BoombaTheSaint

Twenty-one

King’s Landing

98 AC (Tenth Moon—Day 23)

Baelon II

Baelon felt grandfatherhood ill-fitted him. He was scarce versed in elder wisdoms to grant his grandchildren the sage guard they would crave. In truth, he doubted his readiness even for fatherhood, errors riddling his sons’ rearing.

Yet ask if love fled him for his granddaughter, and he’d swear his heart swelled fuller for her than ever it had for his boys.

Twenty

Braavos

598 SF (Eleventh Moon—Day 19) (98 AC)

Syrio I

The dragons are foe. This is a truth that must not be unforgotten even in summers stretching eons past this fleeting life.

Such were the words of the old mothers, whispered through centuries, when dragonlords hungered fierce for slaves and cruelties twisted beyond the ken of common torturers.

Yet since those shadowed days, that wisdom had faded. It ...

Eighteen

Driftmark—Hull

98 AC (Eleventh Moon—Day 13)

Corlys II

Corlys prided himself on all he’d accomplished till now. He’d done what no man recorded had managed. In one lifetime—scarce that, even—he’d lifted a house with naught but ties to the ruling kin and forged a power feared and exalted.

His feats weren’t primed gifts—nay, wit, toil, stubbornness, fickle fortune had wrought them, seeing him here today. ...

Nineteen

Sweetport Sound

98 AC (Eleventh Moon—Day 15)

Viserra IV

Viserra beheld her little ser as he was drawn about upon that small wooden steed of his. Once more he made play at the joust, thrusting his cushioned lance into the pampered poppet erected for him amidst the garden’s verdure.

Jaedar laughed in his frolic, freer than ever before. Viserra took pleasure in his mirth, yet she had grown wroth with the wooden playth...

Seventeen

Havenhall—Hreska

98 AC (Tenth Moon—Day 28)

Tobyn II

Tobyn had rolled into Havenhall a moon back, when that port still had no name worth spitting. Was a right ruckus then, but it had its ways. You hopped off the boat, got in a row, bunched up with a pack of strangers, hauled up for jawing, slapped with a number and a mark, then kicked into a wagon with some rags, a tent, and a boot up the arse for the trail.

One day...

Sixteen

King’s Landing

98 AC (Tenth Moon—Day 22)

Daemon I

A foretold duel was no duel at all. This was truth etched deep as scripture, pure as blood. What thrill lingered in hazard when the end was scrawled plain, carved into the bones of fate?

None!

Little spark in defying destiny’s script. Nay, it was a labor steeped in folly and wild hubris. Yet for all those stern truths, Daemon burned thrice as fierce to cross...

6. Old Horrors

This world was strange.

“Are you sure none of your teeth have fallen from your gums, brother?” It was a fair question, I judged. In all my years here, never had I seen Rhaegar with a smile marred by loss. His teeth were ever whole, though by now time ought to have claimed a few.

I had once thought they must have fallen before my birth, and that the sorcery of our blood had spared him the gaps. A poor reason, yet one I clung to for a while.

“Nuoh!” Rhaegar shook his h...

5. Royal Order

In the moons that preceded the birth of the Lannister heir, the retinue from the riverlands came to King’s Landing. It was a whole host, near the measure of a village in span, lords great and small gathered to voice their woes and beg succour from their dragon betters. The new Paramount of the Trident came to bend the knee and swear his oaths. Bracken and Blackwood once more sought leave of the King’s peace, that they might drench the earth in each other’s blood.

“It shall be an...

4. The Art of Cuisine

Cleanliness. Order. Skill. Delicacy. Passion. Yet above all, cleanliness—thrice more precious than any other virtue in the kitchen, where man’s most elemental need was wrought into sustenance.

Thus was I sorely displeased upon first stepping within this chamber, intent as I was to impart refinement, to enlighten with cuisines of sophistication and novelty, and to cast myself in the part of gracious benefactor.

Misfortune took me by the hand, and what I beheld was naught but a ...

3. Twisted Realism

Existential dread was no stranger to me. Nay, I had worn it long, worn it often. At birth, this second birth, I felt its claws yet. And I wondered then, if I were fated to wander through countless rebirths, an endless succession of lifetimes. Never resting, never permitted to fade into the aether.

This I named the dread of eternity. In my first world, I had known the dread of mortality. Yet in this life, it was the dread of lore that haunted me.

