บท 77: The prophecy
Jaehaeys looks around the room taking in the faces of everyone present.
`The one who invited that woman has to be here,` he thinks as he maintains a serene expression and pretends to listen to the knights who keep exposing their case, now they are accusing each other of another offense. 'To keep up appearances they won't be too close to the witch, but they won't be too far away either.'
The prince searches among the expressions of those present for someone who is anxious and nervous, and he soon finds that person.
`Lady Brune`
Lady Brune is the widow of late Lord Brune and the aunt of the current Lord Brune, as she never had children so the lordship passed to her husband's nephew. She is a woman of Duncan's age, and the prince remembers that in her youth she was one of many women at court who tried to seduce the then crown prince.
`Something she was unsuccessful at. She must have felt terrible when a peasant woman succeeded where she failed. In the end it doesn't matter, she will learn her lesson like all the other scavengers. Duncan was never one to forgive those who target his wife, even less since the birth of their daughter.`
Lady Brune's plot is nothing new, several other lords and ladies did the same thing over the years.
They bring a half-mad peasant to court, and that peasant claims to be a close friend of Princess Jenny; statement that always turns out to be false but that Jenny cannot deny.
At first, when the first so-called close friends of hers appeared in court, Jenny denied knowing them, a move her enemies twisted in their favor. They spread rumors that Jenny is denying the ties she had before marrying Prince Duncan, which angered the smallfolk who saw this as some sort of betrayal.
Not denying those friendships also has negative consequences because the people that these nobles bring to court always turn out to be grotesque, ill-mannered, dirty and half-crazy beings. The belief that Jenny may have been friends with such people further tarnishes her reputation and fuels rumors that she is some sort of witch who charmed Duncan with potions and spells.
`Stupid rumors that only the stupid and gullible believe, but unfortunately this world is full of them.`
"Enough! I've heard enough." Aegon interrupts the knights, drawing the attention of everyone in the room. "I have made my decision, Ser Lark for the crime of sabotage you must to pay compensation of 10 golden dragons, and Ser Reynard for verbally attacking Ser Lark's wife, who had nothing to do with her husband's offense, You have to pay a compensation of 1 golden dragon and formally apologize to the lady."
"Yes, your grace." The two knights bow to the king and step to the side, allowing the following nobles to take their place.
Jaehaerys sees that Lark is not at all happy with the result, the rancor is clear in his eyes but he has no choice but to accept the king's verdict.
`Only an idiot challenges the king in his throne room with 500 loyal knights and the kingsguard`
The following case is of a territorial dispute over a river that passes through the land of two lords, one of the lords diverted part of the river to create a series of canals to irrigate his fields and that angered the other lord because the flow of the river ss much smaller when it reaches his lands because of the canals.
`They are both from Riverlands, each one has at least 2 or 3 other rivers going through their lands and they still argue like children.`
That had to be put on pause since the king sent one of his assistants to consult the library to see which lord had more rights over that river.
And so between petition and petition the day passed, and a few hours before nightfall it was finally the witch's turn.
As soon as she took a step forward, murmurs broke out in the crowd. Jaehaerys watched as the boredom drained from his brother's features.
"Again." Jaehaerys hears his brother growl under his breath.
"Keep calm, brother. It won't do you any good to show your anger." He advises him.
"Hn." Duncan educates his expression but the coldness in his eyes doesn't go away.
`Duncan may look more like mother, but that look in his eyes is identical to grandfather Maekar's.` the prince thinks absently.
"Your grace." The old woman makes an awkward bow causing more than one noble to jeer.
"Today`s court is closed to smallfolk," The king looks at her with a neutral expression. The old woman was going to say something but the king raised his hand, silencing her. "It doesn't matter who allowed you to enter, as king it is my duty to listen to the requests of all my subjects but the day is almost over so let's not waste time on courtesies and tell me your request."
`Father is trying to protect Jenny? It is the first time... `Jaehaerys is not the only one surprised by the king's words, Duncan can barely manage to hide his surprise, other nobles are not so good at keeping their composure and their surprise is clear as water.
"I am not here to ask you for anything, your grace. On the contrary, I am here to give you something."
