Chapter Text
Sansa
Envy.
It’s the one feeling she never thought she would ever have when it came to her elder sister.
She would admit that when they were younger, there was the occasional petty jealousy. Her sister had always been pretty and often Sansa would make taunts unbeknownst to her sister about her being a bastard but deep down she suspected Joanna always knew.
Growing up she had never been close to Joanna and always made sure to keep her distance, whether it was to please her mother or the fact that father and Robb favored Joanna more than they did her.
They only interacted when it came to their lessons on how to be a proper lady in which Sansa had her beat by a mile. Joanna’s interests always lay on the more manly aspects.
She mainly enjoyed swordplay, archery and riding. Something that made Arya and Joanna close but never with her.
Their relationship was always fraught and she hadn’t even remembered the last time she had seen her sister before she left Winterfell. Sansa had been so happy to see Arya miserable for them parting from her precious Joanna, for that sisterly bond that Sansa could never have with either of them. She had also been happy at the time that she would become Joffery’s queen.
Looking back those were foolish thoughts that had led to her suffering. The signs were there particularly when she regarded Joffery’s family.
She remembered that day in the courtyard when Joanna was sparring with Robb and beating him as per usual with Arya cheering her on gleefully. Joffery had sneered at her brother and he claimed that someone as pretty as Joanna should not be carrying a weapon.
Things escalated from there and soon Joanna was sparring with Joffery when she struck him down. The whole situation almost turned ugly with Joanna receiving the blunt of the blame but King Robert let it go and laughed it off, though she would never forget the look Robert had given her sister.
It’s the same look Littlefinger would give her.
It was one of the first signs of her fairytale slipping, that knights weren’t as gallant as she thought they would be, that princes could be vindictive and downright cruel.
It’s a tale that brought her from the hell of Kings Landing to the uncertainty of the Vale then to the wall and on to Winterfell back at her home.
Baelish had been planning on marrying her off to either Lord Hardyng or Lord Bolton’s son Ramsay. Sansa wanted to refuse both and was ready to expose his part in her aunt’s death but then they heard the news of Joanna who had somehow amassed an army of Wildlings and a few of Robb’s loyalists.
It was quite an incredible tale and one that led them to capturing Winterfell.
While Sansa was under constant torment of the Lannisters. Joanna had led a different path.
Joanna had told her that after she had constantly tried to plead with father to let her marry a minor lord and find her a husband before he left for the Capital.
Father had refused and he claimed that Joanna’s mother’s ghost would haunt him for eternity if he did that. Joanna had told her that was when she knew her mother had not actually lived and Sansa felt a semblance of sadness for her sister for her never knowing who her mother was.
Joanna had tried to plead her case to Robb claiming that she could not stay in the same house as Sansa’s mother who despised her.
In retrospect, Sansa could identify Robb’s intentions as they were, Joanna had assumed Robb had refused her because he was trying to protect Joanna as a brother but that had not been the case at all.
When her father had been imprisoned. Joanna told her that she rode with Robb to see them all free. Sansa assumed that she would want to see father and Arya free though, she doubted her sister held her in that much regard even if she claimed she rode for all of them.
She had heard of the battle in the Whispering Wood. Joanna had always been a capable swordsman she knew but she had never known how good. Apparently Joanna had disobeyed Robb’s orders and entered the battle. Sansa was sure Robb would have been upset but Joanna had apparently slain many a man on the battlefield and she was the one that had defeated and stopped Jaimie who was renowned to be godly with a blade.
Joanna shrugged it off and claimed that maybe now she would be able to fight with him cleanly because she had vastly improved with the sword. But she claimed that when she fought Jaimie, the Kingslayer had actually beaten Joanna when they dueled but he accidentally slipped in the mud before he could give her the killing blow and Joanna used Ghost to level him down.
Though that is not what their men sang.
It was a great boon for them to capture the Kingslayer and Joanna had become one of Robb’s fiercest warriors, claiming bodies and even mustering enough respect to become one of Robb’s battle commanders by helping him win numerous battles.
But as things were looking up for House Stark for once, things had to turn for the worse.
