Chapter 19:King s' Landing

While he was expanding their empire, his mother was busy holding court and solidifying their sovereignty in their newly unified empire. One of her most annoying jobs was constantly rejecting Quentyn Martell's attempts in initiating a marriage between them. She knew that a marriage with a high-rank noble house of Westeros would be politically advantageous, in making them seem less foreign in their house return to Westeros. Rhaego had discussed this with her several times.

She wanted to marry her heir, however, considering his mature mental age and abnormally grown body, he could fulfill the duty of husband immediately, so there was no problem in marrying him to an adult woman. She wanted to marry Rhaego with Arianne Martell. Quentyn's logical doubt about Rhaego's legitimacy, more of a personal certainty, made the proposal to not develop.

Daenerys held back her anger about her son's legitimacy being questioned, she did not want to pass the image of the female version of Maegor the Cruel, although according to Rhaego Maegor may not be nearly as bad as the Citadel and the nobles made him appear, just a ruthless and efficient king, not crazy at all. He may have been too ruthless when there was no need to, and forgiving when he should have been ruthless.

Daenerys even openly emphasized the fact that she was sterile to no avail. Be it because Quentyn did not believe her, was too infatuated with her, was too greedy for the Iron Throne, or a combination of the three; he insisted on marrying her.

'It is not that he is ugly. His personality seems fine, but... Oh, I guessed since I had a son, my standard for men became too high. Maybe I fell for his charm, but I can't not even my family approves of the relationship between mother and son.'

Her son was finally back. He flew back on Rhaegal's back.

"Welcome back my son" Daenerys said to Rhaego.

"Hello, Mother. How have you been?" Rhaego asked.

"Everything is fine, but there has been a boy that did not stop asking for my marriage."

'So Quentyn Martell is here, and he did not try the suicidal decision of trying to tame a dragon yet.' Rhaego thought.

"Mother, I think we should just wake him up for reality" Rhaego said.

"Sooner or later he may try to tame Viserion to prove to you that he is as much of a dragon as you."Rhaego said.

"That bastard would try to steal from me" Daenerys said pissed.

"Calm down. Remember we are technically we are far relatives of the Martells by blood. However, he is no dragon. I propose we let him openly try to tame Viserion, after all, we could not let my future brother-in-law die and we can let the green boy stop dreaming."Rhaego said.

"Son, how did you guess I was planning to marry you to his sister?"Daenerys asked.

"It was the most logical decision politically. Allying with one of the major houses that overtook our dynasty is uncalled for. The Greyjoys were pirates that proclaimed themselves kings and whom we will have to discipline later. The Tyrels are already allied with the Lannisters and even during the rebellion war they were half-ass allies. This only leaves House Martell, which shared with us a strong hatred against the Lannisters" Rhaego said.

They let Quentyn try his luck trying to tame Viserion. At the last moment, when Viserion was nearly burning the young Martell alive, Rhaego pushed him aside and took the flames on himself.

"Your flames are so relaxing. It's like a warm bath." Rhaego said."'Brother', I said to you to take it easy. "

Viserion bowed his head in an apologizing manner.

"You better be sorry."

Rahego padded Quentyn's back:

"Brother-in-law, do not be discouraged it's not you, it's the dragon. They are a prideful and peaky bunch."

"Oh, thank you" Quentyn said, he could not wash away his new terror about the situation.

'He and Daenerys make taming a dragon seem so easy. He is a dragon rider anyway and appointed heir to the Iron Throne. Guess sister will marry him, I have to be content with Dorne.' Quentyn thought. After calming down, he requested an audience with Daenerys and said:

"I agree with the chance of the agreement. I only need to convince my prince's father about the changes. " Quentyn said, bending the knee." I believe House Martell and Targaryen can forge a nice future together, Your Majesty."

"Likewise. I formally welcome Prince Quentyn into my court." Daenerys said.

"Yes, your majesty" Quentyn said.

"Now that my son had returned from his conquests, we shall start the main matter at hand."

Discussion between the councilors started to determine from where they should start the reconquest. They chose the easiest route. Dragonstone and surrounding islands, Kings Landing. With this, they can take the symbolic center of power and they only need to deal with the insurrections throughout the continent.

Dragonstone was once ruled by King Stannis Baratheon rule, but after the delusional King self-exiled to the North, the keep was easily taken over by the Lannisters, but it was very meekly defended. After executing some traitors, that sold out Dragonstone, when the Targaryens were at their weakest.

With Dragonstone at their hands, they secured an entrance at Blackwaters Bay. No need for useless negotiations, Rhaego flew and burned the royal navy scorpions together with their commanding ships. He burned a little and ask for surrender, but they did not surrender immediately, so he burned some more ships, and the navy surrendered as they temporarily took them as prisoners.

After taking the city, they got the child King Tommen I as a prisoner together with his mother Queen Regent, Cersei Lannister, his bride Margaery Tyrell and Olena Tyrell. The militant faith was reestablished in other to have the faith forgive the crown's debt. Margaery Tyrell was imprisoned by the Faith at the time, but Cersei Lannister had not been taken under the Faith custody yet.

Rhaego thought how crazy it was that the crown had barely prepared to defend against them, because they were too busy in their power disputes. They had some scorpóins prepared and it was just it.

