Chapter 2:
As Jaime and the intruder locked eyes in a tense standoff, Queen Rhaella stepped forward, her voice cutting through the charged atmosphere of the room.
"Enough," she commanded, her tone firm and authoritative. "Arrest him and throw him into the black cells for attacking the king."
The guards tensed at her words, their weapons raised and ready to apprehend the intruder. But before they could move, the man sighed heavily, his expression one of resignation tinged with regret.
"You know Queen Rhaella, I had thought you wiser after I snuck by Ser Jaime and knocked out your husband. Well... I had hoped to finish the day without fighting but who am I to refuse such an interesting challenge?"
the man said with an audacity that Jaime had never heard before drawing a stick from some place only the gods would know with a swift motion, his movements fluid and practiced.
Suddenly three tables had somehow transformed into a bunch of big, black furred snarling dogs that immediately attacked the Targaryen guards.
The guards, their chins basically on the ground, were taken out of their stupor by a flash of silver light that caused a silver liquid to begin seeping from the ground, forming two inhuman looking monsters [think of the golems from Clash of Clans], that immediately started smashing guards left and right.
A barrage of red lights were sent at the guards, each one finding its mark with deadly accuracy. The guards staggered and fell, their bodies collapsing to the ground in a heap as the intruder swiftly disarmed them. As the remaining guards rushed forward to engage him, the man danced nimbly out of reach, his stick waving intricate patterns in the air as the air grew thick with fog.
By now Jaime, Sers Alliser, Berret and Darron had formed a guard around their queen to protect her from the demon in front of them. They couldn't see anything through the thick fog but their ears told them everything as within the minute all sounds of fighting had stopped and the fog slowly dispelled.
Jaime gritted his teeth when he saw that his queen was shaking with fright, no doubt even more affected by the unnatural display as the knights guarding her were.
"Your grace, you need to get out of hear and alert everyone in the vicinity that we have a sorcerer in the castle, taking out guards left and right. Ser Darron, gather the city watch and any other guard on or off duty and hurry here. Sers Jaime, Berret and I will make a stand as long as we will be able to" Ser Alliser Thorne said suddenly in a voice so grim that Jaime had never heard from the dour man.
Noone had any objections and within seconds Queen Rhaella and Ser Darron had left the king's chambers again.
This left Jaime with two companions against a sorcerer of unknown but clearly great power and skill. Would they even be able to do anything against such dark power?
It turned out the answer was no. The silver beasts that had been created by the sorcerer with his magic came out of the thinning fog and shrugged of Jaime's blade like it was a wooden stick, knocked out Ser Berret and then grasped him and Ser Thorne in their hands.
The fog was now quickly ceasing to exist, letting the two knights left awake gaze at the sorcerer once more.
It should have surprised Jaime that the sorcerer didn't even seem fazed by the battle but it didn't. The man had taken care of Jaime and all the others with such ease it was frightening.
Footsteps took him out of his musing as Queen Rhaella walked towards the sorcerer and dropped on her knees in front of him.
"I see now that I was wrong in trying to take you into custody, though I hope you understand why I had to do it. Please do not punish my knights and guards for my failure and spare them any punishment, you may do with me as you wish without fear of any king of resistance from me"
she said, her head hung low in defeat as she offered what was left of her dignity after many years of abuse by her husband in exchange for Jaime's and the others' lifes. He would have cried out in protest but in that moment he was too craven, fearing demonic torture of unimaginable scale by the sorcerer.
Said sorcerer picked up the queen and put her on her feet, gently kissing her forehead.
"I truly admire your courage, Queen Rhaella. While I am a bit miffed you betrayed my trust I would have done the same in your position. I will not harm your soldiers any further, that I promise and I accept your sacrifice" the sorcerer said gentlier than a demonic creature like him had any right to do and Jaime wondered why he was being so gentle.
"Thank you my Lord" Jaime's queen said, her voice filled with gratitude that made Jaime's heart ache. He was never able to protect her from the king and now this sorcerer would get to violate her to his heart's content too...
Then something happened that made Jaime's thoughts still. The king had somehow awoken to the side without alerting any of the others in his chambers, grabbed a dagger he got from only the seven know where and stabbed the sorcerer through the abdomen with a yell of rage making the sorcerer scream in pain, only to turn around and sent his fist flying into the king's neck with a swift motion before doing a slashing motion with the stick in his left hand which caused all kinds of slashes to appear on the king's chest.