Her mother couldn’t tolerate Joanna’s presence. Sansa knew that her mother disliked the girl for obvious reasons but she never thought it was hatred. Joanna was obviously beautiful, more so even now. Arya during their lessons had once bemoaned how she wished that she would age into becoming a beauty like Joanna whilst still being able to fight. Sansa always scoffed with Jeyne that Arya would never become that, it was an extremely petty action born out of jealousy and Joanna quickly reprimanded them for it before reassuring Arya and telling her that she was already beautiful.
The both of them had shared the same coloring, the Stark coloring. But Joanna was different; her features were more striking and captivating. Her figure enticing. On deductive reasoning alone you could easily conclude that if Joanna was beautiful then her mother was probably otherworldly.
It would make sense why Sansa’s mother would be put off by the girl’s presence because she had clearly gotten her beauty from her mother. And though she understood her mother’s insecurities, the events that transpired between Joanna, Robb and her mother always left Sansa puzzled.
Robb had fallen in love with Joanna which was a surprise to Sansa at the time. But looking back, the signs were always there, the longing looks that Robb would always throw Joanna’s way, ones that Sansa just played off as him favoring her over all their other siblings.
The way he would always be aggressive to Theon who lusted after Joanna and would make a snide comment about how she should be his salt wife instead of a bastard.
How Robb constantly refused to wed her off during the war. Even when it came to House Frey, he gave Arya’s hand but refused to give their bastard sister.
Robb had always fancied her and that fancy turned into love. To the point that Robb wanted to make her his Queen.
Sansa had tried to ask Joanna if the rumors were true and even more pressingly, if Joanna had been in love with Robb herself.
Joanna had clenched her jaw and she had the same look that she had when she beat Ramsay within an inch of his life.
There were rumors that they had coupled. Joanna and Robb. Sansa had no inkling if they were true but given the way her hand drifted down to her stomach subconsciously, she started to suspect they were true.
Rumor had it that she had even been pregnant with his babe but the babe never lived.
Her mother had caught wind of their coupling and the infighting was incessant, her mother protesting that their bannermen would abandon them if they found that brother and sister were lying together. The fighting was so bad that it got to the point that when the opportunity presented itself, Joanna chose to ride back North as Robb continued his campaign.
Joanna had gone back to find Bran and Rickon who at the time were assumed dead despite Joanna’s disbelief.
Her departure had broken something in Robb and Catelyn tried to use it as a moment to honor the marriage pact with the Freys.
Robb was willing to relent but then he had heard news that Joanna might have been with child and before the negotiations could begin again, Robb refused and offered up their uncle Edmure instead.
Sansa knew that the Frey family had already betrayed them way before the meeting but she always wondered what would have happened if Robb had said yes and not declared that he would marry Joanna, who would be his queen by marriage or in the events of his death would become queen as his heir, with him having legitimized her in front of witnesses.
Their bannermen despite the respect they held for Joanna weren’t entirely accepting of this conundrum.
That is how Robb and her mother died, at the hands of the Lannisters, Boltons and the Freys.
Joanna had managed to reach Winterfell but by the time she had arrived she had been ambushed by Ramsay.
Joanna managed to fight as hard as she could but she suffered a blow that supposedly caused her to miscarry. Something Ramsay had been happy to remind them about when they parlayed before they took back Winterfell.
Joanna had not reacted so Sansa assumed they were just rumors but the way she had been pummeling Ramsay and screaming with rage when she took Winterfell, it indicated that there may have been truth to her carrying Robb’s child.
Joanna was dealt a blow by Ramsay’s forces but thankfully she had managed to escape and made her way to Castle Black just a few moments before Robb would reach the Twins.
Joanna who was still wounded had heard that Bran and Rickon were beyond the wall but she still prodded along with the meager amount of men that had been slaughtered by Ramsay. Joanna claimed that she sent a raven to Robb warning him that if Ramsay had been acting against her then it meant that Roose had betrayed him.
Joanna stubbornly rode out beyond the wall to the Haunted Forest in search of their brothers but her wounds proved more nefarious than they appeared and she was lucky to have been found by a Wildling man.
Val was a handsome bright blue eyed man with blonde hair, the son of Mance Rayder the former king beyond the wall.
