Chapter 5: Reading between the lines
Aemond was seated at his large desk in his new Solar. Both were given to him two days ago by his mother and his grandsire. While his father's unused solar was near the throne room and small council chamber (obviously), and his grandsire's solar was in the tower of the hand (once again, obviously...) his solar was in Maegor's holdfast. Nearest to the Rookery and White Sword Tower. As well as the farthest from Traitors Walk and the Square.
It was given to him because his mother and his grandsire wanted to reward him. He had been taking himself, his training, and his learning far more seriously. He had been doubling down on his duties since his dreams with his twin flame began. They had both noticed.
He wanted to cement a place for himself in the red keep before she came to him, and they married… He wanted her to not only be proud to marry him, but to be able to give her anything she wanted, including her own position as a respected lady of the red keep when she arrived.
With the new solar came, of course, came new responsibilities. The most important being the Rookery.
While the meisters would tend to the ravens and collect the messages, it would now be his job to make sure the information got to where it was needed. A sudden expense or money needed for the king's road? To the master of coins. News about a sunken ship, pirates, or missing ship that was carrying a noble family? To the master of ships. Reports of lawlessness or attacks on the king's road? To the local guards or the gold cloaks, depending on where the attack was. News from Old town or the starry sept? Straight to the grand sept or grandfather.
He also was given a bit of control over the castle guards. He now oversaw their schedules and shifts. Soon, their training. He knew the main reasons his grandsire had given him these two responsibilities without even having to ask. He wanted Aemond to be the first hand to touch any information coming into the red keep as well as wanting Aemond to win over the castle guards.
Because information was power, and the Gold Cloaks were Daemon's. They had always been Daemon's and always would be. He had been the one to give them their gold cloaks…
So, in return, Aemond would make the castle guard his. It would take some time, but Aemond would do it. Many of the castle guards and the city guard already respected him as a swordsman, so he was starting out on the right foot.
The silver-haired prince now turned over the pages of an age-old book as he compared it to three old pieces of parchment that he had lined up neatly next to the book.
The information his sister had given him on the 'Lost line' had more than intrigued him. He had quickly gone to the meisters, looked over the records of the royal family and other noble houses and started his research. He decided to start with the current living members then follow the family tree backwards, down their family lines, starting with his own family and then continuing with the other valerian families as well.
To his shock, he had found more than he had thought he would on his first day alone. Now, a week in, he had found even more, and was surprised no one had bothered to go looking into this before.
Saera Targaryen was the first. A middle daughter of the old king and the good queen. Aemond knew this story well already… She and her two ladies had been caught sleeping with a knight, 'Sting' Beesbury, And his two friends. Sting was killed at the hands of the old king himself, and the other knights were also ended. The two girls married off quickly.
Saerra, on the other hand, had waited for just under a year in exile before she pushed her sister (a Septa) down a flight of stairs and disappeared into the night. She hid and ran successfully, one account even rumored to say she had hidden for a time in oldtown, before ending up as a princess of the pillow houses and pleasure gardens, then the unofficial Queen of Lys.
To his surprise, it seemed his great aunt was still alive, and near the same age as the queen who never was. When asked, the Meister said It was confirmed that she did have at least 3 daughters, if not more, and none outside of Lys knew if she had birthed any sons. It was one lead, if nothing else.
To his surprise, though, it appears Great Aunt Saera was not the only one of the daughters that may have run off…
The youngest daughter of Queen Alysanne and the old king was Gale Targaryen. The 13thand last child. She was attached to the hip with her mother, and even slept in her bed most nights until she turned 13. She was considered sickly and simple, and when she was an older teenager, Gale just disappeared.
It was said that she had died of Summer Fever, but there was no body nor burial plot. After the death of the old king, word got out that Gale had run away with a traveling singer after she had learned she was pregnant with his child. Another rumor said that she had drowned herself in the waters of Dragonstone after she had miscarried their illegitimate child. But once again, with no body and no burial plot, Aemond was more likely to believe she had left with her traveler. A second daughter, and a second lead.
He looked and looked deeper and deeper into his family's past, but outside of those two sisters, he didn't find anything until he got to the conquerors themselves. Aegon, Visenya, and Rhaenys.
This was a mystery not only to him, but for the ages. Everyone knew that Meraxes fell at the hands of the Dornish. What no one knew is what happened to Queen Rhaenys afterward. Some say she died, others say she was taken and tortured, some say she was kept alive for who knows how long and for what reasons.
