age.
"Before we relate what happened afterward, let us turn our gaze briefly to Fair Isle, where Rhaena Targaryen, the "Queen in the West," resided with her new husband and a court of her own. It will be recalled that Queen Alyssa had been no more pleased by her eldest daughter's third marriage than by the one her son would soon make, though Rhaena's marriage was of less consequence. She was not alone in this, for in truth Androw Farman was a curious choice for one with the blood of the dragon in her veins. The second son of Lord Farman, not even the heir, Androw was said to be a handsome boy with pale blue eyes and long flaxen hair, but he was nine years younger than the queen, and even at his own father's court there were those who scorned him as "half a girl" himself, for he was soft of speech and gentle of nature. A singular failure as a squire, he had never become a knight, having none of the martial skills of his lord father and elder brother. For a time, his sire had considered sending him to Oldtown to forge a maester's chain, until his own maester told him that the boy was simply not clever enough, and could hardly read nor write. Later, when asked why she had chosen such an unpromising spouse, Rhaena Targaryen replied, "He was kind to me." Androw's father had been kind to her as well, offering her refuge on Fair Isle after the Battle Beneath the Gods Eye, when her uncle, King Maegor, was demanding her capture and the Poor Fellows of the realm were denouncing her as a vile sinner and her daughters as abominations. Some have put forward the suggestion that the widowed queen took Androw for her husband in part to repay his father for that kindness, for Lord Farman, himself a second son who had never expected to rule, was known to have great fondness for Androw, despite his deficiences. Mayhaps there is some truth in that assertion, but another possibility, first put forward by Lord Farman's maester, may cut closer to the bone. "The queen found her true love on Fair Isle," Maester Smike wrote to the Citadel, "not with Androw, but with his sister, Lady Elissa." "So, she likes men and women, she's starting to sound like my sister," Jaune said. "Which one of your seven," Yang pointed out and Jaune just simply replied. "Saphron," Jaune said and Draegon kept reading.
"Three years Androw's elder, Elissa Farman shared her brother's blue eyes and long flaxen hair, but elsewise she was as unlike him as a sibling could be. Sharp of wit and sharper of tongue, she loved horses, dogs, and hawks. She was a fine singer and a skilled archer, but her great love was sailing. The Wind Our Steed were the words of the Farmans of Fair Isle, who had sailed the western seas since the Dawn Age, and Lady Elissa embodied them. As a child, it was said that she spent more time at sea than upon the land. Her father's crews used to laugh to see her climbing the rigging like a monkey. She sailed her own boat around Fair Isle at the age of four-and-ten, and by the time she was twenty she had voyaged as far north as Bear Island and as far south as the Arbor. Oftimes, to the horror of her lord father and lady mother, she spoke of her desire to take a ship beyond the western horizon to learn what strange and wondrous lands might lie on the far side of the Sunset Sea. Lady Elissa had been twice betrothed, once at twelve and once at sixteen, but she had frightened off both boys, as her own father admitted ruefully. In Rhaena Targaryen, however, she found a like-minded companion, and in her the queen found a new confidant. Together with Alayne Royce and Samantha Stokeworth, two of Rhaena's oldest friends, they became nigh inseparable, a court within the court that Ser Franklyn Farman, Lord Marq's elder son, dubbed "the Four-Headed Beast." Androw Farman, Rhaena's new husband, was admitted to their circle from time to time, but never so often as to be taken for a fifth head. Most tellingly, Queen Rhaena never took him flying with her on the back of her dragon, Dreamfyre, an adventure she shared frequently with the ladies Elissa, Alayne, and Sam (in fairness, it is more than possible that the queen invited Androw to share the sky with her only to have him decline, for he was not of an adventurous disposition)." "Just like you did for us Draegon, until you said Drogon was getting sick of carrying all of us," Ruby pointed out and then looked at Drogon who just stared back at her before he turned his attention back to Draegon. "Wish we could have gotten the chance to fly on him," Nora pouted. "Well, you can ask him but he'll probably say no," Draegon apologized and patted Drogon and then Vhagar who moved herself onto his lap.
"It would be a mistake to regard Queen Rhaena's time at Faircastle as an idyll, however. Not everyone welcomed her presence, by any means. Even here on this distant isle there were Poor Fellows, angered that Lord Marq, like his father before him, had given support and sanctuary to one they regarded as an enemy of the Faith. The continued presence of Dreamfyre on the island was also creating problems. Glimpsed every few years, a dragon was a wonder and a terror to behold, and it was true that some of the Fair Islanders took pride in having "a dragon of our own." Others, however, were made anxious by the presence of the great beast, especially as she grew larger…and hungrier. Feeding a growing dragon is no small thing. And when it became known that Dreamfyre had produced a clutch of dragon eggs, a begging brother from the inland hills began to preach that Fair Isle would soon be overrun by dragons "devouring sheep and cows and men alike," unless a dragonslayer came forth to put an end to the scourge. Lord Farman sent forth knights to seize the man and silence him, but not before thousands had heard his prophecies. Though the preacher died in the dungeons under Faircastle, his words lived on, filling the ignorant with fear wherever they were heard." "I guess were lucky Drogon goes hunting in the forest and by the sea, instead of eating us," Pyrrha said and the others nodded. "I hope they don't do anything to those eggs," Alysanne said worried about the baby dragons that could come from them.
