Fire and Blood

Chapter 39: Third Betrayal

Red Keep ― Maegor's Holdfast...

Viserys spent his morning in his private chambers, contemplating. Reflecting on past events and toward the future. It has been more than a week since the royal party's return to King's Landing from Driftmark. Although successful in negotiating terms of marriage between Princess Rhaenyra and Ser Laenor Velaryon, the king's burdens only increased with an anonymous message entailing his daughter's further escapades. Viserys couldn't believe that was not just Daemon that Rhaenyra had a dalliance with, but with other men too. The message wouldn't say who, although the sigil on the bottom left corner of the page depicted an albino serpent.

"The vulture perched upon your throne gave you a partial truth, but there was more than what he led on. But what loyal servant deliberately spies on your own family and shames them under the guise of duty without reproach?"

« As your Hand, I must maintain trusted sources of information. »

Viserys shook his head when he re-read the message repeatedly. There was no way this message could implicate his Hand, Ser Otto, of wrongdoing. He asked Beatrice about it, but the queen denied it. He asked Aeonar, yet he was in the middle of an investigation of his own. Viserys knew well enough to know this signature did not belong to either of them, but the lingering memories of Rhaenyra's escapades were still fresh in his mind. Why the secrecy? Why tell him of the events that transpired between his brother and his daughter, and not tell him who told him this in the first place? The king tolerated the rivalry between Otto and Daemon for years, but to tell him about the incestuous affair and knowing that it was more than one person Rhaenyra was associated with? This was all too much. It went beyond a personal vendetta; all too self-serving. When he heard the doors open behind him, Viserys knew that it was Otto. He didn't even need to turn around to know it was him.

"Your Grace. You summoned me?" Otto asked.

"Five days," Viserys stated plainly.

"I'm sorry, Your Grace?"

"Though it was some time ago. The details... they fade in memory, some more than others. But I still remember it as clearly as if it happened yesterday. I remember. On the shores of Blackwater Bay, my father, Prince Baelon, died in front of all of us. My son... he was only six when he saw him die. He couldn't understand the concept of death; he was too young. Only a year after that... fateful tragedy did he now know that 'grandpa' was never coming back. I remembered him crying in his room for seven days and seven nights. He wouldn't eat. He couldn't sleep. Neither of us saw it coming."

Otto vaguely remembered his predecessor quite well. Prince Baelon Targaryen was smaller compared to his older brother, Prince Aemon, but louder, lustier, and bolder. Known as 'the Spring Prince' after the season of his birth, he eventually came to be remembered as 'Baelon the Brave' for hitting Balerion the Black Dread on the snout. He was a brave man, a good father, and an attentive grandfather to Aeonar and Rhaenyra, always taking them for a ride atop Vhagar. When Baelon was appointed Hand of the King to his father, King Jaehaerys arranged a celebratory hunt in the kingswood in his honor. Before that, he complained of a stitch in his side. On the fifth day, however, Baelon took Aeonar on one final trip flying through the skies with Vhagar before collapsing on the shores of Blackwater Bay clutching his side in agony. By the time help arrived, they were already too late. After the funeral, Jaehaerys named Otto as his son's successor. It was when he and his family met Viserys, Aemma, and their two children for the first time.

"My father was a strong, healthy warrior and dragonrider in his prime. The peak of his abilities," Viserys continued. "Grandfather named a great royal hunt to celebrate him being named the Hand of the King. Five days later my... my father lay dead. Tourneys last longer. Baelon the Brave, the Spring Prince, rider of Vhagar, heir to the Iron Throne... dead of a burst belly. Huh! The gods have a dark wit."