Eleventh Moon, 101 AD (1 BC)

Visenya

"At ease," Aegon said with a smile.

The councilors who had risen to greet them all relaxed, though by decorum none took their seats until Visenya and her siblings did. Her son Aerion and her niece Valaena meanwhile went to the nearby table and began pouring cups of wine from the pitchers to serve to them and each of the ministers. The two of them had started serving as the council's cupbearers this past year so that they might observe and learn how to govern from it.

At present, there were thirteen positions on the Elder Council, also referred to as the Royal Council. Aegon, as King, sat at the head of the table, and he had twelve councilors reporting directly to him. Councilors that lacked lordly or princely titles separate from their position on the council were addressed as Elders, hence the name of the council. There weren't currently any councilors that served as advisors without any particular role but perhaps one day Aerion, Valaena, and some of their other children could fill those spots.

Visenya sat to Aegon's right and Rhaenys to his left. Both she and Rhaenys had formal positions on the council but they sat right beside him not by virtue of those offices but by virtue of being Aegon's queens and most trusted advisors.

On Visenya's own right sat their brother Orys as the Grand Chancellor, and his was a role much like that of the Hand of the King in that other world and indeed some referred to him as such informally. He was also known as the Master of the Council because on the rare occasions that neither Visenya or any of her siblings attended the council meetings, he would head them on their behalf.

In general, the Grand Chancellor served as the King's right hand man and aided him in overseeing, managing, arbitrating between, and appointing the various Wardens, Defenders, Keepers, Masters, Castellans, Stewards, Mayors, and other nobles and royal officials. The civil service, the bureaucrats, the ministers, officials, and the council all answered to him as their overall head beneath the King, but Aegon had made sure to limit the office's power so that the overmighty Hands in that other timeline would never come to be.

All of the Chancellor's appointments and decisions had to be ultimately approved by the King's seal of approval and the absurd custom of the Hand sitting on the King's throne that had arisen in that other timeline had been absolutely forbidden by Aegon. Even if the throne at present was but a seemingly plain ebony chair and not the mighty iron tower Aegon intended to forge one day, it was still his throne and he suffered none to sit in it, not even Orys.

Whenever anyone held court on behalf of the King, Aegon had decreed, they would do so from a humble wooden chair at the base of the dais below the King's throne. There were only two exceptions to that decree, Visenya herself and her sister Rhaenys. None had ever openly questioned why they sat Aegon's throne whenever he was absent and Aegon himself had given them leave to do so, recognition of the fact that in truth they were his co-rulers more than his consorts.

Such an arrangement could never be formalized and made official though. The reason the three of them worked so well together, a triarchy in all but name, was because of the unique bond and partnership they had (and the fact that all three of them were very competent). It was not practical to try and replicate it. For the sake of stability and to prevent confusion, there had to be one clear ruler who had the final say, to uphold the power and precedent of the centralized monarchy they aspired to create. Diluting and confusing that perception with multiple rulers would be unwise.

And for all that she and Rhaenys were his partners in power, Aegon was still their lord husband and brother, still the head of their house, and Visenya was nothing but dutiful and obedient. It was not like Aegon had ever given her reason to doubt his decisions, they thought very much alike, and on the rare occasions they had disagreed and Aegon had been proven to be in the wrong, he had ultimately admitted his mistakes and heeded her counsel.

Their positions on the council were twofold as a result. They served as Aegon's queens and chief advisors, his co-rulers in all but name and regents on his behalf when he was absent, and also as the Mistress of Whisperers and the Mistress of Words respectively.

As the Mistress of Whisperers, Visenya had been charged with the creation of the secret organization known as the King's Eyes. This royal intelligence agency bore the mark of a purple eye on a field of silver as their secret emblem and they maintained a network of agents, spies, and informants, both abroad and at home to report on any and all possible threats to House Targaryen and its interests and on the comings and doings of their enemies and neighbors.

Within the organization she held the rank of Grand Eye though that was not a title known to the rest of the council, or even to anyone outside their family and their most trusted servants. The council and the rest of the realm were under the impression that Visenya headed an informal spy network which had evolved and expanded from the same one that they had maintained on Dragonstone and while the latter was true enough, Visenya and her siblings intentionally downplayed how standardized and methodical the training and cohesion of their spies had since become.

As far as they were aware, their Eyes were the only formal organization of trusted and loyal spies in the world, more like the guilds of assassins in Essos than they were any simple network of informants maintained by any one Westerosi lord or king or Essosi magister and triarchy. A brotherhood and sisterhood of spies who held the same creed, the same allegiance, and the same training, and nobody even knew what they truly were, making them all the more dangerous. Perhaps in time the public would become more aware of their existence, making it an open secret, but even open secrets could be secret enough when shrouded with enough mystery to confuse their enemies.

