Chapter 73 Renewed vigor

Yunkai

Ser Barristan pov

When Barristan woke up this morning the world had completely changed for him, today his back didn't ache when he got up from his bed, he didn't feel tired after sleeping but full of energy instead

His armour never felt this light and his longsword seemed light as a feather in his hands, over the years he had accepted the fact that he was getting slower with his age but now the world seemed to be slow instead of him

Barristan was skeptical when the king gave him the vial and Arthur explained to him what it was, how can such a thing exist in this world but now just a day later he felt like he was back in his 20 namedays

As he made his way to the training yard to train the boys under him like he usually does but this time he was stopped by Ser Arthur

"What are doing Arthur, I have to whip these boys into shape" but instead of moving he just smiled

"Barristan you are lot stronger and faster than you realize, you can't train them now if you do the best outcome is you breaking few of their bones and worst you might accidentally just kill few of them, come with me" even though Barristan didn't completely agree with his brother but he still followed Arthur

Pretty soon they were in front of a straw dummy used to train new trainees

"Go on, try to attack the dummy without destorying it"

Seeing that Arthur is not going to budge Barristan attack the dummy with a simple sword swipe at the neck without putting much strength behind the attack, Barristan thought even if his strength is increased such weak attack is just going to leave a scratch on the dummy

But Barristan sliced the head of the dummy clean off before even realizing what happened, he just remembers drawing his sword and before he knew it the head was already on the ground

As Barristan looked at the fallen head he can't help thank Arthur for stopping him or this could have been one of those young boys

"The dragon guards are made when they are young so they could get used to their strength while they are training, but we have had a sword in our hands for years your body is moving on instinct alone, don't worry you will get used to it soon enough I know I did, but before that if you don't want to kill anyone from now on just spar with me "

Barristan nodded still looking at the straw dummy that was missing it's head

King's landing

Red keep

Rhaella Targaryen pov

The red keep was empty these days as the people were making their way to Winterfell to attend the grand wedding, but being a Targaryen with a dragon the royal family now didn't have to travel for days on end just to get somewhere

And it was not just the Targaryens but the groom and Lord Stark were also staying behind while everyone else was making their way to Winterfell, some were traveling by the king's road while others were taking ships to white Harbour

If this was a few weeks ago Rhaella too would have been excited for young Robb's wedding but in just a few days world has literally changed for them and things that seemed important before seem trivial at best now

Rhaella thought that taking back the seven kingdoms was going to be hard part for her grandson but Aegon always talked like it was a foregone conclusion but now she realised that becoming the king was just a small part of the big picture for him

she thought by being the queen regent she was helping her grandson and share some of his burden but now she realised how naive was that, for years Aegon was preparing to fight what might be the end for all us, even know she can't stand this injustice, how can the gods just put the burden of the entire world on just a boy

But there is no use cursing the gods they have never been fair to anyone, bloody cowards if you are so all powerful than fight your own damn wars why do you need a boy to fight your battles for you, there so many of you useless gods, the old gods , the new gods, the red god , the drowned god, why don't one of you godly bastards come down and fight those damned dead things why do you need my grandson to do it for you

now she can just take things as they are and help Aegon in whatever she can, she already lost a son to this prophecy and she damn sure not going to lose her grandson over this

Aegon/Jon pov

Ahhh, I was having goosebumps and my back started to sweat all of a sudden, something bad is happening and I can't help but feel scared like some old ghost was over my shoulder just ready to pounce

Is it the walkers, no this doesn't feel like them, so who can it be, I looked to the giant dragon sleeping in my room, Nightfury is fine and still sleeping

If something major happened like the wall falling Nightfury would certainly sense it but he sleeping peacefully but then why do I feel like something dangerous is angry at me

So I take a walk to clear my head and that feeling went away in a while but I was still walking in the night with just the moon as my company

As I reach the the training I see two men sparring, Ser Barristan and Arthur were fighting here in the middle of the night,

The yard was filled with the sound of steel going against steel

I still remember when Arthur became a dragon guard, he trained like a madman to have proper control over his swords again and now Ser Barristan is being trained by the sword of the morning, no one will even believe this is happening