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Maegor IV

22AC

After the marriage was completed, all of the nobles who attended the wedding went back to their respective seats. So our small family moved to the Aegonfort and my father began the final preparations for another Royal Progress. My father and mother were preparing the details for this prior to the wedding as this progress had been scheduled a year ago but now it was almost time to leave. 

The rationale behind it was the stabilization of the realm, showing himself and his dragon off to the different lords of the realm and keeping them in line. There were still lots of people who remembered when there were Seven Kingdoms instead of one, de facto two but nobody gave a damn about Dorne, so Aegon wanted to thoroughly ingratiate himself with his new lords. The planned progress was to be in the Riverlands, it was going to be a short progress as a few sennights after their wedding Alyssa announced that she was pregnant. So my father planned a smaller progress so that he could be back in time for the birth of his first grandchild.

The planned route was going to be Maidenpool, the Twins, Raventree Hall, Riverrun, Stone Hedge, and finally Harrenhal. The goal was to spend about one moon at each of the castles and then move on to the next one. This was normally how my father planned his progresses. He would be in one of his kingdoms for six moons out of the twelve and then move back to King's Landing for the rest of the year. 

The retinue that normally followed my father on these progresses departed a few sennights before my father as travel across dragon back was nothing compared to the arduous overland journey. Roads in this kingdom were in a deplorable state. Some wealthier kingdoms had some small road networks between towns but even those were old and weathered by time. Most of Westeros was connected with dirt paths that made travel agonizing. 

Before my father could depart my brother decided against going on the progress. He wanted to stay in King's Landing to be with his pregnant wife. Which was a problem as he was supposed to go with our father while I stayed in the city to be with my mother who would sit the Iron Throne in my father's absence. So I thought he was going to just do the progress alone when he suddenly asked me to accompany him. I jumped at the chance, to see Westeros and finally appear on the great stage. After my mother gave my father an icey state she agreed and my father would be progressing with his other son this time.

So I found myself walking towards my dragon once more and I could only marvel at how busy this year had been. The previous nine years of my new life had been busy but in one year it felt like I had done as much as my previous nine combined. All the dragons were housed at the Aegonfort until the Dragonpit could actually be finished. The craftsmen were working even faster now that they had priority on workers, but it would still take some more years before it would be finished. 

Balerion and Terrax looked eerily similar, there were some differences but they were slight. Balerion had black wing membranes and black eyes, unlike the ash-gray wing membranes and green eyes of my own Dragon. Some called my dragon little Balerion but the Dragonkeepers had given him another name. 

The Dragonkeepers of King's Landing called him Terrax the Terror. Terrax was a right prick to almost everyone he ever met with very few exceptions. He liked me as his rider, I earned back his trust and favor after the whipping training with some smoked meats sneaked his way, and he barely tolerated the Dragonkeepers on Dragonstone. More came here after we all moved off Dragonstone but the ones that moved here after the Conquest had a really hard time with Terrax, he would bite and snap at the Dragon keepers and one of them, a young one, even lost a few fingers when he got too close during the feeding. So I think every single Dragonkeeper in the city breathed a sigh of relief once me and my father left the city atop our dragons.

My first royal progress was to be my debut. I appeared before many lords in Oldtown but I was still a mystery to most of the realm. This time I would present a positive image of the second prince. I had practiced dancing and etiquette with my mother in the time before we left as she decided it was important to expedite my education after Oldtown. I was unprepared for the wedding and feast in Oldtown and I had no intention of repeating that mistake. My father placed his trust in me and I had every intention to live up to his expectations. I would swallow my pride and play nice with the stuck-up nobles for this trip and display myself as a perfect prince to the realm, as my mother would want.

…

Maidenpool was apparently one of the nicer towns in Westeros but I guess I had been spoiled by Dragonstone as I found it boring. The pink walls that surrounded the town were interesting, and so was the castle that was also pink but I couldn't help but compare everything to Dragonstone. No paved roads, wooden houses were much less interesting to look at, and no plumbing, and no public baths. It reminded me that I truly did live in a medieval world. It was easy to forget sometimes, living on Dragonstone.

Thankfully, our stay went quickly, my father spoke to Lord Willard Mooton about all his troubles. I was once more reminded of how little patience I had for the endless platitudes, pleasantries, and other nonsense the high lords of Westeros seemed to get so hung up on. I could not tell where I got my disdain for them, ' was it from my past life or from my mother in this life? ' That was a question I had asked in my head a fair few times since Oldtown. 

As I aged into this body I found it harder and harder to distinguish my ideas. I still remembered much of my old life but the finer details were beginning to slip away. My soft impressionable child brain was quick to pick up the new languages and weird way of speaking but it also meant that I was picking up other things from those around me. It was a blessing and a curse as paradoxically, the older I grew the less mature I became. My adolescent brain and hormones were affecting my personality more than I wished it would. 

I decided not to dwell on that though. I figured I should try to treat it as a blessing. It was easy to fall into a spiral of depression and my adapting personality was helpful in that regard. It helped me get used to the comparatively squalid conditions most people lived through in this world.

Our next stop was not so bad though, we were going to the Twins. Lord Ryman Frey met me and my father outside his castle. I had some reservations about the Freys, mostly from my past life but the ones I had met were not so bad. Their castle was pretty cool for one, it had a domineering appearance with high walls and deep moats. It looked like a properly defensible castle, unlike so many I had seen flying over the Riverlands. It was also newer and less miserable when compared to the hellscapes I flew over in the Reach and Riverlands.

Unlike most lords, the Freys were not quite as stuck up, maybe because they were looked down upon by the other nobles. Though the reasoning did not really matter, all in all, I found them downright tolerable. They treated us with respect and I thought it was genuine.