It was her and Aegon's intentions that once the Eyes as an organization were more developed, they would promote its most capable and trusted agents until one became the Grand Eye and took the public position of Master or Mistress of Whisperers on the Elder Council, ensuring that after Visenya herself, all of the Crown's spymasters would be internally promoted from the ranks of the spies they commanded, ensuring their competence and trustworthiness far more than if the monarch at the time simply appointed any random lord or kinsman to the position. What men like Larys Strong or Varys had been able to do with the position had been unnerving enough for them to decide on this course of action.

Apart from the Eyes, the confessors who oversaw the interrogation of prisoners in the cells beneath the Tower of Summer also reported to Visenya and in her role as both Queen and Mistress of Whisperers, she had overseen the creation of two more intelligence units that would report to the Crown separately from the joint positions of the Grand Eye and Master of Whisperers.

Some of the spies that she had recruited and trained, particularly those who had some talent with the sword or some other weapon, had not even been made part of the Eyes at all but had instead been sent to join the Dragonguard and give that unit an intelligence wing of its own, ensuring that the Dragonguard was armed with the espionage skills it needed to proactively sniff out and destroy plots and conspiracies against House Targaryen and its dragons.

Their chain of command went down from the Lord Commander at the top to Squadrons then Troops, and then smaller units, led by Captains, Lieutenants, Cornets, Sergeants, and Corporals depending on their assignments. Naturally, the Dragonguard answered to no one but House Targaryen and their own internal chain of command. Their current Lord Commander, Gaemon Gryvetheon, sat on the council in his own right and was answerable to neither Visenya as the Mistress of Whisperers, Quenton Qoherys as the Master of War, or even to Orys as the Grand Chancellor, since he only attended meetings if Aegon did.

The other intelligence unit that Visenya had helped create had a council position and independence from the Eyes as well. Inspired by the Order of Rangers in the Night's Watch, and some other similar units that Aegon remembered from his past life's knowledge, they had recruited and trained a loyal team of spies, poachers, hunters, foragers, and foresters to become the Ranger Corps, also known as the King's Rangers.

Their badge was a metal oakleaf pendant that they hid beneath their shirts, bronze for apprentices, silver for fully fledged Rangers, and gold for any retirees, though there were none as of yet. Their primary weapons were longbows, saxe and throwing knives, and brass cylinders for knocking enemies out. They were masters of disguise, wearing mottled cloaks that would help them blend into the forests of the Riverlands and trained to move stealthily and carefully so that they went undetected. Many of the Rangers weren't yet fully trained but those that were were so good that some even called their skills sorcerous.

The Rangers served in many roles, not just in the gathering of intelligence but also as local law enforcement, banditry control, wartime special forces, and even diplomats of a sort. Rangers reported everything they did and knew to their superiors and through them to the King, giving the Crown a vast wealth of information on what life was really like in much of the kingdom and what the local nobility and officials were doing and how prosperous their territories really were.

The Corps maintained its own raven networks independent of the courier service or Maesters and their own personal horse breeders, with stocks of horseflesh sourced from hardy Northern workhorses, small but enduring Dothraki warhorses, the unbelievably fast but unfortunately weak Dornish sand steeds, and various other horse breeds across Westeros and Essos to work on creating the ideal breed of small but intelligent and very fast and enduring Ranger horses.

They were recognized as official representatives of the King and there were ten of them in each Ward or Crown Province, and thus with five Wards and one Crown Province in the Riverlands, there were in theory sixty rangers at present though their training was not yet complete and their ranks had not yet been filled. Every year the Rangers met annually for a gathering somewhere in the Riverlands, with half of the rangers in each ward or province attending in alternating yearly shifts or attending if they had an apprentice that needed their early assessment.

The Rangers of each Ward or Crown Province chose from among themselves their most senior and capable member to serve as the Ranger Captain of that ward or province and the Ranger Captains of the five Wards that currently existed answered to the Ranger Captain of (the Crown Province of) Summerhall who differed from the other Captains in that he was appointed directly by the King and also served as the Ranger Commandant and overall leader of the Corps, holding their seat on the Elder Council.

The current Ranger Commandant was a wiry and cheerful young man by the name of Crowley who had been caught illegally poaching in what was then the dragon preserve on Dragonstone. Crowley was an immensely skilled tracker, hunter, forester, and forager, and they had realized his skills would be perfect for their organization and so they had spared him the punishment for poaching in exchange for him leading and training their Rangers. As a Dragonstone local, he had already been predisposed to allegiance to them and their sparing him and then reducing the size of the preserve on Dragonstone so others like him could feed their families by hunting had won them his utmost loyalty and he had served ably ever since.

The reason why there were three organizations with intelligence capabilities, even if the Rangers and Dragonguard had other responsibilities, was for redundancy, efficiency, and to ensure they checked and balanced each other. It was best to be overprepared rather than underprepared when it came to something as critical as intelligence and with three separate agencies that reported to the Crown separately, they could cover anything their counterparts had missed and it was not like cooperation between the three units was impossible, far from it, they had had many successful collaborations.

