𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐑 - 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐋𝐀𝐑𝐘𝐎𝐍 𝐂𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐂𝐈𝐋

── •✧• ── ⋆⋅༻✦༺⋅⋆ ── •✧• ──

The Seasnake's perspective of his adoptive daughter had changed after witnessing her duel with Daemon. Despite having greatly impressed the Rogue Prince during their first meeting, Corlys's resolve to forbid Maevys from joining the Battle for the Stepstones remained unchanged. He did truly consider her asset but the more he thought about it, the more apprehensive he became.

Maevys might have been a bastard daughter, but she was still his daughter and he did not want any of his daughters to be near a battle or war fought between men. Which ultimately led him to deny her participation.

After hearing the reason for the abrupt duel between Daemon and her daughter during her absence, Princess Rhaenys was never more proud, more so after listening to the compliments uttered by her younger cousin who was amazed by Maevys's sword and fighting skills. Nevertheless, much to Maevys's disdain, Rhaenys shared the same opinion as her dear husband.

The Velaryon lady sulked for days and nights thereafter her parents denied her reasonings. She was also beginning to doubt Daemon's promise of helping her convince Corlys and Rhaenys since all the time she had noticed him roaming in Driftmark and High Tide, he was doing anything but that. In fact, the Targaryen prince even seemed persuaded by the Lord and Lady of High Tide. He eventually wavered to side with Maevys's parents and told her they only meant her well.

Which Maevys understood. The talk of war was not one to be uttered about so lightly after all.

Still, she had a hunch that Daemon was not exactly opposed to the idea of her coming along. One extra fighter was not much but an additional dragon could mean a lot of difference between victory and failure. Moreover, since the rule of the Targaryen dynasty, having a dragon was highly notable.

Maevys did everything she could in her power to nudge and prove her parents otherwise. As the days passed and the prelude of the battle neared, her anxiety and worry only grew. She became more unsettled after she once had a nightmare of the Triarchy and the Crabfeeder stomping over her father's troops to defeat them, resulting in a field of Velaryon soldiers impaled and staked into the sand, with the crabs feasting on their flesh and blood until only bones remained. Even though her mother and Laena tried to reassure her that she was probably overthinking it, her unease did not go away and persisted, and she only became even more anxious and paranoid.

Laenor, her younger brother, who was two years younger than her had become her next target after Corlys had agreed to let him join along. Not only was he a grown man now, but he had to fulfil the expectations of being the son of the Lord of the Tides and a fine knight. She had hoped he would put good words for her to their parents since he was just as excited as she was to ride to battle in glory on Dragonback finally, it was going to be his first battle too.

However, to no avail. Even he was eventually convinced that Maevys should not come.

The daughter of Rhaenys's disappointment did not go unnoticed when more and more of her family started to band together, all set on disagreeing and insisting that she should stay behind. In spite of the repudiations and dismay she faced, Maevys did not give up. The more she was rejected, the more inclined she was to prove them wrong. She even purposely trained before her family to show them her abilities, to charm them, even. She was never a rebellious child yet soon, she became one under the influence of Daemon whom she had gotten close to after their last match.

Although Maevys kept a low profile like usual, she learnt to be cunning and played her cards well. She was docile when she needed to, but at times, she was also firm in her standing while remembering her place.

She also ended up developing a habit of eavesdropping on her father's secret meetings with his council. Despite being warned several times and caught in the act by the councilmen and soldiers outside the chambers, Maevys continued to sneak around to listen in. Surprisingly, neither of her parents discouraged her actions and had done little to prevent her from intruding on their plans. It was as though they were allowing her to continue sneaking around.

Unknowing whether it was a test of her limits or not, Maevys persevered on overhearing their schemes. At least she had some insight to appease her perturbation, though it was not much and she was still troubled.

"Snooping around again, My Dear Lady?" A voice whispered behind Maevys's shoulders and she flinched, recoiling back from the slightly ajar door. Her purple eyes widened at the smirking knight behind her, his golden ringlets falling to his shoulders as he lowered himself to a polite bow to greet the Velaryon lady.

"Seven hells, Ser Joffrey!" she cursed, briefly glaring at the guards guarding the chambers' entrance ahead. They immediately avoided meeting her eyes, feigning deception. She once pleaded with them to inform her whenever someone was coming so she could hide before getting caught, but as usual, they had done nothing about it.

So much for the loyalty they had for House Velaryon, she jeered at them in her head.

A silver-haired young man popped out behind Ser Joffrey and Maevys beamed, "L- Laenor!" she greeted sweetly, flabbergasted to see her brother. She took one step towards him, already planning to entice him with another offer so he would help her. However, the son of the Seasnake shook his head and shot her a deadpanned look, quick to break her wild ideas.

