16 Ploy of the two Dragons

Hell broke loose after Kael's declaration, many Dragonlords were furious, at least most of the ambitious ones. The other four big families didn't display any negative emotion towards those words though, they all agreed with those words, the family rank meant more than just a number, it meant power.

Kael, watching all those pompous lords shouting and arguing with one another, decided to prove his point. He stood up and walked to the center of the room, and that simple act made the other lower families fall silent, and the other sacred four to raise an eyebrow in curiosity.

He looked at the specific lord that was trying to defend his 'rightful right to harass without any consequences' and asked "I know you are angry at those words, you probably feel that I am underestimating you, so you have the right to call for a duel, right here and right now, to repair your image, I can guarantee that I won't be calling for my sworn sword to fight in my stead."

The man stared grimly at Kaelarys, he heard about the rumors of his magic powers, the flames that consumed the Targaryen second son from inside. "You speak so rightfully about a duel, Lord of Regallyon, when you use magic against our swords." He said as if pinning Kael against everyone else here.

This made Kael grin "And what's the problem with that? Why should just the sword be right to represent one's strength? What about the spear? What about the war hammer? Would you have a problem with those as well?"

"That's not what I meant and you know it-" he tried to defend his point of view but was interrupted by Kael this time.

"Or perhaps you find it more honorable to die by being cut in half instead of burned? If that's the case I can work with that since my magic is versatile, so tell me which you prefer... To be split in half by your waist, or from head to crotch?"

That made the man gulp, alongside many of the loud Dragonlords in the vicinity. The way Kael talked about his magic, like he could just do things without any hurdle or issue, 'as easy as breathing'. It made them nervous, magic without costs and drawbacks was the ultimate weapon besides dragons.

There was an eerie silence after that statement, many Lords were actually staring at the poor man waiting to see how he will reply. Should he accept the duel, that humiliation would be washed off… By his own blood most likely… Should he decide to wisely back off… People would look down on him for being craven even though they all agreed that it was the wisest decision. Ah... human hypocrisy.

A cough managed to cut the tension in the room, and made every Lord look towards the source of the sound, all except Kaelarys who kept staring at the poor nameless Dragonlord like he was prey, with a sinister smirk on his lips.

"Lord of Regallyon, please take your seat. I have an announcement to make." Said the old man Belaerys.

Kael kept staring at the nameless Lord even after that request for quite a few seconds, it made the poor man sweat but he felt relieved that the predator eventually decided to go back to his seat without speaking any further.

"… As all of you can see, I am already quite old and can't keep ruling my family for long. So I decided to use this Conclave to name my heir, Baelon of Belaerys, my first-born as the next ruler of the Belaerys family once my time has come." He said with a sinister gleam in his eyes.

Everyone had different reactions to that announcement, weaker families didn't have any clue about anything, and only thought of it as a regular procedure. The top ten families however had very particular expressions, they knew something.

The most curious reaction was the Celdaerys and Malgaeron family reactions, Kael couldn't precisely read it because he didn't have time to pay attention to them, he had his part to play in this and stared at the Lord of Belaerys with a predatory grin on his lips, which attracted the attention of many Dragonlords.

The rest of the Conclave was about specific events that became relevant in the past ten years, and some old rules that became redundant and outdated since they were proposed centuries ago.

The Conclave ended without any bloodshed and everyone was already leaving. Kael, Vaela and Valanar were already flying high in the skies on their dragons, close to one another so they could finally talk.

"What in the name of the fourteen was that Kael?" Asked Vaela curiously. "Since when are we in a cold war against the Belaerys family?"

Valanar nodded "I am not really an expert in the Valyrian family affairs, but the late Lord always went for a balanced and friendly existence with the Belaerys', it could be said that the only reason why they are the first family, is because the Regallyon is the second."

Vaela thought of something when she heard those words "Are they related to Father's death in any way?" she was already feeling anger towards the Belaerys after considering the circumstances.

Valanar instantly grew serious at that question, if that was the case he would prepare all their men to storm the Belaerys the moment they landed.

But contrary to their solemn and angry expressions, Kael laughed out loud, like he heard the biggest joke in the world "who said I'm against them? I'm just completing my side of the deal…"

That made the duo gobsmacked 'what the fuck?'

-------FLASHBACK-------

Kael was brought into a beautiful and secluded room inside the Capitol building, although it was indoors one could see that this whole place was dedicated to a garden... Lilac, Moonbloom, Dragon's Breath, Evening Star, Frostfires, Coldsnaps and many other flowers turned this place into the most peaceful and colorful location he have ever seen, even the golden-domed roof above was transparent from the inside, which made the sunlight shine directly towards the center of the room, where a round artificial pond was built.