One could hope maybe she was saved after her fall, fell in love with a Dornish lord, and decided to live the rest of her life with him. Hidden away from sight and history. Aemond realistically knew the chances of that were slim to none. While it would calm the mind and heart to think of a happier ending for her, the true events were more than likely the bloodiest and most uncomfortable. But no one knew. History itself left that question unanswered. It was a third lead, even if it was the most unlikely one.
He looked down the family line of house Celtigar next. One of the very few Valyrian families left, who had married in and out of Andal and Rhoynar families. The family lost their silver hair and purple eyes generations ago. But they were still of Valyrian ancestry. Outside of a long line of bastards being raised right alongside the main family on the same island for generations, there was nothing. No missing family members; be they sons or daughters.
The Velaryon family was the opposite. The family history seemed to be littered with sons and daughters that were gone; Almost all lost at sea or never having returned to their ship at port.
He wanted to remove those that had been lost with their ships, and only count those missing at the many ports around the world, but he knew how pirates and slavers worked and knew how valuable those of Valyrian blood were. Slavers bay alone would pay a fortune for just one silver-hair purple-eyed person. Male or Female. Ships could be renamed with just a bit a paint and faked paperwork.
So he kept every name he saw on his list. 7 missing members of house Velaryon, with 5 illegitimate children also missing. None of that accounts for any children that may have been conceived while on port leave or with their 'Salt wives'…
Now he was looking over a few books about House Qoherys and Harrenhal… While the family had died out after the third generation of ruling the burnt castle, they were still a Valarian family that had survived the Doom and made their new lives here in Westeros.
And from how often the grandson used the utterly disgusting "rite of the first night', he was certain he would find at least one or two Rivers in this family tree.
Airy did not like the magical district of Bulgaria.
When she arrived, everything was fine. The inn was safe. Things were cozy. Because it was summer it was nowhere near as cold as Victor and others had told her it could get.
But then went she went out walking and shopping….
She wishes she could say why she didn't like it. She wished she could say she didn't know where the uneasy, uncomfortable feeling came from… But the truth was, she DID know.
She felt the same way walking in this alley as she did in Nocturne Alley back home. It was a dark, disgusting, unsafe place that left a feeling that inched at her skin and made her want to turn heel with Teddy and run far, far away.
The air (or Aura?) of this alley itself was enough to make her sick.
If she hadn't already written and promised Victor Krum she'd come and see him and attend his Quidditch game against the Paris Pegasus' three days from now, she'd have already left. But she hadn't seen Krum in years, and kind of missed the bloke… And she really wanted to see the game.
So instead, she changed her portkey to leave the day AFTER the game and added another stop to the trip. 4 days in Magical and non-magical Salem. She had passed on that the first go round, wanting to travel to D.C, before ended her journey in New York… but if she was going to cut her trip short, and she was heading to the states next away, she figured… Why not?
She sighed as she pulled Teddy closer to her. He was already settled and comfy in the baby wrap, so he was already snuggled up against her, but in this crazy and uncomfortable Alley, she felt the need to bring him in a little closer.
She had gone out for new clothes. Specifically dress robes for the upcoming game. She may have gone a little overboard, buying 7 new sets of dress robes, but they all looked fetching on her, and she had the gold, so she caved in and bought them.
All she had to do now was drop the bags off at the Inn, order dinner to be brough upstairs, then they could spend the rest of the day playing, cuddling, and reading until Teddy fell asleep.
She patted Teddy's back as he cooed and hummed as he was like to do. Her eyes watching nearly every inch of the alley with more than a bit of apprehension and nervousness.
Only two more right turns down this way, and I'm at the inn…She told more turns, and I'm there.
But when she made the first turn, her plans instantly changed. Because right after she turned right, she saw a man long platinum blonde hair. Black clothes, tall, with pin-straight hair. She only saw him for a moment, but it was enough to make her freeze in her steps. And as soon as she saw him, he turned and disappear down the other alley… going left.
She froze for just a second, her mouth gapped open, as she tried to reason with herself.
Surely, it wasn't him? Was it?...
It couldn't be… could it?...
But… But what if it WAS.
Her feet were frozen to the ground for just a second more before she found herself running down the alley, chasing after him.
Turning left and traveling down, looking for the pin-straight silvery hair that was a dead giveaway.
Quenton Qoherys took over Harrenhall in 2 ac, After Aegon the conqueror burned Harrenhall, it's lord, and his four sons.
