Pre-Chapter A/N:A chapter on time? Guess my lock-in is going pretty well. If you haven't already, I recommend turning on notifications for my stuff so you can see when new stuff drops right as it drops. More chapters on my patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga)— same username as here and link in bio.
Victory. I'd done it. I patted my horse on his head. He'd earned a name and then some for this win. The crown of roses was brought forward, along with an intact lance. This was a part that every young squire had dreamed of since the first day they picked up a blade. Winning a tourney came with one honour greater than any other: the right to crown a Queen of Love and Beauty.
It might have seemed like a minor thing. Crown a woman and be done with it. But a crowning was a serious thing. It said a million things in one, and a million more were implied by each crowning. It was why most Knights would crown the Queen or the Lady of the hosting House. That was the safe choice. It simply said you were grateful to them for hosting a good tourney and nothing more. Crowning an unwed and unpromised lady was a declaration of intent to court. Crowning a wed or promised lady was a challenge to her husband or betrothed.
And if you happened to be married, crowning anyone other than your lady wife… well, not even the truly insane dared to do that (looking at you, Rhaegar). In my case, the choice was simple. I would not be crowning Alicent. The one she already wore was far more than I felt she deserved. I would not be putting another atop her brow. Rhaenyra was still at Cole's side. Good, she wouldn't have to be here to watch me crown another.
Let the breaking of the betrothal be entirely due to her own actions, not mine. And so I did the sensible thing. I rode around the field with the crown balanced on my lance, and like a good showman, I mimed stopping half a dozen times. I would never admit it out loud, but it did feel good the way the ladies would look up with hope in their hearts and expectation in their eyes whenever I mimed a stop.
But all their hopes were for nothing. There was only one choice I could make. There was only one for me. And so I rode on to the royal box and dropped the crown of roses on the lap of Laena Velaryon. She looked down at the crown and then up at me.
"To the fairest lady of them all. I name you my Queen of Love and Beauty, Sister," I said. Her gaze was smoldering as she picked up the crown and placed it on her head. The smallfolk and nobles alike erupted into applause. I never even noticed Mother watching the two of us with a raised eyebrow and fire in her eyes.
XXXXXXX
"So how long have the two of you been sleeping with each other?" Mother asked in between sips of her wine. Laena was still sipping hers, oblivious to the question that had just been asked, while I wasn't quite sure if I heard correctly.
"Pardon?" I asked, coughing to cover my shock.
"You heard me clearly, Laenor. And do please get your sister out of her own head. Only the Seven can know why I was blessed with children who spend more time in their own heads than here in reality," she said. I tapped Laena, watching her jolt to attention. I couldn't blame her for it. The final feast to celebrate the end of the tournament was going to take place from noon tomorrow, and so tonight we took dinner in Mother's chambers. A dinner that had been silent for the most part. Well, until now.
"You didn't hear me earlier, Laena. My question was how long have you been sleeping with each other?" she said again.
"What? Sleeping with each other? Laena and—"
"I know you have never thought me a fool, Laenor. Please don't start that now," Mother said, cutting into my attempts to divert her concerns and wave them off.
"Wh-what?" Laena stumbled through the word like she was dancing in an oiled-up ballroom.
"How many times are you going to make me ask this question? It's a simple question, isn't it? How long has this—this thing between the two of you been going on? And I don't want to be lied to."
"Mother, I don't know what—"
"If either of you try to lie to me again—"
"Two years," I cut in and ended the argument before it could begin.
"Laenor—"
"Good. At least one of you can be somewhat honest. Now tell me why I should not find people to betroth the both of you to and forbid you from seeing each other. Tell me why the two of you are keen to throw away all that your father and I worked so hard to build—what he gave his life up to build," she said, sounding more than a bit peeved. She didn't raise her voice—the Queen Who Never Was never did that—but there were subtle differences in her intonation that gave away her dissatisfaction.
"That's unfair. Putting it like that just makes it seem like this is some—some sort of childish frolic—" I began, struggling to put everything into words.
"We're in love," Laena said plainly, cutting into my words and reaching out to place her hand in mine: a gesture that Mother did not miss, as her nostrils flared immediately when she saw it. She looked like a dragon in that moment. The soft motherliness in her eyes was gone. All that was left were the sharp angles in her cheekbones, the cold set in her eyes that made it difficult to guess what she was thinking. I struggled and racked my brain to figure out some way out of this—the best way to deal with this.
