King's Landing celebrated the end of the year with grand news. Princess Elia Martell had successfully birthed a son for prince Rhaegar, continuing the line of dragon kings for another generation. The announcement of Aegon's birth had been a momentous occasion that had brought lords and knights from all over Westeros. Of course the houses of the Crownlands were the most populous of the men and women in attendance of the ceremony, but greater and lesser lords from every one of the Seven Kingdoms had arrived in order to pay their respects and present the royal family with gifts for prosperity.
Varys watched the festivities as they continued, standing in the shadows, never drawing undue attention to himself by actively participating more than was needed or expected. He had long since learned that the best way for anonymity was not to disappear into the shadows completely, but to make oneself utterly unremarkable, for men noticed when others were too boisterous or withdrawn, but a man who was absolutely average in all ways could be more invisible than the greatest thief.
However, one set of men and women would never find themselves passed over for attention,no matter how unremarkable they tried to make themselves. The men and women of house Terra had spent the last few moons since their arrival in the capital relying on their remarkability to garner themselves influence amongst the people of the castle. Most everyone wanted to become close to the house who had, in their first appearance amongst the other kingdoms, managed to gather such notoriety in defeating all of their opponents with minimal effort.
Most interesting though, was their lord, who had arrived in the Red Keep just the other day, carting behind him the gifts of house Lannister along with their own offerings. Of course, few expected lord Tywin to return to the capital, esspecially after the drafting of his son and heir into the kingsguard, but that he had sent his newest and seemingly favourite bannermen to attend the ceremony was something worth noticing.
House Terra had been a mystery to the entire realm. It was said that only house Lannister and house Farman knew the full story behind the rise of the new men and women of Fair Isle, but Varys knew that even then, it was most likely only Tywin Lannister himself who truly understood them. Rumours had abounded from the moment of their rise, or 'arrival' according to some of the residents of the island prior to the rise of Terra. Varys had tracked many of the rumours and found that more than one of them originated from the Lannisters themselves. Specifically, the notions of house Terra's warriors being without equal. That was no longer a rumour though, given what had happened at the tourney of Harrenhal, but still. Varys had worked tirelessly to find information on the new lords of southern Fair Isle, and had come up with nothing.
Of course his little birds extended into the Farman's territory, but trying to get into the 'Plataea', as it was called by Lannister heralds and messengers, was proving to be absolutely impossible. What few birds approached the massive structure were turned away by guards, and no migration seemed to occur that allowed for him to sneak even a single spy inside.
Varys was frustrated with the stymieing of his progress, but controlled himself as best he could. Patience had seen him prevail time and time again against adversity and odds that would have crushed any lesser man. However, two years without a breakthrough was fraying even his nerves. With the arrival and stationing of the three warriors of Terra to the Red Keep, Varys believed that he had found his chance. The Red Keep, and all its secrets, would serve him well in discovering just what the Lannisters were planning with the Terras. However, even that had proven to be ineffectual. He had only managed to gleam small portions of information. Apparently the lady amongst the three was the most crass, as one of his little birds had overheard her joking about the queen lusting after their lord. However, that had quickly ended and the only other pieces that his informants had heard was a comment about something called an ONI blacksite.
Three moons had passed since he had gained that small speck of knowledge and still the only thing that was consistent about house Terra was questions. How had they risen up so quickly without anyone noticing? How had they wrestled away half of Fair Isle from the Farmans in just two year? How had they constructed their massive metal castle, the 'Plataea'? These questions and more plagued Varys' mind almost daily, and more and more he was starting to think that the powers of house Terra were anything but natural. Sorcery was an often broached topic when it came to the new warriors of Westeros. How they were able to defeat so many others without effort. Their massive strength and height, though those were not truly strange given how some houses boasted massive members, house Baratheon, Umber, Royce and Clegane for example. Most dismissed many of the rumours, like the idea that their castle was built of steel rather than stone and that their homes touched the clouds.
Varys had not. He had sent his informants back to the Plataea time and time again in order to confirm of disprove the rumours and found that each time he got the same answer. His birds, big or small, had sent back the same report confirming that the great castle of house Terra was made of steel, or if it wasn't something that looked exactly like steel. The very notion of a steel castle was ludicrous, the funds needed to finance it were beyond anything even house Lannister could provide, not to mention obtaining the metal and blacksmiths needed to shape such a monstrosity. It appeared however, that house Terra could not repeat such a monumental undertaking. His spies had reported that the area surrounding the massive structure was being used for building by the people of house Terra.
