Viserys's period of mourning was nearly up.

Daenys had successfully urged Daemon out of Dragonstone, but she didn't quite know where he lingered after that. Daemon would always go where Daemon would want and everyone else had to tolerate it.

She was unhappy knowing that the last few weeks of peace had come to an end. Rhaenyra was showing some improvement with her sword, but had a long way to go before she'd be able to kill a man. Now, she'd saddled Rhaenyra with readings to keep her occupied and allow herself more time with Otto, who as of late seemed pensive.

She could never get him to admit what he was always thinking about. They talked plenty yet he seemed to keep many things to himself, perhaps out of worry he was being a burden and perhaps because he thought Daenys wouldn't understand him. She didn't see where this 'selfish' part of him lay, she only saw a man who liked to ask about her day and gave her a good bit of attention afterwards.

One morning, they were summoned to the Small Council chambers ahead of the usual schedule. Otto had still been in her bed, and she'd had to scramble to ready herself and arrive there before him, knowing that even if he had to first say good morrow to Alicent as always, he was still faster at readying himself than her. It was a fun game to motivate her to run up and receive what was sure to be the dreadful news of Viserys wanting to schedule their wedding.

Daenys had beat Otto there, glad to find Rhaenyra already present. She went to greet her, kissing the top of her head before she took her seat. Otto arrived shortly after, Alicent in tow. She assumed he'd opted for her to join to ensure he still had his time with her but did not fail his King.

"Good morrow, my lords," said Viserys, standing and flashing Daenys that pained smile she'd come to recognize as meaning 'bad news.' "Princess... I have called this meeting to discuss something I brought up half a year ago, having looked ahead to the duty I need to serve the Realm."

She stared down at her hands, toying with her porcelain ball. "As you know," said Viserys, "I proposed I marry my sister, the Princess Daenys, and was met with... protest." He flashed her a look, and she smiled awkwardly. "She encouraged me to look elsewhere. I realize... she was right."

Daenys nearly flung the porcelain ball right into Lord Corlys's face. She snapped her head up at Viserys as he announced, "I have decided to take a different wife. I intend to marry... the Lady Alicent Hightower... before spring's end."

Daenys could practically feel the holes Rhaenyra was glaring into Alicent's skull, the girl picking anxiously at her nails and looking around at the stunned Council members. Lord Corlys said angrily, "This is an absurdity. You told me if you would consider any other bride, it would be my daughter!"

"And I changed my mind," said Viserys in a hard voice.

"My house is Valyrian, the greatest power in the Realm!"

"And I am your King," he said sharply. He glanced at his daughter, who rushed for the door. "Rhaenyra—"

Daenys shot out of her seat as the door slammed shut behind her. "I will go after her," she said, glaring at Viserys, then at Otto. "Excuse me, my lords."

She fought hard to keep her own disgust and anger down. Daemon had been right all along— Otto was a selfish man. He was more ambitious than she ever realized. Yes, this now left her free to marry Viserys, but she knew what the greater implications were. Alicent would give Viserys his spares, give the Realm male babes to support in Rhaenyra's stead. Otto had lost his shot at power when Viserys failed to make her heir. It wasn't enough that they could remain together. He needed his blood on the throne.

Rhaenyra had started running to her room. Daenys broke into a sprint to catch up to her, ensuring her niece couldn't slam the door in her face. "Rhaenyra," begged Daenys, following her into her room as she sobbed, covering her face. "Oh, my sweet girl..."

"Did you know?" demanded Rhaenyra between sobs. "Did you know he would—?"

"I knew he intended to marry me but I had no idea he would want anything to do with Alicent... Rhaenyra, this was not her doing. Her father played a hand in this."

"She chose to do it!" said Rhaenyra hotly. "She chose to entertain the idea and now she is going to marry my father and replace my mother... she never said anything!"

"She's a young girl with a father who is determined to see things done this way... I doubt she could deny him. She doesn't know any better. She was afraid and she lied. She is a little girl, just like you. I don't believe she did anything with malice."

"She let it happen," said Rhaenyra, sitting on her bed and wiping her eyes. "She will give my father sons and they will replace me."

Daenys sat beside her. "Your father does not wish to replace you. I don't believe he will. Whatever his reasoning behind this... I say it leans more toward loneliness and a need for affection. Not the desire to undo his choice in naming you heir. If that was the case, would he not have already named me instead? Named Daemon again? He loves you, Rhaenyra, and yet he is still a man suddenly left alone after he was married for nineteen years. I don't expect you to understand this, accept this, or be happy with this at all... not anytime soon. You are allowed to feel whatever this makes you feel. All I ask is that you do not think it a slight against you from your father or Alicent. This... this is something bigger at play. Something I wish you never had to endure."

