67
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196 AC
Harrenhal
Aerion Targaryen
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Walking into the small kitchen meant for quick meals and not full feasts I come to a dead stop as my eyes widen. The sight before me stuns me for a moment before I realize what I am seeing and can't help but chuckle. Hearing someone laughing the two troublemakers I just found freeze with their hands literally caught in the 'cookie jar'.
Visenya is on all fours making herself into a step for Rhaella who might be older but is a bit smaller. They both turn to me while Rhaella who was snagging the sweets from the container looks mortified Visenya just looks angry at getting caught.
"Casper! I told you to meow if someone was coming!" Visenya huffs while still being stood on by her older sister.
"I am... sorry." Rhaella looks ready to cry while clutching the shattered pastries in her hands.
I shake my head while smiling and approach the two, with careful but quick movements I lift Rhaella off her Sister and sit her on my hip. She looks frightened likely thinking she will get in trouble while Visenya stands up and starts lecturing her kitten on how it failed to do its duty.
"Nothing to be sorry for, I came to get me some as well." I pinch her nose before sitting her on the counter and grabbing some of the sweet honey-glazed 'cookies' that taste more like biscuits.
"Up." Visenya holds her hands up as she stands beside me with full confidence in her eyes, almost as if the thought of me not lifting her is too foreign to think of.
"God, I need help..." I bend over and scoop her up and set her down next to Rhaella who is busy chewing what she stuffed into her mouth. "What am I going to do with the two of you?" I am more asking about Visenya, Rhaella will do whatever I ask but I know I am in for hell when Visenya gets older.
Rhaella tilts her head not understanding what I mean while Visenya just ignores me and points at her little cat who is trying to climb up.
"He wants to be paid... even though he failed to do his job." Visenya angrily bites her late-night snack while glaring at the solid white cat.
"Sometimes it is like that, people fail to live up to what they tell you they will do and still expect to be compensated even if they fail. You have to learn to expect others to fall short and plan ahead to make sure you are not left without just because of someone else's shortcomings." I lean down and pick up the little fluff ball and set it in Visenyas lap as she frowns at me.
"But he did not do as he was supposed to." I nod before leaning in to kiss her forehead which she wipes off while scrunching her nose.
"That is the point, always be ready for others to not be able to do what they say they can do." Not sure if this will sink in but life will surely beat the lesson into her noggin at some point.
Most of the time you got to do shit yourself.
"But don't a bunch of people work for you... and they can do what you say, right?" Rhaella asks and I wave my hand in a 'so-so' gesture before taking another sweet from the tipped-over container.
"I have a LOT of people working for me, it balances out with sheer quantity even if the quality is- never mind forget that." I stop seeing them both go wide-eyed in confusion. "I have so many people thrown at the problems that if they can't do it then the problem was impossible to solve, to begin with." If you think it's not enough common folk then you just aren't using enough of them.
"I get it." Rhaella smiles before taking another bite while the honey sticks to her fingers making them sticky.
"I don't." In sharp contrast, Visenya chomps half of what she has in her hand. "But I vill just get Ella to do it for me." Talking with a full mouth she proudly shows off her lack of general care for things she does not understand.
'Ella' as she was called just gives a strained smile to her ruffian of a sister.
"My kids..." I sigh before taking more of the sweet honeyed goodness for myself.
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"You are supposed to eat this." I hold the small carved wooden spoon filled with mashed potatoes up before Alyssa's eyes.
She looks at it with her jaw lowering only to snap it shut before the spoon can enter her mouth and then looking at me with confused little eyes. My best guess is when she can't see it anymore she thinks it's already in her mouth, or she is fucking with me. She is in a nice little dress so I am being careful not to make a mess but she seems hellbent on having this food smeared on her face.
"Open." I command with a regal and fatherly voice only to be stared at by small baby eyes.
Pulling the spoon back and into her vision she opens her mouth wide and a tinge of annoyance runs through me. Like a bolt of lightning or a skillful blade thrust between the ribs, I slip the spoon into her mouth before she can even comprehend it moved.
"Be careful." Daenerys practically growls from her side of the table but I ignore her as I slip the now-empty spoon out of Alyssa's mouth.
"Good?" I ask the cutest baby in the world only to see her mouth open again.
Damn these daughters of mine, they only ever ask for stuff...