I spent the moon trouncing the two and ten-year-old Lyman of House Frey, we had five and ten bouts over the moon we stayed there and I beat the poor Frey boy five and ten times. My knight, Ser Gawen, was accompanying us on this progress so my training continued, it was him and Lord Ryman who set up the duel.  He looked kind of similar to Aenys, just with brown hair and eyes and he was shorter, so with his spindly frame, he crumpled under my attacks. Though Lord Ryman did not hold it against me I do not think his heir was all that fond of me by the time we left. 

Our next stop was Raventree Hall, home of House Blackwood. I had high hopes for this visit as I wanted to see a weirwood for the longest time. There weren't any weirwood trees in King's Landing and there was certainly not one on Dragonstone so I thought this was my chance. House Blackwood did have a weirwood tree but it was very dead. Its branches swayed in the wind with the damned crows sitting on top of them. I was thoroughly creeped out by the sight but the rest of my stay was not so bad. 

Lord Roland Blackwood met us outside his castle and he was jovial for our entire visit. I do not think I ever saw a frown on his face the entire time we stayed there. He seemed resoundingly pleased by something and at the time I had not the faintest idea of what. We feasted for days and House Blackwood did not present any problems to my father so by all accounts it seemed like the Blackwoods had all their affairs in order. I was impressed, my father had resolved lots of conflicts between lords which Lord Tully was not capable of doing. Yet this stay was more of a moon-long party where we feasted and danced and hunted for the stay.

Riverrun was next and my stay there was almost identical to my stay at Raventree Hall. Little real political issues and more partying. I did not know what to think of the Tullys before I met them but I was pleasantly surprised. I found that my brother aptly described them as not problematic when I asked him. I had to agree with his assessment, the Tullys were never kings so they were much less stuck up than the other families that had been kings prior to my father's conquest of their kingdoms. 

I spent my time at Riverrun doing more than the rest of the trip combined. I continued besting people in the yard, following my father around, and swimming in the nice, calm Red Fork. The river was slower than the Green Fork so I could actually swim in it. My mother had "taught" me how to swim on Dragonstone so I spent a full day swimming around the castle; the relatively clean Red Fork was a nice change of pace from the disgusting Blackwater Rush that was aptly named. 

Above all else the young Tully lord was a decent man and cared about his smallfolk and his new family, his heir was born just a few moons before the wedding. His father was my own father's Hand of the King in the past so there were many pleasant conversations I got to listen in to. So the Tullys were hardly the worst family I had to deal with on this progress. That title would be taken by the Brackens.

Stone Hedge was a stay I did not want to repeat for a long time. There was nothing creepy about the castle, unlike Raventree Hall, but it was the people that made me so averse to the stay. The Brackens brought countless issues and problems to my father and there were no fun activities to be had around the quite boring Stone Hedge. While the Brackens did not openly say anything to my father about our visit I caught a lot of the whispers of the staff. They were irritated that we went to House Blackwood before them and I could only question their sanity. We stopped at Raventree Hall because it was convenient for our trip. We went north to Maidenpool and then further north to the Twins. Then we went south to Raventree Hall and now we are traveling southeast towards King's Landing once more. The incessant whispering and sneers got on my nerves and I was overjoyed when we finally left their castle.

… 

Harrenhal was absolutely enormous, even from the sky. It completely dominated my bird's eye view of the land and I could scarcely believe it was made by humans. We touched down in the godswood, which could have comfortably housed all the Targaryen dragons and still had enough room to run around the place. The towers were like the skyscrapers of my old life, just without anywhere near as much glass and mostly being made of melted stone. They completely took over the skyline and everywhere I looked in the castle I saw more of the same, black walls and towers.

As we touched down and dismounted from our dragons I asked my father a question that was bothering me since I learned we were coming here. "Is it weird coming to this castle after the Conquest?" I queried in High Valyrian. 

I did not need to speak to him in the language but I liked how it sounded. My mother basically only ever spoke in High Valyrian on Dragonstone so I just kind of copied her. Now that I was on the continent I would probably use the mother tongue like my father and Aenys do. As a more private language. Far more people spoke Andal here than High Valyrian after all. 

"Haha, a little bit son, though it is weirder coming here and not expecting to see Ser Quenton," my father smiled at first but then it disappeared.

"I am sorry I could not meet him, mother says he was a good man," I quickly responded, I hated making people feel bad, especially those who treated me well. I also wanted to close the gap between me and Aegon. He was a cool person and the awkwardness between us was stifling. 

"Yes, he was a good man, he trained me and your mother how to fight and was well-liked by all," my father said looking nostalgic. That made me wonder, I knew how good my mother was, as I had seen her train in the mornings on a few occasions but I had no idea how good my father was. ' Probably phenomenal, given my mother's high opinion of him, ' I thought with a smile.

"Was he any good? Like a fighter in his own right?" I had gotten more and more interested in fighting, ever since I got my first sword I began practicing daily and now that I was squired by Ser Gawen I began comparing warriors more often. I was good, really good if Ser Gawen was to be believed. He was not one for many compliments but given that he was running out of squires that could keep up with me and had moved me towards fighting men at arms instead of squires. I must have been pretty damn good.

"Oh yes, he was a great warrior, even into his elder years. Hells, in his prime he could probably give Ser Corlys and Ser Gawen a run for their money, but he is gone now." Aegon looked nostalgic and a little sad. He must have missed him greatly. Another flaw of this world is that many people died young, seeing people older than the mid-sixties was odd.

