Pre-Chapter A/N: Welcome to October, guys! Let's smash whatever goals we've set ourselves this year. More chapters on my patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga)— same username as here and link in bio. Experimenting with two chapters a week, we'll see how long I can keep this up for.
"We must fly out to meet the fleets by dawn on the morrow," Rhaenys started the meeting. I nodded. Part of me was surprised that they had not managed to overrun us in the day I'd wasted being unconscious and then questioning Bernard. At least now I was somewhat sure of where his loyalties stood and that he understood that I would not be as forgiving in the future if those allegiances managed to slip in the wrong direction again.
"I agree. But the question is how. The old formation can no longer stand," I said. Because that would mean Mother would be flying off to battle the Triarchy alone. The bigger fleet with only a single dragon? That was just ridiculous.
"I do not see why not."
"Be reasonable, Mother. I know you want to protect us, but the Triarchy fleet is double the size of the Dornish. I say Laena follows you, and I face the Dornish alone. We'd be losing out on Daemon's experience with Caraxes, but Vhagar should be able to make up for that," I said. Because Vhagar was a mountain with wings. I doubted they'd even be able to keep their breeches dry, much less aim a scorpion once they saw her. That was just the kind of effect she tended to have on lesser men.
"In that case, then I shall take the Dornish alone while you and Laena battle the Triarchy," she instantly riposted.
"The Triarchy is the greater threat of the two. It makes sense to send our two largest dragons there to deal with them. The Dornish fleet is no true fleet. Icarus reports that they have many commanders and no clear chain of command. It would be child's play for me to sow confusion in their ranks and deal with them from there."
"Your spy is far from trustworthy. What if we find their fleet doubled in size and well-disciplined, besides?"
"In that case, I would do what I could and then retreat."
"I don't even see how this is a question, Laenor, Mother. Clearly, Vhagar should be the one to face the fleet alone. She is the largest dragon, and the Dornish won't know what hit them."
"No chance," Rhaenys and I replied at the same time. At least we were in agreement on that much. Laena wouldn't be going anywhere alone.
"I am your Lady Mother, Laenor, and you will listen to me. I will face the Dornish, and you and Laena will deal with the Triarchy," she said, and I met her gaze.
"Stay alive, Mother. No matter what," I backed down.
"Who do you think you're talking to? The Dornish won't know what hit them… that's how you say it, right?" she asked at the end, making me chuckle and having Laena break down in full laughter.
"Yes, Mother. That's how you say it," I said, walking forward into her outstretched arms. I felt our hug shift as Laena joined us.
"Now, let's all get some rest."
I nodded and began to make my way to my room once we separated, only to notice that I had more than one shadow this time. "Laena, pardon me if I've gotten it wrong, but should you not have turned towards your rooms at the previous hallway?" I asked. I had taken a room some distance from both my Mother and Sister, not out of any desire to be distant, but more because of how close it was to everything else. It was also easier to start exploring from smack dab in the middle of things than anywhere else.
"Yeah, my rooms are that way. But we're going to yours," she said. Going to mine? Going to mine? It felt like my brain refused to do anything but ponder over those three words as I walked to my room by her side. Did she mean what I thought she did? I don't think so. I mean, I couldn't deny being interested.
All my qualms regarding incest had died quickly once I'd seen how beautiful Laena was. Did that make me a bad person, that my ideals could not stand up to a beautiful woman? But those ideals hadn't made much sense anyway. Incest didn't have any real consequences for House Targaryen, as best I could tell. Jaehaerys and Alysanne had been siblings born of a marriage between cousins and grandchildren of a sibling marriage. They'd had thirteen children, only three not living past their first name day. That was much better odds than any average family in this era had. Then there was Baelon and Alyssa, who had had two healthy children of their own from another sibling marriage.
If the incest was an issue, then it should have shown up at some point. Daemon, for all his failings, had been stupid in the way proud Princes were, not stupid in the sense of any mental deficiencies. All the Fanon theories I'd digested just didn't make sense now that I lived in this universe. They couldn't stand up to scrutiny. Of course, it was possible that my scrutiny was light on account of me wanting it. Wanting it very much, I amended, feeling a certain stirring in my breeches.
"Ser Ben, you can get some rest tonight," I said to the Knight once we reached my door. I didn't know how soundproof the walls were here, not having had much reason to check, and I didn't want to risk it. Would Mother object if she found out? Maybe. Father had wanted to marry Laena outside of the family, but he had been a Velaryon. Also, Ser Celtigar, for all his peculiarities, was a stringent follower of the tenets of the Seven Who Are One. Would he barge in and cut us down for incest if given the opportunity?
