The Rebirth of the Dragons - Chapter 14

AN: Hey guys.

In this chapter Rhaella will be dealing with the changes that the dragons bring to her plans.

Hope you guys enjoy this one.

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Chapter 14

Rhaella Targaryen. 291AC

Rhaella looked out of the balcony of her new solar and saw the large expanse of the river Rhoyne.

She had spent an absurd amount of gold to have this new manse built in only a few moons, but it was gold she was glad to expend, the reason for it was the best one possible. When the children burst into her solar all those moons ago she was surprised; they didn't usually did something like that, or at least, didn't do it so openly; Maekar and Rhaenys were usually a lot more subtle in their pranks. Her surprise had turned into shock when she saw the baby dragons on their shoulders. Hearing how Maekar had found how to hatch the eggs made her immensely happy, she still groaned in embarrassment when she thought about how something that eluded them for so long, ended up being so simple to do.

Rhaella had left the room to grab her egg almost immediately after Maekar told her he knew how to hatch the eggs, a few minutes later, she also had a baby dragon on her shoulder; she could almost physically feel the connection that formed when her dragon hatched, it was like a presence in her own mind, it was like she was finally complete, like she was reunited with a part of her that was missing and she had never realized before that moment. At that moment she could fell, even without actively using it, that her fire sorcery was stronger than ever before; she could feel her own body fill with a strength that she never had before; she knew intuitively that anyone with the true blood of valyria was incomplete with a dragon, her own experience showing that before that moment she was but a shadow of herself.

She had almost immediately after, started to plan a new home for her family, she knew the dragons would grow quickly and she needed to find some way to hide them; they still didn't want to come out in to open and face their enemies head on; they still had a lot of work to do behind the cover that both Varys and Lyanna were providing. In just a few hours after the dragons had hatched she was walking out of the iron bank, having bought more land in the andal highlands, near the place they trained their troops for the war with Myr, but even closer to the ruins of Ghoyan Drohe; it was the best cover she thought possible to give their dragons, the smallfolk of that region always said that the ghosts of the dragonlords drowned by the Rhoynar water magics still roamed the lands they died. She thought that maybe, if anyone saw the dragons one day, they would be able to pass it as a ghost; it was a long shot but it was the best she could do.

After leaving the bank; she looked all over the city for men to hire for the construction of their new home; she ended up hiring almost all men in the city who had some experience in construction, she spent an enormous amount of gold, but it paid off and in just four moons they had their new home; it was just in time, as the dragons were already getting to big to hide in the city.

Their new home was a lot like summerhall was in her youth; more palace than castle, but still well defended, with high walls, the land around it cleared of any trees for leagues in order to help with visibility, and the guard contingent was the largest they could possibly have and still be sure of their loyalty. The large expanse of land between the walls and the manse left plenty of room for the dragons; the entirety of the right side of the grounds was left as an open space for the dragons to play in and make their home. Space that was already being well used, she looked to the right and saw that Vermithor and Meraxes, Maekar's and Rhaenys' dragons, were playing around in the grounds, while being watched by their respective humans; Meraxes was a beautiful she-dragon, blue as a clear sky. Rhaella smiled as she thought about how, one day, there would be another Rhaenys flying through the skies of Dorne, but instead of death, this one would find safety and happiness in the land below. Vermithor was big, the largest of all the dragons they had hatched, and that included the one Viserys hatched a moon later than the others; the blood colored dragon was growing so quickly that, based on the books they had, he would be big enough to ride in just another three or four moons; Rhaella and even Rhaenys had asked Maekar why he named the dragon Vermithor instead of Caraxes, based on its similar color, but now Rhaella realized that the name was quite apt; based on all the descriptions and even painting they had available, the new Vermithor looked like a blood colored version of the first one.

Vermithor wasn't the only bigger than average dragon that had hatched from their eggs; Rhaella's own she-dragon, who she had named Meleys, was also quite large, a little smaller than Vermithor but not by much, the green she-dragon was quite calm, as well as nurturing towards her siblings. It was actually quite interesting how the dragons were starting to show personalities that were quite similar to their humans; Meleys acted like she was the mother of the group, Meraxes was quite playful but also seemed to always win the play fights that the dragons usually had, Vermithor always tried to take the lead and teach the other dragons how to do things, a mix between commander and professor, Dreamfyre, Daenerys' silver colored she-dragon, was playful and was almost always in the air, perfectly mirroring Rhaella's daughter; she doubted she would be able to keep Daenerys out of the air for long when Dreamfyre becomes big enough to ride. Syrax, Aegon's dragon, was black with some silver highlights, he was also calm, preferring to observe the other dragons playing, but when he did get involved with something, the other dragons always followed his lead. Balerion, Viserys' dragon, was a little younger than the others but he wasn't the smallest, he was actually quite large, only smaller than Vermithor, Meleys and Syrax; he was also quite lustful despite his young age, something that also mirrored Rhaella's son, since he became the squire of the dornish prince; Viserys was starting to have a similar personality to Oberyn.

