The men of her now half-filled Small Council followed Helaena to her chambers, where she had retreated to quickly after calling for the recess. All of them had to up their pace in order to follow her, the members of the Queensguard surrounding the party in order to protect everyone. Danger was still apparent and the paranoia levels amongst everyone was running high.

Sitting around the large table that Helaena had her handmaidens set up in her room, Helaena briefly noticed that Mace Tyrell had brought his eldest son Willas in with him, and that Tywin had brought both his sons, Tyrion and Jaime. The sight caused Helaena to snort briefly in her head. Nepotism was the way of the world—she wasn't at all surprised that the second the men were named with a position they would bring their family along for the ride. Helaena counted herself lucky that they didn't bring their daughters. Highborn ladies were known to be even more devious than their brothers and fathers combined. That was not something the queen wanted to deal with right now, when they were at the cusp of either great turmoil or great change.

Stannis Baratheon was standing stoically beside Robert and Renly, who both seemed much more chipper than the middle brother who undoubtedly expected Robert to be sitting on the throne. It was probably the main reason why the man, who was known to stay locked in Storm's End with little to no social skill whatsoever, had decided to march alongside his brother for the capital. With grand dreams that his family would be catapulted to the top. This was probably not an outcome he had expected. Helaena watched the middle Baratheon warily, knowing that something had to be done about the man—just in case his ambitions decided they wanted something more than just being the second Baratheon son.

The thought made Helaena sigh an exasperated huff, knowing that all the men in the room currently with her were the ones above all others in the Seven Kingdoms who wanted the throne, and probably had the man power to at least attempt it. They all thought themselves smarter, and more experienced. And perhaps that was true to an extent, given how young Helaena was in comparison. But she was a Targaryen, she had been born and bred to rule. The Gods and the Seven and whatever else these people believed in be damned, and damn what any man or woman thought.

A glass of wine appeared in her line of view, and Helaena turned her head to see the infamous Tyrion Lannister, dubbed The Imp by everyone in the Seven Kingdoms (even his own father), holding out the glass to her. Helaena blinked, had she been so unaware and caught in her own thoughts that she didn't even notice him pouring the glass?

Looking around the table again, the Queen saw how all the Lords were looking at her expectantly. Sighing, Helaena took the glass from Tyrion and poured it onto the ground next to her, in front of him. The Imp looked slightly affronted. Everyone else gazed at her curiously, searching for an explanation at Helaena's odd behavior.

"Apologies," Helaena mollified, "But until I get official tasters I won't be consuming anything for a while," the information so casually thrown out had all the Lords stiffening.

Even now, after having sworn fealty, their Queen did not trust them. It shouldn't have surprised them really, but no one had expected the former Princess to be so paranoid and astute. Perhaps that was a problem in themselves they had to adjust. They had all been underestimating her, from the moment that Robert had declared himself against the Crown, and Ned had sided with him, every Lord in Westeros had been watching their actions and that of Aerys and Rhaegar. No one had been watching how Helaena was playing the game and what moves she was making, not until it was too late and she had sat herself upon the throne with the help of the very people who started the Rebellion.

"You understand, don't you?" the question seemed to stun Tyrion who was unused to people actually asking him his opinion, let alone acknowledging him as if he was a person.

"Of course, my Queen," Tyrion answered obediently, before backing away and headed back to Jaime and Tywin.

Helaena watched everyone rather warily. Before sitting back in her chair and waiting for the chaos to start. "Well, here you all are. Any suggestions for your Queen on who shall fill the other seats of the Small Council?"

Immediately the room was filled with people all talking at once. All the men elevating their voice in an effort to speak louder than any other man, trying to get his voice heard the most. Even Tywin Lannister, who was usually so composed, was face to face with Stannis Baratheon—arguing with him over who would become Master of Ships of all things. The only silent ones were Helaena herself, and Jaime Lannister—who was staring disinterestedly at everyone around him, arms crossed against his chest and just looked bored overall.

How decidedly unaffected, Helaena thought to herself gleefully of Jaime after the man had just stabbed her father in the back, literally. Father must have done something truly horrible this time.