"Even within the walls of Lord Farman's own seat, Queen Rhaena had enemies, chief amongst them his lordship's heir. Ser Franklyn had fought in the Battle Beneath the Gods Eye and taken a wound there, blood shed in the service of Prince Aegon the Uncrowned. His grandsire had died upon that battlefield together with his eldest son, and it had been left to him to bring their corpses home to Fair Isle. Yet it seemed to him that Rhaena Targaryen showed little remorse for all the grief she had brought to House Farman, and little gratitude to him personally. He also resented her friendship with his sister, Elissa; instead of encouraging her in what he regarded as her wild, willful ways, Ser Franklyn thought the queen should be enjoining her to do her duty to her house by making an appropriate marriage and producing children. Nor did he appreciate the manner in which the Four-Headed Beast had somehow become the center of court life at Faircastle, whilst his lord father and himself were increasingly disregarded. In that he was well justified. More and more highborn lords from the westerlands and beyond were visiting Fair Isle, Maester Smike noted, but when they came it was to have audience with the Queen in the West, not with the minor lordling of a small isle and his son." "That almost sounds like my father, which usually ends badly," Weiss said and sighed.
"None of this was of great concern to the queen and her familiars so long as Marq Farman ruled in Faircastle, for his lordship was an amiable and good-natured man who loved all his children, his wayward daughter and weakling son included, and loved Rhaena Targaryen for loving them as well. Less than a fortnight after the queen and Androw Farman had celebrated the first anniversary of their union, however, Lord Marq died suddenly at his own table, choking to death upon a fish bone at the age of six-and-forty. And with his passing, Ser Franklyn became the Lord of Fair Isle. He wasted little time. On the day after his father's funeral, he summoned Rhaena to his great hall (he would not deign to go to her), and commanded her to remove herself from his island. "You are not wanted here," he told her. "You are not welcome here. Take your dragon with you, and your friends, and my little brother, who would surely piss his breeches if he were made to stay. But do not presume to take my sister. She will remain here, and she will be wed to a man of my choosing." "I get that he's jealous but he doesn't have to be so rude," Blake stated. "He's a dick is what he is," Yang said. "Language Ms. Xiao-Long," Ozpin stated and Yang closed her mouth.
"Franklyn Farman did not lack for courage, as Maester Smike wrote in a letter to the Citadel. He did lack for sense, however, and in that moment he did not seem to realize how close he stood to death. "I could see the fire in her eyes," the maester said, "and for a moment I could see Faircastle burning, the white towers blackening and collapsing into the sea as flames leapt from every window and the dragon wheeled about again and again." Rhaena Targaryen was the blood of the dragon, and far too proud to linger long where she was not wanted. She departed Fair Isle that very night, taking wing for Casterly Rock upon Dreamfyre after instructing her husband and companions to follow her by ship, "with all those who might love me." When Androw, flushed with anger, offered to face his brother in single combat, the queen quickly dissuaded him. "He would cut you to pieces, my love," she told him, "And were I to be thrice widowed, men would name me a witch or worse and hound me from Westeros." Lyman Lannister, Lord of Casterly Rock, had sheltered her before, she reminded him. Queen Rhaena was confidant that he would welcome her again. Androw Farman, Samantha Stokeworth, and Alayne Royce set out to follow the next morning, together with more than forty of the queen's friends, servants, and hangers-on, for Her Grace had gathered a sizable coterie about her as the Queen in the West. Lady Elissa was with them as well, for she had no intention of remaining behind; her ship, the Maiden's Fancy, had been made ready for the crossing. When the queen's party reached the docks, however, they found Ser Franklyn waiting for them. The rest of them could go, and good riddance, he announced, but his sister would remain on Fair Isle to be wed." "Burn them, Rhaena. Let Dreamfyre devour them all," Ruby shouted becoming pissed off because she felt sorry for Rhaena. "I thought Yang had anger issues," Jaune whispered to Pyrrha who shushed him so Yang wouldn't hear.
