Knock! Knock!
"Come in!".
"Forgive my intrusion, my princess, but a raven has arrived from Kings landing, bearing the king's seal", said Master Gerolth as he entered, a man already gray-haired at the age of thirty-four, with pale skin from spending so much time in the dark reading books and dark circles under his blue eyes, with a long beard and a bit of overweight that was noticeable over his gray tunic and chains.
"Thank you, maester, you may leave," I replied after receiving the letter, while continuing to sign some of the commercial shipments.
The maester quietly left, leaving me with the sound of the quill and the stamps he occasionally affixed.
'...again...' I thought as I saw the report from the last merchant ship to cross the stepstones, 'they keep raising the tolls... And they've almost had to sell some into slavery, damn Lyseni...'
While it would be terrible to lose men to the slavers, Corlys would still cry out loud at the loss of money.
"Haa..." I sighed as I stretched after sitting for so long and headed to the study window.
The sight of Spicetown, growing in prosperity every day, appeared before my eyes. Ships from the free cities filled the harbor, and the sounds of people filled the air.
I stayed there for a while, observing the fruit of my husband's travels, until annoyance struck me at the thought of him.
He'd already been in Bravos for several weeks, more weeks than he should have, and I no longer believed it was to strike a sweet deal.
And my Baratheon temper was already beginning to rear its ugly head.
'Always with his travels... He's already 52, for the love of the fourteen flames', I said to myself, already fed up with the same old thing, 'the idiot leaves me alone all the time, but he keeps his travel times right.'
"If it's for a woman, I swear I'll make him a eunuch!".
"puff…hahahaha!".
"Ah!", I let out a small squeal and turned in surprise to the giggling little troublemaker.
"Laena! You surprised me", I said as I placed my hand on my chest, my heart leaping from the slight scare.
"Muña, ilos ilaes! (I'm sorry, Mother),", Laena said, between small giggles, "but you were about to breathe fire for a moment, there, hahaha", she said, only to start laughing again.
"Yes, yes, yes, make fun of your mother, you'll see how much that will cost you", I looked at her seriously with false annoyance.
"Forgive me, my most beloved mother, but I came to let you know that Father's ship has been seen in the distance", Laena told me, cheering me up a little with the news.
"It's about time. Thank you for coming to let me know, darling", I said to my daughter, while plans for revenge against my beloved husband began to form in my mind.
"...how scary...", I heard my daughter say, making me look at her in doubt.
"You're making an evil smile, Mother", Laena said with a barely concealed laugh.
"Don't make fun of your mother. Go find Laenor and prepare to welcome your father", I told her as I headed to the desk to finish some more paperwork before welcoming Corlys.
"Understood, My Lady Mother, hahaha", she replied as she left the room laughing.
"...clever girl," I murmured as I watched my little girl leave. The last thing I saw was her platinum blonde hair, none of the Baratheon black I had inherited from my mother. My little girl was a true Valyrian beauty.
"...eleven namedays…haa…we should start looking for a fiancé for her", I thought reluctantly. Despite what my husband said about betrothal to Laena, I was a little reluctant to do so, mostly because of the limited options available.
"And Corlys would prefer a son-in-law he could include in trade agreements".
I stared at the scrolls for a while until my gaze fell on the letter from King's landing.
'What does Viserys want now?', I thought as I took the letter and opened it.
"Hmm?...haaa...again...", I muttered through my teeth.
'With this, that would make, like, three or four times he's tried to get a child...poor Aemma', I thought with annoyance and sadness.
Although I hadn't seen her in years, which was during her last stillbirth, the pregnancy after Rhaenyra, she looked ill, hurt by the loss and almost devastated by the guilt of not being able to produce an heir to the throne.
"… I hope this is the last...for her sake..." I left the letter on the table and went to prepare to greet Corlys at the doors.
On the way to Driftmark Island, Westeros.
The ship approached to Driftmark at a leisurely pace, the complete opposite of my troubled mind.
The trade deals had been rewritten with great benefits for me, and the tariffs had been lowered after continuous meetings with the Lord of the Sea of Bravos, Kario Otherys, leaving only a few more social gatherings to celebrate the good deals.
Until that...night.
It had been like the other times: a meeting, a walk through Bravos, a tavern, and then to the manor house where I stayed during visits.
That day I had left late, and the walk had taken me and my men to the temple of the moon singers. Not surprising, since I had visited it before, and it had been a pleasant visit with the priestesses. So I thought I'd visit again that night.
But the place felt...wrong...
I trembled a little just remembering it.
It was the feeling I had when I stepped through the temple door. It had seemed strange, but nothing to be alarmed about. I should have remembered the similar sensation I was feeling. I should have, but age... age was unforgiving.
It was very similar to what I had felt in the temples of the red god, but more powerful, and I didn't have that sensation of muddy, bestial filth that I had felt in Asshai or Nefer.
The sensation was heavy, but not malicious, as if something were simply there, neither good nor bad. It was that dissonance that made me move inward, something strange, not seeking anything, just there to warn…
I clenched my fists against the Sea Serpent's railing as I remembered what I had witnessed.