We were walking the path in this ridiculous Godswood and our conversation ended. My father and I had quite a few little conversations like this throughout our progress. I would try to start a conversation or my father would but we quickly ran out of things to talk about. I barely had a relationship with him, I do not think we have even been near each other for more than a moon collectively over my entire life. This coupled with my sheltered upbringing meant I had basically no chance to get a proper conversation with the man. I kept trying to talk with him but after five moons of trying I decided to tone it back, there was a distance between us as of now, and letting it close more naturally was probably for the best. Despite my ardent desire to close it quickly. 

We reached the end of the godswood and were met by House Qoherys. It was a very small house, just four people. Normally we would be met with a handful of main house members and around a dozen branch family members. This house was different, only three people came to greet us, a tired-looking man, a very proud-looking woman, and the white-haired girl I had danced with in Oldtown. The small size piqued my interest. In this world of medieval standards and basically no readily available contraception families ballooned like crazy. My own house managed it through very expensive contraceptives like moon tea. Most houses could not or did not want to, spend a small fortune on a continuous supply of the drink. That and the Faith detested its usage. As a result, the main limiter on families was usually the death of the mother. So to say I was interested in their family was an understatement.

Another interesting thing I saw while Daeron Qoherys, Lord of Harrenhal, was presenting the bread and salt for guests right was the girl I had danced with in Oldtown. I had not forgotten her but she had escaped my mind until now. She was staring at me and when I finally caught her eye she smiled and waved nervously. ' Maybe I made a friend? Gods I hope so. ' Only being able to call my brother my friend was disconcerting and I was hoping to make some new ones. 

"Harrenhal is yours, Your Grace," Daeron Qoherys said in Andal, and then all the staff dispersed. 

"Good morrow Daeron, I hope you are doing well, though I think you are missing a son," Aegon said with a melancholic smile but he raised an eyebrow at the end. 

Lord Daeron Qoherys smiled nervously and scratched the back of his head, "I am doing alright, Your Grace. Managing this castle is exhaustive work but I am managing. I apologize on my son's behalf, he is currently in Harrenton, I will send someone to fetch him." Daeron said kind of nervously, as if he was expecting a punishment.

"Father, may I go look around this castle while you catch up?" I wanted to escape this conversation, death hung in the air during it and I did not want to cry. 

"Of course, would you like someone to show you around?" my father responded and sent a not-so-subtle message to Lord Daeron to find one for me. 

"I can go, Father, I have already finished my chores if you would permit it," the girl I danced with said again. ' I guess that makes sense, we did leave Stone Hedge pretty late, ' I thought with bitterness. I could not have gotten out of that wretched castle faster even if I tried.

"That would be great, thank you dear," Daeron said and gave her a side hug. Then we departed the yard that we were standing in and the girl led me towards the biggest tower. 

"Greetings, Prince Maegor." Thankfully she broke the ice, I was terrible at starting conversations.

"It is nice to see you again Lady … Qoherys," I said but I paused when I came to a startling realization. I was always kind of scatterbrained, even in my old life. It grew worse as a consequence of being trapped in the mind of a child for years on end. She told me her name once in a very loud room and then I left the city. So with absolute terror in my head, I thought, ' Oh gods, I do not know her name. '

"You forgot my name…" she said with a straight face.

"Uhm, yes. I am sorry." 

"Haha, a Prince apologizing to me." She smiled but I was still embarrassed and she still looked upset.

"So why do you want to see our destroyed castle, my prince?" She rebounded quickly but still did not give me her name. I thought it was annoying but did not let it stop me.

"Our fathers were giving off quite a bit of gloom, I would rather not cry from exposure." 

"Yeah, unfortunately, this castle tends to do that." 

"So why did your brother not come to meet us?" I questioned as we made our way inside the main tower, the Kingspyre Tower. There were five but this one was the only one that had people coming in and out.

"He is a manwhore, he is probably the main reason the brothels in Harrenton make a profit, he spends most of his time there since he turned five and ten," she said with clear bitterness in her voice before she quickly backtracked.

"Uhhh, sorry my prince, please forgive my crass speech," she said and bowed her head in apology. ' Did she think I was going to complain? Why would I? I love drama when it does not involve me, ' I thought with a smile. Drama was one of the few entertaining things in this world. I got some enjoyment out of the occasional mummer but most entertainment in this world bored me. Aside from swordplay that is.

"You need not apologize. Speak how you feel, I am not going to complain to your father about it."

"I appreciate the sentiment but the staff here will tell my father, so play along please," she said in a whisper.

"Oh, alright," I continued the whisper before I said more loudly, "I will forgive the slight this time, Lady Qoherys." 

She chuckled and we moved onwards with the tour. As we stopped talking and moved through the great hall I could only marvel at it. It was almost the size of the entire Aegonfort. This whole castle was ridiculous, the Kingspyre tower that I was being shown had a seemingly endless number of stairs. As we neared the middle of the tower the Lady Qoherys began speaking with me again.

"Above here is just the living quarters, so we can go to another tower now, my prince." She said with a little boredom in her tone.

"Do you not like your home, Lady Qoherys?"

"No, my prince. It is terribly boring. Nothing happens here and it is so big it is annoying to traverse." 

"Well then I suppose I should apologize for requesting a guide," I said with a sarcastic edge in my voice. I liked being snarky when I could. It was easy to be one around the morons in this world and I looked forward to putting many of them in their place.

"Uh, no no it's not a problem, I am happy to show you around, my prince," she had a blush on her very pale cheeks and appeared a little nervous.

"Haha, I am glad to hear it! Now tell me, why have you not repaired the towers? The towers still look like melted candles, surely you would want to live in a castle with proper walls no?" I questioned and I was serious. Harrenhal still looked like a wreck, the sharp lines that made up most castles melted into smoothed-out edges and made the entire castle look wrong. Even the walls were melted and seemed to bend a little. Though the Kingspyre Tower is much nicer than the others, its walls have been patched up and it looks like it actually lived in, unlike the widow's tower that we crossed to during our discussion.

