-Chapter 188-

-Chapter 188-

-POV MC-

"Come in," I said, not caring who was going to disturb me this time as I just wanted to move on and rest in peace.

As soon as the door opened, Daenerys entered, magnificently dressed in the colors of our House, wearing a Valyrian steel necklace adorned with rubies.

She glanced in Cersei's direction and then said, "I didn't expect you to be sleeping with the woman who served as the usurper's whore."

"Hello to you too," I said, turning my eyes away from my fiancée to pick up my daughter and gently spin her in the air.

"You didn't answer me?" said Daenerys, waiting for me to provide an explanation for my actions.

"What do you want?" I asked.

"I don't want her. She's a Lannister, they have..."

"Sworn allegiance to our one true emperor and will serve us faithfully body and soul... princess," replied Cersei with a sarcastic smile.

Daenerys gave a small sneer before saying in High Valyrian, "You allow this thing to speak to me this way?"

"I allow nothing, and you have nothing to allow. You do not set the terms. I am free to see and do what I want. You do not have the necessary authority, and even if you become empress, you will not have it. We are not equals; I am the Emperor, you are my empress, not the other way around," I said in High Valyrian calmly, turning my back to her.

"I..."

"You may leave," I said, not giving her time to respond.

I could hear Daenerys's heartbeat growing faster but moving away before the door slammed shut loudly, startling Visenya, who began to cry in my arms.

I immediately rocked her gently to reassure her, but my gaze, which cooled at the sight of my daughter's tears, did not improve the situation.

---

-POV Daenerys Targaryen-

"He had the nerve to dismiss me as if I were just a mere servant," I muttered, pacing in my chambers.

"Perhaps you disturbed him in a rare moment of calm with his family," said Missandei, trying to find an excuse for my nephew's behavior.

"I AM his family, not that whore Cersei Lannister," I said, enraged just thinking about the satisfied smile of that bitch when I left.

"I should have stayed and confronted him more. I am his fiancée; I was queen and will soon be empress. I need to show him that I am not a docile puppy but the blood of the dragon."

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," said Tyrion, entering the room.

"Who let you in?" I said harshly.

"It was you who summoned me, your majesty," said Tyrion, confused.

'Damn, that's right, I did,' I thought, remembering that I had sent an Unsullied to find my 'Hand' as quickly as possible.

Facing my silence, Tyrion acted as if everything was normal and said, "I don't want to rush you or offend you, but you should focus more on yourself than on my sister."

I raised an eyebrow, and Tyrion said, "You were the queen of Dragon Bay, you are the rider of Drogon, you are currently a princess of royal blood, and you will be in the coming moons the Empress of Westeros and all its territories."

"You have experience in governance, war, and reality that my sister lacks. You should fight with those weapons first before trying to snatch your nephew from my sister's arms," said Tyrion.

"You think I can't beat her on her own qualities?" I asked, offended.

Tyrion lowered his head and then said, "You are more beautiful than Cersei; there is no doubt about that. But you will not throw yourself into your nephew's bed as she does. You would have pure and strong children, but you cannot conceive. Those are Cersei's two greatest qualities, and you surpass her in every other area. Unfortunately, you cannot use them."

As I boiled with rage at my Hand's insolence and impudence, he added, "The more Maegor grows, the more he will be under Cersei's influence. I've already seen her do it with her other children, and the more Aegon loves her, the more he will care for Cersei."

I picked up on the phrasing of his sentence and asked, "Why care and not love?"

"He loved another woman?"

"Arianne Martell or that Bellegere?"

"Neither of them, a commoner he raised to the rank of queen after her death, a strong woman cowardly killed by Lysa Tully's assassins."

"Hence his aversion to Brynden," I said, finally understanding that it wasn't just because of his childhood with Catelyn Tully but also because of everything that happened afterward.

"Hence his aversion to you. You allied with all the people he hates, so your image is necessarily tainted by theirs. Now that we are on the same side, we must clean up that image and prove that we are on the same side," said Tyrion.

"Which side?" I asked in a low, defeated tone, because since I arrived in Westeros, I noticed that I was not welcome.

No one wanted to see me here, especially in my place, whether it was the Starks, the Tyrells, the Lannisters. I was a hindrance to all their plans.

'I have no allies because all my allies have no power in Westeros anymore. I am practically a prisoner in my own homeland,' I thought.

---

-POV Sansa Stark-

"Where are you coming back from so quickly?" I asked, alone at the table, to break my fast.

