Pre-Chapter A/N: So here we are back on our regular upload schedule. Sunday and Tuesday/Wednesday. I've put systems in place to ensure we don't fall behind again so yay. I look forward to stress-testing them as the madnesses of life stack up (Now close to a week in and things look great. Experimenting with a Saturday upload to allow more space between uploads so here you go). To celebrate the scale of our achievement, we've got a cheeky little discount for the whole month (code: MAY01) on patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga). Next five chapters on my patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga)— same username as here and link in bio.
XXXX- 118 AC (FIVE YEARS LATER)
"What's got you laughing so much?" I asked, poking my head up from the numbers I was crunching my way through. The expansion of my holdings in the last few years had led to a commensurate expansion in the amount of work I had to do in the day to day. Braavos had gone dark to me. They were not being hostile right now, but they were also not helping in the way they had earlier. The Iron Bank had had me close my vaults with them after I had taken all my gold out once I received the payment from the Sealord. They clearly did not care much for making my life easier.
That had meant the Velaryon Bank was forced to launch before it was ready. I needed a way to handle large sums in payments from the goods and services I was selling, and I wouldn't be surprised if any shipment of gold destined for the Stepstones suddenly found itself beset by 'pirates'. The Sealord probably knew better than anyone else just how little I could afford another war in the coming years, and he was taking advantage of it fully. It was not like he was in a magically more advantageous position where he could afford a war as well, but an established city like Braavos had more tools to hurt an upstart than we did to hurt them.
The Iron Bank dropped how much it charged in interest rates, how much it charged in insurance, and the Braavosi fleet began its own shipping business to compete with mine mere months after my deal with Mararys of Lys got off the ground. I was winning right now because I was much closer to a lot of the wealthier free cities who were in the position to make use of my services, but it was not a comfortable victory by any means. Braavos' presence in the market meant I had to consider my prices in relation to theirs. It didn't matter that with my better ships and more robust navy in this part of the world, I could provide much better services if they were more expensive.
These were merchants after all, and they would always be more sensitive to price than anything else. I was presently able to get away with charging pennies above the Braavosi price, but any more and my narrow lead would disappear in the wind.
"Cousin Borros wrote. He thinks that Jenna is pregnant again but she refuses to confirm or deny his suspicions," she said with a smirk.
"Again?" I asked, not quite able to hide the pang of jealousy that went through my chest at that.
Laena just gave me a look. That was the one bad part of marrying your sister, I guess. You were with someone who knew you even better than you knew yourself.
"Our time will come," she said. I nodded. But it was not just the thought of having children that lingered in my mind. It was the thought of what those children could do to her.
"It will. Not like it would matter all that much if it never did. We are happy, are we not?" I asked, offering her a smile of my own to match the one she had worn since she had spoken.
"We are. We are so happy, and I cannot wait until we have our own little -- how do you call it... bundle of joy? To share that happiness with. A child whose laughter will bring some light and airiness to this drab castle," she said. I chuckled.
"I'll have you know that this castle is far from drab these days. We've got windows on all the outside-facing walls now. There's so much sunlight coming in that we don't really know what to do with it," I said. She just shook her head, rising from her seat.
"So you say a child will not make you any happier?" she asked.
"I am plenty happy already," I said, making my smile even wider.
She walked around the table, giving me a good view of her as she did. What a woman, I thought to myself. Looking at her, it was difficult not to think of myself as the luckiest man in the world. She had the kind of face that would easily launch a million ships in a different world. I would launch a billion for her in this one if it ever became necessary. And then there was the body. Curves in all the right places, tall hourglass figure, perfect. She was just perfect.
And even more importantly than being perfect, she was also mine. She walked until she reached me, and when she did, I did not need any conscious thought to turn towards her and open my arms for her to step into my grip.
My arms closed around her waist and I just held her there. My face pressed against her stomach and her heart beat calmly above my head.
"Well, since you are already plenty happy as you said, there is no need for me to give you the good news," she said. I looked up to see her smirking at me. It was the look she wore when she knew something that I did not.
"What is the good news?" I asked, feeling a rising suspicion. I did not allow myself to hope for it though. There was a chance that it was not that, and I knew that disappointment in this respect hurt more than anything else. It was the hope that killed -- quite literally -- and that final disappointment always felt like a dagger to the heart.
"Myriah confirmed it. I am with child," she said.
"You're -- pregnant?" I asked, both sure and unsure that I had heard her clearly just then.
