12
----
294 AC
Braavos - lodging in the back of whore house
Nata
----
"Nata, you are back?" I tear off a piece of the sweet food from the stall and hand it to my mother.
"Yes mother, I only went to grab something to snack on." I sit next to her and she wraps her arm around me and pulls me into a side hug.
"Thank you for sharing with me, did you have any problems buying it? Your Valyrian is still not the best, you are making wonderful progress with it though." I remember the cute boy who helped me and slowly nod.
"I didn't have much trouble, someone helped me out when the stall worker seemed to have trouble understanding me." Her hand runs through my hair and pulls a few locks separate and begins to braid them.
"That was nice of them, you did thank them for their help, right? We are in foreign lands here, we need to always be kind and not attract the wrong kind of attention." I look down feeling a little sad again, I miss father and wish he didn't lose the challenge for our lands. It would have been better if we just fled with him and he wouldn't have died in the ritual fights. We can always return to challenge them to get out family's lands back, but now he is dead and we will have to do it without him.
"I thanked him and he also didn't seem the type to feel angered for not saying it anyway." Mother pulls my head as she tries to finish the braid.
"Good, just remember to not cause any problems and we will be fine. Your sister is running this business and all of our money is tied into it, we can't have anything happen here or we will lose all we have left." She drops the finished braid and starts a new one. "You don't have to be sad, everything will be alright. We will return home and take back what is ours and you will make your father proud."
----
294 AC
Braavos - In an alley outside whore house
Eragon Targaryen
----
Watching Viserys walk out of the building and make his way over to me I push off the wall.
"So, did you see anything?" Viserys smiles and gives a nod.
"I saw a few things little brother, but you will have to be specific." This dumbass, I grit my teeth.
"I sent you in there with some of my own money so you could scout it out! Did you see a girl my age or maybe a bit older? She was a summer islander with platinum white hair." He rolls his eyes.
"I saw a few summer islanders, none were that young though. It seems the place was bought recently and they are currently restaffing. She might be the owner's kid though, she was a summer islander, The girls in there wore clothes from there so I would guess they are going for a certain theme." So she could live there, not sure how to take that. The summer islanders see sex as a sacred ritual and worship a god with many breasts and even have sex at funerals.
Now I am even more convinced that the red priestess from back then was talking nonsense. It's just weird to me that I remembered her when I met this girl.
"Alright, thanks anyway I guess." He cocks his head to the side and narrows his eyes.
"Why do you even care if there is a girl in there? You wouldn't be trying to find someone your age to-." Before he can continue I kick him in the leg.
"Shut up Viserys, I was just curious after meeting her. I wouldn't pay for sex anyway, mother says it will cheapen the experience." He glares down at me, I am still shorter than him but it won't be but a few more name days for me to catch up and even pass him. Mom said I am the biggest of her sons and by a good amount.
"Whatever, I don't care if you have some crush on a whore. If you get one pregnant then you just have to take the kid anyway. Your lucky like that Eragon, you can have as many bastards as you want since you aren't the king and instead are just a prince." I roll my eyes when he smirks triumphantly, he seems to forget he isn't the king either with the usurper sitting on the throne.
"Whatever Viserys, I am going to find something to do instead of talking to you anymore." I walk off and as I pass the whore house I peek in the window and don't manage to see anything. It is probably nothing anyway, what good would come from making friends with a whore from the summer isles anyway.
----
294 AC
Braavos - Temple of lord of light
Melisandre
----
It won't be much longer, R'hllor himself aided me in helping him remember. First, they will become friends, and then they will become allies.
It's too bad I can't make an offering to R'hllor in this city, they would sack the temple if I tried. I am limited in what I can do from here; all I can do is wait. But I can watch and be ready for when it is time to make a move.
"Soon I will help you understand, my prince."
----
294 AC
Dorne - Arianne's room
Arianne
----
"Yea, I would rather be doing anything but this." Rhaenys growls.
"Well it can't be helped, even we have spies and have to put on an act at the very least or The pig king will try to start trouble." I answer back, Visenya and her mom moved into Dorne a while back now that things have calmed down. Visenya and her sister in all things but name, Morgana, both became my ' lady's in waiting ' even though I am a princess it is still weird and they are also a bit young for the position. But to the public and any people with an interest in what is going on it looks like I have taken Ashara Dayne's kids to befriend them.
With the past relationship between Ashara and Elia, it only makes sense. This way all the children of Rhaegar are under one roof and can be protected easier and Visenya can spend more time with her siblings.