Rhaenyra leaned onto Daenys, continuing to cry. She put an arm around her niece, kissing the top of her head and letting her pour her heart out. In her head, she spouted curses to Otto and any man praying for Viserys to have a son and replace Rhaenyra.

She wrote a letter to Rhaenys and saw it personally sent herself, hoping her cousin would be alright with her popping in for a chat. Then, she'd written a letter out to Rolf Tully, inquiring whether he was still interested in marriage and that if he was, he should send his reply to Driftmark.

If this was the game Otto wanted to play, she'd needed allies for Rhaenyra. She could gain the support of the Riverlands and brave the task of having children to claim dragons and bolster Rhaenyra's defenses from the skies. She didn't know Rolf as well as she knew Otto, Viserys, or even Daemon, but even in an hour he'd shown her a kindness that she hadn't left the back of her mind. And, worst of all, he'd shown her he was malleable.

She went to find Alicent before searching for Otto, the girl back in her chambers after the meeting looking teary-eyed herself. Daenys slipped in and shut the door behind her, Alicent so startled she almost bit a chunk of skin clean off the sides of her nails.

"Princess," she said shakily. "I wasn't expecting you."

"I have a question to ask you," said Daenys gently. "A very important one. Please answer me honestly."

Alicent stood still as Daenys stopped in front of her, holding her hands, "Are you alright with this?"

She shut her eyes quickly, swallowing hard. "I-I comforted the King and I-I suppose he took a liking to me. I didn't mean for Rhaenyra— I never intended to hurt her!"

"I know that, my darling." Daenys hugged her. "I know." She rocked her gently, rubbing her back. In the end, she knew Alicent felt she had a duty to follow— she was less resistant to it than Daenys had always been. Otto had pushed her out of where she felt comfortable with this end in mind, knowing Alicent would not object.

She tried to find Otto directly, unsurprised when it didn't yield right away. Even Viserys seemed to be avoiding her. At last, she was able to corner Otto when he'd been trying to leave the Tower of the Hand without being seen. She motioned for him to stop, and thankfully he did, quietly leading her back to the tower, deep into his study where no one would hear them.

"You needed that power, didn't you?" said Daenys, hating how her voice betrayed her and broke. "I was never going to be enough as I am."

"I told you the Realm would not support Rhaenyra," he murmured. "You saw the truth as well as I."

"I thought you agreed with me, I thought you wanted to change the order of things and support a woman on the Iron Throne!"

"I supported that when you were going to be Queen. You remain a strong candidate and together we would have done incredible things. And yet you were not chosen. Whatever guided His Grace in that decision, in even pursuing you as a wife... he was not thinking as a King, he was thinking as a grieving man who'd just lost his wife and son. I am the Hand, it is up to me to stabilize the Realm even when the King falters."

"Is it only that? Or did you support me solely because it would make you King consort?"

He was silent for a moment. "I do care for you. As much as I care for my family. It is still my duty first and foremost to better my family. You would have given Viserys sons that were mine, sons that would would be bastards and the King would know it. He would sanction it! He needs spares in the event something happens to his daughters and those spares need a good claim to the throne. They would not have it as bastards, I am not even sure they would have it even if they were truly your sons with Viserys!"

"Now, what, you believe he'll change his mind because of Alicent? She's a child. You'd condemn your daughter to this, to him because you don't want to see a woman on the Iron Throne? You've torn Alicent and Rhaenyra apart. You've subjected a child to that awful duty— a violation to her innocence— and leave her a prisoner to be tortured by a man who already killed his first wife. I cannot respect you for any of this... all it does is show me that the root of it all is that you do not value a daughter as you would a son, same as Viserys did. I can never be with a man who would think that of me, of the daughter he already has, of the daughters we might've had together. I cannot be with a man who would put a fifteen-year-old girl through this. It makes me shiver to think what you would do to me if I disagreed with you."

He looked away. "I desire you, Daenys. I admire you, I truly do. I never would hurt you. I... I simply... I..."

Daenys shook her head. "And you pushed me to marry Viserys before you admitted anything because you didn't reallythink I'd be a good Queen. I cannot forgive you for this, I cannot justify this in my mind and defend you to myself. You'd rather stick to tradition and call it right for men to look down upon women than do the hard work of changing their perspective."

"It wouldn't matter if Rhaenyra were Jaehaerys himself born again," whispered Otto. "She is a woman. The Realm will never accept it. It would have already been madness to try and see it done with you wearing the crown. I never— neverrespected you less because you were a woman, I only... I only..."

