𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐅𝐈𝐅𝐓𝐘-𝐓𝐖𝐎 | Broken Spokes

{ Coren }

✧✦✧

𝕿he moment their daughter was placed into her bed, Rhaenerys fell right to sleep. It made a welcome change from her early few months where the moment she would leave one of their arms, she would wake up screaming with protest.

Still, as had become habit, Coren took an extra few minutes sitting by her bed and peering in, watching his daughter as she slept. He could never place what made him do that, but he wished for her to stay this age, to stay his little dragon, forever more and not have to grow up in the harshness of this world that they lived in. Coren did not want his daughter to go through what him or Daenerys had to go through.

"She is asleep?" Daenerys' hand touched his shoulder, peering over his head at the little girl. Coren hummed, following Daenerys away from their daughter's room and down a door to their own. Unsullied guarded both of their rooms, though Coren detested that Rhaenerys could not stay with them.

Neither he nor his wife spoke, both getting ready to sleep, removing armour and clothes, settling in beside each other before another word was uttered.

"Can we speak now...?" Coren trailed off, looking down at his wife as her head hit his chest, her hand entwining with his. 

"Of course." Daenerys smiled up at him, usure of what direction this conversation was going to take.

"Jorah should be dead, Daenerys."

"You heard the Lannister. If I kill people who are devoted to me, I am not inspiring much devotion."

"So, now we are taking advice from the family who murdered your own and most likely mine?" Coren cocked an eyebrow. "Being merciful has never gotten us far. If you had been merciful to Xaro, he would still be attempting to be king. If you had been merciful to the sorcerer, you and the dragons would have been trapped in the House of the Undying. If you have been merciful to that Kraznys, the one who kept insulting you, we would not have Drogon. Why now is a change being implemented?"

Daenerys sighed, trying to think of how to answer it.

"I-" She stopped herself, rolling over as she thought. "Those situations called for those answers but I do not want to be murdering people simply because I can. I would be abusing my power and that will not get us far in Westeros. I need to show people that I am the better option, that I am not tyrannical as my forebearers were and that I am calm and level and mature."

"I understand that, I do, but we are not in Westeros and the man who kept telling Westeros about you, you have just let go."

"I did not let him go, I banished him."

"That worked so well the last time." Coren rested on his elbows, brushing her hair from her face as he watched his wife. "Jorah is like a fly around a carcass, he keeps coming back."

"I do not appreciate the insinuation that I'm a carcass, but we'll move on." Daenerys muttered. 

"He sold your secrets to the Usurper. That alone is treason and cause for death. I am merely thankful that he did not lay hands on our child." Coren shook his head, a pit of dread in his stomach. "I do not trust that he would not lay hands on her and he is still alive. He is roaming free. What happens if he comes back? He cannot harm me or you, but Rhaenerys is merely a child. She is not old enough to defend herself, barely old enough to walk and talk."

"Jorah would not kill Rhaenerys, or harm her."

"You can not vouch for him." Coren shook his head, sitting further upright as he watched her.

"I can vouch for the fact he loves me and he would not harm me or her." Daenerys sighed, before reaching for Coren gently. "I know you do not understand my reasoning, but I am trying to put into place better practices for me being and becoming a better queen."

"You give him chance after chance that he does not deserve." Coren shook his head, before sighing. "Being a better queen is good, but he does not deserve your mercy. He deserves death."

Daenerys sighed. Neither of them would change their mind on this matter, that she knew.

"I understand why you do not want me to kill him, but you have to understand that I am an adult. I am capable of making my own decisions and my own judgement on these sorts of matters and on a matter like this, my judgement is sure." Coren lay back down beside her. He huffed, wrapping his arm around her and pressing a kiss to her hair as she hummed. "He should be dead and I will be the one to ensure that he is."

"I know." Daenerys squeezed his hand. "If you meet him on the field of battle, then I cannot stop you but for now, I cannot have the consort to the throne murdering someone I have banished."

"I am a warrior before a consort."

"Yes, but we are married." Daenerys ran her finger over the rings on her husband's hand, before looking up at him. "There are a different set of expectations for you to abide by now. Parts of your old life, you have to relinquish."

Coren hummed, before pressing a kiss to her lips gently and settling down beside her. 

"Are we in agreement?" Daenerys chewed on her lip, watching her husband for any hint of a reaction. "I do not want us to go to sleep angry."

"I am not angry." Coren shook his head, smiling gently at her. "But we have differing opinions on this and I do not think one singular conversation will change either of our minds."

✧✦✧

{ Daenerys }

"Rhaenerys..." Daenerys continued to laugh as her daughter giggled and hid behind a chair. "Are you hiding?"

Rhaenerys' violet eyes disappeared once more as she continued to try and surprise her mother, who was hiding her laughter.

"Now, where oh where can my little dragon be?" Daenerys hummed, placing her hands on her hips as she started to look around. "My, she is far too good at hiding."

Another giggle sounded, as Daenerys fought a grin.

"She is not behind the seats or the stairs...hmm." Daenerys turned once more, her dress swishing around her feet. 

"Rah!" Rhaenerys jumped out from behind the chair, trying to imitate a dragon's roar as Daenerys fought another laugh, and jumped.

"By the gods, you scared me."

"I got you!" Rhaenerys beamed, as Daenerys picked her up by the waist. The little girl screamed as Daenerys ticked her ribs and laughed. "Mummy, mummy no! Stop!"

"What was that?" Daenerys stopped, placing her daughter on her hips as Rhaenerys giggled. "You are getting far too good at that game. I think I am going to lose you one of these days. You'll disappear."

