The Penitence of the Wolf - Hard Truths, heavy regrets. (Patreon)

Aerys Targaryen, Dragonstone – Westeros.

To be honest with himself, Aerys had no idea how to approach the conversation he was about to have.

After all, how was he supposed to tell a woman that he had been responsible for the death of her own daughter?

The situation was so absurd that, for an instant, Aerys wondered if there was any way to say it without making him sound completely insane.

"When are we?" Rhaella asked cautiously, looking suspiciously at the surroundings of Dragonstone, shuddering at the powerful thunder rumbling around them.

The queen slowly turned around, looking in astonishment at the place surrounding her. The castle seemed to tremble beneath the fury of the storm.

"It has rarely rained like this on Dragonstone," his Queen said cautiously, swallowing hard as she watched around.

Then a monstrous thunderclap rumbled over the fortress, making the walls vibrate and causing monstrous waves to crash against the beach. The sea was furious; that much was evident.

One particular bolt of lightning struck quite close to the beach, causing the Queen to jump violently, letting out a small cry and staring in astonishment at the now glass-like surface of Dragonstone's black sand.

As… as if the lightning had become trapped in the ground, something Rhaella had never seen in her life, although surely her beloved Queen had never been on a beach in the middle of a storm this fierce.

Alas, Aerys had already delayed the inevitable conversation long enough, and they had no time to waste, so he took a deep breath and continued.

"We are on Dragonstone," he finally replied. "On the night Daenerys Targaryen came into the World."

Rhaella looked at him in surprise at those words, still unable to understand what was truly happening.

Aerys held her gaze for several seconds before speaking the words he knew would completely change the conversation.

"The night you died."

Another thunderclap shook the fortress.

Rhaella remained completely motionless.

She did not respond.

And, being honest, Aerys had not expected her to. Not yet.

"Aerys… my grandfather had sent you to Dragonstone when the war began, ever since the execution of Rickard and Brandon Stark, accompanied by my uncle Viserys, while you were heavily pregnant," Aegon said calmly, at the same time moving both their consciousnesses directly inside Dragonstone, toward the castle's inner courtyard, where Rhaella saw an image that broke her heart.

Rhaella could not contain the tears threatening to escape her eyes as she watched the scene unfolding before her.

It was tragic. Painful. Absolutely heartbreaking.

The familiar face of Ser Darry, a couple of years older than Rhaella remembered him now… but it was obvious that it was the same man, one who had apparently served her family faithfully, standing before a funeral pyre. A pyre Rhaella did not need anyone to identify for her, after all, Aegon's words had already done so moments ago.

It was hers, the Queen thought sadly and resignedly, only to turn her attention toward the knight upon hearing an infant's heartbreaking sob.

One… terrifyingly familiar to Rhaella.

Beside him was her beloved little Viserys. Her little boy clung tightly to the knight's hand while tears continuously streamed down his cheeks. The child, who barely understood what was happening, seemed to cling to the only figure capable of offering him some comfort. His face was shattered… as if he wished with all his strength that he could throw himself into the pyre and pull Rhaella out of it.

And the Queen could only watch helplessly, feeling something inside her chest break.

But although that image was enough to destroy any mother's heart, there was something else that completely captured her attention, a figure unknown to the Queen, at least until that moment.

In Ser Darry's arms was a small bundle wrapped in numerous red blankets embroidered with dragons, and the man cradled in his arms what could only be a…

"A baby," the Queen said distractedly, watching the bundle amid the darkness of the night and the torrential rain.

Rhaella stopped breathing for an instant.

She was beautiful.

Perfect.

So small and delicate that it seemed impossible that such a creature could exist in the middle of a scene so full of death and pain, with snow-white skin and a thick lock of silver hair on her tiny head.

A tender smile appeared on the dragon queen's lips, one that not even the sight of Tywin's horrible face could take away from her. It was… something completely instinctive, something that emerges in every mother when she sees her children for the first time.

Love.

Pure and unconditional.

A love that had been born the very instant her eyes fell upon that little girl, a girl for whom Rhaella would give her life a thousand times without hesitation.

"That is Daenerys Targaryen," Aerys gently interjected.

Rhaella did not take her eyes off the baby.

"Mother of Dragons, Breaker of Chains, Queen of the Seven Kingdoms and… my greatest regret in life," he continued solemnly, his gaze distant as traitorous tears fell from his gray eyes, astonishing Rhaella enormously, as if he genuinely believed every one of those words.

