85
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114 AC
Kingslanding
Viserys Targaryen
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If it is not one thing it's another.
"He did what?" I ask my Hand as the man shifts in his chair a little uncomfortably.
"Daemon claimed Pentos and named himself the Prince of Pentos." I slowly nod and many thoughts go through my mind but only one makes it out of my lips.
"Why?" I can't help but wonder what in the seven hells he is doing.
Why would Daemon suddenly decide to take over Pentos?
It is not hard to see he is not satisfied with 'just' being the the Brother of the King of Westeros... but does that mean he wants to make his own Kingdom?
"All that I can say is that he is not called the Rouge Prince without reason." Otto finally responds after silence fills my bed chambers.
I was just wanting to work on my model of Valyria and now I have to call a small council meeting to discuss what needs to be done. It is like the time recently when Daeron took Lys only this time we can not be certain that the person doing the conquering intends to bend the knee... so to speak.
We knew Rhaenyra and Daeron would have a child and that child would inherit the throne uniting the newly claimed island with the rest of Westeros along with Dorne. But the same can not be said about my Brother who does not even have a child himself... he still is a child in many ways.
Here I was thinking the worst thing going on in my life was my marriage with Aemma collapsing. Now there seems to be another war brewing only this time it's my Brother and not my Good family through Rhaenyra's marriage. I have no idea what Daemon is going to do unlike Daeron and the Stepstones.
Hopefully, word will arrive soon on what he is doing.
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114 AC
Sunspear
Daeron Nymeros Martell
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"I am going to kill you!" Rhaenyra screams as she pushes once more trying to birth one of the twins, her face turning a touch red from the strain.
I rub a chilled towel over her forehead as I sit beside her on the bed and she attempts to crush my hand. This time around I am letting a woman assist with the birthing, unlike last time where I did it all alone pretty much other than obviously Rhaenyra pushing.
My Wife keeps cursing at me just like the first time and it brings back pleasant memories that I can't help but smile at. She cursed and screamed about me never touching her again or even sleeping in the same room again, but that lasted until she was healed up the last time. I expect it to be the same as last time if not a bit longer due to there being two babies this time around.
"You are doing just fine." Aemma speaks up from the side with obvious stress, she almost looks like a war veteran on the fourth of July.
Not that I can blame her.
"I think I am just going to kill myself instead of waiting for this to be me." Myriah mutters from the side of the bed and earns herself an unamused look from nearly everyone in the room.
My heart feels like it stills inside of my chest, something that is easy to notice with how stupidly fast it beats normally. The pitiful and frustrated whine of a new babe fills the room and my whole body tenses as I look at the small baby girl who is lifted into my line of sight. For the first time since thinking about having a girl I am actually confronted with having a girl and all that comes with it comes crashing down on top of me at once.
"It's a beautiful baby girl." Myriah who snaked her way down to where the action is happening takes her niece into her arms as the old woman working her hard-earned skills places the baby girl onto the clean cloth that my Sister was holding.
The cord was quickly dealt with and almost like the world is set to fast forward I only hear a blur of voices and screams as Myriah makes her way around the bed holding my Daughter. I can already see she has been born with more hair than Aegon who was almost bald whereas this girl was born with a visible head of hair.
"Here." Myriah mutters and as she does so I take my Daughter who has her eyes lazy shut and her small mouth parted open with a soft yet defiant scream coming out of it.
"You like Rhaenys for this one?" I ask my Wife without actually looking at her and instead take my Daughter in one arm and use the other to grab my wife's hand again.
"Rhaenys is perfect." I nod happily hearing her slightly hoarse voice, her head leans against my shoulder as she looks at our Daughter along with me. "I sure hope the other one gives me a break, it seems nothing is happening yet after a few painful kicks. I think the one still inside was checking out all the new 'free space' and is content to relax for a moment." I scrunch my nose as I look at her exposed belly and the odd sight of it being almost half the size disturbs me.
I don't know if that is normal or if something is wrong but I am getting a bit worried while also being flooded with happiness from the screaming babe resting on my arm.
"I can't wait to show Aegon." I smile imagining him going wide-eyed seeing his Mother lose so much 'weight' that he has become accustomed to.
I am sure he will also love to have two screaming baby siblings to annoy his head off, his now-established sleep schedule will be wrecked just like he wrecked mine.
"I think he will get jealous." Rhaenyra pouts her lips and lifts her head so I lean my head down and kiss her lips briefly.
"Why do you think that?" I raise a brow at my Wife as she grimaces and pushes me off of her and then lowers her hands to her stomach.
"He is going to be 'fighting' for attention." I only briefly think about her words as my attention is now locked onto her stomach which looks like it's 'coming alive'. "Seems I won't be resting long..." Rhaenyra pitifully whines and I shelf my response to her worries about our Son as I focus on her condition.
