A Rogue Dragon's Flight Chapter 8 (ASOIAF Daemon Tragryen SI)

[Dragonstone, Aegon’s Garden]

Jaehaerys Targaryen

If he wasn’t so impressed Jaehaerys would have started pulling out his hair as his grandson revealed a secret he had kept ever since he was a boy with only four and ten summers to his name. Not even Aemon had known about that piece of their house’s history and yet a boy that wasn’t that much older than he was when he killed Maegor had revealed his secret as if it was common knowledge!

Perhaps he was a bit frustrated but at this point, the only thing that the reveal of the truth would get would be scorn, after all, no one would accept that a kinslayer and kingslayer would be called wise by all the lords of Westeros, their pride would keep the secret better than anything he could try (Jaehaerys conveniently forgot about the reaction of the faith but as long as he looked like it didn’t matter the rest of them wouldn’t realize it). At least now he knew that Daemon’s intelligence was far higher than Jaehaerys had anticipated but this brought a very concerning worry that he hadn’t had before.

Daemon could feasibly follow his example and in doing so become another Maegor or worse another Jaehaerys and lead their house in a neverending spiral of kinsalying until their house was destroyed from the inside. Despite his hate for the ‘Cruel’ Jaehaerys knew that in the eyes of the gods he wasn’t any better than him even if Jaehaerys was indeed a better man and king but perhaps Daemon could make the same argument as Viserys despite his jovial nature and charismatic appearance wasn’t an excellent administrator, sure he wasn’t bad but Daemon could do better as he showed with Runestone.

The only real solace that this whole situation could bring him was that his wife wasn’t present to hear what Jaehaerys had done (even though he privately doubted that she would care as Maegor was Maegor). Jaehaerys would need spies on Runestone and increase the amount of them that followed Daemon while on Dragonstone his grandson needed to be watched more closely in case he did something drastic.

Jaehaerys would need to make sure that Daemon didn’t get a dragon any time soon or else the realm might get the wrong idea about who was going to be king (if only the bond between dragon and rider wasn’t as powerful then Viserys could get another dragon sometime soon). The king looked over the garden and let out a sigh that carried all his years alive and finally decided to say something meaningful.

“I hope I don’t have to remind everyone here to keep the secret and that if I hear anything about this there will be consequences-” Jaehaerys started speaking slowly but was soon interrupted by his son.

“Piss on that! Why didn’t you tell me about it?!” Baelon the Brave should be called Baelon the Brash but at least it was better to have him as king than a woman.

“You didn’t need to know about it, despite what you all seem to think it doesn’t matter-“

Baelon decided to interrupt him again “Then why keep it a secret?!”

“Baelon you will speak to me with respect or you won’t speak to me at all, you may be my heir but I’m still king and more importantly I’m not old enough that I can’t punish you” Watching the man hailed as the bravest in all Westeros flinch did bring a smile to my face “As for why I wish to keep it a secret, well, I prefer it that way”

Daemon shot him a smirk that meant that he probably knew the real reason but the boy did well in keeping his mouth shut. The king would have a private chat with him later to see just how much he had underestimated his grandson.

“Well, at least the shaking seems to have stopped” Daemon’s comment made everyone forget about Maegor and go back to what had gathered their attention in the first place, with a nod of his head Jaehaerys indicated to Ser Gyles to head inside after a moment the Lord Commander came back and nodded his head.

“Daemon is right, whatever happened is over but we need to know what it was, I want all of you to look around the castle and report if you see anything strange” That last part was directed at the rest of the Kingsguard, his orders were mostly for show as the spies that Jaehaerys kept on Dragonstone would do the real work but perhaps one of his guards would have an unexpected bout of luck.

“Fine but this isn’t over!” his heir walked away followed by Viserys and Aemma, while Daemon and Rhea stayed behind, the lady of Runestone seemed a tad nervous as she held the arm of her husband but despite her insistence Daemon wasn’t moving.

“You can go Rhea but I think that the king has something to say to me or would you rather speak of it later your grace?” there was a challenging look in Daemon’s eyes that sparked with mischief and for a moment Jaehaerys was reminded of Aemon.

“It can wait but do remember that I will call for you soon” his grandson nodded his head and slowly made his way out of the garden.

Once everyone had left Jaehaerys allowed himself to rest and without hesitation dropped to the ground, his guards made a noise of protest but he was the king and if he wanted to sit in the dirt he would sit in the dirt. The king was laying on the ground and admiring the view of the blue sky when he remembered that it had been a long time since he had flown with his partner perhaps it was time for them both to stretch out their wings while Jaehaerys still could.