Perhaps the most important reasoning for having three agencies was so that if one or even two were compromised, the loyalists would still report accurate information to the Crown and help it in purging and reforming the compromised units, preventing the monopoly on the Crown's intelligence that dangerous and untrustworthy spymasters like Larys Strong and Varys had held. Furthermore, unbeknownst to all of their Rangers and Eyes and all but the most trusted Dragonguard, Visenya and her family still had their six glass candles to get some information and intelligence of their own and tell when their servants were lying to them.

But where Visenya had served as the Mistress of Whisperers and helped to create three intelligence-focused units, her younger sister Rhaenys had done a splendid job as the Mistress of Words. In that role, she had two primary duties.

As the Chief Diplomat Rhaenys was in charge of overseeing all foreign relations and the negotiation of any treaties and trade deals and the appointment and management of the Crown's envoys to foreign realms to represent the Kingdom of the Rivers and Hills and its interests. As the Chief Courier she headed the Royal Courier Service which had taken control of all the rookeries and raven communications in the kingdom from the Maesters–save the Rangers' aforementioned private networks–and mastered the ravenry skills needed for it. The couriers also delivered larger or less urgent mail, parcels, and packages by horse or by foot and had elaborate codes.

Also on the council was Iranos Ormollen, the Master of Works, who oversaw the construction and maintenance of all the various infrastructure projects they were building in the Riverlands such as the roads, ports, castles, and the like, and had an order of builders similar to the Night's Watch's Order of Builders for those projects along with the accompanying civil service and bureaucracy to handle the paperwork. Soldiers from the Royal Army were also often used as builders to save costs and the nobles paid taxes for the upkeep of Crown infrastructure like roads and bridges within their domains that benefited their people and their own revenues due to the increased trade and prosperity.

Then there was Lord Crispian Celtigar, the Lord of the Claw and Warden of Crackclaw Point, who served as the Master of Coin and Lord Treasurer and had many duties including overseeing the royal treasury and its receipts and expenditures, appointing and receiving reports from tax collectors, various customs officials, harbormasters, pursers, and the like to collect all manner of tolls, taxes, duties, and fees for the Crown. He worked closely with the Master of Ships and the Mistress of Words to oversee trade and commerce.

The Master of the Banks and Mints was one Raelandro Rogare, once the owner of the Rogare Bank in Lys and now the manager of the Royal Bank which was headquartered in the Tower of Winter in Summerhall and served as the central bank of the kingdom and he was also the overseer of the royal mints that were similarly housed in that tower, appointing the officers and workers who worked there. He worked closely with the Master of Coin to manage the coinage of the realm, maintain its value, and prevent inflation and any Crown insolvency.

The coinage in question was made up of three denominations, the Copper Scale, the Silver Drake, and the Gold Dragon. Each denomination was minted with Aegon's face on side as the monarch, with the Targaryen three-headed dragon on the other side for the gold dragon, and a smaller single-headed drake and dragon scales for the other sides of the silver and copper coins respectively. A hundred copper scales were equivalent to a single silver drake and one hundred silver drakes were equivalent to a single gold dragon. The decimalization of the currency and the exchange rates between the three precious metals were maintained by the careful coordination of the Master of Coin and the Master of the Banks and Mints and they were accepted by the populace at face value.

Another two councilors who worked closely together were Lord Josua Scales, the Warden of Stoney Sept who served the council as the Master of Laws and Chief Justiciar, and the Grand Intendant, Lord Edmyn Tully, the Defender of Riverrun.

Josua Scales, in his role as Master of Laws was responsible for much of the ongoing work codifying and unifying the laws of the Riverlands into one single code of law, Aegon's Code, with many of the reforms and policies Visenya and her siblings had decided on having been written into the code already. These included, among others, the replacement of mutilation with manual labor for the Crown's projects as punishment for certain crimes like petty theft, the widow's law, protections for wives and husbands alike from abuse by their spouses, procedures for the obtaining of civil divorces and annulments of marriages by both men and women through proof of infidelity, infertility, and other such faults, the institution of Alternate Attendance for the nobility and the revocation of a few of the nobility's rights such as the First Night, pits and gallows, and trial by combat.

The first and foremost law, set above any other in the kingdom, was the King's Peace, which outlawed private wars between the nobility entirely and necessitated that all disputes be settled diplomatically with the mediation of the nobles' lieges or the Crown. Aegon also intended to codify the law of succession to prevent any succession wars as much as possible. Many legal scholars, lawyers, experts, maesters, and scribes and the like had all been drafted for the project.