The king dropped to the floor with a pained gasp, the numerous wounds all over his front causing his frail body to bleed out within moments while the sorcerer, the queen and the two knights in the room didn't react, all of them too shocked by the sudden turn of events to save the king from his own folly.
And so King Aerys II died shortly after his son, leaving the realm in the hands of Queen Rhaella.
Honestly? Most servants of the red keep and the smallfolk of King's Landing took a sigh of relief once the bells of the Grand Sept of Baelor started announcing the passing of their king.
He had not been popular what with the weekly burnings of people that were mostly innocent and the knowledge that Queen Regent Rhaella was a kind woman that despised the burning of innocents raised hope in their weary hearts even as the armies of the rebels marched on the city, coming nearer every day.
**scene break**
POV Lukarion Peverell, Red Keep, King's Landing; 283 AC
Lukarion stood before Rhaella Targaryen in the dimly lit chamber, his expression serious yet tinged with a hint of uncertainty. The past 24 hours had been hectic with spreading the word of king Aerys's death due to a stroke (Lukarion had healed the man's corpse post mortum) which was promptly confirmed by Grandmaester Pycelle, an old man whose gaze strayed too often to Rhaella's chest for Lukarion's liking.
They were admittedly quite wonderful even from the little that he had seen of them. Still, the man was likely twice her age and her servant, the grandmaester really should keep his eyes off Rhaella.
Anyway, after Queen Rhaella had practically announced herself his slave (not that he would ever do something like her late husband had done to her), he had used legilemency on Ser Allison and Ser Jaime in order to see whether he could trust them not to tattle on him regarding him killing Aerys.
He wasn't really good at it but these were little more than squibs though they did have something akin to a magical core for some weird reason.
Anyway, he had been disappointed when he decided that he ultimately couldn't risk that, so he promptly obliviated the necessary parts of their memory after making sure that Rhaella was fine with his decision after he had explained to her what he would do.
He hadn't wanted to mess with her mind as the poor woman had been abused enough during the past two dozen years. Luckily for him she seemed quite relieved that her tormentor had now passed away and even seemed a little grateful to Lukarion that he was the reason she was rid of the mad fucker.
After Ser Jaime and Ser Allison had sworn an oath to keep Lukarion's powers to themselves for the moment (they would never divulge the mad fucker's true cause of death of course, he had made sure of that), he had allowed them to take the king's body and take it towards the approaching regiment of City guards alongside Lord Rossart, an honourable but shrewd man and current hand of the king, who unfortunately had to be let in on Lukarion's temporary secret.
Luckily Ser Darron who was leading those men from the City Watch was quite smart and quickly understood to play along when Ser Allison had proclaimed that King Aerys II had passed onto the next great adventure due to a stroke during a misunderstanding that had caused chaos in the Red Keep.
Step by step first Ser Berret and then the guards that had fought Lukarion aswell had been woken up and quickly healed by him. The awed, fearful and yet thankful faces that had gaped at him when he healed most of their injuries in no time caused him no small amount of amusement but he was glad it was rather that than anger or hate.
All of them had luckily eaten up the lie of Aerys dying of a stroke, certain that their Queen could not possibly lie about something like this. They all had accepted her orders of not telling anyone else about 'the queen's sorcerer' just yet as she would do that herself during the coming feast, where they would mourn the passing of her 'beloved husband' and celebrate the crowning of her grandson Aegon as king.
Lukarion chose wisely to ignore the fact that Aegon was merely a babe and not fit to rule Westeros anytime soon... atleast for now.
Word had spread around quickly of Aerys' death and soon enough Lukarion got to meet Prince Viserys (Rhaella's son and younger brother of the late crown prince Rhaegar) and Princesses Elia (Rhaegar's wife) and Rhaenys (Rhaegar's daughter with Elia and Aegon's older sister).
Viserys was a meek and yet loud young boy of 7 years (or namedays as it was apparently called here) while Rhaenys was simply an adorable 3 year old that had immediately latched onto her grandmother's new friend, him. He had enjoyed playing with the little tyke, amusing her with the odd muggle thing he had in his trunk.
The beautiful smile Queen Rhaella had given him when she saw him taking care of her granddaughter had caused butterflies to form in his stomach. He had truly wondered how a woman twice his age could cause such feelings within him when noone had done so before.
It was then when he had decided it was time to reveal the truth about himself to his new Queen and to lay bare the reason he had come here, now that he was here due to unknown circumstances that had brought him to Westeros.
"Rhaella" Lukarion began, his voice steady, using her name as she had insisted he do so when they met in her chambers the next day. "there are things about me that you do not about me and that I would like to share with you"
"I already know of your demonic powers, Lukarion" she said with a slight grimace causing him to give her a confused expression.
