Jon

Reading about the history of the dragons felt personal to Jon, before he was mostly interested in the great kings and the wars they waged, but now he took in every detail. The reigns of Aegon, Maekar, Daeron and Jaehaerys, it baffled Jon to think all those kings were his ancestors.

He read some of the Targaryen Maester Aemon, his great, great, great uncle, the brother of Aegon the Unlikely, his great great grandfather. Aegon was a fourth born son who lived his life among the smallfolk and ascended to the throne after hltwo of his brothers died, while the remaining refused his rights to the throne. It made Jon wonder why, the council were ready to practically hand him the throne but still he preferred exile to the Wall, leaving his brother to rule the Seven Kingdoms. Jon pondered whether he should take up his uncle's offer, perhaps he could ask Aemon himself.

When Joanna found him, looking at her made Jon remember his promise to her and it brought back the same doubts it always had, but when she took his hand and looked into his eyes all those years flashed before Jon's eyes and he knew that if there was anyone he would tell it was her, no matter who her father or grandfather were, just like it didn't matter whom Jon's were. So he asked her to see him in the Godswood the next day.

He didn't sleep that night, he stared up at the ceiling pondering how he would tell Jo the truth. How should he start it? Tell her who his parents were, that Lord Stark was not his father, or should he tell her about Rhaegar and Lyanna first? He didn't want her to think he was the product of rape even for a moment, he ought to spare her that like Lord Stark spared him that. He had to explain it slowly like Lord Stark had done, and pray she understood.

When morning broke Jon left immediately, but first he went to Maester Luwin, knowing the man was up as he always was. Maester Luwin had been surprised when he had shed for the book on Targaryen kings, but was completely baffled when he asked if he had any holy texts of the Faith of the Seven. He knew Joanna wasn't particularly religious, but he needed her to know the dirty of the situation as well as he had done the night they were alone on the Godswood at night and she made him swear to keep her secret. Though no follower of the Seven, Maester Luwin produced a copy of the Seven Pointed Star and Jon took it gladly as he went to the Godswood, his heart beating heavily. As he had expected, Joanna was already there, kneeling by the Heart Tree. She turned to him and immediately went over to him. Her eyes widened in surprise at the Seven Pointed Star.

"Jon..."

He took her hand firmly.

"Jo, what i am about to say needs to stay between us. You can't tell your father, mother, siblings, or anyone else. My entire family will be in danger. Jo, I need you to do for me what I did for you, sweat with your hand on this book that you shall tell no one no matter how you will about what I tell you. "

She looked him in the eyes and nodded. She placed one hand on the book and the other on the Heart Tree.

"I swear it by the Old Gods and the New".

Jon nodded, setting the book down and taking both her hands in his.

"Jo, Lord Stark has revealed to me the truth he had been hiding from everyone since the day he brought me to Winterfell. He had it from your father and grandfather, if they knew they would want me dead."

She looked puzzled.

"Why would they want you dead, Jon?".

"Jo, Eddard Stark is not my father. He is my uncle. Lyanna Stark was my mother. She wasn't kidnapped, Jo. She and Rhaegar Targaryen met at Harrenhal and ran away together. They were in love. Jo, I was born at the Tower of Joy, where my mother died. Rhaegar Targaryen was my... true father".

He forced himself to look her in the eyes as she took in. She stared at him wordlessly, then closed her eyes and breathed heavily for a moment. When she opened them, she asked him.

"How did it happen, Jon? How did your... Lord Stark end up doing this? How is it possible?"

He explained everything carefully. How his mother had saved Howland Reed, how she stood up for his honor, how Rhaegar had discovered her secret and how they shared a secret passion for one another. How Rhaegar convinced his wife to annul the marriage and how he married Lyanna Stark after fleeing. How his mother claimed to have tried to explain what had happened before it was too late to make things right but failed, how after her father killed Rhaegar and her grandfather killed Elia and her children. How Lord Stark found his mother dying and him in Wylla's arms and she begged him to keep him safe. How Lord Stark had lied and deceived his family and her hers for all these years until his brother convinced him it was time to tell the truth to those who could know it.

