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[dragonwarder]

@daenerys.targaryen | ■ ▲ ◌ ▼

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[dragonwarder]

This was no death of a loved one.

[That is not what she wants to hear right now. But she can't very well admit that. So she offers a comparison.]

Kylo Ren made no such overtures.
Within a day of his return, he sought after my well-being.

So it does not matter what was meant.
I gave her several opportunities to apologize, and she did not.
I expected more of her. Obviously, that trust was misplaced.

You claim a title of King in the North -- you ought to know a thing or two of the importance of trust, no?

[northerndragon]

They aren't the same person. She might take things harder than he does.

But aye, I know something of loyalty. Didn't take them making me king to learn it.

Has she betrayed you in truth, or just hidden herself away?

[dragonwarder]

Enlighten me as to why this matter so deeply concerns you.

[Why would Jon Snow, the King in the North, give a lick about her feud with some girl from nowhere? She isn’t being fair, of course — but she feels justified in this sort of pettiness, if only to guard herself from being so deeply disappointed again.]

[northerndragon]

We're talking about it.

[The truth is, he hadn't meant to get so pulled into it. But he can also see that she's not doing herself any favors by closing the door between her and Rey so quickly and firmly.]

But since we're talking about it —

We are each of us all alone here, or close enough to it. We come here weak and sleeping. We need our friends, whatever friends we have.

You have been kind enough to me since I came to this city that I didn't like to see you lose your friend when she was missing. I still don't like to see it now that she's returned. Maybe it doesn't matter what I like to see, but it doesn't sound like you like it, either.

[That isn't the only reason. There is the matter of dragons in a dream.

But this is why he's talking to her about Rey. Their rift seems like it could heal over a matter of time and patience, if Daenerys doesn't sever their friendship entirely.]

[dragonwarder]

[Something seizes in her chest, when he says out loud so easily what she has consistently pushed away. She’d been alone for months — it had become something of a game of survival, for someone who had become so accustomed to being surrounded by people who knew her, respected her, feared her, and loved her.

It had been years since she was nobody to everybody, and confronting that — it has fostered an identity crisis.

And when the people closest to her vanished and changed, well — she hasn’t quite accepted that yet.]

It no longer matters what I like, or what suits me.
What suits me matters to few people in New Amsterdam.

[Which is the core of the problem, isn’t it?]

I do not wish to speak of Rey or Kylo Ren any longer.

[northerndragon]

All right. We won't speak of them any longer. It isn't my place to tell you not to close a door between you if you don't have to do it.

There was something else I wanted to ask you. The dream, with the dragons. Do you remember it?

Is that what they look like in truth?

[dragonwarder]

[Ah. He remembers all of it, too. It wasn’t the first time — but that didn’t make it any less awkward.]

Indeed.
Though you got closer than most get the chance; an advantage of dreams, I suppose.

[northerndragon]

What should have happened?

[dragonwarder]

They are protective of their mother.
And they rarely take personal interest in other people.

[northerndragon]

I am no threat to you, Daenerys.

They seemed curious. I don't know why they'd be curious about me.

[dragonwarder]

[He is robbed of her amused smile when he makes those proclamations as a result of them speaking through the implant. She very nearly agrees with him — he couldn’t possibly be a threat to her, if it weren’t for so many other things about him that very CLEARLY made him a threat to her.

And of course, the answer about the dragons’ curiosity...well, they were her dreams, after all.]

Perhaps you smelled of sheep.

[northerndragon]

I wasn't dreaming of sheep. In your dream, did you find me sleeping in a paddock before I was in your castle with you?

[dragonwarder]

Hm. I cannot recall.
As a matter of fact, as I recall, you seemed to have invited yourself into my castle.

[northerndragon]

No, I found myself there. As it might have been if I had finished my journey to meet you.

[dragonwarder]

Then I suppose that is what happened.
Though — I would perhaps not count on such a warm welcome from Drogon, should you attempt such on our return to Westeros.

[northerndragon]

I hope I'm not fool enough to give my sword hand to a dragon, whether I'm awake or asleep.

But so long as he doesn't tear me into pieces, it's your welcome that concerns me.

Something to worry about another day. We can't know everything that will come.

[dragonwarder]

My welcome?

[She tries to consider what he means, and if it had felt out of the ordinary, but nothing comes to her. If anything, her welcome to him may have been kinder than it would be the day he finally arrived on her shores.

