She’d done her duty to her brother, the one who had raised her, teaching her his version of history and fear, by marrying Khal Drogo. Not that she had any choice in the matter. Daenerys dared not defy Viserys, no matter how terrified she was of the Dothraki leader, she was far more afraid of her brother. Dany didn’t even consider herself a broodmare. The Dothraki valued their horses far more than their women, but they showed her a begrudging respect and Ser Jorah was there to help her understand their customs. Slowly she learned the language and how to gain Khal Drogo’s love, easing some of her daily suffering, but the more confident Daenerys grew, the more unhinged her brother became. She tried to help him, to offer him acts of kindness, but he attacked her brutally, forcing Dany to defend herself against him for the first time.
Daenerys felt something twist inside her that day, because despite his cruelty and abuse she loved him – he was her brother, but she couldn’t have known what was yet to come. Watching Viserys die, helpless to stop it, powerless to undo the horrible fate he had brought on himself, had cut something out of her heart. She was alone in the world now. The last Targaryen. Her worth defined by the child in her womb. But little did she know that her trials were not over. The magi poisoned Drogo and killed the life growing within her in the same stroke. Laying on the furs in her tent, her body aching and bleeding, Daenerys had thought her life over while the Dothraki built Khal Drogo’s pyre. She dozed, having another vivid dream and when awoken, she was filled with a fiery determination. Taking her dragon eggs, Dany set them around the pyre, around her dead husband, and signaled for the torches while Ser Jorah tried to talk her out of what she planned, her Knight’s eyes filled with dread.
The fire was roaring with a deathly laughter of its own, stretching for the night sky, when Daenerys slipped past Jorah and stepped into the flickering heat. It lapped at her body, the tatters of her dress fluttering away as she stood by the pyre engulfed in heat though it touched her not. There was only the licking flames and the night sky above, the crackling of wood and then she heard it, like stone shifting on stone, and moments later, the first tiny claw touched her skin. The three baby dragons curled against her body as she lay down to sleep, comforted by the fire and the breathing babies. She awoke in smoke and the last of the flames, rising from the ashes, the dust slipping from her body and the image Daenerys saw before her had her heart skipping a beat. Was she still asleep and having another vision of Rhaegar?
Standing, Daenerys cared not that she was covered only in soot and baby dragons, taking a step closer to the man she’d seen many times in her visions. Irri ran over with the Hrakkar pet, draping it over her shoulders, but Dany only cared for the man kneeling before her. Reaching out, Daenerys fingers skimmed on his cheek. Those eyes. “Rhaegar,” she whispered, her fingers lifting to touch his hair, combing into the soft silver locks so like her own. “If I am still dreaming, I will kill the man who wakes me.”
Behind him, Ser Jorah had risen from where he had knelt with the Dothraki, his hand on the hilt of his sword as he came forward, stopping a few feet away as he watched the interaction. “Khaleesi? You know this man?”
“Know?” Daenerys gave a huffing laugh, her gaze never wavering from her brother. On one shoulder, Drogon chuffed and preened, on the other Rhaegal chirped and stretched his nose toward his namesake. Viserion rested on her arm and nuzzled there. “No, but I have dreamed of him all my life. Rise, my brother.”
They both were in a state of disbelief it seemed, both trying to take over the idea that they weren’t the last ones. That they had a family once again. He leaned into her touches, however light they were and he eyed the knight who seemed too protective over his sister for Rhaears liking and as her dragons made sounds Rhaegar’s eyes focused back on Daenerys spoke and he rose to his feet, noting how much taller he was than her, almost a full foot taller.
“You dreamed of me?” He asked, tilting his head to one side before he took in her appearance and stepped closer to place a hand on her cheek. “You’re real…You’re here. I never thought I’d see any of my family….Is Viserys..” Rhaegar felt tears brimming in his eyes at the thought of what his little brother must have gone through not only with their father but the aftermath of it all. “I want to apologize, I want to be there for him. I-I wasn’t able to be there for him before…Not in any way I could thanks to Father.” Rhaegar told Daenerys as he looked around before he placed his hand on her shoulder bringing her closer to him. “And you. I wasn’t there for you either. But look at you. A Khalessi of a Khalassar, you’ve brought dragons back into this world even” Rhaegar side, a combination of nerves and relief.
