14

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186 AC

Kingslanding

Aerion Targaryen

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"Lord Stark what an uncommon sight, haven't you ever heard Starks don't do well south of the neck?" Brandon Stark the Warden of the North turns to face me with an 'annoyed' look on his face.

"Prince Aerion, what a pleasure." His dry response brings a smile to my face but the people around us look back and forth between us with worried looks.

Brandon has hosted me and Danny a few times when we have flown to the North for a whole multitude of reasons. The first visits had the Stark man on edge and honestly a bit nervous but he hid it better than most. Recent visits have grown a good relationship between us as we plan to help the North in a big way.

I frequently fly to talk with different Lords instead of sending ravens when it involves a lot of gold. My plans and talks with Brandon have gone well and I then was able to talk to the Lord Commander of the Night's watch. My older brother the king easily gave his blessing on the idea I had and so with all three of those approvals, the plan was green-lit.

Settling the gift, the whole gift from the wall to the end of the good queen Alysanne's 'new gift'. there are many abandoned and wasted-away keeps and towers scattered throughout but I have a long-term plan. The gift will be settled by Northern houses using their second sons who don't stand to inherit anything.

An old decrepit castle on the east coast will be used as the Targaryen castle in the gift, temporarily at least. The Lordships that come with these castles and lands are in a political grey area as it is owned by the Night's watch as a neutral entity. The Nights watch owns it and is allowing us to settle it but even if they didn't like the idea they can't really stop us anyway. So the Lordships come with a bunch of red tape and are easily stripped if anything happens the Nights watch don't like.

The Nights watch can't enforce anything they say or want so that is where I come in, House Targaryen will handle the peace between the new Lords and the Night's watch. If anyone is not paying what they agreed to pay to the Nights watch I will be coming to collect in person, or my people will. That was the deal to get the Nights watch in and the 'tax' is a bitter pill to swallow if I am honest at twenty-five percent of earnings.

The Nights Watch is getting ten of that into their pockets and I am getting ten percent as well into my own pockets. It is set up that in the future when I die the ten percent will go to my line of Targaryen specifically. The king wanted five percent for the crown which is fair seeing how we are only using his name and crown to facilitate this deal. So the new Lords who are made up of unused sons and even some bastards from Houses of the North will be getting seventy-five percent of their earnings and doing all the work.

In the short term, I will be having men I have under me keep the peace and deal with large parties of wildlings. House Targaryen is responsible for keeping the peace or in other words killing wildling raiders but it is a simple matter. Most of the Lords will be wanting to defend the lands themselves anyway to 'prove themselves'. In the future House Targaryen will only have to get involved in major conflicts like civil wars and massive raids by wildlings. Long term it will be free gold other than burning some Wildlings that jump the wall now and then.

The 'seat' on the east coast is unnamed as of now and will begin reconstruction soon and will be given to my second-born child in the future unless they don't want it. It is not the best seat so I am not wanting a kid of mine to take it but the end game is to give the seat to someone loyal when we upgrade. Skagos is the real end game in the North with it potentially having multiple volcanos and making for an actual powerful seat for the House of the Dragon. A castle built on Skagos using the profits made from the gift is what I want for my secondborn, and it doesn't look too hard to achieve.

Feeling an arm wrap around my waist I snap out of autopilot while talking with Brandon and turn to see Danny smiling at Lord Stark.

"Hello Lord Stark, it is nice that you are here." He smiles and nods back as I slip an arm around Daenerys.

"It is nice to see you again Princess Daenerys." Danny looks up at me with a tilt of her head after nodding to Brandon.

"What were you two troublemakers talking about?" I snort as Brandon chuckles, I grab a cup from a serving girl as she walks by and bring it to my lips to wet my throat.

"We were just talking about who and when people will be moving into the different keeps around the gift. The sooner they start the sooner we will be making profits and Lord Stark is excited to get the North more independent as far as food goes." She hums and nods along as her eyes squint a bit.

"How have people been taking it? Last we heard they were outraged at the 'tax' and refused to participate." Danny asks Brandon with an amused voice.

"One stepped up and then they all started jumping in realizing their 'defiance' did not lower the tax and only stood to lose them the profits they could make. The idea it is people who would not inherit lands anyway have most just happy to be doing something. A few problems still came up but I handled them and some Lords sent their own men to help their kids cut out a path. I expect it to be a few years at the very least before anything will be harvested beyond what they will use themselves." Danny taps my side and I know she is wanting to talk alone.

"I am glad to hear it, I look forward to talking later with you again with my brother present. Remember what I said about paving roads with Dragon fire if they can dig a trench and fill it with stone. I have tested it and it may not equal the glory of the dragon roads in Essos but it is simple to make, check the road out yourself if you want it is near the Mammoth pens." He looks thoughtful and nods once more.

