Chapter 47 - The King's Interest. 

[Chapter Size: 2700 Words.] 

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Third Person POV 

Harrenhal, 101 AC. 

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The door to the king's chambers opened as several maids entered along with the royal guards and the Lord Commander of the Kingsguard to bring the king his first meal, as his age no longer allowed him to move around much. 

At the same time, a little girl with platinum hair slipped between the adults' legs without anyone noticing. 

"Good morning, Grandpa!" she said. 

Jaehaerys, who was already awake reading a book, looked up at the little girl's arrival. The maids and royal guards seemed surprised by her intrusion. The king's eyes soon settled on her, and a small smile appeared on his face. 

"Hello, Laena," he said as the little girl positioned herself beside the bed. 

He first turned his attention to the maid. "Leave everything here on top. I'll eat little by little." 

He spoke while the maids did as instructed. His other hand, slightly trembling, rested on the girl's head. 

Jaehaerys already knew he was nearing the end of his life, that he was frail and that, perhaps soon, the crown would pass to that girl's mother or to his other grandson, Viserys. Although the outcome seemed quite obvious to him, the political theater still had to be performed, avoiding any future misunderstandings. 

The last thing he wanted was his family killing one another over the crown. He felt a chill just thinking about seeing dragons killing each other in the skies. That was something he abhorred. 

He already disliked having seen so many of his children die. At the same time, there were hardly any princes left with him. His only living son was Vaegon Targaryen, who was bound by the vows of the Citadel, while to his dismay, his only daughter had become a prostitute in Lys. 

And there are still three bastards here, claiming to be Saera's children, and they have presented their claims to the throne. But there is no support for them. Jaehaerys did not pay them much attention either and would never recognize them as members of House Targaryen. 

Jaehaerys was a king who had achieved a long life and knew that most of his reign had been filled with stability. Although he always had to solve one issue here and another there, he never faced major conflicts. His own vassals said that he would be the greatest king who had ever lived. 

He hoped not. 

He hoped that Viserys would continue his legacy, keep House Targaryen under firm control, and avoid any conflicts among the kingdoms. 1

However, he also knew that he had been a terrible father. His wife had remained loyal until the very end, and Jaehaerys could not have asked for anything more than Alysanne's love and devotion. But as a father, he believed he had failed greatly. 

He was not happy to reach that moment and see his family filled only with grandchildren, with none of his children still alive. Even so, he could find some comfort in knowing that Vaegon would arrive soon, as the Citadel had sent a letter informing him that he would be there within the next few days. 

In any case, he still felt somewhat happy to see his great-granddaughter. 

"Laena!" Another child's voice came from the hallway. 

"Don't run, Leonor!" their mother shouted right behind the boy. 

Jaehaerys soon saw his granddaughter appear in the doorway with her youngest son and a fourth Kingsguard following them. Since the other four Kingsguard had been assigned to serve the Velaryon family and his grandson Viserys during the Great Council. 

"Your Majesty, I apologize. She ran here before we could do anything..." Rhaenys said, beginning an apology. 

"It's alright. It's nice to wake up with a little girl from my family wishing me good morning," he said with a hint of sadness. 

Rhaenys nodded as she picked up Laena. "Come on, let your grandfather eat a little." 

"But..." Laena tried to stay. Her mother, however, was firm. 

"He needs to attend to matters of the realm now. We can't disturb him," she said as she dragged her outside, since the Master of Whisperers was standing in front of the door. 

After Rhaenys and the children left, he entered. It was Roland Grafton, the current Master of Whisperers who had managed to build a vast web of connections throughout all the kingdoms, even in Dorne, according to rumors. 

"Your Majesty, I am here to speak about the boy... But I will do so after Your Majesty has eaten," Roland said as he prepared to leave. 

But Jaehaerys immediately interrupted him. "No. I can wait to eat. I want to hear you first," he said with some effort. 

The man looked at the guard, who nodded. 

"Wait outside." 

He did not wait for the two Kingsguard to leave, with the exception of the Lord Commander, who remained in the room. He merely closed the door and stayed inside, since, as the king's chief protector, he was authorized to hear the king's conversations. 

"My contacts have been investigating the boy with the wolf ever since he arrived, as Your Majesty requested yesterday." He began. 