With it came back the Noble and Puissant Order of the Warrior's Sons was an order of Westerosi knights sworn to the Faith of the Seven. They were part of the Faith Militants and were also known as the Swords. Their counterparts were the "Stars", also called the Poor Fellows. The Warrior's Sons obeyed and answer the High Septon, as they believed the High Septon spoke for the Seven.

Rhaego hated the notion of religion interfering with politics, but he could not deny its importance in Westeros politics.

Taking a group of Septons at their 'protection' with their army, they appointed Daenerys I as High Septon, banned the militant faith declaring it heretic. In his dragon form, Rhaego burned the High Sparrow and his aides, they promised that any commoner that surrendered would be forgiven, and so they did. The ones that kept that insisted on their cause were dealt with by dragon fire.

They started to feed the Poor Fellows, and turned it into an organization under the command of the crown; as the crown satiated their hunger their loyalty to their previous cause became to wane.

The nobles, like Cersei's cousin, that joined the Warriror's Sons were executed for their stupidity. 'Each landed noble house has its own private Maester tutor, they should have known better than joining the militant faith. It was like a Lhazaren inviting a Khalasar to their village.'

Dragons were figures that caused great awe and fear and Rhaego planned to use their symbolical image to their fullest. They planned to build several new Septs to give Daenerys a sort of pious image, but the aesthetic of all sept in the country shall chance.

The Father statue in the Great Sept of Baelor would be changed to a statue based on Rhaego's image riding Rhaegal and carrying a balance symbolizing justice.

The new mother statue would be based on an image of Daenerys riding on Drogon carrying baby Rhaego. The new warrior statue would be made based on Rhaego riding on Rhaegal carrying a spear. The new Smith statue would have Rhaegal next to Rhaegal forging a sword.

The next crone statue would have an older version of Daenerys next to Drogon carrying a lamp. Deciding how the new Stranger image would be portrayed was difficult, Rhaego was doubtful if he should make a Targaryen image being associated with that god was shunned and feared by most devout.

The Stranger statue would have a neither male nor female appearance being something in between, wearing a swordbelt and cloak striped in the seven colors of the Faith, with crystals adorning the pommels of their longswords and the crests of its great helm, and carry kite shields displaying the ancient badge of the Swords: a rainbow sword shining brightly upon a field of darkness, with silver armor. This appearance was based on the newly extinct warrior sons.

The dragon sizes had to be adapted to make it both more aesthetically pleasing and reduce the statue size a bit. Rhaego considered that that was the first flaw about when the militant faith was first suppressed, if the faith disagrees with the Targareyes, make the Targaryen the faith.

Next, they had to reorganize the council. The next hand of the Queen would be Rhaego for lack of better personal.

Rhaego got Pycelle executed by betraying horse Targaryen. Rhaego was thinking if they should replace the Grand Maester, in his opinion besides their jobs of taking care of ravens, Maesters were useless. From what he read in the books on his previous life, they had wound treatment that probably only worked out of luck, and mostly did not work. The maesters were also good at distorting history to their liking.

They seem to him as good healers in Middle Ages that used spices as medicine, seeming more like cooks than healers, and justifying their treatment through old books and not actual experiments. Maesters, at least, were not crazy to use something as expensive as cinnamon to treat respiratory ailments, sometimes asthma, that obviously did not work.

'Uncle-in-law Oberyn Martell why do you have to die stupidly to kill the mountain? We could at least have a half-Maester more trustworthy than the grey rats' Rhaego thought.

Varys and Illurios Mopalis, who had taken refuge at King's Landing were executed as well. The master of law position would be kept by Lord Randyll Tarly for now. They thought of giving the position to a dornish noble or bastard, but they would ask the Martell first, who they thought was better for the position. This time the navy had been ordered to defend the King's Landing and the Aurane Waters lacked the time to run away with the royal navy ships.

They got him replaced regardless, having a master of ships and grand -admiral being a wanna-be pirate was obviously not a great idea, and Groleo was serving well as the master of ships.

Rhaego had convinced him to move to Westeros with his family with some nice benefits and a rank of a landed knight, so he could provide a more affluent and stable life to his grandchildren not having to risk themselves at sea. They divided the Master of Whispers position into a Master of Westeros Information and Master of Essos Information.

The first position would be occupied by some noble, although Rhaego was not sure who should occupy it, he did not know who would be a good fit for the position yet, and he did not remember who had occupied the position before Varys ran away in the original timeline. He thought that Ollena Tyrell would be a good master of whispers, if not for the fact that he could deposit zero trust in her, which could be countered by the fact that she would have to compete with another master of whispers; but the main problem was that she did not surrender yet.

The Essos information position would be occupied by the new leader of the Sorrowful Man, Rhaego had appointed. He took some of the assassins with him all the way to Westeros and the rest he spread in all the cities under his control, creating a crude, but with potential to evolve information network and an easy way to kill officers with doubtful loyalty. Ser Barristan Selmy returned to the position of Lord Commander of the Kingsguard.

Harys Swyft was kept at the position of master of coins, as his work was fine except that the crown was bankrupted, but Rhaego considered most of the fault from it lies elsewhere. He thought of putting a dornish noble in the position, but who would accept the trouble? Rhaego was thankful he accumulated enough gold in his conquests to start paying the crown dept with the Iron Bank, he would not like to start a fight with them if there was a way to avoid it, the Faceless were an annoying bunch.