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(EM Vol. 2: A Wandering Melody) Chapter 38: Blooming Spring
🕑 Added 2025-07-20 14:00:05 +0000 UTCChapter 38: Blooming Spring
123 AC, Dragonstone
Rhaena walked across the fortress of Dragonstone with a skip in her steps. Most people would have likely worried, as she had just witnessed seven shadows almost kill Lord Harry the previous night.
To think this had all started with a boring dinner with the King, about Rhaena’s grandmother becoming his Hand. Well, it wasn’t entirely boring. Her stepmother had practically run away in her fury for not being chosen, and her father had all but grumbled in anger about the entire affair. If she was perfectly honest, Rhaena was happy that Princess Rhaenyra wasn’t chosen as Hand. That would mean that they would all go to King’s Landing, and she didn’t want to leave Dragonstone. Well, she didn’t want to leave the Potters.
People thought that she would be shaken by seeing the assassination attempt. If she was honest, compared to the lava spirits and the ice spider, these men of shadows didn’t exactly scare her. Well, they scared her, but she wasn’t exactly worried about Lord Harry.
Her sister hadn’t stopped pestering her for most of the night about what had happened. She seemed upset that she hadn’t been there, and that Rhaena left her to sneak around without her. Thankfully, it only took promising her dessert for a week for Baela to forgive her.
A part of Rhaena was afraid of what would happen if Baela ever found out about her adventures with the Potter. A bigger part didn’t want her there, to steal Lord Harry and Lady Daphne away, just like she stole their father’s attention.
Jace and Luke looked so jealous, though, of seeing a magic battle, so that was funny, even if it was just Lord Harry snapping his finger and just talking. He liked to talk a lot, didn’t he?
Nevertheless, her grandparents had come early in the morning and told her that she was allowed to visit the Potters again, but that she wasn’t allowed to go on any trips with them without their permission, which was great. Her grandfather, the Sea Snake himself, had told her of a lot of places to visit, even though they probably won’t be as good as anything the Potters chose. She’d lived in Dragonstone for a while, and she didn’t know about the giant dragon egg in the Dragonmont, and no one ever thought that anything important would ever be on Skagos.
And so, Rhaena skipped away, out of the fortress. She had just finished her lessons, and she had a very small window until Baela’s dagger training with Father ended. They’d started practising after Lord Harry’s gift, and while she was slightly jealous, Solarys was a far better gift than some dagger that wasn’t even magical.
Rhaena knew that she would have to return soon after, but she hadn’t visited the Potters’ manse for almost a week now, and she missed it a lot, especially Lady Daphne and that brown chocolate drink of hers.
The morning was bright, the wind soft, and Rhaena took it as a sign that today would be special. She clutched the small satchel she’d packed, parchment, ink, her favourite red ribbon, and two lemon cakes wrapped in cloth, and made her way down the familiar path toward the beach where the Potters’ Manse stood.
She walked softly and knocked on the door.
Well, she tried to knock, but the moment her hand almost touched the wood, the door opened on its own.
However, none of the Potters received her.
She took a step forward, then another, and spoke up loudly, “I’m here!”
Her voice echoed across the manse, and the door closed behind her.
Rhaena slowly walked into the room where the Potters usually stood and saw no one there. Suddenly, a door opened on its own on the other side of the corridor completely. Rhaena took that as an invitation and walked forward, and gasped as she entered.
Calling it a room wasn’t exactly accurate; it was more akin to a garden. It reminded her eerily of the famous glass gardens of Winterfell. The sun peered from above, despite the fact that she distinctly remembered that the manse didn’t have a glass roof. Looking around, she found a boundary made of glass, which was beyond absurd, as this was enough glass to buy an entire Kingdom.
Probably.
Rhaena wasn’t exactly sure what the price of glass was, but it was very expensive.
The young girl walked forward and saw the familiar form of Lady Daphne waving her hands, and a large familiar tree with white bark and red leaves appeared, only this one had a face carved into it. The woman cut her arm and pressed it onto the face, only for the tree to suddenly glow and burst into flames.
Rhaena winced, expecting the heat, only for the fire to dissipate with a wave of the woman’s hand. She turned towards the young girl, with a small smile on her face, “Oh, hello there, Rhaena. I didn’t expect to see you today. Has anything happened?”
