2nd Month of 300 A.C. The Mountains
Jon Snow
If he were being honest with himself, Jon thought he was still in a dream, there was something very surreal about this whole experience. He had thought his brother was dead, but there he was, being carried on Hodor's back, Summer running by his side, that, that was proof, and yet there was something within Jon that said there was more to this than met the eye. The Reeds were suspicious, he had never met them before, and now they were here? No, that did not make sense. He looks at Bran and then at Summer and says. "So it was you who saved me. I wondered at that."
Bran looks at him a moment and then replies softly. "I could not let that girl hurt you. I did not know why you were there, but I had to protect you."
Jon looks at his brother a moment and then asks. "Why did you not come forward then? Why remain dead?"
Before his brother can respond the boy, Jojen speaks. "It was necessary for the world to think Bran was dead. It prevented others from looking for him."
Jon looks at the boy a moment and then says. "Hiding him from the Boltons and the Ironborn I can understand, but from me? I am Bran's brother. I would never seek to harm him."
"You would've asked him to do something he was not ready to do yet. We could not allow that." Jojen replies.
Jon feels his anger growing then. "I am your brother Bran, not the gaoler that these two appear to be. Tell me true, why did you not come forward?"
His little brother looks scared then, and Jon feels his anger grow toward the Reeds. His brother is silent and then replies. "I wanted to, but we needed to keep going. We had to go northward. We could not allow anyone to see us."
Jon groans in frustration then. "Why? Why did you feel the need to go north? What was there north for you apart from death and grief? The mountain clans would have fought for you and Rickon. Is Rickon alive?"
Silence, a silence that stretches on for a long time, Jon feels his anger grow ever more persistent then. "Bran. Answer my question. Is Rickon alive?" Bran looks at the Reed boy almost as if he is seeking the boy's permission to speak. "Do not look at Jojen Reed for permission, you are a Stark. Act like one."
His brother looks ashamed then. "Yes, he is. By now the Manderlys would have found him."
"The Manderlys? How would they have known to find him?" Jon asks.
"Because I told him and Osha to go to the Haunted Castle. The Manderlys would know to go there." Bran replies.
Jon wants to ask who Osha is, but thinks better of it, instead he asks. "And what of the wolf, what of Summer? I heard you speaking last night, are you a warg Bran?"
His brother is deathly silent then, and Jon feels his nerves begin to grow. "He is the most powerful warg south of the wall. He should have gone north of the wall to the three eyed raven, but he decided to come back south." the Reed Boy replies.
"You went north of the wall?!" Jon exclaims. "What madness possessed you to do that?"
"I was told I needed to go north of the wall if I wanted to fly. And so I went north. I did not know what else to do once Winterfell was taken." Bran replies.
Jon feels his anger reach a boiling point then, and he grabs the Reed boy by the scruff of the neck and growls. "You were the one who put that nonsense in my brother's head. You Reeds always get into no good. I know about your father Jojen Reed, and I know of the things he did during Harrenhal. Do not try and deny it, you will answer me, why did you send my brother to the death trap north of the wall?"
The boy chokes out something and then he chokes out something else. "I merely did what I needed to. Your brother needed to go north, he was never destined to be a king, your brother Robb never died."
Jon tightens his hold over the Reed boy and growls. "Do not play with me Reed. My brother Robb died at the twins. I will not hear you mention his name. Not you. Now, you will answer me truly, what idiocy prompted you to go north of the wall?"
"The words of a sorcerer, who all heeded, and yet none listened to. We had to go north to see the last true commander of the watch, for the darkness was coming. It has come." Jojen Reed sputters.
Jon stares at the boy a moment and then releases him, staring at him as he sputters and gasps for air. He looks at the boy and then growls. "What rubbish are you speaking?" he draws his dagger, and Ghost begins growling.
"Jon, he's speaking the truth." Bran says. "We had to go north to see a former Lord Commander. You've heard the tales about the mysterious Lord Commander, surely you know that what we had to do was necessary. I am a Stark, and I would not shirk my duty."
Old tales begin to form within Jon's head, the tales he heard about the Targaryens and the Wall from Maester Aemon, all of it echoes within his head, and now he wonders at it. "You cannot be serious? I thought such magic was dead."
"Not dead, just sleeping, waiting for your brother, Jon." Jojen replies.
Jon looks at the boy a moment, his hand on the hilt of his knife, and then he says. "If what you say is true, then perhaps there is sense in coming with you to see our great grandmother. If there is not, well I will kill you here and now."