"Maekar" Jon finished, breathless from telling the story. "That's my true name". Then he finally dropped his gaze.

She lingered beside him for an eternity, he could feel her eyes on him.

"Jon... what do you want to do? Now that you know?"

He looked at her and saw worry in her eyes.

"Jo, I don't want your father's throne. Half the realm died for that damn thing, many times. I don't want anything to do with it. All I want is to be for us all to live, Jo, all I want is for all my family to be safe along with the realm. If the truth got out..."

"It would mean war," Joanna said sadly. "My father... he still hates Rhaegar. If he knew the truth, Jon he wouldn't be angry he would go mad from it. The woman he loved chose the man he hated more than anyone, that she married his enemy instead of him. He'd be angry, humiliated, and he would... Lord Stark never told him, he'd feel betrayed, he'd see the Starks dead at his worst. My grandfather... Gods, it never felt real to me when they said about Elia, but Gods...

She stumbled slightly and he reached out to steady her.

"No one can know," she said firmly. Then she looked at him.

"No one will know, Jo," he said, nodding.

"You'd all be dead if he knew. Jon..."

She came a bit closer and slowly but surely, wrapped her arms around him. He welcomed it, feeling the warmth of her against him as his heart sank in relief.

"Jon... I need to think it over, I hope you understand that... but when I trusted you, you kept your word, and I promised you something the other day and I'll keep that promise."

They broke the hug and he nodded.

"Jo..."

She lifted her hand reassuringly.

"It will be alright, Jon. I'll speak to you later. I need some time."

He nodded solemnly and watched her go, despite all her words, praying he wasn't losing her.

His uncle found him later that day.

"I want to go with you, Uncle," Jon said. "I want to meet Aemon."

Jaime

The memory of Jon Arryn's remains in the Sept stayed with Jaime as well as his conversation with his sister as they watched the ceremony.

What if he told someone? his sister had said.

"Who could he tell? His idiot wife?"

"My husband," she whispered spitefully. Her eyes were sharp but Jaime smiled at how beautiful she was when she was angry.

"If that happened we'd both be dead, my love" he whispered as she scoffed. "You're looking nervous, it's starting to show."

"This isn't a joke, Jaime".

"Its a funeral, sister, org course it's not a joke. But whatever he knew it died with him. We burned that paper the girl brought..."

"She needs to be silenced" Cersei said and Jaime signed.

"She knows it's in her best interests to keep her mouth shut. Besides, I doubt she's clever enough to understand what any of this meant. She's due to marry soon, like we promised, she'll forget about it. So should we.

"Arryn wished to go to Winterfell" Cersei said, no longer listening to him. "What if he knows?"

"He wouldn't have stood for all this secrecy. He'd have advised Arryn to go to Robert as soon as possible."

"You know better than that. He's a fool."

"I doubt Arryn told him byraven, sister . He'll have planned to do it at Winterfell."

"Robert's taking us there" his sister said, smiling now.

"And" Jaime asked, sensing a plan form in her mind.

"If Stark plots something, Joanna will know. She's clever."

"What are you suggesting?"

She looked at him.

"My daughter will know where her allegiance lies, that I can assure you."

The journey to Winterfell was long and boring. Robert drank and cursed and drank again, while his sister was trapped in that damn wheelhouse just a small distance from him and Jaime felt so angry. She was so close and yet he could not have her. It made the ride stretch on and on.

It was like when they were small and they didn't understand what they were doing yet, but somehow knew it wasn't to be seen. When that servant caught them and their mother found out, Jaime was frightened and then felt ashamed after seeing the horror on her face as she imagined what they were doing. It stayed with him as she separated them and even had Cersei's door guarded.

It's wrong to think about her like that, Jaime. She had said, firmly but sadly. Never do anything like that again, or I'll have no choice and shall tell your father. At the sound of that he actually shuddered as he imagined his father's reaction.