"The new lord had brought only half a dozen men with him, however, and he had seriously misjudged the love the smallfolk bore his sister, particularly the sailors, shipwrights, fisherfolk, porters, and other denizens of the dockside districts, many of whom had known her since she was a small girl. As Lady Elissa confronted her brother, spitting defiance at him and demanding that he get out of her way, a crowd gathered around them, growing angrier by the moment. Oblivious to their mood, his lordship attempted to seize his sister…whereupon the onlookers rushed forward, overwhelming his men before they could draw their blades. Three of them were shoved off the docks into the water, whilst Lord Franklyn himself was thrown into a ship's hold full of fresh-caught cod. Elissa Farman and the rest of the queen's friends boarded Maiden's Fancy untouched and set sail for Lannisport. Lyman Lannister, Lord of Casterly Rock, had given Rhaena and her husband Aegon the Uncrowned refuge when Maegor the Cruel was demanding their heads. His bastard son, Ser Tyler Hill, had fought with Prince Aegon under the Gods Eye. His wife, the formidable Lady Jocasta of House Tarbeck, had befriended Rhaena during her time at the Rock and had been the first to discern that she was with child. Just as the queen had expected, they welcomed her now, and when the rest of her party landed in Lannisport, the Lannisters took them in as well. A lavish feast was held in their honor, an entire stable was given over to Dreamfyre, and Queen Rhaena, her husband, and her companions of the Four-Headed Beast were assigned a regally appointed suite of apartments deep in the bowels of the Rock itself, safe from any harm. There they lingered for more than a moon's turn, enjoying the hospitality of the wealthiest house in all of Westeros." "They brought the eggs that Dreamfyre laid with them as well, correct?" Ren asked and Draegon nodded. "I believe so, no Targaryen is stupid enough to leave eggs behind," he said with a bit of venom in his voice and everyone already guessed that some of his ancestors did lose some Dragon eggs.
"As the days passed, however, that very hospitality grew ever more disquieting to Rhaena Targaryen. It became apparent to her that the bedmaids and servants assigned to them were tattlers and spies, bringing word of their every doing back to Lord and Lady Lannister. One of the castle septas asked Samantha Stokeworth whether the queen's marriage to Androw Farman had ever been consummated, and if so, who had witnessed the bedding. Ser Tyler Hill, Lord Lyman's comely bastard son, was openly scornful of Androw, even whilst doing all he could to ingratiate himself to Rhaena herself, regaling her with tales of his exploits at the Battle Beneath the Gods Eye and showing her the scars he had taken there "in your Aegon's service." Lord Lyman himself began to express an unseemly interest in the three dragon eggs that the queen had brought from Fair Isle, wondering how and when they might be expected to hatch. His wife, Lady Jocasta, suggested privately that one or more of the eggs would make a fine gift, if Her Grace should wish to show her gratitude to House Lannister for taking her in. When that ploy proved unsuccessful, Lord Lyman offered to buy the eggs outright for a staggering sum of gold." Draegon went from mad to pissed off, Ozpin decided to ask. "Did something like this happen to you Draegon when your three young Dragons were still eggs?" He asked and Draegon took a deep breath to calm himself down before answering. "Yes, but I don't want to go in to detail right now, I'll tell you all another time," he said and continued reading.
"The Lord of Casterly Rock wanted more than just a highborn guest, Queen Rhaena realized then. Beneath the warmth of his veneer, he was too cunning and too ambitious to settle for so little. He wanted an alliance with the Iron Throne, possibly through marriage between her and his bastard, or one of his trueborn sons; some union that would raise the Lannisters up past the Hightowers, the Baratheons, and the Velaryons to be the second house in the realm. And he wanted dragons. With dragonriders of their own, the Lannisters would be the equals of the Targaryens. "They were kings once," she reminded Sam Stokeworth. "He smiles, but he was raised on tales of the Field of Fire; he will not have forgotten." Rhaena Targaryen knew her history as well; the history of the Freehold of Valyria, writ in blood and fire. "We cannot remain here," she confided to her dear companions. There we must leave Queen Rhaena for a time, whilst we cast our eyes eastward again toward King's Landing and Dragonstone, where the regent and king remained at odds." "I hope she can find a home to feel happiness, one where people don't use her for their own personal gain." Pyrrha said sadly.
"Vexing as the issue of the king's marriage was to Queen Alyssa and Lord Rogar, it must not be thought that it was the only matter that concerned them during their regency. Coin, or rather the lack of coin, was the Crown's most pressing problem. King Maegor's wars had been ruinously expensive, exhausting the royal treasury. To refill his coffers Maegor's master of coin had raised existing taxes and imposed new ones, but these measures brought in less gold than anticipated and only served to deepen the anathema with which the lords of the realm regarded the king. Nor had the situation improved with the ascension of Jaehaerys. The young prince's coronation and his mother's Golden Wedding had both been splendid affairs that had done much to win him the love of lords and smallfolk alike, but all that had come at a cost. An even larger expense loomed ahead; Lord Rogar was determined to complete work on the Dragonpit before handing the city and the kingdom over to Jaehaerys, but the funds were lacking. Edwell Celtigar, Lord of Claw Isle, had been an ineffectual Hand for Maegor the Cruel. Given a second chance under the regency, he proved to be an equally ineffectual master of coin. Unwilling to offend his fellow lords, Celtigar instead decided to impose new taxes on the smallfolk of King's Landing, who were conveniently close at hand. Port fees were tripled, certain goods were to be taxed both coming into and out of the city, and new levies were asked of innkeeps and builders." "I understand that taxes are normal but over taxing people like crazy is a terrible way to fix the economy, usually people take large portions of those taxes and keeps them for themselves." Weiss said disappointed because the workers under her father were in the same situation.