Scales was also responsible for overseeing the judiciary, heading the royal courts and appointing various officials such as justiciars and sheriffs and ensuring that the King's attention was not taken up by the petty disputes of the smallfolk. He and his sheriffs worked closely with the Rangers and the Master of War for law enforcement and especially with the Grand Intendant, who headed the Intendancy.

Depending on size and population, every Ward and Crown Province was intended to have a varying number of sheriffs which were appointed by the Master of Laws with the King's approval. These sheriffs resided in the territory in question and were responsible for overseeing local law investigation and enforcement, policing, and taxation. For the enforcement of these operations, the local militias and town watches, closest Imperial Army garrisons, and local lords and their soldiers could be requisitioned to enforce the sheriffs' authority. Sheriffs also cooperated closely with the local Rangers for many of their tasks and said Rangers have similar requisition powers.

Below sheriffs are other officials that they appoint or are chosen by the local lords and smallfolk such as constables, but the sheriffs themselves are answerable only to the Elder Council and the King even if they by necessity do report to and work alongside the local nobility and Crown officials.

Justiciars were royal judges appointed by the Crown and Master of Laws and they either resided in Summerhall where most of the royal courts were, or went on rotational shifts across the rest of the Wards and the Crown Province at large, running courts and dealing with major cases. Their presence was needed to help judge whether anyone accused had broken Aegon's Code and only justiciars had the power to sentence a man to death or the black as while the other local lords and sheriffs did have some power to sentence and resolve minor cases, pits and gallows had been abolished and was reserved only for the Crown and its direct representatives.

The Intendancy headed by Edmyn Tully meanwhile was intended for a slightly different purpose. These intendants were royal officials primarily based in Summerhall who were sent out to each of the Wards and Crown Provinces on routine missions to visit each and every settlement they can before reporting back to the Crown their findings.

Their powers included full control and oversight over finances, policing, and justice, giving them authority, though temporary, over the sheriffs, justiciars, stewards, castellans, mayors, and so forth, and arguably even the local lords and rangers.

Intendants ensured that the local officials, nobles, and smallfolk were following the law, the law was enforced correctly, and that the proper taxes are paid. Intendants were also often accompanied by tax collectors sent by the Master of Coin as well as prospectors, surveyors, and census takers. Part of their responsibilities included the annual updates to the Domesday Books that assessed the economic value of all the lands in the kingdom and the taxes owed to the Crown by the owners of those lands. These taxes were collected from everyone directly by Crown officials and were not sent up the feudal hierarchy.

It was the last two members of the council and the responsibilities that they oversaw that were perhaps the most important given the topic of discussion for today's meeting. Her uncle Daemon Velaryon, the Master of Ships, and her old mentor, Quenton Qoherys, the Master of War.

As Master of Ships, her uncle Daemon had authority over all fleets, mercantile and military, in Westeros, including the auxiliary fleets owned by the nobility. He had the power to commandeer merchant vessels for war and he ultimately oversaw all military shipyards and ports (and had to cooperate closely with the Master of Coin for where their responsibilities overlapped in this regard). He was also possible for setting the restrictions on the size and armaments of the nobility's auxiliary fleets though given his conflict of interests in this regard, Visenya and her siblings made sure to check in on what he was doing here.

As Grand Admiral of the Royal Navy, her uncle also held the supreme operational and administrative command over the fleets and admirals of the Royal Navy and he oversaw the Admiralty Board made up of the admirals of the Royal Navy and all of the auxiliary fleets and the bureaucracy and paper pushers that worked beneath the Admiralty Board to oversee logistics and other matters for the various fleets of the kingdom.

Her old mentor and trainer, Quenton Qoherys, on the other hand served as the Master of War and in this office held command over all the armies in the kingdom, both those that served the crown directly, as well as the auxiliary levies and retinues of the lords whenever the banners were called, and oversaw all of the logistical and bureaucratic staff in the ministry needed to support these armies. As Grand General of the Royal Army, he also held final command below Visenya and her siblings over the Royal Army and its High Command.

The Royal Army was made up of two branches, the Legion and the Knights. The knights currently numbered one thousand strong and were made up of a single company of a thousand men with their own complements of squires, pages, servants, and other support staff.

This knight company and any that would eventually join it were commanded by a Commander and beneath the commander were five Captains commanding five squadrons within the company with the Commander personally commanding the sixth squadron. Each squadron was further divided into four troops led by Lieutenants and lower ranked officers and soldiers such as cornets, sergeants, and corporals commanded even smaller patrol units or helped to keep order in the ranks. The knights' ranks were also prefixed with the term 'Knight-.'

The knights were also organized separately in peacetime into chapters depending on their garrison locations with the most senior officer serving as the Chapter Master. At present there were technically four chapters since the Royal Knights were primarily garrisoned in four different locations, Summerhall, the Isle of Queens, Dragonport, and Dragonstone.