"That will help speed up travel through the gift but it could also be useful in the actual North as well to speed up travel." I hear music start up and use a dance with my engaged as an excuse to break off conversations there.

We walk away from the more crowded areas and get somewhere a bit quieter where I set my hands on her hips and she places hers on my shoulders.

"So you wanted to talk?" She nods and looks around before pressing herself closer.

" A woman is attending the celebrations from Pentos and I managed to get from her that A Khalasar has been causing problems for a few years now. A Khal by the name of Merio with a Khalasar of thirty thousand has been taking offerings and still raiding afterward without fail. No one has been able to pay enough tribute to stave off an attack." I purse my lips in thought and try to remember what I can about Pentos.

"They can't hold slaves after they lost the war to Braavos so they cant buy Unsullied, which leaves them to hire sell swords for their defense. It seems the Prince would just rather pay for them to all be burned and avoid any potential failure of Sell swords." She gives a 'so so' gesture and I raise a brow.

"He is scared of being a sacrifice, when a Prince of Pentos fails to defend the city he is offered as a sacrifice and then replaced. It is like being the scapegoat for everyone to blame, you have a little more power than everyone but it comes at a steep cost." I shake my head in amusement.

"His life hangs in the balance and he only offered a million gold dragons?" She snorts with a smile spreading across her face.

"I have found a ship that is already heading to Pentos at first light and we can send a counteroffer to the Prince. I was thinking if I am correct we can sheer him for much more than half a million." God, I feel a warm feeling inside when she schemes for massive gains like this, it gets me very hot.

"God I love you." She rolls her eyes but her pale cheeks grow a bit pink.

"I am glad but could you not look at me like that when there are people around?" She sighs exaggeratedly but I only close the rest of the distance between us and hold her against me.

"Why are you embarrassed or something? There is no reason to be, we will wed after the tourney and there will be lots of people there I am sure. Lots of crying women and men who feel like they missed out on their big break." I am looking forward to being married for a whole number of reasons but I would be lying if I said one wasn't to curb the marriage requests.

I mean I have letters from pretty much every House in Westeros and even some people beyond the Narrow Sea in Essos. Daenerys is much the same and I have caught her burning entire fireplaces full of letters from various houses.

"Whatever, let's just enjoy the dance for a bit longer and retire to write up our counteroffer to the Prince." She speaks dismissively but the smile she is wearing could brighten up a room.

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Relaxing in my room I reread the letter we will send off tomorrow and ready my stamp with some wax. Pressing the wax onto it I seal the letter and set it to the side as I blow out the little flame melting the wax and set down my stamp. My signet ring needed to be resized so I am currently stuck with a default stamp that has been used by many Targaryens. My favorite Targaryen who apparently used it was Jaehaerys the first.

"Think he will accept?" Danny asks with a yawn and I shrug.

"If he can afford it, the faceless men charge apparently a kingdom's worth of gold to do hits so I expect the same to torch an army. It is a shame I can't just torch the men, the horses would be very useful to ship over here." She purses her lips and rocks her head back and forth.

"We could maybe make something work, it will involve some scheming that could affect our public image but if you want tens of thousands of horses it could be worth it." I sit back in my seat and look into her enchanting eyes.

She is the one with the experience of traveling with the Dothraki so her idea might be worth trying.

"What do you have in mind?" She bites her lip and hesitates.

"The only time you will see the Dothraki separate from their horses for a long period of time is when they go to Vaes Dothrak or a celebration of some kind. They even sleep next to their horses so you can't just attack at night and expect to find a field of horses to claim. We could try to have a wedding hosted with a bride offered to the Khal and then burn everyone at the wedding when there away from their horses." My eyes widen and I already foresee people using this to smear our name even if it is against horse savages.

Killing an army of horse savages is one thing when we are being paid to 'protect' a city. Scheming to kill them at a wedding is going a step beyond and leaning on breaking a perceived 'guest rights'. They don't actually have guest rights but that won't stop the rumor mill from tainting our name and trying to drag us through the mud.

"Probably not a good idea, we can just try our best to not kill every horse even if that sounds impossible." She nods and I stand up from my chair and walk around to guide her back to her room now that business is over.

When I notice she didn't stand up behind me I turn around finding her eyes upon me.

"You ok?" She nods and grabs her cup taking a sip of some arbor gold.

"I am fine, I was planning to stay a bit longer if you didn't mind." I look around the room awkwardly taking more notice of the small messes of tossed-aside clothes and crumbled notes.

"Sure we can hang out, want to play some cards?" She nods and follows me to the couch and I move Dark Sister from the cushion onto the rack above the fireplace.

I watch her face from the side of my eye as I shuffle the deck and realize this is a pretty good chance to try something. She also seems to be wanting me to try something with how she stuck around. We have made some good 'progress' with our advances and gone pretty far but never 'sealed the deal'.

I wonder if now is a good time?