Renly looked around his guest room, today was the beginning of the tourney, over three dozen houses came from all around the seven kingdoms, from Dorne to even one from the North, the Karstarks. He had just finished his sparring and was healing himself up with cure wounds, quite practical these powers. Where he would've needed a day or two of rest before, he could now heal his muscles in seconds. The green light washed over him and he felt rejuvenated, ready for the spectacle. But first, he needed to bring down Joffrey. He was with his wetnurse right now, as the queen had to attend the tourney. Renly had learned where the wetnurse lived the day prior and luckily, the room where she kept the baby -a little side room besides her bedchambers- had an open window, just as his room had one. He transformed into a crow and flew out the window, circling around the keep until he found young Joffrey. The wet nurse -luckily- wasn't in the room with him at the moment, so, he flew inside. The baby was sleeping peacefully in it's wooden cradle, unaware of the danger. It felt wrong, killing an innocent baby. Renly tried to hype himself up, telling himself what atrocities he would commit, that he would be making the world better by taking him out but he just couldn't hurt that baby, that still innocent baby. Before he could convince himself to do this terrible deed, the wet nurse came into the room and he flew away. He couldn't do it, he just wasn't heartless enough. Whatever, he thought, he could always kill him when Robert died. With his powers, he was more than capable of doing so. Or better yet, he could bring Robert to realise that they were bastards before he died and have them killed… he could arrange killing him when Cercei couldn't let her cousin let him drink himself to death.
'Strange… I can't kill a baby but I can plot to assassinate my own brother. How is the first any worse than the second?', he flew towards his room and transformed back to his human form.
The tourney itself was nothing to write home about, what was important was the exploration he did afterwards. The red keep was massive, with many hidden passage ways and fake doors. It was built confusing on purpose, to confuse enemies. He walked through the underground vaults, looking for the dragon skulls and he was not disappointed, beneath the keep laid the dragon skulls, some bigger than a house, some as small as a cat's. How they got those monstrosities all the way down there, he would never know. He stalked past one of the bigger skulls, Vhagar, when something caught his eye, inside the skull, almost hidden, there was a basket full of something… he couldn't quite see what from that distance, so, he closed in, holding his torch towards the wicker basket. On it was painted the sigil of house Targaryen, a three headed red dragon on a field of black and inside it were a dozen or so shiny, metallic stones- no, not stones, eggs! There were dragon eggs in there, though they were smaller than daenerys' dragon eggs, more goose size than ostrich, still big compared to a chicken's egg but not nearly as impressive as the bigger eggs. They were likely laid once the dragons started to shrink and become sickly. There were two eggs in there, barely larger than a chicken egg, which were likely the last of the eggs lain by the targaryen dragons and two bigger than the rest, though still not as large as Daenerys' eggs. Renly's fingers brushed over the bigger eggs, they were warm to the touch and he could feel the magic slumbering within. Touching the other eggs, the goose sized eggs weren't warm but he could still feel a magical presence from within, whilst the smallest had no magic in them at all. Weren't it for their scale pattern, he wouldn't have been able to tell they were dragon eggs at all. Now that he was standing in the skull of Vhagar, he could feel the magic within it too, the subtle magic woven into the bones and the power that could be awakened if one knew how to harness it. He unsheathed his dagger -which he had for self protection- and with the bud of the dagger, smashed a small shard of the skull away, putting the shard into his backpack, together with the two biggest eggs. Once he had secured all of his new spoils, he transformed into a cat and rushed out of the vault and into his room, where he was supposed to be. Back in his room, he put the backpack in a chest, underneath the money he had brought with him. It was common for someone of the major houses to carry around a chest or two of assorted coins with them, to pay for whatever they fancied. The Lannisters often carried four or more, that's just how rich they were. Normally, a Baratheon of Storm's end would take with him two or three chests but Renly was a child, barely into puberty, what use had he for three chests of coins. He couldn't even whore around (not that he wanted to), because you needed to be ten and four to enter a brothel, which was a big part of what most spent their money on. He was still only beginning puberty and surely, one day, he would enjoy the pleasures of a brothel but he was no Robert.