She laughed as she remembered what happened a few days ago; Balerion was trying to 'sniff' around Meraxes and immediately got bitten and then wrestled into submission by the blue she-dragon, later during that same day, he again got wrestled into the ground by the far larger and stronger Vermithor.

The dragons were all quite friendly to each other despite the natural competiveness that was to be expected, they were still establishing somewhat of a hierarchy amongst them, dragons were territorial creatures after all, but even that was somewhat helped by their respective personalities and how it mirrored their human counterparts. Vermithor and Meraxes were always together, it was almost like watching Maekar and Rhaenys in dragon form, and since Vermithor was the largest and Meraxes was the best in combat, they were at the top of the hierarchy, but even that was disputed, since Meleys, could almost always get the two of them to back down, somewhat similar to what Rhaella could do with Maekar and Rhaenys. Syrax and Dreamfyre were also always together, always playing with each other; their relationship just like the one between Aegon and Daenerys.

But, while the dragons brought a lot of happiness to their house; they also brought a problem that wasn't there before, something that had the potential to break her family apart and Rhaella didn't like it. Visenya was visibly upset due to the fact that she was the only one without a dragon; the young girl tried to hid it but she wasn't good at it, all the adult and even the older children could see how she was starting to distance herself from Aegon and Daenerys, how she was spending a lot more time in the library instead of following Rhaenys around like she used to do. So now Rhaella was desperately trying to find another dragon egg, she wouldn't let one of the happiest moments of her life destroy her family; Visenya would have a dragon even if she had to order an expedition to the broken remains of Valyria itself.

The hatching of the dragons didn't cause happiness only to the Targaryens; Ser Gerold was almost ecstatic with the thought of having dragons on the field of battle when they eventually return to westeros; grand admiral Velaryon was at the same time sad and even happier than the lord commander of the kingsguard; it was quite funny when Rhaella asked the reason why and Lucerys said that the dragons both guarantee that they would win any naval battle in the future, meaning they would make his job almost obsolete; there is no reason to have a naval strategist if one can just fly a dragon and burn an entire fleet without much effort.

Other bit of good news was the election of Aegon Embaryen as the Lord Freeholder of Elyria, as well as their quick victory in the war against Tolos and Mantarys; the sellswords that Rhaella had hired to support them in that war would stay there, they would be used as security for the upcoming Elyrian expeditions into the lands of the long summer. She expected a lot of casualties; there would be no battles, but, since the doom, it was almost impossible to survive in the lands near the valyrian peninsula. Another bit of good news from that side of the world, was the start of another project, this one mostly in the hands of Lyanna, Varys and their respective networks of spies and other agents; they would be sending agents with the expeditions to set up safe houses in the lands of the long summer, other safe houses would also be set up near the ruins of Bhorash and in the Isle of Cedars; their agents would then start speeding the word in the cities of slaver's bay that there were people out there that would accept them and give them freedom. They were hoping that with the promise of freedom and acceptance that the slaves would try to revolt against their masters; the safe houses would then be perfectly placed to send weapons to the rebellious slaves; and also to offer anyone who just wanted to start a life somewhere else, a place to live. Those slaves that decided to leave would make the basis of the population they would bring to the Stepstones when they conquered the islands, something that would happen earlier than expected because of the dragons.

They didn't have just good news in the last few months; princess Daenora died at the start of the year; she lived just enough to see her granddaughter become a Stark, when Helaena married Benjen; the granddaughter of Daeron 'The Good' died just two days after the marriage, at the age of four and seventy. Her death caused Lys to almost completely stop, so loved she was by the people of the city; Rhaella was also worried about Maegor, the last time Naerys visited just a moon ago, she said that her husband still hadn't returned to his usual self since his mother died. Apart from being kin, and because of it Rhaella would always worry about him, he was also a major player in their alliance; Rhaella needed Maegor at his best, especially since Pentos and Myr were starting to make moves.

The other bit of bad news that they had in the last few moons, was the fact that Ser Jaremy had almost been captured near the camp of the golden company, the knight of the kingsguard was in charge of training the troops but had seen a chance to spy on the enemy and had taken that chance; even more worrying was the fact that he saw Illyrio Mopatis, the magister of Pentos that had been trying to spy on them for years now and one of the magisters of Myr, talking to a man that he swore was Jon Connington. The man was a former hand of the king and more importantly, a friend of Rhaegar; if he was still alive and working for the enemy, he could give a lot of information to them.