The future Dragonrider giggled, “No, silly. I just came to see you. Grandfather and Grandmother said that I could now.”
“I heard,” Lady Daphne replied, her soft laugh making Rhaena’s heart warm, “They’re quite protective of you. There are many people who would have sent you to us if only to make a connection with someone who has magic, not that they really understand what that means.”
“Father said that most people are idiots,” Rhaena commented.
“Hmm, in our travels, Harry and I found that most people are, in fact, quite more intelligent than you’d expect. Of course, that doesn’t mean that they’d ever achieve this intelligence. Most people are so taken by their ambitions and greed that they often make idiotic decisions in their hubris and arrogance. Of course, there are also people who never learn to cultivate their intelligence and people who are simply idiots.”
Rhaena giggled slightly and, for the first time, looked at the Witch’s outfit. Lady Daphne mostly wore elegant clothes, even during their expeditions and rarely had even a hair out of place. Yet, not, she wore leather breeches, a soot-streaked tunic, and a pair of gloves with the fingers cut off. Her braid was messier than usual, with strands of her dark hair sticking to her cheek, and her sleeves were rolled up like a smith’s apprentice. Rhaena had never seen her like this before, not even when they’d explored the lava tunnels. She looked like someone who had just returned from a very long, very interesting day.
“Are you making an exploding tree?” Rhaena asked, her eyes wide.
The witch must have found her question amusing, given the quirk of her lips, “Not quite. I’m trying to reconnect with the network of Weirwood trees. Ever since Skagos, it’s been somewhat resistant. I still don’t quite understand how the network came to be, or how it connects, and now every effort at understanding it is meeting a wall of some sort. I’ve gotten so frustrated that I kicked Harry out yesterday so that I could focus.”
Rhaena didn’t know what to say and just muttered, “Well, it’s good as an exploding tree.”
“I suppose it is. Now, Rhaena, I believe we haven’t spoken since our return to Skagos, have we? How have you been?”
“Great, apart from Lord Harry’s assassination attempt, of course. Is he alright?”
The woman’s amusement rose even further: “He’s been ranting all night about how disappointing the attack was.”
“Was it disappointing?” Rhaena asked without really thinking.
She had never seen Lord Harry act quite like this before. It didn’t seem like him. Even as he faced that God in Skagos, he still had that smile on his face. If Rhaena hadn’t known better, she would have thought that he was shaken by the attack, but Lord Harry truly was just disappointed.
Lady Daphne burst into laughter, “That’s Harry being silly. I wouldn’t say it was weak, just really wasteful, and with a remarkable vulnerability. This attack could have probably surprised and likely killed most magic users. Magic that uses souls and sacrifice in its nature is quite hard to counter, doubly so when it comes to Shadow Magic. Unfortunately for them, Harry is a bit of an expert on these matters and has fought the greatest user of Darkness and Shadows to ever live. His bar is quite high when it comes to this kind of magic.”
“Who was he? The man whom Lord Harry fought.”
“His name was Gellert Grindelwald. We were still young at that time, but I still remember it like it was yesterday. I think I will remember it for the rest of my life, Harry, too. We have travelled many places, fought things that most people wouldn’t even think possible, but I don’t think we have ever faced anything quite like him or Albus Dumbledore. That final battle could be felt continents away, and they had to redraw maps afterwards. He could do things with shadows and darkness that could defy expectations, and Harry had learned through their encounters how to fight it off. What he saw yesterday felt more like a toddler with a sharpened wooden blade trying to defeat your father in a duel.”
Rhaena found herself frozen in shock at the thought of someone actually fighting Lord Harry on equal grounds. This was the man who stood in front of a god, challenging them, and yet walked away as the god fled. The thought of an equal to him never entered her mind, and it was a scary prospect.
Now thinking about it, a man like Lord Harry would not have chosen a weak wife, would he? Rhaena had seen Lady Daphne use some magic occasionally, but she rarely interfered in their battles, choosing to let her husband speak and run around.
The question came before she could restrain herself, “Could you have fought them off, the shadows?”
