Hotd - Blog Posts

house of the dragon x the unequal marriage (vasili pukirev)

internal changes

summary: your long time betrothed jacaerys heads to winterfell to make good relations with the north, your relationship has always been one of love and happiness until you show up a month into his trip to winterfell where everything seems to have changed between the two of you. your relationship may never be the same and it has everything to do with a particular stark.

jacaerys velaryon x cregan stark x fem!non targ!reader

cw: infidelity, internalized homophobia, queer cregan and jace, threesome, poly relationship, hand job, oral (f), prob ooc for everyone man, p in v, anal, top!cregan, sub!jace, dom!reader, like one smack to the face, ‘sara snow’ mention? (its just cregan), not proofread

an: havent written in a hot minute im rlly rusty but ive gotten asked to write this for forever so here you go 😁

perm jace taglist ! (open) @cruelworldlana @smurfelle @ireneispunk @hxtd @venmondiese @urmomsgirlfriend1 @jacesvelaryons @earth4angels @itsemohours @valdezthg

perm cregan taglist ! (open) @ireneispunk

He had been acting weird since you arrived. avoiding you at every turn, barely speaking to you and it bothered you to no end. His letters to you had been nothing but positive, speaking highly of winterfell and the lord stark who jacaerys also seemed to be avoiding as well.

he spoke about how much he missed you, how much he longed to see you but now that you were actually here he seemed to want nothing to do with you. a month ago you were the love of his life, he was obsessed with you, and now he would not even do so much as look your way.

then you heard the rumor for the first time. It seemed everyone had been trying to hide it from you but you heard it one night. the maids had been talking around the corner. Sara snow. The lord rumored bastard sister. With pretty long dark hair just like her brother. They had been sleeping together for basically his whole time there you presumed, you had even heard they got fucking married in front of the weirwood trees before you showed up.

You were sick. so sick about everything so sick of the thoughts you were having and you grew angry, furious but you managed to stay rational, calm, for now.

“are you happy?” he looked up at you started, you had barged into his room and locked the door quickly behind you. “y/n-“ “i am not angry, i was angry, but this is a very typical thing in marriages here i just wish you had informed me,” He stands up from his desk. readjusting the buttons on his white tunic to cover himself up further as he looked at you alarmed. He looked beautiful and you hate that. His hair wet and face flushed as he tries to find his words.

“i dont know what,” “ive heard the rumors. everyone talks about it, everyone looks at me with pity in their eyes. whether its this sara snow or some other lady i dont care because i believe it.”

He freezes. He looks down at his hands which shake, you wait for him to say something. Anything. a part of you hopes he denies it, even if it would be a lie you pray he can give you some false sense of hope but he doesn’t. merely standing quietly in shame while you let out a soft laugh devoid of anything. “if you wish for our marriage to be one of agreement then so be it. but do not try to trick me into believing itll be anything more than that any longer i refuse it.”

You turn to walk out of the room, no longer being able to stand in his presence but as you go to open the door his voice calls out to you. “there is no other lady.”

You scoff and turn back to him, his eyes are glazed over with tears as his chest rises with heavy breaths. A part of you wants to walk over to him and wipe his tears off his face but you remain firm as you scoff. “do not take me for a fool-“ “i mean it. there is no lady.” he puts an emphasis on the word that has you tilting your head. you open your mouth to question him until the pure desperate look on his face causes it to click. there is no lady. but there is someone.

“im sorry.” he flats and looks as though he did not expect you to say that. “for what? you have nothing to be sorry for it is i who should be-“ “i cannot be mad at you for who you are it is not your fault.” He walks over to you as you close the door, grabbing your hands as he shakes his head. “you miss understand me i like you i love you like i man loves a women but he,” he lets out a frustrated sigh but you can tell its not directed at you, “i love him as i love you.”

When there is a silence in the air for far longer than he likes he squeezes you hard tight as he looks at your blank face. “please say something my love.” “who is it?” he looks down once more as you remain firmly staring at him. “y/n..” “who?” “cregan.” He says his name likes its forbidden, the word travels in the air like a brush of wind but you still hear it all the same.

he doesn’t dare look up at you again as another wave of silences washes over you two. His heart is aching so badly he wants to clutch his chest and fall to the ground. He does not want to be like this, one of those men. He holds himself in higher regard, but he cant help how he feels about the winter wolf who smiles at him so kindly. He thought it could be one and done, manage to shake this illness from his skin and be done with it but it has only gotten worse.

it is wrong. he should not want to love cregan as he loves you. you are his light his world but why does he think of cregan as he thinks of you. Its wrong, immoral. He should be punished, he wishes for you to yell, to scream at him, hit him but you don’t. you merely pull away from him and walk out the room without another word. He drops to his knees when as you shut the door and he clutches his chest as he begin to sob, he is a monster and this fate is a cruel but just punishment in his eyes.

Cregan wake up that morning prepared to walk the same routine he always does. The images of the dark haired prince that flash in his mind go ignored another day as they have been ever since the princess arrived. he did not hate you, no he actually rather liked you a lot but he did miss getting to spend time with jacaerys who clung to his side before you had shown up and now had not even spoken a word to him.

He walks into the hall and pauses. There you sit, arms crossed and two plates of hot foot in front of you. it clicks. he looks around at all the guards and maids in the room, “everyone out.” the room quickly scatters, “and make sure nobody enters.” the doors as shut with a hard slam as he stalks towards you, eyeing you down with a gleam of mischief in his pupils. “its a shock to see you here princess.” “i am not a princess.” he hums as he takes a seat and begins to pick at his food while you merely stare at him. “something the matter?” “how long?”

he raises his brow as he dunks his bread in the soup before shoving it in his mouth, “how long what?” “dont play dumb with me lord stark.” He chuckles leaning back in his chair and you find yourself readjusting in your seat. He watched you with a pleased look as he licks on of his fingers. “not long enough that your pretty little head should be worried about it princess.” “he said he loves you.”

cregans face falls and his face turns serious as he looks at you. He can see the questioning in your eyes and lets out a sigh. “two weeks. but we’ve been friends this whole time. i never meant for it to go further i swear on my sons life. stepping in between the bonds of a betrothal is not my way.”

You hate that you find yourself believing him. you itch at your skin to the point it becomes red. “do you like him?” cregan scratched at his jaw as he moves his food around on his plate. “i do. very much. i apologize.” he watched as you take a deep breath as you stare at your plate, “i will not peruse it, you are his betrothed and it would be inappropriate and wrong of me. i will leave him alone, i will never even glance at him i have disrespected your honor and dignity enough.”

he stared at you waiting for a response, he watches as you bring the bowl of soup to your lips snd take a long sip before placing it back down and wiping the excess from your lips. “would you accept his mother terms here and now so we could leave by the afternoon if i asked?” “yes of course anything you want.”

he expects you to ask him to do it but you merely bring your chalice to your lips as a sinister grin finds its way to your face. “do you find me pretty lord stark?” his brows raise in question but he coughs into his fist, “um, yes i do princess.” he watches as you lean over the table and grin at him sweetly. “just how pretty lord stark?” he almost asks you whats wrong before he feels your foot drag up his leg slowly letting out a shaky breath before a groan as your food digs into his bulge. shakily and breathlessly staring as you as you press your boot covered leg harder against him leaving him gripping the table. “i have an idea im sure you will be pleased with.”

jacaerys is on the edge of cracking. he had not seen you all day. he had gone to your room to ask you to have breakfast with him but he was informed you were not there. he had gone looking for you, searching every corner for you and he found nothing. nobody would even tell him where you were but they all had an odd look in their eyes when they said that to him.

He does end up seeing you, finally with cregan stark on your arm and he feels his heart plummet. “good day jacaerys.” his mouth opens and closes like a fish as he stares at the two of you. “good,,, day,,,?” he watches the look the two of you share as he feels his heart stop, “cregan’s been showing me around a bit would you like to join us?”

He feels like this is a trick. The two of you look far too happy, he gulps and fiddled around a bit before giving you a weak nod. he ends up trailing behind the two of you as the two of you talk about winterfell. you ask cregan about the history of certain things and he eagerly answers your questions. jace is just waiting for the fire to lit, for the two or you to turn on him and begin to berate him.

His mind wanders as he imagines the two of you punishing him the way he deserves, cregan holding him down while you tease his cock, refusing to give him what he truly wanted. He lets out a light whimper as his thoughts continue to run wild and his eyes widen as he coughs into his fist trying to play it off as nothing. He lets out a sigh of relief as the two of you say nothing but he misses the look the two of you share.

You all arrive at a large study, “this was my fathers before he passed.” “do you not use it?” cregan shakes his head, a more somber look on his face. “i should, i will, one day, for now his legacy shall be preserved here.” you hum and nod your head in understanding. you take off your cloak as cregan also begins to strip himself of his outerwear. jacaerys stares at the two of you confused, you walk over to him and begin to untie his cloak from around his neck. “you should make yourself comfortable jace.” “what is happening my love?” he asks you in a hushed voice but you dont answer him, a small smile creeps its way onto your face and he grows worried.

he allows you to strip him down to his undertunic, making no move to fight you his eyes drift behind you to cregan who has made himself really comfortable his undershirt untucked and being held open but just one button, cregan raises his brow at jace as he catches his eyes, taking a long drink from his bottle.

you grab his face and jacaerys blushes, “what are you looking at?” cregan stalks his way over and stands behind jacaerys his hands wrapping around his waist as jacaerys feels his breath caught in his throat as cregan presses his head into his neck.

“you’re such a greedy boy, wanting two people at once huh?” he whines. cregan begins to suck at the skin on his neck. he’s confused. he has no clue whats going on. “what’s happening?” he curses as your hands dip into his pants and harshly grab at his cock, “me and your secret lover have come to an agreement isn’t that right?” cregan lifts his head and hums. He watches in amazement as the two of you share a small kiss and he throbs at the sight of the two people he cares for most being intimate.

“hmm thats right princess.” jacaerys struggles to think as you tug on his throbbing cock, rubbing your thumb around his tip as cregan goes back to sucking on his neck. “since you’re so greedy, you can have us both arent we so kind?” jacaerys moans in delight at this turn of events and buckles his hips into your hand. your face sours and you lightly smack him across the face, “and not a single thank you? you’re disgusting.” jacaerys whines and shakes his head vigorously. “im sorry im sorry thank you thank you i love you.”

He feels cregan chuckle into his neck, his hands pull away the buttons on jacaerys tunic not caring about the now ruining garment as cregan caresses his skin. jacaerys continues to greedily rut his hips into your hands feeling himself closer and closer to his release. He suddenly feels cregan press into his back and he lets out a shudder as cregan begins to grind his hips against jacaerys, his tunic having long been disregarded and their bare skin presses against each other.

Your hands are suddenly pulled off him and cregan also takes a big step away from him and jacaerys whimpers at the loss of contact and the way his cock throbs as his orgasm dies down. “dont think im going to let you get away with this that easily.” your lips are suddenly presses against his and a fury and he eagerly tried to match you. “fucking another man behind my back so cruel.” he whimpers as it feels like a dagger begins to dig into his chest, “im sorry im sorry.” he slurs against your lips messily as you begin to pull him back as you sit on the bed, staring up at him. “prove it.”

He drops down to his knees like he was born to, quickly throwing himself under your skirt and get a taste of you like hes been craving for weeks now. your hand grips the back of his head while he begins to lick at you through your underwear and you look at cregan who takes another chug from his bottle before placing it down and walking back over to the two of you. jacaerys pushes aside your underwear and moans into you as he gets a taste of you. you gasp and look down at jacaerys skirt over head as your free hand grips at the sheets below you. “fuck jace.”

as his lips wrap around your pearl he gasps into you as he feels a body press against him and hands wrap around his cock. “dont think im not gonna join in.” jacaerys heart pounds as he continues to messily eat at you while cregan rubs his hands all over his cock, coating his fingers in his precum before sliding him inside of jace. his back arches and the vibration of his moan has you throwing your head back while cregan works open his hole as hes done plenty of times now.

the pit continues to build in your stomach and you lock eyes with cregan who grins at you and you wipe some sweat off your face, “dont you look pretty?” “shut the fuck up cregan.” the man laughs as he continues to work his fingers inside of jace, “you look so pretty when you’re about to cum doesn’t see jace?” the man though he cant see you now knows the expression on your jace far too well and nods eagerly against you. once you do release jace eagerly licks up every drop before you rip his head away and cregan pulls his fingers out. jacaerys still without any sort of release grows desperate as tears stream down his face.

“im sorry im sorry ill be good i swear please just let me cum please please.” you lean back into the bed and stare at cregan with a mock pondering look, “hmm what do you think my lord you think hes been good enough?” cregan smirks while jacaerys looks up at him with a pleading look, “oh how can you deny this face? look at him.” cregan cups his face in his hands and brushes some of his tears away. you look at jacaerys fucked out face and pretend to ponder for a few more moments while jacaerys squirms in cregans arms before grinning. “fine, come on my love.”

jacaerys heart beams at your words finally calling him by the affectionate name you had given him and he rushes towards you, “undress us.” his hands greedily tug off your clothes stripping you both bare and you grab his face and kiss him lightly. “you know ill always accept you jace, no matter what.” the layered meaning of your words hits him like a truck and the tears continue to well in his eyes, “i do not deserve you.” you shake your head as you affectionately run your fingers through his hair, “if this is who you are i do not mind it. i am serious, the three of us can be together if you so wish. cregan will grow on me im sure.” “im still here you know.”

you lightly chuckle as jacaerys beams at you, “you are the most amazing person i have ever met.” cregan now as bare as the both of you walks towards you two and raises a brow, “am i atleast second place?” jacaerys turns his head towards him, “of course you are.” cregan softly smiles and leans to press a gentle kiss against his lips.

