์Eighth Moon, 108 AD (7 AC)
Rhaenys
The past few months had passed like a blur to Rhaenys. She felt distant from everything, trapped in the back of her mind and cut off from the world, like everything else had gone dull and grey.
It had been five long months since she had seen any of her family. They spoke over the glass candles but it just wasn't the same. They weren't here to hold her, here for her to hug them tightly and never let them go. Instead, they were all so far, far away from her.
She would wake up in her bed, cold and alone, no husband or sister beside her. Spend her days aimlessly wandering about seeing to all of her duties without any true passion knowing that her children, nephews, and niece were all alone and afraid and she had left them to their pain to return to a war she had grown to hate.
Sometimes she wondered if this was all really worth it. What was the point of even doing it if would only bring them this suffering? They could have done it the easy way, had it all ended years ago… But even if she wanted to, it was too late to change their minds or give up now. The vultures circled her family, the enemies were at the gates, and there was naught to do but fight them.
And so Rhaenys did, in the best way that she knew how. With a glass candle in hand and hardworking Rangers and Eyes at her service, Rhaenys had rooted out all the rebels in the Westerlands with a ruthless precision that befit her most famous epithet.
All the routes the rebels used to infiltrate the region from the Reach were destroyed, all the villages that gave them shelter were burned, and every house that dared to give them shelter or funding was disgraced and attainted, their lands given to more worthy Valyrians or Riverlanders and their surviving men sentenced to imprisonment in Summerhall until they could be sent to the Wall and the women sent to Exceptionalist silent sisters or outright forcibly married to their family's replacements.
By the time Rhaenys had finished, almost every last local house in the Westerlands had been destroyed, with only a scant few of the original nobles like the Reynes, Farmans, Crakehalls, and their chosen Valyrian Wardens from back then remaining in place.
The mistake they had made in sparing so many of the defiant conquered nobles had been corrected and from now on, Rhaenys would make sure her family never made it again. It had always been the plan to depose each of the royal houses and some of their most powerful vassals in order to establish their Crown Provinces and give out Wards to trusted Valyrians. But going forward, they would not accept surrenders even from the more middling nobility, for even if they were willing to give them, Rhaenys and her family now knew them to be turncoats simply waiting for a chance to strike.
In all the conquered territories of Westeros, Valyrians, Lyseni, Myrish, and Rivermen would hold all the Wards, and replace all the Defenders and Keepers. No local noble greater than a landed knight or Master would now be suffered to remain unless they gave unto her house the greatest of services. Visenya and Aegon agreed with her and both of them were doing much the same as they crushed the last revolts in the Vale and continued subjugating the Stormlands respectively.
They had tried to play nice, and now they had been forced into this corner. They would break the nobility of Westeros, and in the ashes of their world, they'd build a better one.
That feeling was what Rhaenys tried so desperately to hold on to as she fought. She took out all her rage and fury on the Poor Fellows, the smallfolk and traitorous nobles who aided them, and the Warrior's Sons and Reachmen constantly trying to cross the border. She burned and burned until there was nothing more to destroy and she was empty inside
Then at night she returned to her empty cold bed with no warmth to comfort her, no family in sight. The fears set in then. The paranoia and loneliness. She'd rarely be able to sleep, even with all the Dragonguard and Rangers that had been ordered to protect her quarters on all sides no matter where they may be, she'd be too busy exhausting her mind all over again as she scried relentlessly, trawling all around the world praying that she would not see skinchangers or any other threat around her or her family.
She never did, but the paranoia wouldn't let her stop searching anyway in case they ever were there. And whenever her children or siblings wouldn't answer the candle, she'd grow distraught and desperate, searching for them wherever they might be to calm her worried minds and hounding at their candles constantly until they finally answered.
It was no way to live, and yet she didn't feel like she had a choice. There were very few that they trusted with the glass candles or magic of any sorts when they had so little of it themselves. If their Eyes, Rangers, and Dragonguard could be trusted with some magic because she and her family had even greater spells and arcane knowledge, Rhaenys could sleep so much better at night without fear that skinchangers or Faceless Men or some other horrors would kill her and her family in their sleep. Perhaps she wouldn't have to fight so long by herself, so far away from kin or hearth.
And to think that there was still more to do. The Westerlands might have been subdued at last, but when she was ready and the others were done with the Vale and the Stormlands, it would be time to invade the Reach and establish a continuous frontline from the Sunset Sea to Tumbleton with Old Oak, Red Lake, Goldengrove, Coldmoat, and more secured.