Laenor sighed before stepping past his older sister who pursed her lips, her shoulders slumped in dejection. "Father, it's Laenor!" he said loudly while knocking on the doors to present himself.

"Come in."

The doors to the council chambers groaned open and Maevys quickly hid behind the golden-haired knight to conceal herself. That was until her brother exposed her for the hundredth time. "It appears that you have been overheard, My Lords," Laenor disclosed and Corlys instantly frowned and pinched his nose bridge. "Again," he stressed.

Ser Joffrey kindly stepped aside and bowed to the Seasnake and the other councilmen, his notion compelling Maevys to present herself. She gracefully tipped her head and curtsied to the lords in the room. Many of them were already familiar with Maevys and accepted her warmly due to her amiable and kind nature. They were House Velaryon's most trusted advisors and allies, and Corlys trusted their discretion to keep his daughter's true identity a secret from the rest of the realm until both he and Rhaenys were ready to reveal her themselves.

Maevys's smile was bright like the brilliant sun rays raining down on the waters of Driftmark, and the solemn mood in the room was immediately brought back up. The forbidding atmosphere had dissipated away like seafoam and for once, the lords in the room felt that they could breathe a little better. "A fine afternoon to all of you, My Lords," she welcomed with a melodious voice as she clasped her hands together mannerly. Everyone tendered at the young lady's grace and bobbed their heads, acknowledging her presence.

All but one.

"Again?" Vaemond Velaryon, the brother of Corlys, clicked his tongue as he threw himself back to his chair, visibly displeased at her appearance. He rolled his eyes at Maevys and eyed the bastard daughter with contempt, showing no effort in concealing his distaste.

Maevys let out a soft sigh through her nose and mumbled inaudibly under her breath, "Not so fine to you after all, uncle..." She peeked at her step-uncle through her silver locks and narrowed her eyes, glaring daggers at the man. When she straightened herself up from the bow, her frown faded away and when she raised her head, all signs of her discontentment were gone. Not even the shadow of it remained.

She was aware of Vaemond's hatred for her since the first time Corlys introduced her to him. The brother of the Seasnake was the first to spurn her when Corlys expressed his desire to adopt Maevys as a daughter. Vaemond was always so quick to pick on her flaws, and even quicker to blame her whenever something was wrong. 'It's probably the bastard daughter who did it!' she could still remember him yelling accusingly at her when one of the artefacts he brought to the Hall of Nine was broken due to the carelessness of a servant.

Just as much as Vaemond detested her, Maevys possessed the same sentiment. She might have adored the Velaryons, but Vaemond was an exception. At times, she even thought of trading her uncle away for her brother's close confidant, Ser Joffrey, just to spite him. But of course, she would never do so because it would only tarnish their house and her parents' reputation.

Although Maevys disliked Vaemond, she would never dare to humiliate Corlys and Rhaenys, let alone even House Velaryon by acting maliciously and undignified all for the sake of satisfying her ill feelings. Her family had gone through a lot of trouble to raise her and even a dog would know better than to to bite the hands who fed it.

Daemon snickered aloud from the side and Maevys blinked away from Vaemond. Unbeknownst to the second son of House Velaryon, the Prince had caught a glimpse of what Maevys had spoken. He grinned from ear to ear at her with pride, always so entertained by her and the subtle sarcasm from her unusually sharp tongue. "A fine afternoon indeed, Lady Maevys," he replied, nodding to her in response to her perfect curtsy before he burst out into a peal of low chuckle again. She never ceased to amaze him, even at the most inopportune times.

The young silver-haired lady lingered in the room after Laenor took his seat next to the Seasnake and when Ser Joffrey stationed himself behind the young knight. Maevys neither sat nor exited the chambers and went on smiling meekly at her father, the two sharing a wordless confrontation before the latter sighed and relented to her. "Fetch a seat for my daughter," he ordered one of the servants nearby who scurried to do as they were told.

Maevys took her seat next to Laenor and adjacent to Vaemond. Now that she finally earned a place in her father's council after prying from the outside doors for almost a week, she was never more satisfied. However, her courteous smile only infuriated her uncle. It was unfortunate that she had been placed in front of him but the sight of Vaemond grumbling to himself and rolling his eyes in exasperation was an amusing price enough for her.

Once Laenor and Maevys were present and seated, Corlys continued the meeting to decide where their armies should be placed so that their attacks would be more constructive against their enemies. A map depicting the Stepstones painted on animal skin was sprawled across the table, it was a small archipelago at the southwest corner of Westeros which had served as a key shipping lane through the Narrow Sea.

Multiple metal tokens were scattered across the map; a seahorse ornament moulded from brass, symbolising the Velaryon House; several brass-coloured protruding shark teeth to represent where their armies would lay; a coppery-plated crab for the Crabfeeder, Cragras Drahar, and smaller similar pieces to serve as their enemies troops; and two dragon figurine, one in red while the other in grey to show where Daemon, Laenor and their dragons would attack from.

