Dragonstone 48 AC

Jaehaerys Targaryen

The last few weeks feel like a blur. The funeral of Rhaena's children turned into a very messy affair. Mother came to Dragonstone for the funeral and the chaos escalated with both Rhaegor and mother slinging insults at each other at every possible turn. Rhaegor was courteous but didn't hold back when my mother started her tirades. I wonder what happened between the two to create such animosity.

There was also a feeling of tension in the air. The people of Dragonstone were angry, as their princes and princesses had been killed brutally by foreigners. The identity of the assassins and the ones that hired them spread like fire among the smallfolk. Rhaegor, however, added a small lie to that information and also implicated the Faith Militant in the assassination. I understood he did it to give me an edge over the Faith Militant when I had to deal with them but using his children's death seemed cold-hearted.

The people wanted me to do something as I was the King but until my majority, I will be powerless. As the Protector of the Realm, Lord Baratheon declared that the incident involved the Kingdom of Narrow Sea and the Free Cities and that the Iron Throne was a neutral party. I was outraged, how could I sit idly and let my sister and her husband face off against the combined might of Four Free cities.

I tried to speak to them about it and all they told me was that they were taking care of it and asked me not to worry. I'm the King, dammit, I should not be kept in the dark about how my realm is run and how my family is dealing with a tragedy. I ended up exploding in anger during a dinner with my uncle and sister.

"I'm supposed to be the King, why wouldn't anyone tell me what is going on? How am I going to learn to rule if everyone just keeps secrets from me?" I asked them in anger.

Rhaegor looked at me with an amused smile and nodded towards Rhaena. Rhaena called the servants over and whispered something in their ears. More secrets.

The servants left the four of us and closed the doors of the room. Rhaena then proceeded to perform the sealing magic in the room.

"You lost me ten dragons Jaehaerys," Rhaena stated with a pout.

"What? How?" I asked them confused.

"Don't worry too much about it. Rhaena and I had a bet on when you would snap and start yelling." Rhaegor replied with a chuckle.

The situation was turning odder every minute. He seems too happy for a man who lost his children to assassins.

"Why would you bet on something like that?" Alysanne asked them, probably also confused by their weird behavior.

"No reason in particular. We just did." Rhaegor answered as continued eating his dinner nonchalantly.

Rhaena let out a sigh and said, "Ignore him, he is going to bask in his victory for a few minutes. I know you both have a lot of questions and we have the rest of the evening to answer it. So ask away."

Well, it seems like they were prepared for my questions. Why do I feel like I'm being toyed with by these two?

"What are you planning to do to the Free Cities?" I asked my first question.

"Take dragons and go burn a lot of their buildings, set the slaves free and champion a slave revolt. For Braavos we plan on destroying the Arsenal and its Titan. By the time they recover from the damages we inflicted, you and Alysanne would have both reached your majority and well into your rule. Hopefully, you would even have several cute and cuddly children by then." Rhaena answered nonchalantly.

She is talking about an invasion and total destabilization of four major free cities on the west coast of Essos as if she was discussing how she would take a stroll along the castle walls. How do they plan on doing this? Dragons alone aren't enough to cause the chaos they intend to. They need an army and they need the support of the Iron Throne for that.

"How are you planning on achieving this without the support of the Iron Throne?" I asked her.

Rhaegor bursts into laughter upon hearing my question.

"What was so funny in my question?" I retorted.

He managed to contain his laughter and replied, "Jaehaerys, as King of the Seven Kingdoms you need to understand something that is very, very important. The world doesn't revolve around the Iron Throne. The Iron Throne has as much power as you choose to give it. Do you know why I asked Rhaena to give up her claim to that pointy chair?"

Alysanne and Rhaena burst into giggles at the mention of 'The pointy chair'. I don't see what is funny but it is certainly an interesting way to call the seat of power of the seven kingdoms.

"No."

"I don't need the support of the Iron Throne. I conquered the Stepstones on my own and truthfully I'm the King of Narrow Sea," he declared only to get elbowed on his sides by Rhaena.

"Well thinking about it, I do share the rulership of the islands with Rhaena," he conceded wincing a bit.

