LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 24: 24
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112 AC
Kingslanding
Daeron Nymeros Martell
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I check myself over in the mirror to make sure I look fine, after the announcement of the engagement I will have plenty of eyes on me during the feast tonight. I also want to make sure I look as good as I can with the short visit to Rhaenyra's mom before the feast. satisfied with my outfit I head for the door to my room and open it to walk out.
"So how do you actually plan to treat my mom without her figuring out the whole magic part?" Rhaenyra asks as she kicks her feet while sitting on the edge of a table.
I shut the door of my room and purse my lips, I thought about it but getting this far was always seemed so far off. Now that it is happening with the help of Rhaenyra I am a bit caught off-guard and am wanting to rely on deceit again. Like maybe blindfolding her or something but she would have a ton of questions. Aemma is one of the more skeptical people as far as it goes with House Martell, only passed by the likes of Otto who has a permanent pained look when he sees me.
Will I have to tell Aemma as well? If I do why not just tell everyone at that point, but a nagging voice in my mind tells me she would figure it out after I healed her anyway. If she is cut open and after I treat her she is healed everyone involved would at least know something or other was magic about my treatment. I can solve a few of those problems directly, the Maester and the ones helping him can be silenced easily enough. But King Viserys would not be silent, he would ask questions that only have one answer and I can't just silence him like I can a Maid or a Maester.
Which now has me doubting and almost regretting getting involved, to begin with, but I have good reasons for wanting to do this. Letting a random person I will never really know die when I can help them is one thing but to let my future mother-in-law die is another. Maybe we will never be close but to let her die is almost a sinister thing that I would not easily forget. Rhaenyra also knows about my healing at this point as well so I am committed.
So my options going forward are narrowed down to two paths, The first is not telling them and using Rhaenyra's assistance to try and get involved. The second is just coming out with it to the both of them and showing them I can heal. If I was in their shoes and saw someone with magical powers to heal I think I would want them involved in a situation where someone is likely to bleed to death. The only problem with that is even with Targaryens being more accepting of magic compared to the rest of the world with their own magic in their blood it will still be a hard sell. With me engaged to their daughter and one day being their 'good son' as far as they know I should have no reason to hurt any of them, there is nothing to gain.
"Are you ok?" Rhaenyra speaks up after sliding off the table with a concerned look.
"Yea, I am just thinking about how to go about this without your parents thinking I am scheming something. It involves the birth of the potential heir to the throne, this is stepping into a dangerous area as a foreign Prince. If something goes wrong I will be blamed even though I have good intentions and just want to help." She bites her lip and looks down and I realize just how stupid it would look to just offer my assistance.
If I take a step back and look at it the 'magic' I have is all easily explainable, I simply say it's Rhoynar water magic. Healing is not known as a part of Rhoynar water magic but in general Rhoynar water magic is a thing of the past anyway so no one really knows for sure. Just like Valyria ruled half of Essos and now nothing of their magics is left other than bonding with dragons with blood that is passed genetically. So me saying the healing is from my blood as part Rhoynar will be believable to people who know little to nothing about it.
So selling I have an explainable power to heal is not the problem, extending trust beyond Rhaenyra to her parents is also not that hard. I can just take them at their word if they say they won't tell anyone, realistically it will come out sooner than later anyway. The problem is in their hands, will they even believe I want to help anyway?
They likely will think positively of me telling a secret like that but that does not mean they want me to use that secret to help them with their baby. Meaning I might cut off any chance to actually help by actually offering to help. But I have no real other choices because I can't just march in and start healing her, swords would be drawn.
So I can only put the ball in their court and let them decide if they want my help or not, if she dies it would not be my fault. I can walk away from it all with no guilt and no responsibility if they say they don't want my help.
"Let's cancel going to see her now, it's getting late anyway and the feast will start and you need to change. I will tell them afterward if you can somehow drag your father to your mom's room and I will just show them what I can do. I will give them the choice and if they take it I will do everything I can to make sure things go fine. If they want to go through the birthing without my influence then that is their choice and I can't do anything about it." I hold my arm out to escort her back to her room before I plan to split off and meet with my family to let them know what I am planning.
It might be stupid but to be honest I am only keeping it a secret out of habit at this point. I plan to use my bending during the war in the Stepstones which is seemingly closing in with every day. Corlys is mainly marrying his two kids to make a strong alliance with us so we help him clear the shipping lanes and kick the ass of the Kingdom of the three daughters. During that war I will bend like a madman since it would stupid to not use the advantage I have, it would be like a dragon not using its fire.