The Legion meanwhile had two legions of five thousand men each for a total of ten thousand legionaries excluding their support staff. The various disparate units those legions had been five years ago had been honed and disciplined into new wholes, even with the additions of new recruits which had brought them up to full strength.

From the smallest to highest unit, their chain of command went from Prefectures of ten men commanded by a Prefect, to ten Prefectures forming a Century commanded by a Centurion, to five Centuries forming a Cohort commanded by a Tribune, to ten cohorts forming a Legion commanded by a Legate. Seven of those cohorts were made up of heavy infantry, two with ranged units such as longbowmen and crossbowmen, and one with light cavalry for skirmishing, scouting, foraging, messaging, and outriding.

Knight-Commanders were considered equal in rank to Legates despite commanding only a fifth of the manpower. Same for Tribunes and Knight-Captains, Knight-Lieutenants and Centurions, Knight-Cornets and Prefects. All of these ranks folded into the same chain of command at the next level because they answered to the same Generals, who commanded both legions and knight companies and in turn answered to the Grand General, the Master of War.

Of course at present with only two Legions and one Knight-Company, there wasn't really any need for Generals. Thus, the wartime High Command of the Royal Army and the auxiliary forces would be made up of the two Legates, the single Knight-Commander, the Master of War, the Wardens and their most trusted Defenders, and Visenya and her siblings.

As the meeting began, Aegon first asked for reports on the state of his realm from each of his councilors and they all answered in turn in High Valyrian. There were two official languages used at court and in council meetings, Westerosi Common and High Valyrian. Aegon had originally intended for it to be solely High Valyrian before realizing that would cause issues since the vast majority of their subjects including many lords couldn't yet understand the language.

Nonetheless with Common allowed and used alongside High Valyrian, many of those that couldn't speak it five years ago had picked up on the language or were trying to learn it as fast as they could because it would ingratiate themselves with Visenya and her family and it was a common language that would help them understand the immigrants from Essos as many of the elites there still knew High Valyrian and the dialects of the Essosi commoners were still somewhat mutually intelligible with High Valyrian, the progenitor of their languages.

Once he was satisfied with the reports, Aegon turned to the matter of the preparations for the invasion of the Westerlands and the Iron Islands. Their uncle Daemon answered his question first.

"My son, Admiral Jacaerys has informed me that the fleet in Seagard is ready with one hundred and twenty galleys and ninety longships," the Master of Ships told the council.

"The banners have been called and the Crown Province and each Ward have been mustering their forces. In total between the Royal Army and the auxiliaries, we have about thirty thousand men that we can spare for this war without leaving the Riverlands defenseless. That number has been raised further to thirty-five thousand since I, with the King's permission, rehired some of the sellswords who aided us in the last campaign with the promise of loot from the gold mines of the Westerlands," Quenton Qoherys, the Master of War, reported.

"Per your instructions brother, the armies have been divided further. Fifteen thousand men are stationed at Seagard waiting for Jacaerys' fleet to bear them to the Iron Islands, and another twenty thousand at Pinkmaiden and Wayfarer's Rest, ready to march on Golden Tooth," Orys said.

"Our build-up on their borders has not gone unnoticed however," Visenya said. "My spies tell me that Loren Lannister has returned to the Westerlands in a triumph of sorts bringing his spoils of war, his treasures and loot, his new Valyrian steel sword, and his new Ironwomen concubines. With him went half of the army that had been pacifying the Iron Islands and he has put those forces to work reinforcing Casterly Rock, Golden Tooth, and all of the other castles that would be on the border and the roads as we invade. His brother Gerold was left in the Iron Islands with the remainder of the army there to continue the work pacifying them though progress has slowed as expected after Loren's departure."

"Dragonfire will be essential if we want to break the castles of the Westerlands with any sort of speed and protect our fleet as it moves the northern army between Seagard and the Iron Islands," Lord Celtigar said as he stroked his chin thoughtfully.

"I will take the northern army from Seagard as we discussed Aegon," Visenya said simply. She had made her intentions on that clear to Aegon, Orys, and Jacaerys months ago, and the reasons were simple.

Aegon himself would no doubt command the assault on the Westerlands and Casterly Rock, not exactly a simple task, but he would have the aid of at least one other dragonrider in doing it. Whoever went to the Iron Islands would do so alone and have to lead both the armies and fleets and protect them from Westermen and Ironmen alike as they conquered each island, piece by piece. The choice was between her and Rhaenys and Visenya would much rather she take on that more risky and challenging campaign than leave it to her younger sister.

It was not that she didn't trust in Rhaenys' capabilities, but even Rhaenys agreed that military matters and dragonriding for battle came far more naturally to her. At times she still dwelt on her sister's horrible fate in that other world and she and Aegon both preferred to avoid putting her in any situations that could lead to a repeat of it, something that annoyed Rhaenys greatly whenever she noticed what they were doing.

Her brother nodded at her words quickly, before Rhaenys or anyone else could say anything. "Agreed. Rhaenys and I will command the army invading the Westerlands then."