There is a gasp, and then a voice sounds out, strong and proud. "You have already found me, son of my daughter's flesh. Blood of my blood, and saviour to the world."
Meereen
Prince Quentyn Martell
Meereen was alive with the sound of chaos, the Queen had brought the city to the flames, and as such there was much chaos going on within its walls. Quentyn watched it all with some disinterest, it was a mere sideshow to what he had planned. He knew his friends thought him mad, but his cousin knew he was speaking sense, and so he did what needed to be done, he pushed on through the darkness, and he stared at the emptiness and then called out. "I know you are there, come out dragons. Come out and meet your masters."
There is no response but the deafening call of silence, Quentyn does not lose heart though, instead he merely turns to his friends and says. "They shall come, we have all that we need."
Cletus Yronwood, standing there holding the dagger merely says. "Do you think so Quent? I do not know, you saw the chaos in the city, we shall be lucky if we do not get killed. The Harpies will come here soon enough."
"They will come, they know that there is something in it for them, they always know when there is something in it for them." Quentyn replies.
"How can you be so sure Quent? I know you've read the books and seen the last dragon, but surely there must be more to it than what you are proposing? Surely there is something that must needs be offered?" Cletus says.
"Because, I have studied this for more than I remember studying for anything else. This does have to work, I know it will. Now bring the dagger here." Quentyn replies.
His friend sighs and hands him the dagger, Quentyn takes it and then says. "Gerris you have the vial?"
His friend nods and moves up to place the vial underneath his hands. Quentyn grits his teeth and then pricks the bottom of his hand with the dagger, watching as the blood drops into the vial. "Now we must bring the flames, cousin, you have the flames?"
"I do." his cousin replies, his voice sounding soft and melodic. "You are sure of this cousin?"
Quentyn looks at his cousin and merely nods. "The woman has shown she is incapable of doing anything sensible. Father did say that this would be the only other option should she show that. We must get this done. I will not see her sit the throne."
"Very well, let us not delay any further. Let us watch as the magic happens." His cousin lights the flame to the vial, and as they watch it burn and crackle, and then pop, Quentyn feels a tingling sensation within his hand, he watches all of this going on, and as the smoke comes tingling through, he smells something akin to dead meat crawling through. Two eyes appear, a tongue slithering through, he sees scales and sees the beast before him, a feeling of awe engulfs him, there before him is his prize, the thing he knew he was here to claim, the knowledge, all of that knowledge, it would be his soon enough.
The dragon's tongue comes out once more and flicks against his tongue, Quentyn feels something akin to shock run through him at the sensation. Memories engulf him then. An egg lying in state in King's Landing, as a dragon the colour of night moves away, the dragon howling through the night, the sadness as her people lie and die, as her lovers and her masters die for the throne of barbed irons. The uncertainty of what would come from this, her mother's passing. The years spent inside the egg as countless people tried to hatch her, none of them worthy of her attention or affection, until one came, one who was pure of heart, but tempered with fire. Being taken from that person was heart breaking, heart wrenching, being given to the girl was something she would have roared over, she does not love the girl who took her from her egg, she does not see the fire inside her, she does not know why she came from her egg, but she wants to return to sleep.
Quentyn comes to with a gasp, lying on the floor, the dragon away from him. "What did you see cousin?" his cousin asks.
Quentyn takes a deep breath. "I saw, I saw her, I saw her memories. I know what she wants and what she does not want."
"And what is that?" his cousin asks.
Quentyn hesitates a moment and then says. "She wants to return to her slumber. She does not like being awake, she thinks it is wrong. She found another rider, and does not know why she is stuck with the queen."
"And who is this rider?" his cousin asks, something akin to hunger deep within his voice.
Quentyn turns then to look at his cousin, his silver hair gleaming in the light, his violet eyes gleaming with hunger. "I think, I think it was your father."
His cousin looks shocked and then asks. "You are certain?"
"I am. It was your father, it had to be, I do not know who else it could have been. Everything within the image suggested that it was your father." Quentyn replies.
His cousin stares at him a moment and then asks. "And what of the queen? What do we do with her?"
Quentyn takes a deep breath and then says. "We must bring her here. Her blood is necessary, we have the eggs, but we need something more, we must make the dragons ours, completely ours, and for that we need her. We must ensure she does not leave. If she does, then we are in deep trouble."
His cousin nods and then asks. "Do you know the spell to bring the state of mind about?"
"I think I can do it. I did have a deep look at it on the journey here. But I do not know whether or not it will be completely successful, so much else is dependent on it." Quentyn says.