She decided to go back inside and continue her work. She could watch the children play with their dragons later, now she needed to work to secure their futures.

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Rhaella walked into the new meeting room and saw that the council was already there waiting for her. It had grown over the last few months, with the additions of Oberyn, who now was almost always around, no longer traveling all over the world like he did before. She had also added Maekar and Aegon to the council, the others complained a little, but her arguments won them over, she argued that he was smart, mature above his two and ten years and even at that young age, he was one of the best military commanders they had available. The arguments for Aegon were even easier to win, even if he was younger. She argued that Aegon would one day be king, he needed to know how those things work, he was also, like Maekar, mature above his nine years. Some still complained that he was too young, but Rhaella knew it was better for him to learn these things earlier on in life. The compromise was that Aegon was allowed to observe, but not add anything to the discussion.

"How was everyone's day?" She asked.

"Apart from a certain dornish couple trying to seduce me, it went quite well, your grace." Lyanna responded, throwing a smirk towards Oberyn and receiving a wink in return.

Most of the others told her there was nothing worth of note in their work that day, the only one to say different was Ser Gerold.

"I had some issues with the new recruits, two of them tried to enter the manse."

"We believe they might be spies to that same magister of Pentos, Illyrio Mopatis." Lyanna added.

"Varys still has no information on the man?" Rhaella asked.

"Correct, your grace." Lyanna responded. "Varys still says the man is acting weird, he doesn't respond to any of Varys' attempts at communication, none of Varys' 'little birds' are able to get close to the man and he still is constantly meeting with the magisters of Myr. That is worrying in many different ways, as you know; Illyrio was one of the men that convinced your late husband of accepting Varys as his master of whisperers. He was supposed to be a distant ally, but he is now acting as a potential enemy." Lyanna added.

Rhaella took a moment to think, the information Lyanna was providing was quite worrying. It didn't seem that bad, just an alliance between Myr and Pentos, but she still thought that there might be something more behind it, she couldn't shake the feeling that the Pentoshi magister might be trying something a lot more sinister, especially if the information about Jon Connington was correct.

"I will take that under advisement." Rhaella responded. "Do you have anything more for us today?" She asked.

"The work near slaver's bay is mostly going according to plan, the Elyrian expedition on the lands of the long summer is a little behind schedule so the work there is not where we expected it to be, but the other safe houses are completed and the agents are already spreading word in the ghiscari cities, there are already a few mumblings of a slave liberation movement growing in Meereen. Things are going a little slower in the other cities but they are still moving forward." Lyanna said, pausing a little and taking a drink before continuing.

"We also have some news from westeros. The marriage of my brother to Helaena seems to have made its way to king's landing, it appears to have shaken the usurper quite badly. Varys reported that Lord Arryn had to stop the whoremonger from marching to Winterfell to demand an answer from Ned. In Casterly Rock, Lord Lannister is still trying to find the spies that managed to kidnap Lady Greyjoy from his castle, never realizing that his own son helped in making that possible. He has found three of our sacrificial one, the ones that were also spying on us in the orders of someone else, but Tyrion believes that the two men we have in the castle guard are currently safe, he says that Lord Tywin even has one of them helping with the investigations." Lyanna said, smirking a little at the fact that Tywin had a spy looking for himself. She paused, giving some time for the others to think on her words, before continuing again.

"My brother is having quite a good few years. His reforms have helped a lot, and Winterfell is now receiving almost double the taxes that it received ten years ago. His western fleet is also growing quite quickly, at the moment the fleet seats at sixty ships, twenty of those are longships captured from the ironborn in the recent war. The new road between Barrowton and White Harbor has been a massive improvement to trade and the new farming communities have caused a surplus of food that lead to an unprecedented population rise. It is quite common to see smallfolk families with five or six children in the north these days. Ned also sent word that the Greyjoy heir is adapting well to Winterfell, the boy stroke a quick friendship with Brandon and the two of them are almost inseparable, the boy also appears to have nothing of his father's temperament, in fact he seems to be trying to take Ned as a role model." Lyanna said, causing the others to adopt pensive expressions.

