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(EM Vol. 2: A Wandering Melody) Chapter 10: The Call for Adventure
🕑 Added 2025-06-01 14:00:08 +0000 UTCChapter 10: The Call for Adventure
123 AC, Dragonstone
Rhaena Targaryen had to be one of the happiest girls in the Seven Kingdoms, and no one could say otherwise. For she finally had a dragon of her own. It had been a few days since the hatching, and even now, she could barely believe that after so many years, the same egg her mother had always promised would hatch finally did. Of course, Lord Harry and his magic had done most of it, but Rhaena liked to think that she had a hand in her little miracle as well.
She had dubbed her hatchling Solarys because he reminded her of the sun. And hadn’t Lady Daphne said something about the magic stone they had given her, being found in the temple of a goddess of the sun? It seemed fitting, especially given the colour of her scales. Rhaena had never seen a dragon with multiple colours before, at least, with so many different colours as Solarys. White, yellow, orange, and red, it reminded her of the flames, of the sun. Maybe her stone had changed her dragon somehow.
To be honest, she didn’t care. Her dragon was born, and that was more than enough for her.
Still, she was slightly sad about the stone, which had quickly lost its light after her egg hatched. It wasn’t exactly hard to understand what had happened. Whatever magic was in the jewel had hatched her ring, but the magic was gone now.
It put Lord Harry’s gift into perspective now.
No wonder he hadn’t thought that she would be in danger. All she had to do was to sleep with her egg for a day, and she would have gotten her dragon, even without her adventure in the Dragonmont.
Lord Harry had always planned on hatching her dragon egg. He had just planned on being subtle about it. She could understand why. If her family knew that Lord Harry could help them hatch Dragon Eggs, they would stop at nothing to force him to do it until his dying day.
A part of her wanted Lord Harry to stay. He was kind, gentle, smart, and very funny. Another part had seen him stop dragon fire, summon lightning from the sky, and scare a dragon into hiding, with a scary look in his gaze, and she didn’t want that gaze directed towards her family.
Even now, she still hadn’t told anyone of Lord Harry’s involvement at all, or her adventure in the Dragonmont. Baela had been happy for her, so much that she ran straight to their father and told him. Daemon Targaryen had never looked at her with so much pride and happiness in his eyes.
She should have been happy. She should have been glad that her father seemed to care about her for the first time in her life. And yet, it was all tainted by Lord Harry’s words. Why did a dragon change anything? She knew that her father loved her, but why did her egg have to hatch for him to do something about it?
It wasn’t fair, and even with Solarys' hatching, she knew that nothing had changed, not really. And yet, everything did.
“What are you thinking about, sister?” a familiar voice asked. “If you keep playing with your food, Father might decide to dismiss the entire kitchen staff.”
Rhaena looked at her place. She hadn’t broken her fast yet; her thoughts made her too preoccupied to feel hungry. “It’s nothing, sister, just some thoughts in my head.”
Jace spoke up loudly, “Thoughts about your dragon, right?”
“Yes. Solarys has just started to breathe her flames.”
Her father spoke up for the first time since they sat down, “That’s unexpected for a dragon her age.”
“She’s growing quickly, too,” Rhaena bragged with a smile on her face.
“You’re right. It won’t be long until you’ll need to leave her in the Dragonkeepers’ hands.”
That young girl replied with just a stiffened nod, nothing more. She didn’t like the thought of Solarys being in chains somewhere. She knew that Baela didn’t like Moondancer not being close by either. When they were younger, the young dragon had spent years trotting around their homes, following Baela around like some kind of cat. Their mother had once joked that Moondancer grew slowly because she didn’t want to be separated from Baela.
Thankfully, Lucerys changed the conversation: “When is Mother going to return?”
That was a good question. After the meal with Lord Harry and Lady Daphne, her stepmother, Rhaenyra, had gone to King’s Landing urgently and hadn’t returned since. Her father was opposed to it and loudly made that known. If she had to guess, he didn’t care about his wife’s absence too much but was simply angered because she refused to tell him the reason she left in the first place.
He'd been quiet since the Princess left, and Rhaena wondered if it had more to do with that or because of Lord Harry.
Which made Rhaena suppress a flinch at Luke’s change in subject. He’d always been attached to his mother and had been grumpy about her leaving. He had realised that she was gone the day after, when he’d gotten bored of Lord Harry’s gift.
Rhaena had to admit that their gifts were surprisingly useful. Rhaena had gotten the best one, of course, as it helped her hatch Solarys, but Baela kept playing with her dagger and had surprisingly not cut herself on it once. Normally, Rhaena would have called it luck, but with Lord Harry’s magic being revealed, that was the more likely culprit. Joffrey hadn’t stopped running around with his toy dragon in his hands and had behaved as long as he played with it. Jace liked watching the dragons with his collapsible far-eye, something that he now kept on his person all the time. As for Luke, while he seemed to get bored with his gift after a while, a box that always pointed North was something that her grandfather would likely kill for. The sea is in her veins, and she could understand its importance, on both dragonback and on a ship.