When the two of them pull away the lust returns and you greedily turn jacaerys towards you and pull him into a deep kiss, falling back with him on top of you, “fuck me jace.” he moans as he eagerly lines himself up and pushes into you, shoving his head into the side of your neck as he bottoms out. he begins to work himself into a gentle rhythm before he feel cregans cock press against his hole and he freezes as cregan works his way inside of jacaerys.

jacaerys has never felt so full. so content. with the two people he loves the most bringing him to the heights of pleasure. he hopes his days are like this for the rest of his life, with the two of you by his side. that night after you had left the study and made a mess around cregans room as well he listens to the two of you bicker in bed about the mess youve made in his father study and how his legacy has been tarnished, “is it not strange he has a bed in his study?” “my father spent most of his time in his study, how do you think i was made?” “yuck do not say those things.” “oh you were certainly not complaining as i was eating-“ “oh dont bring up old news stark.” that night jacaerys falls asleep with a big smile on his face your voices lulling him to sleep.

RAHHHHH TULLY MEN

Listen we can see where Robb gets some his swagger

alicent shedding the green as she steps into the lake, alicent's arms mimicking the movement of the bird's wings, alicent washing off the weight of religion and removing the chains of duty. alicent free at last.

rhaenyra picking up those chains and wrapping herself in the weight of religion, rhaenyra believing herself the messiah who has come to save them all. rhaenyra'a god complex snapping into place as she finally finds herself with the advantage in this war.

alicent liberated. rhaenyra indoctrinated.

parallel lines forever unable to meet.

The challengers x hotd agenda continues

Alicent and Aegon ii

i actually do think larys and aegon could match each other's freak. its kinda like those lifetime movies about a mean fratty jock getting into an accident and being nursed back to health by a nice christian girl he falls in love with but if the nice christian girl was jafar from disney's aladdin

This just in

IMAGINE ending a love affair with Addam of Hull:

Strong-Targaryen!Reader x Addam of Hull

MDNI

CW: Angst, power imbalance, s-xually suggestive themes, bastard drama, star-crossed lovers.

Addam of Hull had never felt so seen. Not until the day you put your eyes to him. Even Seasmoke hadn’t made him stand as still as your smile had.

An instant draw. Something instant. Powerful.

The mutual passion of two bastards in a place so hallowed as Dragonstone. Almost embarrassing in its predictability.

Your lips trailing his jaw, his palms flat on your back. Laces undone and clothing pooling around your ankles. All is right in the hour of the wolf. All is quiet, all is right. Addam can pretend he is just a man and you are just a woman. Two lovers tangled in a bed too large to sleep alone in.

That was how it started. And for many nights after, it was how it stayed. Alas, night always turned to dawn.

Addam could still feel your fingernails pressing into his back. A sting that made the pleasure of your night together all the more intoxicating.

But as he broke fast, all he felt was guilt.

Your mother had let him sleep where only Princes had laid, gave him a place at her table. He knew that this was wrong of him. It was easier for him to remember this in the daylight, when he awoke alone in a bed of silk and the smell of you still lingering around him. Addam would wash his face and stare into his reflection in the mirror thinking: ‘No good can come of this.’

And then night would fall, your shy knocking would sound behind his door and he would let you in. The taste of your kiss and the song of your pleasure would erase all his worries. The cycle continuing on and on… until this night.

You came to him dressed in a robe of blue velvet and nothing else. Love made you bold. Addam could not stop your lips from touching his own. Not because you threw yourself at him, but because of his own selfishness. ‘One last kiss,’ he swore. And then one turned into three, then the tie of your robe came loose. Control found him just before he cupped your bare breasts.

“We cannot carry on like this,” he says as he breaks the kiss “It’s wrong.”

Undeterred, your arms slip over his broad shoulders and you try to pull him closer, “Addam, you say this nearly every night.” His hands feel warm, almost hot, against your hips as he keeps you from pushing yourself flush against him.

Normally, he would laugh and lift you from your feet like a groom to his bride. Not tonight. His expression was tight, jaw tense. Your cheeky grin fell, “Addam?”

Addam closes his eyes as your hand cups his cheek. If he were a stronger man, he could push you away. Perhaps say something cruel to break your heart and end this affair. Addam damns himself as he leans into your touch, “I know I do. What I say is true no matter how many times we ignore it.”

“What we do is only wrong if anyone besides you or I know of it. And nobody has to know,” you coax. Something about his tone, his words, it bothers you. It’s like he’s lecturing you on morality. You get enough of that from your mother.

He finally works up the nerve to take his hands off of you, stepping back from your partially nude form. Addam focuses hard on your face, “You deserve better than to be my secret.”

“I am the one who decides what I deserve, Addam,” you scoff. Your confidence was your most attractive trait in his opinion. He had to remind himself what he was meant to do.

“And what if I don’t want to be a secret either? I’ve lived all my life that way,” he challenged with a tense jaw. “What’s the point in living out another lie? To live in shame, again?”

You step closer, your hands take his. Bastards like him… and like you, all that you are is someone’s secret passions made flesh. “You are not alone in those feelings, Addam. We’ve spoken on this. I don’t want us to be lovers in the shadows for all time. I want you. I... We both—“

“—We are not the same and you know that,” he forces his hands to break your hold on him.

You close your robe tight and reply, “If you want this to end, I will honor that. But not if you are doing this just to protect me. Or the fucking throne. It has to be what you want. We started this as two people. We should end it the same way.”

This was his chance. He could be a better man and set you free. Free to marry a good Lord of a good House. Addam may have a dragon and place at the Queen’s table, but he knew he could never have you. Not like he wanted to. Addam crosses his arms over his chest and says, “You lived all your life as a Princess, the Iron Throne will be yours one day. There is no room for me beside you on the throne, nor in your bed. I will happily bend my knee to you but that is all we can afford.”

Your nostrils flare and you glare into his face, “You’re still just protecting me.”

“I want you to go back to your rooms, and when day breaks, we forget each other’s touch. I want this to end,” he hates the way his voice sounds in his ears. Like Lord Corlys, barking orders as his ship leaves the docks. Prideful, cold.

The anger in your eyes is still burning hot, even as your expression cools. “So it shall be. Goodnight, Addam of Hull.”

You tighten the sash of your robe and leave him to sleep in a bed too big and a room too empty.

“Goodnight, Princess.”

— BEDROOM HYMNS

PAIRING — Ser Gwayne Hightower x fem!Reader // Queen Alicent Hightower x fem!Reader

SUMMARY — Your sister-in-law wishes for you to become one of her ladies-in-waiting but you become so much more. Things complicate when your husband comes to visit.

AUTHOR’S NOTE — The title is from Florence + The Machine song. Alicent is a lesbian in this fic but she's also very conflicted about it. Reader is 100% bisexual. I wanted to write this fic for some time now because I have a crush on Alicent ever since Season One so yeah... Here we go... 😩😈

WARNINGS — cheating, homosexuality seen as something *wrong* (by Alicent), mentions of sexual activities (no actual smut – tiiiiny bit in the beginning)

WORD COUNT — 6,240

ENGLISH IS MY SECOND LANGUAGE.

BEDROOM HYMNS

You moved away from between her trembling legs after a cry of pleasure muffled by her own hand that she had covered her mouth with. Alicent’s juices were dripping down your chin when you smirked at her and looked up to meet her big brown eyes. Those soft big brown eyes that you adored more than anything. You had always adored them. So full of sadness and softness and you had never wanted anything but to make her feel better.

“Have I pleased you?” You asked while peppering her soft inner thighs with your kisses although you knew the answer already. Her husband had no idea how to please her.

The Queen only nodded and looked away. Poor Alicent – she always felt bad and guilty after the peak had already been reached. The sudden realisation of her sin was soul-crushing but the tension and desire had been too great to ignore them. She deserved the relief and you did not see anything bad about it.

“How many times do we have to do this?” You sighed and lied next to her in her bed. Your fingertips caressed her sides and your lips attached themselves to the crook of her neck, smelling all the scented oils in her hair. She was The Queen of the Realm and she was pampered like no other Lady. “There is no shame in this.”

“There is a sin,” Alicent turned her head around to finally meet your gaze. She raised her hand to nervously play with the seven-pointed star pendant on her sweaty chest.

“Why?” You bit on your lip and caressed her auburn locks out of her face.

“It is betrayal,” she frowned as if she was getting frustrated with your lack of understanding.

“It would have been if you lied with a man,” you explained and kissed her cheek before laying on your back and staring at the ceiling.

“I should find your vague idea of morality perplexing,” Alicent pointed out and you couldn’t help but chuckle at her confession.

“But you do not and thank Gods for that,” you rolled your eyes with a smirk.

A silence occurred as Alicent kept playing nervously with the pendant between her fingers and you were staring at the ceiling and counting all the cracks.

“What kind of husband is my brother?” She asked suddenly and you turned your head around to look at her again.

“A good one,” you admitted, feeling nearly guilty for that because you knew why she was asking – her husband was not good. Not to her and not to her children.

“Why are you doing this then?” Alicent asked.

It was obvious why her brother was on her mind now. He would arrive at King's Landing any day now. You couldn’t wait to see Gwayne again after a few months of being apart and you only wished he had taken your son with him but he could not. Robyn was the eldest son and he was supposed to stay in Oldtown. He had just become a squire and leaving his knight for a few long weeks would not be advised, therefore you had to go on missing your boy. Day after day as if he was a burning hole in your chest. Mothers would always miss their sons, you assumed.

“To kill the time,” you shrugged your arms, not wanting to reveal how much Alicent meant to you and for how long. “And to help you. You are my friend and I love you,” you confessed.

Alicent always loved Princess Rhaenyra more. Your father was a Master of Coin in King Viserys’ Small Council and you were growing up together – three girls running around happily. Or rather – two girls following the Princess like two overjoyed puppies. Rhaenyra was the centre of everything for you and not only because she was the Princess but also because she meant everything to Alicent. No matter how much effort you were putting into making Alicent like you more, you were destined to fail for she always was choosing Rhaenyra over you.

It made you grow bitter towards The Princess but never towards Alicent. You were blaming yourself – you had to become more and try harder perhaps and maybe then you’d earn more than just leftover crumbs of her love and friendship.

You couldn’t understand your feelings back then – why was the attraction so strong, what was making you feel so attached to the young Hightower Lady. You were the same age and yet everything she said was like a command to you. Wherever she went, you followed. Even when you felt like a burden because she so clearly would rather be left alone with Rhaenyra. But Rhaenyra never minded your presence because to her you were only a pawn on the board, an ornament, an addition of no importance. So, you often witnessed the two girls laughing together, whispering, exchanging small gestures of affection. You were only watching. Observing as your heart ached.

During The Heir's Tournament you met Ser Gwayne Hightower, Alicent’s older brother. He was young then, eager to show off his abilities and make his family proud. Perhaps he did not have his sister’s big brown eyes but he had the auburn hair you loved so much about her and he had her softness about him. You were enamoured with him in no time and when he approached the royal box to greet his sister – he caught your eye and you caught his and for that moment when your eyes met, you felt butterflies all over your body.

Ser Gwayne Hightower received your favour on that day and the sparkles of joy in your eyes while you were throwing the wreath at him were very obvious to your father and to his as well. You could not know that then but they exchanged meaningful looks for a short moment.

Even though Gwayne lost the duel with Prince Daemon Targaryen, he did not lose your affection. In fact, witnessing him nearly winning and losing only because Prince Daemon chose to play dirty – it only solidified your feelings. Ser Gwayne was a righteous man, a chivalrous knight and a brave one, too. It took lots of courage to face Prince Daemon Targaryen himself.

Gwayne was carried away with his face covered in blood and dirt while his mind was filled with thoughts of you – of losing your favour and your interest. However, you hurried to his side right after the tournament ended to make sure he was fine. And at the sight of you – he truly was fine again.

You were only ten and five but you knew already that Ser Gwayne was the only man you could see yourself being married off to. Thankfully, your father saw that, too. Two years later you were sent to Oldtown and for the whole time in between you were exchanging letters. When Alicent was married off to King Viserys shortly after his wife’s death, you still felt bitter but not as much as you could because you mostly felt excited about your own upcoming wedding.

However, the sadness and anxiety on Alicent’s face on her wedding day were a sight you would never forget.

Years and years of the happy marriage had passed and you were still in touch with your sister-in-law because of the letters you were exchanging and her son that you and Gwayne were raising in Oldtown – Prince Daeron Targaryen. But other than that, you had your own life now to live, your own duties, your own offspring and Alicent was simply not occupying your mind as much as in your adolescent years. 

You were aware of King Viserys’ health getting worse and worse as Alicent was ruling the Kingdom in his name. The burden of responsibility was heavy and her marriage was getting more and more difficult. You couldn’t say the same of your own union – you loved Gwayne and he loved you. Just like every married couple you had your misunderstandings and disagreements but you were grateful for him every day of your life and you knew well that he felt the same towards you.

It was after breakfast on one of those days that seemed to be pretty typical in the morning and then they turned out to be life-changing for a person. Without a warning and without an ominous feeling deep in one’s gut, they just happened and changed lives.

A letter came to you from Queen Alicent and you expected nothing of great importance in it so you put it below the pile of letters you had to respond to this morning. You sat by your desk and dipped the feather in the black ink as you started to perform one of your duties as Lady Hightower, helping your husband to run Oldtown in his father’s name.

