35 The Heir of Winterfell

Pentos

Daenerys sat in her bath, the burning water seeming refreshing to her, but fire always eased her worries.

Today was the day that she would finally meet Khal Drogo and she was honestly dreading it.

She knew full well what to expect if the words about them were true, but she learned that sometimes appearances and rumors can be deceptive. The Khal she was marrying was one of the, if not the, strongest, but she would likely not be his only woman. Something that irritated her pride.

Still, she sighed as she relaxed back into the burning water, the world wasn't fair so she had to make the best of every situation.

She knew full well that if she one day came to Westeros with an army of dothrakis, she will receive no support, so she devised a plan. A plan that depended on her ability to persuade her future husband and people. She needs to change the way of life of the dothraki if she wished for her family's throne back.

She did not fool herself into thinking that this would be easy. She knew that she required a lot of time and all her future plans would be dependent on whether her initial one succeeded.

Realizing the time to meet her future husband was almost here she reluctantly got out of the bath knowing it would be the last one she could take for a good while, she gently rubbed herself dry. Looking at her reflection, she thought with vanity that she looked good. She smiled a little before going to the white silk gown she had been given by Illyrio and slowly put it on before lifting her leg so she could part the slit in the skirt and strap on the small sheath for the dragonbone dagger that Alamis gave her before leaving. The feel of it being there was a much needed sense of safety that calmed her.

She took a calming breath to bring her raging feelings under control and walked out of the room. Outside in the water gardens, she saw her smug looking idiotic brother standing with Illyrio and the two Rykker. She decided to stand between them and did her best to smile even if she didn't feel like it.

Time however passed with no sign of her future husband and she did her best to suppress her nerves but it was hard and her brother, ever the impatient one was unable to even stand still and was shifting his weight impatiently from foot to foot.

"Where is he?" Viserys finally asked with impatience and his temper flaring, Daenerys wished that for once that he would control himself, as the prideful Dothraki were unlikely to tolerate his tantrums but Illyrio spoke calmly.

"The Dothraki are not known for their punctuality."

Then, just as the words left his mouth she could hear in the distance a rumbling of hooves coming closer and her eyes looked over to the gates where a group of riders appeared suddenly. They were exactly as Daenerys had pictured them, bare chested and wearing rough leather and cloth with curved swords at their hips.

He was far taller than most men she had met and his beard was braided but she was most entranced by his dark and powerful eyes, he was a strong minded man as well as being strong in body she realized and wondered just what sort of man he would be to her in private. Would he be a barbarian who would rut in her and then leave or did he have it in him to be tender she pondered while Illyrio made the initial introductions.

As her name was called she walked forward purposefully with her head held high in dignity, she refused to be cowed by him or his men with her pride holding her up and looked Drogo straight in the eye. He stared back just as fiercely but she refused to back down and kept up her stare, this went on for a few moments before he smirked a little and said to his men in their native tongue.

"She has spirit."

"She has far more than that Khal Drogo." She then said back in their language which made all the Dothraki stare with surprise.

Drogo however looked at her with interest and laughed.

"Then I will enjoy learning what else you have to offer." He said with a smile.

She saw at the corner of her eyes, her spoiled brother ignoring the younger Rykker and coming to talk to the Khal, knowing him and that he would annoy the dothraki, turned to Illyrio who had been watching the proceeding with concern but now relief that it was going so well and gave him a slight nod. He understood what she wanted and made a motion with his hands. A beautiful white mare was led out and Daenerys turned back to Drogo and asked. "Shall we ride?"

"We shall, blood of the dragon." At his words she started riding with all the practice she had gone through before all this and seeing her ride so well made the Dothraki look at her with amazement before they rode after her, the blood riders thinking Drogo a lucky man for finding such a woman.

~

Winterfell, The Northern Realms

It has been more than a moon since the cousins said goodbye to each other at Moat Cailin and that Aryan, along with Jon, returned to Winterfell. He received a raven from Arianne who wanted Leon back in Sunspear but knowing the possible future wars he didn't want his son to be away from him and be possibly used as a hostage to make him comply. He was in his solar, finalizing a few projects, with his own private council.

"I need you to go to Dragonstone and investigate that Red Priestess that is around Stannis' wife. Can you do it?" Aryan asked Kinvara. Seeing her nod, he turned to Jaqen but was interrupted by his more than eight moons pregnant wife.

"Why don't you use your magic and check it?" Gabriella asked.

Aryan sighed and started to explain "When Siri... 'Brandon The Builder' built the Wall and warded it, he had the help of thousands of Children of the Forest. Even if I am stronger than him, there is only less than fifty Children still alive so I had to make a decision. I re-activated the ward against raising the dead this side of the Wall, the ward who made the Wall indestructible and the ward who forbid the dead to have any sight this side of the Wall. But I had to sacrifice a little of the ward for magic sense, I can use any spells but he will know if i use any of the teleportation spells that can move me for more than a hundred yards."

Gabriella was surprised "Is that the reason, you didn't already apparated to one of your targets and use 'Legilimens' to control them?"

Aryan answered "No, even if I could apparate in front of any of them. Each and everyone of them is a person with an amazing strong will. It will be impossible to use control the thoughts of any of them."

