Daenerys felt her heart thud at the sight of Daisy sitting under a rose bush, her hands cupped around something silver and moving in a manner no metal should. She shook her head faintly and continued her steps toward the god. "Do I want to know what you are doing?"
"I don't know about you guys, but it's kind of expected to bring something back to your partner if you've been gone for a while." Daisy looked up at her. "And flowers don't survive the flight, or I haven't figured out how to keep them in one piece for it yet."
She paused. "Partner?"
"Paramour, lover." Daisy shrugged as if it wasn't a shocking level of equality to imply for a human.
Dany came to a halt not far from her. "Well, what are you making then?"
"Uh…a hair comb, thing?" Daisy's cheeks actually heated slightly. "I'm not really that good at art stuff."
She watched, fascinated as the silver that was moving in the air like liquid took the form of a delicate, decorative comb. The silver handle was in the shape of roses, an eagle across the bridge of it. It reminded her of the delicate metalwork of Qarth.
Daisy was frowning, as she kept one hand under the forming silver, while her other moved, lifting a box of sand? But it glowed, and it was…fascinating to watch the god mixing the two. Beautiful as well, the sand was turning to glass, it had a faint bluish tinge. It finally began to settle, before landing in Daisy's hand. "Well…it could be worse?"
"It's beautiful." Dany had never seen glass so fine and perfect before. She looked at Daisy and had the childish urge to whack a god. "The imperfections hardly take from the effect. I doubt your paramour will mind them."
Daisy did roll her eyes but seemed faintly pleased as she floated to her feet. "So, looking for me for a reason?"
"Is ignoring proper mode of address the only thing you use your divinity for?" Dany asked dryly. She'd found that for likely the most powerful…anything on the planet, the being was remarkably not an easily roused threat. And also, as the feast a few days past had proved, an entertaining dance partner.
Daisy just grinned. "It's the small things in life. And, if you want to fuck with people feel free to just use my name."
"I suppose we have the excess of titles in common." Dany agreed, she turned and began to walk, unsurprised by the god falling into step beside her. "I was informed you're leaving us this evening?"
"Jon's safe, and until your baggage and advisors catch up there's not a lot to do." Daisy's smile softened. "And I promised Rickon I'd be there for his nameday."
Dany wondered if the boy looked like a smaller Jon? She couldn't help the laugh at the thought of a tiny unbearded child with big sad eyes and a dour face. "Is he anything like his brother?"
"Sorta?" Daisy shrugged. "He's got dark reddish brown hair and blue eyes. Half feral, he's spent most of his childhood in the wilds with a direwolf and a Free Folk woman as his only companionship. Def has a more vicious streak to him than Jon. But…you can tell they're brothers."
She looked away, eyes finding Drogon's form circling high above them. "Do you have family?"
"If I have siblings no one told me." Daisy's voice changed slightly. "And well, my dad killed my mom so I wouldn't have to. But then I had to rip his mind out."
Dany's head snapped to the woman. "Excuse me?"
"You're not the only one with a fucked up family." Daisy rolled her eyes. "Like not gonna lie, your whole House has some real stand-out crazy fuckers. But not all of them were terrible." Daisy paused clearly seeing the outrage on her face. "Come on, we're going to the library."
Dany forced her dislike at hearing her House insulted down. "The library?"
"Whoever should have been preparing you for Westeros fucked up their job." Daisy threw her a look. "Do you want the truth about your House? Or lies that will lead you to either doing something stupid or insulting someone?"
Her teeth ground, but… she knew the god wasn't wrong. "Very well."
"I would say there's no such thing as bad information, but well there is." Daisy threw her a look. "And I think whoever told you about your House was a fan of it."
Dany felt a burning in her chest, that she refused to let loose. "Here to tell me I am descended of all evil men then?"
"Jesus, no." Daisy rolled her eyes. "You've got some cool ancestors. "Jaehaerys and Alysanne sound pretty awesome even if the sibling marriage thing is a terrible idea. And Jaehaerys sounded like a kinda crap father, but he did a lot of cool shit. Daren II was interesting to read about. Visenya is basically why your ancestors managed to build an empire and hold it. She gets way too little credit. Not that she wasn't a monster, but she solidified Targaryen power. King Egg had some good ideas if he'd had the power and will to see them done. Viserys II knew what he was doing even if he was barely on the throne." She looked at her. "You've got family who are worth emulating to one degree or another. Definitely, quite a few that are worth being proud of. Just like… not the last generation or so."