His cousin nods. "Well we must bring the queen here."
There is a moment's silence and then Gerris speaks. "I think she is already here."
Griffin's Roost
Lord Jon Connington
It had been relatively easy to take Griffin's Roost, surprisingly so, that was something that concerned him, that his cousin would have allowed the castle to become so lax in its defence. Then again what could one expect from Red Ronnet, from what Jon could tell, the boy was a fool, a hot headed fool and not someone worth worrying overly about, and yet because he was kin, Jon found himself doing just that. It was aggravating really, just how much one could worry about relations that one had never met before.
Still the opening of the door and the presence of the king and Maester Haldon soothed him somewhat. "What word is there?" he asks.
""It seems that the men have been successful in taking Estermont, Crow's Nest Rain House. It seems the forces of the Stormlands have been stuck without a commander for some time. There is not much loyalty or love for Stannis Baratheon here." Haldon replies.
Jon looks at the half maester and then at the king who says. "I knew that this would go well. I told you Jon, I told you we would be successful. There was already too much going on in the crownlands and elsewhere for that boy to look toward the place he should have been concerned with."
Jon looks at the king and says. "Indeed it would appear so Your Grace. And yet I would urge caution, we cannot become too complacent. Tywin Lannister is still alive, and will likely be so for a while yet. We must continue making progress and we must win over the Stormlords, otherwise we are facing a difficult task ahead."
"Stannis Baratheon has spent the past two moons in the north, he is not leaving that place alive, we have the assurances of our allies there. We must move and quickly, already the men are growing restless, we must make a move toward the one place that would bring us the most amount of men and show our enemies our strength." the king says.
"You cannot mean what I think you mean. It has never fallen, not even during the Siege of Storm's End did it fall. We must be certain we know what is going on before we do something such as this. It is too risky Your Grace." Jon replies.
Something appears in the king's eyes then. "We must act and we must act now. We cannot wait forever Jon, otherwise we will lose whatever initiative we might have gained from striking out as we did. I will not allow that, I cannot allow that to happen."
Jon looks at the king and says. "We will not lose the initiative Your Grace, but Storm's End is nearly impenetrable, we cannot take it without losing what few men we have. We must gain more men, and the way to do that is to take more castles. Force the lords of those castles to come to our side and show them the benefit that might come from siding with you."
"Lord Connington is right Your Grace." Haldon says. "It would not do to just have one part of the Stormlands fighting for you. Storm's End is a formidable fortress, but even those holding it must know that for a long period of time they will be unable to sustain themselves. For now we must gain more allies."
The king scratches his head then, and then says. "We must make a move somewhere, but we must make sure that Storm's End is not allowed time to prepare. I cannot allow for something to happen that will end all the work we have done and prepared for. I cannot allow that."
"Then what do you wish for us to do?" Jon asks.
The king is silent a moment, and then he says. "We must march for Storm's End, I will not have it said that I was scared to go for the big game. We take our full force there, and we shall take it with or without blood being shed. I shall make the boy on the throne shit himself." The king walks out of the room then, and Jon sighs.
He waits until the king is out of sight before turning to Haldon. "Did he read the letter?"
The maester shakes his head. "No my lord, he did not. I made sure that it was kept from his sight. For now, he remains ignorant, but sooner or later he shall come to know of it. How do you think he will feel when he finds out? You must speak with him."
"I know that, I have been thinking about that ever since we landed. I do not know how to make it any easier for him. But we must do something, we cannot lose the one card we have. No matter what the spider might say, that secret is to our advantage." Jon replies.
"Most certainly my lord, the more that the boy comes to rely on you, the more he will trust you, but the more it will hurt when he learns the truth. You must tell him soon, otherwise, someone else will, and the damage shall be done." Haldon says.
"I know gods dammit Haldon, I know. But what am I supposed to say, that we cannot move on King's Landing yet, because the plan has not gone ahead. When he asks what plan, what does the spider want me to say? I am sorry but I cannot tell you yet, because it is a secret. For the love of the gods Haldon, I cannot continue lying to him." Jon growls.
There is a moment's silence and then the door opens and there standing before them is the king. He looks shocked, ragged and dazed, a letter clutched in his hand. "What is this?" he asks gesturing to the letter. "Tell me it is a lie, a falsehood, it cannot be true."
Jon sighs. "It is, every word of it. I cannot lie any longer Aegon, it is true. I am sorry, so very sorry."
Aegon draws his sword then, and rushes toward Jon, and as he feels the blade bury itself within his skin he says nothing. He feels something within him break though when he hears the boy say. "I trusted you." I am sorry Rhaegar, I failed you. I have failed you all.