Quenton and his sister-wife Daleanys Qoherys had two sons. Querion and Daltarian. The first wife, Daleanys, passed away from spotted fever after the youngest birth. He married the daughter of Edmund Tully, Alice Tully a year or so after that. They stayed married til the end of their lives, but there were no children to speak of from that second union.
Querion had his son Gargon, though it was not written who he had married or who the mother was. Querion passed away suddenly after his birth in AC 10, and it appears Daltarian had disappeared or ran away at around the same time. This left Gargon as the only heir.
After his grandfather Quenton passed away, Gargon became the new lord of Harrenhal. The only thing he was known for was being "Gargon the Quest…"
Gargon, in Aemond's option, met a fitting end. In 34 AC His privates were removed from him in the middle of the godswood then fed to the dogs, and he was left to bleed out and die… Ending the Qoherys line.
But the name of the person that to him was what really caught Aemond's eye…
A man calling himself Harrenthe Red…
The Self-proclaimed grandson of Harren Hoare, rightful heir of Harrenhall...
Aemond quickly wrote those facts from that book into his notes, then tried to confirm them with the information and accounts from the other books. He then looked lastly at the book detailing the family members of each of the houses of Harrenhall.
He confirmed then death dates, birth dates, and spelling of the names.
The only real deviation was that one of the books said Gargon was killed in 37ac, not 34ac. And Quenton fell off his horse when he passed away also in 10 AC. When referencing another book, it did say Gargon was the lord of Harrenhal for 27 years and became the lord at a 1 name day old.
He flipped the page forward to look at the start of the 'House Harroway' page but saw nothing of interest to his current research. He then flipped back a page to look that the 'House Hoare' Page.
He glanced quickly over the page, already knowing the names, but froze when he noticed something else...
Something was off about this page… Aemond quickly flipped forward a few pages, comparing them carefully to the Hoare page…
No, his eye did not deceive him.
Something was DEFINITLY wrong with this page.
She made another turn down the alley and looked wildly around. She was sure she was near, she had spotted silver hair a few more times. She was getting closer and closer, but it seemed every turn she made, he was one turn ahead of her. She was afraid she would get lost soon…
Teddy was calm and looking around, but Aradia was a bit less so. Was it him? Was it someone else? Did she call out to him? What name or title would she use? She didn't even know his name… She didn't even know his face, not really. And now she was turning and twisting her way down a magical alley she was not familiar with at all... If she didn't find him soon, she'd be forced to turn around. She wasn't going to play fast and loose with her and Teddy's safety.
She made another quick left turn… and finally spotted him. It was then, with a sudden drop in her heart, she realized that his man's hair was long and silver, but not as long as the man she remembered from her dreams. His frame and build were different as well… It seemed that it wasn't him after all.
She sighed to herself, and went to turn around when she heard, "Potter?!... What on earth are you doing here?"
She jumped a little and turned her face to left to see… Draco. Draco Malfoy. As he and his mother walked out of a store to join the side of…
As soon as he turned his head around, Aradia recognized him almost bloody Malfoy…
He was Thinner, but much more put together than he was when she saw him at Malfoy manor and the battle of Hogwarts, a lot less stressed. Life was being kinder to him now that he wasn't hosting the dark lord in his own home, she assumed…
But it was Draco and Narcissa now that caught her attention as they gapped, Shell-shocked, at Aradia and little Teddy.
"Is… Is that Andromeda's Grandson?..." Narcissa asked, her eyes now locked on the baby in a way that suddenly made Aradia feel very uncomfortable. It wasn't an angry look, or a look that made Airy think she was going to hurt her or the baby…. It was the almost desperate way Narcissa was looking at the baby, as if there was nothing more in the world that she wanted but to have him in her arms…
To Aradia, that was almost worse. Teddy was HERS. The last thing she had of Remus and Tonks. Narcissa didn't even know Teddy nor Tonks and had disowned Andromeda after she left to get married to the man she loved.
She held on to Teddy a little tighter and nodded. "Yes… This is Teddy. If you excuse me, I do have to get back to my inn now…"
"Don't tell me you're walking around here UNESCORTED?" Draco snapped, and Narcissa looked scandalized and a bit faint.
Aradia wanted to slap him, or better yet, pull a Hermione and break his nose…
Now that she knew that it wasn't her 'dream man' she'd been chasing, she just wanted to leave…
From the look on Narcissa's face, and the way she next insisted they walk Airy safely back to the inn, she knew it wasn't going to be that easy.
Aemond looked over the page once more, comparing it to a different page after the first, to confirm his suspicions.
