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Rating:
Teen And Up Audiences
Archive Warnings:
Graphic Depictions Of ViolenceMajor Character Death
Categories:
F/FF/MM/MMulti
Fandoms:
A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. MartinA Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms
Relationships:
Rhaenyra Targaryen/Laenor VelaryonJoffrey Lonmouth/Laenor VelaryonCorlys Velaryon/Rhaenys TargaryenDaemon Targaryen/Laena VelaryonRhaenyra Targaryen/Laena Velaryon
Characters:
Rhaenyra TargaryenLaenor VelaryonLaena VelaryonHelaena TargaryenAlicent HightowerAegon II TargaryenAemond TargaryenRhaenys Targaryen (Daughter of Aemon)Corlys VelaryonJoffrey Lonmouth
Additional Tags:
Self-Insertdance of dragonsAlternate UniverseTechnologySelf-Indulgent
Language:
English
Series:
Part 1 of The Blacks, the Greens and the Reds Next Work →
Stats:
Published:2019-09-19Updated:2026-06-17Words:1,084,451Chapters:467/?Comments:4,066Kudos:6,016Bookmarks:1,174Hits:557,654
The Blacks, The Greens and The Reds
Loke_Lyon
Chapter 3: Opening Moves - Chapter 2
Chapter Text
We didn't speak as we made our way back to my rooms. I wanted to point out that Lord Corlys had gone so far beyond propriety tonight that he was possibly approaching politeness from the other side but to do so before Joffrey's spring cleaning would be stupid. Corlys wouldn't take it personally but he'd absolutely use it against me.
I guided Laenor inside my rooms and dismissed the maids and servants with a final request for a pitcher of wine. My lord husband was tense, as if he were made of glass. I directed him to a chair and took a seat opposite him. We did not speak until the steward delivered the pitcher and two goblets. Even then we both had made our way through our first goblet before I started, having spent the silence searching for the right approach.
"I do believe your Lord Father was five minutes away from suggesting he attend to the matter of an heir personally as well," My voice wasn't quite the dry, scathing tone I was going for but it worked to startle Laenor from his funk. He gave a sharp, short laugh.
"Mother would feed him to Meleys," I could see that. Lady Rhaenys had a fierce temper and according to Laena and Laenor, many a maid had been dismissed from their roles at High Tide.
"We can not keep on like this Laenor," I told him in the silence after. The man nodded solemnly.
"I will stick by my plan to wait for an heir but you must provide it."
He sighed heavily and poured himself more wine before throwing back nearly half the goblet. I felt sorry for him, I truly did. He'd found his true love and lost him all in one year. Ser Joffrey may not have died when Criston Cole struck him down but what was left was a pale shadow compared to the man before. Then, whilst dealing with that loss, he'd had to navigate married life with increased duties on Driftmark.
"I do not know how but I will do my best. Do the Alchemists not know of some potion?" His voice was strangely hopeful. I frowned as I thought. Hadn't Melisandre said that she had charms that could interest a man? Or was I just making that up.
"I'm not sure. I intend to visit them discreetly whilst we are in King's Landing but I think we must discuss what comes after," He placed his goblet down and leant forward.
"What did you have in mind?" he asked.
"Today has been something of a wake up call. If the Black Powder doesn't work then I have no back-up plan to ensure my ascent to the throne." Laenor nodded in response. I resisted the urge to sigh. He was a clever man but totally under father's thumb. If I was going to pull him from Corlys' orbit and into mine I needed to involve him.
"What do you think is the best course of action?" I asked and he seemed surprised I had. He seemed to think it over for some time, wine forgotten. Hints of the mind Corlys wanted in his son but was forever crushing with his own oversized ego poking through I supposed.
"We should start with the Crownlands." He began slowly. At my questioning look, he elaborated. "Whoever controls the Crownlands controls King's Landing. If war does break out, we will need King's Landing if we wish to have any chance of winning. Do you know what Lords we can rely on?"
I thought back to the original timeline. Most of Rhaenyra's support had come from the northern regions whilst Aegon's had been mostly southern. That was proving true in my case as well. The fledgling Black cause was mostly made up of the Crownland houses sworn to Dragonstone and Vale lords.
"My cousin will likely side with me," I pointed out.
"Lady Jeyne has only recently obtained her majority and is already embroiled in a succession dispute herself. There's also the chance that raids by the mountain clans could pull their armies away at a critical time." Damn him, he was right. Jeyne had the support of the majority of the Vale lords but there were a few that either opposed her outright or did not care to offer any support.
"Perhaps an offer of support. A letter to my cousin to assure her that I will ensure her rights are respected should armed conflict break out." Laenor nodded in agreement.
"I can try and obtain permission from Father to send overly ambitious male relatives to the Stepstones? It would give Lady Jeyne an excuse to cut them off from their support bases in the Vale. There's still the matter of the Mountain Clansman though."
The Mountain Clansman of the Vale were the biggest problem for a stronger Vale. Dealing with them would not be easy. They were First Men who believed that the Vale was rightfully their's and viewed all Andals as trespassers. The problem with that line of thought was that by now, the Andals had been here for thousands of years. You couldn't just ship them off back to Andalos.
For most of the time, the Clansmen were willing to sit in their hidden villages and attack only the remotest of locations. When Autumn came however, they would swarm down from the mountains into the Vale of Arryn proper and carry out mass raiding for food and women. Jeyne's father and brother had died whilst attempting to mount a response to the Autumn raiding. A story every House in the Vale could relate too.
They refused all diplomacy, they killed people, drove the rest from their homes, stole women and the aftermaths of their attacks often saw even more people dying due to lack of food and adequate shelter. Although it revolted me, they would have to be eliminated. I said as much to Laenor, who merely shook his head.