That is strange, why would you allow a woman to rule with you as an equal? Doesn't that diminish your authority?

He continued saying, "The kingdom of the Narrow Sea doesn't belong to the Iron Throne, my domain includes the isles of Stepstones, Tarth and Acropolis half of Dragonstone."

Wait what?

"Haven't you sworn fealty to the King of the Seven Kingdoms? Doesn't that make your lands part of the Seven Kingdoms." I asked in outrage.

"No, the last King on the Iron Throne I swore fealty to was your father. Maegor never asked me to as he knew I wouldn't do it and I'm not going to do it to you either." Rhaegor replied with a smile.

That explains Lord Baratheon's response. I don't think anyone can make him kneel either. I wonder how King Maegor felt when he realized that he couldn't make his brother swear fealty to him. I can't even begin to think about the political ramifications this would cause in the long run. Establishing a kingdom separate from the Iron Throne and belittling the authority of the same Throne, of course, I should have expected him to do something like that. The man was called the Wild Prince after all.

"After losing your knights, how do you plan on holding to those lands without the help of the Seven Kingdoms?" Alysanne asked him from the side.

She does raise a valid point, there is no way he can defend his domain after his loss.

"The same way I held on to them for the past three years. You are mistaken if you think I took aid from Maegor," he replied nonchalantly.

Wait what? How?

"How did you manage to do it?" Alysanne followed up with another question.

"Maegor and I developed Dragonstone from a dreary volcanic island to what it is right now by but the development of Acropolis was done almost entirely by Rhaena and me. Tarth, I conquered after House Tarth declared for the Faith during the uprising. I conquered the Stepstones because I needed to smuggle Leonna and her kids to safety." Rhaegor responded with a thoughtful look.

"Wait what?" I asked in surprise.

"Lady Leonna is alive?" Alysanne asked.

Does that mean his eldest twins are still alive?

Rhaegor let out a chuckle and replied, "Not only her, all my children are alive too."

"What?" "What?" Both Alysanne and I were surprised at this revelation.

"Did you two seriously think that I would allow a bunch of nobody assassins to breach castle Dragonstone and kill my children. It is something that even Faceless Men have failed to do." Rhaegor asked us with a smug and satisfied smile.

"The corpses we saw?" Alysanne asked him.

"The assassins were real. We learned about the plot and set up decoys to give us enough time to smuggle the children to safety." Rhaena explained.

"Did cousin Alys die for the sake of your grand plot?" I asked outraged.

Rhaegor stared at me incredulously and asked me, "Jaehaerys, why do you think her corpse was real? She is with the children, safe."

"The three dragon eggs?" Alysanne asked.

Rhaegor sighed and replied, "That I have no clue. The assassins must have got greedy on the way to doing their actual job and decided to steal it."

Well, I do have to find a way to track those. The assassins would try to sell those and the only places I can think of are Braavos and Volantis. Seeing that they were hired by Braavos I should investigate them first.

"We were completely fooled but why go through all this mummery and deceit?" I asked them.

Rhaegor's face changed from his chipper and happy one to the cold and furious one I saw on the night of the fire.

"Jaehaerys, our family was on the verge of being wiped out and the perpetrators behind that was the cause for both my brother's deaths. I don't know about you, if someone thinks they can hurt my family and still expect to live, it is a mistake that I should correct." Rhaegor started his explanation with his voice laced with fury.

He proceeded to reveal the conspiracy that was staged against our family and how he had been fighting it for the past three years. Even his plans of invasion was to draw attention towards himself and away from me.

"I plan on causing enough chaos while staying hidden to divert their attention from you. Once we have enough information about this Entity we will strike and I will bring them Fire and Blood." He explained his goals.

Well FUCK!

Whoever this group was, they played us like fools. It explained everything. Father's assassination by the Faith when he was trying his best to maintain peace, Maegor's assassination and finally why Rhaegor wanted to keep the kingdom of the Narrow Sea separated from the Iron Throne. Here I was acting like a petulant child when my sister and uncle are doing their very best to keep our family safe. Gods, this is a fucking mess.