"None of these measures had the desired effect of filling up the treasury vaults. Instead building slowed to a halt, the inns emptied, and trade declined notably as merchants diverted their ships from King's Landing to Driftmark, Duskendale, Maidenpool, and other ports where they might evade taxation. (Lannisport and Oldtown, the other great cities of the realm, were also included in Lord Celtigar's new taxes, but there the decrees had less effect, largely because Casterly Rock and the Hightower ignored them and made no effort to collect.) The new levies did, however, serve to make Lord Celtigar loathed throughout the city. Lord Rogar and Queen Alyssa received their share of opprobrium as well. Another casualty was the Dragonpit; the Crown no longer had the funds to pay the builders, and all work on the great dome ceased. Storms were gathering to both north and south as well. With Lord Rogar occupied in King's Landing, the Dornishmen had grown bold, raiding more frequently into the marches, even troubling the stormlands. There were rumors of another Vulture King in the Red Mountains, and Lord Rogar's brothers Borys and Garon insisted they did not have the men and money required to root him out." "Oh, great another vulture, I am really wishing I could go back in time a kick some butts after what the last one did," Yang said as she pounded her fist together. "Yang if I could I would do the same and fix a great many other things that happened to my ancestors." Draegon said agreeing with her.
"Even more dire was the situation in the North. Brandon Stark, Lord of Winterfell, had died in 49 AC, not long after his return from the Golden Wedding; the journey, the northmen said, had asked too much of him. His son Walton succeeded him, and when a sudden rebellion broke out in 50 AC amongst the men of the Night's Watch at Rimegate and Sable Hall, he gathered his strength and rode to the Wall to join the leal watchmen in putting them down. The rebels were former Poor Fellows and Warrior's Sons who had accepted clemency from the boy king, led by Ser Olyver Bracken and Ser Raymund Mallery, the two turncloak knights who had served in Maegor's Kingsguard before abandoning him for Jaehaerys. The Lord Commander of the Watch, unwisely, had given Bracken and Mallery command of two crumbling forts, with orders to restore them; instead, the two men decided to make the castles their own seats and establish themselves as lords. Their uprising proved short-lived. For every man of the Night's Watch who joined their rebellion, ten remained true to their vows. Once joined by Lord Stark and his bannermen, the black brothers retook Rimegate and hanged the oathbreakers, save for Ser Olyver himself, who was beheaded by Lord Stark with his celebrated blade Ice. When word reached Sable Hall, the rebels there fled beyond the Wall in hopes of making common cause with the wildlings. Lord Walton pursued them, but two days north in the snows of the haunted forest, he and his men were set upon by giants. It was written afterward that Walton Stark slew two of them before he was dragged from his saddle and torn apart. His surviving men carried him back to Castle Black in pieces." "Oh, come on, there's no such thing as Giants," Jaune said not believing it. Draegon coughed getting everyone's attention before using his thumb and pointed at Drogon who was staring at Jaune as was Balerion. "Yeah, and there's no such thing as Dragons either," Ruby said and Jaune decided to shut-up since he knew he made a stupid comment.
"As for Ser Raymund Mallery and the other deserters, the wildlings gave them a cold welcome. Rebels or no, the free folk had no use for crows. Ser Raymund's head was delivered to Eastwatch half a year later. When asked what had befallen the rest of his men, the wildling chieftan laughed and said, "We ate them." Brandon Stark's second son, Alaric, became the Lord of Winterfell. He would rule the North for twenty-three years, an able man though a stern one…but for a long while he had no good to say of King Jaehaerys, for he blamed the king's clemency for his brother Walton's death, and was oft heard to say that His Grace should have beheaded Maegor's men rather than sending them to the Wall." "He would then be proving he was just a monster like his uncle was," Blake said. "No matter what decision you make people will always look at the bad side of it instead of the good," Alysanne said.
"Far removed from the troubles in the North, King Jaehaerys and Queen Alysanne remained in their self-imposed exile from the court, but they were anything but idle. Jaehaerys continued his rigorous training regimen with the knights of his Kingsguard every morn, and devoted his evenings to poring over accounts of the reign of his grandsire Aegon the Conqueror, on which he wished to model his own rule. Dragonstone's three maesters assisted him in these inquiries, as did the queen. As the days passed, more and more visitors made their way to Dragonstone to talk with the king. Lord Massey of Stonedance was the first to appear, but Lord Staunton of Rook's Rest, Lord Darklyn of Duskendale, and Lord Bar Emmon of Sharp Point came hard on his heels, followed by the Lords Harte, Rollingford, Mooton, and Stokeworth. Young Lord Rosby, whose father had taken his own life when King Maegor fell, turned up as well, sheepishly pleading for the young king's forgiveness, which Jaehaerys was pleased to grant. Though Daemon Velaryon, as the Crown's lord admiral and master of ships, was in King's Landing with the regents, that did not prevent Jaehaerys and Alysanne from flying their dragons to Driftmark and touring his shipyards, escorted by his sons, Corwyn, Jorgen, and Victor. When word of these meetings reached Lord Rogar in King's Landing he grew furious and went so far as to ask Lord Daemon if the Velaryon fleet could be used to prevent these "lords lickspittle" from crawling to Dragonstone to curry favor with the boy king. Lord Velaryon's reply was blunt. "No," he said. The Hand took this as a further sign of disrespect." "I am pleased that both of your families have been friends for so long, even when trouble comes both of your families seem to stick together and face it," Ozpin admired to Draegon and Alysanne. "Valyrians need to stick together and watch all our allies back," Draegon said and Alysanne nodded but noticed teams RWBY and JNPR felt left out and when Draegon saw it he spoke again. "I am talking about you guys as well, you may not be Valyrians but I would still protect you as if you were," Draegon stated and the others smiled and nodded.
