Of Secrets Under the Hill
Nineteenth Day of the Twelfth Month 292 AC
Sleep comes easily under the hill, but the dreams it brings are strange things:
slender fingers reaching through verdant light and twisting shadow... the sense of being trapped and embraced, sustained and killed by enfolding roots though between which eyes of green and red watch... and through it all a song of branches, creaking leaves rustling, beasts howling...
You come awake suddenly in what might be the middle of the night, morning, or even midday, for time flows strangely here without sun, moon, or stars to mark them to find Dany sitting cross-legged on the mat in front of you: "They are
loud, aren't they? The Singers Before?"
"What do you mean?" you ask, still bleary.
"She decided to go exploring," Ser Richard explains, volumes of disapproval in his voice.
"We aren't in an enemy stronghold, you know," Dany counters in what sounds like the tail end of an old argument. "This place is as safe from attack as the Shadow Tower... safer in some ways, since there's no dead dragon lurking about."
"What did you find?" you ask, knowing that it would be pointless to chastise Dany for something you might have done yourself.
"Bloodraven is not alone among those who lie upon a throne of roots. There are others in the far chambers, Children of the Forest, thought it is clear they have lain here for far longer. They seem as dead and do not hear one's calls no matter how loud you shout, though one opened his eyes when I conjured light nearby. I managed to speak with that one in his mind, though it was like shouting against a howling gale... He was
very surprised and I think impressed."
"You decided to touch the mind of something that was directly linked with a age-old God-Mind?" You suddenly feel a surge of sympathy to Ser Richard.
"I've dealt with worse things," Dany reminds you. Seeing that you are still not appeased she adds. "I was warded as well as I could manage and if something
did pull me away Bloodraven would have been able to help me out. I foresaw it."
"Alright," you sigh. Sometimes you miss the times when Dany did not have so many ways to justify rash action, nor opportunities to take it. "What did he tell you?"
"There are some among the 'voices of the Gods' who thoroughly
despise Brynden Rivers for one, voices that do not sing in the True Tongue of the Children of the Forest, but speak with the tongue of men of old. Oathbreaker and kinslayer they name him, one who has lain with his own blood..." She pauses for a moment then asks, "Have you considered how many issues of our House might never have come to light if Aegon's heirs chose not to marry brother and sister?"
"I see little point to considering may-have-beens that would have made impossible my own birth," you answer honestly. "What else did you learn?"
"Something of the nature of the Children and their lives, I think he was rambling for a bit, glad to speak to one rooted firmly in time, and also a prophecy of sorts:
'The Wanderers return to Throne of Oak shrouded in Roses to bear their gifts upon a child crowned in thorns...' I think that may have something to do with the rumors we have been hearing from the Reach, of the fey moving more and more openly through the wilderness, though who this child might be I cannot say."
"Thorns as much much as roses would mean the Tyrells," you muse. "They called... and I suppose still call Olenna Tyrell the Queen of Thorns, and there should be only two children of her blood now: Lord Tyrell's daughter and his youngest son."
"Perhaps," Dany answers. "But as the Singers count time are not all men as children no matter how many years they may count?"
Ser Richard laughs. "I met the Queen of Thorns once at court," he explains. "I would pay good money to see someone call her 'child' to her face, from a safe distance of course."
What do you do next?
[] Resurrect Rhaella
[] Speak of hatching Dragons
[] Ask counsel on the matter of how to deal with your father's final, greatest folly, the wildfire in King's Landing
[] Ask more questions
-[] Write in
OOC: There is something to be said for resurrecting Rhaella before you talk about the wildfire so that you only have to go over the matter once, and so that Viserys does not have to directly tell his mother the depths Aerys stooped to.