Even after the Reach and the Faith were dealt with, they'd have to return to their unfinished business in the North and then clean up Dorne, the Stepstones, and who knew what else. Despite how far they had come, the dream the three of them had all shared had never seemed so far away.
And Rhaenys' own private dream seemed like it would never come true now. All those months ago in the Eyrie she had longed to give Aegon another child, a ninth little dragon for their family. And now Rhaenys looked at the state of the world, the state of their family, and she didn't know if they'd ever be able to find the time or peace to make that happen. They couldn't even be there for their existing children; how could they bring another into this war-torn world?
As she brooded on her thoughts, Rhaenys was almost about to finally slip away to some much-needed rest when her glass candle glowed on the desk in the corner, lighting up the room. She dragged her tired body up from the bed to answer, wondering who was calling her and fearing the worst may have happened.
When the call ended, Rhaenys was left staring at the dark room. Her mind was racing. Maybe there was still hope after all.
_____________________________________
Visenya
'Finally,' Visenya thought as she found the man she was looking for at last, with his ridiculous sky-blue falcon on a white moon doublet.
After relentless months of fighting and searching with glass candles, Rangers, and Eyes, she had finally tracked Hubert Arryn and his top officers to a hidden cave hideout in the Mountains of the Moon. There had been a few false alarms in the past, but this time Visenya was certain this was it. No more decoys, no more escapes.
Her soldiers were already surrounding every exit, ready to put down or capture any survivors, but the main strength of their attack that would flush them all out of hiding would be her and Vhagar.
With her strategic mind, Visenya plotted the safest course of action for her and her dragon before taking Vhagar down into a dive, destroying all the scorpions and killing all the archers on watch at the main entrance. She then directed her dragon to close her eyes as she shuffled her head into the cave's entrance a little.
"Dracarys!"
Vhagar's greenish-blue flames billowed out ferociously, spreading out into the cave and all its tunnels at terrifying speeds. It wasn't long before the screams started, but Visenya did not relent, ordering Vhagar to continue spewing out more and more flames, only stopping in order to catch her breath before exhaling more fiery death.
When they finally rested and the flames slowly died out, Visenya ordered her men into the caves from all directions to ensure that there were no survivors. And when they reported to her that there were none, she only nodded in satisfaction before taking off.
Much progress had been accomplished in the past five months in the Vale, building on what her son and niece had accomplished before they had left. With the death of Hubert Arryn and his chief lieutenants, the rebellions in the Vale looked like they were finally coming to an end after over a year. Visenya was certain that there would still be holdouts and pockets of resistance for months to come of course, but without a unifying figure like Hubert, she felt confident in leaving it to Orys to handle.
Little by little, they could start redeploying their troops away from the Vale to other fronts while the Three Sisters were fortified and rebuilt in preparation for the eventual invasion of the North.
The North… even thinking about them still brought a spark of rage and fury to Visenya's heart. How she wished she could have burned down White Harbor and Barrowton and all the other castles they had left untouched. Rhaenys would have been right there beside her too, she was certain, but in the end her own pragmatism had betrayed her. Aegon and her had agreed that they had to hold back. There was no point in utterly destroying what they sought to eventually rule, and more than that they simply didn't have the time to completely annihilate the North while the Faith Militant was on the move.
As it was already, every day that they had spent taking their vengeance had been a day spent away from their children. Time, they had lost and could never get back. Their children had been hurt, savaged, her poor Aegor had even lost an eye, permanently maimed and crippled, and she had left him. They had left all of them. Even if it was to avenge them or continue the war they needed to fight for their sakes… they'd still left them when they needed them.
Visenya sighed. It had always been harder for her than for her siblings. Hard to know when to be firm and when to show love. She didn't want to coddle her children and make them soft but neither did she want them to think that she didn't care about them.
Yet what was there to do? At the end of it all, what Aegor and the rest wanted was for the three of them to return home to them but they couldn't. Not while this war was ongoing. The most they could manage right now was a short break, perhaps in turns, if need be, now that the Westerlands and Vale revolts were being wrapped up and the situation was less critical on the frontlines. However, that gave Visenya mixed feelings still. The more breaks they took, the longer this war would last and they were already overstretched with only three dragonriders on the frontlines.