"With child, yes. I tire of that inelegant word you insist on using. It makes it sound like I have been afflicted with some disease," she said. I just chuckled, not even sure what I felt as I picked her up. My grip around her waist tightened as I lifted her off the ground and rose from my seat in the same movement. Exercise and growing into my prime had taken my physical abilities to their peak. And Laena herself was quite light. I spun her around with incredible ease as we both laughed. I could not speak for Laena, but I knew in that moment I felt happier than I ever had.
This was the kind of happiness that I had only truly felt thrice before. And each of those times, it had ended in the same way. Blood and disappointment in the dead of the night.
"Did you ask Benedict to keep it from me?" I asked when I finally brought her to a stop. Behind her was the window through which the sun's rays drowned my study in their glory. It framed her head like a halo. I gasped. She was so beautiful. From the day I had seen her in that Sept, being led down by Viserys, it felt like she had only gotten more and more beautiful.
"Maester Benedict? Why would he need to keep it from you when he doesn't know?" she asked, and I stopped short.
"Then we must tell him now. The treatments must begin. We can't lose this one, Laena," I said. I did not know if I could take losing another child. I did not think it was something I could survive. Not intact, at least.
"No," she said.
"No?" I asked. I must have misheard.
"You heard me, husband. I said no. We have done it your way and theirs for too long. I tire of having those old men place their dirty and grimy hands on me and in me over and over again as they examine what they have examined before to find the answer to a problem none of them have any way to solve. No. No more tinctures and mixtures that I can barely stomach at odd hours of the day," she said.
"But --"
"No buts, husband. Three children. We have done it your way for three children. Your 'science' has not managed to make a single one see a single day in this world. Do you think I enjoy feeling my children die within me? That I enjoy my body, that was supposed to give them life, being turned into a grave for them? You think I enjoy the looks some of the servants give me when they think I do not look? Their whispers that the Seven curse us for daring to lay with each other," she said.
"Give me names. Tell me who said those words or gave you queer looks. I will present you a pyre with all their tongues and eyes, my love," I said, feeling rage rise within me.
"I care not for vengeance in this, husband. I just want my child to live."
"You think there is anything I want more than I want that? Be serious here, Laena. I want our children to survive just as much as you do, but spurning people who have trained their --"
"Benedict has no chain in medicine," she cut in.
"He delivered the both of us," I countered immediately.
"Mother almost died birthing you and could not have any others after that. You came so close to dying after you were born that Father hesitated to name you for a month," she said, pressing her point.
"That is why we found so many other Maesters to help him. Mother says he was instrumental in getting me to survive to make it to term, and the others he has with him now should make things easier. I'll be reviewing all their treatment suggestions this time. No one is putting any fingers inside you for whatever reason this time around," I said. The man who had done so had already been sent away from the island, and unfortunately his ship had come across some trouble on the way back to Astapor where he hailed from. Pirates, terrible business that.
"And you've given birth to how many children exactly?" she asked. I remained silent. That was not a question that needed an answer.
"I love you, Laenor. But I need you to trust me here. We've done it your way, and Myriah has birthed over a hundred children in her time at the whorehouse with Myrilla. She has the experience and I would rather rely on her than men who don't have the same bodies as me telling me what they think is best to deal with situations they can never experience," she said. I looked down at her. She was being serious here, and I couldn't bring myself to refuse her in this. Not when she was right that all the best science I knew had failed to get a single child of ours to survive to term. The maesters hadn't either.
"Fine. I can agree with that if we can do a weekly checkup with Benedict. I will be present throughout. If there is anything you are uncomfortable with, it will not be done," I said, trying to reach for a compromise I could still stomach. This felt like risking our child, but nothing else had worked so far so we might as well give this a try.
"Agreed," she said before leaning up with her lips stretched. I met hers, moaning as she ground her body into mine.
"Now?" I asked, not sure how I felt considering the news she had just dropped.
"Better fuck me now," she growled.
"Your wish is my command," I chuckled, lifting her by the arse and plopping her onto the table, not caring about the documents that had previously been arranged on top of it. The servants would deal with that -- it was their job. My job was staring up at me with half-lidded eyes right now.
----
The dragon was still there being eaten by the fiery creatures. Even years passing hadn't made my subconscious move on to anything different. Every night I closed my eyes, and either I saw nothing until I woke or I spent the whole night seeing the Doom of Valyria on repeat. I no longer tried to warn or help anyone. I barely even watched it. I just leaned against a marble pillar that I knew would remain standing until the end of the dream and stayed there until it was all over and then it started again.
