( ACT II; the age of the dragon. )
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chapter 19: a queen of ice.

RHAELLOR'S absence left a gaping hole in Vaegon, weighing him down everyday that passed that the dragon had not be spotted by those delegated to be on the lookout. Working hard to maintain the strength expected of a king, the man fought against his worries to continue ruling Mereen while also planning for the journey to Westeros. With the worries of his dragons mingling along with his everyday stress, he thought on his pearlescent mount, with earnest desire to see his return. Gods only knew where the problematic beast might be, but he would calm his worries with the knowledge that most anyone in the world would be too frightened to face a dragon; a quickly growing one at that. Yet, as they had already learned, there was not much to be done for those who might come in contact with the king's unruly mount.

He frowned, arms crossed as he watched Raina caress the muzzle of Haelyx, the sun high in the sky as they stood in the prairie where he'd last seen Jorah. Where he'd cast him out. He'd made an effort to not recall the event just a few days prior despite having agreed to go with one of his future queens to visit the dragons, particularly Haelyx.

Jorah's betrayal was still far too fresh inside for him to face. The man he'd come to see as a father in the year they'd spent in the Dothraki sea, the man that had offered endless advice to him once he'd stepped forward as the heir of his house and sought to take back the throne that was his by birthright. He was wounded to think that perhaps the genuine connection he'd built with the knight had been nothing but farce. Vaegon wanted to believe him when he'd begged for him to listening, for him to understand why he'd been in Essos and how things had changed, as he had said. None of it mattered now, now that Jorah had been exiled once more.

The emerald green dragon before them, brilliant with color as the sunlight reflected on her scales, seemed infatuated with Raina, inching her large head closer in an effort to receive more scratches and gentle cooing from the Stark woman. The king was still utterly astonished and confused with how Haelyx had taken to someone with no Valyrian blood, someone of lineage deep rooted in the north.

Yet, he reminded himself that in a few rare instances there had been riders without it. He remembered reading of a few in the Dance of Dragons that had been recruited for the Blacks. Potential dragon seeds, he'd read, but still without an obvious lineage. Raina's very apparent northern heritage still left many questions unanswered. But the potential to have both of his queens on dragon-back was almost enough for him to be content with the facts of the situation. He didn't need to delve further into his curiosity.

Imagining Raina atop Haelyx's back, Vaegon cocked a head as he watched. The she-dragon was gentle, a mirroring personality of the woman that stroked her muzzle, unlike her clutch-mates Rhaellor and Drokar.

"Why don't you try to mounting her?"

Raina turned, giving him a wide eyed look, her face pale at the suggestion. She pursed her lips as she looked back to the dragon that was demanding to be touched in the way of a purring cat. "I don't think I'd like to risk such a thing," she told him, hand continuing the stroke along the hardening scales of the maturing dragon. "I'm lucky enough she enjoys my company. I don't want to ruin it by trying to climb on her back."

Wandering froward to stand next to her, he put a hand at the small of her back and gestured with his other to the dragon. "I don't mean take flight, love. She is not large enough to bare a rider, anyway. But she can handle you sitting there, learning the feel of being on dragonback."

Raina looked to Haelyx's back, the spot where she would sit if she were to take his suggestion seriously. "You act as if she would be my mount one day."

Having thought on it many times before, Vaegon was ready to tell her. "We've already discussed that you will be one of my wives," he told her. "I'm not going to have one of my queens without a dragon. Especially if the remaining dragon in our ilk has taken a liking to her."

She chuckled in disbelief as she looked back to Haelyx. "A Stark riding a dragon. My father must be rolling in his grave as such a notion." She ran a hand along Haelyx's neck, the beast emitting a purr-like noise muddled with a animal's groan. "Perhaps I could try."

Vaegon grinned as he stepped back, eyes fixed on her as she hesitated to go to the base of Haelyx's neck. The dragon allowed Raina to find a foot on the available surfaces of her leathery wing, the woman scrambling her way up while trying to find holdings to secure herself. Situating her dress to allow her legs to straddle the dragon's back, Raina sat seated on Haelyx. A smile appeared on her face. Part of Vaegon envied the dragon, as he'd do anything to have her straddled on him.

"It looks natural," Vaegon murmured as he looked up to her, a warm smirk on his lips. Haelyx seemed ready for instruction, willing to listen to Raina unlike she had with anyone before as she tilted her head slightly to the side as if to look to her rider.