Letter after letter, until finally you were left with the last one. You opened it with a small yawn, which turned into a frown after reading Alicent’s plea and request.

“What is it?” Gwayne entered your chambers this very moment but his smile dropped at the sight of your face.

You folded the letter suddenly as if it was a secret or something dirty but it only increased your husband’s curiosity as he approached the table and raised an eyebrow at you.

“What is it?” He repeated the question and you pinched the bridge of your nose, trying to find the right words.

“It is from your sister,” you replied and looked up to meet his confused gaze. He knew about your friendship and for you to react this way at one of Alicent’s letters was simply unusual.

“Is he dead?” Was all Gwayne asked.

“No, Gods, no,” you shook your head and took a deep breath in. “Not yet,” you added.

“What is it then?” Gwayne lifted your chin up gently to make sure your eyes would still be on his. You swallowed a lump in your throat and finally decided to tell him what his sister had requested.

“Queen Alicent wishes for me to become one of her ladies-in-waiting,” you revealed and Gwayne’s confusion only grew. “She feels lonely in King’s Landing, she needs a friend by her side. Somebody she can trust.”

“It is out of the question,” Gwayne took the folded paper from your hands and read the letter himself, still standing above you as you nervously fidgeted with your fingers.

Your own feelings were chaotic at that moment. Something in your heart wanted to run to King’s Landing at this very moment because Alicent needed you and because you wanted to make her life easier and make her happy. You had always wanted nothing but her happiness.

But you had your own duties in Oldtown and you had your husband here and your children. You could not just leave like that, could you? Especially when Oldtown was so far away from King’s Landing.

“It is out of the question,” Gwayne said again and threw the letter on your desk. “Reply to her that your Lord Husband does not agree.”

“She is your sister,” you looked up at him, pleadingly.

“Yes and I have nothing but love for her in my heart but her request is selfish,” he clenched his jaw as he looked you up and down, visibly surprised that you were not agreeing with him on this. “Why does she want to take you away from me? You are my wife.”

“Your wife – not your property,” you reminded him.

“That is debatable,” Gwayne huffed and looked away but before you could scold him, he continued with more. “Living in a different city, different castle, so far away from me… Will you still be my wife?” He turned his head around in an attempt to try to read your emotions.

“I will forever be your wife,” you stood up and took his hand into yours before placing it on your chest where your heart was. “But she needs me, Gwayne. She’s all alone there with no one by her side.”

“Father is with her,” Gwayne interrupted you. “He always favoured Alicent.”

“You do know that being favoured by him is a burden, not a prize,” you reminded. “Please, let me go. For some time at least. Until The King dies. It should not be for long and I’ll take the girls with me,” you tried to convince him as your fingers caressed his hand on your chest. “Please,” you whispered, looking up deep into his eyes.

After a long moment of silence and hesitation, your husband nodded his head reluctantly.

A few months later, you found yourself standing in the courtyard of The Red Keep, awaiting your husband’s arrival. He had a business to deal with in The Crownlands and he wanted to spend a few days with his family, too. You were caressing the creases on your dress with your hands and your teenage daughter Margaery was fixing her younger sister’s hairdo. Little Wyllow had been missing her father the most and she couldn’t wait for his arrival. In fact, she had made you and Margaery wait there since early morning and at this point you were exhausted already but you didn’t complain since you couldn’t wait to see Gwayne again either.

Even though it also felt a little weird and awkward since your mind was being flooded with memories of his sister’s body tangled with yours underneath her royal silk sheets. Her plump lips parted and soft moans escaping them, her beautiful big brown eyes hazy and filled with tears of shame and pleasure…

You were trying to shake those thoughts and images off of your head when you were interrupted by the sound of the horses approaching the gate.

“Father!” Wyllow nearly ran straight under the horse if she was not stopped by Margaery.

Your older daughter gave you a scolding look and she was right to do so because it was your duty to watch over your children, meanwhile you were distracted by the memories of dirty acts instead.

When you watched Gwayne jumping off of the horse, your heart clenched in your chest at the sight of him and you suddenly realised why Alicent was so filled with shame and guilt because now you felt them, too.

His handsome face, his eyes sparkling at the sight of you, his auburn hair reflecting in the sun… He truly was the man you loved. You just couldn’t help the fact you loved his sister, too.

“Father!” Wyllow finally was free to run into his arms and he crouched down to hug her and kiss her forehead.

“I am so happy to see you, little bird,” Gwayne cupped his daughter’s cheeks and she giggled.

He straightened himself but Wyllow clinged to his left hand so he used his right one to caress Margaery’s face lovingly.

“You’re growing fast, my love,” he pointed out.

“I am trying my best, Lord Father,” Margaery nodded her head with a smile and then she took a step back to get out of the way and let him greet you.

“Lord Husband,” you gave him a nervous and soft smile. Gwayne tilted his head a little and your heart skipped a beat. He was a very observant man but there was nothing that would give you away, right? What could it be?

“Lady Wife,” he smiled at you and took two steps ahead to be able to kiss the palm of your hand. Whatever he had noticed, he pretended it was nothing. At least for now.

“You must be exhausted,” you pointed out. “The chambers have been already prepared for you and I’m going to tell the maids to fix you a bath.”

“Does it mean we are not sharing the same chambers during my stay here?” Gwayne raised an eyebrow at you.

Margaery cleared her throat and she took Wyllow by her free hand.

“Shall we go inside now? Let our Lady Mother greet Lord Father properly,” she dragged her protesting sister behind her.

“She is becoming a fine Lady,” you chuckled awkwardly. “I can’t help feeling that the air and water in King’s Landing are making her grow up faster. Perhaps she is spending too much time with women older than her,” you explained, clasping your hands in front of yourself as if you had no idea what to do with them. “Come with me, I am sure you want to greet your father and sister, too.”

“I do,” Gwayne followed you inside while some of the men he had taken with him were taking care of his luggage with the help of The Red Keep’s servants. “You still haven’t answered my question about the chambers,” he pointed out when you were in the staircase together.

“My darling,” you turned around abruptly, making him stop his walk. “Your chambers are close to mine, please do not get cross with me. Those past few months I have learnt to love my solitude,” you explained and Gwayne tilted his head again but he only nodded.

“Let it be then,” he only said.

With each one of your husband’s kisses and each one of his touches, each one of your reached peaks and cries of pleasure, you felt more and more purified of sin as if his body was washing away Alicent’s smell off of you. After months of not laying together, you were lost in each other for hours with caring very little about getting any sleep. You were watching the sun rise behind the window when you were too exhausted to go on as you were laying on Gwayne’s chest, drawing circles there with your fingers and his hand was playing with your hair, gently massaging your scalp.

“Have you been faithful to me?” You asked casually and you could feel his muscles tensing under you.

You had no right to ask that – but he did not know of it.

“I have,” he answered. “Of course I have.”

“And if I say that the whores count, too?” You looked up playfully.

“I have been faithful to my Lady Wife,” Gwayne shook his head and you spotted a slight irritation on his face. He did not like it when his honour was being questioned – he was a knight, after all. “Why do you ask? Have you not been faithful to me?”

A shiver went down your spine at his chilling accusation.

“How can you ask me that?” You gasped.

“You have accused me first.”

“Because you are a man,” you reminded him.

“I am. And I know what men are like,” Gwayne nodded his head. “They must all be following you around – a beautiful Lady far away from her husband is like an invitation,” he finally cracked a smile, revealing that he was only jesting.

“I do not want any man but you,” you assured him as the tension left your body because you did not have to lie about it.

“That is good to know, my love,” Gwayne kissed the top of your head. “You had me worried with your cold greeting and not letting me into your chambers.”

“Are you not in my chambers now, Lord Husband?” You teased him and placed a kiss on his chest where his heart was. “And if my greeting was cold, then I owe you an apology. I spend too much time around your sister and her husband and I keep forgetting that some marriages are happy. That mine is…” You wanted to look up to meet his gaze but you couldn’t as something inside of you was stopping you.

“That is a shame,” Gwayne only said.

“It is, darling, but you are here now to remind me.”

You were sitting in the same chambers as Alicent, embroidering side by side and even though you were using no words, you found each other’s company comforting. Your arms were brushing as you both were focused on creating beautiful patterns on the same piece of fabric to make the work faster. It was supposed to be a beautiful green blanket with embroidered little dragons. 

Princess Helaena was sitting nearby and embroidering spiders on her own piece of fabric. Her cousin, Lady Margaery Hightower was sitting next to her and teaching her younger sister the craft. It was peaceful, cosy and quiet – you loved those moments the most because it was nearly as if Alicent was your own Lady Wife and you were just enjoying the time spent together with your family, far away from all those loud and obnoxious men surrounding you everywhere. These chambers were your escape and your own queendom.

When the doors opened, everyone except for Helaena looked up with a slight irritation since the man entering this sanctuary was nothing but an intruder. Even if the man was Ser Gwayne Hightower, who was loved by every person inside the chambers.

He cleared his throat when you gave him a soft smile, your arm still brushing Alicent’s and you were sitting in a way that made sure you were facing each other. You had never thought about it before but it was quite intimate indeed. Your husband’s tilted head made you realise that he had just observed something and after a short while you understood what it was as you moved away slightly.

“Brother,” Alicent greeted him. 

“Lord Husband,” you nodded at him.

“Forgive me for interrupting. I would like to take Margaery for a walk around the gardens,” he extended his hand towards his older daughter as Wyllow looked up at him with pleading eyes. “It must be Margaery alone this time but I promise you, little bird, I am going to take you for a walk later, too. Perhaps we’ll walk to the bay and watch the ships,” he assured her and she sighed with relief.

“You can finish without my help now, I believe,” Margaery handed the fabric to her younger sister. “Do try, at least. If you face any challenges, Lady Mother or Helaena shall help you.”

Helaena looked up when her name was mentioned and she gave Wyllow a soft smile that encouraged her little cousin to keep going. When Margaery stood up and left the sofa, Wyllow moved closer to Helaena and The Princess did not seem to mind.

“Can you help me with the ladybug?” She asked and Helaena’s face lit up at that.

“Lord Father,” Margaery took Gwayne by his arm and bowed her head at you and Alicent before walking out of the chambers with her father.

“I am wondering what is the matter my Lord Husband wishes to discuss with Margaery,” you hummed to yourself.

“She is ten and five now,” Queen Alicent pointed out. “What is the only possible matter that fathers wish to discuss with their daughters at that age?”

You furrowed your brows at her words because she was right and you did not like the sound of that. It was a shame that she was right, too, and not only for your own daughter but for every woman in this Realm. 

You saw Gwayne again before dinner, on your way to the dining hall. He was walking down the stairs and you rushed to him to walk by his side. He offered you his arm and you took it.

“I have a question for you, Lord Husband,” you started, nearly aggressively and he raised his eyebrows at that fierceness.

“What is it, my love?”

“Are you planning to marry our sweet Margaery off so quickly? I do not wish for her to get wed too soon,” you told him, hoping he would understand your point of view because sadly, in the end, the decision was his to make for women had always been properties of men – once her father’s, then her husband’s.

Sometimes you wished you had become a septa.

“Not soon, no. But she is ten and five. That was the age you were in when we met,” Gwayne reminded you with a smile.

“Yes, indeed, my darling, but it was us both meeting and falling in love. That is different, you must admit,” you pursed your lips.

“I must, indeed. Do not worry, I am not willing to force anything upon our sweet daughter. I have only told her to start looking around for suitable matches… soon,” your husband explained. “I am sure King’s Landing is full of important young men.”

“I do not wish for her to get married here. This place is rotten and so are its people,” you sighed. “My greatest wish is for Margaery to marry a man from The Reach.”

“We all have wishes, my darling wife,” Gwayne’s answer was nearly mocking but he spotted your annoyance so he looked around to make sure you were not being seen before pulling you by your waist and pushing you against the wall to steal a kiss from your lips. “Gods, I missed this,” he whispered and you felt your cheeks heating up.

“Gwayne!” You scolded him playfully. “I missed this, too,” you added and caressed his cheek with your fingers.

But his smile dropped and eyes became serious all of the sudden. You stayed like that in a short moment of silence before he dropped the question that turned your guts inside out:

“What is the nature of your relationship with my sister?”

You were taken aback by his question and you moved your hand away from his face before taking a deep breath in, trying to steady your heartbeat.

“Alicent is my best friend,” you looked deep into his eyes, surprised by your own courage to lie like this…

But was it a lie? She was your friend, after all.

“There is intimacy between you two that I can only wish for between us these days,” Gwayne whispered and you bit on your lower lip.

“She is my main companion for weeks now,” you tried to explain.

“Are you still planning to come back home after The King dies?” Gwayne lowered his voice even more since talking about the monarch’s death could be seen as treason.

“Y-yes, of course,” you nodded nervously.

“Why the tremble of your voice?” Gwayne raised an eyebrow.

“What are you accusing me of?” You suddenly clenched your fists, trying to take another route of getting out of this awkward situation. “Your implications are indecent. You have been accusing me of obscenities ever since you arrived here. You wound me deeply, Lord Husband,” you straightened yourself.

“You have accused me first,” Gwayne reminded you.

“Without any reproach thrown at you. I have asked out of simple curiosity,” you informed him.

“You are right, do forgive me,” he reached for your hand to place a delicate kiss upon the palm of it. You sighed, feeling extremely guilty.

“You are forgiven,” you whispered, nearly inaudibly, because it felt wrong to be the one saying those words.

