AN: Hey guys.
New POV.
I tried to portray Maekar as smart and somewhat mature for his age; but still showing he is a child.
This chapter will be extremely important for the story.
Hope you guys enjoy this one.
UzuShiro: I agree, that's why I'm trying to use these characters in my fic.
Chapter 13
Maekar 'Waters' 290AC
Maekar threw water at his face, trying to cool himself down after another training session in which he was easily beaten by Ser Barristan. He knew that training with a sword was necessary, and he was quite good at it, but his true passion was leading men, not being involved in the fighting; he knew his swordplay would never compare to the likes of Ser Barristan, Ser Arthur or Rhaenys; he was good, but not that good.
He had recently celebrated his eleventh name day and he was finally allowed to lead his dragon legion in some of their training, he knew his mother only wanted to protect him, but he was still a little annoyed that it took so long for her to allow him to train his troops. They still had a long way to go before he was satisfied with their training; he still had to solve the troubles that the legion had when operating in smaller groups of 100 or even 10 men. He had long ago learned from the many books and description of battles that he read that mobility and versatility were the decisive factors in winning most battles.
The fact that his methods resulted in the most versatile troops they had was a point of pride for him; the legion still wasn't at full strength, he wanted a total of 5,000 for each legion, 4,000 heavy infantry and the rest equally divided between archers and cavalry; currently the legion had 2,500 men, it was enough to make for a decent fighting force, especially if deployed in the center of the battle when using a hammer and anvil strategy.
He was especially happy when lord Benjen said that all but one of his strategies that were used in the war against Myr, worked perfectly, and the one that failed had a naval component to it. He knew he wasn't as good with ships as he was with armies, he left naval strategies to Grand Admiral Velaryon and Aurane.
There would be another war starting soon, were his strategies would also be used; but it would be difficult to gather information from there. His mother had asked him to provide his thoughts about their war to Lord Aegon and his son Matarys, when they visited, but he didn't knew if the Lord Freeholder of Elyria, or his son, would be willing to provide him with information on how the war progressed.
He almost jumped in surprise when he heard a sweet voice ask.
"Let's train again, Maekar."
He turned around and saw Rhaenys looking at him, dressed in leathers and holding her training sword; she looked like the warrior princess she always says she wants to be.
"Why Rhae? You know i'm not good enough to provide you a challenge, you should spar with Aurane like Ser Arthur told you to, he is on your level." Maekar responded.
"But i want to spar with you." Rhaenys responded pouting a little. "And it is fun beating you." She said with a smirk.
Maekar laughed at Rhaenys joke, she did found it funny beating him. But he never had a problem with it, he was just happy for her that she was so good at something she truly enjoyed doing. In the end, he could never deny Rhaenys anything, so he responded.
"Alright, let's go train a little more."
Rhaenys smiled at him, turned around and started running towards the yard again; every time Rhaenys smiled at him he felt something on his chest, it was a weird feeling but it made him pretty happy. He picked up his training sword and went after her, as he reached the yard he saw that Ser Willem was already close by, likely to step in if Rhaenys got carried away like she usually did, the master-at-arms always liked to complain about how troublesome Rhaenys was; it was funny to Maekar, especially since most of the time when Rhaenys was in trouble, he was usually involved as well.
"You two keep things clean alright; i'll be watching." Ser Willem said.
Maekar nodded towards the Darry knight and saw Rhaenys do the same, he then assumed a defensive stance and prepared himself for the spar. Rhaenys immediately went on the attack, using her greater speed to try to keep him on the defensive, he parried every single one of her strikes since he knew he couldn't try to dodge; Rhaenys was so much faster than him that trying it would cause him to lose pretty quickly. He tried to go on the offensive when he found an opening, using his size to his height and reach to his advantage, but unlike him, Rhaenys was fast enough to dodge without sacrificing her ability to counter-attack.
