Halfhand's Legacy: A Dance of Dragons - A Self-Insert Tale

129 AC

"Does anyone have good news for me or is today just a bad news day?" I asked in quiet fury as the Small Council met. I expected Daemon to go the way of Aegon and Maegor as I did, not Rhaenyra. The Blacks now had Silverwing which once more tilted the odds in their favour. Daemon had just ended the Tully neutrality by forcing them into the Blacks after threatening to make Riverrun another ruin like the Eyrie. By the looks of it, Daemon is about to go full me on the Westerlands.

The rest of the council could see my anger about to explode. None wished to push the buttons until Larys slithered in and said, "Lord Rogar Bolton has risen in rebellion against House Stark in our name alongside Houses Karstark and Ryswell."

"Why the fuck would Karstark and Ryswell rise in rebellion against Stark with Bolton?" I asked as I was about to guzzle the wine in my cup before I felt nauseous, I had lost my appetite for wine. I threw the wine away before tossing the cup behind me. I noticed that many in the council were surprised by such an act. Perhaps I should move to beer.

Orwyle answered, "Cregan Stark's regent during his minority was his uncle Bennard Stark who was married to Margaret Karstark, ever since Cregan Stark overthrew his uncle and sent him and his sons to the Wall relations between Winterfell and Karhold have been tense. Lord Rogar was married to Lord Karstark's sister whilst his heir, Edric Bolton is married to Lord Ryswell's daughter. After the overthrow of Jeyne Arryn by Your Grace and the appointment of Lord Isembard as the Defender of the Vale, I believe that Lord Bolton is encouraged to think that something similar will happen in the North."

"So does the cunt expect me to fly and destroy Winterfell for him?" I asked as I sought a target to wring my hands around.

"Obviously," Aemond snorted, for a person who just lost his betrothed, he doesn't seem very concerned. "You went out of your way to destroy Rowan and Caswell and you did the same in the Vale so naturally he will expect you to attack Winterfell."

"People have to stop taking me for granted," I groused before saying, "Anything else before we fly off to Storm's End to clean up the shit that my half-sister has dropped on us."

"Yes, Your Grace, fifty ships of the Royal Fleet are now ready for battle, their crews have been trained and their test awaits," Tyland informed us, "Within the coming week, the construction for another fifty ships will commence as Your Grace has set the target of a hundred ships, now that the shipyards of Duskendale belong to the Crown."

Criston adds to it, "Now that Duskendale is part of the Royal fief, we have started recruiting from Duskendale as we have done with Rosby, Stokeworth, Hayford, and Tumbleton. We have raised around ten thousand men at this point."

"Good, very good, we will be attacking Dragonstone within a week," I announced abruptly which shocked the council.

"But, Your Grace, I thought that we were attacking Dragonstone alongside the Triarchy and they will arrive by the New Year," Tyland asks what the entire council wanted to ask. I cannot wait another fucking month for the Triarchy.

"Fuck, the Triarchy," Aemond replied for me, "We need to finish this war and quick."

"Once Aemond and I return from the Stormlands, I expect the fleet and the army to be ready for the attack," I said turning to Criston who nodded determinedly.

"It will be done, Your Grace," Criston said right away.

"Cousin Ormund has reached Tumbleton, he has come with some thirty thousand men from the Reach, they can join you," Alicent adds but that is too many men.

"We don't have that many ships, My Queen," Tyland points out, "We barely have enough to ferry six thousand men of the Royal Army."

I declared, "We don't need six thousand, four will suffice. The army from the Reach will be split in three. The first part will march across the Goldroad to Lannisport while the second part will march up the Kingsroad to capture the Riverlands and the third part will march down the Kingsroad to secure the Stormlands and defend against any possible Dornish incursion."

"That would be a wise idea, Your Grace," Jasper Wylde supported the plan. He lost a bunch of his sons to the Storm's End attack and he was the first in clamouring for securing the Stormlands politically and militarily.

Tyland worriedly replies, "Your Grace, Daemon is on the verge of attacking the Golden Tooth with the Ironborn likely to attack by the coast. If there is no dragon to protect the West, then my brother and his army will be destroyed."

"Yes, I am well aware of that which is why we need to end the war in the east right now." I began to grind my teeth in frustration. "We find ourselves fighting a two-front war and we do not have the dragons to fight both at the same time. We need to defeat Dragonstone now." Talk about a time crunch.

