Before we start I've decided on the recommendation of one of the readers that the titles I've given him will now also grant him abilities. So I'll just come up with some effects for them and give them to him. Just think of it as something that happened off-page.
Also, I made a small error with the death of Yorbert Royce who died earliest at 101 AC and at the latest 103 AC. So let's just say that he and Aemon had a talk, which convinced him to go with Lord Arryn during the ambush, which got him and his sons killed by the Stone Crows, along with Lord Yorbert. The ambush just takes place a year later and Yorbert doesn't die immediately but is briefly Jeyne Arryn's regent like he was in canon. As for why he was with them we can just say he and lord Arryn were good friends and he was friends with the whole family at the time. They invited him to go with them as a family friend and Aemon convinced him to go even though Yorbert was busy. So let's say Gunthor is her regent right now instead and was just visiting home during the hunt.
Lastly, we have a very similar problem with Alicent as we did with Laena and Laenor's ages. I'm going to go with a mix of book and show versions like I did those two but she'll be closer to her show version because I find her more interesting. Side note did you know that show Alicent is actually younger than Rhaenyra by a year? Weird right? 🤷♂️ Anyway our version will also be in the same age group but older than her show version but not the grown woman the book version is.
And now an excerpt from Archmaester Gyldayn's Fire and Blood in our new timeline.
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When the spring prince Baelon Targaryen died in the tower of the hand in the year 101 AC at the age of 44. The death of the spring Prince was a major blow to the Targaryen family. With King Jaehaerys losing his heir and with only one son and daughter remaining the Red Keep became far more grim in atmosphere. What was once halls filled with laughter at seemingly countless children was now only silence.
But what was far worse was the condition of the Queen. Queen Allysanne was consumed by grief and had seemingly become a shell of herself after her second son's death. She began to deteriorate heavily after words. Her seemingly miraculous recovery had reversed drastically. It's said that for several days the Queen was completely inconsolable refusing to eat and bearly drinking. But she was not the only one majorly affected by Prince Baelon's death.
Prince Viserys Targaryen and his lady wife the Princess Aemma also heavily grieved the death of the Prince's father. But of the spring princes, two sons the rouge Prince Daemon Targaryen seemed the more affected of the two brothers. The rogue Prince had dived into a deluge of rampant behavior. They say the prince had returned to the red keep drunk on multiple occasions and had visited nearly every brothel on the street of silk. His brother heavily scolded the rogue prince but Prince Daemon seemed not to care in the slightest about his brother's scoldings. Prince Viserys attempted to petition the king to change or punish his younger brother for his actions but it was to no avail. Meanwhile, the young princess Rhaenyra was also seemingly distraught by her grandfather's death and
her father's constant anger. This led to the young girl becoming quite melancholy in the days leading up to the funeral.
As for the King himself, he seemed the most composed about his heir's death. It was said that although the queen remained open in her grief the king remained composed at the death of his son albeit quieter on the matter than any other. Though let it be said the King did not grieve for his son as any true father would. The king wasn't just quieter but had become grimmer. Even the Princess Rhaenys who arrived on Dragonback with her children from Driftmark is said to have shown visible grief at her uncle's death despite their past grievances. The young lord Laenor Velaryon and his twin sister Laena Velaryon who were born 95 years after Aegon's conquest also seemed to be quite sad at their grand uncle's death. Although to a much lesser degree than the other members of the royal family.
But soon things began to change with the arrival of the young prince Aemon. His a rival with the members of the house Royce as well as many other Lords and Ladies of Vale was not at first of much note. However, it is of note that the young Prince had a well-known childhood fondness for his fellow future dragon riders. But this was also the first known time the young Prince and the Lady Jeyne Arryn met. Normally the royal children kept to a group of their own however as the young Lady Paramount was only a year older than the Velaryon children. As such the young children seemingly inducted Lady Arryn as a member of their group along with one other person of relevance.
The lady Alicent Hightower was also there. As the daughter of the future hand of the king, she too had arrived for Prince Baelon's funeral. As such this was also Prince Aemond's first time encountering her. Most accounts say that although he was perfectly polite for a child his age he was not very fond of the young lady. Still, it was stated that the young group could be found running through the halls of the Red Keep and later Dragonstone.