Especially if he continued to decline to bend the knee.]

It is like you have said: I require allies.
I believe we desire the same things for a just Westeros.
And if you continue to give me no reason to doubt that, you need not worry how you will be received.

[northerndragon]

[He is going to continue to decline to bend the knee. An alliance suits them both well, but past that... her differences with Rey just now, how unnecessary it seems they might be... Daenerys hasn’t done anything wrong, anything cruel, but it reminds him of his sisters when they were girls, of how they were always fighting over the smallest, stupidest things.

He does not think Sansa would do the same now. Arya... the thought of her dismays him. She wouldn’t be a child anymore if she lived, but she is lost, and she will never be a woman grown.]

Then I’m pleased that you won’t be burning me alive or taking my head.

Is that really what the table looks like, Aegon’s table? Some of the lands beyond the Wall were on it. Makes me wonder if he once meant to be king of the Free Folk, too.

[dragonwarder]

[Well Jon, she didn’t say that.

But the way he says it — some of her feels troubled by it. Is he joking? Is that what he thinks of her? Or is this some narrative Cersei has spread?

It should not bother her, really. She wants Cersei to think these things of her, and to fear her. But not Jon. Not everyone else. She is coming to save them — and Jon, for all of his faults, paints no picture that would suggest he has anything to fear from her.

She shouldn’t ask — it will make her seem foolish. But it suddenly really bothers her.]

Is that what they think of me, in the North?
That I am coming to burn you all?

CW: Game of Thrones (passing mention of rape)

[northerndragon]

No. But my sister feared for me when I left. Stark men don’t do well in the South.

[Does he need to explain that? Her father had killed his grandfather and uncle... for that matter, her brother had stolen and raped his aunt. His own father had been killed in King’s Landing by the Lannisters, and Robb had been killed in the Riverlands.]

I’m not a Stark, but I know I’m taking a risk by coming to you. It’s a necessary risk, but it isn’t mainly a risk because you’re the Dragon Queen. It’s always a risk for one ruler to put himself at another’s mercy.

[dragonwarder]

[Some of these stories, she only knows by vague mentions from her advisors. They hadn’t really meant anything to her, having never met a Stark or anyone connected to them besides Jorah. Some of the stories, she does not know at all.

He is softening it for her, she thinks, to avoid discouraging her prospects for an alliance with them.]

I am not my father, nor my brothers.
I do not come to murder.
I come to liberate you all from a tyrant.

I hope you understand that, and that you will help your people understand that when the time comes.

[northerndragon]

I know. I do understand it. We all want Cersei gone.

The Northern lords didn't like their king leaving so soon after they raised him. As our closest ally, the Vale didn't like it either. We need to prepare for the worst of winter, that's true enough, but I cannot do it there. I'm useless sitting at Winterfell when all the dragonglass is on Dragonstone.

[dragonwarder]

[There he goes again, with talk of Dragonglass. And still, she has a hard time consoling him, when he will not commit to her cause outright.

Does there exist a man more frustrating than Jon Snow?]

If you understand it, then you have no need to be concerned of burning.
The Lannister armies are the only ones in danger of such tragedy.
Though it is my hope that setting eyes upon my children will perhaps cause them to reconsider their allegiances, if their morals do not do it for them.

But I am not optimistic in that regard.

[northerndragon]

[Back when Aegon and his sisters were conquering Westeros, only Torrhen Stark had been smart enough to bend the knee. Many of the other kings had died, and some had taken their lines with them. Maybe they had never seen what a dragon can do, before the Field of Fire. Maybe they hadn’t understood. Before walking into Daenerys’s dream, Jon’s own understanding of dragons had been a distant thing, with no real grasp of their size or their heat. Having seen a mammoth didn’t come close to preparing him for it.

He isn’t sure what else to say to Daenerys. The Lannister armies will suffer for their lords’ folly — the way it always is.]

I hope they throw down their swords. They are smallfolk. They don’t have to give their lives for Cersei.

Daenerys, what are you doing right now? Come down to Red Wings, if it suits you. I’ll give you a cup of wine if you want it.

[dragonwarder]

[The next message is delayed. She shouldn’t be attempting to entertain company right now. She is stressed, and upset — those two emotions don’t mix well in a Targaryen.

But he says the magic word. And while it is only a slight encouragement, it turns out that is all she really needs.]

Nothing of import.
I will meet you within the hour.