Yet, as she expected, her father’s expression darkened at the mention of his wife. He was about to answer, only for Maester Gerardys to enter the room silently, whisper a few things to her father, and give him a small scroll, likely a message from a raven.
A strange expression appeared on Daemon Targaryen’s face, a mixture of panic and anger, if she had to guess. The Maester had wisely walked away without saying another word. Gerardys had quickly learned how to navigate around her father’s temper, who only tended to give advice when he knew that it would be heard.
In a surprising feat of control, her father spoke up with a neutral tone, “It seems that the King and his retinue are set to sail to Dragonstone. They should arrive in a few days at the most. I believe that your mother will join them as well.”
Silence.
That was exactly what met her father’s proclamation.
She didn’t remember the King, not really, other than during her mother’s funeral. He looked like a sickly man and not really what she imagined a king to be. He was supposed to be only a few years older than her father, but he looked like an old man.
Rhaena had been too distraught to care about him. Her mother’s death, Vhagar being stolen, and the fight with Aemond overshadowed the sad old man with only one arm, yelling at everyone.
She wasn’t the best when it came to politics, but it wasn’t hard for Rhaena to see why the King and the Hightowers were coming to Dragonstone. They were coming for Lord Harry. No wonder her father looked slightly panicked and angry. His brother hadn’t come to visit him for years, he didn’t come to see his grandchildren or his nieces. Instead, he’d come for the sorcerer after Rhaenyra flew all the way to the capital to see him.
For some reason, Rhaena didn’t like that. She didn’t like that at all. She felt the need to warm Lord Harry, the kind man who had fulfilled her dreams. It was the last she could do, wasn’t it? To stop the crown from making an enemy of a powerful sorcerer. She would be helping them both.
That thought niggled inside her head for hours after the meal, until she decided that the best course of action, was, in fact, to warn her saviour.
Rhaena snuck away from her Septa when she was distracted and made sure that none of the guards would see her. She wished that she could have brought Solarys with her, but her dragon was asleep after she fed him, and she didn’t think that sneaking around with a hatchling that could now breathe fire would have been a good idea.
It didn’t take long for her to make her way out of the fortress, dressed like one of her servants, and walk up to the beach, until finding herself in front of the familiar manse.
Feeling slightly anxious, the future Dragonrider motioned to knock on the door, only for it to open without any prompting. She slowly walked inside, only to be met with the smiling form of Lady Daphne. “Oh, Rhaena, it’s wonderful to see you again.”
“Thank you, Lady Daphne. It’s good to see you, too.”
She gave the older woman a quick smile before stepping inside, glancing around as if half-expecting the walls to vanish or shift into something else.
“I hope I’m not disturbing anything,” Rhaena said, voice lower now. “I… I wanted to speak to Lord Harry. It’s important.”
Lady Daphne tilted her head, studying her carefully, and for a moment, Rhaena thought she would be asked to leave. But then the older woman simply nodded, stepping aside. “He’s in the study. Follow me.”
Rhaena gave a thankful nod and followed the golden-haired woman through the hallway, her footsteps muffled on the strange floor. Rhaena had been a bit distracted during her previous stay in the manse, with the fact that she almost died and all, but now that she had a proper look, for a house of a sorcerer, this place looked oddly ordinary. There were no glowing cauldrons, no heads of evil witches, no body parts being displayed anywhere. Sure, there were some odd things and items displayed, and a lot of glass for some reason, despite how expensive it should be. There were some paintings of places she had never heard of, or some portraits that were extremely life-like, but Pentos had been just as different compared to Dragonstone.
Nevertheless, Lady Daphne finally arrived at the study and opened the door, letting them both step inside. Lord Harry was sitting by the window, staring at the sea, with a very large tome in his hand. He turned when she entered and smiled, “Ah, Rhaena, you’re earlier than I expected. I thought that your new friend would keep you preoccupied.”
Something inside Rhaena warmed at the confirmation, “Thank you, Lord Harry. Solarys… She’s… everything I dreamed she’d be.”
“Solarys,” the man whispered, “A beautiful name and a fitting one at that, given the source of your jewel. I’m glad to see you with so much life inside you.”
There was just so much kindness in the man’s eyes that Rhaena just didn’t know what to say. How would one bring up the fact that he would soon have the full attention of the king? The man had been nothing but kind, not expecting any reward in exchange.
Still, Rhaena gathered the courage to speak, “I came to warn you. The King is coming. With the Hightowers. They’re coming to Dragonstone. For you.”
Rhaena regretted the words as quickly as they left her mouth. That had been blunt, extremely so. She prepared herself for the reply, only to stare as she realised that Lord Harry was snickering.
