𝓐𝓮𝓰𝓸𝓷 𝓣𝓪𝓻𝓰𝓪𝓻𝔂𝓮𝓷
Perhaps even more pleasurable than killing my half-sister was sending my brother's son to rot in the prison with his Aunt and Uncle.

I might've only had Sunfyre to combat Vhagar and Vermithor but those who wasted away beneath my feet would hold my true victory. Aemond would come for his kin but not until I deemed it suitable.

Their dragons wouldn't very well reign death on the very place that housed their loved ones.

Lounging back in the chair I glance around at the chambers I'd chosen for Jaehaeryn. I'd been careful to remove any belongings that might've remained leaving only room for new memories my son could one day build.

"He'll struggle. You must be patient with him,"

Tessa coos over my shoulder, dancing her delicate fingers up my sleeve.

"I've been patient long enough." I scoff, glancing at myself in the reflection of the mirror across the room but I can't look long, seeing my mother looking back at me.

I'd always felt a small sense of guilt for leaving my Mother and sister behind in Kings Landing but with my brother's weakness being his heart I was confident he had no harm befall them.

"And you'll only be further rewarded if you stay on the path chosen for you,"

Tessa's features were once a detailed image in my mind but when I saw her ghost more recently, the lines and curves of her face faded from my memory. I wasn't much of an artist but what I could remember was etched or carved into any applyable surface.

For years I'd given up hope, spending my days and nights drowning myself in ale and milk of the poppy until she'd shown herself to me one day.

In a way she'd saved my life, reminding me of my purpose and drive for revenge.

I couldn't very well let my brother have his happy ending, could I?

Jaehaeryn was all I would have left of her and I'd be damned if I'd let Aemond have both him and my throne.

"Our son looked petrified when I gave Sunfyre the command. I worry he won't trust me now that I've killed his only semblance of a grandmother," I confess, eager to pace the floor but my side is much too weak.

"Remind him his true grandmother remains in chains at Kings Landing. It's the pretenders that lied and manipulated. It's you he has every reason to trust, remind him of that."

I open my mouth to reply to my lover's ghost but there's a knock at the door and she's gone as fast as she's arrived.

Straightening the front of my tunic I slowly rise to my feet, gritting my teeth through the ache that shot down my leg.

"Enter," I command, standing tall with what strength remained.

Cole enters slowly with Jaehaeryn trailing behind him, yet his head is heavy, his eyes downcast as he stares at the floor beneath his feet.

"Your son, Prince Jaehaeryn, as you wished your Grace."

My trusted knight hovers by the door, hesitant to leave me alone with the boy half me and half my brother but I wave him off, much to the surprise of my son who watches Ser Criston leave over his shoulder.

However, once the door shuts, I'm overwhelmed with unease for a different reason.

I have this one chance.

Indulging myself in a curious stare, the rehearsed greeting I'd prepared over several years was lost on me. I'm instead drawn to his angry furrowed expression.

"You may have my Valyrian features but I'm grateful to find you've been granted your mother's nerve,"

Leaning on my dragon-etched cane I take a step toward him but Jahaeryn only takes a step backward toward the door, "I'd wager I learned it from the Aunt and Uncle who raised me, in my mother and father's absence."

I turn to face him, my eyes narrowed, and I bite back the poisonous taunts that those damned vultures deserved, taking my life from me as though they were entitled to it.

"What is it you believe happened to your mother, boy?" I scoff, staring at him in disbelief as he's the very image of Tessa and I.

Stumbling over his words he struggles to recall under such pressure, "Uncle never told me much, he only said it was a tragedy-"

Jahaeryn takes a step back in terror as I cast my head back in laughter and say, "The tragedy lies with your uncle! His treachery is what tore our family apart,"

The boy shakes his head, convinced that the story he's come to know is true, but it's all make-believe, a delusion built by my brother.

"They said she fell ill. T-that h-her heart was weak-"

"It was his sword that struck your mother through the heart." Rushing him I clutch my son by the collar, wide-eyed and furious, "Tessa's heart wasn't weak,"

At the mention of Tessa pain shoots down my leg. I cringe and reach once more for my goblet, downing its contents when my lover's voice chirps in my ear like a songbird.

"He looks like you when we were younger, a handsome boy."