Rhaella thought that everything Lyanna had said was good. Ned Stark was their strongest ally in westeros, the Martells were powerful in their own right and all of Dorne would fight to avenge their beloved Elia, but The North still had a lot more to offer to their cause. The information about the Greyjoy heir was also good, Asha had stopped scowling at everyone but she was still to willful for Rhaella to even think of putting her as lady of the iron islands, the young woman still isolated herself from anyone in their household, in fact, the only two friends she seemed to have were Tyene and Maekar. So it was good news that the Greyjoy heir was trying to mold himself in the image of Ned Stark, it would almost guarantee the safety of the western cost after they retake their homeland, someone who had Ned Stark as a role model would never rebel against the crown so long as the king was just, something Rhaella would make sure happened, her grandson wouldn't be anything like his grandfather if she had any say in it.

"Those are all good news, Lyanna." Rhaella responded smiling at the younger woman. "Do you have anything more to say or can we move forward to other matters?" She asked.

"I don't have much more, your grace." Lyanna responded. "I have some information on the movements of the pirates in the Stepstones, but they are mostly naval in nature, nothing that would impede a landing on the islands, so for that information to be relevant we would need grand admiral Velaryon here and he is currently absent." She added.

Rhaella nodded her understanding and acceptance. Lucerys was currently in Braavos on her orders, he was overseeing the work to reconfigure some of their trade ships into warships.

"We can move forward then. Ser Gerold, Ser Barristan, Maekar, what do you three have for us today?" She asked.

"Apart from the issues with the two new recruits that Lady Lyanna and I already stated, there is nothing new to report from the guard contingent, your grace." Ser Gerold was the first to respond.

"Lord Benjen should be arriving to help train the troops again soon your grace, and i believe his wife will be joining us." Ser Barristan said.

"You are correct, Ser Barristan. Naerys will be also coming with her daughter and goodson, she will be in charge of helping my family learn the last things we need to fully convert to the valyrian faith." Rhaella responded the kingsguard knight, seeing both him and the lord commander wince when she did so. The knights were still having some troubles with the fact that the faith of the seven had never been on the side of the Targaryens and had been trying to destroy them since the conquest. The two men were having trouble with their now conflicting oaths as knights and as kingsguard.

"Yes, well, apart from that." Ser Barristan started again, his voice sounding a little embarrassed. "The men are quite well trained already, the veterans we have from the war with Tyrosh have really helped bring the other troops to their level. We are also using the river to train the men in fighting near or in water, as it is a distinct possibility it will happen when we march on the Stepstones. We are also trying to train the men in fighting near fire, the dragons only flying at night, the large guard around the manse and the stories about the ghosts of the dragonlords of old that haunt these lands are keeping the secret safe for now, but we still think that it would be good for the men to learn to fight near fires for when we do reveal the dragons." Ser Barristan added, causing the others to nod at the good idea. Rhaella was thankful that they were still able to keep that secret for now, she had thought that the secret would already be out by now and the fact that they were still able to keep it was a major strategic advantage.

"It is good that the men are being trained to fight near fires, i believe we might have to reveal the dragons existence sooner rather than later." Rhaella said, nodding towards the kingsguard.

"What about you, Maekar. What do you have to add?" She asked.

"Nothing too different from what Ser Barristan said, mother." Maekar responded. "The legion is not where I wanted them to be in terms of training, while they are now at full strength and the infantry is good enough, the new recruits having the benefit of learning from the men that were already in training, the cavalry and archer contingents are not as well trained as I wanted them to be, mostly because I still haven't found a good captain to lead them. The cavalry is also having some trouble integrating with the infantry and fighting as a single unit instead of fighting two different battles." He added.

"I believe prince Maekar is being a little too harsh on his men, your grace. They are still the best trained troops we have." Ser Gerold said, smiling at the boy.

"That is still excellent news, Maekar. We might need your legion sooner than expected." Rhaella responded, smiling at her son. "What about your other project? The one Marwyn is helping you with." She asked.

"It is going well, mother." Maekar responded. "We could advance it faster if we had someone from the alchemist guild working for us, but we are still able to make progress on our own. The wildfire throwing pots are still a little too volatile for me to feel safety in distributing them for the army, but they could probably be used in catapults." He added, pausing a little to let the others think and then continuing.

"There is also another idea i had recently. If we could teach our dragons to hold something on their claws, we could use the throwing pots from the air, dropping them from above the enemy without the risk of flying low and endangering our dragons to catapults and scorpions. It would also work for more than just the throwing pots, regular stone could also be used this way." Maekar said, causing looks of awe to appear on the faces of the older men on the table.

"Something like that could be a deciding factor in many battles, even more than dragon fire could be on its own. When the enemy's men see that they could be attacked at any time from above and they didn't have any way to stop it, they would certainly lose moral. Even a dragon can be killed by a well placed shot from a scorpion and many smallfolk know that, the story of the smallfolk of Lys killing the dragonlords after the doom is well known even in westeros." Oberyn said, looking at Maekar with admiration.