"You were only threatened by me," she accused. "Of my confidence, of my independence, of the fact I could defend myself without need of you or any other man. You were intimidated by how much I cared for you because you could never have done the same for me. You would have wanted to control me, too, eventually. You want power more than you want me. You care about people's opinions more than you care about what we feel, what we could have had. I wanted so badly to finally be someone's everything and I thought I found that with you..."

Otto pleaded, "I mean it when I say I still care for you, Daenys. I would still like to marry you, I would still like to have children with you. We can find happiness in a Realm that will be at peace because the laws of men aren't tested and tried."

"You don't understand!" she shrieked at last, feeling a tightness in her chest, her heart breaking. "To turn a blind eye to this would be to turn my back on all the fierce Targaryen women I come from, it would be to ignore everything they endured and will seemingly continue to endure at the hands of men. If I would support a man who would put women down this way, who would subject his daughter to torment, then I would be contributing to the order that keeps all women on the ground, with men looming over and believing them to be nothing more than— than— warm shells to grow children in. I cannot do it, I cannot. I won't. What we have is done with, Otto. I wish for nothing to do with you. I lived without you for many years and I can easily return to that now that you've shown me what you really are."

She went back to Rhaenyra's chambers, the girl still upset and wishing to be alone. Daenys could grant that. She informed her she'd be going to Driftmark to speak with Rhaenys. Rhaenyra didn't question it— she was experienced enough in sadness now to see what her aunt had always tried to hide from her. When she had claimed to be fine, she hadn't been, and Rhaenyra could see clearly now that Daenys's heart was broken, her eyes swam with a foggy misery she didn't wish her aunt to feel. If this was what she needed to do to feel better, then Rhaenyra could endure a short time without her.

She flew to Driftmark, Rhaenys already waiting with the letter in her hand. Daenys's face scrunched up as she tried not to cry, but the moment she saw Rhaenys open her arms, she burst into tears and dropped her head against her cousin's shoulder, feeling guilty and upset and like she was to blame for all of this. Otto had been candid about what the Realm would think; had she read around the lines, had she chosen to hear half-truths, had she refused to accept what he was when she'd known for far longer?

Rhaenys had calmed her by following her into the skies with Meleys. Vhagar was pleased; she remembered flying beside the Red Queen many times, back in happier moments where Baelon and Alyssa had both been alive and well. The friendship between dragons continued with the cousins.

She didn't think it was Daenys's fault. Otto was a clever man who knew how to tell people what they wanted to hear. He knew how to get done whatever benefitted him the most, at the expense of everyone else. She told Daenys not to blame herself for wanting to see the good in him while Daemon had always been pointing out the bad. It wasn't wrong to wish people were the better versions of themselves. Rhaenys didn't doubt Otto had actually cared for her. But she agreed Otto had cared about other things more.

They got to speaking over dinner once her children had eaten. To distract her, Rhaenys mentioned Laena's desire to claim a dragon after Laenor had claimed Seasmoke during their last visit to King's Landing. While Rhaenys worried Viserys would want to monitor who did and didn't claim a dragon, Daenys told her the dragons on Dragonstone would not answer to any of the King's rules. She advised her to take Laena there and have her test her chances with the wild ones. Perhaps one would wish to take her on as a rider.

"Corlys is sure to return to Driftmark after what Viserys decided," said Rhaenys as she walked Daenys to her chamber for the night. "I am relieved neither you or Laena need to marry him, and yet..."

"I'm relieved she doesn't need to marry him, either." She slowed to a stop in front of the door and smiled at Rhaenys, "I should hope we might mend this bond, for the sake of what Rhaenyra will need to endure. This is all informal talk... please do not say a word of it to your lord husband... but I believe perhaps in the future we might find it beneficial to wed Rhaenyra to Laenor. I don't wish to subject my niece to an arranged marriage, but I believe it a very strong match."

Rhaenys tilted her head with interest. "I should look forward to you speaking of this with Viserys and bringing our houses together." She hesitated, then asked, "Will you really marry that Tully boy?"

"Yes," said Daenys. "I need someone at my side to support me in whatever's to come. I need someone who can come live in the castle with me. He can fight and he admired me."

"I advise you not to make this choice solely because you wish to be close to Rhaenyra and Alicent. They are growing... they can survive without you."

"Rhaenys... they are my girls. I cannot abandon them. Not now. Not when I've a chance to stop Rhaenyra and Alicent from despising each other because of Otto's choices."

She smiled weakly, perhaps still disagreeing. "Sleep well, cousin. I hope you'll find everything to be... as you wish it."