"But in the image of my brother," I scoff.

"He is ours,"

"What?" Jaehaeryn asks, staring at me with a puzzled expression.

He couldn't see her.

Of course, he couldn't see her, he'd hardly known his true mother.

"Her name... it was Tessa?"

Tessa's faded hand reaches for mine, but I don't feel the warmth of her skin against mine. It had been years since I'd felt such a thing; my brother had seen to it.

"It was. She was common born and we were forbidden love, cursed from the moment we saw one another, and forced apart by anyone who had a say." My voice grows softer as I recall the warm fond memories we'd shared in our short time together.

I was a fool, pressing my cock into any maiden who offered a pretty smile, and at first Tessa and I had been just that, but somehow she'd ensnared me, carrying my child and fighting more passionately for him than my mother ever had for me.

"You were threatened and I was weak. I couldn't protect you and your Mother as I can now,"

There was a reason I left both my grandsire and mother behind. I was not blinded to their schemes and treachery.

"Why?! Why would he and Princess Elaena raise me alongside their son and daughter?"

"They keep you close because of your claim, do you not see?!" I pinch the bridge of my nose, waiting impatiently for the poppy's milk to ease my headache, but the boy only makes it worse.

"I have no claim, I am but a bastard-"

"If bastards rule this kingdom then mine own are worthy. You are my son, the son of the named rightful King of the Seven Kingdoms. You, Jaehaeryn are my heir,"

The young boy shakes his head in disbelief, a playful smirk of disbelief toying at his lips and a chill runs down my spine at the striking resemblance we'd shared.

"The only heirs I've known my whole life are Princess Elaena and my cousin, Aelyx." He scoffs, counting himself out before the race had even begun.

It seemed that my brother had taught him blinding loyalty but not self-confidence.

"Elaena is a bastard herself, don't you see?! If mine own sister can legitimize her litter of worthless bastards then you are suited for a great more than they've destined you to be,"

Jahaeryn flinches at the harshness of my words, the corner of his lips twitching, eager to bite back, "How can I be worthy of a crown when even the dragons deem me a waste?!"

I'm taken aback by his confession, assuming that by now he would've claimed one of the dragons in Kings Landing.

A Targaryen heir and King without ever having bonded with a dragon? His claim would already be in question...

"And with your ridiculous plans, you've destroyed the dragon pit along with any of my hopes to become a true dragon rider!" He shouts but I sense his unresolved anger doesn't stem from me alone.

"He's always wanted to be one of them,"

Tessa watches our son closely, admiring him and I understand his longing,

I would never be good enough for my peers or my kin and neither would Jahaeryn. He already had a disadvantage being my flesh and blood.

"There are dragons here, unclaimed and wild." My son's violet eyes go wide in awe, listening intently to every word and I realize I've found a vital vulnerability.

"They neglected to find you a dragon but I will do no such thing,"

Jaehaeryn cocks his head to the side, narrowing his eyes at me in blood-chilling intensity. Now as I take a step toward him, however, he doesn't take a step away.

"You would arm me with a dragon?" He asks in disbelief.

"I would see you through to your true destiny," I tell him, placing my hands on his broad shoulders and for the first time in this meeting of ours I truly see him.

I see the lost boy clinging to his only source of love.

I see the outcast who was never deemed worthy by those around him.

How foolish I was to think leaving him with my brother was what was best for both of us.

"He's here now," Tessa breathes beside me, brushing a lone piece of dark brown hair behind my ear, "He will bear your redemption,"

"I've had these rooms prepared for you," I turn to leave him but my son however doesn't seem convinced, watching me with weary eyes

"And what of Aelyx?" He asks, and I shrug, having to remind myself he was raised alongside the traitor's son.

Rolling my eyes I sigh, "He's to remain in his cell,"

"I want my cousin comfortable and well-fed." My son crosses his arms over his chest and I chuckle darkly.

This was to be expected after all.

"Your cousin would slit my throat the moment the opportunity presented itself. He's a prisoner and he's to be treated as such." I go to open the door but he calls out to me one last time.

"And what makes you believe I wouldn't do something of the same?"

Glancing back up at my son his mother stands beside him, looking over our young Prince fondly and I nearly smile at the thought of the family that could've been.