As the Stormlands came into view, Visenya turned her attention towards the war, finding comfort in strategy and tactics as she always had. It was familiar, it was easy, and simple. While she'd been busy crushing the Vale's resistance and reinforcing the various nicknames Rhaenys' bards had made for her in the process (her and Vhagar's monikers as the Valiant, Victorious Witch-Queen, and the Bronze Fury seemed set in stone now after the battles in the Vale), Aegon had been continuing their work in the Stormlands.
Even without her, her valonqar and husband had done well. The entirety of the Kingswood had been secured and then Aegon had swept south, conquering Tarth and the entirety of Shipbreaker's Bay, including Storm's End itself. The proud Storm Queen, Argella Durrandon had been humbled and thrown out of her own kingdom along with her children and their Eyes reported that they had fled to their allies and kin in the Reach where Argella's husband was the new Crown Prince.
Aegon was currently planning for a new push into Cape Wrath and the Dornish Marches to complete the encirclement of the Reach and exploit the low morale in the remnants of the Stormlands after House Durrandon's abandonment but there were still headaches with stubbornly defiant noble houses and the guerilla activities of the Faith Militant even in the lands they had already conquered in theory, slowing down their progress.
He had asked her to join him once she had finished up with the Vale so they could plan the campaign together and hopefully complete it faster, but Visenya was rather confused when she spotted Meraxes at Storm's End along with Balerion.
Why is Rhaenys here?
She knew her sister had just about finished up with the Westerlands, she called her often enough to know that, but it was not in the plans for Rhaenys to come to the Stormlands at all. She was supposed to stay in the West and keep the Reach preoccupied while Aegon and her finished off the Stormlands and then all three of them would attack the Reach together in a pincer from two or even three directions.
Visenya set Vhagar down and her dragon did not take long to shuffle eagerly over to where Balerion and Meraxes were. She walked up the stairs to the hall's entrance and the Dragonguard saluted her with the fist on their hearts before opening the doors.
The hall was mostly empty, with a deserted council table in the center. Many of the papers and notes were still visibly left on the table as well, but the seats were all empty. Aegon and Rhaenys stood overlooking the table below the throne at the far end.
"Visenya!" Rhaenys said, cheerier than she'd seen her since before the attacks on their children.
"What's going on?" she asked.
"Your timing is impeccable as ever mandia. Rhaenys arrived only a short while before you did, barged right into my meeting," Aegon said.
"I can see that." Visenya smirked. "What I'm wondering is why?"
Even Aegon couldn't seem to quite keep the slightest shine out of his eyes, as if a small weight had been lifted off his shoulders.
"There's been news from Dragonstone…"
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Aerion
The wooden training sword slammed hard into Aenar's defense and his younger brother backed away. Normally Aerion would have relented and taught him what he'd done wrong, but not this time. He kept up his relentless assault and Aenar was overwhelmed until Aerion disarmed him.
"Dead," he said simply as he pointed the wooden sword at his chest before stalking back to his starting position.
Aenar looked like he didn't know what to do so Aerion prodded at him impatiently. "Go on pick it up. We don't have all day."
He hadn't wanted to do this. There were so many better things he could be doing than this. But his siblings had dragged him into helping them train in the yard today instead of 'brooding'. And Valaena had all but ordered him to spend time with them.
Why didn't they understand? Why couldn't they leave him be? He was so… close. So close to fixing everything! Why couldn't they just leave him alone??
His father's words still resounded in his head.
Arrogant. Reckless. Stupid.
The shame made him want to curl up and die inside. His outrage at unjust treatment warred with feeling ashamed that he'd disappointed his parents, mixed and mingled with all the guilt and rage he had inside over everything that had happened to him and his family.
Everything had seemed so right in the world and now it was all so dark and messy. He had thought himself strong and capable of standing tall in the world and the world had laughed in his face and beaten him down into the dirt.
His anger and rage built as he continued to slam his training sword against his brother's until a sudden cry shook him out of his thoughts.
Aenar was flat on the ground, his sword once more out of his grip as he cradled a bruising welt on his arm where Aerion had just slammed his sword into it to disarm him. There were tears forming in his eyes.
Aerion felt disgusted and disappointed. If his brother couldn't even handle his training, the training all of them had gone through, if he couldn't step up and do his duty without being a crybaby, why the hell had Aerion been dragged away from what was truly so important?
"Are you crying? Stand up and fight Aenar! Even Daena's got more bravery and skill than you! Do you think the enemies of our house will just stand by and let you cry? They've got no mercy, no remorse, and no hesitation. Never show weakness or they'll pounce on you and tear you apart. You want to be strong? You want to the kill the rats and anything else that dares to harm you? Then get up and fight!"