Alysanne grabbed my hand and started squeezing it. I looked to the side to see her give me a reassuring smile. My rage dissipated seeing that. Thank you, my love. I pulled her into a hug and kissed her forehead. Rhaena seeing this let out a loud squeal and pulled us both into one of her bear hugs.

"Rhaena, c-cant b-breathe." I managed to blurt out.

Rhaena released us from the hug and Rhaegor pulled her back, she went back to his chair and sat there pouting at Rhaegor's side.

Having recovered from my moment of rage followed by the sisterly suffocation I turned to Rhaegor who was now back to his smiling calm self and asked, "How can I help you?"

"Be a good King like your father and rule the realm wisely. As long as you are seen as not being involved with what I'm doing, you will be safe. The Lords of the realm will not have a reason to complain either, as their alternative will be me who will be burning and destroying cities," he replied with a smirk.

I wondered who all knew about this conspiracy.

"Is that why Lord Baratheon declared neutrality," I asked him.

"Yes, Rogar is one of the very few who knows about the Entity. I don't understand how he could fall in love with that stupid bitch, but apart from that, he is the most trustworthy person you could rely on." Rhaegor replied as he got elbowed on his side by Rhaena again.

"Ouch. What? You saw how she behaved when she was here? Oh well, she is their headache and as long as she doesn't step into my domain I won't kill her out of the respect I have for Aenys." Rhaegor responded to her defiantly.

Dealing with my mother will be a headache indeed. Unless I can find a way to settle their differences.

"What happened between you two? I don't remember you two being so hostile when I was younger." I asked him

"I would like to know that too," stated Rhaena sporting a confused expression.

Rhaegor let out a loud sight and started to explain, "If you had asked me last week I wouldn't have known either. It is something I found out only recently from Maegor's journals. After Aegon's suicide run into Balerion, Alyssa was depressed and was struggling to come to terms with it. She had essentially sent her son to his death and she took to heavy drinking as a result. One night when Maegor was in Dragonstone they were both drunk and ended up spending the night together."

He paused to probably see the shocked expressions on our faces, he smiled and continued, "Maegor in his infinite wisdom, without having the stones to face an angry Alyssa left as soon as possible the next morning to King's Landing. Alyssa woke up to realize that she slept with someone in her drunken stupor and I was the only adult male Targaryen around in the castle. She came to the wrong conclusion that I was the one who slept with her and confronted me."

"I had no idea what happened and I tried to console her thinking she was still grieving over Aegon's death. She must have thought that I was attempting to seduce her and that is the start of her animosity towards me. I swear I didn't sleep with Alyssa. I value my manhood too much and didn't want to be gelded by my wives. Fucking Maegor knew about it and thought it was hilarious."

FUCK!

There goes any plans of me settling this easily. Would my mother even believe this? I have to give it a try.

"Wait, wives, as in more than one?" Alysanne asked.

Oh yes, I missed that part of his explanation. Multiple wives?

Rhaegor gave an amused smile and explained, "I married Leonna in an unofficial ceremony. Rhaena was aware of that before our marriage."

Well, that explained why Rhaena was willing to put up with Lady Leonna being close to Rhaegor even after his marriage to my sister. One more thing that I will have to explain to mother.

"So Maegor slept with mother and she thinks you did it. Why don't you explain it to her?" Rhaena asked her husband.

Rhaegor's face contorted into a frown and he replied, "She is a bitch and I don't think she would listen even if I tried explaining it to her. Poor Rogar though, he must have hit his head somewhere to fall in love with her."

No sister letting them both talk together would end up with our mother trying to kill your husband and your husband's patience tested to his limits.

"Can I have that journal? We can try talking to her." Alysanne stated what was on my head.

"Sure, I'll bring it over to you later," Rhaegor replied.

Wait a minute.

"What about the Faith Militant?" I asked.

"Your rebellion was staged to draw them out into the open and it did. Balerion's rampage killed most of them and the remaining would be nothing more than glorified bandits," he responded.

So even that was staged? It makes sense if his knights were still active.

"You used the fact that your knights were assumed to be dead to incite the rebellious faction?"

"Yes, I did. Rogar played the most important role in that mummery." Rhaegor replied with a smug smile.

"I have a plan to deal with the Faith permanently" I stated.