They were kept apart after that for a long time. Jaime felt his mother was then and he left frustrated and angry, yet still, the shame she instilled within him had remained. Until she had died. The grief was overwhelming. Cersei cried and he held her. He was to overcome with grief himself to prove anything by it but then slowly it began to mean something again. At first he tried to fight it, his mother's words in his head, but being without Cersei was so suffocating, he could no longer bear it. The guilt went away soon enough. She didn't understand, Cersei had said, that's all.

He felt like that now, she was so near and yet so far. He could see her hungry eyes gaping at him, she felt it too and it made him smile.

His brother was looking quite excited for the journey abd Jaime knew the reason why. Tyrion and their niece always had a strong bond and his brother was looking forward to seeing her again, Jaime teased him relentlessly for it, but he himself looked forward to seeing her. He didn't send too many letters to her, mainly on name days, but he was fond if her, she was pleasant enough to get around in contrast to Joffrey.

Joffrey, who was growing taller, was frustrated with life on the road and they all had to endure his tantrums. His siblings were taking it better though, and once again Jaime wondered why Joffrey grew up like he did.

When they arrived at Winterfell, Stark treated them with his family. Out of all the children only the younger daughter looked like a Stark. The Tully woman stood by her husband and he couldn't think of a more mismatched pair, Lord Of Winterfell, worshipper of Old Gods and spirits and his Southern wife. The Ironborn hostage looked smug as if he was the lord's heir and not the charming auburn haired boy next to him. Beside them stood Joanna. She had grown taller but Jaime thought she was still shorter than a girl her age should be. She had looked like her mother when she left, though now she showed most of Robert, though still her eyes made Jaime think fondly of his own mother as he greeted the girl with a genuine smile.

He almost laughed at the look on Stark's face when he saw how far Robert had fallen, and burned with rage when he saw the man give him the same condescending look as all those years ago in the throne room. How dare this man judge him? How dare he condemn him about things of which he knew nothing? But Jaime has always swallowed it, telling himself not to care. The world was a damned place, why should he care?

He worried what would occur when the children were left alone knowing Joffrey and how he behaved around his sister previously. Jaime revered the horror he felt when he watched the girl fall into the ocean...

When they returned, Joffrey was proudly showing off the sword Joanna had given him, a fine one, called Lion's Tooth. That had been clever, she knew what to give Joff to keep him in a good mood.

Myrcella got a pretty coat while Tommen got another cat he called Ser Lion. That gift was thoughtful enough though not very pleasant for Jaime or anyone else, the cat seemed to hate everyone except Tommen himself, it hissed and even scratched at Cersei whenever Tommen wasn't nearby, which luckily wasn't too often, though thanks to Joanna Tommen and Myrcella fell in love with the direwolves the Stark took in as pets. Cersei had been paranoid about having her children near them but Jaime calmed her nerves, though he knew it was a matter of time before the wolves got too feral for Stark's children to control.

Stark himself initially spent much of his time with Robert, accompanying the Stag on his silly antics. It served Jaime well, for he and Cersei found more opportunities to get close together, though not nearly as much as they would both like, but they took their time with the children. Cersei spent most time with them, but when he could be with them Jaime noticed the stiff, formal way his sister and her elder daughter addressed each other. Cersei wore a smile on her face but he knew her too well not to see how painted it was. Jaime knew she was biding her time to interrogate her daughter, he had advised her against it lest she frighten the girl, but his sister was a stubborn woman and eventually, thanks to Robert finally seeing his wife and daughter weren't seeing eye to eye and arranged for them to spend time together.

He tried to warn her not to be too forceful, to be gentle. But she laughed.

"I'll be cunning enough brother, but she is my daughter, she'll tell me all I need to know.".

But when Cersei returned, her confidence was gone and her eyes burned with worry.

"She claims to know nothing, but that doesn't mean we're safe," she said, clearly disappointed.

Jaime himself wasn't surprised, if Jon Arryn had discovered their secret and informed Stark, he knew Robert would already know by now.

"How was Joanna?" he asked.

She looked at him in surprise at the question.

