Pre-Chapter A/N:Another chapter on time? Guess my lock-in is going pretty well. If you haven't already, I recommend turning on notifications for my stuff so you can see when new stuff drops right as it drops. Next five chapters on my patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga)— same username as here and link in bio. Discount on patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga) so do check that out.
Word had reached Bloodstone far ahead of our arrival. The system of lighthouses and flags I had created in the frontier islands to warn of an attack or invasion now warned of my arrival. My return from Valyria. I knew Mother would be far from pleased with me and my recklessness, but I also knew that Parvella would never waste an opportunity to build my legend and cement the people even closer together. A welcoming party would achieve both those goals.
It was what I would do in her place. So when the ships from the Velaryon fleet met us miles out and began to form an honour guard for us as we approached, I bore it with a smile even as I felt the internal sting of disappointment. None of them asked the question that was probably on their minds now— we had left with two ships. Where was the other?
I went into the cargo hold and chose a sword I would present before Mother. The most elaborate of the lot. The one I had given to Ben— Dragon Guard— sat at my waist now. I knew it would be the one I used for the rest of my days. Even the thought of replacing it brought a scowl to my face and a tremor to my hand. It felt like having a piece of him with me— never mind that he had only gotten to spend a matter of days wielding her in truth.
The Tide, I named her silently, the long sword of smoky steel. Its ripples were a brilliant blue. Its hilt was more simple, a worn leather affair with a cross guard that rounded out in spikes. It would be re-adorned, perhaps by the man who had made Riptide. He had a taste for the finer things. And then along with the blade, I picked a crown. The Queen who never was would be presented with a crown. Entirely symbolic of course.
Wearing a crown was treason of the highest order. She would receive it and place it in a vault somewhere. The fact that it was made of Valyrian steel with precious stones all about its surface would just go to show the wealth we had gained. I scoffed at the thought. With the payments we would be giving to the fallen, the trip to Valyria would actually end up being a net negative to the House's treasury. Well, that was until I managed to sell a sword or two. An auction would have to happen sooner rather than later to get things back on track. My plans were expensive, after all. And we had a wedding to plan.
A wedding, gods. I'd almost forgotten about Laena, I thought with a facepalm. For her I picked the most beautiful necklace of the lot. This one also Valyrian steel and adorned with gems to catch the eye, the centrepiece being a single red diamond— the biggest I'd ever seen by some margin.
I returned to the deck and stood patiently in my armour. I did my best not to look what I felt like— a failure. Over a dozen men had died. A ship was lost. The information I actually wanted was lost to me, and would probably be lost to the world now that the barriers had fallen. Yet, I had to spin this as a success. It was my duty as a Lord.
I stood as our ship made its way into the pier with the escort of fleet ships folding away at the last seconds to give us pride of place. Vaemond came forwards and stretched out his hand for the gifts. I nodded at him in thanks before I placed them in his hands and then climbed down from the ship. Mother and Laena waited at the end of the pier, surrounded by our people.
People who were applauding like I had just come back from war. With the fatality rate, I might as well have. Even in war, I hadn't lost such a large portion of mine, in truth. I waited for Vaemond to come down and take his place at my right hand side. He stood slightly behind me, and for the first time in days, I felt some calm return to my body. That was Ben's position and if I didn't look, I could pretend that the warmth I felt, that the footsteps I heard as I moved, that the breath in my ears, that all of it was his.
Igneel's roar made my bones shake as he passed overhead. What a drama queen. He always wanted to be the centre of attention. He arced past and returned again with another roar. The applause got even louder at his arrival— I did not even know that such a thing was possible in the first place. Now that I stood on the pier I could see both their faces clearly. Mother's was as if carved from marble. There was no emotion there. Laena tried to do the same but she was not yet at that level— either that or our bond was such that I could see behind any obfuscation she attempted. I could see the relief and rage warring in her soul even from here.
I walked forward and when I reached Mother and Laena, I bowed at the waist.
"Mother, Sister. I have returned," I said.
"We can see that," Mother said, voice glacial.
"Congratulations, Brother. You have done what no other has," Laena said. I chanced a look in her eyes and felt my stomach drop. Rage had won. Her smile was all teeth.
"And I bring gifts. For you, Mother," I said, presenting her the crown. Valyria was not a monarchy in any sense so the crown had been more for jewellery than a symbol of authority and it showed in its frame. She accepted it with a nod.