“Wait..why were you in the fire? How-How are you still alive?!”
Robb needed all the men he could get. The army shrank withe very battle despite the fact he kept winning.
He couldn’t be… It wasn’t possible. “Get out.” Catelyn dismissed the guards when he man moved aside his cloak. The Northern lords had lost enough to that family without this revelation. The Starks had lost the most- Rickard and Brandon- but there wasn’t a family who’d not lost someone in Robert’s Rebellion.
“Rhaegar.” the word fell from her lips unwillingly.
No other man in the Seven Kingdom’s had a breast plate like that. “You’re dead. Robert killed you on the Trident.”
“I thought so too. But after a red priest brought me back…Giving me what they call the ‘last kiss’” He told Catelyn honestly as soon as the guards left them alone.
“I was dead and now i’m alive and the world has moved on and I haven’t…” Rhaegar knew he must have sounded mad and he was still surprised that she believed him to be honest. He stayed his place, un moving as to not make the Lady angry or anything. “Lady Stark. Shall we sit?” He didn’t want her to faint or anything that was for certain. “I know this is a lot to take in. I didn’t believe I was alive for the first few months.”
Rhaegar had heard word of his brother Viserys Targaryen and his life in Essos, raising his sister all alone as he himself had been brought back from the brink of death by a Red Priestess who had nursed him to full health herself. He’d been told that he had in fact died but he remembered nothing of any kind of after life. There had been breath and life in him and the next, nothing.
He traveled for a while, picking up on trails of his siblings after hearing about how Robert Baratheon seized the throne despite there being a legal and rightful heir to the throne, a child no less one he thought they would have used to their advantage as they had used his father’s illness. Jaime Lannister had killed his own father and while he had been sad to hear it, he knew that even if he himself had claimed the throne his father would have been dealt with in a similar fashion wither by his own hands or not.
Both Elia and Lyanna were dead, their children were dead as well. So much death and heartbreak and he was the cause of all of it. He had found his way to Pentos and came across an Illyrio Mopatis who had taken in his siblings and told him of their whereabouts and what he had heard about them since and once again heartache and guilt found it’s way to fill Rhaegar’s heart.
He traveled for months to get to Pentos and would have to make his way to where she’d last been seen which was Vaes Dothrak and once he did he was able to pick up on a lead to where they might have been, least a very basic understanding as he tried to pick up some of the Dothraki language. He could see a fire ahead of him thats when Rhaegar saw what looked like a funeral pyre and he watched as some Dothraki left and he felt compelled to stay as he heard one of the Dothraki mention Khal Drogo. So this was it! This was his sisters Khalassar, at last!
He found no sight of a woman matching his family apperance until he saw a man who looked to be Westerosi and sure enough he was. This Ser Jorah didn’t seem to like him very much but Rhaegar felt the feeling was mutaul and stated he was a sellsword from Lys looking to join with a great Khalassar and as he was interagated by the knight the fire had died down and in the ashes was a young woman and three baby dragons.
Rhaegar felt his heart stop as he looked at her, she looked so much like their mother that he stumbled close to her eventually falling to his knees looking at her with an expression of bewilderment and awe that she had survived being in the fire. “Daenerys…” He whispered, still shocked that he wasn’t alone in the world, that there was another Targaryen and that maybe there was a chance they could reclaim what was theirs.
“In the privacy of just us, yes. But, I suppose I should look presentable if i’m too leave this room” Rhaegar gave a soft sigh as his mind was soon filled with thoughts he knew he would have to act on sooner than later. “Lyanna, you should write to your family” Rhaegar knew they had left abruptly, he was sure there must have been rumors going about already about the two of them. He just hoped that there was enough time to get things set in motion, namely getting rid of his father on the throne.
