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(EM Vol. 2: A Wandering Melody) Chapter 66: The Tower’s Cracks
🕑 Added 2025-09-07 14:00:12 +0000 UTCChapter 66: The Tower’s Cracks
123 AC, King’s Landing
Otto Hightower couldn’t help but feel like every day was worse than the last. Ever since Viserys had healed, his carefully laid out plans had come crashing down. Well, that was an exaggeration. Otto had spent the better part of a decade delicately balancing the power of an entire realm, trying to avoid it collapsing, while also making sure that his legacy wouldn’t crumble into nothingness because of the sheer incompetence that everyone around him exuded.
He regretted many things in his time in the Capital. He had risen high for a second son, higher than most would ever dream of. Otto ruled the realm, all of it, despite the fact that Viserys wore a crown. He had mitigated one crisis after another, did his best to avoid the realm going into war with Dorne after Daemon had conquered the Stepstones, stopped the royal family from being assassinated by discontented Essosi merchants, and this was barely more than a scratch to what he had accomplished.
Viserys would have led the realm to ruin, and Otto was the one who had stopped it all from crashing down, especially when King Jaehaerys died. He had been slightly heavy-handed then, which brought him the enmity of Daemon. Then again, Daemon could have simply been jealous of his friendship with his brother. The man could be as petty as he was violent.
Alas, in just a few moons, Otto’s influence was crashing down. He had seen it coming, expected it, really, since the letter came from his daughter, warning him that he would be dismissed as Hand of the King, in favour of Rhaenys, the same woman that Otto had fought for Viserys so that the Velaryons would not try to rebel once the Old King breathed his last breath.
Truly a disappointment, his daughter was, telling him that he’d be dismissed. She was Queen, the King’s wife, the most powerful woman in the Seven Kingdoms, and she couldn’t even have a modicum of subtlety or cunning enough to change the king’s mind, or even push some doubt on his choice.
He had made her Queen, and this was the second time that she had allowed Viserys to dismiss him, and this time, inviting the Velaryons back into the fold, giving them the influence that they had lost after Viserys refused to marry Laena.
Otto regretted it, marrying his daughter to Viserys. She did not know how to wield her influence, not the way a lady was supposed to, with delicateness and subtlety. Then again, what did he expect from her constant clashes with Rhaenyra when he was away? It was shameful for both the royal family and House Hightower.
Rhaenyra was a perfect political opponent in Otto’s opinion. She was easily angered, impulsive, and as foolish as her father. Alicent should have been able to easily outplay her, slowly sour the image that Viserys had of her, especially given the fact that she gave birth to fucking bastards, of all things. Then again, Alicent had failed for years.
She wasn’t even able to convince Viserys to name Aegon as his heir, but that wasn’t truly her fault. For some reason, the king was strangely resilient to the idea of Rhaenyra as heir, enough that Otto was frustrated when he tried and had overplayed his hand, which got him sent back to Oldtown.
Everything was crashing down, and it hadn’t taken long for Otto to realise where it originated.
Harry Potter.
It was a name he wished to have never heard, especially given that he’d never met the man, nor did he wish to. Magic had no place in Westeros, and now would be no different. This supposed sorcerer was the reason that Viserys was healed, through some mysterious potion of some kind. Otto didn’t believe it, of course. Magic always had a price. He had learned that during his time in the Citadel, when he grew curious about the matter. Of course, he was discouraged from studying it further and given the few tomes he read on the subject, it wasn’t hard to see why. Men could easily become monsters for a scrap of power.
To think that Rhaenyra would go so far as to employ one of these abominable creatures to heal her father showed how desperate she was. No, this was likely Daemon’s influence. His time in Essos might have endeared him to the Higher Mysteries enough to get one of them on his side. If only it hadn’t worked. If only Viserys hadn’t decided to dismiss Otto as his Hand. He could have salvaged things.
Despite the dismissal, Otto still had the Small Council in the palm of his hands, all of them worried about the influence that a foreign sorcerer could have on the King and the royal family. They all knew. Viserys had announced his dismissal with a raven to the Small Council, but the longer the king stayed on Dragonstone, the more support he found himself having in the Small Council.
Unfortunately, the King would return eventually, and Otto would have to deal with it. In the meantime, he tried dealing with this Harry Potter. First, he had done it with Larys Strong, but then, the Shadowbinders that the last Strong employed had all perished, according to a letter from his daughter, killed by the sorcerer quite easily. Larys, himself, was then found injured the very next night, and had disappeared from Dragonstone soon after.
This was extremely unsettling, a message for Otto that he simply couldn’t ignore, a trace that he was involved in the assassination attempt. Thankfully, Larys had shown his discretion, and nothing came of it, but Otto had never felt more scared than he had in the weeks after the news. Thankfully, most attributed it to the supposed curse of Harrenhal, and not anything nefarious, and in a mere few weeks, the death of a member of the Small Council, a powerful Lord, had gone completely forgotten.