Gently, the queen focused on her husband again, analyzing every detail, even the smallest one, the way he avoided looking at the small bundle in the knight's arms, the way he clenched his fists in fury…

For the moment, Rhaella did not know the history between her grandson and her daughter… but it was evident that there were powerful emotions involved, rushed decisions, and great regrets.

A story of tragedy, Rhaella thought softly, gently caressing her husband's face, a face filled with regret.

With love.

With pain.

With too many feelings to express with words.

"She did not have an easy life, did she?" Rhaella asked, already knowing the answer. After all, Daenerys was no longer a princess, Aerys was dead, Rhaegar had been murdered… the cruel fates of Elia and her children…

There was no place in Westeros for her children. She knew that, and most likely Ser Darry knew it as well.

Her voice broke as she spoke those words.

In truth, she already knew the answer. However, she could not help but sigh and shed small tears when her beloved grandson gently shook his head.

"They didn't," Aegon said with evident regret on his face, causing the central courtyard of Dragonstone to suddenly change as terrifying and heartbreaking images began to appear.

It began with the death of Ser Darry in what appeared to be Braavos, followed by a young Viserys fleeing with his little sister, holding her hand.

And for hours… or perhaps longer, Rhaella could do nothing but helplessly watch the pathetic fate of her beloved children, princes of the blood, descendants of Old Valyria…

Sleeping in sewers, begging for food, and fleeing the blades of assassins sent by the damned usurper.

By the damned Robert Baratheon, the queen thought furiously, with repulsive hatred toward the son of her beloved cousin. It was impossible for Rhaella to honestly associate this repulsive being with Steffon and Cassandra.

The Queen of Westeros had no choice but to helplessly watch everything that was happening, the cruel and torturous life of her beloved children, forced to witness it by her grandson Aegon.

And every moment was a wound in Rhaella's shattered heart.

She saw the deprivation.

She saw the hunger.

She saw the humiliations suffered by Viserys and the countless times when both had been despised by those who once would have trembled at the name Targaryen.

She saw them walking among wealthy and powerful men of Essos who looked at them with curiosity, as if they were nothing more than extravagant relics of a forgotten age, like simple things for the amusement of the Essosi magisters.

The last Targaryens.

The last Valyrians.

They were not seen as kings.

Nor as princes.

They were curiosities.

Exotic pets with which those men could show off before their guests, proud to have the last descendants of a dynasty that had once ruled the skies with fire and blood nearby.

Rhaella clenched her fists.

It was outrageous.

But nothing she had seen until then could compare with the moment Viserys was forced to sell the crown that had once belonged to his mother.

The boy held the piece with trembling hands.

Tears ran down his face.

And finally, he had to hand it over in exchange for a few silver coins.

Rhaella felt her heart break as her helplessness began to transform into fury.

The queen wished to mount Aenarax, command her dragon without hesitation toward Storm's End, toward Pentos, toward Tyrosh and Myr.

Toward each and every city that had harmed her beloved children and burn them to their foundations.

She wanted to find every one of those men who had humiliated her children and bring them what the Targaryens had always brought their enemies.

Blood and fire.

"However, adversity gave her strength, while Viserys broke, as a result of years of humiliation and torture. Daenerys prevailed, faced her challenges head-on, and transformed from the small and insignificant princess of a fallen dynasty… into a Queen in every sense of the word," Aegon said with evident pride in his voice as the images changed again.

Now they were in a desert. It was nighttime, and a group of Dothraki watched incredulously as what Rhaella assumed was the main tent of the camp was completely engulfed in flames.

"Little Dany died, and Queen Daenerys 'Storm' Targaryen emerged in her place," Aegon said, pointing toward the tiny female silhouette emerging from the flames.

"The Mother of Dragons!" he said with a smile, as the image of his daughter, now about fourteen years old and completely naked, emerged from the flames, her body covered by the wings of three small dragons… ones quite familiar to Rhaella.

"Those are… our dragons!" she said in realization, making Aegon nod softly but continue with his explanation.

The image changed again. Now it showed Daenerys somewhat older, the dragons now the size of large dogs. She was in a burning city while an entire army of Unsullied slaughtered the slaveholders around them and freed the slaves.

"Breaker of Chains," Aegon said as men and women around them revered her as a Queen.

Rhaella watched with immense pride as her beloved daughter, accompanied by her three dragons and her army of Unsullied, sacked and burned Astapor to the ground while breaking the chains of every man, woman, and child without exception.

"The Dragon Queen," Aegon continued with a smile that Rhaella returned, watching everything concerning her beloved daughter with wonder and satisfaction.

The sacking of Yunkai, the conquest of Meereen, her difficulties and her struggles.