"We would love to but we do not have the coin for such a venture," she said with a little bitterness and I realized I was being rude. My thirst for knowledge meant that sometimes I came off rude and I had been trying to curb the behavior. I did not want to be known as "The Cruel" later in life. I wanted a nicer epithet. 

"Why not tear the unused towers down then? Make use of the brick and stone elsewhere?" 

"We have not the coin for that either, this castle brought old Harren's kingdom to the brink of collapse, we are mere lords, tearing down this castle or trying to rebuild it would cost a fortune, which we do not have."

"So you are trapped in a cycle then? You pay for what you can because you cannot afford to repair the entire castle. The parts of the castle you cannot pay for decay from no upkeep. Then the coin required to repair gets higher so the cycle repeats" 

"Correct, my prince. Though we are able to maintain the Kingspyre Tower and the walls at least, if not repair them." 

"Are the other towers not a danger then? Will they not collapse?" 

"My father called in a craftsman from Dragonstone to give him an idea of what to do about Harrenhal. He said that the towers will take decades, maybe centuries to actually fall apart, and we do not have the coin to tear the towers down, so we just leave them."

"How did you manage to call in someone from Dragonstone? They normally limit their contracts to the Crownlands." It was true, the craftsmen were renowned for their skill and knowledge and were often contracted out by local lords to do some work. If most were not busy in my father's city then I think they would probably be spread out all over the Crownlands as of now.

"There are still some connections from my grandfather's time on Dragonstone. He was well-liked by the people on the island, and also well-connected with the guilds."

"And you still keep these connections up? I figured you would prioritize connections in your new home. I know your family used to call Dragonstone home but would you not want to be more connected with your fellow Riverlords?" 

"Of course we would, my prince. My grandfather tried by marrying a Tully but they both died before anything could come from that and most Riverlords look down on us for our being new. Now can we get back to the tour or do I need to tell you the entire history of our house?" She finished her sentence with a snarky question and a raised eyebrow. 

"What is with this change in demeanor? I thought you were worried about the staff overhearing you." If she wanted to be snarky I could meet her there. 

"Sure, I do not want a lecture from my father or mother but you already said you will not tell them about how I speak, and there is nobody in this tower to overhear me, aside from the birds, bats, and the rats."

"Oh? You have a lot of trust in someone you will not tell your name to." 

"I already did, you merely cannot remember."

"Well I have been very busy, and you only told me it once."

"You only asked once."

"I am asking now."

"No."

"No?"

"Let's get on with this tour, my prince," she said with a smile and we continued along the tour once more. This girl was very annoying, but not in the same way as the other nobles. I was annoyed at how easily she danced around these conversations. Unlike the other lords who talked so carefully around me, she was the opposite. She spoke to me like a friend, it was refreshing in this world of dull formalities.

"How does your family put up with you speaking like this?" 

"How does your family put up with all your questions?"

"Normally they answer them and I start talking about more fun things like swordplay or magic," I replied dryly, I was getting tired of her dodging. I was very knowledge hungry and I had to relearn much of what I lost in my memory over time. 

"You know magic?!" she yelled at me and I sighed. 

' Oh great, ' I thought with a mental facepalm. My mother had already told me of my father's restrictions on magic. He thought it would alienate us from the Andals on the continent so he forbade its usage. Unless you were on Dragonstone, where the locals did not know or care what went on in the castle. 

"A little, my mother is better than me though," I said flatly. It was unfortunate but I was nowhere near as good as my mother when it came to using Glass Candles for more than glorified matches. I had gone through many lessons but they all came up short. My mother did not seem that upset but I was. Magic was so cool but being locked out from some of it off pure ability vexed me. 

"Could you show me?" she asked with puppy dog eyes and I decided I could rectify this. 

"No," I said flatly. If she wanted to withhold her name I would withhold my magic. ' Maybe I can avoid a lecture from my father too, ' I thought dryly. I wanted to get closer to my father, not draw his ire. 

"Aww come on! Please?" she tried again and just as I was about to make the deal we were cut off.

"Prince Maegor! His Grace, King Aegon, has requested your presence!" a servant wearing the red yellow, and black of house Qoherys appeared seemingly out of nowhere but he was out of breath so I assume he was running around to find us.

He scared the living hell out of me and the girl and then we had to cut our tour short. I lost my chance at learning her name again. I was going to leverage the story, in return for her name I would tell it. 'I will try once more tomorrow' I thought with a smile. This little game we were playing was just as much fun as it was annoying. 

…

My father wanted to call me over to explain our living quarters, as the night was fast approaching. Due to Harrenhal's disrepair, we were housed in the Kingspyre Tower with the Qoherys family and their staff. We were given old King Harren's chambers. Must have been ironic for my father, to stay in the room of the man he burned to a crisp just some odd twenty years ago.

I was confused why he called me, in the last few stops he was content to mostly let me do my own thing, so long as I got his permission. I decided to ask him what was different here.

"Good evening, Father. You wished to speak to me?" 

"I did, son" he looked downright frightened. ' What did he see a ghost? ' I thought as I took a seat across from him.

"It is time that we actually talked, Maegor."

"What do you mean father? We have been speaking to each other this entire progress." 

"No, we have been passing words back and forth but not truly talking. I was avoiding it because it was uncomfortable but we need to address what we both are avoiding."

"...Why do this here?"

"Because we are alone here, nobody will bother us and we can properly speak, alone" 

"So what do you want to talk about?" There was plenty to talk about. I decided to let him make the first move.

"I want to apologize for not being in your life more."

