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114 AC
Old Town
Daeron Nymeros Martell
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""Don't you dare."" I narrow my eyes at my Son as he looks at a perfectly fine bowl of water that he has no reason to even be near.
He turns his head slowly, and as he does, I see him contemplating just how fast I can put his Sisters down to catch him if he makes a sudden mess. Our eyes lock and he slowly inches forward with his little hands reaching out for the bowl almost as if he thinks I can't see what he is doing.
""You little shit."" I snort and with quick movements freeze the water just as he slaps both hands down on the rim of the bowl and tips it over making it flip off the table. "Good thing its wood..." I mutter as he looks at it in surprise and almost slips and falls on his butt as he leans on the low table for support.
"What are you two doing?" Rhaenyra asks from the corner of the room where she is brushing her hair all on her own... a sight I have not seen in a while with how much the servants in Dorne swarmed to her aid when she wanted to get ready.
"I am sitting still as the babies drool on my clean tunic... Aegon however." I toss my Son under the bus as he sits on his rear and picks up the bowl of ice and even holds it over his head in fascination.
A deep primal need hits me like a train... the desire to unfreeze the water is almost too much to resist.
"What are you doing silly boy?" Rhaenyra asks sweetly as she looks in the reflection of the mirror to see our Son.
"Cold." Aegon simply says while setting the bowl down on his lap.
Rhaenyra shakes her head absentmindedly before realizing what he said and her smile thins before she turns to look at Aegon directly. Her keen eyes can obviously see the ice in the bowl and that fact is hammered home as she shifts her gaze to me. A raised eyebrow is all she gives me before turning back to face the mirror while her brush once more runs through her molten silver hair.
"He was going to make a mess." I clear my throat startling Nymeria who was almost asleep on my chest. "Sorry..." I mutter and kiss the top of her head hopefully silencing whatever ear-piercing cry she is about to unleash into her sister's ear.
"Aegon can't play with ice, he will hurt his skin if it gets stuck like last tim- why is she crying?!" Rhaenyra hisses and turns around once more as I slowly adjust myself to sit up a bit to let Nymeria turn and stop screaming into the ear of poor Rhaenys. "I swear..." Rhaenyra sets down the brush and stands up to head toward me.
"I got them." I confidently wave her off but she does not listen at all and instead marches across the room to come and take Nymeria from me.
"You are alright sweet girl." Rhaenyra wraps our Daughter up in her arms pulling her against her chest while slowly bouncing her a little. "Just ignore the big fool..." She mutters while turning and heading for Aegon who seems keen to lick the ice... even though he knows for a fact it will stick to his tongue.
"No!" Aegon shouts as Rhaenyra bends over and takes the ice.
I purse my lips feeling as if I have suffered some kind of defeat but the soft cooing of Rhaenys throws that feeling out the window.
"Let's just ignore those-" I sit up hearing a knock at the door, straining my ears I hear a guard announcing it is time for the mid-day meal that will soon be served.
Rhaenyra once more handles it showing off that she is in 'power mom mode' so I just lay back down adjusting Rhaenys to the center of my chest.
"Not too many more meals in this stinky old place." I press a finger on my Daughters small nose as I run through the checklist of things I want to see before we leave this city.
The Hightower is unironically a pretty nice place to stay, I even managed to convince Lord Hightower to show off the ancient tunnels to me. He was hesitant but I can be quite persuasive, I just had to sigh aloud and then mutter about taking a flight over the city instead to relieve my 'bordem'.
Caught between a quick trip through his basement or having me swooping low over his city with a giant dragon... well he made the right choice.
Those tunnels are one hundred percent carved out by fire-spitting creatures.
I would assume it is dragons... but honestly, I am hesitant to say it was dragons.
They are obviously very similar, the floor being almost fused together from where the molten stone rested and then rehardened. Huge claw marks along the walls and ceilings from where the 'beast' dug its way down, those reminded me a lot of the fresh claw marks Gaelithox left in his new cave back home. But something about it all made it feel different, the way it twisted and turned randomly did not support what I know of dragon tunnels.
A dragon could likely fit in the tunnels, one Syrax size or smaller at least could.
But the tunnels turn sharply so much that a dragon any bigger would have difficulty and even Syrax might get stuck when she needed to turn around. I talked with the Maester who guided me down there, he was a nice guy who was very curious about anything he could learn about dragons. I obviously did not want to say much about the dragons but I saw no harm in talking about how they dig.