"It isn't so bad Rhaenys, you just like to complain about it because you are bored. Stop being lazy and help and you won't feel so bored." I smile watching in the reflection Infront of me, Visenya lecturing Rhaenys and even trying to get her to work. It is almost like watching Elia lecture her, Visenya has really taken after her mother. Well, second mother, it almost seems like they sometimes came from the wrong mom. Rhaenys will ride horses all day long with Lyanna and Visenya will sit around talking with Elia trying to pick up anything she can from her.
"Alright you two, don't start fighting. I want to get there before the food is actually served this time." Standing up we head toward the dining room to eat with the whole family gathered.
----
"So glad you could finally join us." My father calls out from the head of the table.
"Good to see you as well father." We take our seats and the servants start to bring out the food, seems they were waiting on us.
They bring out spicy sausage and green peppers stuffed with cheese, there is lamb covered in honey and lemon with fiery peppers. I smile seeing Visenya try and give her mom Lyanna a spicy flatbread and she only waves her off. She opts for the one without spices and shakes her head at her daughter. Visenya has dragon blood in her and isn't afraid to eat some extra spicy food.
Looking around I see that Visenyas uncle Benjen isn't here and frown, if he wasn't invited then it should be some more serious talk going on. Benjen is a trustworthy enough man but he isn't family to all of us and it seems father excluded him.
"You alright?" My aunt Elia asks and grabs my hand.
"Yea, just thinking about what he called us all here for." There are far fewer people here than I was expecting, even my younger brothers aren't here.
"Before we begin to eat I wanted to let you all know that I plan to send someone to visit the Targaryens across the narrow sea. We need to begin to make our actual plan for taking the throne and that involves marriage alliances. So I called you here tonight to inform you of the potential of an engagement being planned for each of you, Oberyn will be heading out in a few days and once he is back we will know what we are going to do moving forward. One way or the other." That last part seemed to be hinting toward something but I am not entirely sure. Both Visenya and Rhaenys look shocked and Aegon looks nervous.
So it was about marriage huh? I guess it wasn't as serious as I was expecting.
----
294 AC
Dorne - Doran's solar
Lyanna
----
"I will go with him, I can talk to my good mother and try and convince her to make a decision. Oberyn will keep me safe and the chance of success will increase massively." Thinking about my good mother I haven't met I feel regret. How different things would be if Rhaegar and I took our time and did things differently.
"That is an unnecessary risk, if she doesn't accept to marry Viserys to Arianne or to make contact with someone to give his hand for allies then we need to begin planning to push Aegons claim. The longer we wait the more stable Roberts's reign is and once he marries his son and heir off and makes someone's daughter a queen then we will lose a potential ally." Sounds like to me he just wants to make sure his blood makes it to the throne by the end of this. Can't blame him though, most people have that goal when they are running one of the great houses.
"I stand a way better chance of convincing her and you know it, just have faith in me and Oberyn. I don't like the idea of cutting Viserys out when he was named heir, even though it should be Aegon as Rhaegar was the oldest son. If we cut Viserys out we stand to make an enemy out of the rest of the Targaryens or maybe it won't. I can find out from Rhaella herself if I go in person, it would be best if I went Doran." Doran chews his lip and finally looks at Oberyn, after receiving a nod he sighs.
"Fine, I trust Oberyn to get you there and back safely and I trust you to get answers, the longer this draws out the less a chance we stand to win at all. Either Viserys or Aegon needs to begin their journey to the throne and that starts with a marriage alliance to secure as many troops as possible." He looks at me. "How do you think your brother would stand?" I don't know what Ned would do, he bent the knee to Robert and is unlikely to betray him. But if he knew me and Benjen and Visenya were in danger he might very well join in. But that would be manipulating him and after what he went through in the last war to get me back home and for me to choose to stay in Dorne, I would be the worst.
"I am unsure." The north is loyal, but even that only goes so far when you keep pulling them into wars. If Ned joined in to defeat Robert the very man the north helped put on the throne then they might start doubting their loyalty. I don't want to pull my family into another war, all I remember is the news of Father and Brandon's deaths because of me.
"Well we can try and get in contact with him later down the line, we first need to know what we are going to do. After informing the kids about the potential for them to be getting engaged and with you two headed to speak with Rhaella, that's all we can do for now." I stand up and leave with Elia walking beside me, Oberyn stayed behind.
Once we have made it a good distance Elia locks her arm with mine and leans onto my shoulder.
"Don't feel like you need to do anything to bring the north into the war, they will get involved regardless. We can always give them a marriage alliance to tie them in so it won't be on your behalf that they join in. It would just be for the best for all of us and your Brother if we were on the same side." I lean my head onto hers and nod, I don't want to have to see my brother on the enemy side, that would be worse than pulling him into the war myself.