Daenys found she couldn't rest all night. She was tormented with memories of every night she spent with Otto, every day that they smirked ar each other from across the table at the Small Council meetings. Even in her dreams he appeared, and she saw him sitting on the Iron Throne looking down at her. A second dream had disturbed her more— herself holding in her arms a babe that she knew to be a girl, and pulling a sheet over the babe's face as Otto passed so he might not see it.

When morning came, she felt a cold sweat stuck to her body. She placed a hand on her stomach nervously— when was the last time she'd bled? She swore she remembered it happening a month prior because her bleed had come at the same time as Rhaenyra's and Daenys had joked that Rhaenyra would copy her way of dressing next. Yes, a month, which meant a bleed was due anytime now.

She threw up the sheets and saw nothing. Her heart sank into her stomach, recalling the passionate night she'd spent with Otto just before Viserys's announcement, only a day prior. There were many nights before that, practically every night that she did not bleed they were together... she could be carrying a child from the day her bleed stopped or her body could already be forming a babe from the night before.

Her mind swam as she awoke for breakfast, relieved to find a letter waiting for her from Riverrun. Rolf Tully was happy to marry her whenever she wished— the sooner the better, he claimed, if she would be willing to take him to live with her the moment it was done. That, she could arrange.

She wrote a response telling him she'd be there the next day to be wed in a private ceremony with his family. For both of them, it would be beneficial. If that dream meant anything, if she was pregnant with Otto's child already, then she needed to marry Rolf quickly and use him and his perfectly brown hair to hide the truth, should the babe resemble the Hightower complexion. She knew she could have taken a tansy tea, that she could place boiling hot stones on her belly and be done with it, but a part of her didn't even want to believe the premonition in the first place. A part of her didn't want to immediately cast aside what she'd felt for him.

She said nothing to Rhaenys. With every bit of calm, she wrote to Viserys and told him she'd be marrying Rolf Tully and that if he objected, she'd disappear to Essos and never be seen again. She doubted Viserys would speak against it now that he knew her to be upset enough to leave— she'd never done it before. The one who would be upset would be Daemon, but she knew there was no benefit to marrying him and if he knew the child she birthed was Otto's and not his, she worried he'd be furious enough to do something truly vile.

The moment she estimated her raven to have arrived in Riverrun, she took to the skies on Vhagar and flew back over the mainland, leaning down and pressing her hands against her dragon's scales, feeling comfort in her warmth. In a way, her father would see her wed. Whether he'd like the circumstances was an entirely different matter. She hoped she hadn't judged too soon.

(She hoped Rolf would be a good husband. If he wasn't... she need only tolerate him long enough to see if there wassomething left of Otto inside her. As soon as she had an heir with the Tully name, she could actually try to kill a husband of hers. It should not be too difficult.)

The men and women knee-deep in the silverweeds carrying baskets filled with shelled creatures turned their heads up as Vhagar swooped down on approach to Riverrun, all shouting in fear and excitement, none knowing why a dragon had come to their lands. She could see figures emerging from the castle before she touched down, and she recognized Rolf even from above, having recognized his marveled expression from the last time they'd seen each other.

"Couldn't stay away from me, could you?" said Rolf, flashing her a smile when she landed in a grassy field by the river, Vhagar immediately hovering her head over the water and looking in. His guards kept their distance, all glancing at each other and at Vhagar, who sneered lowly and flapped her wings in warning.

"Oh, no, my heart's been positively broken without you," she said, glad to find he still made her laugh with ease. "Poor Vhagar was tired of listening to me pray to those gods you hate that you'd find an excuse to return to King's Landing."

He patted his chest. "My excuses weren't good enough for my father. Apparently, hating fish is punishable by death in these parts." Once she was in front of him, he held onto her shoulder. "Daenys... are you sure you're alright with this? I may have a head filled with bog by a dragon's standards, but I don't consider myself an idiot. It's all so sudden. Are you in danger?"

She shook her head, but try as she might, her expression still faltered and she stared at the river sadly to avoid his eyes. "A danger to myself, if anything. There is much I can't control, much to come that I fear, a game that's played I don't understand. I thought I'd seen the rest of my life continuing a certain way and the other day, it was as if the board I played on was thrown into the air, pieces scattered. I knew everything then nothing..."

"You had your heart broken," he surmised, tilting his head. "I've seen that look on many people. You don't... have to tell me about him. But say the word and I'll kill him if you don't wish to dirty your sword."

