24
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294 AC
Braavos - House with the red door
Eragon Targaryen
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"Mom I swear he is lying! I have never even set foot into a pleasure house!" I dodge around a table as she tries to catch me, the look in her eyes promises pain.
"Just come here so we can talk about it Eragon." Oh no, she said Eragon and not baby boy, it's bad.
"Mom! We didn't go into a place like that!" Danny comes to my rescue like a knight on a horse to rid the evil away. Mom even stops trying to grab my foot from under the table as I make a hasty escape.
It sucks when your opponent is someone you can't beat even if you actually can beat them, if I fight back I would be a bad son and if I took the beating I would be a pushover. I wipe my brow and look back to see Shiera and Rhaenyra looking very pleased with the current events. Traitors.
"What happened then, I want the real answer and nothing less or more." Danny looks nervous to respond and looks my way for help which causes moms eyes to go frosty again.
"Wait! I will explain, we went and picked up our friend Nata and we were just playing around." Her look tells me she is skeptical and I grit my teeth. "We tried to learn magic as well." She opens her mouth but it soon closes without making a noise. Danny looks ready to run out of the room in case it all goes back downhill.
"You went to see a friend and learn magic?" I nod and she continues. "Where did you go to learn magic?" I see in the corner of my eye that Shiera has hidden the books as she steps behind Rhaenyra.
"To a couple of places, we haven't learned how to do it yet though." I put on my best-disappointed face and look down at my feet.
"A couple of places huh?" She looks at all of us and finally lets out a sigh and shakes her head, she walks over to me and pulls me into a hug. "I was just worried for you, magic isn't something you guys should be trying to learn anyway. I have often seen people get seriously hurt or die trying to do some magic." I hug her back and nod while wiping the sweat onto her dress, a pinch lets me know she doesn't find it funny.
"We will be careful, I won't die until I at least see all the wonders of the world and maybe even make one myself." I pull back from the hug and she smiles.
"Good, I would like to see them as well." She says with a bit of longing in her tone.
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"I lived." I drop onto my bed and pull the pillow over so I can lay my head on it.
"You did, I thought for sure she was going to get you when you went under the table." Danny sits on the end of my bed and I wonder if she wants to talk about her vision now. She has been suspicious since she heard that ancient prophecy.
"Want to tell me about your vision now?" I sit up and scoot closer to her as she nods slowly.
"Yea, I didn't say anything because we promised mom not to talk about the eggs. I saw you had the seven eggs and you were doing some magic ritual with Melisandre." I feel the room almost start to spin at the implications as I begin to understand what this could mean.
"How much did you see, did you see what happened or how it was done?" She grabs my hand and she gives me a look to calm down.
"Let me explain the whole vision before you start asking questions." Seeing me nod she continues. "So you set the eggs onto a pyre of some kind with someone tied up on the pyre. You drew an odd-looking sword and it lit on fire before you plunged it into the person's chest. Then the body lit on fire and the pyre did as well but you didn't move. Your clothes burned off and I didn't see much after that other than you didn't move from the fire." Wouldn't I burn to death if I was in the fire with the poor guy? I killed someone, my skin crawls when I think about actually killing someone. I have seen it done but I have never done the act myself, though I am confident in my training to follow through on it when the time comes.
"So you saw me doing a ritual with stone dragon eggs and we just heard a prophecy that involves waking dragons from stone." She nods and I can't help but bite my cheek, is this real, or is it some kind of scheme? It could be some kind of magic that is being used to make us bring out our valuables and it just happens to be dragon eggs.
Or I am overthinking it and instead, it is a prophecy that involves bleeding stars and darkness gathering while waking stone dragons?
"What do you think we should do?" I ask her and she shrugs.
"I don't know, you also looked older in the vision almost Viserys age. But then again you could have been younger, it was hard to see in the flames." So another vision involving the future, just like the summer isles nonsense.
"Do you still want to go back to try and learn more from her?" She leans her head on my shoulder.
"I do, I think if it is real and what I am hoping it means is the case then it is too good to pass up. It would be hard to do without her and more visions at least, I don't know the man who was a sacrifice and Melisandre was with you during it so she might be important to the process. It might not be as simple as burning someone with the eggs." I agree, we don't have enough information or experience to try to wake dragons from stone.
"Ok, so it's settled we will take lessons from her but we will watch each other back. I still don't know how I feel about R'hllor or any god for that matter, but if he helps us then he is alright in my book." Though our home in Westeros is heavily into worshiping the seven who are one if we ever get found out to be involved with the red god they would disdain us.