As everyone nods to the plan some with hesitation such as Orwyle and Alicent, "If that is all, then this meeting is over. Aemond, Daeron, and Criston stay, the rest of you can leave."

"By the time we are done dealing with the Stormlands and Dragonstone, Daemon will have attacked the Westerlands. Jason Lannister is fucked no matter what and whatever army that we send to aid them is good as dead." Aemond points out to me as I start wracking my brain for solutions.

I replied with frustration, "You think I don't know that, that is the entire point of Daemon's plan. Tyland is my Hand, naturally, I have to save West when he comes to fuck the Lannisters and I won't be coming alone, I will go with Daeron or with you which means that whore on Dragonstone can afford to attack King's Landing. He is trying to split us up."

"Even if you are here, Aemond, she can try that." I continued, "Meleys is one of the few dragons that can take on Vhagar and now with Silverwing and Syrax, you will be fucked no matter what happens. Even with Helaena, it is two against three provided you get to your dragons on time. The same goes for me and Daeron should we attack Daemon and Caraxes,"

"So the question that arises now is, who do we sacrifice?" Daeron grimly replied.

"Blood will flow and there is no question of that but we need to see to it that we don't sacrifice our allies like Rhaenyra," Criston advised.

"Unlike Rhaenyra who had the luxury of time to save Staunton but chose not to save, we do not have that," I pointed out glumly.

"Knowing Daemon, he will not stop at the Westerlands. He will continue his march down the Oceanroad to Highgarden before going to Oldtown. Daemon will not stop until he has destroyed Oldtown, the loss of his daughter has pushed him to this point and he will stop at nothing to kill you, Your Grace," Criston says to me. Daemon's plan is obvious to anyone who knows Daemon. Killing Baela may have unleashed the beast so to speak, the dragon who was willing to bide his time for a kill is now searching and baiting me, he will soon take the West and if I am late to counter him, Oldtown.

"Daemon is after me and he will not stop, I cannot do anything about that but the three of us need to attack him at once, it cannot be done piecemeal," I said rubbing my eyes.

"It has to be the three of us, against Rhaenyra or Daemon, it has to be the three of us, we cannot afford to split up," Daeron points out.

"Aye, we cannot split up. It is the three of us alright and just us. Nobody else," Aemond remarked determinedly.

"So we give up the West to Daemon's depredations," Criston asks and I nod.

I said to Criston, "We have no choice, send a raven to Lady Johanna if Daemon comes knocking on the door of Casterly Rock after burning Jason Lannister and the Lannister army, she can surrender to Daemon to save the lives of her subjects. We will not hold it against her."

"Provided he accepts it," Aemond pointed out. "There is a good chance that this will end up like how you told Jeyne Arryn to fuck herself when she tried to surrender." I knew that was going to bite me in the ass.

"Yes but Casterly Rock can withstand dragonfire, it is known," Daeron replied.

I nodded as I said, "Casterly Rock, yes but not Lannisport which will be sacked and burned. Besides as far as the Rock is concerned, Caraxes may not be able to destroy it like how other castles are destroyed but Caraxes can melt and burn the Lion's Mouth while the Ironborn attack the sea gates. An attack from both sides against a castle that is severely understrength and a garrison that is demoralized might tip the balance." And for the first time, the Rock may fall.

Aemond gets up, "I never really liked Jason Lannister, he was a pretentious ponce who thought that he was the same as us."

"No disagreements there," I dryly remarked before I turned to Criston, "You may leave and should the Hightowers reach the city when I am not there, you have to receive them in my name. Aemond and I will be leaving for the Stormlands tomorrow morning, be sure to make the arrangements."

Criston nods and leaves. Once the doors close, I get up and walk over to the burning brazier that has my Valyrian steel dagger. I placed it at the start of the meeting and the message was visible. I motion my brothers to come over, "Look at this. I found out that there was a hidden message in the dagger back in the Vale."

I pick up the dagger and give it to Aemond who along with Daeron reads it, "From my blood will come the Prince who was Promised and his will be the Song of Ice and Fire."

Aemond thoughtfully replied, "I have read about this Prince who was Promised. He is the last hero or something from the tales of old. Why the fuck is it inscribed in a Valyrian Steel dagger?"

