Game of Thrones: Winter's Fire

The Unworthy

Aegon Targaryen the fourth of his name was a man of voracious appetites. Be it food, fighting or women, he liked to have all three in plentiful amounts. The food came easily as Aegon the Fourth was first a prince and then the King of the Iron Throne and to deny him anything would mean your head on a spike. The women came easily as well, for Aegon was a charmer, he had a easy manner with women, and of course knew all the tricks in the book, and of course being that he was a prince of the Iron Throne in his younger days many women flocked to him and the promise he showed. The fighting was harder to come by. As a prince of the Iron Throne in his youth he could not openly challenge any knight or man without degrading the family name, and of course no sane man would dare challenge a prince of the blood. So Aegon found his relief for his frustration through fighting in his cousin Daeron's conquest of Dorne, earning a name for himself as a able and noted warrior. However, with his cousin Baelor's ascension to the throne came peace, and with it came unlimited amounts of frustrations for Aegon.

For Baelor was not war-minded monarch and was content to leave Dorne in peace, so long as they gave him no reason to worry. Aegon was not a knight of the Kingsguard and also found competing in jousts in tourney much less fun, and as a prince of the Iron Throne he knew that he would not face any true threat to his person. And so his frustration grew, and he began to vent that frustration on the only two outlets left available to him: food and women. Food and women became very visible at court, not Baelor's vices but Aegon's, with his father as Hand though Aegon kept his more lecherous tendencies at bay, though he did occasionally indulge in the company of one Lady Stokeworth, despite being married to his sister Naerys.

There was no love lost between Aegon and Naerys, they had not been close as children, and of course Aegon knew his sister in reality loved their brother Aemon, but Aemon like all boys of seventeen had chased dreams of glory and honour and had joined the Kingsguard during the later months of King Aegon the Dragonbane's reign. Aegon also knew that the rumours that their brother Aemon had cried during the day of his and Naerys wedding was not a rumour but was in fact the truth. He knew that his brother had loved Naerys since they were very little, but he did not hold by the rumours that Daeron was Aemon and Naerys child. For whilst the boy may be more bookish than a future king truly should be, there was a certain fire in him that reminded Aegon of himself, more so than Aemon.

His night of passion with Daena was more of a one off thing and was never spoke of again, at least not between Aegon and Daena themselves. Aegon had grown up with his cousins and Willam Stark, and he knew that Daena was deeply in love with Stark, it was why he had been so surprised when he had found Daena in his room one night during the later years of Baelor's reign. He had been even more surprised when she had taken him in her mouth and ordered him to fuck her, but of course she was his queen and he was a Targaryen, and Targaryens had never faltered from their duty, and so they had fucked- it was never making love with Aegon, never- and then when Daena had begun to show the early signs of pregnancy he had known that the babe was his, though Daena insisted on remaining quiet.

Aegon's father had ruled the realm as hand for night on twenty years, whilst Daeron warred and Baelor prayed, and yet when he himself came into the throne he was old and tired. Aegon knew this, he also knew that he would someday soon sit the Iron Throne, and he knew that that would bring even more attention from the fairer sex, something which Aegon had deeply looked forward to. His father had pursued a policy of peace as Hand of the King, and that was something he maintained as king. The marriage pact which Baelor had envisioned with Dorne had been sealed with the marriage of Aegon's son Daeron to Princess Myriah Martell of Dorne, in the last year of Baelor's reign. They had had a boy, a squalling black haired and violet eyed child whom they had named Baelor, the boy looked Dornish except for his eyes, but then again Aegon supposed that at least his son had had the balls to do his duty, unlike the uncle he so deeply respected.

The same time that Daeron and Myriah's child had been born, Daena had given birth to a baby boy whom she had named Daemon, she had refused to name the boy's father publicly, but in private when Aegon had come to see her after the babe had been born, she had told him what he already knew, that he was the father. Once Baelor died, Aegon's father went about trying to repair the relationships that Baelor's idiocy had nearly damaged. Viserys II was a smart man and knew that the North could pose a serious threat to the Iron Throne should they choose to rebel, and so he had given Willam Stark what he had always wanted a marriage to Aegon's cousin Daena, at the Isle of Faces, and Daena and Daemon had gone north to Winterfell with Willam Stark.

A year later Aegon became king. And he found that being king was much more fun than being heir to the throne. Everyone listened to him and did as he said, he had more women and food than he had ever had before. And of course with his son married to a Princess of Dorne, he had the perfect hostage to give reason for his war on Dorne. He had built wooden dragons and called his banners, intent on finishing the work that Daeron had started. The war had failed, the Dornish being the snakes that they were had burnt his dragons and the men inside of them, and had bled his army with cowardly attacks in the night.