He also found it weird that the tunnels twist and turn... like a snake.
I eventually brough up Fire Wyrms and the man denied it almost instantly, he claimed that no Fire Wyrm had ever been seen the outside of Valyria and even then there were few sightings as no one braves the smoking corpse of Old Valyria.
I countered with the fact no one actually goes to Valyria anymore and their vast library is lacking any good information about those lands anyway. So we have no idea what people across the sea are seeing around the outskirts of Valyria, for all we know there are Fire Wyrms nesting and or tunneling all around the smoking corpse of Old Valyria.
"Are you ok?" Rhaenyra's hand brushes over my forehead and she combs back some of my hair with her fingers as she leans down and lays a silent Nymeria back on my chest.
"I am fine... just lost in thought." I smile pushing aside the creepy tunnels and make a mental note to write some physical notes about the tunnels.
Maybe someone one day can do something with that info...
"Do you still plan to sneak off to that creepy Starry Wisdom church?" My Wife asks with her nose scrunched up and I nod slowly.
"I want to check the place out a bit, I have seen churches for many of the popular religions. But I have yet to see anything about this Star cult that seems more popular than I thought now that I am looking for details." I almost had my ear talked off by an old man with a far-off look as he talked about the Starry church and its high priest.
...if I am honest it's actually the first real 'cult' I have ever seen as I don't really consider what the other religions are doing as cultish.
If they are working out in the open and not hiding then I don't think of them as a cult I guess. I might be acting stupid about that, especially with the news coming from Essos about Daemon and his Red Priest Wife.
Speaking of his Wife... Melisandre might be up to some crazy stuff... I might need to get involved and see if she is trying to make a shadow baby to kill someone or some shit.
"Well if you want to see the place you need to do it soonish, I want to depart as soon as we can so we can see some more of the Reach." Or in other words, she wants to leave Old Town because it feels like we are under close watch.
"I agree." I smile at her while thinking up a plan to slip out and visit the church... I might make her and her Mom go for a flight with the children so I do not need to worry about them while I do sneak around.
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114 AC
Old Town
Rhaenyra Targaryen
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"I almost feel as if I should withhold telling Daeron until a few more weeks pass... just so he suffers a little more." Looking at the message from my Father that got sent over from Sunspear as it arrived after we left I purse my lips.
"Don't be angry with him." My Mother speaks nonsense so I look at her as if she is speaking nonsense and she chuckles at me. "You should not stop him from being treated by Daeron just because of what he has done... you would regret it for the rest of your life if he died without your Husband at least trying something." She speaks of the worst-case scenario but I can not deny her words either.
...if only it was not so serious, I could let him struggle a bit longer before having my Husband look him over and try out his magic.
"Fine." I huff and set the message aside as we sit on a blanket I brought along to let the children have something besides grass to lay upon.
Looking around at the beautiful scenery I once more am reminded of the bad side of Dorne, one can only see so much sand before one starts to dislike it at least a little. Even Daeron dislikes sand, he says most people dislike sand as it 'gets everywhere'. But I just missed the long stretches of forests... and green grass that does not look as if its never been rained on in its life.
"Where did Daeron even sneak off to?" My Mother asks curiously as she stops Aegon from pulling Visenya's hair, my Sister looks at my Son in clear anger.
"A secret." I mutter as I help her stop the two older children from trying to mess with one another.
I would rather she did not know about the creepy church my Husband wants to look into... he seemed oddly concerned about it. Something to do with it may be linked with the threat from beyond the wall which concerns me greatly. But if that is the case I personally think it would be better to look into the cult in the North.
It only makes sense there would be followers of this foul God up there if that is where he will attack from...
"Well if he won't be joining us then I suppose we should not stay out here for too long... even with the dragons I still feel a bit unsafe." I nod in agreement but deep down I know Gaelithox could handle anything that came after us.
The big black dragon of my Husband played his part by following us as if Daeron was really with us. He even curled up in a crescent shape so we could rest with him like a protective mountain wrapped around us leaving a limited view of the scenery but also giving a sense of protection.
If only Balerion would stop nipping at his tail then maybe the big gentle brute could get some rest that he not doubt would enjoy...