Pre-Chapter A/N: Here we go with another chapter. Here on time! Next four chapters on my patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga)— same username as here and link in bio. Explanation for why I've been MIA for two weeks at the end.
XXXX- LAENOR VELARYON
The day my children were born began just like any other. I woke up in the bedroom with a headache. I looked over and saw the candle was still burning. Laena insisted on still using them and considering they seemed to be the only things keeping the children from keeping her up all night, what could I do but deal with it? Having a headache for the bit of time I spent in the bedroom was a small burden to bear. I didn't have to deal with my weight doubling, or having to deal with my stomach being orders of magnitude bigger and my feet being too swollen to fit in my shoes, and being unable to fly and a million other things that I knew I would have to spend a good portion of the evening hearing about.
The headache was weak sauce in comparison to all of that, and thankfully it cleared up with a few minutes of clear air. My dreams had stopped. Either the headache made my brain too busy to torture me with the endless repetition of the Doom that it had been playing on repeat for years now, or it had given up on that. I wished it was the latter. I had never felt so happy to have night after night of just darkness to look forward to when I closed my eyes. If I had to deal with both the headache and the dreams, I would have killed someone.
I left the palace, finding Igneel already waiting for me right outside. He had felt my waking. Vhagar was not far, but the Queen of Dragons was either asleep or pretending to be. As long as she wasn't making my life any harder than it had to be, I was happy with it.
I climbed up on Igneel's saddle with ease, making a mental note of some straining at the edges. Looking at the latches confirmed that this was the end of the saddle's tolerance range. It could not be expanded any further. That meant we had to get a new saddle. His second in the last three years. He was still growing, and still doing it faster than any dragon had any right to. Bernard had done the math. If we maintained the present pace, we would be bigger than Vhagar's last official measurements in a decade or so. She was bigger than that now but that would still place Igneel solidly as the second biggest dragon in the realm.
By the time I turned forty, Igneel would be the biggest dragon in all recorded history. Of course, that was only assuming present trends continued. Things had to top off somewhere. There just had to be a plateau of some sort coming.
We shot off the beach with an explosion of sand in all directions. Only then did Vhagar lift her head to roar at our retreating forms. Much like an old man shaking his fist at children who had kicked a ball into his yard. And much like the children in this metaphor, we ignored her and just went on, laughter in our hearts and joy in our spirits.
There was no time I felt more alive than when I was in the air. When I felt my mind become one with Igneel's as we cut through the clouds and sated that hunger that lay within us to be free. To be true to ourselves and chase the horizon wherever it might lead. Of course, we couldn't really do that right now. Laena would go into labour any day now. I mistrusted Myriah, but everything she had offered so far had worked and Laena herself trusted her so if she said it would happen this week after the latest collection of incenses and teas, I was inclined to believe her. She didn't have any magic or anything like that, I would have felt it if she did, but she had experience across decades of working with little in the way of resources and even with more than one child in her, she had ensured this was the easiest pregnancy Laena had ever had by far.
We'd have been the best of friends if she could manage a conversation without mentioning her god who I was not sure whether he wanted me in particular dead or if that had just been an ill tempered and overly ambitious Priestess. Igneel banked before entering into a sharp dive. I narrowed my eyes as my ears caught a screech. I spotted Sunfyre out of the corner of my eye. The dragon had done some growing but was still miles off from being able to be ridden by Aegon. And considering my Squire was shooting up like a weed, that was probably going to be true for some time longer at least.
Sunfyre squawked his displeasure at almost being bowled over as Igneel abandoned his dive to give chase to the little rascal. I chuckled as we chased the smaller dragon around Atlantis. He dove when he could, tried to ascend as much as possible, banked this way and that, but each time we let him get a bit of a lead, we managed to catch back up to him in a matter of minutes. It was a game of tag that the much younger and smaller dragon was losing by quite some margin.
With how much fun we were having, it was no surprise that we lost track of time. It was only when my ears picked out a nasal voice scream for Sunfyre to go left that I realised we'd been at it for long enough for the sun to begin to rise. Sunfyre did indeed manage to turn left just as Igneel and I had fully committed to turning right in chasing him. We'd probably get him with our tail if we tried to slap him with it but this was friendly competition, so we accepted the brief loss, flipping around and starting the chase anew.
I chanced a look downwards as we did so. A crowd had built. Some of the Knights I regularly sparred with, Aegon who had a smug smile on his face—the words had been his no doubt—and most shocking of all was the small group of women. Laena stood there with her serving ladies around her, and she watched the chase with a wide smile that spoke of her yearning to be in the air again.
