The meetings of the Small Council were boring to Rhaenyra, but mostly because she was instructed to shut up and serve drinks. How was she to learn how to be Queen if she wasn't allowed to do anything or even voice her opinion? That was exactly what Otto Hightower wanted, she figured. The more incompetent and incapable she looked, the easier it would be for him to convince others Aegon was a better heir. Rhaenyra knew she had to do something, turn the tables around somehow, but she had no idea how. She had no friends and no allies. What was she to do?

Rhaenyra's grim thoughts were interrupted by a messenger who all but ran into the room. 'News from the Stepstones!' the boy declared, showing the paper in his hand.

Otto immediately stretched his hand out, and the boy handed a scroll to him. 'What is it, Otto?' Viserys asked. Rhaenyra was trying hard to act normal but nerves were swirling inside her chest. Oh Gods, let it be good news, not the bad ones. She had already lost her mother and then saw her father marry her best friend, she couldn't lose Daemon as well.

The silence stretched as the Hand read through passages. Then his face changed. As soon as Rhaenyra recognized Otto's displeasure, she knew what the news was.

Good news.

'It seems like the war for Stepstones is over. The Crabfeeder is dead.'

Rhaenyra couldn't help but ask, 'And Prince Daemon?'

'Alive and thriving, apparently,' Otto answered, the displeasure evident. Rhaenyra barely suppressed a sigh of relief.

'That's good then,' Viserys concluded. 'Anything about my brother's future plans?'

'No, not at the moment,' the Hand read the scroll some more. 'An unknown dragon was sighted during the last attack,' he added, amused.

'What do you mean?' Viserys asked.

'Apparently, Prince Daemon had some additional help. Not from Velaryons, and surely not from us.'

'Who is the rider?'

Otto put a scroll on the table with the sigh, 'They do not know.'

The conversation continued with Otto promising to find who Daemon's new ally was, but Rhaenyra barely listened. An unknown dragon? That was exciting. Except for a few wild ones, all of the dragons were accounted for. And dragons don't just come out of nowhere. Rhaenyra hoped she would be able to meet that new dragon and this mysterious rider.

***

The Vale of Arryn was peaceful. And nice. And boring. Diane could see why her father hated this place so much. She was not a fan of calm and peaceful life herself but she did enjoy it once in a while. Even more so after everything that happened recently. She just needed a break from the constant rush and life-and-death situations.

Diane pondered on what it said about her as a person if she thought about being on a mission to kill her father's wife as "a break", but decided not to dwell on that. She flew from the Stepstones right to the Mountains of the Moon where she found for Silverwing a cozy cave (well, at least as cozy as caves go) and went down the mountain on foot. It would be faster to fly right to the Vale, but she didn't want to alert anyone and wanted to make sure nobody would be able to place her dragon anywhere near the "accident". It was probably just slightly paranoid, but Diane learned the hard way that even walls have ears so she was justified to assume that valleys have too.

She sneaked past Bloody Gate with ease because the guys there were on the lookout for tribesmen and invading armies, not for a teenage girl (it was hard to think about herself like that but Diane was aware of how she looked now) in a grey cape. Daemon gave it to her and said it was a tradition but didn't explain exactly what this tradition was. Diane didn't care enough to ask clarifying questions. Then there was a highly uneventful stroll to the outskirts of Eyrie where she stole a horse and rode to Vale. She could have bought it out, of course, but she didn't want to risk being remembered.

Daemon managed to give her an estimate of where his wife loved to hunt in the Vale, and the area was quite wide. This was not surprising. If you hate your spouse, you usually don't make an effort to get to know them well. But that was okay, Diane could work with that. She studied the map, chose the place that she was sure Rhea would have to ride through to get from Runestone to the Vale or back, camped there, and waited.

Rhea appeared on a fourth day. She was riding to the Vale when she was stopped by a stranger in a grey cape.

'Name yourself,' Rhea demanded.

'I do not blame you for not recognizing me, Lady Rhea,' Diane said, lifting the hood so the woman could see her face. 'After all, it has been years since you last saw me.'

The sparks of recognition appeared in Rhea's gaze, 'My husband's bastard.'

'So you do remember me, huh? But I guess asking you to remember my name is asking for too much,' Diane shook her head with a small smile.

'What do you want?' Rhea demanded. She was looking down on Diane from her horse, but she didn't look as threatening as the woman probably wanted herself to look.

'You know, I spent years wondering-' Diane said, completely ignoring the question. 'What a shitty human being do you have to be to try and kill a child?' she made a thoughtful sound. 'Most assassins don't even do that, and we do not have the best morals as a rule. So answer me, Lady Rhea, why did you?' Diane asked, her voice low, and took a few slow steps towards the horse.

