Chapter 25
GALEN
The Maesters were making a fool of him, and he was tired of letting them do so. They had promised him their full support in front of the Prince, but he did not trust them. Not any more.
So, he had to find new allies to do his legwork. Allies, perhaps not as competent as the Maeasters, but loyal and dutiful. He reached out to Garlan, hoping that he was still in the city, and his prayers were answered when his old friend came to visit him along with a dozen other people.
Some faces were familiar to him, some were not. They all sat in front of him as Galen showed them a piece of parchment with some writing.
"How many of you here can read and write?" and more than half hands went up, which was rather good given the time in which they lived.
"Good," he sighed as he gave his friend a final nod before he began to explain to them their task.
"To those of you who do not know me, I am Galen the Healer. I have called all of you here because I am in need of people I can trust who can help stop this plague," and that earned a few raised brows.
And the task was simple, for each of them was to question the patients who had been infected, and ask them questions about where they lived, who came to visit them, when they fell ill, and so forth.
They were to then go to their homes and make a list of all their belongings, their animals, and write in detail all they could about their home.
It was a crude measure, for none of the people in front of him were healers or maesters who knew what to look for, but something was better than nothing, and after a lengthy explanation, he plopped down wearily as Garlan came to sit beside him.
"You seem tired," his friend whispered as Galen smiled.
"I am tired," and he was. Tired. Frustrated. Angry.
"Thank you for doing this," and he smiled as he slapped his shoulder.
"This is nothing. We will be just going around and asking a few questions and sifting over some clothes and stuff," he made it sound so simple, yet it was anything but.
"You are risking your life for me," and Garlan chuckled as he sighed.
"You did the same for us," he answered as he looked him in the eye.
"We are just returning the favor," and he hated asking this of them, when life had already troubled them so much. But he had no one else to rely on. The people were afraid, and many blamed him for the hunger that now plagued their homes.
It was natural, yet Galen would be lying if it did not hurt.
He was trying to save them, and yet they blamed and cursed him for their misfortune. He understood their plight, yet it still left a bad taste in his mouth.
"I am close, Garlan," he whispered, and it was not that he had stopped his work because of the Maesters, for even without their aid, he burned the midnight oil and visited a couple of homes by himself and asked them about the disease.
"Close to what?" his friend asked as he turned to face him.
"To ending this misery," and as soon as he had its mode of transmission confirmed, he could devise a plan to stop this plague before it could bring ruin to the entire continent and perhaps even beyond.
Garlan seemed surprised by his words as Galen continued.
"It's either water or clothes," he whispered, and if the water was contaminated, they could stop it just by boiling it. But if it was spreading through clothing, then this was the work of insects, and the solution would have to be a bit more complicated.
"Is that so?" Garlan asked, beaming at his words.
"Yes, with the right information, I can have the answer in a few days," and with that, he could devise a proper countermeasure, for he was pretty far from finding a cure for it.
0000
ALYSANNE TARGARYEN
Dragonstone had long been her reprieve. The isolated island had been home to her family for centuries, and being in these familiar Halls reminded her of the history of her House.
She had spent some of the happiest and saddest times of her life in these halls, and this was amongst the most miserable times of them all. She had fled to this isle out of necessity, leaving alone a dying husband, forced to choose between living for their daughter or dying for the love of her life.
She did not have the heart to make that choice, so Jaehaerys had made it for her. It pained her greatly to abandon her dying husband, but both her and Jaehaerys knew that a tumultuous era awaited the Targaryen family.
House Velaryon remained wroth with her husband over the slight of naming Baelon heir over Rhaenys, and unlike before, they held in their hands a dragon to call their own, and a fleet that was larger than even the Crown's.
They were kin, but Jaehaerys feared their ambition and for good reason. And the family could not bear to lose them both at the same time. With their age, they had both come to accept the incoming visit of the stranger, yet still she prayed to the Seven above for him, so that they might offer him mercy.
But it was not just that forced her to leave Kingslanding. Gael was the other reason, for Alysanne loved her daughter as much as she loved Jaehaerys, and knew better than most that the only way she would ever leave the Red Keep was if Alysanne was to force her hand.
And so she forced it, and now all of them came to Dragonstone as the loves of their lives fought for their lives and the lives of thousands of others in the capital. Alysanne had not missed the silent weeps and the puffy eyes of her daughter, and it pained her to see her in that state, but she had no choice but to keep the truth from her until now.