The talks of scheming for the battle were winding and tense. Throughout the whole time, Maevys was silently listening to all the opinions, disagreements and debates thrown across the room and table by the lords of her father's council with Prince Daemon. The tokens around the map rotated, shifting across the velvet surface in search of a fitting place to position their forces.

The meeting went on for hours and hours, goblets were constantly being refilled and the light in the room was turning into an orange hue as the sun began to set in the horizon. Many of the councilmen including Corlys and Laenor were getting tired despite not having a fixed solution to tackle the Triarchy and their armies and lesser words were getting hurled at one another. Some had even begun to stir uncomfortably in their seats, as they wrecked their brains to come up with something— Anything. However, only a few voices continued to break the silence as many of them feared disappointment if their ideas were not worthwhile.

Maevys scrutinized the faces of those seated; from the few lords of the table who were exchanging silent speechless eye contact, battling with their internal thoughts; to Vaemond who had his hands clasped together as he covered his puckered lips, eyes scanning from one end of the map to the other, trying to find another way; to Laenor who looked like he just wanted to stand and leave because he was losing interest in the silence; to Daemon who had met her gaze, his chin resting on one hand while his other quietly drummed on the stem of his goblet, awaiting more solutions the others could come up with; and finally to her father who furrowed deep in thought, calculating the losses at every possible outcome.

"If I may, My Lords, Your Grace?" she spoke for the first time since she sat down after the room was left in a stifling speechlessness for a few minutes. Everyone seemed to be out of ideas and with the fatigue washing over them, their minds had been slower to think of something new.

As usual, Vaemond was the first to throw hands to prevent her from speaking. "This is no place for you, girl! We are already cornered without a solution, do not make this any worse and stay quiet!" he snapped at her without hesitation. He tutted at her insolence and Maevys's lips flattened together as she held back from retorting back a snide remark.

"Vaemond," Corlys said while putting a hand up to caution his brother to watch his tongue. "Let us hear what Lady Maevys has to say before we are quick to shoot her down."

"Brother!" the Seasnake's own kin boomed. His eyebrows knitted together and his nostrils flared with anger as he fumed in his seat. He slammed both of his fists angrily on the table, causing the tokens and miniature pillars to wobble and fall over. Some of the councilmen even jolted at his outburst but remained calm. "We cannot afford to allow this bast— This girl— To interrupt this meeting anymore! Her presence will only disrupt our plans!" he said, glowering at Maevys.

Corlys huffed at his brother and stared at him disapprovingly when Vaemond nearly called her a 'bastard' in front of everyone. He glanced at Maevys worriedly, hoping she had not noticed it but he could already see her hands trembling as she grasped on her skirt, putting on a forced smile not to show her sadness. He tendered at her before turning back to his brother, "What would you have me do instead, Vaemond?" he asked sternly, eyeing the rest of the members of his council. "I should presume no one here has any more ideas and thoughts left unsaid? As do you."

Vaemond gritted his teeth when he could not find any reason to deny his brother's assumptions. He slowly lowered himself back to his seat and Corlys went on. "We can no longer hide this from her too, Vaemond. It is always good to hear what others have to say, and unless you have a better plan to offer, I would advise you not to drown this child's voice out and give her a chance to be heard," he said, not wanting to discriminate against any parties in the room. Those who were seated at the council table were worthy in one way or another, including Maevys.

He placed a hand on top of Maevys's shaking ones and gazed at her with hopeful eyes, perhaps his daughter might even offer a keener insight and perspective to their plans as someone who had been listening attentively throughout the whole time. "What is it you would like to say, dear child? Let us all hear it," Corlys questioned with an encouraging smile for her to speak up.

A grin crawled on Maevys's features and she briefly met Vaemond's, he was cursing with his eyes, hinting to her to not mess up this chance. "Thank you for your generosity, Father," she replied with a small grateful smile. She shot a sneaky glance at her uncle, her lips twitching as if wanting to prove to him that she was not as useless as he believed her to be. "Would you wish to hear my thoughts on the plans to attack or defend?" she calmly enquired.

"Whichever it is, Maevys. One must not be picky in a time of war."

"Very well," the Velaryon lady replied. She stood from her seat and walked towards the table. As she put the fallen ornaments back in their place, her bluish-purple eyes drifted to the map in front of her. "As you have mentioned earlier, the Triarchy comprises troops from Lys, Myr and Tyrosh. These cities, although might have been known for their pleasure houses, lenses and fineries, but the latter also served as a hub for hiring various professional mercenaries. Thus, I predict that the triarchy would make use of them and we should be prepared that their armies would have a variety of weapons besides swords and other blades. The use of poison from Lys should be taken into account, considering it is their speciality."