In fact, at that very moment, you promised yourself to fix everything. You promised yourself to invite Gwayne to your chambers again for the night and let his touch to purify you like on the previous night. And you would go to The Sept and you would pray the sin away, you would beg for forgiveness, you would be a better wife, perhaps you would beg Alicent to let you go back to Oldtown with your husband.

Yes, that was the plan.

In the early morning you couldn’t tell that you were well-rested. Your muscles were sore after the previous two nights and your head was hazy but you still got dressed up quickly when the sun was rising and creeping inside your chambers to shine upon Gwayne’s auburn hair. You leaned in to kiss his forehead and you left him sleeping to visit The Sept and be able to go back to The Red Keep before breakfast.

You had never been a devout but you were not a savage either. You believed in Gods and now more than ever you needed redemption.

You expected to be alone there at such an early hour but no – of course not. Queen Alicent was already there, kneeling by the stone table and lighting the candles. You closed your eyes and took a deep breath in. She was your greatest temptation and it was a cruel joke that the Gods had played on you to put her there at this time when you visited The Sept to pray her very own self away from your life.

Alicent looked up, surprised to see you. Her soft features were as sad as usual but at the sight of you she seemed to be a bit happier – relieved, in a way. Your heart clenched inside your chest. How could you ever want to leave her? You couldn’t. She was too dependent on you. Her happiness was and so was her sanity. Leaving her would be equal to killing her.

“I have not expected you in The Sept at such an early hour,” she commented as you kneeled next to her.

“I have not expected myself here either,” you smirked. “I came here to ask for forgiveness.”

“Forgiveness? Aren’t you always the one telling me that what we do is no sin?” Alicent furrowed her brows.

“I have lied to my husband. That is a sin,” you confessed and Alicent did not say anything to this. “I… I will have to go back to Oldtown, I think… I can’t… I can’t go on like this,” you looked down and Alicent remained silent but you didn’t have to look at her to know her big brown eyes were filled with tears. “I miss my son and I miss Oldtown… King’s Landing is corrupt and I do not wish for my daughters to grow up here. I… I miss Gwayne, too. I love him, I love him, I love him…”

“Are you trying to convince me or yourself?” Sudden, harsh question made you look up to meet her teary gaze.

“I’ve been loving him ever since I saw him during the tournament. You were there, sitting by my side,” you reminded her.

“You love him because he is my brother but your life has always revolved around me,” Alicent pointed out and you felt your cheeks heating up.

“You… You knew?” You only asked.

“I was blind to choose Rhaenyra because she was never for me to reach. She was The Princess and you were equal to me, so devoted. Blindly, very often. I took you for a fool and only after losing you, I realised. When you were sent to Oldtown, I suddenly understood that my only friend had left my side,” Alicent explained. “My only friend and the only person who has ever… Who has ever loved me – except for my mother.”

“Gwayne loves you, too,” you pointed out.

“Does he? He took you away from me,” Alicent’s jaw clenched and your eyes widened. She was not being rational but you knew why – she was scared of losing you again. In fact, she was determined to make you stay by her side.

“You will not let me leave, will you?” You whispered.

Alicent opened her mouth to say something but then her face softened and she stood up rapidly to walk away.

“I am sorry… I do not wish to… Act like this… I do not recognise myself,” she admitted with her voice full of shame. She raised her hands up to her mouth as she nervously bit on the soft skin around her fingernails.

You didn’t answer because you were too lost in your own thoughts. Was she right again? About you loving Gwayne only because he was her brother? You had never thought about it before. It would mean your whole marriage was a lie, an illusion – or rather a delusion.

“When I’m with him, I don’t imagine you,” you stood up as well when the realisation hit you. “But when I’m with you, he doesn’t exist to me. It’s as if there were two of me.”

“I do not understand,” Alicent shook her head. “To me, there is only you,” she confessed and laid her eyes on you.

You didn’t know what to answer. You swallowed a lump in your throat instead.

“I am flawed, poisoned…” Alicent continued. “I can only feel this way towards other women. I felt this way towards Rhaenyra until a certain moment and then… Then my whole life was about you. I have spent hours inside this Sept, trying to pray this away,” Alicent’s silent tears streamed down her cheeks.

“I do not have such a conflict. I can love both men and women,” you told her. “I can love you and I can love Gwayne…”

“I do not wish to share you!” Alicent interrupted you and then she hid her face in her hand as she sobbed.

“Women are not their own property. I am not the one to decide if I can be shared,” you answered diplomatically.

You felt sorry for her but you also felt sorry for Gwayne that he was being betrayed behind his back by his own wife and sister – two women he loved the most except for his daughters. He would die for you both, he would kill to protect you or to defend your honours – even though none of you had an honour anymore. He was the real victim here.

But one more look at Alicent’s sad eyes was enough to break you again. You approached her to cup her face and kiss her softly. She protested in the beginning since you were inside The Sept but you didn’t give a fuck about it anymore – you would go to Seven Hells anyway.

“I shall not leave you,” you promised her.

When you came back to your chambers, Gwayne was dressing up in front of the mirror. He raised an eyebrow at you entering the room.

“Where have you been?” He asked.

“In The Sept to pray,” you answered truthfully.

“Has my sister turned you into a devout like her already?” He chuckled.

“She has a great influence on me,” you nodded and walked up to him to kiss his cheek.

“You even smell like her,” he said and your heart skipped a beat.

“I am fond of her scented oils and she allows me to use them,” you answered.

“It feels weird when I’m fucking you, I have to admit,” Gwayne chuckled awkwardly and so did you.

“You shall fuck me more then,” you pointed out quietly.

“Even more, Lady Wife?” He shook his head with another chuckle.

“Until her scent is gone,” you explained and looked out of the window.

Gwayne did not say anything to this but his smile disappeared. From the corner of your eye you saw his reflection in the mirror and you realised that he had finally understood what was going on behind his back.

After a while, which felt like forever, he cleared his throat:

“It is a putrid place indeed.”

“You must take me far away from here,” you turned around to grab his arm and your heart broke when you felt him flinch a little. “You must save my soul and take me home,” you pleaded despite the promise you had given to Alicent earlier but that promise had not been given sober. You had been intoxicated with her.

“You must come back home yourself, my love,” Gwayne smiled sadly at you and caressed your hair gently, “for I do not wish to force anything upon you. You are always kind enough to remind me that you are not my property, aren't you? And I agree,” he nodded, “this decision is for you to make.”

And you didn’t know what to say or do because there was no decision that felt right and no decision that didn’t feel wrong either. Gwayne was your duty and your sacrifice and Alicent was a self-indulgent sin but you loved them both so much that you cursed the whole Hightower bloodline for existing because your life would be so much easier without them.

You knew what Gwayne was expecting of you – he expected you to choose your duty because – just like his sister – he was all about honour and decency. But you didn’t want your husband to feel as if you were choosing him only because of your marriage vows – you wanted him to know that you cared for him, too, even though he wouldn’t believe you now.

But there was only one choice for you anyway, wasn’t it? You couldn’t just stay with Alicent and pretend that it was the right thing to do. You couldn’t abandon your family and your duties for her and she had to understand it.

You looked deep into Gwayne’s eyes and your own filled with tears at the sight of all the pain and sadness in his. You dropped your hand down from his arm to intertwine your fingers with his.

“I do not think of myself as flawed or poisoned for feeling the way I feel,” you explained to him. “But I do not wish for my nature to spoil our union. If anybody can save me, it would be you,” you whispered. A plea. A desperate cry for help. “I am a mother, I am a wife, I am Lady Hightower and my home is in Oldtown.”

Your heart, however, would forever be divided; torn and bleeding. The deep, burning hole was forever to stay there for one reason or another.

MASTERLIST

father, son, holy spirit.

Shared intentions — [18+MDNI!!]

summary: your betrothed has been away for so long, and as time passes, you ache for someone to keep you company—only to find that the one you seek is closer than you believed…

pairing: Alicent Hightower x Fem!reader, Gwayne Hightower x Fem!reader

word count: 1.6k

warnings: slight angst, religious themes, c!nnilingus, f!ngering, cheating, not proofread, english isn't my first language – (let me know if there were more!)

The weeks had passed at a deliberately slow pace. The hours had quelled and teased you as you waited at court, the walls closing in and suffocating you as you met dawn and dusk in the middle.

Your betrothed, Gwayne Hightower, had been gone for the Seven knows how long, and you’d been aching for him ever since he left the Keep. The days had been weary, the weather depressing, but mostly, they were slow. You had been husband and wife for only a few fortnights before he was swiftly called away to claim his post next to the new hand of the king, marching to lands where they’d bury the ashes of those who didn’t support the king’s claim.

The match had been one of romance. You had kept each other’s company for many months before the previous hand of the king suggested the marriage. You still reminisce about your wedding night and how you could give in to one another at last. You had only tasted the sweet flavour of love for a brief time, and already it had been taken away, leaving you in a burning state, longing to relive the moments you had together.

The match had been one of romance, or so you believed, nay, you knew. Therefore, you couldn’t fathom what made the interval before his arrival abruptly bearable. You weren’t sure why you stepped into the Great Sept of Baelor that evening, having never had a devotion to the Seven before, and your mind was blank as to why you claimed a seat next to the queen regent. All you knew was that she gave you the comfort you desperately needed.

It all began so innocently. From silent whispers in the Great Sept, to assuring eye contact, to solacing caresses, which then led to you being summoned to her chambers late at night. These meetings were sacred to you, never failing to remind you of their origin at the heart of the Seven. Although you were also aware of the illicit, sinful nature of your encounters, only the shadows of the night bore witness, unhearing of the wicked whispers the queen regent made dance across your flushed skin.

Nights turned into mornings, which then turned into evenings. Now, presently, at the fourth hour past midday, you struggled to keep your breath at pace. Your back was against the cobblestone wall in the queen regent’s chamber, the harsh touch a contrast to your soft, feverish skin. Your body lay lazily, barely clothed, as Alicent looked up at you beneath your skirt, her tongue hungrily exploring your folds, making you squirm beneath her touch.

She knew that when she curled her fingers inside you just right, it would draw out a heavenly choir, portraying you as a martyr, drenched in oil, with your face slightly glazed and the sunlight from the windows setting it aglow. And so, when she did, vindication had never tasted so intoxicatingly sweet. “Seven Hells, you always take it like a good girl,” Alicent breathed as her lips hovered above your cunt. Her other hand held your thighs up as her tongue finally sought out your bundle of nerves.

Your breath hitched at the mixture of her soft hums, vibrating your nerves and setting your lower stomach ablaze. “Alicent, please—” you whined, begging for more if any was even left. Your mind was a haze, feeling only her inciting, impure touch. The mere sight of your voracious state made her long for your release. “Let go for me,” she whispered, her eyes locking onto yours as she continued to work her fingers in and out of you, latching her mouth onto your clit like a woman starved.

Alicent watched as your eyes rolled back into your head at your release. Your body felt electrified, her touch making you see stars and feel as if you experienced heaven’s touch. She drank your nectar as your moans filled the room, and you were coming down. Your knees almost gave way when she got up, holding onto you and keeping you steady. “You did so well for me, do you know that?” she whispered. Her eyes were a soft, innocent touch to your dishevelled appearance. You nodded, returning an appreciative smile as she brought her hand to your face, faintly locking onto your jaw and neck. “We can’t keep meeting like this,” you said, though you leaned into her touch.

You watched her with her auburn hair worn like a crown, still unchanged after the event. You believed your meeting was born of lust, nothing else, with her dark brown eyes able to trap you wholly. Lust was a sin, though committed by many, whereas love would not just be considered infidelity, but something much worse, you thought, as you observed her flushed face and her wet, half-agape lips. Yet, something more than lust brewed inside you.

“We certainly can’t keep meeting like this,” she agreed, as her other hand lifted one of the sleeves of your dress, covering your breast again before her fingers trailed down to it, cupping and squeezing it slightly, causing your breath to hitch. She never looked away, daring you, seeking a reciprocated acknowledgment for what ached inside her. “This was the last time,” she whispered.

Before your mind could take over your actions, your heart already had. You pulled her into a lustful, carnal kiss, your hands roaming her body and pulling her against you. It felt as if no matter how close the two of you got, there was still space wasted between you. Nothing felt close enough, and the more you were away from each other, the more your mind and soul burned for her.

“Gods, you’re my greed,” she sighed as you moaned into the kiss. Her mouth opened slightly, allowing your tongues to melt together as one. She groped your breasts while you pulled up her dress from beneath, sinking two fingers into her heat. Alicent gasped as you thrust two fingers inside her with a fevered pace, making her rock her hips in rhythm. “You’re fucking soaked,” you breathed, feeling her wetness drenching your hand. With your thumb, you began rubbing small circles against her core, earning a blissful whine—a clear indication for you to keep going. And so you would have, had a loud knock on the door not nearly drowned out the scandalous, wet noises of your actions.

-

The unyielding wind showed no pity against your skin as you made your way to the courtyard for your husband’s arrival. It was the fifth hour past midday, and the weather seemed to share the gods’ resentment toward you. You hadn’t been able to take a bath or clean yourself up, as the voice that held the knocker’s hand had proclaimed your husband’s arrival. Your heart had sunk at the announcement, and you had hurriedly left her chamber to ensure you met your husband before he could greet his sister.

You skin was covered in a layer of barely dried up sweat, and your dress was covered in wrinkles; you felt as if you had partaken in a tournament. You tried to flatten your dress as you walked down the fore stair, but in vain, as the fabric seemed unbending. It mattered no longer as you locked eyes with your husband across the courtyard. Seeing him in person again made you vividly remember the precious moments you had shared.