Rhaella smiled when she saw Maekar blush at the praise from the older men. Her son was a genius when it came to anything to do with land warfare and had an uncanny ability to see what others missed, but he still had some trouble accepting when others praised his ability. Rhaella thought that it was because he was still technically a bastard, he had never been legitimized and he knew it, it wasn't much of a problem when he was younger, but now that he is starting to become a man he is starting to have problems dealing with it. She imagined his face when he does get legitimized, something that Rhaella had already planed with Aegon to happen the moment they conquer the Stepstones.

"Thank you, Maekar. I will take your suggestions into consideration." She responded smiling at her son, enjoying how his face lit up with his usual brilliant smile.

"Anyone has anything more to add?" She asked.

"I have some information about the troubles with the faith of the seven, your grace." Oberyn said. Rhaella made a motion with her hands allowing the prince of Dorne to speak, he nodded and then continued.

"My brother has been subtly sounding the dornish lords on their opinions on the faith. He believes that once the information goes out that Dorne will be split between the old Rhoynar faith and the Old Gods, but he also believes that the split won't be enough to cause a war. In order to help it along, he has been trying to promote more integration with the older faiths, the public reason is that he is trying to preserve the dornish culture and heritage. In doing so, he has brokered a deal with the orphans of the greenblood, the orphans are now allowed to public practice their rituals and are encouraged to teach them to the lords. He has also ordered the planting of a few weirwoods in the few places that they could grow in Dorne."

"Even safer than Dorne, your grace." Lyanna responded. "There are only a few houses in the north that follow the seven, and i believe they will be quick to renounce the faith of the seven when the information is released. They have been intermarrying with the northern houses for too long now, some of them even had family members killed by the maesters and the faith in their quest to destroy skinchangers. The papers we have even show that one of the uncles of lord Manderly was killed as a child because he showed potential to be a skinchanger. He would never forgive that and his house is a bastion of the faith in the north. Once he renounce the faith, the minor houses will follow." She added.

"What about the houses from the crownlands and the narrow sea, do you have any information on them?" Rhaella asked.

"The situation is a little more difficult there, your grace." Lyanna responded. "Velaryon and Celtigar are sure to follow your move to return to the valyrian faith. Bar Emmon and Sunglass are a little more difficult to predict, they have pretty strong andal roots so their loyalty to the Targaryens might not be enough to sway them. The houses of Crackclaw Point will almost certainly convert to the Old Gods quite quickly, they have always been proud of their first men heritage, even if they follow the seven. The rest of the crownlands could go either way, it is almost impossible to predict what they will do." She added.

"What about our enemies, how would the religious war shape up in their lands?" Rhaella asked.

"The Reach will probably see the least fighting and be the strongest supporters of the faith, even if many there would still rise to our support when we return to westeros, the faith holds too much power there to be challenged. The Westerlands will be a little more divided than the Reach, but not by much. The Riverlands will probably split between factions led by the Blackwoods and the Brackens, the split will also be somewhat geographical, with the northerner part of the riverlands following the Blackwoods and the southerner part following the Brackens. Surprisingly i expect The Vale to see the most fighting, despite their strong connection to the faith. Houses Royce, Redfort, Hunter and Belmore are some of the strongest vassals of house Arryn and they would be quite eager to abandon the faith, they are all proud of their first men heritage and some say that members of those houses still worship the Old Gods. The Stormlands will also be somewhat divided, i believe house Tarth might end up leading the Old Gods faction in the Stormlands, but they will be outnumbered by the ones who would still follow the faith." Lyanna responded.

"So most of the fighting will be done in the lands of the ones who are sure to be our enemies?" Rhaella asked, smiling as she already knew the answer to that question.

"Correct, your grace." Lyanna responded.

"Well, i think we can count this as a win for us." Rhaella said smirking a little, causing the others to laugh.

They talked for another few minutes about other minor plans, plans that didn't interfere with their overall strategy for the future. When the meeting ended Rhaella left the room with Maekar and Aegon following her, her grandson had watched the meeting and she hoped he had learned about how to listen to his council, something he would have to do in the future. After that, she spent the rest of her day with her children and grandchildren, playing with their dragons. It was a good way for Rhaella to relax and take her mind of the many things that could go wrong in the future. At the end of the day, she went to sleep tired but with a sense of fulfillment, knowing that she was working for the future of her children and grandchildren.

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AN2: Many plans being discussed and a lot of them will be happening in the near future.

Next chapter we go back to westeros.

I will see you guys in the next one.