When the dream ended, I woke up in a cold sweat. The windows said it was still night time as I pulled myself out of bed. The dream had stopped bothering me mentally, but my sleeping body somehow had not managed to learn that. The fact that all my tossing and turning had done nothing to wake Laena was a testament to just how long this had been going on for. Too long, some would say. I myself would say that.
If the dream was trying to tell me something then I had either failed to receive the message or, more likely, whoever was trying to communicate was just plainly terrible at their job. I searched out a pair of slippers and a robe to cover my chest before I made my way out of the room. On nights like this where the dream woke me before the sun had even begun to rise, I knew it would be a waste of time to try getting more sleep. My body would just ignore all my begging in that respect. So I needed to find something else to do, and in this case, something else was seeing Igneel.
I waved at the guards and gestured for them to return to their watch as I made my way out of the gate. Igneel roosted on an opposite end of the island to Vhagar.
Even years of growth still had him smaller than the massive Queen of Dragons. She had grown as well, but the difference was imperceptible to all but the most keen-eyed. Igneel, on the other hand, was now officially one of the largest dragons to ever call Westeros home.
Compared to the dragons I had watched die in the Doom night after night, he was little more than a child. When I reached him, I wondered the same thing I had wondered many a time. If a doom came for House Velaryon, would I survive? Would any of those I loved? All the best Valyrian engineering and construction had fallen to the Doom in a matter of minutes.
Igneel was already waiting for me when I reached him. Just as I could feel what he felt, he could also feel what I felt, so it was not a surprise that he knew I would approach. I climbed along his scales until I reached the saddle and plopped myself down on top of it.
Three children dead in the womb, and I could not stop thinking it was my fault. It was not the kind of thought I'd shared with Laena, and it hurt me all the time when she wept, because there was a chance that with a different husband she could have been truly happy.
Because what were the chances that my sperm was any good? There was the poisoning incident where I had died and been brought back by Igneel, and then there was what happened in Tyria. My body was many things, but I doubted I could call it fully human anymore.
For the most part, my body worked like everyone else's, but then there was this... I spread my fingers out, lighting an independent flame on each one as Igneel began to rise into the air. Here, none could see me, and any fires would be assumed to be Igneel's even if they could. I stretched out my other hand, forming another set of flames before I began to wave them through the air like I was conducting an invisible orchestra. The fire created aftereffects in the air that had taken my breath away the first time I had done this.
Then I consolidated them into one large fireball that I tossed into the air, exploding into a thousand small embers at my direction. The fire that fell upon me did not burn, and what little got on my clothes died out with barely a flex of my will. This should not have been possible. I had shown it to Laena in private and she had tried over and over again but could not replicate it. The best she could do was light a glass candle, and that was only after a lot of concentration and was far from guaranteed. This kind of effortless manipulation of our maternal family's element was just out of the cards for her.
We had the same blood, and even the most fanciful depictions of Valyrian sorcery did not contain accounts of people being able to just control fire with their minds. That is because this should not have been possible. Not for a human, at least. And that was only one of the reasons I doubted my humanity. For one, the weather, no matter how cold or hot, just did not affect me. I was shirtless with only a sheer robe to cover my chest and I felt none of the cold that being so high so late should have imparted. My strength and speed had grown beyond what should have been possible. I no longer needed to rely on Igneel's power to lift objects that should have taken multiple men. Igneel and I stopped our straight rise and banked left before I heard a roar come from beneath us. I looked down to see Vhagar approaching with a challenge in her eyes. Squinting, I could see Laena on her dragon's back, spurring her to move faster and faster.
"They want to fly, Igneel. Let's show them how to fly." I said, and we accelerated as well.
A/N: Wanted to use the first chapter after the timeskip to catch up to the newlyweds. Yeah, children are not going to be so easy for Laenor. Ignoring the incest (you could argue whether this has effects in Westeros or not -- Alyssa, Alyssane, Aerys' wife, and so on being examples (you could say that they didn't start at an appropriate age, but then I'd raise you Rhaenyra giving birth to a scaled figure), there is just the fact that fertility is a thing a bunch of people in real life struggle with and losing children to miscarriages was common in medieval periods. Whatever advantages Laenor has, he isn't a doctor. As for whether his magic is getting in the way, well we'll see about that. Next five chapters up on patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga) (same username as here and link in bio), support me there and read them early. Discount available with the code MAY01– have fun.