"Meanwhile, Queen Alysanne's new ladies-in-waiting and companions had settled in on Dragonstone, and it soon became apparent that her mother's hope that these Wise Women might persuade the little queen that her marriage was unwise and impious had gone seriously awry. Neither prayer, sermons, nor readings from The Seven-Pointed Star could shake Alysanne Targaryen's conviction that the gods had meant her to marry her brother Jaehaerys, to be his confidant and helpmate and the mother of his children. "He will be a great king," she told Septa Ysabel, Lady Lucinda, and the others, "and I will be a great queen." So firm was she in her belief, and so gentle and kindly and loving in all else, that the septa and the other Wise Women found they could not condemn her, and with every passing day they clove more to her side. Lord Rogar's own plan to drive Jaehaerys and Alysanne apart fared no better. The young king and his queen were to spend their lives together, and though they would famously quarrel and part later in life, only to reunite, Septon Oswyck and Maester Culiper both tell us that never a cloud nor harsh word troubled their time together on Dragonstone before Jaehaerys reached his majority. Did Coryanne Wylde fail to bed the king? Is it possible that she never made the attempt? Is the whole tale of the meeting at the inn mayhaps a fiction? Any of these are possible. The author of A Caution for Young Girls would have it otherwise, but here that infamous text becomes even more unreliable, splintering off into half a dozen contradictory versions of events, each more vulgar than the last." "That's putting it bluntly but I am glad that they will always love each other. A lot of people say marriage ties you down which is slightly right but you should see it as a special bond that you will always love your spouse till death and maybe even after," Ren said and Ozpin flinched getting some bad memories in himself. The others smiled at Ren's words.
"It would not do for the wanton at the heart of that tale to admit that Jaehaerys had rejected her, or that she never found the opportunity to lure him into a bedchamber. Instead we are offered an assortment of lewd adventures, a veritable feast of filth. A Wanton's Tale insists that Lady Coryanne not only bedded the king, but also all seven members of the Kingsguard. His Grace supposedly gave her to Pate the Woodcock after he had sated his own lusts, Pate passed her to Ser Joffrey in turn, and so it went. The High and the Low omits these details, but tells us that Jaehaerys not only welcomed the girl into his bed, but also brought Queen Alysanne in to frolic with them in episodes most often associated with the infamous pleasure houses of Lys." "Wow," was all Alysanne said at the end and everyone else snapped their heads towards her, "What?" she asked confused. Draegon continued reading.
"A somewhat more plausible tale is told in Sins of the Flesh, wherein Coryanne Wylde does indeed lure King Jaehaerys into her bed, only to find him fumbling, uncertain, and over-hasty, as many boys of his age are known to be when first abed with a maid. By that time, however, Lady Coryanne had grown to admire and respect Queen Alysanne, "as if she were my own little sister," and had developed warm feelings for Jaehaerys as well. Instead of attempting to undo the king's marriage, therefore, she took it upon herself to help make it a success by educating His Grace in the art of giving and receiving carnal pleasure, so that he might not prove incapable when the time came to bed his young wife. This tale could well be as fanciful as the others, but it has a certain sweetness to it that has led some scholars to allow that it might, mayhaps, have happened. Lewd fables are not history, however, and history has only one sure thing to tell us about Lady Coryanne of House Wylde, the putative author of A Caution for Young Girls. On the fifteenth day of the sixth moon of 50 AC, she departed Dragonstone under the cover of night in the company of Ser Howard Bullock, the younger son of the commander of the castle garrison. A married man, Ser Howard left his wife behind him, though he took most of her jewelry. A fishing boat carried him and Lady Coryanne to Driftmark, where they took ship for the Free City of Pentos. From there they made their way to the Disputed Lands, where Ser Howard signed on to a free company called, with a singular lack of inspiration, the Free Company. He would die in Myr three years later, not in battle but in a fall from his horse after a night of drinking. Alone and penniless, Coryanne Wylde moved on to the next of the trials, tribulations, and erotic adventures recounted in her book. We need hear no more of her. By the time word of Lady Coryanne's flight with her purloined jewels and purloined husband reached the ears of Lord Rogar in the Red Keep, it had become obvious that his plan had failed, as had Queen Alyssa's. Piety and lust had both proved unable to break the bond between Jaehaerys Targaryen and his Alysanne." "They shouldn't have done it in the first place," Blake spoke up.
