7

----

292 AC

Braavos

Rhaella Targaryen

----

Taking a seat next to Daenerys I pull her into my side and she leans into me.

"So how do you feel after turning eight-name days old?" I kiss the top of her head and she looks over at Eragon who is swinging around his new training sword.

"I feel the same, I feel a bit tired though." She yawns and wiggles into me and gets comfortable so I support her as she relaxes.

"Why are you tired?" Is she getting sick and couldn't sleep?

"Eragon stayed up all night long talking about how excited he is to meet his water dancing teacher. He was even more excited than when Ser Barristan started training him last name day." I hold back a chuckle when she yawns again, these two are something else. If one of them isn't dragging them into antics then the other is.

Eragon wouldn't stop asking to learn the water dance after seeing a few duels in the street when we went out undercover. It was hard to find the right teacher though, lots of people would rather sell out position than teach a child how to fight.

"Do you want to go take a nap? After the lesson I could go for a nap, we can go rest together before dinner. First I want to meet the man the sea lord recommended and also Barristan vetted. She is apparently good enough to become the first sword if she wanted to, though there is some issue with her being a girl." Daenerys sits up and turns to look at me.

"A girl is going to teach him how to get better with the sword?" I feel a headache coming on looking at her excitement, this is going to turn out just like I thought it would.

"Yes, she is a very skilled teacher and more importantly she is trustworthy." At least that is what all the sources we looked into said, We will still be cautious with her until we build up some real trust.

"Can I learn? You wouldn't let me learn with Eragon when it was Ser Barristan, you said it was too violent. But if the teacher is a girl then I should also be able to learn." I don't want to disappoint her but I also don't want her to get it in her head that she can run around some battlefield fighting. It is hard enough to watch Viserys and Eragon training, I can see Rhaegar and Daeron in their place. Viserys has slowly started slacking on his training and he never did like it but Eragon is different. He loves to fight so far and even when he gets knocked down in training he jumps back up and starts swinging again. Viserys never showed such a mentality so I don't worry as much about him wanting to join a fight.

I remember reading the message when it first came in letting me know my sons were dead on some field and that I would likely never even see the bodies unless it was their heads on a spike. I don't ever want to have that happen again, I can't stop the boys from training but I can the girls. Shiera didn't have much interest but only for a few days to learn the sword but gave up after Shaena talked to her. But Rhaenyra still asks to learn and now Daenerys is going to start to ask.

"Danny, it isn't very ladylike to fight with swords." I gently stroke her hair and she looks back at Eragon.

"But isn't Eragon going to fight with a sword? How am I supposed to fight if I don't learn how?" I want to say that she won't have to but I know it isn't true. There will come a day when it would be better for her to know but if she knows she will most likely go out of her way to fight.

I pull her back into my side and try to ignore the stress building up once more and an idea comes to me.

"Ok, you can train with the instructor when she gets here. But if she doesn't think you are worth the time or if you are wasting her time then you will have to stop." She has never trained and is likely to give up after getting hit a good few times, this way she will give it up on her own. But after this Rhaenyra will throw a fit if I don't also let her try.

I rub my head thinking about how this meeting is going to go and I feel Daenerys wrap her arms around me.

"Thank you, I won't let you down." I smile bitterly.

"You never could let me down my sweet girl."

----

292 AC

Braavos

Cynthia Amara

----

Following behind the Westerosi man we arrive at a room that seems to have been picked because it's sectioned off on its own.

"You can stay in this room while you are teaching the water dance." I nod and walk inside the room and drop all my things on the bed except my sword. I walk back out of the room and smile at the knight.

"I am ready to begin lessons if they are ready to learn, I have been paid already so I want to begin to forge my student into a proper dancer." The knight nods and looks down at my sword warily and I put my hands up. "I will keep this on me if you don't mind, I just don't feel comfortable if I don't have it on me." If they have a problem with me being ready to defend myself then I will have to cancel my contract with them.

"You need to be armed while you are training kids?" He glares at me sharply.

"I am always armed, even when I bathe I keep my sword with me." His nose scrunches up and is about to speak when someone calls out from behind him.

"Ser Barristan? Ah, there you are." A woman with white hair and beautiful purple eyes walks toward us unaware of the tension, or simply ignoring it. "Hello, you must be Cynthia, It is nice to meet you, I am Shaena." She smiles and I find myself easing out of my stance.