"The Arryn's have been saying that for centuries. Although, I suppose they've never had a dragon before," he mused. Suddenly, I wish we'd had this meeting around the Painted Table. It would have been much cooler.
"So we cultivate allies in the Crownlands and the Vale as our first step. Give ourselves a core of loyal lords and use the strengthened Black faction to pull in more from other regions," I concluded. It would work as a solid opening move, politically.
Although, even if Black Powder was behaving strange, other things might not be. What was the first thing everyone did in the stories? Seed drill. There were other areas that could be uplifted, not just military technology.
"What about glass houses?" I asked.
"Glass houses? I admit such things would be useful for luring Northern lords to our side," his voice clearly laying out that he thought the Northern Lords would be about as useful as a chocolate teapot "But they are too expensive. To buy and for the Northern Lords to maintain."
"Not if we can make it ourselves." Westeros was fully capable of making glass. The issue is that it was glass of a truly awful quality. Most glass was bought and shipped from Myr, which drove the prices to truly eye watering heights.
"You believe your Alchemy could give us the ability to make glass?" he asked, doubtfully. I wasn't surprised, Myr kept the glass making secrets close to their chest. Slaves were bought as children and raised into the profession, those of them that tried to run away were given horrific punishment and those that stayed and were obedient were given a far better life than even some of the free citizens of Myr. A gilded cage but a cage none the less.
I, however, had an advantage no Westerosi glass maker had.
When I had awoken as Rhaenyra, I had put as much as I remembered of modern technology to paper. Whilst the knowledge of glass creation was not exactly something I could remember now I knew I'd written down some details about it's creation. Along with a whole treasure trove of technology I could use for the carrot part of a 'carrot and stick' routine with the lords of Westeros.
The stick part would, of course, be Syrax.
"I can't. I came into possession of a book when I was younger. A very poor translation of an older work from the Valyrian Freehold. I copied as much as possible but it was very damaged. It contained many useful technologies but the instructions were rather garbled. I know glass was in there somewhere," When in doubt imply that your operating on secrets obtained from the Freehold. Anyone with even a drop of Valyrian blood has a tendency to buy it hook, line and sinker.
It would also cover for the fact that I hadn't exactly remembered many of the instructions. Not that I could remember anything about it now, of course. When I had been four and a fresh, newcomer to Westeros the information had been fresh in my mind but even fresh it was hardly a step by step guide to an uplift.
Oh. Balls.
I'd hidden it in a tunnel accessible from my old room. My old room in the Tower of the Hand
The current occupant of the Tower was Lyonel Strong and his sons, Harwin and Larys. Larys was easy to deal with. He was intelligent and he enjoyed engaging in intelligent conversation without the pity or mocking that he usually dealt with due to his Clubfoot.
Harwin was a whole different problem. My need for saltpetre had seen me negotiate for access to Harrenhal. In my haste, I may have accidentally given Harwin the idea I was interested in more than a simple trade. The result had been awkward and Alicent had probably gone to sleep laughing for months afterwards.
"Technologies?"
Oh, I used an anachronism, didn't I?
"That is what the book called them," I replied with a shrug after the initial moment of panic had worm off.
"Well regardless of the terms a book about Valyrian 'technologies' would be invaluable. Do you still have the copy you made?" he asked, eagerly.
"That would be the issue." I explained the issue with the current location and he sighed.
"The matter with Harwin was ill-done but it can't be helped now. We must retrieve your copy. Once we have it we can use the information to strengthen our allies and bind them to our cause," He looked more animated now than I'd ever seen him and I'd seen him as a rambunctious seven year old that wanted to explore the secret passages of the Red Keep.
"Did your notion of Black Powder come from the book?" he asked after settling down.
"It did. As did the notion of the canon. They put them on ships, you know?" I informed him whilst screwing up the paper we'd been writing details about glass on.
"Imagine that? Pirates would never be a problem again," he murmured.
I poured us some more wine. He took the goblet gratefully and took a sip. I took my own large gulp before adressing the next part of things.
"We have some solid political strategies down but we must talk personal." It was like letting air out of a balloon as he seemed to literally deflate.
"Didn't we already decide we were waiting for heirs?" he almost whined.
"Not that. I'm talking about the image we project to the world at large. As much as it pains me to admit, Lord Corlys was right." Oh boy did it pain me to say that. "You spend your time on Driftmark up to your ears in paperwork and I spend mine of Dragonstone up to my ears in-"
"Bat crap," Laenor interrupted.
"Queer dusts and strange powders," I finished, overlooking his interruption. He smiled and took a drink of his wine once more.
"What would you have us do?" he asked.
"Play the husband. We need to be seen together. Perhaps we could fly Syrax and Seasmoke regularly? And of course, we will need to regularly share a bed-"
"I thought you said this wasn't about heirs," he said with a petulant air.
"Stop interrupting me. As I was saying, we need the appearance of a loving couple. One that had a rocky start perhaps but nevertheless…" I trailed of and he nodded as it sank in.
"I wouldn't mind flying with you regularly. Mother says you have the makings of an excellent rider," I was beginning to think the heirs situation was something of a hot button issue for Laenor. Whenever the conversation even so much as touched on it he became as tense as a cat in a room full of rocking chairs. His relief when steering away from the topic was palpable. His entire demeanour changed in on instant to the next.
"I must thank Rhaenys for her compliment tomorrow. I do, however, remember her telling me that I handled Syrax as gracefully as a rock."
That made Laenor laugh. Learning riding from Lady Rhaenys had been fun. Not so much with my other teacher. I flexed hand around the goblet. After another hour of talking, mostly anecdotes about dragons and mothers, we made our way to bed.
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