"No, never." Rhaenerys shook her head, before wrapping her arms back around Daenerys' neck. "Never, ever, ever."

"I would find you." Daenerys kissed her head gently, before laughing once more.

"Your Grace." Daenerys paused, turning to the door as one of her guards stepped forward. "Tyrion Lannister to speak with you."

The Lannister man stood to the left of her guard, watching her cautiously as Daenerys felt her daughter tense in her arms and grow smaller. Daenerys hummed, motioning for the man to enter as she sank into her chair and rubbed her daughter's back.

Tyrion slowly approached.

"So, have you decided yet? Whether I'm worthy of your service?"

Tyrion poured a glass of wine for himself and offered one for the Targaryen woman. Daenerys waved him off, fixing her daughter's hair with her dragon pin,

"Have you decided yet whether you're going to have me killed?" Tyrion responded to her question with a question.

"It is probably my safest option."

"I can see why you think so," Tyrion hummed, sipping on the wine. "It's what your father would have done."

"And what would your father do?"

"My father? Who publicly sentenced me to death?" Tyrion scoffed. "I'd say his thoughts on having me killed were abundantly clear."

"Is that why you killed him?" Daenerys asked, setting Rhaenerys down on her lap, though her daughter tried to remain hidden beside her.

"Some day if you decide not to execute me, I'll tell you all about why I killed my father," Tyrion toasted to her. "And on that day, should it ever come, we'll need more wine than this."

"I know what my father was. What he did," Daenerys nodded, running a hand through her daughter's hair to untangle the light curls. "I know the Mad King earned his name."

"So here we sit, two terrible children of two terrible fathers.

"I'm terrible?" Daenerys cocked an eyebrow.

"I've heard stories." Rhaenerys giggled at that, before slapping her hand over her mouth. Daenerys chuckled, soothing her daughter softly.

"Why did you travel to the other side of the world to meet someone terrible?" Daenerys turned back to the man, her smile dropping. "Surely there is enough terrible in Westeros."

"To see if you were the right kind of terrible."

"Which kind is that?" Rhaenerys grabbed onto the ring on Daenerys' finger, her fingers playing with the dragon tooth as she cautiously peered across at the man ahead of them.

"The kind that prevents your people from being even more so."

"I did reopen the fighting pits. Under my rule, murder will once again become entertainment." Daenerys huffed, scrunching her nose before taking her ring off of her finger for Rhaenerys to play with more.

"Yes, that was wise." Tyrion furrowed his eyebrows as he seemed to debate the next point that he was about to make. "Yet I have heard rumours of you marrying your guard?"

Daenerys rolled her eyes, before sighing. She supposed she would have to get used to these questions before she travelled to Westeros.

"Coren has been by my side since the beginning of all of this, he has told me the truth with no ulterior motive, even when I have not been receptive to hearing it. He respects me and my position and my power does not emasculate him as it seems to do to every single other man that I have met." Daenerys shook her head, trying to fight the soft smile that seemed to appear whenever she thought of her husband. "He is the father to my daughter and above all else, above my crown, is my daughter's safety. I would never marry a man who would harm her, or sell her off as was done to me. I stand by that decision."

"That is a bold position to take."

"It is the position of a mother." Daenerys looked down at her daughter briefly, before turning back to Tyrion. "I'm not going to kill you, I don't think."

"No?" Tyrion paused. "Banish me?"

"No."

"So, if I'm not going to be murdered and I'm not going to be banished..." Tyrion cocked an eyebrow.

"You're going to advise me." Daenerys pulled her daughter closer to her, before taking Tyrion's wine glass rom his hand. "While you can still speak in complete sentences."

"Advise you on what?"

"How to get what I want." Daenerys stated, placing the wine out of reach from her daughter's grabbing hands.

"The Iron Throne. Perhaps you should try wanting something else."

"If I want jokes, I'll get myself a proper fool," Daenerys shook her head. "Or I'll speak to my husband."

"I'm not entirely joking. There's more to the world than Westeros after all," Tyrion warned. "How many hundreds of thousands of lives have you changed for the better here? Perhaps this is where you belong. Where you can do the most good."

"I fought so that no child born into Slaver's Bay would ever know what meant to be brought or sold." Daenerys took her ring back from Rhaenerys. "I will continue that fight here and beyond. But this is not my home."

"And when you get back to your home, who supports you?"

"The common people." Daenerys tilted her head.

"Let's be generous and assume that's going to happen. Here in Slaver's Bay you had the support of the common people and only the common people. What was that like, ruling without the rich?" Tyrion countered. "House Targaryen is gone, not a single person who shares your blood is alive to support you. The Starks and Lannisters will never back you. Stannis Baratheon won't back you either, his entire claim to the Throne depends on the illegitimacy of yours and your daughter. That leaves the Tyrells. Not impossible, but not enough."

"Lannister, Targaryen, Baratheon, Stark, Tyrell. They're all just spokes on a wheel," Daenerys watched Tyrion with cool eyes. "This one's on top, the that ones on top and on and on it spins, crushing the people on the ground."

"It's a beautiful dream. Stopping the wheel," Tyrion seemed doubtful. "You're not the first person to have dreamt it."

"I'm not going to stop the wheel." Daenerys stood up, pulling Rhaenerys into her arms. "I'm going to break the wheel."

Hiya,

So, Jorah's haunting both Coren and Dany even from banishment, and they're still at odds about what the right or wrong thing to do is. Rhaenerys is a sweetheart, I love her, she's so cute, Dany's about to fight everyone to defend her marriage to Coren, Coren needs some time to get out of the warrior mindset and into the ruling mindset, and yeah, fun times, no Falkor though, sadness.

Let me know what you think,

Love Li xx