"Go on"

"I plan on creating an order of knights like yours, but they will act as if they are men of the Faith and preach the wonders of the Valyrian civilization and make the smallfolk believe that we are exceptional to the regular Faith doctrines. That way even if we act outside of the tenets of the Faith we will be excused and the Lords cannot use it against us." I explained my plan.

Rhaegor burst into a fit of laughter after hearing my idea.

"Was it that bad?" I asked him.

"No, it is fucking perfect. Do you know why I initially wanted to create the Templars?" he asked me in return attempting to contain his laughter.

"No."

"I wanted to mock the Warrior Sons for intruding on Maegor's wedding to Ceryse. I wanted to create an order of knights that worshipped the dragon gods and preached Valyrian exceptionalism. Mother felt that it would draw the ire of the pious Lords and they would see it as a threat, so I had to modify it. You see why I find your idea so funny?" he asked.

"It is your idea but instead of the Dragon Gods I'm using the Seven?" I guessed.

"Your idea is fucking perfect. The Lords can't complain and Faith won't complain either. It is the perfect way to shut down the Faith completely about our Valyrian practices." He responded and continued,

"I wanted to leave with you two thousand of my knights as a personal force to deal with emergency measures. With your idea, I want to up that number to five thousand. They will be men and women trained to protect you two from most external threats. I will also set aside personal trainers to bring you both up to a level where you can fend off even Faceless Men level threats."

"Thank you for your generosity uncle," Alysanne replied to him.

"I don't think you both will be thanking me after the training starts. It is going to be more painful for Jaehaerys as he has only two years before he will have his Kingly duties to attend to. You can take it slow and I will find a way for you to develop your empathic perception too."

He knew about Alysanne's ability?

"Oh don't be surprised. It is something I possess too but not as prominent as Alysanne's. The more you train the more you will be able to control it and I will make sure I do all I can to help you with it."

Alysanne was overcome by emotion and rushed to hug him and offered her gratitude.

Well, it looks like I will be enduring a very painful next two years. I can't say I'm looking forward to it.

One week later

Rhaena Targaryen

Ever since we explained everything to Jaehaerys, I was tasked with overseeing their training. I have assigned two Templar Legates directly for Jaehaerys' training and I had Sera Jonquil Darke, a knight of the Siver Hand for Alysanne's basic training. Once she gets to a sufficient level of physical and weapon proficiency she will be assigned to the Templars for the more advanced aspects of our bloodline training.

The rituals needed to perform the insane plan for ensuring Rhaegor's survival were going to need a lot of sacrifices. Rhaegor called the process a Horcrux ritual. Sometimes the imaginations of my husband creep me out.

Theoretically, the ritual works by splitting one's soul and anchoring it outside one's body so even if the body is destroyed the split portion would anchor his soul to the world and could be used to possess or create another body.

Rhaegor's idea was to split the soul and anchor it within Vhagar. It made sense as he already was bonded to the dragon which according to his theory was a soul link. His body would be frozen in time by a stasis spell to give Leonna time to find out what to do with the poison. After she finds the way to heal him, the spell on his body would be removed and the body would be healed. Once the healing is done the soul that is anchored in Vhagar would be transferred back to his body.

His initial idea of using the dragons Balerion and Vhagar to achieve this hit a dead end as he couldn't find a way to manipulate the dual bond to his advantage. We looked towards the resurrection rituals of the Red Cult for a solution.

Rhaegor found rituals used by the Red Cult for manipulating souls. Red priests and priestesses have been known to resurrect dead men and women by manipulating their souls. Unfortunately, their rituals don't work dragon riders, but Rhaegor had been working on modifying their soul manipulation techniques for his Horcrux ritual.

I was lost in thoughts when I heard Rhaegor let out a loud cheer from behind the pile of books and papers in his table.

"Did you find anything useful?" I asked him.

"I think I cracked the secret behind the Red Cult soul manipulation," he replied with a wide grin.

If he can make it work on himself we don't have to do the Horcrux ritual.

"You can make it work on a dragon rider?" I asked him hoping for a 'yes'.

"Unfortunately no. The more magically strong the body the more resistant it is to the resurrection process. That makes the dragon riders a big no," he replied with a shrug.