You recalled the way he’d comfort you and held you, his lean arms embracing you as he whispered tender words into your ear. The way he made love to you felt eternal, lasting evermore, with his calloused hands opening you up just right. And his lips, which had tasted every surface of your skin, or the way he looked at you, whenever.

You felt lost in a maze of thoughts, but it lasted only so long before your arm brushed against someone. Not just anyone, but the queen regent, Alicent Hightower, and everything you thought of your husband was swept away by your burning desire for her.

You looked at her, just for a moment, as she looked at you. It was nothing, just a glance, but you felt like everyone in the courtyard could discern your history from that fleeting moment. Your cheeks felt hot, and you looked away quickly, heading toward your husband. His eyes were still locked onto yours, a serious demeanor overcoming him, making you believe he knew. No, you knew he knew, until his eyes suddenly softened. The gods were making you paranoid; there was no reason for suspicion, you thought, so you ignored it.

“Gwayne!” you exclaimed joyfully, taking him into an embrace. You smelled him and felt that was all you needed to remember who you truly were meant to love. “How I missed you, my love,” he sighed, pulling away and taking you into a kiss. You felt him smile against your lips, which made you melt inside. This was good; all was well. Your husband was here, and no one but the gods knew.

Alicent watched as her brother embraced her lover. She knew she wasn't supposed to feel some grudge against Gwayne, since it was all part of the arrangement. As long as he was away, she was all hers, and vice versa. But the two of you seemed like two parts of a whole.

Her brother’s relationship was bound by oath, approved by the gods, whereas yours was a double-edged sword, rotating evermore, piercing whomever reached out first. Alicent merely prayed it was a riddle, with a riddle’s ending—a way for both of you to escape without hurting one another, for her blaze to either cease to exist or ignite as one.

real

"He's not good for yo-"

YES! but have you seen his eyes???

prophet girl, cursed daughter.

prints + merch + comm info pinned to profile :)

The sadness in learning there are only 8 episodes in this season of HOTD :(

Jacegan Week 2024: Day 7. Whump

Everything was a nightmare. 

It is the thing Cregan repeats by the time he wakes up in his bed.

The first thing he does is reach out for Jace sleeping near him. His eyes are still shut, he lies relaxed on his bed, and the pajama cloth can be seen at his shoulder. His brown hair which started to grow now after the hospital is scattered across the pillow. He looks normal…

Except the hollow part lower, at the place where the left thigh normally is.

The consequence of the car crash which claimed not only his leg, but his mother and adopted father’s lives as well.

While Cregan goes out to the kitchen, he does his best not to push the crutches accidentally. His and Jace’s room is next to the one, where Jace’s youngest siblings - Visenya, Viserys and Aegon - sleep. Next to them is his cousin's room and in front of them, Jace’s middle siblings’s - Luke and Joffrey’s room.

Sometimes, Cregan did not understand how it happened. He got into this family so well, even though he moved here only a half-year ago, after Jace asked him to move here and the tragedy happened. But in spite of the time it happened they accepted him really well.

Cregan moves himself to the kitchen and puts the kettle. A minute passes and the noise of the crutch sounds through the hallway. 

Jace arrives in the kitchen a second later. There is a strange expression on his face but Cregan understands what it means. Both of them actually feel each other's emotions and know what to talk about. He knows that even at his lowest, Jace refuses to talk about the car crash and knows when Cregan suffers from nightmares. 

“It seems somebody overread “Berserk” this night” he replies. “Tell me what you have seen”.

And he tells Jace about everything. About the world with kingdoms and dynasties older than any existed. About the world of dark magic and ice zombies. About the dragon riding dynasty who conquered the continent of Latin America size. About the feud between brother and sister, who looked really similar to Jace’s mother and eldest of uncles and even shared the same names.

Thin nervous line lies at Jace’s face as he hears it. His parents started to sue Jace’s uncles not so long before the car crash and he clearly does not want and expect them to be brought here. There is the surprise and somehow - curiosity in his eyes.

“Were we here too?” he asks.

Cregan nods and answers. About Luke who was eaten alive by the huge monster. About Jace’s aunt Helaena who went mad after her son was killed and later committed suicide. About Jace himself, shot down and riddled with arrows. About young Joffrey falling from his mother’s dragon to death. About raging war and the whole numbers of atrocities committed during it. About his Jace’s second uncle Aemond and the adopted father Daemon killing each other, as well his uncles Addam and Daeron. About his mother, late ms.Targaryen being eaten alive - or worse, fed to the dragon, while young Aegon was forced to watch.

Cregan does not say anything about him ending this war in his nightmares or him here seeing them not for the first time.

For some time both of them end up in silence for the whole time, until suddenly, Jace starts to bombard him with questions:

«What was the inheritance system in this kingdom — salic or austrian? Why were there no analogues of Parliament or Corteses here? Why did both the queen in his dream and her brother…» he specifically avoids calling them by their names. «asked for an army from lords, if they should have had the army from the king's domain? Why are there city councils and militias absent? And why was there an Essie thing when prostitutes were on the very end of the medieval social ladder?”

Unintentionally, Cregan catches himself smiling. It is Jace as he is: utterly spoiled by his historical education and searching for every inconsistency in every book about medievity and  every setting which is stated to be medieval and stated to be as the realistic take on medieivity. The way he lashed on Joe Abercromby books(“Where is the religion? Had he read Geoffrey of Villehardouin or Nicetas Choniates? The medieval people were religious as hell! Why are there no thoughts about the afterlife in the North?) still stands in front of his eyes. Jace loves history books very much. And his qualification and devotion to his work never ceases to amaze Cregan.

“Maybe you should write a book about your dreams?” Jace asks him. “Albeit with some changes?”

“And you will work as the historical consultant?” Cregan chuckles.

“Well, somebody has to do it in the end!” Jace exclaims. “I noticed that most modern authors who try to mix Druon with Tolkien fail miserably. So, it’s my duty to observe that my boyfriend will not make their mistakes and write truly accurate books though!” He looks so serious now that Cregan can’t find the strength not to laugh. And by this the nightmare goes away.

The misery is not here. The misery is anyway except this house.

Jacegan Week 2024: Day Six. Historical

1910-1920s silent cinema AU

 TW: period-typical racism and homophobia, “Birth of the nation’s” cinema success,  implied radium poisoning, mentioned Red Scare

In this au, Jace and his brothers(and a little sister Visenya) actually grew up in the whole-acting family. Their mother, whose family got poor after losing all of their money during the Long depression, started her vaudeville acting career and became the family's breadwinner from the tender age of eight and rose up to the second highest paying actress(after Lotta Crabtree). Their father is a famous musician coming from a wealthy family, their paternal grandmother is a former actress by herself and their aunt is the costume maker for the theaters. They are not really in touch with their maternal side of the family, since they did not approve of their mother's acting career.

Meanwhile, Cregan comes from the farmer’s family of Norwegian second-geheration immigrabts. His family went bankrupt in the panic of 1907, so he and his sister were left with almost no money. Cregan was forced to turn to seasonal worker, while Sara started to work at the clock fabric.

Cregan met Arra Norrey at the mill at Lawrence. They married and later had a baby Rickon together. However, since Arra was forced to work even when she was ill and pregnant, she died of influenza not so long after Rickon’s birth. It happened not so long before the Lawrence strike of 1912, where Cregan actually took a huge part: from helping to evacuate the kids to standing up against the strikebreakers.

Cregan and Arra actually loved to go to cinema to watch movies(and Arra especially loved Max Linder’s and Roscoe Arbuckle’s comedies), but after the strike is won, Cregan feels some type of rage against the cinema that it does not depict the life in its full nightmare and even the social films mostly concentrate on such things as imprisonment and abortion(he understands it’s significant though) and the films about the labor focus more on the redemptions of masters which is not the part of workers ordinary lives. He decides that no matter what, he will wear his IWW red card proudly.

He is lucky though and after the long season of season work he, with Sara’s help he gets a clerk job at one of the “ Radium Luminous Material Corporation” offices in New York. In his spare time, he writes scenarios for different studios and walks a lot with Rickon.

Meanwhile, Jacaerys is living his best life: he lives with his mother, father, four brothers, cousins and little sister, they all star in the feature films at their director-grandfather’s studio with his family, and now is set to marry his cousin Baela, who is an actress too(since it is a pre-Code times, she legally still can play any role). Her sister Rhaena, meanwhile, helps her mom as costumer.

Meanwhile, Corlys gets the news about his rivals in a Biograph(corporate spies, you know) that D.W.Griffith has left them, founded his own company and now is adapting “The Clansman” by Dixon. No need to say both he and Rhaenys are infuriated by it. They decide to start to make a counter-move and make another period drama movie to beat it(they’ll fall in beating in the box-office, but a good movie will be made).

Sadly, they did not find a good scenario for a long time. Come the winter of 1914, and only there they found the scenario written by Cregan: which tells the early life of Samuel Gridley Howe, the famous abolitionist, friend of John Brown and the founder of the Perkins’s Institute for the disabled. More precisely, it tells about his participation in the Greek Revolution and arrest in Poland.

They buy the scenario from Cregan, and Corlys, seeing that this young man has the potential of a good scenarist, gives him a two-year contract. Cregan agrees and starts to refine the scenario alongside Rhaenys. 

Both young men meet each other at the stairs, when Jace and Baela accidentally stumble on Cregan, who is going out of Rhaenys’s room with a lot of paper in his arms, cause Rhaenys has a tendency to write every scene in detail.

They cross their ways simultaneously. They see each other on the set, when Cregan sometimes approaches cameraman Elmo Tully while Jace and his screen partner are waiting for them — the partner is an actor who played young Greek Howe meets in his travels. Daemon, who is playing the older lead, does not even attempt to hide total disinterest.

They cross their path at the costume shop, when Jace sees his cousin Rhaena disciss costumes with Cregan, and his voice with norwegian accent strikes something in him does not understands.

They cross the way during the lunch break, when Jace with his stuntman and younger brother Luke are discussing something funny, and Cregan suddenly thinks how it may look like on the screen and attempts not to listen to them, but to read on their lips, but it fails miserably, since he stares on someone else’s faith without even noticing. 

Their first conversation happens when Cregan sees Jace dragging ten books about Howe Rhaenys asked about and another five illustrated books about clothes of this time for Rhaena. They talk a lot about their favorite books and Cregan mentioned he would love to read «Martin Iden» by Jack London, but he does not have a strength to go to the library after the whole work day and spending time with his son. Jace is surprised by learning that their new scenarist has the son and urges him to bring the boy to the work.

Next day Cregan finds the book he asked nearby the set.

Baby Rickon absolutely loves the studio, especially playing hide-and-seek with kid Aegon, Viserys and Visenya. Sometimes, Luke and Rhaena playfully join them. Even lesser times, Laena coo over new boy and secretly give them a lot of sweets to both Cregan and Rhaenyra’s chargrin.

During the filming and writing there are not so many incindents that may cause anybody harm. However, one day the decoration falls on the set, when Luke is making the stunts, and it takes both Jace's and Cregan's fast reactions to drag him from the dangerous zone. After this, they merely look at each other and start to laugh — to everybody's confusement.

At this moment, they are just happy men, and oh gods, they are sure that the film they are making will be great.

(It would not be great, but good nontheless. Like many films they will do after it, but this time will be remmebered as the happiest one).

(Neither Jace, nor Cregan doesn't know know, where we'll ther relationship go, and how many moments, both good and bad, they will share together. There would be a twelve movies(most of them a hystoricals, one based on personal tragedy and one of them a mix of socialist propaganda and action), temporarily break-up, not really happy marriages to women(similiar to their partners, but not actually them), arrests during the Red Scare, Luke's injury and his marriage to Rhaena, adaptation of «Martin Iden» they made together, Cregan's sister being Radium Girl, scandal based on rumours overblown by Hedda Hopper, serving as historical consultants, the world travel, La Olimpiada Popular and death — one at Madrid, and another at Jarama. So many things).

But now, at this moment, they are happy.

Jacegan week day 5: Modern

Figure skating AU, retired skaters, coach/choreographer, skater!Aegon III

«I just can’t do it with those judges!» - Jace tiredly groans, as he enters the hotel room in the hotel after the whole day of nuisance his first Westeros championship as the coach. If he had more strength he would already punch something, but even after the shower, which should have refreshed him, he feels totally numb and wearily lands himself on the coach near Cregan. The latter sighs. «There were 80 points in the last competition, and 76 when we were at the Kiss’nd Cry with Egg, and why is it 75 points now?»

Cregan rolls his eyes. 

«A point can be taken from the skater if he overreaches the time limit.»

«And if his coaches would demand it». Jace adds and leans to Cregan who is holding the telephone now. «Has the Skatingscores uploaded for now?»

There is nothing left for Cregan than to allow Jace to lean on his shoulder and allow him to watch the protocols. 

«He got «q» on the sequence and a vague edge on the flip» Jace constants. «But given his age and the growth spurt he is going through now, it’s pretty normal».

Cregan hums. 

«And he still has the current second place». Jacaerys says with the smile.

«Wasn’t you fuming with rage two minutes ago?» Cregan returns him the smile and hugs him from the back. 

«Well, I made the program for him!» — Jace suddenly exclaims and then looks like he is deflated.  «As for me, I am actually offended to see his step sequence I made and we’ve been practicing for a month to get to the third level.» he mumbles. «Not to mention my nephew’s choreographer never bothered to cut the music for SP normally, and not like, you know, cutting meat».