Dany fell silent for a long moment, she hadn't expected that. It was…more honest than most dared be to her. "And you know so much about my House how?"
"I cannot begin to describe to you how bored I am like…a lot of the time. I read everything in the Stark library, literally. Which in your whole negotiating with the Starks, bring up how both of your ancestors already agreed on a marriage alliance with the whole Pact of Fire and Ice thing."
Dany could…understand in part the sentiment. The long, endless riding with the khalasar before she knew the language came to mind. The endless idleness of moving from house to house with her brother kept silent and unnoticed. "The Starks kept books on my ancestors?"
"Burning books is bad." Daisy looked at her like that should be utterly obvious. "Anyone who starts burning books really needs to be stopped cause bad shit always follows it. But also, the whole know your enemy. And Targaryen history is the history of the united Westeros. Getting rid of your family's accomplishments is destroying their own history. I still don't get why your ancestors didn't call themselves Emperors, it's what they were. It's what you are."
Dany nearly stopped walking at that. Emperor? "And why do you think I'm an Empress and not a Queen?"
"Because you are?" Daisy sighed. "Look, queens rule single countries, maybe unite a couple to rule over. Emperors rule over massive amounts of territories that can stand as their own countries if they want. You have multiple formerly independent city-states, the Dothraki grass sea, and three to four kingdoms over here following you. That's Emperor shit."
Perhaps it was because the woman, being, beside her cared not at all for saying anything she did not mean, but her words struck Dany. Just a summation of greatness with no attachment or assumption of anything else. Simple acknowledgment. "You're not entirely wrong."
"I know." Daisy laughed. "You're forging something new, you should probably just go with it."
Dany shook her head. "You give strange advice."
"I'm from a different world, I think that's kind of a given." Daisy waved at the Dothraki guards as they passed out of the gardens towards the inner buildings of High Garden.
Dany noticed the acknowledgment between the two. "Do you know a single word of their language?"
"I know a song that I am totally positive is a dirty drinking song. And also pretty sure most of the cuss words." Daisy replied with actual glee audible in her voice.
Dany was…unsure how that was something to be happy about. "Do you wish to learn it?"
"They'll teach me the important bits." Daisy gave her a look that took a moment for Dany to realize was purely friendly. "And it gives me a great excuse to save Missandei from the nobility that think she's beneath them."
Which, Dany had seen the scar on the side of the god's neck, had heard her explain what her people had been made for. But this was why she found herself believing it. "Is that why you danced with her so often?"
"That and she unlike half the people around here isn't trying to get me to fuck them." Daisy's nose wrinkled. "Like I'm used to getting hit on, but this is just weird. Also gross because some of them don't even want to."
Dany hummed in agreement. "It's the price of power, all those who want it will want you that they might rip it from you."
"Depressing way to put it." Daisy sighed. "Not wrong though." She eyed her. "If you don't marry Jon, don't let them talk you into marrying anyone from High Garden who isn't Willas. He has a brain and is realistic about his chances for power."
Which was such an odd thing. "You haven't advised me to marry Jon?"
"It's your marriage. And…none of you want me interfering like that." She gave her a tight smile. "I'm kind of a fan of the whole freedom thing."
Dany looked at this god, destruction and freedom. It was interesting, and she could see it, had seen as she'd destroyed the slave trade in her conquest. Sometimes they were the same thing. "I assume you wish to advise me more than just to read on my ancestors?" She could humor the god in this, and she could admit she longed to hear of her family. She was the last, their legacy was her's, and her's alone to uphold.
"I mean if you want me to." Daisy brushed her blue lock of hair behind one ear. "But you should learn from others. And you've got hundreds of years of examples of that in books. Leadership was never really my thing. No one wants to follow the Destroyer of Worlds."
"That's ridiculous." Dany scoffed. "The entire Northern delegation is following your lead, the Tyrells certainly are looking to you for guidance, I've seen how those Order members of yours look at you."
Daisy paused slightly at that. "I'm not the one making decisions."