Well fuck, it looks like we are going ahead with the Horcrux ritual.

"So what did you find out?"

"They claim that their resurrection only works on deaths causing by injuries, sickness or poisoning. They sacrifice a part of the recently dead person's soul to heal whatever that caused their death and return the remaining soul into the body and resurrect the person. They are essentially splitting the soul into two and using a piece to magically heal the body. The requirement to heal depends on the nature of the ailment." He explained his findings.

Ok, that is worse than the Horcrux ritual. Destroying a piece of your soul forever? I would rather prefer Rhaegor's mad plan.

"Well, I presume you found a way to use it without have to sacrifice a part of your soul?" I asked him.

"Yes. I got the part where they split it. The interesting thing about this ritual is if someone has access to red priests or this ritual they can theoretically live forever. They mistakenly think that someone who died from old age cannot be resurrected. Old age is just the body becoming weak and worn down. Their ritual could theoretically reverse aging." He further explained.

If they are sacrificing a part of the soul to heal injuries, for reversing aging,

"I'm assuming the cost for that is going to be high." I voiced my thoughts.

"You are correct. From what we know about souls, they possess two major roles. They provide the spark of life and store information. The spark of life is self-explanatory but the information they store not only is restricted to our memories but also information about our physical form and our consciousness. When a red priest performs the resurrection ritual he is cutting off a portion of the soul and removing a part of their life spark, memories, and consciousness. The cost if very high. So if he does it to perform something like reversing aging he ends up using up the soul's life spark completely and it doesn't work." Rhaegor explained.

"Well, then it proves that aging cannot be reversed or healed by their ritual," I stated.

"You are mistaken here. What if we use sacrifices? It is similar to blood magic rituals. We can use another person's soul to fuel the healing. I'm going to assume the cost is going to be a lot higher than using one's soul, just like how we need more blood when we use sacrifices for our blood rituals."

It still makes it a different ritual from the Red Cult's one. That does give me an idea.

"Wouldn't that be a better way to heal your body than subject yourself to the soul mutilation? If something goes wrong in the process would the person we revive be the same you?" I asked him.

"Yes, it would be but again we have the issue of the method not working for dragon riders. We have to modify it for use on us and also modify it to work with sacrifices. Even with all the Templar Arcanists, it would take months, possibly years to perfect it," he explained the problems we would face.

Time is something we don't have. Dammit. Why do I have the feeling that we are missing something really obvious?

Rhaegor sighed and went back to look for something in his paper pile while two knights walked into the library towards us. I wondered what they wanted and why they were still wearing their helms.

The first knight removed his helm and I was surprised to see who it was. He made a motion towards me to not speak and he wanted to sneak up on Rhaegor. At that moment I realized who the second knight was too. Well, this is going to be fun.

The second knight walked up to Rhaegor without making a sound. That part of her ability alone made her the most dangerous woman I knew. Things started to go weird when she reached Rhaegor. Instead of attempting to surprise him as I expected her to do, she punched Rhaegor with her gauntleted fists on the side of his face causing him to crash down to the floor from his chair.

"What the hell mother?" Leoric screamed out loud.

It looks like he wasn't expecting Leonna's punch either. I checked on Rhaegor to see that he was knocked out.

"Why did you do that?" I turned to ask Leonna.

She gave out a snort and replied, "He fucking deserved it. It looked like I had to knock some common sense back into his head."

She then placed her palm on top of Rhaegor's head for a few moments and he came back to his senses.

"Hey, Leah? Am I dreaming? I must have fallen asleep in the library." Rhaegor asked seeing Leonna's face.

Leonna responded with a smack to his arm and said, "Get up you fucking dolt"

"Ouch, my head hurts. What the hell are you doing here? Shouldn't you be back in Raftel?" Rhaegor asked her with an incredulous expression.

That is a question I would like an answer too. My children are supposed to be with you, sister.

"And do what? Sit there twiddling my thumbs when you go and decide to make a fucking Horcrux? I meant it as a joke in my letter. Didn't think you would be stupid enough to try it." She responded in anger placing her hands on the place where her initial punch landed.

That still doesn't explain where my children are. She started to heal Rhaegor's face as he settled back into his chair.