The young prince always had a reputation for high intelligence. He was well known for coming up with many games, carving toys, and telling stories that are still relevant to this day. More peculiarly were two tales that later came true. First is the tale of the dragon knight and the tall knight which has extremely similar stories to that of Aemon the dragon knight who is his namesake and also Ser Duncan the tall. This has led many to believe that the prince was in fact a dragon dreamer from a young age and continued to display signs of this in life. But the young prince's actions not only brightened the spirits of other children but also his own family as well.
It seemed that the young prince had decided to address the problems of his family one at a time. The first change came with the queen herself. Upon visiting her it's said the prince made a heartfelt plea to her that had her leave her rooms to eat and drink properly for the first time in days. Although she would still be overwhelmed with tears her grief was abated by Prince Aemon's presence. Meanwhile, his games and toys seemed to dispel the sadness of Princess Rhaenyra. But his main tool was his voice the boy would sing songs that would make the girl laugh and cry and laugh all over again. But more than that it was the main tool he used to aid his family. Even at such a young age the lad had a voice that was said to be able to bring a grown man to tears.
And so the prince sang to the women of his family first. The ladies Aemma, Laena, the Queen, and even the princess Rhaenys were all said to be more than quite fond of his songs. And it seemed his voice was able to dismiss their pain as well. With the girls of the family taken care of the prince attempted to do the same with the men of the family.
Laenor Velaryon didn't seem to need much of Prince Aemon's aid so instead he went before the king. It's said that the two spent a great deal of time together in the few days before the funeral took place. The two would spend more and more time together as the days passed but the content of their conversations was always kept secret. Even to this day it is unknown what was discussed between them and the only people who were let in on those conversations were the Queen herself.
Then there was the matter of the two other princes of their house. Prince Aemon's efforts to cool the anger of his uncle seemed to take effect but not through the effects of song. Rather the tool the young Prince used this time was his words.
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The Red Keep
101 AC
Aemon Targaryen POV
I stalk through the halls of the Red Keep tracing my eyes along the walls lined with Targaryen finery and relics. If there's one thing about the Red Keep I like it's the relics. Sure my Runestone has its own fair share of relics all covered in First Men runes the red keep has way more. Obviously, they are not of First Men origin rather the ones here are Valeyrian make. Of course, even here is only a small piece of the number of artifacts that reside in Dragonstone. Even so the halls of the main seat of Targaryen power these days are quite impressive. Although the red keep is quite a bit smaller than most of the other highlords' castles in Weastaros. That's something that has always rubbed me the wrong way. 'I mean Aegon had the time and the resources to build a bigger castle is all I'm saying. It took what? Like 30? 50? Years maybe to build Harrenhall and even then Aegon had way more resources than Harren the black ever would have. I mean you have seven kingdoms that are scared shitless of you and your dragon plus I'm sure there were plenty of random peasants willing to help work on the castles as they were all flooding into make King's Landing.'
But red walls of paintings and statues aren't my concern. Nor are the questionable architectural choices of my ancestors. Instead today I have much more pressing matters to attend to. The most pressing issue right now is that of the anger my uncle is feeling towards my father. Daemon has always been a creature of moods from what I can tell. I'm sure even without me the brothers will reconcile just as they always do. But if I always waited for the two of them to figure things out on their own I wouldn't be such a very good reincarator now would I? Not to mention even steps like this no matter how small can influence the outcome of this world and potentially divert the dance of dragons.
My thoughts like my body turn when I reach another hallway. 'Still, my mission is not easy more importantly, I need to think of what to say to my uncle.'
The most important aspect is causing the two to reconcile. I can work off of what to do from there. Now you might be wondering why this even matters to me well it's simple there are multiple reasons. The first is changing the extinction of dragons from the world. The second is several quests I picked up on my way here. Most of them were fairly basic just helping most of my family members with their grief. That wasn't too hard especially with the younger children like Rhaenyra and Laena. Plus Laenor was basically fine so he didn't even get a quest for him.
I hadn't gotten too much from them but one did give me a random skill. The other two were just points, small mana crystals, and small dragon mana crystals. The difference is negligible but dragon crystals are more effective on draconic beings like me. But what really surprised me was what my Sky Dragon eyes revealed to me. Apparently, Targaryens do in fact have natural draconic energy as do Velaryons. I imagine that most people from old Valyria may have also had it. Which brings me to the theory that Valyrians have dragon's blood isn't just a metaphor nor is it hyperbole.
