Chapter 29: The Realm's Delight

113 AC

Godswood of the Red Keep

Red Keep, King's Landing

A soft breeze blew through the godswood as I sat on the roots of the great oak tree, the elm, black cotton, and alder trees that overlooked the Blackwater gave further shade that made the acre of the godswood relatively dark. I gave out a sigh as I thought about the future which was now a complete unknown, and added to it, a nagging feeling that something was going to go wrong plus I had to explain my upcoming marriage to my kids. How does one explain to their kids that they are about to remarry their cousin? And this wasn't including the part where I was already fucking Rhaenyra for the past couple of nights, I will be surprised if she isn't pregnant before the year is out.

Viserys knows but he doesn't care, Alicent might know and make a fuss over it but unlike the Criston and Harwin nonsense of OTL, there won't be that many problems, and at least the child will have Targaryen features which are more than what the Strong Boys had. I feel like I am Agrippa who is soon to marry Augustus' daughter Julia. What was going on in his head about marrying the same girl he once lead to the marriage altar in her father's place?

Daemon in the Stepstones, Corlys in Driftmark, Alicent in the Red Keep, Larys in the dungeons, so many enemies or possible enemies, the news of this marriage has caused reverberations across Westeros and beyond, a dangerous prospect to my enemies, many of whom will try to stop this marriage. While Essos fears me they also have a resentment of me, a Valyrian who destroyed a Free City, under ordinary conditions the rest of Essos might have been up in arms over this act of unprovoked aggression, the Triarchy's hubris brought them down as much as did the flames of the dragon.

Braavos and Pentos will soon be at each other's throats, this Pentos is not the demilitarized Pentos of Illyrio Mopatis, they still have open slavery, armies, and fleets along with a desire to expand, the Braavosi-occupied Myr is a threat to them, the common enmity of the Triarchy kept them together but that is gone. Tyrosh is now under the control of the sellsword Prince, the Tyroshi have no love for us, and it is in Tyrosh that hatred and loathing of House Targaryen are widespread.

But the greatest danger is Myr, while they are under the thumb of the Braavosi, the Myrmen haven't forgotten what Daemon and I did to their city and their fellow Myrish countrymen. The axe may have cut down the tree but the roots remain, the axe may have forgotten but the root remembers.

"You know if you sit near a tree for too long, the roots will grab you and make you one with the tree," A familiar voice calls out with a giggle, I turn in the direction of the voice to see Rhaenyra walking towards me, she was looking remarkably beautiful in the low cut black silk gown that hugged her shapely figure, relatively modest clothes by her standards, I would say. I shake my head in amusement, she was saying the same thing I told her the last time I found her brooding in the godswood.

"What troubles you nuncle?" She asked with a little worry as she came near me, I sigh and shake my head, "Nothing much, just thinking of all the coming problems that we will have to face in the coming years."

"Problems?" She asks bemused to which I give her a look with a raised eyebrow, "Don't tell me that you thought marrying me would be the end of all your problems, our marriage means that I will be there with you in dealing with all your problems."

"And there is no one else I would want by my side, Uncle, I will face threats from the realm challenging my ascension, and you are the only one who can stop them." She says with genuine relief and happiness in her voice.

"Do you think your ascension will be the only problem?" I ask Rhaenyra who looks confused, "My four and ten-year-old grandsire had to take the crown from Maegor the Cruel, did all his problems end with Maegor's death, he had to deal with his regents, the Faith Militant, the Dornish, the Shivers, the troubles he had with his daughters, and of course the matter of his succession which ended up ruining our family twice over."

I continued "Don't think for a second, that once you ascend the throne peacefully or not, all your problems will fly out of the window because, with every problem that you solve, another will come to take its place, there can be a war with Dornish, a plague ravaging Westeros, conspiracies out to dethrone House Targaryen, tensions among the Free Cities flaring out into open war dragging us along with them, there are so many problems that you can face to the point that your ascension would be a simple walk in the meadow. And finally, we have yet to talk about the nature of our marriage, which I am willing to let you decide on that."

"Our marriage?" She asks with her brows scrunched up in confusion, "I don't understand, what do you mean by the nature of our marriage?"