One day he would finally rest for good but until that day it was up to the king to make sure that there was a kingdom for his descendants.

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[Dragonstone, Sea Dragon Tower]

Daemon Targaryen

I sighed while throwing myself on the bed, perhaps being so willing to cause mischief with the king was going to bite me in the ass but I carried a certain arrogance thanks to my previous life, it was hard not to when the majority of the people I knew thought that bathing regularly was going to kill them, at least it looked like the king didn’t share that opinion since the old man didn’t smell like shit and he was rather long-lived even among the people of my world.

The worst part of it all was that I couldn’t have some fun with Rhea since the king could call at any moment but with how scared she was from the quakes I doubted that it would be a good time to make a move on her anyway. I pushed a hand through my hair and moved to the desk where the first example of my ‘roman’ concrete sat, an innocuous piece of rock that could change the way of life for the whole world or at least my part of the world.

There was an abrupt knock on the door followed by two more in quick succession, it was Willam, he was using a particular style of knocking that to the untrained ear might sound dumb but it was a code and it called for privacy. As far as I knew this room was the only one that didn’t have any kind of place to hide, I should know as this was once my room.

“Enter” Willam looked very excited by whatever he found and I was beginning to believe that the lucky bastard might actually have found some gold or something “Well, did you find it?”

“I found something better” Then Willam moved to the center of the room where a statue of a dragon was resting as a centerpiece “Watch this!”

Willam grabbed the bag I had given him and poured some of my blood into his hand but before I could ask him why he was wasting my precious blood he touched the statue and it moved.

I stood there for what felt like an hour mouth agape as I saw a hidden ladder that led inside the tower that I had been told all my life was pure rock “What the hell Willam!?”

“I found this out an hour ago! There is a hidden room below the castle and it has many different pathways, too bad the whole castle could hear what I was doing but unless a Targaryen provides blood then no one can open the passageways!”

“And you don’t think that me losing blood is important! Wait…did you say an hour ago?! Willam were you the one causing the castle to shake?”

“The castle shook?” the honest confusion in his voice and the fact that I was screaming out my frustration and thus calling every spy around my room to come and see what was happening made me take a deep breath and calm myself.

“Start from the beginning” and thus I was told about how Willam’s little adventure turned into some sort of Indiana Jones movie with secret rooms old books of magic and forgotten treasure. It made me question just exactly how much I know about the old Dragon Lords, despite the propaganda I knew that Dragonstone wasn’t built by Targaryens, at least most of it wasn’t, perhaps the newest rooms but even then no one alive could say that they knew everything about the castle.

Until now.

“So what will you do first, go to the dragons or check out the place I found?”

“Willam the first thing I’m going to do is go down this ladder to find out what is down there” then without hesitation I started going down the stairs but before I was all the way down I told Willam one last thing “If this closes and I’m not out in an hour, go for my brother and get me out of here”

“You can count on me” Willam was almost like a little brother in the way he behaved, and I would make sure that he survived long enough to have a family of his own unlike in canon.

The smell of dust assaulted my nose and it didn’t take long for me to start sneezing my brains out but once I finally had my nose under control I could finally see what was in the room that I had arrived at. There was a cauldron that highlighted my suspicions about who had made this room (or appropriated it), and there was also a desk with lots of vials and some books. After a close encounter with a spider I took one of the books off the table and I noticed that it wasn’t a book at all, it was a journal.

It was Visenya Targaryen’s personal journal.

This was worth more than any amount of gold, I gave it good odds of being worth as much as a piece of Valyrian steel. Despite the time that had passed everyone still talked about the magic that Visenya wielded, sure it wasn’t flashy but she had supposedly known enough to curse somebody and she was apparently knowledgeable enough to make potions.

Rumors persisted that she wasted away so young because she misused a potion that was keeping her as spry as when she was in her prime years of life, the other rumor was that she somehow lost a sorcerous battle against Tyanna of the tower the witch wife of Maegor who supposedly hated Maegor’s mother. I don’t know if anything in here is toxic so I’m not going to open any vials, the entrance to the room soon closed itself and a statue of a dragon placed itself in the way.

I took out a dagger from my boot and quickly made a cut on my hand to try and open the door again, I wanted to know if this really worked as Willam had described, and after putting my bloodied palm on the statue it opened up again. I was going to need a way to store blood or else I would soon be getting everyone's attention as my hands would be wounded all the time.

I grabbed the journal of Visenya and started to make my way out, Willam still needed to show me the other room he had found and I was going to have to decide if I should tell the king about it or not.