Eyes still gazing upon on a brooding Jaime, Helaena silenced the room as she cleared her throat—all attention moved suddenly to her. Even Jaime, who locked eyes with the Queen, a question in his gaze. They all waited with bated breath to see what exactly Helaena was going to see. Every word she spoke now could be law and Helaena savored in the power of it all.

"Tywin," a small smile graced Helaena's face as she continued to stare down Jaime, making the man fidget just a bit, "You're my Hand now. Tell me in your infinite wisdom, without too much pandering and your usual tartness, would you would advise," turning to meet the Lannister Lion eye to eye, Helaena grinned wider—ominously even, "And don't worry I won't have you burned for saying anything too offending. I'm not my father after all,"

"No," Tywin agreed, "No, you are not your father. You are far better," the Hand conceded, "But whether or not you are ready to rule the Seven Kingdoms is debatable," the pronouncement had all the other Lords huffing in indignation, defending their Queen in order to seem like they were on her side.

Robert, who was truly offended for his foster sister, was turning red in the face and looked ready to chop Tywin's pretty little blonde head off. Ser Barristan Selmy stayed by Helaena's side, but in an act of real emotion, spat at Tywin, while all the other Lords admonished him for his criticism. Helaena's eyes didn't move from Tywin's, and the older man continued to stare her down as well, a sort of understanding passing between the two.

None of them were expecting the laugh, though harsh, to escape Helaena's mouth, "Oh do shut the fuck up,"

Everyone fell silent at the order.

"Do you really not think I know just what exactly is going on through all your heads? Each and every one of you?" At Robert's indignant exclamation Helaena mended her statement, "Alright then, most of you. At the very least Tywin has decided to tell me the truth and in being true to my oath I will not have him burned like my father would,"

The statement didn't seem to make anyone feel better. Everyone knew that the Targaryens were prone to madness. And although Helaena seemed sane up until this point, no one knew how long it would last and whether or not she would really take after her father. No matter what promises and oaths were made right now.

Sighing, Helaena decided to take the edge off the atmosphere, "I would much rather you all tell me the truth; it is your job to make sure I do not turn into my father. Nor Baelor the Blessed or any other of my mad relatives,"

"Of course my Queen," Tywin affirmed, "I, as your Hand, will do my best in order to advise you to keep the Seven Kingdoms whole,"

All the other Lords nodded their agreement.

"Great. Amazing. Brilliant. Perfect. You are all dismissed, I need a moment to myself," all the people started shuffling out, bowing to Helaena before completely leaving, but Helaena stopped Ser Barristan Selmy and Jaime Lannister.

"I want to speak with you both," and the Knights stayed behind obediently as everyone else was cast out.

…

"Father, we'll need to get Grandmother here. She'll be able to talk to the Queen and have her listen," Willas counseled his father, after the two had been cast out with everyone else from the room.

"Your Grandmother is all the way in Highgarden with the rest of the family. It'll take her weeks to get here," Mace countered, not particularly excited at the idea of having his mother come to King's Landing.

Willas rolled his eyes, knowing why his father was being reluctant, "Yes but Grandmother knows how to handle situations like these. Right now we're more in favor than the other Houses because we stayed loyal but Tywin Lannister was still made Hand. We need to do more and you know Grandmother would be furious if we didn't let her know it was safe to come,"

"She'll be furious either way, your Grandmother can be a right shrew sometimes," Mace grumbled just loud enough for his son to hear, but with some concentrated effort.

"Father, the Tyrells are the second wealthiest House in the Seven Kingdoms right now. But with Grandmother here, she can surely find a way to start more trade and develop relations that will let us become even better," Willas continued to advise, knowing that it would take a little more effort to convince his father to write a letter to Grandmother.

"I can do that just as well, the Queen made me Master of Coin. That's no small task," Mace walked down the halls of the Red Keep with his son, making servants who were cleaning up the mess that was left behind by the raid scoot away.

"She also mentioned how clever Grandmother is while she was giving you the title. Obviously she respects Grandmother to an extent and we can't snub something like that," Willas was growing frustrated with how stubborn his father was being.