She paused when the room fell silent and she exchanged looks with her father, wondering if she had said too much even though there was more she wanted to say. "Carry on," Corlys stated with a nod, curious and fascinated with how much his daughter had grasped during the few hours of their plotting.

Maevys stopped in front of the miniature statue of a copper crab and she tapped her nails onto it, her mind working again. "Furthermore, our latest insight suggests that Bloodstone, where our enemy is based, is an island with many narrow valleys and caves. They have steep mountains and narrow pathways connected by the caves, perfect for archers to be stationed. This also means that they could have the higher ground to see where our forces might intrude. If we are to attack recklessly, the enemy might be able to flee into the caves, making it harder for our troops to retreat in the case of a failed operation. I reckon they might even have a tactic of cornering us from behind as the caves are probably dug around and interconnected."

All heads in the room followed where Maevys walked as she went on explaining. "As Prince Daemon and Laenor had suggested, using the dragons is not a bad idea," she said while pointing to the illustrated mountains of Bloodstone where a red dragon was placed on top of it. "However, we ought to be reminded of their massive sizes and destructible flames which would be lethal to both our troops and theirs. Should the Crabfeeder and his forces retreat into these caves, we cannot enter it with the dragons and should our battalions storm into these complex hideouts, it would only mean that we are marching into our deathbed, into our enemy's welcoming arms."

"What do you propose then, Lady Maevys?" Ser Aezal Callith, one of the few commanders of the Velaryon fleet questioned and every pair of eyes focused on Maevys as she shifted the brass shark tooth representing the Velaryon army.

"Luring the enemies out from their caves would be the best option at hand but to succeed, we must first secure a safe route if all plans fail—That means to choose one cave and take down all forces there to make it ours and secondly—" Maevys placed the grey dragon token closeby to the Velaryon army, "We can use Seasmoke to take down their archers who are lined across the valley. That way, we do not have to worry about the dragons or our troops getting shot from above. When our troops storm into the battlefield we would then have the leverage of gaining the higher ground to attack them."

If the Triarchy was aware that the Velaryons and Prince Daemon would join hands to fight against them, then they should know that the dragons they housed would be involved too since having a dragon was as good as having additional hundreds of men, mayhaps more. And what better weapons than arrows and spears would be effective in maiming men and beasts?

Maevys continued as she crowded the copper tokens with polished brass ones. "Once their archers are down, we can then divert our focus to the men at arms on the ground. We surround the remaining caves to prevent them from escaping again with both our men on the ground and dragons from above, there would be nowhere else to run and those crabs will soon become stew for us!" she said with a rather cheery smile as she took the miniature red dragon to crush the reddish-brown crabs.

The councilmen around the table shivered from Maevys's innocent smile the way she spoke of defeating the Triarchy and Crabfeeders in such a sweet tone, but they decided to shake off the trepidation away. The Velaryon lady was not someone they believed to be cold-blooded or violent, but the opposite.

"That is all," Maevys concluded before returning to her seat. Her father and younger brother were already grinning at her, their heads nodding subtly, commending her for sharing such beneficial assertions. The rest of the members of the Seasnake's council all wore puzzled and astonished expressions. None had realized that the oldest daughter of House Velaryon was so knowledgeable.

When no one else seemed to have anything left to say, Maevys gulped nervously. "Have I overspoken myself?" she asked, cringing when everyone avoided her gaze.

"Not at all." Daemon finally sat upright and complimented her in the stead of the others in the room along with a smirk. "Impressive," he said, "Tell me, Lady Maevys, where did you get all this understanding of war scheming?"

Surely, it could not be purely just by sitting in this place for hours and listening to the others ramble on. From the way Maevys spoke, it sounded as though she was rather familiar with it.

"I simply read, My Prince," the lady answered. "From the accounts of the countless dead lords who fought in battles in the past. There are many of such tomes in my Lord Father's library." She often dreaded having to study when she was young, but it was the books that had given her more insight into the world outside Driftmark that she had not seen. In some ways, the books were like doors for her. If she could not explore the realm freely physically, then the next best option was to discover it by reading.

The Lord of Driftmark looked almost conflicted upon hearing Maevys's response, and it did not go unnoticed by Daemon who decided to poke at his feelings. "What a fine daughter you have, Lord Corlys. You should be proud."

The corner of Corlys's purple eyes twitched and he balled his fists under the table. "Yes... Very," he commented. "Very proud..."

Since then, although Corlys had forbidden Maevys from joining the Battle of the Stepstones, she was still allowed a place in his council to share her thoughts. She might have been a young lady, but she was also equally worthy like those who earned a place in his meetings. Much to Vaemond's pleasure, he ended up relenting to her. As his brother once said: in times of war, one must not be picky. Any word of opinion mattered, no matter how small and insignificant they may be, they might even change the course of fate of life or death.