It wasn’t until he had received a raven from Harrenhal that he saw an opportunity. A witch, Larys’s supposed baseborn sister, expressed her wish to exact revenge against the sorcerer who slew her brother. Of course, Otto saw what the letter truly meant: that a witch offered her services in exchange for being recognised as the Lady of Harrenhal, and potentially after years of service, a seat on the Small Council. This, of course, included the death of Harry Potter. She only wished that a prince of the blood would be the one to give her his reply, citing a need to assert her authority over the rest of the Strongs through a sign of support from the royal family.
He had thought the idea to be absurd, of course. Making deals with a witch to defeat a sorcerer didn’t seem as productive. For a bastard girl, no matter her house’s standing, to wish to use the royal family to usurp her trueborn family, as well as give her unparalleled influence in Court, was beyond outrageous.
He hadn’t thought that he would need her offer, but it kept niggling at him with every passing day. The world was going mad, and Otto was performing a thankless job, trying to piece everything together. Pyke had fallen in very mysterious circumstances, one that he still did not understand. Half of Essos was in disarray because of what they called the ‘Second Doom of Valyria’. A strange red comet appeared in the sky, which drove many people into a frenzy.
Otto could see magic playing a part in all these events. He could see where everything was going: that magic would play a large part in the world once more, and given that Rhaenyra had subverted a sorcerer to her cause, he needed one of his own, someone who could protect his daughter and grandchildren from magic users, and so far, only Alys Rivers came to mind.
And so, after much deliberation, Otto decided to send Aemond to Harrenhal. He was the perfect choice: a dutiful second son who rode the largest dragon in the world, an offer of alliance with the witch, beneath a threat of what her fate might become. The only issue he could foresee would be the boy’s temper, which reminded him disturbingly of Daemon. Thankfully, Aemond was resourceful enough to manage in his absence, especially since Otto had only asked him to deliver a scroll to the witch, nothing more.
He still disliked the idea immensely, but he was given no choice. Soon, Viserys would return to King’s Landing, and Otto would be sent back to Oldtown. Alicent had shown him that he couldn’t trust her to ensure his interests, and he needed something to balance the scales, and Alys Rivers could be a very valuable piece on the board.
And if she proved herself to be too troublesome or too ambitious, he would take care of it. Despite it all, this Harry Potter was the greater threat, by far. After all, dragons were known to be mage killers since the days of the Valyrian Freehold, and there was no reason that it would be any different today.
Otto sighed as he looked at the moon in the sky, hoping that he would be granted the luxury of a full night’s sleep. Unfortunately, a few River Lords were asking the Crown’s permission to wage war on the Iron Islands, as there had been a rise in reavers since their civil war started. Oddly enough, the Ironborn were outmatched more often than not during their raids, a stark contrast to their seemingly effective sailing in the past. If he had to guess, the attacks were the products of starving fishermen who had stolen a ship in the middle of the war.
He sighed to himself, resigning to ask the Lannisters for aid. The Riverlands had no fleet of their own, and the fact that Lords had gone over Lord Tully’s head, directly addressing the Crown, didn’t help smooth matters over.
He quickly drafted a letter to send, telling them to secure their own lands and not escalate matters while preparing a hard conversation with Tyland Lannister. He didn’t want to push the Redwynes into lending them their fleet. It had been very difficult to wrangle their support for Aegon’s claim in the first place. If it had been any other time, he would have gotten Viserys to force the Velaryons to send their fleet and hope that a few ships would sink in the Stepstones. Alas, with Viserys in Dragonstone, there was very little he could do.
Otto’s musings were broken by a familiar roar, which likely woke up half of the city. Once more, the parallels between Aemond and Daemon were becoming quite disturbing, almost as much as his grandson returning early, not having even spent a single night in Harrenhal. Had he offended the Strongs or worse, the witch?
He could only hope that his grandson hadn’t made another mistake. Otto would ask him the next day. The boy was likely exhausted from the flight and wouldn’t answer well to being questioned. He was a patient man, after all, and confronting a man Aemond’s age wouldn’t do any of them any good.
And so, instead of retrieving his grandson, Otto focused on the task at hand, having long resigned himself to another thankless sleepless night. At least, he would have, if it weren’t for the commotion outside his door, which ended with Aemond slamming the door open as he entered without any regard propriety.
Hiding his annoyance, Otto spoke up, “Ah, Aemond. I am surprised to see you in the Capital so early. Were the accommodations in Harrenhal insufficient?”
For some reason, his grandson found his question amusing, “One might say so. After all, I almost died in that cursed place. Your trust in the witch was misplaced, grandfather.”
