Disclaimer: All characters and situations are property of the respective owners of the amazing works of Harry Potter and A Song of Ice and Fire.
Prelude
It was regrettable that my great master's tranquillity did not extend to everyone in this room. Moreover, when in silence, if one paid attention, one could hear the sounds that, like every baby, my lord's heir made in the peace of his sleep. Experiencing dreams that placidly ignored everything that was happening around him. Oh, but calm was the only thing my little great lord demanded.
My circumstance spoke of my lack of discipline, even with years of learning alongside my great master seemed not to rectify my behaviour enough to reach the strength that he demonstrated at this time that demanded unshaken resolve to evaluate the best alternative between all the options that lie in this reality. One that contemplated the fall of the empire.
Valyria was destroyed.
The news had barely arrived and the response of those subjected to the empire seems to be the same.
Freedom.
A word so complex and rarely properly understood. I assume it is less for those who never in his life had been able to exercise it in full, and others that never even ponder the idea of having it ever.
"How?"
I hear the voice of my mistress, who just like me shared a frown on her face while her violet eyes did nothing to try to hide the horror she felt now. Even having that gesture as predominance in her face it did nothing to dilute his beauty one bit, her silvery hair kept its illustrious arrangement that perfectly complemented the rest of her pious traits.
"I'm afraid I know as much as most in Lys."
If my great master was ignorant of something, it was because he chose to do so. Therefore, it is incongruous to me that there is someone who may know something that he wanted to know but did not know. That impossibility was least plausible in this city.
Never presume absolutes, Malon.
Perplexed, my body decides to take a seat, ignoring if there was an invitation that would give me that faculty.
"And I certainly didn't expect something like that to happen. "
It was not long ago that we set out on what up to this moment suggested to be a journey of personal convenience for my lord, in search of tranquillity; away from politics that dominated his days in the empire, and any danger that entails.
"By its suddenness, I am inclined to think that there was magic involved."
If that was the reason, how terrible did it have to be to cause so much destruction?
And what did they want?
While I was attempting to find reasonable answers to those questions my eyes cannot help but look towards my little great master. My body trembles at the coldness of the idea itself.
They did not.
Turning my head and facing my lord Galaenar again. An unexpressed conversation took place, my eyes were imploring for him to amend that assumption, for him to tell me I was wrong.
Did they try ...?
The new gesture scattered across my lord's face told me that he is considering that same idea too.
"What do we do?"
I hear the voice of lady Nesaenya again, ending the exchange between my master and me.
He, recovering a bit of composure, now finds himself staring at his partner.
"The lysenis will arrive before long," My lady continues, now with fear making presence in her voice, dominating her little by little.
"Manaessa was..."
"Poisoned." My lord ends for her, making up for the impossibility my mistress found herself in by craving to finish that sentence.
"Dead." My lord concludes with eyes full of distress and pain. Lady Manaessa had accompanied my great master from the moment he opened his eyes and no one on this island could at least infer at understanding the grief he suffers from his loss.
It is on this occasion that, for the first time in a long time, I see vulnerability in my lord.
Malon can't help but feel like I've failed him once more.
"We won't be able to escape, at least not the two of us."
Saying that my great lord Galaenar stands up and walks to the little great master, his eyes melt at the image in front of him, his heir. The aura of nostalgia that his fallen partner's memories had engendered dimmed a bit.
"Nobody knows about Gaelon."
The Maltanis family was always meticulous due to the number of enemies one makes just by belonging to it, but my little great master was more special, there were only a few out of the four who knew of his birth.
"No one at all." I instinctively say after feeling my mistress's gaze directed at me.
My great master finds our little exchange amusing and chuckles, earning his wife's attention again, the latter mumbles something indescribable that she solely comprehends.
"That will keep him safe." My lord adds, without taking his eyes off the little great master.
"Malon."
"Yes, my great master," I respond after hearing the call of my lord, and instinctively, I stand up and straighten my posture, waiting for his orders, as always.
"For almost twenty years you have served me with honour and have treated mine with the same warmth."
Heat seems to arise within my body, if my posture was not perfect before, now it was, my chest seemed to grow more.
There is no greater pride than hearing you say that my lord.
"What I have in mind cannot be asked of anyone but you," my great master Maltanis continues, but now his eyes are finally leaving my little great master and making their way to mine.
"Amid the chaos, new nobles will be spoiled, new lords will rise," My lord enunciates, now heading towards the chests that were in one corner of the room. These, due to the promptness of circumstances, have not been opened before.
"Use what we have here."
They all contain gems and gold that my master intended to use in our daily spending and venturing in some business outside Valyria that would take shape throughout our stay.
"Except this one," he says lifting one different from the rest, the smallest of all, but with a more exquisite finish than any other chest.
Yes, that could only be for my little great master, no one else. But…
"My Lord honours me with giving me the responsibility for something as precious as my great little master Gaelon."
I can't help but feel like that plan is unacceptable.
It feels wrong.
Bowing my head, unable to meet my lord's gaze for the affront I am about to declare, I continue. "Malon does not understand how we can find an escape, but the great lord and lady Maltanis cannot."
"They need to find someone, Malon," My great master responds with a tone that does not hide his irritation. Malon is failing again.
I do understand why he says that, because in response to the fall of the empire, Lys started a persecution against all the dragon lords who were in the city.
This island does not grant a place to the skill with the sword, but more insidious talents such as poisoning. So, in an effort to avoid a direct confrontation they poisoned all the dragons that were in the city's dragon pit.
Everyone on the island knows where they, the nobles of Valyria, reside and I am sure that unless they come with an army, my lord, with all its magnificence, can cope with them.
Never assume absolutes, Malon.