But Prince Mors Martell was a smart man; he agreed to become part of the Seven Kingdoms formally if Aegon's soon to be born daughter married his son Maron. Aegon in a rare moment of good sense agreed and so he waited patiently for his daughter to flower, but in the back of his mind he always kept an eye on how his son was doing in Winterfell and simply bade his time, waiting for the right moment to break the agreement with Dorne.

Aegon's lusts eventually cost him his brother Aemon. Aemon had risen to be the Lord Commander of his Kingsguard and had died defending Aegon from the Toyne brothers who had been fool enough to try and kill Aegon, in revenge for him having ordered Ser Terrence Toyne killed, torn piece by piece for having been found in bed with one of Aegon's mistresses. Despite the hypocrisy of what he was saying, Aegon had ranted and raved and said how the Kingsguard were sworn to a life of celibacy, and that he was the dragon, and that the dragon did not share, with anybody. House Toyne had been out of favour ever since, and Aegon had continued on with his lusts.

The food and drink eventually caught up with him, and soon Aegon found himself with a belly, where before there had only been chiselled skin. He grew a beard to hide the many chins he had. His suspicions about the truth of Daeron's parentage began to grow as his body mass grew. With Lord Reyne whispering in his ear about how the commons whispered of the wolf dragon his son Daemon, and how he even at such a young age seemed to be showing great promise with the sword and every other weapon he wielded, and how Daeron was unduly influenced by the foreign Dornish viper who was his wife. Aegon sent word to Lord Stark in Winterfell in the 180th year since Aegon's Landing, asking for Daemon and Stark's son Daeron to be sent to King's Landing to foster.

When Aegon set eyes upon his son for the first time, it was like he was looking at a mirror image of himself at the exact same age, there was no doubting that Daemon was his. As he watched Daemon grow to manhood before his eyes, he began making comparisons between his two sons, his bastard and his trueborn sons. He found that he liked greatly what he saw in Daemon; the boy clearly had an eye for martial skills, and from speaking to the master of arms at the Red Keep Aegon learnt that the boy knew how to wield a blade better than Ser Quentyn himself. Aegon's trueborn son Daeron was more interested in books and bookish pursuits, and Aegon began to despair that perhaps the boy had come from his loins, for though his nature was more like that of Naerys, there was a fire and a stubbornness was all Aegon, or was it Aemon?

As the years rolled by and Aegon watched Daeron grow up, and then later saw Daemon grow, it became harder and harder for Aegon to keep convincing himself that Daeron was actually his son, and that his wife had not cheated on him with their brother as the singers were wont to say. Naerys had died of a fever three years before Daemon had come to court, and Aemon had died a year before Daemon came to court, and so there was no one there for Aegon to truly question about the stories and whispers he heard around court and those that were brought before him by Lord Reyne.

Aegon made up his mind when he held a tournament in King's Landing to celebrate his nameday. All the knights and nobles of renown came to the capital to attend, compete and watch. Daemon was only ten and two, but fought with the skill of a man with much more years and experience behind him. He unseated three knights of the Kingsguard, the famous Ser Ullrick Dayne, and David Lannister and then engaged in a two hour long tilt with Ser Mathis Tyrell a knight of great renown, before he eventually won the duel. So impressed with his bastard son, Aegon decided on the spur of the moment to knight him there and then. He knighted his son, and when he saw Daemon rise as Ser Daemon Waters, he felt such pride and joy at seeing one of his children achieving something with life, more so than he ever had with Daeron, or any of Daeron's grandchildren.

Aegon's habits eventually came back to haunt him, and in his forty fourth year of life he was taken ill. The maesters told him that the food and the drink had all gone and clogged some parts of his heart and other important organs, and that he only had a few moons to live. And so he began crafting his will, he had his hand Lord Massey and the other members of his small council fix their seals to two copies of the will, and then had them stored away for after he was dead, when they read the contents of both wills they could decide what would be done. It was one last joke that he would play on Westeros, the land of his birth, the land his father had given so much to, the land that both idolised and ridiculed the Targaryens, they would suffer for their foolishness once Aegon was dead. To make justly sure that his plans worked effectively, on his deathbed with his dying breaths, with Lord Massey present in the room he legitimised all his bastards and gave them a claim to the Iron Throne, he also gave Blackfyre the sword of kings to his bastard Daemon and then died with a smile on his face, the first he had smiled in many years.