[Refence Picture here]

Beside the pond, tossing some treats to the fish inside was a hunched old man, wearing a dark cloak.

"It's been a while since I've met you… Kaelarys of Regallyon…"

Kael stopped in his tracks and stared at the man.

".. I must apologize, I don't know who you are… and I don't remember meeting you..." he said.

The old man chuckled "Of course you wouldn't, it was almost thirty years ago and you were just a baby, I and my late wife were with your late father waiting for your delivery…"

Kael's eyes went wide.

"You grew up strong, you are fitting for your family… Kaelarys…" he said with a soft voice like he was talking to his own son.

"I… I don't know who you are…" Kael replied still confused.

"I am Jacaerys, Lord of Belaerys… fire and blood... Lord of Regallyon."

Kael almost choked on that 'are you fucking kidding me?!' but the man continued talking like they were family after the formal introduction.

"Your late mother and one of my late wives used to be great friends, and they even looked very similar, almost as if they were sisters… your mother was devastated when my Rhaemera passed away. Obviously, your father and I used to be good friends… although the man couldn't hold his liquor very well..." the old man chuckled at that memory.

For the next ten minutes both Kael and Jacaerys talked about the old tales of the last Regallyon Lords, the Lord of Belaerys seemed very melancholic when remembering his old friend.

"Do you know why I called you here, Lord of Regallyon." He said with a more serious tone, friendship of families aside, business is business.

"I have a hunch..." Kael replied, which caused Jacaerys' eyebrow to raise. Kael slowly walked around the pond, staring at everything with a serene expression, talking about his late family made him know them better, and for that he was very grateful. "... Twin Dragons, eh?" he said "The last time that happened to house Belaerys, according to my family's history books… was around six hundred years ago… and back then there were sixty Dragonlord Families…"

The old man could only give him a wry smile "It seems that I'm the one who doomed our Freehold again… to think that after so long…" he could only sigh.

To be honest, Kael and Jacaerys were not talking about actual twin siblings. The Belaerys family was strong because they grew in number as fast as they grew in power, to keep that power they had to keep those numbers, their tradition was to have an incest harem, which meant that every sibling from the same mother and father would belong to the eldest of that line, they would all be part of either the eldest's harem, or his protectors.

The problem is that with many wives, each wife siring a little harem club for their firstborns, it was just a matter of time before two wives had one son each… at the exact time… and those two were the actual overall firstborns.

The probability of that was extremely low, but it did happen every so often and every time it did… some Dragonlord families would disappear from the Freehold due to a civil war for the right of Lordship. That would lead outsiders to believe that the Freehold was ruled by two equally strong families that always fought one another for dominance, but in actuality, they both are from the same family.

"What do you want from me, Lord of Belaerys?"

The old man stared at him "I know that your family has a secret, an elixir that can extend the life of the one who drinks it by some time… "

Kael turned around and stared into the old Belaerys' eyes "You can't be serious, it's our family treasure… we have no more than two of those, one for me and one for my sister… it would take over a decade to make another…"

The old man nodded, he knew how rare it was, the late Lord of Regallyon was one of his best friends. "I am willing to offer you anything as long as it doesn't cross certain lines…"

Kael kept staring into the old man's eyes and decided to be honest about it "You are already very old… the full effect of the elixir won't work on you…"

"Can you tell me how long I will have, even if roughly?"

"About eight years… maybe more... maybe less... but no more than ten, that's for sure..." answered Kael.

Jacaerys started to ponder and said out loud "Eight years might be enough for me to settle down the inheritance issues in my family… at least it will decrease the probability of a civil war…"

Kael could just shake his head "The other Dragonlords won't just accept it, they will instigate a civil war because it would cause them to raise in power… you know how it works better than I do."

The old man could only sigh "You are right, but eight years is enough to at least prepare so my house doesn't face extinction due to these leeches…"

"I can help you with that too," said Kael.

Jacaerys stared at him, waiting for him to continue.

"I can display hostility and enmity against your family during the Conclave, the others would believe that there's a friction between our families, that way your sons would have an external threat to their family and won't be splitting the family in two halves to fight each other as long as I am in the Freehold, the internal conflict only exists when the external threat is gone, I only want you to control your people to not actually attack my people, let it be a cold war instead of an open conflict."

"That would stabilize the situation, but only for a while… some of them would also try to join 'your side' to raise in power after defeating my family." Said the old man.

"Yes, but anyone that joins my side, won't join your son's side... which will reduce the collateral damage of the civil war since I won't be actually joining any battle..."

"Again... that would only work for some time... eventually the ones who follow you will pressure you to join when the terms are favorable for their goals, what will you do then? Raise your swords and your dragons against my family?" he said a bit worried.