"Demonic? Rhaella there is nothing demonic about my magic. While I have read about a historical figure from my home called Herpo the Foul who was rumoured to have made a contract with a demonic entity such magics are dangerous and have not been taught to me by my parents and grandparents."
"I really want to believe you Lukarion, truly I do but then how do you explain your abilities? You call it magic but magic was once prevalent in Westeros and is used by the Red Priestresses of Rhllor eastwards in Essos and in order to do so they have to sacrifice people to their god Rhllor by burning them alive"
"Well yes, granted that seems a little demonic" Lukarion said with a thoughtful scratching of his head, having to agree with Rhaella's opinion about these Red Priestresses,
"but while sacrifical magic does exist among my people it is a rather distrusted field of magic. We do not truly know where our magic comes from but you have not seen me burn anyone alive or sacrifice them in some other way when I battled your soldiers and healed them afterwards, no?" he asked with a grin causing her to give him a nod while smiling at him slightly.
"Yes I suppose that's true... okay we strayed a bit from our original point, what did you want to reveal to me then, Lukarion?" the beautiful woman in front of Lukarion asked him.
"I am not of this world, nor do I hail from any land known to you or your people." He said slowly but surely, pausing to wait for her reaction. Rhaella's brows furrowed in confusion.
"What do you mean, Lukarion? Where are you from? I do know of Essos but so do most so... Sothoryos perhaps?" Rhaella said, tilting her head in such a cute way that made him want to take her close... Merlin what was wrong with him? Lukarion quickly regained his focus before things got embarassing.. if they weren't already that is.
"No... I have actually never heard of such a place..." Lukarion said with a slight laugh "I am actually from another world or so I believe atleast as my people have sailed and cartographed all of my home world generations before I was born and there never any mentions of a continent like Westeros." Lukarion explained, his gaze meeting hers with unwavering conviction.
"I see... that seems a rather unbelievable tale and yet I find myself believing your words for some reason... How did you come to find yourself in Westeros, Lukarion? What purpose could have brought you here? Adventure? Coin?"
"My apologies, I do not have all the answers, Rhaella" Lukarion admitted, his tone tinged with a hint of regret. "But I believe that fate has guided my steps to this land, to a time of great turmoil and uncertainty. And I am determined to use my abilities to help you, your family and in extension your people. I will of course search for a way home but I shall not abandon you. Your people suffer a lot and a lot of it is unnecessary. The world I am from is very far ahead of yours even without magic but rather in fields like Medicine, Transportation, Production of all kinds of goods, Education, Infrastructure and Trade" Lukarion spoke passionately, truly believing in that moment that Mother Magic had sent him to these people to help them overcome their medieval society.
Rhaella studied Lukarion intently, searching his eyes for any hint of deception. Yet, she found only sincerity and resolve staring back at her. Slowly, she began to comprehend the gravity of his words.
"If what you say is true, Lukarion," Rhaella said softly, "then we must utilize your powers and your knowledge wisely. Together, we can forge a path forward, one that may yet bring hope to a realm beset by chaos. I hereby name you my personal advisor."
A flicker of relief crossed Lukarion's features as he realized that Rhaella was beginning to accept the truth of his claims.
With newfound determination, they began to chart their next steps, drawing upon Lukarion's knowledge and abilities to navigate the treacherous currents of politics and war that surrounded them. And as they planned, the bond between them grew stronger, forged by the shared conviction that they could make a difference in the fate of Westeros.
**Scene Break**
POV Queen Rhaella, Red Keep, King's Landing; 283 AC
In the quiet confines of Queen Rhaella's chambers, a sense of serenity enveloped the air as a handsome young man delicately tended to her battered body and wounded spirit.
The past few days had taken out a lot of Rhaella. The crowning of King Aegon VI had been done almost immediately aswell as the proclamation of her now being the Queen Regent.
She had been surprised that the news was met more with hope and nervousness than distrust or even hate. She had been glad that the people of King's Landing were aware that Aerys had shared none of the power with her and merely kept her as little more than a courtesan... to put it mildly anyway.
When Lukarion and her had planned they had at first casted doubt on their idea of immediately revealing his powers to the people of King's Landing or anyone else who didn't already know really. But soon words had gotten to them by the Master of Whisperers Lord Varys that Tywin Lannister, the former Hand of the King, was on his way to them with a large host of soldiers and knights.
With the Lannister soldiers and Lukarion's magic, surely they would have little problem to defeat the rebels?