Mace sighed, knowing that his son was right but not wanting his mother to come and interfere when he had just spent a blessed few months without her while everyone was fighting during the Rebellion. "I'll write the letter. But you can greet her when she gets here,"

Willas smiled, "Of course Father,"

…

Perched on the edge of her bed, Helaena watched the two knights before her, her purple eyes sharp and clear. Running her fingers through her silver hair, Helaena twirled it in her hand, inspecting it closely before glancing up again. Ser Barristan stood there, stoic and without emotion as was typical of him when he was as attention. Jaime Lannister on the other hand, looked nervous and Helaena could guess why.

"Well Ser Jaime Lannister, what did my father do?" startled, Jaime straightened himself before the Queen, unsure of what she meant.

"I'm sorry my Queen?" after the whole experience, no one had asked him about the actions of the King and he didn't expect it. But he was also severely conscious of who he was speaking too.

This wasn't Princess Helaena anymore, this was the Queen of the Seven Kingdoms and angering her might just mean his head on a spike if he miss-stepped too much. Jaime was completely aware that the hot tempered little girl he knew was in there simmering beneath the facade of a cool and calm Queen-he wouldn't let himself fall into a false sense of security. Not like everyone else. The men of the Queensguard knew the truth.

Furthermore, Jaime had refrained from speaking of the events because the man knew no one would believe him about what Aerys was going to do, now that Jaime was technically an oath breaker. Additionally, no one would ever understand that he had to do what was necessary. Moreover, before him was the woman whose father he had just killed. And she was also the one who had everyone start calling him the Kingslayer. Just thinking the name made Jaime visibly wince. There was more than just a little hostility seeping into the air. At the very least, Jaime suspected it was hostility.

Staring down Jaime as if he was an idiot, Helaena rolled her eyes, "I'm not stupid Ser Jaime. Despite what all those lords think of people of my gender, we are not all simpering fools. Look at Olenna Tyrell for one, far cleverer than any man I have personally met," Helaena pointed out, stepping off her bed and approaching the Knight.

"Now tell me, what senseless, crazed idea did my father and his voices come up with this time? You had to have killed him for a reason, or did you really just want to sit on the Iron Throne. I know you've always been a cocky son of a bitch but your ambitions have never swung to ruling," looking down, Helaena was so close that Jaime could see every time the Queen inhaled and exhaled, the movement of her chest constricting against the blood soaked white gown she wore.

"The man wanted to burn down the Red Keep and all of King's Landing with wildfire and have me kill my father,"

The reply did not seem to affect Helaena at all. She looked particularly unfazed and Jaime wondered why. "Is that all? Did he give the order to set the city in flames? Or was he just speaking of it?"

The question confused Jaime but he answered anyway, "He gave the order. I had to stop his fire starters from going forth as well,"

Helaena shook her head, and Jaime was worried she didn't believe him. But instead Helaena kept her gaze locked on his and placed a gentle hand against his cheek.

Her skin's warm, was the first observation that Jaime made. And slightly callous, but the Knight already expected that. Everyone knew that when she wanted to, the Princess (now Queen) could wield a sword. Nowhere near as well as say Arthur Dayne, but better than some of the newer members that were sworn into her Father's Kingsguard. She had, after all, been training with some of the Knights since she was a little girl.

Shocked, the Lannister lion did not move. He and Helaena have never had the closest relationship, thus this amount of times he had to touch Helaena in order to catch her or guide her somewhere could be counted with the fingers on both his hands. However, what stunned him the most, was how much Princess Helaena had grown up. She wasn't the little five-year-old girl he had made fun of at the age of ten anymore, and she certainly wasn't the hot-headed ten-year-old he had to guard at five and ten when he first joined the Kingsguard—time and her Father's descent into madness seemed to have aged her. There had always been a distance, physical and otherwise, between them before, so he was never privy to observe what time had done to her this closely until now.