"Fine," she said simply.

The rest of that day went by uneventfully, though Stark's frozen face seemed more grim than ever tonight and he could see the other children, including Joanna, seemed down as well. It was of little interest to Jaime, until the Tully woman herself seemed to slip into some sort of depression and locked herself away. It cast some sort of dark cloud over the Starks that grimmed down the news of Stark's appointment as Hand.

It didn't matter much to Jaime, but his sister was taking pleasure out of watching their faces. Eventually the Tully woman came out, but she was clearly different. Her manners were sharp but stiff and she avoided any contact with her husband, and she seemed list in her thoughts whenever she wasn't speaking to anybody, and Stark himself was taking it badly. Robert however didn't seem to notice and threw a small celebration, and Jaime somehow knew it was time.

He was expecting the knock at his door and the servant carrying the message. He grinned as he read it.

At midday, at the Broken Tower of the First Keep, my lion.

The First Keep was an old abandoned fort of Winterfell, and it's high broken tower looked as haunted as the rest of the place. But Jaime smiled as he strolled through it corridor to find his Queen awaiting him with a grin.

"Come brother, it's been so long".

No ounce of shame overcame him as he lay down against her. No ounce of shame and he screamed her name and she screamed his as they pressed against each other. If this was wrong, he didn't care. He didn't care.

But then she screamed. Screamed with such shock and fear that Jaime jumped in horror as he followed her gaze towards the window. He saw the small, auburn haired shape slide out of sight, but they got to him in an instant.

The boy clang onto the window, terrified and shocked, his Tully face fearful and weeping. Jaime felt like he was falling down a bleek black hole. He knew. He saw them. He saw them.

That's what Cersei's eyes were screaming at him as turned his gaze from the boy to him. He knows, he saw them.

Jaime's heart froze and he turned towards the boy. It was an instinct really. His hand stretched out and the boy looked glad. Grateful as he took it and Jaime pulled him up. God, why? Am I really so damned.

When the boy was looking at him, confused, Jaime wondered whether he could really do it despite Cersei's heavy breathing. This isn't what he was supposed to be. This isn't what he wanted to be. He never wanted to be what everyone called him.

Kingslayer. Oathbreaker. Murderer.

Those words brought anger to the forth and he thought of Stark's judging eyes and Robert's snides. Why should he care? They've already judged him, made him the monster. Why not just be the monster?

He looked the boy in the eyes.

"How old are you?"

"Seven," the boy said meekly.

Jaime signed loathing, hating the whole damn world and then spoke to no one in particular.

"The things I do for love".

Joanna

Jon looked like a Stark. More than the others. Except Arya. Arya who always was said to look like Lyanna Stark.

Lyanna Stark. Her father's great love. The woman he was meant to marry.

She should have been your mother, he once told her when he was drunker than normal. You should have had her eyes.

The girl who was kidnapped, raped, and left to die by the man her father hated more than anyone or anything in the whole world. Only she wasn't. In reality she met him, long ago at the tourney. Her father went on about it once, how Rhaegar shamed Lyanna by crowning her with Winter Roses. They had fallen in love, fled and married, leaving behind a broken realm that tore itself apart. They were both gone now. But survived by their son. Maekar. Jon. Her Jon. The boy who had always been her friend and she his. The son and the daughter of two men who hated each other forever. My father killed his father. But Jon didn't hate her, did he? Surely not, he trusted her with his secret, no he didn't blame her.

But what about her?

She lay on her bed thinking about that. She promised Jon she would be at his side and she would, but she felt so confused. Jon looked like a Stark. Dark brown hair and grey eyes and the Northern face that was only broken by his warm smile that felt so precious? The dragons had silver hair and violet eyes. But the dragons practiced inbreeding, brothers wed sisters and sisters wed brothers. Jon was born of a union of two separate bloodlines. Fire and Ice. The Ice had won and Jon looked like a wolf, he was a wolf, but he was something else too. Something she was told to fear and hate and yet she never paid it a second mind.