"Continue. Tell me about him," the king immediately requested. 

"Well, the boy has the appearance that was described to me. I must admit, he is extremely handsome for someone of common birth, as the rumors indicate. I would say he is the perfect prototype of a Valyrian, if not for the green eyes and curly black hair." 

"You saw him?" the king asked. 

"Yes. I wanted to see him personally, so I followed the heirs of the North to the grand market square and watched the boy atop the wolf, listening to that song while challenging a member of House Westerling to an archery duel." 

"What are you saying?" The king raised an eyebrow. 

"It's a long story, my king." 

"Even so, tell me. Cough. Cough." Jaehaerys resisted a coughing fit and began listening to his man, who proceeded to recount the incidents at the market and the square, since they had been following the heirs of several houses. 

"So he is quite close to the heir of Winterfell." Jaehaerys had not expected Lord Stark's son to defend him in such a manner. 

"Yes. It would not be surprising, since we have known that for several years..." Jaehaerys said while nodding. 

"Yes. Everything was confirmed through the reports of my contacts," replied the Master of Whisperers. 

"Returning to his appearance, he has striking features. But what stands out the most are his green eyes." 

Jaehaerys seemed to think for a moment. Lyanna did not have green eyes. He knew that came from the boy's maternal side, who also shared those same eyes. But her eyes had always been unusual, described as strangely bright. 

"I know the boy's eyes are much more special," the king said as he looked out the window. 

He remained silent for some time... "I want to see him," the king finally said, leaving the man stunned. 

"What?" The man looked at the king in surprise. 

Even the Kingsguard standing there stared at the king in astonishment. 

"I said I want to see the boy," the king repeated simply. 

"My king... I still do not understand your curiosity about this boy. We all wonder why Your Majesty shows so much interest in a boy from the North. Besides, he is..." The man did not finish. 

"Enough," Jaehaerys interrupted. 

No one at the Great Council was a fool. Ever since the king had requested information and reports about the boy, everyone had begun investigating him and discovered that his grandmother, who lived in a town near Winterfell, had purple eyes. It was a clear clue. 

The boy possesses the blood of House Targaryen. 

It was not as if he were the first. In fact, there were hundreds of dragonseeds scattered throughout the realm. When you are a prince—since princesses have no way of hiding such a thing—and live a life of luxury and debauchery, it is common for Targaryen princes to sleep with common women, prostitutes, and even noblewomen, fathering bastards. 

Even so, there was currently only one degenerate in the royal family whom everyone knew about: Daemon, who refused to sleep with his wife, Rhea Royce, and openly despised her. Everyone knew him for being quite libertine and rebellious in King's Landing. Even Jaehaerys became extremely angry at his behavior and reprimanded him on several occasions. 

Some of Daemon's uncles, Jaehaerys's own sons, had also acted that way, fathering bastards throughout the realm. 

However, this particular case was somewhat peculiar. Everything pointed to the possibility that the woman in Winterfell might be Jaehaerys's own daughter. A bastard daughter of the king whom no one had known about until now. 

There was no way for anyone who saw her features not to reach that conclusion. Furthermore, her age matched perfectly with the time when Jaehaerys had flown North to formally conclude the matters his wife had begun. It was perfectly natural to think so, since the girl had been born about a year later. 

That left everyone quite uneasy. 

Everyone believed that Jaehaerys was seeking information about a bastard daughter, one of his last two daughters still alive. One was with a prostitute in Lys, and this one was the other, a bastard who had lived a normal life as a common person. 

From what it seemed, she survived only through manual labor and also received help from her children, who owned a farm and brought her food every few moons. 

Even so, Jaehaerys kept all his attention focused on the boy. 

No one understood the reason for this interest over the years, but everything they heard about the boy was also impressive. It seemed to be just another piece of gossip that surfaced once every moon about the boy from the North. 

Everyone knew that he was not merely a child who possessed a creature that had not been seen for hundreds of years as a companion. The direwolf lived among lords and noble children without attacking anyone, as long as it was not provoked, and obeyed a boy who seemed far more mature than his age suggested. 

Furthermore, there was the fact that he had learned Valyrian on his own. 