It knocked at the door, a young girl's voice came from behind it, "milord, may I come in?"
"Yes, come in", he said, not really paying attention as his gaze drifted out the window.
A girl, maybe 16 came in and bowed, "milord, the king wishes to have you join him for lunch"
"Yes, yes, I'm coming", he dismissed her with a wave of the hand and jumped up from the chair he was sitting on, "could you show me the way? I haven't quite gotten used to the layout of this death trap"
She giggled, "I understand that, milord, it took me three years to know the way to all the important parts of the castle, the kitchen, the solar, the library and so on"
Renly smiled at her, she was pretty cute. Put her in a proper dress and you might confuse her for some lady but he knew she wasn't, she was a maid, nothing too interesting. He had plenty of cute maids back in Storm's end. He couldn't understand how the people in fanfictions fell in love with the first kind of pretty girl they saw so easily. A pretty face was good and all but a lady worth his time, his love needed to be smart, kind and most of all highborn. He couldn't fall in love with some whore, that was the downfall of Tyrion in the show and he was determined not to make that kind of mistake.
He followed her but his thoughts lingered on the dragon eggs now in his possession. Could he hatch them? Should he hatch them? Not for a long time, that's for sure, a young boy with two dragons? That just asked for someone to send assassins after him.
"Your grace, I have brought you lord Renly", the maid said. He hadn't even noticed them arriving at the hall.
"Ha, there you are brother, come sit with me", Robert bellowed, raising his goblet, "I was just telling Thoros here that you are the one responsible for bringing us this good Vodka, I was meaning to ask you, how it is made?"
Renly sat at the table and grabbed himself a chicken leg, "Well, the basis for the brew is potatoes, though I can't tell you the exact recipe, need to keep my drink unique"
"Potatoes? A common plant like that? How has no one figured out how to make vodka before? Potatoes are quite common, both in westeros and in essos", Thoros mused. He sat right next to Renly and Renly could feel the magic resting within the man. When he grabbed another chicken leg, he brushed his hand past the red priest and he could feel the burning hot magic within. There was a connection to a much larger source of magic, the red god, he knew. The connection was small, only a tiny spark rested within the man, much less magic than what was present within Renly. Magic might not be extinct but it was much less potent without dragons in the world. Right now, there was no way that Thoros could perform the kiss on someone successfully, his connection was much too weak for that.
They talked about Myr, "Before I found the red god, I was a glassblower. I don't know the recipe for Myrish glass, only how to blow it into shapes. One day, I was hurt badly at work and one of the red priests saved my life, ever since, I have devoted myself to him", Thoros explained, following it up with a rant about R'hllor, which neither of the brothers listened to all too closely. Queen Cersei was silently eating, listening to the men have their conversations, her eyes travelling to Jamie, who was stationed near them, her eyes filled with longing. Renly caught that look but didn't say anything, turning back to his king brother bragging about how he 'made the eight' at sixteen, "You will have to make the eight too, after you are a bit older, Renly, it is tradition"
"I don't think so"
"What? Still think girls are 'icky', little brother?"
"No, it's just, I don't think the Iron islands have any woman worth 'conquering'", he hated the ironborn, there were dicks and one day, they would rebel and Renly would enjoy it to take them down. It would be his first real war and he was kind of excited, though it was still seven years away. When it was time, he would make sure that the greyjoys were exterminated. Those cunts don't deserve to rule. By the time the rebellion came, he would be able to openly display his magic and he would burn pyke to the ground. A wicked smile forced itself onto his lips at the thought.
As they finished their lunch, Renly announced, "I will be leaving for Storm's end tomorrow. I have already been here more than long enough, all the other lords and ladies have left a week ago. Storm's end needs its lord"
"Don't want to put up with the shit smell anymore? I can understand that. I almost don't know anymore what clean air smells like, hahaha", Robert laughed heartily.
Back when the other lords were still there, he had managed to sign a trade agreement with Dorne, the vale and the westerlands. He would sell to others too but those three would get it for a discounted price in exchange for selling other things to the stormlands at a discounted price. Dorne would sell them fine silk for example.