❛❛some say that the world will end in ice,
─ and others say that it will end in fire and blood.❜❜
─ I do not own Fire and Blood, I only own my characters and their plot.
❛BOOK III❜ OF THE B...
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CHAPTER EIGHT.
・・・・・・・・・・・・・・
( THE ACCURSED YEAR, they had come to call it. Soon enough, the Year of the Red Spring claimed another soul. Breakbones was banished by Viserys I after a bloody altercation with the Queen's own sworn shield, Ser Criston Cole. Ser Harwin Strong was to return to Harrenhal to rule as it's lord in his father's stead. Lyonel Strong, Lord of Harrenhal and Hand of the King, accompanied his son and heir on his return to the great, half-ruined castle on the lakeshore. Shortly after their arrival, a fire broke out in the tower where they were sleeping, and both father and son burned to their end.
The cause of the fire was never determined. Some put it down to simple mischance, whilst others muttered that Black Harren's seat was cursed and brought only doom to any man who held it. Many suspect the blaze was set intentionally.
Mushroom suggests that the Sea Snake was behind it, as an act of vengeance against the man who cuckolded his son. Larys Clubfoot was put forth in the notion that he might have been responsible; with his father and elder brother dead, the man himself became the Lord of Harrenhal.
The most disturbing possibility was advanced by none other than Grand Maester Mellos, who muses that the king himself might have given the command. If Viserys had come to accept that the rumors about the parentage of Rhaenyra's children were true, he might well have wished to remove the man who had dishonored his daughter, lest he somehow reveal the bastardy of her sons.
Were that so, Lyonel Strong's death was an unfortunate accident, he had been the King's Hand, and Viserys had come to rely upon his strength, even so after his good-father's death, Lord Rodrik Arryn.
The king needed a strong, capable Hand to shoulder some of his burdens, and while he briefly considered sending for Princess Rhaenyra, his Grace chose familiarity.
Ser Otto Hightower, the queen's father, was called to court. )
・VISERYS・
VISERYS SAT IN HIS STUDY, his hands holding tightly to the edges of the table. The air was heavy with the scent of parchment and the flickering candlelight danced upon the walls, casting eerie shadows. At the center of the room stood a meticulously crafted Valyrian model, a magnificent display of Valyria. The model shimmered with an ethereal sheen, each stone and tower meticulously carved, capturing the grandeur of their Valyrian heritage. Each minuscule structure and swirling spire was exquisitely sculpted, invoking the grandeur and opulence that once defined the ancient city.