'I see my husband did a good job at poisoning you with his lies,' Rhea said, trying to appear calm, but it was obvious she was feeling the threat in the air.

'He didn't have to. I do remember how you pushed me out into the balcony during a snowstorm and locked the door. By the time a servant found me, I almost froze to death.'

'You can't possibly remember that...'

'Oh, I do remember it. Every second of that day. I was six, not stupid. It was you. I remember that smug look of yours when you closed the door in my face and left me to die! Did you really hate my father so much to do that to me?' Diane asked. 'I was just a kid.'

'He brought his whore kid to MY home!' Rhea suddenly shouted. 'I am his wife, and he had the audacity to cheat on me not even a year after we were wed! And then he brought YOU with him and wanted me to just deal with it! That selfish, cheating piece of shit!'

'I don't get it,' Diane waved her hands, taking a few more steps closer. 'I just don't. My father was sixteen, and he had to be dragged into the wedding ceremony to marry you. How much loyalty can you expect?'

'He has a duty!'

'To whom? To you?' Diane let out a laugh. 'Oh please, the only people Daemon cares about are his family. And your marriage is no more than a farce that lasted for too long.'

Rhae smirked, 'And you think you are one of these people, right? Gods, you are stupid. He only keeps you around because it's convenient. If he really cared, do you think he would let our little balcony incident slide? He never said a word to me about it.'

'That, I believe, is my fault. I never told father who did it,' Diane shrugged, taking a few more steps forward so she would be really close to the horse.

Rhea was obviously taken aback, 'What?'

'Yeah. I was a smart girl. I told everyone I just accidentally locked myself out. I knew daddy is gonna be real mad if I tell him the truth, and he will go and make you hurt,' Diane said in a small, childish voice, then cleared her throat and continued normally, 'You know, the whole thing. I wanted to give you another chance or whatever. Mum taught me to be kind to others. In hindsight, you probably didn't deserve it.'

'And you are telling me this, why exactly?'

Diane smiled, showing off her teeth, 'I wanted you to know that you brought this on yourself.'

It took a few seconds for Rhea to figure out what Diane was implying, but then the realization sparked in her eyes and she reached for her bow. To trick an already agitated horse and make it crush Rhea was easy. But then again, in Diane's experience killing people is genuinely not that hard. Humans are so fragile, so wrapped up in their egos, so uncareful because they subconsciously believe they are immortal. So yeah, assassins are not really overworking themselves.

When the horse got back up and ran out of the way, Diane walked closer to check on Rhea. The woman appeared to be still alive and conscious, even though she couldn't move.

'That must hurt,' Diane commented, looking around for something heavy.

'He asked you to do this, didn't he?' Rhea spat. 'He- is too proud- to do this himself.'

'No, he isn't. I kinda volunteered,' Diane chuckled when she saw a big enough stone and went to pick it up.

'He doesn't- love you, you know? He is just using you to- to do his dirty work!' Rhea's eyes widened when she saw Diane coming at her with a piece of rock.

'Wise of him, don't you think? To ask me to do this. Dirty work is my specialty,' Diane smiled with her teeth before delivering a final blow.

The silence fell over the place. Diane checked the road, picked up her bag, and disappeared into the sunset as if she had never been there.

***

After some discussions, Daemon and Corlys decided that it would be best to build a new fort on the Stepstones to make sure pirates or the Triarchy wouldn't try to take over the place again. The problem was that they didn't have sufficient funding for it just lying around. They could leave a few dozen soldiers to temporarily hold the place, but they needed a more permanent solution. Daemon said he would ask for funding when he came back to King's Landing. Considering what Diane told him, it wouldn't be hard to get back into his brother's good graces. The main challenge would be to stay there.

'Daemon, a dragon is approaching,' Laenor peaked into the man's tent. 'I think it's Silverwing,' the guy sounded all too happy about it, but Daemon didn't have time to dwell on that. Instead, he thanked him and went to greet his daughter.

Diane smiled, jumping off her dragon when she noticed Daemon. She tried not to think a lot about it but she did see him die only a year ago, and now seeing him alive every time they met made her really happy.

'How was your trip to Dragonstone?' he asked. It was a lie they decided on before Diane left so people would know she went home and wouldn't even try to place her anywhere near the Vale.

'Successful. Met an old friend, took care of business, you know,' she said, making Daemon smile. She took care of business.

He was free.

'And I'm dying for a proper bath,' Diane added as an afterthought, scratching her head.

Daemon reached and took the woman by the elbow, leading her in the direction of his tent, 'I believe I can arrange for that.'