Willam

In the years that preceded his marriage to Daena, Willam Stark stayed in the north, brooding and helping his father to oversee the reconstruction of Moat Cailin, the ancient northern fortress. When he returned to Winterfell after nearly ten years away from his home, he found it much changed. His mother had died some years previously, and with her gone it seemed that most of the joy and enthusiasm that had existed in his childhood home. His father, always a grim and solemn man in public, had become grim and solemn man in private as well, the fever that had taken Willam's mother had been building for some time, and yet from what Artos and Jeyne told Willam upon his return, their father blamed Maester Wyman for their mother's death, and then when Maester Wyman had taken ill sometime before Willam's return, their father did little to ensure the maester's survival.

Willam also noted how in their mother's absence Jeyne had taken up the mothering role for Beron, who was now ten and three and yet had very little memory of their mother. Lord Cregan himself though often grim and solemn did not seem to forget his duty to his children, and always made sure they were looked after and were cared for, and he had- Willam was relieved to note- rejected Lord Bolton's proposal of wedding Jeyne to the heir of the Dreadfort, and had instead began talks with Lord Greyjoy about wedding Jeyne to Quellon. That was something that Willam was most happy about, for Quellon was as good as a brother to him, they had shared many, many good times in King's Landing, and Quellon had helped Daeron in his conquest of Dorne. Jeyne herself had at first been reluctant to agree to the match, fearing that Quellon would be too barbaric for her liking- despite Willam's words to the contrary- but she had eventually come round to the idea after meeting with Quellon thrice, and so had agreed to the match. And so ties between the north and the Iron Islands were strengthened when Jeyne and Quellon married in the 165th Year after Aegon's Landing. The alliance was sealed completely when their son- Willam's nephew- Dagon was born three years later.

Willam's brother and twin Artos had married a Karstark, strengthening the ties between the two families. His brother and his lady wife had three children by the time Lord Cregan died. Two sons Brandon and Benjen and a daughter named Melissa. Lord Cregan had told Willam one day during a private meeting between the two of them that he intended to give the finished reconstructed Moat Cailin to Artos as his seat and for his children and their children to hold. For Cregan had taken to heart the offence King Baelor the Blessed had dealt his son, and had adopted a policy of isolation.

Beron, the youngest of Cregan Stark's wolf pups had considered joining the Night's Watch, as a third son he had very little to truly inherit, and Willam knew that despite what the southerners might think, there was honour in serving the Night's Watch. However, when the keeper of the keys to the Wolf's Den died, Lord Cregan informed Lord Manderly that he intended to give the Wolf's Den to Beron, and that was how Beron Stark, the third son came to be Lord of the Wolf's Den, and ancient Stark seat. As part of the agreement Beron married Lord Manderly's eldest daughter Wylla. By the time Willam became lord of Winterfell, Beron and Wylla had had one son and one daughter.

Throughout the ten years that followed his leaving from King's Landing, though his father and then he received many offers for his hand, Willam refused them all for there was only one lady that he would ever give his heart and his love to, Princess Daena Targaryen. When he returned home from King's Landing with his pride hurt and his mind plagued by nightmares of Dorne, he turned to his father for help, and Cregan Stark proved his mettle once more as a father. He listened as Willam talked all about what he had done in the years before he returned to Winterfell, about the Conquest of Dorne and the nightmares he still had, about Daeron's death, about he and Daena, about Baelor's idiocy and the plotting of the court. Throughout it all his father sat in silence and listened, and then when Willam had finished speaking, Lord Cregan looked at his son with his solemn grey eyes and told his eldest born son, that the Targaryens were proud and vain, and that made them fools. Some were cleverer fools than the other members of their family, but they were still on the Iron Throne, and so long as they were the north would never truly be safe and free. He also told Willam that it mattered not that Willam and Daena had sex before marriage, for Viserys Targaryen was one of the less foolish Targaryens and would make sure that somehow Willam and Daena ended up together.

Reassured that he was not about to be severly chastised for his actions Willam showed his father the crown of the Kings of Winter that Daena had given him in King's Landing before he had left. His father looked at the crown in Willam's hands an unreadable expression on his face, he did not ask where Willam had gotten the crown from, but Willam suspected that his father knew where it had come from. Lord Cregan remained silent for a very long time, before he eventually spoke. Even now the words of what he said caused Willam to shiver. "Keep it safe Willam. There will come a time when the north will awaken from its slumber. And when it does it will have need of a strong leader." Cregan Stark had said with solemn face and an ominous tone in his voice.