They already hate us for incest and because of what Father did, we aren't going to be going back to welcoming kingdoms with their arms spread wide. That's why it's worth this risk, if we can get dragons again then we won't have to worry about what they like or don't like. Dragons kept them in line and will again if this all turns out to be true, only time will tell.
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294 AC
Beyond the wall - Antler river
Lagertha
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"You cut off his finger?" Geor asks me with a wide smile on his face, his beard is looking patchy.
"He kept trying to grab my breasts so I went for his hand, he got lucky I missed." I respond with a little annoyance, if he wanted to steal me he should just fight me. This playing around and not getting down to it is going to cause me to cut more than his hand. He knows he would lose and doesn't want to get hurt, or dead.
"Aye, I see he still hasn't left you alone. I can talk to him if you want me to, not much it would do now though." He spins his axe and looks at the entrance of the tent.
"I don't care, he is a coward who only wants things given to him and the only reason he hasn't been left for dead is that he can skin change and uses it to scout ahead." Geor nods and stops spinning his axe as he moves to leave the tent. "Where are you going?" I ask.
"I want to see what they decided will happen now, he brought it on himself but that doesn't change that he is valuable. He will want something done to you about this." I fight back the urge to go out there and stab the coward in the eye. Not only does he constantly bother me and won't fight me but he will use others to fight for him.
If mother didn't tell me not to cause any more problems I would just kill the craven.
I hear some shouting and decide enough is enough and make my way out of the tent, sometimes problems are solutions in their own way.
"What are you yelling about?!" I shout as I make my way out of the tent and see my brother and our mother talking to three men.
"They want you to go with them, to repay Harmin for cutting his finger off." I reach for my axe and see the men also put their hands on their weapons.
"You come with us and pay him back and we won't have to hurt you all, don't be stupid." I pull out my axe and run toward them, a arrow from the side stops me as I avoid any follow-up shots.
"Can you all not be stupid for one afternoon." One of the tribe leaders walks up with a few men following him, the one who shot the arrow winks at me and I spit.
"She cut off Harmin's finger, we came to let them know she was told that she has to pay him back for it." The tribe leader barks a laugh and his men join in.
"Says who? Harmin says? That sniveling man baby needs to grow up and steal a woman and stop trying to avoid a fight. He always gets himself hurt trying to avoid pain, a bit funny that is. Now clear out before I make you clear out." They turn tail and run, a nod our way is all we get before they also leave. The archer gives me one last look and gives a smile with a few missing teeth before he also walks away.
"I almost thought we were going to have some fun for once." Geor puts his axe onto his side and walks back to the tent. Mom walks toward me and grabs my shoulder and looks me over before nodding.
"You are fine, go kill something for dinner." I snort and smile when she smacks my shoulder, I guess I need to grab my bow and some arrows.
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Walking through the woods I am snuck up on by a crow that screeches, I turn to look at it and feel the same tingle in my eyes that I always do. These crows are going to piss me off with this tingling every time I see one recently it happens, and I aim and plan to kill it for dinner and before I can let the arrow fly the tingling becomes a searing pain.
I feel my head spin and have to blink multiple times before I realize what has happened. I am on a tree and looking over the forest, the oddest thing is I am looking at a woman with braided white hair. That woman is also wearing my furs and is holding my bow, I realize this is where the bird is and wonder if I just skin changed.
My head feels like it spins once more but with less pain and I am back to aiming my bow at the crow and I let the arrow fly and kill it.
What just happened?
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294 AC
Dorne - Sunspear
Rhaenys Targaryen
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"I can't believe this, I am not even sure how to react." Arianne has been going on and on about the marriage she has to my uncle. She is pissed because she was not too kindly ordered to act more befitting a queen of Westeros, or in this case to keep her legs closed.
But she is also happy that she will be the queen of Westeros if we win. So she has been flipping between wanting to march back into her father's solar and screaming at him or thanking him. She should get a hobby that will help her relax, like me.
I was going out to fight with the sand snakes and maybe ride some horses around but instead, I am stuck with her chewing my ear off. I see Visenya giggling with Morgana as they both keep looking at me, laugh it up jerks.
I grab a blood orange and pull it back behind me to make them think I am going to throw it at them and they grab pillows to use as a shield. Instead, I rip off some of the skin with my thumb and take a bite and the juices run down my chin.