Meereen
Queen Daenaerys I Targaryen
The streets were in chaos, there was blood being spilt everywhere, and Dany felt alive, but she felt sad. Sad that it had to come to this, the shedding of blood, she had warned them, and yet they had not listened, she could not be faulted, for she had tried, and tried to tell these fools that should they go against her, she would have justice. And now they were suffering for it, and yet, something inside her balked at all that was happening on her orders. And now, now, there were Dornishmen within her children's room.
"What is going on here?" Dany asks, fighting to keep her voice calm. There are four men standing there before Rhaegel, and she feels something coming deep within her.
"We are doing what you did not have the guts to do." the small one replies, she does not know what his name is.
She looks at Ser Barristan and he whispers. "Prince Quentyn Your Grace."
"And what exactly is that then Prince Quentyn?" Dany asks.
The prince looks at her, his eyes a strange colour, not quite violet, but not quite purple. "Dragons are not supposed to be chained up like this. They are supposed to be free, and allowed to do as they please. You call them your children, and yet you do not control them. Are you truly the mother of dragons, or is that a lie?"
"Watch yourself Ser," Ser Barristan says stepping forward. "You are speaking to the queen, and it is time you showed her some respect."
Dany places her hand on the knight's arm. "Rest easy, Ser Barristan, let us see what the man has to say. Tell me Prince Quentyn what would you do in my position then?"
"I would have let them go free. They are dragons not pets, you made the mistake of caring for those who would not keep you in power. You were foolish." the prince replies.
Dany feels her anger begin to grow and she knows her children feel it as well, for she can feel their fire building. "Tell me then, what would you have done when a mother came with the corpse of her dead babe and asked me for justice? I could not kill my own child, so I did what was necessary."
"No you punished the two who were not responsible for the crime, and let the other one go." the prince replies. "You did not show the sound judgement of a mother, but instead the mere insolence of a girl pretending to be an adult." the prince replies, his eyes are beginning to worry her now.
"Watch yourself, the Queen asked you what you would have done, not to insult her." Ser Barristan replies.
"I think it would be good if the Queen spoke for herself, you are not in the habit of speaking for others." a new figure says, this one tall, and startlingly handsome.
"And who pray tell are you?" Dany asks.
The figure smirks. "That is neither here nor there, now please do reply to my cousin, I think he is feeling quite unwell."
Dany feels something inside her warning against doing this, but she steps closer, Ser Barristan follows. "So you would have had me imprison the biggest dragon the world has ever seen since the Black Dread died, the one called the black dread come again? And tell me why should I have done that? And tell me, why should I not simply have you removed from here, and forever?"
Quentyn looks at her. "Because then you would not have Dornish support, and without Dorne, you are nothing. You can have three dragons and Unsullied, but you would never raise another banner without Dorne. We have been setting the ground for your return for many years now, and yet you ignore us for that fool you call a lover." The prince's eyes are glowing now, and Dany feels something akin to fear prickle through her.
"You provided me with merely a scrap of paper, and something that you claimed was a letter from your father. I know not whether that was true. I only know that your uncle sits in King's Landing whispering to the usurper's child, who sits on my throne. How can I trust you?" Dany questions.
The prince bristles at this, whilst the figure standing by his side remains there stock still, a smile on his face, his eyes gleaming with amusement. Dany finds herself wondering more and more about this person, and she wonders what he might be like, underneath all that finery. "I would say that the fact I am here. I did not need to come, and yet I came, and I offered the hand of friendship, and you slapped it away from me. I would deal with you, the way I should have from the start."
Something in his tone of voice sets alarms ringing in her head and yet before she can say anything, Ser Barristan is knocked down from behind, and a rattle sounds, there before her is her fierce daughter Rhaegel, roaring at her with his flames fanning out before her. She hears the chanting of someone, and she screams for help, but none comes. She feels someone's breathe hot at her neck. She hears a whispered confession. "You and I, we were meant to be, and yet, you were taken from me. I would have that fixed, the way my father meant it to be." she is turned round then as she feels the man's lips press against hers, she groans and then flames engulf her.
She feels a hot sensation, burning, the flames lick around her, engulfing her toward near desperation, something is pricking at her, blood is falling on the floor and yet she does not know from where it comes. She is panicking, but the feel of the man's lips on hers is soothing and so she sinks back into his embrace, the flames grow hotter still, and then a roar is let loose, and she blinks and the flames are gone, and all that is left is ash.