"Your Mother's assured me otherwise,"

***

 I hadn't had a moment of rest since my sister's unprecedented arrival. She'd rushed along our plan of course but not as quickly as I'd hoped.

"The Triarchy fleet will arrive within the fortnight, your grace. We must only keep the secrecy of your arrival for a few days longer," Lord Larys Strong urges my patience but I roll my eyes at my council.

"Why not now? The capital city is in shambles, needing a hero, and who better than I?! They practically ran her from the city! They will turn to a new ruler!"

Cole shakes his head, disappointed in my short-sightedness, "The Velaryon fleet will go to their Queen's aid. We must take the opportunity to build our numbers beneath their noses or Vhagar and Vermithor will descend upon us at any hour,"

Shaking my head reverently I lean my weight against the glowing table and highlight the wide open waters that connected The Stepstones to that of Dragonstone and Kings Landing.

"Then we weaken them where their dragons aren't, Ser Criston,"

"Your grace?"

"My brother is vulnerable. The only pillars that keep him above these waves are those damned Velaryons." I grumble, my gaze straying to the ports just outside our windows.

Understanding dawns on my commander's face, "You wish to cut the Sea Snake at its head,"

"He will be alone, just as he's left me. Send the raven to Kings Landing in a week, by then the Triarchy fleet will have crippled their numbers while ours come to our aid."

𝓐𝓮𝓶𝓸𝓷𝓭 𝓣𝓪𝓻𝓰𝓪𝓻𝔂𝓮𝓷
In Elaena's 'absence', the rain and thunder seemed to linger for days on end without nearly one sunny day in two weeks.

Some claimed that the gods wept for the loss of the prince and princess, fearing that punishment may yet come for the defilement of the dragon pits and I for one hoped they were right.

Luke and I were helpless, stuck in a mundane routine waiting for any word of reassurance from Rhaenyra or the boys at Dragonstone but there was nothing to answer our many questions.

Baela, my beloved's fiercest sister was still missing and silence on all fronts only left more questions and worry. In the news of Elaena and Joffrey's death, Baela wouldn't have hesitated a day, let alone the better part of a month to find her answers just as their father.

Rhaena on the other hand had maintained careful correspondence with Lucerys, keeping both our secrecy and our loved ones safe, tucked away at Driftmark though I still worried my daughter and niece would hear the whispers of death in their keep.

"I should've never let you step foot in those dragon pits," I mutter, shaking my pounding head.

Kings Landing and those dragons be damned if it meant she was safe.

I attentively watch over Elaena while leaning my weight against the bed frame. My heart sinks deeper into my chest as I look up at her thinner form.

"You're wasting away, my song," I whisper to myself, my voice cracking through my gritted teeth.

I shudder as I squat down and thread my slender fingers through her frail hand, combating the cold with her flesh but it's not close enough.

I take a seat beside her on our bed and recall every morning I'd taken for granted in our years together. Closing my heavy eye I pray these memories I held would not be all that remain.

We'd say even the gods couldn't keep us apart yet here they were, having their last laugh.

Maybe it was true and I truly hadn't deserved her, even after all these years of striving for worthiness the gods had come to say once and for all that Elaena only truly belonged to them, the weavers of time and purpose.

I lose track of the time I spent staring at her, willing her eyelids to flutter open but a soft knock at the door startles me.

Clearing my throat I don't move from my spot beside her but glance up at the door as Luke opens it slowly, hesitant to interrupt but I speak for him, breaking the awkward tension.

"Any word from your Mother?" I ask hopefully but my nephew's frown deepens.

I cock my head in confusion but my heart stops when he holds up a small rolled-up scroll bearing a seal gone unused for over fifteen years.

A green Targaryen sigil.

***

The small council chambers were eerily silent, all of us avoiding the eyes of the man beside us and instead watching the curled piece of parchment that lay before me on the stone table.

Lucerys' eyes burned with angry tears, his fists clenched as he glanced over my brother's taunting words once more for good measure though I'd already memorized each curve and line.

Brother,

You seem to have misplaced your Queens and heirs. Fear not, for the true King reigns on Dragonstone with fire and blood.

The raven hadn't come with a name but was accompanied by a small box of ashes with a simple golden necklace belonging to my eldest sister.