Hopefully these children lived. No, not hopefully. They would live. And then because they did, we could spend more time being just us. Take a break from pregnancies for a minute and just be husband and wife. Take long flights to nowhere when we could and just be people in love. Aegon called out directions from the ground, and with his unique point of view and Sunfyre's smaller size, it ended up taking us what felt like half an hour to bring it all to an end by tapping our snout against the other dragon's fleeing form. Applause came from the watching gallery and I lifted my hands in victory.
I looked down and watched it as though it was happening in slow motion. Laena jumped up cheering, and then she landed with her legs giving out from under her. The wetness in her gown could mean only one thing. Igneel was diving downwards in seconds and I was sliding off his back before we had even fully hit the ground. I bent my knees when I did so, the sand flying off. I ran towards her as someone was shouting for a lifting bed. No time for that. I took my wife into my arms and lifted.
"They're coming. Laenor, they're coming," she screamed. She was weightless as I ran us to the delivery room.
Vhagar was roaring from her place in front of the palace now. She seemed too busy with whatever was ailing her to pay us much attention as we passed her on our way in.
----
"I see the head." I breathed out a sigh of relief at that even as my wife kept screaming for all her lungs were worth. Looking at the row of hourglasses told me we were three hours in now and we were just about making the first bit of actual progress. I had lost feeling in my left hand completely as Laena squeezed it to help deal with the pain. A worthwhile sacrifice, and in many ways the most I could offer.
I was reminded again of how much I hated this. There was nothing worse than seeing the person you loved suffering and being unable to do anything about it. But what could I do? Even if I knew more medicine, the world I'd come from hadn't figured out painless childbirth yet. There was no way we would get anything of the sort here. All the best painkillers would either react terribly to the pregnancy or would make her too dull and woozy to be able to push out the children and that would just lead to a worse situation.
She screamed even louder now as everyone around us begged her to push, to keep going. I pushed her hair out of her face. What encouragements could I offer that I hadn't already? What words could I speak now that were not already being said? What use was I while she suffered? The shoulder was next, and then I felt it when my child was born.
Right in my heart I felt it. I felt it before we heard her begin to cry. And it was a her. I could feel that as well. Her cries spread over the room, a sign of a strong set of lungs. Laena wanted nothing more than to hold her but she was screaming again. The other one was coming now. Maester Bernard received the child from Myriah even as she squatted down to guide the next one out.
The Maester moved her over to the side and another took hold of her. They were waiting till they could clamp and cut the umbilical cord. The second birth was just as painful as the first if Laena's screams were any indication but it was quicker at least. That was a silver lining at least. This child came out only an hour after the first. And his screams were just as loud. I could feel the tension drain out of the room at that, but Laena kept screaming and Myriah seemed to be the only one to expect it.
"The Lord of Light is generous. More children," she yelled. I did not know how much longer Laena could take it. She had also been expecting twins. Having to deal with another so soon looked like it could ruin her. But she kept going. She found strength from somewhere I could not imagine, and just kept going. Until we had a third, and even at that her screams did not stop.
Her pain did not end until she had birthed our fourth.
He came into this world not with a shout like the rest of his siblings. He did not announce his presence with cries that filled the room and made everyone other than Laena and I want to cover their ears or cringe away. His cries were quieter, less. That story was the same when it came to his size. He was small. You could have mistaken him for a very small watermelon. Half head, and body just about there. He was smaller than all his siblings by some margin, but the second he came out of her, he had my heart in his hand.
Myriah held him in her hand like she was holding a trophy. Then she turned to look at me, and this one she offered to me. Not to Bernard like the others, but to me directly. I looked down at Laena, and she was slumped into the bed, spent. I allowed her fingers slip from mine for the first time in hours, and took my child from the woman who had delivered him. All my doubts were washed away in an instant. Four children.
Failure after failure without her and now she had helped me get four. Four little bundles of joy that would carry my heart with them wherever they went for the rest of my life. Not theirs. No, I would die before my children. That was my duty as a father and I would ensure I fulfilled it. They were now my everything. In one day, my whole life had changed. The things that had seemed to matter so much before now were minor considerations in the face of what was in this very room.
"Ask of me anything in this world. Anything. If it is in my power, I will see that it is granted to you," I told her. Her, I would make the richest woman in the world in a heartbeat. This was a treasure greater than the deepest vault of gold or the rarest of gems.
"I do have one thing I desire, Laenor Velaryon," she said.
"Speak it. Whatever it is, I will give it to you." As I said those words, her head bent down, her eyes were now shadowed by her black hair. Was she shy about what she wanted, I wondered.
"Your tears," she said. What?
