Flashback

The cell was as dark as a Black cell could be. He had counted seven days in this cell which he marked by the food he was served once a day. Soon he would loose track of the time he had spent here. He was supposed to spend the rest of his life in this dark cell, however long that would be. The curse of Kingslaying might come for him soon he supposed, but what did it matter. He had killed his half-brother out of duty for another brother and saved countless lives by ending the rebellion only to endure more hatred from everyone including his blood. Terror was synonomous with his name, after all he had done to end the rebellion, but now, he was inprisoned for treason.

But weren't all Targaryens kinslayers these days? Would Maekar be sitting on Aegon's chair of swords, if he had not killed Baelor Breakspear in a trial by seven because his fool son Aerion had a problem with a hedge knight? Aerion had drunk himself to death in Lys not to long ago in a manner fitting to his sobrieqet "Brightflame."

The door opened. The bulky man with pale blonde hair and a square cut beard, could be none other then his arse of a nephew.

"It has been a week now, will you finally talk?"

"And leave you with no further use for me?" he spoke with his usual bored comtempt, and made sure that the new King would get a good look at the empty eye socket that another half-brother had given him as he turned to face Maekar. "Evidently, I am of still of more use to you than Shiera was."

tTe King at least had the decency to show the barest look of shame, "I always make good on my threats Uncle."

He would not let Maekar see any of the pain that caused him.

"Your threats of kinslaying you mean."

"I seek that which is mine by right, will you just tell me where Darksister is?" Predictably, his nephew had already lost his temper.

His fingers were tented as he pondered his answer, and found himself staring at the quarter dragon on the tabard as he gave it.

"It is in the place that Kings come and go

It is an eye, just one more to match all of mine

But a day shall come, when hard falls the snow

I know not the time, but I do know the sign

a day of dragons young and old, true and false, red and black and white and gold

when your blood descendants fight one another like the dances of old.

a sword, a sister that only I now know

will find the hand of a dark sister

and when that day comes she shall meet her brother

they shall dance for their fathers and even their mothers

and stain Seven Kingdoms in fire and blood

But Your descendents will go by the way of Tris Mudd

But the lords and smallfolk will say they've no lack

When they meet at the tomb built by Harren the Black."

He felt himself grin defiantly as he finished.

"You've wasted enough of time with your socerous nonsense, rot in here your whole life for all I care."

Brynden Bloodraven felt his grin widen after the door was shut and barred, he could already see his vengence coming.

Jon Connington

As they rode through the streets of a liberated Oldtown, a sea of smallfolk watched them pass. "Aegon, Aegon" they cheered. The boy, whom Griff had raised as his own, was regarded as a conquering hero, and it made Jon Connington proud. Some even bent down to kiss the prints that his Black gelding had left.

Aegon lacked dragons, but today he lived up to his namesake. In the cavernous Starry Sept of Oldtown, Aegon VI Targaryen knelt before the septon and arose the King of Westeros annointed by the Seven.

Interspersed with perfumed lords and ladies were soldiers from the Golden Company, the Reach and Dorne. Some were still bearing the wounds of battle. Ser Rolly Duckfield of the Kingsguard, who stood below the dais, was holding Aegon's own battle standard.

Sermons, songs, and prayers were heard throughout the Sept.

Baelor Hightower was the first to bend the knee. The Redwynes and Tarlys followed suit. Their overlords, the Tyrells were not present. Mace Tyrell would be reluctant to declare for Aegon, Jon knew. Of Mace Tyrell's children it was known that Margaery Tyrell was a hostage kept by the Usurper's queen. Loras Tyrell, at last report, was on Dragonstone. Jon had just learned that Dragonstone had fallen to the Daenerys Targaryen. Only now does she finally show up.

Aegon reluctantly agreed to marry Arianne Martel. It had to be done, he still felt annoyance at the neccesity of the match, the dragons were too far to save us back then, and the Dornish spears were the difference between victory and defeat. Griff disapproved of the Dornish princess, but they needed the support of Dorne.

So far, most of the Stormlords, and all of Dorne, had declared for Aegon, and he had the loyalty of roughly a third of the Reach on his side. 15,000 Dornishmen, 10,000 men of the Reach, the Golden Company, and 5,000 levies from the Stormlands were under the banner of the three headed dragon.