The fighting went on for a few more seconds until Rhaenys feinted right and in the middle of the movement changed directions, it ended with Rhaenys hitting him in the belly; he would be bruised later and if it was a true fight he would certainly be dead. Maekar was surprised when he heard the sound of clapping.
"My princess, my prince; that was a good fight." Ser Gerold said as he approached them.
Rhaenys smiled at the praise, and seeing how happy she was, Maekar decided that a few bruises was a low price to pay.
"I am here to escort you, prince Maekar; the queen wants to see you in her solar." Ser Gerold said.
Maekar saw Rhaenys wanted to complain, but she knew the whenever his mother called it was important; he decided to cheer her up a little.
"We will train more later, Rhae." Maekar said, liking how the smile that was disappearing from her face, came back with full force.
Rhaenys nodded, hugged him and then went away, probably looking for Ser Arthur so he could teach her more.
Maekar gave his training sword to Ser Willem and followed Ser Gerold into the manse, as he walked through the halls he caught a brief glimpse of Daenerys and Visenya in their lessons with Donnel, one of the new maesters; Maekar didn't knew why they had new maesters, his mother didn't want to tell him why, she only said that the old one was a traitor; but she had personally executed the old maester and that told Maekar that there was more to the story; he had never seen his mother even hold a sword, she must have been pretty mad for her to personally carry out an execution.
He and Rhaenys had been trying to listen in on the conversations of the adults, but they didn't found any real information, the only clue they had about what happened they got from a conversation between Lyanna and Oberyn the last time he visited, about a moon ago. Apparently archmaester Marwyn had found in the citadel that the maester were spying on them; they also did some pretty bad things to the Targaryens over the years, and even worse things to his mom; he didn't knew what those things were, neither him nor Rhaenys were able to hear it.
After his mom had executed the maester she allowed archmaester Marwyn and his acolytes to take over the job of teaching them and they were better at it than the previous maester. Egg, Daenerys and Visenya really liked the acolytes, especially Donnel; as for Maekar himself, he really enjoyed talking with archmaester Marwyn, the man was really smart and he actually took time to hear Maekar's ideas on other things apart from warfare.
That was one of the things that really annoyed Maekar; he liked warfare and he was good at it, but it wasn't the only thing he liked, he had many other interests; but most people didn't want to hear him on his ideas; on tactics and training of troops the adults were willing to hear him, his ideas already proven to work; but no one was willing to try his other ideas, some of it he could understand, his mother had said that many of his ideas couldn't be implemented because they didn't rule lands of their own it, but a few others didn't need that kind of power, they were simple things, like a new way to forge metal, or a different kind of ship design, they could certainly try those things without needing lands of their own.
They reached the door to his mother solar and he nodded towards Ser Alliser who was standing guard on the outside, Ser Gerold knocked on the door, opened it slightly and then announced him.
"Thank you, Ser Gerold; you can let him in." He heard his mother say.
Walking inside the room he saw that his mother wasn't alone, archmaester Marwyn was there with her, seating in a chair in front of her desk.
"Take a seat, Maekar." His mother said.
He walked forward and sat on the chair to the side of archmaester Marwyn, he was a little scared of why his mother had called for him before walking into the room; he thought, she had discovered that it was him and Rhaenys that pulled that prank on the kingsguard a few days before; the kingsguard had woken up to find their white cloaks dyed red, they had to walk around without cloaks for a couple of days before they got new ones. But now that he had walked into the room and saw that his mother wasn't alone, he was more curious than scared; whenever his mother called him for punishment she was always alone.
"I'm sure you are wondering why i called you here Maekar." His mother said.
Maekar nodded his head in response; he didn't want to give voice to his thoughts in case his mother had changed her ways and was calling him for punishment.
"I've been talking with Marwyn and we came to an agreement; he and his acolytes will stay under our employment, they will be in charge of yours and the other children's education; but that is something for the short term. In the long term, we will be conquering lands in the near future and while we can't trust the maesters, we still need people with their skills under our employment." His mother said, pausing a little to allow him to think on her words, something he enjoyed doing; his mother was one of few people who understood it and allowed him to do it.