When I realized the new position I must now play in the absence of all voices of reason, I clawed my fingernails into my flesh until it bled.

The shock strangled me breathless with the words compiling in my throat with no way to come out, my thoughts racing faster than any dragon could fly, and what I craved most was revenge.

Aegon had not only killed our eldest sister but he held my sons captive.

"H-how is it possible?" One of the lords asks, dumbfounded and I scoff at his foolishness.

I cast a frustrated glance at my nephew, but he appears to be gazing into emptiness, engulfed in sorrow as if he is hundreds of miles away.

"Who will rule now?! The city is already in a state of unrest-" Lord Lothston begins in on the other men at the table but his opinions are met with defiance.

"Isn't it clear? We must assure the people of their new Queen, Elaena! The Usurper along with our very own people must know she's alive!" Another advisor Mendrick Manderly interjects passionately.

"Alive!? She lies unconscious in her bed chambers! There's no telling when she will wake if she ever does," Bartimos Celtigar argues, and at the Master of Coins final comment the winding chord within me snaps.

"ENOUGH," I command, slamming my fists against the table. I was eager to unleash all the anger that had been boiling within me for days, and I would take it out on anyone I saw fit.

"We won't speak of her outside of this chamber. Is that clear, gentleman?"

"But my Prince-"

"Our King speaks wisely. Let them believe my sister, the Queen is dead. A dead monarch won't hold a bounty over their head," Lucerys and I meet eyes from across the table and I tilt down my head in silent thanks.

All my years I knew gaining the title would be one of bittersweet honor, but never did I think it would be under such circumstances.

This table was supposed to be led by Elaena, not by me.

My intention had always been to serve as her defender and right hand, yet my Queen remained unresponsive in our bed chambers, surrounded by maidens and maesters when our children were out of reach in the hands of the enemy.

How could I protect them all when they were so many miles apart?

Pushing my chair back, I stand at the head of the table, "If any tongue waves in regards to my wife outside this room expect to lose it with a dull knife... regardless of rank or title."

My furious gaze settles on the silent Lord Lothston and his face pales.

"What of our plans of retaliation, Uncle?" Luke asks, his low voice chilling, "Vermithor and I are eager for battle. I will burn down Dragonstone if I must," His usual warm brown eyes are burning with unfamiliar rage.

"Not with your nephews inside you won't. We must find another way to penetrate the fortress they've built,"

We couldn't leave Elaena and the capital city defenseless, but I refused to leave my sons in my brother's company for long.

What in the seven hells did the Gods expect of me?

I was only a man.

Without warning the doors to the small council chambers swing open and Lord Corlys Velaryon struggles to walk through them, battered and bruised leaving the council chambers eirly silent.

Instantly Lucerys is out of his seat, as coherent as ever to help his grandsire but I'm frozen where I stand, all feeling rushing from my legs at the sight of him, "Grandsire! What's happened?!"

"It was the Triarchy," he manages through strangled breaths. "They ambushed us at the Crossing, and we lost nearly half our numbers in the battle."

"The Triarchy?" Lord Bartimos asks, turning to Maester Gerardys stunned, but Lucerys finishes his thought, "It's been years since they've meddled in Westerosi affairs,"

The dark pit within my stomach begins to grow and if I weren't gripping the table so tightly I might've keeled over at the pain yet they all look to me for guidance, watching for my next move expectantly.

I willed myself to think strategically like my Grandfather would. After all, who first mentioned such an alliance to my impressionable older brother?

My grandfather.

Ser Otto Hightower was a great many things. He was a snake, a manipulator, and, as history would remember him, a hand to three Kings, even if one of them had been a usurper.

Was all of this planned?

Was my grandsire haunting me after all these years from beyond the grave?

The fall of the dragon pits, the death of my sister the Queen, and now an attack on the Velaryon fleet?

Was it truly my brother who ordered the death of Helaena all those years ago?

"The cause for which they claimed to have fought? Are you aware?" I ask, but with my question, the small council sits up straight listening closely for his answer.

Silently he looks around at the faces around the table, hesitant to say but in my gut, I already know the threat before the name leaves his mouth.

"Your brother, your Grace. Aegon was aware of our movements. He expected we'd come urgently at our late Queen's call for help," He confesses apologetically.