Fortune favored them today it seemed because Rhaenys did not look like she had noticed what they were doing. The Ranger Commandant Crowley spoke up next in fluent High Valyrian, befitting a man born and raised on Dragonstone.

"I have fifteen fully-trained Rangers that I can contribute to the war effort, including myself. We leave our division and deployment to Their Graces," he said.

"Eight to the Westerlands and seven to the Iron Islands sounds reasonable I would imagine," Rhaenys said.

"I concur. It is settled. I want you in the Iron Islands with Queen Visenya Crowley. Choose six men to accompany you to Seagard with her and give me the remaining eight for the Westerlands campaign," Aegon ordered.

Visenya did her best to hide the frown on her face. Even to this day, Crowley was still the best ranger they had, why was Aegon giving him to her command? Wouldn't his skills be best put to use in the Westerlands where the main war was being fought? It was only then that she noticed Rhaenys smirking at her.

As the meeting continued, Visenya's suspicions only continued to grow as she ended up with Quenton, Orys, Tully, Frey, Legate Valoquo of the Second Legion, the Knight-Commander of the Royal Knights' sole current company, and several other skilled and important lords and officers under her command for the campaign in the Iron Islands.

Granted many of those deployments and appointments made geographical sense, the nobles especially since they all hailed from the Ward of Seagard itself or the neighboring Ward of Raventree Hall, but she had thought that Aegon would take at least some of them for the campaign in the Westerlands given their skills. Certainly, Quenton and Orys, two of their best and most loyal lords and generals, should not both have been deployed with her?

She noticed both Aegon and Rhaenys looking at her meaningfully as she ran the calculations in her head. She glowered at her little siblings; they would be having words when the meeting was over for this little trick of theirs.

Apart from the debacle that was the overconcentration of skilled and loyal commanders in Visenya's army, the rest of the decisions her siblings made was quite sensible. Scales whose lands adjoined the Golden Tooth was naturally following Aegon, as was Gaemon Gryvetheon and a large chunk of the Dragonguard, all of the sellswords, Legate Yavo and the First Legion, the remainder of the Royal Knights, the levies of the Crown Province, and the contingents from the Wards of Duskendale and Crackclaw Point, under the command of their cousin Aethan Velaryon and their friend Alton Celtigar respectively in the stead of their aging fathers.

With much of the council deploying to war and Visenya and her own siblings leaving to prosecute and command that war, Summerhall and the Riverlands as a whole would be in need of a regent. Aegon had selected their uncle Daemon to be that regent, and there were many good reasons why.

His competency, loyalty, and familiarity with the council and the governance of the realm had already made him an obvious choice for regent but when one considered his advancing age, the lack of involvement of the Velaryon fleet in this war due to their guarding the eastern coast, and the fact he had an adult and able son to lead his fief's levies to war alongside Aegon it just became obvious. And perhaps most importantly of all, he was their uncle, their blood, their kin.

Thus their uncle Daemon would serve as the interim Grand Chancellor for the war's duration, while still maintaining his usual responsibilities as Master of Ships. Crispian Celtigar would be an unofficial second and the two of them would work alongside the rest of the council who remained and the deputies for those that were going to war to keep the realm running smoothly. Meanwhile the castellan of Summerhall, their good friend Monford Qoherys and the highest ranking remaining Dragonguard captain, their cousin Corlys Velaryon, would keep the castle itself and its household in order and protect their children.

When the meeting finally concluded and Aegon dismissed the councilors, Visenya meant to interrogate her siblings before she remembered that their eldest children were still present. Aerion and Valaena obediently came at their father's command and jumped into Aegon's arms and he hugged them eagerly before telling them to take a seat.

"Rhaenys, Visenya, let the children have those seats will you?" Aegon asked them.

Visenya shared a look with her sister but they agreed and took the next seats, putting their children in their former seats between them and their husband.

"How was the meeting?" he asked them.

"Interesting! You talked about so many things!" her niece Valaena said happily.

"Did you get bored?" he asked her and she shook her head furiously though her brother answered differently.

"Yes Father," he said.

"Oh? And what made you bored Aerion?" Aegon inquired of their son.

"I thought today was supposed to discuss the preparations and plans for the war. But you spent half of it talking about boring things instead."

Aegon chuckled at their son's complaint. "Are you referring to the reports I asked of the council before I switched the topic to the war?"

Aerion nodded.

Aegon only smiled. "Ruling is about more than just the fun and glorious parts with all the armies and soldiers I'm afraid my son. And if you wish to be a good ruler, you must learn how to do it all, especially because the not so fun parts are what allows you to do all the fun things."

Aerion was confused. "What do you mean?" he said as he tilted his head adorably.