He knew his mother was right, if the maesters were spying on them they couldn't have any of them around; he knew how important information was; he always had adults saying how smart he was, but he didn't believe himself to be smarter than anyone else; he just reads a lot of books, so he has more information than other. The fact that archmaester Marwyn was going to stay made him pretty happy as well, the man was really smart and he enjoyed his lessons more than the previous maester; he nodded his head towards his mother, telling her he was done thinking on her words, she smiled at him an then continued.
"We have been talking about this little problem and came to another agreement; once we conquer lands of our own, we will be setting up a place of learning similar to the citadel, but unlike the citadel, all will be welcomed there, women and smallfolk won't be barred entry nor denied the chance to learn. Marwyn will be in charge of this new center of learning and his acolytes will be instructors there." His mother said, pausing again.
Maekar really liked this idea, he knew how important maesters were and if they couldn't trust the maesters, then it would be better to train people to do what they do, but that would be loyal to them. He also liked the idea of allowing women and smallfolk to learn, he knew Sarella, prince Oberyn's daughter, really wanted to go to the citadel and study there, but she couldn't do it just because she was a girl; he really thought that wasn't fair, Sarella was really smart and could certainly be as good as any acolyte; and the smallfolk being allowed to learn was also an amazing idea, there might be some people who are talented in something but never had the chance to learn it just because they were smallfolk; he nodded his head again.
"Now, the reason i called you here today is because Marwyn has been praising you ever since he arrived her; he is always saying how smart you are and the talent you seem to have for innovation, for picking old knowledge and finding different ways of using it. Because of it both Marwyn and I want you to work with him for a time; he will they you his ideas for the new center of learning and you will try to find different ways to use said ideas." His mother said, smiling at him.
Maekar felt his mouth open in surprise, his mother was giving him a really important task, one he didn't feel that he was ready to do; giving advice for an entire center of learning was something that should be done by someone with a lot more experience than him, he had never even taught anyone, how could he figure out a way to do it better than was already being done.
"Mother, i don't know if i can do it, i think it would be better to have someone who has some actual experience in teaching others do the advising." Maekar responded.
"We are looking for a different way of seeing things, Maekar; someone who has experience will most likely run into the same problems Marwyn has, since they would be used to teaching the same way that he does; what we need is someone who has no experience, so they could look at things from an entirely different perspective." Rhaella said.
Maekar thought that it made some sense, if someone already had experience then they would most likely try to do things the way they knew worked, they wouldn't try a different approach when they thought it wasn't necessary. He still didn't think he had the knowledge to do it, but he would try.
"I'll try, mother; but i don't think i have the knowledge." Maekar responded.
"That is easily solved, Marwyn will tell you all of his ideas and give you the necessary knowledge for you to think of different ways to use them." His mother said.
Maekar nodded his head in acceptance.
"Now, i want you to start working on it immediately. Marwyn will show you to where he keeps his notes." Rhaella said, smiling again.
"Yes, mother." Maekar responded.
His mother then instructed him to wait outside, while she talked with archmaester Marwyn; he went outside and started a conversation with Ser Alliser about one of his ideas, which was the use of siege engines against soldiers instead of just castles; He thought his idea had a lot of potential, but the problem with it was that he wanted to use wildfire, it would make for a devastating weapon if he could figure out how to use it, almost as destructive as the dragons of old, but the problem was that wildfire was too volatile, it tended to explode at the slightest of touches. He tried to use that powder they use to make fireworks in Yi Ti, but while the powder was less volatile than wildfire, it was also less explosive and took more effort to set off. Maybe it would be useful in the future, but he wanted to make wildfire catapults work before he tried to use the powder.