Hanging my head I drum my fingers against the table as he goes on, but the details of the attack are drowned out in my racing thoughts.

'Your brother waited. He waited until your interests shifted elsewhere before finally taking it for himself,'

My mother had told me my brother's plan from the beginning, but I was too comfortable to fathom that he'd return after so many years, and he wasn't only returning for Elaena and me but for my children as well.

My waste of flesh brother would take all that I held most dear.

The ringing in my ears reaches a fever pitch and I go for the closest thing I can reach, gripping a glass of wine so tightly it cracks in my hands before I hurl it across the room where it shatters into hundreds of pieces against a far wall.

The room sits in silent horror, watching me in expectancy of another outburst.

When I glance up at my audience, Elaena's violet eyes flash before me as if she's sitting just across the table. But as fast as I blink, she's gone, leaving me with nothingness once more.

"Out... GET OUT!" I command, waiting impatiently for the Lords to get up. It isn't until the door is shut behind them that the Velaryons and I continue our conversation.

"Uncle, let us end this now!" Luke begins, closing the distance between us. "He's no dragon and few men. We'll mount Vhagar and Vermithor and burn him alive while he sleeps!"

Luke whispers harshly through gritted teeth, and the warm young man I once knew is a thing of the past, dead along with his brothers, mother, and fathers.

I fight against the devil on my shoulder, standing up straight to take a deep breath but it's worthless, "He has my sons, Luke! Who's to say he won't slit their throats the moment we descend upon Dragonstone?!"

"Whose to say he hasn't already!?"

"Careful," I growl, warning him with a wide-eyed glare, "I don't trust Elaena here, alone, and defenseless with a council such as this,"

"Then the gods have forsaken us either way?" he asks, angry tears pooling in his eyes. I can only stare back at him with clenched fists, willing myself an answer wise enough for a King, but nothing comes.

"My granddaughter... you mean to say she's alive?" It's Lord Corlys who breaks the silence, watching the both of us expectantly.

I nod and a weight is visibly lifted from Lord Corlys' shoulders.

"She lies in our chambers, but her consciousness has... drifted. Only the council knows of her current vulnerable state. Aegon will try to finish what he's started if he gets word." I assure him, but deep in his thoughts, he doesn't seem convinced.

"Aegon's taken Dragonstone?" He asks, sadness dragging down his wrinkled face and the both of us nod, hoping for a wise plan from the Hand of the Queen.

Lord Corlys shakes his head, "The most recent sighting of Moondancer was a few miles west offshore from there, they were flying east."

"And this source is a trustworthy one?" I ask, my voice low, unprepared for the thought that my brother may have captured another of our crucial numbers.

"I believe him to be,"

"Then we must send for them! He could've seen more-" Lucerys hardly notices the door opening as he rambles in a panic, eager to find his sister.

Heavy footsteps march through the double doors and at first I don't recognize the figure, unsettled by the mystery beneath the Velaryon blue hood. Instinctively my fingers curl around the hilt of Dark Sister, less than enthused with a stranger in our midst, but when he reveals his face I breathe a sigh of relief.

It seemed our source was indeed trustworthy.

"Ser Addam of Hull,"

"My apologies for my late arrival, my lords. I was seeing to my brother in the infirmary," He grants us a half smile of apology, bowing curtly and I frown.

Dutiful men, Addam and Alyn Velaryon happily served their Queen and house, and they yearned for nothing but security in exchange. Another set of brothers being ripped apart by this war is something I would hate to witness.

"You honor us, Addam. My sister would surely be comforted by your presence." Lucerys tells him enthusiastically but it makes the soldier uncomfortable, weary of the intensity of my stare from across the table with the dark cloud hanging over us.

"My sincerest apologies about the loss that's fallen to the Royal family. And Princess Elaena... she would've made an exceptional Queen," He tells us and I flinch at the mention of my wife's death.

Lucerys and Corlys watch for my reaction, wondering if I deemed Addam worthy of knowing our secret.

I initially found it difficult to accept that someone else would be aware of Elaena's precarious situation, but Ser Addam was the one who kept our pregnancy a secret years ago and provided her with a roof where she would be safe from even me.

"She will. Now please, tell us first of Baela."

***