Soon after that Lukarion and Rhaella were told that the Lannister army would apparently be at King's Landing a few hours before the combined armies of the Stormlands, the North, the Riverlands and the Vale would. And wasn't that rather unsurprising that the mad fucker had managed to piss off 4 of his 8 Lord Paramounts so severely that they rebelled against him?
When Lukarion had first heard the truth of what Aerys definetely and Rhaegar allegedly had done he had first thought about if helping the war end by letting the rebels take King's Landing while spiriting away the royal family to a place where he would shelter them wasn't the less bloody and thus better option.
He had told her so, knowing that she couldn't do anything to him anyway, only for her to sigh and tell him about Lord Robert Baratheon, the newly crowned demon of the trident, and his brutality on and his dishonourable behaviour off the battlefield.
Such a man would have become king of Westeros if Lukarion chose to abandon Rhaella which made her new lover (yes really, no she was no cougar, truly!) think about their predicament some more.
When Lord Varys told them of Robert Baratheon's immense hatred against all things Targaryen / dragon, Lukarion soon came to the conclusion that the man could not be allowed to take the city and become king.
Her lover's kind heart visibly ached at the decision to let tens of thousands die when he might have been able to prevent such a horrible thing but that was something that she loved about him.
Anyway there was simply no other way so they proceeded with their original plan. After her grandson had been crowned king, a grand feast was held where Lukarion had made his first appearence, causing cheers to raise in the crowds when he showed them some of the more basic things he could do with his magic.
The people too soon began to believe in a victory and when Lukarion made a short speech where he promised he would do everything he could to make sure the city would not fall, they had chanted his, Rhaella's and her grandson Aegon's names.
But that was not all, Lukarion had also beseeched he could not be everywhere at the same time and so the people of King's Landing needed to prepare themselves for a sack by the enemy's armies.
"I know you want to believe in victory and so do I but nothing is certain and wouldn't it be better to be prepared for the worst and not need it than need it when they come and come for your loved ones?" he had asked loudly, her lover's magic aiding his voice in reaching all corners of the area...
She realised she had fallen into memories again when her new lover kissed her forehead. The events of the past days had truly taken their toll on Rhaella, both physically and emotionally, but in Lukarion,'s gentle care, she found solace and comfort unlike anything she had ever known.
With soft hands and tender words, Lukarion moved with a grace that belied his youth, his touch a balm to Rhaella's weary soul. Each gentle caress, each whispered reassurance, served as a healing salve, erasing the scars of pain and trauma inflicted by years of abuse.
As he tended to her injuries with painstaking care, Rhaella watched in awe and gratitude, her heart overflowing with newfound love and admiration for the young man who had become her steadfast companion and confidant.
She was twice his age and yet... in his presence, she felt loved and cherished, her fears and insecurities melting away in the warmth of his affection.
"Lukarion," she murmured softly, her voice barely above a whisper, "You truly have no idea what you're doing to me, do you? You have brought light into the darkness of my life. With you, I feel safe, cherished, loved..."
Her words trailed off, her eyes shimmering with unshed tears as she reached out to touch his face, her fingers trembling with emotion. Lukarion met her gaze with unwavering tenderness, his eyes reflecting the depth of his care for her.
She knew he didn't love her, not yet anyway but he clearly cared about her happiness and when they coupled he was always gentle with her, careful not to hurt her late husband's baby that was growing within her.
"Rhaella," he murmured with a gentle smile, his voice filled with a sincerity that stirred her soul, "you are a beacon of strength and grace in a world marred by darkness. I have vowed to protect you and your family and to care for you and a Peverell always keeps his word."
With those words, he leaned forward and pressed his lips to hers in a tender kiss, a silent promise of love and devotion she knew she wanted between them as soon as possible.
In that moment, as they held each other close, Rhaella knew that she had found her true soulmate, her kindred spirit in the form of the young man who had stolen her heart and healed her wounded spirit.
It didn't matter that he was barely twenty and three namedays old or that she was nearly twice his age, what mattered was the smart brain and loving soul he had inside him.
His magic and his skills in bed helped too she had to admit. Rhaella chuckled at that thought before melting in Lukarion's arms as they intertwined their legs once more.
Together, they would face whatever challenges lay ahead, their love a beacon of hope in a world fraught with turmoil and uncertainty. And as they embraced in the warmth of their love, Rhaella knew that with Lukarion by her side, she had finally found her salvation.
**Scene Break**
End of Chapter
I have to admit, I have never written something so disgustingly sweet.