"No, you're not." Because if she wasn't, that didn't matter much. Dany wasn't blind to the fact Daisy was up to something, and certainly had a great many people doing as she wished.
They fell into a polite silence before Daisy broke it as they got closer to the Tyrell library, the opulence of High Garden on display all around them. "If you want to get Jon to talk to you without sounding stiff as a board, ask him about Ghost."
"Ghost?" She asked curiously.
Daisy grinned. "His direwolf, you're not the only one with terrifying magical animals."
Dany ran her fingers along the pages of the book on the rule of Jaehaerys I and his Queen Alysanne. It was a beautiful text, truly the pages were art as much as history. "I should have read this before."
"Your Grace?" Missandei asked from where she'd been organizing the stack of books that Daisy had insisted were important.
"I have had learned men of Westeros by my side since my marriage to Drogo. So many powerful men of learning. And not one of them told me half as useful a thing as Daisy did in handing me this one book." Dany looked at the stack of books on various rulers of Westeros and their deeds as well as one on the history of House Tyrell. Jorah at least had tried to gift her books, but Viserys had taken them and she knew not where they'd ended up.
Missandei carefully set a small book of Northern tales down. "Perhaps they thought you knew this already?"
"Did they? Or did they prefer me ignorant and dependent on their advice?" Dany touched the page again. "Give my excuses, I'll eat my dinner in my chambers tonight."
Missandei tipped her head slightly. "Of course your Grace."
"And Missandei," Dany smiled at her friend. "Unless you ask her not to, our living god fully intends to seek you out as often as possible."
/
Jon paused at the sight of Willas Tyrell waiting for him. Continuing forward he came the rest of the way into the room. "My Lord?"
"Ah, your Highness, please, join me." Willas gestured to the seat across from him.
Jon cautiously sat across from him, the midday meal already set at the table, though the proportions were not enough for them to be joined by more. "Is it just us then?"
"Her Grace has decided to spend the day in her chambers after visiting our library." Willas smiled at him lifting a cup of something sweet to his lips. "And her Holiness was last that I'm aware with the Dothraki."
He shook his head fondly at that. "Sounds about right." Jon settled, accepting he was eating a meal with the Lord of Highgarden. "And the rest of your household?"
"I asked they leave the two of us in peace for one meal." Willas tipped his head slightly. "I believed it was time we have a frank conversation, your Highness."
Jon knew he didn't particularly like Willas Tyrell. Not that he disliked him, but the Lord of Highgarden spoke little, rarely frankly, and the opulence of his dress felt wasteful. But Daisy didn't dislike him, which went a long way. "What is it you want to speak about then?"
"I mean no offense but if you mean to marry the Queen I'm sworn to I need to know. Who was your mother?" Willas didn't show disgust, his words plainly stated.
He swallowed but was honest. "I don't know, my father, Lord Stark never spoke of her."
"Well, that's unfortunate." Willas set his cup down. "I've sent letters to House Dayne in hopes they either are your mother's House or know who your mother was."
Jon felt his heart in his throat. "Why would you do that?"
"Because if your mother was Ashara Dayne this marriage alliance could gain Daenerys favor with Dorne as well as peace with the North. A thing I would prefer as it would make things easier politically." Willas lifted his fork and speared a piece of fish and ate it while looking at him curiously. "You disapprove?"
He had thought he'd given up on ever knowing who his mother was. Had accepted that it was not for him to know. But the painful pang at the Lord's words told him that had been a lie. He still cared. Deeply. "You would have me believe you do not care that I am a bastard? If my mother was of a good House, why would they acknowledge me after all this time?"
"You are certainly Ned Stark's son." Lord Tyrell cut his fish. "The fact you are a bastard certainly matters. But you are quite likely to be Consort to a Queen and Prince and Hand to another. Not even that touches upon the clear favor you hold with a living, breathing Goddess. If you think being a bastard will protect you from the rank you have come to hold you are gravely mistaken."
Jon hated that Daisy wasn't here. "I understand my duty."
"Your duty?" Willas let out a humorless laugh. "Well if duty is how you wish to speak of it, very well. You will have a duty to your wife if you are wed, and you are ill-prepared to do it. And I have a duty to my family and I require influence to do it. In this, our interests are aligned. I propose that we help one another."