Sansa knew that Joanna had taken him as a lover though Joanna never really denied it.
Joanna herself claimed that she had used him to get over her grief of Robb and the feeling of being alone in the world had been to unbearable.
Val had tended to her wounds and introduced her to the Wildlings or Free-Folk as they were called.
From then on Joanna negotiated with the Nights Watch to settle them at the Gift.
She had placed various conditions on them. Making alliances with marriages to the Northmen that secretly came to proclaim her as queen after they lost their King at the red wedding. Joanna even took the children of the Wildlings as collateral should they disobey any of her rules.
This was all ruined when Stannis arrived at the wall. Wanting to undo all the progress Joanna had made.
Stannis wanted her to bend the knee to him, something Joanna would not do.
The Wildlings always claimed that she refused because she was one of them now but Sansa knew better. It was because of Robb.
They managed to keep peace amicably despite Joanna refusing to kneel for him and fight for him, Sansa was sure that was mainly because of Ser Davos who had convinced Stannis that if he had taken Winterfell and proclaimed it towards Joanna then she would in turn be loyal to him.
Joanna had admitted to her that she never would bend the knee for any king and instead focused on making sure that she could bring all the Wildlings south of the border. She had been successful in bringing in up to twenty thousand people but that was only a portion of them and more had settled in Hardhome. Where Lyanna encountered the Others.
It was even more vindication for what she was doing but certain men in the Nights Watch saw it differently.
Joanna had lost her life and Sansa would have doubted her but the scars in her chest was all the proof she needed to know her sister was being truthful.
Luckily for them, the red woman brought her back.
The Free-Folk they had managed to bring beyond the wall saw her differently now. Even the Northern Lords saw her differently.
She was now some sort of God to them.
A god that had up to fifteen thousand wildlings able to fight for her and up to three thousand northmen.
Littlefinger caught wind of this and decided that they use her armies to retake Winterfell and save Rickon.
Sansa had agreed and had finally seen her for the first time at Castle Black and honestly she felt joy at seeing her sister once again.
She had asked Joanna when they would strike but Joanna was hesitant claiming they needed to man the wall because of the real threat. That wasn’t until Sansa unveiled that Ramsay had just become Warden of the North and he held Rickon
Rage splattered in her sister’s eyes when she heard of Ramsay again and that was the only prodding needed as they made their way North.
Sansa had not told her of the Knights of the Vale, partly because she didn’t trust Littlefinger and also the fact that if Ramsay by some miracle had gotten the better of them then the Knights of the Vale who rode for her would save the day.
In hindsight it was a silly move.
Joanna had used her forces as a way of showing Ramsay that he was hopelessly outnumbered and outmatched.
But Ramsay held Rickon and he had Winterfell to keep him safe.
Even despite the fact that Joanna had giants and mammoths amassed in her forces, if she made one wrong move then Ramsay would have killed their brother.
Joanna wanted to use her forces not to intimidate Ramsay who was dead either way but to scare his men into surrender. If she had brought all nine thousand of the Vale forces then it would have sent a more deadlier message and perhaps Rickon might have been saved.
Joanna had used secret tunnels that she used with Arya when they were young and snuck in men to sneak up on Ramsay and grab Rickon before they stormed the castle.
But to their dismay Ramsay had poisoned Rickon; apparently he had tried to kill him way before that but the generals in his army had stopped Ramsay.
Joanna had lambasted her and stated that had she known that the Vale was riding for their brother then she would have planned it differently.
It didn’t matter in the end though.
As Joanna pummeled Ramsay, two bastards and one beaten beyond recognition to the point of death before she sent him to the wall for her experiment.
Joanna had been sending dead bodies with scouts beyond the wall and the moment they animated, they would bring them back.
When she had seen the evidence, she gasped and Sansa’s world had changed and perhaps that was the exact moment when she was more on her sister’s side.
That did not stop the envy though.
As everyone fell to bend the knee and proclaim her as Queen in the North.
It was a strange irony.
How she had always been trained to be a lady or a queen and her sister as nothing but a pretty bastard and yet in the end Joanna was queen with men willing to die for her.
She truly envied her sister.
