Grandmaester Runciter of King's Landing

"Thank you Grandmaester," the little prince said.

He smiled and replied, "No need to thank me, my prince. I live to serve House Targaryen."

He shook his head, "Call me Aelor in private, Grandmaester. I swear I lost count of many times I tried to get this through the thick skulls of Jon and you."

He chuckled, "If that is your wish, Aelor."

He grinned, "Much better. Good bye."

With that he bolted out, to the training yard, Runicter guessed.

He smiled, the little prince never ceased to amaze him.

He knew nothing of him at first, except when he treated him after his fall and the letter Maester Lyman had written to him, stating that Aelor was 'a bright boy'.

But what he saw when he first took his lessons, wasn't a bright boy.

No it was a genius.

The first time, he tested him on numbers, he was a bit surprised, though not by much to find him finish it in no time at all.

It wasn't that difficult, so he didn't think much of it at first.

But he was wrong to ignore it at first, so very wrong.

One day, he didn't attend his lessons. He was in the training yard, the princess said.

Understandable, young boys were always fascinated by knights and swords, so he did nothing the first time.

Then the second. The third, the fourth and even the fifth.

But on the sixth day in a row he missed his lessons, he decided to do something.

So he assigned him a different work than what they were doing. Something much harder for any boy of six, or even ten could do.

He expected him to fail, so that he could give him a talking about the importance of his lessons.

However, it didn't go as he intended, far from it.

Aelor handed him the numbers in less than no time at all, but they weren't wrong or unanswered as he thought they would.

No, each question was answered. Correctly!

He was astonished!

A boy of six, doing numbers and mathematics, grown men would find hard to solve.

He then tested him again. And again. And again.

Finally stopping at problems, those short of three yellow gold links couldn't hope to solve.

He saw Aelor, scrunch his face at the questions, and internally smiled, thinking he had had him.

But he hadn't, the prince solved every one of them, perfectly.

He gaped at him and stared at him, dumbfounded.

From then on, they had discussions of different issues, but mostly mathematics.

Aelor's tremendous head for calculations had come up with shortcuts to so many different problems that he lost count.

But what he was especially interested in was the Prince's recent mathematical theory, the 'pie'.

At first he was confused, and asked him why he named it after a food.

Aelor, burst out laughing, and continued on for a good few minutes, before wiping his grinning face and said it was because a pie was circular in shape.

But what he found was no laughing matter. The 'pie' was one of the greatest mathematical discoveries of the century!

It made finding the measurement of circle so easy, that a child could do it!

When he asked how he came up with it, he simply replied, "I like pie."

The sincere and nonchalant tone still brought a smile to his face.

But his face sobered, when he was reminded of why the prince came to see him.

Aelor was having dreams, nightmares even.

According to him, the first started about a month ago and since continued on.

While most may just call it 'bad dreams' and leave it at that, Runciter thought it was more than it seemed.

After all, a perfectly fine, healthy and happy boy like Aelor, should not have nightmares every night for no apparent reason.

Even stranger was the account of these dreams, he dreamt of dragons. Of wolves, lions, stags and other animals, all fighting each other, before a great blizzard came and froze everything.

He tried to console him by stating that they were just bad dreams, but he was lying.

The Valyrians were well-known for their use of magic and their prophetic dreams.

As a matter of fact, the most well known of them, Daenys the Dreamer was Aelor's ancestor.

Daenys foresaw the Doom and allowed the Targaryens to flee.

Aelor foresaw animals fighting and freezing over. He hoped and prayed a great calamity wouldn't strike the Seven Kingdoms.

He sighed and pulled at his single Valyrian Steel link.

If only he knew more.

-X-

Queen Aemma Arryn of The Vale

Aemma closed the letter from her niece and sighed.

She poured herself a glass of Arbor Gold and mulled over what she had just read.

The situation in the Vale wasn't looking to be getting any good.

As Rhea approached childbirth faster, the problems grew.