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"It's another girl!" Myriah practically cheers as Rhaenyra goes slack and huffs and puffs.
"Two baby girls..." Aemma smiles and kisses her Daughters sweaty forehead which earns a grimace from my Wife who seems to not want to be touched right now.
"I want to be washed off as soon as possible." My Wife gives me a 'look' and I understand what she wants and I nod at Myriah who is helping to swaddle up the other baby girl.
"Thank you for hel-" I tune out Myriah as I look between the two baby girls who look perfectly alike at this point in time and I dread telling them apart.
I close my eyes and shake my head knowing I will likely have hell in the future when they want to try and prank people by swapping places. But I have a little cheat in the way of knowing which will be bonded to which dragon once their eggs no doubt hatch. The Green and Bronze will go to one and the other will get the Cream and Gold, I pray the Cream and Gold will hatch for Rhaenys. Then she can be Rhaenys with Meraxes since the original Meraxes had golden eyes and pale scales.
"Here." Opening my eyes I take my other Daughter on my other arm that is not holding Rhaenys.
"They are the exact same." I lift and lower each arm feeling their weight and smile seeing the both of them kicking their feet which are touching even while swaddled.
"Why did they stop crying?" Aemma asks worriedly as she stands and heads around the bed to get a closer look.
Rhaenyra who had her eyes closed also sits up even with obvious pain and a tremendous amount of effort. But I lower my Wife back down as I watch the old woman who helped birth my twins leave the room.
"They kicked each other and it seems that comforted them or something." The only noise in the room after my words is Rhaenyra dryly chuckling as she shakes her head.
"They are going to be a handful." I nod in agreement as I pass the babes off to their Grandmother who actually climbed onto the bed with her worry obvious to all as she wanted to see what was wrong with the two newborns.
Having a baby die certainly fucks someone up and leaves them with a hair trigger toward baby-related problems... sucks I can't heal mental wounds like I can heal bodily ones.
"Let's get you clean up my beautiful wife." I work my way onto my knees being careful to not shake the bed as my good Mother gets comfortable with both girls in her arms and a wide smile on her face.
"What are you naming the other girl?" Myriah asks as she carries over the water but she almost trips as I bend the water out of the bucket and it loses all of its weight before she can react.
I wink at her as she scowls and when she points at her belly I cringe realizing I was just foolish... still got a pregnant girl around and I can't 'horseplay' just yet.
"I like Nymeria... but it might cause problems with Rhaenys being firstborn and the one who will inherit Sunspear and Dorne." I begin cleansing my wife and healing any wounds she might have accumulated as I see more than a little blood.
"Nymeria works for now, worst case I head over to Essos and claim Ny Sar the city Nymeria ruled, and have it rebuilt so my second Daughter has a fitting seat of power." That earns me a strange look from Aemma and Myriah but Rhaenyra smiles softly as she relaxes her body under my skillful hands.
"That... that might make her quite a lot of enemies." Aemma seems hesitant but I merely scoff remembering the news from Pentos that arrived just last night.
I have not heard from the Sea Lord but I am sure he is conflicted, on one hand, Daemon will likely get rid of slavery but on the other hand, Braavos has a neighbor who has a dragon.
"After What I did with Lys and Daemon with Pentos all of Essos will be walking on eggshells around anything to do with dragons. Many will begin to arm themselves for combat against dragons like the Triarchy tried to do in the Stepstones." I lower my voice a bit seeing both newborns and my Wife nod off into sleep. "...but it won't matter, just Gaelithox alone is enough to take Essos if I rushed everyone, I am not worried about reclaiming the Mother Rhoyne as its something I have long planned to do with the Children of the Green Blood." I know the 'True Rhoynar' will cheer the day I tell them to sail back to the Rhoyne.
Knowing I am helping them to reclaim their ancestral home will send many if not all of them trying to swim back if that is what it takes to get them there. I think I will have all of the Rhoyne reclaimed and beat Norvos and Qohor into submission before I make it a Princedom and pass it to Nymeria for her to inherit.
Not sure what I will do with Volantis, they see themselves as the last true remnant of Valyria and would never surrender to the rule of a child of Nymeria even if said child had a dragon. Volantis might just have to get the Fire and Blood treatment or maybe I could have the slaves revolt by arming them temporally with weapons that they will give back. I won't leave them armed, that would just entice them to try and revolt under my Daughters rule as well.
But no matter what I do, I know there is free land and the Dothraki are all that has stopped others from claiming it in truth for themselves. Qohor might use the river to trade lumber with Volantis but they do not have settlements along the river. Volantis has a few old settlements on the river but they are plagued by the Dothraki and are feeble small villages at best.
Dragons will deal with any Horse Lord threat, then the river might as well be free real estate.