Oldtown was safe, but Euron Greyjoy had fled to the Arbor, he would have to wait another day.

Afterwards Laswell Peake approached, King Aegon and presented him a bastard sword. Aegon drew the blade from the Golden scabbard for all to see the biter steel. The blade was clearly Valyrian Steel, its hilt, a pair of dragon heads, and a large oval shaped ruby with a third head on the pommel. Jon Connington had known all about this sword and its history, but had not seen it until today.

Tyrion

In a strange way, Tyrion missed the Red Keep, but only because it was missing Cersei. Soon, it would be missing Mace Tyrell and that gods awful crone of thorns. The Tyrells had an option to pledge fealty or relinquish their influence at court. Much to Tyrion's gratitude, The Tyrells chose to leave.

For some reason, Tyrion wondered if the Tyrells had a part in Joffrey's murder. They gained plenty from his alleged deed. He could not help but remember the expressions lady Olenna gave both him and Sansa during the wedding. She should be thanking me for taking the fall for her and her precious flower Margaery. If the Queen of Thorns was Joffrey's real killer, than maybe they had Sansa squirred away at Highgarden. Wherever she is, I hope she knows that she can't hide forever.

Given the condition of the throne room, the queen held court in Maegor's Holdfast. If Cersei can't have it, than no one else will. The tower of the hand was completely destroyed by Cersei, within a day of his escape. When he asked a servant about the incident, he was not sure if he should laugh, or shed pure tears of terror. Seven hells, I did not expect her to become Aerys with teats.

Ser Barristan once mentioned that Aery's took liberties with the lady mother he never knew, before and during her wedding. Now Tyrion was starting to wonder if those liberties resulted in Jaime and Cersei. Wouldn't that be ironic father, thought Tyrion. If that were true, than he was Lord Tywin's only son. Well, he did not shit gold, why should his seed be any different. The idea still amused Tyrion to no end. What would Jaime think if he knew that Aerys was actually his father? Could it be possible that Joffrey was actually a Targaryen for whom his family sacrificed so much to keep him on the Throne?

Arrangements were being made for Dany's coronation. She did not consider it important, but with the faith militant as a force to be reckoned with, her blessing would be very important to many lords of Westeros. The faith had been difficult to negotiate with since they rearmed, and they had already blessed Tommen. The high septon had already declared Cersei an enemy of the faith. There was talk that the faith intended to declare Tommen a spawn of incest and bless Aegon who at last report was heading to Oldtown with many of the Reachmen.

As for the Faith Militant itself, they had long since proclaimed a policy of neutrality. That did not change the intolerence many in the order clearly felt for the conquering queen and her court (which included him), to say nothing of their opinion for her supporters, many of whom did not follow the Seven. Although the smallfolk loved their new queen, which had much to do with her generous charity of bread, there were precious few people in King's Landing that celebrated his return.

If Aegon rescued Oldtown from the Ironborn and secured a blessing from the faith, another dance of dragons might happen, Tyrion realized. With Westeros still recovering from the war of five kings and the arrival of winter, another conflict was the last thing the realm needed.

Even without Aegon, who most certainly had the support of Varys, he would have to confront Cersei, and Littlefinger who would inevitably sell her out to the highest bidder. eventually Stannis. Rickon Stark, who was supposedly murdered by Theon Greyjoy, returned from the dead to become the lord of Winterfell. There goes my chance to claim the North, Tyrion thought with no real sense of disappointment. There was still no word on his wife's whereabouts, even after accessing the information network that always reported to King's Landing.

There was no word on Jaime's whereabouts either; he had disappeared with a woman from Tarth in the Riverlands. After winning her trial, Cersei stripped Jaime of his white cloak in his absence and charged him with desertion, as if he were the hound. Tyrion really felt sorry for his brother now, Shae's betrayal now paled in comparison to what Jaime was facing.

His squire Belicho brought him a visitor.

"Bronn," It felt good to see the sellsword again.

"That's lord Stokeworth now," Bronn gave the same wolfish grin that Tyrion remembered.

"So what happened to the rest of the Stokeworth family, did they find their way into a few bowls of brown?" It almost felt like old times to Tyrion.

"One tried to kill me, another disappeared under your sister's care, and another conviently died shortly after." The look Bronn gave still made Tyrion feel a little queasy, despite his own sinister deeds.