"And for you, Sister, the fairest lady in all the world, I bring the most beautiful necklace from the doomed city of Valyria," I said, and the gasps rang out as I confirmed that we had truly made it to Valyria. Laena accepted the necklace in her hands, not turning to let me place it on her. Yup, she was pissed.
"And for our house, I present a new ancestral blade. Behold the Tide's Bite," I said, unsheathing the Valyrian steel longsword to even more gasps.
XXXXXX—
The fanfare had passed in a blur if I was being honest. The festival, the celebrations, all of it had passed with a feeling that none of it mattered. There was just an emptiness to all of it. It had started once I had glimpsed the rage in Laena's eyes, and then my gaze somehow seemed to find the people who were not having a good time. I could spot the family members of some of the men who had not returned. It hadn't been all that long ago that they had been at the pier saying their goodbyes.
Did they know even back then that they would not be seeing their sons, brothers, fathers, and husbands again? There had been desperation in most cases, yes, but that didn't mean they mattered any less to those who they left behind. And those people were the ones whose eyes I sought during the festivities.
Stuck in the centre of it all, I tried to apologise with my gaze for all that was worth. I didn't think it worth much, to be honest. That should be the first thing I do today, I decided, still in bed.
I would find them, I would apologise and then I would give them the gold that represented their lost share in the treasure. Ben though. I would need to write a letter to House Celtigar. That, I would do first, I amended. A letter to prelude my visit and then a proper visit. I needed to look them in the eyes and tell them I had gotten their son killed. It was the least I could do. The very least. His share of the treasure would need to be taken to them. I chuckled to myself. Share of the treasure, I thought, like the gold wouldn't be coming from my own reserves. I scoffed at the thought and moved my thoughts to other things.
"Are you going to just lay there and pretend to be asleep?" Her voice cut through my thoughts like a bell could cut through the silence of a monastery at noon.
"Gives me time to think of something to say," I said, opening my eyes and turning to look at her. I had felt her weight settle on the edge of my bed.
"And what did you come up with?" she asked, eyebrow arched.
"I'm sorry," I said, and if her rage had been held back by a dam then those words had hit the wall with an RPG.
"Sorry? Sorry? Months gone. Hours to think, and that is the best you can do? Those are the best words you can come up with?"
"What else do you want me to say, Laena? That I was stupid and selfish and scared? I can say them all and they'd all be true, but the most true thing is that I am sorry. If I could go back to that younger version of myself and tell him— don't go, you silly stupid arrogant boy— I would. I'd do it a million times if I could. I should not have done it. There is no excuse that justifies it. I shouldn't have gone in the first place, and I definitely shouldn't have done so without actually explaining it to you in person," I said with a sigh, turning to look at the ceiling instead. I could not bear to look at the pain on her face.
"What happened to you?" she asked.
"Everything. I almost died there. In Valyria. If not for Vaemond, I actually would have died. And then I got Ben killed, and it was because I was greedy and arrogant and selfish. I had no business there in the first place," I said. Her weight shifted as she got up from the bed. I wondered if she was leaving the room, disappointed at the failure that I was. Instead, she walked around the bed and I heard the pitter patter of her feet on the unyielding stone as she moved until I felt her weight and her warmth sink in on the bed next to me.
She wrapped her hands around me, much to my shock, and I held on to her tightly as she hugged me.
"Then why did you do it? Make me understand, Laenor."
"I think more than everything, I was scared and arrogant at the same time. I was scared of being married. I've achieved very little of note. Little that anyone born in my station would not have been able to replicate. I figured that Valyria was a hard enough task. Something to write in the history books next to my name that would be wholly mine. If we got married, I'd never be able to do something like that again. The fear of leaving you a widow, leaving our children fatherless, that kind of thing would paralyse me," I said.
"And you think I would be any less a widow if you died now?" she asked.
"We are not married," I pointed out. She scoffed.
"You think I care about some ceremony in some sept. Gods I don't believe in in front of people I barely know and don't even like? I tied my sail to yours a long time ago, Laenor Velaryon. Brother. In here you are my husband," she said, reaching for my hand and placing it against her heart. She was warm. So warm. She felt like home.
"And in here, I am your wife," she said, taking my hand in hers again and placing it against my own heart.