"What?" I was not expecting him to be so blunt. His tone was similar to the one my mother always used, it was a little surreal hearing the same exact tone in another voice.

"I should have been in your life more. I busied myself with raising Aenys and ruling the kingdom and I failed my second son." My father looked genuinely upset with himself.

I had my own reservations about this. I appeared fine but I grew up in my old world with a loving family. Visenya loved me, she was kind of weird about it sometimes, and she was certainly not perfect, but she was a good mother. She was gone for half the year but her kind of overbearing nature meant that I got plenty of attention. 

Not having a father was weird. I do not think I turned out all that bad, luckily I already had been parented in my last life, but knowing that he had a dragon and could have visited whenever he pleased made me feel a little bad. He could have come to visit for more than a single day at a time. Yet the first time I spent more than a day in the same place as him was a few moons ago. Even on his short visits, he avoided me.

"Why did you not visit me more?" I really did not want to have this conversation, letting this tension go away naturally was probably better. But if he was forcing me to, I wanted some answers.

"I was only able to visit for a few days at a time, I was regularly needed back in King's Landing." He looked regretful, though it only made me want to question him more. 

"Could you not skip a progress and come see me for more than a day?" I had to know, I wanted to ask him so much, he had so much to offer yet I was denied it all. The childish part of me was upset that he had ignored me. The more mature part wanted to know more about this near-mythical figure.

"I probably could have, definitely should have, but I was so very busy making my kingdom whole. Coupled with raising Aenys. I hate to admit it but visiting Dragonstone often slipped my mind." 

"You could not even skip one progress? How important are these trips, you do the same thing at every castle."

"Maegor, I am the king of what used to be seven kingdoms. All the different lords I now rule over need to see my face in their castle. Know things are different now, me and your mother shed tens of thousands of lives to claim Westeros, I do not want to subject you to the same fate. So I travel my kingdom on these progresses to ensure their loyalty, so you will not have to fight as me and your mother once did," he explained his reasoning to me and it pissed me off because it made sense and I could not blame him, yet I was still upset.

"You spent half the year in King's Landing when you were not on a progress. Could you not have gone to Dragonstone more? Or brought me to King's Landing? I did not meet my brother until I was ten." Above all else, this is what made me upset. There is no real reason that they could not have flown to Dragonstone for a few moons of the year. If I had met Aenys earlier I think we both would have been better off for it. From what I could tell we were both fairly starved for interaction. Plus maybe I could have begun to influence him sooner.

"I am going to be honest with you Maegor, Aenys was a very difficult child. He was weak and frail from the moment he was born and after his mother's death, it looked like he was going to die. I grew so fearful that he would that I made him my priority. As a result, I failed to visit you as much as I should have. I did not bring you to King's Landing because your mother wanted you with her on Dragonstone. As much as I wanted you to come to the Aegonfort and be with me and Aenys, I would not separate you from her. I am guilty of that and I can do nothing but apologize," he said once more with guilt and regret.

"You can do more than just apologize," I said and he grew curious. "I may look two and ten but I am still a boy. You can still be a father to me if you wish," I said with honesty. To be frank, I did not want to destroy my relationship with my father in this world. I could hold a grudge and make his life difficult but I did not care for that. I had a good relationship with my previous father and I would like to continue that in this life if possible. I was upset that he neglected me, but it was not irreparable. I liked my life on Dragonstone and now that I was out and about in the world I can change a few things up. I may look like a teenager but this body was only ten years old.

"I thought you would reject me, for what I did, or rather, did not do." 

"Mother says that life is short, I might as well make the most of mine," I said with a genuine smile and he smiled back.

This was not going to be easy, even if we were both willing we had ten years of de facto separation to overcome. It was not insurmountable however, Aenys and I grew closer every day we spoke and with any luck, my father will grow just as close. I did not want family drama, I wanted to enjoy this world as much as I could. It was already terrible here, no need to make it worse with avoidable conflicts.

Shiera II

22AC

Shiera woke up groggily in her bed and she looked out her glass-lacking window to see the sun. Normally her mother woke her up early and she was confused why she had not. Then, suddenly, she was hit with the realization she had come to last night. She spent the previous day being rude to Prince Maegor and she never even apologized. 

She had been worried her life would return to its boring monotony once she arrived back at her family's enormous wreck of a castle. The Oldtown wedding was the most fun she had ever had, getting to leave her sheltered life and meet all sorts of new people, see all sorts of new sights, and experience things she had never even dreamed of. Then, almost like it never happened, it was over and their family was shoved into a carriage and sent home. The ride back was just as bad as the ride there, maybe worse with the bad weather in the Northern Reach. After two more moons of travel, they arrived in their hulking ruin of a castle.

As soon as they returned, her father asked her how befriending the Velaryons went. It was only then she admitted to her family that she had not spoken to Aeron Vealryon again, and relayed what happened with Prince Maegor. Her father turned ghost white and chastised her for her brazenness, commanding a prince for a dance could have brought his displeasure on their family and Shiera suddenly realized the truth about the whole event. She was not thinking too much during it, she was so excited with everything going on that the etiquette her mother taught her was forgotten. She only then realized she was acting out of turn and she suddenly felt much more embarrassed about the whole thing. A mere lady pressuring a Prince of the Realm into dancing with her, ' That looks really bad, ' she thought with fright after she received quite some chiding.

So she retreated back into her typical behavior, reading and rereading the same books she has read all of her life in the Harrenhal library. Being quiet and not overly social with the staff. Joining her mother in her duties as lady of Harrenhal and helping her father when she could. Though, she did continue quietly insulting her lecherous brother below her breath. She fell into this routine day after day and feared it would be her life until the end of time. Like Oldtown was a brief glimpse into what could have been but it was torn away, and she was forced back into her ordinary world.

