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Rating:
Teen And Up Audiences
Archive Warnings:
Graphic Depictions Of ViolenceMajor Character Death
Category:
Gen
Fandoms:
House of the Dragon (TV)Warhammer Fantasy
Characters:
Ikit ClawRhaenyra TargaryenJacaerys VelaryonLucerys Velaryon (Son of Rhaenyra)Baela TargaryenRhaena Targaryen (Daughter of Daemon)Daemon TargaryenCorlys "The Sea Snake" VelaryonHelaena TargaryenAddam VelaryonBackground & Cameo CharactersSilverwing | Alysanne Targaryen's DragonOriginal CharactersJoffrey Velaryon
Additional Tags:
Crack Treated SeriouslyCanon-Typical ViolenceThe Dance of the Dragons | Aegon II Targaryen v. Rhaenyra Targaryen EraAlternate Universe - Canon DivergenceCanonical Character DeathCharacter Turned Into a HumanIkit got isekai'd as Jace's twinSkaven Species (Warhammer Fantasy)Death to all GreensHuman ExperimentationScience ExperimentsIkit is his own warningSilverwing still has shit taste in male ridersPOV MultipleBackground RelationshipsBackground Character Deathshow canon onlyDragon RidersAnimal AbuseIkit is an abusive dragonriderTho he's fairly mellow compared to his SkavenselfGood Parent Rhaenyra TargaryenNo beta we die like LucerysDysfunctional FamilyCannibalismBlood and TortureCanon-Typical BehaviorBAMF Helaena Targaryen
Language:
English
Stats:
Published:2026-02-26Completed:2026-04-22Words:181,492Chapters:55/55Comments:1,270Kudos:749Bookmarks:159Hits:33,607
The Rat Prince of Westeros
SkilledWarriorKiwi
Chapter 3: Maester Gerardys
Chapter Text
Maester Gerardys was content with his life on Dragonstone.
In a way, Rhaenyra was the closest he had to family. When the princess took her place as Lady of Dragonstone at the tender age of sixteen, amongst her court she also desired a maester through word sent to the Citadel of Oldtown. Gerardys had been sent and there he stayed. Rhaenyra had been a prickly girl, but charming and quick-witted so he quickly learned how she earned the moniker of the Realm's Delight. Her temper cooled somewhat as she aged, growing from a unsure teen ruler to a confident, proud woman of startling beauty.
Laenor was a much rarer sight upon Dragonstone, the man choosing to spend most of his days at High Tide while his wife ruled over Dragonstone. Occasionally he would visit and their dragons- one of pale sunrise yellow, the other silvery greys of morning fog -would glide about the black spires of the historic Targaryen keep. Yet just as quickly he would leave again for Driftmark.
Gerardys was not ignorant to the rumours surrounding Laenor and his close companion Ser Joffrey Lonmouth who had passed but while he was aware he ignored them fully. He was not blind to the friction between Queen Alicent and Princess Rhaenyra, a bristling tension that only grew as Alicent bore the king more sons yet still Viserys refused to cast Rhaenyra aside as his heir. Gerardys meanwhile owed his loyalty to the princess who welcomed him into his court and who kept him at her side at the announcement of her pregnancy.
Once the ravens flew, Laenor appeared upon Dragonstone and unlike all other times did not leave his wife's side. Gerardys was attentive, brewing tonics and advising the cooks along with the head midwife as they cared for the princess as her belly swelled.
He knew the fears the princess had, an anxiety that led to her near twisting off her fingers with how she worried her rings. The butchering of Queen Aemma in her birthing bed was still a topic of tension across the Seven Kingdoms, whispered and muttered about the rumours of the late queen's screams and pleas as sharp blades cut her open alive.
Gerardys did his best to avert those fears of the princess, making it plain Gerardys would never do such a thing. He offered no complaint when he was not permitted into the birthing chamber, instead kept in the adjacent room where Ser Harwin and Laenor were on guard. He had faith in the midwife and her gaggle of helpers to see to the princess, even if he was placed as a last resort. Gerardys always had a gift for the healing arts but he would not violate the princess's orders to enter the room without leave. His concerns were moot as the princess successfully gave birth to twins, two boys.
Admittedly he had felt oddly uneasy the first time he held Aenar; the eyes were a brilliant, burning green unlike any he had ever seen or ever heard recorded. There were green eyes across Westeros certainly, the Lannisters were the most well known of Houses to possess such a hue. But they were always dull emerald, dark and fetching. Nothing like how bright Aenar's were, like the skin of a lime, to the point one of the maids speculated that perhaps there was a touch of Garth Greenhand's blood within him. Gerardys said nothing about that, having met many of those descended from the Greenhand in his time at Oldtown yet not once had he ever encountered someone with eyes such a bright green.