We can retreat. My great lord still has allies, the mutt, despite being wrapped amid all his shortcomings, would never betray the Maltanis family.
"Lord Syrior-"
"Myr is far from here, my friend."
The resigned tone with which he whispered those words evoked that same feeling I felt recently when everything felt wrong.
Is this the only way?
"There is no time to debate this," Asserts my lord, approaching his desk.
Standing to the edge of the table he takes a quill that was near and starts writing something.
After a few moments he stops having finished transcribing what he wanted, I presume.
"Malon," says my great lord wrapping his writings and putting his seal on them.
"The only thing I have asked of you is to protect my son, we will not be there to see how you do it," he continues, as he approaches with the documents in his hand, "but I do not doubt that you will." He ends, extending his hand to deliver me the writings.
I take them without asking any questions.
Nodding my great master now changes direction and heads towards his beloved.
"Nesaenya," He whispers as he draws her within his arms and hugs her.
"I think this is the only thing we can do under these circumstances."
It seems that with those words my lady finally comes to assimilate everything that my great master's plan implies. And it is at that moment that she responds to his hug amid whimpering.
From distance, I can perceive that her eyes were filled with conflict and panic. A consequence of what all this reality entails. One that to people like my great lord and lady Maltanis seemed like an act of injustice from the gods. Punishing them for something they didn't do.
What mother would let her son to the care of another without showing not even a little doubt?
My pride as a servant of the house of my great lord has no place in this discussion since there is no one better than a mother to care for a child.
And if the kindness shown by my mistress to everyone around her was a sign of her benevolence, it is impossible for me to be able to shape the greatness of her love for my little master.
"I know," she whispers, and I can say with certainty that never in my life have I heard a voice as dire as the one heeded just now. Lady Maltanis was now amenable to whatever is going to happen.
Looking at that scene, my chest is reduced, and the air becomes heavier little by little. I feel pain like I ever experienced.
A scream coming from outside ends the scene we were part of, if not for it I believe it would have gone for an eternity.
"Malon, you will not use the carriage, or they will notice its absence," my great lord enunciates, and slowly leaves the arms of his beloved. "Take two horses."
It is with the mood of those words that we revive the tendency of urgency that our current predicament required, and my lady runs towards his son.
On the other hand, my great lord Galaenar walks towards the chests. Knowing what he wanted to do, I hasten to help him. We begin to carry them towards the stables.
With all of them on the horses, my lord approaches me and wraps me tightly in his arms.
At first, I did not react due to the surprise that his actions caused but knowing that this is the last time I will see my lord, my body reacts and responds with a hug of its own.
"We were not brothers by birth." I hear my great master say, both still in the middle of the brotherly act of affection we shared.
"But we have known each other for as long as I can remember, and that is why I know that the gods united us to be brothers by soul."
There were so many things I wanted to say to him, but fate was so cruel that it didn't give me the time to do it. Or that's the way the gods are telling me that I should have done it sooner.
My answer came in the form of a weep.
Even after so many years at the side of someone as valiant as my great lord has not changed who I essentially am.
"Even in the most difficult moments, one can find happiness." Declares my lord.
This small chapter full of sadness in which I found the fortune to have heard him say that about me is proof of that.
The smile that the scene induced within us seems not to want to fade even when my great master ends the embrace.
Putting one of his hands on my head he says with a smile. "Don't stop living, my friend."
Without a doubt, I am still the same old Malon.
It is turning towards lady Nesaenya that we see her standing with my little great master in her arms. Still unable to take her eyes off him.
My great lord and I approached slowly, with no intention of breaking that special moment.
As we close the distance, we hear her say. "May these beautiful eyes see the beauty of others..." moving a finger towards his eyes and touching it with such delicacy that the little great lord did not seem to feel, because of how imperturbable his dream seemed. "...these beautiful lips to pronounce only words of kindness..." she continues now moving that same finger to his lips, repeating the same act. "... and that when it is your turn to walk, you do it knowing that you will never be alone," she ends by enunciating, already in the middle, a disconsolate cry.
Everything seems to have been said with an implicit pain in each word, knowing that they will not be there to see him do it all.
My great lord Maltanis shortens the distance between him and his beloved, carefully picks up his heir and hands him over to me without first being overwhelmed by endless emotions that expressed themselves within his eyes, and that did not go unnoticed by me.
Understanding that there are no suitable words for this circumstance, I nod.
My great master repeats the same action and turns to wrap lady Maltanis between his arms.
It is while I'm walking away from that I hear their break down, the ever-greater distance between us seemed inconsequential in getting the sound that slowly ate away my soul.
In a moment of weakness, I turn around and see them still holding each other, forgetting the fire that seemed to spread through the Maltanis family estate.
For some reason, seeing them like this made me feel that everything would be fine, and with a smile masked with nostalgia, I scream as loudly as I can. "I will protect him in life and death."
And finishing with a whisper I pronounce. "Brother."
The story is divided into two parts.
The first narrates the contents of the books "Fire and Blood" which recounts the history of the Targaryens after fleeing from Valyria. This part will be important to Harry as he will develop as a person in the middle of a world full of conflict. I took this approach because the nature of these books give me more freedom to add new characters and "adapt" characters from Harry's world into enemies, friends and love interests that he will face later on.
In the second part I will focus on the relationship and the impact that Harry would have on the characters of post- Robert's rebellion Westeros ("A Song of Ice and Fire").
The way in which Harry will be able to live for all those years will be revealed in the first volume that recounts events of the well-known "Century of Blood" that begins with the fall of Valyria. I chose to start here as it is the way I wanted to explain Harry's aptitude for magic in this world.
Feel free to write me up if you have any question or suggestion.
Good day!