"I mean, do you want to have a political marriage in which we have two sons, an heir, and a spare and then don't even bother to look at each other in the eye, like how most political marriages are like the one between Daemon and Rhea which didn't even go that far, do you want to have a loving and nurturing marriage like the one between your parents or do you want a passionate marriage like the one Daemon made you dream of, though I must warn you, passionate marriages tend to lose their fire after a year or two," I answered calmly while twirling a cranberry vine around my finger.

Her face heated up in embarrassment upon me bringing up Daemon before she asked me, "What about the type of marriage between Lady Dacey and yourself?"

I didn't answer at first before I responded, "I was fond of Dacey, we were happy together while it lasted, our marriage wasn't one of love, it was arranged for me to tighten my grip on the Riverlands, I didn't know what to do in a marriage with a person you haven't met before so I did what my parents did, fuck and ride and ride and fuck. She was very good at riding horses and at hawking, better than me even, it worked for a while, passion always works at the start."

"What went wrong with that?" She asked curiously as she sat down next to me on the roots, "The political nature of our marriage reared its ugly head, she wanted me to favor her house the Blackwoods over the other houses of the Riverlands and to bring down the Brackens but I wasn't one to show favoritism, I tried to remain impartial in all matters regarding the Blackwoods and the Brackens, I stayed loyal to the duty assigned to me by my sire and grandsire but that came at the cost of trouble in my marriage."

One of the main reasons why most Riverlords respect me is because I am a fair and just arbiter who doesn't let his personal feelings interfere with his duty, even Grover Tully accepts that, there have been many cases where I have judged in favor of Bracken over Blackwood because the Brackens were true while the Blackwood tried to throw their weight around because they were married to me, for all my ruthless reputation, I am just as open-handed and generous as Viserys and I treat honorable men with clemency.

I continued, "I forgot something important when I tried to replicate my parents' marriage, I forgot the love they had for each other, my father and mother were inseparable well before their marriage, according to my grandmother, the two of them were in love since the day my father accidentally broke my mother's nose." Talk about a love story.

"Then what happened? I have never heard of any trouble in your marriage." She questions with a frown, I reply, "The twins happened, once she became pregnant most of our problems faded away, and with the birth of the twins, we could have made our marriage something much more, when both the parents love their children, they will try to make the marriage work regardless of the problems facing them, if nothing else but to ensure that the children don't grow up in a hate-filled family."

"But the war sent me away for a couple of years and the day we concluded a treaty with the Volantenes and the Rivermen were preparing for their withdrawal, a letter came from Raventree Hall that changed everything." I finished and for a while, we didn't say anything but we sat in peaceful silence until Rhaenyra placed her hand on mine.

"I want to have a happy and loving marriage, I will try to make it work and I will love your sons as my own, and treat them much better than how Alicent treated me," She says with a soft voice and I turn to her, "That is kind of you, and I know that you will do better than Alicent." In the OTL she treated Daemon's daughters well, so can I hope for the same?

"What do you know of love in a marriage, Rhaenyra?" I ask her which confuses her, "A love between man and wife is not something that is made the minute you are married, no, it is built slowly and painstakingly, brick by brick, stone by stone, after every day, it grows tall and strong, like a wall, love in a marriage requires both of us to work on it, it requires us to compromise with each other when we differ, think of it like a bow and the bowstring when the string pulls the bow bends to accommodate it if the bow doesn't bend then the string breaks."

"Rhaenyra, you can be stubborn and petulant, don't deny for it is something everyone regardless of their feelings towards you agrees on." I continue cutting her off from saying anything in response. "So I ask you, Nyra, are you willing to compromise to make our marriage work, for I am."

She slowly nods looking at me, "I am willing, for you," I nod gratefully and I hold her hands, "Thank you, and I ask nothing of you but only that you will speak to me clearly and true always, promise me only that for I will protect you, fight for you and kill for you, I will keep away from sycophants, keep you from being beguiled by those who seek to use you for their ends as many have tried to ruin our house, all I ask in return is that you do the same for me."

"I will," She promises and I kiss her.