"Moreover, word of the king's marriage had begun to spread. Too many men had witnessed the confrontation at the castle gates, and the lords who had called at Dragonstone afterward had not failed to notice Alysanne's presence at the king's side, or the obvious affection between them. Rogar Baratheon might talk of tearing out tongues, but he was helpless against the whispers that spread throughout the land…and even across the narrow sea, where the magisters of Pentos and the sellswords of the Free Company were doubtless entertained by the tales Coryanne Wylde had to tell. "It is done," the Queen Regent told her councillors when she realized the truth at last. "It is done and cannot be undone, Seven save us. We must needs live with it, and we must use all our powers to protect them from what may come." She had lost two sons to Maegor the Cruel, and a coldness lay between her and her oldest daughter; she could not bear the thought of being forever estranged from the two children who remained to her. Rogar Baratheon could not yield as gracefully, however, and his wife's words woke in him a fury. In front of Grand Maester Benifer, Septon Mattheus, Lord Velaryon, and the rest, he spoke to her contemptuously. "You are weak," he declared, "as weak as your first husband was, as weak as your son. Sentiment may be forgiven in a mother, but not in a regent, and never in a king. We were fools to crown Jaehaerys. He thinks only of himself, and he will be a worse king than his father was. Thank the gods that it is not too late. We must act now and put him aside." "Oh, you son of a…" Yang started but Ruby cut her off, "Yang, I no your mad, I'm mad but cursing like crazy won't do anything," Ruby said. "Besides this has already happened," Weiss added not happy what Rogar said but needed to calm Yang down as well.
"A hush fell over the chamber at those words. The Queen Regent stared at her lord husband in horror and then, as if to prove that he had spoken truly, began to weep, her tears running silent down her cheeks. Only then did the other lords find their tongues. "Have you taken leave of your senses?" asked Lord Velaryon. Lord Corbray, Commander of the City Watch, shook his head and said, "My men will never stand for it." Grand Maester Benifer exchanged a glance with Prentys Tully, the master of laws. Lord Tully said, "Do you mean to claim the Iron Throne for yourself, then?" This Lord Rogar denied vehemently. "Never. Do you take me for a usurper? I want only what is best for the Seven Kingdoms. No harm need come to Jaehaerys. We can send him to Oldtown, to the Citadel. He is a bookish boy, a maester's chain will suit him." "Then who shall sit the Iron Throne?" demanded Lord Celtigar. "Princess Aerea," Lord Rogar answered at once. "There is a fire in her Jaehaerys does not have. She is young, but I can continue as her Hand, shape her, guide her, teach her all she must know. She has the stronger claim, her mother and father were King Aenys's first and secondborn, Jaehaerys was fourth." His fist slammed against the table then, Benifer tells us. "Her mother will support her. Queen Rhaena. And Rhaena has a dragon." Grand Maester Benifer recorded what followed. "A silence fell, though the same words were on the lips of us all: 'Jaehaerys and Alysanne have dragons too.' Qarl Corbray had fought in the Battle Beneath the Gods Eye, had witnessed the terrible sight of dragon fighting dragon. For the rest of us, the Hand's words conjured visions of Old Valyria before the Doom, when dragonlord contended with dragonlord for supremacy. It was an awful vision." "Dragon should never fight Dragon. After what happened to Aegon and Quicksilver should have been enough. Instead, everyone ignored it in the future," Draegon said sadly and Alysanne looked in shame as well which made everyone worried.
"It was Queen Alyssa who broke the spell, through her tears. "I am the Queen Regent," she reminded them. "Until my son shall come of age, all of you serve at my pleasure. Including the Hand of the King." When she turned to her lord husband, Benifer tells us that her eyes looked as hard and dark as obsidian. "Your service no longer pleases me, Lord Rogar. Leave us and return to Storm's End, and we need never speak again of your treason." Rogar Baratheon looked at her incredulously. "Woman. You think you can dismiss me? No." He laughed. "No." That was when Lord Corbray rose to his feet and drew his sword, the Valyrian steel blade called Lady Forlorn that was the pride of his house. "Yes," he said, and laid the blade upon the table, its point toward Lord Rogar. Then and only then did his lordship realize that he had gone too far, that he stood alone against every man in the room. Or so Benifer tells us. His lordship said no further word. His face pale, he stood and removed the golden brooch that Queen Alyssa had given him as a token of his office, flung it at her contemptuously, and strode from the room. He took his leave of King's Landing that very night, crossing the Blackwater Rush with his brother Orryn. There he lingered for six days, whilst his brother Ronnal assembled their knights and men-at-arms for the march home." "Good riddance if you ask me, I'm starting to think the only good Baratheon is Orys himself," Weiss said now hating the Baratheon's. "His heart was in the right place but he was going about it the wrong way," Ozpin said shocking everyone. "Ozpins right," Draegon said which surprised everyone even more. "There were some good Baratheon's as was their bad ones, just as there was Targaryen's. For me to judge them all would make me a hypocrite in defending my own family." He said and everyone thought of Maegor and Draegon had mentioned that some of his were good while his other ancestors weren't.