"Love? What do you spoiled children know of love? Love is what led your father to give his life in his quest for a greater future for House Velaryon. His love—his sacrifice is what you risk with this foolishness."
"We risk nothing," I shot back.
"Laenor—" I turned my head in her direction before shaking it. No, Mother would not be swayed by platitudes now. She needed to hear it as it was.
"My work. My work builds upon Father's sacrifice. The Stepstones are going to become the greatest part of the Seven Kingdoms in a matter of years. My efforts have made it inevitable. The work I have done there sees gold flowing into our coffers even faster than any of Father's voyages could make it. And even better, this is not gold that relies on the risk of several ships being lost in a storm or losing our Lord in foreign lands. This is gold made from predictable trade and industry. Replicable, predictable, safe. That is what I have built while you have been here stuck in the past. You think marriages are the only way for House Velaryon to climb high. I have proven you wrong. We are already the dominant naval power in the Narrow Sea. Soon we will become the greatest in the world. In a matter of years, even Braavos and their Arsenal will quiver in fear at our might. All without a single marriage with another house. Now I ask you this: If I can deliver greatness for our house so predictably, what need is there for us to tie ourselves to any other? Why should we give another house one of our own—mine own sister, and the dragon she rides? A dragon that I will remind you is the largest the world over," I asked in a hiss, pushing my head closer to hers. The fire in her eyes was yet to die, but I could see she was considering my argument.
"Giving Laena to another house loses us more than it gains, and like Father often said, the purpose of trade is to get richer. Why would we make a trade that would see us poorer for it? As for mine own hand, there is only one Maiden that you have had your eyes set on as a worthy bride. I doubt she will take me after I just publicly put down her sworn shield and white knight. But even if she did, why would I offer myself? Once more, I ask you to think of House Velaryon. What do we gain in a royal marriage?" I asked.
"A crown," Mother was quick to shoot back.
"A crown I will not wear. Viserys has been clear on this. He will see his daughter wedded to a consort, not to a King in his own name. I would rule only as much as Rhaenyra decides to allow me. The true gain there would be the assurance that my own children would one day rule the Seven Kingdoms. They would bear my blood, to be sure. But not my name. Do you see a world where the royal house becomes House Velaryon? I don't. What would happen is that my first son would take the name Targaryen while my second would be a Velaryon and would rule our holdings. Holdings that we would be forced to tie to the Crown to keep Rhaenyra's reign buoyed. So what is House Velaryon's gain in that? A Lord with a King for a brother," I said.
"That is what you would have me give up my hand, give up my focus on our holdings, give up whatever concessions the Crown demands along the way for. A Lord with a King for a brother. And then House Velaryon would not marry into the Crown for at least two generations because the Crown cannot be seen to be closely tied with one family over the others," I said, laying out the path for her.
"Your father wanted—"
"And he is dead. He was wrong, and now he is dead. The path forward for House Velaryon is not to tie ourselves too closely with the Crown. Laena and I will one day have children of our own. Children who will ride dragons aplenty. With those children we can pursue as many royal marriages as we wish from a position of strength and independence." I cut into her statement, and I watched her nostrils flare again. Still, I could tell that she was considering it. Thinking about my words at least.
"We have a chance now. We can make the Stepstones something great now. Something great and uniquely ours. We would go from one of many Narrow Sea Houses to a House on the same, if not greater level than the Lords Paramount and the Regional Lords. One path leads us to great influence in the near future. The other leads our house to a position where we can challenge to become the greatest power in the realm outside the Crown in a matter of generations," I said. And that was the final stroke.
"And you think you know what you are doing?"
"I know I know what I am doing," I said.
"Then lay it down for me. Give me the future as you see it if I allow this thing between the two of you to continue," she said.
And so we spoke long into the night. Mother grilled me on every assumption I made. She forced me to confront every possibility. What if glass sales turned out to be a flash in the pan and they were not a viable export moving forwards? What if Myr managed to replicate my process and began selling glass that could compete with mine? What if Yronwood and Jordayne turned their cloaks and stopped supplying me the sand I used for the process? What if we had to contend with another round of burdensome taxation from a displeased Viserys when he found out I had no intention to marry his daughter? A million and one possibilities, and by the end of the night, it felt like we had confronted at least half of them already.