So far the building had been fairly tame, with houses and other domaciles being the main projects, but some of his birds had reported strange apparatus being used, wheelhouses without horses and strange metal chariots. Most had little in ways to truly describe them, but all of their accounts were universally fantastical.
As the great ceremony ended and a large feast was thrown for the assembled lords and other guests, Varys made sure to have his agents watch the lord of Plataea and his own subjects more carefully while he was still in the city.
Kurt Ambrose forced himself to seem excited as prince Aegon Targaryen's birth was announced to the king and court. The second born child of prince Rhaegar Targaryen and Princess Elia Martell was a healthy and beautiful baby, but a difficult one. The princess' pregnancy had been a hard one and the birth had left her bedridden, unable to attend the celebration of her son's birth and being forced to remain on Dragonstone. Kurt looked around him to see many southern lords who had gathered or been summoned in order to view the announcement of Aegon Targaryen's birth. Kurt should not even have been in King's Landing, but the radio that team wolf pack had been using had suffered some damage about a week ago and needed replacing and so he had decided to deliver their replacement and some extra supplies and ameneties himself.
He had made the excuse that he was in the capital to send house Terra and house Lannister's regards for the birth of prince Aegon. Of course he had discussed it with Tywin first, and the lord of the Rock had been more than willing to allow Kurt to take over the duty of passing along the gifts that the old lion's house had prepared for the young prince and the royal family.
Kurt had ensured that house Terra had a few gifts added to the assortment. Nothing as grand as the Lannister's gifts, he didn't want to upstage Tywin, but a few useful things that would be interesting to the family, not to mention more than one stuffed animal and other toys meant for both the baby prince and the princess who had also recently celebrated her first birthday.
Truthfully, this was also a way for him to personally confirm some of what wolf pack had reported about the royal family. He knew of the common wisdom of king Aerys II, of his madness and instability, but hearing it from his Spartans had made him almost morbidly fascinated with the idea of a truly mad king. He had arrived to the ceremony, and been shocked to see the state the king kept himself in. The unkept hair and beard made the king look strange enough, but the uncut fingernails and unwashed clothing really sold the image. His actions of rule hadn't disuaded the notion either. Just the day before the celebration of his second grandchild's birth, he had had a theif condemned and burned alive with the green fire that the locals, rather unoriginally, called wildfire.
Kurt wasn't sure of what specific chemical properties the fire had to make it green, but its general description reminded him quite a bit of the quasi-mythical greek fire used by the Byzatine empire of Earth's history. Kurt had been present in the city when the display had occured, and had had to fight every impulse to intervene. While ONI had sent him and both generations of Spartans on many a mission during the war, and as such he was more than familiar with the smell of burning human flesh, seeing someone killed in such a way for such a meagre crime was cruelty shown only by the most savage members of the covenant.
Beyond even the gruesome death, he had heard from Jane about the king's routines after the burning of a prisoner. Aparently Jane had taken a liking to the queen, something he honestly wasn't surprised by. She was more sympathetic to her than anything else, but considering the things she described, Kurt had little trouble in agreeing that the queen deserved at the very least their sympathies. He had made it a point however to transfer responsibility for her death to another Spartan team. While Aerys was someone wolf pack was more than happy to extra-judicially kill, Rhaella was becoming someone who his Spartans were more and more seeing as a victim. If there was one thing the Spartan IIIs didn't like, it was killing the victims of attrocities. It was part of their fundamental selves, as most all of them were themselves victims of such cruel fates perpetrated by the Covenant.
As the feast continued, he saw that Shane had taken a place close by to Jamie Lannister. Robert was with him, reporting quietly between bites about what had happened over the course of their time within the capital city, while Jane sat close by to Rhaella over by the head table with the rest of her ladies. Aerys' eyes were shifting around the room as if searching for something. His paranoia flaring at every shadow and assuming the worst. Close by, though noticably separated from the king by the kingsguard, was Rhaegar. The prince was calmly eating his food, only occasionally sparing a glance towards his mother as she conversed with Jane and the other ladies of her entourages. Kurt wondered just how the prince felt about Jane being so close to his family, but deemed it inconsequencial. Whatever the prince believed wouldn't be important for a while yet, unless he took direct action aginst them.
Still, there was a look in the prince's eyes that had he not had his enhanced sight from augmentation, Kurt would likely not have been able to see. There was a melancholy in Rhaegar's eyes, a sadness as he gazed out at the celebration. Kurt wasn't sure what might have brought about such a look, after all the celebrationwas for the birth of his child, and a son too considering the emphasis this society placed on male offsring, but for the moment he chose to file it away since he had no means or reason to act on it.