"Legend tells us that Lord Rogar awaited their coming in the selfsame inn beside the ferry where he, or his brother Borys, had met with Coryanne Wylde. When the Baratheon brothers and their levies finally set out for Storm's End, they had barely half as many men as had marched with them two years before to topple Maegor. The rest, it would seem, preferred the alleys and inns and temptations of the great city to the rainy woods, green hills, and moss-covered cottages of the stormlands. "I never lost so many men in battle as I did to the fleshpots and alehouses of King's Landing," Lord Rogar would say bitterly. One of those lost was Aerea Targaryen. On the night of Lord Rogar's dismissal, Ser Ronnal Baratheon and a dozen of his men forced their way into her chambers in the Red Keep, intending to take her with them…only to find that Queen Alyssa had stolen a march on them. The girl was already gone, and her servants knew not where. It would be learned later that Lord Corbray had removed her, at the Queen Regent's command. Dressed in the rags of a common girl of the lowest order, with her silver-gold hair dyed a muddy brown, Princess Aerea would spend the rest of the regency working in a stable near the King's Gate. She was eight years old and loved horses; years later, she would say that this was the happiest time of her life." "Smart move," Pyrrha said.
"Sad to say, there was to be little happiness for Queen Alyssa in the years to come. Her dismissal of her husband as the Hand of the King had destroyed any affection that Lord Rogar might ever have felt for her; from that day forth, their marriage was a ruined castle, an empty shell haunted by ghosts. "Alyssa Velaryon had survived the death of her husband and her two eldest sons, a daughter who perished in the cradle, years of terror under Maegor the Cruel, and a rift with her remaining children, but she could not survive this," Septon Barth would write, when he looked back upon her life. "It shattered her." Contemporary reports from Grand Maester Benifer agree. With Lord Rogar gone, Queen Alyssa named her brother Daemon Velaryon as Hand of the King, dispatched a raven to Dragonstone to tell her son Jaehaerys some (but not all) of what had occurred, and then retired to her chambers in Maegor's Holdfast. For the remainder of her regency, she left the rule of the Seven Kingdoms to Lord Daemon, and took no further part in public life." "She has suffered so much, forgive me for saying this but how is she still alive?" Blake asked believing anyone else would probably kill themselves from all that pain. "Hope," Alysanne theorized and broke the silence. "Hope that her remaining children would return to her," she said and the others nodded.
"It would be pleasant to report that Rogar Baratheon, once back at Storm's End, reflected on the error of his ways, repented his mistakes, and became a chastened man. Sadly, that was not his lordship's nature. He was a man who knew not how to yield. The taste of defeat was like bile in the back of his throat. In war, he would boast, he would ne'er lay down his axe whilst life remained in his body…and this matter of the king's marriage had become a war to him, one he was determined to win. One last folly remained to him, and he did not shrink from it. Thus it was that in Oldtown, at the motherhouse attached to the Starry Sept, Ser Orryn Baratheon appeared suddenly with a dozen men-at-arms and a letter bearing Lord Rogar's seal, demanding that the novice Rhaella Targaryen be turned over to them immediately. When questioned, Ser Orryn would say only that Lord Rogar had urgent need of the girl at Storm's End. The ploy might well have worked, but Septa Karolyn, who had the door of the motherhouse that day, had a spine of steel and a suspicious nature. Whilst placating Ser Orryn with the pretext of sending for the girl, she sent instead to the High Septon. His High Holiness was (mayhaps fortunately, for both the child and the realm) asleep, but his steward (a former knight, who had been a captain in the Warrior's Sons until they were abolished) was awake and wary." "This guy just won't take a hint when everyone has told him he's lost," Ruby said.
"In place of a frightened girl, the Baratheon men found themselves confronted by thirty armed septons under the command of the steward, Casper Straw. When Ser Orryn brandished a sword, Straw calmly informed him that twoscore of Lord Hightower's knights were on their way (a lie, as it happened), whereupon the Baratheons surrendered. Under questioning, Ser Orryn confessed the entire plot: he was to deliver the girl to Storm's End, where Lord Rogar planned to force her to confess that she was the actual Princess Aerea, not Rhaella. Then he meant to name her queen. The Father of the Faithful, a man as gentle as he was weak of will, heard Orryn Baratheon's confession and forgave him. This did not prevent Lord Hightower, once informed, from throwing the captive Baratheons into a dungeon and dispatching a full account of the affair to both the Red Keep and Dragonstone. Donnel Hightower, who had rightly been named Donnel the Delayer for his reluctance to take the field against Septon Moon and his followers, seemed to have no fear of offending Storm's End by imprisoning Lord Rogar's own brother. "Let him come and try to prise him free," he said when his maester worried about how the former Hand might react. "His own wife took his hand and cut his balls off, and soon enough the king will have his head." "Well, these HighTower's seem to have some backbone," Yang said a little surprised that they were ready for a fight. "You have no idea Yang," Draegon said and Alysanne looked at Draegon in surprise believing he was thinking about the HighTower's start in the Dance.