A knock on the door as the whole table turning heads to the main entrance into the small dining room we are using. I wave at Ser Richard and he nods before walking to the door looking like a smoky Valyrian steel statue clomping across the room. He opens the door and I can't even see the person because of his bulk but he soon closes the door and turns to show a rolled-up message.
"During the family meal?" Daenerys frowns at the knight causing him to pause mid-step and look to me for help but I turn back to my smallest daughter and coo along with her. "Well?" I hear her ask him and soon the clomping of boots reaches to her side.
"I will read it." Gwenys speaks up, almost as if slipping into her 'work mode' She tears the seal off the message with a swipe of her finger not even breaking the wax.
A very skilled pair of hands she has, I know from experience.
Hundreds of ravens she opens without even breaking the wax and is able to melt it back in place without disturbing the sigil pressed into it. Someone like Varys would have to take lessons from her should he end up being born and we are all still kicking around somehow.
"Dorne kicking up a fuss." She scoffs and reaches across the table dropping the message before me making me sigh knowing what it's about.
I take it and crumble it without even reading it, if I read it then it's real and I need to go burn some fuckers. I don't care if I have hundreds of kids I won't be 'selling' one off to some frog-looking sand squatter in the armpit of Westeros. Especially not when the man is wanting to have a Dragon Pit built as if it's a done deal and he is expecting to have his own dragons soon.
The only dragon he will get is me bringing back the dragon's wroth if he does not get a clue.
My Brother is in a pickle diplomatically, trying his best to shoo away the hungry Dornish men while also not throwing out all the many years of peace and deals to bring Dorne into the rest of the Kingdoms.
It is even harder when 'Prince' Martell is refusing the hands of other Targaryens since they don't have dragons. My Nephews have sons and daughters but they are all an afterthought when people have seen fire-made flesh flying in the sky. They want a golden goose to come squat in their castle and push them out war machines and it almost makes me want to commit genocide.
"They will have to... at some point." Gwenys wisely chooses her words in front of all the little ears but it still does not save her from the scowls of the mothers of those little ears.
"You can bring your input to the table when you have... had your own." Shiera quickly speaks up trying to peacefully defuse the situation before someone says something crass.
Motherhood has made Shiera change in a wild way but at some points, it all seems a lie as she tries to slip potions or concoctions into someone's drink. Which if Gwenys is not safe will be her as I could hear a little frustration in my currently pregnant wife's voice. Shiera is a roller coaster in many ways while pregnant and it's best to ride when the sign is up saying it's safe. When the sign is not up... best to be anywhere else.
"I am just saying, I am not telling anyone to do anything but instead reminding the people at this table who seem lost in denial." Gwenys clears her throat and reaches for her cup. "I won't be 'having my own' until a suitable replacement can take up my duty, they have to meet my standards." So she will work to her grave...
I shake off all the thoughts while returning to feeding my youngest who got impatient and started nibbling at my hand that had been left too close to her mouth.
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196 AC
Kingslanding
Daeron Targaryen
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"For the love of the Seven and the mercy of any other God willing to hear my voice, mercy." I send one word out to the higher lords that rule over the vastness beyond man's influence as I kneel on the ground in my bedroom.
If I have to hear one more word about the lack of responses to my Good Brother requests from my blood Brother I will kill someone. I don't know who will feel my rage but someone will die... that much I know for sure. It is like I am chasing after one of those feral cats in the Holdfast and it thinks I am trying to kill it. No matter how many times I tell my Good Brother nothing can be done about not hearing anything from Aerion he just does not hear my words.
Gods forbid he follows up on his idea to head to Harrenhal to discuss the request to wed his heir to one of Aerion's daughters. The damn fool will burn before he gets a word out of his mouth and I will actually cheer upon hearing the news. He has refused every 'available' hand and seems determined to cause the rift between himself and my Brother to widen.
Does he not remember what a younger Moonfyre did to the Dothraki?!
I took a Martell wife to get this alliance formed and my son and heir has been hounded for his appearance taking after my wife. Now it seems all that was for waste as my good Brother has a fire under his ass about getting a fire under his ass and there is nothing I can do.
Sighing I stand up and brush myself off as I head for the door but making sure I have my hidden blade with me. Today just might be the day someone dies for asking me something stupid.