Danaerys
She looked down at the knife sticking into her ribcage. Her gasp was involuntary, the natural consequence of having a long piece of metal poked at one's lungs. Even if it had been stopped and blunted by chain mail, backed up by dragonscale.
Jon's look of unintelligent surprise was amusing, but it still hurt to think he'd actually tried this. He might try again in a moment so, one word:
"Drogon."
The dragon was much more alert, now, and paying close attention to the two of them, especially Jon. It had always tolerated their relationship, but never really liked the idea. What was important now, though, was to keep Jon off balance, and open to her suggestions. Drogon's attention would be certain to do that.
"Like the Dire Wolf, the men of house Stark are brave, resourceful, and honorable - but they rarely think ahead much beyond their next meal. Drop it, now. Please."
The dagger clattered to the stone floor.
"I've ridden with the Dothraki, faced down wizards, conquered slavers. I've heard no prophecies of my death, or how it might happen, but a knife to my heart by a lover….." She shook her head with the condescension appropriate to someone who believed such a thing were possible.
"Still, this is a sign, and one that I must acknowledge. As a woman, my worth is what I can give to men. A destiny I now reject.
"I do better appreciate your sister's point of view, now. Sansa's desire to keep the North free, well, it really was part of my goal as well. Push off one of the kingdoms, allow it freedom, soon the others will want it as well. I couldn't have her subverting my will, but I'm sure I could have worked with her, given time."
"When I was the last of House Targaryan, I could have managed that. Enemies would have focused on the lack of an heir, been willing to wait me out, and I would have been free to break the wheel a spoke at a time. With a dragon and an army, there would have been no way to stop me, but it still would have been tricky.
"You, of course, are part of the problem. Worse, even, because you've always been the loyal servant of the highborn House. You couldn't think of changing things, and you'd be manipulated even more by people who are fine with a "King" and "Lords" and "Houses." That's why Varys and Tyrion favored you, even more than your blood or your demeanor: Because you would listen to what they said, whether or not it was right.
"With slaves at least you can declare them free and work with the consequences. It may be more dangerous but at least it's simple. In Westeros, the Houses still have their traditions and structures and rivalries and that would have taken some effort to tear down. Dragon or not, a word from me would not be enough.
"Do you now, maybe, understand why you shouldn't have told your sisters? That led us right to this point, you know.
"I'm sure you felt as if you had no choice in the matter. It's always been the women in your life that have done the real thinking for you, Jon Snow. Same as all those other Stark men. Certainly whatever traits you might have inherited from my brother were insufficient to offset the part of your Northern heritage that substitutes valor for … strategic thinking.
"But this IS why I had to burn King's Landing, Jon. It would have been difficult enough to be a queen over this place. They only respect kings, men, and it's not as if the Targaryans cultivated a reputation for even tempers and diplomacy. It would have been a fine line between rewarding those who listened and…." She nodded up at the dragon towering above. "And when the choice is Kneel or Die, the people who are willing to risk everything to remove you find it easier to try.. That's part of being in charge, which you certainly had a chance to learn, already.
"In any case, that's what I would have done, if all I had to worry about was the usual plotting and scheming. Because I would have had this Throne by right of blood AND right of arms. That would have stopped all but the stupidest sorts of pretenders, and a dragon has traditionally been my House's way to eliminate those.
"But then you had to let people know about your own claim to the throne. Since it was not clear to you before, MY right of blood is diminished by it. That's not only because my claim is weaker but because now people are asking about the rules. Is he legitimate? Is she? Who inherits? How do we know? It doesn't matter whether I avoid it, ignore it, or explain it, it's an ongoing accusation about whether I deserve to rule.
"And that's how I knew that the only choice I had was to diminish YOUR right of blood - if possible, to eliminate YOUR claim to the Throne.
"Certainly I could have killed you, instead," she looked up at Drogon, to underline her options for doing so, "but that would have been a problem all its own. And who knows if you didn't leave some bastard of your own somewhere. The Seven Kingdoms have spent the last seven years fighting and killing because too many kings and almost-kings and brothers of almost-kings couldn't keep their codpieces fastened
"And in any case, some would take your death as further proof of your legitimacy, and then I'm the king-killer and that really makes it more difficult for me to do what I need to do. Which, you may recall, is to break the wheel. And all this meant the only chance I had to break the wheel was to destroy the traditions that supported it.
"And that meant eliminating the Targaryan legacy."
She gestured at the ruined throne room, the keep surrounding it, the city beyond. "It was OUR ancestors who built King's Landing and the Red Keep when they came with THEIR dragons, to unify the Seven Kingdoms with fire and blood. The Baratheons, the Lannisters, they could take it, they could rule from it, but it was never theirs.
"And what I wanted was what they had taken, as if it was something to be returned to me, a trinket I had accidentally lost.
