Chapter 20: Chapter 15

Chapter Text

My limbs ached as I sat in my lessons with Sister Beth. I loved my training, I really did, whether training with archery, sword, or whatever polearm father chose to train me with. But I was always sore when the days ended. I had been given this day off, and told very strictly not to try to do anything harder than lift a book.

Today, we sat in the garden, as various servants moved plants with Alesander recording which ones were which. I was finally bringing order to this enormous garden, while also ordering a section cordoned off to make a Godswood… I had an obsession with those things. They were relaxing, helped me get my mind off the day, and I could confess everything on my mind without having to deal with a shrink's judging face.

Though, eventually, I couldn't sit still any longer, and left the gardens. I'd mostly explored Dragonstone with Rhae during my first visit, but at least now I could camp out in the library without anyone kicking me out.

Unless Father was screwing Mysaria in there, but that wasn't likely, since both of them seemed to avoid the library unless it was extremely necessary to get something. Not that that bothered me, I liked to read books there alone.

Granted, it would have been nice if the language in it was simple, not like reading old flowery Japanese poetry while trying to get through a history of the Forty Families. But, at least it was something— like reading about the Roman Empire in the 600s. Lord Beesbury wasn't nearly old enough to remember, hell, he was born after Maegor fell. Far as I knew, he was the oldest living man in Westeros… well, maybe some in the Citadel were older, but I didn't have a source of knowledge there.

The more I read about them, the more Valyria reminded me of the Romans, but if they didn't have the Greeks as inspiration. They found their own footing, worshiping personifications of the Volcanoes across the peninsula. In the earliest days, there was a King of Valyria, chosen by the Valyrian Senate, acting as both the High Priest and the Ruler. The Senate only numbered 15, yet they did elect the King from amongst their own number.

The King was eventually overthrown— though by what circumstance the books didn't say. That volume was missing from the collection. After the establishment of the Freehold, the city of Valyria subsumed her allies, absorbing their own nobility into the Valyrian, with the exception of Tyria, which had no nobility at the time, already a colony of Valyria.

Draconys seemed to have been the Alba Longa analogue, and a further ten noble families were added from Draconys, while five were added from the other cities eventually compromising the initial Valyrian Freehold. The Targario were one of the great families of Oros, at the time the head of House Targaryen was the Interrex, who surrendered before the Valyrians and was elevated with her peers.

While each family had a home in Valyria, the ones who originated from other cities often still had their largest homes there, and often had the advantage that if they fell out of favor with with the political leaders, they could take a leave of absence from the Senate and retreat to their home, while the fifteen families that were native to Valyria itself were lucky to get appointed to a decent Governorship to wait out political winds.

There were plenty more books, I imagined, but by the time I finished reading on the consolidation of the peninsula, my candle was starting to burn low, so I was left to close the scroll carefully and store it back in the leather sleeve, before making my way out of the basement of the library.

All the old Valyrian stuff was kept in the basement, out of prying eyes. The main library, which I carefully made my way through, was mostly made of books brought to Dragonstone by my great-grandparents when they lived here alone. Princess Rhaena later added quite a few books to her own collection as well. But ever since Rhaena's departure the island had been neglected, just leaving the rather incompetent and confused local administrators to handle everything themselves.

The process of so much having something delivered from King's Landing was a pain— whether the castellan, reeve, or justiciar had authority over one thing or another, and then the constant fighting between the Master-at-Arms, the Marshal, and the Justiciar again. I found myself tempted to just grab Vermithor and go get it myself, but Sister Beth told me not to do that, giving into my impatience would make me even more likely to do so in the future.

Back in the present, I had finally located Sister Beth, from her quiet sitting point in the garden. Even then, I was searching for something.

"Sister Beth, would you happen to know the location of my Maesters? Both seem to be absent," I asked. She looked up at me and smiled.

"Elwyn is speaking with your father, and I believe Alesander is at the Sept," she replied. "Your lesson with Prince Daemon is soon, so don't wander off." I rolled my eyes and replied that I wouldn't. I didn't wander off that often… only a couple times a week. Usually.

I quickly made my way across the castle to the Sept, where the rather young Septon – whose name I didn't know – was giving his sermon. "And so, the Father said unto him: For each of you, We have made laws, and a structure. Had they willed, they would have made all one nation, but they instead test us with what we are given, so we must strive to do good." I didn't listen much, though that phrase did sound vaguely familiar.

After the sermon finally ended, I was able to collect my Maester for my lessons. Which, by necessity, were held in the courtyard, polishing my maths and touching up on basic algebra, which would obviously need a new name with the absence of Arabic in this world, and I didn't think Old High Andalic had a word for setting broken bones that would work for numbers.

That lesson ended within an hour, as Father arrived and ordered me to hop onto Vermithor. As we walked to the dragons, he finally explained what we were doing.

"I've been in conversation with Corlys Velaryon about matters related to both Dragonstone and Driftmark," he explained. "There are… matters we must personally discuss. You will accompany me, I still have no cupbearer." I nodded as the Dragonkeepers saddled our Dragons.

Maybe I can make friends with the rider of the only dragon bigger than mine.