"Oh?" The king narrows his eyes at her and the prince watches as Ser Dunk and the other kingsguards tense up in their positions in front of the throne.
`They are not the only ones`
Duncan glares at the old woman with enough intensity to set her on fire, if the prince were to have such power.
"A warning, my lord. A prophecy from the gods."
"Pfff." Jaehaerys hears Lord Rosby stifle a laugh, Lord Mooton hides his with a cough. They are not the only ones, the nobles hide their mocking smiles and look at the old woman like someone looking at a jester, waiting for the punchline.
"Upon the day the moon covers the sun, a red shadow shall bring forth the end of peace and a vicious war will swallow the thrones.
The war will bring the Sun`s wrath and the dragon shall rise once more.
From the heir's seed the Dragonlord will be born.
A new era shall begin, an era of Gods and Magic.
And shall be then, when the sky turn to ice, a broken heart shall mark a world of light."
As the witch recited her prophecy it seemed that the temperature of the room was dropping and a chill ran down the crown prince's spine. Jaehaerys straightened up and looked around, he saw that several nobles were chuckling and others were muttering to each other pointing at the old woman with mocking smiles.
`Am I the only one who feels this cold?`
"That, um. That was interesting." Says the king after clearing his throat. "Today`s court is over." The king gets up and goes down the steps of the throne. They all bow to him.
"Jae." Duncan pats his brother's arm, snapping him back to reality. Jaehaerys rises from his chair and also bows to his father as he walks past him.
Jaehaerys follows his father and his brother out of the throne room but just before leaving he turns his head towards the witch, who is still in the same place without having moved an inch.
Their eyes meet and that cold runs down the back of the crown prince again.
|A huge black dragon faces a monster of pure ice, on the back of the dragon there is a figure. The figure is dwarfed by the gigantic beasts, neither its gender nor age is clear, only its whitish hair.|
"Brother, Jae?"
Jaehaerys blinks and sees his brother looking at him with concern.
"Are you okay? I've been calling you for a long time."
"Yeah, yeah. Just... I spaced out." The crown prince's voice comes out weak and hesitant, unsure of his own words.
"Should I call a healer?"
"No, brother. I'm fine."
"If you say it." Duncan doesn't seem to believe him. "Anyway, did you see Brune's face?" The dark-haired prince smirks amused.
"Her move did not go as she expected."
"Yeah, that crazy old hag didn't even mention Jenny." Duncan breathes a sigh of relief. "But just because her move failed them doesn't mean I'll forget what she tried to do."
"Aha, just remember not to overreact"
The two brothers continued their conversation and left the throne room. Reaching the gardens they parted ways, Duncan went to see his wife and daughter, and Jaehaerys strolled through the gardens.
`Upon the day the moon covers the sun, a red shadow shall bring forth the end of peace and a vicious war will swallow the thrones.
The war will bring the Sun`s wrath and the dragon shall rise once more.
From the heir's seed the Dragonlord will be born.
A new era shall begin, an era of Gods and Magic.
And shall be then, when the sky turn to ice, a broken heart shall mark a world of light`
The image of the black dragon against the ice beast does not disappear from his mind, nor does the prophecy.
"Upon the day the moon covers the sun, that is obviously an eclipse. A red shadow? The Thrones? What thrones? Westeros only has one throne, the western part of Essos has no thrones, Yi Ti? Wait- Why do I keep thinking about this? Why..."
***
3 Moon 259AC
Dorne, Sunspear
"Grandson, have you enjoyed your little trip?" Arthur greets his eldest grandson at the door of the Princess of Dorne's solar.
"Yes, grandfather." Doran gives his grandfather a hug before entering.
On the solar are gathered the Princess of Dorne, her consort, Prince Andrey and his daughter.
"Valena?" The prince looks surprised at his cousin.
"Did you think that you are the only one of our generation to be included in the game, dearest cousin?" The princess looks at him with her characteristic smirk.
"Children behave." Dorna gestures for them to sit on the sofa. Doran sits next to his cousin, who is in the middle with her father on the other side. Doran's grandparents sit in some armchairs in front of the sofa, with a small table in the middle.