"Jaime Lannister, your service was undoubtedly, essential to the Rebellion. We'll have a feast...perhaps even a tourney, once I make the announcement. Everyone should know what you did. Arthur, when he comes back, will be astonished to hear the news. He'll be quite amazed, I'm sure of it,"

Out of the corner of her eye, Helaena could see the disbelieving look Ser Barristan sent to his Queen. Both people knew, more so than Jaime, how loyal Arthur Dayne was to the Targaryen line and how unfailingly he followed his oath. It was unlikely he would look upon Jaime Lannister favorably. Not that the Kingslayer knew that yet.

But Helaena knew just how much Jaime worshiped the ground that man walked on. Every time, for the past five years since the Lannister lion had joined Aerys' Kingsguard, Jaime would be present whenever Arthur was assigned to her detail. Following the Knight and asking him so many questions. When he was assigned to her, Jaime would no so subtly steer her to areas of the Red Keep that Arthur was undoubtedly preoccupying, allowing Helaena to skip out on her lessons as long as she left the two knights to talk.

Moreover, Jaime Lannister didn't need to know about his eventual and inevitable rejection by Arthur Dayne until it happened. Helaena narrowed her eyes a bit, indistinguishable to anyone who did not know her well, which Jaime didn't. Not really, anyway.

Yes, Helaena concluded: Jaime Lannister and maybe his sister Cersei would be essential in keeping Tywin Lannister in check.

Lowering her hand, Helaena stepped away from Jaime and turned away to go sit back on her bed. "You are dismissed Ser Jaime,"

The Lannister lion faltered for a moment. What was it about Helaena Targaryen that intoxicated people when she came too near? Jaime was left feeling dazed as she stepped away from him and the Kingslayer internally wondered why.

Jaime loved Cersei, she was his other half, but he had watched Helaena Targaryen grow up intermittently from the young girl who fell into the mud at the tourney held for Prince Viserys birth to the young woman she was now. They were never close, not like her and Ser Barristan Selmy, but there was a familiarity and now it seemed there was an oceans distance between them. But he felt the urging need to cross that ocean and Jaime Lannister did not know why, didn't know where the compellment was coming from. Instead of contemplating it further, he turned on his heel and quickly left the room.

…

"He'll be slaughtered," Ser Barristan observed, watching Helaena to see what her reaction would be.

Helaena hummed in reply, "Maybe," looking as nonchalant as ever, a pleased look manifesting in her expression.

"The boy is too young to understand what you just did," the Knight asserted.

"The boy is older than me by five years," the Queen replied hotly, "Don't worry yourself Ser, nothing will happen that isn't supposed to happen,"

"Pardon me, your Majesty, but I sincerely doubt that any good will come of announcing to the whole city that Jaime Lannister was the one who stabbed King Aerys in the back, thereby breaking his oath. Especially if you leave out the part where the Mad King tried to set this whole place on fire. And even if you cited that as the reason, no one would believe Jaime Lannister—the man who broke his Kingsguard oath and was found sitting on the Iron Throne,"

Helaena shrugged, making a turn about the room, and gazing out at King's Landing from her wide, bay window. "Fire and Blood," looking meaningfully at Ser Barristan Selmy, "Those are the words of my house. But do you know what else they are?" the question seemed to confuse the Knight.

Making her way to her wardrobe, pulling a large chest out. Seeing her difficulty, Ser Barristan walked over and helped Helaena pick up the chest and placed it on her bed.

"Fire and Blood. The ingredients to hatch dragon eggs," flipping the chest open, Helaena revealed three dragon eggs to the Knight before her. Three glistening dragon eggs.

One was white, the other blue, and the last gold. All of them seemed to be beating and alive, warm—not anything like the stone encased, dead dragon eggs that were rumored to be all that was left of the great beasts. No, these eggs were very much alive and waiting to be hatched.

"What will you do with them your Majesty?" Ser Barristan, clearly stunned, could only manage this question.

"I want to hatch them. Over time. We will have to find people to sacrifice. The first being Gregor Clegane, of course. We will burn his body with the egg once Oberyn Martell kills him," Helaena stated, eyes gleaming as she watched the eggs before her. "Or the other way around. It makes no difference."