But despite all the bitter feelings that she would never let bubble up.
Sansa also loved Joanna.
It was hard not to.
Currently they sat in her father’s solar discussing her sister’s intended meeting with the Targaryen King.
It was her, Joanna, Brienne, Davos, Littlefinger, Lord Royce, Tormund, Val and both her uncles Edmure and the Blackfish.
It was a strange assortment of people but together it united the true North, the North, the Vale and a defeated Riverlands.
Amassing forces of up to thirty thousand all following her sister’s cause.
One powerful enough to take over the seven kingdoms. Something Littlefinger would constantly whisper into her ear hoping to tempt her.
Joanna held the four letters.
‘Seems as if you’re a popular person my queen’ Davos stated with a quirky smile.
Joanna let out a small grin highlighting how breathtaking she was before her sister leveled herself and become more solemn and serious.
‘Two proposals, a request and a threat, it almost makes me yearn for the days when I was but a bastard and no one cared who I was’ Joanna’s voice was stern and husky, Sansa had noted.
A voice that demanded attention. With her warrior pose and her sword Longclaw which she had found when she journeyed into the haunted forest.
Sansa had read over the letters.
The first was a letter written by Ser Barristan who was hand of the king. Claiming that he served Daeron Targaryen, son of Aerys. And that the man wanted them to meet near the neck to discuss an alliance between the two and to see her sister bend the knee to him as the rightful King of all the seven kingdoms.
The second was a proposal by Aegon Targaryen, a man thought dead who claimed to be alive. This Aegon wanted her sister’s hand.
Curiously enough Baelish had suggested that Sansa wed Daeron and her sister wed Aegon. He suggested that Aegon had more of a birthright but Sansa had seen between the lines.
Baelish had told her that he recognized the spider’s words in the raven sent to them and that sealed that when it came to this Aegon Targaryen.
The second proposal was from Euron Greyjoy who claimed to want to help her sister fight against the dead but only through a marriage pact.
A nothing proposal considering the fact that Littlefinger had told her that Euron was riding to Casterly Rock to meet Cersei.
Which brought her to the last letter that warned the Starks of who the true rulers were. Cersei had fled the capital after blowing up the Sept of Baelor. The people had begun to riot and that added with the fact that this Aegon was marching to the capital with the Golden Company and Dornish forces.
Cersei decided to hole herself in the Westerlands with her brother and the Lannister army.
Sansa knew Cersei and she suspected that the woman probably left a calling card that would win her back her throne.
‘Your grace, forgive me for stating this but wouldn’t the smartest thing for us would be to side with the Dragon King. He has already stated he would offer his support should we support him as well’ Davos said.
Joanna nodded in contemplation.
Sansa knew that this Daeron was the obvious choice. He had three dragons and up to one hundred thousand men along with the Reach and parts of the Iron Islands as allies.
He was the clear winner in this war.
‘I thought by sending each of them proof, that they would all put aside their nonsense and join me but men are fickle’ Joanna remarked.
When the Bolton forces had surrendered, Joanna had offered them a choice. Death or the wall, most chose the wall.
From there Joanna instructed that a group of them to go to each kingdom and show them the proof of the wights.
So far only this Daeron and Euron had acknowledged it.
‘Perhaps a marriage with this Dragon King will be your best solution’ Davos said and when he saw Joanna try and form a protest he held his hands. ‘Your grace you won’t kneel and that’s fair but someone has to let up to help fight this threat, no one in the realm believes in this Aegon even if he managed to curb the small folk after taking the city.’
Joanna sighed.
‘Fine I will meet with this Dragon King. Sansa you will rule Winterfell in my stead’ she ordered. Sansa stared at her sister in disbelief but the firm nod Joanna gave her made Sansa have a feeling she hadn’t felt in a while. The feeling of kinship and family.
She nodded dutifully but a familiar voice next to her interrupted their moment.
‘Your grace perhaps you should consider playing both sides. Why not tie both Targaryens through marriage and you will have the Golden Company and Dorne added to your fight’ Littlefinger suggested.
Joanna was not pleased by the man or the presence that he had but he had quite the significant influence amongst the Vale, Sansa shifted uneasily at his suggestion but was thankful when Joanna quickly dismissed it.