Even in simply watching the babe was overly alert and observant. Gerardys did his usual tests and checks upon the newborns as the princess recovered in bed with Laenor and Harwin tending to her. Jacaerys was as any infant, squalling and red-faced, as Gerardys and the head midwife checked the small body over before declaring him whole. Then Aenar was placed in his hands, the midwife's lined features displaying nothing even as something within Gerardys's gut lurched at holding Rhaenyra's secondborn son.
The only mar upon the silver haired newborn was the triangular birthmark surrounding the cut umbilical cord. And those bright green eyes which squinted up at him.
"Quiet, yet whole," the head midwife observed.
"Indeed. I offer congratulations to you, princess," Gerardys then turned, swaddling the babe with easy movements, before tucking Aenar back into the crook of Rhaenyra's arm as the Realm Delight prepared to nurse to which Gerardys and Ser Harwin were shooed from the room. Gerardys left to his chambers to prepare a pain relief for Rhaenyra along with some tonics to encourage easy breastfeeding for new mothers.
While mixing the tonics Gerardys quickly dismissed his unease, reasoning it had simply been a misplaced byproduct of his fear Rhaenyra would fall to the same fate as her mother with stillbirths or dying in the birthing bed.
And Jacaerys and Aenar grew, as newborns were wont to do. Aenar especially grew swiftly, sitting up and crawling before even being half a year old. In Gerardys opinion such advancement was unprecedented. He even contacted his numerous associates and friends at Oldtown, asking other acolytes and maesters if they had ever come across information of a babe moving so young yet all came back negative.
They traveled to King's Landing to present the king with his first grandchildren yet the princess did not linger. Queen Alicent had gotten more cold the more sons she bore, especially when none would provoke the doting that Rhaenyra produced from the king in her scant visits. The keep itself was now shrouded in tapestries of the Seven and cloaked in green banners, bearing a cold air to it.
Geradys could understand why the princess did not wish to stay despite King Viserys showing praises and affections upon the babes. He was, like everyone else, intrigued by Aenar's bright green eyes. Gerardys had his own theory the unnatural hue was a mutation of the Valyrian purples, such as albinos, yet it was just a speculation so he dared not utter such a thing. It could be as easily taken as him accusing Aenar of a deformation and while the princess may value his counsel Geradys knew the easiest way to turn her against him would to mistreat or speak ill of her children as she had proven to be a doting mother.
It was why Geradys was so hesitant to speak of the potential soft headedness Aenar may possess, for as the months continued he never uttered a sound.
"Some children are simply quiet and withdrawn and it never gets better, my princess," Gerardys said carefully as Rhaenyra approached him yet again about Aenar's silence. "He may simply be that way. Or it could be a phrase, some children grow out of it. Yet others do not. We will simply have to wait and see."
"Is there nothing we can do? Tonics, poultices-"
"I am afraid this is something only aging can show us, princess. Then perhaps we can find some aid."
She had been disgruntled yet accepting, purple eyes storming as she worried at her rings.
Then Aenar spoke and all worry of him being simple was gone. Gerardys had tried to help with the tantrums but only got bitten for his trouble. It was only when they heeded the Sea Snake's advice to change his name did anything change.
Aenar had returned from Oldtown with the name of Ikit, and it was if the horrendous screaming tantrums had been soothed the instant the boy's name had been changed. The same week Laenor and Rhaenyra had returned from their flight to the Starry Sept, Jacaerys's egg hatched into a forest-green hatchling with spindly orange wings while the purple and black of Ikit's refused to crack. Rhaenyra simply stated that Syrax had not hatched for her, nor had Ceraxes hatched for Daemon, so her son could still have his dragon which she would help prepare him for when he was older.
The incident of names left Gerardys somewhat baffled but at least it proved Ikit would not be a simple child as many feared. As time passed, it became blatantly clear Ikit was anything but simple.
When he began to tutor Jacaerys and Ikit in writing and language as they reached their fourth year, Ikit began to rapidly outpace his brother in terms of comprehensions. Before the age of five he was entirely fluent in High Valyrian and the common tongue, and while his penmanship was oddly jagged and sharp it was still entirely legible and always spelled correct. It was an advancement Gerardys had never heard of.