Ah, that was troubling. Was Alys Rivers also an agent of Rhaenyra, or more accurately, Daemon? At least sending Aemond wasn’t a mistake, having been able to deal with the woman, “Is she dead?”
“Yes,” he simply replied, making Otto release a sigh of relief. At least, he had one less problem to deal with.
“Good. I was right to send you for this delicate matter, Aemond. I know that you were not enthused with my request.”
The boy snorted in derision, “You do not regret sending me at all, do you?”
Otto didn’t answer for a few seconds. The truth was that he did not regret asking Aemond to go to Harrenhal. It was a gamble, one that he normally would not have entertained, but these were not normal times. Now, he had one less magic user in the Seven Kingdoms, his grandson likely having burned the woman to ash with Vhagar.
It was also a secondary objective, if things went wrong, to see how dragons could handle a magic user, and see if Aemond could possibly get rid of Harry Potter himself, without the aid of another mage. In a way, he was happy that his grandson succeeded. It gave him more options for the future, “No, I do not. Power cannot exist without danger, and you are powerful indeed. You proved me correct when you handled that witch. Were the Strongs grateful that the bastard girl was dead? With Larys Strong’s disappearance, having the support of the Lords of Harrenhal would be a powerful boon.”
Otto knew that Aemond was very unlikely to try to befriend the Strongs, not after his hatred for the entire family because of his lost eye. He wished to admonish the boy slightly, to stop his pride from growing into arrogance, and show him the opportunities he could grasp when he became his brother’s hand eventually.
Unexpectantly, his grandson seemed more amused than regretful, “I don’t think we will need to worry about House Strong anymore, Grandfather.”
A shiver ran down Otto’s spine. What had the boy done now? Aemond was the only grandchild with a modicum of trust. Aegon was more likely to drink himself into a stupor, Daeron was too young, and Helaena was a simple child. Had the gods forsaken him once more by having his only competent grandson go mad and burn Harrenhal to the ground?
“Explain,” Otto demanded in a neutral tone that hid his discomfort.
“Well, given that Harrenhal is barely more than dust and rubble, with everyone inside dead, I assumed House Strong to be extinct. Perhaps Rhaenyra would try to rebuild the fortress and give it to one of her bastards. That would be amusing.”
Otto froze at that. Harrenhal, one of the largest fortresses in Westeros, perhaps even the Known World, was gone in just a few hours. Had Aemond decided to replicate the Conqueror’s feat? The boy was always strangely fascinated with that tale and that of the Fields of Fire. He could easily see it: the witch trying to kill him, Vhagar burning her to protect him, and Aemond giving into his rage and burning Harrenhal to the ground.
This was a disaster, but one that could be mitigated or perhaps even used in some way. At least, the boy had the foresight to return immediately and warn him of what happened, but first, he needed to know everything, especially who else knew of Harrenhal’s fate.
He stared at his grandson, who would likely be named as a second Maegor soon after his feat was known, “What did you do, Aemond?”
“You truly believe that I would do it, that I would burn an entire castle,” the young prince replied with a slight tint of bitterness.
“What I believe doesn’t matter,” Otto replied, “What matters is what the realm would think. Your dragon is the only one capable of this feat, especially given how quick it was. If I am to salvage this, then I do need all of the details. I need you to be truthful with me, Aemond. No secrets.”
“You are asking me to speak the truth, to keep no secrets,” Aemond replied with incredulity in his voice, “You, who had just sent me to my death just a few hours ago.”
“Stop this nonsense, child. I did no such thing.”
The young prince growled and threw an unsealed scroll on Otto’s desk, and despite his years of experience, he couldn’t help but show his irritation at the act, “You broke my seal, boy.”
“I wished to know why I was sent to die. I thought you sent me there to intimidate the witch, to show her the royal family’s might, but you sent me there at her bidding. What was it that you called it again? Ah, yes, a show of good faith. You knew that this witch had designs involving me, and yet you sent me anyway, unprepared for what I might face there.”
Things weren’t going well, and Otto needed to calm the boy down, and knowing Aemond, that was through his pride, “I had faith in you, Aemond. You are the rider of Vhagar, and I knew that you would persevere, much like you endured the loss of your eye.”
And in a way, Otto wasn’t lying. He truly had sent Aemond because he needed a Dragonrider to send the message for the witch to continue their negotiations, and Vhagar was a powerful statement to have. He didn’t think that anyone would dare hurt Aemond and suffer the beast’s wrath, yet the witch had tried anyway, a foolish choice.
“Then you were wrong. It was only luck that saved me, Grandfather.”
That brought him short. This was completely unlike Aemond. “Then learn from your mistake so that next time, you won’t need to be lucky.”
“I made no mistakes,” the boy retorted while gritting his teeth, “I didn’t even set foot in Harrenhal. There was some sort of spell which put me and Vhagar to sleep, completely defenceless. The witch wished to either put me under her spell, affect Vhagar in some way, or worse. By the time we awoke, Harrenhal was destroyed. There was very little I could have done to prevent that.”