The one he had to focus on for the moment was Jamie Lannister, who was receiveing looks from his fellow kingsguard considering Shane's own close proximity to the boy. While the Spartans might have been there for his protection, Kurt wondered how it might have affected the boy to have someone watching over him even as he entered such a societally venerated order. The question was in the end moot though, as Tywin had ordered the boy's protection regardless of his personal opinions, and Kurt considered it a minor enough gesture that he had no reason to call back team wolf pack. Not to mention that it gave him an inside perspective into the progress of the continent he and his crew had found themselves in.
Rhaegar found himself surrounded by an atmosphere of jubilation that he could just not take part in. Truly, Aegon's birth was a blessing, but with it there had been news that had shattered the peace he had managed to forge in his heart. Elia could give him no more children after Aegon. His wife, so dutiful and soft, was barren now and with that sterility in her womb, his destiny and that of his family was thrown into a tenuous balance. In part, Rhaegar blamed himself. He had taken Elia's healthy pregnancy after Rhaenys' difficult birth to mean that the ancient pact of ice and fire was unnecessary. He had been foolish enough to believe that destiny would bend and change for his own petty desires, but now he saw that like all mortal men, he had a path to follow that would not change just because he wished it. Lyanna Stark was necessary now, both for the fulfillment of the pact, and to provide him with the third, most crucial head of his family's dragon sigil.
Even now, he had to plan. Lyanna was set to marry Robert Baratheon in the coming years, but for now they were but betrothed, rather than wed. Given their lengthy correspondence, which had begun in response to the letter Lyanna had sent him, he had learned that apparently she was quite dissatisfied with his cousin's whoring ways, not to mention that Robert had a bastard daughter tucked away in the Vale of Arryn whom he often visited. Lyanna seemed concerned about her future husband's faithfulness, something that might have made Rhaegar nervous had it not been for the fact that he had been bringing her around to the idea of being his second wife.
Lyanna Stark craved, freedom. Freedom from responsibility, from duty, from the world that demanded she be something she did not want to be. Reading her letters wishing for a simple life, with naught but her horse and the world to explore, was something that had captured his heart in the last few moons. Her desires so readily mirrored his at times, as he at times lamented that he had been chosen by fate to bring about the resurrection of his family's ancient power. He found himself falling in love with the woman, which to him, proved more and more that she was the chosen ice to his fire. She and he were one, cut from the same cloth, and together they would finish the three heads of the dragon that he and Elia had begun.
He would need to write to her to meet with him in the comming months, carefully of course. Best not to have anyone catching on and causing a scene before it was all resolved. In this case, Rhaegar was sure, it was better to ask for forgivness than permision, especially since it was Elia who he would asking to forgive him. The princess was a good woman, and would understand with time how important it was that the three heads of the dragon be brought together.
His eyes flickered across the banquet hall, watching the lords and ladies who celebrated his son's birth without truly realising just what it meant. Rhaegar envied such ignorance, at times. Those others lacked the knowledge, the insight that he had. He understood that times were changing. The cold winds were rising, and the world of man was in danger from their ancient enemy. The Others would come soon, and only Aegon, the prince that was promised with his sister-wives, would be able to save them.
As he continued to watch, his gaze rested upon the massive man who sat with ser Robert. He had no trouble keeping an eye on lady Jane. She was seated close by to his mother, making conversation and keeping herself close. Ser Shane was standing close to ser Jamie, something that had earned him some scorn amongst his new brothers. Rhaegar would be lying if he said that the Spartan's presence was not concerning, but in the end it was of little consequence so long as they did not interfere in his plans.
Rhaegar however, knew who the largest problems were. His father had become strangely suspicious of him since the tourney of Harrenhal. Rhaegar hoped that the man had not discovered the true purpose of the tourney before his arrival, but calmed himself within a moment. If his father had even a shred of proof, he would have been arrested and sentenced to the fires his father so liked to light.
The others were two of a pair. Lord Tywin Lannister and Kurt Ambrose were perhaps the only people in the world who Rhaegar was truly unsure of. Lord Ambrose's warriors were powerful enough to keep him from his destiny at the tourney of Harrenhal, preventing him from forming his bond with Lyanna. He would have to be fast with his new endeavours, of else he ran the risk of the Spartans and the Terras interfering again and potentially dooming all of Westeros with their ignorance.