"From my lessons with Master Syrio," said Arya, removing her gloves and throwing them nonchalantly on the table.

"You still haven't given up?" I said in a slightly disdainful tone, as it wasn't her little dance lessons that would make her the first female knight of the Seven Kingdoms.

'She's too small and too skinny for that,' I thought, remembering the female knight I had seen earlier in the training yard, trying to become the first female knight in Westeros history.

"You still haven't given up trying to snare our brother..."

"Our cousin."

"It's the same. Blood doesn't mean much. Aegon is our brother as much as Robb, regardless of his true parentage," said Arya.

I rolled my eyes at her naivety and asked, "Do you seriously think they consider us as such?"

Arya smiled and said, "Yes, you're right. You're so detestable. How could anyone want a sister like you?"

I narrowed my eyes and said, "You're jealous of everything I am and represent because I am the pride of our parents, while you are just a perpetual headache for them."

"Says the girl who was ready to bear descendants for the bastard Joffrey Baratheon while she despised the prince who was ready to do anything for her," she said, her smile growing with each word, turning into a sneer.

I said nothing, and she added, "If you keep modeling your behavior on the image you have of our mother, it's certain he won't consider you as his sister. But you know what's even worse? He won't consider you at all."

I could feel my heart pounding in my ears from the anger I felt, which only grew, but I said nothing, just staring at my sister who grabbed a piece of bread and a cup of milk before walking away to consume her loot in her room.

The last thing I heard was Arya's voice saying:

"The day you realize you're not supposed to be an obedient little sheep and you shed the sheep's skin that covers the direwolf you are, then you'll have a small chance of not ending up dying in childbirth, alone and miserable."

'It's so easy for you because you never listened to anything, but I always did what I was told to do. I always listened to our parents and never did anything to shame them, unlike you who never cared about what they thought, wanted, or felt,' I thought without saying anything out loud, even though I wanted to scream at her.

---

-POV Tormund Giantsbane-

Seeing and living in the world of the kneelers was different from everything we had ever known. We were no longer hungry, and we didn't have to go hunting every day to hope our children would live until the next week, because the kneeler's chief kept his promise.

For entire moons, I wondered if we would ever be tricked by this powerful and mysterious man, but in the end, he asked nothing of us, just to live on his lands while respecting his laws.

'But I could have done without this hypocrisy,' I thought, looking at the man I was going to have to bow to so my people would be well-treated.

"Tormund," said a richly dressed man on horseback.

'Even his damn horse is richer than me,' I thought, looking at the jewels and gilding on the horse's armor.

"Walton, how are you, my friend?" I said to the man who was one of the great leaders of the Empire and the right-hand man in the North of Emperor Aegon.

"Everything is going perfectly well for me, as you can see. I have gained enormously by serving the Empire, and that's why I am here," he said, looking me straight in the eyes with a hypocritical smile that didn't reach his eyes.

"What do you want?" I said.

"Aren't you going to invite me in?" he said, raising an eyebrow.

"After you," I said, showing him the direction to my tent.

Once in my tent, he sat down and then signaled to

 one of his men who unrolled a map on the table and said, "Here is the map of the known world."

Not understanding what was written or marked, I raised an eyebrow, then he said, "You don't seem to understand, so let me enlighten you. Here is Westeros."

Walton used a small stick to show me all of Westeros, then made a small circle in what he called Westeros and said:

"Here is the Gift where the Emperor has given you the right to settle."

"The Emperor has practically declared war on all the other nations of the known world and has begun to launch his plan for territorial expansion. He needs an elite troop of warriors skilled in real combat to carry out incursions into enemy territory, a troop unafraid of anything, mobile, and capable of anticipating and infiltrating deep into our enemies' lands without getting caught."

"That's definitely our specialty," I said, surprised by the proposition.

"I know, and it's in that spirit that I hope you can lend me warriors to fight for me."

"For the Emperor, you mean?"

"No, for the both of us. I want each of the best warriors among your people to join a legion under my control, which will give me more power within the Empire, and I will know how to demonstrate my generosity to you afterward," he said.

I nodded, pretending to understand what he meant and agreeing, but I kept thinking about the advantages and disadvantages of an alliance with a guy like him.

'He's ambitious, and that often leads to ruin, but on the other hand, he has the Emperor's support. If he succeeds, my people could live more prosperously,' I thought, internally debating the course of action to take.