For as I stood, watching knights cl...

2. Discarded Fate

Two years had now passed since mine awakening in this world. In that span, I had learned much, seen much, and come to grasp the traditions and workings of this realm medieval, of the culture of Targaryen, and the concessions it had yielded unto Andal ways.

I had gained respectable motion—no longer crawling, no longer staggering when I stood. Yet I must confess, I broke no records in such matters, and at times my mother fretted at the seeming slowness of my growth. Dishonour upon me, t...

1. Disheartenments of Infancy

In my life before, I would, in moments swollen with grievous stress, ponder how life might fare as an infant. A life idled in leisure, bereft of worry or demand. A dream most coveted by one shackled beneath the burdens of duty, borne of maturity and independence.

Yet, as I lay upon “this bed”, my gaze fixed upon a ceiling ancient and devoid of the aesthetics fore-promised by Pinterest, I longed for naught but that former life of independence, with all its countless woes and wearying...

Fifteen

King’s Landing

98 AC (Tenth Moon—Day 12)

Baelon I

The solar’s arched windows drank in the midday light, spilling a golden flood across the chamber, kindling a buoyant air. The room hummed with a careless ease, its monotony transmuted into something familiar yet wistful—a nostalgia for moments unlived, woven deep into the stones of the place.

Baelon lounged in his chair, gaze adrift, the day’s drag pulling s...

Fourteen

King’s Landing

98 AC (Tenth Moon—Day 07)

Ilyn I

The ride was a dream woven in stillness, a sly quiet that masked its own motion. Subtle tremors, faint as a whisper, betrayed the truth of movement—born of forces beyond the carriage’s own frame. Ilyn was no stranger to such guile. He’d rolled through the realm in gilded wagons on smooth tracks before, as befitted the Faith’s highest servant.

But this ease? Th...

Thirteen

[Rewritten—60% change]

King’s Landing

98 AC (Tenth Moon—Day 05)

Gael III

The bells of the Red Keep’s sept tolled, their knell rolling through the stone halls like a god’s dying breath. Each peal lingered far… lingered sad.

Gael sat rigid in the second pew, beneath a marble Crone whose lantern cast chill shadows across her face. Her hands knotted in her lap, hiding the damp chill of her palms. They mat...

Ch: 12

King’s Landing

98 AC (Ninth Moon—Day 29)

Jaehaerys III

Jaehaerys sat motionless, his back settled against the cushioned chair, the familiar pressure easing the dull ache in his spine. For a moment, he allowed himself to enjoy the small comfort—such indulgences meant more now than they once had. Perhaps tonight he would soak in the hot springs, let the warmth soothe the strain of the day.

A tempting notion.

...

Ch: 11

King’s Landing

98 AC (Ninth Moon—Day 29)

Jaehaerys II

His Hand was dying.

It should have torn at his heart, but Jaehaerys felt little grief—only the sharp, gnawing loss of a mind that matched his own. Barth had been a rare soul, and the king held no illusions that anyone would match the old septon’s steady judgment or unflinching wit.

“It’s strange seeing you like this,” he admitted, standing over t...

Ch: 7

King’s Landing

98 AC (Eighth Moon—Day 19) 

Gael I

The sun stood high overhead, a pale disc burning through the haze that hung over the Red Keep, casting its light across the garden’s tangled center—a hidden spot, hemmed in by twisted vines and crooked yew trees.

Gael sat cross-legged on a wool blanket, the grass pricking through beneath her. Her sundress—light cream linen, embroidered with tiny bluebells...

Ch: 3

King’s Landing 

98 AC (Seventh Moon—Day 29) 

Viserra II

The chamber smelled of old dust and melted wax, the air thick with the scent of parchment left too long untouched. Maps were scattered across the table, their corners curled, ink faded and smudged—some drawn before the Freehold fell, their borders marked by hands long gone to dust.

Maelys stood over them, shoulders tense, muttering under his breath...

Ch: 10

King’s Landing

98 AC (Ninth Moon—Day 16)

Tobyn I

Tobyn was a proper idiot, the kind of unlucky sod whose luck could sour milk. He came from some piss-poor patch of dirt west of the Vale, scraping by under the boot of the Templeton lot. Sixteen years old and dumb with dreams, he up and ran off, chasing big plans in Gulltown.