“You mean the Shadowbinders?” At Rhaena’s nod, she continued, “Yes, quite easily.”
There was no pride in her voice, just absolute conviction, which made Rhaena look away slightly for underestimating the woman a bit. Thankfully, the woman saved her from the embarrassment but changing the subject, “So, you haven’t quite said how everything is at home, apart from the obvious, of course.”
Rhaena shrugged, “The royal family is making everyone tense. Princess Rhaenyra is angry because the King made Rhaenys his Hand. Although Aegon stopped drinking wine as much as he could, he even went to practice in the yard a few times. Jace and Luke took that as a challenge and went there. Father is teaching Baela how to use her dagger, and we both go play with Solarys and Moondancer after our lessons. Solarys is growing quickly, according to Father. I think Baela is jealous, since Moondancer is slow to grow since he hatched.”
“It’s nice to see that you’re spending so much time with your sister. I have a sister as well, you know.”
“Truly?” Rhaena gasped in shock.
“Yes, Astoria. She was born sick, and I spent years trying to save her. I made a few mistakes and a lot of bad decisions, but I succeeded in the end. She’s currently happily alive, with a beautiful family. I’ll admit to not being as close as we should have been, though.”
“Why is that?” Rhaena asked, confused.
The witch gave her a sad smile, “Secrets, mostly. I spent years keeping things secret, hoping not to worry her, not to give her false hope about what I wanted to do. And after she was healed, things were not quite the same, not as we were young. And then I went travelling, sometimes even staying away for years at a time. I love her deeply, and I know that she loves me as well, but I think it pales compared to what could have been. I suppose it is a regret of mine, my biggest regret, really.”
Rhaena was a smart girl. The Septa and Maester often said that, and she quickly understood what the older woman claimed, “You’re saying that I should tell Baela about our time together?”
The golden-haired woman shook her head, “I’m not telling you that you should do anything, my dear girl. I’m simply telling you my story. Your choices in how you live your life are your own, but so are the consequences of your decisions. Now, I think I’m done here for now, and I’m too exhausted. Let’s go see Harry.”
Lady Daphne’s story rang in Rhaena’s mind, even as they left the beautiful garden room, the door closing behind them. She didn’t even comment as Lady Daphne’s outfit changed on its own, becoming one of her typical dresses, her hair straightening on its own into a very tight braid. Finally, they arrived near another room whose door opened on its own.
The room itself wasn’t that interesting, just a normal solar with a small pile of books and parchment on the desk, but Lord Harry stood there, in the middle of the room, as hundreds of pages seemed to spin around him with strange symbols on them. The symbols seemed to glow and turned to light as Lord Harry seemed to attempt to combine them somehow, only for everything to fizzle out, making the sorcerer mutter, “Fuck!”
“Language,” Lady Daphne warned.
The sorcerer’s eyes lit up as he saw them, “Hey there, Daph, finally out of the Greenhouse? I guess I know whose assistance to employ whenever you refuse to leave.”
Rhaena preened up at the compliment and prepared her answer, only for Lady Daphne to speak up before her, “Perhaps I enjoy a more intelligent conversation.”
“Oi!” Lord Harry exclaimed without any heat, “That’s not very nice.”
“The truth rarely is. Are you still stuck, too?”
Lord Harry grimaced, “Yes. I don’t think I’m getting anywhere with this. To be fair, I was being pretty ambitious, and I did expect some problems, mostly in how diverse the energy signatures would be, but there’s something protecting anomalous energies from being detected using divination. It seems to miss them completely, and that’s even when I try to tune it on the Weirwood network or the oily Black Stones that the Sea Stone Chair is made of.”
“The Sea Stone Chair,” Rhaena mumbled, “Isn’t that the throne for the Iron Islands?”
“Well done, Rhaena. I’m very happy you’re serious about your studies,” the sorcerer replied proudly.
“When did you go to the Iron Islands?” She asked with an accusing tone.
“Didn’t I tell you that we went on an adventure with your grandparents? I must admit that I didn’t expect you to be braver than the Sea Snake itself.”
Rhaena was a bit put out about missing an adventure with the Potters, and Lord Harry knelt down, looking her in the eye, “My dear, we wouldn’t have taken you there in the first place either. It was quite dangerous.”