So telling Rhaenyra's parents really doesn't bother me, it's the thought of them denying the help that bothers me. But it won't be my problem if he denies me, his daughter will also know he denied me and I hate to see how that changes things but there is not much I can do about it.
There is the fear I save Aemma and that the baby will die and be blamed on me instead of it being called a natural death. But for all I know the death of the infant is not natural, to begin with. Baelon very well could have died in canon by poison or something else, with the Queen dead it was a perfect opportunity to reach for power. I would not put it past the HighTowers with how Alicent was pushed onto the King shortly after the Queen's death and they in the end put Aegon on the throne.
I shake my head and push away the thoughts, I will take it a step at a time while keeping my eyes peeled. No one but me knows the Queen will die on that bed, unless it is planned but I am putting that aside. But Rhaenyra knows I can heal now and if I don't at least offer to be there to heal if anything bad happens it would likely ruin her opinion of me and any marriage we might have. So I will offer and see where it goes while keeping in mind this is likely a well-orchestrated assassination attempt on the Queen and the baby.
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112 AC
Kingslanding
Viserys Targaryen
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"I don't see what other option there is at this point Otto, they have dragons and that alone is enough of a reason to try to have them 'within control'." But regardless of any marriage or any control it seems anyone has on dragons they are never truly under control.
"I was just making you aware of the whispers going around after the announcement, your Grace. People are concerned about having the Martells going from ruling a defiant Princedom that holds hostility to the rest of Westeros to marrying a Princess." I shake my head as it pounds from an oncoming headache.
"What would these people you speak of have me do instead? What would they expect if the Martells decided that they want to get revenge for the dragon's wroth and started burning cities? Marriage is a quick and peaceful way to prevent anything like that from happening with the Martells becoming family to House Targaryen. Dorne will end up being a part of the rest of the kingdoms and there will be peace so what can they even complain about?" Likely their wounded pride that the Dornish are joining through marriage and they joined through bending the knee or burning.
The work of Aegon and his sister wives will be completed with no more suffering and yet people want to voice complaints. I can only shake my head at that, if only they knew the full truth of why Aegon did all of this, to begin with. Then they would beg to have the Dornish stand with them when the coming darkness arrives blowing in from the North.
Otto for once is unable to respond immediately and I wonder if it's because he was just as blindsided by the announcement.
"It's neither here nor there for I made my decision and my daughter supports it and they are not the ones involved in the marriage, to begin with. We have discussed this for too long anyway, it is time for the feast and I am ready to eat." He gives a stiff nod and I head for the door with my Kingsguard falling into place.
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I enter my wife's room with no little amount of curiosity, Rhaenyra said she wanted to tell us both something but wanted it to be kept between us. She made it clear that she did not want anyone to hear what was said and did not want anyone to be there beside her and her mom. Which is why I am looking at Daeron in confusion since I was not expecting him to be here as well. I do not know if she brought him but I was expecting that to be the case or he likely would not be in my wife's room with my daughter.
The door is shut behind me and the Kingsguard stands at it from the outside not letting anyone else in. This is as private as it gets in the Red Keep so I hope she is satisfied with this, I have no clue why she made it seem so important that it had to be after the feast.
"Well, I am here, what is it that you wanted to tell me, daughter." I walk around the both of them and head toward my wife who smiles as I sit next to her.
Aemma also seems tired and likely is only awake at the behest of our daughter so I want this over quickly so she can go back to sleep. Sleep recently is the only time she is truly not in pain and can relax so I like to see her resting.
"Well, it is not actually me that has something to say, Daeron wanted to tell you both something." I raise both brows and look toward my future good son in confusion.
"Well Daeron, I was not expecting that but I suppose you are here for a reason and wanted the both of us here for a good reason." I am not sure how I feel about him using my daughter to bring us all together in one room.
But I will give him the benefit of the doubt, he obviously does not seem to be hostile so I doubt it's to kill all of us shortly after his engagement to my daughter was announced.
"It might be rude but I would ask that you both keep what I want to tell you a secret, I don't want just anyone to know what I am going to say." The mystery deepens and I start to feel a bit uncomfortable until I see my daughter nodding at the both of us.
"You already know what he wants to tell us I take it?" My daughter smiles and I feel a bit more at ease before looking at my wife.