Jon, who had laughed with her and played with her and grew up with her, joined the children he called his siblings and welcomed them into their family. Who she knew would keep his word if she asked him not to tell anyone of her dark suspicions. He was the son of the man her father hated, the woman her mother was always jealous of? The grandson of the mad man who burned men alive for the fun of it. That blood flowed in his veins. They would say they ought to have each other, to be enemies. And yet they were far from that.

She thought of the long line of Targaryens that came before Jon; she had some of that blood too, through Orys Baratheon and Rhaelle Targaryen. There were wise Targaryens and kind ones too, but there were also the dark ones , those consumed by that strange madness that seemed to curse their family since their very dawn. But Jon had none of that darkness within him.

Jon was a Stark to her, not a Snow, for he had acted as true as any son of Ned Stark. The honorable Ned Stark, who spoke of truth and honor, who betrayed her father. But was it a betrayal? She had seen the look in her father's eyes and it had always frightened her.

"All the Targaryens couldn't be bad, father, could they?" she once told him when she was seven. He stared at her red faced.

"They were incestous cunts who alnost destroyed the realm and don't you ever think otherwise" he shouted angrily and she shivered. But by then she had learnt not to take him too seriously, especially not when he was drunk.

She thought of what Jon told her, of how her father did nothing to punish Tywin Lannister for his crime. It hadn't felt real to her before. It was just a story, a legend, but now...

Had he done it? Had he looked at the bodies of a butchered mother and her children and called it just? Had her grandfather been so desperate to preserve his House that he ordered such an act. The answer was simple and yet Joanna never had to face it before. Her grandfather was a murderer like Aerys Targaryen was and Robert had done nothing to punish it out of hatred for something that never happened. Her blood was not innocent, she realised, no. But her family didn't define her, why should Jon's?

Jon as she knew him was a quiet and sullen boy, observant and sometimes a bit gruff, but that ive hid a warm heart that had love for all close to him. She had seen him with his siblings, or cousins, but they are truer siblings than many. He had his faults, he was at times too privileged despite his false bastardy and he could be so damn stubborn... But she knew him, she knew Jon Snow and whoever Maekar Targaryen was didn't matter. It didn't matter what his grandfather did, it didn't matter what his parents did. All that mattered was that Jon was her friend and while it would still take her time to adjust to his true identity, she needed him to know that he could rely on her, that she didn't care about what their fathers were to each other.

Ned Stark was the one who raised Jon. Ned Stark whom called him son and treated as well as a bastard could be treated. She felt a surge of anger at him, he had lied, he had deceived his family, but if her father really stood by and let Rhaenys and Aegon be slaughtered by her grandfather, then even Lord Stark couldn't stop him from killing the proof that Lyanna Stark didn't love him.

If her father found out, it would mean war and misery for the realm. Lord Stark wouldn't allow Jon to be harmed. No one could know. So why had Jon told her? Did he feel he owed her? Did he feel obliged to confess to her? Either way he really knew he could trust her and that was enough. He was her friend and it didn't matter who his parents were, and now he almost certainly needed her.

She wasn't sure how long she sat in her room, but it was clearly a long time. Her father was drinking again while her siblings were with the Stark children. Her mother was nowhere to be found.

She hesitated for a moment before knocking on Jon's door.

"Jo?"

"Hello".

She entered quietly and he shut the door behind her and looked at her awkwardly. Ghost jolted to her immediately and began to lick her hand and she slowly giggled as she went down to pet him as Jon stared.

"Jo..."

"Jon, it's gonna take me a while to adjust to this" she said getting up. "I know you'll understand that. But I can promise you that who your parents were will not change how I see. I swear."

He looked absolutely relieved at words, his eyes lit up and he sighed happily.

"Joanna...thank you".

She smiled as she gave him a hug, a proper one this time.

"If it's hard for me, I can only imagine what it is like for you" she said sympathetically. He nodded quietly as they sat on the bed. Ghost sat in between them, silent as ever.