Here, Cregan barely holds himself from laughing. It sounds really funny about Criston Cole, whose last creation as choreographer was «Sweeney Todd» SP. And like a lot of his programs, since the idea was not given by the skater, it turned out to be not really good.

«It’s still current second place». Cregan says. «And if he would not risk tomorrow with quads, he will get to the Youth Olympics.»

«Yes, I know that one quad and two triple axels will get him a youth Oly’s ticket. But since the last Junior World Champ we had nearly lost our national team three spots…» here Jace stops and allows himself to fall onto the bed. Cregan follows him a second later. 

«You better sleep now.» he says and plants a kiss on Jace’s forehead. The latter groans tiredly.

«And you will scroll the news and blogs here?» he replies. 

«Well, given, who of us is more prone to emotional outbursts…» Cregan says in a semi-academic tone and Jace laughs.

«Sometimes you seem to forget who is his coach.» he says.

«And you forget that you are his choreographer and not his mother».

«Why are you insulting me in such a way?» Jace falsely groans and Cregan finally bursts into laughter.

Given his eyes' expressions, he definitely had it coming.

While still being the active skater — first as single, than, when he had been struck by growth spurt, as pair skater with Arra and than with Aly — Cregan actually had the time to think about his retirement from competitive skating. He thought about studying, and later, when he and Aly won their first senior Worlds, about skating in shows.

But he never imagined — even in his wildest dreams — that he will work as the coach. And that  he will actually marry the boy he once met at the summer camp. And that they will have their coaching team.

But the fact it’s unexpected doesn’t means it’s felt undeserved.

***

Some info about this au though:

It takes place in our world, though a bit alternative(no teamTut melodrama and so on). Westeros charactres represent Great Britain.

Jacaerys comes from the skating family: his mother once won two junior worlds and YouthOlys, but retired after two senior seasons after leg trauma and decided to become a choreographer and have a family of her own. His uncles are also competitive skaters but they(except Daeron) are not really loved by GBfed(Aegon due to his alcoholism and him scandsals following it(from drinking at summer camp as junior up to driving cars while being drunk), Aemond due to his anger control problems and offending vice presindent of NISA in one intreview).

Cregan started to skate later than the most of his peers, albeit managed to learn all of the triples by the time he was 13. When his growth period spurt he believed he will go through it and will be able to do 3A and quads and found major inspiration in Elvis Stojko(Lillehammer 1994 and Nagano 1998 silver medalist, who also was 1,8 metres tall). However, he failed to do it and switched to pairs(first with Arra, after his retirement with Aly Blackwood).

Cregan and Jace actually met eachother at Mishin's summer camps when Jace was getting ready to his senior debut, and started to like eachother very fast.

Albeit they did not realised they love eachother up to the next Olys.

However it did not stopped their shippers and #jacegan community was one of the hottest since #yuzuvier one cause of amount of content they were getting. Somebody of non-shipping people even complined of toxicity poisoning the community that normal, close, respective relationship should seem romantic.

Yeah, it was totally platonic for two men to create a Exhibiton program "Die shatten werden lenger" and to star Rudolf and Der Tod in it. Or make another EX Wildhorn's "Rudolf" and star as Rudolf and Taafe.

Cregan and Aly often used not really popular music for their programs. One day they used Aoife O'Daire's cover on "Lutien's lullaby" for their short program with Cregan as Morgoth and Aly as Luthien.

Jace, meanwhile absolutely loves musicals, especially Norwegian and French. His programs at season "......": "One night in Bangkok"(SP) and "Je dors sui roses/Comedie-targedie/Place je pass" had actuallu blown the Youtube.

Both of them know about fanfiction about them and read it sometimes. However, Jace do not understnad, why are they writing so much porn about them, giving the fact that afer the competitions they are so tired that fall on the bed sleeping in process.

This thing hardly changes even after they retire and became a coach and choreograhpher respectively. In fact, the only time they can go intimate is their vacation.

Jacegan week 2024: Day 4. Horror

AU, Krabat semi-fusion, minor Lucerys/Rhaena

TW: mild gore and Bloodraven’s red gruel( implied cannibalism)

In this AU, Alicent succeeds in convincing Viserys to punish both Luke and Jace for Aemond's eye scar. She works more subtly here and instead of demanding Luke's eye asks the king to send both boys to Strongs(Larys and Alys) to teach them some manners. Rhaenyra is visibly unnerved by all implications of this, especially after the Harrenhall fire and the fact that both boys are forced to leave their dragons on Dragonstone, but forced to oblige. 

Jace and Luke say goodbye to their mother, father, cousins and baby brother. They are nervous, as well as their dragons(Vermax and Arrax screech a lot, because they sense that their beloved masters are gonna be sent away from them), but they attempt to seem brave. They are sure that the fostering in Harrenhall would not be that long and they'll be at home by the next half of year.

They are wrong as hell. 

When they arrive at Harrenhall, they do not get the rooms at the keep. Instead of this, they are put to live with the strange black-haired woman of unknown age. This is said to be their aunt Alys, but she does not treat them as nephews — or as princes — at all. Even if they are not the only kids who live with her. Most of them are bastards of dragonblood and partically all of them are forced to work day and night. When they work at night, Alys writes the signs on their foreheads with some red gruel, which sometimes is fed to them — and neither Jace, nor Luke are ready to say what  this gruel is made of. At work, they cut some meat and separate veins, fat and vessels from it. Somedays, Lady Alys brings them some broken bones and orders to grind them. Somedays, she is followed by man with strange man with red eyes. 

Not everything is bad, in fact. Once a week, Lady Alys teaches them magic. She recites the spells and her students repeats them. Than, they practice. Most os students(including Velarion brothers themselves) are able to turn into the ravens.

They still have time to train with swords, and Luke is actually getting better with it. Flying in raven's forms and terrorising Larys and his servants can be actually funny. They have a free day to play with other kids, albeit they do not know them really well, except the girl named Nettles, who seems to be the brightest student Alys has and teaches them to fight her will. 

They still miss their family. One day, Luke and Jace attempt to escape the castle, but they fail — no matter where they go, they still can not get out of Harrenhall's outskirts.

Nettles catсhes them, when they get back. She tells them that not only they are the bastards, they are also fools. No one, who is sent here to be Alys Rivers's student, can get out without her decision. Even the suicide won't help, as her first disciple, the same man who claimed to be Maegor's bastard at Great Council, discovered in rather hard way. The only way to escape Harrenhall is to have a woman, who loves you, to go to Harrenhall and ask Lady Rivers to let her loved one go. It is not an option for herself, as Nettles remarks, so she will fight Alys or lose, as she is doomed anyway(because Alys needs to kill one of her students every seven years). Next day she goes straight to Alys's chambers. She never comes back — her body ends up  brought into the rooms by the man with red eyes, who visits Alys this time. 

 Both boys are devastated. The fact that they can't write to their parents, do not help. Lady Alys, nevertheless, never fails to taunt them about their father dying or their mother marrying another man(Daemon) and having another children(Aegon and Viserys). 

One day, Luke starts to fail every work with meat that Alys gives him. Jacaerys is shocked by it, and actually afraid that his brother will get the witch's ire, but she frees him from work with meat and resigns to the mere servant. Strangely, Jace does not think that this is the  humiliation, cause they are already mere meat cutters, what can be worse?

This day, he sees the first dream since he and Luke got here. He sees the boy with a long face, dark hair and gray eyes, who stands nearby him. In this dream, they play in the half-ruined castle in the snow. The boy is a good climber and helps Jace to climb the top of the wall with him. He is more than ready to tell his name, but Jace stops him. He does not feel it's good idea. The boy does not insist.

For a monent, Jace doesn't feel ashamed for how he looks now. 

Next seven years pass like mist. Jacaerys studies the magic, becomes if not the best, then of the brightest students of Alys(while Lucerys is still her servant boy), whom she constantly praises, acts like an good brother to another younger students(whom he grew to care about) and still see the dreams about the Boy from the Snow Castle.

In this dreams, there are no games and walls climbing anymore, except playfull training in swords(which Boy from the Snow Castle wins, yet Jace harbors no jealosy towards him). Sometimes, they walk together in the snow forest. Sometimes, the Boy offers him to swim with him in on of the lakes nearby Winterfell, which Jace gladly accepts. Sometimes, they just sit together in the room and the Boy sings old Northern ballads to him. One of those is the ballad about two cousins, one whom get captured by the Night King, and the other, who went to save them. Jace chucles of the painful irony.

«It would be great if we could have hunted together». exclames the Boy at once. «Or you could be here to taste our cuisine. Or...» he stammers and lowers his eyes. « Whatever. I don't know why I have such a feeling... but i would love to see you here, Jace».

When Jacaerys awakens from the sleep, he feels even more captured than before. And it is even worse that the seven years passed and the time of new sacrifice that Alys must make is coming. He grew up in these seven years and started to turn into a man, and the Boy of the Snow Castle is not a boy at all: he is now a grown-up young man, as Jace is now. And yet, they have never seen each other in reality and he is still a de-facto prisoner in the half-burnt gloomy castle with a bloody witch as mentor. 

One day, Alys brings another young man home. It's a black man called Alyn and Jace is assigned to train him. Given seven years passed, Jace deduces that time is coming and he needs to watch out cause he thinks that his little brother is in danger. 

Meanwhile, the Westeros is gonna turn upside down. Neither Rhaenyra, nor Corlys and Rhaenys are going to let the Greens and Larys to get away with disappearance of two princes and their constant attempts to declare them dead. Neither Arrax, nor Vermax allowed another people to mount them, which, in Rhaenyra's eyes, indicates that their riders are alive and mostly well. Viserys still sends the searching groups for his grandsons, but with no avail. Meanwhile, his niece, Rhaena Targaryen surprisingly claims the Grey Ghost, and maester Gerardys says that she managed to do it after seeing her late(as it is presumed) cousin in her dreams. Rhaena gets a great interest in flying on her dragon and often flies away to different places without her father or sister knowledge. One day, she decides to travel North with her sister(they say that they are gonna visit Cregan and probably check on Stark's loyalty to their stepmother).

One night, when Jace and Cregan(who tells him his name that night) meet in their dreams and walk on the seashore, Jacaerys accidentally spots a strange figure following them. It's a cloaked man,but soon it turns into a black fox and runs to them. Jace understands it is Alys and changes himself into the crow, attacking her. She ,in turn, changes into cat, and wounds Jace’s wing, then changes to snake and bites him. Cregan attempts to rush to them, but he is stopped by Jace’s plea not to intervene. Jace turns into the cat too and bites Alys again, and the battle with them changing into stags, roosters and other animals, but ends with Jace turning to a fire and burning Alys. Both he and Cregan are in awe(Cregan cause he dated the wizard, Jace cause he actually managed to defeat Alys, which was not the case in their previous battles).

Jace awakens with snake bite and scars on his arm

The same day worn off Alys with massive burns on her face calls Jace in her chambers and gives him a proposal: to take her mantle as the leader of the magic school, but at the expense of his brother(or another student's) or Cregan’s life and having a connection with dark man visiting her. She tells him that she is tired of staying at Harrenhall and wants to meet a man and have a family with him, and she sees that this man, sooner or later, will come to her school. Jace says no. She, in her turn, gives him a month to submit to her, or die in the end as sacrifice, and strips him out of his magic.

Meanwhile, Cregan Stark, Lord of Winterfell, greets his guests, Targaryen ladies, with open arms. He is more than happy to affirm his allegiance to their stepmother's side, but he feels that it's not the point of their travel. And he is right: one day, he sees the boy in his dream, who is strikingly similar to the one he sees  since his twelve nameday. He introduces himself as Luke, says that Jace's life is in danger, that Alys will kill him if she would not be stopped earlier and that the only way to stop her is to fly to Harrenhall and to demand her to free any of them. But both Cregan and Rhaena should beware: Alys should release any man or woman, if their loved one will come for them, but only if they'll pass the special test. 

It is not surprising to him that Lady Rhaena meets him in the morning and says that she had the same dream as him. When Cregan asks her about the things Luke asked him to do, she says: 

«To fly to Harrenhall and free them. And pass the test.» she also adds that the tests are passed in the form of knowing the person in their animal form. 

They and Baela decide to waste no time, and fly on Grey Ghost's and Moondancer's backs to Harrenhall as fast as they are able to. But Alys challenges start even there. Both Rhaena and Cregan start to see nightmares, sent by Alys. 

« It is part of our test.» Rhaena once says to him. «Luke told me about the girl, who was so tortured by these nightmares that she had thrown herself into the river.»

And, for Old gods's sake, Cregan understands her as no one. He can't stop this nightmares and he endures them, like the Starks of old endured the coldest winters, where no war(be it with White Walkers, ironborn or lords, that are their bannermen now) was waged. It’s strange to think about them now, when he is heading to the castle of Harren the Black, where the man he cares about and sees in dreams since childhood is held by the witch. And alongside Targaryen princess, no less.

Sounds like a romantic southern song, he thinks. But his dreams are far from it. He sees Jace in his dreams, like their last one, when he defeated the unknown witch, but in those, he loses badly. He sees Jace's arm torn and him being abandoned in the forest, dying in fever and Cregan himself being unable to do anything. He sees Jace being beheaded and his head being thrown to animals and the crows gathering nearby it. 

Which is worse, he knows that this may already have happened. Jace may have lost the duel against Alys, may have already been dead and Cregan is racing here to collect his dead body.

«It is not the case here.» says Rhaena to him. « If he is dead, you would have been too.»

«And how did you know it?» Cregan asks in turn. She blushes, to her sister's taunting smile. 