Kael just smiled "I will just leave… we can plan a fabricated event to happen which will drive my family away from the freehold."

The old man choked "You will be abandoning your lands? Your volcanos? That your ancestors and your FATHER fought to protect?!" the old man got a bit stirred by Kael's words.

"Of course I will... for a while… until your sons settle down their differences and one side wins, when that happens… I will come back and reclaim what is mine…" Kael concluded, to not let the old man worry too much about it

"And when do you plan on leaving?" Jacaerys calmed down a bit, but he was still a bit livid.

"In five years, in five years I had planned on exploring a bit to learn more about magic anyway, now it's even more convenient to my plans…"

"And about your lands?"

"I will sell them at the next Emergency Conclave that I will call in 5 years before I leave, and I will sell them to the highest bidder… specially the mines of my volcanoes… and you can take advantage of that. I don't want you joining the bidding since I will take those lands back, but most of the other lords will be doing anything to earn money to be able to purchase those lands… and you can work with that... create your own faction that will try to minimize the effects on the future civil war, I believe that most that join my side will be switching to that faction when they see me leaving the Freehold without a fight, no one wants to be on the losing side."

"… you would be sacrificing a lot for the sake of my family, what do you want in exchange?" the old man was quite suspicious, Kael was going too far for someone else's family… a bit too generous…

Kael grinned "I have a few things in mind, first… for my help in preventing the civil war from budding for the next five years I want your assistance in my current plans, I'm building an outpost in the north near the ice wall of Westeros to study the magic of that place… I will need cover, I don't want others knowing what I am doing or where I am going… and if we both work together, they will be in the dark, even the other three."

Lord of Belaerys nodded "I can work with that, it won't be easy but only our two families reside in the capital, only small weak families still live here, the other big ones have their own cities and only afford to send a limited number of spies here."

"For the potion… I want that white meteorite that your family owns."

That made the old man start coughing out loud so hard that his assistant had to come and help him.

"Y-you can't be serious!"

Kael shrugged "One family treasure for one family treasure… nothing fairer…"

Belaerys was conflicted "… I can give it to you, but I can give you something that could reward you better than that…"

"Oh? I am all ears…"

"It's a map, a map related to the Shadowlands, the hidden place where our ancestors found the meteor and according to the records there were many more, but they couldn't enter the place and only a few spoils were brought back… considering your magic… you might find better things than an old white rock…"

Kael was considering it for a minute, the dream he had during his first night in this world came to mind 'Shadowlands, eh?... this might be actually good… but…' he narrowed his eyes "You already used that rock to forge something, didn't you?"

The old man avoided his gaze and coughed "W-well... I needed a cane… I can always reforge it into a sword, nothing was really lost…"

Kael could only let out an exasperated sigh "I will take the map, but if I can get nothing out of it, I'm taking that cane!"

The old man closed his eyes and took a deep breath "… alright, at least give the map a chance first…"

Kael nodded "You need to bring that cane today; I want to see if you really have it."

The old man stared at Kael "I left it back home… if I send my men to bring it and wait for it… I will be late for the Conclave."

Kael just shrugged "I doubt anyone would mind having to wait for the Lord of the First Family."

Jacaerys could only chuckle at that.

"As for my sacrifice of leaving my lands… I want you to set a decree for your family not to claim those lands as long as I live, even if I'm not the current owner."

"That's doable, my family hasn't used a decree in three generations but considering what you are planning… I think it's more reliable than me vowing that my family won't do such a thing, I doubt my idiot sons would listen to my final words after my death…"

Kael was slightly surprised "I'm quite shocked that you know what I plan on doing…"

The old man laughed "Oh please… you are young… but I have lived for eighty years, I know what you plan because honestly, I would do the same… the whole sacred five families was a plan that paid out, but we all know that there are only two actually powerful families in the Freehold, the other three are just convenience… and we are dragons, we take what is ours through fire and blood." The man took a pause "But why are you so insistent on leaving? You said you had plans to leave anyway… don't tell me you believe those Targaryen dreams?"

Kael laughed out loud "If I did, I would've been out of here already, no way in the name of the fourteen would I wait five damn years to leave… are you kidding me?... no… Lord Belaerys my family is small, there's only me and my future wife, no... I don't want to risk the last hope of my bloodline in a civil war, I decided to leave in five years when I heard about your sons."

"Can I just ask you for a favor, Kaelarys?" he asked in a warmer tone.

"Sure."

"Let me be there for your wedding, even if disguised, I was there when your parents got married, I want to be there for when you and little Vaela become husband and wife as well." He said with a sad tone in his voice.

Kael just smiled back "Of course, it would be an honor."