‘I am not trading my sister like cattle, I have made my case, and our sole attention should be us primarily focusing on the threat beyond the wall’ her sister stated firmly.
She could see that Baelish wanted to argue further but Littlefinger was smarter than that and he probably sensed that Joanna did not trust him in the slightest. Sansa did feel a sense of gratitude with her sister though. The fact that Joanna protected her so despite them never being close.
The trust and gratitude that her sister would place in her often left her feeling confused and at times uneasy.
When she was in the Vale pretending to be Alayne, she was starting to learn from Littlefinger, learning how to get what she wanted and how to take power.
Power that Joanna had.
But therein lay the problem. Joanna had done all she could to protect her and Sansa felt only shame when she considered her envy.
‘I think our meeting has come to an end, Ser Davos instruct a maester to send a raven to Dragonstone telling this Dragon King that I accept to meet. You’re all dismissed’ Joanna ordered.
They all marched out the room. Littlefinger gave her a longing look before walking out. Val did the same as he looked at his queen, not that Joanna was paying him any attention. Her eyes solely focused on the map.
When everyone had left the two of them, Sansa had decided to pour her wine.
‘I think Val still wants you in his bed’ Sansa commented as she studied her sister who had released her raven black hair from the single braid that Sansa had tied for her.
Joanna looked up at her and slightly blushed before rolling her eyes.
‘I was grieving our brother and he offered me comfort. It was a mistake because he took too much meaning from it. He wanted to steal me but I refused’ she said. ‘I only keep him around because he is one of the few people I can trust that won’t keep anything from me.’
The last part was a pointed jab at her.
‘I should have told you about the Vale’ Sansa mustered.
Joanna nodded.
‘Aye, you should have. Can I trust you Sansa? I truly want to trust you and believe that your intentions are pure. I need to know that I can trust that you will rule the North well in my absence’ her sister asked her, her grey eyes piercing her with a look that father would give her when she did something to upset him.
‘You can’ Sansa stated.
Joanna didn’t look convinced and she turned back to the map.
‘Will you offer him marriage?’ she asked.
Joanna clenched her jaw.
‘If it means saving the North then perhaps I might but he never offered. Perhaps he doesn’t see it as necessary considering that his dragons’ Joanna replied.
Sansa nodded.
‘Mayhaps you will fall in love with him’ she suggested.
A sad look crossed Joanna’s face.
‘No one could ever truly love a bastard. Those who do end up dead like Robb’
Barristan
Pride.
It’s what Barristan felt whenever he looked upon his king.
How else would one look upon the father of dragons. It’s the same feeling his lost prince, Rhaegar, would have had if he were here to see his youngest brother stand here in Dragonstone.
Daeron had lived a hard life.
Harder than most.
As an infant he had been on the run with only his brother Viserys to protect him. Being the son of Aerys had damned him to a life of pain and struggle such is the like the boy had never deserved. For the boy might have been Aery’s son but everything about him screamed of his mother Rhaella.
From the way Daeron would converse with children to his determination to protect the downtrodden. These were all elements that he had inhabited of Rhaella.
Though despite all of this, Daeron was his own man.
To recount his tale is to look at someone who may be akin to a God, if one were to believe in that sort of thing.
The tale started in Pentos in which Daeron and his brother Viserys stayed in the company of a magister. A magister who it turns out had been conspiring with the Spider to put a false boy on the throne. Though at the time Daeron had been none the wiser because he was just doing as his brother bid.
Daeron didn’t have much at that point, all he had was his name and the many lessons he had gathered whilst training to be a decent sword.
Viserys had taken to become more and more like his father. Daeron often spoke of how cruel Viserys had become, stating that the brother he once loved, the one who had protected him would often lose himself to his temper and hurt him.
It was one of the reasons why when Daeron turned twelve, he took to the blade and trained, soon Viserys cruelty became more towards emotional neglect and taunts.
Barristan often disagreed with his grace because a part of Daeron always thought that his prowess with blade was one of the reasons that his brother started his descent into paranoia.
Not that Daeron held much love for Viserys at the end. A horrible end by all accounts.