"That was the only way I could think of to surviving the poison," Rhaegor explained with a resigned tone.

"That is why you are an idiot and we decided to come here." She responded as she finished healing his bruised face.

"Did Arty also come?" Rhaegor's face brightened as he asked about his eldest child.

Good point. Did you bring all the children back? What is the point of hiding yourself if you choose to break cover like this sister?

Leo let out a chuckle and replied, "Someone had to stay behind and run the island and take care of the kids, she drew the short straw."

Well, at least they didn't break cover completely.

"Okay, I understand Leonna breaking cover to come here. Why are you here?" Rhaegor asked Leoric.

"As if I would miss the chance to see you getting socked by mother," Leo replied with a wide grin.

"Seriously?" I asked him.

"No, I'm here for Balerion." He replied nonchalantly.

"What?" I asked reflexively.

"Hey, if I'm allowed to be a dragon rider I'm going to choose my dragon and I'm not letting Maegor's dragon go to anyone else," Leo explained his choice.

"You know that I'm trying to hide it right?" Rhaegor asked him burying his face into his hands.

Leoric let out a sigh and started to explain his idea in detail, "Uncle Aenys legitimized me as your son and as a Targaryen. If anyone wants to complain they can come straight to me. Besides we can just claim that Balerion came with us on its own volition and no one would have to know that it even has a rider. Also, the Black Dread and the Green Tyrant attacking together would cause more panic and divert the Entity's resources towards us and keep Jaehaerys safer."

Having Balerion fly with us would be better for the chaos we intend to unleash on the cities.

"We are all going to Acropolis Castle," Leonna announced.

"What? Why?" Rhaegor asked her with a confused expression.

"The medical facilities there are better and I don't have to deal with hiding from people who might find out that I'm still alive there," she responded to his question.

That is true. Technically their cover is still not broken and Acropolis would be the best place to maintain that.

"Why do you need medical facilities?" Rhaegor asked her.

"Because I have a way to cure your poison without having to mutilate your soul." She answered as she sat down in one of the chairs around the table.

"What?" "What?" Both Rhaegor and I were surprised at her statement

Leonna let out a sigh and explained, "You should have figured it yourself if you were thinking straight. Unfortunately, you weren't and I had to come here personally."

"What is the cure?" I asked her.

"Just fire crab venom. It is the antidote for manticore venom." She replied nonchalantly.

Isn't Rhaegor's poison magically enhanced and killing him from within due to the Valyrian steel.

That is it, the obvious thing both Rhaegor and I missed.

"You do know that my body will reject the venom right?" Rhaegor asked Leonna.

Leonna waved her hand and replied, "Yes, yes your passive magic regen will reject it. It not like you recently discovered something that negates all magic it is in contact with."

Finally, Rhaegor realized it too.

"Yes my love, I'm going to take the magic out of your cancer and give you fucking you a fucking chemo," Leonna answered with a smirk.

What is chemo? As I was thinking that, Leonna pulled out a small box from the bag she placed on the table and opened it. The box contained five needles with sharp points at both ends bulging a bit towards the middle. Those looked odd.

"Wait, did you make Naruto style senbon out of Valyrian Steel?" Rhaegor asked in an astonished tone.

Naruto? Senbo? Those being made out of Valyrian Steel made sense as she was going to use it to cure Rhaegor.

"Yes, I did. The forgers were bit confused when I asked them to do it but it was easy to make and had them make a set. It didn't take much material either." Leonna replied with her smirk.

"Fucking hell. This is going to suck." Rhaegor responded with a resigned tone again.

What? Why? This is supposed to cure you. Why is it going to suck?

"Oh yes, maybe next time you will think before you use your body as a shield against a weapon that could kill you," Leonna replied with a predatory grin.

"Can someone explain what these two are talking about?" I asked in exasperation.

Pentos 48 AC

Meshorlah Drennanar

If Martyn was still alive, I would kill him myself. This fucking mess is all his fault. The plan to assassinate the oldest two Targaryens was partially successful with me killing one of them and losing half of the Faceless Men under my command. The Black Dread's tantrum ensured that none of my men deployed were alive and I'm completely in the dark as to what exactly happened in that arena. The Faith is toothless, the Faith Militant is exterminated and Addam is still not ready to take over his father's role in the Council.