Then she learned of the Royal Progress. When the King visited their castle on the last royal progress she was only six name days old and thus did not remember it very well. This time, however, she might get to speak with the King and perhaps even the Queen now that she is back in King's Landing for the foreseeable future. She only learned from her father when the progress was at Stone Hedge that the King was not accompanied by either his Queen or his heir Prince Aerys or his new wife, lady Alyssa Velaryon. It would only be King Aegon and his second son, Prince Maegor Targaryen.

Prince Maegor accompanying his father on this progress was absolutely not what she had expected. She asked about previous progresses and it was always the King and his firstborn son, Prince Aenys. Prince Maegor always remained on Dragonstone with or without his mother. She had never even heard of him being with the King until she met him in Oldtown. ' Oh gods, I pressured him into a dance last time we spoke, ' Shiera thought in terror at the time, lightly nibbling on her fingernails. She would have to work hard to rectify her mistakes, by any means necessary.

The two Targaryen dragons that touched down in the godswood the previous looked similar, if not identical. They were of almost the same coloration though one was far far larger than the other. Her father quickly shuffled out all their meager family and their staff to meet the royals in the yard in front of the Kingspyre Tower. She could hardly stop fidgeting and shifting her feet, she did not want to disappoint her father more so she endeavored to cause no trouble.

' Gargon is supposed to be the disappointing child, not me! ' she thought at the time as she stared at the royals exiting the Godswood. Gargon was not present, a gross sign of disrespect. ' I wonder how bad his punishment will be this time, ' she thought with a momentary smile, her terror caught in a quick break. She may have been nervous but she always loved insulting Gargon. He certainly deserves everything she gave him. 

Her brother was a fat, worthless, slob. He never listened to any of her father's lessons and unlike herself, he did not use the lapse in lessons to learn or read. He spent his time in the disgusting brothel of Harrenton. She had hoped he would at least show up for the meeting with the royals but it seemed her brother was even more of a pathetic failure than she thought he was.

When her father was welcoming King Aegon into the castle she could not help but look at Prince Maegor. He looked really similar to his father, but he had his mother's eyes and high cheekbones. He caught her staring and she awkwardly waved, he waved back with a smile. Shiera nearly breathed a sigh of relief. ' I might be able to pull myself back from the brink, ' she thought at the time as her father and the king began reminiscing over her dead grandfather.

Soon after that, she found herself showing Prince Maegor around her own home. She was originally just going to be silent and let some servant show Prince Maegor around but a small voice in her head told her ' Do not let this chance pass you up! ' 

As the tour began she endeavored to be the perfect little lady, following all of her mother's teachings that she really only paid a little attention to. She was always more interested in books and reading or playing pranks on her brother, now she wished she had paid more attention then. She declared to herself that she would not act out again, she did not want to embarrass or make her father even more stressed. Daeron Qoherys had two children, Gargon was an irredeemable failure but she was not, she may have slipped up but her current situation was not set in stone, she could apologize to the prince properly after showing him around her castle and all would be well.

That was when she learned he forgot her name. She could not believe it, even now. ' What kind of nonchalant life do you live where you can forget people like they are nothing, we danced just a few moons ago! You did not even dance with anyone else! ' she thought with extreme frustration at the time, though she regretted feeling that way now. She had let her little mask slip and soon she was acting forward again, just like in Oldtown. She would speak out of turn and even tease him, much to her current terror. 

As Prince Maegor was shown more of Harrenhal he would not stop asking questions about seemingly everything under the sun, most of them made sense too, it was so very annoying so eventually she just forcefully changed the subject of their conversation. She thought they finally got into a pleasant talk in the Widow's Tower about magic, but then he was called away by his father. They saw each other again at dinner but Maegor was sat next to his father and she by her mother, so she did not get to ask him about magic. She went to bed annoyed, knowing an explanation was just out of reach. Then she got ready for bed and the realization hit her like a sack of bricks.

Only once Shiera cleared her head just before sleep did she realize her blunder in full. She had gotten so caught up in Prince Maegor forgetting her name that she acted out again. In hindsight, she could hardly believe she so brazenly claimed he would not sell her out to her father or mother. She was surprised to wake up without one of her parents throwing her out, as it was what the logical outcome of her interactions with the prince yesterday would have been. She would have to properly thank him later. 

After getting ready in the morning and getting into her dress for the day she went out to the yard to find her father. Aimlessly wandering the castle she called home and looking for a prince was not a good idea. Plus, her father normally had some things for her to do which were always more interesting than the ones her mother had. She would much rather help her father read petitions from Harrenton or their irritating landed knights than join her mother embroidering. She reached the balcony overlooking the yard after a very long walk, Harrenhal was quite large. Soon she found her father in the yard, speaking with King Aegon.

Looking around the yard she found another, perhaps more interesting sight, her lecherous slob of a brother in a bout with a prince of the realm. Looking at her brother she noticed him to be struggling, his armor was covered in mud and so was his sword. Prince Maegor meanwhile had some mud on his boots and some specks of it placed around his armor but was otherwise clean. Prince Maegor was shorter than Gargon though not by much, just looking at him one would not realize that he was only ten-name days old. Though Prince Maegor was shorter he had some distinct advantages, the most important ones being that her brother was fat, weak-willed, and a failure. She had never seen him in the yard in the two and ten years she knew her brother. She was curious to see how he fared now. 

Prince Maegor began with a charge and an overhead swing of his sword. They were no doubt blunted but her brother felt the blow as he staggered back. Prince Maegor then entered a defensive stance and invited Gargon to attack. Gargon roared and delivered a fury of blows at Prince Maegor which were all blocked with his sword or accompanying shield. After her brother tired himself out thoroughly on Prince Maegor's rugged defense, he fell apart. Prince Maegor charged her brother and hit him in the chest with his shield. The sound of the hit resounded all around the yard, her brother was tipped like a fat cow and ended up on his back in the mud.