Lord Cregan Stark died in the 168th Year after Aegon's Landing from the same fever that had taken his wife and Willam's mother. A slow wasting disease that took away his strength and Willam suspected his will to live. Cregan Stark died with his wife's name on his lips. Willam Stark became Lord of Winterfell and Warden of the North at the age of twenty and five, still unmarried but in his brother Artos and his children he had heirs, Moat Cailin was still to be completed when he became Warden of the North. Willam spent the next three years touring the north and getting better acquainted with his bannermen and the people he would be ruling for the remainder of his life. The marriage proposals eventually stopped about a moon before news of King Baelor's death reached the North. The northern lords seemed to have accepted that their lord would not marry anyone except the dragon princess who had gained his heart. All the lords that is except for Lord Bolton, who having taken Cregan's rejection humbly, fiercely persisted in having his daughter become lady of Winterfell, something that had never happened before as far as anyone was aware of, and something that did not happen.

When news came to Winterfell of King Baelor's death Willam rode to King's Landing to pledge fealty to the new king and with it hoped to marry his one true love. His wish was granted and so they married in the Isle of Faces, the only place south of the neck that had a godswood. A tourney was held in Harrenhal to celebrate the wedding, but Willam did not find the pageantry that was put on to his liking, he would have much preferred to marry Daena in the north, but she wished to marry in the south and he had never been able to refuse her anything and so they married in the south. Willam knew that some whispered about how he was marrying a 'spoilt woman' as Daena had a bastard child, Daemon the boy was called, but Willam did not mind nor did he truly care. Any child of Daena's was as good as his, and she also told him who Daemon's father was and that what had happened that night was just a onetime thing. Willam understood though he had not strayed from his commitment during their time apart.

Only one thing soured his time spent back in King's Landing and the south. Princess Myriah Martell, King Viserys II Targaryen's granddaughter in law. The girl- for that was what she was- not only came from Dorne, she came from the ruling house of Dorne. The house that had had its people use cowardly and unhonourable tactics to undo all of Daeron's hard work, she was the daughter of the man who had ordered the butchery of many good and honourable men who were only fighting for their king. And on top of that, the girl had had the nerve to insult Willam's father and the north to his face. Calling the north a 'land of savages' and calling Willam's father a craven. She also insulted Willam himself, calling him a butcher and a murderer, Willam kept silent throughout all of these insults, but when the girl had dared to insult Daena calling her a whore within his hearing he had lashed back. He had told her that she was lucky to still be alive, and that had her father and her people had any honour whatsoever they would all of ended up as heads on spikes.

Once the wedding was done Willam, Daena and Daemon rode north to Winterfell. Once there Willam continued his father's policy of isolation from the south. He did not keep any contact with the south, nor did he much care for the antics of Aegon IV, he did not care that there were rumours circling the southern kingdoms that Daeron Targaryen, Aegon and Naerys child may not actually be Aegon's, but rather his brother Aemon's. Had he cared, he would have dismissed such rumours, he had grown up with both Aegon and Aemon, and had fought beside them both, Aemon was too honourable to shame his vows, despite the obvious love he bore for Naerys that was far beyond brotherly.

Willam and Daena's first child together was born in 172 A.L. a boy with brown hair and violet eyes, whom they named Daeron, after Willam's best friend and Daena's favourite brother. Daeron and Daemon grew close to one another as they grew up from babes to boys in Winterfell, and by all accounts they grew even closer in King's Landing, where they were sent to foster upon Aegon's request to meet his son. Five more children follow Daeron's birth. A boy whom they name Cregan born in 175 A.L., a girl born in 177 A.L. whom they name Velena, another boy born in 180 A.L. whom they name Theon, and then three moons before Willam rides for war against Raymun Redbeard, and the day that work on Moat Cailin is completed twin girls born in 184 A.L. whom are named Barbery and Bethany. All of their children have their mother's violet eyes and heart shaped face, Cregan and Velena have their father's brown hair alongside their brother Daeron, whilst Theon and the twins have their mother's silvery gold hair.

It is thoughts of his children that fill Willam Stark's head as he fights against the Wildings at Long Lake. It is these thoughts and thoughts of his wife, that keep him going through the rain and the sleet and the mud, and the horror of watching his men get cut down in front of him by the wildlings. It is these thoughts that drive him to keep raising Ice one stroke after the other to hack and cut and slash the wildlings that come his way to pieces, and allow him to keep the anger at bay, anger at the Night's Watch, anger that they did not keep the wildlings away like they were supposed to. Willam Stark dies with his wife's name on his lips, he dies with his sword in hand, but he dies not with a sword through his throat or chest, but with his head loped off.

Willam Stark dies, and it falls to his brother Artos to kill Raymun Redbeard and beat the wildlings.