A few minutes after he started his conversation with the kingsguard, the archmaester left his mother's solar; he said his goodbyes to Ser Alliser and followed the old man. Walking inside the room archmaester Marwyn had been given, Maekar saw that the room held a lot of books on magic, while the archmaester was learned in many different subjects, everyone knew his true passion was magic; his mother had even allowed the old man to read two of the books they had on fire sorcery, none of the really important ones, but the ones that were mostly introductory and taught simple concepts. After both sat close to a desk that held a mountain of paper, the archmaester turned towards him and said.
"Now, prince Maekar; i will be telling you our ideas and you will tell me what you think of them."
Maekar nodded and them they started to work.
They spent hours talking about the many things that were planned for the center of learning; it took a lot of explanation for Maekar to understand some concepts and most of the time he just didn't have anything to add, but he did gave a few ideas that archmaester Marwyn thought were good ones. The first of those was something simple, naming; he argued that they needed to distance themselves from the names they used on the citadel, unless they did so, people would just consider them offshoots of the maesters. So they agreed on new names for almost everything, the center of learning would be called Royal College, the person in charge of the Royal College would be called Headmaester, the only nod they would give to the order of maester, it was different enough for people to not confound them, but still close enough so people would immediately recognized a learned person. The instructors would be called Professor, and the students would be simply be called students instead of acolytes.
Another change they made was what would be taught to everyone and what would be taught to only those who wanted; Maekar, remembering the many journals of previous Targaryen kings and queens that he had read, and how much they complained in those journals about how difficult it was to find good tax collectors, insisted that numbers and accounting should be taught to everyone, even if they didn't want to be a professor or an advisor send to a castle; in the end, it was decided that every student would be taught to read and write, basic numbers and accounting, basic history and the geography of the land, geography would mostly be the westerosi one, but they would also be taught at least were the biggest cities in essos were located.
They also agreed that each professor would only teach one single subject, that was unlike the citadel, were a master would teach acolytes in many different subjects, only the archmaesters were allowed to teach a single subject. Maekar also gave the idea of limiting the number of students a single professor would teach, and also limit it by proficiency, the notes Marwyn had shown him had many complaints from maesters and archmaesters about how difficult it was to teach large numbers of acolytes, or how difficult it was to teach acolytes that had different levels of proficiency, the previous archmaester of medicine especially liked to complain about how sometimes he would be teaching acolytes that had two links and ones that didn't had any, at the same time. From there the idea of grades and standard teaching evolved; each class of students would be taught together, they would be taught at the same pace and after a time would have to pass a test to see if they could advance to the next grade, were they would be taught more advanced concepts.
The last change they made was in how the students would be able to choose what they wanted to learn and how they would pay for said learning; the students that didn't had the gold to pay for their learning would be able to pay by working for the College, either in the College itself, cooking, cleaning and just making sure the College could operate, or they could work outside of the College, making the gold the College would need to function, even a second grade student should be able to find work anywhere in westeros, their ability to read and write would put them far ahead of any other smallfolk. When it came to choices of subjects to learn, the students would be able to choose whatever they wanted, as long as they had already completed the basic education, and they would be allowed to leave any time; so if a student wanted to learn just medicine and nothing else they would be able to do it, of course, such a student would never get a position of advisor in a castle, no lord would trade a maester and their many different areas of expertise to someone who was just good in medicine; but a student like that could probably make a good bit of coin in many cities.
By the end of the day, they had a good framework of how to organize the College and Maekar had realized that his mother was right; his lack of experience was actually good for the work they had done.
Maekar was reading his copy of Annals of the Freehold that his aunt Larissa had given him all those years ago; he paid little attention to the chaos that was happening around him, Rhaenys was seating by his side, their shoulders touching; today she was also reading a book, instead of playing with her cat as she usually did; their side of the room was a tranquil sea compared to what was happening around it. Egg, Daenerys and Visenya were running around, playing some type of game of tag mixed with play fighting, or at least he thought it was play fighting based on the way they were tackling each other instead of lightly tapping.