"All thanks to Tyrion."

"You got a marriage into house Stokeworth through my bitch sister; you became the lord of Stokeworth on your own."

This time, Bronn laughed.

"Not you, I named her baby Tyrion."

Tyrion laughed, and poured a cup of Dornish red, which Bronn took eagerly, "I don't suppose Cersei liked that."

"Not much that she can do about it anymore, I sent a raven to Castle Rosby when she demanded my assistance, and told her that she can't keep bannermen if she keeps trying to kill them, for some reason she seemed to believe that you hiding in Lolly's belly."

Tyrion missed Bronn. It was a shame that Bronn was a lord now. The Golden men could have used another good officer. His personal strong arm of battle hardened cutthroats was 200 swords and growing.

For some time, they talked about adventures past over the flagon of Dornish Red. After Bronn left, Tyrion thought about the current state of affairs.

Cersei would most likely be at Antlers at the edge of the Crownlands, with an estimated strength of 2,000 men. It was laughable when compared to the strength of every other army in Westeros.

In addition to the support of the City Watch, Dany commanded nearly 1,000 swords that were native to Westeros, in addition to 3,000 battle-hardened unsullied who followed her from Slaver's Bay. Nearly 4,000 Ironmen had survived to reach Kings Landing. 6,000 Dothraki mostly from Khal Jhaqo's former khalasar were willing to cross the "poison water" as they called it. Finally, a ragtag army of freedmen and others from the free cities numbered nearly 15,000. All in all, Dany could assemble nearly 30,000 troops, nearly half of which were in King's Landing.

So far the houses of Velaryon and Celtigar in the Narrow Sea, had declared for the silver queen. In the Stormlands, house Selmy was the only house to defy Storm's End and declare for the queen, and not the prince. The house of Sunglass, which had been exiled by Stannis Baratheon, had followed her since Volantis. Now Bronn had just promised the support of house Stokeworth. Tyrion expected the support of the Cracklaw point houses which had been historically speaking, Targaryen loyalists. They had ignored Cersei's call of the banners to Harrenhal.

He looked down at the list of identical documents he was expected to finish and sign. He read the proclamation that every document would have one more time.

The conflict he feared had already begun, with quills and ravens.

A Princess and a Queen

Another morning and a storm came over shipbreaker bay. The fury of the Storms over the bay still unsettled her. She found herself missing the company of her new husband.

In many ways Aegon reminded her of Arys Oakheart. Young, comely and shy. But Arys Oakheart did not have the stern Jon Connington to act as a father. He was suspicious of her.

Aegon held most of the Stormlands. His taking of Storm's End had all but convinced the Storm Lords who had little love for Stannis and even less for Cersei, to support him.

Securing a bethrothal with him was far easier than seducing Ser Arys. In the bedchamber, he was about as experienced as Ser Arys (not very much), but that was no surprise considering the stern inflence of Lord Connington. Soon they married here at Storm's End, the home of the usurper. Now, unless she was mistaken, she was with his child. She had already missed her last moonsblood a fortnight past. A child whose birthright was threatened by the arrival of Daenerys Targaryen. Aegon was convinced that she would stay in Essos far to the East.

Following the mysterious death of Myrcella, Her father declared for Aegon. It still made Arianne uneasy at the thought of Myrcella's demise. Ser Balon Swann, the handsome, but cautious knight of the kingsguard, had disappeared.

Obara would know what really happened, but Arianne knew better than to ask. By attempting to crown Myrcella, she had only condemned the girl to death.

Was this what revenge felt like? She had lost an uncle but Queen Cersei had lost a daughter.

Most recently, she lost a brother. Ser Archibald Yronwood had returned to Sunspear, with the bones of Quentyn Martell. Arianne no longer felt animosity toward Quentyn, only sadness. He will never be the heir that her father hoped Quentyn would be. She could never love Quentyn as a brother until after his death.

At the same time, she lost all sympathy that she had towards the mother of dragons, whose children killed her brother. She had not come to help her nephew, but instead came to steal his throne.

Up next: Asha, Aeron, and Sansa

In regards to the flashback, can anyone solve the full riddle before I post the fourteenth chapter.

Note: don't forget to drop a review if you like this story.