But instead of standing up like a man, like a prince of House Targaryen, Aenar only continued to cry like a mewling weakling. Aerion bent down to pick up his sword and tossed it at him, hilt first. His younger brother barely managed to catch it before the force of the throw sent him toppling all the way down the rest of the way into the yard.
"Pack up your things and get lost. You're done for the day," Aerion said dismissively before Aenar hurriedly got up and ran away to where Daena was sparring with Aemon.
What a waste of his time, Aerion thought, thinking on how fast he could get back to the task at hand before a slow clap drew his attention.
Aegor clapped, ever so sarcastically and slow. A black eyepatch covering his ruined left eye. "So, this is what the mighty Crimson Prince has come to. Bullying little children, his own younger brother to boot. Truly a sterling example of princeship and duty," he said mockingly.
"Are you picking a fight Aegor?" Aerion demanded.
"A fight would be little challenge. I just wanted to knock your arrogant ass down a peg for a bit," Aegor said snarkily.
'Arrogant,' his father had rebuked him.
Aerion saw red but he restrained himself long enough to come up with a cunning plan to put his little brother in his place.
"Is that so? Words are meaningless without the will to act on them," Aerion said as he tossed his brother another wooden sword from the rack. A catch he easily could have made before but now with only one eye he failed to judge the distance properly and missed.
Aegor glared, at him for mocking his disability or hating his own weakness, it mattered not to Aerion. All he cared about was his brother picking up the sword so he could let loose some of the rage boiling inside. His smile grew as Aegor bent down and picked up the sword and Aerion charged in.
Before everything had happened, Aegor had been becoming a serious challenger to him in the yard. Already near his height and even stronger than he was, it would only have been a matter of time before he had beaten him more often than not. Now he was taller than Aerion but all his strength and stature meant nothing anymore with only one eye.
"Sloppy," Aerion called out as he landed a blow.
Aegor's single eye couldn't properly judge the distance and angles that Aerion was attacking at, making his footwork stiff and his posture sloppy. "No balance," Aerion barked out as Aegor struggled to dodge.
"You've done nothing to account for your new disability. Brooded and skulked away in your room sulking instead of training to make up for it and be better and you think that you can knock me down Aegor?" Aerion demanded, every last sentence punctuated with a sharp rap against his younger brother's arms and legs with his sword as he failed to mount a defense.
He went in for the killing blow now, disarming Aegor and ripping off his eyepatch in a single fluid movement. "Pray tell me how you expect to do that with only one eye?" he said as he held the wooden sword at his defeated brother's throat.
Aegor glared at him, his lone eye filled with fury and the empty socket in his left eye a haunting and mocking visage. A reminder of the permanent tragic loss Aegor had endured as he had tried to save Aerion.
Shame and guilt filled his soul and Aerion knew he'd gone too far. His anger had betrayed him. He lowered the sword and opened his mouth to apologize when Aegor spat out. "One eye is more than enough for this," and charged right at him.
He barely had time to react before Aegor plunged straight into his ribs and pushed him into the ground, using his superior strength and size to keep Aerion pinned as he pounded his face with his fists.
All thoughts of guilt and apologies burned away in an instant. Aerion's rage boiled hotter than ever before. He slammed the pommel of the wooden sword hard into Aegor's sides and twisted, making him howl in pain as he thrust his other hand under his chin and forced him off him.
He got up and threw the sword away, ducking in low as Aegor's punch flew overhead and slammed his fist into his stomach only to feel his hands wrap around his neck and throw him into a flip.
As he got to his feet and readied to rush forward with a kick, he felt arms wrap around his own and hold him back. He watched as Aegor who had been charging as well was suddenly yanked back by several black-armored warriors in gold cloaks.
"Unhand me! I am your prince!" Aegor barked at the Dragonguard.
"I'm inclined to agree with you brother!" Aerion shouted. "Let me go now so I can teach this little shit a lesson or suffer the consequences!" he ordered the guards.
"That is ENOUGH!" a sharp high voice cried out.
Aerion and Aegor both turned to see their sister Valaena walking into the yard, yet more Dragonguard trailing by her side.
"What is the meaning of this?" she demanded, more furious than Aerion had ever seen her.
"He started assaulting me unprovoked!" Aerion yelled.
"He mocked me for the eye I lost trying to save his ungrateful ass!" Aegor barked.
"And I realized that and I was about to apologize before you charged me you little shit!" Aerion fired back.
"Little shit? Who's the shorter one exactly?" Aegor retorted.