Of course it was a joyous occasion, without a doubt. They were good friends, close to sisters even and she couldn't help but be happy for her.

But the power struggle was prevalent.

House Royce, though loyal, always had great influence in the Vale. They even ruled as Kings before the Andal Invasion, after which they became sworn to the Arryns of the Eyrie.

However, that same respect and influence as kings, carried on to this day.

And therein laid the problem.

The Royces were sworn to the Arryns, but her husband and good brother, wouldn't let Aelor, the heir apparent change his name from Targaryen to Royce.

Even still, Viserys insisted that the new cadet branch of House Targaryen, her little nephew would herald would be sworn directly under the Crown, by passing the Arryns.

This was a slight to House Arryn as one of their most influential vassals would no longer remain such.

Of course many argued against it, chief among them being Rhea's own sister Ysila, who ried to push her own son, Yohn, to be the next Lord. Further fuelled by the immediate arrival of Rhea's second child.

Very few supported her, of course, many not doing so out of respect for Rhea and House Royce, while others as they didn't want to get embroiled in what was essentially a family matter or not wanting to endanger themselves in a power grab that had a high chance of failing.

She grimaced. What Ysilla was doing angered her, but it was nothing compared to Rhea's fury.

Aemma knew Rhea, she would fight for her children's inheritance.

Through the Seven Hells and Storms if needed

She took a sip.

And then came the matter of all this conflict, Aelor.

She smiled, she loved her nephew dearly. He was always gracious, kind and polite, and whenever he called her, Aunt Aemma, it was always with so much love and respect that she couldn't help but love him back.

She didn't care that much about Daemon's thoughts, that man was a huge part of the issue after all.

Aemma took a deep breath.

Which is why, she had to do something. Not for her dangerously foolish and headstrong good brother, but for someone, who was essentially like a son to her.

-X-

Alyssa Tully, The Princess' Closest Confidant

Alyssa enjoyed walking through the gardens of King's Landing, especially with the princess around.

They always had so much fun gossiping, smelling the flowers and discussing rumors.

That was one of the things, she'd come to accept here, the gossiping.

There were rumors and other interesting things to learn about the various lords an ladies around.

Like Lord Vylar's eldest son of seven-and-ten, still wet his bed!

They had a good laugh over that, especially Prince Aelor.

She smiled fondly at the Prince's memory.

He was everything Rhae had told her and then some.

For starters, he had no trouble talking with them and participating in what her brother Elmo called, 'Silly Girl Talk.'

He had no issue with hearing them out and was always happy to spend time with them.

Which is why the letter her mother sent her, again came to her.

Father, or more specifically grandfather was interested in a marriage alliance with the Targaryens.

This would help House Tully rise in power and be respected throughout the realm.

To be honest, she would have no issue with that.

Aelor was kind and smart, and very handsome. However, she felt that it would be a betrayal to her friend, who she knew cared for Aelor more than just friends.

As if on cue her friend ran over to her and exclaimed, "We're going to Dragonstone!"

"What?" She asked.

She rolled her eyes, "I said. We're going to Dragonstone."

Odd, "All of a sudden?"

She shrugged, "Father and Uncle Daemon were fighting, so he asked him to go there."

"How do you know that?"

She looked at her feet and bit her lip.

Oh, Alyssa smirked, "Rhae?"

She threw her hands up, "Alright fine! I overheard them talking and father got angry and told him to go to Dragonstone for a few days. He even said we could come!"

The King and Prince Daemon were quarrelling? Whatever for?

"Maybe I can ride Syrax to Dragonstone."

That brought her back. The dragon?!

"Oh come on Aly! Syrax won't do you any harm! Trust me!"

"But she can breathe fire!" She defended herself.

"But she's my dragon. She won't harm you AND you're coming with me!"

Alyssa stuttered. Her pleas fell on deaf ears as Rhaenyra dragged her to the Dragonpit.