Some ragged line of traders and drifters came stomping through, and he sold off two of his f...

Ch: 5

King’s Landing

98 AC (Eighth Moon—Day 15) 

Otto I

The prince’s fretting was something to see—rare as an honest dice throw. He kept his dealings close, guarded like a miser with coin. The tavern crowd claimed he had the brains and grit to match the old blood and hardened lords, though plenty still whispered he moved only when the king pulled the strings.

Otto knew better—knew more than most. As aide to th...

Ch: 1

King’s Landing

98 AC (Seventh Moon—Day 22) 

Viserra I

The smell reached Viserra first—a trace of rot beneath old stone, laced with the fading warmth of a place once full. The Red Keep still pulsed with life, though quieter now. Her kin had scattered—some bound by duty, others sent to distant holds.

Her son trotted beside her, bright-eyed and full of energy. Three namedays old, Jaedar darted from wall to wa...

Ch: 4

King’s Landing

98 AC (Eighth Moon—Day 08) 

Viserra III

His hands grazed her skin—rough, warm, callused from work and sword—a firm, steady grip.

A shiver ran through her, a soft moan escaping. Vanys moved faster, thrusts precise, hitting deep. Her body, long neglected, ached and clung to him, eager. She arched, hips raised, thighs parted.

The Valyrian guard took her from behind, all fire and strength�...

Ch: 8

King’s Landing

Eighth Moon (98 AC)

Gael II

Dust swirled in the harsh midday light, kicked up by scurrying servants and the restless scrape of dragon claws on stone.

Gael lingered beside Silverwing, one gloved hand resting against the dragon’s shimmering hide—pearl-white streaked with silver veins, warm with the banked fire thrumming beneath the scales.

Her riding leathers clung close—soft black hide threa...

Ch: 9

Driftmark—High Tide

98 AC (Eighth Moon—Day 24)

Corlys I 

Corlys Velaryon slumped in his chair, sawing at a roast capon with a silver knife that caught the pale light of dawn. He chewed slowly, jaw working, thoughts festering like damp wood left too long in the hold. His eyes flicked to the empty seats—two grand chairs clad in sea-green velvet, now dust-patched and hollow. The silence clawed at him.

Across th...

Ch: 6

King’s Landing

98 AC (Eighth Moon—Day 16) 

Otto II

“Ser Maynard Plumm will dine with you, Ser Otto,” Garlan said quietly, his voice flat and tired. It had only been a few hours since the runner bolted off with the summons. “He’s coming alone—no family in tow.”

Otto barely registered the words, letting them drift past like old gossip. Refusing wasn’t an option—not with House Hightower behind the...

Ch: 2

King’s Landing

98 AC (Seventh Moon—Day 22) 

Jaehaerys I

The sky had darkened as noon neared, the promise of rain heavy in the air before nightfall swallowed the day.

In his solar, Jaehaerys stood before a window, the clear glass a gift from the bronze-men south of the bastard daughters. Beyond, the storm churned violently at the sea’s edge.

Clouds swelled, twisting and dark, like beasts prowling the he...

Twelve

King’s Landing

98 AC (Ninth Moon—Day 29)

Jaehaerys III

Jaehaerys sat still, his back melded to the cushioned chair, its familiar embrace easing the gnaw in his spine. For a moment, he let himself savour the small comfort—such indulgences carried more weight than they once did. Mayhap tonight he’d sink into the hot waters, let the warmth knead away the day’s rigour.

A tempting thought.

He huffed through ...

Eleven

King’s Landing

98 AC (Ninth Moon—Day 29)

Jaehaerys II

His Hand was dying.

It should have clawed at his heart, yet Jaehaerys felt scant grief—only the sharp vexation of seeking another mind as keen. Barth was a rare soul, and the king harboured no hope that his successor would match the old septon’s blunt wit or steady hand.

"Strange to see you so frail, I confess," he did say, gazing at the man abed. "I t...

11. Routines and Classes (4)

Highlands, Hogwarts

01-09-1969

Perteus Graymort:

We threaded back to the castle’s pulsing heart, where students sprawled in careless clumps—lounging on benches, their chatter a low hum beneath the stone arches, like drowsy bees too idle to swarm.

The Defence Against the Dark Arts chamber lay close, the location slowly infected i...