The staff all cheered the Prince on his victory and Prince Maegor offered Gargon his hand to pull him up. ' He must be quite heavy, ' she thought with a wicked smile but it did not seem as if Prince Maegor struggled to lift him. After Gargon was helped up he walked away muttering something, surely he would claim the match to be unfair, despite being both heavier and older than Prince Maegor. The prince then moved towards the edge of the yard where King Aegon was sitting with her father watching the bout.

Prince Maegor removed his helmet and walked towards his father and the King was the one who spoke first. She could not hear all of it because she was a bit far away despite having started moving forward towards her father. She heard only one sentence. King Aegon said, "Ser Gawen has taught you well." She assumed Prince Maegor would have thanked him and agreed but she arrived before he could.

"Good morrow, Your Grace, my prince, father"

"Oh, good morrow, Shiera," her father said and Prince Maegor smiled mischievously. ' Oh great, ' she thought, fighting to keep the look of dread off her face. She meant to tell her name to him as an apology for being rude. ' There goes that chance, ' she thought regretfully. She would have to find another way to get back into his good graces.

"How would you like to show Prince Maegor around Harrenton?" King Aegon asked her and she practically jumped in her heart.

"I…  I mean, I would love to, Your Grace!" she responded awkwardly and the King smiled kindly at her. 

Then Prince Maegor also smiled at her and left to clean himself off before going out into the town with her. Now was her chance to plan it out. ' Keep it simple, no more acting out. Show him Harrenton, answer his endless questions, keep her family happy. ' She had crafted a perfect plan in her mind, there was no possible way she would fail again.

Soon, they exited the monstrous castle gates of Harrenhal and entered the relatively modest town of Harrenton. They passed by all sorts of different buildings in the town in complete silence. She walked him down the main road and pointed out all the different shops she liked most. The market was in bloom as it was still summer and the prince took a look at a few stalls before deciding the silence should end.

"So, Shiera, " Prince Maegor broke the ice as he picked up an apple from a vendor and she jumped. She regretted not telling him her name again. ' It would have made this continuation less awkward. '

"Yes, my prince?" She responded with a picture of grace. 

"Would you like to continue our conversation from yesterday?" he asked after wiping the smirk off his face and passing the vendor a few copper stars. 

"Would you?" she asked with starry eyes. She loved learning new things, it was the main way she got away from her boring home and found new things to do. She had exhausted the library in Harrenhal of all its interesting stories and lessons so this was a chance she could not pass up.

"Sure," he said easily before he grabbed her arm and pulled her into an alleyway. 

"Wha?" she tried before he shushed her. 

"I am not supposed to use magic off of Dragonstone. So I need you to be quiet about it," he said quickly and Shiera nodded her head up and down. 

"Alright," Prince Maegor said before he took out a small knife and ran it along his arm slowly. She spotted a small dot of blood appear from the wound and she gasped at the sight. 

' Why is he hurting himself?! ' she thought as she was about to stop him but before she could she was caught in an amazing sight. 

He raised his arm to his lips and lightly blew on the blood. In an instant, the dark red blood exploded into a blinding green light as a puff of fire exploded forward. It disappeared quickly but Shiera was amazed. 

"Woah!" she said laughing all the while. ' He can make fire?! That is so awesome! ' Shiera was giddy at the display. She had heard that magic was used by her ancestors but she did not think they could do it to this degree. 

"Yeah it's pretty cool," Prince Maegor said as he rolled his sleeve back up. 

"My mother is better than me at it, she can actually shape the fire into cool things and use it in combat. That is the most I can do right now. Though, from what my mother told me, my ancestors could do some really cool things with it. Like making art with fire, depicting dragon battles, and the like," Prince Maegor had gotten into a tirade and Shiera did not want to stop him."

' Our ancestors, ' Shiera thought with a smile. Shiera was obsessed with Old Valyria, with their house being so new relative to the houses in Westeros she had little interest in any Westerosi history or traditions. Why would she even think of Westeros when her house can claim ancestry from Old Valyria, even from House Targaryen itself from her paternal grandmother. She read everything she could in the library of Harrenhal about Old Valyria but she could not find much, maybe there was more before King Aegon destroyed Harrenhal but there was very little information to be found in the library. This was the first real taste of knowledge from her ancestral homeland. 

During their entire time together, she could not help but ask Prince Maegor as many questions as she could think of. He seemed to be a fountain of knowledge about Old Valyria and she wanted to know every little bit of it.

"What happened to the dragonlords that survived the doom?"

"Hmm, well most just flew back to Valyria and were never heard from again. Two of them were killed in Lys using treachery but the most interesting is Aurion. Have you heard of him?" They were now walking towards the market, having left the alleyway where Prince Maegor displayed his magic. 

"No, I am afraid there is little knowledge of anything east of the Narrow Sea in the library in Harrenhal." That is what upset her more than anything. There was so much knowledge out there yet she could not reach it.

"Aurion was a dragonlord on patrol in Qohor during the doom. When he heard of the destruction of his motherland he raised a mighty host in Qohor and marched towards the Lands of Long Summer. All the former Freehold held their breath when he crowned himself Emperor of Valyria as with his great dragon and army, along with Qohor on his side he could very well reform the Freehold. It was only once he marched back into the destroyed Valyria and went missing along with his army that Volantis declared itself the heir to Old Valyria and began its conquests."