He frowned but cut his own fish. "Why should I trust you?"
"Because my House and my people require stability. Stability that Daenerys offers. My youngest brother has sworn himself to your sister, and you find yourself in my home. I believe that means our interests are aligned." Willas lowered his fork. "I support your bid for an alliance with Daenerys and do what I am capable of to get what you require for the Dead to the North. In exchange, you take two squires of my choosing, your sister takes my cousin as a lady in waiting, you agree to a trade agreement between your kingdom and the Reach with your authority as Hand, and you support the appointment of myself, grandmother, or brother to Daenerys' small council."
Jon felt his frown deepen. "I won't agree to anything without my sister's approval."
"Then I believe you have a letter to write before her Holiness leaves for your sister." Willas paused. "And as a sign of goodwill, I assume your Wall could take the surviving Lannister men. Better on the Wall than burned alive for treason."
He paused and stared at the Lord, that was….nearly three thousand men. "I'll write my sister."
"Excellent." Willas raised his cup. "I believe we may yet be friends, Prince Stark."
Jon wasn't sure if that was reassuring or a threat. But…Daisy liked the Tyrells. And Jon could admit to holding some respect for Loras. He gave a sharp nod.
"In the meantime, what is the state of the Wall?" Willas' face was serious. As a man, he lacked the glibness his younger brothers sometimes held.
He braced himself. "We have manned it as well as we can, but it will not hold."
"What does it require?" Willas asked.
Jon crossed his arms. "What do you think?"
"I think Willas is doing what we want him to do." Daisy tucked the stack of letters into the inner lining of her vest before pulling the outer jerkin on over and beginning to lace it up. "The Tyrells are indebted to Dany and desperate to secure their position after changing sides. And they want Cersei's head on a stick."
Jon sighed. "I don't like them."
"Why not?" She lowered her hands looking at him with honest curiosity.
He grimaced. "They've been nothing but fickle. Look at these rooms? It may not be a lot to you, but it's a waste."
"Rich people are the same everywhere. And you grew up with clothes without holes which I can't say." There was a light reprimand there. "And wealth is power. They don't slap golden roses on every surface here because they're stupid and have too much gold." She shrugged, a slight tilt to her lips. "Well, mostly. And you know better than that too."
Jon gestured to the walls. "I do, but I know I'm not like these people. And I don't trust them."
"You shouldn't." Daisy stepped forward, laying a hand on his shoulder. "But you need 'friends' even if you can't make them allies. And right now the Tyrells are about to try and make a play for Hand of the Queen."
He paused. "Tyrion is the Hand of the Queen…but he's a Lannister and holds no power in Westeros unless Daenerys gives it to him. Are you going to suggest I go against my friend?"
"He might be your friend, but he's definitely not your ally. If he was he wouldn't have invited you to that joke of a first meeting with Dany. Or well, Sansa. But the Tyrells turning their support behind you is a good thing. And let them and Tyrion chew each other apart. Tyrion can handle it." Daisy squeezed his shoulder, before pulling back and continuing to lace up her jerkin.
With a sigh, Jon accepted she wasn't wrong. "Then I need to accept his offer at least in part till Sansa can approve me making a trade deal with them."
"Start with the squires." She offered.
He grimaced. "I'm not a knight."
"Yeah, that doesn't matter. That and talk to him about the logistics of getting the Lannister prisoners to the North. Probably also on what he thinks a fair trade deal is. If he doesn't do anything besides that for you, he's a dick, and drop it. If he repays that with assistance, then you know he means it, at least for now." Daisy finished off the last tie. "How much of that were you already planning on?"
Jon shook his head fondly. "Not the squire bit."
"See, you're not hopeless." Daisy's face had a playful expression on it. "And pro-tip, Dany, try talking to her about famous Targaryens and see what you both think of them."
He stepped closer to her. "I'll keep it in mind. Tell my siblings I love them, that I miss them."
"Of course." She touched his arm. "I have your letters for them. They know how much you love them."
Jon pulled her into his arms and hugged her tightly. "Thank you." He closed his eyes. "Fly safe."
"I'll be fine." She hugged him back, her grip tight. "Don't die while I'm gone."
He huffed. "I'll try not to."