For what felt like the hundredth time during this conversation, Otto found himself absolutely speechless, “Vhagar…”
“Yes, Vhagar had been defeated without us even realising it. The only reason I was still alive was because Harry Potter, that sorcerer that you so feared, was confronting the witch at the time. Had you sent me to Harrenhal yesterday, I would have likely died.”
This was horrible, not because of the attack on Aemond, but because it was proof that magic could defeat a dragon, even one as powerful as Vhagar. It was a complete shift of everything that he learned in the Citadel regarding magic, which he admittedly wasn’t as much as it could have been. But everyone knew that Dragons were all but impervious to magics, that this was why the Valyrians so easily conquered Essos.
Otto regretted that his grandson suffered during his trip, but that was in the past, and he was safe now. Given the pertinent information that he gained, he would do it again without hesitation.
Still, there was even more information that he could glean, “You spoke to him, Harry Potter. What was he like?”
Aemond gritted his teeth, obviously frustrated by his change in topic, “He was normal. I hadn’t even known that he was the sorcerer until I realised that Vhagar was wary of him. He told me that I was lucky to be alive, that Alys Rivers had acted against him and that he retaliated, which ended with Harrenhal’s destruction. He… He likely saved my life.”
Otto suppressed the urge to frown at the news. He didn’t like that his grandson felt indebted to a sorcerer, especially one under Daemon’s influence. Something didn’t fit. The man shouldn’t have saved Aemond, which meant that he had something planned that was more important than the potential loss of Vhagar. That didn’t bode well at all.
“He could have lied,” he reasoned.
His grandson rolled his eyes, “I’m not a simpleton, Grandfather. I spoke to nearby villagers to verify everything. In the last few weeks, everyone who journeyed to Harrenhal did not return. Anyone they sent to investigate shared the same fate. Most blamed Alys Rivers. She did not have a good reputation, especially having risen highly since Lord Lionel’s death. They were planning on appealing to other lords in the Riverlands, but then Harrenhal was destroyed by some sort of golden light, an act of the gods, they called it.”
At last, some useful information. Unfortunately, it showed that Otto had been made a fool of, that in his desperation, he might have lost a grandson, and more importantly, Vhagar’s allegiance. Every Targaryen aside from the babes had a dragon, which meant that his faction would be at its weakest until Jaehaerys grew old enough to claim the beast in a decade’s time, at the very least.
He needed time to think, to predict Daemon’s next move, and time was quickly becoming a luxury that he couldn’t afford. It was only Viserys’ decision to stay in Dragonstone that kept Otto in power in King’s Landing, and eventually, he would return, and Rhaenys would take his post. If magic could truly affect dragons, then it was more critical that either Harry Potter perished or that Otto would have a mage of his own.
His musings were broken by Aemond’s voice, “You truly do not care, do you? Your mistake, your mistrust, almost cost me my life.”
“The past does not matter, for we cannot change it. You have survived, unharmed, against a great challenge. We simply need to learn and continue. After all, it is your brother’s birthright, your birthright, that is at risk. You did well to go to me with this, Aemond. For now, let us retire. You’ve given me much to think of.”
For some reason, this answer did not satisfy Aemond. Then again, very little satisfied him. The boy simply clenched his fists and motioned to walk out of the room before stopping one last time, “Oh, yes. The sorcerer had a message for you. He told you to be more careful when dealing with magic users, and that you are starting to have his attention.”
Without saying another word, the boy left the room, and Otto finally slumped in his seat, shivering at the sight. Given that the man had likely destroyed Harrenhal, that was an active threat.
Despite himself, Otto poured himself a cup of wine, which he drank in a single gulp. This was very concerning. He needed to send a raven to his brother, warning him of what had happened. They would likely need the aid of the Citadel as well. In the end, he needed three more cups of wine until his hands stopped shaking, enough to be able to write the letter. He still drank two other cups after he was done, just to calm himself down and go to sleep.
AN: That chapter really got away from me. The idea was to show how desperate Otto is getting with the time he has to cement his influence. He agreed to Alys, hoping that she’d counter Harry, and almost lost the biggest piece on the board when Aemond almost died. I wanted to show that he was a good politician, but utterly unable to understand people with magic, since he treated them the same. Essentially, he thought that Alys wouldn’t try to kill Aemond out of fear of Vhagar and of the crown’s retaliation against her and was genuinely surprised that she would do it. I also wanted to show Aemond trying to talk around Otto and see more of his grandfather's motivation. The breaking of the seal was a bit like a breach of trust between them, and Otto is too distracted with everything to realise that he messed up in his interaction with Aemond. As usual, I don’t mind rewriting this depending on your feedback, so please let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions.