Marwyn decided to intervene "But, My Lord, the Night King already knows the magic that runs through your veins, why do you wish to hide?"

Aryan nodded and said "Even if the Night King sensed my magic, he couldn't confirm what it was. But if he senses the same magic as 'Brandon The Builder' with my teleportations then he would start to make preparations. They grew up together and fought against each other for more than a decade. I want him to be blind of what I can do until our battle."

Kinvara asked "So, what about our plans with the dragon eggs?"

Aryan responded "We will proceed as planned, Jon will soon hatch two dragons. As for the other forty-two who turned to stone, well I want to try something."

Gabriella said "I know that smile. What do you plan to do?"

Aryan grinned and replied "If we combine all the magic that we know, I think that we can have a ritual to change those dragon eggs in ice dragons and make them eternally loyal to our bloodline."

Marwyn was shocked "You can do that?"

Aryan nodded and said "I still need to refine a few details but I think that I can do it with the help of human sacrifices and the Throne of Winter's power. Besides, we have time, a dragon needs a little more than half a decade to reach the best height. We will need them in more than a decade. The dead are the true enemies but not the only ones. A few of the living can make things annoying for us."

Gabriella asked "Why don't you send Faceless Men to deal with them?"

Aryan answered "Well, each of them for different reasons. Let us start with Tywin, if I have Tywin killed, Tyrion will become the new Warden of the West and he is a brilliant man who can make the Westerlands rise and we can't have that. If I kill both of them, the Westerlands will be controlled by the idiotic short-sighted Queen and I can't have that either. The only way I will have Tywin killed is if he managed to completely alienate his second son against his house.

Now, about Olenna, even if I kill her, it wouldn't change anything, her son may be a moron but Willas is more brilliant than her in administration and Margeary will soon become her equal in the game, Garlan is also an incredible soldier and will be a great commander. The future of House Tyrell is in good hands. Killing Olenna will not change anything, and I like Garlan and Margeary and I consider Willas a friend, so I will not kill them.

Littlefinger, that weasel, still has a role to play, he brings chaos to the south and that is something that we need, and he is also the great-grandson of a Braavosi sellsword who the Sealord of the time owed a debt, as a payment for his debt, he asked the Sealord and the House of Black and White to never target his family line for five generations, a blood oath is powerful. As for Varys, he still hasn't played his cards, I want to know where his loyalty lies, I know he is plotting but I don't know what it is. So, I can't have him killed until I found out about his plays.

I, obviously, can't have Doran killed, he is Arianne's father and Leon's grandfather. And as for Euron, I can't find him and even if I did, something tells me that even a Faceless Man couldn't kill him."

He sighed and turned to Jaqen "Anything I should know?" before Jaqen could answer "And don't call me that."

Jaqen smiled "Yes, my Lord, we found out that the ironborn were raiding the Summer Islands for their trees to build their fleet as we blocked our woods. They also raided in Essos for it. Balon Greyjoy wishes to take revenge on you and the North grow stronger every day."

Marwyn replied "We were wondering where they found the woods to built their fleet, now we know."

Aryan laughed and said "Well, let the fools come, we will gladly accept their heads to decorate our western coast."

Jaqen nodded and continued "Lord Estermont arrived in King's Landing a few days ago and he is already really close to Renly Baratheon. I also received a good news and a disturbing news from Essos. The good news is that the 'Wolf Pack' officially joined hands with the Company of the Rose, their numbers without our soldiers is twenty thousand strong. As for the disturbing news, someone is financing the Golden Company strongly, they started recruiting and training all over Essos, in a couple of years they will be forty thousand strong. The interesting thing is that the Company is know being led by a blue haired man younger than you, my Lord."

Aryan narrowed his eyes "Forty thousand strong? That is disturbing. Find out who the man financing them is and find out about the blue haired boy." he then looked at his council "Is there anything else?" seeing no one talk, Aryan dismissed them and decided to spend time with his wife.

~

Aryan was rushing through Winterfell, it has been a fortnight since Kinvara decided to go to Dragonstone to investigate about the Red Priestess but the reason he was rushing was because he had just been told that his wife was with Marwyn and Qyburn and that she was in labor. He arrived in the room and immediately went to take his wife's hands to help her. He wasn't with her the last time but he will be with her now and every time she needed it.

It wasn't long before he heard one set of cries before hearing another one a few minutes later. The twins came to life and Aryan immediately fell in love with the two little pups. The two of them had the same color of hair that he had and even with their wrinkled faces he could see the color of their eyes, the firstborn was a boy and had Stark grey eyes, limit silver. The second born was a girl and unlike her three minutes older brother, her eyes were the same amethyst eyes as her father. He hugged his wife shoulder who had the twins in her arms now.

"What will we name them, mon chéri?" she asked.

Aryan kissed his wife's cheek and looked at his children with love, "This little princess remind me of someone very dear to me with the same color of hair and the same eye color, she will be the Princess of Winterfell, Ashara Stark. As for him, well the name is obvious, my love, let the whole Seven Kingdoms know that the Heir of Winterfell is named Sirius Stark."