"I'll be at the door if you need me, my Lord," he said, nothing in his tone giving anything away. I swung open the door, and Laena walked in ahead of me. Was it my imagination, or was there an extra sway in her hips?
I couldn't tell for sure. I couldn't tell anything for sure. I walked into the room after her, swinging the door shut, nearly wincing at the way it slammed. It felt like everything was heightened now. In this silence between us that lasted an eternity, all the world seemed to make its presence felt. The moonlight streaking through the window was so bright I had to wonder if it had always been so or if the moon itself had abandoned cloud cover to watch this.
The sound of the key turning echoed through the room as I locked the door. My head snapped in her direction, expecting to find her looking at me and asking what the hell I was doing, but there was none of that. She was arranging the sheets, making the bed with more ease than I would have expected from a noble lady. Particularly one from a Great House—our servants had servants.
"Do you mind if I borrow one of your tunics?" I flinched as her voice cut through the silence. She hadn't even turned away from the bed she was making. At least that meant she didn't get to see me just standing there staring at her. I moved further into the room, trying to find something to do with myself.
"Sure," I said. I'd died a virgin in my last life, so situations like this one were alien to me. Well, I wasn't as uninformed as people in this world would have been. I'd watched a fair amount of porn—more than a fair amount, if I was being completely honest. And books. I'd read all the best books on the subject: She Comes First, Slow Sex, all of it. If it was about sex and was written by someone who seemed to know what they were doing, then I'd read it.
I decided on a course of action and walked to the wardrobe. I opened it and found my chest of clothes already open. I hadn't done much unpacking, always having better things to do with my time. Pate had been more Mother's servant than mine, so he hadn't helped there, and the camp followers had more than enough on their hands with the Stormlanders to handle, so I hadn't been comfortable putting my shit on them. I found a tunic, a comfortable one that was well-fitted for my frame but would be large on hers. The muscle I'd put on in the Stormlands, unlike in Igneel's case, hadn't been lost to the war campaign.
I felt my body jolt as our fingers touched as she took the tunic off my hands. And the next thing I knew, she was taking off the buttons on her gown, hands reaching backwards, doing interesting things to her chest.
"Help me, brother," she said, turning around. I must have been red as a freshly picked Cider Hall apple. Still, I did my duty as any good brother would: unbuttoning my sister's gown, one meddlesome button at a time, fingers shaking all the while. When I loosened the last one, she stepped forward, moving away from me. The brief twinge of disappointment that rose through me died a quick death as she pulled down the gown, leaving her in her underwear. Medieval underwear left a lot to the imagination, however. I absently added it to my list of things to invent. Lingerie. Laena would look heavenly in lingerie, I thought to myself.
She was putting on my tunic next. And then she was walking back over to me.
"Aren't you going to get ready for bed?" she asked.
I nodded, struck dumb by her proximity. She smelled so good. Had she always smelled this good? Was it hormones? Still, I removed my breeches and remained in my undershorts. My tunic was fine enough to sleep in, and I moved to the bed. This was it, I realised. This was the time for me to make my move. We were both kneeling on the bed, facing each other. But what if I was reading things wrong? What if she wasn't interested? If I kissed her now, would she pull away? And then she'd tell Rhaenys. I couldn't bear the thought of the disappointed look she would cast my way, or the thought of Laena being uncomfortable being alone with me moving forward.
"Good night, Laenor." She leaned forwards, planting a kiss on my cheek before leaning down to sleep, tucking herself under the blankets. Was that a brotherly kiss? It was impossible to tell, I sulked to myself. And it wasn't like I could just ask her either. This sucked, I thought to myself, huddling under the covers and turning towards the window to prevent the stirring in my nether regions from pointing at her while we slept like some sort of threat.
I closed my eyes, trying to force myself to sleep, but my body just refused to comply. My thoughts ran over tonight over and over again. I saw every gesture that could have been a sign she wanted something and every action that said she just wanted to sleep and I was being a pervert, reading innocent actions as proof of desire all because I had the same desire.
And then my body froze as I felt an arm wrap around it. I felt her chest push into my back.
"Sleep, Laenor," her voice said in my ear. And instead of this making things worse, it made them better. I felt at peace wrapped in her arms. I couldn't say what the time was when I finally fell asleep, but I could tell that I felt well-rested when my eyes cracked open in the morning. We had moved at night, I realized. Now she was halfway on top of me while I lay on my back, no longer on my side like I had been before. I looked down to find her eyes already opened, looking at me.