“Even more than Skagos?” She muttered back.
“A lot more dangerous than Skagos, Rhaena. We wouldn’t have let you come. The fact that I didn’t send away your grandparents was a misstep on my part, one that I do regret, given their impression of me and of your safety. Getting attacked by Shadowbinders probably didn’t help things as well.”
Rhaena jumped, “Are we going to Asshai next, then? To figure out why these Shadowbinders tried to kill you, like you said?”
Lord Harry shook his head and gave her a severe look, which really didn’t work given the fact that his lips were twitching in amusement, “Of all the places on this planet, and you pick Asshai. You do realise that part of my agreement with your grandparents is that they’d approve of our destinations, and that you’d also tell them everything that happens.”
The young girl slumped in disappointment, but Lord Harry ruffled her hair, “And don’t worry, I had no intention of going to Asshai in the first place. I only said that to see who would get nervous about it, since this was obviously arranged by a Westerosi with connections in Asshai, who wanted me dead. I wanted word of what happened to spread so that whoever was responsible would act rashly.”
“So, it was a trick. Do you know who did it?” Rhaena asked.
“Larys Strong knew more than he expected, enough to be scared by the prospect of me going to Asshai. He tried to spy on me afterwards, with magic of all things. Seriously, who uses magic against a sorcerer?”
Rhaena perked up, “He was a sorcerer too?”
Lord Harry shrugged, “Just a Warg, really. It’s something that sometimes appears in the lineage of the First Men, the ability to see through animals. He tried to spy on me through a rat. I stopped him from being able to do it again.”
The young girl gave him a dry look, “Well now, Lord Strong is unconscious, not having woken up since yesterday, where he tried to leave on a ship, and fell while walking up the stairs. Maester Gerardys said that he broke both his arms, and one of his legs, and likely his back, in the fall.”
“Huh!” the sorcerer replied, “I didn’t expect that. I was waiting for the Shadowbinders to just kill him and his conspirators. It’s too much of a coincidence. Did I accidentally do something when I disabled his warging? I did it in a bit of a hurry, really. I’ll need to check for sure. I wonder...”
“Why would the Shadowbinders kill him?”
Seeing as Lord Harry looked distracted, his wife answered in his stead, “Well, we’re just guessing, but training a Shadowbinder is likely both costly and people who have the affinity are rare. Whoever hired them to kill Harry had to pay a very steep price so that they’d agree, but also obviously didn’t tell them about his capabilities. They’re bound to be as angry with them as they are with Harry. And given that they’d be afraid of fighting Harry without properly testing him, they would first go after whoever hired them in the first place, if only to get more information.”
Meanwhile, the sorcerer just kept staring off into the distance, and Lady Daphne snapped her fingers in front of his eyes to get his attention. Lord Harry snapped up and smiled, “Oh, right, sorry. Where were we?”
Rhaena rolled her eyes, deciding that she didn’t want to speak about the Master of Whisperers again. The man often unsettled her and had probably spied on them using his rats, too. She’d have to speak with her grandparents about it, since he likely spied on them as well. She wasn’t exactly sad that he was hurt. She didn’t think anyone would be sad if she were honest.
Seeing the opportunity, she changed the subject to something that she wished to speak about, “We were talking about our next expedition. You said that we won’t be going to Asshai, so where are we going?”
Lord Harry gave her a smile, as if he knew exactly what she had done, but indulged her nonetheless, “Well, we promised your grandparents that we won’t be taking anywhere too dangerous. I think I know the perfect place to go next, someplace full of history that we can explore, and that I have a feeling would give us a few more answers.”
“And where would that be?” Rhaena asked excitedly.
“What better place would we go to study the Long Night but the place where Winter Fell?”
AN: I decided on a bit of a slow chapter after the last few ones, which were a bit hectic. I’m not sure about a few things, but mostly the fact that what happened to Larys wasn’t exactly Harry’s design. I have something interesting in that regard about what caused this, but I’m not sure I went about it in the best way. Still, I’m very excited about Winterfell. As usual, I don’t mind rewriting this depending on your feedback, so please let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions.
Comments
Garri Sarkisov
Typo: “yet, not should be yet, now”.