"It feels natural," Raina agreed, eyes wandering along the neck of the dragon and her beautiful frills. "Perhaps some pants rather than a dress, but she is warm. Really warm."

Vaegon smiled. "That'll be advantageous when we eventually make our way north. I'm sure you will wish to see your home again."

Raina frowned as if reminded of how long it was since she'd seen her home. "As far as I'm aware, Winterfell is held by Bolton's. Beyond that, I have not heard a thing of my home and who holds it."

"But you would like to see order restored to it, surely?" Vaegon asked. One of his hands rested on her dress covered thigh. "Perhaps we could see it restored. You could have your choice of who would rule as warden."

Raina frowned. "If any of my siblings still live, they would be the only ones," she sighed, a hand tracing circles around one of Haelyx's scales. "I wouldn't see anyone else there. I'd sooner take the place myself than see anyone without Stark blood holding the North. Even though I'm just a legitimized bastard."

Vaegon cocked a head as he looked up to her, violet eyes narrowed from the blinding sun. "Your brother Robb legitimized you, correct? When he was a king." Before he was slaughtered, Vaegon had learned just weeks ago. The reason Raina had chosen to stay in Essos with them, how she'd grown close to he and Daenerys. Perhaps a selfish and horrible thing for him to be thankful for, he couldn't think of another way he might have kindled something between them.

Raina nodded before he said, "You were legitimized by a king. To me, that's more than enough. Had that not been the case, I would have done it myself. Besides, you'll be a queen soon enough, anyway. One of the most powerful women in Westeros."

Raina's gaze fell to her lap as she seemed to hide a smile behind her curtain of windswept midnight hair. Swinging her hair behind her back with the wind, she looked down to him with what he thought might be a glimmer of admiration. Surely it was, for they'd expressed their feelings already.

"I think dragon-back suits me," she murmured. "Though I'd like to see you and Dany with me."

Imagining the three of them flying together, he flanked by both of his queens as they pursued the capital, he was filled with excitement that help eased the troubles he'd been facing. Rhaellor would be back soon enough. Their dragons would grow and they would soon be soaring the skies, death from above.

Raina gave Haelyx one last pat before swinging her leg over the dragons back and beginning to descend. Vaegon met her before she could land on the ground, his hands finding spots at her lithe waist as he assisted her the rest of the way.

They did not pull apart once her feet had touched the ground, violet eyes meeting midnight at they looked to each other for a long moment. All manner of emotion swam in their gazes, desire, longing, lust speaking their thoughts without words. Only the roar of Haelyx drew their attention toward the she-dragon beside them, whom had turned lifted her sail-like wings high above her as she pumped hard into the air.

Wind battered the two, causing them to draw closer to each other while the wind to send Raina's waves billowing. Once Haelyx had ascended high above them, they finally looked back to each other.

"I have seen much sorrow in the few years my family has split apart," Raina told him, her gazed fixed on his chest. She played at the embroidered dragon that covered the left side of his grey summer doublet, over his heart. "But since I have traveled to Essos, since I have found you and Daenerys, I have started to find comfort again. These dragons give me hope." She looked toward the sky for a moment, where Haelyx had become a small dot against the blue.

Vaegon listened intently, nodding as she continued. "But I will not be content until I see justice enacted on those who harmed me and my family, who stole my innocence," her eyes focused on his and he could have sworn he saw a fire burning somewhere in her dark eyes, angry and waiting. "If you will it, I will take Haelyx as mount, help you take the Seven Kingdoms back, and become one of your queens. All that I ask is that I will see those that deserve justice are burned. That I burn them with dragon fire."

At her declaration of justice and revenge, the king soon began to realize that his future queen, the one he had previously thought was cool and collected, the gentle hand that would ease his own raging fire, had a sliver of the Targaryen heart he knew the Realm needed. A queen of ice, an element that could be just as deadly as fire. That- he needed.

He simply nodded.

♜

BARRISTAN was always kind to Raina when she'd still be trapped in King's Landing, a place she'd been so enthused to be living in so long ago, when she'd been a naive child before all semblance of innocence had been ripped away from her. An unspoken understanding between the two had been made fairly soon into her role as Princess Malkyn's handmaiden, when Raina had been subjected to Joffrey's sinister games toward Sansa that she'd often be dragged into. Anytime Sansa was accused of being a traitor, brought on by any news of the war front with Robb, the two sister were subjected to abuse.