"Good morning," I muttered, and then she did it. She just leaned up and smashed her lips into mine. I stayed there frozen, never even getting to reply before she had rolled off the bed and practically fled the room, heading to her own. Fuck. I smashed my head back into my pillow. Fuck. I should have just kissed her last night. It took me more time than it should have to roll out of bed and begin washing. Daily washes were a quirk of mine that was yet to catch on, but I had faith. No one was smelling or anything. With the way the weather was and with how good the perfumes were, people could afford days without washing. Probably more for those with the blood of the dragon. We did not sweat as easily as others did.
When I was ready, the sun had just begun to rise. Good. That meant I wasn't late. I marched out, Ser Ben falling into step behind me. I had no idea when he slept or how he did so. He had to, of course. If he never slept, then he'd have made a terrible guard either way. All I knew was that he was at the door when I went to bed, and he was there when I stepped out of the room.
I found Vhagar, Meleys, and Igneel waiting outside the castle. I was the second to arrive. Mother stood in front of Meleys, scratching along her scales.
"Did you have a restful night, Laenor?" she asked.
"Yes, Mother," I said in reply.
"That's a surprise," she said, almost absently, before returning her focus to her dragon. I moved to see Igneel before it clicked in my head just what she had said. Did she know? How could she know? Did she think something had happened? Well, something had definitely happened, I thought back to the kiss. But that was all. Did she think more had happened? Had she expected more to have happened?
Laena walked out of the castle next, heading straight to Vhagar.
"Good. Now that we are all here, we can get going. Stay safe, Children," she said, and then Meleys was off, flying towards where we knew the Dornish fleet would be.
"Are you ready, Laena?" I asked.
"Yes," she called back. Were her cheeks red? It was hard to tell from here. Fuck. We would need to talk about that kiss sooner or later. Did she think I didn't enjoy it? Was that why she had fled? I mean, I'd just lain there like some sort of idiot. Fuck.
"Let's go," she said, and Vhagar began her lumbering start into the air. Igneel and I allowed them a few seconds head start before he shot forwards like a rocket, catching up in a matter of seconds.
"Follow my lead!" I shouted over to her. She nodded, not risking her own voice as we flew higher and higher.
XXXXXX-
Vhagar remained in the air as Igneel and I shot at the ground. A few meters from it, he spread his wings as far as he could, catching the wind and slowing us almost to a crawl. Dragon flight remained one thing I just couldn't understand. Considering his mass and considering how fast we had been going, there was just no way that spreading his wings should have done anything to meaningfully slow us down. And yet it did. We landed, light as a feather—another skill Igneel and I had trained before this. Most dragons made the ground shake when they landed. Good for scaring foes, but I found it inelegant. As far as I was concerned, precision could be just as, if not more, scary than overwhelming force.
"Laenor. Finally," I heard Vaemond's voice as I walked into the tent. This was the command center for the fleet. Why was it on land instead of on one of the ships? Well, because we were being crafty about things. The ships that were engaging the Triarchy now were the expendable part of our army. The rest of it lay in wait, hidden around the other end of this island. The Triarchy had done us the favour of coming at us with scores of well-built ships. We'd liberate said ships from them as much as we could today.
"Apologies. There was an inescapable delay back at Bloodstone. What is the situation?"
"As long as you are here now. That is Vhagar above, yes?"
I nodded, waving him on to continue.
"The expeditionary force has engaged the Triarchy three times already. We can outrun them in the open sea, but we have to give a few ships to delay them every once in a while. They don't dare use their scorpions on our ships, probably saving every single bolt for the dragons, so we have them out-armed in that department," he said. I nodded.
"So the plan remains the same, yes?"
"We had to force the expeditionary force to slow down and sustained more losses because of that, but yes, all is going according to plan. If you give the order, we will fly the flag to signal the Captain of the force. They will change headings and come here post-haste. The Triarchy fleet must already smell blood."
"And you think you've frustrated them enough that they will come to a natural chokepoint like this one?"
"Even with this chokepoint, without the dragons, they would beat us. That's the truth of the number disparity between our forces. Our ships can punch above their weight class, and we're faster than they are, but in this kind of place, those advantages would be just as curtailed as their number disparity. So if they don't foresee the dragons being a problem thanks to their scorpions, then I don't see why not. And they must defeat us at sea if they hope to dislodge us from these islands. If they try landing ground forces while we remain at large, then nothing would stop us from attacking them from behind."
"Then do it. Laena and I will watch from above, behind the clouds. When we attack, you'll know," I said.
He nodded. "Gods be with you, Nephew."
"And you, Uncle Vaemond."
A/N: Here we go! Next five chapters up on patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga)(same username as here and link in bio), support me there and read them early.