Before going to Winterfell, he had never had a tutor and, living among illiterate parents, managed to develop the ability to read both Valyrian and the Common Tongue using only books, despite never having received any kind of formal education. 

It became clear that he was quite resourceful from an early age. He had talent with weapons, was intelligent, and strange things always seemed to happen around the boy. 

A heart tree, something that had not happened for thousands of years, suddenly grew behind their house. Animals followed him and approached him easily, and he could communicate with them somehow. After being taken to Winterfell, he received an education and proved to be extremely sharp-minded, surprising the maesters and anyone who tested the boy. 

At present, his abilities had turned him into a future promise for the North. There was also the story of him having faced a giant bear, something that proved to be true, since the spies had seen the creature's carcass as well as its head. 

There was also much talk about his ingenuity and some of the things the boy had developed, such as the oil used to petrify shells, but they did not know much about it. 

He did not even need the king's attention for everyone to know that this was not the normal behavior of a ten-name-day-old child. But the fact that the king had developed an interest in the boy long before most of these things happened only made everyone pay even more attention to him. 

The king calmed down after the man fell silent, immediately closing his lips. He knew he was stepping into dangerous territory. 

Jaehaerys would never speak openly about a possible bastard daughter, but even so, no one understood the true reason for his interest in his great-grandson in the North... 

"Let me tell you something, Lord Grafton," the king said in a hoarse and strained voice. "Do you believe in dreams?" 

The man was surprised by the question before answering after considering it carefully for a moment. 

"Dreams are, most of the time, nonsense, Your Majesty. But I know that for House Targaryen, they mean more than that. Daenys the Dreamer proved it and saved her family," Roland replied with a measure of caution. 

"Exactly." Jaehaerys fell silent for a few moments. "A long time ago, before all of this, I had a dream. I dreamed of a land covered in snow. There was a white wolf there." 

There had also been a woman, but the king would never speak of that. After all, she was Jis's mother and the boy's great-grandmother. 

"The white wolf was much larger than a normal wolf. Its eyes were red. And that dream repeated itself for many nights. I never understood why... until I finally learned there was a boy with a wolf in the North. Just like in my dream..." The king turned his gaze back toward the window. 

"That is why I became interested the moment I first heard about him in the council. You were there." 

"Yes, Your Majesty. And I remember how you seemed quite surprised. I would even dare say... excited," Roland replied. 

"I knew I should find the boy ever since that dream." His voice carried a trace of regret. "I would have dismissed it all as an ordinary dream, but it kept returning throughout the years." 

Neither Roland nor the Lord Commander of the Kingsguard said anything, although both had noticed it. 

Whatever had happened in the North back then, the king still carried those feelings with him, even after so many years. 

"I understand your concerns. But even so, my king, it would not be wise to invite the boy. Not before tonight's banquet," said the council member. 

Jaehaerys pressed his lips together. How could he not know that? He had to nod. "Very well. I am certain the Hand will pressure me about it as well. Even so, I want you to do me a favor," he said at last. 

"Deliver a message when you announce the banquet to all the lords. Since most of them have arrived, I want Lord Stark to bring the boy." 

"But, Your Majesty, that would be inappropriate." 

"I do not want the Starks to bring the boy as if he were some commoner. Protocol does not matter." 

That surprised both men listening to the king in his bed. Jaehaerys had always been inflexible regarding his own laws and rules, especially when Alysanne was not present. She had always been able to make him soften his positions, and it was natural that he had become harsher since her death. 

Some might even say the king was being vindictive toward the Starks. After all, it should be a disgrace for Lord Stark to bring a common-born person to sit near the high tables at a dinner with the king. 

At the same time, however, the two men in the room knew that the king's interest in the boy was genuine. 

Even if Jaehaerys was still irritated with the Starks—especially after hearing about a certain celebration by Lord Stark upon seeing his wife die, while he himself was still mourning a recently deceased son and trying to organize a Great Council to set the Seven Kingdoms in order. 

The king could have been exploding with rage at this very moment, and the Starks would have been under enormous pressure. 

But that was not the case. 

Those men, who knew the king so well and understood his inflexible nature, could only watch him in bewilderment. 

Because, at that moment, all Jaehaerys seemed to have on his mind was that strange boy from the North. 

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