"But it's a part of me, and of you: All the blood spent to hold onto this throne, the petty tortures, the foolish rivalries. And it became as abhorrent to me as the slaves I saw crucified in Mereen. Breaking the wheel meant giving up my legacy. It wasn't enough to have the throne back. The throne had to be destroyed.
"When there was only me, I could have done that over the course of my reign. And truth is, you would have made that more complicated no matter what happened next. Even if we were king and queen, even if you were as good a man as Eddard Stark, there would still be pretenders and claimants and all that, and it wouldn't matter if they were lying, because at some point people would want to believe there was a "good" Targaryan out there, the issue of the perfectly wise and sane Jon Snow. Some other good servant of a noble House would make one up, if they had to. Because people would want to believe in a Targaryan who could keep the world the way it was.
"Unless someone had given them reason to hate Targaryans. And now I have. Nobody will trust that a Targaryen has their peoples' interests at heart. Your claim to the throne was tenuous, and this will help destroy the line, regardless. We're all just mad, now.
"Without King's Landing and the Red Keep, there's no traditional place for a Targaryan to rule from. On your own, you don't have the Unsullied or the Dothraki. The remnants of the armies of the Seven Kingdoms are enough to keep the peace, just barely, but they wouldn't help you hold the throne. And without …"
She stopped for a moment. The unexpected loss of Rhaegal had been hard, and though that was an advantage to her goals at this moment, it had still been a sad day.
"Without a dragon, you cannot display your connection to the line. You have no way to project force, no way to keep the Seven Kingdoms together.
"And to make it happen, all I would have to do is make a difficult choice, about what I wanted and what was possible.
"So, I have made my choice, and in a moment you will have choices of your own to make, some choices about what happens next, about what you will say to the others. You could tell them exactly what I've said here, but I'm sure they wouldn't believe it. They'd think you'd killed me for the throne, were lying about it, untrustworthy, and they'd feel like they'd have to execute you. The last Targaryan being executed for treason would be a fine crack to put upon the wheel, and might move things along a bit faster. It's too bad, since I could hardly force you to do so."
She had to hope that this blunt assessment would be enough to keep him from trying exactly this. It was the greatest risk she was taking, that her ignorant nephew would try to be as honorable as other Starks. Her council might actually believe him.
"I'd like to think that you could spin them a tale about how I'd renounced the throne, bequeathed to the Seven Kingdoms a new birth of freedom, and flew away after declaring my goal to rebuild Valyria. That was my original plan: A few seasons from now, perhaps 20 years, I'd give the people a vision of an immortal savior who sacrificed Herself for them, left the world behind, but always with the possibility that She might return from Valyria if evil was to appear again in the world." She was more certain that Jon would spill this to one of his confidents at some point in the next decade, and it would become one of those conspiratorial whisperings that people wished to believe. Which, she thought, would be a good thing for the people - a reminder that no tyrant was forever.
A tight-lipped smile at her former lover: "That's a bit much to ask for from you, though. Tyrion would be able to pull it off, I suspect, but it probably wouldn't work out well, either, at this point. You might be able to get a regency or something out of it, but more likely they'd know you were lying, with all that would entail.
"Again, I'll hardly be able to force anything on you, but your best chance is probably to say that you were successful, that….oh, one moment, if you please."
She walked carefully to Drogon, took her place on his back, and tapped him lightly on the right side of his skull. The massive head pivoted to the right, away from Jon, towards the Iron Throne.
"Dracarys."
The fire poured forth onto the throne, much as it had done on its forging centuries earlier. Again, the implements of war softened and merged, the symbols of a unified kingdom where the king would hardly ever need to shed blood - and the subjects would not dare to. This time, however, the softening continued, the iron glowing, melting, running, until the throne completely collapsed into a lake of hot metal. Danyraes had not told Drogon to stop, however, and the flame continued apace. Metal vapor floated up as the dragonfire played over what remained. The hot breath scorched the wall of the Keep as it blasted the last of the iron away.
She turned back to Jon.
"Yes, say you were successful, and that Drogon then melted the throne on his own and carried my body away." A sarcastic note crept in to her voice. "As if those are natural instinctive things for dragons to do, but they'll want to believe that, and you are a Targaryan, so they'll want to believe you. Being forced to kill a woman because she's too powerful, more powerful than any man could possibly be, is a story they have heard since they were children. Even if the story is never really true, even if it's always an excuse to put a man in charge - no matter how feeble or weak - they will believe it."
"Put it forth that you were worried about my madness, frightened for the kingdom and its people, and did what you thought was best for everyone. Grey Worm is very loyal, of course, and will ask for your death regardless, but I think you'll have a decent chance, at the worst, to be sent back to the Night's Watch. If you can do that.
"I'm sure the dragonfire here will have attracted some attention, so it's time for me to go, Jon. Good luck to you, and your sister, and to the seven kingdoms. May they never see a dragon again."
A quiet word to Drogon, and she was borne away, leaving Jon alone in the blasted room that had once held the Iron Throne.