Valaena shook her hand and crushed her raised hand into a fist. "I don't give a fuck who started it!" she declared, shocking them both into silence for a moment. Their prim and proper princess sister had cursed?
"Look at you both. Bickering and brawling like brats. And you two are supposed to be the eldest sons and princes of our family? Fourteen help us all! What would our parents think?" Valaena exclaimed in horror.
It was the wrong thing to say it seemed as Aegor immediately recoiled. "Who gives a fuck what our parents think. They packed us off here and abandoned us so they could go back to their little war! They don't get to have opinions on how we're doing!"
Aerion hated to admit it but he could not disagree with Aegor's words.
'Look at you,' Valaena had said. Exactly the way their father had when he had judged him and found him wanting, a cold disdainful glance in his eyes.
"What about the rest of us then?" her words cut like a knife and both Aerion and Aegor flinched.
He looked and to his shame he realized he hadn't even noticed the rest of his siblings behind Valaena. Aenar, Daena and Aemon looked uneasy, they must have been the ones who had run and called Valaena to break up their fight. Elaena looked like she was about to cry and Rhaena's expression was dark and haunted.
The guilt returned in full force, especially as he looked the barely dried tears on Aenar's face. 'I caused those tears,' Aerion thought with shame.
"Maybe this comes as a surprise to you brothers of mine, but you're not the only ones hurting because of what happened to us or because of our parents' decision to leave us here. You do not have any exclusive claim on suffering and I'll be damned before I let you take it out on each other or any of us!" Valaena shouted before she suddenly started shaking and collapsed.
"Valaena!" their sisters cried in despair and Aerion and Aegor both brushed off the Dragonguard to rush to her side.
"She overexerted herself again," Aegor said in dismay.
"I'll take her to her room," Aerion said as he picked up Valaena before he almost sank to his knees and dropped her. He must be more tired and weakened by the fight than he had thought.
Before the Dragonguard could intervene however, Aegor helped him carry Valaena and they both took her to her room and tucked her into bed, the rest of their siblings and the guards trailing behind them.
The healers fussed and checked all over Valaena (and much to their chagrin both Aerion and Aegor as well) before finally departing, saying that all of them just needed some rest. Slowly, little by little, his siblings departed the room and the guards took up posts at the door.
To Aerion's surprise, Aegor was the last to leave. His hand placed on his shoulder almost comfortingly as he looked on Valaena with worry. Aerion turned to his brother, and he looked as if he was about to say something, anything, before he finally turned away.
Aegor did not apologize, and neither did Aerion.
What felt like hours passed and Aerion was almost about to doze off himself in his seat when Valaena finally awoke.
"W-what happened?" she said, dazed as she stirred.
"You overdid it again," Aerion said, unable to hide the worry in his voice.
It hadn't been immediately noticeable at first, recovering as they had been, but as their injuries had healed and they had regained strength in their bodies, it had soon become very evident to all of them that something was not right with Valaena. Whatever the skinchangers had done to her when they had attacked her, it had wreaked havoc in her mind and almost seemed to weaken the connection between her mind and body.
Every now and then, she'd have sudden shakes and trembles, as if her own body was refusing to obey her words. And in the worst cases she'd even collapse from the rigorous experience. Every time it made Aerion sick with worry that this would be the last time because she'd never wake up to have another.
Valaena sat herself up in the bed with Aerion's help, leaning against the pillow as she spoke again.
"I'm not the only one overdoing things, you know," she said, a certain judging look in her eyes.
Aerion sighed. "Are we really doing this right now?"
"Yes, because if we don't it'll just slip away and you'll weasel out of it like you've been doing all the while the past five months, so talk Aerion."
He took a deep breath as he tried to collect his thoughts. "I've… just been so frustrated. So angry at everything. At the world for being so cruel, at myself for failing, at our parents for not believing in me, at all of you for distracting me when I'm so, so close. I have to be close, or all of this is for nothing and there's no way for me to redeem myself," he choked.
"Close to what, Aerion?" Valaena asked, placing her hand on his cheek.
He hesitated and she pulled him in insistently. "No, don't do this Aerion. Don't shut me out. Why have you been shutting me out?"
"Because the last time I let you in… you got hurt," he finally said and he regretted it the moment he saw her flinch.
"I'm sorry," he began but she cut him off.