The torches mounted on the walls, which would normally glow orange, now had a faint blue glow, illuminating but giving the view a gloomy shadow.
I had stood at the entrance to the main hall of the temple, staring at these lights, bewildered and amazed, when the sound of whispers with a musical tone began to be heard.
Then the priestesses, who directly received the moonlight falling through the temple's stained-glass windows, began to sing in sync, as if they were all one voice.
I sighed wearily. Since witnessing that "prophecy" come true, I'd had several more meetings, including with some of the keyholders of the iron bank.
It had been exhausting in an uncomfortable way. They hadn't been orders by any means. I was a Westerosi lord. But I knew that if I refused, it could constitute a setback in the current trade agreements, and either way, I had gained something from it… I just hope Rhaenys doesn't want to feed me to Meleys.
I sighed again, my mind returning to the words spoken in the prophecy.
'...a war against darkness, a leader who wore a crown that shone like the sun'.
All the important points of the prophecy pointed to one person, a king or queen, as I had learned when I was told that the priestesses had seen the female silhouette.
And that was the most important problem, a queen, and there were no queens, neither in Westeros nor in Essos.
'It's not like the lords would let anyone be queen...' I clenched my jaw as I remembered the humiliations, the injustice we endured, when they twice overturned the legitimate succession of my wife and son.
But in my mind, that remained the case. The only place known to accept a female leader was Dorne, and right now, it had a prince, Qoren, though it could have been his daughter, if not for one essential piece of information.
'...the female silhouette wielded a greatsword made of countless smaller swords…'
That only referred to the Iron Throne, and the Iron Throne was Targaryen, and the lords would not accept a woman, much less one half Dornish.
That would only leave Rhaenyra, a cheerful and lively girl with a dragon, which was another point of the prophecy, "we ride with roar and flame", and she had just begun riding it, the youngest to do so in recorded history.
"…if only it weren't for Daemon or the lords of Westeros, I think I'd be the perfect candidate for the prophetic figure, haa… I'm too old for this shit".
Truth be told, I wasn't a man who embraced the higher mysteries willingly, not after the trip to Asshai. Blood magic and shadow binders had been an evil I never wanted to face again in my life, but whatever the case, it had presented perhaps one of the most benign forms of magic I'd ever experimented with, and even so, it was eating away at my mind.
'...I'll tell Rhaenys, perhaps she'll help me stop overthinking it...'.
I finally sighed, taking a moment to calm down and wait until I got home.
Night of that same day, main chambers, High Tide castle.
"So…will you tell me what deal went so wrong that you've been depressed since you arrived?" Rhaenys asked, as she entered our room.
"Uh…I hoped I hadn't been so obvious", I replied with a slight smile on my face. Even with all the separations due to my constant travels, she still managed to understand me with just a few glances.
"...maybe not for the children, but I think some of your cousins and nephews noticed too. You weren't yourself, Corlys. Even when there's a setback, you just get upset, not melancholic", she said as she came up to me and placed her hand on my shoulder.
I didn't tell her, but her closeness comforted me and gave me a little peace of mind I needed.
"...it's not that serious, but the unnaturalness of what happened shook me a bit", I told her after a brief moment.
I felt her hand tighten on my shoulder before she spoke again.
"Unnatural… Corlys, what happened?", she asked me seriously. No longer the wife who wanted to ease my burden, but the woman who should have been queen.
"Something bigger than what happened to me in Asshai", I began, only to see her face quickly draining of color. I hurried through the rest, "but much more benign", which helped her recover a little, but I saw her jaw clench in annoyance.
"...what happened, Corlys Velaryon?", Her tone made me raise an eyebrow a little mockingly, but I still obeyed.
"Haa... I witnessed a powerful prophecy".
"...Prophecy? What are you talking about, Corlys?", she asked, her voice clearly filled with doubt, and perhaps a hint of fear.
So I told her about the prophecy, how I had arrived at the temple after a walk, what I had felt upon arriving there, the presence and the discomfort, about the "song" and the clues the priestesses had given about the female figure facing an important challenge.
During the time it took me to tell her all this, Rhaenys listened attentively, not interrupting me at any point. She knew me well enough to know that I wasn't making anything up, and that I was too averse to magic to speak well of anything related to it.
"...a warrior queen facing some calamity, that's the point then?" she asked, having fully assimilated it.
"If only that were the case, I wouldn't be so troubled, haaa…", I said, my shoulders slumping with the weight of my conscience.
"...what aren't you telling me, Corlys?", she asked with a frown, clearly expecting me to tell her the reason for my biggest problem.
"...The woman they call upon in the prophecy wields a giant sword like her..." I began, but paused for a moment. I didn't know if this would bother her more than it bothered me, but any mention of the Iron Throne might upset her in some way.
"Yeah…? Say it already, man", she said, annoyed.
'Well, here goes. I hope I don't sleep in another room tonight…'.
"...the sword…was made up of countless smaller swords, and the figure wielded it with one hand…".