To make things worse the four sniveling idiots in front of me got greedy and killed the Targaryen children in their stronghold right as I was about to make my next move. All my plans are in shambles and I have to re-assess everything. Did they think that the remaining Targaryens would not retaliate for such an attack? Now the Kingdom of the Narrow Sea has set its sights on the west coast of Essos.

Braavos, Pentos, Tyrosh and Lys the four cities involved in the plan of extreme stupidity. Best case scenario I'm looking at a direct conquest and at worst I'm expecting to four cities to be completely razed to the ground. The Naval blockade has already started, and it is only a matter of time before Rhaegor launches his offensive.

Lord Shadow's orders were to kill the twin brothers and bring the younger Targaryens to our side. The assassination plot was half successful but now I was left with an enraged dragon rider and these idiots added oil to the fire. Maegor is dead and I have no idea what to do with Rhaegor as he should be aware of the assassination attempt on him. I should talk to Lord Shadow before attempting anything.

"Do you four have any idea what you have done?" I asked the four bound and gagged men kneeling in front of me.

"Remove their gags," I ordered the men.

Lothor's men proceeded to remove the gags from the leaders of the four cities.

As soon as they were free to talk, they started to shout and swear at me. I signaled Lothor again and he decapitated the Archon of Tyrosh with a swift swing of his blade and the other three shut up. Ah sweet silence, just the way I like it.

"Who are you?" a very panicked Sea Lord asked me.

"Right now, I'm your worst nightmare. One month back I was the one ensuring that you idiots stayed in power." I replied with anger laced in my voice.

"I can give you anything you want. I'm the Sea Lord of Braavos, I can promise you all the gold in the world. I can contact the Iron Bank and they will pay whatever I ask. Please don't kill me," he started sniveling and groveling at my feet.

I landed a kick on his fat belly that made him curl up in pain.

"You. Cannot. Offer. Me. Anything. That. I. Don't. Have." I replied with a kick between each word.

The other two were watching the scene unfolding in front of them with horror. Good, that is the reaction I was expecting.

"Here is what I'm going to do. I'm going to send all your heads as a peace offering to Rhaegor Targaryen and hope it is enough to placate him." I announced to the three.

They realized that they are not getting out of this room alive and The Archon of Lys started begging for his life.

"We were only doing what was good for the Free Cities. The Targaryens were meddling with our trade and I would rather do something than slowly watch our trade and naval superiority crumble into nothingness."

I was getting annoyed with his sniveling and decided to end it. With a single strike, his head was separated from his body. I turned towards the remaining two and started to explain,

"Good? Do you shit cunts know what has been going on in the last two weeks? The naval blockade has already begun. They are preparing for an invasion. You should know what dragons do to fleets. Your cities are completely fucked."

"Please, my lady. There must be a way for us to fix this." The Prince of Pentos started his begging seeing that his chances of living were approaching zero.

"Oh, my sweet prince, there is and that is exactly what I'm doing," I replied to him as I swung my sword and decapitated him.

"Who are you?" The Sea Lord looked like he resigned himself to his fate.

Lothor stepped in front of him and stated, "You are talking to the executor of the Iron Bank, Lady Meshorlah Drennanar."

He ended his statement with another decapitating strike with his sword on the Sea Lord.

"Thank you Lothor. Now send their heads to Prince Rhaegor and make sure he knows that they were sent by the Iron Bank." I said as I cleaned the blood off my sword.

"Yes, mother." He responded and signaled his men to collect the four heads. We walked to the next room and I closed the door.

"I will have to speak to Lord Shadow about this recent development and get his opinion on how to proceed. Use the Bank's carrack to make the trip to Westeros. That should get you through the blockade. Stay with your brother in Battle Isle till the crisis is fully resolved." I said as I pulled him into a hug and kissed him on the forehead.

He nodded and walked out of the room to prepare for his upcoming trip.

Fucking Hightower, the boys are the only good that came out of our relationship. I hope you are rotting in hell for leaving me alone to clean up your mess. I sighed knowing that at least I was able to avenge his death.