Pre-Chapter A/N: Here we go with another chapter. Here on time! Next five chapters on my patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga)— same username as here and link in bio.
XXXX- AEGON TARGARYEN
Lunch with Castor Velaryon had ended up passing quickly. The Velaryon cousin spoke at Aegon, and Aegon replied with either nods or shakes of his head while he enjoyed his first proper meal in weeks. Whatever his mother or grandfather would have said about his manners, he could not care less. Especially not when Sunfyre had come along and even ended up having some chicken for himself as well. He had to roast it further first, but that was no problem.
It had even bought Aegon some precious respite as the Velaryon did manage to stop talking to stare at the dragon, and stare he did. His gaze followed Sunfyre as the dragon moved across the room to have the bit of chicken Aegon offered, and then never left for the rest of the lunch that Aegon had. He was not all that surprised, after all. Castor Velaryon could be no stranger to dragons considering who his cousins were, but Sunfyre was still no regular dragon.
But all that had been hours ago. Now, Aegon stood on the deck of his own ship, well within the territory of the Stepstones. They had passed a few islands already, each one sporting a massive tower that rose up into the sky at the very least. Some had had other features as well. One had a village bustling about near its beach, and another had even featured quite a large number of buildings, but gazing at Bloodstone put them all to shame.
Even from this distance, it was clear that the major island was a world apart from the rest. For one, nearly every bit of the island seemed to be in use. There was the massive city, of course, which no one could miss. And not all that far from its boundary was the castle with its famous red stone. The red the colour of blood that gave it its name.
Closer and closer they got, and the more the distance closed, the more the questions that Aegon had tried to keep out of mind began to bubble to the top again. He could see the city in far greater detail now, and with it he wondered what would become of him. Grandfather had not come to see him since Sunfyre's intervention on that day, but his words still remained burned into Aegon's head. He might have been a child, but he was no fool. He heard the whispers just like everyone did. He knew the realm wondered when his father would do what he was expected to and name Aegon heir. He also knew his father and knew it would never happen.
His father was the King, and was a great man from everything Aegon had seen, but he was not a man with a lot of space in his heart. Rhaenyra had taken it up—the space a father would have for his children—and there was little left for Aegon and his own full siblings. He knew it disappointed Helaena, and that Aemond ached for his attention and approval, but Aegon quite liked the state of things. It meant Mother was the only one whose displeasure he had to worry about when he played most of his pranks. Of course, if he had known that the dragonpit prank would lead to Father paying attention to him and what he got up to, he would never have done it. The traitorous part of his mind that whispered that at least now he was sure his father knew of his continued existence was hushed quickly. Because Aegon would take indifference over this...uncertainty.
His grandfather's words meant now he no longer worried only about what living in a foreign land under another lord would mean for him now. Now, he worried what his failure to charm Laenor Velaryon would mean for Aemond, for Helaena, for the little one in Mother's stomach even now. What it could mean for them when Father passed, Rhaenyra took the throne and sought to remove threats.
He looked at the ships that escorted his. They dwarfed his in size, and were faster still, as seen from the fact that the forerunners had been able to dock at Bloodstone already even while Aegon was hours past. And this was only a fraction of the fleet. And then there were the dragons he had not seen since he was barely a toddler. He remembered Vhagar as blocking the sun with its movement, and Igneel being smaller but no less ferocious. Those dragons, these ships, the wealth that House Velaryon could bring to bear. It would be Aegon's responsibility to ensure that all these things were marshalled together for his cause. For his life and that of his siblings to remain safe, he would have to do what he had never managed or even attempted to do before.
He was going to have to make a friend.
—
Now, he could see the crowd that waited at the docks. He was close enough to make out the man at the centre of all of it. His hair falling down towards his back as his body was clad in fine silks. A black top with black trousers and a pair of black boots. The only other colour he wore was the silver of the sword belt that hid the blade at his waist. Riptide. One of the Valyrian Steel swords of House Velaryon. They were the only house outside of Aegon's own to have more than one of the swords. At his side was a woman in a sea-green dress that hugged her body.
She was near draped over him—so close were they standing to one another. Aegon could not make out much of her face from so far but her hair was the same silver-blonde as his was. As her brother and husband's was. The blood of Old Valyria was strong in them. And he could see that even without seeing the dragons the realm knew them for—Igneel and Vhagar.
When they were finally close enough for Aegon to step on to the dock, he did so with Cargyll at his back.