“Let them know that you are safe and well and I shall write to Tywin Lannister if it’s not too late to gain his support” He kissed her cheek and smiled lovingly at her, embracing her for a moment wishing they could just live out their days here but he also knew the longer his father sat on the throne and went further into madness the worse it would be for everyone.
The camps were never too close to the battles but always within earshot.
Close enough to give her nightmares about Robb falling in battle.
Close enough for a Lannister spy to find them if they looked hard enough.
“You claim to wish to help my son yet you skulk around this camp like a thief.” He didn’t sound northern- that was enough reason for most of the guards to distrust him. Save the men Edmure and Brynden had brought most of the Northern Army was just that. No wonder he’d been dragged to her tent.
“You’re not of a Northern house, nor one of my father’s bannermen’s.”
“No, Your Ladyship I am not. I’m from the South. Can Southerners not join a side they think is the right one to be on? Or are we condemned for being born and raised in the wrong area?” Rhaegar questioned Catelyn “What proof do you need to see that I am not a spy My Lady?”
He had very few things left on him that would prove he was who he said he was, but he was willing to show them to her and that’s when he moved his cloak away from his dark colored chest plate to revel the broken rubies one of the only things he had kept on him through the years, most everything else had been sold to get food and shelter and make sure his natural hair color was kept hidden, making him a brunette.
“I want justice for the families wronged. For my family.” He paused gritting his teeth “My father, not so much. But- Ellia…our children, for Lyanna and her family.”
Ned can hardly believe what he’s seeing. Rhaegar had died on the Trident over a year ago now. Hadn’t he? Ned hadn’t been back in Winterfell very long and here was Rhaegar Targaryen standing in his solar.
“How did you get in here?” He asks, his voice low. He’d half a mind to take Ice off the mantel and finish what Robert clearly hadn’t. The other half of reminded him that technically this was Jon’s father, and that he’d made a promise to his sister. “Why did you come here?”
“I sneaked my way past your guards. It wasn’t easy to be honest. I nearly got caught until I told one I had a important message for you and he let me go.” Rhaegar waited for Eddard to pull out his sword, to swing at him but nothing so far had turned to violence. “I ask to stay here. Until I recuperate.” He hadn’t heard anything about his son but had heard of Lyanna’s passing and he didn’t know what Eddard did and didn’t know about the two of them.
“Eddard, I heard you were the last one with Lyanna…did-did our child…” He could hardly finish his thoughts and Rhaegars eyes fell to the floor. “I never wanted this to happen. I had wanted to annul my marriage to Elia, I loved her and our children but Lyanna…She was strikingly beautiful and she loved me.”
Rhaegar wasn’t sure why he was telling Eddard all of this, he didn’t know if the Lord would believe him or not. “I was going to take over the throne, my father had been slipping further and further towards the end…Lyanna wanted to escape a marriage to Robert, we married…” He was fighting back tears at the thought of his dead family. “I’ve lost all of my family. My brother is somewhere across the Narrow Sea and for all I know he and mother could be dead. I understand if you throw me out, if you execute me. You have every right to do so. My family started a war and we are to pay for that”
“I pledge loyalty to your son, Lady Stark. To your family.”
Rhaegar’s face covering was removed as he was taken a hold of by one of Robbs men and indigo eyes looked up the widowed lady not quite sure if now was the right time to disclose his true self to her. How long had it been since he had said his name out loud to another person? Fourteen years or had it been longer? The Targaryen couldn’t recall.
“My name is William” A fake name, one he had used far more than any other name. “Please, Lady Stark. My intentions and words are true. I wish to see the bastard lions removed from power and hung for what they have done to your family and other families now by hiding their blatant truths.”
❝ Oh, I am not much of a fighter ser. I prefer to write MUSIC, read books and hang out in this inn. It’s small, quaint and most people leave me be. People think I’m MAD, but I’m not really. Or I might be —— who knew thinking out loud could cause so much trouble.❞
“Music, huh? Are you a bard or something?”
The Targayren asked, giving the man a curious once over. “Well, it seems people here are odd, more so than anyone I’ve ever known. But you..you don’t seem mad to me at all.” Aegon commented as he slide a few coins over to the man.
Goldnwulf 