"Rhaenys are you even listening to me?" I roll my eyes and wipe my face with one of the pillows beside me. I straighten my back and put on the most ladylike attitude I can.
"Why yes your Grace, I hear you loud and clear complaining about not getting to suck any cocks. It much be a tragedy, so young and yet forced into celibacy to make yourself look like a better Queen." She frowns before the corner of her lips twitch up into a smile.
"Well that's not exactly what I said but I can see how you took it that way. And it's not celibacy, he said to stay away from men to save my image and not to give Viserys something to complain about. I can still have fun with my lady friends." She looks down at my legs and licks her lips before peeking at the other two girls in the room who are avoiding eye contact.
"Cute." Arianne nods and smiles, I take another bite of my orange and savor the rich flavor. A knock at the door has all of us turn toward it and the atmosphere that was building is killed.
"Come in!" Arianne shouts, the door quickly opens and Mom walks in with Lyanna.
"You didn't even want to say goodbye to Oberyn? He is going to be gone for a long time and it will be dangerous." I shrug and answer before anyone else.
"He came to us before he left and said goodbye, no point in crying twice." Mom shakes her head and sits next to me and shifts awkwardly before standing up and seeing orange juice that got on her butt.
"Rhaenys stop eating like a brute." She scolds me and tosses the stained pillow out of the way before sitting down again. Lyanna sits next to her daughter and holds her hand in her own. I nod and finish the orange off before looking at mother curiously.
"You still haven't told me about what they look like." I reach into my pocket and pull out a Targaryen wax stamper and can't help but smile a little bit. Dorne and the Martells are always going to be dear to me and the family I grew up with, but it's still nice to hear from the other side. I even got a cool gift because my uncle Eragon thought I should send him letters with the right emblem.
The letters I got from them are exactly what I hoped for when I planned to send ours. I wanted to see something from them and they all wrote something a little different and unique to them. Shiera sent books on high and low Valyrian to help us learn it better. I remember learning it when I was younger but never needed it here in Dorne so it's nice to have these books. Aegon loves them and has been sticking his nose into them every day since he saw them.
Arianne is even interested in learning so she can speak it with them and not feel excluded since she is marrying Viserys and will live around them after everything is done. Mom said they speak the common tongue but default to Valyrian since they have lived in Essos for so long.
Rhaenyra and Daenerys sent some cool dyes that are very expensive and they had to use their saved money for them. Then the stamper from Eragon I have on hand, gets me excited to meet them in person.
"I would also like to hear what Viserys looks like if you would." Arianne asks about her betrothed to no one's surprise. "Compare him to someone I know, like Gerold Dayne. Gerold has a look of a Valyrian and I am curious how they compare." I shake my head, Gerold Dayne is a horny man who lusts after swords and legs. I don't like him very much and find him uncomfortable to be around.
"I don't know, I would say Viserys is better looking if you compared him to Gerold." Mom looks awkward to be talking about this but does it anyway for our curiosity. Lyanna wiggled her eyebrows at her causing mom to almost completely shut up.
"Alright, if you don't want to talk about Viserys talk about the others." I try to move the conversation on and it succeeds as she nods.
"Ok, so Rhaella and Shaena are as beautiful as ever while Shaena has matured a lot from the last I saw her." Everyone is leaning in and nods encouragingly for more details but she ignores us. "I would say Shiera is unique and even has the same mismatched eyes as her namesake, very beautiful young lady."
"Her eyes are blue and green?" Morgana asks in wonder, she is a fan of the Seastar and Bloodraven.
"Yes she does and they are captivating to look at, she will steal a lot of hearts with those eyes. Rhaenyra is a beauty in her own right, got her mom and dad in her features." She purses her lips and slowly smiles. "The twins are an odd pair, one is on the smaller side and the other is bigger than you would think he should be at his age. Daenerys could just look smaller because the other two girls are two-name days older than her and her brother just happens to grow fast but she is also pleasing to the eye. And lastly Eragon, like I said he is bigger than you would think. I would believe if they said he was two to three-name days older than he is. His looks are..." She trails off and looks a bit sad which catches me off guard.
"What's wrong mom?" I ask and everyone else looks surprised except Lyanna.
"It's nothing, he just reminds me of Rhaegar." He looks like my dad?
"Really?" Arianne asks.
"Yes, he looks very similar but has a lot of differences too." Not sure how to recover from that I just let the conversation die and the others start talking about different things while I am in my thoughts.
I grip the gift from Eragon and now really wonder what he is like, when will we meet?