The other person whose quest promised me a skill was Rhaenys. Rhaenys wasn't too much of a problem either. It seemed less grief and more guilt that was eating away at her. Perhaps she was ashamed of the resentment and bitterness she felt for her uncle. Plus there was the problem that she didn't like me very much. Probably because of the ongoing beef between her and my father. Something about her and my grandmother's dragon or something like that. He called her a thieving bitch more than once while we were in private. Still, she lets me play with Laena and Laenor without restriction especially with how much I made her happy and I think I was probably the only real friend Laenor had as well.
Sure there were other boys and sailors on Driftmark. But the boy had already confessed to me whether he realised or not that he was rather lonely there. Sure he had friends but they all felt different almost a bit distant from him because he was their lord's son. I could relate a bit. Not many other kids my age at Runestone and even then they were still kids kinda hard to relate to them when I had the brain of a young adult running around in my head. It's been a long time since I last thought about it but I think I died at some age between 18 and 25 I can't quite remember how old exactly though. I think the exact range was closer to around 20 to 23 years old as I remember being in college. Regardless of my exact age, I vaguely remember being on the younger side and you didn't really feel that different from your teenage years for a while even after you're a real grown-up.
'Speaking of growing up I wonder when I'll be able to get back into my old workout routine. With all this healthier food I'm eating and my enhanced body I washer I'll make more gains than I ever have.' I suppressed a grin as I turned another corner and entered another corridor. I know I just complained about how small this place is compared to other castles but fuck does it take forever for me to get anywhere without running. I'm sure my guard behind me could have already gotten there before I did but he had to wait for me plus he was supposed to stand behind me because of the whole me being a prince thing.
Plus due to my young body and appearance, I couldn't have any meaningful friendships with adults either. Still, I was no stranger to isolation and it wasn't all bad. Some of those adults were much easier to get along with than others mainly thanks to them being family. My mind wandered to the sound of Ser Gerold's footsteps behind me. Normally it would be Ser William but he had fallen slightly'll so Mother had chosen Ser Gerold to guard me instead.
Great-grandmother Alyssane or Grany Aly for short had wanted to assign me a Kingsguard member but I had convinced her otherwise. She had actually dragged me to King Jaehaerys just to talk more about it with him. She knew he didn't like how much she favored me out of all their great-grandchildren as if he wasn't guilty of the same crime. Still, he seemed happy that she had gotten some of her fire back and it seemed at least in our presence his mind was more present than when it was just me and me. Frankly, I dread getting old I'd rather end it before my mind truly starts to go. Still, she managed to convince him based on the fact that I spent most of my time with the other kids my age so we would need someone to watch us all. You know prevent childhood mortality and assassination which was all too common in these medieval-type worlds.
So they cycled through a few options from his Kingsguard. They said that my great-grandfather had the greatest Kingsguard there ever was so far so Grany had a lot of good knights to pick from. She had even suggested Ser Ryam Redwyne himself and let me tell you he might be one of the few men in this world who lives up to the hype. They say he is the greatest knight of today, accomplished at sword and lance. There are several songs about Ryam praising his chivalry. I've sung a few myself for Rhaenyra although I prefer to sing more modern songs from my world with the lyrics adjusted of course. He was even briefly hand of the king before my grandfather took the role although it's said he did a poor job at it. Eventually, they landed on him and Ser Harrold Westerling guarding us when we're together. However, I did manage to select my own personal guard whenever I'm alone.
Besides me and Ser Garold gets along quite well. Plus we're family as well so I get that whole kinslayer protection bonus as well and frankly, that is very reassuring. But I doubt that will help me with my current task outside of making sure I don't die.
At last, I make one last turn and walk over to a room it's door is black and covered in draconian patterns. I stand only a foot away and lift my hand before I knock I look back at Ser Gerold. He nods and smiles slightly knowing why I'm here or at least believing he does. To talk to my uncle and help him not be sad anymore. But in truth, I'm sure he does not fully understand the depth of the plans.
'That's fine' I think as I knock twice on the door and put on my childhood persona. I'm not sure how this conversation will go however I do know how I will start. That's because although we do not have so much in common me and my uncle do share an interest in one thing. That is a near-endless curiosity about the Valiryan freehold. So I will use that as my weapon not just for today but for the years to come. I will play the son he always wanted and in exchange, I will advise him to take a better path. Truly advise him not to follow the worm-like whispering that Otto Hightower plans to do. Through this, I will divert the dance of dragons and continue the golden age of House Targaryen.
[Chapter Image]
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Sorry, I dropped so late that I fell asleep on Monday and forgot to write on Sunday.