"Well put it this way. All those armies and soldiers, they don't just come ready you know? They need weapons and armor, they need food in their bellies, horses to ride. There are many, many things that need to be accounted for when raising an army. It's called logistics."

"Logic?" Valaena asked, uncertain.

"Logistics darling," Rhaenys corrected her daughter gently.

"But you certainly do need no small amount of logic to do your logistics," Visenya japed and her siblings chuckled at her joke and the children soon joined in, though they did not quite fully understand.

"Yes, and to do all of these logistics, can you think of what you would need to pay for all of it?"

"Gold!" Valaena said eagerly.

"And how do we get gold?" Aegon pressed harder.

"Taxes?" Aerion said hesitantly.

"Are you asking me or are you telling me?" her husband challenged.

"Taxes," Aerion forced himself to say more confidently.

Aegon smiled proudly. "Correct. There are other sources of course but as a ruler the primary source of your income, of your gold, will almost always be taxes. And to get taxes, and to get a lot of them, the realm must be stable, it must be prosperous, and it must be thriving."

"So you mean…" Aerion trailed off, uncertain, but Aegon it seemed had guessed what he was thinking.

"That all of that boring stuff I did at the start of the meeting was necessary? Yes. I was hearing all of the reports of my councilors and ensuring that our kingdom is stable and prosperous enough to supply us the money, the armies, and the logistics that we need to not just conquer the Westerlands and the Iron Islands, but to integrate them into our kingdom easily.

"Keep this in mind Aerion, Valaena, the two of you have dragons. The stakes of war will always be high, even for our family, but with our dragons it is not quite as high as it would be for others in the world. Thus, you should know how to rule before you know how to conquer. And if you still aspire for conquest and glory, you should know how to rule whatever you intend to conquer. Otherwise, your conquest will ultimately fail and all the sacrifices you made to achieve your original victory, all that gold spent, all those lives lost, it will have been for nothing. Do you understand?"

The twins nodded.

Aegon smiled again. "That's my children," he said with pride and they blushed.

He spoke again soon, lighter in tone but somehow even more serious than he had been before. "I need a favor from you both. Can you do it for me?"

The two of them were eager. "Yes," they said.

"As you know, your mothers and I will be going away for some time."

"To conquer the Westerlands and Iron Islands," Valaena said.

"That's right. And that means we are going to have to leave the two of you and your siblings in Summerhall for quite some time. And before you ask, no you cannot come along and if you try to I will ground you for the next ten years and lock away your dragons. War is no place for seven-year olds, not even seven-year olds with dragons, and especially not my seven-year olds. Understood?"

Aerion and Valaena nodded fearfully though it was reluctant in the former's case.

"Your Grand Uncle Daemon, Cousin Corlys, Monford, Anya, and many of the others will still be here but blood is thicker than water and with the three of us gone the two of you will be our little king and queen here at home, the lord and lady of this castle. Ultimately Monford and the others will answer to you if you prove yourselves capable and reasonable and there are some duties that you can see to with their aid, it's how you learn to rule and do the not so fun stuff now so you can do more of the fun stuff later. Make sense?"

The twins nodded once again.

"The most important task I have for you both though is to look after your siblings. Aegor, Rhaena, Daena, Aenar, all of them. They're young, even younger than both of you are, and they need family to look after them and to reassure them whenever they question why we are gone. Can you do that for me Aerion, Valaena? Can you do that for your mothers and I?"

Their children looked to their father and then to her and Rhaenys before they nodded firmly. "Yes Father."

"That's my good boy and girl," Aegon said as he grabbed them both from their seats and held them tight before he let them go.

"Now I think I've held you both for too long. Go hug your mothers and then you can go. Your maids are waiting outside. Do not run away from them."

The two children nodded reluctantly but accepted his instructions before they came to hug her and Rhaenys. Visenya enjoyed the feeling of her eldest child nestling himself into her arms before he left all too soon, eager to go about his day.

Once their children left, it was just the three of them in the room. Rhaenys turned to Aegon once the twins closed the door.

"How come they listen to you so much and not me?" she asked him. "If I tell them not to run away from their maids that will just guarantee they do it. Little rascals."

"I'm just better," Aegon said with a smirk.

"Sure you are," Rhaenys said, unimpressed.

"He is very good with them admittedly," Visenya said, reluctant to side with Aegon over Rhaenys when he was being an obnoxious prat but she did have to admit the truth.

"He is," their sister said, suddenly more downcast and serious.

"What's wrong?" Aegon asked her.

"It just occurred to me that I'm not going to be able to see you with our children like that again for quite some time," she said and at that the mood soured.

The date had been set already, and the final preparations were being made. On the first day of the one hundred and second year since the Doom of Valyria, they would bring House Lannister's doom upon it and invade the Westerlands and the Iron Islands at the same time. They had less than two months before they would have to leave their children again and when Visenya remembered how they wanted to repeat this another five times, she wondered sometimes how they would bear it.