Viserys and the magister had organized a meet with the Dothraki.
Daeron had thought of it as them exchanging gold for their service but it was soon revealed that this was to be a betrothal of his grace and a daughter of Khal Drogo.
Khal Drogo was one of the fiercest Khals that the Dothraki had ever seen, even being known as the Khal of Khals. Drogo’s only failure was him not being able to have a son. Instead he had a daughter. Not that it deterred Drogo because Drogo was a man who believed in prophecy. This prophecy stated that a Khal with silver hair would lead them all to salvation, Khal Drogo wanted that Khal to be of his blood.
Irony turned out differently and it ended up being Daeron himself but regardless Daeron had been wed to a woman he did not want to marry.
On the surface Barristan always wondered why this marriage was so terrible for his king.
After all marriages are always used to gain alliances and in the end his prince ended up bringing the Dothraki to Westeros.
It’s only when Lady Ashara had explained to him that Daeron had never wanted what his brother wanted. Never cared for a crown and all he wanted was a home.
Daeron wanted to live a life of peace, peace that Viserys would never accept. Not laterally at the very least. Viserys wanted his throne.
That very decision is when the split between the two began.
Before Daeron was to wed Kura, Drogo’s daughter. He had already been familiar with someone else.
Missandei was a name that was barely brought up in the presence of the King but the pain was there all the same.
She had been a slave bought by Illyrio and offered as a gift to the Targaryens.
She had been instructed to teach Daeron how to speak the Dothraki tongue.
Unfortunately what they didn’t account for was the fact that Missandei had been one of the few people to ever start caring truly about Daeron and the moment Khal Drogo arrived. Daeron had already been intimate with Missandei.
They kept up their relationship with even Kura helping as she kept up their mummery, she was more than happy not to be forced into a bed her father wanted her in.
Things were fine until Missandei was suddenly with child. Kura wasn’t with one, something that frustrated her father to the point where he became abusive.
When Daeron had found out that Missandei was pregnant, he had decided that they would run away. Him, Missandei and even Kura. All three would escape Viserys and his plans along with Khal Drogo and his insane belief in prophecy.
Their plans were ruined by Ser Jorah who was serving Viserys and never much took towards Daeron. Daeron had taken his life but the damage was done.
Daeron always relented to his brother’s plans because that is what dutiful brother does but when Viserys had promptly threatened Missandei and stated he would cut his little brother’s child from out her womb.
Daeron had told him that was the first time his brother ever truly saw a true dragon and the second time in his life when he had struck Viserys to the floor.
The King had always expressed that he loved his brother even naming a dragon after him but that was the moment that Viserys had truly been lost to him.
Viserys had grown paranoid of his brother, something that had started when Daeron took to the sword and that had been the tipping point.
Daeron had gotten the respect of the Dothraki, even the Khal Drogo gifting him with various pelts to show his appreciation to him. Viserys had never been shown such respect, only ridicule and he had long suspected his brother Daeron would try and usurp his claim, something that their King always denied.
Viserys had gone on to betray Daeron, informing Drogo about his mummery with Kura and Missandei. Viserys then offered himself to take Kura as his wife so she may birth him a silver haired son to lead the Dothraki to salvation but the middle dragon had underestimated Drogo’s rage.
Drogo had melted his brain with molten gold and killed him right where he stood before going after Daeron.
The King had managed to escape with Missandei briefly with the help of Khals and blood riders who had taken a liking to the silver prince.
It was for naught because Drogo sacked town after town in search for them and in the process Kura’s life had been lost in the crossfire. Something that Drogo had blamed Daeron for. And something that the King still blames himself for even to this day.
When Drogo finally found him outside Vaes Dothrak, he challenged him. Daeron had fought him and he had won. But Drogo was no mere sword. In their fight Daeron had been heavily wounded despite deceiving Drogo and dealing him the killing blow.
The King was on deaths door. Missandei begged a witch for help, to heal him and let him live.
The witch did heal their King but dark magic needed a trade.
The King had lost Missandei and his unborn child.
A tragedy that broke him but a tragedy that led him to a pyre that made him birth three large dragons.