"It's like... I've lived my whole life knowing I was one thing. All I felt I needed to know was my mother's name. Now that's practically all I really know. I lived to live thinking I was a son of Lord Eddard Stark, I've tried to be like him all those years, I wanted to be my father's son despite my bastardy. And now, I went from having a father and perhaps a mother waiting for me somewhere in the world, to having no patents and a family I don't even know what to call. Is the man I've tried to make proud of me all my life my father or is he my uncle? Are his children, whom I spent my whole life with my siblings or my cousins? Are all those kings and queens of Westeros truly my family? I just don't know, Joanna".

He was crying now and she looked at him sadly.

"I get how that might feel, Jon,'' she told him after a moment. "I... love my family, I do, even Joffrey despite it all, but I sometimes feel like my place is here with you all and not with them. It makes me feel guilty sometimes."

He nodded.

"I feel that too. I'm getting curious about the Targaryens, but a part of me feels like I'm rejecting Lord Stark with it. And... I'm going with Uncle Benjen to the Wall, after all, I'll call back, if Lady Catelyn..."

"What about her?"

"She knows now, so perhaps she won't want me here".

"Jon, she knows your family loves you. She won't do anything against them."

He sighed.

"There is a Maester at the Wall, Aemon. He is the brother of Aegon the Unlikely".

"I've read about him" Joanna told him, "he could have had the throne but he refused it."

"He had helped Uncle Benjen when he was at the Wall, my uncle thinks perhaps he can help me, but Lord Stark..."

"You won't betray him, Jon. He knows that. You have the right to speak to one of your last living relatives, from Rhaegar's side."

"I just... I still want him to be my father, Jo".

"Did you ever think he could be anything else?"

"No."

"Then he is your father, Jon. He loves you and you love him. That's all you need."

Jon looked at her then nodded as she held his hand.

"My mother... she left me letters."

He reached down and took a red and black box with the sigils of House Targaryen, Stark and Martell. Jon explained that Rhaegar and Lyanna kept it in case something happened to them.

"There are letters to Rhaenys and Aegon but I didn't open them. It's not mine to read. But I read these..."

He showed her the birth certificate for Maekar Targaryen, the announcement of the annulment and wedding.

All he would ever need to prove his claim, a voice said in her head but she quickly shut it down. Jon was no lordling who craved power above all else. Right now he was a young man who wanted nothing but a family.

"My mother's letter to me" he said and she hesitated. "It's alright" he said and she slowly began to read it. A tear strolled down her cheeks as she finished and looked at Jon.

"She loved you, Jon" she told him with a small smile that he returned.

"She did," he said. Then his face turned somewhat grim.

"What is it?"

"Why did they do this, Jo? They destroyed so many lives..."

She could see his point, she had thought the same before, but reading the letter something caught her eye.

"I can't justify what they did, but she says she tried to get the word out before your grandfather and uncle were executed."

"Murdered," Jon said darkly and she sadly nodded.

"You're parents, whatever they were and how it ended, they at least tried to stop it."

He sighed heavily.

"I suppose I'm more angry with Rhaegar. He had a wife, children, a duty to them and the realm, and he set it all aside. His father was a monster, but the realm didn't have to suffer what it did to be free from the Mad King. No one else had to die. My mother...she didn't have to die."

She found no word's for that, all she could do was hold his hand reassuringly.

"I can't read these, Jo" he said, holding up Rhaegar's letters. "I'm not ready andIi don't think I ever will be. It's just so damn hard, I want to know about the Targaryens but I'm so angry. Do you think I should even speak to Aemon? I've already said I would, but..."

She thought on it for a moment.

"I think you should Jon. Rhaegar wasn't your only relative and neither was the Mad King. Aegon the Unlikely was a decent man as were many others. Aemon might help you connect with them without all that anger. And Jon... I don't know anything about him, but... it might make Aemon happy too, knowing he still has family in the Seven Kingdoms. That he's not alone..."

She came closer to him, putting her hand on his shoulder

"And neither are you".

He closed his eyes silently.

"Thank you, Jo" he said at last and she finally saw it, that smile that could warm a thousand hearts.