He'd been there, the day she and Sansa had been pulled before all of court and humiliated, claiming they were traitors to the crown for their mere affiliation to Robb, who'd had done a fine job in defeating Jaime Lannister's forces. She could still remember the pain that had blossomed in her ribs with each kick she'd received while curled on the slick floor of the throne room, she and Sansa's cries mingling as the court watched in horror and didn't do a thing. The Hound, a man she'd been quite anxious around at first, had immediately come to their aid as he had wrapped his cloak around them both as they had a clung to each other, dresses ripped from their backs as they were about to be stripped and beaten, all before Malkyn had stood against her brother in their defense. His threat toward her didn't hold any less meaning just because she was his sister.

Part of her missed the princess. The girl had made a quick change of heart that only Raina had been the only one to see. She'd made efforts to shield Raina from the boy king's incessant demands to punish her. She'd done everything she could to make her time as prisoner in the Red Keep as bearable as possible. She'd become a companion, but it was short live before Raina had been whisked away with Petyr Baelish in a plan devised by Tyrion, the Old gods bless him. If not for his smart and quick actions, Raina would likely be dead.

Barristan had seemed to fill a role of a father figure to Raina, proving solace after every encounter with Joffrey and trying his damndest to protect her when he could. She wasn't sure if she considered a father figure so quickly because of her father's execution, but the reality didn't matter. She cared for Barristan.

The day after she had sat on dragon-back for the first time, she found him sharpening his sword in the common chambers, late morning light illuminating the room from the balcony's open doors. The sound of the river stone he worked over the blade was rhythmic and soothing as a metallic sound rang out. She found a seat next to him, which drew his attention to her.

"You outshine the shadow of a girl I once knew in King's Landingc my Lady," he said by way of greeting, never stopping his sharpening.

She hummed a chuckle. "I have grown much since then."

"You have a strength about you I wish every soldier had. We might have won more wars in my days if that we're the case," he flipped the blade to begin working on the other edge. "But I must admit that I am pleased to see you fairing well now that you are away from that horrible place."

She nodded. "The only regret I have is that I did not kill Joffrey myself," she sighed. "Though the rumors I hear from a crossed the sea is that my sister is claimed to have done it. But Sansa is such a fragile thing I'm not sure she would have the guts to do such a thing."

Barristan frowned. "For her own sake, I hope she didn't. And that she finds a way to get out of there, if she hasn't already."

The possibility of Sansa having escaped is a small mercy Raina hopes is the case. As far as she was aware, she was the only sibling she had left save for Jon, who was somewhere at the Wall.

"You have grown quite close to His Grace," Barristan stated, changing the subject. "As well as the princess."

Recalling that Barristan was not officially informed of the dynamic that had been created between the three of them, she figured there was no better time than now to enlighten him, though she was unsure if he would approve. He didn't have quite an input on it all, but he could definitely provide counsel they would not appreciate.

"The king and princess have grown very dear to me," she admitted, careful with her words. "Though I fear the dynamic of our situation may not be pleasing to everyone."

He paused momentarily to look to her and shrugged. "There is not much that surprises me. I am an old man, after all. I have seen much."

She sighed. "The king has asked me to become one of his queens."

Barristan paused for real this time, taking a moment to speak. "One?" Raina nodded. Luckily, he seemed to only think on it for a moment before going back to sharpening. "I suppose the Conqueror had two wives. The only way I could see this not working well is with the Faith. And the general masses, of course."

Relieved that he was not crying outage for the future of House Targaryen, Raina allowed for her tensed shoulders to relax.

"That could present issues once Vaegon has taken the throne," Raina agreed. "But we need to take the throne first."

"Having three dragons may help with that," Barristan half joked. He sighed. "I wanted to tell you that I am proud of you for everything you have been through. I made my best efforts to defend you, to be there when I could despite my oath. Though I never fathered any children of my own, you were the closest I ever came to having a daughter, my Lady. And I am proud to say that I have the opportunity to serve you in better circumstances."

Touched by his words, Raina offered a warm smile. A silver lining formed on the edges of her eyes. "I can say that I feel the same way, Ser."