"Nice to meet you Shaena, I was just about to head out to meet my student. That or I was about to leave after refunding and canceling the contract." Her eyes go wide and she looks toward the knight and then back at me and notices the sword and nods.

"I am guessing that you don't want to part with your blade?" Nodding she catches on and bites her lip.

"I always keep it with me, I just don't feel safe without it." The knight's face scrunches up.

"You think we would harm you after hiring you to stay and teach?" Shaena pats his shoulder.

"I don't think she meant it that way, but he is right. We wouldn't have hired you if we just wanted to harm you, we have no hatred toward you." I am not leaving my sword behind, I will probably have to part from them here. "You don't want to leave it behind in the room right?" I nod wondering where she is going with this. "How about I hold it and stay on the side and if someone breaks in to cause trouble I will give it back to you."

So she still wants me to trust them that they aren't going to attack me, well if they did and I at least had a training sword then I would be able to recover my sword before they could kill me. But I would feel a lot better with my sword close by.

"Ok." I unstrap my belt and hand it over to her, I then meet the eyes of the knight once more. "I guess I can meet my student now?" He gives a short nod but puts himself in a position to intercept me if I was to rush for Shaena.

"Well actually about that, apparently when Daenerys heard about you being a woman she wanted to try learning as well. She also wanted to learn from Ser Barristan but mother refused, saying it was for men so she wouldn't get herself hurt. But she can't use that excuse when the teacher is a female." Makes no difference to me since I will be spending most of my time here, they don't want a lot of foot traffic coming in and out attracting attention. But I would guess that has to do with the fact they are Targaryens, still not sure how I feel about that but gold is gold and I keep my word.

"I would be compensated for training the other student, yes?" She nods and we walk in silence to the training yard.

----

"So the two girls and the boy?" A girl who looks to be slightly older than the other two and a boy and girl who are very identical, minus the boy having sharper features and a bit sturdier. The boy has some training but the girls have none and have to begin building some muscle if they want to succeed.

"Yes, sorry about the sudden addition. They convinced me that they could do it, if they aren't up to your standards and you think it a waste of time to teach them just let me know and we can stop." It would seem that this woman Rhaella doesn't actually want them to learn, I smile remembering how much my mother hated it when my father taught me.

"So long as I am paid I will teach them to dance, anyone can learn to swing a sword and hit a man. But learning how to dance involves seeing and feeling, if they can see and feel then they can learn." Before Rhaella can voice a response the older girl speaks up first.

"I can see just fine, I need to learn how to fight." That's the spirit.

"We shall see." I answer.

----

292 AC

Braavos

Rhaenyra Targaryen

----

Why did I want to do this again I asked myself for the fifth time.

Laying on the ground panting I begin to wonder if this is really what I want to do, and then I remember my mother. It has been so long that I can't even remember her face, only her hair, and eyes. I need to be strong if I ever want to see her again.

"You did good today, after you rest try practicing balancing on as few toes as possible. When you are done learning how to dance you will be able to balance on a single toe for an hour or more." I groan internally at that impossible task, but since it is such a hard goal then it will feel just that much more satisfying to reach it.

Grandma only let us start learning because Daenerys managed to trick her, if I give up now then I won't get another chance.

"Here." I hear Eragon and open my tired eyes and see him holding out his hand, I reach for it and wince as my arm feels like it's made of stone. He grabs my hand and pulls me up to my feet. "You did good for your first time, I remember crying when Viserys hit me with the training sword." I smile seeing him try to cheer me up, punching his arm he jumps back and looks at me with a betrayed look.

"I am fine, go help Danny." I turn around and head to get some water to quench my thirst. I probably sweat more today than I have in my whole life.

----

292 AC

Braavos

Daenerys Targaryen

----

"My legs hurt." I groan.

"Yea, that happens." My insensitive twin answers.

"My arms hurt too, mainly my fingers on my sword arm." I massage my wrist that stings.

"That happens too." This jerk isn't showing even half the concern for me he did for Rhaenyra!

"Why did you help Rhaenyra but you don't care that I suffered too?" I glare at him and he smiles wide.

"That's because if I coddle you then you will give up and I want you to succeed." I grit my teeth, that is not true!"

"Your lying, I wouldn't give up just because your nice to me." He grabs my arm and pulls me to my feet and pats my shoulders and sides.

"There, good as new. Follow me and let's stand on our toes!" I am going to stand on my toes longer than him just to prove I can!

Hey, I forgot about the pain when I got mad at him, Is that what he was trying to do?