"You have been crying," she whispered, and after the stillbirth, her daughter had become a sort of corpse, but ever since Galen had come into her life, she had gained a purpose.
In him and in his healing.
She had begun to laugh, and cry, and weep. While before she had been a solemn flower, Galen's presence had allowed her to bloom, and Alysanne could not bear to see her winter flower wither again.
"No," she lied, as Alysanne smiled.
"You are not the first woman to suffer from heartbreak," and her words must have stung as Gael's head snapped towards her.
"You speak as if you understand me, but you don't," her daughter lashed out, as Alysanne chose to stay quiet.
"He rejected me! Father never did that, so how could you possibly understand me?" and her daughter could be naive.
"Our love was not so easy as the songs and the tales would have you believe," and Gael did not believe her words, and so Alysanne poured into memories and anguishes long forgotten, as she gazed at the setting Sun from the window.
"Yes, Jaehaerys did not reject my love, we were lucky in that way, but the whole realm rejected our match, my dear," and the opposition to their match had been so strong that many a night, she would cry herself to sleep as the hopelessness of their love would seep into her heart.
"The Hand, the lords, and our own mother sent ladies to Dragonstone, just so that they could sway his heart, and turn his attention away from myself," and she had never told her children these stories, for she did not wish to live through those tumultuous.
"But he stood by you, he married you," and she nodded, as she turned her head towards Gael once more.
"And so shall Galen," she whispered as those eyes widened in surprise at those words, and these were Jaehaerys' last words to her.
"Have you wondered why he turned down your love?" she asked, and Gael frowned at those words, her mind too numb to answer, so she did that for her.
"What would have happened if he had accepted your love?" and still her daughter did not utter anything.
"You would have..."
"Stayed," Gael finally spoke, her eyes falling to the floor, and she had finally grown up.
"Your love would have compelled you to stay, and if you had stayed, I would have stayed with you," and so he took the blame on his shoulders and chose to reject her so she could leave the capital.
"He just wanted to save you," she added with a smile.
"He could have said anything," Gael whispered, as her doubts crept up.
"He could have found another way," and he should have, but Galen was much like his father. Honorable to a fault.
"He should have, but he is more like his father in the way that he is too honorable a man ever to break Jaehaerys's trust," and at that, Gael's head snapped towards her.
"Father?" she asked, and she nodded.
"Yes, he is another reason why he chose to reject you, for he is not just a simple healer. No, he is anything but that," and Gael was on her feet.
"But he told me that his father was a librarian, and that he did not know him well," and she chuckled, for he had not actually lied to her.
"He is not lying, for his father was indeed once a librarian. But he was a librarian in the Red Keep," and Gael stilled as she heard those words.
"And a friendship would emerge between that librarian and a young Prince which would go on to change the realm," and finally, Gael was able to make the same connection, as she realised just who exactly that librarian was.
"Barth," and Jaehaerys had treated the man as family, and all their children had called the brown haired man uncle. He was more than the King's hand. He was family, and Gael herself had often slept more soundly in his arms when she had been young.
"Yes," and for a few seconds she said nothing.
"His birth hides in itself a secret that could besmirch the good name of both his own father and Jaehaerys, for if it were to ever come out that Barth had an illegitimate child, it would undo much of the good work done by him and Jaehaerys," and so he chose to stay a healer, and rejected her love so that the world would not dare look into his past.
"In the moment that he rejected you, he was carrying too many burdens," and the boy had suffered more than men thrice his age.
"He had the fate of the entire city and the burdens of legacy weighing down his shoulders," and so he chose not to add to his worries. He chose to sacrifice his heart so that no harm would come to her.
"He loves you," and Gael's brows came together at that.
"How can you say that?" she asked, and Alysanne laughed much to her daughter's worry.
"Anyone not half blind can say that," for it was evident to those who saw him looking at her with that subtle smile on his lips, and how he found excuses to spend time with her.
It was obvious, yet he refused to test his oaths as he satiated his heart with just her presence.
"He loves you, my dear, and though your father wishes that you had made a simpler choice, he offers you his blessings as well," and Gael was too stunned to speak.
"Now, stop crying and write to him already. Then tomorrow, you shall join me as we go and meet an old friend...."
0000
Read ahead and support me on my Patre 0n. Help me write this and other such stories if you can. It would be pretty awesome of you and would help me out quite a bit.
www.Patre 0n.com/Drkest
Have a fantastic day!