"Make a good impression" had been the long and short of his usually talkative Knight's advice for this moment. Aegon did not see how he could do so. What did it even mean to make a good impression in this case? To walk well? He dismounted the ship carefully but still could not quite stop himself from stumbling twice on the way to his waiting hosts. The difference between walking on a ship and walking on solid ground was night and day. The small adjustments he had learned to instinctively make to his stride while at sea did not serve him here. Quite the opposite, in fact.
And then he reached them.
"Prince Aegon Targaryen." Laenor Velaryon was the one who spoke. There were no announcers here, nor was there anyone who took the duty of making introductions. The Lord did so himself.
"I am Laenor Velaryon. This is my wife, Laena. Welcome to Bloodstone," he said. His voice was deep and strong. It had a weight to it that Aegon had never heard with anyone else's. It was not like it was louder than most others or anything like that, in fact. It was more like it had a quality to it that made you want to stop and listen when the owner spoke. And listen Aegon did. Aegon did in fact listen so well that it took him too long to realise that it was now his turn to speak. Only Cargyll's slight squeeze on his shoulder reminded him of what was expected of him.
"I am Aegon Targaryen. This is Ser Arryk Cargyll of the Kingsguard. He is assigned to me for my time here. I hope to be a good squire to you, my lord, and to never let you down," he said, looking down at his feet while he recited the words he had practiced more than a few times in the days leading up to this one. It was only when the man across from him chuckled that Aegon looked up, hoping with all he had that he was not flushing and the warmth he felt in his cheeks was fully internal.
"Hope? Why hope when it is entirely within your control. If you want to be a good squire, my prince, then be a good squire. If you want to never let me down, then never let me down. It is so simple. Not easy perhaps. But simple," he said.
"But that is a matter for the future. Whether you ultimately disappoint me or not, it will not be happening today. So for today, we will be giving you a tour of the city and the castle after that. I expect you to pay full attention during the process. You have not been given the facilities to take notes yet, but I am sure you will find your own way to manage," he said. He spoke quickly, but not rushed. Each word chased the other like horses on a march but they gave each other the space they needed to be understood. Understood, if not fully appreciated.
"As for the rest of my household, you will meet them all in time. But for now, this is Maester Bernard. He will be in charge of your weekly assessments to make sure your tutors are teaching you as they ought. I, myself, will assess you monthly. He will ensure you are ready for those assessments, but the cost of failing to meet my expectations will be yours to bear and yours alone. If you are serious about never letting me down as you say, then his words should be the ones you hang on to above all else. By his side is the team of Septons who will take charge of your spiritual development. A Knight is more than a warrior. A true knight must be learned as any maester, wise as any lord, and pious as any priest. They will take charge of the former and latter parts of that process. I will handle the middle as well as the bulk of your martial development," he said next. Aegon nodded again. There was nothing else he could do, after all. And then once the Lord decided that he had said enough, he gestured for Aegon to follow him. He began to turn before he paused and turned his gaze towards Sunfyre.
"Yes, lest I forget. Here on Bloodstone, we do have dragon keepers, but they have their hands full tending to the unhatched eggs our island calls home. Both my wife and I handle most of the care for our dragons on our own. As my squire, you will be expected to do the same. You will see to his feeding, you will ensure that his hunting does not intrude upon the day-to-day fishing or farming activities on the island, and most importantly you will make sure that he does not become a light snack for Vhagar. If he does, the most we will be able to offer you is an apology," he said, freezing Aegon short. Even Sunfyre, who had been crawling the dock, looking from place to place, froze at that, before slowly heading back in Aegon's direction like he was scared of the words he had just heard. But they were a joke. They had to be a joke, no?
Except that Laenor Velaryon was not laughing. Neither was his wife. Their entire group was silent at the words that were spoken. Aegon took a step closer to Sunfyre, rubbing along the dragon's gold scales. Any dragon that wanted to make Sunfyre a snack would have to go through Aegon to do so, he swore. He just hoped that Vhagar didn't have a taste for little Princes as well as little dragons.
And so they began their journey into the city. Aegon followed even as most of the group melted away. The Maester, the septons, even the people he had not been introduced to that clearly came just to get a look at him had gone by the time they made it two buildings deep into the city.