"Don't," she said sharply and he froze as she breathed in deeply over and over again before finally sighing. "Don't because it's true. It hurts but that's because it's the truth. What happened to us, was mostly my fault for all that our parents blamed you for going along with it. At the end of the day, you knew better but I was like a temptress who seduced you away from what made sense because I was too selfish and childish to accept what my life had become. Got too enamored with the thrill, too overconfident in our power to think there was any danger."
"And I was the fool blinded by love who went along with it all. Arrogant, reckless, and stupid, just as our father said," Aerion said painfully.
"Same goes double for me, doesn't it? And I'm sorry that you had to stand there and take all of it from our parents Aerion. All the burden of expectation and disappointment that fell mostly on you instead of on me as well. I'm sorry that I got you into trouble, I'm sorry that you almost died because of me, I'm sorry that I'm like this," Valaena said in disgust as her hands started trembling again.
Panicked, Aerion held her hands tight in his own and held them firmly to calm her down. "I don't want to resent you Valaena or hold it against you. That's why I've been trying so hard on my own, because when I fix this, when I finally find it, all of this will be made right and there will be little reason to remember what happened to us anymore."
"You're looking for the vault, aren't you?" she said, a knowing look in her eyes.
Aerion sighed. He should have known. Valaena knew him too well, even with the distance that had emerged between them the past few months.
"Yes," he answered, knowing the game was up. "Maegon's lost vault. The chamber of secrets itself. It is the key to everything. All the knowledge, all the lore and artifacts that must be inside, they're the key to healing you Valaena, to restoring Aegor's eye, to making sure none of us ever have to fear skinchangers or any such threats again, to giving us an advantage in this seemingly endless war our family is now trapped in."
"And in convincing our parents to let you return to the frontlines early?" Valaena prodded.
"…To convincing them to give me-us a second chance to prove ourselves. Prove that we aren't just disappointments and failures who let it all go to our heads. That we are still their worthy and capable eldest children," Aerion said desperately.
Valaena looked at him for a while before she put her hand back on his face. "You've been holding all of this in just to yourself for so long… haven't you? I guess it all makes sense now why you've been acting the way you have. But you know that doesn't make it right. We're all suffering in our own way because of what happened.
"You have all of this, I have my shakes, Elaena's still scared of her own shadow, Aenar's terrified of rats and most animals really, Daena and Aemon just lose themselves in their sword training, Rhaena's been holed up in her room driving herself mad with guilt and flipping between wanting to hug me or run away from me, and Aegor lost his eye. He lost his damn eye Aerion, trying to save us both and you mocked him for it."
"I know." The shame and the guilt were starting to eat at him again as he remembered how disgraceful his conduct had been with both of his brothers and in general with all of his siblings the past few months.
"I know that it takes two to fight. And Aegor certainly wasn't innocent in starting that whole fight, but it's not like your behavior otherwise is acceptable either with the way you were outright bullying poor Aenar and probably making all of his new fears even worse. Is that what you want Aerion? Your own siblings afraid of you?"
"No!" Aerion said desperately.
"Then you know what you have to do. We can't drive a wedge in our family or all that you're fighting for will be for naught. You have to apologize Aerion. To Aegor, to Aenar… to everyone really."
Aerion looked downcast but nodded slowly.
"But maybe…" Aerion looked up as Valaena continued, "maybe sorry doesn't have to be the end. Let them in, as you let me in Aerion. They need something to fight for, something to hope for again, a purpose to distract them from everything. Let's do this as a family, whether we succeed or fail," Valaena said, absolute surety in her voice.
He looked at her in awe. No wonder why everyone had always said she was more charming than him.
"What would I do without you?" he said with a smile.
Valaena smiled back.
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The next day, Aerion sat with all of his siblings in the Dragonstone solar. There was an awkward silence in the room as they all looked to each other uncertainly. Valaena squeezed his hand in encouragement below the table and Aerion finally took the plunge.
"I know the past few months have been… hard for all of us. And for the part that I played in making it any harder for any of you with my attitude and behavior, I'm sorry. I know I should have done better as your elder brother.
"Aenar, I'm sorry that I was so harsh with you yesterday. You didn't deserve it," he said, and Aenar looked a little scared still though he nodded slowly and mumbled a thank you.
"And Aegor… I shouldn't have said what I did. Or egged you on into a fight in the first place. It wasn't right at all for me to do that, especially after how you lost your eye."
Aegor looked at him, a new eyepatch over his left eye socket as he sighed. "I guess I'm sorry as well. I was going out of my way to provoke you myself. I was pissed with how you were treating Aenar, but more than just that I just wanted to fight and let all the anger and frustration out and you were the best target for that."