She watched Daenerys forge alliances, execute traitors, and consolidate her power, and the images ended with an enormous fleet carrying more than one hundred thousand soldiers and three dragons toward Westeros, with the imposing image of her beloved daughter at the prow of her flagship, surrounded by her most trusted men.

At this point, everything seemed almost perfect, as if nothing could go wrong.

"However…"

Aegon's words pulled Rhaella out of her fantasy, making the Dragon Queen look at her grandson's solemn face in surprise.

"Westeros would be… very different from Essos. Here, Daenerys was not dealing with slaves and slaveholders, but with free men, men who had suffered beneath the yoke of the Mad King, and men who did not want a foreigner ruling them," her grandson said with extreme caution, his gaze distant.

Rhaella watched her beloved daughter land on Dragonstone… only to see her Dornish allies massacred by the Greyjoys. She watched as Daenerys lost the support of the Tyrells after making a tactical mistake and sending her soldiers toward Casterly Rock while the Lannister army was sacking and burning Highgarden.

And what was worse, Rhaella saw that Daenerys had evidently not been prepared to deal with loss. Each one was a severe blow to her confidence and sanity.

"War is cruel, something Daenerys never fully understood, but without a doubt, there were three points that finally broke her mind. The death of Viserion…" Aegon said with difficulty as everything around them changed, showing Rhaella the exact moment when the White Walkers brought down the dragon in question, right before Daenerys's eyes.

"The death of Rhaegal," Aegon said solemnly, with evident pain in his gaze, now showing an enormous and vast ocean as her husband's dragon's body plummeted into the sea.

"No… Gods!" the Queen whispered, unable even to imagine the profound pain her daughter must have been feeling.

But it was evident that Aegon was not finished, as her grandson took a deep breath and continued.

"And the death of Missandei," he said softly, showing her sweet daughter, now much older, with desperation and fury filling her gaze, precisely as a young Essosi woman was executed before her, courtesy of Cersei.

But not the amusing and powerful Lioness Rhaella knew and admired, but a… cheap and broken inferior copy. The world Aegon came from was shit; there was no doubt about that.

"Those three points, one after another, caused Daenerys's just cause to become corrupted, transforming into that which she had sworn to destroy…"

"A Tyrant."

And the moment those words left Aegon's mouth, everything around Rhaella changed. They were now in King's Landing, in the middle of an invasion. There were Unsullied soldiers, as well as Northerners and knights of the Vale. This… was not conquest.

This was vengeance.

And as if that were not enough.

ROOOOAR

"AHHHHG!" the Queen screamed upon hearing a familiar roar, watching the sky turn black as Aeranax… Drogon… bathed the entire city in flames, taking men, women, and children without exception.

"NOOO!" she screamed in shock upon seeing a little girl clutching a stuffed bear being bathed in Aeranax's fire without a shred of mercy, actions Daenerys would repeat throughout the city, doing exactly what Ser Jaime had prevented the Mad King from doing in the past.

Burn the capital to the ground.

"How… How could she do this?" Rhaella asked with a broken voice, watching what had once been a city filled with life and people now reduced to ruins, with the remains of ashes that had once been people.

"The pain of loss can be monstrous. Viserion and Rhaegal were her sons, Missandei was her sister. I… I should have done more. I should have been the shoulder she cried on. I should have been her support and her pillar, but… I wasn't," Aegon whispered with a broken voice as the image changed again, now showing the Throne Room of the Red Keep, completely destroyed, precisely as Aegon buried the dagger in Daenerys's stomach, at the same time as her eyes filled with disbelief and the pain of betrayal before losing all their light.

Rhaella watched the scene in complete silence, tears falling from her eyes, devastated at seeing the fate of her beloved and precious daughter, a terrible fate, one she would not wish even upon her worst enemy.

"Please, get me out of here," Rhaella pleaded, making Aegon nod softly.

From one moment to the next, the shattered Throne Room was left behind, and both Rhaella and Aerys had returned to the chamber at Casterly Rock. Night had already fallen, the beautiful moon illuminating the dark room while the waves struck the mountain in a rhythmic ebb and flow.

Aerys… Aegon… remained silent, watching his quiet wife, still lost in everything she had seen, without saying a single word, until slowly, Rhaella looked directly at him.

"Do you regret it?" she asked in a small voice, instantly shocking the King.

His Queen's eyes were red from crying. Tears streamed uncontrollably, and although Aerys hated causing his wife more pain and suffering, the dragon king was not someone who told lies, so he took a deep breath and answered.

"Aye," he said with genuine regret, as long-suppressed feelings began to emerge.