« Luke told me about it. » she says and tells the story. A story about the little boy, who gave her a flower and did his best to console her at her mother’s funeral, who protected both Rhaena, Baela and his elder brother from their uncle, who attempted to smash his skull with stone. Who, while being sent to live with the witch, deliberately failed every work entrusted to him to be made a servant and be able to enter Alys’s room to be able to read her spellbook, find a spell to enter and connect people's dreams and connect with her.

Even if he did not meet Lucerys Velaryon in person, Cregan feels nothing but an utter respect towards him. He knows what it means to be powerless since the time his father passed away and he was left alone with his cousins and uncle trying to usurp him, but this time he was at home, with bannermen and servants at his side. Lucerys was even younger than him when he was sent away to another castle and yet managed to outsmart his gaoler and use her powers to her own end. 

“And Jacaerys too. He too did everything to fight this witch and was brave no matter what”. 

Cregan doesn’t know why those thoughts fill him with so much tenderness and pride.

Meanwhile, Jace learns that his arm is now affected by poison. What worse, he is now forced to work with others again, but now he finds this tiresome again. He is barely able to stand after the whole day and night of work again, and Alys gives him the red gruel no longer. He don’t know, should he be angry or relieved because of it.

Alys still attacks him  in dreams at night. He still fights back and sometimes even wins. He never sees Cregan in dreams again, and at some point is happy for it, because Alys would not be able to harm him. He still waits for something he doesn't know. When one day she comes to his room and demands him to go outside, he follows her. He goes out of the room and follows her to the meadow nearby the  castle.

When he sees Luke, Alyn and other dragonblood orphans with him, Jace is shocked at first, but settles down the same second. He understands that Alys is gonna kill one of them and is glad that if it would be him, he will be able to see the sky(where he could fly as raven) before he dies.However, instead of taking any of them to be killed, Alys orders him to turn into the ravens.

And then the Dragon roar is heard and the huge gray dragon descends from the sky, with a young man and woman on his back. Another dragon, much smaller and light green, is circling over the castle.

When the grey dragon lands nearby Alys, the man jumps from the back and Jace doesn’t know what to think and how to act. Because the last thing he expected to happen is Cregan coming to Harrenhall alongside a beautiful black woman in red dress.

«Witch Alys Rivers of House Strong.» Cregan says. « I demand you to free both princes of House Targaryen you keep imprisoned here.»

Alys laughs, but her laugh sounds broken.

«And why do you demand them?» she sais. «Do you have a thing for two of them?»

«We ask them to be free.» adds the woman nearby Cregan. Even at night, she looks somehow familiar, and Jace wonders where he could have met her.

«Please, set our loved ones free or… » she pauses. «My sister will repeat the deed of the Conqueror.»

Alys grins smugly.

«If you insist, my lord and lady.» She says. «Find your loved ones in this flock of crows and be free».

She turns to them and smiles. It may have seemed somehow heartwarming to others, but her will falls on them like a stone. She demands them to fly as usual, to keep croaking and seem normal, but Jace knows better. Nettles taught them really well. While other ravens are croaking as loud as they are able to, Luke and Jace stay silient. 

From what he sees now, Alys’s smile doesn’t seem victorious at all. 

It takes a few steps and even less minutes from Cregan to cross the meadow and point the finger to Jace. 

« It’s him.» he says. « It’s always him». 

A minute later, Rhaena follows him and points her finger on Luke. 

Nobody remembers what happened to Alys Rivers that night. Maybe, the fire suddenly gets from her shoes and burns her in a moment. Maybe, her body melts in a second like snow under the sun. Maybe, the man who has been visiting her tores off her face in a second and disappeared. The fact is clear — she disappeared without a trace.

At first they do not know how to react to it. The silience breaks when Rhaena jumps at Luke, crying «It worked» and dragging him into the hug, and Luke hugging her too. None of them cares that Luke’s clothes are worn off and dirty, and, after feeling nervous for a moment, Jace decides he should not care too.

He looks at Cregan Stark. He does not look really different from the man he saw in dreams — everything is here, even the tall height. Sometimes, when they first met, Jace believed that he is nothing but his hidden desire to have a friend, but when Cregan angrily taught about his uncle and cousins, he understood he was wrong.

But nevertheless, it is difficult to believe that he is truly here, that he came here for Jace no less and that Alys is truly dead and gone. Nettles didn’t believe in stories about love saving from dark magic.

But it did. And Jace reaches for the only person from the outside world he has known for seven years.

Cregan’s arms are warm as his gray eyes and his hug is so tender, it’s hard to believe it’s real. 

Luke and Rhaena are dancing near them, and for a long time in his life, Jace feels himself free.

P.S. If somebody failed to find the similarities

Alys - the Master/Miller

Jacaerys - Krabat

Lucerys - Juro

Cregan - Die Kantorka/The Songstress

Nettles - Tonda

Jacegan week 2024: Day 3. Fire and Ice

Semi-crossover with Ice Dragon short story. 

In this AU, Cregan is born a strange boy. He is born cold, but not dead, with grey eyes and part-grey dark hair. Once he starts to grow up, he becomes even more strange: he rarely smiles but never actually cries(even at his fathers funeral), he actually loves the cold weather and can go out even during the bitter cold and collect the snow even with his bare hands. One day, to the great fear of his cousins, he is found playing with the ice lizards without causing himself frostbites. They told their father about it and Bennard is inferred as hell. 

Cregan also has a tendency to disappear from the keep and return after many hours of absence. When one day he says that he flew on the dragonback, nobody seems to correct him or say that only Targaryens can claim the dragons. They are actually afraid of this strange as hell boy.

So, when one day nobody can find young lord Cregan in his chambers, and another day — when Lord-Commander of Night Watch tells them about a huge dragon(the old men of the Watch say that it’s a same size as Queen Alysanne’s dragon) and his rider taking control of Skagos. Another day, there was a rumor about its inhabitants stopping to eat human’s meat.

Nevertheless, Bennard Stark seizes control over Winterfell. Prince Jacaerys still visits him in attempts to get reinforcements for his mother, but, unlike Cregan in canon, Bennard decides to stay neutral and politely refuses. When Jacaerys flies from Winterfell, one of the old servants tells him about the Skagos and Cregan and his dragon living here. At first, Jace doesn’t believe him, but when the servant tells him about the size of the said dragon, he suddenly remembers Aemond and Vhagar’s size. So, he decides to play safe.

If this thing could be said about traveling even further into the North, to the island where cannibals live or used to live(or so it is told). Where it is even colder than at the Wall. 

Nevertheless, he goes here. 

The place is harrowing, to say at least. There are three keeps left and they seem to be fine, but the island himself seems gloomy. Their lord seems the same. When he looks at him, Jace is ready to laugh at anybody claiming Starks are emotionless. By this man’s standards, lord Bennard seems of one of the merriest people Jace has known. His eyes seem to be made of dirty ice and he watches Jace like his dragon watched the food.

He doesn't know that in fact, he seems interesting to Cregan. While Jace gets trouble with deciding what to promise to him for his help, Cregan decides to join him no matter what and asks him to show him the other kingdoms. While he is content with ruling Skagos and wants nothing other than it and flying on the Snowstorm, he is interested in seeing the world in the South.

Nervously, Jace replies: “And you wouldn’t melt?”

To his surprise, Cregan chuckles and says: “Look at Snowstorm, prince, and think again.”

And then he leads Jace to the dragon. His size doesn’t really surprise Jace: he has seen Vermithor, Silwerwing, Grey Ghost and other wild dragons. He, of course, has seen Vhagar and while the dragon is smaller than her it’s nevertheless big.

What impresses Jace is how the dragon looks. The dragon is crystal white, piercingly white to the point of blue, the shade that is cold and hard even to look at. His whole body was covered with frost, so that with every movement the skin was covered with cracks, like a snow crust under a boot, and crumbled in flakes. The dragon's eyes are clear, deep, and icy.

Huge bat wings, bluish-white with iridescence.His teeth are exactly like icicles: jagged, unequal-length ice spears, lined up in a triple palisade to guard the dark blue mouth.

And when this dragon opens its huge mouth and exhales, it does not emit a stream of fire or a burning sulfur stench from its throat, like its smaller brethren. The ice dragon is icy because it breathes cold.

The dragon truly suits the man of the North.

They fly to Dragonstone. On the way here, Cregan and Snowstorm suddenly separate their ways with Jacaerys and Vermax. Cregan says he needs to examine the bay in case of danger. Jace understands it's the right thing to do(who knows whether Greens have their relatives Redwyne’s fleet or not) and flies to Dragonstone. He regrets his brothers would not see him flying with the legendary Ice Dragon.

But soon he will find another type of regret. 

Cregan is present, when they  bury what remains of Luke and Arrax. He stands still, head lowered. Jace by himself is too busy holding Joffrey, but nevertheless he is surprised to see Cregan being emotional about the boy he never knew. 

After the funeral he asks his guest about it and Cregan replies that the killer of his own kin is cursed in the eyes of the Old Gods. And so, he will remain in the South not only to see it but to punish the man who disrespected Gods's law.

It isn’t a promise and lesser than oath of fealty, but now Jacaerys can believe that he will stay. And for some reason he feels happy for it.

It takes a lot of time to convince Prince Daemon not to send the killers to Helaena’s children. Revenge aside, but one of their major alies will not be pleased by this and probably will abandon them to another side. The size of Snowstorm also serves as the argument in the discussion. Eventually, Daemon gives up. However, he and Mysaria still send the spies into the Red Keep and kidnap prince Jaehaerys and princess Jaehaera. The disappearance of her children renders Helaena catatonic and never allows Dreamfyre to be used by Greens. 

Cregan never says anything about it.

Once a day, he and Snowstorm are patrolling the surrounding bays. For some reason, Jace finds himself following him. He trusts their new ally fully, and probably, he does in order for Vermax to fly more and get bigger. So, they patrol the bays and, as the time passes, they start to speak with each other. They speak about their past: Cregan about how he became ruler of Scagos and how he got out of his house, Jacaerys about his conflicted family situation. Ironically, despite them coming from different regions and cultures, Jace and Cregan find a lot of themes to speak about. They nearly got the cold throat due to it, but it their discussions seems them worth it.

Everything major from here and up to the Gullet goes the same as canon, except the Dragon Sowing. The Snowstorm is the same size as Vermithor and Silverwing, so there is no need to recruit more riders in order to get the advantage over Vhagar after Meleys’s death. So, only Addam and Nettles get their dragons — Seasmoke and Sheepstealer respectively. 

The Gullet goes differently. With Cregan patrolling the Gullet with Jace, they notice the Three Daughters fleet attacking “Сheerful nonchalance” and go to fight(with Addam and Nettles joining them later). Cregan destroys the ships surrounding “Nonchalance” and takes baby Viserys out of the battle and Aegon on Stormcloud follows him. However, while shielding baby Aegon on the Stormcloud, Jace still falls from his dragon into the sea, breaking his hand and ribs. He is fished out of the water by Nettles and put under the maesters’ care after that. 

But nevertheless he lives, which leads to his mother's mental stability. During the month of his recovery, Jace and Cregan spend a lot of time together. Cregan by himself doesn’t know what feeling urges him to spend more time with the prince. While living as Skaagos ruler, he repeatedly heard the words of love his subjects whisper, once he met Jace and moved to the South, he listened to songs about it. What he understands it means being by this man’s side, supporting him and deciding to stay in the South. Jace meanwhile takes every opportunity to show Cregan everything in King’s Landing as he feels it’s gonna change irreversibly soon.

It does not help that Snowstorm does not actually seem to like the South. He likes and cares about his rider, but feels uneasy of him growing up close to a mortal man. The only ones to bond with him were the Winter Children — boys and girls with suppressed emotions, who were born in coldest winters, who never cried and rarely smiled, whose hearts seemed to be frozen. They spent their youth with Ice dragon kins, but when the playful young man or woman with fire in their blood catched them, they seemed  to alienate from dragons and eventually left for them. And this time, it seems no different. 

At least, he is gonna die a good death, at duel with the biggest of Old Valyria dragons.

When Aemond starts to burn and pillage the Riverlands, it’s Jacaerys and Cregan who go to stop him here(Daemon goes after Daeron, while Nettles and Addam stay in King’s Landing and quell the Shepherd’s riot). Snowstorm is way bigger than Caraxes, and while Vermax is still young, both of them are tested in battle. And Aemond knows that no matter of size, Vhagar would not stand the fight against two dragons. 

Before the last battle, Jacaerys, not entirely knowing what he is doing and not really sure they are gonna live after that, kisses Cregan, but asks him to return the kiss after the battle. Snowstorm watches them strangely. The old dragon understands that winter goes out of his rider’s heart, and, then, he will likely leave him. 

The Battle at the Gods Eye, where Cregan and Jacaerys are going against Aemond, happens differently from the canon. They manage to catch Aemond off-guard and Vermax manages to blind Vhagar with one single attack. At the same time, Snowstorm attacks Vhagar, biting her into the underbelly and then using his cold breath to cause even more pain to the beast. Then he bites into the tail, allowing Vermax to attack her in the back.

However, Aemond is not gonna go down simply. When Snowstorm is biting his tail, he orders Vhagar to bite him at at the neck in order to get rid of one dragon and his rider, and then do it with Vermax again. But Snowstorm refuses to give up and digs his nails and teeth deeper in the older dragon’s abdomen. Vhagar roars and at the same time, Vermax tears her wings forcing her to let Ice Dragon go. In the next move, deeply wounded Snowstorm tears Vhagar’s second wing off and the oldest dragon falls on the land, killed by the last creatures anybody imagined. 