Aerion smirked painfully. "Yeah, I can understand that feeling."
Slowly, he related to them everything he had told Valaena. Though it had started out very awkward and more than a little reluctantly, the more he spoke, the easier it became. It was freeing in a sense to finally get it off his chest and stop hiding it all away.
When he saw the looks in his siblings' eyes, he knew that they understood even if their struggles were a little different to his. None of them had been the same ever since the skinchangers had attacked them. The last remnants of their childhood innocence had ended that day, no more pillow fort games while their pets watched. Yet that didn't mean they weren't still family, that they couldn't still do things together. And this was perhaps the most important thing any of them would ever do in their lives if they managed to succeed.
"Valaena and I will be looking for the vault. It's up to all of you if you want to join us. I hope you do but if you don't want to, I understand as well."
Before any of them could answer, Rhaena suddenly spoke up. "I'll do it." There was a spark in her eyes that hadn't been there since before the attack.
Rhaena's sudden enthusiasm took them all by shock but it proved to be contagious because it wasn't long before the rest of their siblings nodded their agreement and they were off.
They must have made a strange sight to all of the guards and servants, eight little Targaryens just stomping all over the castle, upturning every room they could find and scanning for clues in every corner. They'd even conscripted some of the castle staff to help them search (though without telling them what exactly was in the lost vault they were looking for).
Enthusiasm was meaningless without results however and after two weeks of searching without any clues or meaningful progress, their morale had gotten quite low. Aerion understood why their parents, grandfather, and great-grandfather had given up more than ever.
It was like Maegon's vault had completely vanished and if it wasn't for the story passed down in the family, it would be as if it and all the knowledge and treasures it possessed didn't exist at all.
The eight of them all returned to the solar to try and determine what to do next, poring over all the plans for Dragonstone and any old notes and journals they had found, trying to hunt and search for clues as best as they could.
It was getting so frustrating however, that he wasn't even wholly surprised when one of his siblings snapped. His fiery little sister Daena screamed in impatience and drew a flame out of the obsidian block on the desk before almost burning the notes in her hands. Luckily, they were able to stop her and calm her down before any lasting damage was done but Aerion still flinched at the thought of their mother seeing her only daughter acting so undisciplined with magic whilst in a solar of all places and almost burning priceless historical records.
None of them noticed the look on Aegor's face until he suddenly got up from his seat and started prodding at the walls.
"Aegor? What are you doing?" Valaena asked.
"Do it again," he said simply, not even turning back to look at them as he started pressing his ears to the walls.
"Do what?" Aerion asked.
"The fire magic. When Daena summoned the fire, I could have sworn I heard something."
Valaena and he shared a look before she took the block out and summoned a stream of fire that condensed into a ball of flames in her hands.
"That's it! Right there! Do any of you hear that?"
"No," Aemon said, confused.
"We don't hear anything," Elaena answered.
Rhaena spoke up. "Sometimes, when you lose your eyesight or even just part of it, your hearing will improve dramatically in order to make up for the loss."
Aegor looked at all of them, uncertain before Aerion smiled. "Maybe it's not that much of a disability after all."
"Yeah… maybe," he replied.
At Aerion's orders, the rest of them quickly packed up all the papers before summoning their own fire magic in an attempt to try and help Aegor pin down the mysterious sound.
"I don't understand. Fire is used in this solar all the time, candlelight or even glass candles. What makes this so special? And is it really going to be here in the solar of all places?" Valaena asked, confused.
"Maegon was the most accomplished mage in the family. So maybe it's not just any old fire that'll do but pyromancy in particular that will trigger it. And if you think about it, Maegon was the Lord. The solar is the best place the entrance could be and without the specific combination of Daena's recklessness and Aegor's hearing, our parents and everyone else would never have found it."
"That's assuming this actually is the vault and not just some weird thing Aegor's hearing," Aenar pointed out.
"Shush all of you! I'm trying to hear," Aegor said as he drew some fire of his own from the obsidian block and held it towards the wall, running his ear over it as he moved along.
"These walls are made out of dragonstone, what sounds could you really be hearing from them?" Rhaena asked.
"It's hard to explain. It's barely discernible, almost like the sound of water splashing about somehow or a lock being primed to open," Aegor said before he suddenly slammed his hand full of fire into the wall, shocking all of them as they rushed forward to make sure he hadn't hurt himself.
To their surprise however, they found a glowing red symbol in the dragonstone wall behind the desk.