She is giving Daeron a piercing look but eventually sighs and slumps back into the pillows behind her. She meets my eyes before smiling and then nodding at Daeron leaving me to nod after her as well.
"We won't tell anyone so long as it's not anything dangerous." I say evenly, I do not know what is happening that they seem to be concealing but I expect it to be important.
I look at my daughter again and see her looking happy at our responses and when she looks to her side at Daeron there are some new emotions in her eyes. I have not seen my daughter around many men admittedly as not many dare to be around her but this seems different. I am once again uncomfortable at her look toward her future husband but I keep it down for now.
I sure hope this is not about something it should not be, the wedding is not even planned yet and if they did something they shouldn't It will be a serious problem. The headache of dealing with the rush of getting them married will be a pain in the ass but I am sure we will manage if it comes to it. But I can't help but feel some heat in my chest and want to throw something if they truly got ahead of themselves.
Daeron lifts his hand and a jug beside him shakes a bit before the water inside rises from it and as he moves his hand it circles around him and Rhaenyra. I watch in complete disbelief as I see what looks to be real magic before my eyes. Magic flows in our veins and lets us ride dragons but to see water flow through the air is still a surprise.
I recall at once the guard's reports that have been eating at my mind as well as my brothers since they claimed the dragons. The ocean rose up and pulled the dragon into the sea and then they later found ice along the shore. It seems this floating trick is not the limit of what he can do, but why is he showing us?
"Watch closely." He speaks up breaking me from my thoughts as some water flattens and he then blows on it causing it to freeze.
I almost jump up when he runs the ice across his palm drawing blood and then setting it on a table. Worry replaces all the uncomfortable feelings I had before, Daeron is always armed with a weapon so long as there is water around. I have a good opinion of the young man or I would not have agreed to marry him to my daughter. But I can't help but feel like he is much more dangerous than I thought, and before I thought he was really dangerous on the back of one of the biggest dragons.
"Why did you cut yourself, is it to show you can make weapons with ice?" I ask with a clear voice as I wonder if the Kingsguard could even get in here in time if he wanted to kill us.
"I wanted to show you that I can heal wounds." He sticks his hand into the remainder of the floating water and it lights up softly like a candle.
Only a moment later he pulls his hand out to reveal the wound is gone and he then launches the water out the window. It will likely hit some poor servant and they won't even know it was one of the first magic attacks to probably ever happen in this castle.
"I heard of how the Queen is suffering lately and I grew concerned, with the engagement as well on top of that I grew more concerned. The Queen will be my good mother in the future and I do not want something to happen to her like I have seen on other birthing beds. I decided to trust you with my secret and offer my healing should something happen during the birthing. I have healed very life-threatening wounds before and am confident in my skills at stopping a death by blood loss." He shifts around as if he is worried about what we will say next.
I look at my wife and see her surprise and I don't think it's entirely from the magic, she has been on edge around the Martells. She is glad a match was made for Rhaenyra but I could see the doubt in her eyes when we talked about Daeron. He just came forward and told us about his secret just so he could offer to help her, if she was not caught off guard by that I would be surprised.
But I am still not sure this is entirely because of goodwill, he seems honest and I feel happy knowing he will be a good husband to Rhaenyra if this is truly who he is. But when it comes to my son in Aemmas belly I would rather not risk his life by including some unknown healing magic. He might want to help but I have faith in the Grand Maester to see the birth through and to see to the health of my wife and son.
"The offer is appreciated Daeron and I will keep your secret a secret, but I will need some time to talk to my wife about this. I don't doubt you want to help her but there is a lot to think about when involving magic that we know nothing about." He nods as his lips thin.
"I understand, just please keep it in mind. I will leave you to the rest of your evening, thanks for hearing me out." I nod as I pat my wife's hand and he turns toward the door and heads out of the room.
I stand and walk to the table ignoring my daughter's glare at me, the ice on the table is thin and started to melt but I place my hand on it. It breaks as I push down on it and I pick a piece up and examine it.
"Magic." Magic that took a dragon of impressive size out of the sky, he claimed the infamous cannibal with the help of this magic.
Just another reason for me to think well of Daeron, he has a power like this but still acts like a proper man and is not overly prideful. I wonder if this is related to his Rhoynar blood and how come it came to activate so far from its source the river Rhoyne in Essos. Is the Targaryen dragon blood letting him have this power, and if so would his children with Rhaenyra also be able to use it?