Aemond may live after the fall and Jace may take his second eye in revenge for Luke. Or not.

But nevertheless, Snowstorm also never gets to live past the next hours. He uses all of his remaining forces to bring his rider to the land without any harm and he is successful in this. Vermax lands nearby him.

And here, the first time in his life, Cregan finally has the tears to fall on the earth. Jace holds him as he cries for the first and for a most of his time the only friend he ever had in this life. Until the tears end.

They give Snowstorm a funeral pyre, and the battle over the God's Eye goes in history books and songs as the Battle of Fire and Ice

Jacegan Week 2024: Day 2, Canon

drabble, 1.4k words

King Jace, AU, minor jacela(political marriage), mentioned jofhaera and Addam/Rhaena

The sun sets over King's Landing as Cregan stands near the Princevault — so this building with the slate roof and high carved doors is called now, with prince Daeron Targaryen, formerly the Daring, kept here. 

It was the surprise when not so long after the war ended, King Jacaerys Targaryen, former Velaryon, declared that his uncle, who barely survived the battle of Tumbleton, would not be executed, but instead held in lifelong captivity.

« I understand your concerns, my lords». — he said to the Small Council. — «But my uncle is not dangerous now. His dragon is dead. He lost his left arm and half of his foot in the last battle, he has numerous burns… He will not be able to fight for the throne. Nobody will follow the king who is crippled to such an extent. And he is still my uncle, and I don’t want to spill the blood of my relatives.»

«Why won’t you send him to the Nightwatch, your Highness?» asked Corlys Velaryon, Master over the Ships then and Cregan, who stood by here with Hand’s brooch on his doublet, was more than agree with him. 

If there hadn’t been a Bitterbridge massacre, Cregan could have even felt pity towards the fallen prince. But not after him demanding to kill all of his inhabitants even after the true killers of prince Maelor were executed. No, he does not understand why Jacaerys spared him. 

« He may be kidnapped by remaining Green supporters during the trip. Here, he would be under supervision. His niece may still visit him, though.» — Here he chuckled.

The only niece the imprisoned prince had was princess Jaehaera, who just goes out from the Princevault, in her blue dress, with her hands hold by both King Jacaerys and Queen Baela. The girl looks not really happy, but content — a wildly different from the tear-eyed, trembling girl Jace described here to him they found when the capital was captured. 

At first, when they didn’t know what to do with her. She was the daughter of the fallen king, of the man, who usurped his mother and abandoned his wife when she lost her son and went mad. But she was still a young, eternally frightened girl too. The better choice was to marry her to someone loyal to the king, who will not rebel to get a crown and has the possessions of his own. There were four men who may possibly wed her - king’s brothers Joffrey and Aegon, or his bastard brothers Alyn and Addam. Some people expected young Aegon to wed Jaehaera, but the King stopped those talks and decided to marry the girl to the middle brother, and also to marry lady Rhaena to Addam, who became the heir to Driftmark. 

«I do not think that Joffrey will be against his bride visiting her uncle when they visit the Red Keep. I am not gonna wed them now cause it’s gonna be nothing, but a farce in this case. I’ll wait until the princess turns at least thirteen and their wedding will happen here.»

«And your brother?»

«Will get a Dornish mark. It’s a hardly controlled region and we need  strongholds both against Dorn and usurper’s sympathizers in the Reach.»

Here, the king doesn’t tell all the truths. Jacaerys never told about it to the Small Council, but said once to him that the reason his uncles usurped his mother may lay in the fact they would not get anything except reduced to mere toadies if she will get a throne. His uncle and stepfather was a son of the king, but didn’t get anything except a place in the Small council and nothing to give his children except the dragon eggs. Cregan thinks there is nothing to pity the usurpers for, but he more than agrees that Jace’s brothers deserve to get their own lands. Granted, prince Joffrey has Dragonstone now, but when Queen Baela will give birth to the son, it will come to him. So, there are the Dornish mark for Joffrey, Cape Kraken for Aegon and Rain House, whose Lord’s family lost  it due to its association with usurper, for young Viserys. And two of them will get new keeps for their families, when the said keeps will be built. 

Cregan sighs as the King gets down on one knee, hugs his niece and then rises and kisses his cousin and wife, who looks gorgeous in her red dress despite being heavily pregnant, on her forehead. He is not of those who can think a lot about his past, but he hardly can believe that only two years have passed since the green dragon and his rider landed nearby Winterfell. Once they hunted together, played snowballs in secret,watched the night sky and  shared kisses in its darkness. Once merely a young grandlord and prince with a young dragon — now Hand and his King, who is gonna be father soon.

But are they the same persons who have fallen for each other during the visit to the North? 

Once they reunited after Jacaerys’s coronation and his mother’s funeral, he voiced his concerns about it. Jacaerys, who there did his best to make Cregan call him «Jace» again, didn’t smiled in vain attempt to make the situation look easier, but lowered his gaze and genuinely said that he didn't know this. He was thrown out of balance by the betrayal of the dragonseeds he recruited, his brother's death and his mother being killed by one of Larys Strong’s spies. Than, they couldn’t find the words to sooth each other and barely sat alone in the cabinet,  pressing their foreheads against each other, and somehow, this was enough. 

And so they decided — no matter what, to be here and watch for each other.

The princess and the Queen leave King Jacaerys, as he goes to him. In the sky, the dragon’s cry is heard, and Cregan wonders, what sea monster is brought to keep by Moondancer now. Last time, Queen Baela’s dragon dragged the whole shark to the Red Keep. 

«We need to discuss some things privately.» says Jace, when he comes to him and Cregan nods. 

Since the war, huge numbers of armies of North, Riverlands and Vale and Blacks supporters from other Kingdoms have occupied the Westlands, Stormlands, Kingslands and Reach — as the lands whose lords betrayed their true queen. In retaliation, they will be put under direct control of the king’s through loyal people for a temporary time. Kermit Tully got the Westlands, Lord Rovan got the Reach, Corlys Velaryon got the Stormlands, and Jeyne Arryn’s heir Joffrey Arryn got Kingslands. And Cregan thinks that the reason Jace called him to his rooms is somehow connected to this. 

They reach the king’s cabinet in a minute and the guards salute to them. They enter it a second after and Jace closes the door. 

Cregan can see the said cabinet. Poets and bards often talk about how wonderful the Red Keep looks like, and sometimes Cregan is ready to agree with them. There is the broken model of old Valyria made by Jace’s maternal grandfather, king Viserys, a huge table, a chair nearby and a fire burning in the fireplace. There are a bunch of letters on the table and a  ream of sheets next to them. 

Then, Jace shows him a bunch of letters. Cregan reads them patiently. These letters come from different cities - or better to say, from unions the prominent ones of these cities, like merchants or most skilled craftsmen. The number of cities are impressive: Weeping town, Vinetown, Pebbletown, Hull, King’s Landing itself, Duskendale, Lannisport, Tumbletown, Bitterbridge… The prominent ones of these cities are afraid - it’s visible in the tone of their letters. The war left them with no protection from the marching armies of lords, especially the traitor lords and so they are asking the king for protection. They will pay money directly to his representatives, will form city militias or empower the existing ones and put the directly to the king’s service if he’ll support them in their initiative.

And there Cregan understands. Now, there are Tully, Stark and Arryn armies keeping the order in former rebel territories, but it ain’t gonna last forever. Sooner or later, but they need to leave home… And then…

« Are you going to use city councils against the former rebel lords?»

And the smirk blossoms on Jace’s lips.

«Exactly». 

Jacegan week 2024: Day One, Ritual

AU, where instead of training the dragons, Valirians were taught to turn into them, albeit the Doom still happened. However, instead of conquering Westeros, they decided to concentrate on Essos and create their kingdom at former Slaver’s Bay lands. So by the canonical Dance of Dragons time, Westeros is divided between Hoar’s kingdom(which includes not only the Iron Islands, but the Westlands, Reach and half of Riverlands)(another half is held by Arryn kingdom). The North is still an independent kingdom and Cregan is its king, newly got rid of his uncle Bennard. One day, Cregan decides to take a ride to Deepwood Moot with his half-sister Sara and lord Servin, his friend. The Hoar still attempts to conquer the North, and the castle is still the stronghold against them. 

Once they get near the castle, it seems that a big shadow flies over it, but it disappears as soon as Cregan looks away. 

And the next day, a young man appears at the village nearby. This man looks quite ordinary - dark hair, grey eyes, slender build - and wears simple clothes but no weapon but a simple knife. He wanders along the shore and village, chats with smallfolk, exchanges drinks with guards and relentlessly asks if some strange things happened here. 

At first, Cregan doesn’t notice him - until he notices that the boy’s clothes are not really made for North’s weather. They are made of linen, and not of wool or leather and totally are not suited even for summer in the North, yet the man seems not to give a damn about this. He doesn't even seem to feel cold.

Cregan is overcomed by curiosity and, despite Lord Cervin’s and Lord Glover’s objections, calls him in, while at the same time attempting to dig where this man comes from. 

At first, it seems it’s necessary, because the man(whose name is Jace) seems to wear his heart on his sleeve. He simply talks that he came from the Bay of Free Men in Essos, where he lived with his mothers, father, four little brothers and baby sister and he just came to travel the world. He tells of high pyramids and earthly gray rocks, of deep blue sea, orange trees and the dragons living among the people. He is ready to tell about long channels of water built and the gardens of thousand trees and flowers blooming in the places where there was nothing but sand one hundred years ago. He tells how the family running from the Doom of Valyria had taken these places for themselves and rebuilt these Bay from nothing.

From the distances of thousand miles, the story of the place is like a fairytale or a legend dating back to the Long Night, and maybe it is hard to believe it here, but Cregan finds it interesting. So, he starts to spend more time with the man from the Free Man’s Bay. He is still interested in why this man came to the North.

When he asked Jace about it, he just shrugged his shoulders and said:

— I need to complete one ritual here.

Cregan doesn’t understand. He knows of rituals people practice: of blood oaths and self-sacrifice, which was used by heathen priests of the Old Gods until the said priests were caught and executed. But what type of ritual does this man want to complete? 

It does not help that Jace is actually a very interesting person to speak with. He is smart, knows a lot of things, is ready to talk a lot about everything including the history of different lands and their legends, and nevertheless, never seems like he wants to boast about everything he knows. He is ready to allow other people to express themselves and listens to them patiently before starting to speak. He does not seem the man who is ready to immolish himself for unknown reasons. And so he soughts to spend as much time with him as possible.

One day, the Ironborn of Hoar attack the coast. Cregan, of course, can’t just stand and watch and enters the battle alongside Cervin. However, since the forces of Hoars are stronger than canon Greyjoys(because their kingdom is bigger and richer), the battle ends up being bloody and Northern men lose a lot of their men. 

Until the green dragon arrives. He flies over Ironborns ships and burns them, and then attacks and starts to kill those Ironborn, who are standing nearby them. The remainings understand what that means and start to throw themselves at Northern positions and one of them hits Cregan into his head and the latter loses his consciousness.

He wakes up at the cave. Nearby, the sea hums. The first man he sees here is Jace, with part of his clothes torn and the green-grey scales on the cheekbones.

Cregan asks for answers.

And Jace - who reveals himself to be Jacaerys Velaryon, son of the ruler of the Dragonmen of the Bay of Free Men - tells him everything. Tells  not only about the kingdom, which is ruled by his mother now, but about his relatives as well, about his brothers and little sister, about his uncles and aunts. He also explains what brought him to the North. The Dragonmen have their special initiation rituals and the young dragonman should make his 12 feats - 6 by his own volition and 6 by another’s choice. He already completed 11 of them and now is doing another the last. He came to the North to complete his ritual and rise to full-blown member of Dragonmen society.

Cregan remembers the stories coming from Vale about dragons kidnapping young maidens, and asks if it is a ritual too. Jace laughs and says that they do not kidnap only the maidens but the handsome knights too - it is how his mother meets his father. However, they do not cause them any harm and the only dragon who burned them alive was his great-granduncle Maegor, who is considered a monster by their tribesmen.

Cregan doesn’t remember, for how many time they kissed eachother after this. 

After that, Jace suddenly gets more serious and tells Cregan about the reason he came to the North - to stop one of the sea snakes terrorizing the costs of the islands. The sea snakes are the bitter rivals of Dragonmen like the fireworms(From whom they descend) and unlike them, are pure animals. He says that those creatures crave human blood and arrive at the places of battles to eat it and leave them after catching humans to be eaten alive. He says that smallfolk believe that giving a young woman to them to fend it off and bring prosperity in winter. For a lot of them this is the ritual. Cregan suddenly understands what those implications mean, gets what to do with it and gets up to rush to the shore to help. Jacaerys understands and goes with him.

And they turn out to be right. After the sea snake comes to the battlefield, the smallfolk uses the usual panacea - Sara ends up as the sacrifice for this sea snake. She ends up chained to the rock formation. 

But as the day closes, and the nobles and smallfolk meet an unlikely couple - a dragon and thought to be a disappeared young lord - who come to rescue the chained lady and get rid of the attacking sea monster forever. 

used to be @1mxg1ne

i’m OBSESSED

darling boy.

prints + merch + dm for commission info :)

i’m obsessed

carnations — mourning, grief, and sorrow; chrysanthemums — commonly used in funeral floral arrangements to say goodbye; apples — symbol of destruction.

prints + merch + dm for commission info

Caraxes the blood noodle

Joking about his neck, sorry