She huffed, “What is it?”
“No, it’s just that you looked so scared of my answer. Don’t worry, kiddo, I can handle a couple of greedy nobles without too much trouble.”
“This is the King, not some noble. And I think… I think they know about your magic.”
Her host gave her a kindly smile, “It’s a very kind thing you did, coming here, but you don’t need to worry about me. I’ve been expecting this to happen, even if it’s not so soon. I suppose Rhaenyra was extremely reckless. I expected her to think a bit more before making a decision like this. She wasn’t exactly on a timeline.”
“She left King’s Landing just after our meal,” Rhaena replied.
“So, very reckless, huh?” Lady Daphne commented, “That’s not a good quality in a ruler.”
Lord Harry rolled his eyes. “But it’s also not our problem. We’re not her subjects, after all.”
“But you’re staying in Dragonstone,” Rhaena replied, “That means that you have to obey her.”
“And does she expect the dragons in Dragonstone to obey her as well?” her host answered while chuckling, “Believe me, there is very little she or her father can do to make me do anything. All I’ve done is make sure that the continent won’t go up in flames while we’re still here. Besides, it’s not like we’re going to stay in this manse for very long.”
Panic soared in Rhaena’s chest. “You’re leaving.”
“Eventually,” Lady Daphne answered kindly, “As we told you, we’re travellers. We like to go to new places, see new things, and solve a few mysteries. We have a lot of places we want to see, including Valyria, the Wall, Winterfell, Yi-Ti, and even Sothoryos.”
“Then you’ll need to speak with my grandfather, the Sea Snake. He sailed farther than anyone I know. He can help you if I ask him. I don’t mind sending him and Grandmother a raven, but only if you come back after your trip. And you’ll have to give me a gift too, and you’ll have to wait for him to come.”
Lady Daphne gave her a small smile, the kind that made her feel both comforted and like a child. “We’ll be here for a little while longer, don’t worry.”
Rhaena didn’t know why, but those words filled her with such immense relief that she almost sagged in place. She hadn’t even realised how tightly she’d been holding her breath. The thought of them just leaving, without saying goodbye, without another word, felt wrong somehow. Like something important was slipping through her fingers.
“And about that gift,” Lord Harry commented with a gleam in his eyes, “We did find something very interesting here on Dragonstone.”
Lady Daphne gave her husband a pointed look. “Are you seriously inviting a child without her parents’ permission to one of our expeditions, one that could be dangerous?”
“She’ll be fine. And you know that we can keep her safe easily enough. This is technically her legacy as well, so at least one Targaryen should be there for it.”
Rhaena perked up instantly. Were they looking for some kind of hidden Targaryen treasure? She wanted to know, “I can do it.”
The woman rolled her eyes and gave her husband an accusing look, “Come on, when we were her age, we did some silly things too. And just escaped a giant dragon attacking her.”
“Harry, I told you many times that what we experienced as children was not normal.” She then slumped, “Your mind is made up, isn’t it?”
“It’s just a hunch I have. She’ll be my responsibility, and if it really gets too dangerous, I’ll just send her back. And I studied this place a lot, there should be no real danger in it. We’ll just be exploring for a bit, and we’ll be back in a few hours at most.”
Lady Daphne glared for a moment before turning towards Rhaena, “Let me get this straight, young Lady. If we tell you to run, you run. If we tell you to jump, you jump. If we tell you to stay silent, you stay silent. If we tell you to leave us behind, you leave us behind. Do not touch anything without telling us, and when we’re done, you are not to breathe a word of it to anyone. This isn’t a joke. This is life and death, and a single mistake will kill you. Are we clear, Rhaena Targaryen?”
Rhaena couldn’t help but feel smaller underneath that gaze, but she steeled herself and nodded silently.
Lord Harry gave her a wide smile. “So, Rhaena, what do you feel about going on a little adventure?”
AN: I decided to move things along a bit. This arc is mostly supposed to be about Harry and Daphne exploring Planetos after all, and I’m excited about what I have planned on Dragonstone. Things should get a bit more exciting starting from the next chapter. 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.
Comments
Chris Cyrus
OMG solarys is my cats name!!
Marius Petrauskas
nice
athass_prkr
Yes, I'm planning on having multiple arcs on different worlds. Whether I'll separate them into different books is something I haven't decided yet. I'll see how long the Westeros arc will be, and then I'll decide. And yes, there will be Harry POVs, but only if I think it will help. It seemed a bit interesting to see him from an outsider's perspective, but if you don't like it, I don't mind writing more Harry and Daphne POV.
Dror Frisch
Will every arc be in a different world? And will it only be from outside perspective or will we get Harry’s POV?
Tim
Im looking forward to the adventure finally. Maybe even a Harry POV...