Just as I'd anticipated, she'd remained as still as a stone statue. I didn't blame her. I'd spent the entire trip wondering if there was any other symbolism to rule out the most obvious option, but I couldn't find anything remotely similar in my memory.
The only possible guess was that the weapon represented the throne and that the woman would occupy it as a weapon, whatever that means.
"...a woman...wielding a broadsword...made up of several swords...", she murmured, almost in a trance.
The weight of the realization had hit her a little harder than I had expected. She knew what it could mean for everyone, including us.
Even after being deposed in favor of Viserys, the fact that a woman, in the near future—given the reactions of some of the Bravo leaders—could sit on the Iron Throne or wield it in any way, was like a slap in the face to our family.
"...Are you telling me there could be a queen of the seven kingdoms? Is that it, Corlys?", he asked with a serious face but a tone that denoted bitterness.
"That's what I came up with after thinking about it the entire trip", I said with resignation, because that's how I felt. I felt like we had lost for nothing, that all those degrading and vicious words we heard about wanting to obtain the crown were for nothing, just so another woman could take the place that had belonged to my wife.
"...what a bad joke...after what we've been through...only for someone else to take my place, really unpleasant…" she said with a dry laugh, but there was no bitterness in her voice anymore, only exhaustion.
"...how sure are you that this will happen?"
"...If I hadn't witnessed it, I would have said it was a drunken story", I replied with a fragile smile and added.
"And...according to the reaction of the Sea Lord and some others, they're taking this prophecy very seriously. According to them, the priestesses have helped them in the worst of times and are connected to the creation of the city, so I believe that at least something will happen in the near future.".
Rhaeny stood there for a moment before heading to the bed and falling into it.
I stared at her; she looked dejected, but after a few moments, her gaze turned steely. There it was, the fire that made her withstand any storm, so I remained silent and listened intently when she finally spoke.
"…You know, Corlys, while I understand, and it seems pretty clear from our perspective, perhaps the prophecy doesn't speak of someone from the West".
"Uh? What do you mean?" I asked, puzzled.
"Haa… I think there's an important point you're overlooking, Corlys", she said seriously.
"An important point… and what would that be? I don't see how it can't be about the Seven Kingdoms, or Targaryens for that matter", I asked thoughtfully, because I'd really tried to think of every possible angle, and it definitely led me to Westeros.
"That's the problem, Corlys. Everyone in Westeros, everyone, sees the Iron Throne as a prize in some way… even me…".
Then the realization hit me.
"That…that's it, that's true…" I replied in surprise. That was the point, one I couldn't see. I'd been so focused on how powerful the Iron Throne was as a symbol, formed of many swords, that the image of someone wielding it like a weapon immediately made me think of someone who would be queen of the seven kingdoms.
"That's why I don't think it will be here, and it could even mean anything, perhaps a large army or someone who wields many weapons".
She mentioned important points. The prophecy spoke of marches and such, so it was clear she had armies, but there was one thing that was bothering me and had been the main reason I'd closed myself off to thinking only about Targaryens.
"...but Rhaenys, there's something you didn't take into account..." I said with concern, because if it was true that it wouldn't be someone from the Seven Kingdoms or a Targaryen, it was another problem, a much more dangerous one.
"And that would be it?", she asked, raising her eyebrow.
"...dragons..." I said quietly, because the idea of dragons anywhere else would be catastrophic.
"What do you mean by dragons, Corlys?" she asked, flustered. Now I knew she really hadn't noticed that line of the prophecy.
"...that was an important part of the prophecy, 'we ride with roar and flame', Rhaenys. The person will ride something that roars and breathes flame. What is that if not a dragon?".
What I said made her pale.
"But that's impossible. There are no dragons out there, and no one has gotten hold of dragon eggs, other than…" She stopped abruptly, realizing where the dragons could have come from.
"Other than… Farman… Elissa Farman…".
"Yes… they're the last lost eggs that anyone knows about", I said, nodding at her words. They were, at least, the only valid option regarding dragons other than those of Westeros.
"We have to tell Viserys, this can't stay like this!" She quickly stood up in a hurry, but I stopped her immediately by taking her hand.
"What are you doing, Corlys? We have to tell him about this", she said angrily.
"And tell him what? That I heard a prophecy about a woman with dragons? They'll call me a madman or a heretic, and we could lose face with the other lords", I told her firmly. Even though I'd experienced this prophecy myself and believed it, it wouldn't mean anything to the other lords, especially those most devoted to the Seven.
"…Remember who his Hand is, Rhaenys. One word he hears and everyone in Westeros will know".
"…You know Viserys. He'll be the first one he tells." She clenched her jaw in anger, but nodded in understanding.
"I'll tell one of my men to keep an eye out for any important news. If anything comes up, we'll let him know", I promised, looking her in the eyes and squeezing her hand.
"This is important, Corlys. This is my family's legacy, our family. We can't allow any foreigner to threaten us, no matter who it is", she told me fiercely, to which I nodded as I hugged her.
"Yes… we would protect our family".
'but… but if this figure is important to the future in any way, the best thing would be some kind of alliance or something similar. Let's see what happens first…'.