"That… shouldn't be possible," Valaena said. "Dragonstone is indestructible. It can't be altered or damaged in any way."
"Not with our understanding no. But if the Qohorik can reforge Valyrian steel, why wouldn't our ancestors have been able to reshape and recolor dragonstone as they pleased?" Aerion said eagerly.
"So, this is it then?" Daena said, sounding excited.
Aerion ruffled her hair. "I think it might very well be," he said as he took out a knife.
"What are you doing," Valaena said, keeping him from cutting himself.
"What do you think that means?" he asked her as the symbol revealed itself clearly. A large red blood drop, about the size of a palm, standing out in sharp contrast to the black as night dragonstone all about it.
"But of course, fire shows the way and blood will open it," Aegor said.
Aerion nodded and drew a thin cut across his palm, wincing as he felt the sting of the blade's bite before he pressed his bloodied hand right onto the blood drop.
What happened next was perhaps the most amazing thing Aerion had ever seen. Before his very eyes the indestructible dragonstone wall of the solar seemed to liquefy and shift to the sides before resolidifying as thickened pillars against the rest of the wall, leaving an opening the size of a doorway and a spiral staircase leading down somewhere. A dawning realization came to him as he understood why none of the castle plans had ever seemed out of the ordinary.
They had been looking for suspicious rooms that appeared larger on the plans than they were in real life, indicating false walls or bottoms or whatnot, but the entrance to the staircase was small enough for this to not even be noticed. The real vault must be somewhere deep below the castle.
"We can't all go. What if there's a trap or we get lost?" Valaena asked, concerned though some of their younger siblings clearly looked unhappy.
"I agree," Aerion said. "Aegor and I will go. Wait for us."
The moment they stepped through the doorway, the wall liquefied again and resolidified in its original shape behind them, leaving them trapped in the darkness. Panicked, Aerion ran back to the wall and pressed his bloody hand against it again and it soon opened to the panicking screams of all the siblings they had left behind. They looked instantly relieved to see them.
Aegor and him shared a look. "I guess that paranoid bastard Maegon made the entrance automatically close," Aegor said.
"As long as we can open it back up, I'm fine with that," Aerion said, breathing out a sigh of relief before he picked up the obsidian block on the desk for Aegor and him to fuel some pyromancy and a few torches to light the way.
The staircase felt never-ending as they descended without pause into the depths and Aerion could admit he'd feel more than a little unnerved if his brother wasn't with him. When they finally reached the end of the staircase however, they found nothing more than a plain dragonstone wall blocking their path.
They turned to each other, both of them having a feeling they knew what came next. Drawing fire from the obsidian block, they bathed the wall in their pyromancy until the same blood drop symbol revealed itself and Aerion pressed his bloodstained hand against it. Just like it had in the solar, the wall liquefied and parted before them, resolidifying as the pillars of a doorway to let them pass.
The moment they walked into the room however, a brazier burst to life in a sickly green light and Aegor started panicking. "Fuck, we have to go now!"
"Wait!" Aerion said, thinking something was odd.
"Wait?? That green is wildfire!" Aegor protested.
"But not normal wildfire," Aerion said, trusting his instincts. "Normal wildfire would be so unstable after so many decades it would have already ignited and killed us both, but this? It's stable," he said as he stepped closer, looking closely at the slow, controlled way the wildfire was burning through its green liquid.
Taking a leap of faith, he summoned the fire straight out of his torch and cast it into the brazier. The room lit up in a fierce green light bright enough to read in as the brazier suddenly roared upwards and ignited a high row of green fire in a series of contained dragonstone channels that spanned the room's perimeter.
And nestled below the flames were several shelves containing endless books and chests and a series of pedestals upon which rested stands of armor and, if his eyes were not lying to him, several horns as well. Dragonhorns.
He turned to Aegor, speechless. His brother's expression matched his own. Disbelief, awe, and excitement all mixed into one as the enormity of what they'd done together sunk in.
Where their parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents had all failed, they had succeeded and done the unthinkable. They had found Maegon's lost vault and now their house would reclaim its full glory as the Last of the Forty.
The chamber of secrets had been opened, enemies of the heirs of Valyria… beware.
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Author's Note: I hope you all enjoyed this chapter as I was feeling a bit uncertain with it in a few parts. Stay tuned to see what else is in the vault in Chapter 24: The Heirs of Valyria!
Let me know your thoughts, suggestions, and questions in the comments below or over on Discord! https://discord.com/invite/NSEwuzpcWm