"Doran, first of all you have to know that Valena has been part of the game for a little over a year." His grandmother's words surprise him quite a bit. "But that's not the important thing. As you well know, Andrey and his family have been sailing the Summer Isles for a year in search of more business opportunities. What you don't know is that they had a secret mission." The princess gestures to Andrey for him to continue.
"Our mission had two parts, the first was to spread our spy network to the southern isles and the second was to find any Blackfyre allies."
"And?" Doran looks at them curiously.
"The process of expanding our network is already underway, I estimate that in two to five years we will cover all the islands."
"Wow." Amazement at the effectiveness of his grandmother's network of spies is clear on the prince's face. The Summer Islands is an archipelago with thousands of islands, it is so big that there are those who say that the islands are infinite. "The entire archipelago?"
"Well, just until Doquu, which is the southernmost island open to trade." Andrew clarifies.
"The southernmost islands of Doquu are inhabited by savages and barbarians, we visited the first ones south of Doquu during our expedition and our arrival was not well received. We were attacked at first sight, and all our attempts to parle were violently rebuffed. Then we discovered that those islands are inhabited by tribes of cannibals, so we stopped trying to make contact with them."
Doran takes a moment to take it all in.
"Alright, what about the Blackfyre? Do they have allies that far south?"
"Unfortunately yes." Andrey responds with a somber expression, an expression Doran never saw on his normally cheerful uncle.
"We found out that Edarion Blackfyre is an business partner of the princess of Omboru Island," Valena takes over. "How far their alliance goes, we don't know yet. But we're looking into it."
Omboru is one of the largest known islands in the archipelago, being larger than the territory under the control of House Martell.
"Apart from the fact that it is one of the largest islands in the archipelago, I know very little about that place." The prince looks at his uncle and asks for more information.
"Omboru is ruled by Princess Andaya, it has a population of almost 100,000, 15,000 of whom are part of the princess's army. Their war fleet is not very large, they barely have 70 warships, but what they lack in quantity they cover it with quality as all ships are Swanships. The princess also has a mercantile fleet of a hundred ships. Omboru is one of the richest islands in the archipelago, and has a fierce rivalry with Jhla and Walano."
The Swan Ships were the fastest ships in the world before the creation of the caravel.
"They would be a powerful foe." Arthur speaks for the first time. "That's why we're going to make sure they don't become our enemy."
"How?" Doran looks at him curiously.
"To find that out it will be your mother`s mision." The consort answers.
"My mother?"
"Yes, I have assigned Obella that task." Dorna joins the conversation. "When your parents return from their trip she will embark on an expedition to the Summer Islands, the official reason being trade."
"Just mother? Father won't go?"
"No, Trystanne will stay. With war on the horizon it's about time we start preparing our army."
"Don't worry, grandson. Your mother won't go alone." Arthur reassured his grandson. "Arron and Lewyn will go with her."
"Wouldn't It be better if father went with her? Uncle Arron is the best commander we have, he would be more suited to prepare the army."
"Arron is the best warrior of House Martell, he is the most suitable to protect the heiress."
"I see- Wait, Lewyn?" Doran remembers something. "Mors is Lewyn's squire, will my brother also-"
"Yes, Mors will go too." He is interrupted by the Princess of Dorne.
"And us obviously." Valena joins. "Your mother and brother will be well protected, cousin."
Despite the words of his cousin, the concern does not disappear from the prince's features.
"My tour starts tomorrow, and they won't be back to Sunspear for another 20 days." The devastation of knowing that he will not see his mother and brother again for a long time is obvious to the other occupants of the room.
"First you will go to visit House Toland, then House Allyrion and then House Dalt, you will arrive in Dalt lands at the same time as them. I planned your Tour in such a way that you can meet them in Lemonwood, there you will spend a few days together to say goodbye ."
"Oh thank you grandma." Doran sighs in relief.
"Well, that concludes this meeting. You have already been informed of what will happen, you can go to rest grandson."
Doran says goodbye to his family and goes to pack for his tour, which will last several months.
`I really should break this habit of packing at the last moment`
***
NOTE: After yesterday's gigantic chapter I decided to write a shorter one today. Success! 2.6K words *FACEPALM* I finished it at 1:30 AM, tomorrow I have to get up before 7 AM.
BTW what do you think about the prophecy? Is the first one I create soooo
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