"There must be some reason or the other, I had no idea that there were words inscribed in Valyrian steel," Daeron curiously remarks.

"I tried searching for words in Blackfyre but there aren't any," I said to them, "It makes me believe that this is something specifically made for this dagger."

"A Valyrian pyromancer is needed for inscribing anything in Valyrian steel. The last of the Valyrian Pyromancers died during the same year as Aegon the Conqueror." Aemond informed. I did not know about that.

"I believe that Aegon the Conqueror had this inscribed in his dagger. It is a prophecy of sorts, probably similar to the one that Daenys the Dreamer had about the Doom of Old Valyria. The inscription of the Prince who was Promised leads me to believe that something like the Long Night is coming."

"The Long Night," Aemond laughs, "That was all we needed, we are fighting amongst ourselves and we have apocalypse waiting for us." He has a point there.

"Most of the Maesters would scoff at what you say, they believe that Aenar Targaryen was driven from Valyria due to political intrigue while the Long Night is nothing more than a tall tale," Daeron answered.

"Those same Maester will piss their breaches the second I bring them in front of Sunfyre," I growled. "Besides how else would you explain why Silverwing refused to fly beyond the Wall despite the Good Queen urging her? We know that birds fly over the wall so it cannot be that there is a physical barrier but there might be a magical barrier or at the very least Silverwing can sense the evil beyond the wall and she fears it."

"It is possible and let's say that this Long Night is coming," Aemond then said, "What the fuck are we to do about it? We have a seven-hundred-foot wall made of ice and possibly magic between us. I have always doubted that the First Men built such a massive wall to keep away a bunch of wildlings."

"If we are lucky it will not happen in our lifetime but at the same time we need to ensure that the dragons survive this war. They are the best defence against any enemy, magical or not, our House depends on it which leads me to our next problem, the conspiracies against dragons."

"Conspiracy?" Daeron asked puzzled.

I revealed, "After everything that has happened with myself and Rhaenyra going about destroying castles and bloodlines, I will not be surprised if there are some influential people who have concluded that dragons are harmful to their interests in Westeros and it would be best to end the dragons for good. It can be Lords, Maesters, Septons, and everyone else in between."

"How exactly will these influential people seek to end the dragons?" Aemond asked with a noticeable growl.

I replied, "Poison or something, the people of Lys and Tyrosh managed to kill the dragonlords and their dragons. It won't be as noticeable and sudden as that but rather slow and quiet. A generational project. The dragon eggs stop hatching for some reason, the dragons start ageing faster but do not grow as much, things like that."

Daeron asked me, "How do we deal with this possible conspiracy? We can't go around killing any noble, Maester, Septon that we think might be against dragons I bet that most of them will outwardly portray to be our greatest supporters."

I nodded, "True, which is why we have to deal with this piecemeal. First, we need to dislodge the High Septon and the Most Devout from the Starry Sept to the Grand Sept here in King's Landing. Then we take care of the Maesters, we need to establish a new centre of learning in Westeros so that the Maesters do not have a monopoly on all intellectual matters."

"How will you go about establishing another Citadel? It is a work of centuries," Daeron asked even more bemused than ever.

I respond with what I think is a classic, "We start the same way as the Citadel once did. We must establish a massive public library here in King's Landing where all thinkers, scholars, the brightest minds, talented men and women, specialists in all fields, and other intellectuals come to discuss topics and expand upon them. We will be the beneficiaries of any new advancements for all experiments will be patronized by the Crown. The scholars will be provided with luxurious accommodations provided by the Crown making them loyal to us. We can call it the House of Wisdom or the Grand Library of King's Landing or maybe both, one can be a part of the other."

I finished, "And finally to increase our political power, as you both already know, I will be incorporating the Stormlands into the Crownlands and maybe the same can be done with the Riverlands, we dislodge the disloyal Blacks and place new nobles who will be loyal to us. Not those 'we are of ancient lineage fuckers,' it can be minor nobles or commoners who have been ennobled for their tried and tested loyalty to us."

Aemond wisely pointed out the problem, "That is all well and good but two out of those three things happen to be in Oldtown and I doubt our Hightower cousins have any intention of willingly parting with their influence even for us. As far as they are concerned we are just an extension of them."

"That is true," I nodded, "Which is why we need to allow Daemon to burn Oldtown to the ground. That will clear up all our problems."

They did not see that coming.