"Now, why don't we go for a ride, while we're both free," she said, pulling him up.

"But what if someone sees us?" he asked unsurely.

"So? I'm going on a ride with my friend."

"I'm still a bastard to the world. The Queen..."

"Don't worry about my mother. Come on".

The two of them made their way to the stables with Ghost in tow. Soon they were riding across Wintertown as the white wolf ran lightly beside them.

"Its a beautiful place, isn't it" Jon said fondly.

"Yes it is" Joanna said with a smile.

"How about a race?" he asked after the moment. "To the First Keep and back?"

"Only if you let me win" she said, then sgecwas already riding as Jon and Ghost tried to catch up to her. They got to the First Keep soon enough as they came to a halt to allow their horses to rest.

"We're drawn for now" Joanna smiling as Jon gave a small laugh.

Ghost was silently striding between them when suddenly his ears perked up and they saw something move in the distance, coming towards them. It was Summer, and he was restless. He set off back where he came from and Ghost immediately followed, looking back at them as if to incline them to follow them. They galloped after them quietly and they found them waiting by the Broken Tower.

"What is it boy?" Jon asked his staring wolf.

"Jon..." Joanna whispered quietly as she looked at where Summer was heading.

"Oh, Gods" said Jon as they both registered what, no, who lay beside Summer.

Jon's cry of his brother's name was only deafened by Joanna's scream.

Jorah

The thought of Lynesse made Jorah both sad and angry. The loss of her filled him with grief and pain. But there was fury. He had done everything for his wife, bought her all she needed to be happy. Dealt in slavery to keep her happy, but now she was in Lys with a merchant prince as her lover while he was left to travel and beg and drink, cast out and disowned until a lucky strike gave him a chance at redemption. A stride that brought him here, to a wedding between a princess and a Khal.

Rhaegar Targaryen had been a man of valor and knowledge, he respected that despite having fought against the dragons, but his brother was everything he was not, Viserys was angry and weak and not very clever, and for all his poverty, the Beggar King was a brat. He was practically being handed a promise of an army with the help of Illyrio Mopatis, the fat oaf, and he wasn't even trying to hide how he thought the Khal was beneath him.

The Khal was a powerfully built man who imposed restraint even on Jorah. But the girl he was marrying was meek and soft-spoken, and Jorah couldn't help but pity her. Her brother was selling her off like cattle and making nothing of it.

The girl was dressed in a pretty dress, but it could not hide the rear in her eyes during the ceremony or her nervousness during the dance of death, still she took it surprisingly bravely, she had the dragon's courage.

Jorah watched as the wedding gifts were presented. Her brother gave her three hadmaids provided by Mopatis.

He brought forward whatever gift an exile could manage, a small stack of old books on the histories and songs of the Seven Kingdoms. He had apologized,but his heart was warmed slightly and irked a bit with guilt as she thanked him happily.

He watched and Illyrio presented her with fine wine, a well enough gift, but the next was no ordinary present. It came in the chest with other gifts, but it was so much unlike them and the look of winder on Jorah's face was only matched by her own.

It was an egg, covered with tiny scales, as black as midnight yet highlighted by the blood red markings that outlined on it, shimmering in the light of the setting sun.

"This is a dragon egg," she said in awe, her purple eyes twinkling.

"From the Shadow Lands beyond Asshai," said Magister Illyrio. "The eons have turned it to stone, yet still it burns bright with beauty. There were three once, they said, but the remaining two were lost. May the last one remind you of your family for ever."

The girl rarely took her eyes off that egg until they took it away as the feast ended. Jorah watched from afar as she was led away with the khal, sharing words with her brother, whose gaunt eyes seemed to make the girl shiver. Daenerys Targaryen vanished from his sight and stayed in Jorah's mind as he made way, alone in the night, to a man standing by a tree.

"News?"

"Aye" he said, holding up the parchment meant for the master of whispers. "The dragons' plot has begun."

(Please leave your thoughts in the comments. I enjoy reading your reviews. Let me know if I make any mistakes or need to change something(: )