"Aside from Aurion and the fools, it was just us, Aenar Targaryen, and his house had left over a decade before the Doom so we were safely tucked away on Dragonstone. Though Gaemon the Glorious sought combat in Essos." He shrugged his shoulders but she was embarrassed. She knew that House Targaryen had survived the Doom but she had no idea about any of them aside from the Conquerors and the prince standing before her.

"So how did Lord Aenar get his dragons across the narrow sea if he only had three riders?" She asked the question as they reentered Harrenhal. Their walk and time together was near to its end yet Prince Maegor did not intend to stop their conversation, thankfully.

"Oh, I thought you disliked all my questions earlier? Why should I tell you anything when you did not want to tell me? And you refused to tell me your name too… I wonder if I should tell you or should I let you suffer for being uncouth," Prince Maegor said and she could only despair.

"Please, my prince! You are the only person I met who knows anything about such matters. The Maesters know nothing and those boring Septas know even less." 

"Haha, that much you are correct. The only thing if any the Maesters are useful for is knowledge of Westeros, practically anything East of the Narrow Sea is a mystery to them."

"..." she utilized her puppy dog eyes, they rarely worked because they were red but they seemed to work on the Prince.

"Everything for a price, Shiera Qoherys," Prince Maegor said with a smile and she could only gulp in fear, she was at his mercy with nothing useful to bargain with. She used to have her name but he so wonderfully pointed out she now had nothing.

"W-What would you like, m-m-my prince…?" she said and she was preparing to make a great sacrifice if necessary. She had to know more, this might be her only chance.

"Stop calling me prince." 

"Pardon?" 

"When we are alone like this, I mean. When you are around others it's fine but in private just call me Maegor. Everyone always calls me Prince Maegor or Prince of Dragonstone and it is getting irritating. The only people who call me by my damn name are my mother, father, and brother. Even my goodsister is calling me prince for fucks sake."

"What do you mean? Do you not like being called prince by the nobles?"

"NO! I am so sick of all these lords, always with the titles and all the empty platitudes and false smiles. They are all so fake and I cannot stand it anymore. I found our talks entertaining because you were different from the annoying lords I had to deal with during this entire progress. I was having fun with a friend and even you call me Prince and now you are acting all nervous like you were not telling me off yesterday." Prince Maegor descended into a rant and she could only stand bewildered.

"Friend?" she asked what she was most confused about.

"Oh no, do not tell me I thought we were friends and you did not think so." Prince Maegor looked crushed.

"AH, NO NO! It is fine, I was just confused. I thought you found me annoying." 

"What? Of course not, you are the best noble I have met so far." He said with a tone of complete assurance and folded his arms across his chest.

She was dumbfounded. Prince Maegor did not hate her? Even though she acted like such a brat? Acted so entitled towards him yesterday and at Oldtown? 

"Alright, Maegor," she said with a smile and quite a bit of hesitation. If her mother knew that she called the Prince by his name she would surely drop dead.

"Now tell me! Please!" she said once more, just because Maegor was now her friend did not mean that she would let the chance to learn to slip from her grasp. 

"Haha, alright! Moving dragons is not all that complex, so long as you have a dragon rider. Though Aenar had no such problems. He had two wives who flew the other two. Four Dragons flew to Dragonstone and Balerion rode on a ship with his first rider. Daenys the Dreamer."

She was awestruck, first a friend and then even more she finally found a way to connect to her heritage. She would spend the rest of the progress speaking to Maegor as much as possible. She had a real friend for the first time in her entire life. She resolved to enjoy it to the fullest. 

… 

The moon moved by far too quickly. She would spend every day speaking to Maegor when he was not training in the yard or she was not busy with chores. Her father decided to throw a feast on the last day of King Aegon's visit. Shiera was distraught, she finally made a real friend, and it was one who she could talk freely with. ' What should I do? What can I do!? ' such thoughts ran through her head like Dragonfire once ran through the castle and she felt like she was losing the chance to see the world again. She had so foolishly let all the time pass in those discussions about dragons and Valyria that she didn't even think about their departure. Now the King and Maegor had to leave back to King's Landing because Lady Alyssa was due to give birth soon and King Aegon wanted to be there. 

"A toast! To King Aegon and his son Prince Maegor!" Her father called out and she raised her glass. The feast was not as extravagant as what they had in Oldtown. Still, it was pretty lavish compared to what they normally had in these desolate halls of Harrenhal.

Due to her worry about being left behind by Maegor, she had not been paying attention to what conversations were happening around the table. Though much of those were what usually happens each day. Maegor was speaking with one of King Aegon's Kingsguard about some sword technique or other. Gargon was harassing some poor serving girl and then one between King Aegon and her father, either about old times or some other stuff, she wouldn't care for.

"Shiera… Shiera!" her father broke her from her thoughts and she was returned to the real world.

"Yes Father?" she replied quickly 

"The King would like to ask you something."

"What?" she was confused, ' what could the King want from me? '

Turning towards her with a kind smile, King Aegon voiced his question "I wanted to know if you would like to accompany my retinue back to King's Landing. To be one of my good daughter's ladies in waiting."

She was caught flat-footed harder than she ever had been before. She certainly was not expecting this. She had expected all manner of things. Asking after Maegor. Asking about how she seemed to already know him. So much but not that offer. 

"Well, Shiera …?" her father voiced with a not-so-subtle glare. 

"Yes! Your Grace. I would be honored!" she quickly responded and she could not help the blush that rose to her cheeks. 

"I am glad to hear it," the King said with a laugh and then her father glared hard at her again.

"You best get going, you will need to pack your things," her mother jumped in and she basically ran from the table. 

Shiera could not believe it. The Gods truly favored her today, no more boring Harrenhal. She would live in King's Landing, fucking King's Landing!