Lady Asha was there as well, still scowling at everyone even if it was almost a year since she got there; Maekar knew that her face was just a front and she wasn't actually that annoyed with them, or at least with him, she always smiled when talking to him so Maekar thought that she actually enjoyed it. She was also really pretty, in an older girl kind of way.
He felt himself blush and cursed the sand snakes while doing so; ever since his tenth name day, the daughters of prince Oberyn would always talk about adult things with him every time they visited, so now he couldn't look at an older girl and think of said things; he felt himself blush even more when he remembered the last time they had visited. Tyene had said that she would let Rhaenys be his first, but she would be both his and Rhaenys second; but then Nymeria said that Tyene should allow Sarella to be the second and they both could be third and fourth, and then Obara said that they could do all four at the same time instead of taking turns. He didn't even know how that was possible and he was scared to find out; he asked one of the men of the dragon legion that said he had done adult things with more than one girl at the same time, the man said that it was fun, but also exhausting, so he didn't want to know how someone could do it with four at the same time.
He stopped thinking about it, or else he would die from blushing too much; he looked around and saw that Aurane had entered the room while he was distracted; he tried to talk to Asha but she didn't respond him, so he invited Ser Arthur for a game of cyvasse.
Maekar decided to go back to reading his book; his mother wanted him to read about the old valyrian faith, apparently it wasn't just the maesters that had done something bad and annoyed his mother, the faith had done something as well. A moon ago, when Viserys was visiting, his mother had called all of them to her solar and told them that the faith of the seven had betrayed their family, and because of that they shouldn't follow the seven anymore; she told them to read about other faiths so they could choose one that they wanted to follow. Maekar knew he was the only one that actually read about other faiths; Egg, Daenerys and Viserys, all said that they would follow the same faith she did, Visenya said she would learn of the old gods from her mother, Rhaenys thought about the Rhoynar faith for a while, she even asked her uncle about it, but in the end she choose the valyrian faith as well.
Maekar read about many different faiths. R'hllor didn't appeal to him; it was a faith of slavers that burned people alive, even the priests considered themselves slaves to their god. The Drowned God was a little better, he asked Asha about it and there were a lot of things he liked, apparently the drowned god helped those that were brave, warriors were praised in their culture and leading men in battle and taking war spoils was seen as honoring the drowned god, the problem was that they also took slaves, they might name it a different way and be a little better about it, but Maekar recognized slavery when he saw it. The Great Shepherd sounded good, but that was a peaceful faith; Maekar wanted to lead men in battle one day, so he immediately discarded that option. What little he learned about the Lady of Spears was pretty great, but she was the goddess of the unsullied and they didn't talk about her to those that weren't unsullied. The Black Goat was alright, until he learned of how the nobles in Qohor offered their own children to be sacrificed so the black goat would defend their city.
He learned about many other faiths but in the end he decided to follow the valyrian faith as well, there was also a lot of slavery in the times of the Freehold but the dragon gods themselves never asked for slaves, slavery was actually brought into the Freehold by the conquered ghiscari cities. There was also a lot of freedom in the valyrian faith, even in the time of the Freehold, if someone wanted to follow a different faith they would have no problem doing so. He caught himself blushing again as he thought about the fact that the valyrian faith allowed a man to have more than one wife; Lyanna always said that you should only do adult things with the person you marry, since the sand snakes wanted to do adult things with him, maybe they wanted to marry him.
When he told his mother he would also follow the valyrian faith, she told him to read more about it since she knew he could always find more in a different book; it always made him pretty happy how his mother would encourage him to keep reading, and she always found new books for him. But he soon realized that he already had the best book he could use to learn more about the valyrian faith; his copy of Annals of the Freehold had a lot of information about religion in the time of the Freehold, some of it was important, like the detailed account of the marriage of an archon of Meereen; some of it was just little records, like how one of his ancestors, a Aerion Targaryen, was the man that had the biggest number of wives in the history of the Freehold, with 28 wives and 300 slave concubines.