"It's been five long years. We've had our rest. Now it's time we continue working toward our dream. It's for them you know. Everything that we do, everything that we build, it will be Aerion and Valaena's one day. It will be all of theirs really," Aegon said, though the tone in his voice made Visenya think he was trying to convince himself as well.

The sad reality of their ambitions was that fulfilling them meant that they'd be missing months, maybe even years at a time of their children's lives when they were young. And yet if they waited for them all to grow up before they continued, it would be too late for them to continue it by then.

Visenya knew though that in the end it would all be worth it. It had to be. Ever since she had been a young girl she had dreamed of the Empire and the greatness that it would achieve and the part that she would play in bringing that future about. Aegon had given her that dream, that vision, and she would make sure to bring it to life. Her son was the one who was going to inherit it all after all, and Visenya could think of no greater gift.

The perfect thought occurred to her then to take her mind off it and she glared at her siblings. "On the matter of the conquest, what on earth do you two think you're doing?"

They looked at her innocently but she pressed on. "Orys, Quenton, Edmyn Tully, Franklyn Frey, Legate Valoquo and the Second Legion, the Knight-Commander and most of the best Royal Knights," she said, listing them out on her fingers. "The list goes on. You are concentrating too many of our best soldiers and commanders in my army. Why?"

Rhaenys looked at her. "Do think I don't know that you and Aegon try to coddle me Visenya? I knew what both of you were doing long ago and I thought that it would be good to have some payback for once. If you want to coddle me, I'll coddle you right back, and you can't even complain about it because you know it makes strategic sense."

It did but Visenya wasn't quite in the mood to admit it so she turned to her traitorous partner instead. "I had no choice, she forced me," Aegon said rather unconvincingly.

At her glare he continued, "You'll just be one dragonrider there right? And it's harder to get reinforcements to you if anything happens. Not so for Rhaenys and I in the Westerlands. Reinforcements if need be are just across the border and we can always withdraw if things go awry. Not to mention, we will have two dragons It just makes common sense to stack your army with the best soldiers and commanders that we can."

"More than just strategic sense, is it so wrong for us to want to look out for our elder sister Visenya?" her baby sister asked her and Visenya succumbed.

She sighed. "If you want to argue that way, aren't I supposed to look after you both as your elder sister?"

"Siblings are supposed to look after each other no matter what, whether they're younger or older, and we share a bond that is more than just that of siblings Visenya," Aegon reminded her as he got up from his seat and kissed her on the lips.

She accepted her husband's kiss happily, rising from her seat as well to meet it. When they finally broke their kiss, he stared at her lovingly. "Is it so wrong for me to want to make sure that both my wives are as safe and prepared as can be when we are about to go to war again?"

"No," Visenya admitted. "And I appreciate it. I will not let down the trust you have in me Aegon. The Iron Islands will fall, and we will be back at our children's side here in Summerhall by the end of next year," she promised him.

To her surprise he kissed her in response and this time he deepened the kiss, his tongue intruding into her mouth and tangling with her own. Visenya was too surprised to make him fight for it like she normally did. Damn it, all of this sappy talk had to be getting to her. She wasn't normally so content to let Aegon take her for a ride like this!

(Removed due to being too lewd for FFN rules, please read the chapter on Archive of Our Own or Questionable Questing to see the uncensored version.)

Author's Note: Hope you guys liked this chapter! We got some spice and also council details. I know it's a lot of information but I will be releasing a series of appendixes over the coming days (or maybe even all tomorrow if I manage to finish them all then) that will hopefully sort them out and make them easier to process and digest! We will also get a bunch of other cool things so definitely stay tuned for those appendixes.

In the meantime though, let me try and break it down to help you guys out. So the Eyes, if any of you read High Tide, they're basically the Conches but for the Targaryens in this story.

The Rangers I drew inspiration from the Rangers of the Night's Watch in ASOIAF, the Dúnedain Rangers of Ithilien and Eriador from LOTR, and their primary inspiration was the Ranger Corps of Araluen from John Flanagan's Ranger's Apprentice series! There's an interlude on the Rangers next chapters to go more in depth onto their methods, training, and organization since they fill so many critical roles.

As for the royal bureaucracy and officials and the centralizations methods with the sheriffs, the justiciars, and the intendants, I may also need to think on ways to go more in depth on that too.

Check out Archive of Our Own or Questionable Questing to see the uncensored spice, the links I posted to help explain the council details, and stay tuned for appendixes that will be posted there over the coming days!

Please lmk your thoughts in the reviews or over on Discord! Search up 'Linktree Tertius711' if you want a direct link to my Discord server or would like to read up to six chapters in advance of the FFN release for Divide and Conquer! Linktree also gives a direct link to Archive of Our Own or Questionable Questing for uncensored spice scenes and appendixes with maps, images, artwork, worldbuilding details, and so much more!