Chapter 039 – Like A Flower

[289 AC]

"Important … ?", Daenerys questioned, tilting her head a bit to the side, looking almost impossibly adorable.

"You remember when I helped Ser Darry get better, so that he could see and move normally again?", Phenex asked tentatively.

Nodding eagerly, the little girl answered, a small frown between her eyebrows: "I do. I do remember. You said it was magic that only you can use."

Giving her a slight smile, Phenex continued: "I also told you that it was my first gift to you. And now I am here for another gift, little dragon."

"What gift?", Deanerys asked wide-eyed, "Am I going to get my own dragon?"

"No no. You are much too young for that, Daenerys.", Phenex hurriedly replied, causing a pout to surface on the small girl's face.

"It's about your mother, little dragon.", he added softly, causing the pout to receed, as she looked at him with hurt in her eyes, a faint hope glimmering beneath.

Picking a budding flower from the grass, Phenex held it in his palm, as he gestured for Daenerys to watch what he was about to do.

"Your mother was like this flower. Beautiful and yet tragic, as she had been plucked from the earth too early, not being granted the time and freedom to bloom. She died before she could watch you grow up, returning to the Earth via her ashes.", Phenex intoned gently, the flower in his hand slowly turning into small specks of ash.

"And like I made the life in Ser Darry vibrant again, I have returned the flower back to life and made it bloom.", he ended, as the ashes in his hand slowly reformed into a flower, before its crown began to open up and its beautiful sun-coloured petals were displayed.

"M-my mother … ", Daenerys whispered, unsure if she understood what Phenex had told her.

"I brought her back to life, Daenerys. So that she can watch you grow up, embrace you when you're hurt and kiss you good night after telling you a bedtime story.", he voiced out clearly, his tone soft and gentle.

Tears gathering in her bright violet eyes, the little girl asked softly in a heart-breaking manner: "W-where i-is she, my m-mother?"

Gently grabbing her small hand, Phenex stood up, as he helped her to her feet. Before lifting the girl up and holding her near his waist with his hands, as fire bloomed around them and they vanished from their spot besides the tree.

Reappearing directly inside Rhaella's quarters, Phenex saw the nervously pacing, former Queen stop dead in her tracks, as her eyes fell on the silver-haired girl in his embrace.

"Deanerys … ", she whispered, a hand covering her mouth, as silent tears fell from her eyes.

The small girl wasn't any different, as she could feel it in her blood. This unfamiliar and beautiful woman was her family, her mother.

Phenex didn't speak, he simply approached the dazed beauty with Daenerys in his arms.

No earlier than the moment he stood before the former Queen, both her and her daughter, reached out for each other, and Rhaella took the small girl from Phenex' embrace and held onto her child tightly.

Deanerys being embraced by her mother for the first time in her life, couldn't suppress her loud sobs anymore, crying loudly. Acting on her motherly instinct alone, Rhaella whispered soothing words into the girl's ears, as she rubbed her back gently.

Giving the pair one last look, as he burnt the heart-warming scene into his memory, Phenex silently diappeared from the room, as his form turned into flickering embers.

…

[King's Landing – Dragonpit]

Standing atop Rhaeny's Hill and looking at the ruins of the Dragonpit and all the red-clothed workers, most of them having tanned skin and were obviously foreigners, Tywin Lannister still found it hard to believe that what he was seeing was true.

The fact that the small council had given Thoros of Myr the permission to rebuild the ruins into a temple for his god had been a great shock at first, before he had seen the ingeniousness behind this move. Which he had no doubt, had been planned by the Lord Hand, Jon Arryn.

The old man of the Vale may seem like a harmless and peace-loving administrator, but Tywin would never underestimate a man that had been able to bring peace to the Realm after the rebellion. Because while Robert was King, the battle-thirsty drunkard had absolutely no idea what it meant to rule, nor did he have the qualifications to do so.

The old lion though wasn't dissatisfied with the outcome, as his own daughter had managed to become Queen and introduce royalty into their noble lineage. She may not love the man, nor did he love her back, but Tywin couldn't care less about such things.

His own blood would one day sit on the Iron Throne, and that was all that mattered.

Still, the Hand of the King had truly proved his foresight, as he gave a location as important as this over to the Red Temple and showed them, and especially their god, the adequate amount of respect, while losing basically nothing but a useless ruin.

Considering what he had heard about the priest's devotion to help the less fortunate, the new Temple would probably also serve to massively improve the situation of the slums at the foot of the hill.

And all that, without the Crown spending a single gold dragon.

Tywin imagined that another reason why Jon Arryn had done such, was also the fact that he probably wanted to tie Robert's rule to the Faith of the Lord of the Light, considering the Blessed Cities overwhelming power in Essos.

Even without their Lord of Light, the Red Temple was rumoured to have dragons and an army of unkillable warriors, in addition to all their priests and priestesses being capable of wielding magic.

Simply remembering the destruction that one Thoros of Myr had wrought upon the raiders and soldiers of the Iron Islands, was enough to make it clear that Westeros simply couldn't face such a force without incurring massive losses. To speak nothing of winning.

A saving grace was that the Red Temple's forces had only moved to attack those Free Cities that had interfered with their business and to protect themselves, and made no motions that may indicate that they intended to attack the lands of Westeros.

The High Septon and other faithful noble figures had obviously protested, but their opinion hardly mattered in the grand scheme of things. Afterall the Seven hadn't descended and performed a miracle before their very eyes.

But the Red God had.

Tywin had never been a particularly religious or pious man, religion merely being similar to tradition for him and as such he respected its customs. But it was different now.

The mere memory of that fiery figure staring down at them and the pressure freezing his body in place, it wasn't something that could just be erased from memory.

It awakened in him a fear of something greater than men, reminded him that all plans and ambitions were useless before the gods, something he had been preached by Septons and Maesters, but had never believed in before.

So it was no surprise that he found himself here on Rhaeny's Hill, looking for the priest in charge, so that he could make sure the Red God's favour would be with his House – instead of his wrath.

"Lord Tywin. Forgive the wait, I was held up by other matters.", Thoros of Myr's voice reached his ears, pulling the Lord Paramount of the West back into the present and away from his musings.