"Across the width of Westeros, Rogar Baratheon fumed and raged when he learned of his brother's failure and imprisonment…but he did not call his banners, as many had feared. Instead he fell into despair. "I am done," he told his own maester glumly. "It is the Wall for me, if the gods are good. If not, the boy will have my head and make a gift of it to his mother." Having sired no children by either of his wives, he commanded his maester to draft a will and confession, wherein he absolved his brothers Borys, Garon, and Ronnal of having played any role in his wrongdoing, begged for mercy for his youngest brother, Orryn, and named Ser Borys as heir to Storm's End. "All I did and all I tried to do was for the good of the realm and the Iron Throne," he ended. His lordship would not have long to wait to know his fate. The regency was almost at an end. With the former Hand and Queen Regent both wounded and silent, Lord Daemon Velaryon and the remaining members of the queen's council ruled the realm as best they could, "saying little and doing less" in the words of Grand Maester Benifer." "I almost feel sorry for them even Rogar," Pyrrha said.
"On the twentieth day of the ninth moon of 50 AC, Jaehaerys Targaryen reached his sixteenth nameday and became a man grown. By the laws of the Seven Kingdoms, he was now old enough to rule in his own right, with no further need of a regent. All across the Seven Kingdoms, lords and smallfolk alike waited to see what kind of king he would be."
Draegon sighed and marked the page and closed the book.
"Aww, you're stopping now," Ruby complained wanting too here more.
"Ruby the tournament continues in three hours I think Yang and Pyrrha should use this time to get ready," Draegon stated and everyone nodded. They started getting up and leaving while Alysanne walked up to Draegon.
"Thank you for inviting me, Draegon," Alysanne said and Draegon nodded in reply. "Would it be okay if I borrow the book so that I can read about Aegon, Aenys, and Maegor. I promise I will do my best not to go any further without you." She stated.
"I don't see why not," Draegon said as he handed her the book and Alysanne smiled and took but as she grabbed it her hand grabbed part of Draegons and she smiled while Draegon blushed a little and let go. Alysanne smirked at team RWBY who glared back before walking back to her temporary room. Draegon then noticed his teammates glared at him in an irritated way but Draegon shrugged his shoulders wondering what that was about. Draegon noticed Ozpin was about to leave as well so he called out to him.
"Professor can we talk?" He asked which got his teammates curious. "It's nothing bad or anything I just need to ask him a personal question that's all," Draegon said and Ruby, Weiss, Yang, Nora, and Jaune all nodded. Blake, Pyrrha, and Ren thought otherwise but decided to let it go.
"Yang, Pyrrha, good luck out there," Draegon said and the two girls nodded and left with their teammates and Ozpin spoke up.
"You have question on what I was talking about with Qrow and the other teaches that you were trying to listen in on," Ozpin stated.
"Yeah, Drogon isn't too stealthy," Draegon said and the Dragon in question growled. Draegon sighed and decided to be blunt.
"Professor, I don't know what is going on but forgive me for saying this but you know many things that you're keeping to yourself especially on the one who infiltrated Beacon and from what I can tell, you've told Pyrrha something that now she looks like she regrets ever hearing it because I noticed that she was happy but when she was called to meet you, she came back with a look that made her broken. I've tried to be patient but no more," he said as Balerion crawled on to his shoulder and Drogon head was over Draegon growling at him.
"Who's really behind all of this? What is really going on? If I'm not given an honest answer then I'm done I have no use for Beacon academy anymore. I tried to ease my friends by reading a good part of My book but it hasn't eased me. So will you tell me or is this goodbye, because I have found no information to the scars of my past," Draegon said Drogon growled again also not happy because his brother was un happy and Ozpin sighed in defeat.
"Your right I haven't been honest, nothing gets past you it seems so when the tournament is over, I will tell you the truth the whole truth I promise." Ozpin said, Draegon narrowed his eyes but nodded.
"I will hold you to this," Draegon said as he walked away with Balerion on his shoulder while Meraxes and Vhagar flew back to Drogon nest. Ozpin saw that Drogon was still staring at him but also crawled away. Ozpin left as well and Draegon kept watching him as he walked away.
"I just hope nothing bad in the tournament happens to prevent me from talking to Ozpin," Draegon said to Balerion only to hear a growl in reply.
Draegon had a look of shock at what Yang did but something didn't feel right. He Jinxed himself.
"Yang Xiao Long, stand down!" an Atlas soldier commanded.
"My leg, MY LEG!" Mercury cried out in pain.
"Please, somebody help him!" Emerald called out in distressed as paramedics come over with a stretcher, lowering it to Mercury. "Can you do something!?" She asked sadly.
"We need to get this boy to a hospital. Grab a blanket." The Paramedic said to his partner.
They get Mercury on the stretcher and rush him off, Emerald following right behind. Yang looks on with a horrified expression, her lilac eyes now almost colorless.
"You don't understand!" Yang said to the guards and points at him. "He attacked me; I swear!" She spoke.
"Stow it! You've already caused enough of a scene!" The guard replied as they lifted their guns higher in response.
Draegon narrowed his eyes dangerously but not at Yang, something was wrong, something was very wrong.
Well I hope it was awesome and yeah Alysanne wants Draegon for obvious reasons so she chose to show team RWBY she means business. Anyway its the beginning of the end for Beacon so stay tuned, vote and if you have any ideas that would look good in my story I would love to hear them. I've been thinking about adding more OCs. If you have ideas please comment. I would love to hear them.