"If you had died, I still would be a widow. So you must promise me, Laenor Velaryon, no more," she said.
"No more," I agreed.
"Thank you," she said.
TWO MONTHS LATER— TYLAND LANNISTER
"You called me, Brother," he said on stepping into his brother's solar. There was a trepidation he felt in his stomach as he noticed his brother smiling. There were two possibilities here. Either he was smiling because he was happy. Or he was smiling because he was angry out of his mind. He had seen this very smile nary a week ago and could remember the chaos it had preceded.
"Yes. A letter has come in from a rider," he said.
Tyland's hackles rose even further. A letter. The last time Jason summoned him because of a letter, it had been a veiled refusal from Viserys for his daughter's hand. The marriage with House Velaryon did not seem as scuttled as they had hoped leaking the news of Sunspear would have made it. His spies spoke of a private meeting between the Velaryon Lord, his sister, and the King after the questioning on the matter, and shortly after, the Princess had been sent to Dragonstone to assume her position as its overlord. It was not hard to view them as unconnected, and it was difficult to tell if it was for good or for ill.
"What sort of letter?" he asked slowly, deciding to just get it over and done with. This was probably the best time for more bad news to come in. They hadn't yet replaced all the things his brother had destroyed in his last rampage. If the need were to arise, they would have a cheaper time of it at least.
"An invitation. A wedding invitation from House Velaryon," he said.
"House Velaryon?" Should a royal wedding not have been announced by the crown itself? That was the normal way of things, was it not? But then who knew with the kind of relationship that Velaryon had with Targaryen these days.
"Laenor Velaryon has announced his intention to wed Laena Velaryon three moons from now," he said.
What?
"Laena— his sister? The fucker wants to marry his sister?" Tyland couldn't believe what he was hearing. A royal wedding in the cards and the fucker would toss it all away to marry his own sister?
"Valyrians," Jason said with an even wider smile.
"Valyrians," Tyland echoed.
"Shall we be attending then? I don't think the Faith would be best pleased."
"The High Septon will be officiating the ceremony himself," Jason said.
"Wonder how much that would have cost. Can't imagine High Septons are cheap to bribe," he japed. Jason responded with full blown laughter. There was a lightness to him now that hadn't been there for so long. It was like his brother was a new man just because of some news that admittedly had little to do with him.
"Probably a lot considering the numbers he's quoting for the sword," Tyland winced at the reminder. Three million dragons. Even for a house seated on top a gold mine, it was a steep fucking sum.
"He's insane," he said, remembering the visit. The sword had been shown to him and he had hungered for it until the price had doused the flame with a cold clarity.
"And yet we will pay it. The prestige of House Lannister must be beyond question. We will buy the sword and leak the price we pay," he said.
"You want to remind Viserys of our wealth," Tyland realised.
"Yes. He should remember the house he spurns. We might not have dragons, but our claws are no less sharp for it. We have the second greatest fleet in all the realm, we have a well-armed, provisioned, and trained standing army, and we have enough gold to buy a kingdom. Viserys would be a fool to refuse us, and if he still insists on being less than logical, then we shall force the issue. See to it that arrangements are made for our attendance. The Princess will surely be there. She and I need to speak in person now," he said.
"Yes, Brother. But to think, his own sister. What an idiot," Tyland scoffed. The realm would never support it. The High Septon could say whatever it was he wanted to say, but whatever children they produced would be incest-born. That was a stain that a crown could wipe off, but that was not the case with mere wealth. House Velaryon was signing their own death warrant with this move. No old house worth its name would be interested in marrying into them anymore. Not to talk of all those he must have spurned in order to take his sister's hand for himself. Laenor Velaryon had just made himself a very unpopular man, and resigned his house to functional extinction as true nobility.
"A foolish choice, but this is the man that went to Valyria for his pride in the first place," Jason agreed.
Tyland scoffed and nodded.
"Foolish, reckless, but useful for now," Jason said and then Tyland nodded, accepting the assessment for what it was.
"I will go gather the gold for the purchase," he said, deciding to leave now and get to work.
"Good. See to it that we are ready to make payment once the deal is concluded," he said.
A/N: And so the chapter concludes. Next one should start off the wedding arc and we can get to work on the next half of the story. 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. Had my birthday last week and got another year older (boo), so there's a discount on patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga) until Wednesday for anyone interested in that (yay)