Still, such plans were for tomorrow, and today was a time to celebrate. As Rhaegar sat back in his seat, a glass of wine in his hand, he allowed himself a moment to bask in the grand celebration of his son's healthy birth and the continuation of the Targaryen dynasty. With time and planning, the silver prince knew that he would bring his family to heights unheard of for his family since the time of the conqueror himself. He would save all of Westeros from doom and death, and in doing so, prove to all those around him of the truth of his prophetic sight.
Ned Stark watched as Robert played with Mya. His friend's baseborn daughter was just over a year old, and already Eddard could see much of his friend in the man's daughter. She had his deep blue eyes and black hair. She was loud as well, but rarely did she cry according to what Eddard had seen. She was as prone to laughter and exuberance had Robert was, especially when he was there. Her mother was a common woman, and Robert had lost interest in her not long after their affair had begun. Truthfully, Eddard knew that were it not for Mya's birth, likely Robert would not have spared her another glance.
Still, the little girl was a joy to be around, and already Robert's eyes were focused quite heavily on her. He had overheard more than one of Robert's plans to bring the girl to Storm's End, to raise her after he left the Eryie and returned to his ancestral home. Eddard wondered though if such a thing was a good idea. Robert was a good man, Ned knew that much, but his bastard daughter and frequent wenching had already poisoned much of Lyanna's views about her betrothed. Ned wondered whether or not Robert would seperate himself from the girl should Lyanna desire it, and if he did not, how badly would his wild and wilful sister take her new husband's support of his baseborn daughter over her.
He sighed to himself, leaving Robert to spend his time with Mya, he had his own appointments to see to. As he ascended back into the Arryn's great castle from the town built below it he wandered the halls, having long since memorised the layout of the foreign castle. As he entered into his solar, assigned to him by Jon Arryn, he was met with a welcomed sight.
"The solar is nice, though I suppose the lack of decoration will need to be fixed."
Ashara Dayne regarded him from behind his desk. Eddard had been exchangeing letters with the beautiful lady in waiting to the princess since their time together in Harrenhal. As it turned out, distancing himself from the dornish woman was all but impossible after he had first met her.
"I had hoped to have some outside imput on how to decorate my chambers. Perhaps my lady might know someone who is good at livening up dull spaces?"
Ned had never been one for coy or suggestive words, he had never had Robert or Brandon's willingness to throw themselves in front of women in that way. However, with Ashara, it was as it he didn't mind looking like a fool. In fact, he welcomed it when his words could make her giggle or laugh.
"I do indeed my lord." She smiled. "She would most eagerly participate in decorating your quarters. Perhaps a vanity for her to use in the mornings? A few cupboards to store her dresses? Unfortunately there is not space for another bed, so she might be forced to use yours instead."
Eddard Stark's stomach heaved a mighty flip as Ashara rose from his seat. Harrenhal had been a remarkable affair, but for him, no moment was greater than the last night of the festivities. He had danced the evening away with the lady of Starfall before she had asked to speak with him in private. They had shared many a conversation over those few days, and so Eddard had ignored the feelings in his gut and followed.
He could have said that he refused Ashara's request to bed her that night. He had of course made the standard arguments. Those of honour, duty, propriety and such. In response, she had argued back by removing her dress and smallclothes, standing naked before him. After that any further argument was saved for after the deed was done and the morning sun had risen.
Over the last few moons since the tourney, Eddard and Ashara had arranged more than one anonymous meeting, aided by Robert at some times, and Elia at others. If all went well, then Eddard hoped to introduce her to his family at his brother Brandon's wedding. Perhaps even ask for permission to court her from his father.
For the moment though, he had enough to think about. Calling a servant, he asked that food and water be brought to his solar, before returning to his time with lady Dayne.
So, I recently remembered something. The false spring happened at the end of 281 not the beginning. So I've had to change some things. Really it doesn't mess up the timeline, just condenses it a bit before the war and means that I have to write Elia as pregnant. Suddenly the whole queen of love and beauty is even worse because now it means that Rhaegar rode past his pregnant wife and crowned another woman. That's a dickbag move no matter what anyone says.
I did have to do a little editing of some of the previous chapters to make it work but nothing so massive that you need to reread them or anything. You still can but don't expect to find anything greatly changed. At least in my opinion.
So as to the new idea of timeline. The false spring lasted two months, after which winter returned in force. The fasle spring and return of winter in this story took place over four months, with the false spring and tourney happening at the beginning of the period of warming and then the next three months happening afterwards, culminating in the birth of Aegon in 281 and the winter fully returning just as 282 begins.