"And the other two eggs, your Majesty?" the question made Helaena look up at the knight of her Queensguard, staring into him as if trying to see something.

"Ser Barristan you have known me since I was a little girl and served my family for a very long time. You have always been loyal—have you not?

Ser Barristan nodded immediately, he had always been faithful and remembered the old Aerys fondly when the man was still a good King, before he had fallen to madness. He was there, outside the birthing chambers on guard, the night that Helaena and Rhaegar had entered the world. He was there when she had her first steps and when Helaena nearly drowned herself in the pond when she was just but a little toddler wobbling about the Keep. He was also there, when in a pique of anger, she had thrown a knife toward her father's head during supper. The Mad King, at that point still very much sane, had merely laughed at his daughter's temper and reasoned that she most certainly was the blood of the dragon as fire had kissed her soul.

The Knight had no doubt that in time Helaena would prove herself, she had always been a smart, passionate girl. But he was also deadly curious as to how these eggs would play into the web that Helaena seemed to be weaving.

"Should any of them, those prickly, deceitful Lords, dare try and betray me, they will wish for my father to be alive again. Because I will sacrifice each of them to hatch an egg and when the dragon is grown I will have that dragon set aflame to their House, burning and eating everything they held dear. Once all the eggs are hatched they will be the ultimate defense against further rebellion," Helaena declared to the dumbfounded Knight.

"I want to break the wheel, but I can't do it without proper reason. I will not be declared senseless and crazy like my Father. I have already forgiven those simpering lords for the Rebellion. But that doesn't forgive them from any future endeavors," Helaena hissed menacingly, before closing the chest and sitting on her bed.

Barristan didn't say anything in contradiction. It wasn't his place and whatever the Queen wished, he would aide in the execution. Even if that meant the extinction of some of the Great Houses of the Seven Kingdoms.

It wasn't his place to do anything else but that.

The image, of Helaena sitting in her bed looking up at him, reminded Ser Barristan Selmy of Helaena as a little girl who wouldn't go to bed when it was already far past her time. Ser Barristan and Ser Oswell would have to chase her around the Keep, all the while the Princess giggling, and eventually wrangle the little terror back into bed. Even now, Ser Barristan saw the Queen as the little girl he had to protect.

"I'm afraid of what will happen when Gerold and Arthur come back, they might not want to be part of my Queensguard. They may try to kill me because of my treatment of Rhaegar after Robert killed him," sighing, Helaena rubbed her forehead and in that moment Ser Barristan could see all the weight of the stress pressing down on Helaena who was still achingly young in comparison to all the Lords who were going to try and manipulate her. Not that they could, but it was the principle of the matter.

"For gods' sakes, Robert still stands- that alone is enough to send them into a bout of fury. But they are loyal Knights, amazing Knights and I hope Ned can convince them to return home. But either way, I want you to be my Lord Commander Barristan. You deserve it," Helaena smiled and grabbed the Knight's hand, squeezing it tightly.

Barristan, for all his closeness to his Princess-now Queen- was not expecting this promotion and squeezed her hand back.

"And, I'm waiving the vow for you. Think of it as a reward, for protecting me all these years. I'm so grateful. Go get Ashara Dayne—make her your lady wife," at this, Ser Barristan almost fell over in shock, his astounded expression causing Helaena to give out her first joyous laugh, something no one had heard in so long. At least, without the cruel, menacing, or humorless tone.

"Of course my Queen," hand slipping away from Helaena's, the man bowed and began to make his way out of the room but was stopped by the Queen's call.

"Barristan, you are not to tell anyone about the eggs or my plan—am I clear? I would hate for you to be the next sacrifice after Gregor Clegane," the warning was there, the casual way in which Helaena informed Ser Barristan of this should have alerted him.

But instead the knight was on such a tidal wave of joy that he could only consent quickly to Helaena's order, rushing to leave in order to see Ashara and ask for her permission to court her.

Staring at the chest placed beside her, Helaena opened the lid again and caressed the the eggs—all three humming with life beneath her finger tips.