He scowled as he passed another page talking about dragons, this one was about how the way house Belaerys trained their young dragons; he was always annoyed at how he couldn't figure how to hatch the dragon eggs he and Rhaenys found at Dragonstone when they were young; he could understand why a book like this one didn't go into details of how to hatch a dragon, in the times of the Freehold this book wasn't just for the dragonlords; he could understand the fact that the dragonlords didn't want everyone to know how to hatch a dragon.
But even the many Targaryen journals he had read didn't had even a hint of how to hatch a dragon egg without a dragon, sure there were the crazy one who talked about wildfire, or burning thousands of men so the fire of life would renew the eggs; but even the good ones, King Jaehaerys, Queen Rhaenyra, Queen Alysanne, Queen Visenya and even the books written by Daenys 'the dreamer' didn't say anything about it, it was like every single one of them thought that any Targaryen would know how to hatch an egg, like it was something so easy they shouldn't even have to record.
No, it couldn't be that easy, could it? Maekar thought.
He immediately jumped upright, grabbing Rhaenys by the hand as she was about to fall due to his sudden movement, her shoulder no longer being supported by his.
"Rhae, come with me, i have an idea that i need your help." He said helping Rhaenys to her feet.
"Egg, Daenerys, come with us." He said while looking towards the two of them, still playing that weird game with Visenya.
He walked the halls of the manse, towards the wing that held their bedchambers; he was somewhat aware that Egg and Daenerys were fallowing him and Rhaenys, and Ser Barristan was a little behind them. When he reached the door to his own room he turned and said.
"Go pick up your eggs and bring them here."
He walked inside his room and went towards the chest he kept close to his bed, he opened the chest and found his dragon egg inside, its blood red color just as beautiful as the day he first saw it. He picked up the egg and went towards the fireplace, it was unlit at the moment, but the wood was there for whenever he wanted to light it, at that moment Rhaenys, Egg and Daenerys walked inside the room, Ser Barristan a little behind them. Maekar drew the dagger that he always carried these days, made a small cut on his hand and then smeared the blood on his egg; he cleaned the dagger on his tunic and then turned towards Rhaenys, giving her the dagger.
"Cut your hand and smear the blood on the egg." He said.
"My prince…" Ser Barristan started, but he quickly interrupted the knight.
"Don't interrupt, Ser Barristan; this is important. Besides, you know we can easily heal such cuts with our fire sorcery."
While the others smeared their bloods in their respective eggs, Maekar put his egg in the fireplace, on top of the wood, seeing what he was doing; Rhaenys did the same, after smearing her blood on her sky blue egg. When all four eggs were inside the fireplace; Maekar turned towards Rhaenys and said.
"Blue fire, Rhae; as much as you can."
They held hands, Maekar's right hand on Rhaenys' left and then they both raised their free hands, blue flames dancing in their fingers. They threw the flames into the fireplace and keep doing it for a few moments, until the blue flames exploded upwards, the heat of the room going up with it; they stopped throwing flames and waited in silence as the flames lowered, the heat of the room staying the same, when the flames lowered Maekar saw that the eggs were visibly glowing, when he turned to look at Rhaenys with a disappointed face, starting to think his idea was wrong, he heard the sound of cracking; he turned back towards the eggs and heard a loud shriek as his egg crumbled and from inside it emerged a blood red little dragon.
"How?" He heard Ser Barristan say in a shocked tone.
"Fire and blood, ser Barristan; fire and blood." Maekar responded, causing the other children to laugh as they all understood the true meaning of their house words.
AN2: The dragons are back.
There were a few references to earlier chapters, i will say that prophecies are vague and can be interpreted in many different ways.
And progress is not always linear, not all good ideas are followed through.
Next chapter we see the ramifications of what happened in this one.
Chapters 14,15,16 and 17 are already out on the pat re on. If you guys think my work is good enough to support and want to read ahead you can find me at pat re on .com (slash) TheUnseenScribe
I will see you guys in the next one.