Under the names of the four sons of House Hoare, there was a line. It was meant to be a divider to the rest of the page, but there was something wrong with it.
The dividers on all the other pages were at least an inch or more under the names. They also had swirls and lines in the middle of the spacer to make them more decorative. This design was different from the others and was directly under the other names.
All the other pages followed the same pattern, the same design, even the top part of the Hoare page… only this spot was different.
Aemond squinted his eye as he looked at the curling and squirming pattern under the names of the four brothers again… and that was when it saw something. Something that matched what was right above it.
Hidden in the curled pattern of the line, he swore he could make out the word 'Hoare' Mid-way through the design.
Against his normally better judgement, Aemond immediately ripped the page out of the book, and looked at it closer. When that failed him, he held the page up so the back of the paper was lit up from behind by the desk candle. He tried to focus on the word "Hoare" he swore he saw, and then looked right at the space right before it. He squinted again, trying to look past the distracting design to see what might have been written there before…
Suddenly, with the help of the light behind the page, his eye picked out the words covered and lost among the scribbled ink…
His real eye and his sapphire eye widened and he took in a sharp, shocked breath as the words registered in his mind…
Airy hadn't wanted them to escort her back to the inn, but since she wasn't 100% sure on the way to go, and they were highly insistent, she let them. Narcissia used this time to ask every question she could about Teddy, and looked at him as If he was the sweetest, precious, most treasured thing…
Aradia didn't disagree, Teddy really was that sweet and precious, but it still rubbed her the wrong way. Teddy was her God son; she was going to raise him. There was an irrational fear in the back of her head that Narcissa wanted nothing more than to take Teddy from her. She kept him close and kept patting his back with her free hand.
Draco at least had the good form to apologize for insisting on seeing them back so forcefully, but 'This isn't a safe enough for someone like you to be walking on your own…' Someone like you, of course, meaning a light witch.
Lucius kept his mouth shut but kept on looking at Airy then Teddy with a strange look in his eyes she couldn't pinpoint.
She kept the conversation light. Told Narcissa how Andromeda had sent plenty of new, warm clothes. How Teddy was smiling now and had just started laughing. When he changed his hair color all on his own, she was also sure to mention how much like his mother, Tonks, she was. If that comment made all three squirts uncomfortably, well, that wasn't her problem.
They arrived at her inn about 7 minutes after they had started heading this way. Airy walked to the door, and turned around to face them, hoping to say goodbye here so they would not try to follow her in.
"Well, thank you for taking the time to see me back to the inn. I must get in, get Teddy his bottle and a bath, then put him to bed… So I'd best head up…"
Narcissa looked a little heartbroken at those words, as her eyes once again turned to little Teddy… but Airy hardened her heart and refused to let that sway her. Narcissa wasn't TO bad, but still… She wasn't sure if she could trust her with Teddy. Not yet.
"If you DO decide to go out again, Potter, do have half a brain and take someone with you…" Draco drawled. Airy rolled her eyes.
"… And here we almost made it an entire conversation without an insult." Airy said with a glare to Draco. He went to open his mouth again, but wisely closed it. Before Narcissa could jump in to try inviting Airy or try to invite herself to do something, Airy put out her hand for Lucious to shake. She'd say goodbye to the head of the house, excuse herself, and hopefully not see them again while she was here visiting Krum.
"I hope you have a g-"
"Where did you get that ring?!" Lucius suddenly burst, and Airy nearly jumped. What, the death sto-?.. She looked at the hand she had put out to shake when…
The three-headed Dragon ring… the red and black three headed dragon ring that had started glowing non-stop after her last dream…
She met Lucius' stern, almost accusing look, as Narcissa and Draco now turned and looked at the ring as well.
Narcissa gasped loudly, as she jumped forward and took Airy's hand into her own. Turning the wrist left and right as she looked the ring over. Lucius's cold, gray eyes just narrowed at her more.
"Answer me, Potter, where did you get that ring? Because I am sure that it should not belong to you."
Nacissa Black-Malfoy snapped a quick "Silence!" to her husband, as she looked the ring over one more time, then looked up to Airy almost in awe.
Cassiopeia Hoare – Youngest child
Harren the Blackhad a daughter...
A Living,breathingdaughter. The very least, alive and breathing around the same time her brothers were…
Aemond quickly wrote the name down on one of the three papers he had at the ready on his desk with a newfound purpose in his mind.
Find out anything and everything he could about Cassiopeia Hoare, and what had happened to her.
Because someone had worked very, very hard to try to hide her, if not attempted to erase her from history entirely.