"I regret many things, Rhaella," the monarch said distractedly, his gaze focused on the movement of the waves of the Sunset Sea, bathed in moonlight.

Aerys's voice was barely a whisper, but the king did not hold back. He had already opened his mouth, and he would make sure to let everything out, everything he had kept inside for many years.

"Being so gullible and stupid. Believing the empty words of people I considered family and friends. I regret not being the support Daenerys needed. Of course I regret it."

The monarch remained silent for a few moments, lost in his own thoughts.

"If I could change things… I know for certain that I would do everything possible to prevent that from happening again. And that is precisely what I am doing now. Eliminating the nuisances and threats to our family before they can become a real problem. Making sure that Viserys, Rhaegar, or any other child we have will never have to suffer what we suffered in that future."

Rhaella watched him in silence. There was no judgment in her gaze, only infinite affection and understanding, as if Aerys's words were also a burden for her.

Then she approached.

She wrapped her arms around Aerys from behind and gently embraced him, pressing her body against his back. Her delicate hands slowly caressed the king's shoulders, offering him a comfort that words could not provide.

Then she placed several soft, tender, and intimate kisses directly on the back of his neck.

A gesture of closeness, a gesture of love.

A gesture of mutual trust, an unspoken message that, despite everything that had happened, they were together in this.

Them against the World, King and Queen.

Rhaella had offered the monarch unconditional forgiveness and support, something that, at that moment, Aerys believed he did not deserve.

Rhaella, however, did not seem to agree.

"You made a mistake," she whispered softly, her lips kissing his neck and her breath brushing his ear, making Aerys shudder completely and close his eyes, losing himself in the intimate moment.

"But you are neither the first nor the only one who will make mistakes, my beloved."

His beloved Queen's fingers continued calmly caressing his shoulders, a gesture that soothed Aerys's restless mind, an intimate gesture the monarch appreciated more than anything at this intense moment.

"You are here. And you are actively working to make sure that it never happens again. That means a lot. At least to me."

Aerys swallowed hard. The determination in his Queen's voice was firm. There was no hesitation or anything of the sort. Rhaella believed in him, in them together as King and Queen.

She believed that together, they could take House Targaryen to levels never seen before.

And Aerys loved her even more for that.

By the Gods, how he wanted to make love to his beloved wife again, take possession of her body again and again, spilling his seed inside her until Rhaella became a bundle of moans and trembling.

"You have changed for Viserys. You have changed for Rhaegar. And neither of them looks at you with fear now. You are infinitely better than my brother."

Rael paused for a moment, giving him a soft kiss and a sensual lick along the King's neck.

"They look at you with admiration."

Another pause, another lick, followed by a sensual caress across the King's chest.

"And with love."

Aerys felt something break inside him.

"That is something I will never forget," Rhaella continued. "You are my husband. We are a family. And we are in this together. Understood?"

Aerys tried to respond.

He could not.

There was a knot in his throat preventing him from uttering a single word.

Finally, he simply nodded, overwhelmed by the excitement of his wife's hands as well as the emotional weight of her words.

"Understood, my love."

For several seconds, neither of them said anything.

Aerys believed the conversation was over. However, the king was mistaken, because Rhaella took a deep breath and spoke again.

"However, I will not allow our family to remain broken, my beloved."

There was determination in her voice.

Aerys opened his eyes.

"What do you mean?"

The Queen did not answer immediately.

Her hands slowly descended to Aerys's chest, caressing him tenderly as she rested her face against his shoulder.

"That sooner or later, we will go to Pentos."

Aerys turned his head slightly.

Rael finally raised her gaze.

Her eyes were filled with determination.

"And when the time comes, I will confront our daughter."

A small smile appeared on her lips.

"And we will bring her home."

There was no doubt, it had not been a question, but an order from the Queen of the Seven Kingdoms, one that Aerys knew would be extremely complicated to fulfill.

However, that would be a headache for later, and if anyone was capable of convincing Daenerys to abandon her path of vengeance, it was Rhaella Targaryen.

His wife took him by the shoulders, turned him around, and kissed him sweetly, a gesture Aerys returned, both of them losing themselves in each other's warmth and scent.

"Now… we will take a bath, have dinner with the Lannisters, and tomorrow we will fly to the Iron Islands, reducing their fleets, ports, and castles to ashes. The faster we end this stupid war, the faster we will return to our children, understood?" his wife said with determination, making Aerys nod softly, a smile illuminating his face.

The Greyjoys would be the best example for the rest of the Lords, a demonstration of strength that the power of House Targaryen was back.

And that traitors would face the same fate.

Fire… and Blood.