"Bloodstone is the center of the Stepstones—economically, militarily, and administratively. While some of that might change over time, this is the state of things now. So we have people here who do everything: from bankers to glassblowers. From shipwrights to cement makers. Everyone lives on Bloodstone, and because of that, the city is massive and space still comes in at a premium," the Velaryon Lord said, gesturing to the houses closest to the dock. Aegon noted that not one of them was a single floor.
Made of a strange type of fused stone, the houses stretched upwards. Aegon could see four different window levels beyond the ground level. That made five floors per building.
"We built up rather than out to take account of this. The city still has room to grow laterally, of course, but it is best that we make sure that we are making optimal use of the space we have now rather than expanding ceaselessly and then running into problems when we run out of horizontal real estate." Aegon nodded along when Velaryon looked over to him, but he barely understood what any of that meant. Real estate? What did that even mean? Was that another word for land? Or one of the materials they used for their building?
"Most people live reasonably close to where they work. The city is quite walkable but it is still better that people don't have to commute too much just to get to work. Also prevents the walkways from being crowded in the mornings and evenings," he said. Aegon noticed several things his host did not feel the need to mention though. One of them was the cleanliness. There was no dung on the streets. Aegon kept a watchful eye as he walked, but there had never been the need to step out of the way of any feces—human or animal. He had never walked on his own in King's Landing before, of course, but even looking out from within a carriage had allowed him to see just how much shit lived on the streets of a city.
The second was the smell. Or the lack thereof. There was just the pleasant smell of salt and spray from the sea. None of the strange combination of odours that combined and magnified each other that there was in King's Landing. And the third? Well, they were walking through the city. The only guards here were Ser Cargyll and a Knight who followed the Lady around. Two people would not be enough to protect them if there was a riot or a mob. But his host did not seem to notice or even care much about the risk. It said the people here were happy with their Lord and Lady, but not just that.
Because the people of King's Landing loved Aegon and his family. But even they would never have dared just walk around like this. There would have been a mob. A friendly one, but still dangerous to them. However, there was nothing of the sort. People would stop and greet his host, or even talk to him for a minute or so, but there was no crowding. The people of Bloodstone, unlikely as it was, were somehow used to having a Great Lord walk among them.
"The city is arranged in a mixture of concentric circles and quadrants, the—" he continued before his wife stopped him with a cough.
"Laenor, you're confusing the poor boy," she said, and Aegon could feel himself beginning to flush at the look the woman gave him. The Lord he was to squire under turned to regard him then.
"Do you know what concentric circles are, Prince Aegon?" he asked. Aegon shook his head. He knew what a circle was but that word. He did not know the meaning of it.
"Use your words, Aegon. You are a prince of the blood and a Dragonlord in the making," he scolded in a tone that reminded Aegon of his grandfather. The step he took backwards was reflexive, but he hated himself for it. This was not how to leave a good impression. No one would support a coward to be King. Especially not the man who was brave enough to fight pirates before he was even a man-grown.
"Laenor," Lady Velaryon said. She reminded him of his mother. He wanted to retreat to her protection now. But the weight of Cargyll's hand landing on his shoulder strengthened him now. You can not hide behind your mother's skirts, his words rang in his brain.
"N-no, my Lord. I do not know what that means," he said. He recovered well from the initial stutter and felt Cargyll's grip tighten. He had done well.
"Concentric circles are groups of circles. But what makes them special is that they share the same center. So think of it as multiple circles formed around each other, with each larger one being formed around the one just smaller than it," he said.
"Yes, my Lord," he said. Aegon tried to visualise it in his head. More than one circle. Same center. He struggled, but there was no way he could say that. Not when his host looked so satisfied with himself at that explanation.
"There are three circles that make up Bloodstone city. Each one dealing with a different aspect of the city. The outermost circle is industrial. The second innermost one is commercial, and the innermost circle is administrative. Of course, the circles themselves are split into quadrants. First there is the shipbuilding quadrant of the outermost ring. That is where we are now. Next to it to the left is the Cement making quadrant, next to that is glassblowing, and next to that is general manufacturing—things like blacksmithing, carpentry, and everything else that does not fall into the three major groups call that home. Do you understand, Aegon?" Lord Velaryon asked.
"Yes, my Lord," he said. At least he thought he did. He had no idea what this cement was but surely someone would show him in time.
A/N: And we are done with our final Aegon chapter for this section. We move back to our regularly scheduled programming now with a Prince brought in to the Island of Bloodstone and placed in our boy's care. Next five chapters up on patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga) (same username as here and link in bio), support me there and read them early.