Even that made her laugh, and she quickly wiped her eyes as she began to tear up. "Oh, if only dirtying my sword were what kept me from retaliating." She finally faced him, trying to look even slightly hopeful. "I want... I want to seize some control in my life. I want to have something to call my own, I want someone who will admire me because of all the wonderful things I am— I know I am wonderful. You interested me and I hope in you I can find some semblance of a path forward. If you're patient, if you'll teach me your way of... seeing humor in everything and approaching your life with such positivity..."

"I'll do anything you ask of me," said Rolf. He knelt, holding her hand. "I pledge myself to you, Daenys Targaryen. I pledge to be a good husband, to comfort you in the ways you seem to have always comforted others without always receiving the same. I pledge to uphold your values, to defend you and your family. My sword is yours, my life is yours, and I swear to all gods— Old and New, fish lovers or not—" She laughed and he grinned, concluding, "that my love will be yours without hesitation."

She felt not a single bit of regret as she pulled him to his feet and kissed him. Fear, yes, it still coursed through her veins. That would not leave her so soon. Yet the excitement that overtook her kept her from letting the fear run amok, giving her enough of a grip on herself to walk with him to the castle and wed him in front of the entire household, both dressed for battle with swords at the hip, and Vhagar peeking into the nearest window with a head so large she nearly snuffed out the sun.

The bedding was not necessary by Tully standards, given they all knew she'd been married before, but Daenys was insistent upon the need to 'meet and know' her lord husband in every capacity. Rolf would never have denied her. He wasn't only a comical and pensive man outside the bedroom— he did the same within. He joked when she took too long unlacing her boots that Vhagar and the other dragons would wither into weeds before Daenys finally got rid of all her armor. She'd retorted that he'd gotten undressed so quickly, she worried about two things: one, his stamina would fail him, and two, he must not be so strong a warrior if his armor slid off with such ease.

It had been amusing enough to get them started. She surmised very quickly that Rolf wasn't the sort of man who lost his mind without control— he actually quite liked relinquishing it. While Otto and even Gareth had preferred to dictate how and when Daenys moved (save on certain occasions where her game was to seduce them), Rolf had immediately let her decide what she wished to do and how.

She found herself enjoying how submissive he was to her. She'd pinned him down the entire time and he hadn't fought her about it, neck arched to such a painful level she had to slow herself down and whisper that he had to hold himself together a bit longer— she made it a requirement he wait for her to reach the same point. She loved the way he twitched trying to follow her instructions even as she began to ride him again, purposely pressing her hands into his neck, knowing it would be even more difficult for him to hold back his urges.

In the morning, his things were packed and sent on a carriage to King's Landing. He wasn't at all sorry to see Riverrun go, and even confided in her that he hoped to never return, save to visit his family. He got along well with his family, but had always craved more than the same stretches of murky soil and tall grass. He wanted a life filled with things to do and places to do them in. Daenys was excited to take him to Dragonstone and to Driftmark, to train in the yard with him, to accompany him hunting in the Kingswood.

She flew them ahead on Vhagar, Rolf gripping so tight to her waist she worried briefly that she'd lose consciousness and leave Vhagar to get them home herself. He was dizzy and near ready to empty his stomach by the time they reached the Dragonpit, but he had a lingering giddy smile that she enjoyed, that made her giggle when he unsteadily walked toward the Dragonkeepers and effectively fell onto the ground, groaning.

Viserys's only complaints regarded the sudden marriage were he could not properly discuss terms with Lord Grover Tully and he hadn't been able to attend the ceremony and deliver his sister into the protection of her husband. Daenys assured him the Tullys had been perfectly happy with everything— Lord Grover was content with his son to finally be married, finally leave a place he found boring, and with the knowledge that his blood would sire dragonriders with a Princess. As for the ceremony, she told him very bluntly he deserved not to see her wed after having forced her into it once and having wished to do it a second time.

It filled her with an inexplicable glee to see Otto's face when she introduced her husband to the Small Council. Rolf had greeted everyone with a great big smile, blissfully unaware of current tensions. Even Rhaenyra seemed to forget her father and Alicent's betrothal for a brief moment when Daenys introduced them. Rolf had bent the knee upon seeing her, and when Rhaenyra asked what he was doing, he said he was under the impression he had to always bend the knee to the heir after the whole ceremony where they did it for the first time. It was silly, but Daenys was glad to see her niece laugh.

She promised Rhaenyra, in her own head with her sword held to her heart, that she would ensure her claim was upheld. No one would take that throne from her.

_

A/N: Happy 100 pages! For reference, Rolf Tully's faceclaim is Adrian Bower, who played Leofric in The Last Kingdom. Apologies in advance that I intend to use more characters from that show as faceclaims... I just love the warrior/medieval looks of them for Game of Thrones! It fits what I imagine Daenys liking and later creating with her kids.