Ashara worried for Daeron but when she saw him step out of the pyre, something new blossomed within her.
From there Daeron and the small entourage he had decided to keep moving through the red waste.
From Qarth all the way to Astapor.
When Ser Barristan met him, he didn’t fully know the King’s true character, he only fully understood it when he saw him free the unsullied.
From then on Daeron went to become the Father of Dragons and breaker of chains as he freed slaves in his wake.
Mereen had proved to be the most challenging.
And no day had been more unbearable for his grace than when Tyrion Lannister arrived and with him came news of a devastating betrayal.
Barristan had always fancied Ashara and even as an elder, she was still the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.
Ashara’s relationship with Daeron had been complex. Barristan was no fool and he would admit that his grace was a very beautiful man, with the looks of Rhaegar and the build of a Dothraki warrior. Not to mention his iron will and gentle heart.
It’s easy to see why Ashara had fallen in love with him. Daeron never returned that affection, not in the way Ashara wanted at least. Daeron had even taken a Mereen courtesan to bed and Ashara had never taken a liking to Doreah.
But Daeron had still cared deeply for Ashara and her betrayal was one that wounded their king.
Tyrion had informed them that Ashara had been serving as a spy for this fake Aegon Targaryen.
Ashara had cried in front of Daeron admitting that she had lost her own child during Robert’s rebellion before Varys came to her and told her that her friend, Elia’s child, still lived. She had then gone on to help Connington to raise the boy.
Ashara had figured out that the boy was a fake but she had raised him as a son so she couldn’t just abandon him or kill him. That is when she agreed to come and spy on the King to help Aegon.
Daeron didn’t execute her but he sent her away.
That was when things turned for the worse as the Sons of the Harpy staged an attack in Mereen before their king escaped on Aeryon, his black dragon.
Barristan had to hold the city for moons before the King returned with the largest horde of Dothraki ever put to man.
From there they rooted out the enemy and turned their sights onto Westeros.
Even in exile Ashara had proved useful because she returned with the Tyrells and the Greyjoys who were looking for an alliance.
Daeron forgave her somewhat.
The greatest boon for Barristan was when his King named him as hand. An offer that Barristan thought would go to Tyrion but one that Daeron wasn’t truly trusting in.
This led them down the path to Dragonstone. With a large army and three large dragons.
Their goal was simple, to remove this false king from King’s Landing and bring Westeros to heel.
It was all obvious until some men from the Nights Watch along with a red priestess came to see them with a crate.
They had all been shocked to see what was inside and even more shocked by the declaration of the Queen in the North in were the true fight she be focused on.
Countless debates ranged from there. His grace wanted to send his forces north because his belief was in protecting the innocent and only the innocent.
They all argued against him.
In the end they had convinced the King for him to solidify the seven kingdoms before he marched to the North.
Tyrion had stated that if they could convince the North to fight with them to unseat the false King then they can all turn North without fear or repercussion from the south.
They just needed to convince this Stark queen.
Daeron consented and they had just received a response on where they would meet.
Currently they sat outside of the castle as Daeron smiled and watched his dragons fly in the sky.
‘I still think this plan is folly’ his grace stated in his deep voice.
Barristan smiled.
‘That may be so my king but what is the point of saving the world from its extinction if we leave them in the hands of rulers who would make them suffer?’ he asked his grace.
The King pondered what he said before arching one of his brows, his violet eyes seemingly amused at his notion.
‘I can ask you the same thing only the other way round. The North will see it that way’ Daeron stated.
Barristan shrugged, this was the plan and he had been tired of the constant debates.
‘You realize there is an obvious solution with regards to this queen?’ he pointed out.
Daeron shut his eyes in frustration.
‘Yes I do but I would like to meet her first, you know as well as I that betrothals have turned disastrous for me in the past’ Daeron responded.
Barristan nodded sympathetically.
‘Perhaps but I have heard things about this Joanna. They call her the She-Wolf, she is as deadly with a sword just as she is beautiful’ he remarked.
That didn’t get a response from his king.
‘Mayhaps you will fall for her and she will fall for you’ he added.
This had gotten the attention of their King.
‘No one could ever love a dragon. Those who do end up dead like Missandei.’