Her hand snapped upwards. Only reflexes more draconic than human saved my life. I had two hands holding my son. One of them came up and caught the knife she had hurled at me. I'd caught it by the blade, and my hand wept freely. I looked from it to her, only for her hand to whip out again, another blade flying out from it. This one I managed to track through the air. It was not aimed at me. Instead, it was aimed for Laena, slumped in bed and barely even conscious. My left leg shot out, barely managing to catch the blade in its arc and boot it in a different direction.
I spun around to face her, but only managed to catch the tail end of her dress slipping away. Bernard was on the ground, his neck had a blade in it. His hand was up, clenching the wound.
"She..." he tried to wheeze, but the words did not come out. Instead, he pointed at the cribs. Two were full and one was empty. She had taken my other son. The room was in chaos. Two of the midwives lay dead, three of the maesters were similarly gone. I handed the boy in my hands to the one who looked most put together.
I couldn't even think clearly. That woman had taken my child. Why, I did not know. How, I did not truly know. All I knew was that she was a dead woman. She just happened to be walking.
Running, I realised when I felt for Igneel's mind. He had gone hunting. Fuck me. I'd given the instructions when Vhagar had been about to start a fight from having him camped so close to what she saw as her territory. Fuck me. And Vhagar was unlikely to be any use. She better not do anything even. I was barrelling through the doors like an arrow from a crossbow with nothing in my way surviving long.
I barely even noticed the Knights outside the room and their slumped over positions. Myriah had somehow managed to get to them as well. How the hell had I allowed such a capable killer get this close to me? To my family. Myrilla's head would roll for sure. Not just hers.
Igneel was rushing back but he was far and unlikely to make it in time. He had gone to the coast of a different island in search of big game. I slammed through the door. Vhagar was still curled in on herself, deaf to the outside world. I did not wake her. She would make this worse. My eyes searched for the woman who held my child. She was about to reach the treeline.
Heading into the forest. She was going to make Igneel useless even if he did manage to arrive. I directed him to fly over the forest and prepare for if she made it out when he got here and chased her on foot.
I ran like the hounds of hell were on my heels. Faster than I'd ever run before, but I still didn't manage to even cross half the distance before she was fully in the forest and I'd lost sight of her. It was not a thick forest. Most of it new growth. I would find her. She could not hide for long, but I felt the cold icy grip of fear in my chest. Would I do it in time? Before she hurt my child.
When I reached the forest, I stopped, straining my senses. I could not just rush in heedlessly. There was a chance I'd miss her. Looking down revealed little. There were footsteps heading in every which direction. Each one looking like it had just been made. Magic. Myriah had fucking magic on her side. How had I missed it? There.
Rustling to the left. I shot off, heading there.
I caught a flash of black in the distance. Her dress. The forest made running at full speed impossible but if it was slowing me down then it was doing the same to her, and I was faster as a baseline. I followed the small glimpse I'd got of her until I was close enough where I could see her full form. My child was still in her grasp and she was running forwards towards something.
Only then did I realise that I was completely unarmed. I hadn't had Riptide around my waist when I'd left the room this morning. I'd rushed to escape the candle and the headache it caused. Fuck. Unarmed against a magic user of unknown power who was clearly skilled with knives and who had my son with her for leverage. Fucking perfect.
A/N: Myriah is a mystery in ways that will get answered next chapter. I know some people won't like this but really there was no way for Laenor to prevent this with the context he had (without being unreasonably paranoid in the way that fanfic readers sometimes expect SI's to be). Remember that Myriah had been one of the slaves he had personally got from Lys. She came highly recommended from another slave who his wife had been caring for for years at this point, and then had close to a year of consistent loyal behaviour. Add that he had limited contact with her but never saw anything wrong when you did and was both much too busy to focus all that much, and had already sworn not to poke his head too much into things, and you get this.
Hey guys. I'm so sorry. It's been two weeks since the last update and I wish I could tell you it was for a really good reason. I did fall sick for like a week and couldn't write during that but even after that was over and done with, I still found myself unable to do much writing. Why? Well, the Masters program I wanted to use to delay having to get a real job told me to fuck off and now I have to either figure out actual employment (ugh) or convince my family (who've spent a shit ton on my education) that it makes sense for me to do this full time. It's placed a lot of pressure around writing for me and I haven't been able to just chill and do the thing I love for a while now. Of course, you can see this because I've managed to get over it to some degree. I am still working on a book that should hopefully do well enough that I can use it as proof of concept, but that's still in progress so fingers crossed. The bit that concerns you is that I'm back now and I'll do my best to make sure I never get gone for that long again. Enjoy the chapter. Discount on patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga) as a sort of apology for those interested. Next chapter comes on here on Sunday night.
Next four 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. Don't forget to check out the new story or redeem the discount before thursday.