Though regardless of how many times the maester scolded him, Ikit persisted with an odd way to speaking. The boy would occasionally double words or add synonyms for an already spoken word. It was an odd habit, but relatively harmless all things considered. Gerardys eventually accepted it as a quirk of the boy, even as Jacaerys never picked up his twin's habit.
When the boys finished their lessons upon memorizing letters and numbers he then moved to basic mathematics. An essential knowledge for any future lord.
The princess had been quite adamant her twins be tutored together, even with Ikit's extreme advancement, so Gerardys had to wait until Jace completed his lettering course before introducing arithmetic so while Jacaerys had finished his basic tutoring Ikit had been reading everything he could in the Dragonstone library. It did Gerardys good to see a child so invested in history and Ikit excelling at such a great pace pushed Jacaerys to push himself too. Hopefully Lucerys would follow suit, even as a thirdborn.
Mathematics was a difficult subject for many and so Gerardys had prepared numerous problem sheets along with providing abacuses for the princes upon their desks when he brought them in for their beginning lesson. They already memorized basic numbers so his hope was they could complete basic addition and subtraction within a month. Then it would be more revisions and tutoring before moving on to more complex problems and number skills.
Jacaerys and Ikit took the sheets of parchment and retreated to their desks, separated far enough in the room they couldn't copy each others answers.
Gerardys then began to shuffle through the numerous books on his desks, wondering which he could assign as a nightly reading for the princes. Just giving them a book on sums most likely wouldn't help, as they were still very young and would hardly focus upon such a tedious subject. Perhaps a story of the Age of Heroes that he could pass along to the princess, as he knew she was in the habit of seeing them off to bed.
Then Ikit got up naught even a minute after Gerardys gave the boys their work and approached his desk.
"Is something wrong, my prince?" Gerardys asked.
"Finished-complete."
Dubiously the maester accepted the sheet of parchment, eyebrows raising as he looked over the simple questions; they were entry level, simple additions and subtractions of single digits and each was answered correctly. Quickly enough Gerardys hadn't even had time to start writing down his report or suggestions.
After a brief moment of consideration, Gerardys pulled another problem sheet from his sachet and handed it to Ikit. Within the span of a minute, the boy completed that sheet and returned it with all answers correct.
Slowly Gerardys shifted from rudimentary mathematics and, as Ikit continued to answer every question and problem correctly, continued to advanced arithmetic of various of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division problems. Each and every piece of parchment was returned with the correct answer.
Many were equations Gerardys had learned through his long years at the Citadel. Red gold, even if silver was his most learned subject within the healing arts. But sums were important in medicine, in his poultice making and healing so he knew well enough. Still, the mathematics were getting difficult enough even Gerardys would have taken an afternoon to work through them to be sure each was correct yet Ikit displayed none of that hesitation.
The boy did not even need to work out the problems upon paper nor use the abacus, he would study the line for a moment depending on how difficult or complex it was before jotting down the correct answer. Simply sorting them out in his head.
Meanwhile Jacaerys was finishing his own sheet of the first questions, the clack-click of the beads the only noise in the room besides the scratching of quills and the sea outside.
The sheet Gerardys had given to Ikit meanwhile had been the most advanced of arithmetic he had learned, through years of tutoring at the Citadel where the greatest minds in Westeros would gather. They were complex problems that Gerardys would amuse himself with on slow days, toying with the various questions that varied from nomenclature analysis to complex mechanical problem solving. They were things Archmaesters, who had studied the topics for decades, would hold entire classrooms for their fellows to brainstorm and debate with. Very few actually mastered such arithmetic, much less being able to solve the problems within a single afternoon.
Certainly questions Gerardys himself did not understand, even with being provided with the answers as at their core they were questions about principles of uncertainty that required complex mechanical analyst, topology, algebraic geometry, functional analysis, numerical analysis, stochastic processes and mathematical physics all utilized in a severely difficult and complicated questions that one must understand those topics thoroughly in order to finish. Gerardys himself had never came close to it. Even looking over the answers he would fumble at how the question came to such a conclusion in the first place.
Ikit meanwhile finished all the equations without a single error. Gerardys himself in a state of disbelief when he compared the prince's completed work with the answers and learned there was not a single incorrect one.
"My prince, this is amazing," Gerardys finally managed to say after he checked over the final sheet, looking at Ikit who grinned those sharp, sharp teeth at him.
"Of course," came the reply, far too smug to sound natural coming from a six year old. "I have the biggest brain of them all."
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