By the time it felt like Mother had tired herself out, I had gone over everything at least twice and was working my way through my sixth glass of wine. With Igneel in the corner of my mind, I ran little danger of the alcohol taking me anywhere I wasn't particularly interested in going. If I felt too far gone, I just had to let him into my system and he'd burn every drop of it out of me with his sheer presence. Igneel did not take kindly to interlopers in his domain.
"At least this means I don't have to worry about the Princess and Cole anymore," Mother finally said with a sigh.
"What?" Laena asked, snapping back to attention on her own this time. She had probably been putting more of an effort into paying attention considering it was our futures being discussed.
"You noticed that?" I asked.
"I have never seen a sworn shield look at their charge the way he looks at her. Without my intervention, he might even have made his way to the dance floor at the most recent feast," she said with a scowl.
"Cole likes the Princess? Well, that does explain a fair bit," Laena said next.
"Not just that he likes her. That I would not blame him for. The Princess is one of the fairest women in all the Seven Kingdoms. I would be even more surprised if Cole did not develop a certain level of attachment. What I fear is that the feelings are not one-sided," she said, and I almost could not believe my luck. Of course Mother would notice Rhaenyra as an unsatisfactory bride just on the same day she catches out Laena and me.
"Because she went to check if he was okay? In her defense, that did look like a terrible fall that Cole took there," Laena cut in.
"The Princess' reaction today was the last straw, but even without it, there were too many things for anyone paying attention not to notice," Mother replied.
"Things like?"
"Her plea for the joust to be moved on his behalf, the fact that he wore her favor, the small gazes they would give each other during the feasts, the way he stares at every suitor that approaches like he wants to stab them with his sword. A million other things that even I couldn't notice. The fact is that if I, who am on the outside, can see so much, then I wonder what is going on inside there."
"And you would still have wanted me to marry her," I challenged.
"She is a Princess. However, she is still human. Having feelings for her sworn shield at her age is not an altogether rare phenomenon. Cole should know better, but I have seen what the beauty of Valyria has done to men greater than he, so I cannot judge all that much. It would have been simple enough to have her assigned a different member of the Kingsguard. That would have been enough. Feelings are nothing more than emotions, and as nobility we ought to be able to ignore such things. It is not like she would have been stupid enough to give her maidenhead to a Knight of the Kingsguard. Especially one from a house that is barely even nobility," she said. I considered for a second telling her that things were much farther along than she thought, but then what would be the point in that. I had her support, at least it felt like I did, and how would I even prove any of that?
"I see. So we can retire for the night then?" I asked.
"Yes, you can. Except I have one more question. What is your plan for the Faith?"
"The Faith?" Laena asked.
"The Faith of the Seven. Last I checked, incest is still forbidden by the Book of the Seven."
"There's this little thing called the Doctrine of Exceptionalism. No idea if you've heard of it," Laena snarked, doing a good impression of me all things considered.
"A doctrine said to apply only to House Targaryen," Mother shot back, clearly not best pleased with Laena's sarcasm.
"I will handle it," I said.
"You will handle it? Just that?" she asked.
"Yes, I will. The High Septon of Oldtown might be a Hightower stooge, but even he can manage to do a few things on his own without their permission. All we have to do is get him to publish a clarification of the doctrine to say it applies to the scions of Valyria and then bless any marriage between Laena and me," I said.
"Then swear to me that you will not burn any bridges until you secure his cooperation. I will not tolerate a marriage that puts our family at risk. Without the High Septon's blessing, there will be no marriage," she said, resolute.
"Deal. And since I will be the one handling the High Septon, I think you can be the one placed in charge of getting me out of the agreement you have with Viserys," I said.
"There is no official agreement as of yet. Merely an understanding. Viserys is a romantic at heart. He would never stomach the possibility of marrying his precious daughter to someone whose heart is pledged to another," she said. I could see Laena breathe a sigh of relief. It felt like things were coming together now. I felt a twinge in my chest as I realized I could probably have gotten what I wanted just by coming clean to Mother. Had I even needed to kill Cole? Probably not.
I shrugged to myself. It wasn't like anything of value was lost.
A/N: And that's the chapter. It closes out with Rhaenys finding out and being brought onside. Well, as onside as she could be. Next five chapters up on patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga) (same username as here and link in bio), support me there and read them early.