Even though the army was basically camping on this hill due to the war, having money was extremely beneficial, and in less than half an hour Diane was relaxing in a wooden bathtub with hot water that even smelled nice.

'Is there a reason why Silverwing is very threateningly sitting on top of the hill over your tent?' Daemon asked, walking inside.

Diane waved off without opening her eyes, 'Because there are horny men, and I'm naked. What if someone tried to sneak in? I would have to get up, and get my dagger, and then kill them- that would be the whole ordeal, and I'm trying to relax here.'

Daemon snorted, 'Well, she let me in, didn't she?'

'Eh, you are my father. You do not count.'

'I wanted to talk to you,' he said, then probably registered that his daughter was lying naked in the bathtub and added, 'In hindsight, it's probably not the best time.'

'No, no, it's fine. Just pass me the towel. The water is getting cold anyway,' Diane answered, opening her eyes and sitting straighter in the bathtub. Daemon passed her the towel and then sat on the chair it was previously occupying. 'What's on your mind?'

'I want to return to King's Landing as soon as possible. No need to give Cunttowers any more time to poison my brother with their lies.'

'Okay,' Diane nodded, getting up and wrapping the towel around her body.

'I want you to come with me.'

'Yeah, okay,' the woman nodded, stepping out of the bathtub. She expected that.

'I will introduce you to my brother as my daughter and heir.'

'What?!' Diane tripped over the edge of a bathtub, and Daemon had to jump to his feet to catch her so that she wouldn't meet the hard floor. Then he pulled her back to her feet.

'Are you alright?' he asked.

Diane just stared at him wide-eyed with her mouth hanging open for a few seconds and then asked, 'You will do what?'

'I'll legitimize you. You will be a Targaryen as you deserved to be since the day you were born, and you'll inherit Dragonstone after I die,' Daemon explained, his expression open and his voice sincere. Diane wasn't used to seeing his father quite like this.

'Wh-why? Why would you?'

'Because you deserve it. Because you are a dragon, just like me and Rhaenyra. You deserve to be recognized for who you truly are. I planned to name you as my heir when you reach adulthood since you were born.'

'But you didn't. The first time you didn't, you didn't even mention anything like that,' Diane looked lost. It wasn't making any sense. She knew her father cared about her, way more than most of the men carried about their bastards, but she never even hoped to be legitimized. It was never in the cards, she was fine with it, and now Daemon was telling her that he had a fucking plan.

'And I apologize. I do not know what went wrong. I probably had my reasons but... I do not have them now,' Daemon's hands tightened on Diane's shoulders. 'I want to do everything right this time. Let me do this right, Diane, please.'

The woman looked at him for a few seconds and then said, 'Okay.'

'Okay?'

'Yes, okay,' she smiled. 'I will be a fool to turn this down, won't I?'

Daemon smiled back, and it was obvious that, for some reason, it meant a lot to him. He let go of his daughter, and Diane went to the mirror to make her hair look presentable. Daemon sat back on the chair.

'Any particular plans for your grand return?' Diane asked.

'Well, I will come back, give Viserys this joke of a crown, and then improvise from there.'

'You really gave it a thought, didn't you?'

'Oh, shut up. I have no idea where to start,' Daemon sighed. 'I need to get back into Viserys' inner circle, kick Otto out of it, make sure that common folk support Rhaenyra instead of the Hightower spawn, and then I need to properly woo Rhaenyra to make sure Viserys won't marry her away to the first idiot lord he sees fit. Not necessarily in this order.'

'The last part won't be hard,' Diane smirked, brushing her hair. 'I don't think you ever had any trouble catching women's attention.'

'I am irresistible, yes,' Daemon confirmed proudly, making his daughter snort. 'But I'm not looking for a quick fuck, am I? If I want to marry her, I need to court her right so no one would even try to question her virtue. And I'm not sure how to go about that.'

'Well, Otto will try and question her virtue anyway. You just need to make sure that by that time, Viserys trusts you enough to believe your word over his Hand's. And-' Diane turned to him. 'You should probably keep it in your pants before you are wed. So in the future, you won't have to explain away a baby that came a few months too early but still miraculously turned out perfectly fine.'

Daemon shook his head with a smile, 'I can't believe we are discussing my sex life.'

'Oh, believe me, that's not the first time. At least, not for me.'

Daemon narrowed his eyes, 'Have I ever taken you with me to a brothel by any chance?'

'Yes, a bunch of times,' Diane crossed the room to pick up her clothes and then started dressing herself. 'I do believe we even fucked the same people.'

Daemon turned in his chair to fully face her. Well, now he was interested. 'Is that so?'

Diane smiled, lacing up her shirt, 'It appears we have a similar taste in women, father.'